Tate no Yuusha/Shield Hero Season 3 Anime Episode Discussion

[magnuskn]

Yeah, pretty much. Naofumi is the only one who figures out how to level properly, all three other heroes are arrogant and dismiss him and always fall for Melty's manipulations (until now, I assume). It's a bit too much.

[Strahan]

I'm so glad this is over. It really feels like the writer didn't have a plan beyond the initial story post Naofumi's redemption and was just making stuff up as he went. I fast forwarded quite a bit during ep 11. Itsuki is just painfully stupid to watch. Having all three of the idiots become brainless drones of Malty is just ridiculous.

Can someone please kill her already? Given how much of a hassle she's been to Naofumi and crew, his next priority should really be tracking her down and disposing of her before she causes more headaches. At this point I wouldn't care if it would grieve the queen; she's obviously not taking responsibility for her kid's actions so someone needs to clean her mess up.

I can't believe the three stooges are so stupid as to fall that hard for Malty's BS. Well... Motoyasu I could believe lol. Also where is Fitoria? She claims to be so invested in the status of the four heroes that she's willing to kill them all if they can't figure stuff out. You'd think she could have at least lent some sort of support. I'd have to get a hold of her and be like you know, you are asking a lot expecting me to cooperate with these boneheads; get off your ass and help at least lol

Rishia must have one helluva lady boner for Itsuki. Seeing the flashback of how he treated her when they booted her out; geesh. No way would I be pining for a douchebag like that, especially after seeing his latest idiocy. He calls himself a hero of justice, yet is willing to shoot at and potentially murder children who he acknowledges are slaves and ergo do not have the ability to refuse Naofumi's commands.

I hope we can move on to something actually engaging now, past the "collect the three heroes" bit.

[Dengar]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Yeah, pretty much. Naofumi is the only one who figures out how to level properly, all three other heroes are arrogant and dismiss him and always fall for Melty's manipulations (until now, I assume). It's a bit too much.

And Naofumi cannot get along with literally anyone and needs his allies to reign him in.

Idk I think people are unnecessarily hard on the heroes and giving Naofumi a free pass on things.

[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by Dengar

And Naofumi cannot get along with literally anyone and needs his allies to reign him in.

Idk I think people are unnecessarily hard on the heroes and giving Naofumi a free pass on things.

Oh, Naofumi definitely is a git who is needlessly distrustful way beyond the expiration date of his own traumatic experience. He has more or less a dozen people, most of them very powerful, who support him. However, he still is the only one who manages to get things done, because he can be prodded beyond his (at this point) unreasonable distrust of everybody. In fact, that he can be prodded to be productive by his friends is the main reason why things are working out for him despite his bad tendencies.

[Dengar]

Well, my point was more that he actually has allies to point him in the right direction, whereas the other heroes, before this point, did not.

[SuitUp]

And whose fault is that.

[Lex79]

I was actually rooting for Itsuki instead of Rishia...
I do agree that it feels a bit forced that all the heroes fell for Malty's deception. It was understandable in the beginning since her true nature wasn't known, but by know being at least a little suspicious would have been nice. I'm not sure if that was meant to emphasize that the heroes were hitting rock bottom, to keep Malty relevant because the author has plans for her, or a combination of both.
Anyway, we got new characters introduced and the rehabilitation of the three heroes but it didn't feel like the plot moved much forward. Are we getting a second cour by chance?

[Dengar]

I'm not sure. The fact that they previewed the next arc in the final episode does seem to imply that they fully intend to adapt the Q'ten Lo arc.

Which is probably my favorite arc from a worldbuilding perspective.

[Frontier]

Starting off with drunk Raphtalia right off the bat! Ara Ara indeed! Was she almost about to confess ?

But Naofumi and Raphtalia aren't just hanging out on a deserted island for the view, they're also being taught the Way of the Dragon Vein by Gaelion! And Sadeena is also feeling out how Naufmi really feels about Raphtalia...he once again daughter-zones her, but is there more to it? Raphtalia is just so attractive, after all .

Raphtalia looks absolutely stunning in a miko outfit! I guess I understand why everyone wanted her to wear it. Not that I expected it would turn out to be so plot relevant .

The question you have to ask when you wonder where Motoyasu is...is do you really want to know where Motoyasu is ?

I really did not expect Raphtalia wearing a miko outfit to turn into such a big deal that they get attacked by a group of animal ninjas out to kill her and even blow up yet another house in the village. Not to mention these ninjas can shrug off most of the Cardinal Heroes' attacks. But hey, at least Itsuki can fight now .

I love the blacksmith joining in the fight! And how Naofumi and Raphtalia were able to induce a confusion state! Just watch out for the self-destructing ninjas .

