Aldnoah.Zero: The Unvanquished (Sky of Prayers)
March 22, 2015 7:45 AM - Season 1, Episode 23 - Subscribe
Klancain rescues Asseylum and Edelrittuo from the UFE commandos and manages to spirit them out of the moon base in his ship. Mazuurek vows his allegiance to Asseylum, and Asseylum contacts her grandfather, the Emperor. Slaine orders an all-out attack on the Earth forces in space, and enjoins the Orbital Knights on Earth to engage in battle earthside. However, Slaine's broadcast is interrupted by Asseylum's, declaring her intentions for peace between Vers and Earth, and her assuming the throne as Empress of Vers.
Should we start a death pool for the final episode?
My picks:
Inaho
Either Inko or Yuki. Possibly both.
Lemrina or, less likely, Asseylum.
Either Klancain or Mazuurek. Not both. Just for the 'and I alone lived to tell the tale' of it.
Slaine I'm not so sure about. It sure would be satisfying, but given the tortuous path of the story, a satisfying ending is practically reason enough to ensure he survives. He's launched a war that threatens to be disrupted by Asseylum's ascendance, and he finally has a perfect reason to step away from the command chair and get into his kataphrakt one last time: To go after her, get intercepted by Inaho, and fight to the death.
Unlikely for both of the princesses to die. That means all the Martians die. Or will die imminently, meaning that taking Earth becomes very urgent. That'd be a hell of a final episode, I guess, maybe a bit more than they could pack into 30 minutes.
posted by ardgedee at 8:09 PM on March 22, 2015
My picks:
Inaho
Either Inko or Yuki. Possibly both.
Lemrina or, less likely, Asseylum.
Either Klancain or Mazuurek. Not both. Just for the 'and I alone lived to tell the tale' of it.
Slaine I'm not so sure about. It sure would be satisfying, but given the tortuous path of the story, a satisfying ending is practically reason enough to ensure he survives. He's launched a war that threatens to be disrupted by Asseylum's ascendance, and he finally has a perfect reason to step away from the command chair and get into his kataphrakt one last time: To go after her, get intercepted by Inaho, and fight to the death.
Unlikely for both of the princesses to die. That means all the Martians die. Or will die imminently, meaning that taking Earth becomes very urgent. That'd be a hell of a final episode, I guess, maybe a bit more than they could pack into 30 minutes.
posted by ardgedee at 8:09 PM on March 22, 2015
I'm not sure how they're going to resolve all the plot points in one remaining episode. I wonder if there'll be a movie or OVA which will be the actual conclusion to the series.
As for the next episode, will Asseylum's declaration result in Vers forces fighting each other, or the Knights loyal to Asseylum decide to sit it out and see how things shake out?
Slaine doesn't seem to have a wide support base. I could see Slaine going out on the Tharsis on his own to take on Inaho once Slaine sees his plans have fallen apart. And neither of them surviving the encounter, as Slaine at that point would be in a "I'll take you down with me" mindset.
posted by needled at 9:09 AM on March 23, 2015
As for the next episode, will Asseylum's declaration result in Vers forces fighting each other, or the Knights loyal to Asseylum decide to sit it out and see how things shake out?
Slaine doesn't seem to have a wide support base. I could see Slaine going out on the Tharsis on his own to take on Inaho once Slaine sees his plans have fallen apart. And neither of them surviving the encounter, as Slaine at that point would be in a "I'll take you down with me" mindset.
posted by needled at 9:09 AM on March 23, 2015
Possible.
I wonder whether the 24th ep will be a soft ending -- no more cliffhangers, you can walk away if you like -- but the real "what happened after" resolution will be in a 25th episode on the DVD release. There's just too much they'd set up and never returned to and it's obvious that they're not going to fit into the 24th episode anything about Slaine's early years with Asseylum, anything about Slaine's dad, or much about Rayet. Each of them had been dangled over us as mysteries with deep relevance to the main storylines.
A feature film sequel would take some doing, especially with so much inevitable doom coming. I guess there's the year-and-change between series that they could fill out. Is the series popular enough in Japan to make one likely?
posted by ardgedee at 4:58 PM on March 23, 2015
I wonder whether the 24th ep will be a soft ending -- no more cliffhangers, you can walk away if you like -- but the real "what happened after" resolution will be in a 25th episode on the DVD release. There's just too much they'd set up and never returned to and it's obvious that they're not going to fit into the 24th episode anything about Slaine's early years with Asseylum, anything about Slaine's dad, or much about Rayet. Each of them had been dangled over us as mysteries with deep relevance to the main storylines.
A feature film sequel would take some doing, especially with so much inevitable doom coming. I guess there's the year-and-change between series that they could fill out. Is the series popular enough in Japan to make one likely?
posted by ardgedee at 4:58 PM on March 23, 2015
While nowhere near the numbers of Haikyuu!! (24,000+) or Free! 1st season (29,000+), Aldnoah.Zero did decently in DVD / BD sales - over 8,000 copies cumulatively, which would be enough for a second season for a lot of series. Valvrave the Liberator got a second season with far less sales. But I don't get the feeling that Aldnoah.Zero will be getting a second season - it feels like it underachieved compared to expectations and investment?
Eden of the East had 11 episodes and then they tied up things with 2 theater releases. Mobile Suit Gundam 00 had 50 episodes and still needed a movie to finish the story. I have this feeling that the last thing we see on screen for episode 24 of Aldnoah.Zero will be announcement of a movie later in 2015 or maybe 2016.
* DVD/BD sales numbers from this AnimeSuki thread.
posted by needled at 5:51 PM on March 23, 2015
Eden of the East had 11 episodes and then they tied up things with 2 theater releases. Mobile Suit Gundam 00 had 50 episodes and still needed a movie to finish the story. I have this feeling that the last thing we see on screen for episode 24 of Aldnoah.Zero will be announcement of a movie later in 2015 or maybe 2016.
* DVD/BD sales numbers from this AnimeSuki thread.
posted by needled at 5:51 PM on March 23, 2015
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castlespaceship? I'm not sure both Mazuurek and Cruhteo Jr. were needed as characters - couldn't Mazuurek have rescued the princess and become her fiancé? Mazuurek is a count, has a landing castle, and is already sympathetic to Earth, with ties to Inaho. Cruhteo Jr. just shows up out of nowhere, and has neither landing castle nor kataphrakt. The show is already full of characters that we don't get to see much of, it's not clear why Cruhteo Jr. had to be introduced.(On a side note, the voice actor for Emperor Rayregalia, Ogawa Shinji, passed away earlier this month.)
posted by needled at 7:54 AM on March 22, 2015