Part 2: Amplification Of Amalgam
That was all just a bit shocking and terrifying. Let's calm down a bit, and talk about the people who did that terrible thing to the concert. It's difficult to know where to begin, considering how this trio of antagonists practically mirrors everyone in the show and warrants discussion in at least three different ways. Luckily, one of those ways is by contrast with our protagonists, and can lead us down some interesting discussion. It also has led me into a bind of flip-flopping reversed themes from the last season, so you get to witness the textual equivalent of me doing my best Harry Houdini and trying to escape my own personal Water Torture Cell in real time before the contradictions drown me. (The previous sentence may or may not be one of the best analogies I have made to date. You're welcome.) With that in mind, let's have a chat about Noble Red.
Here in this microcosm, we begin to see the confines of the contradiction. In the last season, a big big thematic conflict was the notion of perfection vs. imperfection. The Bavarian Illuminati were perfect beings using the power of the Philosopher's Stone, and our girls were using the imperfection of the Ignite Module, a metaphor for their insecurities and anxieties weaponized into a cursed power. I took note of this in the climax of AXZ and never wrote it down, but in defeating Adam our girls actually burned away the Ignite Module. Follow me on this one, because it's wild. We then also had Hibiki channelling everyone's Symphogear power to punch Adam in the face, and ended with the ghosts of the Bavarian trio sharing their power and giving her the Golden Transmutation she needed to punch him 10 billion times. With me so far? Okay, now in XV when the girls transform, the Philosopher's Stone appears behind them. Somehow or another, the Symphogears have taken to heart a little piece of the power of perfection.
By contrast, we have Noble Red. Due to their unique condition, they need transfusions of a rare blood type to survive and maintain their power. These three ragtag rejects from alchemical perfection are far different from the sliding power scale we've been seeing Symphogear's alchemical antagonists rise up over the last half a show. One might have expected even the Philosopher's Stone to fail against, say, the Holy Grail, neccessitating meditation and understanding and a little magical power-up, as a treat. In some ways, this is refreshing. In others this is eyebrow-raising. Noble Red, you see, do not beat the holy shit out of the Symphogear girls every time. Quite the opposite, really. Our girls are the stronger power, and it's only through luck and distraction and timely interference that Noble Red escapes these encounters to live another day. Do you see the full predicament? XV has flipped the power dynamic/thematic conflict of perfection and imperfection on its head. Now our side are the perfect beings, enlightened warriors of love and hope who powered up by beating perfection itself. Noble Red are the scrappy underdogs, the weak and incomplete who can thus do their terrible deeds for their grand goal. As we'll learn, it's not that evil a goal... but gas in the tank. For now, we can lead in nicely to our girls battling Noble Red again in Episode 4.
We're so far in to this discussion and I haven't even named Noble Red's members yet. I did the same thing with the Bavarian trio. I'm a scatterbrain, I know. Let's deal with that real quick. The wolf girl that Kirika and Shirabe encounter in the battleship is Elza. The vampire girl who did that horrible shit at Tsubasa's concert is Millaarc. Their leader, who we've not touched on yet, is a tall and motherly figure named Vanessa. (Those of you who like to play anagram can probably figure out the idea with Millaarc. For the rest of you... yes, that's right, gas in the tank.) Millaarc attacks a blood bank in Episode 3 to try and get the blood Noble Red needs to get back to full power, but once again Kirika and Shirabe show up to fight her. They basically kick her ass, thus proving the whole flip-flop of perfection and imperfection, and through intervention by the other two members Noble Red manages to escape. Some more battles occur until Noble Red use some strategy and lure the Symphogears into a trap, where the weak and impure Noble Red work together to do this.
The weak and imperfect, coming together to form a force powerful enough to blast perfection? This really is a flip flop. This is something the protagonists in a magical girl show would do, and instead it's our antagonist group doing it to our girls, trapping them in a space that's bigger on the inside as these shadows keep on changing. This labyrinth, this Daedalus End which alters reality itself, beats our girls. They're trapped within it, just like we're trapped within our Water Torture Cell of a contradiction. How do we get out of this conundrum? How do we escape? How do we square away the flip-flopping where we are the perfectionists and imperfection beats us? I'm coming to my answer, but Hibiki is coming to hers as well, pondering it within the mind's eye of the Philosopher's Stone itself. We need a poltergeist of perfection to help us along, and we need to ask and answer the right question.
