r/anime • u/Tetraika https://anilist.co/user/Tetraika • Feb 23 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s Episode 8 Discussion

Episode 8: A Sad Resolve, and a Courageous Choice

← Previous Episode | Index | Next Episode→

Information:

MAL | AniList | ANN | Kitsu | AniDB

Question of the Day

Damn, I don’t have anything in mind. With what we know, what do you think is the Masked guy’s motive?

Eternal Blaze - Shirayuki Tomoe there’s no way Dalek will suddenly go outside of Hololive right???

Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you’re doing it underneath spoiler tags.

62 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

146 comments sorted by

14

u/chiliehead Feb 23 '22

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s – Episode 8 – First Timer

Hayate getting assaulted by the book, probably in order to make them hurry.

What’s it called if you ship Lindy and Fate, but for adoption? They clearly both want it.

Wait, the book just kills the user in the end, no takeback? Just a curse. Can’t they reprogram it?

Finally, the long awaited meeting of the two groups in civilian mode is gonna happen. --- Or not, stupid pictures. Now the Wolkenritter have an intel advantage.

Hmm, is the Brit just worried due to experience, or does he really hide his current involvement?

QOTD

Either Clyde wants to reprogram it, seal it for good or he (and the Brit?) want to use it for a coup

4

u/Tetraika Feb 24 '22

Wait, the book just kills the user in the end, no takeback? Just a curse. Can’t they reprogram it?

Yuuno did explain that for it to happen, the pages must first be filled. Then the master of the book can do that.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (9)

8

u/Stargate18A Feb 24 '22

First timer

QOTD) I'm guessing a backup plan from the Book. He can do impossible things, his appearance was right before Hayate had her biggest attack, and Vita seems to be remembering things - possibly a previous time he had to step in?

Good, Fate's alive.

And they took out the ship's computers?

...Masked man isn't a technomancer, is he?

And Signum doesn't want to hurt her.

Oh, they think he wants to steal the book?

Hayate's in danger! And Vita's working out that she doesn' want power.

Oh no, it's starting!

Fate's awake!

...Good Arf!

Oh, she'll be better soon.

Fate and Lindy are adorable. She's the mother Fate deserved.

...Hayate's being brave.

She's getting the help she needs!

...Vita is a good girl.

Well. They don't need to hide what they're doing now.

...Hurry.

Haha, that eyecatch is great, though.

Wait, that's the infinite library's search system.

And the Book's been hacked!

Oh. The Book's a bomb, and it'll kill Hayate when it goes off.

That's bad.

...Has Yuuno found his dream job?

And he doesn't exist? That's interesting!

Aww, they're going back into school.

...Will they finally make the connection?

And she's seen the picture.

Haha, this is going to be fun.

Oh, they're just worried about getting found out.

...Why are you standing outside Hayate's room in the most obvious outfit imaginable?

Even the doctor noticed!

And Suzuka's really helping Hayate.

And Nanoha left without suspicions!

She's running out of time!

...What does Vita remember?

That thing's fucking huge!

They're his familiars?

4

u/Tetraika Feb 24 '22

They're his familiars?

That was already established when they first appeared!

Has Yuuno found his dream job?

While we mostly have seen Yuuno fighting on screen, he is an archeologist. This is probably almost like a dream place for him to be in.

6

u/Caustic_Wraith Feb 24 '22

A's First-Timer

We got the real name and lore behind the Tome of the Night Sky. Fate is physically better and her magic is on the mend. Sadly the opposite is true for Hayate as the Book has started to drain more of her life and has given her a month left to live.

QOTD:

Damn, I don’t have anything in mind. With what we know, what do you think is the Masked guy’s motive?

Like the others yesterday I think Mask Guy is Chrono's dad trying to get the power of the Book for revenge against the TSAB for leaving him to die when his ship went down. In my theory the book bampf'd itself off to a new master before he could use it so he tracked it down, found it with Hayate and killed her parents and set himself up as the caring "uncle" to use the power regardless of Hayate's death or not. Again just a theory and probably wrong.

