Episode Review: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War ep 9

Revolution’s Twillight

The aftermath of Glark’s assassination. Rogan suppressed everyone and took matters into his own hands, both politically and militaristically. North Ambria fell into chaos and dictatorship. And yet even the various factions are still moving in the shadow. Lavi – however – at a loss for what to do in this situation.

Rogan has more brains that how he act, however, his direction is still going to war, which is definitely not a smart move but I do understand why he want to do so. In addition, I’m not sure if Rogan is over-confident or has other plans in mind when he let Lavi go. He’s obviously isn’t hostile towards her and prefer convincing her to follow him, judging by his action and his words in the first episode. Glark – in his last moments – spewed all of his dark ambitions, essentially announcing to Lavi that he’s a douche (also just in case the viewer hasn’t figured it out yet).

But there’s one silly and quite dumb thing that happened is Lavi didn’t took the Archaisms controller from Glark’s body. Maybe she was shocked but she did have an opportunity to take it. However, she just took off. And the controller fell into Rogan’s hands.

Jayna once again showed her cunning vixen side. Maybe she love conflict and or there’s a sadistic side to her that we haven’t seen yet. But whenever we see a woman licking her lips, better stay the hell away from her cause you’re gonna get sucked into some very very bad things. Her talk with Rogan hinted at him knowing that Jayna offed Glark just for him to take the spotlight. Rogan is obviously wary of Jayna but so far, I don’t think he can outsmart her but there’s always a chance. Still, Jayna is looking very good for the final boss position.

My guy Talion didn’t know what he’s in for, but this episode really give him a great highlight. His attitude has turned 180 from a babysitter into a ruthless person, able to shoot Lavi. His behaviour is quite unpredictable and you can’t tell if he’s following Jayna’s orders or just his own plan. If it’s the latter then damn, my man is big brain.

Captain Martin also has a funky scene where it turned from loli headpat into fishing talk to springing into action after Rogan basically declared war on the Empire. Though I’m not sure if he will play a big role in the upcoming war or just do stuff behind the scene.

Although this episode’s spotlight was undoubtedly stolen by Ivano. Although he has been staying faceless since the start of the series, but his voice is extremely charismatic and his deliver is amazing. The seiyuu definitely is having fun with him while putting all his heart and emotion into acting, unlike Lavi’s voice which is just flat most of the time. Ivano’s the most expressive character in the series by far even though he has a helmet on 24/7. Can’t help but love the guy.

That ending was pretty insane. Obviously Lavi isn’t dead yet but it’s quite hard to predict what’s going to happen next. Since we have about 3 episode left, there probably won’t be a proper war but maybe some small conflict before it’s resolved. However, with the amount of faction and characters introduced in the last 2 episodes, resolving all the subplot thread would be an arduous task and will definitely be a challenge for the writers – who has unfortunately wasted a little too much time on filler onsen episode. It does make me feel sorry for the series, since these last 3 episodes have been very interesting and engaging.

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