Armony Eiselstein

30 days of anime Day 12: an “ecchi” pic from your favorite series

This scene from episode 20 never stops making me uncomfortable. Since my first rewatch I felt the vibes so OFF.... I feel the dynamic between Amshel and Solomon is highly overlooked in general so I wanna talk about it!

for starters I just noticed as soon as Amshel arrives Solomon pours him a glass (with no thanks from him) as if it's expected of him. Pour your own glass your weirdo (this establishes their dynamic very well in their very first onscreen interaction)

This is also the first time we see the Chevaliers reunited minus Karl so it's super important to all the which makes it extra worth exploring in more detail I think!

Then Amshel breaks a bottle for no visible reason at all (it was def him with mind or wind powers, which he has; we see it in episode 40 too when he cuts Solomon arm quietly and makes 'power waves') and conveniently splashes Solomon's white suit. Solomon doesn't even flinch or complain; nii-san can do anything. I'd like to see Amshel trying to play this at Nathan right =)

Of course it's also a narrative sign that Solomon will follow a different path of his brothers but it was a deliberate moment caused by Amshel - a quite humiliating one, when they are all grown men. He probably knew Solomon had danced with Saya at the ball and stopped Karl back at the mansion too. This is speculation, so either he wanted to make a point or... he's just used to treat Solomon like that even in front of others.

When asked (and only when asked) Solomon tries to say something and he doesn't even look into Amshel's eyes when he's asking like an employee talks to a boss, all polite and non-confrontative. In comparison with his 'cool and charming' persona at the ball and with Karl, he's just totally miserable now. I think this shows how his "power" in Cinq Fleches is just a facade. He has no cards to play in important discussions - even though he's canonically Diva's favorite. And that means nothing in the hierarchy of Diva's chevaliers (since she's also used by Amshel, we know that, but thinking of how things were supposed to be, that's telling). It's also telling that Solomon doesn't try to pull this card not even once - all things considered, he never tried to leverage Diva to rise his bargain power in the group, and I think that shows that he's still quite different from Amshel.

And this bastard KNOWS all that, look at his smug face rubbing in Solomon's face that his opinion don't mean shit :DDDDD

And then Solomon complies and bootlicks a little. What else can he fucking do, right? Rebel 20 episodes earlier would have been nice tbh

This pasty smug face AGAIN just in case some viewer didn't see how much of an asshole he is. One second from saying "good boy" to Solomon or something. Maybe he did telepathically. But it's clear he's reveling on his power over Solomon pretty much in public, in front of the other brothers.

I guess we still could consider that maybe Solomon was playing the game and just pretending to be affected, but at the end of the episode, he's struggling to make a choice. It wasn't just "lol dumb niisan thinks I'm gonna obey" They aren't playing intragroup cat and mouse, Solomon genuinely struggles to disobey his orders. (after the zoo he apologizes to Amshel too) And I think this is super important to understand Solomon's whole arc and later decisions - and the full grasp of Amshel's manipulation across the cast. (tldr kill amshel with hammers)

headcanon scribbles over chat~

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