Lideo opens the episode by saying, “Family willing to die for family. That’s how the world should be.” I get it. We all value our immediate family more than this vague idea of humanity. We all have a stronger emotional connection to our immediate family over anyone else. But isn’t that precisely the problem? Nepotism and corruption in general are all strangling society as we speak, because we worship at the altar of “family.” It’s not the sole reason; greed is certainly another major (if not the biggest) factor. But we’re in this mess, because a lot of people do think like Lideo. How many of these “Coexisters” believe that they’re simply protecting their family? The world’s going to hell anyway, so fuck it, lemme get my tiny slice of the pie! I’ll sell anyone out as long as I can protect my family! Well, when a bunch of people feel the same way, no wonder humanity is losing! You people can’t look past the trees to see the forest! Hell, why did I bother even writing all of this out? Later in the episode, Boojum pretty much spells it out for us: “Lideo Sodrick taught me something important. There’s nothing more important to humans than protecting themselves and their families, or securing proportionate benefits for themselves. To value other things more than protecting their race as a whole…” The demons have us completely figured out.
Xylo planned to root out the city’s corruption from the start, so they end up facing what feels like every able-bodied fighter in the city. You’ve got your average, brand-and-butter adventurers, the self-proclaimed top adventurers, more of Lideo’s child army, and even the city’s cavalry to boot. Funny how all of the adults are male, by the way. That aside, the human opponents are just fodder. They don’t put up much of a resistance against Xylo, Kivia, and Franci. So to up the ante, a faerie suddenly appears outta nowhere. Where the hell did they even keep that thing? Well, this triggers Teoritta’s return to the story, ’cause you can’t fight the Demon Blight without her. Lots of blood, gore, and general mayhem ensue.
There isn’t much commentary to impart here, because it’s just the good guys taking turns flexing for the proverbial camera. Here’s Norgalle dropped some bombs on his foes! Here’s Tatsuya going on a mindless rampage! Here’s Jayce making blood rain from the sky as a spear-wielding dragoon. We’ve saved the best for last, so Xylo and Teoritta reunite for the faerie. But we’ve seen them fight bigger, scarier foes before, so there’s nothing new here. It’s all a bit rote if I’m to be honest. I’m just waiting for the anime to get on with it, i.e. apprehending Lideo and learning what we need to learn from him. Speaking of which, Lideo and Iri — I guess she’s the favorite out of all the orphans — try to slip away while everyone is busy fighting, but Dotta is tracking them the entire time. When Lideo and Iri get separated in the mass of people trying to flee the city, our resident kleptomaniac can finally “steal” the defenseless guildmaster.
In captivity, Lideo quickly sings like a canary as long as his “brothers and sisters” are protected. He name-drops a saint to which Kivia immediately replies, “Don’t be ridiculous.” Blah blah blah, he’s the leader of the Temple, so he can’t be bad! Girl, I like you as a character, but you’re pretty damn naive. But her face takes a turn when she ponders over the name Zelkoff. Man, I knew it. Her uncle is a bad guy, isn’t he? It’s just a little too predictable. But before Lideo can reveal anything else, the heroes’ makeshift base of operations falls under attack. In the chaos, the guildmaster slips away, but again, he doesn’t make it far. Spriggan, who has already killed Iri and assumed her guise, is here to erase Lideo, but not before he taunts the man one last time with the mutilated bodies of the other orphans. Some of the kids, we’re told, were captured by the Holy Knights, so they’re not all dead. But we still have a pile of corpses in front of us.
Oof, well, I definitely didn’t have “the corpses of dead orphans” on my bingo card when I woke up this morning. Do I feel bad for the children? Of course. I mean, they’re children. Even if they were serving someone corrupt like Lideo — and as a result, they fought back against our heroes — they just wanted a place to belong. If there’s any consolation, at least we now know just how evil the Demon Lords can be. The other ones that our heroes have fought — Awd Goggie, Lotus, Iblis — were these gargantuan, hulking beasts. They couldn’t communicate. They were like video game bosses that you had to overcome in order to beat a level, not true villains. They were dangerous, but they didn’t exude a certain sense of calculated malevolence that makes true villains so hateable. Spriggan, however, can not only speak, it can be be cruel. It didn’t have to don Iri’s disguise and drive Lideo into true despair, but it did. It’s not that I wasn’t on humanity’s side before, but there’s a difference between “Yeah, the Demon Blight needs to be stopped” and “Oooh, let me sign up to fight it myself!” The contrast is never more apparent when Boojum, who I initially thought was Spriggan when we first met him, expresses his condolences to Lideo. Boojum is still a bad guy, but there’s a keen difference between him and the actual Demon Lord. Spriggan is the hate sink that this series sorely needed.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Right before Kivia lays the beatdown on some adventurers, she has to tear her dress to afford herself a bit more mobility. I know she was playing dress-up in order to role-play, but this is why pants are superior.
— I guess it’s cool that Franci isn’t useless in a pinch, but why does everyone know how to fight? Hell, she’s doing just as well as the experienced captain of the Holy Knight if not better.
— What is wrong with the sky? Or has it always been dark red and foreboding?
— I kinda hope it comes up that Spriggan accidentally made itself dumb because it’s using the underdeveloped brain of a child, but this probably won’t happen. It’d be funny, though.