So Raphtalia...is actually a princess!? A secret royal in-line for the Q'Ten Lo (the more explicitly Asian society of beasts) throne after her parents ditched the succession wars to live peacefully in Melromarc, their faithful bodyguard Sadeena following them and being there for Raphtalia since her childhood before tragedy struck with the Wave. That's...kind of a lot .

Of course it's one thing to introduce a throne that Raphtalia doesn't even want, it's another to say they've been observing her the whole time and never lifted a finger to help her even in her darkest moments, being more than willing to let her die and looking for any excuse to kill her. That's enough to tick off Naofumi, not to mention them attacking his village. He's practically ready to declare war !

Trash is still trying to be close to Atla and Fohl, it seems like he recognizes they're his sisters' kids, and it seems like Atla senses the kinship between the two of them as well. Could she help redeem Trash's view of the Shield Hero ?

It's off to Q'Ten Lo for the next stage of Naofumi and company's journey! And is Bitch possibly heading there herself? Heck, it even looks like there's an animal version of her there already and serving the currently Heavenly Emperor .

Here's to season 4, I guess !

[magnuskn]

Well, seems to me that they are planning for another cour (or season). I'm interested, since it seems the stuff going forward will be more interesting than the reassembly of the hero squad.

As for this cour (season, whatever), it started out strong, then petered off with the whole "must assemble all four heroes" stuff. 6/10 still, for the strong start.

[Twi]

So she wears a Miko outfit and by coincidence (I think Sadeena knew but didn't tell her not to wear it apparently), it marks her as an enemy to a bunch of high-level Ninjas who have always been watching her, despite everything she's gone through, in a country that hasn't had any relevance, when they're supposed to be gearing up to fight the bird next, in the final episode?

Leaving aside the string of events being... expected of Isekai at this point, you don't end a series like this unless you intended to get a Season Four. It would have made more sense to save Itsuki to wrap up the series since it meant all four heroes are on the same page now, and if you got a Fourth Season approved then open with that since it's the start of a new arc.

[grecefar]

while it wasn't as bad as the previous season, well it wasn't that good either. In the end the peak was the first season and I doubt that will reach that point again. Got my issues with this season but well at least I did enjoyed a little.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Twi

So she wears a Miko outfit and by coincidence (I think Sadeena knew but didn't tell her not to wear it apparently), it marks her as an enemy to a bunch of high-level Ninjas who have always been watching her, despite everything she's gone through, in a country that hasn't had any relevance, when they're supposed to be gearing up to fight the bird next, in the final episode?

Leaving aside the string of events being... expected of Isekai at this point, you don't end a series like this unless you intended to get a Season Four. It would have made more sense to save Itsuki to wrap up the series since it meant all four heroes are on the same page now, and if you got a Fourth Season approved then open with that since it's the start of a new arc.

Apparently Sadeena had like a wary look in the past few episodes, which is about as much foreshadowing as we got, but I didn't ever notice it .

[Twi]

Okay, so she knew and didn't warn her or Naofumi... why?

Edit: I mean, and this probably won't be addressed because I've been thinking too hard, but this basically means she knew that there was a whole country who'd like nothing more than justification to kill her, and likely had people spying on a village that had been attacked twice already at a minimum. Her giving a few words like "if you wear that you'll be declaring war on another nation while the village is still being repaired and we only have a handful of people to protect it" might get her to reconsider the outfit considering she didn't want the throne. Or informing Naofumi who could make the call since she'd defer to him.

If she doesn't know, then it's excusable. If she does know, it's negligence at best.

Edit 2: And you know what, now that I'm venting, that poster of the King back when he was the staff hero was bait. We never got to see that despite it looking awesome. All we got was an info dump and a couple of shots with him trying to speak with the kids.

[cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by Dengar

And Naofumi cannot get along with literally anyone and needs his allies to reign him in.

Idk I think people are unnecessarily hard on the heroes and giving Naofumi a free pass on things.

Fitoria literally calls him out on this. Naofumi is at least the 1st to listen. It just took the others longer

[Lex79]

So it turns out Raphtalia is some sort of princess and now Naofumi has to crush the nation that wants her dead. This might lead for some development between the protagonist and the main heroine, even if it means the main plot has to be hold back for a while.

[Dengar]

Sadeena didn't know about the miko outfit though. That they had one, I mean. Or that Naofumi was planning on making her wear it.

[magnuskn]

Still a pretty amazing coincidence.

[Dengar]

I will acknowledge that the story's reliance on contrivance is frequent. They met Sadeena by pure coincidence as well. As well as S'yne. They randomly found the sword hero in the same town they found the spear hero. The niece of Trash just happened to be a sickly slave girl at a colosseum. Or that time in the first season where they found a dragon hourglass somewhere under the sea, which was counting down to a wave which was just about to happen.

[Frontier]

This season was definitely better from an animation and action standpoint but the plot is still all over the place compared to season 1.