Wednesday 29 May 2013

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet - Episode 8

With Fleet Commander Fairpoint breathing his final breaths in the midst of an alarming split within Gargantia, things are looking decidedly fractured as we enter this eighth episode of Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet.

Even as the former commander's funeral begins, his elected successor Ridget has all sorts of worries to cope with as the scale of the exodus from Gargantia becomes clear - it seems that the prospect of potential prosperity and relative safety is too much for many to resist.  Joining that exodus is Ledo, who has been lured into leaving by Pinion by the possibility of being taken to the whalesquid nest with an opportunity to destroy the entire colony of the supposed Hideauze within, in return for Pinion taking whatever treasures also lay within that nest.


With the broad lines between those remaining and those leaving drawn, the rest of the episode gets to focus on the fallout of these decisions, as all and sundry have to consider their own personal desires and the importance of the people around them when it comes to deciding upon their own futures.  In those terms, there are few more awkwardly placed than Amy, who finds herself torn between staying to look after her brother and following her heart and with it Ledo, who continues to insist that, if anything, his decision is to protect those who he has befriended upon Gargantia rather than betray them.

In spite of being arguably the most slow-burning episode of the series so far, this was another top-notch instalment of Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet that continues to fascinate - even though it was Ridget who was the centrepiece of the instalment, it remains Ledo who fascinates as a counterpoint to all of those around him as he insists upon working to his own set of morals and value judgement even when they fly in the face of others.  It's his capacity to be both potentially correct in his own convictions yet blind to what those convictions mean in the short-term for others that is worthy of much analysis, while the current situation has also moved the show's narrative into new areas which I'm keen to see the payload from.

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