We lost to complacency. This isn't perfection, and there's still so much to do. Noble Red, who can be redeemed. The other puppetmasters behind the scenes we haven't touched on. The true mastermind, the devil who we cannot confront. Remember the understanding Saint Germain and Hibiki came to before. "Even if that's true". Accepting the situation and then defying it. So we're on the side of perfection now. Even if that's true, we're not perfect. What we need is perfect imperfection. Like a hybrid. Or an Amalgam, even... and that's just what we get. Through holding Saint Germain's hand, Hibiki gains the perfect imperfection. The combination of a perfect Faust Robe and an imperfect Symphogaear. That's how we escape the contradiction. We accept the situation but deny the binary. Is it enough to escape the Water Torture Cell? I've no idea, but it is the answer I came up with. Hibiki's Amalgam is a beautiful golden puncher, able to take down Noble Red easily... and yet, against its leader, she pulls her punch. This is Hibiki, after all. Her hands don't follow a binary, either. They can hurt, but also hold. She wants to hold the hand of Vanessa, like all the others. How touching. I hope nothing unforward like military bullshit ruins this.
Oh. That'd do it. We have this amazing power of self-reflection, but just like everyone's favorite Metroid game our girls are unauthorized to make use of it to save the day thanks to a surprise government "inspection". This is clearly bullshit, and we'll poke at the agenda behind it in a moment. The way this shit was presented at first, with the entire base held at gunpoint, made me think this was a coup. Hm, now why would I think that? There's a reveal I've been holding back so as to make it the dramatic sting cliffhanger at the end of this segment. For now, let us appreciate the "convenient timing" of this sudden snap internal investigation into SONG HQ by the hands of the government. Just as Hibiki was about to do something inconvenient like make friends with Vanessa, they were ordered to stand down. Moreover, the sudden appearance of an unauthorized superpower like Amalgam has given them an extra excuse to lock all this bullshit down. It's a curious power limiter, for sure, but I guess they had to do something different with the power dynamic reversed like this. The show will get to have its cake and eat it, as well; we will get episode arcs of the other girls awakening their Amalgam powers through personal strife and introspection, kind of like Ignite Mode back in GX. By the time everyone has it, Noble Red will be powered up as well. A terrible and horrible power up, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.
To close out, let's get a little linear and focus on the climax of episode 5. It's an important keystone for everywhere we're about to go, so we may as well cover it in detail. Hibiki, with a day off because of this inspection bullshit, decides to try and invite Tsubasa to karaoke to cheer her up from the whole concert massacre thing. It ends up being Hibiki, Tsubasa, Miku, and Elfnein of all people who come out to it. The cheer up plan doesn't exactly work as singing kind of has Tsubasa fucked up right now, but when Miku finds out about this whole idea, well, she's not exactly happy.
That glare into a pained look from Miku says a thousand words, tears at my soul, and sets up her interior landscape for what's to come in her future. A predicatable Noise attack ruins this moment before anything can be resolved, as Miku and Elfnein go to hide while Hibiki and Tsubasa fight the Noise. Tsubasa is very clearly fucked up here, seeing spectral versions of Millaarc and going absolutely apeshit with her sword powers. Clear trauma we'll need to sort through, but more on that next time. After the fight, things have gone very wrong. Miku's not picking up her phone, and she and Elfnein are under attack by Millaarc... who is joined by one of the government inspector guys. This really was an inside job, the goal all along to kidnap Elfnein. This is where we get the horrific cliffhanger where Millaarc gets new orders, attacks someone, and we get an absolute fountain of blood gushing into the air. The intent is to make you worry that Miku or Elfnein have been mortally wounded, but I saw the resolution a mile away. The sadistic government guy is dead weight now, and so Millaarc cuts his throat before kidnapping both Miku and Elfnein. How deep does this rabbit hole go? What do Noble Red want with Miku and Elfnein? Well, some of these questions may be answered by showing you who's pulling Noble Red's strings.
You nationalist rat bastard. There's your cliffhanger, folks. Next time we deal with this old fuck's ideology, his grand plan, and Tsubasa arc shenanigans... and would you believe there's still bullshit I have to dance around? We'll see how it goes.
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