Part 5: Melody Of Memory
Of course, alchemy being alchemy, Carol still has some power creep ass pulls left in her. Like a song of her own. It's not translated, again, but a cursory glance at the lyrics shows that she's singing about genocide and the dissection of all things. Okay, it's the literal Dirge of Despair playing again. It's incredibly powerful, though, and the waveform analysis shows the truth: this is a Climax Song. Carol's using the Symphogear system's own power against our girls, and for good reason. Let's take a quick peek at her world-ending Château de Tiffauges again:
I noticed it only a few moments before the show spells it out, but that motherfucker is a gigantic tuning fork which is resonating with Carol's song. Resonating with the Dirge of Despair to end the world. Wrecking all of those shrines released the seal on Japan's ley lines, and that will allow Carol's cursed melody to resonate throughout the world and dissect it. That's what starts happening, as we sit here at the Apocalypse Of All Things. We need a plan then. The plan, which will make any tabletop player instinctively scream, is splitting the party. The Frontier trio of Maria, Kirika, and Shirabe move to infiltrate the Château and destroy it from within, while Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris will fend off Carol and her ultimate song. I've heard worse plans, but it's what the former trio will find in the Château that will... test my patience, shall we say.
After an illusionary Dr. Nastassja shows up to tell the Frontier trio that they can't save the world because their hands are stained with blood, who should these girls find but the other adult they worked with back then? Yes, Dr. Ver survived all that because if he'd died I wouldn't have anything to complain about. No, I know why he's here. I'll tell you. We've had the theme of what fathers have passed on to their daughters all throughout Symphogear GX. Carol's mission, Hibiki's utopic ideal, Tsubasa's dreams, and Chris's hope in this cruel world. Maria, Kirika, and Shirabe don't have any biological father figures in this season. What they do have is a male figure in authority who oversaw them in an orphanage. Yes, if we're going to go full tilt with the fatherhood theme, Dr. Ver is the closest thing these three have to a father figure who can pass something on to them. The thought of it makes my spine shiver, and this isn't a happy reunion of any sort. I particularly love how Kirika carries the wounded doctor up to the Château's control center and just tosses him on the ground like a rag doll. Man, fuck Dr. Ver.
There's another layer to all of this as well. This is the Frontier trio's atonement for the actions they regret, and the people they once were. The Château showing a fake Nastassja was part of the automated defense system, and as Dr. Ver starts fucking around with Carol's grand world dissection plan, it takes a new form.
This, then, is several things at once. It follows on the general theme of atonement, with facing the dark mirror of your past self. Indeed, this Maria calls herself Finé, just as she did before. This is also personal for Maria, who learned all about strength in weakness and is now faced with her own shadow self. Maria wants to face her demons all on her own, but fuck that. Kirika and Shirabe have sins they need to overcome as well. The trio fight as Dr. Ver does his shit, and as they do they speak with their friends outside... and their words sound suspiciously like "I'm about to die so here's something I always meant to tell you." Maria loved performing with Tsubasa. Kirika always looked up to Chris as her senpai. The most heartbreaking for me is Shirabe apologizing to Hibiki for hurting her feelings, all those months ago when she didn't know any better. Why are they now confessing their deepest regrets and loves to their friends?
Well, it's because of what Dr. Ver is up to during all of this. This is where we hit the biggest sour point of the show. I don't know if it's a betrayal yet, but I have to formulate the thoughts and spill the words out so just roll with me here. Dr. Ver is getting his revenge on Carol for the whole stabbing thing by jamming his monster arm into the Château's controls and hacking the shit out of it. Dr. Ver is going to blow the Château to bits, along with the Frontier trio. With no Château, Carol can't dissect the world. Everyone. Everyone. Dr. Ver is directly saving the fucking world. This is, to be clear, not some sort of altruistic turn on his part. He's every bit the petty selfish fuck he always was. He's just doing this to fuck with Carol and her master plan, even though it will kill him in the process. This is shockingly, dangerously close to validating this reprehensible son of a bitch character. The entire point of locking him in an underwater gulag was so he couldn't be the monster who destroyed the world or the hero who died for his ideals. You're going to let hero-obsessed Dr. Ver have his moment in the sun and actually save the world from Carol? I... no. No, I refuse. God, I hate that.
Well, the Château blows up and Maria cuts the defense system in half; it tries changing into Serena as one last gambit but Maria doesn't hesitate. It seems like everyone's dead, but they're not. Well, Dr. Ver is crushed under a rock. You've done it. You've killed the man, but given him a heroic moment. About the only saving grace I can give is that this entire incident will be classified to hell and back such that nobody will ever know he was involved. Still, he'll die thinking he was right, and I'm just petty enough that I hate that. Before he goes, though, one final parting gift. The biological fathers of the other girls in the show have passed on an intangible gift; the utopic ideal, or a mission to understand the world. Dr. Ver, who is only an approximate father figure, leaves behind a physical gift, and then...
