Log Horizon S2 - Episode 19 Discussion / Poll
 

Welcome to the discussion thread for Log Horizon S2, Episode 19.

Thread Guidelines

• Raw requests and offers are not permitted anywhere on this forum.
• Spoilers or hints about future events must not be posted in this thread.
  If you need to reference something that would spoil a future event, reply directly with a private message, or seek out a more appropriate thread.
• Discuss your expectations of the episode if it has not aired yet.
• Be polite to your fellow forum members.
• Please try to keep the discussion on-topic.
• Character bashing is not on-topic and will not be tolerated.
• Do not post multiple times in a row. Please edit your existing post if you wish to add additional thoughts.

Episode Thread Spoiler Policy

• Any comment that discloses events, characters, plot or other information before it is revealed in the anime is expressly forbidden whether or not it is behind spoiler tags.
  Spoiler tags should still be used where appropriate.
  Please consult the AnimeSuki Spoiler Policy for more information.
• Adding a Spoiler tag:
  

  Just highlight your spoiler and click the button found on the "Quick Reply" and "Reply to Thread" forms. Make sure that you include a useful title!

• Please use the Report button if you see any inappropriate spoilers:
  

  Click the button found to the left of the post, just under the poster's avatar. Using the Report button is anonymous and helps the Moderators locate and deal with problems quickly.

• Posting inappropriate spoilers may result in a ban.
  Note: Reporting a post does not mean the poster will be banned instantly.
  The Moderators will use bans if warnings are repeatedly ignored.

OMG Ghostbusters reference!

This 'empathions' thing is interesting. Roe2 seems to be hinting that the Genius monsters are the ones gathering memories or such when you die, called 'empathion' or something. And using it for something. Perhaps to make themselves stronger or more real?

I hope we get more details on the world setting and what's going on.

I have some new respect for Tohya this episode. Same for Rudy as well.

Watching Tohya kicking some ass brings a smile to my face too~

Um, they forgot about Tohya as he's having his ass kicked by a Odyssey Knight! Good show for that young lad on standing up against that adventurer.

Just what we needed, a new complexity to the story line with just six episodes to go, after a couple of time-wasting episodes that added little to the plot. At least this episode was a bit more interesting than the last two.

I was wondering if most of the lesser monsters are gathering memories of fallen adventurers too since they're getting more cunning than before?

The novels are still on-going. There's bound to be a S3, so don't worry to much about episode constraints.

And what you call episode wasting I call character mingling, which I enjoyed a lot btw. :)

Some shows I watch for character development, others I watch for plot. For me, Log Horizon falls more into the latter category.

There can be a happy middle. I think Mamare's the authors strengths at character introspection and world creation are by far superior than his skills at plot development. Not to say that the plot in Log Horizon (and Mamare's other series, Maou Yuusha) are not bad at all, I consider William's speech (and the Elder Sister maid's I am human speech in the other series) to be by far the climax of their respective works. And their respective worlds are just so interesting, even down to the politics, that sometimes I regard the plot to be an excuse to explore them.


Of course this is just my opinion. The past episodes have been slow as you say, and on a second read of my previous post I may have been a little high handed. My apologies.

I can certainly understand Tohya getting pissed at that point, but at the same time is he actually accomplishing anything picking this fight? His big issue to start was that they were dragging the citizens into it, but he isn't helping any of the citizens. He's just running around losing his own cool.

Not all that surprised either to see a group of these people gathering like this. Of course a lot of people aren't going to adapt to such a change in circumstance and just want to go home. They don't care about making a society there or interacting with what is around them, they just want out. Of course they are losing their memories when they die, but also seeing their old lives. It's kind of a weird mixed situation. I doubt they are right in that dying a certain number of times will get you home, but not surprised they are trying.

At least Minori is off and moving now. She was probably the least helpful in this episode. Serious situation, maybe not the best time to delve into personal motivations :heh:.

Still kind of awesome that Nyanta is going after the source of this by himself. If he can shut down that situation then all they have to do is deal with the wyverns. Still a pain, but at least it's not a never ending flood.

It's nice that Tohya stood up to those guys and hopefully he can show them a diffrent point of view. But for now they seriously need to protect the town.

It's only natural that this group was formed. Not everyone is happy about being stuck and just want to go back to their lives.