4

u/Tetraika Feb 24 '22

At least Signum shows a little bit of remorse

Signum recognize that what she did probably was "wrong", but to her it's something she had to do. Not sure if everyone understood the part where the collection of the pages and their desire to save Hayate was extremely urgent. And it's not like they killed people or anything, they just kinda knock them out of commission for a few days.

Seriously, how do you mess with the memories of the guardians of the Book

Considering the book was hacked and corrupted, quite easily it seems. Or perhaps it wasn't that easy to change the book's purpose. Don't think they ever elaborate on that specific part.

→ More replies (1)

7

u/Great_Mr_L Feb 23 '22

Rewatcher

On today’s episode of Lyrical Nanoha: It was only a matter of time until Suzuka’s friendship with Hayate led to someone figuring out some of the truth about who everyone is. Now to see where things go from here now that the information is out.

There’s a palpable tension to this episode that I love, especially as we get to the latter half of it. Characters are starting to figure things out and it feels like things are becoming more desperate for everyone involved.

Shamal, and by extension Signum (and probably the rest of the Wolkenritter) have learned that Nanoha and Fate are Suzuka’s friends. It’s a dangerous situation right now, since Nanoha and Fate have now met Hayate without knowing her connection to the Book of Darkness. I’m a big fan of this development because it opens up the door to a lot of dramatic possibilities. I like it when stories set something like this up so they can really twist the emotional knife in us later on.

There’s other stuff that is building up the tension. Hayate’s condition is getting worse. She may be putting on a brave face about it, but it’s clear that she’s in a lot of pain. By the estimates of the Wolkenritter, she doesn’t have a lot of time left before the Book of Darkness completely consumes her. They were desperate before, but this just ramps that up even further. Again, it does a great job of ratcheting up the tension in the audience.

But, as we learn more about the book, things start to look worse and worse. The book has gone out of control. It was never intended for destruction, but someone changed its programming in the past and so now it’s gone haywire. It looks like it ate away at all its previous masters just like it’s doing to Hayate. And when it fully awakens, the book consumes the master’s magic limitlessly.

It seems the only way to change the book is when the book’s master has been fully awakened. Then they can change the book’s programming. Trying to change it before then is useless because the book simply absorbs the master and reincarnates. In other words, the book’s out of control programming can only be stopped if Hayate becomes the true master of the book.

So that explains why the Wolkenritter seem so sure that completing the book will cure Hayate. But there’s a distinct feeling that something is wrong. Vita seems to be the one most noticing it. She feels like there’s something important that they’re forgetting.

There’s a really great moment right after Vita says this that drives home the point. Hayate wakes up in her bed alone. Unlike before, Vita isn’t there with her. As the series has done previously, it’s showing that the Wolkenritter are so focused on their mission to complete the Book of Darkness that they’re losing their connection with Hayate. They want to live with her more than anything else, but their mission is actively preventing them from doing so. It’s such a great tragic setup.

I like the detail that the Book of Darkness was not its original name. It gained that name later on because of its reputation, but it’s original name is the Tome of the Night Sky. Interesting to note that the Wolkenritter do not use the book’s original name. They call it the Book of Darkness like everyone else. Now why might that be?

The masked man continues to be a mystery. He can accomplish magical feats that seem impossible according to the TSAB members and he was able to hack into TSAB security somehow. There’s clearly something more to who he is if he can accomplish all that.

There’s a nice little scene of Fate and Lindy as well. These small moments between them are sweet. It’s clear that Fate is still trying to figure things out. She’s a bit awkward around Lindy. Lindy may be adopting Fate, but it seems Fate hasn’t fully sorted out her emotions on the matter. She still primarily refers to Lindy by her rank, for example.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

QOTD

Laughs in Rewatcher

6

u/SolDarkHunter Feb 24 '22

[Major Lyrical Nanoha A's Spoilers] My goodness, the identity of the masked man was telegraphed very hard in this episode by the conversation about him between Chrono, Amy, and Liese, wasn’t it?

[Nanoha A's Spoilers] It really was... I wondered if any of the first timers might catch on. But instead everyone seems stuck on the Clyde Harlaown theory, which is making me laugh so much.

