Slayers Speculation
Apr. 12th, 2009 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesThere are spoilers for Episode 13 of Evolution-R. Also thoughts on Mazoku.
Okay, so![[insanejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/ij-userinfo.gif)
uncreativity mentioned this to me, when she was watching the raws and trying to figure out Xellos's motivation in the matter, since he was helping the cast defeat Shabby. In the subtitles, Xellos explains that this is a 'ghost' of Shabranigdo, so he has no qualms about helping Lina and Co. put it down -- he compares him to Gaav. So, I started thinking...
Shabby was certainly a bit loopier than I remember -- he wasn't even able to properly reconstruct his body, just relying on a possessed Posel, though his powers were well equal to Shabby's before. He also couldn't grasp mazoku motivations -- or at least, Xellos was confusing him.
So, I got to thinking. What if the death/imprisonment in the soul jar with Rezo damaged that piece of Shabby enough that he would be unable to fuse with the other pieces -- like dropping a jigsaw piece into water, then letting it dry. The mazoku's long-term goal is the resurrection of all of Shabby, not just single pieces. And a rogue mazoku (Gaav, Valgaav and ghost-Shabby) is probably one of the most dangerous things out there -- all the power that lets them be an actual threat to mazoku, with no qualms about using it to disrupt the mazoku's plans. Ghost-Shabby would probably be the worst, since he could probably destroy another piece of himself. It might have been judged by Xellos (or Zelas) that the loss of power by putting down a piece of Shabranigdo was worth the protection of the other six pieces. It also might explain why Lina Inverse is not considered a threat -- she generally won't pick fights with high-power mazoku unless provoked, and her two spells that could take out a high-power maozku, one requires something to hold them still and the other is pretty much a risk of world-destruction. Plus... well, she'll be dead in a century or two. Plus, Xellos can manipulate her to some extent.
(It also makes me wonder if part of Xellos and Zelas's long term plans were to make sure Lina learned enough of the Lord of Nightmares so she could handle this piece of Shabranigdo, since the only thing that could manage it would be another piece* or a human who could reach out to the Lord of Nightmares. I mean, a backup plan would either mean finding another piece of Shabby and driving the host nuts enough to wake it up, or finding a way to Lei Magnus.)
* Considering the mazoku presumably don't know where five of the pieces are, and the sixth (the one that was resurrected 1000 years ago in Lei Magnus) is presumably sealed so tightly that they can't get at it, this is not a good plan, even if the risk of losing would be non-trivial.
Downside is that the casting of the Giga Slave again pretty much goes against novel canon, but I think TRY already hinted about that AND I've always been one to . IIRC, novel canon had it that once Lina received the knowledge of the Lord of Nightmares from the Clair Bible, any invocation of Her via the Giga Slave would probably result in the world being destroyed -- that even the 'complete' spell used in the first season wasn't the perfected spell, and that casting it properly would bring in L-sama and a font of pure chaos, which would destroy the world.
(Also, part of me would have liked to see Lina keep the white hair. It's a good look for her, and she always seems to regrow it far too fast -- it's back to its original length and orange, rather than just producing roots (making Lina have to chop it all off). Then again, the fact it goes entirely white, instead of just starting to grow in white, is weird, but at least that can be blamed on magic. Unless she's dyeing her hair so she doesn't have 'white with orange roots' or even 'white'. )
I'd also love to see fic featuring Zel and Rezo talking during episode 12, since one of Zel's last lines suggests he's made his peace with Rezo. He also notes that his body is what allowed him to take less damage when he was stalling Shabby -- heck, we even see him healing Amelia afterward, which implies that he was hurt less seriously than she is, since I imagine a (former?) priestess is better at it.
ETA: Uncreativity also said that she thought the series felt done -- heck, Xellos even gives the same line that Milgasia gets in the final novel, about how the cast has lived up to the name of 'Slayers'. I have to agree with her -- it's got a strange sort of closure, though TRY doesn't fit as well sandwiched between NEXT and REvolution-R. (If it had been more Valgaav and less Darkstar and the Overworlders, it might have worked better... but my general feeling about TRY was that it was decent, but weaker in concert with the other seasons.)
