Lunarre Laughed Hard. The Kid Was Quaking In His Boots! The Hellion Could Sense The Fear Behind The Seraphs

Lunarre laughed hard. The kid was quaking in his boots! The hellion could sense the fear behind the seraph’s bluster. Lunarre had made a living from fear; no matter how his prey shouted, they could not hide it from him.

“How rude! This is my favourite pastime you know!”

Lunarre lunged at the seraph, aiming swipes and kicks in quick succession, being careful to keep close quarters with his prey. He knew that if he gave the seraph even the tiniest opening, Lunarre would get blasted by one of those damned artes of his. He couldn’t allow that. Close combat was his best chance.

Seizing hold of the seraph’s staff mid-swing, Lunarre used his opening to land a good hard punch to Mikleo’s face, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Lunarre grinned. Now was his chance...

@snickering-kitsune  from here.

Unnerving was truly the only suitable way to describe the inhuman cackle that escaped Lunarre as he crept on closer. His steps were slow, carefully planned, akin to how a wild animal would approach his prey. Mikleo’s staff is gripped tighter in his hands, and he swings it at his foe forcefully, little time to call upon artes. All he could do is keep whacking this annoying hellion and hope he went away.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

He shouts in a rather demanding manner.  Panic rushes over. Dammit, there was so much he had to do. He couldn’t let himself be eaten here!

thetraitordemon:

“Probably taste like pork I’m sure.” He answered rather calmly despite the dark subject. “If you’ve ever need near someone burning that’s the scent they give off unfortunately.”

Hearing as the subject changed to the item at hand he carefully placed the pen back in his book before closing it. Even if they have yet to show a sign of threat to him, he still can’t let a hellion near his vessel. Given the fact he’s unsure if it’s getting tainted or not it’s a risk he rather not take at all.

“If you’ve heard about Seraphim I’m sure you’ve heard most would require a vessel of sorts to avoid getting too tainted by malevolence. That’s what it is.” Brushing his hand over the book he soon added.

“I needed something small enough to carry with me. I didn’t want to be bound to the place my mentor had perished. The quill pen was the best thing I can find. That and it can also be used to write with so I’d say that’s two birds with one stone don’t you think?” He shot his glance back to the other.

“Really?” 

Lunarre was intrigued. Morbid facts like this excited him, always had. His interest in the seraph only increased as Kimuri talked. He had sensed peculiarities with certain objects and managed to link them to certain seraphs, but had been unable to pin down their exact purpose until now. This was all so interesting, and Lunarre was rapt with attention.

Is this guy stupid or what?

Excited as he was, Lunarre wasn’t sure what to do with this information. There was no immediate advantage to having it, no plan that popped into his scheming mind, no enemy to use it on, but there was no doubt that there were a grand array of situations where Lunarre could claim victory over a seraph - if a seraph became his enemy.

No, his target was human. A very important one too. But the princess was headed for the land where the seraphim were said to dwell. Now he was aware of their existence, Lunarre had to assume the possibility of meeting one en route was high. And if it came to a fight...

“You’re awfully trusting,” he remarked, ignoring the seraph’s question. “How can you be sure I won’t use this precious info for wicked deeds? I’m Lunarre of the Scattered Bones, after all.” 

He stood up suddenly and threw out his arms, grinning wildly.

“I should be practically oozing malevolence! Well?”

Just in case you haven't finished the anime I'm going to put my two pence under cut here. 

Warning: it's going to be a long one because imo this scene encapsulates everything wrong with the anime adaption as well as how they handled the characters of both Lunarre and Alisha specifically. 

Also SPOILERS for the Zestiria game and anime.

Personally I think this scene was mishandled horribly, and if it really set out to be what you said then especially so.

1. MISSED OPPORTUNITY/CONFUSED MOTIVES

OK, let's say for a moment that in this scene Lunarre is trying to lure Alisha away to the dark side (literally and figuratively). Here is the big problem with that:

Why the hell didn't he do this one season ago in goddamn episode 0?

Seriously. Alisha, after unknowingly coming into contact with Symonne, had lost three of her close friends and supporters to insane forces of nature/magic she at that point can barely comprehend let alone fight against. They all died right in front of her and even her attempt to save at least the last person she had failed. In spite of everything she was powerless.

Lunarre, as we saw, wasted no time getting involved and protected his 'main dish' from Symonne. When Symonne leaves, Lunarre is left entirely alone with a distraught and defeated princess Alisha sobbing close by.

This final scene was practically writing itself and begging for Lunarre to close the distance and torment the Princess at her most vulnerable. This is the most broken Alisha gets during the entire anime (in Lunarre’s presence at the very least). Failure to capitalise on this is to forever lose the opportunity to break her down again. And Lunarre, for reasons best known to no-one and especially not himself, leaves her to her grief. 

Remember at this point that she is his 'main dish' whom he failed to kill before (quite recently) and whom he (presumably) wished to kill himself without anyone getting in his way.

