[Marcus H.]

Okay , let's get this shit over with, shall we?

Since being imprisoned, Shana has been desperate for a chance to counter-attack and escape. If she knew summoning Nietono no Shana was an option, she would have done so long ago (optimally when Serieden was left almost deserted, if her being consistently capable of thought--and not just when it suits the story--was an option), yet she's not at all surprised when just shouting its name makes it appear in the form of Tenmokku Ikko (who is an armor apart from the sword by the way, but to hell with consistency when there can be drama).

Consider the fact that the reason why she was there was because the first human (albeit a Mystes) she became friendly with... that she loved probably more than Wilhelmina her foster mother... beat her to a bloody mess and isolated her from the battlefield.

Based on the episodes before the Ninth, she was shaken by this, and she felt helpless since she has her powers sealed and Yuji can just rip her to shreds if she makes a mistake (not that he would do such a thing, mind you).

Shana appears seriously injured after the blast in the corridor--perhaps even unable to move her lower body, as she spends two minutes of our time crawling on her forearms. Then when the maid-rinne grabs her she is able to spring up, go ape-shit on it and then stand up and appear fine when Tenmokku Ikko appears.

Adrenaline rush, fueled by fear.

Perhaps the most puzzling occurrence in this episode is that Tenmokku Ikko was able to cut through Fecor's Magnecia and kill him...I mean WTF. Very powerful flame haze haven't been able to do so in the past, but suddenly when it's important to the story that he die, BAM! he's dead. I suppose using those wings on his back to fly away from the slow-moving suit of armor (oh, wait; it suddenly learned to run in this episode) wouldn't occur to a character that is destined to die for there to be more drama and action.

The Nietono no Shana has been described as an anti-magic sword. Also, Tenmoku Ikko has a reputation for singlehandedly killing off Crimson Denizens. This fact is probably known even by the Trinity.

Maybe the authors are unable to create characters that can consistently think on even a basic level, let alone be smart or behave appropriately to their background and experiences, from which one can infer a roughly accurate portrayal of a how person might act (not brain-dead, in the case of most these flame haze and guze no tomogara--most of which have lived a looong time, learned a lot and experienced much).

That's poor judgment of the characters' personality. So this means that the author cannot create a truly "human" character, who has inherent flaws that can make that character unique from the rest of the cast?