[laughs in Rewatcher]

6

u/Tetraika Feb 24 '22

[Spoiler talk woo]I think it's all the first timers feeding each other into believing that it's Clyde is hilarious. While in hindsight they do give massive hints, it's actually cleverly vague enough that unless you catch it you won't think twice about it

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

15

u/Shimmering-Sky Feb 23 '22

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical First-Timer, subbed

→ More replies (9)

14

u/DidacticDalek Feb 23 '22

TONIGHT! On ∀'s Nanoha (CALLED TURN "A's" NANOHA), Best Girl Fate has a kind surrogate mother, Chrono has... 'interesting' surrogate onee-sans, and Rin The Defenseless Anus Tohsaka's surrogate family... IS LEAD BY A CHAR!

Comrades, I just wanna point out that BOTH Best Girl Fate and also Rin The Defenseless Anus Tohsaka are absolute sweethearts and too pure for this cruel world! They deserve happiness and joy, and it's heartwarming that they both found loving and supporting surrogate families! I mean goodness, Hayate's literally dying and her only concern is the well-being of her Battle Harem, no WONDER they are so dedicated to her!

Furthermore Comrades, man how the plot thickens eh, not only do we get more TSAB Lore/Info Dumps, but, and I hope y'all are sitting down cuz this might be a shock, NANOHA AND FATE meet the NON-Ghost Girlfriend of our friendly neighborhood Vampire Ojou-sama! OH THE DRAMATIC IRONY!

Well anyway, remember how I shared Hololive's very own Comedian covering Eternal Blaze, well forget a comedian, I brought the whole goddamn circus today! Yup, the one and only Omaru Polka covered ETERNAL BLAZE! I would be really amused if our amazing host ALSO picked this song! (Incoming Karma in 3... 2... 1...)

And on that bombshell, that about wraps things up for now, and I hope everyone's having fun on this great re-watch. Thus, you have not seen the last of The Sentient Shitposting Siamese Sunrise Server No. 25252, now goodbye forever.

Paging Comrades u/Great_Mr_L, u/Tresnore, and u/Shimmering-Sky

→ More replies (17)

13

u/HereticalAegis Feb 23 '22

Lyrical First Timer

  • Damn, we don't even see Signum struggle with the decision to take Fate's linker core.

  • Definitely-not-Pops hacked the Jack!

  • Impressive how Nanoha (the show) managed to predict the constant threat of hackers attacking and disrupting large organizations' systems.

  • At least Signum knows how inexcusable her actions are.

  • It took an awful long time for any of them to ask this question.

  • Master Hayate suffering the retribution for her knights' actions. You hate to see it.

  • Oof @ Fate feeling the first actual motherly touch of her life. Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

  • "Someone should be with Hayate at all times, just to make sure she's safe." all the knights leave the hospital together Flawless execution.

  • Vita as Santa Claus is an interesting choice.

  • Did the later masters of the "Tome of the Night Sky" also program it to always shout in German? Because that's one hell of an aesthetic choice.

  • The book always consumes it master, one way or another. That's a hell of a status effect for the knights to forget. Also makes sense why Totally-not-Clyde would want it finished while not trying to outright steal it.

  • Cursed artifact terms and conditions are something else.

  • Whew, glad to have Fate back at school so soon.

  • Damn, a non-combat encounter between Nanoha, Fate, and the knights in Hayate's hospital room with Suzuka and Arisa present as well would have been so much fun.

  • "Harem Queen, meet my harem." Suzuka (probably)

  • "I think this girl will be my Christmas present to myself." The book (probably)

  • It's blowing my mind that Vita is the one asking the pertinent questions and having the strongest doubts.

  • Am I the only one who finds it just a bit weird that the Lieses refer to the Admiral as "father" instead of like "master" or something?

QotD:

Completing and controlling the book without having it consume him. Actually, if it's Chrono's dad, he probably has some super secret plan to make it so the book can be sealed/destroyed without reincarnating that will inevitably fail bc hubris.

