Seirei Gensouki 2 Episode 10 Discussion

Hiroaki was actually pretty awesome there for a minute, he is not completely useless after all.
Aishia was an absolute beast, that was cool to watch her.
Finally, Rio VS Lucius.

@PrynnTze It's because they rush the story and it's just a very brief re-cap of what actually happens. The motivations are basically skipped over.

Until now, the merged Rio/Haruto was mostly dominated by the Haruto persona, with somewhat Japanese sensibilities. He had quite the misfortune in both his lives and has become very closed off. But recently, he started to build attachments (even though he tries to avoid them). Now that he meets Lucius again, his Rio side and his thirst for vengeance will become more dominant for the next couple of arcs.

To recap his lives and motivations: He goes from loss in his old life, separation from Miharu, seeing her with another guy before she disappears when he goes back to middle school, some more hollow years followed by death, re-incarnation with no memories, happy childhood taken away by Lucius brutally and starting his journey on vengeance, being orphan, getting memories back, building capabilities to actually enact vengeance (most of his school days were about training his sword and spirit arts so he can put up a fight) - at this point he was heading down to being a very closed off person that just wanted to enact vengeance then disappear. But Celia is the first that he is growing attached to and he starts to want to stop loosing the people he grows attached to and protect them. It's a bit of internal conflict. Then the rest of the gang join. And now Lucius is back, so his persona somewhat moves from Haruto to Rio and his quest to avenge his parents. He dose not want to bring the people he grows attached to into his mess, as he knows there is no bringing back what he lost and he is heading for a dark place even if he succeeds.

I really got hooked by the story behind this in the LN, but the anime adaption is really just good to advertise the LN (and very badly at that). It's kind of sad, but understandable. These short 12 episode seasons are not enough to get any of that reflected and I see that the production team tries their best to get something reasonable out of it. But it's just missing most of the internal monologue and motivations that are driving the story.

I went back to Ep1 see what was there, just a short profile shot of him in a flashback at 6:24 to 6:25. Not very recognizable.
I have not found any other flashbacks of him. I may be remembering stuff from another source, particularly about him being in a mercenary team with Rio's dad and back stabbing him.

JFC, what a shitshow. It feels both rushed and slow at the same time how the fuck is that even possible? The lack of urgency when shit is going down is appalling. Flora’s in trouble and Aishia can feel that something is wrong. Yet, all we get is characters standing around waxing poetic about the state of affairs. WTF! It feels as if the episode is being held back to create tension, but all I feel is anger. Hiroaki is beyond useless being taken out by a sucker punch. Seriously, how can a hero be so vulnerable and powerless? The maids offered a better fight against those revenants than that idiot. Then he gets taken out again by the wizard of all people. All he can muster is a goddamn water slash against that other idiot Alphonse. At least Aishia and Celia were doing something against those revenants. Also, WTF is Haruto doing just standing around while the situation goes to shit around him? I understand being shocked about finally finding that red-haired bastard, Lucius, but c’mon get a move on it. It just seems as if they're trying their best to build up the fight and failing miserably. This is getting ridiculous with everyone standing around acting like idiots. Also, WTF was Roanna thinking just tossing Flora out of the room without verifying who it was she was handing her off to? It’s baffling how she just did that without a second thought considering all the soldiers outside had been taken out by the revenants. Fuck! This show is getting so aggravating with each passing episode. They’ve fumbled the pacing this season compared to the last one. I was hoping it would get better as the story developed, but I guess that’s asking too much. Fuck, sorry for the ramble. I'm just so disappointed.

I went back to Ep1 see what was there, just a short profile shot of him in a flashback at 6:24 to 6:25. Not very recognizable.
I have not found any other flashbacks of him. I may be remembering stuff from another source, particularly about him being in a mercenary team with Rio's dad and back stabbing him.

@stealthyone Pretty much exactly what I thought as well. And the talking monster guy didn't really even end up being much of a threat (except he maybe killed the blonde man forgot who he is).

Dang so the hero actually has power after all. Glad to see him use it finally.

Final confrontation: "Who are you?" "My name is Inigo Montoya..."