Hello and welcome back to Anime Rants with Mono. Early on, I thought Orb was going to be the best anime of the Fall 2024 season. It’s still my personal favorite, but it’s probably not the best when looked at more objectively. The slowing down of the pacing, the lack of action, and the disregard for the character of Jolenta didn’t help. However, in episode 12, Orb makes a strong comeback. It’s an exciting and well-crafted episode. I’m so pumped to write about it! Let’s review.
Episode 12: Heliocentrism is My Faith
Episode Rating: 9/10
The first scene is extremely intense. Nowak has just stated that he’s an Inquisitor. Oczy is starting to panic, but Badeni stays calm and collected. Nowak asks to see their research, and Badeni leads him to the study shed. Much to Oczy’s surprise and relief, Badeni was prepared for such an event. He left fake research books about astrology all over the study area. Nowak picked up a few of them, skimmed the pages, and found nothing problematic. Badeni must have hid the actual research documents.
Unfortunately, the orb necklace was not hidden. Nowak happens to see it and immediately leaves, apologizing for the intrustion. Oczy explains the necklace to Badeni, hoping that Nowak didn’t realize what it was and how it used to belong to the old heretic. Badeni is convinced that Nowak did, in fact, recognize the necklace. So he tells Oczy that they need to burn the research and flee the town at once.
While Badeni burns the documents, Oczy debates with him. He introduces the idea that openness to correction and lack of certainty are good things for the scholarly process. Basically, Oczy is introducing principles of the modern scientific method. We know now that science cannot “prove” anything – it can only disprove or fail to disprove. In addition, any good scientific research requires peer review from other experts in the field.
Badeni is mostly against those ideas, since the church values certainty and needs to be always be black-and-white. He is also antisocial and arrogant; so, he probably hates the idea of peer review. But for now, Badeni doesn’t argue. He says they can debate another time. As Oczy prepares to leave, he spots the Inquisitor’s carriage on the way to the shed. He tells Badeni they have five minutes or less to escape, and they’ll have to leave the remaining research behind.
Meanwhile, in the carriage, Nowak is pissed off. In his view, heretics endangered his precious family by talking to Jolenta. That’s why this case is special to Nowak, and why he brought four armed men with him. However, one of the four men lacks any battle experience. He promises Nowak he can fulfil his duty, but that remains to be seen. Also, damn: if Nowak was calm all this time, I hate to see what he does when furious.
Oczy decides to let Badeni escape with the research while he buys time and fends off the Inquisitors. He thinks he can hold them off for about ten minutes: enough time for Badeni to grab the research and escape through the emergency tunnel. Oczy isn’t sure if he’s ready to die, but he’s ready to fight. When Badeni points out that killing clergymen will make it nearly impossible to enter heaven, Oczy say he’s now prepared for Hell. He then states that Heliocentrism is his faith.
I didn’t know how I felt about this statement at first, as it seemed contradictory. “Faith” usually means trusting in something without evidence. It can also refer to a belief system that involves worshipping higher powers. But Oczy is aware that there’s vast evidence for Heliocentrism, so he shouldn’t need blind faith. He was just arguing that relying on certainty isn’t good. Moreover, scientific models are not supposed to be worshipped. Why did Oczy say that?
To understand Oczy’s statement, I had to stretch my brain a little. Eventfully, I realized something. To Oczy, “Faith” is something that you’re willing to die for. He compared it to faith so his clergyman friend could understand where he was coming from. That mostly makes sense to me.
Badeni gives a special prayer/blessing, asking God to save Oczy’s soul. He puts a bit of oil on Ocyz’s forehead and says, “Amen.” It’s a dramatic and inspiring moment. It also shows that Badeni respects Oczy and is grateful for his sacrifice. After this, Oczy stops the Inquisitors on the road. He defeats all of them but Nowak. (The one without battle experience ran away, tripped, and got impaled on his own sword.) Now it’s down to a battle between Oczy and Nowak! To be continued.
~Thanks for Reading~
Written by 7Mononoke
Click to see more about Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
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