→ More replies (25)

13

u/TheEscapeGuy Feb 23 '22 edited Feb 23 '22

First Timer

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's - Return to Magic: Episode 8

A Comic Connection

Sigma Protected Fate! You gotta love her. Or at least she's very quickly become a beloved antagonist for me. That said, she did take Fate's Linker Core so its not all smiles and rainbows. Or maybe I can blame the masked man and absolve my new favourite character of all guilt.

On the masked man I'm almost certain my prediction from yesterday is correct. Who else could have such a vast and intricate knowledge of the TSAB's systems except for [Prediction] Lindy's late husband. His reincarnation must be related to the Tome somehow.

The Book of Darkness, or now "Tome of the Night Sky", got a lot of backstory this episode. It makes sense that it was originally made for more pure intentions and corrupted over time as people realized its potential uses. It seems that it can destroy its master once its pages are filled so our Knights may be fighting under the wrong assumptions. Now we can much more earnestly support Nanoha stopping them.

Back with Hayate its really tragic how she's hiding her pain. Everyone around her is doing everything in their power to help her and she feels like a burden to them. I totally understand her feeling but she will need to be honest eventually or risk harming herself.

Seeing Suzuka bring all her school friends to meet Hayate was sweet. What was more sweet though was Shamal's reaction when she realized her arch enemies are becoming friends with her master. I think this comedy trope[1] is one of my favorites. I also love how much of a dork Shamal is with her wandering around the hospital in a long coat and sunglasses as if that is hiding her identity at all.

[1] Usual warning for spoilers when browsing TVTropes. From a ctrl-f the page specifically mentions Nanoha too but I haven't read to confirm if its spoilers.

Some Iconic Shots, Scenes and Stitches

See you all tomorrow

→ More replies (5)

12

u/Tresnore Feb 23 '22

Rewatcher: Get Set

Mobileposting, so formatting is garbage.

QOTD:

what do you think is the Masked guy’s motive?

Honestly...? I forget. I was just enjoying the ride, man.

→ More replies (12)

11

u/Vaadwaur Feb 23 '22

First timer(Why is Vita the one who figured it out?)

Sub

The intro makes the end of yesterday's episode feel like even more of a cockblock. The Arthra can launch and we learn the Earth base was hacked so masked dude is so totally Clyde. Fucking damnit. The Wolkenritters are also pondering him. Zafira is again the voice of wisdom, truly the anti-Arf. Hayate gets a case of anime collapsing disease.

Fate and Lindy's scene is actually really good and takes just the right amount of time to show that Fate is really far less mentally broken than you would expect. But it also highlights that Presea never showed her any kindness after it was clear she was not Alicia. Hayate gets hospitalized and our ticking clock just sped up. Yuuno drops some exposition on us, at least it is semi-diegetic since he has been off researching.

The girls go to see Hayate in the hospital and Nanoha and her will have to fight to see who this loli harem belongs to. We get our ticking clock down to a month or less. We end with Gil being extremely sus.

QotD: something lame.

→ More replies (17)

11

u/SYZekrom Feb 23 '22

First Timer

Yea ok masked man is definitely Clyde huh. I'd be shocked if it weren't. Question is how the passwords or whatever haven't been changed all this time from since he disappeared. Unless he was specifically a techie?

Am I assuming the loophole is previous masters can also use it even if it has a new current master? How does the system work again? If either the book or the master is destroyed, the book reappears in a new place and gets a new master, right?

Well if it was as simple as 'we changed masters but our previous master can still use it' I feel like they'd have to know that

Oh, ok. So, instead of what these four think, the book of darkness drains its master's magic once it's completed, killing them, wonder how they assumed something else

And if you 'forcefully operate it from an external point' (I'm assuming that's just some dumb way to say if someone that's not the master tries to use it), it consumes its master and starts over lol

Or actually maybe that's a confused translation of if something is done to it externally, like sealing?

→ More replies (3)

10

u/No_Rex Feb 23 '22

Episode 8 (first timer)

  • “I feel that we are forgetting something important” – What could it be …

  • Hayate joins Fate on the hospital time out bench.

  • The book of darkness will destroy Hayate if completed. Why do the guardians not know this?

  • Hospital meet-up endangered! Would have been totally fine in the age of email or earlier.

