Last Exile Episode 15 Discussion

Recynon said:
Bland looking male protagonist is bland. Who would've thought. I'm starting to really hate the trope where a male protagonist gets love from women just because he's a generic nice guy when they're in vulnerable positions. There's probably some truth to it in real life, if you have the accompanying charisma and looks, but come on these protagonists are just saying generic nice guy things.

There was this scene in Justice League where Batman got Cheetah to kiss him despite it being the first time talking to her, but 1) He's fricking Batman with Kevin Conroy's voice. 2) He actually said something that appealed to her past and indicated that he understood Cheetah's emotions.

This whole episode is soap opera melodrama. Sure, you can come up with good excuses and in-story reasons for why people acted the way they did, but you can also come up with equally good reasons for why there wouldn't be melodrama. The fact of the matter is, they writers wanted the love triangle shit. Despite not having an on-screen conversation beforehand, one day and night in the desert is enough for Tatiana to fall for him. Sophia's kiss was also unnecessary- we understood her vulnerability from Alex's rejection just fine without it. Sophia and Klaus have also not had an on-screen conversation getting to know each other before this. I would've understood if they had at least talked about shared experiences a few times before the scene, but nope.

I was about to say that Lavie's jealousy doesn't make sense, but Ryu's comment above me reminded me of the context. It does make sense, but the combination of everything else makes it seem like a calculated contribution to the melodrama rather than a natural part of Lavie's arc.

-Ryu said:

Claus did appeal Tatiana's internal conflict in the desert, though. It was established earlier that she's very serious about upholding the honor of her family's name in the battlefield in order to provide financial support for her mother and her father who's suffering from an illness, most of her life was dedicated to this, to the point that she never had many close friends, and she even lets something as silly as a provocation from Dio back in the race get under her skin. As a result, the fact that Silvana sunk and she could do nothing about it in that battle was utterly disgraceful for her, in her mind she failed not only as a soldier, but as a member of her family as well. In that time she spent with Claus in the desert, he made her stop worrying too much and they both opened up to each other, she told him about her family being "abandoned" nobles who need her help and Claus told her about his parents, it's very likely the first time Tatiana had this kind of relationship with a guy, and her being much more simple-minded than she lets out, developed a crush on him because of that brief time she felt comfortable enough to to open up to someone besides Alister. It makes sense with how Tatiana was characterized in the story, her crush on Claus was just a result of her lack of experience when it comes to forming close bonds with other people, and even Alister calls her out on this.

I'm not saying this episode was handled perfectly or anything, Sophia kising Claus was unnecessary for sure, but I can't really agree with the claims that Tatiana's crush and Lavie's jealousy come out of nowhere. This whole conflict was being built up to ever since Tatiana criticized Lavie as a navigator and Claus decided that he and Lavie should stay aboard the Silvana to help with protecting Alvis without giving much thought to how Lavie feels about that decision. The problem with this episode is that they tried to make Sophia's relationship with Alex and the issue with Claus and Lavie/Tatiana intertwine, but they never built up to that specifically.

I appreciate cliothekira's interpretation of Sophie. But the harem implications don't come from what Sophie did by itself, but because it seems like everyone and their mother has the hots for Claus.

LeeTailor said:
What the hell is this high school melodrama BS? The entire episode was basically girls fawning over Claus. It's really, really annoying and it makes me unable to take the show seriously.

gfsdfgsdgsdfgs said:
Get ready for the buzzwords.
This anime has slowly became, if not evident from the start, half horrible mystery which leads the audience along like a carrot on a sick, half melodramatic harem of forced drama.  I get Lavie and Claus being dumb kids, but Tatiana proves even further why she's a bad pilot who can't control herself, and then that last scene?  Everyone in this anime except for Alex acts like a child and it ruins the tone it tries so hard to set up.  I can't take it seriously at all due to how everyone acts, they are on the most powerful ship in the sky and the crew are kindergartners.
What an awful episode.  The character writing and story writing in this are bad.  Only good is the soundtrack, directing, visuals, if the episode focuses on them it's good, if not it turns into some garbage like this episode. 
One of the more disappointed I've gotten about an anime due to the great start.

Will_do_it_later said:
jeez why are they so obsessed with Tatiana wearing Claus's overall