19 January 2015: Slaine is still a fuck up
By now, if you've had any interest in the second cour of Aldnoah.Zero, you likely already know a number of spoilers that could be quite disconcerting in their own right, merely from a narrative perspective. Pretending it's possible to talk around some of the specifics to preserve some modicum of spoiler avoidance, I'm going to address one of my concerns while ignoring the bigger problem(s) entirely.
The current cour of Aldnoah.Zero opens more than year after the conclusion of the last one. Slaine, already on record as being the sort of guy who doesn't always makes the greatest decisions, has apparently thrown in with the Martians and lost whatever reluctance he had remaining towards killing Terrans. (Who, let's face it, are probably a bunch of sea-and-sky-hogging dirtbags anyway.) At the same time, he appears fully committed and loyal towards the idea of Asseylum while completely ignoring the ideals of Asseylum.
Slaine has been reunited with El Dorado Ritsuko who presumably back-briefed him on everything that happened since Slaine and Assey parted way back at the beginning of the first season. That is, he ought to be at least passably familiar with the goals and values Assey promoted all last season. Nevertheless, Slaine appears committed to a course of action that can't possibly end well. He's had more than a year to think this through, so I have no idea why doesn't seem to understand that this is going to come back to bite him in the assey, straight-up.
Still, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I'm not one of those viewers who pretends not to enjoy watching Aldhoah.Zero. Although the reactions I've seen on The Twitter and the #marimite have been universally negative and derisive, this is easily the show I look forward to the most each week. It admittedly has neither the most sophisiticated writing nor the most satisfying storyline, but I continue to enjoy it a great deal. I would prefer Slaine to develop into a more intelligent and successful protagonist, but possibly he's destined to remain a hapless quasi-antagonist who constantly falls prey to ironic disasters. You know, like Tampopo from Witch Craft Works.