Log Horizon Episode 9
GingaDaiuchuu: Stage three: tyrannical blackmail
SUCCESS
Oh Shiroe, you play such a fantastic villain for being such a great guy. Good stuff.
Nork22: Well if people don’t listen to you, make them! Buying up the Guild Hall zone essentially turns Shiroe into a dictator. It’s a necessary evil to get the Warrior Guilds to listen to him. At the very least, Shiroe has a good heart, even though he is worse than the devil himself.
bctaris: Ha! Warlordism, indeed. Enjoyed the conversation here declaring, truly, that there is no real civil infrastructure in this world, just “natural law”, as Shiroe puts it. Which is the very environment–a power vacuum–that allowed Shiroe to do what he did. And only he was savvy enough to realize it, winning the war before others even knew they were in one.
Buckeye: … There is one guild leader who is not exactly convinced about this whole scheme, and it will be interesting to see just how Shiroe reacts to it as it seems like he is on top of things.
Jun Kuga: Well that guild leader has the most to lose. If I remember it’s his guild who is supporting Hamelin, and are using the XP Pots to reach level 91.
But yeah, it was exciting to see Shiroe’s plan finally move in to action. Tohya and Minori were superb today, and that flashback to what I think was them in ‘real life’ really showed why Tohya has really accepted their situation. Not the first anime MMO character to be in a wheelchair in real life, but it does allow a lot more freedom. Also Akatsuki had another chance to show that she’s not just an adorable face, she’s got real skill too
cxt217: … Though the real challenge is how Mamare Touno depicts Shiroe and his in-series reputation (Another thing I disliked intensely about what Reki Kawahara did in SAO.). There is something nice to see the most manipulative character this side of Xellos be the main protagonist of the series.
Episode 9 is pretty good, and it is starting show how the time and effort spent on setting up and detailing the background of the series in the earlier episode are beginning to push the storyline as much as the plot of each episode or arc. We get very little action (Except where Akatsuki show what a Level 90 PC can do.) but story is moving rapidly. The reaction of the various production guild leaders to seeing how they have been played (Without a lie being told to them at all – very much an example of seeing what you want to see, not what you are actually observing.) was amusing, as well as the reactions to when Shiroe dropped the bombshell as well as demonstrate his ownership of the Guild Building.
As a sidenote, it was a nice touch that Episode 9 allowed us to see…the last of the known former members of the Debauchary Tea Party in Akihabara, namely Nazuna, who was the PC from West Wind that accompanied Soujirou to the meeting. She was mentioned before but never actually seen until now.
sonic: My favorite part of the episode was watching Minori and Touya bring a very human face to the not so human game world. Not only did they help their fellow guild members escape Hammelin’s clutches, but we see a real world flashback of Touya in a wheelchair being pushed by Minori; something that characterizes them as human beings beyond this virtual realm. That moment also gives clarity to why being in the game might be liberating to some rather than terrifying because seemingly Touya was, at least temporarily, unable to walk in the real world but now has that ability here. It’s the little things like those that distinguish between them being just players in a game and human beings, with the appearance and abilities of their game avatars, stuck in an alternate reality resembling the game.
Now this is what I was waiting to see surface several episodes ago; a clear set of goals and character motivations. This is easily the best episode in the series for me so far because it gives meaning to everything that’s going on. Shiroe frees the kids and establishes laws, but more importantly he finally mentions the Apocalypse and its impact on the adventures in a meaningful way; which has been sorely lacking since episode 1. Until now it was up to the viewer to read between the lines and assume what they were feeling and thinking to do; however, now it’s made clear Shiroe does want to actively help address, at least the temporary symptoms, of the situation.
bctaris: But that was exactly the point of those early episode where motivations and goals were not made clear: there were none, until this point.
We saw, through the chaos of the those beginning world-building arcs, Shiroe come to these realizations slowly, piece by piece. In the beginning–even just a couple episodes ago–he did not want to address this stuff. Befitting his character, he’d rather stay out of it. As you know, the whole point of Minori and Touya’s characters was to provide the catalyst to make him go down this direction. But they were only the capstone: First he had to experience the banditry that was taking over the countryside. Then he had to go north to rescue Serara, where he witnessed what a city in the grips of total anarchy or despotism was like. Then he had to experience the change in the NPCs and how they might be affected by all of this. Then, returning “home”, he finds out about Minori and Touya. That was the process, all a series of events and situations and environments that led to the character of Shiroe we finally see revealed. That’s a well thought out, patient, story. And it got better and better as it got closer to fruition.
So what you’ve witnessed wasn’t a show that until now didn’t seem to be expressing its points very well, but a story (and characterization) that was very slowly and deliberately, and carefully, being built.