That's the closest Symphogear as a series has come to betraying me. It doesn't feel good! I've got no idea what's on that SD card, though. I'll let you know next time. For now, I can finally wash my hands of that prick and talk about Carol. There is some absolutely wild and gonzo shit about alchemy revealed in Episode 12; the harmony of the universe is alchemy's deepest secret, and it's found within the harmony of music and the truth it creates. After all that literal Tower of Babel stuff comes back up, we find the purpose of alchemy: communication with the world and a mission to understand it. Alchemy and song were created for the same purpose: the restoration of the unified lost language, the undoing of the Curse of Balal. There's a brief flash of Finé here; did she create alchemy and song? One wonders why she didn't fuck with alchemy, then, IF IT'S SO GODDAMN STRONG. Anyway, with the Château destroyed, how will Carol avenge her father now? It's here that we must touch on Hibiki's dad again; he got evacuated once Hibiki transformed and the gang showed up to stop Carol, and that led him to SONG's main control room where he's seeing all the action. Elfnein is also there, mortally wounded from a lingering attack prior. As she pleads with Carol to stop this, that it wasn't what their father wanted, Hibiki's dad drops some wisdom, which leads Elfnein to realize the solution to the problem left to Carol:
This is another secret of alchemy. Carol seeded a grand plan involving Elfnein and Dáinsleif in order to get the cursed melodies she needed, using the Autoscorers to force it out of us. It was all a tool for her master design... but it made our girls stronger. They did overcome so many personal demons, regrets, anxieties, sins of the past... and here they are. Alchemy and song are all about understanding the world, and our girls used the cursed melodies to better understand themselves. Carol. Honey. They fucking transmuted your curse into a blessing. Into a Harmony of Hope. Hibiki, as ever before, holds hands and harmonizes with Carol's song. The Château was only spreading the Dirge of Despair around the world. Hibiki and friends are transmuting the Dirge of Despair into the Harmony of Hope. Now this is some fucking alchemy! Our climax is action-packed, with lots of flashy attacks from our girls with their shiny EX Drives. What I want to point out, before we move to the wrapup, is something Hibiki's dad says to her from home base.
Elfnein's still hurt badly, but she's in the hospital trying to get better. Everyone's visiting and waiting for her to get well soon, in high spirits... but Hibiki's only playing. She rushes to the bathroom right after their visit, turns all the faucets on to muffle the sound, and bawls her eyes out. Miku, of course, is there to comfort her. She shares a lament she had back when she was distraught over her dad; the only problems you can solve with your fists are easy ones. Miku's simple report is that, when Hibiki does what she thinks is the right thing to solve a problem, her fist is the gentlest fist in the world. One day, it might fix all of the bad things. Late at night, an amnesiac Carol comes to Elfnein. She can't remember jack shit, but she had the sense to come here. The pair of them both followed what Carol's dad left behind, and it led them here. One fine with no memories, and one with memories but clearly dying. Elfnein knows the right thing to do with what her father left her, but she doesn't want to die. Carol wants a second chance at it all. The two of them can do it again. Together. So, then, with one of those memory kisses, Carol and Elfnein become one. It's a redemption for Carol, hooray!
Just one thing left, then, as we finish up: Hibiki's dad heading back to their old homestead, to go for a second chance himself. He tries being casual about it, holding out his hand, but his ex-wife doesn't go for it. Yeah, that's about how it goes. It couldn't be as easy as all that, I suppose...
If Carol and Elfnein can alchemize their way to a second chance, then Hibiki can do the same for her family. Her dad was brave enough to get this far, so she'll have no qualms in trying to help them reconcile. Whether or not he deserves total forgiveness, I'll leave up to you. He ain't no Dr. Ver, I'll tell you that much. What I can tell you is this is where we end our journey through Symphogear GX. Wow. It's a very strange season, devoting a lot of its run time to bashing you over the head with the fact that ALCHEMY IS TOTALLY STRONG AND SHIT AND CAN KICK ALL YOU SINGING GIRLS' ASSES. Almost half the run time of the show is dedicated to alchemy no-selling things, and when we do get the power-up arcs it turns out that was alchemy's plan all along. In a lot of ways things feel like a throwback to the first Symphogear season, with stuff like the mentions of Finé and Balal, and some of the idelogical conflicts lining up with arcs from that series. I really liked it, though, and it tells a wonderful story about overcoming your own personal weaknesses and grudges, using alchemy and the anime powerup arc as framework. The only bum note is Dr. Ver coming back. I get the significance to the fatherhood arc, but fuck's sakes. First bum note of Symphogear. Not an outright betrayal, but I'll be watching closely from now on.
We're over halfway through this journey. I have written a goddamned novella on Symphogear, and I suspect we'll enter novel country before we're done because when have I been known to stop? Never, ha ha ha. In fact I'm actively putting off stopping right here and now, as this is the last paragraph of the writeup. I've no idea where we'll go next. I hope and pray this show doesn't find a way to betray me at the end for cheap drama or anything. That Dr. Ver thing proves it can happen, under the right circumstances. I really wonder what it was he left behind. Can't wait to find out and see the back of Dr. Ver! With that, I'll leave you all with one final secret of alchemy. A simple one, but an effective one that shows the utopic heights we and our girls can climb to, with the help of transmuting despair into hope. Ready?
The secret of alchemy is material utopic progress.
TO BE CONTINUED...
No comments:
Post a Comment