Tate no Yuusha/Shield Hero Season 2 Anime Episode Discussion

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Dengar

That must be from a point in the LN I haven't reached yet. Which I guess is fair. I still think the scene lacks impact though. Especially since it does go against established rules (there are apparently more rules that have not yet been explained).

I think they just wanted to emphasize his role as a contrast to Naofumi, even more direct than the Three Stooges. He was meant to be his opposite in many ways.

I will admit the things they chose to include, exclude, push forward or add it are sometimes a little baffling, confusing or unfortunate. I remember in the first season I was disappointed they cut out a character who, admittedly, only appears in a side story showcasing one of the other heroes' failings, especially since there's a possibility of said individual reappearing later on with a more significant role. I could've done without little Raphtalia; she's cute and I know a lot of people wanted her, but it wasn't really necessary.

Truthfully though, I liked the season. It might not have packed quite as much punch as the first, but it was still very good and satisfying for me.

On a different note, while I don't recall if it was in the LN, I wonder if Kyo's speech about Naofumi's party members being slaves was intended as a response to people who rejected the series for that reason. Sort of make it clear that no, this was not meant to be a fetish thing but rather a reflection of how far down he'd been pushed, how desperate he was, and where he stands now. I mean, he still sometimes acts like the girls, once freed, have no reason to work with him, showing he's still working on these things. And if this WAS some sort of fetish or something, it really doesn't indulge in that concept at all. If the author was going to indulge a fetish, you'd think they'd actually indulge it from time to time.

[Dengar]

He has trust issues which the slave crest helps with, but I still think the whole slavery thing is overblown. Being a slave isn't having some fancy tattoo put on you by your own free will. The whole free will thing goes against the idea of what a slave is. If you look at Naofumi right now, do you honestly believe he won't let them leave if they really wanted to? If he wasn't able to use the slave crest to tweak the stats of his allies, would he really slap it on anyone who wants to be his ally?

[Twi]

Originally Posted by Dengar

He has trust issues which the slave crest helps with, but I still think the whole slavery thing is overblown. Being a slave isn't having some fancy tattoo put on you by your own free will. The whole free will thing goes against the idea of what a slave is. If you look at Naofumi right now, do you honestly believe he won't let them leave if they really wanted to? If he wasn't able to use the slave crest to tweak the stats of his allies, would he really slap it on anyone who wants to be his ally?

....Yes.

I mean, you said it yourself he has trust issues, which is the literal justification Raph gave when she put it on the second time by her own choice. So slapping the seal on them so they can't lie to him is literally the first thing he would do, especially after L'Arc and Theresa got close to him and then betrayed him during the Cal Mera Arc.

If Kyo wasn't an asshole and an antagonist, would he be wrong here?

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

On a different note, while I don't recall if it was in the LN, I wonder if Kyo's speech about Naofumi's party members being slaves was intended as a response to people who rejected the series for that reason. Sort of make it clear that no, this was not meant to be a fetish thing but rather a reflection of how far down he'd been pushed, how desperate he was, and where he stands now. I mean, he still sometimes acts like the girls, once freed, have no reason to work with him, showing he's still working on these things. And if this WAS some sort of fetish or something, it really doesn't indulge in that concept at all. If the author was going to indulge a fetish, you'd think they'd actually indulge it from time to time.

The whole bit about the Slave Crest and Naofumi complaining about Rishia felt like the fans talking .

Originally Posted by Twi

....Yes.

I mean, you said it yourself he has trust issues, which is the literal justification Raph gave when she put it on the second time by her own choice. So slapping the seal on them so they can't lie to him is literally the first thing he would do, especially after L'Arc and Theresa got close to him and then betrayed him during the Cal Mera Arc.

If Kyo wasn't an asshole and an antagonist, would he be wrong here?

I love how Rishia tries to defend it and Kyo doesn't even let her finish .

[Dengar]

Originally Posted by Twi

....Yes.

I mean, you said it yourself he has trust issues, which is the literal justification Raph gave when she put it on the second time by her own choice. So slapping the seal on them so they can't lie to him is literally the first thing he would do, especially after L'Arc and Theresa got close to him and then betrayed him during the Cal Mera Arc.

If Kyo wasn't an asshole and an antagonist, would he be wrong here?

He has come a long way since them. He barely even laments Raphtalia losing her slave seal.

