Last Exile ep.12-14

June 3, 2004 | 1 Comments

I can't believe it's been months since I saw this series. The DVD release schedule is really lousy to the point that sometimes I have to stop on a particular non-cliffhanger episode in the DVD so that I don't drive myself crazy with anticipation for the next episode. Well, that and because I find it hard lately to cram more than 3 episodes into one recap. The problem is, by doing this I seem to have lost the motivation to get back watching the show. Especially since I have not been watching it for a while now. Thankfully, the storyline in some of these episodes somehow manages to make me interested in the show again. I am especially glad to see the series giving the Disith nation a bit more focus. Before these episodes, they seem to be a mysterious, unknown threat to the Anatoray nation. However, thanks to these episodes, the series manages to show that in truth, Disith is not very different from Anatoray. It is also interesting to see the series finally coming full circle in regards to the characters' past and their relationship with one another.

Episode twelve continues from where the previous episode left off with Alvis causing major disturbance throughout Silvana and its surrounding with her mysterious power. However, for some reason, her power suddenly dies down and she reverts to normal again without any prior knowledge of what happened beforehand. Dio, however, believes that she is the real deal. Meanwhile Sophia and Alex agree that they have no other choice but to engage Urbanus in a battle. Because of this, they come up with the idea of luring Urbanus and their fleets into an area called 'Dragon Fangs'. Tatiana, who gets the job of briefing the mission to other vanship pilots, decides to dish out a light revenge for what Alister said to her in the previous episode by chosing Claus as her navi instead of Alister herself. Elsewhere, Alex reminds Sophia that she can leave the ship before the situation becomes dangerous. Sophia, however, refuses the offer and tells Alex that she is first and foremost his vice-captain.

Anyway, soon the mission to lead Urbanus is underway and it seems that, at first, the Urbanus has taken the bait. However, it soon becomes obvious that the Captain of Urbanus, Vincent, has already anticipated such tactic and decides to reverse the situation to his advantage. Soon, Silvana finds itself as the one who's trapped inside the 'Dragon Fangs' while Urbanus and its fleets launch heavy attacks on the ship. Claus and Tatiana, who are flying inside the Red vanship, quickly lost their connection with the Silvana and are forced to help Silvana by distracting Urbanus. Thanks to them and Alex's determination, Silvana manages to destroy two of Urbanus' ships. Alex's effort, however, also ends up crippling Silvana because the rocks around 'Dragon Fangs' start to fall apart and drops on top of Silvana. Silvana soon sinks below the clouds while inside the ship, Lavie is knocked out unconscious while trying to protect Al from the falling debris. Claus and Tatiana do not fare better either because their ship is damaged after receiving some of the enemy's bullets.

The following episode begins with a glimpse of Tatiana's past. It looks like Tatiana's family live a hard life especially because Tatiana's father is sick and bed-ridden. Despite being lonely when she underwent heavy training for to become a Silvana's crew, Tatinana never the less told her parents in her letters that she's okay because her best friend, Alister, is always beside her. Fast forward to the present, Silvana somehow manages to disappear from Urbanus' view after it got hit with the falling debris from 'Dragon Fangs' area. Meanwhile, Claus is forced to exhaust the Claudia liquid of the Vanship in order to knock Tatiana out of her shell-shocked state when the plane is about to crash land into the desert. Although this action saves the two of them from being dead, they are not better off either because the two end up stranded in a nearby desert. To make things worse, there is not enough Claudia liquid to power up the plane and it does not help that Tatiana seems to be giving up any hope of ever getting out of the dire situation.

Soon enough, Claus gets the hard tasks of not only fixing the plane and using whatever water resource he has left, but also ensuring that Tatiana's downward mood swing doesn't lead her to do anything foolish. Elsewhere in Disith's area, a group of Disith's citizens are on their way to escape the harsh, cold weather of their country. Their journey leads them to an area where a bunch of rocket-like ships are waiting for them. However, as the last group of the citizens enter the rockets and the launch is started, some kind of malfunction happens to the machine and the rockets begin to fall apart. Back to Claus and Tatiana, after a couple of failed attempts to restart the engine, Claus decides to get out of the desert by capturing a walking bird-like creature. He, however, also fails miserably but his humorous attempt seems to melt Tatiana's icyness towards him. Soon, she begins to tell him about her past and Claus easily guesses that Tatiana came from a royal family because she doesn't seem to have a high regard about the importance of water.

Tatiana confirms his guess but also adds that despite the fact, she lived a hard life and has to work hard to get to where she is now. Claus then tells Tatiana that his and Lavie's fathers used to fly the pioneers as well, but died in the Grand Stream during their attempt to deliver the peace resolution to Disith. Upon hearing this, Tatiana realises that Claus and Lavie father is none other than the famous Valka/Head pair that she heard so much while she was training to become a pilot. Claus tells Tatiana that one day he and Lavie will visit the Grand Stream to attempt what their parents have failed to do. Upon hearing this, Tatiana look as if she is jealous as well as concerned. She tells Claus that Grand Stream is a very dangerous place for any kind of ships, even the Silvana. She also adds that a vanship can only last for 3 minutes in the stream. Her story, however, does not seem to reduce Claus' desire to navigate the stream. Anyway, the two of them finally end up working together to modify the ship so that it can fly with whatever is left of the Claudia liquid that they still posses.