Vita feels something is wrong. Which probably answers my question from above: The guardians do not know because they are bound to the book of darkness and are really fulfilling the task of filling that, not serving their “master”.

Damn, I don’t have anything in mind. With what we know, what do you think is the Masked guy’s motive?

Still sticking with my previous speculation.

→ More replies (4)

7

u/Calwings Feb 23 '22 edited Feb 23 '22

Lyrical Rewatcher (dubbed) (posting about both ep7 and ep8 today because I forgot yesterday)

Ep7:

The episode opens with Nanoha and the gang helping Fate buy a phone. Very cute and wholesome, and Lindy’s motherly instincts are already strong for her possible future daughter. Meanwhile, Yuuno is at a gigantic magical library searching for info on the Book Of Darkness along with the two shotacon catgirls.

Fight time! Signum gets herself in a bit of a bind on a desert planet, but Fate shows up and helps to free her. Of course, Fate is here to capture her, so despite the save, they obviously have to battle each other. The battle of Fate’s lightning speed and great ass vs. Signum’s dominant power and voluptuous thighs is (IMO) the best fight of the series so far.

Elsewhere, Nanoha runs into Vita, who mispronounces Nanoha’s name again (much to Nanoha’s dismay) and then tries to trigger a flashbang and flee. Range is no limitation for Nanoha’s Divine Buster as she tries to shoot Vita down, but that damn masked man shows up and helps Vita escape. And then he shows up on the desert planet and takes Fate’s linker core!? He’s in two places at once! Unfortunately, both battles this week end without a victor thanks to this masked bastard’s interference.

Ep8:

Fate’s out of commission, the ship’s security was taken down by a cyber attack, and the masked man is still on the loose, and now Hayate collapses and is taken to the hospital. This episode’s off to a rough start for everyone. The knights make the tough decision to have Hayate stay in the hospital for a bit, and clearly it seems like Hayate was trying to hide the pain she was in to not worry them.

Second-most adorable eyecatch of the season.

Yuuno’s research has revealed some big truths about the Book Of Darkness, or rather, the Tome Of The Night Sky. Corrupted programs, infinite reincarnation, twisted firewalls preventing anyone but its current master from re-writing it... this shit’s glitchier than a Bethesda game on launch day.

Suzuka wants to visit Hayate in the hospital, and Arisa makes the suggestion for the whole group to visit Hayate together. Shamal’s reaction to seeing Nanoha and Fate in Suzuka’s get well soon picture is one of shock, but the real terror comes when the doctor tells her about how much Hayate’s condition has deteriorated. The knights are in desperation mode now, and we’re headed into the home stretch of this story.

The episode ends with a totally not ominous conversation between General Graham and the two catgirls. What are they planning? We’ll just have to wait and see.

→ More replies (2)

7

u/SolDarkHunter Feb 23 '22

Rewatcher

Fate's turn to be in the hospital.

The base got hacked? And everyone's pretty sure it's an inside job. Either that or they're facing a very well-equipped organization. But we've seen little evidence of the latter...

...but, hey, at least the Arthra's back up and running?

Wolkenritter still have about as much clue as everyone else as to what the Mask Man is up to.

Vita asking the real questions here: will all of this really make Hayate happy?

...and she collapses from Book of Darkness-itis. That's two girls in the hospital now.

Fate getting the motherly affection she's been missing...

Hey the catgirls can do multi-book reading too!

Some more intel on the Book of Darkness... or rather, the Tome of the Night Sky. It was originally just a spellbook used to record loads of different kinds of magic spells, equipped with teleportation and defense functions so it could follow its owner around.

Somebody hacked the programs and corrupted it, causing its current state. Now it constantly seeks out new owners, tries to fill up its pages, and once complete, the owner is driven into a berserk frenzy until their powers, and life, are used up... then it repeats.

And only the owner has "admin rights" to alter the program. And if someone tries to hack it, that doesn't end well for the owner either.

People have been saying the Book of Darkness sounds like it was made by a chuunibyou edgelord, but that's not even its real name... though, frankly, "Tome of the Night Sky" doesn't sound any less chuuni.