[Strahan]

What is it with anime protags and not wanting to follow through? Rishia zooms right up on Kyo, sword at his throat... and stops. Just complete your movement and run him through the throat allready. Yea, of course the main character has to be the one to take down the main villain, but geesh, doesn't make it less irritating when people choose to abort easy kills heh.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Twi

....Yes.

I mean, you said it yourself he has trust issues, which is the literal justification Raph gave when she put it on the second time by her own choice. So slapping the seal on them so they can't lie to him is literally the first thing he would do, especially after L'Arc and Theresa got close to him and then betrayed him during the Cal Mera Arc.

If Kyo wasn't an asshole and an antagonist, would he be wrong here?

I'd have to disagree fervently. Yes, at the very beginning he would have indeed enslaved anyone he wanted in his party, as that was the point: he was so distrustful (and a lot of the people he met kind of deserved that distrust at that time) that he could not feel secure with someone who had the free will to betray him. However, as the story continued, this has demonstrably changed. Yes, he still has issues. You can see this when he sees that Raphtalia's slave crest dissolved again, as he was clearly conflicted when he said she was "free", as if a part of him still thought that her being free meant she would leave. That said, the nature of that conflict has changed. In his initial state, he'd have thought that she'd betray him, use him, abandon him. Now, there's no suspicion or fear of betrayal or anger even though he sounds uneasy. Rather, he seems more uneasy that she might not choose to stay with him or something.

It bears noting that not everyone working with Naofumi is a slave. He hasn't put a crest on Eclair, or the old lady. He traveled with Rishia for some time before putting a slave crest on her, and even then it wasn't something he demanded or placed as a requirement for anything; he (or in the anime Raphtalia) noted the presence of stat boosts available to Heroes' slaves and offered the crest as a way to improve her growth. There was no "slap it on her", not for anyone after Filo.

And you could argue about L'Arc and band. For one thing, they didn't infiltrate and betray Naofumi. They had no clue that he was the Shield Hero (even commented about how they were looking for him but insisted he couldn't be him because the Shield Hero was a fiend), and when they found out they were openly apologetic. It wasn't "we tricked you so we could betray you", it was "sorry, but we didn't know you were our enemy". I find it hard to buy that they'd have the same sort of impact as Myne and her ilk.

So no, even if Kyo was a good guy, he'd still be patently wrong. There may be some suspicions in him, a certain practical side that measures companions in terms of their ability to contribute, a remaining distrustful side brought out by the Dragon that insists on that distance. But this is just a small part, one that he clearly rejects any time he's not possessed by rage, hate and suspicion. Basically, the Dragon took the darkest parts of the truth, cut out all other facets and then enhanced them with the vitriolic venom of hate. But it feels like the whole exchange was created in part to take a look at the situation that at least some viewers had shall we say "mixed feelings" about and address how things have changed.

[Frontier]

I don't care about the status buff or the fact that the reason for it isn't the same, I'd have just as rather they just finally do away with it as a concept immediately.

But I'm sure Naofumi will keep doing business with that slave trader.

[stray]

Well, it wasn't an onsen or beach episode but Kizuna somehow turned into Tom Hanks in Cast Away, and we got even more mileage out of loli Raphtalia. Nice to see some more Ost moments as well.

There were probably a few missteps but I still really liked the season overall. Looking forward to S3.

[Frontier]

Rather than the season finale of last week, this episode was more of an epilogue and reflection of the entire season, kind of bringing things full-circle .

It's kind of surreal seeing Raph-chan hanging around Raphtalia's shoulders .

So Kizuna saw how Raphtalia looked at Naofumi and knew it was her chance to play wingwoman...which lead to a Raphtalia fashion show! And she looked great in all those outfits, especially Geisha Raphtalia, but of course they also had swimsuits so we got to see Kizuna, Raphtalia, and Rishia in bikini's. And Kizuna had the skimpiest! Although while she looked great (they all did really) she doesn't have Rishia's chest .

Poor Raphtalia. She really wanted a compliment and Naofumi's attention but he just cares about stats. And Kizuna is self-aware about his focus on loli's and being dense .

So how did Kizuna make a living in the Infinite Labyrinth? By fighting monsters, hunting, and fishing like a true Hunting Hero! Although things took a serious turn when the monotony got bad enough for her to kill herself, but luckily she had Wilson there to support her, as well as realizing she could flavor her food .

