Thanks for stopping by Anime Rants. Several key events took place in this episode, but all I can think about are the last few minutes wherein Prince Duke, yet again, proves himself incredibly creepy and predatory. Let’s rehash the latest episode of I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down In History.
Episode 10: The Villainess and the Past
Episode Rating: 7/10
Will told the story of his past to Alicia and Gill. He was the current king’s older brother, and the one who was originally intended to inherit the throne. However, Will lost his ability to use magic after trying to use a level 100 spell with level 80 skills. The ice spell went crazy and temporarily froze the entire palace. The customs of the land said it wouldn’t be acceptable to have a king who couldn’t use magic. Thus, Will’s brother Luke became king in his place.
At first, Will and his brother got along. Will wrote most of the policies, while Luke just approved them. But as time passed, Luke became more assertive and said that he wasn’t his brother’s puppet. Shortly after that conflict, Will was arrested, blinded, and banished for supposedly plotting to murder the king. Of course, Will had done no such thing, so it was clear that someone was trying to get rid of him. That person was probably Luke’s mother, Will surmised. She arranged to have him erased, hiding the truth from Luke, who believes his brother is missing.
There’s clearly more to the story that we don’t know. How much is the current king aware of his mother’s conspiracy, and is that woman still alive? But the only thing on Will’s mind right now is saving Roana. He reveals that his plan is to get an audience with King Luke and propose freedom for this village. It will be difficult for a “criminal” from Roana to be approved for an audience, but Alicia agrees that it’s worth trying.
The episode switches over to the Magic Academy, where three snobby girls encounter Alicia. They are basically just there to badmouth Liz for being a commoner. Alicia refuses to play along, since she acknowledges and respects Liz’s talent and skill with magic. The three snobby girls get angry at Alicia’s defiance. They decide to try to frame her for badmouthing Liz. However, Liz knows better than to believe what just anyone says. She calls Alicia to her and asks what really happened. Alicia calmly explains, and the three bullies are exposed.
Curtis and Finn – the green-haired and yellow-haired boys, respectively – seem less brainwashed by Liz than before. The two of them are starting to notice that something is up with Liz and her ability to control others. They watch as the three girls – who started off hating Liz – turn blindly to her side, becoming her meek followers. In other news, Jane tries to apologize for what she did. Liz forgives her, but one of the Williams boys (Alan) tells her in secret to never bother Liz again. It seems that ome of Liz’s fans think they know better what Liz wants than Liz herself.
Alicia ended up arguing with Liz again and refusing to be her friend. During the encounter, one of Liz’s followers said that Liz was so brave she once fought off a wolf at school. Alicia didn’t believe that at first, since wolves only live in Laval, the next country over. However, Gill assures Alicia that it really happened during her time locked away practicing magic. Alicia then starts to suspect that Laval planted the wolf as some kind of threat against the kingdom.
Duke’s behavior is extremely suspicious during these scenes. It seems pretty obvious that he’s the wolf, having mastered some kind of high-level shapeshifting spell. He doesn’t want Alicia to know that he’s the wolf, so he shuts down her questioning and brings her to a private room in the Academy without even asking her permission. He then proceeds to “kabedon” Alicia, trapping her against the wall and demanding her attention.
Although in Duke’s mind, he was probably trying to flirt, the things he said and did were extremely inappropriate and creepy. There are so many things wrong with this scene. But the peak of the creepiness had to be when Duke expressed his desire to keep Alicia locked up. And hey, I love kinky BDSM, but this was not a conversation about sexual preferences. This was Duke saying out of the blue that he wants to imprison Alicia, who didn’t even consent to being there.
Despite Duke being a complete psycho, Alicia stood up for herself. She head-butted Duke to get him to move away a bit. She stormed out of the room, but not before stating that she wouldn’t let anyone take away her freedom. I’m glad Alicia was assertive here. But the problem remains that our main love interest is a predator. Assuming there will be twelve episodes, all I can do is hope he changes soon. Or perhaps Alicia will realize that Duke isn’t good for her. Here’s hoping.
