[DreamSword]

Episode 21: Cause and Effect

My main takeaway of this episode is that Queen went down without much of a fight.

The majority of this episode is designed to try and make the viewer feel sorry for Martin due to the way he was manipulated.

And in that regard, the show tries to have its cake and eat it too, by making the claim that Martin had become a Horror and was a lost cause the moment he put on the ring, despite so much evidence to the contrary.

There's also the claim that he remained altruistic despite his possession, which is just outright not true in that his actions are incredibly selfish. The show really can't decide on if the ring is the main problem or not. "Martin is an utter monster except not really" could be cool in concept, but the execution is sloppy.

If anything, all this did was make me dislike Sophie even more. I expressed confusion at her inner motives last episode, and this episode clarifies them in probably the worst way? She still knows that the ring is the Horror and Martin isn't, but she just wants to appear more valiant and braver than she actually is, meaning she has the guts to kill Martin the human, but not the Horror.

Sophie is a coward despite all of the allegedly growth throughout the show. The moment Martin even so much as shows any resistance, what does she do? She backs out, terrified. Killing an "innocent" man is easy to her, and something she'll gladly say she'll take responsibility for, but when it comes down to the wire, she is nothing like the Nun who took care of her. She backs out immediately and never acknowledges that her actions directly lead to Martin being turned.

And this all could've been so easily fixed had there just been one scene where, after the two escape El Dorado, Sophie tries to wrestle the ring from Martin but the ring itself actively resists. Instead it's alot of claims about the two siblings having pure souls. Which, sure, in comparison to Horrors, they probably do, but both are still far from the purely altruistic do-gooders that the show tries to claim they are. And you're telling me that Zaruba sacrificed himself for this girl? Yeah, no, I ain't happy about that.

Needless to say I really as not into this one. That prophecy about Sophie's' actions "shaping the fate of the world" is technically true, but in probably the most lackluster way for a show like this.