The Good News Is... The Bad News Is... | Rage of Bahamut Virgin Soul Episode 23 Review

I tried harder with this header compared to the last SnB review lol.

If you read my title for this review, then you've probably guessed that "the good news is... the bad news is..." describes what Episode 23 of Virgin Soul is. Good shit happens, and so does bad shit, especially considering that we're still riding the irredeemable and ghastly wave of Episode 22. At the very least, I can confidently state that this episode is certainly much better, and if we can pretend that Episode 22 never existed, then 23 would've been a decent episode. But alas, Episode 22 does exist, and it left some nasty scars that murdered the narrative, which in turn ruins some of the merits moving forward.

If you haven't read my previous metas/reviews for Rage of Bahamut, please check them out because I explain things there that I won't touch on too much here, so it's important to be caught up on all the context in order to fully understand this review.

• Rage of Bahamut Anime is Great! ...Until Virgin Soul Gives Me Mixed Feelings
• (Not So) Cool Motive, Still Murder | Rage of Bahamut Virgin Soul Episode 22 Review/Rant

With that out of the way, let's get started.

Spoiler Warning! 

Episode 23: Rise of a Nightmare (and they don't call it that for nothing)

First 2 Minutes are Pure Sex Greatness

The episode opens with Jeanne almost completely taking over the capital. For what started as an easy conquest turns into a difficult battle once she encounters the Onyx Soldiers protecting Dromos. While they're on their last limbs thanks to their forbidden power draining their life-force, they still prove to be a challenge since they still have the means to kill gods and demons. And just as things are looking bleak for Jeanne's side, in comes Lucifer (with that book he won't let go of no matter what) like the fucking beautiful rockstar he is.

LOL can you blame them? I'd be there with them!

The hype doesn't end there since both Azazel and Jeanne join the fray. As much as I love seeing both of them go to work on these assholes, I have to ask, did Azazel always have those purple missile snakes? Because in the beginning of the season, we're given the impression that Azazel has lost some of his powers, but I guess Lucifer is his fairy godmother and gave him back his powers. There is also the possibility that he has regained his powers thanks to Bahamut's return if we want to include Genesis lore (if you remember, Jeanne's power grew as Bahamut's seal weakened), but I don't think the writers are that smart to recycle that particular detail in the lore. I simply think they gave Azazel some power-ups just to make the action in this episode look better. Whatever. At this point, these type of plot holes mean nothing compared to the other atrocities that the writers have made as of late, and the scene is still cool. The animation could stand to be better since it has clearly gone down in quality compared to the beginning of the season, but this isn't an uncommon thing to happen in anime, so I'm not too concerned with it.

Make it rain!

The End is Nigh! ...So Let's Give a Good Chunk of Precious Screen Time to Side Characters! lolz

Then we cut to Kaisar and Dias who are running through the now ruinous capital. They run into some royal soldiers who are about to slaughter a few demon children (poor things only have cheap daggers to protect themselves against spears), and Kaisar and Dias stop them and the whole ordeal ends in blood because defending children is apparently still treason (Sure, they're the enemy on Jeanne's side, but these are still children we're talking about. Plus I bet those loser soldiers couldn't handle anyone else in the real battle so they result to fighting children to boost their ego. Sorry, but I have zero sympathy for them). Anyway, at least it's good to see Kaisar defending the weak and helpless despite him pretending that Charioce had no part in Mugaro's death last week; he's not completely lost yet. 

He still tries to avoid fighting the soldiers, giving them the chance to stop, and they of course refuse so Kaisar is pushed to kill them. See, this is how Kaisar is meant to written. He's the peacekeeper, but he'll fight for justice if he has to despite his reluctance. I'm just going to headcanon that the bullshit he said last week never happened.

Dias then spots Alessand running away like a chicken and asks Kaiser to let him deal with this mess. He's always been there for our troubled Alessand in the past, so it's only fitting that he should be the one to confront him. However, I must admit that this is all happening at such an odd pace, and Dias has mainly just been part of the backdrop of Virgin Soul (granted he's been useful since he's always been loyal to Kaisar), so him getting sudden and deep character development near the end of the season is a bit perplexing (it's not unwelcome, but again, weird).

Anyway, we see Alessand running through the demolished streets, passing by corpses of soldiers (technically his men, whom he led into a war he partially started), and again, he tries to convince himself that he did nothing wrong. As he's fleeing, magical projectiles fly by and explode, throwing him back and causing him to black out for a moment. 

