Oh thank god Yabashira is still alive because I was so worried about him, but this episode was still very painful and terrifying. How dare you, show! You tease me with the cutest things ever in the first half of the episode, making me audibly go “awww” 50 damn times, make me smile, and laugh, and feel happy. But you can’t fool me, because this is when things go to shit and we start to freak out. The juxtaposition of the first half with the second is insane, and I was close to tears at the end. And I feel this is only a little taste of the grief this show will bring us because I’m not getting good vibes at all from that ending.
My god was the first half brilliantly sweet. Up there with Golem and Somali making a souffle together, this was probably the most wholesome thing from this show, and there’s so much wholesomeness to go around. After completing their last bodyguarding duty, Golem and Yabashira head out but Golem takes a look at clothes for Somali. It’s adorable that he was thinking of getting her a present, and instead of the pretty coat he looked over at the small armor in order to focus on defense. He really was like any ol’ father trying to pick out something nice for his daughter, but picking something more practical than something more in the lines of being cute. And just like Yabashira said, I really like this side of him. His caring fatherly side. They return to the house and Somali presents her bracelet to him, and it turns out that he also bought a bracelet for her too! And they match! And he says thank you and pats her head, and she’s happy! Then they go out and the four of them play in the snow having a snowball fight and making snowmen. A snowman that looks like Golem, and another small Somali one with them holding hands. And Golem is partaking in all of this! Like…..ahhh! It’s so pure, and beautiful, and wonderful. It’s also brilliant because you can clearly see how much Golem has grown. Before he was pretty straightforward not with just Somali but with pretty much everything. The old Golem would see a snowball fight and making snowmen to be completely pointless and a waste of time, and while he did care about Somali he didn’t quite have the emotional intelligence he has now to think about buying her a gift unless it was something necessary. Getting her a bracelet isn’t exactly a necessary thing in the practical sense, but in the emotional sense it is because he genuinely loves Somali. He’s grown lots of emotions to where he can feel grief, gratitude, joy, and as the end of the episode showed, rage. With Golem coming a long way, so has the relationship between him and Somali because it’s even stronger than before.
And with that, the cuteness is gone because the human hunters steadily approach the house. Yabashira suddenly learns that Somali is human, and while he did look a little hesitant at first, he quickly agrees to protect her by staying at the house while the others escape through the tunnels Aunt Rosa told them about. And since Rosa told them about it, they’re totally screwed. Yup, absolutely. You’d think that they would be more suspicious of Rosa being down there since how the hell was she supposed to know that they went underneath the broken bridge? And Golem told her that they’d be leaving the next morning, not that very night. Dammit you guys!
Hearing Somali’s screams as she was being grabbed by the hunters was so fucking hard to watch. REALLY hard to watch, and that’s when the tears started for me. Props to Inori Minase for her performance, but she was doing fantastic as Somali this whole time honestly. But yes, seeing these big grown men with hatchets roughly grab a little girl and pin her down while she was crying and screaming for her father kind of shook me up. I don’t need to reiterate this again, but both the humans and the creatures of this world suck. The war didn’t need to happen, it didn’t need to be so awful and cruel, no one is a winner here. Both sides feeling the way they do makes sense, but attacking an innocent little girl that shows no threat towards them is despicable. I’m glad there’s at least some creatures in this world that won’t let the past cloud their judgement, shoutout to Shizuno for at least trying. If Somali getting restrained wasn’t bad enough, seeing Golem’s body crumble was just as bad. His arm falling off is a horrible sign, and his eye turning red doesn’t quite bode well either. I know he’s in a rage and ready to fend off against all of them, but I don’t even know what to think. Will him pushing himself this much deplete the little time he had left with his body and die, or will he just damage himself too much and barely make it out alive? He lost an arm and already damaged his body jumping off the bridge, I just don’t see anything good coming out of this. I just…need to prepare myself for the finale. (heavy breathing)
All I want is for all of them to survive, all of them to be happy, and for them to have more fun times like before. I know it won’t last forever, but I didn’t think it would end so soon. I just know I want Somali to continue to be happy and smile all the time.
I also want to protect this smile. Protect this smile!!! T_T
