Quick Summary • Best Moment • Setup • Delivery • Other Posts
Tower of God Season Two Episode 12 – Quick Summary
In Tower of God Season 2 episode 12, “A New Trial,” the Hand of Arlen was no more. Only rubble marked its location. Xia Xia had pulled Viole from the site before the explosions had wrecked everything. Viole might be safe, but what about Khun? Horyang Kang? And what message did Rachel leave for Khun, should he ever return?
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
Favorite Quote from Tower of God Season Two Episode 12
Such a touching display of emotion. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
I like stories where the main characters support one another. You know, victory-through-the-power-of-friendship and stuff like that! That’s why my favorite quote struck me as so kind and caring this week.
Novick awoke to find himself still alive. He had to be surprised, because the last thing he remembered was an explosion and the crashing down of the Hand of Arlen. It’s completely understandable that he felt grateful. Then he looked to his left.
Ran Khun lay there, eyes closed. Novick regarded him for a moment – long enough for me to wonder how he would express concern for his friend. Would he shake him? Curse the fates that had led to his death or injury?
Nope.
Novick simply asked (04:03), “Hey. Are you dead?”
It brought a tear to my eye, it did.
Favorite Moment from Tower of God Season Two Episode 12
I practically stood and cheered when I saw these guys. It’s been too long! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Setup: Engagement with This Season
Is this the first time we’ve heard anyone come out and call Viole the 25th Bam? I remember noticing that Bam’s entry in My Anime List called the 25th, and I wasn’t sure if it was a spoiler or not. Hwaryun is the first one I recall coming out and saying it within the series.
I’ve talked about how hard it’s been for me to review this season. I try to give a series the benefit of the doubt. If it doesn’t meet my expectations, I try to adjust them. But this series has been hard. Finally, I think I know why, and there were three things that drove the point home.
The first was takt op.Destiny. The first episode freaking blew me away. But the next one didn’t. I remember reading Lynn’s reviews over at The Otaku Author (like his review of the entire series). Also, I remember agreeing with him. I still do.
I had a hard time engaging with the characters so far. Even Xia Xia didn’t capture my imagination. Yet, anyway. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
But there were two things that allowed me to adjust my expectations. First, the characters resonated with me, particularly Takt and Destiny/Cosette. The second thing was the art. Though the story went in an unexpected direction, the art continued to amaze me. Together, those two factors helped me adjust my expectations enough to still enjoy the show.
The second thing was this season’s series Wistoria: Want and Sword (like episode 10). It, too, went in a direction I didn’t expect. Its character motivations weren’t what I hope for. Yet, I was able to adjust my expectations. It followed the same pattern as takt op.Destiny: characters that drew my interest (I couldn’t like Colette more) and the art is just mesmerizing. It seems optimized for its genre, and it accounts for a lot of my enthusiasm for that series.
Delivery: Old Friends Make a Huge Difference
The third and final clue? It’s my favorite moment this week. It was a quick shot around 00:30. Khun’s team, which was at least in part Bam/Viole’s old team, showed on screen. We got to see Hatz, Endorsi (and good heavens have I missed her!), and Anaak. They were just chilling and watching the news. But that quick shot reminded me of how much I missed them.
And how I haven’t been able to connect to any of the new characters in the same way. It’s not that I dislike Wangnan Ja. He’s a nice guy; easy to root for. But he’s no Rak Wraithraiser (who we also got to see this week around 01:12!). No disrespect intended towards Yihwa Yeon, but can you imagine either Endorsi or Anaak failing as much as she has?
I felt my spirits lift seeing old friends again lilke Rak again. He even even mentioned “turtles!” Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Before this episode started, I wasn’t sure if I could finish the second cour. But if we get some of those characters back, that might just swing my decision. That, and some of you have been leaving some great comments – I’d hate to miss out on those!
What did you think of the reveal of what Rachel did to Dan – and why? What were your favorite moments? Feel free to share in the comments!
