Thoughts – Aldnoah.Zero Episode 24

[Not spoiler-free]

If there’s one thing I’m pretty curious about, I’m intrigued to know the scriptwriter’s motivations for constructing the character of Slaine. Sometimes I think, Slaine must have been the brainchild of someone returning from a bad day, sitting at his desk and going, “I’m hated by everyone at work, I tripped over the kerb and bruised myself, I thought the love of my life was enamoured with my rival but now is in fact engaged to the son of my sworn archenemy, and the worst part is that nobody understands what I’m going through. Oh wait, I know. Maybe I should pen an autobiography cloaked in mecha-action-political-drama disguise, and everytime I see the hastag #TeamSlaine going up on Twitter I’ll take it that one more soul in this world indirectly empathises with my sad life.”

Well, score one for #TeamSlaine, because this writer is unequivocally smitten by him and his dedication to the princess who broke his little heart. And…well, let’s get serious and honest here. First off, Aldnoah is not a great show – so let’s not pretend that it is. It had everything going for it – bombastic soundtrack, some of the best choreographed mecha fights anime has ever seen, and the last season served as a pretty good launching pad for its writing to get better if it wanted to.

If it wanted to. Though, then again, I’ve never gone out of my way to defend Aldnoah from the start; instead, I’ve admitted that I enjoy it despite its glaring flaws – and it probably helps that I’m #TeamSlaine and he turned out to be the main focus of this season. So the question I’m left asking myself is…did I enjoy what I just watched?

Sigh…yes, yes I did. Aldnoah shouldn’t have left me tearing uncontrollably in its closing moments, but it did. Because, well, bad execution and horrible writing aside – did anyone else realise what the bare skeletal framework of its plot was about? Guy loves girl, wants to protect her, winds up stepping into some messy warfare and politics in order to do so, and even after she makes it clear that she’s got no wish for the warfare and politics to continue, he’s gotten so far into lies and treachery that there’s no way for him to swim back to the shore he left. At the end of the day, he’s got to account for his wrongdoings, and after having sacrificed everything (including his own pride and morals) for the end he wanted…he doesn’t get to have a happy ending.

Hang on. This sounds familiar! Let’s hear that again. Guy loves girl. Wants to protect her. Winds up stepping into warfare and politics. Gets way too far in over his own head. Ends up a villain whom even his girl comes to despise. Where have we seen this before?

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Aldnoah!!! WHY SO UNORIGINAL.

And those are my sentiments on Aldnoah. It had an idea which I’m definite would have grown into a masterpiece, because, look – the idea of the tragic anti-hero has been tried and tested before. But as to why the (not-so-original) brainchild didn’t take off with most people…I’m not even going to go into the why, and I don’t think anyone needs me to. Still, for me, Aldnoah’s what you get when you replace Lelouch’s role with a character like Suzaku, and if anyone cares, Suzaku is my husbando-for-laifu, so you can sorta see why I have so much sympathy for Slaine.

At the end of the day, I’m glad I watched Aldnoah.Zero. I certainly did fall asleep during certain episodes and facepalm my way through others, but at least I can testify that I’m no cynical critic, and that I still have the ability to not take my anime so seriously once in a while. And with that said, it’s time for me to return to the void of denial, where I will continue to echo the legacy of #TeamSlaine…for the sake of a guy who really deserved better than what he got.