Nightfall's Nest: A Room of One's Own

Meeting Filia | Luna's Letter | Downtown | Valgaav | Filia Imprisoned | Plotty Episodes | The Little MerMerc | Justice! | Jiras | The Ancients' Story | The Golds' Side | Politics | Wrapping It Up

Episode 1: Meeting Filia
* Amelia is not very glad to see Lina this time. She hides. And she doesn't even greet Zel. o.O
* Zel acts completely natural during this episode, not macho or depressed or even repressed at all.
* Filia is a really pudgy Ryu--and she has a shark nose. Okay, so it's probably baby fat.
* Gourry can throw qi/ki from the Sword of Light (hereafter to be referred to as the SoL), like Kenshin.
* Zel and Amelia can do illusions. Carrying sunglasses around in your dimensional pocket I can buy, but not a wooden arrow-sign.
* Apart from it's Zel/Gourry nature, Zel's reaction to the tsunami is incredibly girly. GASP! CRINGE! CLING! ^_^

Episode 2: Letter from Luna
* Zel apparently does not need to eat every day. He's prancing around on the bow while everybody else is withered with starvation. We all suspected it was true, and now we know. The man has the metabolism of a shark.
* Gaav apparently used a waterfall for his audience chamber.
* Rezo invented, or at least experimented on, bombs and gunpowder. He certainly does get around. (glomps the Rezo)
* Amelia used a harisen on Lina! Yatta!
* Filia takes a heckuva lot longer to change into a human than Milgazia did in Next. Zel says that he's heard the transformation is easier for dragons who actually like humans, and she does seem to need less time later in the series. Of course, Lina's first Levitation took about six times as long as any subsequent one, so go figure.
* Listening hard, I heard 'miko' where the subs put Shrine Maiden. Which is a good translation, but they shouldn't put Miaka in the same category as Sylphiel. Oh, the wrongness.

Episode 3: Downtown
* Amelia filks! Remember that Harvest Festival song from NEXT? While she's on the top of that spire, she makes up a song about justice to that tune.
* And while we're on the subject, wow, has her balance improved.
* Xel deliberately gives Amelia an opportunity to look good in front of the townspeople.
* He also has a really juvenile sense of humor involving amphibians and old ladies who deplore the Youth Of Today.
* And he directes the townspeople to the deranged blue thing blowing up their temples. Is this a priest thing? Is he being responsible? Is he just trying to get them all killed by the chimera? I don't know.
* 'I guess I got a little hyper' my ___, Zel. I am so glad someone called him on this.
* Xel still has no dignity. I've seen it written somewhere that he falls off the roof because he's so upset about Zel getting slammed by Filia. Uh-uh. He's laughing his cute little mazoku butt off.

Episode 4, maybe? Fighting Valgaav * Filia might actually have a phobia about monsters--she starts having temper tantrums and throwing lightening before Xel even really shows.
* Amelia clonks Zel on the head with a really big sword for asking about her weight.
* And then he does frog-face again! Hee!

Episode 5: Filia imprisoned
* Filia, to Jiras: "I guess there are different types of evil ones--but the evil one I know is mean, gets away with everything, makes fun of people, has bad taste..."
* The legendary 'dragon finder' is a tiny feather-duster. This is of course classic Slayers, but it's also such nonsense that either Rezo or Xel must have been involved.
* Filia doesn't like being called a reptile. Xellos never calls her one.
* Filia can be taunted into TRASHING townships, Godzilla-style.
* And then she's more concerned about her modesty than the casualties.

Episodes I forgot to number
* When Filia, after lecturing Lina about responsibility, falls down, drugged, Amelia explains it this way: "She must be tired from all that talking." Meow, O-hime-chan!
* Xel is completely willing to be distracted from teasing by a puzzle--and he shares his information. Whether he would have shared it if he'd had more, I won't try to guess.
* The Ryuzoku put their faces on the wheel-spokes. This is exactly the kind of pointless arrogance that makes me sympathize with everyone who hates them.
* Filia blames Xellos for the train waking. --Why???!
* Val's real name was pronounced Val-tie-ah-ra.
* When Gourry is having trouble with his sword, Zel lends him his (smirk).
* The senior dude's excuse for the massacre is that the Ancient Dragons had 'increased hostility.' Whatever.
* Filia is good at cat's cradle.
* Zel's eyes are dark grey. They match his rocks.
* Shabby and Snoozy--I mean, Shabranigdo and Ceiphied fought in the SHINma Sensou (the war of evil's death) not the KOUma Sensou (the war of fallen evil, which is when Xellos had his big moment).
* Xel's mind-bogglingly childish reaction to Filia's constant bigotry: sour grapes, agreement, or just aaaaargh? I'm going with just aaaargh.
* Ceiphied is the red, not the blue dragon, and Seiryuu is the fire dragon.
* Filia's father's name is Bazal or Basil ul Copt, and he's a high priest.