Yomogi taking pleasure in Kyo being an idiot and not realizing his glasses were on his face the whole time was karma for Kyo being a colossal piece of @#$% .

I guess if there's one thing to remember about Ost, it's how she had no filter, which helped when talking to the girls about sex and what to do with Naofumi's dick. I love how Rishia and Filo got the idea faster than Raphtalia did who still tried to maintain herself as a pure maiden .

It was nice of the group to finally pay respects to Ost at the grave of the Spirit Tortoise, and Naofumi got to see her spirit off with a smile .

[magnuskn]

Eh, I remember that one time when I was pretty out of it, I also did the same, looking for my glasses when I had them on. ^^

Nice collection of side stories. However, those should have been in the proper episodes.

Ah, well. We can only hope that next season will not be as rushed.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Ah, well. We can only hope that next season will not be as rushed.

What i am worried about is, what's the plot going to be like in next season, considering that they changed a major plot point (from Web Novel & Light Novel) for the next arc in the previous episode.

[cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by Huh...?

What i am worried about is, what's the plot going to be like in next season, considering that they changed a major plot point (from Web Novel & Light Novel) for the next arc in the previous episode.

They could always pull a Gundam Seed. Edit it out of the BluRay release and pretend it didn’t happen in the sequel

[grecefar]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Nice collection of side stories. However, those should have been in the proper episodes.

I agreed.

5/10.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Huh...?

What i am worried about is, what's the plot going to be like in next season, considering that they changed a major plot point (from Web Novel & Light Novel) for the next arc in the previous episode.

People were saying the same thing at the end of S1, and season 2 ended up working just fine. Except for the fact it was terrible, of course.

The last episode was just a waste of time. Couldn't they have used it to flesh out the Kizuna's world arc?

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

People were saying the same thing at the end of S1, and season 2 ended up working just fine. Except for the fact it was terrible, of course.

The last episode was just a waste of time. Couldn't they have used it to flesh out the Kizuna's world arc?

I feel like if they had put these scenes in the actual episodes and maybe paced the season out better we wouldn't have this weird "OVA episode as the final episode" type deal .

Like, it was fun, but still .

[Dengar]

I just don't understand how a showrunner can both waste so much time and also rush things at the same time.

[cyberdemon]

That scene was troubling but I guess maybe they wanted to show the fallout

[frubam]

That Kyo childhood friend x Kizuna part was... just sad. Not sad as in boo-hoo, I mean sad as in pathetic. When Kizuna asked her to just remember the fun times she had with Kyo, her last "fun" memory turned out to be so utterly inane, I couldn't help but cringe at the whole affair. Like, it feels like I should be emotionally attached enough to think this girl really had a great and enjoyable life with Kyo, even though he was being an a--hole to her, but neither the attachment to the char, nor the empathy for her loss was there for me. the whole thing just felt like a waste of time.

Originally Posted by Frontier

I feel like if they had put these scenes in the actual episodes and maybe paced the season out better we wouldn't have this weird "OVA episode as the final episode" type deal .

This so much. Instead of instantly jumping to Naofumi after they jumped into the otherworld portal, they could have easily started with Kizuna and showed the depths of her despair being locked in the Inf Laby, before Naofumi showed up. I thought that her reaction when she escaped was rather good, but it would have so much more impact than it did, instead of getting the feeling that spending 5 years in isolation to everyone did absolutely nothing on her psyche.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by frubam

That Kyo childhood friend x Kizuna part was... just sad. Not sad as in boo-hoo, I mean sad as in pathetic. When Kizuna asked her to just remember the fun times she had with Kyo, her last "fun" memory turned out to be so utterly inane, I couldn't help but cringe at the whole affair. Like, it feels like I should be emotionally attached enough to think this girl really had a great and enjoyable life with Kyo, even though he was being an a--hole to her, but neither the attachment to the char, nor the empathy for her loss was there for me. the whole thing just felt like a waste of time.

And the fact that the most fun she had with Kyo was him just being an idiot...

This so much. Instead of instantly jumping to Naofumi after they jumped into the otherworld portal, they could have easily started with Kizuna and showed the depths of her despair being locked in the Inf Laby, before Naofumi showed up. I thought that her reaction when she escaped was rather good, but it would have so much more impact than it did, instead of getting the feeling that spending 5 years in isolation to everyone did absolutely nothing on her psyche.

I think more Kizuna flashbacks would've been nice.