Tate no Yuusha/Shield Hero - Episode 12 Discussion / Poll

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Tate no Yuusha/Shield Hero, Episode 12.

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[The Green One]

Alright so that was a Hopeless Boss Fight. The boss laughed off all attacks with no damage and no effort and all Nafoumi and team could do was endure for a few rounds and look for an opportunity to flee the battle. Tropey to the extreme but I can't imagine this is the last we've seen of her with this non resolution to her plot line. Lucky for the other Heroes that Glass seems to think they aren't even Heroes at all, no doubt the only reason they lived through the battle. The interesting parts came after as Nafoumi is summoned back to the capital where the King rather unsubutely tries to force Nafoumi to cough up the secrets to his power that currently surpasses the other Heroes.

The conversation with Melty, Malty, and the King afterwards was pretty telling as both the girls seem to be able to lead the king around by the nose and apparently something happened to the King involving his family and demi-humans in the past. He didn't even mention Malty's supposed rape. Looks like even he knows it's a lie.

Episode ends with Melty's knight guard turned assassination squad who tries to take her out. Looks like they must be in Malty's pocket trying to remove a rival while they have a convenient scapegoat to blame. What will you do now Nafoumi?

[BWTraveller]

Good ep again, kind of surprised it went so far past the battle. Seems like Malty is the one with real power right now. The king's prejudiced against the Shield and fears that taking a chance and trusting him would hurt her or smear her reputation or something, so she's able to keep him dancing to her beat. As for the last scene, interesting that not only were the guards charged with killing Melty, and killing her in the presence of the Shield, but they did it with the other world's equivalent to a video camera...

[The Green One]

Another funny point was Melty's well mannered but cutting burns to Malty about minding her own business.

[blakstealth]

There's now an even more obvious amount of tension between the royalty. It seems that the King has some past history with demi humans and maybe a previous Shield Hero. The way he's docile to Malty makes it look like she's taking advantage of the situation and set up everything so far to make the Shield Hero hated and have her father on her side. At first, I thought that it was the king and Malty that set up the fake sexual assault claims, but maybe it could've been Malty all on her own. And this little assassination attempt on Melty speaks volumes. It was definitely Malty that planned that one. It was oh so satisfying to see Naofumi also talk back to the King and threaten him. It was about time he got to shit on him a little bit by telling him to beg on his knees for his "secrets."

Also...what the heck is the Queen doing, anyway?!

[FlareKnight]

This is one busy episode. They managed to fit the big fight against Glass and quite a bit after the fight. Even getting into the behind the scenes conspiracy. I'd have to presume that Malty was behind this one. Her father seems to be a scummy loser, but I can't even comprehend him trying to assassinate his daughter. While obviously the sister who seems to be taking power through her father would want to eliminate the next in line for the throne.

Everything is just more complicated than any character could presume. Naofumi has every royal as the enemy, but it's just not that simple. Melty as well underestimated how corrupt her sister truly is. Although I suppose it's hard for anyone to presume their sibling would try to assassinate them. I did love her taking shots at her sister though. She knows how incompetent Malty is that she the younger sibling was made the heir to the throne instead. She may have trouble with Naofumi, but she can handle her sister in a battle of words. Which is probably why...assassination was picked.

Of course trying for reconciliation if possible would be good for all parties. Naofumi wouldn't have to go to another country just for the sake of a class change and would have an easier time within this country. The country as well would get the currently strongest hero on their side. Sure Naofumi is fighting but it's not exactly with his heart into it. Of course good luck with this much bad blood to smooth things over...but it would be ideal.

Of course the biggest issue is how worthless the other 3 heroes are. A tank type character is very valuable in a party. But it's insane how Naofumi is going well past what the other heroes are in terms of offense. They are missing the boat on something to be so far behind him.

[magnuskn]

Ah, I just love that everytime Naofumi is about to get some info about the world (i.e. how demi-humans apparently have a better view of the shield hero), the person imparting the information gets cut off and Naofumi just gets distracted. At this point, one would think that he'd hit the library for a day and read some history books. ^^

[Dengar]

I can't say I was very impressed with the Glass fight. I mean it got the message across but it wasn't very well executed. Idk the LN never felt like Glass was just standing around waiting for Naofumi and co to make their moves while doing absolutely nothing herself.

I guess they just don't have enough budget for a good fight.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Ah, I just love that everytime Naofumi is about to get some info about the world (i.e. how demi-humans apparently have a better view of the shield hero), the person imparting the information gets cut off and Naofumi just gets distracted. At this point, one would think that he'd hit the library for a day and read some history books. ^^

I'm with you there . He's just so easily distracted. Come on Naofumi bring the conversation back to the important points! I know they don't want to give the audience all the info that they can reveal later...but come on someone keep the information flowing.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Ah, I just love that everytime Naofumi is about to get some info about the world (i.e. how demi-humans apparently have a better view of the shield hero), the person imparting the information gets cut off and Naofumi just gets distracted. At this point, one would think that he'd hit the library for a day and read some history books. ^^

Only he can't read their language that well and from how much hate he experiences from the upper class I imagine the history books will be rather biased in any case. It'd probably be fairly difficult to get really useful information there.

