Record of Grancrest War (Episode 13) - To the Homeland

Theo arrives in Sistina with hopes of finally overthrowing the Rossini family that have ruled like tyrants. He only has a small party but hopes to bring the common folk over to his side.

What happened?

In an attempt to prove his worth to the other members of the alliance that he should lead them, Theo has returned to Sistina and plans to lead a revolution against the tyrannical lords – the Rossini family. To make things even harder, he has arrived with just Siluca, Aishela, Irvin, Priscilla, and the werewolf twins, Emma and Luna.

Their first goal is to announce Theo’s arrival. It should get the Rossini’s all fired up and lead them to further alienate themselves from the common folk. They head to the main city and bump into one of the Rossinis. To make things that much stranger, he is having dinner with the Black Witch that they fought at the vampire’s castle.

Salvador Rossini instantly challenges Theo and activates a blood pact with the residents of the town, turning them into violent killers. Siluca uses a flash spell to distract them so that they can escape.

Theo goes from village to village attempting to gain support, but everyone is scared of joining him. Finally, he returns to his home village and bumps into an old friend, Rebecca. She gathers the villagers so that he can address them, but the response is the same. Theo is about to leave when Rebecca asks him if he’d like to visit his father’s grave before he does.

He goes with her, knowing that it’s a trap. He does it to save the villagers, who then rise up to join him against Salvador Rossini. After some fighting, Salvador attempts to flee, but Rebecca stops him. He stabs her as he tries to escape, however, she bought Theo enough time to catch up and cut him down.

Record of Grancrest War Episode 13 Siluca Theo and Aishela

What did you think?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. This series is so much stronger when it focuses on Theo and his small group of friends. Ironically, this is the group that appears on the title image for the series, excluding David Lasic and his mage. At first, I wondered if it was down to my preference for adventure-style series that follows a group through thick and thin, but I think there’s more to it in this instance.

The dynamic between Theo and Siluca is great. Then when you add Aishela, Irvin and the others, it’s how the season started and seems to make more sense to me. We also don’t miss a bunch of action because there are too many storylines to follow. I like my story more focused unless we’re going for something truly epic and in that case, one season isn’t going to cut it.

Record of Grancrest War Episode 13 Salvador Rossini

What have you learnt?

It’s often too tempting to try to tell a bigger story than you may have, or are even capable of successfully delivering. That’s one of the things that made Goblin Slayer so good. Rather than trying to show us everything, it focused on Goblin Slayer and his party as they went about their day to day adventures. It would work here too. You can absolutely have all the political wrangling going on in the background but stay with Theo as he moves through it. Let’s see the war from his perspective and those close to him. As much as I enjoy Marrine, it would be a tighter and more engaging story if it focused on Theo and Siluca.