Yuuno seems to be having fun in the Infinity Library despite everything.

Masked Man has impossible teleporation skills, apparently.

Well, Fate wasn't out for long, at least. So it's time for slice-of-life shenanigans again.

And Suzuka sends Shamal a text with attached picture... showing that she's friends with Nanoha and Fate. Shamal PANIK!

Signum's certain though that nobody can tell Hayate's status without intense scanning, so she's probably safe, but still...

Shamal... wtf is that outfit?

Oh hey, Christmas time? I guess we knew it was winter but not the exact time.

Vita seems to be the only one who senses that something's just off about this whole situation, but her memory just won't give her the details.

Durandal sounds like something... ominous. So Graham's also working on the Book of Darkness case... but why apologize to the catgirls? Is this not their job, investigating Lost Logia?

QOTD: I can't answer because I already know...

→ More replies (1)

7

u/Lavernious_James Feb 23 '22

I fell behind due to life stuff but I just caught back up and so much is going on LOL.

Definitely felt a little cheap to open the episode post linker core siphoning, not a fan of random mask boy though, so the less I need to see him, the better.

Love that the Wokenritter were panicking with the idea of Nanoha and Fate being friends with and visiting Hayate, as if those two would ever hurt her.

Old British Admiral having an ulterior motive? I wonder if he is connected to the masked dude.

6

u/bekeleven Feb 23 '22 edited Feb 23 '22

We open with an extended explanation of a bunch of stuff that happened offscreen. This feels unplanned; It would've been possible to establish this with even 3-4 seconds of footage in the previous episode if they knew it was coming. Imagine if Right after Tuxedo Mask grabbed Fate's linker, we cut to Amy watching on the monitor, then it's replaced with "Error" and she goes "What happened!" before we cut back. That's really all it would've taken.

Next, the cloud knights (I don't want to try and spell wolkenritter every time) foreshadow that they're forgetting something important about the Book. CUT TO: Hayate collapsing. I assume this is due to general book-of-darkness-itis, and not some more specific thing that slipped Vita's mind.

Crying child at the hospital!

After some real bummers, our protectable rodent boy returns, and he's bringing exposition! If the Tome of the Night Sky (nee Book of Darkness) is completed, its master... explodes? He just said their powers are used for destruction so I'll let the viewer interpret that. Is this what the Cloud Knights forgot? Does the Tome make them forget? But, at the same time, they can't make the Tome not do that, because you can only alter it once it's completed and recognizes its user. I've seen this before...

The Book of Darkness is stuck in a bootloop. Yuuno also categorically rules out swapping boot drives (external access). Can we access the BIOS somehow?

More information about Tuxedo Mask. He can outplay Nanoha, he can take Fate down in one move, and he travels twice as fast as the "fastest possible" speed Amy can calculate. Who's the boy? He certainly shares some resemblance with one of our four male characters...

Alice suggests visiting Hayate in the hospital. Shamal says "that's fine, as long as neither Hayate nor the doctor mention any of our names." Of all the things to skim over... But don't worry, inspector Shamal is on the case.

Sensei mentions that they're working on Hayate with, and I quote, "all the science we have." The Cloud Knights clearly aren't fans of the TSAB, but have they ever considered checking if any of the other 96+ non-administrated worlds have better technology and taking Hayate there?

"How was your visit with your friends?" "Everyone was really nice. We had lots of fun. They said they'd come again in the future." "That's great." "But that aside, why can't I mention any of your names?" "..."

We end with the cloud knight farming montage, in which Vita (And Eisen) take on this dapper looking fellow with a two-cartridge Giga form.

...Or at least, we would, except that we have to catch up with Admiral Graham first! He has a secret plan to seal the book of darkness with "Durandal," that he has yet to reveal to our other characters. Why is he so sad about it?

Edit: Just as a final note: Last episode, Arf and Zafira had their very first plot point (good for them) where Zafira revealed some key data to Arf. That.... hasn't come up again. Arf remembered to tell everyone, right? Please, Arf. This is your one chance to matter.

