Well, it looks like the Pope is no mere push over in The Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 19 – The Four Cardinal Heroes. The Pope holds in his hands the ultimate weapon, which possesses the properties of all four cardinal weapons. And here I thought it was the Excalibur.Faced with its attack skill, “Judgment,” and its powerful defensive force field, Naofumi and gang are rendered helpless. Beating him alone isn’t an option. Motoyasu speech about making the Pope pay for his crime was the most painful thing to listen in this episode. You would think that after everything that’s happened just now, he would have at least some level of epiphany that he’s been wrong this whole time and would stay quiet from humiliation but nope, the man keeps on going with Myne to cheer him along.
Anyways, as I predicted, it will take the entire four heroes to stop him for good. I hadn’t anticipated that he’d have a weapon that can morph into all four of the Cardinal weapons but the drawback from it basically makes it useless to use.
Also, I knew both Ren and Itsuki weren’t dead but I should’ve known the Queen would have something to do with their survival. Knowing that the Queen is on her way is great I guess but I’m really hoping we see her actually do something significant or learn why she never did anything to prevent all of this shit from taking place. However, the best part about this episode was Naofumi finally lecturing and telling the other heroes and basically told them off. We’ve been waiting weeks for this. He finally got through to their thick-heads and made them feel like shit.
Unfortunately, the pope used that moment to channel enough mana to unleashed his ultimate attack, which was to build a giant cathedral to encapsulate the four heroes and their squad. The next episode is going to be the one that really demonstrates the powers of the four heroes in action.
Overall, that lecture that Naofumi did was the highlight of the episode for me. Next will be Myne getting what she deserves.