Tytania Episode 12 (Are There Two Seperate Scenario Writers For This Show?)

Nunally 2.0 Lydia …I Simultaneously Love And Hate You At The Same Time….Kind Of In The Same Way I Do This Episode

No seriously, I’m really starting to wonder about the bi-polar style of writing between the two factions of the show.  Specifically about what is going on with the disparity between the way the Tytania side scenarios are written compared to Fan’s side in terms of quality and complexity.  It’s like….okay here’s an example, you know how Call of Duty has two developers that alternate with each game and how while the title of the series always remains the same, one of them clearly isn’t bringing their A-Game even if different scenarios call for different styles of scripting? 

More specifically how wherein one can be praised quite a bit for their innovative ways of telling stories about warfare that make use of solid scripting and visual cues to really pull you into the story and add that extra oomph the other clearly just likes to rehash overused concepts when taking you through their stories or they like to just copy the other guys style whenever convenient, thus resulting in what can only be described as a watered/dumbed down scenario and overall experience compared to what the other team offers.  Well anyway, I’d swear Tytania has the same thing going on and that there are actually two scenario writers for the series, one with a certain degree of skill in his style and the other who’s just kind of winging it.  I’d also swear that if this is indeed the case that the skilled guy got assigned to write the Tytania side of the story and the borderline hack got assigned to write Fan’s side of the story.  In some ways that’s the only way I can explain what I witnessed in this episode.  I worry that this is going to be a long one, but let’s go in for a closer look.

Exhibit A) Quality In Simplicity

The bit with Salisch at the beginning is the perfect example of what I like about how the Tytanian side of the story is being told.  Ajman has a brief talk with Salisch wherein Salisch askes forgiveness for failing to capture Fan, which Ajman grants him noting that Salisch did the best that he could.  Right here you can turn this seemingly benign gesture on it’s head and assume that Ajman was hinting that he doesn’t think much of Salisch’s capabilities and that this went over Salisch’s head.  It might not be the case, but then again Ajman never seems to do or say directly what he’s actually thinking and always seems a few steps ahead of the game.  Ajman also hints that maybe if Salisch would cooperate with his brother instead of letting unwarranted pride get in the way that both would meet with greater success.  After leaving Salisch goes to see his mother and finding she’s asleep decides to pick her up and bring her inside like a caring son.  It’s here that he says that he never knew she was so heavy and that we see a picture of Theresa, Salisch and Alses when they were all younger.  Right here you again get that subtle complexity that I’ve come to appreciate from the Tytanian side of the story as you can draw a number of things from the limited dialogue in this scene when you combine it with the visual cue of the picture. 

Number one is that Salisch and Alses clearly used to be a lot closer when they were younger and yet ended up drifting apart when the expected ambition of a Tytanian lord got in the way of their brotherly bonds.  Number two is that from her disposition in the picture Theresa clearly used to be a lot more lively, a lot more happy and a lot more beautiful when she was younger.  Given the circumstances of her family situation and how her two beloved sons are constantly bickering with one another to her clear dismay, it makes one ask the question as to whether her current lifestyle of sitting around the castle while coming across as a vain and haughty woman combined with her weight gain is the result of her true personality or just her exasperation and bitterness with the Tytanian way essentially destroying her family and leaving her lonely.  Number three is the fact that if Salisch didn’t know his mother was as light as she is now that she’s heavy and he’s all grown up and well built, and yet she was clearly much lighter when he was still a kid, it seems like Salisch hasn’t hugged/held his mother in a very long time. 

So we get all of these hints about this side of the Tytania in one short scene at the beginning of the episode that I find to be pretty complex and deep character development, and yet as we’ll see, the entirety of the rest of the episode that is pretty much devoted to the exit of a character from Fan’s side of the story can’t even rise above it’s cliched premise.

