Summary
Hero continues to have women trouble. Lady Knight comes on to him after
they spar, and while visiting Gate City as Black Knight, the Demon King’s
representative, he has a run-in with the Dragon Princess. She’s decided Hero’s
her husband.
There’s an earthquake in Winter’s Pass village. It’s the second in a
month, a shorter interval than last time. Queen and Head Maid obviously know
something about it and decide they may have to step up their plan. Beforehand,
Queen takes Hero and Elder Sister Maid to the Iron Country to see something she
commissioned. On the way to the workshop Elder Sister ruminates on the value of
knowledge and education, and how they can help people understand there’s a
better way. It’s a good thing that’s on her mind, because the piece Queen
commissioned is a printing press.
The night before she leaves, Queen tries to sneak into Hero’s room. He
got a declaration of love from the Dragon Princess. Not knowing what to do with
it, he left it as an offering at the church, where Knight swiped it. Now she
has the same idea as Queen. Neither will budge, but Head Maid has a solution –
in with the both of you! Queen’s suggests a number of one-sided ‘compromises’
before they find a solution – get in his bed at the same time. Queen tells
Knight she’s going back to the demon lands. Apparently being the Demon King
requires a licence. She also needs to try and smooth the political situation,
since some of the demon tribes still want a war. She asks Knight to watch over
Hero. The next day she leaves with Head Maid, and gives Elder Sister a magic
ring. It lets her change appearance, allowing her to take Queen’s place while
the latter is away.
The former garrison commander of Gate City is put on trial. He tries
the ‘possessed by demons’ defense. It doesn’t work. He points out his role in
winning the battle for Bright Light Island. Nope. Many of his men died, and
they allowed the demons to retreat. Sorry – you deserted your post, so it’s the
death penalty for you! Rather, for an unfortunate body double after the White
Night King sneaks him out, minus a rat-eaten eye. Both of them vow revenge.
Thoughts
Well. Right after I say that the harem bits aren’t very prevalent, this
happens. Granted, the scene in Hero’s bedroom wasn’t harem antics, more like
Betty and Veronica fighting over Archie. Heck, I even got a bit of a laugh out
of it. But did we really need
Knight’s topless scene?
It’s not that I’m necessarily against stuff like, say, unrequited love
on Knight’s part, which is exactly what her actions are. The thing is, it isn’t
really explored or handled in an interesting way. Things like love triangles or
almost every woman in a series throwing themselves at the male lead happens all
the time in anime, even series that aren’t specifically harem or romantic
comedies. We even have both this time, thanks to that bit with the Dragon
Princess. That’s what this feels like –
something that was done because it’s part of the standard. Sure, some of it
might have made me chuckle a bit, but it still isn’t all doesn’t really add
anything to the show.
Not that this was a particularly amazing episode anyway, since it was
mostly set-up for what’s going to happen next. Some of it was good, like
Queen’s plans to return to the demon lands. She spent the first half of the
series working to turn the humans away from war, but that’s only possible if
both sides can be convinced to stop fighting, so the story would be remiss not
to address this. Not to mention, she’s king/queen/whatever of the demons, so
I’d hope she wants to help her own
people as well. Other things, I won’t jump to conclusions about, but they seem
like they could end up not so good. Such as the White Night King, who’s come
off as a bit of a one-dimensional self-interested villain, with how he keeps
trying to get people to do things that suit his interests but then refuses to
accept any responsibility when something goes wrong. Given all the advantages
he has by supporting the war and the party line of the Central Nations and the
Church, it makes sense he’d have a problem with the way things are going,
though, so yeah, saying it’s bad would be premature. It’s more definite with
the former Garrison Commander, or whatever his name-title is supposed to be now,
who’s been portrayed as a self-absorbed coward and stereotypical sniveling
henchman. The issue, especially with the White Night King, is more that he’s
still being set-up, as of now, as a straight-up bad guy by holding the position
he does, whereas the major theme in this series is that war isn’t so
straightforward and doesn’t have good guys and bad guys (Nazis and Cobra
notwithstanding).
Not the best episode, but far from bad. I had similar worries when I
first started watching and it turned out to be much better than that. I don’t
have any reason to stop watching as of now.
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