Almost done. No spoilers or I'll kill you with my brain.
Okay, does anyone understand what was up with the general staring at the blond girl with the snail in the Empire? I seriously think that was one of the most WTF moments in a pretty weird series.
I did not understand Dornkirk's plan until Folken laid it all out. I can't tell if that's because I wasn't paying attention or the sheer cognitive dissonance of deciding to end war by destroying whole countries was getting in my way.
I still don't like Folken. Sorry. Possibly if the cat-women weren't (hadn't been) so awful I might.
Dilandau getting sucked into Hitomi's world was . . . unexpected.
My tentative theory is that the writers needed Hitomi to go home for reasons that will doubtless become clear later, and had her freak out in a very stupid manner to make that happen. Because telling Van to stop fighting when someone is trying to burn him alive? Is not really smart. I mean, yes, it would be very interesting if the war was ended by negotiation, but considering Dornkirk's plans as mentioned above, I don't think it's going to happen here, and pacifism in the face of mortal peril is an individual choice, not something that can morally be imposed on others.
(And isn't that making decisions based on uneasy feelings, or whatever the mystic mumbo-jumbo formula is?)
But I do have no idea where this is going, which is something.