Dang… this episode had me extremely anxious. It almost feels like there’s no hope…. Who am I kidding, Shinra is probably going to come bust through at the last second declaring he’s the hero and beat up Giovanni because he’s the main character. If he doesn’t, I’ll be thoroughly impressed. Since I would like an arc where Shinra doesn’t get a starring role in a major fight. But considering how useless he was in the episode, I’m sure the series would love to redeem him by being “the hero.” SIGHHHHHH. Though I do wonder if he’s going to end up meeting his brother in the next episode or so.
From the beginning of the episode, they set so many things up… only to be crushed and broken by the end. It’s actually really sad. There was so much emphasis in the beginning of how strong a family’s bond is and that nothing could destroy that. Vulcan even goes on to say how he wants to build bonds that can never break. It’s actually really telling when Lisa was the one to bring up how “anything with form fall apart someday.” Especially since she’s the one who rips apart their “family bond” by the end of the episode.
Speaking of, I didn’t expect the betrayal to happen so soon. I half expected her to be part of the 8th as well, even if just for a little bit and then betray them. Though I guess it makes sense for her to betray him now since she was working with Giovanni. Even if the opening hadn’t spoiled me, she did seem to be acting a little weird and her reactions to certain things were suspicious. Especially like I said earlier, she was the one to mention how everything breaks eventually. And I did find it weird that she wasn’t facing in his direction while everyone else was when he was talking about his family’s technology. Not to mention she kept begging to know why Giovanni was so set on killing him as if she thought he had some sort of secret.
Lisa reveals herself to be aligned with the Evangelist and Giovanni and was even planted to where Vulcan would find her, knowing how kind he is and would gladly take her in. It seems like they all think that Vulcan is hiding some sort of key to Amaterasu since his forefathers built the thing. However, Vulcan doesn’t have any knowledge of it and his forefathers probably hid it somewhere without his knowledge. Though I don’t know if it was because I watched a video about writing tropes, but when they demanded to know where the key was my immediate thought was “you are the key.” Probably not the case, but it’d be pretty funny if it turned out to be true since Giovanni complained how he searched for the key through Lisa everywhere but still couldn’t find it.
I gasped really loudly when Giovanni shot Yu. It came as such a shock and I didn’t even expect it. However, while I’m not sure about Lisa’s feelings for Vulcan, it does seem she hold some sort of care for Yu. While she did attack him, she warned him to stay out of it and actually looked somewhat remorseful upon witnessing him being shot. Though I’m sure he’ll be fine in the end since he was shown as a part of the 8th in the opening. I was also a little confused on how Vulcan went down from just that one fire shot from Lisa. It would have made more sense if she repeatedly hit him with attacks for him to just stuck on the ground like that. However, I did look into it a little bit and found out she actually tasered him in the manga… which makes more sense why he seemed so paralyzed. Why did they change it??? And don’t tell me it was to make it less violent. Shinra literally got tasered in the same episode.
If it wasn’t obvious that Giovanni was the one acting with the Evangelist, it’s pretty freaking obvious now. Having two of his men being white clad members in disguise and all. Giovanni is such a scumbag. Not only does he take advantage of Vulcan’s kindness, but he basically robbed him of everything he held dear. I also despised how he told Vulcan that it was him who got Yu shot. Talk about gaslighting. Also, something about him just repeating the same phrase over and over again was so unnerving. Especially when he was just beating Vulcan up. The guy is a psychopath. However, he does seem to be pretty intelligent and crafty, one upping Shinra in their one sided fight. Also, I can only assume that his body is mostly mechanical now, which is why he’s covered from head to toe and is so much freaking taller than everyone else.
That whole scene of Vulcan just being brutalized with words and physical violence was hard to watch. While I don’t care too much for Vulcan as a character, I do feel very bad for him. Family is also something I hold very dear to me and seeing his just get ripped apart was heartbreaking. Not only does he get hit with the truth that Lisa never saw him as family, but Giovanni ends up shooting Yu in the chest to try and force Vulcan to cooperate. It’s especially terrible when Vulcan just feels so helpless. He doesn’t know where or what the key is and he can only watch as Giovanni continues taking this away from him. It especially hurt when Giovanni just ups and destroys Vulcan’s grandfather’s invention that he left for him right in front of him. That thing held so much sentimental value to him and was the thing that represented his dream. And for Giovanni to destroy such a precious family keepsake, made me absolutely disgusted with him. I hope someone gets the chance to punch his face in. Though I admit I did like how they basically foreshadowed that thing getting broken with Vulcan smashing Yu’s equally round invention at the beginning of the episode.
However, I was surprised by how much of the episode was taken up by Arthur being a complete idiot with his “knightly” attitude. It’s as if the deeper he goes into his fantasies, the stronger he becomes. I’m concerned for this boy’s mental state. Though I did think it was hilarious how Vulcan was basically able to build things to equip him with the things he needed to become more “knightly.” Despite his mental issues, Arthur does prove to be pretty powerful, being able to take on two of the cult members on his own without too much difficulty. It was nice to see someone other than Shinra take the spotlight for once. Though I really want to see the older members in the group fight more since they are supposed to be way stronger than these newbies. But who am I kidding, this is shounen. Of course the kids are going to be OP as heck. Wow I feel old lol. Darn meddling kids!
This episode wasn’t bad and there were a lot of things I didn’t expect to happen. I’m sure everything will end find, but I do hope at least Vulcan gets a shot in against Giovanni. And while Shinra was completely useless this episode, I appreciated that he wasn’t being OP this time around. Though I’m sure that will change next episode since he’s the chosen one of sorts. But man, the title of this episode really hurts, especially with what goes down.
“We are family.”
“However, I was surprised by how much of the episode was taken up by Arthur being a complete idiot with his “knightly” attitude. It’s as if the deeper he goes into his fantasies, the stronger he becomes. I’m concerned for this boy’s mental state.”
Spoiler
That’s pretty much exactly it. His mental state gets explained after this arc, which in my opinion is way too late to explain how messed up he is. He grew up poor and hungry, so his parents encouraged him to fantasize that he was a knight eating a feast or sleeping in a luxury bed to get through the hunger pains or go to sleep. He developed a severe case of Don Quixote-ism and has trouble discerning what is real and what is his fantasy.