My 2 cents on ch 82
About the plot
In the previous holy war the demon clan was sealed… if there is an incoming new holy war, there is no doubt who was be among the bad guys. Hendricksen and Dreyfus was just learning to become the victors of this future war, but they aren’t as dangerous and powerful as the demons. So, it’s not a surprise that they have been knocked down in this arc. Now my bet was they would be beaten by the sins or by the demons. So I lost.
Being beaten by Gil means that the plot or should have much more to give or is ruined for ever. But Nakaba has take care to hatch the elements for the next arcs. We still don’t see the demons, but neither we see the goddesses yet. So we are going from -Holy Knights vs Sins- to -Demons vs Goddesses vs Sins-, which seems to be overall a pretty good development.
Now, I said the last week, to me, a spell that somehow controlled Gil’s mind was the best option to explain the differences between a humiliating and torturing Gil and the Gil that now beats Hendricksen to avenge his father. But the explanation seems to be not a spell but a simple extortion. The demon vigilant of Margareth was instructed to kill Margareth if Gil didn’t play the game of some still unknown dark hand. Gil didn’t have the power to destroy the demon, and had to play it. Is this sudden turn believable (given the events of chapter 2 in Bernia)?
Just a blackmail… Really?
Gil’s credibility
The issue here could be the credibility of the character. So lets take a quick review of Gil’s actions to see if it’s possible to make the most of the explanation provided by the author in this chapter. For that it’s useful to keep in mind the main events during the last 10 years, namely: (i) Zaratras was killed and the sins blamed for it; (ii) some sins whose whereabouts were unknown got founded alive, and (iii) the King was dethroned by the Great Holy Knights. With that in mind lets take a look at Gil behaviour through all these big events.
(i) Gil knew his father was going to be killed before it happened. That’s very surprising, and without Mel explanation about a man trying to defend his woman it would be unbelievable. But with the explanation we have to believe now that little Gil likely was wise enough to know he couldn’t stop the plan of dark hand, and brave enough to keep his mouth closed so that his beloved Margareth didn’t get killed. That’s believable and very heroic imo.
Poor brave Gil
Now, sure the dark hand explained to him what was going to happen, but a question here is why the dark opted for keeping Gil alive? Even more, why they opted for keeping all of them, the King, the princesses alive? That is of topic now, but let me cut here saying that most likely the dark hand was not powerful enough to perpetrate all the plan they have had in mind. And it’s here where it perfectly fits the hypothesis that Dreyfus was manipulated and even mind-controlled by someone else to kill his brother. (If Gil was blackmailed, that hardly seems to have happened to Dreyfus, who clearly is tormented by having killed his own brother).
(ii) Gil found the sins. Right before the coup d’etat, Gil went to Bernia. There he humiliated the people, sealed the water and was going to increase the taxes, to annihilate their way of life. (This last action arguably can be explained by the fact that he was looking for laborers for the Kingdom, likely more than producers of ale.) Anyway, the other facts are that he didn’t kill anybody. Not even a blow was landed on someone there. Now we may think that he was going to annihilate also the entire village with the spear. But if we connect the events of this chapter 82 and, say, the myth of the sword in the stone reference, we can get an interesting reading of his actions.
A conversation long time awaited
The one who would be able to pull out the sword from the stone would be the King, the legend says. In this case, the one doing it, became Bernia’s saviour. But now we know, Gil should have to be searching for the sins, specially for Mel, desperately all these years. He should have to know someone capable to pull out the sword should have to be someone with a power comparable to or stronger than him; and surely some benefactor of the people. And notice that he was said: “so… a child pulled out my sword” : a powerful warrior as powerful as a GHK, benefactor of the people and with the appearance of a child… If walks like a duck… It’s not hard to believe Gil guessed the spear was going to be stopped by Mel. From that point of view the sword on the stone, the pulling out of it, the destroying spear and the returned spear are the silent lines of a dialogue Gilhunder wanted so bad to have with the old friends.
(iii) Gil and the coup. We didn’t see much of him during the coup, but we saw him at the side of Dreyfus much more than with Hendricksen, and he should have to discover with pleasure the differences between Hendricksen and Dreyfus. But he, silently, should have to keep the same role than ever.
Later, the scene with Margareth taking their hands each other sure was suspicious. Now we know once she was free, she ran to tell Gil to stop trying to save her. So she knew she was in danger and also that Gil was being blackmailed because of her. So, in that previous scene of the hands, they both clearly knew what was going on with both of them. Curiously this chapter 82 makes that chapter 60 to shine. In its pages, the lines say the ordered discourse by the dark hand, and the actions or the drawings say what they both feel for each other and about whole situation.
Margareth**:** I can feel your thunder dear!!
My opinion is that in the end, the damage provoked to Bernia's people was not big deal, and instead the author has done a solid development of Gil's character.
Villains required
Come on Hendricksen wake up and use 'that'…
Hendricksen being defeated was very predictable, since he’s not the main villain of the story, but the demon clan (and -why not?- someone else). Gil beated Hendricksen due to the surprise factor. It doesn’t seems like in fair conditions Gil would be able to get rid of him that easy. Now if Hendricksen survives he could play some interesting role in the future; but it he wouldn’t be the protagonist, I guess.
The demons will be resurrected. And if some more villains are needed, we may have hopes that soon the goddesses will recover themselves from the past war. So it wouldn’t be weird if in some chapters the sins are facing an overwhelming situation. But the question is who is going to break the Coffin of Eternal Darkness? I see two options here: the levitating lady and Arthur’s mentor, given that he wants his disciple to be the leader of Britannia, and sure he knows that the holy war is coming. Pretty much he could have had the same plan than Hendricksen: to release the demons to beat them and, by that way, to make of Arthur the hero of Britannia.
I like to add about Gowther that he’s so damn weird that hardly he feels the tingling due to Gil’s power, but sure due to something more… Just a hunch.
And just another stupid hunch: what if the dark hand trying to release the demon clan is
! a goddess? I had to throw it.
C ya next week.
