Dragonaut - 21

[Arika]

Summary:
Seeing Sieglinde and the others run out of the ISDA compound, Gio fires off three devastating blasts that knock all of them out. Toa doesn’t understand why Gio is doing this and decides to change into her dragon form so that she and Jin can escape. Gio, however, also transforms and proceeds to shoot her down. Landing on the beach below, Jin regains consciousness before Toa does and questions why Gio is doing all this. Gio’s answer is simply that Jin cannot save Toa, and because Jin doesn’t understand what he means, Gio explains that Toa is going to die soon. When Toa then wakes back up, Gio tells her to come with him and slaps aside Jin when Jin refuses to let him have her. Jin responds by tackling Gio and repeatedly punching him while saying that he’ll be the one who protects Toa. This gets Gio fed up enough to push Jin off of himself and to pull out his sword, but Toa stops him before he can do anything drastic. Gio then reiterates to Toa that only he can save her and reveals that he’s now the successor of Thanatos.
This shocks both Jin and Toa, and Jin reminds Gio that they had promised to protect Toa together. Gio, however, feels that he doesn’t belong. Their conversation is soon interrupted by Laura who fires her weapon at them and then changes into her dragon form. Having stopped Laura’s energy blast with his bare hands, Gio transforms again to take her out. One of the explosions during the fighting hits Sakaki’s helicopter, and the sight of this distracts Laura long enough for Gio to shoot her down. He then changes back into his human form and urges Toa to come with him. When Toa refuses and tells Gio to return to them instead, Gio again states that he doesn’t belong. He decides to give up for now though and as he walks away, he promises to come back and tells Jin not to forget what he said. Since Toa didn’t hear what Gio said to Jin earlier, she asks him about it, but Jin claims that it was nothing. Toa then notices that Laura’s injured dragon form is in the water and explains to Jin that this is Raum, the final original dragon from Thanatos. Laura returns to her human form when she sees Sakaki emerge from the nearby woods, but she faints soon afterwards.
As Toa tries to heal Laura, Jin questions Sakaki about why he is with a dragon that looks like his daughter. Sakaki, however, feels that this isn’t his daughter - for him, she’s just a tool. Toa eventually finishes her emergency healing, but she knows that Laura still needs proper medical care. When Sakaki doesn’t seem to care at all, Jin chastises him since Laura is his partner, so Sakaki claims that it’s foolish to have feelings for a dragon. Sakaki then gets a message from his men and walks off with Jin chasing after him. Laura wakes back up soon afterwards and, thinking that Toa feels the same way, she tells Toa that she doesn’t want to make anyone worry. Jin meanwhile finds out that a ship is coming for Sakaki and, although Sakaki is willing to let Jin get away this time, Jin first inquires if the ISDA’s technology can save an injured dragon. Without really answering, Sakaki questions why Jin wants to know, and Jin ends up running off without answering either. As the boat is leaving with Sakaki and Laura, Toa comments on how Laura is more exhausted than she looks. She explains to Jin that she knows because Laura is a fellow dragon, and this causes him to wonder if dragons know each other’s life spans.
On the boat, Sakaki hears Laura call out to him and grasps her hand to show her that he’s by her side, but he then realizes what he’s doing and lets go because she’s not truly his daughter. Moments later, armed men barge into his room with orders from headquarters to restrain him. Despite her condition, Laura leaps out of bed to protect him by setting up a shield, and the men respond by firing their guns. Seeing Laura barely able to urge him to get away before fainting, Sakai calls out to her and then jumps out the ship’s window. Back on the island, Jin and Toa are reunited with the rest of the Dragonauts, and Sieglinde notices that the two are acting a little distant to each other. The Dragonauts still don’t know why Gio is doing all this, so Jin reveals that Gio had claimed to have become the successor of Thanatos. Howling Star thinks that Gio did this to save himself, and although Toa refutes that because she knows his true reasoning, she doesn’t tell the others exactly what that reasoning is. In any case, Raina decides that they have no choice but to fight if they’re attacked.
Jin then heads outside to do some thinking about what Gio said, and Toa follows him, unsure of what to do because she doesn’t want to be separated from him. Sieglinde also comes along because she wants to know what Toa is hiding, and she’s particularly caught up over how Jin, Gio, and Toa had been living so happily together. To Sieglinde’s surprise, Toa reveals that she’s going to die soon and that Gio became the successor of Thanatos so that he could lengthen her life. Toa has figured out by now that Gio probably told Jin this, and she admits to Sieglinde that she didn’t say anything about it earlier because she didn’t want to shatter that calm and ideal life that they were living. In tears now, Sieglinde repeatedly asks why and admits that she was envious of them back then. As Toa hugs Sieglinde, she thinks to herself that she has to do something and wonders what she is able to do. Unaware of what’s going on behind him, Jin is asking himself the exact same thing at that exact same moment. Meanwhile, up in space, Gio is satisfied with how things are going as long as he can save Toa.


Preview




So I’m not sure what being Thanatos’ successor actually entails, but it felt like a pretty weak plot twist to me. I mean, Gio essentially showed up, announced he was going forward with doing whatever it takes to save Toa, and then left again. I don’t even really think he’s going to become a true antagonist, and it’s probably just a matter of time before he realizes the folly of his ways. The whole thing was watered down too because they spent a lot of the rest of the episode with characters either wondering why or just reacting to the news. In Jin’s case, he spent the episode moping about what Gio said instead of talking to Toa about it. The only other significant progress made was in Sakaki’s relationship with Laura, and it’s pretty clear that no matter what he might say, he does care about her. Ultimately, watching this episode left me feeling a little unsatisfied, and hopefully next week will be better.