Many of us are going through difficult times right now. It’s easier than ever to fight among ourselves. Music may not have the power to solve problems, but it can allow us to slow down enough to start getting along better. The power of song is an important theme in this season of Re: Zero. As the city of Preistella is thrown into chaos, Liliana the bard plays music to calm the citizens packed into the emergency shelters. Take a minute and listen to her song. Your blood pressure will thank you.
Episode 56: Conditions of the Knight
Episode Rating: 7/10
This episode was definitely an improvement over the previous one, in my personal opinion. I’ll go over most of what happened. For starters, Emilia saves “Number 184” from Corneas when he tried to murder her over making a small mistake. Once Corneas was gone, 184 thanked Emilia, but then went right back to work slaving away without any hint of wanting things to change. Emilia was appalled by that, and rightfully so. We’ll get back to Emilia later, but for now, let’s see how Subaru is doing.
After being washed away in the floodwaters, Subaru was rescued by Priscilla and Liliana. Much to his surprise, his leg is still attached – but it’s no longer a normal leg. The dragon blood permanently altered the appearance of his leg, making it ugly – but that leg now has full regenerative powers. Any cut will seal up in seconds. The dragon’s blood is clearly a blessing mixed with a curse.
There is a very cool scene where Priscilla fights off a group of demi-beasts using her sword and fire magic. It was really well-done from an audio-visual perspective, and within the story, it suggests that Priscilla is a lot more powerful than anyone realized. Anyway, after defeating the unsightly monsters, Priscilla goes with Subaru and Liliana to one of the emergency shelters where the city’s people are gathered.
Things don’t look good. The people are all on edge, angry, and impatient. A riot could start at any minute. This is mostly due to the Authority of Wrath – AKA the magical influence of Sirius’ mental instability. Subaru himself begins to fall prey to the magic, but Liliana saves the day. She plays and sings a beautiful and hopeful song for everyone in the shelter. At least temporarily, the Authority of Wrath was defeated, and the citizens were able to calm down.
Now we’ll go back to Emilia for a minute. Much to my relief, she’s not as helpless as I feared. She’s trying to do what she can while being held captive. She could escape fairly easily, but that would mean more damage to the city, as the broadcast made clear. Instead of escaping right away, Emilia gathers information about the Sin Arch-Bishops and their locations. She hopes to pass this information along to Subaru somehow.
Speaking of Subaru, he meets up with Julius and goes to the new headquarters in the government building. There, he hears that Crusch is alive, but has been mutilated by the dragon blood, which was poured on her face. Personally, I’m just glad she’s alive. I don’t really give a damn if she has an ugly face now. Getting upset over that seems pretty shallow of Felix and the others, if I’m being honest.
The last major scene before the credits shows Subaru talking with Anastasia and a few others about what to do next. The young man goes on a rant about how knights never give up and he will beat the crap out of the Sin Arch-Bishops. I think his speech was supposed to be inspiring, but in true Subaru fashion, it was a little cringe and over-the-top. Still, I’m very glad he’s ready to fight!
There’s a brief after-credits scene where Emilia sneaks into Corneas’ office and picks up the device he was using to communicate with the other Cultists. Much to Emilia’s surprise, the person who responds through the communicator is Aldebaran, Priscilla’s knight. I have an unpleasant suspicion that he might be a traitor. We’ll see next week.
~Thanks for reading~
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