The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 2 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear G) [2.2]

(Continued from 2.1)

Part 2: Canon Of Corruption

(TW: blood)

In order to define the threat of corruption at the heart of Symphogear G, we must first define what threatens to be corrupted. At first glance, it may seem to just be the utopic ideal that's in danger, and while there's a new set of tensions to threaten that, there are some very specific ideals and ideologies to lay down before we can get into how they are threatened. It's best to start with the group we've been talking about, Maria and her allies. She, Kirika, and Shirabe are led by their "mama", Professor Nastassja (the mystery lady in the wheelchair we've been speaking of). and the enigmatic Dr. Ver has also defected to their side. It's eventually revealed that the Professor and Maria are ex-members of an American Symphogear research group called FIS, which was likely formed in secret by Finè back when she was in her Ryoko body. (As such, for simplicity's sake we'll refer to these five antagonists together as FIS.) Their goal, as is revealed over the course of the series, is simple enough. They're out to save the world. As it turns out, the business with the moon at the end of the last season has decayed its orbit, and now the thing is going to crash into the planet. While government officials either deny such a thing will happen, or plot behind the scenes to ensure that only they survive the apocalypse, FIS is determined to serve the needs of the many, doing whatever it takes to create a safe haven for some of humanity to survive the impending disaster.




Of course, the way they go about this is the path of grim practicality and determination, staining their hands and doing what must be done and all of that. We've been here before in magical girl land. It's a possible answer, but not an ideal one... and given that this is a show of utopic idealism, the ideal answer is often more possible than the practicalists realize. Still, as I've said, it's an idea we've seen before in the magical girl sphere. One need look no further than Sailor Moon's third season, and the grim practical ideologies of Sailors Uranus and Neptune. One knows what to expect in a hopeful show like this; our grim practicalists are willing to sacrifice some to save others, and our naive idealists find a way to save everyone and sacrifice none, redeeming our grim practicalists as well as keeping their hands clean. That is not quite what happens with FIS. No, FIS has a problem at its very core, a corruption seeping into the heart of its stated mission.


That corruption, as I've alluded to, is Dr. Ver. Over the course of the show, Dr. Ver's corruptive influence will spread and spread. The other members of FIS are reluctant, sometimes even questioning whether or not it's right to kill those in the way of their plan to save the world. If they have to cross those lines and break those boundaries, they feel extreme remorse at having had to have done such foul deeds. Dr. Ver has no such morals. He absolutely has his own separate ideology, sitting outside the binary of naive idealism and grim practicality. Over the course of the series, Dr. Ver willingly (and in many cases gleefully) commits vile acts of mass murder, gaslighting manipulation, and abuse. FIS needs him, and Dr. Ver needs FIS... to a point. Once that point is reached, woe be those in Dr. Ver's way between him and his ultimate goal. Make no mistake, though. He is an absolute shit, a villain I despise... but he's also very good at what he does. What he does, as stated, being murder and manipulation. Dr. Ver is a bit of a plotter, and he knows just what to say and when to say it in order to get people to act in his best interests. Oh, it's framed as their best interests, but in Dr. Ver's mind this is all leading to his glory.


We are getting ahead of ourselves, though, so let's instead focus on a direct example which shows this weaponized corruption at hand. Part of what makes Dr. Ver so damn dangerous is that he's a scientist. Symphogear has always had a bit of a science fiction bend to it, given that its relics and other little tricks are the work of ancient advanced technology. Dr. Ver, being a scientist, can use little tricks to his advantage. This manifests in Episode 3 when he sets a trap for our main trio as they search for FIS; a nasty little red gas referred to as Anti-LiNKER. LiNKER basically helps a Symphogear user attune themselves to their relic better, so Dr. Ver's Anti-LiNKER lowers the power level of our main trio, such that they get tired from throwing out what should be basic attacks against the Noise. When they're weakened, Maria comes on out to have a rematch with Tsubasa, and thanks to Anti-LiNKER (and some other well-timed coordination on the part of FIS) they and Dr. Ver manage to escape. Oh, and they escape with the Nephilim relic in tow, which has awakened into a xenomorph-looking hungry boy. This will become important... right now, actually.

Sure, Jan-- I mean, Ver.

