Even with his fancy niello wings, Genau still has to get up close and personal against a demon armed with four swords. Sure, the mage starts the fight off with a few projectiles, but what happened to the rest of his spells? Didn’t he nuke a demon a couple of episodes ago with a ranged attack? Meanwhile, Stark can’t keep up with Revolte, so he falls back on a familiar strategy: taking a direct hit to distract his opponent. In fact, he later invokes the same exact lesson that helped him overcome Linie back in season one. The more things change, the more things stay the same. There’s always a bigger fish out there, though. At some point, he’s going to meet someone who can take him down in a single blow. You can’t meat-tank everything. But I guess in that scenario, he’d probably just run.
Thanks to Stark’s gambit, Genau gets the upper hand on Revolte. But the mage who has been insisting over and over that he’s not a good guy suddenly allows himself to get stabbed by a demon child in disguise. The kid was obviously a trap, and that’s not even hindsight talking. Why would an actual survivor stick their head out now after all this time? The kid even did it on Revolte’s cue; the demons weren’t even trying to be sneaky! But there’s always a small chance that she wasn’t a fake. If you had let her die, you would then have to live with that stain on your conscience for the rest of your life.
Do I feel bad for the demon kid? I mean, it obviously wasn’t raised in a very loving environment. And I know what the story says about the nature of demonkind. I’m just not convinced. Yeah, they keep saying that demons are like wild beasts. It’s like how you can raise a tiger from birth, but its bestial impulses can still override whatever love it has for you. You can’t tame a tiger. But demons can talk. They can reason. It’s not a perfect analogy. But this has been discussed to death before, so I won’t belabor the point.
On the other front, it’s life or death for Fern. Meanwhile, Frieren is just casually observing the fight from hundreds of yards away. Sure, she has supreme confidence in her own student. But people slip up. What if Fern needs help? Can Frieren respond quick enough to save Fern’s life? I just think back to her initial reluctance at the start of the series. She insisted that she couldn’t possibly Fern with her because mages-in-training would die all the time. Yeah, maybe if you keep floating this far back! Still, it’s kinda funny how giddy she was in last week’s episode when she realized that these demons had combat experience. I thought she was excited to fight them, but no, she was excited for her student.
As I watch Methode deftly evade attacks from her foe with a certain air of casualness, I realize I don’t know a damn thing about her past or how she got this strong. She’s not just a powerful mage, because she’s also physically gifted. When’s the last time we saw Fern or Frieren do a backflip? All we get is a hint from the demon as to her potential origins, which Methode later confirms.
Methode is a sharp cookie — and she isn’t a one trick pony — so she immediately deduces that she simply needs to lift the fog to end this fight. In contrast, Fern has very few tricks in her bag: putting up barriers to defend against attacks, concealing her mana, and blowing every demon up with Zoltraak. No frills whatsoever. Only the fundamentals, baby! Don’t break what isn’t broken, right? But I mean, if Methode wasn’t here, what would Fern have done? I guess Frieren wouldn’t be floating in the sky in that scenario, but still, maybe Fern needs to come up with a counter when she can’t rely on concealing her mana. Anyway, as soon as Methode does her job, Fern wrecks the other demon in a single blast. It’s kinda hilarious. Number one rule in any JRPG is that you gotta reapply your debuffs as soon as they drop! If the demon could simply put the fog back up, he should’ve done so!
Genau is pessimistic about their chances, but Stark’s tenacity reveals Revolte’s focus is wavering. And if the demon can’t maintain his weapons in tip-top condition, he’ll eventually lose to his human opponents. But right when victory feel so assured, Revolte suddenly becomes Stretch Armstrong. Sheesh, that’s a nasty party trick. But like a typical villain, he starts yapping instead of securing his win. Maybe he is proud of all the knowledge he’s acquired about human nature. Maybe he just wants to impress them. In the end, Stark and Genau are both as stubborn as mules, so they still manage to deliver the finishing blow with gaping holes in their chests.
With his last ounce of strength, Genau tries to crawl his way towards an unconscious Stark. He thinks he doesn’t mind himself dying, but he can’t bear to see the kid pass away here. Not after all Stark has done to help Genau get his revenge. I think he ends up wrapping coat around Stark to stem the bleeding. Is this the difference between Stark living or dying? Shrug, it’s the thought that counts. Do I think Genau is a good guy? I never thought he wasn’t. I always felt it was just a defense mechanism from a man who is emotionally constipated. Methode literally has to remind him to say thanks.
Speaking of the devil, Methode is free after this, so she actually offers to accompany the party for a short while. But they turn her down. They literally turn her down for freaking Sein. I get it; you like Sein (I’m indifferent to the man). If he ever comes back, you want to reserve a space for him. But so what? Why can’t a party have two healers (Methode also has more in her arsenal than just heals)? Who ever said that it can only be a maximum of four? What is this? A video game? Do we need to obey video game logic now? My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— Madhouse is flexing so hard. But this is probably why we’re also only getting ten episodes.
— Unsurprisingly, Fern seems the most impacted by Stark’s injuries. Hard to capture it in a screenshot, but her body language was obvious.
— I couldn’t possibly sleep with a whole ass person on me.
— Not a single casualty, huh? Guess Revolte wasn’t such a big, bad demon after all. We’ve seen more mages die in the freaking examination arc (I think there were four casualties).
— My biggest complaint is all the inner monologuing. I prefer it when characters just fight, and you can tell what’s going through their minds from their body language and facial expressions. No, I do not need to know word for word what they’re thinking. I think this becomes a crutch for storytellers.
