After Quiet Zero made short work of the Space Assembly League, you’d think the latter faction would be out for the final battle. But as it turns out, the League has a fleet as large as Witch from Mercury‘s writer’s room as they have plenty of cannon fodder to throw at the battle station. It’s honestly comical how the League has this many soldiers and they keep throwing them at Quiet Zero, only for the exact same result to play out each time.
With League posing zero threat to her, Prospera puts Quiet Zero on a course to Plant Quetta, where she can obtain components needed to upgrade the battle station and upgrade its capabilities. Benerit scrambles to form a countermeasure, with Miorine notably absent from the board. She’s become depressed due to her involvement in Quiet Zero and Prospera’s attacks on Earth and the League. It’s a good thing we have our ragtag of high school students to pitch their plan!
Speaking of which, we see the team getting ready to head over to Benerit’s HQ to retrieve the Calibarn. Chuchu convinces Secelia to hand over the Demi Barding, a mobile suit belonging to Secelia’s house Burion that Secelia let Chuchu use during Norea’s attack on Asticassia. Secelia’s only stipulation is that the team brings along her housemate and fellow classmate committee member Rouji Chante (Gen Gato), a character that I totally didn’t neglect to mention until now. In my defense, this final stretch might be the most relevant Rouji will ever be to the plot. Felsi also joins the team, even going against Guel’s orders to say put so that she can help him. Before leaving, El5n tells Suletta the truth about Enhanced Persons and El4n’s death. I’m glad that Suletta finally got closure on El4n. Also, given El5n’s tendency to run away from trouble, it’s interesting that he acknowledges Suletta’s newfound resolve.
Upon arriving at Benerit, Suletta decides that she wants to talk to Miorine before trying out the Calibarn. She is then approached by Guel, who says he’ll only let her talk to Miorine if she defeats him in a fencing match and reclaims her status as the Holder. Suletta agrees and she manages to defeat Guel, reclaiming her title once more. Kind of hilarious that these two are fencing as opposed to duking it out in Mobile Suits. I guess that’s for practical reasons but my headcanon is that Guel wanted to mix things up to avoid yet another humiliating loss in a mech fight. A friend told me this is likely an Utena reference but if that’s the case, how come Guel and Suletta aren’t singing an insert song during the duel?
I’m curious about Guel’s intent here. To be honest, I doubt he actually wants to keep Miorine to himself. You can tell from a couple scenes that Guel is struggling to help Miorine so maybe deep down, he knows that Miorine is more likely to talk to Suletta than him. Perhaps he only wants the duel because he thinks being the Holder will make it more likely for Miorine to listen to Suletta. At the very least, it’d be more meaningful for Suletta to be the Holder before she talks to Miorine. Assuming this is all the case, I do wonder if Guel throws the duel or not. I’m leaning towards no because that’s not really Guel’s M.O. but I can see him throwing the match to make up for his and Miorine’s cheating in the last duel.
It feels very surreal to see Suletta talking to Miorine again. These two haven’t seen each other for four episodes, a third of this season. In hindsight however, separating these two for so long was the right way to go. By having Miorine struggling on her own, you realize that she really could have benefitted from having Suletta by her side. Meanwhile, Suletta really needed to let go of her attachment towards her family and make decisions on her own before she could reunite with Miorine again. Now that she has grown, Suletta is the right person to tell Miorine to move past her mistakes and Miorine gets to see one silver lining to her recent tribulations.
I really like how even though these two are separated by a door, you somehow still feel intimacy between them. That’s certainly a testament to the writing and voice acting. Having Miorine open the door and not Suletta is a smart choice. It’d work just fine if Suletta opens it but Miorine is the one who closed herself off from their relationship so it feels more symbolic that she opens the door and re-enters Suletta’s life. I also couldn’t help but notice in the dialogue that Suletta refrains from using her family’s usual saying about moving forward and gaining something in return verbatim. This scene would be a good time than any to give the motto but given Suletta’s arc, it’s actually more appropriate for her to use her own words instead.
Coincidentally, Delling wakes up from his coma. I can only imagine how confused he is at the current situation. Miorine once again expresses her frustration with her father but she does promise him that she won’t run away from the situation. Delling’s reaction is interesting. Maybe it’s because he’s still recovering but for once, it feels like he’s accepting Miorine’s anger while also looking at her with a hint of pride. Surprisingly, we also get a scene involving Notrette. Suletta reveals that she discovered with Rouji’s help that the tomatoes Miorine grows in her garden actually contains in their DNA a message Notrette left for her. No, I am not making this up. I can buy a lot of things in this show but even I think this is a massive stretch. The show did establish that Notrette was a botanist but even so, I have hard time believing that she was that good. Frankly, I feel like this scene only happened because the writer’s room ran out of time to explore Miorine’s relationship with her mother so they settled with this silly scene.
With Miorine back on board, Earth House and Benerit devise a plan to stop Quiet Zero. Since Gundams are the only machines that can operate within the battle station’s data storm, Suletta will pilot the Calibarn and serve as a distraction. Meanwhile, everyone else will board a ship en route to the facility for infiltration, with Guel serving as an escort. Apparently, neither that Pharact nor the Schwarzette would last in Quiet Zero’s data storm but the Demi Barding can after it switches its control system. In other words, the team’s only mech besides the Calibarn is the one they mooched off of Burion and said mech is piloted by Chuchu, who barely gets to do any fighting in the show. To say I’m anxious about this part of the plan would be an understatement. The only way I currently see this working is if Quiet Zero is designed like the Death Star and it has a convenient open reactor port for Chuchu to shoot.
And now for the big moment: Suletta receiving the Calibarn. I must say, the design for this mech is sick. The more monochromatic color scheme compared to the brighter palette of the Aerial. The ridiculous yet badass looking rifle that almost looks akin to a broomstick. The Gundam really comes across as more dangerous and more witch-like than the other ones and I find that extremely fitting, given its lack of safeties. I’ve already mentioned how poetic it is for Suletta to receive the Calibarn but come to think of it, it’s also poetic that something this hazardous is given to her. Up until now, Suletta had Eri handle the data storm for her. She’s been allowed to freely use a Gundam while every other pilot risks their lives to use it. How appropriate then that at the end of the show, the witch finally receives her curse and it’s with the most cursed Gundam in the show.
Despite the pain from the data storm, Suletta successfully achieves a high enough Permet Score to pilot the Calibarn. I’m glad that the show does factor in the fact that Suletta is Eri’s clone and she therefore has some resistance against the data storm built-in. That’s a very good excuse for why she’s able to handle a Gundam for the first time. With the Calibarn ready to go, Suletta heads off to take on Quiet Zero, even defeating some of its defenses already. I was wondering how good Suletta actually is at piloting. I couldn’t help but question if she was winning by her own skill or with the Aerial being overpowered, more so once it was confirmed that Eri did indeed do the heavy lifting. Suffice to say, Suletta making short work on a bunch of drones with a new Gundam has convinced me otherwise.
I figured Eri would personally show up to confront Suletta. Even if it is predictable, I don’t think the show could have picked a more perfect opponent for Suletta in her final battle. Having Suletta fight her sister and her original Gundam is simply ingenious. Oh, and I guess Lauda is here too, serving as Guel’s final opponent. I seriously can’t believe he’s one of the last “bosses” and he gets such a cool mech to boot. To be fair, the show needs to give Guel something to do and there’s a sort of symmetry to have him face his brother a whole season after he accidentally killed his father.
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