Did her crying move him to pity? If so, and if he gave a damn for her emotional well being already at this early stage and from that point on (referring to her as an object of interest to others whom he vaguely wished to observe and support) then why try to manipulate her emotionally as a big bad wolf (fox) a season later and under decidedly less favourable circumstances? Why play the villain now?

2. NO STAKES = NO TENSION

From the prologue on Alisha never, and if so barely, wavers in her resolve thanks to the writers removing Maltran as a villain in the story. Her betrayal was the final straw for Alisha in the games and we saw her break down and wail on Sorey's shoulder that she didn't give a damn what happened anymore and how meaningless her ideals were all this time. 

After everything she's gone through, the death/suicide of her beloved mentor, who had instilled in her ideals she not only didn't believe in but openly mocked, who had manipulated her for years for evil purposes while acting as her mentor/mother figure through her darkest times... everything Alisha had believed in was in tatters and she was emotionally broken in a manner similar to the anime prologue.

Imagine if instead of Sorey and the gang arriving to comfort her and steady her it had been Lunarre - Lunarre here to take advantage of her weakness? More than any other moment that would have been the one to do it. And I think he would have got his way, if left uninterrupted. I genuinely think Alisha could have been corrupted by malevolence at least to some degree by Lunarre.

I don't see that in that scene in episode 7 of season 2.

In this scene, Alisha is unsure of what to do with regards to her mentor. Save her or fight her way to the castle to confront the king? It's not a crisis of her beliefs but rather being torn between two decisions, of which she can pick but one. The most Lunarre could do would be to dissuade her from one or the other, but not throw in the towel.

I think they were, as you say, going for the whole 'dark side manipulation' thing. They try to put that across in the music, the lighting, and of course Lunarre's words and behaviour (especially in the Japanese version - in English Lunarre sounds more curious/incredulous than outright malicious... which confuses things more).

But on top of the obvious question of why he never tried doing this when the opportunity was RIGHT THERE in front of him crying into a great big crack in the earth, a season and a bit ago, there's why he's even doing it at all if he didn't do it then and how it was never going to work. For all Ufotable's effort I never felt even a bit worried Alisha would crack.

Alisha is having trouble with a decision, as I said. She's got the backing of her loyal soldiers and Sorey and the gang to count on. She also has Maltran, though in peril. In the games, losing Maltran was losing a mother and her most trusted and beloved supporter since her true mother's death. Everything has spiralled out of control, war is inevitable despite all her efforts and it looks as if she has entirely failed as a princess and her ideals have done nothing but cause more harm.

Thus she was broken and distraught at her betrayal and death and it was only thanks to Sorey and gang being close by to help that she recovered.

In the anime, she still has her support. She has options, and her ideals, as Maltran confirms to Lunarre later, flow nicely into the option she picks (putting others first instead of herself). She can't be corrupted in this scene because there is no foundation for it to happen on. That moment has been and gone.

Alisha lets her guard down because Lunarre is not a threat to her anymore and she realises this. She gets up expecting round 2 of their prologue battle, but sees it isn't going to happen and sits back down. 

Besides Lunarre's behaviour, there's the fact that he has followed her all this time and not tried to kill her. He is more interested in talking than fighting, and she responds in kind.

[^ So threatening!]

While the lighting and music suggest otherwise, Alisha remains entirely steadfast throughout this scene for all the reasons above. She is calm and only mildly irritated by Lunarre's probing. Hell, she doesn't even look him in the face until one moment near the end of the scene when she tells him acting while knowing is better than ignorance.

So really, imo there was no question who was going to emerge victorious from this scene right from the fact.

If Lunarre was playing the evil conscious, he fucked it up. Ufotable fucked it up. If he had tried to do it when the time was right it may have turned out very differently, but no. If I was to be cynical I'd say the scene was only added to hammer in just how virtuous and steadfast Alisha is (not to bash her, I like Alisha) rather than to expose and truly test her vulnerabilities.

But that’s just my long-winded opinion ;)

I’m finding it interesting that Lunarre seems to have become a representation of Alisha’s inner conflict, at least that’s what I got from the scene with the way they used the lighting as well as the music. Alisha’s face was half in the light and half in the dark with Lunarre on the dark side, so it looked like he was playing the ‘evil conscious’ in this episode. I’m also thinking about the way Alisha dropped her guard around Lunarre - maybe it represents Alisha is dropping her guard against her own darker thoughts, especially since the creepy music only started to play when Alisha both dropped her guard and admitted that humans were weak. Though in the end her ‘good conscious’ won through, but will it always… it’s making me worried for the next episode especially since Maltran’s involved. I’m also curious to know if Lunnarre will be used in this way again or not.

Lunarre

Tales of Zestiria the X - Episodio 03

Hey mind giving this a like or reblog if you don’t mind rping with demon ocs?

Thank you very much!

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