When we last left off, Jaeha, the Green Dragon, has no desire to pledge his loyalty to King Hiryuu’s descendent. Y’see, he’s a pirate, and not only that, he rather likes his life, and since this is anime, being a pirate really just means you’re a justice fighter. Long story short, he’s not going to throw his life away just because someone wants his strength. Now, if only he can convince Hak to lend him and his fellow pirates some strength…

— At the start of the episode, Yona sees some officials picking on a poor family, and naturally, she wants to intervene. They all want to intervene except for Yun, and his practicality unfortunately wins over. You’ll see why it’s unfortunate later.

— On the one hand, he has a point: they can’t really afford to draw the bad guys’ attention by going around, playing Heroes of Justice. On the other hand, can you really not step in when lives are at stake? How can you really say that you deserve to reclaim the throne if you can’t even help the people on your way there?

— In other news, Hak is now wanted. It’s really just an opportunity for the anime to trot out one of its lame jokes.

— And of course, Jaeha wants Hak bad.

— On the one hand, the Green Dragon is being really pushy and touchy. On the other hand, I wonder if Hak would react this harshly if there wasn’t a stigma of homosexuality tinging these events.

— He eventually finds his way back to Yona, because Jaeha could sense Ki-ja, and he wanted none of that. Not that he has much of a choice in the matter…

— On the other hand, Yona and company eventually find out that the incident from earlier had resulted in a death of a child. First, that’s some heart strings tugging shit right there.

— But more importantly, the story wasted a perfect opportunity for Yun to potentially reflect on his actions. I’m not saying he’s wrong to have dissuaded his allies from helping earlier. But he doesn’t even pause to think whether or not this death weighs on his conscience? I think any reasonable person would.

— Elsewhere, Jaeha tells Ki-ja that he won’t follow someone just because he’s been asked to. Unfortunately, the irony is lost on him.

— When he runs into Hak again, he also meets Yona for the first time. Like all the other Dragons, he can’t help but fall to one knee and feel a burning sensation from within. Fate is a helluva bitch.

— Not only that, Yona’s voice is apparently like sweet wine to these Dragoons’ ears.

— But despite everything, he still insists that he won’t lend his strength to Yona’s cause. He is then completely shocked — shocked!!! — to learn that Yona won’t force him to come with her. Still, he wants Hak’s strength…

— It’s okay, though. Yona also wants to meet the pirates with their hearts of gold. Naturally, the only person who balks at this is Yun. So far, however, his decision-making hasn’t been too hot. More importantly, the reason he’s even on this trip is to see new places and learn about the world. It just rubs me the wrong way that he plays the voice of reason in this ragtag group of adventurers, but he has little experience about anything himself.

— Blah blah, “blossoming” romance moment between Hak and Yona. It’s just a bone throw, really. A bone throw every couple of episodes.

— The next day, everyone meets the pirates, but the pirates don’t exactly trust them. So like in Absolute Duo, you learn to trust each other by beating the shit out of each other. Good stuff.

— Yona didn’t fight, though. So Boss Lady Pirate will make her prove herself in another way! And with that, the episode is over so you’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store for Yona. Of course, it seems like the Boss Lady already trusts her anyway thanks to muh intuitions, but we still gotta go through this extended song and dance.

— This is a two-cour series? Or possibly more? Because the narrative is moving at a snail’s pace, and we keep this up, I can’t see this series resolving itself anytime soon. All in all, a pretty and unremarkable boring episode really.