Wow, harsh. Although Zapp’s master isn’t wrong, I wouldn’t mind living the life that Zapp lives… minus the desperation for some random girl, of course.

— But first, a little context… lately, Zapp has just been gambling, sleeping with random women, beating up thugs, eating a ton of junk food, so on and so forth. Is what he’s doing honestly so bad, though? People always say we need to have ambition. That with our potential, we should always strive to achieve great things… but what if that doesn’t make us happy? I mean, it’s possible, isn’t it? First and foremost, you can obviously fail to achieve anything great even if you try your damndest, and that’s a major downer. But even if you do achieve something great, you might look back and wonder, “Christ, how much did I end up sacrificing?” That’s how I feel, sometimes. Maybe Zapp is happy just the way he is. Maybe living life to fullest for him is literally just doing those things I listed earlier.

— But to be fair, the guy isn’t 100% content, because it seems that he’s fallen for some girl who works at a “Kentudgy Fried Chicken.” This same girl also happens to be Chain’s friend. What a small world, huh? In any case, he keeps dropping by her workplace to ask her out, but failing. And each and every time he attempts this, he buys something to eat…

As you can see, Zapp can now be safely considered “curvy” on a lot of online dating sites. But in all seriousness, it’s hard to say if he’s just lusting after the girl or if he’s actually in love love with her. The latter is pretty dubious since he hardly knows the girl. So it’s not like he’s in deep despair because his life is unrequited.

— Things take a turn for the serious, however, when a gate opened up in India, and as a result, the Blood Breeds are wreaking havoc. Our heroes are tasked with subduing at least one of them?

But when they get there, it seems as though someone else is already attempting to do just that.

— Master?

— Yep. This guy used to be Zapp’s master. And he’s not the least bit pleased at how his pupil has turned out.

That doesn’t even cover a tenth of the guy’s actual thoughts and feelings for Zapp. Nevertheless, he wants to drag the latter back into training… whip him back into shape, I suppose. Why insult Zapp and still want to train him? Well…

— When everyone asks the old master to consider, he gives Zapp a test. Maybe it’s to see if Zapp still has what it takes.

And that test is to render this behelit-looking thing non-hostile. Apparently, this is a delicate procedure. You have to neutralize all of the eyes at the same time or something, but if you screw up, you stand a good possibility of losing some limbs or even your life.

 

— Trapped with the weird egg thing, Zapp begins to reflect on his past trainings.

It’s clear enough that those days sucked. Maybe I’m a lazy bum too, but I agree with Zapp. What’s the point of all that training if you have to go through that? To be great? What if I don’t really want to be great?

— In the end, however, Chain fakes a call with her friend, implying that the latter would love to fuck Zapp’s brains out… if only Zapp wasn’t so busy.

In an instant, the guy gets the job done. And upon closer inspection…

…welp. Nevertheless, the old master praises his pupil, calling Zapp his best student. And that’s why he wants to drag Zapp back into training, I suppose. You see someone with that much potential, and it hurts you to see them become a fat, lazy bastard. You also rip into the kid, because you care. Why would you even waste time or energy on someone who doesn’t matter? So Zapp obviously means something to his master. But again, I see both sides. I see how I’d rather just live a carefree life without any pressure. It’s kinda like how the main character in Office Space felt… what would you do if you want a million dollars? I honestly would do nothing. I would do nothing at all, and I bet it would feel fucking awesome. But putting that aside, I bet Zapp will pull himself together. Most of us admire ambition, so that’s just the happy sort of ending for his character arc to take. Personally, however, I’d go right back to what he was doing at the start of the episode.

— Anyway, the other half of the episode concerns White and Black’s backstory. Not sure what exactly happened to their parents… nor do I really know what casters are, but apparently, their parents were casters.

— I like this shot.

— And as if it wasn’t already clear enough since the first time we laid eyes on White, she and her brother obviously mirror Leo and his sister in a lot of ways. The difference here, however, is that the brother sacrificed himself instead of the sister…

…and he had the bad luck of sacrificing himself to the King of Despair, who is now apparently reneging on their agreements?

— There’s also some talk about how White should stop playing at being a ghost, but I’m not sure I follow what they were talking about there.

— As you can probably tell, I’m not quite as engaged with this half of the episode as I was with Zapp’s story. Of course, character development is not a bad thing, and I do want to know what White and Black are all about… but they’re less relatable, to me.

— All in all, the show continues to be a mostly entertaining ride. White and Black’s slower, more serious moments are offset by the wildness and humor of Zapp’s story. I enjoy the mix.