It's cool that Nyanta is going to the main problem and I'm looking forward to seeing him in action next episode.

I admit it. I got lost in the discussions about the world's underpinning theories. I'm going to have to give the episode another viewing. Or maybe two. I appreciate that the show took time to try and explain the theories. Although I don't think they thoroughly succeeded in doing so. And I'm not sure that doing so while a city was being attacked was the best of timing. :heh:

I don't think we were supposed to understand a whole lot, other than Roe2 mentioning the Genius.

I honestly cannot comprehend the conversations between the newbie teams and Roe2 here. And apparently, I'm not the only one here! :heh:

Roe2's cryptic comments aren't helping, and too bad Minori stood around for most of the episode, but guess she's confronting Roe2 in a way as well, but Roe2 isn't sharing much. Roe2 obviously isn't just a random Adventurer, but they have bigger things to worry about.

While they are reviving quickly, it is kind of disturbing watching something that almost seems like a... suicide cult (or something) dying over and over. You'd think they might as well just keep jumping off a cliff again and again if they want to get that glimpse of their past memories (or some other method of dying). Though seems to be playing into the Genius' plans, whatever those are. Tohya confronting that Odyssey Knight leader isn't helping much, but he's the most hotheaded one so it fits his personality. And while the other guy is complaining about his marriage, Tohya has experienced real pain before so seeing them trivialize death would set him off. And hard to call that world fake with Rudy as a comrade. Although so far we've seen Akiba and Minami adapt to their new circumstances mostly well, but these guys are definitely unstable.

Exciting ending, not sure how far Nyanta can go against those odds, but still awesome to see him just charging the enemy train, can't wait to see him fight again.

Interesting information we gain about the world setting, too bad I didn't understand half of it.
Minori sure took her time to start fighting.
hope Nyanta kick some ass next episode.

The knights should change their name to suicide circle...

To me, this episode was as confusing as Gundam Reconguista itself. This episode also felt like a giant waste of time.

In a sense Tohya and that guy are too different to really see things the same way. For Tohya he's seen enough death to be really bothered by how those guys are chasing it. Of course Tohya doesn't have the same motivations to return to their old lives either. He has his sister here and he's not disabled here either. He can run around, has freedom of movement, and can fight. A different thing for someone like that guy who has left loved ones behind and a life he was ready to embrace. These two just aren't going to be on the same page.

Look forward to seeing what Nyanta can do. Guy has been stuck on the sidelines for a long time so it will be nice to see him cut loose.

Aren't the Odessey Knights part of PH? Why are the servants attacking their mobile cathedral?

I don't really care about the Roe2 speech, just what are those servants doing?

the guy is not complaining about his marriage. He was about to get married and quit ET when the Event happen.

I don't think the Odyssey Knights are part of Plant Hwyaden. Prior to this episode, I was thinking that they're part of it, but it wasn't!

On the other hand, I'm thinking that Nureha gave the Odyssey Knights the mobile temple technology.

I thought their player info said they were part of PH? Although considering how crazy they were, not sure they would follow any orders anyway. Interesting tech Minami has been coming up with, even if it seems a lot more reckless/dangerous.

Whoops, now I remember his life story, and its understandable he'd want to get back, but repeated dying just seems really insane. I can see that Odyssey Knight's POV too, sorry to reference the other major "trapped in MMO" anime, but that was more common there, being desperate to get back home, to family and friends, and his life story would normally be sympathetic... just the crazed look in his eyes really doesn't help his cause. For some people, they love being in the game (somewhat surprised the anime went into that much detail about Tohya's sad life, compared to how they just had vague inferences before), but in a way these guys are worse than the random PKers Shiroe had to deal with early on.

I think Shiroe has been looking into the whole "trapped in game" thing quietly, but its a relatively minor priority for him, with little to no clues or info and plenty of other more dangerous problems to deal with first. Kind of surprised we haven't seen more of those, what did Shiroe call them, nostalgia groups, compared to Shiroe's nation building and Minami's experimenting. We know repeated dying is just going to erode their memories more (and Roe2's comments make it seem like part of a larger plan), and the info has probably somewhat spread in-world by now, but these guys seem more like they're just floundering about and desperate for any glimpse of the real world by this point. Well, not everybody can be as analytical as Shiroe and his group of course... which is why they makesfor such a nice contrast with Log Horizon members (who definitely believe the "game" world is real now and are trying to follow all of Shiroe's advice).

