Apparently, only a woman who can do the laundry can make a proper saintess. The more you know…
Though I Am an Inept Villainess Ep. 8
Let’s switch things up a little.
The good:
Lots of people (including the crown prince) drop by to express their thanks or apologize to Reirin. But even more important than them, however, is Keigetsu finally showing a bit of contrition. We have a breakthrough!
The bad:
I don’t understand Reirin’s moral code. I really don’t. “Someone threatened and blackmailed my court lady? Oooooh, I’m gonna get them! I’m going to literally make a scene during The Ghost Festival just to ferret her out!” But she turns around and instantly forgives Keigetsu. In fact, she’s practically begging for the opportunity:
Keigetsu: “I tried to send you to your death.”
Reirin: “But you couldn’t!”
Huh? That doesn’t fly in any court! In fact, nothing ultimately happened to Leelee, so that means we can just forgive that mysterious person, right? It’s all about the results, after all! Keigetsu opens up to Reirin about how someone tried to kill her via Venomcraft, but ah hah~, it didn’t actually hap~pen~! Guess we can forgive them too!
Fine, if you truly wanna be charitable to Reirin, it’s obvious that she absolutely pities Keigetsu. She feels sorry for the girl. She thinks circumstances are what made Keigetsu the way that she is. Sure, that’s one interpretation. But Keigetsu actually reveals something very important in this week’s episode: Shu Gabi is the only other person who knows Venomcraft, and she’s likely trying to murder the empress out of… what? Revenge for stealing the position? Pathetic. But what I really wanted to point out was that Shu Gabi planted the idea of bodyswapping in Keigetsu’s head. But she still didn’t actually order the girl to push Reirin over the railing. Keigetsu did that on her own. I don’t know how many times this needs to be said, but there are countless people out there who have been through just as much shit as Keigetsu or worse. And they don’t magically turn into wannabe killers!
The ugly:
The crown prince is very impressed and thankful for what Reirin did for… uh, the person he thinks is Reirin. He’s also quite charmed by the so-called sewer rat in front of him, because, well, it’s Reirin. But I’m retching, dude, I’m retching. I can’t stand these losers and their harems. I’ll be so disappointed if Reirin ultimately ends up with this asshole. Yes, I’m more disgusted by the possibility of the crown prince bedding one of his potential consorts than our inept villainess forgiving an attempted murderer. As far as he knows, the woman in front of him tried to kill someone. He was ready to watch a lion eat her like… what? A week ago? Two at best? And now he wants to stick his dick in her? Nuh-uh, no. I’m not gonna keep watching this show if he’s a legitimate love interest.
The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World Ep. 9
When we last left off, a mirage dragon swooped down from the mountains and snatched Rin away to be its caretaker. Naturally, Rin gets herself out of this predicament via food. I just find it funny that she can satisfy the dragon with such tiny amounts of food. First up, she makes sandwich wraps. Girl, look how big that dragon is! Why are we skimping on the carbs? And even though the wraps are giant for us humans, it doesn’t even look like it’s big enough for the dragon to even chew and thoroughly appreciate. Nevertheless, Rin presses on. She makes eel onigiri, then she uses the hot springs to prepare (naturally) hot spring eggs. But it’s so tiny as she slides the cooked egg into the dragon’s mouth. It might as well be a drop of water! The only time it looks like she’s serving dragon-sized food is when the rest of the party arrives and helps Rin capture a giant catfish. She then turns it into tempura and soup. That was a pretty big fish, though. You can’t tell me that’s all the meat you got out of it! Where did the rest of the fish go?
In the end, the dragon won’t become a pet. Rather, Rin gets the dragon to accept tribute from the locals in exchange for the water from the hot springs. Ah well…
The Oblivious Saint Can’t Contain Her Power Ep. 10
The Saintly Trials are here and it’s… in a much smaller venue than the exams from last week. Isn’t that odd? The exams had only four people competing to represent a nation, and yet it took place in a giant stadium. This week, we have 21 contestants from all around the world, but it looks like it takes place in a rather tiny concert hall. So what’s the explanation? The exams were open to the people, but the Saintly Trials are only for the true upper crust of society?
As always, a saint or prospective saint has only two real jobs: healing people and cleaning stuff. The first trial is practically doing laundry. It’s just hilarious, because there are so many other challenges they could’ve picked. Maybe a corrupted beast that you have to tame via light magic. Maybe a dying tree that you have to revive. Why laundry? Anyway, Carolina unsurprisingly demolishes the competition, but the funny part is that her sister only came in fourth. The evil bishop guy gave her a pill that could amplify her mana, but as we can clearly see, it’s currently killing her every time she exerts herself. Why would you put yourself through all of that just to finish fourth? C’mon.
In the second trial, they have to heal a bunch of soldiers. Like last week, are these poor schmucks prevented from getting treatment just for this ridiculous competition? But it gets even better: time runs out, but Carolina keeps healing people anyway. I mean, that’s what you should be doing as a saint! But in the background, you hear the emcee telling her to stop, because healing people after time is up won’t count! Yeah, it won’t count for the competition, but she’s busy saving lives, you asshole!
Once again, Carolina demolishes the competition. She’s way ahead of the field after the first two rounds. Flora even admits that she can no longer win… but she can still win the third trial. That’s it. That’s her sole motivation at this point. She just wants to deny Carolina the glory of sweeping the competition even if it kills her. So once again, the contestants are asked to purify a tank of water, but they also need to retrieve a pendant. Determined to be a hater through and through, Flora overexerts herself so she collapses to the floor. A close-up reveals she’s literally bleeding from every orifice. Carolina naturally rushes to her sister’s side, and only now does Flora see her late mother in her younger sister.
You can already imagine what next week’s episode is going to be: have Carolina potentially save Flora and redeem her. Still, that should only take up about an episode, right? Is this show getting the standard 12? What else would follow Flora’s unearned redemption?
All Works Maid Ep. 11
A good chunk of this episode is just Micah marveling at Melody inadvertently charming all of the love interests even though our super maid is practically aromantic. I don’t think Melody has once even considered getting married and settling down with someone. Yeah, she is close with Luciana, but you should know by now that queer relationships practically don’t exist unless a work is explicitly stated to cater to them. Otherwise, two girls or two guys are just really, really good friends (wink wink).
Micah knows the game, so she knows that Bjork is one of the culprits behind the Jealous Witch incident. The story never really explained why he’s still under the influence of the Dark One despite the latter having reincarnated as a puppy. So what’s the deal? Apparently, a small amount of the Dark One is still mind-controlling him. But then it lifted when he helped Micah episodes ago. But then he’s back under the influence. But now it’s waning. What the fuck is this? I would like to say that this show is a satire, but it doesn’t seem very funny or clever.
Anyway, Luna finally reveals her true self to Luciana. She’s just mad that Luciana stole her spotlight. I mean, I guess that’s why they call her the Jealous Witch, but it’s so petty and thus boring. She then tries to kill Luciana, but again, the girl is protected by her enchanted clothes. Yup, it is literally the same mechanic that saved her from Bjork at the ball. This is such a weird show, because it feels like it’s self-aware. It feels like it understands how silly the villainess genre can be. And yet it doesn’t seem to do anything interesting with that meta-knowledge. You just get to see the same conflicts play out the exact same way, but what’s the twist? A slight wink?
