The Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 4 was something else man. Despite the Wave finally gone, Naofumi’s relief is still short-lived as Motoyasu challenges him to a duel in the middle of the celebratory banquet held in Melromarc Castle. Motoyasu insists that owning a slave is unbecoming for a hero and that Naofumi free Raphtalia at once.
As if things couldn’t get any worse for my boy, the damm King himself intervenes and basically forces them to duel for Raphtalia’s freedom. I’m not gonna lie, I could feel my rage boil as I watched this episode. In my head I was calling Motoyasu’s a bitch (indirectly since he was tricked by Myne), the king a bitch, and everyone in that courtyard was a bitch too. But most importantly that girl Myne is a massive bitch.
Anyways, venting aside, I’m quite surprised how well Naofumi fought against Motoyasu. Despite his inability to deal any damage, he still held is own and even had an advantage over him. He clearly would have won until Myne decided to blast him with some wind magic. When he called her out for it, no one spoke a word. That was when Naofumi really knew that they didn’t care whatsoever about him and the good deed he did for the kingdom. Man, this episode really drove home the fact that it’s him vs the world. This has really take a toll on Naofumi’s mental state.
Because of all this rage and hatred towards the Kingdom, his shield activated some type of cursed series. We still don’t know what it does yet but I get the feeling that it’s going to play a major role in the future. At least the other two heroes, Ren & Itsuki spoke out and defended him. I was expecting a villager that he saved to come say something or one of the knights but nope, the were nowhere to be found.
It’s too early to say if these guys will end up stabbing him in the back but for now, we can say that Ren and Itsuki are neutral parties, despite being too quick to judge. Big shout out to Raphtalia. Despite Naofumi hurling all types of aggressive words towards her, she remained loyal and helped save him from darkness. I’m still not comfortable calling her waifu material or anything because of the sudden change in body, but I guess been a demi-human rules out that problem. Still weird though to be honest. However that’s not going to stop the anime community whatsoever.
My big question now is what is the real deal about this whole Shield Hero thing? Even the king himself has some type of vendetta against that hero. I’d really like to learn how the previous hero did to get everyone to hate that hero type so much. Overall, it was solid episode.