I'm jumping ahead a bit in the narrative, as I usually do so this isn't a totally linear plot summary with the occasional whiff of gonzo mysticism to it. The long and short of it is, after a failed covert mission on the part of Kirika and Shirabe to steal our main girl's relic pendants in order to feed them to Nephilim, they challenge our girls to a duel. Dr. Ver, ever the plotter, sets things up to make it happen... except it will be him and his new pet Nephilim representing the side of FIS. His choice of venue is perfectly befitting a corruptive little shit like him, reaching outside the narrative a little. Dr. Ver chooses the goddamned ruins of Kadingir as his battleground. The place where Hibiki's former safe space was destroyed, where the moon nearly blew up, and where Finè was given a redemptive message of hope for the future. That place is what Dr. Ver has chosen, and it should worry us. Remember, Kirika and Shirabe are still ideological opponents. It's entirely possible that Hibiki and friends could understand them by earnestly talking instead of fighting. Dr. Ver has come out with his Nephilim specifically to squash that. The needs of the many and all that, the world must be saved and we need doing and not talking. The sanctimonious lying prick. We'll get to his true desires, of course, but before that it's time to take down his little pet. Hibiki goes in, fists blazing, and things go great... until they don't.


When we were last here, at the ruins of Kadingir, the Dirge Of Despair attempted to strike at the heart of the Harmony Of Hope. Finè attempted to destroy the moon, which I took as an extra-narrative attack on the ideals of Sailor Moon itself. Here and now, something much like that happens. The Dirge Of Despair takes on a familiar form of attack, and it lands. I have compared the darker moments of Symphogear to another dark magical girl show, Madoka Magica. There is a rather infamous moment at the end of Madoka Magica's third episode that you may all be familiar with. I won't spoil it, necessarily (in a post where I'm already recanting the plot of Symphogear G with reckless abandon, ha ha ha), but what you need to know is that a monster delivers a horrific biting attack on someone. It is the moment where Madoka Magica officially drops any mask of being a straightforward happy magical girl show; the moment, in other words, when its Dirge Of Despair begins to play.  I mention this because something much the same happens here. As Hibiki is beating up the Nephilim, Dr. Ver delivers a well-timed verbal jab of his own to cut at the heart of her idealism. Already shaken by Kirika and Shirabe's accusations from earlier, this distracts Hibiki long enough for the Nephilim to...

Which. I mean. Jesus Christ Almighty. It's horrific and visceral, a real and sudden bit of violence performed upon our happy-go-lucky protagonist. It's another example of how good Symphogear G is at cliffhangers, also. Say what you will about the striking shock of it all, but one thing is shared between those watching on broadcast and one such as myself binging it in 2020; it has our attention and we have to know what happens next. As it turns out, Dr. Ver's little pet is fueled by this sudden corruption upon the narrative. Sure, the technical explanation is that this living relic which consumes relics got to chomp down on a little bit of Gungnir and grow in power because of it... but come on now. We've got to get a little wild here. This thing, this Dread Beast of the Dirge Of Despair, has gravely wounded Hibiki and evolved. Even the other members of FIS, grim and determined as they are, are basically reacting to Dr. Ver's enthusiasm over all this in shock and horror. It's enough to make them all question, in their own way, if they're really doing the right thing here. What happens next is not exactly a triumph, but I admit there is a certain sense of catharsis here. Remember what happened here before, the last time Hibiki faced trauma and anguish and loss. Her shadow self ran rampant, and had to be calmed by Tsubasa's words. We're back again, our girl has lost her fucking arm, and so Shadow Hibiki emerges to basically rip and tear the Nephilim to bits, pulling the damn thing's still-beating heart out of its chest. Oh yes, and her shadow self regenerates her arm for her. Hibiki's unique status as someone with a relic shard embedded in her left her with a fair bit of regenerative healing, so this isn't the biggest of copouts. There will be a price paid later, but for now let's talk about how Dr. Ver's reaction to all this.


Abject horror and begging for the shadow beast to stop ripping his precious Nephilim apart. This is the certain sense of catharsis I mentioned; up until now, Dr. Ver has been this calculated and confident antagonist, hardly fazed by anything as he's done his dirty deeds, preached his sermons, and cheered in glee as a 16 year-old girl has her fucking arm bitten off by his pet monster because now it can Digivolve into fucking Wargreymon. You reap what you sow, and as Dr. Ver witnesses his reaping in the form of that same 16 year-old girl ripping his pet monster to shreds, all he can do is cry and scream and beg for her to stop. This is the first crack in Dr. Ver's facade, and though he will do terrible things and still be a threat, he's an absolute fuckboy. The superior intellect, the man who enjoys doing terrible things if it serves his end goal... and he's scared shitless of one pissed off teenage girl kicking his monster's ass. Scared enough to run away from the teenage girls. This is supposed to be humanity's savior? Good riddance. Unfortunately for us and the plot, the bastard's not out by any means, as he'll find the discarded Nephilim heart in the aftermath of the battle (after, let's never forget, running away and hiding)... but seeing him be taken down a peg? It puts a smile on my face.