~Thanks for reading~
Written by 7Mononoke
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Anime Rants 
I believe Curtis and Finn have been wise to what’s going on with Liz’s influence for awhile now. They surreptitiously aroused Duke’s suspicion on that count, after all.
On which note, it’s no surprise that not every one of Liz’s followers walks in perfect lockstep with what she says. We saw one of her supporters try to get rid of Alicia already, and others have tried to disgrace her. But these seem to be the manifestations of the darker, negative desires which she suppresses. So, though she voices forgiveness for Jane, the fact that one of her chief supporters immediately told her to stay away leaves me wondering if that was his thinking or hers at work.
Either way, though, it is a bit alarming the way Liz seemed to just give up on being friends with Alicia. That is not a good sign, especially in one who evidently manipulates the people around her, suppressing their thoughts and their independent selves, without even realizing it.
As for Duke, I’m not sure Duke’s the wolf, per se. We haven’t seen any shape-shifting magic so far, though it’s not impossible. But he definitely knows something about it, and might have been the one to actually arrange for the wolf to attack Liz. He definitely had to fight to control his reaction when Alicia was commenting on it. And then the moment she mentioned his uncle, he acted to hurriedly distract her from both topics. If we take what he said at face value, then he’s known about his uncle and kept in contact, and thus kept it secret from his father, for quite some time. It does make more sense for Will to have an outside contact besides Alicia, and this is how he knows what’s been going on while he’s been otherwise imprisoned and isolated, but for that contact to be Duke himself… something feels off. Why does Duke want Alicia to leave everything about his uncle to him, and also want Alicia to not even think about Laval? He chose an effective tactic of distraction, but why was he so desperate to distract her? Does he think it would endanger her, or is he up to something shady with both situations? Are they connected?
As far as his obsession with Alicia goes, I cannot count the number of stories which feature someone of a predatory bent getting all the more excited when they encounter difficulties. He wants to keep her all for himself, a bird in a cage, but she won’t let him, and this makes him hungrier for her. I highly doubt he’ll improve within the next two or three episodes.
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Totally agree about Duke, I really don’t think he’ll change his ways anytime soon. Good points about the shady dealings Duke seems to be up to with Laval, the wolf encounter, and keeping his uncle secret. Is he plotting to overthrow his father’s government with his uncle and uncle’s friends as supporters? Keep in mind Laval was the country Uncle Will’s friends were banished to.
As for Liz, it’s looking more and more like she has some really nasty intentions. If she is secretly manipulating her followers to do evil deeds, like alienating Jane and turning against Alicia, than she was the mastermind behind Alicia and Gill getting kidnapped and almost killed. There’s also the question of how much of Liz’s mind control is intentional and how much is happening without Liz’s intentional control?
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Ahh, yes. I missed that detail, that Laval is where Will’s friends went to. I remember when they talked about the small neighboring country that collapsed, Alicia emphasized that they at least needed to keep it from falling into Laval’s hands. One may presume that Will’s friends were most unhappy to be thrust from their place of power, and if they went over to Laval, they could easily be working towards revenge, which Alicia got in the way of. It’s puzzling what Duke would gain by betraying his father, as he is already heir to the throne so conspiring with Laval would basically be like signing his own death warrant, unless he was able to give them one heck of a good reason to not just lop his head off alongside his father’s. About the only thing I can think of, off the top of my head, is if he wants to break down the entire magic-based system of nobility all at once, putting down those who would resist quickly and efficiently. Which would permit Will to sit on the throne, thus bringing his old friends into the mix. Of course it only works if Laval is a meritocracy, which, I forget if it is, but it explains why they’d want to remove or test out the power of a potential obstacle like the Saint.
I’m fairly certain Liz did cause that mess when Alicia and Gill were kidnapped, but I’m also fairly certain it was subconscious. She might still think that when people do what she wants them to do, it’s just things working out as she likes. I think that’s a big part of the problem, that she’s doing it all without intending to. She’s going to have to deal with that, soon, or things will get very interesting and unpleasant for everyone.
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