It's weird that he's such a hardass now, when he was such a goofball to begin with.Originally Posted by Kraco
My prediction is that she'll invent some way to use books and magic together in a way that will revolutionize how they use magic.
Sure, but, Gutenberg was not, himself, some kind of freedom fighter. The written word inspired others to do it. And not even HIS written words. He merely supplied the medium.
Last edited by DarthEnderX; Tue, 06-14-2022 at 12:44 AM.
Quality droped quite a bit, particularly Main and Tuuli's faces during the contract scenes.
End of the story to be told... They probably should have said: End of Main's story, after that is Rosemyne's
So Sylvester really was the top dog after all... greyrobes knew, he was too carefree and probably also enjoying some free time for a change. I now also understand why so many knights were present when he fought alongside Main, but also why that very powerful attack. He was the target.
His statement about Main's familly totally shows us how that world works, like we've discussed before: you have power, you totally do anything you want with those under your power. Greyrobes, that knight, and now commoners. Even killing them for your goals is totally common.
It really puts into perspective all of Benno's warnings.
Now Sylvester gains a large mana power bank with technological knowledge to speed-up progress and benefit his domain.
Main loses ties to her familly but is not physically dead.
That way it's also easier to end that case with the high priest and that foreign noble: none of the victims/culprit are there anymore. Convenient.
Didn't see that coming, Sylvester and Ferdinand being brothers, even if only sharing their father. It doesn't add much to the story other than giving depth to the trust they can share, since they remained close from childhood.
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening. And then: Golf.
It does explain why it always felt like there was much more to Ferdinand than just being a random noble and the head priest. It also explains why Ferdinand and the high priest had such a strained relationship; the high priest always considered Ferdinand an unwanted bastard, whose existent lowered his own value in the lord's eyes. Without Ferdinand, maybe Sylvester would have spend more time with his poor uncle, must be what the high priest was thinking. It didn't help Ferdinand was obviously much more intelligent than the high priest.
I don't like this :/ From a formal, logical pov, everything makes sense within the setting and rules of this world. But I just don't like how it all went over. Especially Sylvester, who acted like a goofy fellow before, but now that he's revealed to be the lord, he acts like any nobel asshole, abusing his power and not smiling once. He's on Main's side at the moment, but that doesn't make him less of an asshole.
Part of why I disliked this whole procedure is, though, because it totally wasn't clear what's actually happening. At first I thought the family members are gonna lose their memory regarding to Main. That didn't happen, but then Lutz and the Gilbert company all knew about Main, even though the contract said "Main is dead and you have to act like that". Well, now everyone knows that's not true. Weird.
But my biggest problem goes back to Sylvester. There simply is NO REASON to be such an asshole. Where's the problem in letting Main meet her family on some occasions? At least once a year. They could easily arrange something for them to spend a day together, talk about the things that happened, and just enjoy being together. But nothing. Literally "MAIN IS DEAD, ACCEPT IT!". Considering how everyone knows she's not dead, there cannot be some important reason to hide her being alive - if Lutz and everyone actually thought she's dead, I could accept some bs argument like "there's regulations among nobles that absolutely mustn't become known blabla", but evidently, things aren't as tight knit.
And I was disappointed that Main herself didn't push for some exception in regards to meeting her family. It went over too smoothly from her side, too.
I really would have liked the story to be a bit more courageous at this point, and make Main oppose Sylvester, either changing his mind, or actually making enemies of him and running away with everyone. Considering how she has the knowledge to change this world, it would have been interesting to follow her family being on the move. Oh well. Enough fanfiction time.
What I'm also sad about is that any Main X Lutz is dead at this point. Unless I'm forgetting a way for Lutz to become a noble.
Whether or not I'll enjoy the next season depends mostly on how Main behaves from now on. If she just dives into nobel life, joining some noble school and such, that'd be disappointing. I really hope she'll set a firm goal to take down the unfair class system in this world by using the power of books. After all, books/mainstream reading/writing helped bring about modern democracy irl. And we've seen again that even those supposedly "good" are ruthless assholes when it comes to power. Main shouldn't accept this world that forced her to be taken away from her family.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
The goofy personality must have been Sylvester's real character, but he can't act like that in an official capacity as the lord of the domain. He wouldn't be taken seriously, which would lead to assassination attempts and wars. When he's a ruler with absolute power, he also needs to use the absolute power for it to stay absolute. Dictatorships always suffer from corruption, but it also depends on the ruler's behavior how much corruption thrives. It's hard to imagine this would have been the first time the high priest was attempting to fill his own pockets by abusing his power and position. So, the goofy character disappearing at least sometimes was inevitable as soon as Sylvester was revealed to be the lord.
I'd say the harshness of the deal was to be expected. Normally Main would have either died because of devouring or become a magic generator for a noble, basically little more than a hidden slave locked away. Sylvester might have absolute power as the lord, but he can't go against all the nobles in the domain. He needs to follow the same general rules and laws and respect the traditions to a point. He needs his own faction of supporters. This was probably as much as he could stretch things for Main's sake. A whole lot of talent will be wasted in the city, but that's how deeply hierarchical systems work. Maybe Sylvester actually plans to change things relying on both Main's enormous magic capacity and the printing press. It would mean at least partially destroying his own position and reducing the importance of nobility, but if it succeeded, it would make the domain a lot stronger. We can only hope.
