Well, this episode was uhhh…. interesting so to speak. No surprise, the dragon everyone had thought Ren defeated was the one responsible for the plague taking over the village. It’s poison from its corpse was being carried by the wind. However when Naofumi and the team arrive to deal with it, they discover it’s actually a Zombie Dragon. So I guess it wasn’t actually defeated after all considering it propped itself right up when they arrived to deal with it. Let’s just say it decided it would play dead while all the stupid people come to look at it only to drop dead, and then eat them up later.
Not much to say about this week’s episode except for the fact we got to see the Cursed Shield take possession of Naofumi and bring out the inner darkness of his frustration, pain and despair he had faced until now. It was triggered when Filo recklessly kept charging at the Zombie Dragon, only to get snapped up and swallowed whole. At the time, Naofumi and Raphtalia thought she was dead because they saw red (we later learned it was because she had puked up the berries she had just eaten), and his despair and frustration of losing a comrade made fall vulnerable to the curse.
It’s actually terrifying just how powerful the Cursed Shield is. In fact, it’s probably he’s strongest weapon he has right now, but Naofumi understands, the source of its power and the risks and consequences that comes with it isn’t something to be excited about. He discovered that after Raphtalia had helped him him snap out of it, because she had made contact with him, (simply by holding his arm) she was inflicted by a curse of a sorts. What’s even worse, he wasn’t able to heal her either, so for Raphtalia to be properly treated, they will need to visit a Church, which is probably going to be the next stop unless there are some side-quests they need to do first along the way.
Other than the shield mayhem, we witnessed Filo being caught up by her hatred for dragons. Seriously it is really something else. If she sees one, she will fight it/challenge it immediately. It’s stupid and reckless of her, especially when she’s defying orders. While she miraculously and hilariously defeated the dragon, next time, she might not be as lucky. But who am I kidding, the bird got plot=armour, she’ll probably be fine.
Naofumi isn’t blaming Ren too much for how careless he was about leaving the corpse out to rot since he knows the guy thinks this world is a game. Funny enough, I made the exact same point when I was talking about the series with Shadow last week. So I do share the same thoughts in regards to the situation as Naofumi does. Sure, it’s not fun that he is the one who has been going around inadvertently finding himself cleaning up the mess the other heroes have made, but at least for this situation (and for the time being), we can overlook Ren’s negligence due to his ignorance of how this world actually works. However if Ren’s character were to ever grow (which I am not holding my breath for), the first step would be coming to terms this world is not a game where the corpses will disappear on its own. Anyhow someone ought to explain it to him if they haven’t already.
And can you really blame them for thinking it’s a game? Naofumi is the only one who came from a world where he never played such a game in a similar/same setting as this one.
But I do find it rather ironic how despite this world not being a game (since Naofumi was sucked into it through a mysterious book he found at the library) it functions a lot like one. The cursed shield for instance. The way it was presented to us today drew similarities of a corrupted file/program, which is more or less what the Cursed Shield is. It in a sense, it really is like a virus that consumes the target (in this case: Naofumi) and if there is nothing to stop it, it will continue to spread. Raphtalia was a prime example of what happens to someone who makes contact when the Cursed Shield is active.
Overall I thought it was a solid episode. The Cursed Shield is certainly a scary thing for Naofumi to worry about, but at least he is aware of what it feeds off of, and how he must become stronger in order to prevent that from happening again.
Everything about the episode is fine aside from the group’s encounter with the dragon.
It felt very anti-climatic, cheap, and disappointing. A slight change to making the group fight for their lives should have done the trick. Attack as a group since it’s the only way to survive or escape. Rid of Filo’s utter recklessness or false death. Did anyone really fall for that? Instead make Filo and Raphtalia near-death due to their injuries from their initial unsuccessful attacks to the dragon.
Since Naofumi regenerates his health faster, he recovers from his injuries faster which would give him the opportunity to lose himself and unleash his Curse Shield due to their dire circumstances. He burns the dragon, which exposes the jewel inside it, Filo sees it and does a last-ditch attack with every last ounce of her strength which finally kills the dragon. Naofumi is still berserk at this point. Filo looks on helplessly and is scared. This is where a severely injured Raphtailia attempts to calm him down by hugging him which burns her. The moment she drops, is when Naofumi begins to regain his senses from his rage…. then continue with rest of the episode that is presented.
This simple change alone would have made the episode SOO much better. But damn, I am disappointed. They better not make a mess out of Glass.
Naofumi may not have played any similar roleplaying games, but he was playing what looked like a fantasy management simulation game prior to getting teleported.
Maybe that’s similar to the fantasy world he’s in.
On the game-like setting, the author admits his writing for Shield is most inspired by online games, specifically by a defense-specialized crusader character in (Korean MMORPG) “Ragnarok Online.” …a very powerful and dependable class, but virtually impossible to level one up without a party.
He also reused the game mechanics + otherworld summon formula for another webnovel of his, Fugitive Poison User.
Plot’s more lighthearted than Shield Hero, but the story’s been on hiatus since June 2018.