Episode 17: ...come on, it's episode 17!
* The truth is, at this point Amelia just likes going magical girl because it's fun. When she pulls a speech and the fish-people just blink at her, she goes all grouchy and says something like, 'You have no sense of humor.'
* Wai! Layla's human guy, Kireru or 'Killer' is a direct quote from Kaworu Nagisa's debut in Evangelion! Is he another cameo by Akira Ishida, as Kaworu was? I'm almost positive. I can't find this role in the seiyuu database, but I'd know that 'boku-tachi' anywhere! And his name is Killer. Given Kaworu... Okay, no spoilers.
* She may do them mostly for fun, but Amelia still does serious J-speeches, too.
* Gourry can break boulders with his shoulderblades while chained to them, and he can swim with his legs tied together. O.O

Episode 18: Amelia in Justice Land
* Gourry does a lousy job of being fooled by the appearance of things. The geezers are geezers, as far as he's concerned, and the dragon, however cute, is still a dragon. Let's take a moment here to remember that he was the first person to know Xellos for what he is in NEXT.
* Zel is, as ever, totally unfazed by this nonsense, and refuses to be sucked in. Even when he's being called a demon. He just sits there with a sour, resigned expression. A moment of silence, please, for the open, almost affectionate, barely-dour-at-all Zel we saw at the beginning of the season.

Episode 19
* Despite her legendary clutziness, Amelia does know some principles of hand-to-hand. Usually she hauls off with a Visafrank or uses other things (like gravity) to improve her punches, but I saw a very nice leg-sweep here.

Episode 21: the Ancient's story
"After the Kouma Sensou, the dragons lost Seiryuu-ou. They wanted a new power to win against the mazoku. That power [the Longbow of Light, or LoL] was with us, the Ancient Dragons, who did not participate in the war. We did not paricipate in the war because the power was too great, and we feared it might wreck the balance in this world. New powers only give new destruction. We sealed the fearful power."

Episode 22: The Golds' side
* Xel calls the Superior Chief Saichuro-san, and he's all long-time-no-see.
* Would they stop with the stupid light effects already? Close up on Xel's staff, it's dried-blood-brown. Zoom out, it's pale beige. As a fanworker, I say aaaargh!
* Saichuro: "The ancients' didn't obey us about the Gold dragons taking the last weapon. So we wiped them out before they could disturb the peace. And Dark Star's weapon was the only thing that was left. We sealed this place using many barriors to make sure no one can see it again, and we have protected it all this time. No matter what the ancient's wishes are, we cannot allow them to have soch power other than us."
Xellos, a moment later: "It seems like they made a barrior to keep you guys out." The subtext being, and who can blame them?
* Xellos: "It's better to clean up a mess before it becomes a problem."
* Amelia's mind attack has Xellos a crumpled blue lump on the floor.
* Amelia trusts Xel. Her way of restraining him is to loosely drape her arms around his neck--this is after that nauseating astral attack. He completely ignores her; not only doesn't he fight her, he doesn't even shake her off. Another instance Xellos returning courtesy for courtesy, even after injury.
* After having his head stomped on the way to the weapon, Xel grows his first fang and tells Lina she's rude. This says a lot about his character to me. He doesn't complain about her tactics; they already have an agreement between them that they're going to use each other as hard as they have to and not bitch about it. This agreement he honors. But come on, anybody would say something in that situation. So what he comes up with is to whine, "Lina-saaaan! Don't step on people's heads!" Note please, too, that he still uses the honorific.

Episode 23
* Yo! Fanon Inaccuracy Alert! Filia did NOT get kicked out of the shrine. She handed over her gem and necktie and left entirely of her own volition, guys. Cut the angst!
* Xellos is ALONE with Darkstar when he says, in his trademark offhand manner, "Screaming won't do you any good. You shall return to your world."
* Lina's philosophy of life in her own words: "Girls are supposed to be happy and proceed to front, and when necessary you just have to go like BAM!"
* Transporter technology exists, and Jiras has some understanding of it.
* Serrus, to Xel: "I'd like to show my respect to you and your boss, who successfully escaped from Galbeila." I forget the context, but I guess I thought it was important at one point. Who the heck is Galbeila? Gaav? The guys who subtitled my verson of Try--I'll be polite and just say I don't think they're native English speakers.
* Xel feels the need to remind everybody that he's only helping out because the mazoku take proprietary interest in the world's destruction about every five minutes. Sheesh. Seriously, he says it over and over. Who you trying to convince, buddy? Your reputation's already pretty much pond scum with everybody you're talking to.

Episode 24
* Dark Star is only a problem in the first place because it absorbed Volfied, and black+white=BOOM!
* Xel calls Volfied's guys (Erobos and Serrus) Kamikami.
* When Lina promises to torture Xel later (for knocking her out and stealing the LoL), his response is But Mommy Made Me. That's Juuousama, I believe, not LoN.
*On an interesting note--usually when Xel's backing out of trouble, at least in the sub version, he has this stressed-out, weakly desperate tone. But his 'later, huh?' here is mostly exasperated.
* Zel says "Hikari-O" with Gourry like he's been waiting years.
* When they team up to fight Dark Star, the Slayers bunch into twosomes, but Xel and the Kamikami are each on their own.
* Zel knows his physics--and his stimulants! ^.^
* Magic-wise, Zel's a fantastic improvisor, Lina knows her lore, and Xel always knows what's going on (often because he set it up in the first place). I'm not knocking the other three--Gourry sees clearly, for one thing--but mostly they're there for morale and backup.
* Some secrets Xel is so serious about that he forgets about gravity.
* Forget this proprietary interest crap. Xel fights for L-sama.
* Xel will let Lina hold the bow when it's his idea.
* And if he can hold her romance-style while she's doing it.
* Fanon Inaccuracy Alert! Xellos does not have cat-eyes. They don't shine (Phibrizzo's do), but they're ovoid, like Lina's. (Beats head against desk) How many fics have I written where the diamond-irises are an issue? Bah.