Now that volume 15 is over I'd like to point out some of the "salvaging" from the WN to LN and how it relates to this arc:
Flora wasn't kidnapped by Lucius in Amande... Lucius wasn't there, and Flora only passed through some time before.
Instead when she gets word that her sister's in Rodania (since she wasn't at the border fortress) she goes by herself to meet Christina leaving Hiroaki and Roana behind in Galarc.
Reiss and Lucius come to assassinate her on the airship, and Vanessa isn't there since she's still with Christina in Rodania...
But on a lark Lucius teleports her to those woods, without Reiss really caring; Lucius isn't out for revenge against Rio, having not fought him yet.
Rio finds her and rescues her from Lucius, killing him in the process.
Then they make their way back... by foot and staying in inns, not flying. And encounters our princess knight Sylvie on the road after they encountered her distraught runaway sister Estellle.
And so here we have a related change: Rio didn't fight Rui and scare off the army at the border while escorting Christina home; there was no army and Rui wasn't there.
Instead it was here while escorting Flora back that he faced Rubia's army and fought Renji.
And thus Hiroaki's bout of jealousy and challenging Rio to a duel happens after these events in the WN instead.
I find it interesting how she tore apart the 7th, 8th, and 9th arcs of the WN, taking plot points and recontextualizing them into new places in the timeline, and then rebuilt the leftovers into the last few volumes.
Anyone else have some examples they found interesting?
Between this, and all the other major differences like how Celia ends up traveling with Rio and meeting Miharu, Liselotte and Rio's first (official) meeting, how Latifa and the other spirit folk girls and Miharu don't meet 'cause they're ignored just like the Yagumo girls, the controversial happening at the party, etc... I think it was complete bullshit a shame that the Narou admins claimed that the WN and LN were the same story.
It's got more changes than a movie adaptation of a Macross series.
OTOH, that gives me hope that the anime will be a loose, mostly original adaptation.... with an original ending instead of "read the books to find out more"