Considering how Roe2 said that the constant deaths would help the Genius monsters - I am wondering if the portable cathedral and maybe the Lander Summoner thing were created using information planted by the Genius monsters.

I think my brain got fried when minori and roe2 start talking those "i dont know what the hell are they talking about" stuff :p

And i dont get the servant and exp pot thing too, can someone explain that part about research about servant and injecting exp pot stuff? So this 1 guy act as the host, summoning a lot of servant to farm exp? God why there is a lot of complicated stuff in this episode :heh:

Those oddysey knight should be called suicide squad :heh:

That red hair lady inside the train is a lander? I though she is a player

wow this starting to get intense...for all the folks out there who had been wondering about who wanted to know more info about the mistreatment of landers and people actually wanting to go home well here you go.

- Experimentation on Landers to make them stronger soldiers

- Suicide Cults thinking dieing will get them home

I mean damn how much more great can this story get?

Tbh the focus was put on the Landers so much, that it seemed hard to think that there's possibilities of having conflict among the players. Now the story seems like Minami's bright heads versus Shiroe's (that sure is on an island when it comes to competence :heh: )

feels episode....
lots of feels

I was lost in most of the talking..
at first I feel sorry for the knight leader... well, having your future get robbed like that is sad
but now I feel more sorry for Tohya T__T
stay strong, boy

I really don't get why Odyssey Knight fights with the Night-spectre
Is the Odyssey Knight is used by Minami higher-ops to level up their summoner?
well, I must admit Plant Hwayden consist of lots sick adventurers and NPCs

next episode would be a very epic one
Nyanta-hanchou is going to steal the spotlight, nya~~

This would have been a great episode if it didn't come after many, many episodes of sheer time-wasting. And in itself it is half an episode.

I understand the context, the feelings, the development, I really do -- with the exception of the intentionally mysterious Roe2 -- but I don't feel half of it because, and I can't believe I'm saying this about Log Horizon, people talk too much. I understand the relevation about the knights' reckless actions. I intellectually sympathize with Touya's outburst, his background and his emotions, but all I could feel was me wanting to tell him and the rest of the kids, I don't care, get a move on and do something useful plox.

Talking a lot used to be the series' strength. Talking and/or flashbacks significantly enriches this series' wide cast with depth and agency. I'm sure it continues to be a strength in the novels. But while speech was action in the previous season, here it does not mix well with slow panning, people taking their time standing around with no movement, cheaply emotional music, Isuzu being forced to repeat her song the zillionth time. There are wyverns all over town. Why is it taking a whole episode to not even confront the things?

It's taking its time like its Naruto or other outstays-its-welcome absurdly long shounen stories that need to conserve budget at any cost. I hate those. I. hate. those. I don't want to hate this series. Deen, stahp.

Not a problem, Proto. I've come to respect your opinions over the years even when I don't agree with them. William's speech is a good example. I thought it was repetitive and at least twice as long as it needed to be. I understand that the author wanted to wave the flag for online gamers, but this is an example to me of how something that might work on the printed page doesn't translate well to video. Part of it might be that I don't sense much antipathy toward devoted gamers in 2015, so the need to rationalize their behavior seems misplaced. But mostly my objections are simply a matter of dramatic pacing, something that was better managed in the first season than in this one.

As always my comments reflect someone whose view of the work is based entirely on the anime adaptation. Adapting popular works is always fraught with problems as the producers need to balance the desires of existing fans with the demands of the audiovisual medium. A.O. Scott's column in the Times this week on Fifty Shades of Grey contains a thoughtful discussion of these issues.

You expressed my feelings much better than I could, Irenicus. Thanks! When the wyverns arrived at the end of the preceding episode I thought the pace would pick up this week. What we got instead was a bunch of guys committing suicide and the Log Horizon team largely standing around and talking once more.

I liked this episode a lot. The one thing that has been lacking from the show was there were not enough exposition to how people were feeling for being forced to live in this world and how much they had been missing their own world.

Interesting episode, it showed another facet of the adventurers, the ones that werent able to cope and how far they were willing to go to try to go home