Things are finally exciting.
Took a while for the exciting stuff to finally start and now is the time for when the despair meter reaches the end of its gauge as Quetz’s attack, while massive, doesn’t do enough to stop Tiamat’s advance. I recall describing Babylon pulling off that end of the world feeling really well. The lahmus weren’t enough but now we’re going to see a ton of noble phantasms aren’t going to be enough either.
Tiamat is slowly advancing towards Uruk and the crew take one last night of solace before the climactic end. I’m probably misremembering but Ishtar and Mash’s conversation had something a bit more “is Guda single?” line of dialogue but I can respect the decision to keep things tense. Leonidas’ speech with Mash and her shield was also there and Benkei finally decides to show up and once again look way cooler than what the game could possibly show him as. While the situation in the source itself is limited, I completely forgot that most of the action takes place in the air, especially with the frequency where you fight against Bel Lahmus, the ones with wings.
Quetz’s sacrifice here was also a lot more memorable and the beauty of the animation medium definitely shone through a lot more than what a Noble Phantasm can be. Part of me understands why some would like to skip it for farming reasons but I can also see the mindset in not wanting to let someone’s hard work animating the attempts to capture these moments be glossed over for convenience’s sake. I didn’t much care for Quetz, and I still don’t, but I can’t deny all that glamor was pretty great to see.
And if they got all this right before my favorite moment showed up, perhaps there is some hope after all. Hell, there was even minimal Ishtar-ass this time around too, things have really gotten serious in that regard. There was a bit less CG too, which is always a good thing. That close-up of Tiamat in the last episode was pure disappointment so glad they turned it around.
Lair of the Idle 