Spice and Wolf II - Episode 12 (END) Discussion / Poll
 

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Raws out... kinda bad quality but... all the same.

*edit* and now the wait for subs... @_@

Season 3 is when? :V

I need 3rd season nao!!

Hide it all under spoiler tags! >.< =(

Awww. A nice ending. :>



Yeah, quality (of the raw) wasn't very good.

This is it... Eh~... How disappointing...
And this end... Eh~...
...

Eh................ (´・ω・｀)
The only part that was worth watching for this arc was the bartender girl...

Uh... I feel that season 1 was a lot better and season 2 was...blah. Lawrence still proves to be an idiot as always and Horo did some nice whooping. That anticipated part" was rather weak...

Im so sorry, I fixed.

Wow.

That was a perfect episode. That was a 10. Way to finally man up Lawrence, took you a while... but well done.

It will be a heck of a wait for season 3.

Thanks to Mazui for being awesome at subs!

Subs by Mazui have been out a while.

ya looks like 12 went up today on Mazui's site im just starting on season 2 myself right now cant wait to get tot he end. I had originally intended to just d.load and watch the frostii subs since theyre generally regarded as pretty good. But i actually watched some of the mazui epps i had d.loaded at first back to back with the frostii ones, and i think i may like the mazui ones better o_O frostii seems to try to reword stuff too much and you lose the point of the scene in some instances (like the first episode where theyre talking at the pub after being shown their room, i had no idea what they were talking about in the frostii subs but the mazui one made it a lot clearer)

since frostiis so far behind and im liking the show so much i think i will d.load the rest of mazui to check it out. Whats your opinion on their subs guys? id think a speedsubber would be worse than something like frostii but from the first couple epps i saw that wasn't really the case.. wondering if i shoudl just delete the frostiis and stick with mazui. The video quality does seem better with frostii though

grr i was hoping theyd be a little slower now i gotta zip through over 3/4 of the series to see how this ends >_<

13 epps (with the OAV) is just not enough for this series. The first season ended too abruptly for my taste, and the novels seem to have a lot of info in them. I really wish they had been given 24 epp seasons =(

I hope there'll be a third season, but i fear, we must wait it to the next year...
Anyway Mazui sub's was good, and thanks them to their work!
The end was good, but Abe needs some Horo-punch. Serious Horo-punch.

Content regarding this episode doesn't have to be in spoiler tags. It's not in the rules for this thread.

Anyway i really loved that last episode, especially the last five minutes or so. Also the last scene with the two walking out of the village was a nice send off, especially with those outstanding visuals.

Third season please.

A bitter sweet ending.... although mostly sweet near the end.

Anyone else want to bet that season 3 will end with the sound of bells like they did with season 1 & 2?

You F with the wolf (or the wolf's companion), you get the fangs. Abe better pray she doesn't meet Horo again.

Will have to watch the episode again tonight, I just know I missed tons of things watching it soon as it came out.

hopefuly if there is a S3 they will step it up a noatch, and do it :naughty:

And so my final review for season 2 of Spice and Wolf comes up...

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Are the ups and downs of season 2, which in certain respects is arguably less stellar than season 1, worth the final 5 minutes of the finale?

You damn well better believe it!

Lawrence may just have been cheated and bled dry for whatever he could have earned in this town that would have granted him the resources to open his own shop, but in return he went away with some far greater, far more rewarding than a stone store and a bag of coins. There is of course no way to be apologetic for what Abe did which is tantamount to stealing anyway, but she did have a point: doing everything, whatever it takes, to get what you are looking for. Even to the point where society calls you greedy, immoral and... well evil. She was greedy for money that is almost pathological, but she did not question nor did she waver. She knew what she wanted and did what she felt was needed to accomplish it. By fair of foul she got it.

"I'm hoping."

