Title: Record of Grancrest War Vol. 3
Author: Ryo Mizuno (Story), Makoto Yotsuba (Story/Art), Miyuu (Character Art)
Publisher: VIZ Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
Genre: Fantasy, Battle
Publication Date: May 14, 2019
The Story
Volume three of Record of Grancrest War gets set for a major battle against the King of Sievis himself. Siluca’s ploy to rally the independent lords worked. She even sent false letters to lords who served directly under the King of Sievis in order to deceive him. After feigning no hope and imminent defeat, they were able to launch a surprise pincer attack and take down the barons serving under the King! This caused the King to retreat and for Theo to obtain a higher status and more power!
With the battle over with, the next part of their plan was put into action… to join the Alliance! Siluca went to see her father as well as Lady Marrine. Siluca pleaded her case; however, Marrine and Aubest retreated to hold a counsel on whether or not Siluca and Theo would be beneficial to The Alliance. Sadly, due to the fact that they were aligned with the Union and attacked the Alliance King, it would cause too many problems if they allowed them to join… even with The King of Sievis’ ploy to obtain all land for himself. Their application was denied.
This lead to Siluca returning back home to where it all began, looking for allies to fight against the impending battle against the strongest force in the Alliance: Waldlind. Siluca was also denied any aid, meaning that it was just the same group that fought against the King of Sievis that was going to have to battle Waldlind’s superior armor. The attack begins… and our volume ends!
Wow.. I didn’t expect that Theo and Siluca would have been rejected by both the Alliance and The Union. They really have their backs up against a wall here as they have to face the strength of Waldlind by themselves. All of the politics they tried to play failed and that means that they’re going to have to figure out another way to see Theo’s (and by proxy Moreno and Lassic’s) goals through to their end. Next volume looks to be packed with more action but I’m more interested to see what’s going to happen in the aftermath of it all. It also makes me wonder if Siluca has something else up her sleeve. She’s been good at feigning stuff so far so we’ll see if she has any clever ploys to help pull them through this one.
Characters
Honestly, for as much that happened in this volume, there really wasn’t anything in the way of character development. Sure, we got better looks at Marrine and Aubest but they seemed rather generic. Aubest, as a mage, is emotionless but he needs to be that way but as the adoptive father of Siluca, he loves her with all of his heart… he just can’t be weak and show that in front of the public since it is his duty remain as neutral as possible for the good of the people and the land.
Marrine is also the same way. She needs to be as tough as possible in order to make the best decisions for The Alliance. As its pinnacle leader, she cannot afford to make mistakes. She even admits that having someone like Siluca on the side of The Alliance would be hugely beneficial and that alone would be enough to accept her but she is smart in the fact that she weighed the consequences and political possibilities of accepting a Union Lord and his Mage into the faction that they just finished attacking. Marrine had to come to a tough decision for the good of her people and that was to reject Silcua’s plea to switch sides. While Marrine seems cold and uncaring due to her strictness, you can tell that she only acts within the best interests of her people, showing her strength and will to protect them from any undue hardships… the signs of a true leader.
Outside of that, it was business as usual with our cast of characters. Moreno and Lassic still served up as comedic relief, Siluca was still a strategist, although we did get to see her in peril when she was denied by everyone she went to for help, and Theo is still Theo… a guy who cares a little TOO much about his own people… although many see that as a strength. He still has a backbone at least so he’s still setting himself apart from other kind main characters that you typically run across.
Overall Thoughts
I predicted that there would be a snag in the last review but I misplaced it. I felt that there would have been a snag in gathering the independent lords and I was almost right until they actually showed up. The snag came when they tried to join The Alliance but I didn’t think that they would also have been denied aid from The Union as well! This really puts Theo at a huge disadvantage… something he didn’t need when he has The Alliance’s strongest land of Waldlind knocking on his door with flaming boulders and high-powered crossbows! I’m beginning to wonder if they’re even going to survive this conflict. Imagine if Theo is captured and negotiations fail. Where do they go from there?
I just can’t seem them winning this battle. If so, then you can think of every battle hereafter as nothing more than a plot device. This early into a series, we need to have some major upset that puts our heroes in peril… only to find a crafty way out that ends up benefitting them. If they beat Waldlind’s forces, then what’s stopping them from just making their own third faction and taking everything for themselves? That would be boring if you ask me. Sure, it would obtain the goal of uniting the entire land under one faction but that seems like such a cop-out ending. I want to see more struggle and a better, well-crafted way of obtaining that goal.
That’s why I see Theo losing this battle. I hope I’m right but we’ll have to wait until Volume 4 to see if I am.
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