Okay, so
uncreativity mentioned this to me, when she was watching the raws and trying to figure out Xellos's motivation in the matter, since he was helping the cast defeat Shabby. In the subtitles, Xellos explains that this is a 'ghost' of Shabranigdo, so he has no qualms about helping Lina and Co. put it down -- he compares him to Gaav. So, I started thinking...Shabby was certainly a bit loopier than I remember -- he wasn't even able to properly reconstruct his body, just relying on a possessed Posel, though his powers were well equal to Shabby's before. He also couldn't grasp mazoku motivations -- or at least, Xellos was confusing him.
So, I got to thinking. What if the death/imprisonment in the soul jar with Rezo damaged that piece of Shabby enough that he would be unable to fuse with the other pieces -- like dropping a jigsaw piece into water, then letting it dry. The mazoku's long-term goal is the resurrection of all of Shabby, not just single pieces. And a rogue mazoku (Gaav, Valgaav and ghost-Shabby) is probably one of the most dangerous things out there -- all the power that lets them be an actual threat to mazoku, with no qualms about using it to disrupt the mazoku's plans. Ghost-Shabby would probably be the worst, since he could probably destroy another piece of himself. It might have been judged by Xellos (or Zelas) that the loss of power by putting down a piece of Shabranigdo was worth the protection of the other six pieces. It also might explain why Lina Inverse is not considered a threat -- she generally won't pick fights with high-power mazoku unless provoked, and her two spells that could take out a high-power maozku, one requires something to hold them still and the other is pretty much a risk of world-destruction. Plus... well, she'll be dead in a century or two. Plus, Xellos can manipulate her to some extent.
(It also makes me wonder if part of Xellos and Zelas's long term plans were to make sure Lina learned enough of the Lord of Nightmares so she could handle this piece of Shabranigdo, since the only thing that could manage it would be another piece* or a human who could reach out to the Lord of Nightmares. I mean, a backup plan would either mean finding another piece of Shabby and driving the host nuts enough to wake it up, or finding a way to Lei Magnus.)
* Considering the mazoku presumably don't know where five of the pieces are, and the sixth (the one that was resurrected 1000 years ago in Lei Magnus) is presumably sealed so tightly that they can't get at it, this is not a good plan, even if the risk of losing would be non-trivial.
Downside is that the casting of the Giga Slave again pretty much goes against novel canon, but I think TRY already hinted about that AND I've always been one to . IIRC, novel canon had it that once Lina received the knowledge of the Lord of Nightmares from the Clair Bible, any invocation of Her via the Giga Slave would probably result in the world being destroyed -- that even the 'complete' spell used in the first season wasn't the perfected spell, and that casting it properly would bring in L-sama and a font of pure chaos, which would destroy the world.
(Also, part of me would have liked to see Lina keep the white hair. It's a good look for her, and she always seems to regrow it far too fast -- it's back to its original length and orange, rather than just producing roots (making Lina have to chop it all off). Then again, the fact it goes entirely white, instead of just starting to grow in white, is weird, but at least that can be blamed on magic. Unless she's dyeing her hair so she doesn't have 'white with orange roots' or even 'white'. )
I'd also love to see fic featuring Zel and Rezo talking during episode 12, since one of Zel's last lines suggests he's made his peace with Rezo. He also notes that his body is what allowed him to take less damage when he was stalling Shabby -- heck, we even see him healing Amelia afterward, which implies that he was hurt less seriously than she is, since I imagine a (former?) priestess is better at it.
ETA: Uncreativity also said that she thought the series felt done -- heck, Xellos even gives the same line that Milgasia gets in the final novel, about how the cast has lived up to the name of 'Slayers'. I have to agree with her -- it's got a strange sort of closure, though TRY doesn't fit as well sandwiched between NEXT and REvolution-R. (If it had been more Valgaav and less Darkstar and the Overworlders, it might have worked better... but my general feeling about TRY was that it was decent, but weaker in concert with the other seasons.)
