hats off to the writing in the ILTV finale; I've had my gripes with the way the anime has been adapted so far but episode 12 really hit the nail on the head I think.

That added monologue where Rei goes "no, actually, I actually wish she would notice me and fall in love with me and see me the way I see her", while it was condensing a much longer internal monologue, was a wonderful little summation of her feelings and I feel like the added bluntness does a lot for how raw her feelings come across as.

and while I was sad that "Rae is mine, don't take her from me" got translated the coward's way ("Don't take what's mine from me") the addition of Claire physically grabbing her and pulling her away does sooooo much for her character, especially since the manga and the light novel never really addressed the fact that Rei and Manaria treated her like a prize to be won. One of my biggest concerns with LN1 is how little internality Claire gets, so her falling in love in LN2 felt a little sudden. That little bit does so much for her to reassert herself into the narrative and makes her realizing her feelings feel so much more natural.

Just, wonderful, I was looking forward to this arc a lot and I'm so happy it got done justice with the very obviously limited resources that the anime was working with.