A normal day for Bad Luck Slaine

In a usual anime series, there should be a big overarching character or group of characters that oppose the main character’s goals. There is some sort of generalized conception that almost every villain exists for the purpose of making the good guys look good.

However, there are a good number of instances where characters get wonderful writing when it comes to their backstory, motives, and character development that labeling them as mere “villains” is somehow harsh. One of those villains is Slaine Saazbaum Troyard from the anime series, Aldnoah.Zero.

30 Day Anime Challenge – Day 11

Day 11: Favorite Mech Anime

The feelings I have when it comes to the mech genre are the same with the shonen genre. For me, these two genres feel too repetitive and rely too much on the action – while it does work, it doesn’t appeal to me as a viewer. I tend to watch anime that cater to much more deeper elements like the slice-of-life, romance, psychological, fantasy and all similar genres.

However, there was this one anime series that caught my eye a few seasons ago. The plot revolved around a timeline where Mars became livable and created their own government thus splitting factions with the United Earth government. As a result, the two factions from Mars and Earth are at constant rivalry.

This anime series is no other than Aldnoah.Zero.

Aldnoah.Zero caught my eye because it gave me the idea: what if such a scenario were to occur in the future where Martian colonizers from Earth were to separate themselves from us and form their own faction?

The first season of Aldnoah.Zero introduced its main character Inaho and a world were Earth and Mars are currently “at peace” – I say this because there are still tensions from both factions similar to how North Korea and South Korea are having right now.

Then the series introduced some sort of new Martian technology called Aldnoah Drives which were somewhat superior than Earth technology, thus advancing the Martian colonizers in terms of tech and science.

This was a key factor to note of since when the war broke out in the anime series, Earth was completely at the mercy of the Martian invaders. All government and military centers were wiped out in a matter of hours – thinking about such scenario if it happened in real life intrigued me.

The anime series also shows this sort of developing rivalry between the main character Inaho and main villain Slaine, who both are loyal to the Martian Princess Asseylum. Why? Well, first off, Asseylum wanted peace between both factions which gained her the trust of Inaho and Slaine taught Asseylum about the beauty of Earth.

The second season was rather disappointing since Inaho was depicted as being an overpowered character which made me hate him as much as I hated Kirito from Sword Art Online. Slaine became a bad luck Brian who had some good ideals but had a twisted way of achieving them. Lastly, the Princess ended up being married to another Martian noble which… was pretty much a letdown.

Honestly, Aldnoah.Zero had a lot of flaws as an anime series but its setting was quite intriguing which made me like it in the first place. It was a shame that they didn’t give it much attention and stuck to the action, rivalry, letdown romance sub-plots and so on.

 

30 Day Anime Challenge – Day 9

Day 9: Best Anime Villain

I was a little bit skeptical since there only a few anime villains which I considered to be good and out of that roster, I picked out Slaine Troyard from the anime series Aldnoah.Zero.

In this anime series, Earth and Mars have different governments currently in-rivalry with each other. Slaine was the son of Dr. Troyard who went to Mars in order to study Aldnoah Drives which were the main technology utilized by the people of Vers (Mars).

Slaine came shortly after to Mars via rocket but was on the verge of death after his suit was submerged with fluid as well as his insides. He was saved by Princess Asseylum by giving reverse CPR.

After his father’s death, Slaine was treated as some sort of nuisance by all of Vers except for its princess, Asseylum Vers Allusia.

After years and years, Slaine becomes in-debted to Asseylum after saving his life countless times from the people who wanted to kill him because he was born from Earth. He becomes loyal to her and is still evident throughout the series.

In the start of this series, Asseylum visits Earth as a sort of delegation for Vers in an effort to make amends with the United Earth government after the First Mars – Earth War. However, a group of Vers Empire sympathizers “assassinate” Asseylum thus sparking major outrage from both sides.

Vers puts blame on the United Earth government for assassinating their princess thus sparking a second Mars – Earth War.

Now Slaine is in the middle of this mess. After the death of Asseylum, he gets more discriminated and abused for his status as an Earthling and is treated more of a slave by the Counts of the Vers Empire military.

Slaine’s story is more of a rag-to-riches thing as he rises up from being a slave to being a Count himself. But his loyalty to Princess Asseylum still remains strong.

In the aftermath of the supposed assassination of Princess Asseylum, he founds out that the princess could be alive but hides that secret from the rest of the Vers Empire. Despite countless times of getting tortured by the Counts, he still won’t not give away any evidence of the Princess being alive. That’s something admirable about him.

When the landing craft used by the Counts was attacked, he was transported and convinced to stay at the side of Count Saazbaum who ordered the assassination of the Princess. He was given the decision of joining the war in his side or flee to the surface of the Earth. Later on, he saves the Count and Princess Asseylum after attacking the United Earth military’s HQ which later earns him the title of “Sir” Slaine Troyard and gains his own servant and inherits the landing castle which the deceased Count Cruhteo once owned.

After gaining the trust of Count Saazbaum, Slaine was deemed as the Count’s son – therefore, granting him the rights and privileges of being a Count’s son. Now this is where I applaud Slaine for his devious plan as he kills Count Saazbaum and uses those rights to command Saazbaum’s landing craft and its soldiers.

Slaine had great plans but went about them in a bad way – which makes a good villain but also a bad-luck Brian. His intentions were good but they were executed  wrongly.

This is why I applaud Slaine as a character because he’s one of those villains who sought for the good of everyone but went about it the wrong way.

He wanted to unite both the Vers Empire and the United Earth under one banner but thought that the way to do this was through hostilities – which never worked out in the end.

His mind became much more twisted with the ideas he had for both United Earth and the Vers Empire which ultimately contributed to his downfall.

Slaine was not the best character since sometimes he came out as somewhat annoying but at the same time, he was someone to sympathize with because he had good intentions but just went about it the wrong way.

Aldnoah.Zero was a great series if you overlook the overpowered-ness of the main male character since it gives you somewhat of an idea on how a scenario where Mars and Earth had their own different governments would turn out.

sorry this article came out late