I would have preferred Baraou no Souretsu be off the bubble by this point in the season.  But we can only order off the menu here – it is what it is.  I like the story this series is telling but I’m still not sold on the way it’s being told.  The pacing has certainly slowed a bit (as I thought it might), but my engagement with events is still hit and miss.  I realize the line delivery and general tone here is a stylistic choice – it’s just that it’s not one that I’m wild about at this point in the series.

Those who are fans of Game of Thrones will certainly have flashbacks watching these events play out.  George R.R. Martin has said (though it would have been fairly apparent) that he partly based A Song of Ice and Fire on The Wars of the Roses, so it’s hardly surprising that watching this part of Requiem of the Rose King has such a familiar feel.  Edward IV is indeed Robb Stark (well, more accurately Robb is Edward), that much is obvious.  And while there are no Freys involved here, a misguided marriage is the impetus for much of what’s to come.

That much is history.  Edward dragging Richard along on bogus hunting trips so he can slip and away and bang Elizabeth is a conceit as far as I know.  And certainly, Henry VI posing as a shepherd and falling in love with Richard is true historical fantasy.  It seems an odd choice to me, frankly, even as fantasy goes – maybe it would have helped if we’d gotten to know Henry as a character, but he’s basically a prop.  If you’re going to make Richard a hermaphrodite it’s no stretch to have them fall in love with a man, but there’s really no emotional underpinning for this relationship that I can see.

As for Edward, like Robb he’s basically thinking with the royal sceptre.  Warwick is not a man whose advice Edward should be disregarding – they don’t call him “the kingmaker” for nothing.  By marrying Elizabeth Woodville – the widow of a minor noble from the losing side who’s this far away from being a pauper – Edward is already risking huge scandal and dissent in the kingdom.  By throwing over the chance for a hugely strategic pairing with Lady Bona of the French royal family, he’s throwing away a chance to stabilize the country and put the war of succession to bed for the foreseeable future.  Not to mention pissing off probably the most important man in the kingdom after himself (and maybe after nobody) and the entire French royalty (but especially Bona of Savoy).

I’ll give this whole Richard-Henry thing some rope until I see where the series is going with it.  It’s not as though Richard couldn’t use some affection in his life – though if he knew were he was getting it from his feelings would certainly be different.  Ultimately this is Richard’s story, not Edward’s, and sooner or later the narrative has to shift in that direction (though with the series running for two split cours, there’s not quite as much urgency for that to happen as there might be).