What does not put a smile on my face is what happens to Hibiki in the aftermath of all of this. Oh, she regenerated her arm during that shadow tantrum. Oh, Chris and Tsubasa pulled her back from monstrosity to make her human again. Still, the chomp of Nephilim has taken its toll, both literally and extra-narratively. Literally in that Hibiki has to be rushed back to base and given medical treatment. Extra-narratively? An infection has taken root thanks to Nephilim's bite. An infection of dark corruption which threatens to undo all the shining idealism we have built up, for the sake of drama. Hibiki dreams as she's unconscious in her bed, a nightmare of the past. This is the explanation of her cryptic flashback from earlier, when she was fucked up by Shirabe's hypocrisy accusations. This is Hibiki's pain. We're back in the margins of Season 1, before this show proved its utopic dream. Hibiki survived the Zwei Wing incident where so many others died. She and her family got compensation for her trauma and medical bills and whatnot. This led basically everyone to believe Hibiki only lived to get rich quick, and that she's somehow a murderer for living when so many others were killed. This leads to harassment at her home, rocks thrown through the windows of that murderer Hibiki Tachibana. It's a horrific trauma we saw nothing of last time, and Hibiki sobs in fear from it all in this flashback. We know how it turned out. Despite that pain and sorrow, Hibiki held on to her ideals. She never slipped into the dark, despite being tested. Now, she'll be tested again, and so will the entire damn show.

Mmm that sure is a visual parallel as well with the broken
moon behind her X-ray.

Hibiki is corrupted. Broken, even. The shards of Gungnir in her chest, as it turns out, are going overboard and merging with her at an accelerated rate. The truth is plain as day: If Hibiki keeps transforming, the shards will either kill her outright or corrupt her into something that is no longer human. Indeed, as Tsubasa learns this, she's distraught; musing a parallel between Hibiki right now and the broken moon which threatens to fall. This is not just a narrative collapse, a threat to the world of the show. This is the Dirge Of Despair, a threat to the very utopic dreams we've built up and praised. The corruption runs deep, and it fucks with things in ways that make one sit up and go "wait NO!". Case in point, Tsubasa's next conversation with Hibiki once she's recovered (which is actually shown before the scene we've just mentioned, but roll with me here). What is cute is how Tsubasa, in her own inner monologue, sees herself as a protecting blade. It's a lovely contrast against how she was in the first season, and it parallels with Hibiki's whole "my hands are empty so they can punch as well as hold your hand" thing. What isn't so lovely is how Tsubasa decides to try to "protect" Hibiki at first. If Hibiki transforms too much, she'll die. So Tsubasa's genius solution is to lie and basically say "You're too weak and you're slowing us down, don't ever fight again" rather than sit down and be straight with her. It's trite and terrible drama, and it doesn't really faze Hibiki that much, but it must be said; I hate it. It's kind of a dick move that won't really discourage her or anything. When you pair it with the building theme of the corruption spreading, though... it makes sense. A simple little jab like that which seems out of place can be explained by it.


We have explored the limit case of corruption within Symphogear G. It's there, thanks to Nephilim's infectious bite, and we can already see how it's destabilizing things. Dr. Ver, our extra-narrative little fuck. is on a rampage by the end of episode 7. He'll be stopped, of course, and scared absolute shitless by Hibiki, but that's not what I want to analyze at the moment. We'll get to that, because we're ready to transition onwards. It's not just the utopic ideal that's been threatened. It's the entire ideology and narrative stability of the show that's in danger along with it. Why, if characters like Tsubasa can so easily slip back into unkindness... what else could happen? Who else could be affected by the instability of the Dirge Of Despair? In short... Who among this cast will betray us, our sensibilities, and their own ideals? It's a scary thought, to be sure, but hold tight. I promise that it'll all be okay. We're in this together, and we'll explore it together. The betrayals may be scary, but never lose faith in the Harmony Of Hope. It'll see us through, so let's keep it playing in our hearts and minds as we explore the land of betrayal.

(Continued in 2.3)