; v ; / Sorry for the sudden absence last week, I was sick so I wasn’t able to write anything up for a few days.
Episode 5
FILO IS BEST GIRL! EVERYONE ELSE GO HOME!
Thank goodness we are starting to see people actively support Naofumi, namely Itsuki and Ren, the other two heroes who continued to call out the bullshit on the King’s and Myne’s cheating game. And the king isn’t even hiding his favouritism with giving Motoyasu more gold than the other heroes. While Itsuki and Ren are far from perfect, at least they are capable of thinking for themselves, unlike a certain Spear Hero.
And this is probably happening a bit later than usual, but it finally dawned to me how sad of a character Motoyasu actually is. This guy thinks he’s super strong, the best, incredibly naive and ignorant of his surroundings, and most of all, seems to have no idea that he is being played by Myne and the King. It definitely feels like Myne specifically selected him as her “favourite” because he’s easy to manipulate. The only place where she made a grave miscalculation was how things would turn out for Naofumi, the Shield Hero people weren’t supposed to care about. Naofumi’s earnest efforts of protecting Lute Village was not in vain with the villagers treating him like one of their own. We also got to see how it extended beyond the village, with friends and relatives who live in the capital, giving Naofumi a second chance and are stepping up to the plate to give him tools for his journey. I don’t know about you, but I’m happy to see Naofumi have a wagon, it gives him a mobile shelter of a sorts now for his journey.
Better yet, it was such a relief (though I don’t know if she’s good or bad yet, and I don’t really care at this point) to see someone who possesses the authority to protect Naofumi from the injustice bullshit that Myne pulls . Like seriously, she doesn’t have to keep picking on him, but she bullies him at every opportunity. Having someone shut her up and call out on her underhand tactics is exactly what we need to balance things out. It seems like she might be locked up in a tower or something? House arrest? Either way, while she isn’t at the capital, she has her agents go around keeping tabs on what’s going on, and are now actively looking out for Naofumi.
Another bit we got this episode was learning more about Raphtalia’s and Naofumi’s attribute! Raphtalia has dark and light magic, and Naofumi has healing and support magic. I don’t know about you, but I adore how these attributes comes together for the Shield Hero. I also really like how we are starting to see how his role as the Shield Hero actually matches Naofumi’s nature. From the very start, he was always someone who was willing to look out for another, so when you really think about it, it’s pretty cool.
After the injustice bullshit that took place in Episode 4, the fluff and fun we were given in this episode was exactly we needed. It was cute, hilarious, and even endearing. Filo has quickly became my new favourite character on the team. Naofumi bought a monster egg from the Slave Trader in hopes that maybe he might get lucky and get a Dragon, but having a hatchling of a Filiolia (which may be subject to change given Filo has suddenly transformed into a girl with wings) was probably for the best. In just two days, Filo grew from a chick to a giant chicken thing of a sorts. No matter how you look at it, given her size and capabilities, she has opened up a lot of opportunities for Naofumi. Considering her growth, I wonder if she can still be used as a mount… which is undoubtedly an awkward way to say it considering she has revealed to have a humanoid form. I was just thinking how handy it would be for Naofumi to have a mount in general to charge into battle. I suppose once we get the clarification on what exactly she is next week, we can figure out what her role can be.
On that note, let’s move on to Episode 6!
Episode 6
FILO IS PERFECTION. I LOVE HER SO MUCH.
This week we learn that Filo happens to be a Queen Filiolia, who possesses the ability to transform. However as much fun it is for her to do so, she lacks clothes that won’t be destroyed whenever she does that. They learned they need to get some magic thread so the seamstress can make Filo clothes that can compliment her magical abilities.
The adventure of trade was quite fun to watch, and it’s pleasing to see Naofumi pick up skills of being a traveling merchant. Thanks to Filo, they are able to travel to various towns, and use their carvan as a means to offer transportation services for those who are willing to pay. The idea was came to mind when they encountered a man trying to hurry back home after having bought medicine for his mother. Through that experience, Naofumi also got the idea of selling enhanced medicine, and eventually met a client (a merchant) who mentored him on some useful trading skill sets (such crafting gemstones) and shared his trade network with him.
We also got to see the team use their magical attributes in combat today. Raphtalia in particular seems to have been studying up on the grimoire that the magic shop lady gave to them. She has picked up some handy skill-sets that will certainly be useful in future badly, but she learned the hard way today that just because she is stealthy, doesn’t mean her target doesn’t know where she is. Filo’s attribute was revealed to be Wind, and she’s certainly having fun with it. In fact Filo saved everyone today by recognizing the threat of the Nue monster they were up against.
Their adventure going to the mine however showed us an interesting find. An ancient and empty treasure chest, said to have once held a seed that was said to be a horribly twisted manifestation of a wish for nobody to starve. Although the team didn’t pay too much mind to it, alarm bells were ringing in my head. The first thing that crossed my mind was the information Naofumi had gathered through the trade network about Motoyasu saving a famine village southwest by introducing a legendary crop. I’m curious to see if this is how it will come back, because there is a reason for Naofumi to have encountered it today.
In all not too much happened this week, but they are certainly looking to setting things up for another mess they have to deal with before the next wave.
PS: The seamstress is hilarious. I also find it hysterical how she keeps referring to Naofumi as the girls’ father.
In this short interview with Shield Hero’s author, he was questioned on Naofumi’s conflicting morals regarding slavery:
http://www.onepeacebooks.com/profiles/aneko.html
What sparks my interest are Aneko’s thoughts on ethics in the face of betrayal:
“It is preferable to have morals, but we’ve made a world where being strictly ethical can no longer (guarantee survival). There are a lot of people out there that simply don’t respond to ethics–in the face of people like that, what option is left besides emotionally insisting on your place and your views? My intention is to show that in the face of enemies like that, we often have no choice but to launch a counterattack.”
Aneko also claims some villians were based on people they knew, so I wonder if the author had previously gone through a betrayal situation from a loved one resulting in their social outcasting, and they wrote Shield as a kind of catharsis for themselves (which could explain the WN’s fixation on how utterly evil and despicable the 1st Princess was – a stand-in for the RL person who betrayed Aneko?)