Exhibit B) Betrayer The First Proves That He’s No Katie Mannequin….Oh And As For Fan’s Comment, Only When His Side Of The Story Requires Them To Be

So here we have Fan’s opponent this episode in Berthier, the traitor to Euria that was once Fan’s superior officer as we learned last episode and the one who recommended him as the Admiral for the Battle of Cerberus as we learn this episode.  Clearly Berthier thinks he’s hot stuff in how he’s got the advantage over Fan’s phantom fleet, yet he’s so caught up in the idea of apparently making up for his mistake in choosing Fan that he can’t see the reality of the situation.  That being that Fan isn’t interested in fighting him, but in rescuing Lira.  Don’t ask me why.  Anyway, I actually have no real gripes with this part of the story as Berthier fulfills his role in casually letting Fan slip by while focusing on a fleet of asteroids.  Devious mastermind of a coup d’eta last episode, utter simpleton this one.  Wait….that is kind of a lack in character continuity now that I think of it.  If Berthier was able to do all he did last episode and had access to Fan’s record then he should be able to predict better then anyone else how Fan would carry out his rescue mission….WTF?!  Oh well, this aspect of the Fan side writing is utter genius compared to what is yet to come.

Exhibit C) Betrayer The Second Get’s Shown Up By The Most Simple Minded Character In The Show

Great, this asshole shows up again and I’d swear I actually think less of him then I do of Lira by the end of this scenario.  Number one is that he had a point about Lira’s selfishness ruining their chance at getting Fan to stay as a tactical adviser until he decided to let his own selfishness in betraying her and her grandmother thus allowing the dizzy bitch (pardon the expression, but I can’t think of another way to describe Lira at this point) to refute and score a point against him.  What’s more, once Fan’s invasion of Alses mansion starts up she decides to take care of De Bohr in the most cliched manner possible .  That’s right, the old damsel in distress random object smashed over the head KO technique (TM), in this case, a chair.  Now I’d be fine with this as silly as it is since it seems consistent with Lira’s generic dizzy bitch (what again?) harem reject character persona.  You know, like the kind of character you find in a Key game that can’t solve her own problems unless the male lead comes to help her or there’s a convenient vase stashed now by.  So right now she’s Ayu Tsukima, but in less then a minute she becomes…..

 TOMOYO STYLE!

Okay, so now we’ve firmly established that Lira’s “character” alternates between adept and useless, weak and ass-kicking, dim and witty, all depending on what the Fan side of the plot dictates she should be.  God I hate this character so much and I cannot stress enough how much she’s cheapened this show by being in it, but that’s all about to be fixed shortly…..sort of.

Exhibit D) Wherein Fan Makes The Best Of The Horrible Scenario He’s Been Dealt With As Far As His Side Of The Story Goes And I Actually Wish He Were Being 100% Honest

Eventually Lira meets up with Fan after much trouble and almost getting pinned down before developing Kung Fu skills out of the blue, which also begs the question as to why she decided to take off on her own in the first place.  I mean if Alses even said that Fan was coming and she could clearly hear a struggle going on in the front yard, wouldn’t you try to make your way to the people that are laying siege to the mansion instead of taking off in some random direction?  Even if was just a general uprising instead of Fan, the enemy of your enemy should be your friend until the day is done and whoever is fighting your captor, that’s the party you want to try to rendevouz with as quickly and efficiently as possible.  It’s kind of like how the Americans were fighting with the Germans during WWII yet the Germans knew that the Americans were no friends of the Russians despite their temporary alliance and that they better surrender themselves to the Americans at the first opportunity since they would be more likely to show them mercy compared to the Russians who would be more then happy to shoot them on sight.  That’s why you have stories abound of Russia taking Berlin and entire German battalions, realizing the situation was out of their hands and that Third Reich was done for, running towards the American frontlines to surrender to them before Russia caught up with them.  Yet no, instead of heading to the front of the mansion, Lira rushes to where Alses keeps his fish where Fan manages to locate her by chance….as does Alses himself.  Whoops, here’s a showdown that really didn’t need to happen.  Yet despite how silly Lira’s train of thought was and all of the irritating parts that have come before it in this normally very tactically oriented and complex series (at least where Tytania’s side of the story is concerned), nothing can compare to what happens next…

Exhibit E) If Alses Has You At Gunpoint And Asks You To Drop Your Gun And You Are A Tactical Mastermind With A Pistol Who Is Accompanied By A Chick That Has Random Kung Fu Black Belt Syndrome And Who Is Also Carrying A Machine Gun, Do you A) Do As He Asks Or B) Note Your Advantage And Insist That He Drops His Weapon

For some reason if you are Fan you choose the former.  No choice words here, I’ll just leave you to consider the sense in this scenario. 

