Gowther: clearly a fan of brains over brawn…
After last week’s set up this chapter felt a little… flat. Don’t get me wrong, getting to see more of Gowther’s abilities was great, but overall the pacing felt a little slow, leaving me wanting more.
It all kicks off where we were left in issue #63, and while did enjoy Helbram’s banter with Dreyfuss I feel that their conversation didn’t achieve a great deal. Helbram is sly; Dreyfuss clearly doesn’t trust him (he’s Hendricksen’s right hand man, so no wonder); the Holy Knights and their demonically-suped-up counterparts in the younger generation don’t get along. All interesting, but nothing was really added beyond what we have already seen during Hendricksen and Dreyfuss’ confrontation a couple of chapters back.
What did catch my interest was Helbram’s admittance that the Deadly Sins might be looking to break into Merlin’s castle – now Hendricksen’s base of operations, which he suggests is ‘full of magical artifacts’ (read: demonic nastiness). Is that the same Merlin as was once one of the Sins, I wonder? So much potential speculation on that front…
In any case we could well be visiting the castle as Meliodas looks to retrieve his stolen sword fragment and prevent the release of the demon clan.
Elsewhere, Diane and King attempted to teleport to Liones by being eaten by a fairy-dog-thing.
Yep… Guess that sums it up, really, other than to say I did enjoy some of the funnier moments between the two (King’s hopeless love for Diane is one of my favourite aspects of his character…). This chapter certainly felt a lot more in touch with its humourous side than the previous couple of installments, and that was nice to see.
The main meat of the chapter, though, saw the trio of Gowther, Ban and Meliodas continuing to battle their way towards the captial through a field of Holy Kinghts. So far, it’s all going rather swimmingly, with the Holy Knights having to resort to using physical attacks to avoid Meliodas’ full-counter. That simply plays into the Sins’ hands, and Ban remarks that the only problem the three face is that it will be awful time-consuming to beat all the Knights on the battlefield.
Not that Meliodas’ cares: he’s properly hacked off, it would seem, and is quite happy to bludgeon his way through an entire army to rescue Elizabeth. Scary.
Fortunately (for the Holy Knights) that’s when Gowther steps up.
Opting for a smarter strategy, he pulls out his sacred weapon, the Twin Bow Herritt (a sort of energy-longbow-thingy), and shoots all the Holy Knights with light. This completely rewrites their memories, turning them into the Sins’ best friends, family and (weirdly) lovers – as long as no-one gives the game away.
In a nutshell, Gowther not only defeated an entire army in one move, but turned them into the Sins’ allies. What can you say? I really love his intellegent combat style and complete lack of social skills; Gowther is fast becoming one of my favourite Sins.Take a bow, you glasses-sporting genius you.
Two questions are raised by all this:
1) How come Gowther still has his sacred treasure?
All the other Sins thus far (with the exception of King) managed to lose them… Perhaps Gowther is simply less goofy than the likes of Diane, Ban and Meliodas (that seems a likely answer, thinking about it – those three are pretty dense at times).
2) Can the Sins be stopped?
I mean, they’re pretty much strolling towards the castle at the moment. In the past, Holy Knights have proved formidable (ish) opponents, but currently they’re just being swatted aside. I know the first generation and perhaps more interestingly Arthur Pendragon are incoming, but just how strong are they..? On the balance of current evidence, they will have to be pretty godly to put a stop to the triad’s current nonchalant rampage.
Bring it on…
Just a note on that end page… Hendricksen looks seriously unimpressed with his current situation: escorting some brattish kid king around Liones. I’m sure he won’t let that lie for long…
THE GOOD!
- I finally got to talk about some action! HOORAY! Gowther is a thinking man’s fighter, much like King, and seeing the ease with which he won the fight was pretty neat.
THE BAD!
- The chapter certainly packed a punch (and getting to see Gowther’s abilities was great) but I was kind of hoping for more. Hopefully next time, with Arthur (still) incoming, my prayers should be answered…
OVERALL: Another good set-up chapter, with some neat and well drawn action, but I feel it lacked a little oomf (eg, a great twist, or action to die for) to tip it over the edge into greatness. I give it 6.5/10.
Koba out.
Sleeping Geeks 