Surprisingly Licht wasn’t the problem child in this episode, but instead Leonhard. Then again, I don’t like calling him a problem child because his reasons for his hate of studies and teachers I think is justified.
It’s time for the boys to have their first group lesson. Bruno runs into Leonhard on a swing outside and mentions that they have to make it to their lesson, but Leonhard just storms off. Heine’s #1 fan Bruno arrives there first, then Licht, then Kai. It’s four o clock and Leonhard never arrived so Heine decides to postpone the lesson but Bruno charges outside to find Leonhard and bring him there, but Leonhard was sitting outside the door the whole time.
Heine returns their tests, with Bruno and Kai doing well, Licht doing kind of badly, and Leonhard…only got one point, and that point was only a pity point so he basically got a zero. Leonhard is humiliated and is angry at Heine and storms out of there and then goes to ride on his horse. Heine asks the others what his deal is, and Bruno explains that their first tutor was exceedingly strict. While Leonhard excels in sports, he’s always had a difficult time with studies. It was just always harder for him, and the tutor he had when he was a child singled him out because of this. He would verbally abuse him by calling him stupid, and he would physically abuse him by smacking his hand with a whip when he wrote down a wrong answer. We saw the teacher push him against a wall, and even though it didn’t show anything, I think the teacher just physically abused him in general. Calling a child stupid, making them cry while they do homework, and beating them is NOT going to make them a better student. It’s just going to traumatize them and make them scared. It’s completely understandable that those memories of that time would haunt him even as a teenager. It’s awful, and no child should ever have to go through that and feel like an idiot. Like Heine said, a teacher is supposed to give their students hope, not break their hearts.
Hearing about abusive teachers and tutors angers me so much. I’ve never dealt with something like that personally, but seeing as how my little brother is autistic he’s had trouble with particular subjects in school. I’ve heard bad stories of children with disabilities like autism, Down Syndrome, etc., where they’ve been abused by tutors and teachers because they were “stupid”. It was just something me and my family always watched out for as we sought help for my brother, and thankfully we never had that problem.
Not to say that Leonhard has a learning disability. Honestly I’ve never seen an anime deal with issues like that (unfortunately) so that’s why I don’t think Leonhard has anything like that. Maybe he’s simply not good at studying. There are people like that, and it’s okay, they just need extra help.
Well, Heine went after Leonhard on a hilarious horse chase where Heine’s feet couldn’t reach the stirrups so he had to stand on the horse. Heine made it clear that he’s going to help shape Leonhard into a fine prince like a teacher should, and Leonhard agreed to start things out slowly. A very nice and sweet moment between them. He’s not completely sold on Heine like Bruno is but it’s a start. Now that we got all the princes on board, things should move a little faster now. Funnily, the episode doesn’t end there quite yet as they both realize that they rode their horses really far away, and when Heine jumped on Leonhard the horses ran off without them. On foot, it would take hours to make it back to the palace so they made a small campfire outside until the guards found them. Then Heine was led to his room and got stuck between the bedframe and the wall. That’s not really important but it was hilarious. Strange that he didn’t like the giant bed. I’m pretty small too and I have a big bed and it’s wonderful. Lots of room for my tiny frame. 🙂
Lots of cute and funny moments this episode, as usual. I’m excited to see how the lessons will go from now on. You’d think a show about tutoring would be boring but seeing how fun these characters are, it should be very enjoyable. This is mostly a character-driven show, and so far I think it’s going well.
To finish off this review, here’s Kai being best boy again.