Tower of God Season Two Episode 12: Other Posts
Other Anime Sites
- Reddit: Kami no Tou Season 2 • Tower of God Season 2 – Episode 12 discussion
- DoubleSama: Tower of God Season 2 Episode 12 Review
This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 01: Last chance
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 02: The Strongest Regular
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 03: The Trustworthy Room
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 04: Ramen and the Great Big Sky
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 05: The Other Team
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 06: Zygaena’s Flower
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 07: Mazino Magic
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 08: Her Name is Emily
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 09: One-Winged Devil
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 10: The Hand of Arlen
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 11: A Thick and Distant Wall
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 12: Archimedes
Love this series nice summary.
There’s a lot to like about it, isn’t there?
And thanks!
Their is but still great series and back this month for the workshop arc. Everyone who watches have different reactions
I agree with Vance’s post and thought about replying, but this post is going to be a bit broader and would be off-topic for a reply, so I’ll make a post on here on my own. You see, I need to collect my thoughts. I’m enjoying this season of Tower of God quite a lot, but the show has never been one I think too deeply about, and I’ve never been going back to check questions I had. Example: 25th Bam – yeah, I noticed. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I have no idea whether we’ve heard about that in show (I don’t hink so), or whether I skimmed over it online somewhere (more likely). It’s very clear that Bam is special.
My main question is FUG. Like Vance says, I’m pretty sure there’s a split in that faction, and something about them recruiting Bam is… weird. They’re obviously anti-royal, and they’re ostensibly training him to get rid of the more powerful among the royals, and they basically blackmail him into it by threatening to kill his team. Problem: Both Endorsi and Anaak are Jahad, part of FUG’s targets, and it’s clear they were part of this… team.
Now Rachel hires FUG (unless I misunderstood/misremembered something here) to kill Khun. Killing Khun in front of Bam is risky: it’s basically saying “if it suits us, we’ll kill your comrads anyway.” This is a very strange move if they value Bam’s powers on their side. Do that too often, and their threat loses its teeth. More than that, they’ve gained a powerful opponent, and one they trained up themselves.
This makes most sense if the guys within FUG who recruited Bam are reformers, who maybe think that the hardliners are too stubbornly anti-royal. The questions I have here is: why are FUG anti-royal? Do the reformers think that the hardliners have forgotten “why” the royals must go? Is there new information the two factions interpret differently? Are the “reformers” (not sure that’s precicely the right word; I’m far too shaky on FUG) willing to spare some of the royals for now (say those among Bam’s colleagues)?
Something’s fishy about them all, but I had the feeling that the two sides aren’t pulling on the same sides of the spring at least since last episode; definitely before Hwaryun’s offer.
And what does any of this have to do, if anything, with the oracle app? What are those experiments for?
Also, yeah, I’d really like to have those old characters back (though I must say I only barely remember the black swordsman – I had a vague, oh-yeah-there-was-someone-like-that-maybe moment seeing him). The more this show goes on, the more I think I should maybe have rewatched season one.
That’s a good point about FUG potentially saying they’ll kill anyway. I think the writer has a clear intent for how that’ll play out, and I think it’s intentionally ambiguous at this stage. Well worth thinking about, I’d say.
I like your theory about who recruited Bam. If I remember the closing scenes of season 1 correctly, Hwaryun recruited him. Given how she’s interacting with Khun in this season, I think that lends credibility to your theory.
I hope that the trend of the artwork improving continues. I hadn’t realized how sensitive I’d become to that sort of thing. Or maybe reviewing this and Wistoria at the same time was a mistake, given how dynamic and emotionally effective that animation turned out to be!
I think Rachel was revealed to be a sadist this episode. She’s a nasty piece of work.
It looks like there’s a power struggle in FUG according to what Khun concluded regarding Hwaryun, which the latter confirmed. The man who showed up earlier this season is apparently a Ranker capable of defeating any of the Slayers, which is why there is some deference to him within FUG and why Bam has had some freedom up until now. Hwaryun is on that man’s side and wants Bam to retain some freedom, which is why she proposed what she did to Khun.
And what a sadist! Any possible sympathy I might have felt for her is gone.
Okay, I didn’t have any, but it would have been gone, that’s for sure!
I enjoy watching how the FUG power struggle is playing out. That kind of political drama interests me, when done right. And I think they’re doing it right.