Hmmm! As Monad has asked, the traitor saints are very odd. My first thought was that when confronted with Shaka, Shaka took them somewhere to duel where no one else was and was able to confirm their plans were in good faith before promptly letting them out behind the specters. After that the trio would take down some unsuspecting specters and take their place. I was honestly confident that this is what went down until Shaka was just as shocked as the specters were when they confronted him. That means that they somehow came out of the confrontation alive and hiding their cosmos and then turned into the weird double agents that they became. I'm not exactly sure what purpose this was for now. Them going in disguise allowed them to get an inside scoop on the specters and avoid anymore suspicion I suppose and it makes sense that they couldn't hide their identities when facing Shaka. It's definitely an interesting dilemma.
Importantly, I still have, at this point, entire faith in whatever the trio is doing. I imagine they are in a situation where they know more than anyone else. They have to look as if they are not going against Hades as even they know they are being followed. Like Ikki once said in what I recall as the silver saints arc in the original series, "Fool your friends before your enemies" when going against his fellow bronze saints before their attack on the Sanctuary! If they are truly fighting for justice from a good position, if they don't trick their fellow gold saints first they can never hope to trick Hades. Their characters in the past showed they would die for Athena, Shura helped Shiryu just last arc in his fight to save Athena, and Saga cried for Kannon just a few episodes ago out of happiness that his brother changed sides and embraced the good. Whatever they're doing they are doing it for good reason I'd wager and for that I honestly kinda am rooting for them now. I wonder if they must reach Saori with some words or something. Being reanimated by Hades himself, I bet he could snap his fingers and take them out.
I'm so grateful that Aioria is showing that the gold saints are nothing to be messed with. Aldebaran had a poor showing due to him being snuck up on and I have to say the fact he refused to go down without taking out his foe first is admirable yet still one that made him appear weak in a certain sense. Aioria took out 5 in one attack. Then he made quick work of that worm scumbag in a brutal and awesome way. I loved seeing him wreak havoc on them. He could have done even more if he didn't hesitate to kill when he felt nostalgic cosmos among them! Speaking of that the specters can feel cosmos but I suspect that, seeing that the traitor trio hid their cosmos even from Shaka, that when blended in with the group of specters they couldn't feel a difference noticeable enough to call for questioning.
I love how Saint Seiya isn't afraid to make its villains show weakness. The shock on the dead specters faces after the traitor trio took them out. The fear on the specters as Aioria took them out. Gigant fearing death before Shaka almost took them out. It's moments as small as those that make the insignificant villains so much more impactful! In many anime the villains will just get a "aaaaaaaa" as they vanish into the distance. Keep in mind this is even shown with the major villains, Saga doubted himself as the bronze saints approached and had nightmares, Kannon himself panicked incredibly hard when things started to go wrong. It's nice.
The Shaka scene was quite brilliant and I'm kinda speechless on what to say about it other than, jeesus, Shaka is scary! He is certainly the closest to a god. The trippy visuals and perspective from the specters really sold this. I seem to recall the only other time we saw him fight as being when Ikki got absolutely floored but ended up reaching seventh sense and taking him out. So, seeing him when he's taking on actual evil is super cool. The battle between him and the traitor trio next episode should be something incredible... O_O |