Slayers - Volume 10 - Chapter SS

Bonus Translator/Editor Chat!

[Meg/ED]

Well, I believe we left off last time hinting that we might see Luke and Mileena again, so shall we open with them?

[Liz/TL]

Sure.

[Meg/ED]

I guess we don’t actually see them until the end of the first chapter, and they’re on the wrong side of the table to start, but our mercenary odd couple is definitely back this volume. And in a pretty interesting capacity, I think.

[Liz/TL]

Yeah, as much as we might think of Luke and Mileena as “replacements” for Amelia and Zel, the author clearly doesn’t want to repeat the same trick. They might work with our heroes, but they’re really out to serve their own interests first and foremost. They’re smart enough to know they can trust each other’s judgment (well, Mileena is, at least) but they’re not about to pool their resources to serve a common good.

[Meg/ED]

Nope! Not these people. It’s fun, though, because—arguments about loot aside—they actually do a really good job of working together toward a common goal. Especially now that they’re not being cagey with each other.

[Liz/TL]

Yeah, they’re more like competent equals earning a grudging respect. Whereas Zel and Amelia really felt like they were designed for the adventures they appeared in, if you didn’t know Luke and Mileena were created for these books, you might almost think they were protagonists from another series doing a team-up crossover.

[Meg/ED]

That’s so true. It’s easy to believe that Luke and Mileena have their own backstories, motivations, and objectives outside of what’s going on in this storyline. They just happened to cross paths with Lina and Gourry here, and so they get to enjoy the ride together.

Part of what’s interesting to me, though, is that because Luka and Mileena have their own thing going on, their presence adds flavor and fun rather than serving some integral plot-based purpose. What I mean by that is that I don’t think Lina and Gourry actually needed their help to “solve” this case, but their involvement certainly gives us outside insight into things. A better view of the bigger picture. We likely could have come to the same resolution by the end without them, but we’d be left with a few more questions.

[Liz/TL]

Yeah. In an alternate universe, it’s possible Lina would have ended up doing what Mileena did, provisionally trusting Lavas while being skeptical of his motives, not unlike what we saw her do in volume 2.

[Meg/ED]

I did find myself feeling like this story has a lot in common with volume 2, but it’s true that Luke and Mileena are in the same shoes Lina and Gourry were back then (that is, hired to protect a local big shot who might be up to no good). It’s a shame Lavas turns out to be a way badder dude than Talim!

[Liz/TL]

His motivations are different than Halciform’s, but he’s definitely running a similar scheme on a much larger scale. The demonoid fusions also threw me back a little to Rezo’s treatment of copy-Rezo back in book 3.

[Meg/ED]

I hadn’t really made the copy-Rezo connection because I was so fixated on the volume 2 parallels, but you’re absolutely right. I guess this makes Lavas a particularly interesting villain in a way. We’ve had antagonists like Rezo and Halciform who were willing to experiment on other people in the name of their own benefit, and we’ve had antagonists like Zuma and Duclis who were willing to transform themselves to satisfy some personal quest... and Lavas really checks both of those boxes.

[Liz/TL]

Yeah, I feel like the willingness to revisit themes (schemes?) like that is part of the author’s commitment to making the world feel real, large, and lived-in. If making demon chimeras is a thing you can do, why wouldn’t there be a dozen megalomaniacs out there, each seeing how far along they can take the technology? And each time, we as the readers learn a little more about how it works and what it can do.

[Meg/ED]

It indirectly helps us understand why things like the sorcerers’ council exist, and why what happened in Dils was such a tragedy. It’s good show-rather-than-tell-style world building.

I suppose each megalomaniac we meet is also a friendly reminder that, for all her chaotic leanings, Lina’s actually a pretty good girl! With her power, she easily could’ve turned into one monster of a supervillain. And on that note, I guess that’s why, without Amelia around, we have to throw in characters like Wizer every now and then to keep her on the straight and narrow.

[Liz/TL]

Yeah, I wouldn’t exactly say Lina is “lawful” in the novels, but she seems to be a little more concerned with respecting institutions, if nothing else than as a practical concern. So here, Lina and Wizer can be partners in not-crime, whereas the anime pits them against each other. That said, while Wizer and Ruvinagald actually do give us a rare tie back to the anime here in the later volumes, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot of comparison we can do. Like Duclis, they appear to have gotten a more or less total rewrite outside of their basic existences in the setting.

[Meg/ED]

It’s fun to speculate about the potential connections (i.e., how much of what’s going on in Revolution actually applies here in the book, if any at all?), but for all intents and purposes, Ruvinagald is kind of a black box in volume 10 since we have no real idea what’s happening there.

[Liz/TL]

True. And it’s possible that’s expanded on more in the short stories, and it’s also possible that how things are portrayed there is closer to what we see in the anime. I mean, when Wizer reveals himself, it seems like we’re supposed to know who he is... Though I can’t say I would be surprised to find out it was just the author playing with the Law of Conservation of Characters, making us assume that the masked man must be a previously named character in the story, when it’s actually someone we’ve never met but who would have a reasonable interest in the mystery. I, for one, certainly assumed the masked man would turn out to be the missing heir, so learning that guy’s actual fate was pretty disheartening.

[Meg/ED]

I know! Because I was drawing parallels to volume 2 while I was reading, I got my hopes up that Veisam would emerge from the shadows toward the end and have some bittersweet-yet-humanizing moment with Lavas. Boy, was I wrong. Learning, much less seeing, what became of the guy was painful. There’s not even much of a moral to salvage out of this one, so these “part 2” volumes seem to be walking a grim road. I do have to say that I would’ve loved to see the treasure room fight animated, though. That was a bright spot of fun along the way.

[Liz/TL]

You could definitely do a punchline with Lina’s solution at the end. But yeah, if you’re seeing these books taking us on a grim road, I’m afraid our next volume isn’t going to make things much brighter.

[Meg/ED]

Sounds like there’s trouble in Crimson too!

[Liz/TL]

Dark goings-on in the sunset town, for sure. We won’t see Luke, Mileena, or the men in black next time, but that doesn’t mean we’re starting a new storyline...

[Meg/ED]

Bring it on, I say!

[Liz/TL]

No choice but to press on. To Crimson!