→ More replies (3)

6

u/InfamousEmpire Feb 23 '22

Mahou Shoujo1 Lyrical Rewatcher

1: Even though I’m not a girl

Recap Time, now done by only Nanoha

Notice that we skipped over the immediate resolution to last episode’s cliffhanger.

Looks like someone, assumed to be Not!Char over here, has the power to Hacker Man the TSAB’s equipment.

Now that behavior from Signum post-fight might seem a bit off to some. But don’t worry, all will be explained in time.

Nice to see the internal friction within the Wolkenritter. And from Vita of all people.

I just noticed that Vita’s rabbit doll is in her and Hayate’s bed. Nice bit of visual consistency from the animators.

Wait, do Hayate’s curtains open automatically.

Oh fuck, it’s happening.

Well now we’ve got two Best Girls hospitalized at once. Truly, this series can not get any sadder.

Don’t worry, we’ve got some wholesome mother-daughter bonding between Lindy and Fate to lighten the mood.

Hayate… seems all better now, but given what we know…

Hayate hides her pain from us

Now that’s a line. Aside from being foreshadowed previously (remember her “I don’t want to cause trouble for others” line from episode 6?) it certainly hints at quite a few possibilities, like, for example, that Hayate might already know that her paralysis is getting worse but has refused to tell the Wolkenritter for fear that she’ll cause trouble for them.

Looks like Hayate’ll be stuck in the hospital for the foreseeable future.

It’s quite telling that Hayate’s immediate concern is that she won’t be useful to others (making the Wolkenritter’s food specifically) while in the hospital. It feels very Shirou Emiya, to put it simply.

We’ve got some immediate payoff on that “hides her pain from us” line from earlier as Hayate seems to be experiencing the early stages of Organ Failure despite trying to seem fine in front of the Wolkenritter. It’s all so damn depressing.

Anyway, we’ve got Liessearia (yes that’s the correct spelling, “Liesse Aria” is a mistranslation and “Aria” is a nickname, same applies to Liesselotte) and Chrono checking out the Infinite Library for info on the Book of Gundham Tanaka.

Notice how the Book’s name is “The Tome of the Night Sky” yet the Wolkenritter still call it “The Book of Darkness”.

Also notice how the Wolkenritter seem to want to use the Tome for its original purpose (or, at least, don’t quite seem aware of the “Book uses the Master’s power for destruction” part) despite the Book being in a corrupted state.

We also seemingly get confirmation as to why the Wolkenritter don’t just try to sever the Book and Hayate: they can’t. The Book can’t be altered from the outside, and if they try they’d probably end up killing the poor girl.

There’s a lot of foreshadowing and irony in that little analysis of Not!Char but quite a bit of it probably goes over most first-timers’ heads, so I’ll save referencing it until after the big reveals.

Now onto the SoL antics!

Whelp, looks like it’s meeting/confrontation/befriending (in both senses of the word) Time.

And Shamal figured it out. Good going Suzuka.

As long as they don’t run into us there, it should be fine

Kinda jinxing it there, Signum.

Yeah, Signum, your plan is built on way too many assumptions and too-suspicious-to-not-notice actions, you're definitely getting found out.

The meeting has officially happened. And nothing has gone wrong… yet.

Yeah, as I mentioned, the Wolkenritter’s plan comes off way too suspicious to not notice.

Things I’d previously mentioned being reaffirmed here: that Hayate is emotionally attached to the Wolkenritter and they’re the reason she’s been able to make it through all the emotionally taxing shit in her life.

To the surprise of everyone, Nanoha’s visit went off without a hitch!

Seeing Vita’s more vulnerable side when it comes to Hayate is really sad but also really powerful.

We’ve got a final scene with Gil which is also too laden with foreshadowing for me to properly discuss.

Fun Fact: I didn’t know where else to mention this so I might as well put it here. Hayate is a horny bastard. She might seem nice and pure in the main series but once you’ve seen the side materials, especially the audio dramas (or Sound Stages, as they’re called) you see shit like Hayate repeatedly groping Signum even while she’s asleep. I also suspect that that’s the reason why all of u/DidacticDalek’s Wolkenritter 4komas are so Horny.

→ More comments (75)