Bitch plz.

When he wakes up, he sees Dias standing over him asking him if he's alright, albeit with a disappointed frown. At first, Alessand looks happy to see him because he has almost always been around to drag him out of his blues when he went to brothels, but he quickly realizes that Dias clearly holds him accountable for the holy child's death since he reaches for his sword. Alessand, terrified of death, gets on his knees and feigns remorse (of course, he's sorry that he got caught and is now facing karma). Dias, being the good lad that he is, sheaths his weapon and is prepared to forgive Alessand because he thinks that's he's just a stupid and naïve kid who made a mistake he now regrets. But Alessand falls off the deep end permanently when he grabs his knife and tries to murder Dias. Oh darling, if you'd only accepted your mistake, you would've avoided the very thing you were trying so hard to run away from. But the boy is cowardly and would clearly kill a man he once liked just for the sake of trying to appear innocent.

We interrupt this program to deliver you this message: We quickly take a break and go back to the frontline where Azazel and Jeanne are kicking ass against the sad Onyx boys. Also, Azazel teaming up with Jeanne is incredible and they make a great duo (I was actually cheering them on like a soccer mom when I first watched the episode lol). They never need to talk to coordinate their attacks; they just know.

gifs by sparkling-munakatareishi

They belong in an acne treatment commercial, that's how cleansing they are.

Back to Dias and Alessand, we find out that Dias caught the blade with his hand, and he's smart enough to stop putting up with this bs.

Fool me once, shame on you. Try to fool me twice, and you will be a dead son of a bitch.

Alessand flees pathetically, and he ends up hiding in an aisle still trying to convince himself that he did nothing wrong, blah blah blah, we get it. He realizes that he's not alone since a terrified demon kid sits in a corner and trembles with a knife in his hand. Because the child looks so feeble, Alessand thinks he's safe, and as a last and futile attempt to sooth his troubled soul, he does the (seemingly) unexpected and crawls toward the child and embraces him.

He's saying this more so to himself than to the kid.

However weird this is, it makes sense. Alessand's spirit has pretty much always been weak, and in his weakest moments, he's used to having someone comfort him. Aside from Dias, he's had Kaisar (to an extent) and the female demons (i.e. Cerberus) at the brothels. This moment here is him desperately trying to find that comfort through this similarly "weak" demon child. However...

The child fatally stabs Alessand. The knight falls to the ground, and later Dias finds him just before he dies. In his last moments, Alessand weeps in front of his old friend, begging about how he doesn't want to die. Then he's gone, and Dias falls on his knees crying and calls the dead knight a stupid idiot, and that's the end of that.

First off, how could Alessand not have realized that this child would hurt him given the opportunity? The boy is a slave, probably oppressed for his entire life by men like Alessand; of course the boy isn't going to go all sugarplums and roses on Alessand. Regardless, it's a very fitting death for Alessand. I believed Jeanne would've been the one to do the deed, but the demon child is just as satisfying, especially when we remember that this whole mess Alessand got himself into started with him stabbing a child. What comes around, goes around.

My only wish is that this scene would've happened in the last episode. This takes up nearly half of the episode, and this 2nd to last episode should be focusing on more important matters with the main characters, so yeah, this bums me out. Plus it would've made the last episode a bit easier to swallow.

After the last episode, I kept thinking about Alessand a lot, mainly about how the writers were giving this side character much of the spotlight lately, and though I briefly wrote about it in my last review, it dawned on me that they were doing this to ease tension off of Charioce. Basically, they made Alessand a scapegoat and placed the burden of Mugaro's death on him so that we're led to believe that Azazel and Jeanne's war is based on a misunderstanding. While Alessand's death is satisfying and well-deserved, narrative-wise, it doesn't right the wrongs Charioce has done. 

This is a prime example of the writers elevating Charioce into this "grandiose" character by purposefully making other characters fuck up. Lol you know you have a terribly-written character when you have to shit on the others in order to make them look good. Writers, why don't you let Charioce's actions and dialogue prove that he's supposed to be multi-layered and worthy of redemption? Jfc, please give him some agency (although it's a little too late to be asking for that now).

JESUS HALLELUJAH

After Alessand's death, we immediately cut to Mugaro's body, and this is 100% intentional given the last scene. There's really no reason to show a perfectly illustrated still of Mugaro unless the writers are bringing him back. Plus, they tease us by having Rita say she'll make a grave for him when he returns. I'm 99.9% sure Mugaro will rise from the dead because since the beginning of Virgin Soul he's meant to be one huge metaphor for Jesus (the other 0.1% is because I can't give these writers too much credit). If for whatever ridiculous reason he doesn't come back, I'm calling BULLSHIT on you writers.

