In this episode we finally learn the truth behind the Founding Queen, Je, and the tragedy that the Aowrow referred to. It took such a long time for us (and Erin; 8 years for her since she began learning about animals) before we were exposed to the reason why it was considered a “crime” to “control beasts”. Then again, the pacing has been really nice and slow, and there is still a lot of episodes left to develop the story, especially now that the viewer is armed with the background knowledge.
Well, they finally came right out and said it.
Duh. In fact, pertaining to what Nasson says about Erin creating the skills of controlling beasts on her own, I feel it is closer to what Je and her village managed to do with beast-lords, as we see later in the episode. Both Erin and Je, after all, just wanted to communicate with their respective beast-lord friends.
That is usually what happens when a person with too much power realizes what he can do, and if he does not have a heart that reins in such desires. One may wonder thus why the Holy Kingdom of Ryoza has not done something like that, but this is resolved later on in the series in a soft explanation that had rather spectacular implications for me.
The previous king of Ophalon, and Je. I must admit Je really looks nice in her hooded coat. Headband and shorter hair destroyed the image.
Later in the series we will see someone else make the exact same statement. I wonder if the king made the connection at this time – how can beast-lords and humans communicate, when humans cannot even communicate with one another? Nothing more was said by him after this line, but the implications are there.
Simple folk live simple, contented lives, and that might possibly be the best way to live, because they never feel for more need of want. To be able to live contentedly, eat, sleep, and live in peace, is their way of life. All it took however, was for the Ophalon King to plant the idea of a “better life” for this life to be destroyed, in a way neither he nor Je imagined.
Also known in military strategy as a “show of force”, I still wonder why more numbers of the beast-lords had to be raised if this was all he wanted to achieve. Sure, the Touda army in Ophalon may be big, but if he just wanted to show them, the current numbers of beast-lords ought to have sufficed for the job. After all, if a beast-lord cub takes a few years to mature (in the case of Lilan it took 4) and they had 2,000 in ten years, the base number of beast-lords must have been big enough to scare off an army of Touda tens of thousands big.
Wise words that the villagers do not listen to, resulting in the tragedy 10 years later. In Je’s defense, she only wanted to have a better life, filled with dreams and less suffering for both the beast-lords and the children. During her plea for help to the villagers, flashbacks of the children breathing out on their hands to keep themselves warm, and the beast-lords huddled together for warmth showed her compassionate nature and her true desire for the villagers to have a more plentiful life.
At first, I was all hazy as to how the tragedy happened exactly, though I must admit, the animation from the time the beast-lords flew down all the way until the end of the tragedy was superb. The shattered ice reflected the death of the king as he tried to protect Je and the kids, as well as the shattering of both his and Je’s dreams. Nasson then finally explained how the Touda and beast-lords went berserk, with the almighty smell of the huge amount of blood that must have been spilled, driving them to greater and greater heights until there was nothing left to kill.
Though not explained as to exactly how, this confirms that Soyon purposely killed the Kiba, and why.
“The beasts would have had their freedom in life and death, if everything had been natural.”
Certainly, Soyon must have been suffering because, like Erin, she only wanted the beasts to be happy. But she had gone too far with the code and had to abide by it, while her daughter was still young and free, and most importantly, not actually of the Aowrow. And indeed, the lives of both the beast-lords and Touda would have been natural, had it not been for the appearance of the humans. We as a species have done far too much damage, the show seems to say.
Indeed, it was a combination of factors, not just because humans wanted to control beasts, and this is something Erin holds onto and struggles with throughout the rest of the series.
In the next episode, we return to the Kazalm Beast-lord Care Center as Erin tries to teach Lilan to fly on command, and also delve more into the history and identity of the new teacher, Kiriku.
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