Record of Grancrest War Episode 18: That Was Almost Playing Dirty

After the events of the past few episodes, Theo and Siluca have returned to centre stage though I’m wondering when Theo became that manipulative.

The whole way through this series Theo, when he’s been involved at all, has been the ‘good guy’. The one who puts himself in harms way to protect others, who doesn’t willingly sacrifice those around him, who feels genuine pain when those near him are hurt. And then we get to this episode. I guess we could argue that the war hardened Theo who has finally realised that he won’t accomplish his goals without getting his hands a little dirty has finally stepped up into the world of politics, but that doesn’t ring very true. Theo actually already accomplished his goal and could easily at this stage simply step aside and run his island. Very few people would care or try and stop him.

So what is going on Theo? This episode he finally takes control of the treaty and declares them separate from the union creating a third faction. The argument is that they are trying to force a stalemate but that only works if they can get Alexis to rally the union and we all know Alexis is pretty useless except at writing poetry. Enter Theo the manipulator. He literally uses Alexis’ emotions and attachment to Marrine against him to push him into taking rash action. Admittedly, it only works because Alexis has the emotional maturity of a turnip (and seriously, Marrine was probably better of with Milza and that’s saying something), but at the same time, Theo the moralising and noble leader has just sent that immature lord out with an army to fight and he has to have done so knowing there’s a good chance Alexis is going to get himself killed. How does Theo reconcile that within himself?

I guess we’ll find out but from Theo’s expression it doesn’t look like he’s intending to lose a lot of sleep over it. As long as he gets to take Siluca away at the end of it all, I think Theo’s more or less in a ‘do whatever it takes’ mode. Though, will Siluca still be by his side if he gets too underhanded?

And while we’re on it, how many death flags did Siluca raise in one conversation with Theo. Seriously, is she wanting to be the tragic sacrifice right before they manage to get peace? Though, I’m seeing it play out with Alexis falling to Marrine, Theo taking out Marrine, then Theo having some confrontation with the pope who is apparently important again in this story for whatever reason, before Theo uses all the crests to banish chaos and probably dies in the process (unless Siluca throws herself under the bus for him). It’s a good theory, though this anime has a history of not really being logical so we’ll see what it decides to do next.

In the meantime, I’d love to know your theory about how this is going to play out. Even if that includes the loli werewolf maids suddenly seizing power, because that would be a cool twist.

Previous Reviews:

• Episode 17: Decisive Victory
• Episode 16: Doesn’t This All Feel Too Easy?
• Episode 15: Right, So Now Theo Has To Kill Milza and Become King?
• Episode 14: If Theo Accomplished His Goal Does That Mean We’re Done?
• Episode 13: Enter and Exit New Character That I Guess We Were Supposed To Care About
• Episode 12: This May Have Found Some Direction, At Last
• Episode 11: Does This Mean Theo Will Get Some Actual Screen Time?
• Episode 10: And We’re Back To The Cliff-Notes Version of Epic Battles
• Episode 9: Has This Show Turned A Corner, Or Are They Just Hoping This Will Keep Viewers Into The Spring Season?
• Episode 8: People Show A Startling Lack of Reason Of Good Judgement
• Episode 7: Loyalty Is Quite Cheap In This Show
• Episode 6: A Dance and A Battle
• Episode 5: Did You Know There Were Vampires? I Sure Didn’t
• Episode 4: Finally
• Episode 3: Do You Suppose We’ll Ever Know Everything A Crest Can Do?
• Episode 2: Some Nice Touches This Week
• Episode 1: She’s Going To Help Him Achieve His Dream Provided She Doesn’t Kill Him First

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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