Back to Nina *sigh*

Just as this episode was off to a fair start, we finally get back to Nina (oh god let this shitty excuse for angsty romance end already, I DON'T CARE). She starts yapping at Bacchus, urging him to make hippogriff go faster so that they can catch up to Charioce. Then she has a brief heart-to-heart with Favaro where she's all like, "I still don't understand Charioce, but I still want to see him." Honey, if you don't understand him this late in the game, that's probably a sign that Charioce is a shady motherfucker you should stay the fuck away from. Omg, I really don't like hating on Nina (specially because I really liked her in the first act of Virgin Soul, hell, I was even enjoying Charioce as an antagonist), but she makes it so difficult to empathize with her, making her a terrible heroine. Also, I'm sick of Favaro, more correctly, what the writers are doing to him. By having him (one of the people involved with last season's centerpiece couple) support Nina's feelings, the writers are encouraging us to cheer for her too, but I'm just not buying it because both her and Charioce are horribly written. I feel so bad for Nina and Charioce that I'm almost tempted to write fanfiction for them in where they both get the proper character treatment they deserve.

So Nina just keeps on whining, the usual.

I've never related more to Bacchus than in this moment.

You're Doing Amazing, Sweetie: The War

Returning to the war, all sorts of attacks are going down, and Lucifer's ship starts to wreak shit on Charioce's men, which is then targeted and shot at. Lucifer remains unfazed, and this motherfucker is doing nothing but reading his book in total bliss. I would call him a god, but that wouldn't work in this case haha.

Oscar winning performance. Seriously, he must be reading the juiciest erotic novel ever written if he's that unconcerned with the war around him.

Meanwhile, Azazel is doing his airstrike thing before getting caught by the Onyx Soldiers. LMAO Will this man in distress ever know peace? This is only the millionth time he gets caught by green balls lol. Luckily, my girl Jeanne comes to the rescue.

I feel like I could write a whole Les Misérables-type musical about Azazel's lack of luck because there's so much material to work with, lol. My poor baby!

Nonetheless, the Onyx Soldiers are a bitch to fight, and to make matters worse, in comes Charioce (dear god). With his highness now present, Azazel and Jeanne immediately fly to him and prepare to beat his ass together (this is a duo I never thought I needed in my life, but I'm so blessed by it). 

You Get a Vomit, You Get a Vomit, EVERYONE Gets a Vomit!

...But of course, the Onyx Soldiers intervene in the grossest way possible. 

Was taking off their armor really necessary? Not to mention it's completely impractical for battle. This just seems like a lame attempt to make us feel sorry for them. Yeah, no.

Lol, Is this what we can expect Charioce to look like in the next episode?

We interrupt this program to deliver you this message: Then we cut to Kaisar and Rita trying to find a way to cross the water to get to Charioce's ship. Our heroic Kaisar is ready to make the long-distance swim across, but Rita tells him to cut the shit. It's a funny scene meant to ease some tension, and Rita finally uses zombies to make a body land-bridge for her and Kaisar to cross.

Nothing like squeezing in some last-minute fanservice. Mmm.

Back to Charioce's ship, as Azazel and Jeanne are dealing with the Onyx Soldiers, Nina & company finally arrive and watch in horror as the following events transpire. The Onyx Soldiers hold their own against the demon and the saint, but I especially liked how Azazel and Jeanne are constantly looking after each other and even express concern when either of them is trapped in a difficult situation. 

Team "don't fuck with Mugaro" FTW

Then this fight turns into "bile galore" as the Onyx Soldiers start falling over dead due to how much they strained the forbidden stones. God this was so nasty. As if the writers didn't torture us enough already.

Essentially Azazel and Jeanne win this battle thanks to the Onyx Soldiers' own demise, so now they finally have their chance to face off against Charioce. As they prepare for a lethal strike, Rita and Kaisar get closer, and Nina is screaming for Charioce's sake. What's enjoyable to me is that Azazel and Jeanne easily disarm Charioce, so in my heart I know that if nothing unexpected got in way, they would've easily beaten him (so I take comfort in that because I know the writers won't make it that easy on me). Nevertheless, someone did get in the way.

Oh boy.

