REPLICA REPLICA REPLICA!!

This entire Akzeriuth Arc seems to have been brought specifically to test the audience’s patience with Luke to the most extreme level, because I stopped believing he was the hero of this story up until I watched Episode 8. Everything about him during the trip to Akzeriuth, save for his chance encounter with Asch after using the tunnel to get out of Kimlasca, has been a constant “Me, me, me!” fest ever since he was entrusted the responsibility of saving the town. Right from the get go, he automatically assumes leadership in the most pompous way possible,
reprimanding Natalia for making a few errors during their fight with the spiders, and again when Ion, who’s long been established to be short-of-breath, needs to take a break from their constant walking into Akzeriuth. For all of his talk about being leader, he can’t even handle the ultimatum of taking time off to rescue Ion from his capture or giving Akzeriuth’s salvation priority without complaining when not too long ago he was preaching about how he’s “the goodwill ambassador, and what I say goes.”; what’s more, he even complains about the rescue becoming an unnecessary detour, citing that the war won’t start as long as he’s around. Jade’s mockery of his in-charge attitude, as well as the group’s intolerance of his arrogance fit very well here.

And to top it all off is his approach in proceeding to rescue the Akzeriuth townspeople: not even stopping to help some of those who have succumbed to the miasma for too long. One oculd argue that he was thinking logically, since he was under the impression that by neutralizing the miasma as quickly as possible, then it wouldn’t be much of a problem, but his reprimanding of Natalia for stopping to help a mother who had been acting up, telling her that she’s dirty and that she might infect her with something, show otherwise: that he has no empathy towards the common people, only seeing him playing “hero” as a great reward, moreso than he actually deserves. His blind devotion towards Van and his words serve to betray him later, as foreshadowed earlier by Tear’s warnings of this behavior, and yet he still accepts no responsibility in the destruction of Akzeriuth and it’s townspeople, repeating that he was trying to save the town and placing all of the responsibility of it’s destruction on Van. The party had every right to hate him as they did, with even Anise calling Luke a loser and abandoning him. His rambling was so nerve-racking, I had expecteced (and hoped) that Tear or someone would deck him one. Let’s hope this is the last of Luke’s whining we have to hear, because I honestly don’t know how he can go any lower.

And with the recent turnout of the plot (REPLICA!), with Luke being the way he is, Asch is everything Luke isn’t, including a total badass. Now that the turnout of Luke being his replica has been revealed, Asch has been turned into a very sympathetic character; as stated during Luke’s assault, Asch was robbed of his true status as the actual Luke fon Fabre, robbed of his family and his home. As if it’s not enough that Asch couldn’t go by that name any longer, the fact that the person replacing him, a selfish drone who knows nothing, is more than enough to make one’s blood boil. Asch hasn’t even been onscreen for very long (with his face in view, at least ^^;) and he’s already sold as my favorite character of the show.

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but one of the things I enjoy about this series are the constant relations each character seems to have with one another; sure, it’s a bit of a plot device for everyone to have openly heard of each other, and thus automatically have a past ready for them, but the show seems to do a pretty good job of it so far: Largo is shown to have some sort of connection to Natalia, though she doesn’t seem to know him. Tear and Legretta’s comraderie is touched upon for a brief second, as well as the apparent anger that Jade has towards Dist for continuing the research towards fomicry and replication.

Look, they’re even the same damn height!

And though it’s only doted on for a second, with Luke and Asch’s connection being revealed, the next one to be brought into question is Sync’s origin, seeing as how he’s used a technique (Daathic Fonic Arte to be exact >.>) that Ion knows can’t be used unless he’s a Fon Master himself; thus, it all points out the possibility that Sync could very well be a replica of Ion, albeit an older, taller, can actually hold his own in a fight, one. Guy is the only one to have seen his face, and I assume he’s just going to play dumb and not say anything like Tear, Ion, and Jade did with Luke.

Pirate-ninjas are very efficient.

Speaking of Ion, this kid gets kidnapped alot, I wonder why they deem it only necessary to assign two guards to protect him when the little shit can’t even do anything to protect himself. Pirate-ninjas: 1, Kimlasca Royal Guard: 0.

A lot of the big stuff regarding how things work in Abyss is out of the way, so new terms are kept to a minimum here: Jade’s hammerspace for his spear is (unnecessarily o_o) explained to be a contamination fusion technique that allows him, from my understanding, to break apart the particles that make up the spear and store it on the outer layer of his right arm. Since he’s the only known person to be able to use it, it means someone else is going to use it, most likely Dist, and surprise the shit out of the group.

With Van’s betrayal comes his master plan (new terms!): to destroy the Sephiroth, the pillars that support the Outer Lands where most of our heroes inhabit , in order to supposedly crash down into the miasmic waters of Auldrant’s origin, Qliphoth. Yulia Jue read from the Score in order to raise the land, which explains why the Score is held so high in regard, to the point where it could decide one’s meal as Legretta had said. Although Van wanted the one in Akzeriuth unsealed in order for Luke to use his hyperressonance in order to destroy the Sephiroth located there, there’s also the issue of Asch kidnapping Ion in order to get the one in the Zeo ruins unsealed as well (Asch was accompanied by Largo and Sync, though, that may have had something to do with it).

PREVIEW

At any rate, Asch seems to be aiding the group now that this whole replica business has been taken care of. He doesn’t seem to be following orders as the rest of the Six God Generals are, since he’s voiced his disapproval of Van. And with him being the Luke fon Fabre kidnapped seven years ago, this may provide a change of outlook coming from Guy and especially Natalia, who seems to be quite shocked at meeting her actual fiance once more. Tear’s also seen giving replica-Luke a small knife, so this may be the end of long-haired, “Foolish replica” Luke.

HELP ME MAKE THE ENTRIES FOR THIS FASTER!
I realize by this point, ToA 9 is already subbed by gg, and I’m usually an entire week late by the time I post these. The reason for this is because I can’t play gg’s h264 format on my piece of crap computer, even though I have some suspicions that I might be able to. I dislike having to wait for Shinsen or Abyssal Chronicles take their time to sub these since they’re never consistent and I like having an entire series by one fansub group if possible. If I am able to play gg’s, then I can at least also get rid of those nasty leftover subs for better pictures. So, if anyone’s interested and would like to help me check if I really won’t be able to play gg’s format for ToA and seriously need a new computer, please contact me at newtypeseed@gmail.com. Much obliged.

Tear shudders at the thought of AniAri not being up to date. Don’t let her down. ;_;

-Jay