Since school kind of took up most of my time the past week and a half, I decided to combine the past two episodes into one somewhat longer post. While it would seem like a lot of things have happened in these two episodes, and a lot has, it also is clear that for many characters, especially the main ones, change is a slow process.

I guess the biggest surprise from episode 19 was that Tiir wasn’t such a bad guy after all. I mean, sure he has probably killed thousands of people and used the logic that he isn’t human to justify his actions (which I am sure he will reassess at some point), but still not a bad guy. It was also interesting to see that he had run in to and basically been defeated by Lir in the past. So when Lir came back in episode 20, you would have thought that Tiir would have been the one to get revenge, but it seems that he can’t really use his powers to his full effect unless he consumes others, and in episode 20 that would have meant consuming all the children which he refused to do. This kind of puts him in a bind in fights that don’t involve large amounts of humans, so it will be interesting to see what kind of role he can actually have in smaller, one on one type fights, as was the case when he initially fought Lir. (Also, did anyone else get Alien type vibes when he mentioned how he consumed his mother from the womb?)

That brings us back to Gastark, and what better place to start than with what looks to be the death of Sui nii-chan. Frankly, I don’t really care whether he lives or dies anymore since most the characters from this show’s first half, Miran Froaude included, just don’t offer the same level of intrigue and mystery of some of the show’s newer focuses, like Riphal and Luke. In reality, it seems that his character’s only purpose was to fight Ryner a few times, and then mention to Riphal how powerful he was, which would then elicit a response from Kiefer. It will certainly be interesting to see what will happen between Kiefer and Riphal in the upcoming episodes. Since Riphal has been trying to put the moves on Kiefer for the past few episodes, and even going so far as to say he would marry her in episode 19, what will he do now that he knows she is from Roland, his current foe? What will Kiefer do? From the preview, and from the little we know about Riphal, it seems like he is going to do whatever it takes in order to accomplish his dream of creating a peaceful world.

It was also pretty interesting to see that Gastark has a crap load of crystals, which Gastark presumably gained from killing an untold number of magic eye users (which makes you wonder how many magic eye users there really are, but I digress). While I know one of the main themes of this show is supposed to be that there isn’t no good guy, there isn’t no bad guy, there is just two sides who just disagree, it’s hard not think badly of Riphal for ordering his minions to go around the continent and massacre people, but this is something we kind of all ready knew. What we didn’t know was how Gastark was able to crystallize eye users.

Fortunately, episode 20 cleared that up. It appears that Lir’s legendary relic, in the form of a big green ball that allows him to crystallize the powers of magic eye users, which he can then use in the form of a Rule Fragment. While the plot possibilities this relic provides for are interesting, especially if it could take away powers without killing the user, it is in and of itself a pretty powerful weapon. The ease with which Lir was able to kill both Lafra and the Alpha Stigma chick was pretty remarkable. Unfortunately, Luke and Ryner just let Lir kind of walk away after they had him on the run, which was a bit perplexing, as was the large amounts of talking between Ferris and Ryner during the fight scenes in which no action actually took place. Kind of disappointing that episode 20 didn’t handle these timing issues better, but it’s a minor flaw.

However, the real core of this series has been the relationship between Ryner and Ferris, and the last two episodes seem to have finally moved them to the next level, though what that means isn’t exactly clear. That said, the one thing has surprisingly upset me was the limited amount of time Ryner was able to mope around after he decided to leave Ferris and Sion to go with Tiir. I mean is one episode enough time for Ryner to completely change all of his ideals, and did Ferris say anything to Ryner in episode 20, that she didn’t already make clear in episode 10.

I guess that this speaks to a bigger problem that this series has. I really don’t think it was necessary to spend as much time as the series did in having Ryner decide to leave Ferris and Sion, but I do think it should have spent more time in having Ryner coming to the realization that people still care about him even if he is a monster. Ferris’ promise to kill Ryner should he every go berserk again near the end of this episode seems a bit extreme to me, but if this is what it takes for Ryner to feel comfortable around her then so be it. It would be nice to see a bit more comedy put back into this show by having these two together, even if it the series doesn’t really need it anymore.

Speaking of things that have taken this series too long to get to, we finally got a conclusion to the Miran/Luke fight from a few episodes ago. To see Miran just give up on his plan, whatever exactly it was, and release Milk without incident was a little disappointing, but understandable considering he was up against a legendary relic (everyone on this show has a relic it seems, but Ryner and Ferris). It seems like Miran was able to convince Luke to move against Ryner, but given the events in episode 20, Luke now seems convinced that Ryner must live.

Long term, the biggest thing in this series is that Ryner is the solver of all equations. Lir’s mention of this in episode 20 was only the second time in the series (I think) that this has been alluded to. What this means is anyone’s guess, but with Ryner now seemingly capable of holding back the monster inside of him and with the promise he made with Ferris, a bunch of possible pathways have been opened. If Ryner can only access these potentially earth shattering powers while under the control of the Alpha Stigma, it is possible that a situation may arise where his powers are needed to save a large group of people. I guess the real question is whether he would open himself up to possibly being taken over by the monster inside of him (and thus killed by Ferris), if it meant saving others.

One other interesting note was the conversation Claugh had with Calne in episode 19 after they learned about Sion’s use of Ryner. I got the feeling that Claugh was somehow able to understand what Ryner was going through, as a lot of what he said echoed what Ryner had said in previous episodes. While we haven’t much back-story on Claugh up until this point, except for his past with Tiir, it would be interesting to know what he had to do to get the power he had in his right hand. From the previews, it looks as though he is going to somehow get another arm, but if Full Metal Alchemist as taught us anything, it is that something must be lost, for something to be gained. It will be interesting to see if we find out what sacrifices Claugh made in the past, and may make in the future all for the sake of power.

However, with all of these plotlines, I don’t know if the show can adequately wrap up everything that is going on in six episodes without it feeling rushed. At this point, it seems possible that this show will have a sequel. Whether that is the case or not, I hope we get some sort of conclusion to this series, and not a cliffhanger.