Azazel and Jeanne strike Kaisar, and he immediately collapses to the floor dead. Everyone is panicking and before anyone (including me) has any time to process this loss, Bahamut's fire puts a stop to everything and wraps up the episode.

Just end it all Daddy Dragon. Please.

Kaisar's Death: What does it mean, and where does it leave us?

OK. Where do I even start? Alright, first let's take a moment to gauge everyone's reaction to Kaisar's death.

Jeanne and Azazel: "Oh shit. No no no. What the fuck." -Instant regret. Though I do like Azazel's expression (and of course, I'm going to take every opportunity to show my bias and write about my fav character). 

Old Azazel would be furious. Here he finally has the chance to kill the one man he's desired to kill since Ep. 1, the man who basically stole everything away from him, and it's all spoiled by some human. Except Kaisar isn't just some random human to him anymore, and Azazel is visibly distraught and shocked by this man who just continues to surprise him with his genuine and (for what some might consider to be a) naïve idea of honor. I think this goes to show how much consideration and compassion Azazel has gained, even without realizing it.

I find it amazing how Azazel goes from threatening Kaisar in the beginning to being completely confused when he unintentionally kills him.

As for Favaro and Rita, obviously Favaro can't even be the usual loud-mouth he is when Kaisar dies because he's in incredible disbelief. And I feel immensely sorry for Rita because Kaisar has always been the closest to her, and she truly does care for him deeply, and "sad" Rita is extremely rare, so it makes me more upset.

Don't cry baby girl! (;_;)

I really don't want to bother trying to decipher Charioce's reaction since it's really hard to do so with that helmet in the way. I will, however, try to explain why Kaisar is willing to throw away his life for him since it's not "entirely" out of character.

So let's go back to earlier Virgin Soul episodes (where the show is actually damn fine) and review this conversation that Kaisar has with Charioce:

Kaisar's dream of creating a world where all three races can live in harmony together has always been at the core of his character development this season. As I mentioned in a previous review, Kaisar is there to establish middle ground; he's bound to Charioce by his honor as a knight, yet he's made to understand and even sympathize with Azazel's cause despite not agreeing with his guerrilla warfare tactics (there's even a scene where he vents about all these frustrations to Rita). In order to defend his values, Kaisar constantly questions Charioce and holds him responsible for all the violence among the races, yet he's determined to give Charioce a chance as king to make amends with the other races and avoid a war/needless bloodshed, hence why Kaisar has been continuously protecting him. First he protects him from Nina's dragon, then gets in between a fight he has with Azazel, and now we have this scene where he sacrifices himself to protect the king. However we might feel about Charioce, Kaisar has always believed that the king could always turn things around.

Yet despite this "consistency", thanks to Episode 22, we also run into an inconsistency. Because 22 refuses to let Kaisar hold Charioce accountable for his mistakes, the writers kinda unintentionally shit on Kaisar's development. See, the only way Kaisar defending Charioce becomes acceptable is by acknowledging that Charioce has done some pretty fucked up things (I do wish that Kaisar would've just stopped giving him so many chances; two is far enough for me). However, that's clearly not the case anymore, according to the writers. They want us to believe that Charioce's crimes (and they're purposefully selective about which ones we should hold him responsible for) are necessary evils in order to defeat the face of evil, which is Bahamut; therefore, he is worthy of our forgiveness.

While I genuinely don't believe the writers are trying to make Azazel and Jeanne "bad guys", and I get that they're trying to present the whole "everyone is to blame" card (after all, that's what Rage of Bahamut is meant to be about in the first place), they do it poorly by trying to portray Charioce as this troubled white knight who only did terrible things (under the orders of scientists, so he's basically their puppet) because his mom died and he wants to create a better world for everyone. How considerate of him (obvious sarcasm here).

No. The "everyone is to blame" trick only works if we can truly see all the faults and merits of all sides and sympathize with each and everyone of them, and in this case, Charioce drastically has more faults than merits, whereas as Azazel (who had a violent start) and Jeanne have a completely justified reason to fight the king. The writers essentially want me to ignore one evil only to tackle another, and they expect the world to be a better place afterwards? Hell no. Do they honestly believe the three races will sing Kumbaya after Bahamut is gone and live in peace for the rest of eternity all thanks to Charioce (this tyrant, who threw one race into unproductive slavery for no good reason, also nearly wiped out another, and encouraged humans, soldiers and civilians, to adopt racism and extreme nationalism and engage in oppression)?

