Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra episode 12

Rating: B

This episode may not have the action elements that the previous two episodes (especially episode 11) had, but it nonetheless delivers a far greater and sharper punch, partly by solving two mysteries and delivering tantalizing hints of a new and much bigger one.

The first (and more short-term) of the two mysteries is what gimmick an RPG game could pull which could trump the inherent advantage in a fight that a 4X game Hero would have. In retrospect, I should have seen this coming as much as Takuto should have, as one RPG element has long been inviolable in terms of its impact on the story: what Flamin calls a “scripted event” but is probably more commonly referred to as a “cut scene.” (This even has an equivalent in tabletop RPGs, in the form of the dreaded “boxed text.”) For any who might be unfamiliar with these, they are scenes which play out without the player’s ability to directly influence them, which means that they are sometimes used to force plot points that the player could have otherwise possibly avoided or prevented. Most 4X games don’t have these, which is why it caught Isla off guard, and the way the scene locks out interference by preventing outside communication makes total mechanical sense.

So why did the twins get dragged into the scene? Because in Flamin’s “go out with a bang” scene, one of the hero’s companions sacrifices himself so the Hero can go on, but Isla has no one with her to fill one of those two roles. That someone close to Isla would be summoned to serve that role only makes sense in that context, and doubly so since Isla has taken on a motherly role towards them. Honestly, I’m impressed by how well-thought-out all of this now looks.

That brings us to the other, much longer-seeded mystery: why the twins have always been featured going murderously crazy-looking in the closer. The presumption since they first got established as recurring characters is that something was going to happen at some point to break them. Isla first sacrificing herself to protect them from Flamin’s death burst and then urging them to eat her heart so that she can pass on her Hero power to them (via a 4X game mechanic, apparently) would certainly do it, especially given how things ended with their biological mother. Much of the other imagery used in the closer – especially the emphasis on the full moon – now much makes much more sense, too. The monstrous powers the twins gain from their Awakenings also makes them genuinely terrifying; kudos go to the music direction for so effectively playing this up, though the way the game’s message notices support how Maria’s memory-wiping power works also deserves recognition. The melting flesh Caria inflicted on the Wind General was pretty damn nasty, too. And the game registering them as new witches due to these circumstances also makes sense, taking advantage of a classification that has been around since the early stages of the series but generally set aside over the last few episodes.

Also not lost here is what all of this means for Takuto. This is, arguably, the first time he’s been shown as fallible: he had the knowledge necessary to figure out the end that events were proceeding towards, but he got so wrapped up in following Isla’s battle that he didn’t think things completely through until it was too late. Was it even possible for him to have intervened in some way to prevent this? Maybe not, given the strength of cut scenes, and losing a Hero from time to time is a part of the game in many 4X set-ups. This has clearly sobered him up, and his underlings have also started to notice; this is the first time, I think, that he directly ordered Atou to do anything.

But there’s another big mystery that’s suddenly popped up, too. What, pray tell, is going on here?

This is the first clear indication the series has been given that this isn’t all happening on autopilot. Someone behind the scenes is responsible for this clashing of game worlds and can apparently meddle as they see fit. This very much reminds me of the “evil god” D in the So I’m A Spider, So What? franchise, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the motives in this case end up being similar. I do hope that this is an element which gets returned to if addition season(s) is/are animated.

But first the series has to finish out this season. Nothing about this episode indicated it was hitting a stopping point, so there should be one more episode next week. Will Atou and Takuto be able to rein back in the broken twins? This is arguably the series’ biggest cliffhanger yet, and that helps make this possibly the series’ strongest episode so far.