[Twi]

Blog review is done.

Changes to the content in spoilers.

Spoiler:

Again, I covered a lot of the changes in the first two episodes caused by the mix-up. So this one has remaining information from Chapter 49 and a bit of Chapter 50: “Birds of a Feather Flock Together III & The Cowl Does Not Make the Monk”. Please note that they skipped some things that might come up later (everything with Simon) so I will probably abstain from mentioning it unless we get no proof of it coming up after the next episode. Then I’ll just spoil everything because they skipped the chapters.

• Lian/Rian doesn’t want Tory to know he was trying to learn magic because he’d be worried about him.
• He also mentions that the reason the rumors spread was that faeries becoming someone’s familiar only happened every so often back a few centuries ago. Wizards don’t look for partners when they get familiars, but a servant. Fae don’t like such shackles, and in the past they were bound by force or contract to wizards, resulting in the wizards getting killed when they broke the contract by accident. This is also why Wizards use dead animals or creatures they create themselves as familiars, like the bird from last season Elias buried.
• Blue Flame explains that Alice isn’t suitable for being a Mage because they tend to be bound by their fate and she isn’t. A Mage is someone who is a prisoner to their own fate, but when pressed they refuse to elaborate. They then state that because Rian carries the stench of rust in his blood he’s basically no good to any Fae. He also calls him a poor thing because of it.
• Elias’ Magic class is being moved to after normal hours, and only for those who are interested. Rian asks if he could attend, even though he doesn’t have the talent for it since someone said it was beautiful compared to wizardry (Tory said this last season). Elias complies with his requests since there’s no harm in visiting.
• Elias also notes that when he sees Rian and Chise close to one another, he doesn’t feel the way he did when she was with Stella. This is what originally prompted the question he had when Stella came in the episode, just shifted around, and he thinks the place has a lot to teach him as well.
• The Atwood siblings, with one of them nearly being killed by the Salamander, actually skipped a grade.
• Elias originally kept to his human appearance in the Cafeteria, but because the students are used to seeing Muryans they don’t mind. Alexandra, the caterpillar lady, for example. They also note she looks squishy. Because Elias was in his human form when Zoey started freaking out, it indicated he could somehow peer through the glamour.
• Adolf’s contact with Lindel has more context. They have records of Elias’ words and actions from the Church but they don’t know if they reflect his true self, with Lindel confirming that the Church’s records are outdated at this point and his current observer (Father Simon) is slacking.
• The Church’s records of Elias date back to the 1700s, when he was found in a French Port, and he gained his epithet from the “exchanges” that occurred around then.
• The mysterious mage waking up questions what era they are in now, such as if it’s in Anno Domini, indicating they slept for a long time.
• Chise notes it’s strange that school starts in September for them (starts in April in Japan), but Elias explains that it’s because children used to be a valuable source of labor and so the school starts in the fall months after the harvest would be finished.
• Elias’ jealous side briefly shows when he states Chise is hanging out with Alice too much, getting a “look” from her that scares him.
• Elias also explains he doesn’t like transforming himself to remove his horns since he gets hazy and a phantom itch like his body knows something is missing.
• Ruth brings up that they spent last Winter underground, back when she was recovering from the thing with Joel and Redcurrant.
• Chise brings Joseph some food, even when he tells her he doesn’t need to eat. It just shows she’s reaching out to him.
• Elias’ lecture on Samhain explains that Halloween (or All Hallows’ Eve) is an amalgam of Samhain and Christian beliefs and means winter is coming. It is the night people welcome the season of death, as the gods of winter and the spirits of the dead cross over from the next world. You light the lamps so that your ancestors can find their way to you.
• The reason Elias doesn’t know much about the old gods is that he was born when many were long gone. They’ve basically had their presence melted into the seasons and people of the world, being reduced to shades. But sometimes they appear, like the pregnant goddess of winter who gives birth to herself, and are still dangerous. He notes that its best for everyone if they stay dormant, as not many are known for being friends with men.
• Around the time that Stella appeared, a nun from Father Simon’s church (Gabriella) also appeared to tell Elias to come over to his place as some things were going down with Simon that threatened the peace he had (again, Simon is a lot laxer than the previous overseer). That was originally why he separated from Chise and Stella, to go see what that was about, leaving Ruth to go with the girls.
• Ruth sees a vision of his old friend, the girl who he couldn’t save and Joseph reanimated her corpse, as he watches the two of them walk. A reminder of what he lost and why he made his pact with Chise to die with her.
• When the fog rolls in and you see that shadow by Stella, it’s actually revealed to be a scarf. A very familiar one. We’ll leave it at that for now.

Their shifting the chapters around has caused a bit of information to be bent out of place. They’ve done a good job of trying to recontextualize it, but some things still get lost. I’ll cover them as I can.