Alright, let’s do this. Let me start off by reminding my readers that our Shield Hero is not all bad.

Look, he’s making jewelry for his slaves! See? He cares!

And honestly, I would like Filo as a character if she didn’t turn into a loli. If she was just a goofy fat chicken, she’d be a great comic relief character. But the fact that she turns into a loli and wants to mate with Naofumi…

Hell, this week’s episode even reiterates that Filo is technically only a month old.

As for Raphtalia, well…

But let’s get on with the story.

This week, our slaver comes across a village slowly dying from a plague. Although his medicine will do the trick, they’ll just get sick again if they stay here. Obviously, they’re too poor to move away, so we’re going to have to treat the cause.

It turns out Sword Boi just passed through this area recently.

He murdered a dragon and left its corpse up on the mountain. This is apparently where the plague comes from. I’m gonna be honest and say that I actually like this sort of thing. I know some of you think I’m just here to hate on this show, but truthfully, I actually like it when there are consequences to our so-called good deeds. I’m actually reminded of the Curse-rotted Greatwood in Dark Souls 3. It took on people’s curses for years until one day, the burden became too heavy. The tree turned into an abomination, because no good deed can go unpunished.

The problem here is that I’m not really sure I can blame Sword Boi, because we don’t have enough information. Did he know that the dragon’s flesh was poisonous? ‘Cause I mean, just because a corpse is rotting doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to spread a plague.

Anyways, Naofumi does the tsundere adventurer thing where he listens to people’s woes and acts like he just wants money. At the end of the day, the result is the same so whatever. I’m just getting tired of his shtick.

Nice framing.

“I push people away so they can’t hurt me first!!!” Give me a break.

So we get to the rotting dragon, and it turns out that the beastie is still alive. Yay, zombie dragons. I’ve fought a few of them in my games.

But if you’ve been paying attention, you probably remember that Filo really hates dragons despite birds and reptiles being so closely related. Maybe that’s where the hate comes from.

In any case, she recklessly charges in and ends up getting eaten by the zombie dragon when Shield Hero distracts her.

Oh dear, you just tried to snatch a loli away from an anime hero…

Oooh, I can just taste the edge. A little more, though. Gimme more!

Yes, that’s it! Don’t stop, baby! Gimme that impotent teen rage!

The sad part is that when Naofumi reflects on his rage, the primary person that he pictures in his mind’s eye is (of course) Malty. He also sees her dad and the other heroes, but she’s the source of his ire. And y’know, it’s just lame. Hate is not automatically cringeworthy. I rather like AM’s monologue in “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.” We also have edgelords who have lost their entire families. Some even get to watch their loved ones get tortured and murdered before their very eyes. But when I look at Naofumi, all I see is “false rape accusation,” and I can’t help but be like, “Dude, that’s it?” But whatever, let’s get on with it.

edge

EDGE

But all of a sudden, he hears Raphtalia’s voice, and her unconditional love prevents him from completely losing it.

Unfortunately, when he comes back to his senses, he sees that all that edge has taken a toll on the poor girl. Whoops.

While Naofumi is desperately trying to save the raccoon girl, the zombie dragon suddenly slumps over dead. I guess it’s not much of a zombie.

Then out of its belly comes Filo. See? She would actually be endearing if she was just a fatass chicken. But noooooo, every female character needs to be fuckable, says the degenerate otaku.

With the zombie dragon now defeated for good, we have once again saved another village.

Raphtalia is still cursed by Naofumi’s hate, but the girl probably likes it or whatever.

Uh… need I remind you…

Ahem…

…Filo found a core within the dragon’s belly, and although she ate most of it, Naofumi gets a chunk to stick into his shield.

We’ll have to wait and see what he can do with it, though. Oooh, so suspenseful! Last but not least…

Right…

For now, Naofumi will still pretend that he won’t impregnate them later. And with that, I give you our moment of zen: