I thought this was a very nice and pleasant episode, at least if you evaluate it on its own.
The protagonist side had some good warmth and charm to it, and hit a lot of nice notes. Arad and Kaname's moment was nice. Reina holding Makina's hand was nice. It was all very nice. I
really liked how all the reveals centering around Hayate's dad was handled. That was simply sublime, in my opinion. Beautiful. Freyja getting the music player from Hayate's father is just the sweetest cheery on top, really.
I might have liked a bit more in the HayaFrey moment, but it was nonetheless a very pleasing and charming scene. And the scene did feel like it suited the characters perfectly. It's pretty clear that Hayate
loves Freyja, but it's just not his nature to make a big show of it (big s
now maybe, but not big show
). Hayate drops some hints, particularly in certain compliments he makes of her ("the way you laugh makes me feel relieved"). It's probably going to be up to Freyja to have a clear-cut romance happen, if it does happen. It's hers, if she decides to make a formal confession, as I now have no doubt Hayate would reciprocate. But it's hard to imagine Hayate taking the lead and confessing to her. It's like he's just putting himself out there, and deciding to be in this soothing relaxed relationship with Freyja that's on the very borderline of friendship/romance, and leaving it up to her to determine what the relationship will be.
I think Freyja also loves Hayate, but I sense some fear and concern with her. She was initially trying to nicely shoo Hayate away. I think that Freyja fears that she's now dying, and she doesn't want to risk burdening Hayate with that, so she was initially trying to create some distance between them.
I think the show has made it clear that while Hayate deeply respects and likes Mirage, and considers her a dear friend and comrade, it is Freyja that he loves the most. And even if that's not the case, Mirage herself told Hayate to go to Freyja, and at a meta-level, that's pretty suggestive, in my view.
So I'd be truly shocked at a HayaMira ending. Should Freyja survive, the most likely outcome is one that
strongly leans towards HayaFrey, but stops just short of total confirmation. Again, I just can't see Hayate confessing, and Freyja is going to be caught up with Walkure soon. A HayaFrey confirmation is possible, but I'd say the likelihood of it is 20% at most.
Now, as for Raging Roid Rangers vs. VillaiNUNs... Neither side comes off particularly good. At the same time, I can understand the sheer desperation that both sides likely feel. Both sides have good reason to truly fear the other and want the other obliterated. NUNs are willing to use those nasty WMDs, but given what Windermere has done in this show, it's at least somewhat understandable, in my view. On the flip-side, it's that precise NUNs willingness that adds some justification to Windermere feeling threatened by NUNs, to the point of Windermere being gripped in warmongering paranoia. It's all one
nasty spiral of escalation, that probably reflects the reality of war, and how it can become a terrible tornado-like trap.
I think Heinz was genuinely surprised by what happened to that NUNs fleet. I'm with
Thess on that. I don't know what exactly is going through Heinz's head. Perhaps the kid just feels totally overwhelmed, and is doing his best to act/sound like a leader while putting minimal thought into what his actions
actually mean. That doesn't excuse him completely, but it makes him at least somewhat pitiable. He's well and truly in over his head.
Roid knows what's going on, and because of that, I have very mixed feelings over how this episode presented him. It did seem to be trying to make Roid seem sympathetic... if not glorious in his own twisted way. Keith continues to feel like a hardened extremist, with Roid being a dangerous "head in the clouds" extremist.
Fears of the finale being rushed are somewhat justified, though given the numbers of players involved, it might just be a slightly amped-up version of what Episode 13 gave us. Heck, we're even going back to Ragna it seems. This is to say that the action side of things might not be particularly complicated or chaotic. Granted, it is a little hard for me to see how chaos wins. On the pilot side, they seem badly outmatched to me, unless an Aerial Knight or two actually turns completely against Roid.
I can also understand Mikumo's biggest fans being disappointed in this episode, as she was pretty much reduced to a plot device here. I hope she gets greater presence in the finale.
However, my favorite character in this show is Freyja, and after that, there's many protagonists I like all about the same. So for me, this was an excellent episode.
9/10.
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