BRUH. The whole premise of Virgin Soul exists precisely because the three races didn't sing Kumbaya by a campfire after defeating Bahamut the second time. So what makes them think that things will be different the third time? (But clearly they believe in "third time is the charm")

Yeah, I don't recall Lucifer and Gabriel ever sharing a cup of tea and starting a book club after Bahamut was sealed away in Genesis.

The writers will use Kaisar's death as a pivotal plot device to make Azazel, Jeanne, and Charioce realize they're wrong in fighting each other, and together they will join hands and defeat Bahamut, lest they'll all die. Of course, this will only be reinforced by Mugaro's return, which is "the main reason" why Azazel and Jeanne are at war with the king, so the writers expect us to believe that Azazel and Jeanne will lose their reasons to fight him. For Azazel, this makes no sense because he's also been fighting for his enslaved race since day one, and both him and Jeanne have been personally victimized and abused by Charioce. Regardless, there's no way either one of them will get a satisfying conclusion to their character arcs.

So Kaisar's death; was it really worth it? Short answer: no. Long answer: If the plot and characters were more carefully written, then yes, but given the writers' incompetence and neglect for proper storytelling, no. Plus I'm so sick of this manipulative bullshit that the writers are trying to pull on us, so this is why Kaisar's death hardly triggers an emotional response from me. Also (on a bit of a side note), I've always been annoyed at Kaisar for how long it took him to realize all of Charioce's horrors. He sat through years of watching demon death matches and obediently followed Charioce's orders, and it's only until Azazel attacks slavers that he realizes Charioce ain't all that great? Please. Genesis Kaisar would've noticed the very first moment he saw all this pain and torture, and he wouldn't have kept quiet about it for long. Oh, and let's not forget how Charioce threatened him for sympathizing with demons, threw him into prison, and then forced him to fight Azazel to the death in the gladiator arena for his own entertainment. But sure Kaisar, keep believing that Charioce will change his mind and join the Kumbaya campfire of friendship.

Let It End, Let It End!!!!!

See, it doesn't matter what cool things happen hereafter because 22, this miserable excuse for an anti-villain, and the romantic subplot have taken a huge shit all over everything that was good about Genesis and the beginning of Virgin Soul.

Also, where the fuck is Gabriel? You would think she'd be at least watching the war even if she didn't fight. Plus, why bother giving her some development if it's not going to be brought up again?

I would've honestly loved to have seen Gabriel begin shifting into a fallen angel, but that's a tall order.

So that, on top of everything else, there's just no way the finale will be satisfying because there are just so many loose strings to tie, and believe it or not, killing Bahamut won't solve everything (in little less than 30 minutes, mind you). Sorry to disappoint you, writers.

No to mention that the climax is shaping up to be pretty anticlimactic given how nerfed Bahamut seems as of late (like why did he follow Charioce into the capital like an obedient dog and politely hold in his fire until then?). I was going through old Genesis episodes and noticed that even when Bahamut wasn't around, the signs of his return were stronger than the power of gods, and even gods were always on alert for his return. The fact that neither gods nor demons seem to notice even the signs of his return is half-assed on the writers' part, and the writers clearly cherry-pick certain aspects of the Genesis world building and disregard others, so it's all a very convoluted mess.

Still rooting for you, Daddy Dragon! <3

That's not even mentioning that Charioce is following a handbook written by Martinet, the same guy who wanted to destroy the world (it's even possible that Dromos was an alternative weapon for if he couldn't summon Bahamut).

Sure, let's trust the man who literally deceived everyone last season. I'm sure nothing bad will happen ;)

The only way Charioce's plan would start making sense is if it completely and utterly failed. What if that's how the season ends, with both Bahamut flying free and Dromos causing collateral damage before self-destructing or something like that? It would lay out the groundwork for season 3 should it come to being, but this is me giving the writers the benefit of the doubt. As nice as season 3 sounds, I seriously expect the writers will give Virgin Soul the cheesiest ending and at least seal away Bahamut (if not outright killing him), making Charioce this dark horse hero and martyr. I'll be more annoyed if Charioce lives through this chaos because it would take more magic stone power to operate Dromos than it would to wear the onyx armor, and the soldiers paid a heavy toll for the armor, as demonstrated in this episode. Before his death, I expect to see a completely purple and veiny Charioce by the end. He best look like a decomposing eggplant/bruised penis or I'm calling bullshit (again).

And that's the end of this review! Feel free to leave a comment if you liked the review, tell me what your thoughts are on this episode, and leave your finale predictions.