Exhibit F) A Death Scenario That Gives Me Mixed Feelings

Long story short, Alses takes Fan and Lira out to his man eating fish tank where he plains to literally feed them to the fishes, but Lira makes a mad dash and tackles Alses into the water instead in her effort to save Fan, somehow drowning in the process.  Now truthfully I could not possibly be happier that she is dead, but as if in a last ditch effort to spite me for hating her charater for this long she can’t even find a way in which to die that isn’t completely contrived and stupid.  For one, if she was going to do a dash tackle against Alses then she should have done it inside when she still had a gun, especially since if Alses missed her when she was outside in the backyard with some lighting then you can bet he would have missed her if she was inside the dimly lit hallway.  In this scenario if worst comes to worse she or Fan could put a bullet into him and be done with it.  I know Fan doesn’t like to kill but if someone is plaining to kill you in a cold blood in what amounts to a cruel and unusual method then I say self-defence all the way.  Secondly even though for some reason she didn’t have the foresight to do that, as you can see there are no bite marks on her indicating that the man eating fish never went after her…..which means she must have drowned.  Why if she was on top of Alses when they went down was she unable to make use of her Sudden Kung Fu Onset Syndrome to make her way all of the 20 meters maximum distance back to the surface so that Fan could fetch her back out?  Hell why didn’t she even at least try to make her way back up to Fan who was clearly waiting to do just that after jumping in the water.  Third, if Fan’s such a knight in shining armour, why didn’t he make more of an effort once he got in the water to try and save her sorry ass.  What a lame death….

Exhibit G) Wherein We Briefly Go Back To Alses Tytania And Because He’s A Tytania He Get’s A Much Better Scenario In Which He Get’s To Experience His Misfortune In The Aftermath Of The Confrontation

Well Alses didn’t escape unscathed as is made evident by his quickie scene here, and I swear that in this very brief Tytania only scene we get that good writer I’ve been talking about, because instead of overwrought melodrama, Alses ruined face is “revealed” to us in a very subtle and symbolic manner.  Rather then show us the damage to his face, which must look very grotesque considering the nature of his man eating fish, we get a quick shot of one of his statues with a portion of it’s head missing as a result of the fighting.  The implication here is obviously that Alses’ face represents his pride, as does the statue and that the damage to both represents more then just damage to his person, it represents his pride being taken from him in one decisive blow.  Yet somehow I don’t think he’s entirely to blame…I’ll deal with that in the poll question.

Exhibit H) Lira’s Dead And I Shed Not A Tear

Well, Lira’s dead and I couldn’t be happier as she was selfish, annoying and a frankly a horribly written character.  Although Fan apparently has sworn revenge against Alses and possibly Tytania as well.  Not exactly the hero I was hoping he’d become, but I guess you get what you get and it’s not always what you might hope for in a story, you just have to learn to like it or leave.   The way I see it a lost love is never a good reason for taking up a cause against an oppresive power and is actually quite a selfish motivation.  Wherein you have Jouslain, Lydia and Ariabart primarily concerned with justice and the greater good of the people and whether Tytania can be refashioned from within to better represent it, now we have Fan with rage in his heart as a result of a dead girl he barely even knew now poised to take on Tytania.  Why does something seem out of place here?  One can only hope there’s a plot twist in the works such as a meeting with Jouslain that allows Fan to realize that he has allies within Tytania that he could be working with for the greater good, because right now as a result of the disparity between the style of the scenario for Tytania and Fan’s side of the story, I actually feel more sorry for Alses face then I do for Lira’s death and how it’s somehow affected Fan.  In fact, I’m now introducing a new way to rate Tytania episodes as a result of this disparity.

Rating For Tytanian Scenario:  Eight And A Half Out Of Ten

Rating For Fan’s Scenario: Three And A Half Out Of Ten

Polling Time!  I hope you’ve been really following the story as this is one of those multiple choice style questions that you get in University Exams where all of the answers are technically correct, but one is more correct then the others.  And yes there actually is a correct answer to this question, I just want to see how many people picked up on it.