Valkyria Chronicles - Episode 12

After putting together arguably one its less coherent plots last episode, it's time for Valkyria Chronciles to explain its reasoning, which I suppose it does in this twelfth episode in fairness... somewhat at least.

The last episode saw both Princess Cornelia and Alicia (of course, when does she not get into trouble at every turn?) kidnapped as part of some kind of conspiracy, and this time around we learn the reasoning behind it - To fake the princess' defection to the Federation, thus cementing a relationship between Gallia and said Federation. While this does make sense in its own terms, it's rather confusing given how well the two sides were getting on in the first case, leading me to wonder why they'd bother with the risky business of a kidnapping and destroying that relationship entirely in the first place? This state of affairs also goes some way to explaining the prescence of Selvaria and Radi at the party, although again you have to wonder why they were initially willing to sit back and merely observe a chain of events which would have disadvantaged the Empire.


Anyhow, with Alicia missing, Welkin is naturally keen to go after the kidnapper pair, and with some information from the unlikely source of their sworn enemies, he ends up suggesting a "symbiosis" between the two, asking for their help to rescue both Alicia and the princess for their mutual benefit. Radi agrees, and so they set off in what was a pretty run-of-the-mill "find the kidnappers, engage in a car chase, jump between vehicles and stop them just in the nick of time" scenario, punctuated only by Alicia managing to convince Princess Cornelia to fight for her own fate and future rather than simply accepting it. So, all's well that ends well for both our favourite group of militia soldiers and the Empire, and they all live happily ever after. Or do they? Things just got one Hell of a lot more tense between Welkin and Faldio...

As you've probably noticed, I'm not entirely convinced by the plot progression of this particular story arc - It would be unfair to label it as full of holes, but it does seem to walk along the tightrope of plausibility while coming dangerous close to crashing down to the ground at several points. It seems that this series does making military operations seem fun better than it does domestic terrorism and conspiracy. Still, the human elements of Valkyria Chronicles are certainly getting more interesting thanks to the last couple of episodes, so it isn't all bad, and perhaps we can get back to some "real" fighting (or at least about as real as this series gets) to celebrate the show reaching its half-way point.