I have always found there is a different feeling when you have a characters who is born straight out of the gates as Overpowered, versus the characters who bust their asses off and undergone struggles to become stronger. On the contrary of Bell’s status skyrocketing all to S (which I will address in a bit), I considered Bell as the the later, the characters who undergo the struggles to become stronger. What I loved about today’s fight was that, as irrational as it was to want to fight the Minosaur (even more so considering this one was exclusively trained for this purpose), I have to give props to Bell for finding the courage in him to face the Minosaur. He started out frozen, wanting to stick around to fight it, but his fear was eating him alive and Lili had to knock him out of the way and got hit in the process. Bell then finally managed to find it in him to face the Minosaur, but had no idea just how powerful it was. Last time he ran away from it, not once did he try to engage it, so naturally he didn’t have a clue just how of a hard of hitter this beast was. One hit was all that it took to make his armor crumble to the ground. It then quickly escalated to the point the Minotaur stabbed through his arm with its horn (bloody hell). As this grim situation unfolded, I couldn’t help but shout, “GOSH CAREFUL BELL CAREFUL! I MEAN YOU LOOK COOL AND ALL BUT YOU’RE SCARING ME!” And let’s be honest here, he looked really cool. He was super manly in this fight. It is no exaggeration, when Aiz showed up to save him as his shiny knight in armor, he was mortified that he was about to be saved by her again, the one he loves and aspires to reach. He took it upon himself to tell her he doesn’t want to be saved by her again, he will do it himself- and what I loved about this scene: Aiz respected that. Despite the fact she knew how dangerous the Minosaur was, she respected his wishes and said nothing, and let him get back into he fight with no assistance.
From there on out, it was emotional and exciting to watch him fight with all that he got, utilizing the best of his strengths, doing his best to cover his weaknesses. Despite how little of a time he has been an Adventurer, we know that Bell has come a long way- starting from the moment he vowed to become an Adventurer. I loved how the child tale of Argonaut wanting to become a hero, represents Bell’s character. It’s the story which had inspired him of who he wants to be, and how he wants to be a hero. Another charm about this fight was that, in order to win, Bell couldn’t just swing his attacks, he actually had to come up with a strategy and use his strongest skills to pull him through. He made it so that the Minosaur could not wield its sword, and took it for himself, making himself an opening to freaking stick his hand into the Minosaur and set it on fire from the inside! That is both gross and a freaking brilliant plan (though risky considering it left him in a vulnerable position). Bell didn’t think much of this, but it was Ryu who shared him her knowledge of being an Adventurer in the past, of how skills and strategy play an important role, but not something that guarantees victory. It was something Aiz had too pointed out to him last week, telling him he lacks Skills and Strategy.
Seeing him defeat the Minosaur made me so proud, I was so happy for him that I almost cried, but then they take a look at his status and announce how all of his stats are S class. Now here’s the thing about this revelation. So here I was all emotional and happy about his victory, but then this reveal was like a bucket of icy cold water dumped on me. See, I have mixed feelings about his status skyrocketing to what is essentially the top of the stats. Bell just became legendary because no ordinary adventurer can level up in Godspeed like him (not anyone else that we know of anyways). There was a charm of Bell being a weak character, striving to become stronger. That charm was the fact he had a weakness, many weaknesses in fact. So from here on out, I am curious to see how this particular matter will be addressed, and what will his new vulnerability be- if any. Sure one can be S class status Adventurer, but does that make them invincible? In this story, probably not due to the nature of the Dungeon, but that’s what I want to know.
Then of course during the middle of all this, there’s cray cray Freya who was having an ecstasy while watching Bell become stronger through out the fight. Spoiler alert: She is fucking insane. #ProtectBellCranel. Freya has her reasons of choosing to watch Bell (of all people) to evolve at the speed he did. She clearly wants him for herself, but it’s a question of why, how and when she plans to uh, “woo” him to her side. On that note since one group of the Loki Familia are now aware of Bell’s status (which was meant to confidential), I am certain it won’t be long before other Familias hears of this and the words gets around about Bell Cranel, the Adventurer. It will be interesting to see how things changes for Bell from here on out.
Next week, we will meet Welf Crozzo the blacksmith who had made Bell’s armor. Seeing how his armor is probably no longer useable, it doesn’t surprise me to see Bell go and find Welf to build him a new one. I look forward to meeting the guy, especially since it has been encouraged to all Adventurers to go back to the Blacksmith who made his armor/weapon so that they can form a relationship with them.
Bell was so cool ;_;
I think what Riveria meant by all his stats being at S-rank was that they are Level 1, S-rank. So his stats skyrocketed to the top of the stats possible for a Level 1 adventurer – and as a result, he is now ‘ready’ to level up. It matches up with what Ryuu said earlier about adventurers having to beat a powerful enemy in order to level up, and presumably after Bell does so he’ll be Level 2, G-rank or whatever the bottom letter rank is.
So a Level 2 with E-rank stats would be stronger than a Level 1 at S-rank. I too was worried that Bell had suddenly become overpowered, but minotaurs (which Bell is now roughly at the level of) come from Floor 17, and Loki Familia are trying to get down to Floor 59 so he must have a long way to go yet!
The fight in this episode was simply amazing and the music was really nice as well.
What you said about Lv.2 E class beeing better than Lv.1 S-class should be correct, given that this is pretty much an rpg dungeon thingy and the mentioning of higher floors etc.
There was only one thing here though that wasn’t mentioned but is the true reason behind the surprised reaction. It was not only that all of his stats were S but that he is the first one to have an ability on SS (AGI: SS)
= v = Yeah the animation of the fight was so awesome, I had like 300 screencaps to go through and to pick from. XD The music is great too, I can’t wait to hear the full OST.
Okay yeah that would make a WHOLE lot more sense and less to worry about! XD Forgot about the “levels” aspect lmao!
BELL SO COOL! HE’S THE MAN! XD
Considering they haven’t explored all the floors, there’s no telling just how deep that place goes and he certainly has a long way to go down! Frankly speaking it must be downright terrifying to go deeper because of the further you are from the exit.
The novels further explain that Ottarl is Freya’s most loyal follower. When she points out to him that bringing Bell aboard could jeopardise his position as her champion, Ottarl is still willing to carry out her wishes, whatever they may be.
And, if Freya’s training plan for Bell had gone wrong and he’d died, it wouldn’t have mattered to her. She would’ve abandoned her Familia and reascended to heaven to find and claim Bell’s soul for herself. Note that gods can re-descend, but there’s a VERY long waiting line upstairs!
That is SERIOUSLY MESSED UP. #ProtectBellCranelAtAllCosts
Freya is completely nucking futs.
Hearing Lily pleading for the others to save Bell was heart-wrenching. Someone please stop making this girl suffer. 🙁
GET THE SALT!!!! WE CAN’T LET HER TOUCH BELL!
Poor Lily, so powerless in such situation, all she could do is run as she was told to do. 🙁
Big kudos to Lily for forcing herself to grovel before the hated adventurers to get help for Bell-sama.
Faiya Boruto! FAIYA BORUTO! FAIYA BORUTOOOO!!!
BELL IS INCREDIBLE. SO COOL YET ADORABLE AT THE SAME TIME T_T
This is a totally out of context and kind of kills the seriousness of the moment, but when he pushes Aiz aside to fight the monster, and starts voicing his thoughts about Argonaut and how, “I want to be…” I couldn’t help thinking “I want to be…THE VERY BEST! LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS!!!”
“GOTTA CATCH EM’ ALL”
*cough* harem king *cough*
(nah just kidding about the last part I ship him with Hestia, like 110% of the fandom does)