I don’t have as much to say about this episode as I did the first one - really a natural consequence of the first episode being a total surprise to me in just about every way whereas going into the second episode I was obviously a lot more prepared for what the show would be like. I am glad that Arknights fans seemed to enjoy reading my initial thoughts though, that episode 1 post got a lot of notes and replies and reblogs and it was just nice lol.

As for episode 2, still enjoyed it! I’ll be honest, I did not like Mephisto at all - he was very camp and hammy in a way that feels a little too on the silly side for the tone that’s been established already. But once we were past him all the strengths of the prior episode continued to apply - a great sense of danger and caution and fear, alongside gradually unravelling Doctor’s feelings on their own situation and stuff. It’s fun, it’s tense, we get a small exposition drop that makes sense in universe and explains why some of our characters are basically magic, and it even includes a nice bit of foreshadowing where Ace is like “yeah some people can heal and some people can like burn cities down”, shortly before we’re met with someone burning a city down in a frankly terrifying display of power. Neat! This also reminds me but I’m quite glad that we’ve not really had any victories yet. Doctor’s genius strats can’t turn coal into gold - we’re still fundamentally outmatched in every situation. But where those battle smarts come in handy is just in getting us out of situations, being able to minimise casualties and avoid losses. Again it plays into Rhode Island’s quite ragtag underdog feel. The vibe is just good lol.

davor

ist jetzt

denn gleich

ist erst später

davor ist dann