[magnuskn]

Well, it seems people like the blacksmith know a lot of stuff, so although you are probably right that the history books will have a slanted view, Naofumi could just ask. But I guess he's a man of action, rather than words...

[Kanon]

Not much to say about Glass. She's completely overpowered, Naofumi and his party will have to do some serious level up to stand a chance next time.

I found it interesting that the King apparently has reasons to hate the Shield. He didn't say much but it seems like his family was killed by demi-humans. That makes him less one dimensional than I thought. It doesn't seem like he particularly favors Myne either, he loves Melty just as much. It's just that Myne knows how to manipulate him.

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

I'm with you there . He's just so easily distracted. Come on Naofumi bring the conversation back to the important points! I know they don't want to give the audience all the info that they can reveal later...but come on someone keep the information flowing.

We've known that particular info for a while though. Only Naofumi is unaware that the Shield is the hero of the demi-humans. You'd think Raphtalia would have mentioned it to him at some point. Just because he was summoned by Melromarc doesn't mean he has to stay there. He could make one of the demi-human kingdom his home instead.

[Kinematics]

More technical details.

Team Ake is doing OK at the moment (as of the very start of the episode). They're all still alive, and have all gained a level each. If the orange bars are their health, though, a couple of them are under half.

Glass is an unknown level, however the Soul Eater that they just fought is noted as being level 89. That's substantially higher than even Ren's level 65, and more than double Naofumi's 38 (with Raphtalia and Filo capped at level 40). They did get a crapload of experience for it, though, ranging from a bit over 4000 to almost 6000.


Animation annoyance: Everyone other than Naofumi's team disappeared after getting stomped by Glass. And then a couple downed bodies show up right at the end. And then all the bodies show up after the ship crashes. Aggravating.

Naofumi and Filo ended the fight at around 25% health, and all of team Ake was below half. Was getting pretty sketchy there.

At the castle...

Lots of interesting politics going on, here. The king is his usual self vs Naofumi, but seems more helpless when confronted by Melty, acting more like a doting father dealing with a daughter who's pushing for her own independence. Also, lots of vitriol between Melty and Malty.

The series seems to do a lot better when focusing on the social/political conflicts, than when dealing with the physical combat. The latter depends heavily on the animation, and the animation has been a bit weak. The social side, however, depends more on emotions and interplay, and comes off much better.

Interesting warning about the church that one lady gave, there.


And they decided to name Elhart in conversation, now, instead of just in the UI text.

Annnnnd... assassination attempt. Well.

[Lex79]

The scene with Naofumi and the king was priceless, it was time for Naofumk to start paying back for all the times he was screwed since he got isekai'ed. And the way he responded to the threat of doing something to Raphtalia and Filo was incredibly satisfying.
Merry, on the other hand, left me perplexed. One time she managed to completely silence her sister, and then she acts like a child asking Naofumi to apologize to the king because reasons. She should have known that wasn't the best way to approach him.

[Huh...?]

I am surprised by how they hinted towards why the King acts like that to Naofumi (aka., Shield Hero).

Makes me wonder how much they actually plan to cover in this anime adaptation, or would we actually end up getting Season 2.

Because as far as WN and LN goes, the reasoning behind the King's action is revealed quite a bit later.

[Twi]

The Tank is supposed to have the most HP and DEF. If not the Tank Buster (her turtle breaker thing) would have probably killed him. Raph got burned though. She didn't even get the same level of credit Filo did.

But its pretty clear Glass was half-assing it when she was just letting him attack. If she wanted to screw them over then she only needed to just kill the other three heroes and call it a day. Must be a pride thing.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by Twi

But its pretty clear Glass was half-assing it when she was just letting him attack. If she wanted to screw them over then she only needed to just kill the other three heroes and call it a day. Must be a pride thing.

Spoiler for Explanation from novel:

She doesn't consider the other three as Heroes to begin with (as already mentioned in this episode by her). The only Hero she knows or faced is Naofumi, the rest are just supporters. And as Naofumi observed, Glass' only target were the Heroes, and she didn't bother with anyone else.

[mod edit: removed hint of future content]

[Galaxian]

The scene at the castle was something I waited for since the anime got announced. It feel so cathartic given what went down after the previous wave.

[Ichinotachi]

The fight vs Glass was as expected completely onesided, she wiped the floor with every hero so a powerup is a must for every single one of them if they want to stand a chance against her in the next wave.

That scene between the king and Naofumi showed many different things. The king is just a puppet, nothing more than that. Melty and Malty have complete control over him and I suspect that the queen's control can surpass both of them easily. Meanwhile Naofumi still hates him and everyone in the royal family, I don't blame him after all everyone except for Melty have been shitting on him at any chance.

One important detail is how Malty reacted when Melty confronted her, the last scene of this episode says a lot about who might have set this plan to kill her. Nice to see that Naofumi was there to save her.

[thundrakkon]

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Originally Posted by Ichinotachi

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Well, I think the plan was to kill Melty in the presence of Naofumi to somehow frame Naofumi as the killer. Obviously it was Malty who sent her men to kill Melty. I'm just surprised that the Queen's masked spies were not around to protect Melty.


Also, I suspect that there is one of those spies around, who will eventually report to the Queen about the assassination attempt. I'm wondering how the Queen will react to one of her daughters trying to murder the other one?