The big problem Aldnoah Zero stresses itself with is the two main leads and how much they influence the story’s overall changes.  In other words they’re overpowered intellectually–  this does provide intriguing drama between the two of them and the ways they fight however it poorly executes the other character’s development.  They’re unable to shine until now.

Count Mazuurek is thoughtful as we’ve seen his views about the Terran world being resourceful and he’s open-minded.  Thanks to Inaho’s efforts at providing information to him about the Princess possibly being fake Mazuurek takes this gamble and devises a plan all on his own terms.

Where was this Count in the first half, a character that’s not Inaho or Slaine being able to deduce situations?!  I see a bit of Saazbaum in him because of this very episode.  He’s put himself in a strong position to topple Lemrina’s actions and even Slaine’s but also will finally be able to put to rest how much they’ve been deceiving the other Count’s that are still far from accepting Slaine as a true member of Vers society let alone a military leader.

The other portion of this episode that really breaks out of the norm is that Darzana’s decision dismantles easy trigger solution:  Inaho.  To ram the Deucalion right in the front-lines in order to save the Kataphrakts.  This is really good to see the captain is doing something useful here– especially when its Inaho’s eye that has been stealing all the solutions to their problems since this second half started.

This scene also plays into some bad news here for Inaho that was spelled out a few episodes ago–  his cybernetic eye will be his downfall.  It took this long to change up these resolutions and now it might be a little too late.  It may be better drama than it’s first half however since the viewpoint has changed over to the Vers side it neglects the potential of the cast quite a bit too late in the game especially with the compassionate Eddelrittuo and removes Terrans like Calm from the picture.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 6/10

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