Every “the protagonist must attend the rich, fancy academy” scenario has a bullying subplot. And seven weeks in, we’re still dealing with it in Silent Witch. Monica literally gets poisoned to the point where she gets bedridden. Hey, helped her make a new frenemy, though. I’m guessing the enemy part isn’t serious… I hope. My point is, just because they invite you to a tea party (or anything for that matter) doesn’t mean you have to accept. Yes, Monica kinda stood up to the mean girl by refusing to capitulate on the stairs incident from like… uh, when was that again? Sheesh, that was a month ago? And we’re still talking about it? But seriously, bullying subplots haven’t been interesting for a long time. I don’t dislike Monica. I don’t dislike this anime either. But I feel like the show is spinning its wheels a bit here.
Anyway, as I was saying, Monica kinda sorta stood up to Caroline so we arguably got a bit more character growth this week, but again, the whole incident could’ve been avoided by not accepting the invitation in the first place. But if she hadn’t stupidly drunk the tea that has been offered by someone who has clearly been antagonistic to her — flat out chugged it, actually — then we wouldn’t have gotten the glimpse into her tragic past with how her father died. So there’s that. Torture a socially awkward heroine and you get a tiny crumb of a backstory for your troubles.
I appreciate the simplicity of Caroline being stupid enough to carry the poison on her for Claudia to easily find in front of the rubbernecking student body. Love it; so convenient. Even if the mean girl hadn’t been reprimanded afterwards, rumors would’ve spread like wildfire. I doubt her reputation would’ve survived the aftermath. But she does get reprimanded directly, and not just by Felix but also Isabelle. This means we are finally done with Caroline for good, right? But that’s not even what truly bothers me about this week’s episode. It’s actually the punishment. I’m talking about the whole dog and pony show at the end with Isabelle pretending to spike the tea, i.e. our judges, jury and executioners had to stop for a bit and plan it out. These are kids, by the way; at least they got the “judged by your peers” part down. Nevertheless, I hate it when anime or any story makes a big deal out of humiliating the villain, because it feels fetishistic.
It’s as if the author (and the audience) has soaked up all the nastiness they’ve accumulated over the course of their life, and now they can’t wait to pour it back onto a fictional hate sink of their own making. It’s like that Shield Hero villainess (don’t expect me to remember the names of characters from bad shows). They made her so nasty just so they could punish her a billion times over — to the point where I’m like yeah you’re getting your rocks off on this shit, huh? Compared to that, sure, Caroline gets off pretty easy. But I can’t help but feel that there is a certain sense of glee derived from her suffering. We need to prevent bad people from doing bad things. As a result, there are consequences for their bad deeds. Totally agree with that. But it’s just weird to also enjoy the meting out of said punishment, y’know? And the threat seems off to me. I know they’re trying to scare Caroline straight: fuck with Monica again, and you will ruin your family. But this threat only works if it isn’t an empty one. And if you withdraw their military protection, doesn’t that mean the people under the Norn family will suffer? Are you justified in going that far in order to protect a friend?
Stray thoughts:
• As an aside, I’ve noticed people pairing Monica up with Cyril. You would normally expect Felix to be the primary love interest because marrying royalty always seems to be the classic move to play, but I suppose he’s too guarded. On the other hand, Cyril is such a stick in the mud. “hOw daRe yoU mAke HIs HighNEss KnEEl doWn!” Ugh, please don’t make the poor girl for someone like that. Plus, in a way, he’s basically Felix’s butler, and you know how I feel about that character archetype. If we really gotta pick one of these boys, I’m just not feeling it. Maybe go the yuri route or something though I’m not exactly scintillated by any of the girls in the cast either. So maybe none at all. Maybe we should just focus on Monica’s growth as a person. That’s fine too.
• Despite my general disdain for how maids are portrayed in anime (I’ll get into this in another post on that Betrothed anime), I do enjoy the few times whenever the completely deadpan Rynzbelfeid shows up. Or is she more of a familiar than a maid? Ah well, it doesn’t matter.
• Just to be a little more positive about the show, I also really like the super chill ED. It’s probably my favorite thing about this show. It’s up there with My Dress-Up Darling’s ED for my two favorites of the season.