Picture books could help detect babies with devouring much quicker and provided Sylvester undertands the benefits behind, they could find a way to help them grow up fine and control their mana. In the end Sylvester could increase his mana users quite a bit.
He needs to create a caste/order that does not conflict nobles interrests.
But for one he could increase the number of knights with powerful magic.
Rosemyne can with basic hygienne/nutrition/fitness tips increase the population well being. And since they would get more mana users, that also means it is easier to feed them, build anything, apply those tips.
Magic spells picture books. With different cats depending on your caste and level.
Possibilities are endless.
Sylvester's domain can grow so powerful it probably could create problems with other regions... unless they grow so fast in power no one can beat them.
I'm still wondering about the Royal familly, my understanding is that Sylvester is the local lord. So he's probably not the country's top dog. But he could clearly up his standing a lot if he manages the growth well and is not perceived as a threat by royals...
After all Main could have been eliminated by Sylvester at some point.
The same could happen to Sylvester and his domain.
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening. And then: Golf.
Even if there's a king, we wouldn't know if it's a strong king. It could be a country under feudalism, with the king holding very limited power over the top noblemen.
What I'd like to know in all this royalty system: What makes all the lords abide the king's laws and the laws themselves? So far we've seen absolute ruthless nobles that will do anything as long as it benefits themselves, Sylvester included. You'd think in such world, nobody would give a shit about the king. Is it purely because of the king's overwhelming power? Or do these nobles actually have an honest set of values that they treasure?
In other words: Does Sylvester abide by the king because he respects him, or does he follow the law because he's scared shitless of the consequences to him, an inferior, weaker fellow?
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
I don't see why the king would HAVE to be stronger in order to hold authority. It's not like real-world kings were always the strongest guy around. Power comes in many forms.
I don't really see why it's Mein's responsibility to fix all of this society's woes.
Last edited by DarthEnderX; Tue, 06-14-2022 at 01:49 PM.
There's been no mention of a country or kingdom. Cities could be city-states ruled by their respective Lord, with no need to specifically call them a king.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
I derive my thoughts on a Royal familly from Ferdinand's reply to the foreign noble shock with Ferdinand having a wand and thus being able to cast (high level I presume) spells.
Royal Academy->Royal Familly->King/Queendom
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening. And then: Golf.
A decent enough bittersweet end to the base Mein arc. I expect a time skip for the start of the Rosemain saga.
Yes, that does drill home just how... unfair the power balance is between different castes of this society. Higher ups can blatantly abuse that differential to coerce some pretty savage things, and they are so far from what I am familiar with that I hesitate(d) to grasp how big a deal these petty power squabbles between nobles could be. At least she got to see them off and have Deliah spared.
And that's what irks me so much. If the higher classes have that much power, we're really looking at the plebs as nothing but slaves. What prevents Sylvester from going to Benno and just taking whatever goods he sees there, because he fancies them? Can Benno say "you have to pay money for that" without losing his head?
I wish Main had shown more ambition to understand this world and see what's wrong with it. Right now, she's so obsessed with books that she doesn't seem to find much wrong with this world's circumstances. And as someone who's so knowledgeable about books and their history, I would have hoped to see more agenda from her side.I mean, making cheap book telling the religious tales is already a massive impact on this society, in more than one way, but that impact seemed to completely fly over her head. I guess the best I can hope for is that society changes thanks to Main's inventions WITHOUT her noticing. Maybe that's a narrative twist this series will take, like someone starting to print books or even newspapers that mark the liberation of the plebs from nobility.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
Pretty much all governments do that by collecting taxes. However, doing it arbitrarily by marching in and taking stuff from individual shops can hurt the economy when those merchants move their business elsewhere, not being able to live under the unpredictable, unfavourable circumstances. In reality Sylvester might not need to walk anywhere, though. If he indicated he needs something, merchants might be all too glad to send him samples, free of charge, hoping for good deals or returned favours afterwards. The lord would set trends among other nobles and aristocracy, so making him a walking advertisement might not be a bad investment.
You misunderstood my point: Can Benno prevent it without dying?
The answer imo is no, hence why the portrayed society basically has slave-status.
As for why Main should be the one to better this society: Because she's the one who can.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
It's not a slave-like status just because there's a ruler with absolute power. Go back a few centuries in our world and most countries were like that. It doesn't mean all of our forefathers were slaves. There would undoubtedly be consequences for Sylvester, as the lord, if he started to use his power haphazardly. Not only indirectly by ruining the economy of the city but he would certainly lose the support from many a noble family. That would probably lead to getting ousted and killed. No man can lead a country alone. For all we know, there could still be laws he has to follow as well.
I'm not sure Main can live long enough to change everything. A human life isn't that long, compared to the great changes needed. She could certainly get things started. Unlike in our world, the problem is the magic in that world. Nobles have magic, commoners don't. That a physical difference between nobles and everyone else, and it's not inconsequential either because magic can be used as a powerful weapon. Main would need to destroy that concrete barrier to change things for good. Like David already said, if all children with devouring could be saved, and they didn't automatically become fodder for the noble families (or get adopted in the best case scenarios), then it alone would begin to change things. It wouldn't happen overnight, though.
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