Mt first run through the episode I really didn't get what she meant. I started to think back about what she said and what Lawrence had been doing up to this point in season 2; the pyrite fiasco most importantly. I re-evaluated Abe's intentions and Lawrence's actions during the moments when it was oh so clear that he may lose Horo. That was when I think I realized what Abe meant:

Hoping that, in the end, it was all worth it to get what one is looking for.

Lawrence understood it by then. Finding out what he really wants, and doing whatever it takes to find it and keep it, even if it entails sacrifice, loss and potentially financial ruin. Given his circumstances in episode 12 I personally don't think he lost much, since the money was pretty much what he got for selling Horo, and by getting the rights to the inn in exchange for the gold Abe took in the end it all balanced itself out. Sort of. However he now owned the inn, he could have made it his own store, but he didn't. He traded the property for Horo back.

When I think about it now, this entire episode sums up what season 2 was all about: Lawrence growing and figuring out what it is, truly, that is most important to him. He says it is Horo but it is as if he was still unsure about it. He doesn't really have confidence in this decision considering a rather strained trust and air between them in the likes I haven't seen since season 1. He could never really tell Horo how or what he felt, because even then he was still unsure. Nearing the end of this episode however, despite whatever reservations you have about the character, Abe hit the nail on the head, right smack and center.

Because Lawrence was also hoping. Hoping that despite Horo's feelings and his dream of being a shop owner coming into conflict with his desire to travel with her, he'd find a way to continue the journey of a lifetime. Before all of this he was unsure and indecisive, the complete opposite of how he deals in commerce, which is really not all that unusual personally. He was always worried of striking the balance between his mercantile lifestyle and his relationship with Horo. He was also worried of his desire to travel with her conflicting with his desire to open his own shop.

He was hoping to achieve all of them, but only now did he really realize that the same fact of commerce applies to life and relationships: You can't have everything, you have to make a choice. Economics had always revolved around the fact that goods are limited, you can't have everything, so things are obtained by the highest bidder willing to make the greatest sacrifice to gain what they want and/or need. The same thing applied to his own life but he didn't realize it, much to his irony. This is why, with this episode, he decided to choose.

So he went back to the trading company, full of the confidence and the determination that characterized him back in season 1. He traded it all in for Horo. Why? Because he decided to choose his dream.

He chose Horo.

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So now that I've finally realized that the second season is over and I have to wait an entire fucking year for season 3, I'm going to roll myself into a fetal position and cry myself to sleep, eagerly awaiting the day I may travel with these two once again.:)

Well it's only a question whether the church gets its hands on Abe before Horo does. That girl has made a lot of enemies and doesn't seem to have much hope of survivial.

Just liked how everything came together regarding the church, Abe, and the salt. That girl is just insanely reckless. Glad Lawrence has decided through this second season what the important things are. Not bad using the inn to get Horo back. Did pretty well against Abe except letting his guard down too much cost him.

Still that confession at the end made the whole season worth while. Finally got it clearly out there how he felt and took care of the whole seperating now issue. Of course they are still in a rioting city which is oddly safer than I had imagined :heh:.

Would someone provide a summary of the episode's events? Please?

Your review is a very good analysis of the part of S&W that makes it enjoyable: the organic character growth, their familiar banter, slice-of-life setting, well rounded side characters, and the slowly simmering romance.

You don't mention, however, the insanely convoluted ways that they choose to involve Horo in Lawrence's crazy dealings. Or the fact that pretty much all the drama would be deflated with some more communication between Horo and Lawrence (the drama at the end of the pyrite arc falls apart if Horo had talked). Oh, and the standard anime trapping of brickwall male lead paired with tsundere female.
I can predict right now without having read the novel that S3 will feature even more insane and unlikely ways for Lawrence's personal and economic intrerests to combine in an effort to center the drama around the relationship with Horo.

What I will say for the show, is that it has some amazingly well-written, aptly placed and subtle dialogue, which I'm sure is pulled straight from the novel. Season 2 was actually more enjoyable for me than the first, due to these character interactions. Oh, and the OP is probably the best of the year.

6/10, enjoyable watch if you can forgive the flaws and sit back for the ride.