Unfortunately, the ship can't fly high enough so Tatiana suggests that they make a stop at Silvana's secret hideout, which is located nearby from their current location. Upon arriving there, however, they are captured by a bunch of masked Disith soldiers who proceed to knock the two of them out cold. When they both awake, at first Tatiana and Claus think that they are about to be executed. They, however, are puzzled when the Disith soldier who guards them over decides to run away and out into the desert. The guard then ends up stumbling into the ground and is revealed to be none other than a very young girl. Despite her wounds, the young girl, still happily runs toward an open desert, which is quickly populated by various falling rockets that are similar to the one shown earlier in the episode. The girl's happiness, however, fades out when she approaches the rockets and see no sign of a living being coming out of the rockets. It seems the failed rocket launch has somehow killed everyone who stayed inside the rocket, leaving the girl to cry in anguish.

Episode fourteen begins by showing a flashback of the incident that happened inside the grand stream many years ago. It looks as if Claus and Lavie's father disappeared into the stream after a humongous ship appears out of nowhere. At the same time, another pilot screams out his navigator's name when he realised that said navigator is also missing. Back to the present, Alvis is seen nursing the currently unconscious Lavie. Lavie, however, seems to slowly regain her consciousness and begins to cry as she remembers her childhood with Claus and their fathers. As expected, Claus and Lavie already known each other since they were kids because their fathers were close friends with one another. Lavie and her father are especially considered as a part of Claus' family especially after Lavie's mother passed away. Claus' father and Lavie's father are also very good couriers who often take high-risk jobs that other couriers refuse to accept.

It is also revealed that Claus and Lavie have been trained by their fathers to navigate the ship ever since they were kids. Claus' father has also specifically trained his son to understand the importance of various stars in each courier jobs that he undertakes. One day, however, Claus and Lavie's fathers receives an unexpected visit from their old friend, who turns out to be none other than a young Alex Rowe. Alex requests the help of his two friends to deliver the peace pact to Disith by navigating through the dangerous grand stream. Alex also turned out to be the person who gave Lavie the stuffed sheep animal which eventually will be inherited by Alvis. Anyway, after explaining to Claus and Lavie about the importance of the mission, Claus and Lavie's fathers depart to the Grand Stream together with Alex and his girlfriend, a woman called Yuri. That, however, was the last time Claus and Lavie ever seen their fathers again. One day Alex came back to their house to tell Claus' mother that her husband and Lavie's father are presummed dead along with his girlfriend during the mission.

After this incident, neither Claus nor Lavie ever see Alex again until their fateful meeting that day when they are about to 'deliver' Alvis. Unfortunately for young Claus and Lavie, not long after their father disappeared, the stress takes its toll on Claus' mother and she soon passed away as well leaving Claus and Lavie with nothing but sadness and the vanship that they think belong to their fathers. Claus and Lavie then make a promise that one day, the two will navigate the Grand Stream together. In order to realise this dream, they end up selling their farmhouse while keeping the vanship. With the help of some of their fathers' friend, they decide to build a small house in the middle of the city. Claus and Lavie also began to train themselves to be a good pilot and navigator, respectively. Anyway, after a few hair-raising near accidents, Claus and Lavie managed to fly the vanship on their own and soon they then train themselves to become couriers just like their fathers.

Back to the present, Alister and Dio are seen circling around the desert to find any sign of life from both Claus and Tatiana. They soon find some traces of the ships existence and begins to follow the trail. Elsewhere, a fleet of Disith's planes are approaching Claus and Lavie's hometown. Back to Lavie, she ends showing some steely resolves after remembering her past. So she decides to get out of her room and starts fixing her damaged vanship. However, it seems she still hasn't got enough energy to move around just yet and falls over backwards. Before she hits the ground, however, Alex manages to catch her body. He then ends up helping her to fix the plane. At the same time, Dio and Alister finally manages to locate and bring Claus and Tatiana back to Silvana. Lavie is glad to see Claus alive and well but becomes jealous when she sees Tatiana appearing next to Claus wearing the work clothes that Lavie prepared for Claus. Her jealousy, however, is short-lived when she hears from Claus that Disith has destroyed their hometown.

As I said before, I had difficulty in trying to watch these episodes. Especially since it's been a while since I saw episode 11. It also doesn't help that the story gets a bit boring in the first half of episode 13. But I suspect this mostly has to do with the fact that I don't really care about Tatiana. I don't find her background to be that interesting and even after finding out about her background, I still can't sympathise with the character. Thankfully, the second half of episode 13 and episode 14 turns out to be some good drama. It is sad to see the Disith people's suffering. I am glad to see that the series decide to show that Disith is not any different from Anatoray in the sense that they still are a nation composed of people who look for happiness in their lives. I don't know yet how they ended up being in war against Anatoray. But like any other wars, I suspect it mostly has to do with misunderstanding and the unwillingness of the politicians from both countries to understand the other side's point of view.

© memento 2003