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Originally Posted by frodonk
A2. We never got to know how myne became so evil, or what she did to lose the position of heir to her younger sister. Again, your garden variety court/royal intrigue about political power or throne inheritance cannot explain all the hate myne had for the shield. She went above and beyond in her quest to demonize the shield, and this cannot be explained merely by saying that she was working with the church.
If we're to follow the flow of events, malty hated the shield, framed him and then when melty joined the shield malty claimed melty was brainwashed and tried to kill her as well. Killing the crown princess was NOT her main goal, killing melty was for the purpose of framing the shield hero.
Again, why is this the case? was it because malty knows why her father hated the shield so much? If so even then it still doesn't answer why she was that evil, right until now when she tried poisoning their food, even after being left off from the guillotine and letting her stay inside the castle!
This explanation makes a lot of sense, but all these is based on the premise that myne's goal was the throne, and she was using everyone to get it. Melty joining the shield's party was just a happy coincidence that made it easy for her to get rid of her sister and the shield at the same time, and naofumi was just an innocent young boy from another world who happened to become the shield hero and victimized by a princess trying to take the throne.
But i don't think she could've foreseen how the queen and melty would take the shield's side. If melty did go against the shield the church would've been satisfied and their father, which we already know adored melty, would've sided with melty too, so what would've happened to myne's schemes then?
And again, as we saw, she already lost all her reputation and status but she's still trying to poison their food. It might just be that this is revenge against the shield for the humiliation she endured because of the name change, but he saved her life! Why is she like this??
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I'd say flame's explanation is pretty spot on. Just because she didn't know Melty would join the Shield doesn't mean she couldn't still plan to use the Shield as scapegoats. My understanding is that she honestly didn't care one way or the other about the Shield, she just saw the hatred being expressed as a convenient tool. She used the Shield to get some extra cash and create a rescue plot that would give her greater influence over the popular Spear. She then made serious efforts to keep the Shield's already-damaged reputation from rising so that people would be willing to believe what she wants them to believe. While she may not have known or even suspected that the queen or Malty would side with the Shield, she probably could've predicted that some form of contact would occur just from the importance of the Heroes and the problems surrounding him. Even if Malty never encountered him on the road they could still meet in the castle. There'd be plenty of ways to frame the Shield with Melty's death really. And yeah, I'm pretty sure the attempt in this ep was just resentment. Naofumi may have saved her, but he also humiliated her and thwarted her plans over and over again. In her mind, he's probably become the one responsible for all the pain she's gone through, so him "saving" her may have come across more as a further demonstration of power to humiliate her even further.
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4. The queen mentioned that in the international forum she went to, it was agreed that each country would get 1 heroes each, but the pope and the king went ahead and summoned all 4 so she had to placate everyone. How hard was it for her to ask the king to send her the shield in the first place? Everyone hated the shield, she knew the truth as to what happened with myne, so why didn't she have the shield sent to her and give him to another country as a token of goodwill?
It's possible that by giving away the shield to another country, others would demand to get one as well, which will make the kingdom suffer more from the waves by having 3 less heroes, but the queen can just decide this on her own since that's what was agreed to anyway, and all in the name of placating the other countries from the blunder of the king.
This all boils down to the queen not doing something sooner to resolve the situation even though everyone follows whatever comes out of her mouth. Sending melty might've been a right move in her mind, but she didn't instruct her properly and let her ride titan sized turkeys instead.
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Given the prejudice of the upper class against the Shield, it probably wouldn't have worked to just say "send me the Shield". I mean, Naofumi himself tried to leave and the King and B*tch forbade it. I suspect that, given the hate shown toward demi-humans, they may fear that the Shield in the hands of a demi-human nation could become a sort of symbol used to gather all kinds of forces to attack Melromarc. Better to keep the divine avatar their enemy worships out of their hands.
Additionally, while her word may be law, that doesn't necessarily mean that the queen's influence is completely invulnerable. She's far from the capital in a time of crisis, her main ally to be used to maintain her influence was killed and his people enslaved, and positions of power are held by people opposed to her policies. While with her authority it'd be simple enough to take control if she was present giving orders, stability could have been shaky enough and those who oppose her strong enough to make the degree of action you suggest infeasible through long-distance carried decrees.
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5. The queen's words might be the law, so she could just say that from now on it will be the church of the FOUR heroes, but you can't change the hearts of the people that easily. If you've spent your life knowing that the shield is the devil then that won't change overnight! Only that guy in armor that picked a fight with raph was brave enough to voice this opinion out I guess.
We did see the last 2 characters in the 2nd OP this time, so that's nice, and we might get to see some action next week too.
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The way things were portrayed, it's pretty clear that the Church is not universally loved. Seems like for the most part it's only tentatively followed by those outside of the nobility, and the nobility support it at least in part on account of the fact that it's useful to their own ends. Bear in mind this was written in Japan. People practice bits and pieces of multiple religions (visiting Shinto shrines and praying to the gods, worshipping their ancestors and observing Buddhist traditions like Bon, etc.) but the majority don't really adhere strongly to any particular faith.