Welcome back to Anime Rants’ episode reviews for Orb: On the Movement of the Earth. As usual, there were many lines and ideas worth analyzing in this episode. One example is the theme of “convictions,” or firmly held beliefs. How strict should one be about living with convictions? I’m of the opinion that while convictions can be good, you should always be able to question, adapt, and grow according to new knowledge and situations.

Convictions should be based on truth and reality. Some people, however, are extremely resistant to any change in their beliefs. For instance, take Nowak. He’s still on the Church’s side even after everything that happened with Jolenta. Stubborn conviction for its own sake – especially when the conviction relies on supernatural assumptions – is not a good thing. With that in mind, let’s discuss this awesome episode.

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Episode 19: Morality is Something You Find When You’re Lost

Episode Rating: 9/10

It was great to have a complex and well-written character like Nowak reappear in the story. But as cool as that was, the highlight of the episode for me was seeing so much screen-time for Jolenta. She is just too cool for me to be normal about. I’m smitten with this character. She’s the coolest woman in anime I’ve seen in a long time – which is saying something, as we are in the age of great female protagonists like Frieren.

Jolenta is definitely my favorite character in Orb – which is also saying something, since most of the characters are so interesting. Draka is also awesome but not my number one in the series. It’s a bit unexpected that the token atheist isn’t my favorite character at the end of the day. But it makes sense because humanism comes before atheism to me. Jolenta is fighting for human rights, while Draka is self-interested and capitalistic.

(To be clear, I’m not saying Draka is morally obligated to take up arms and join the resistance or anything like that. I wish she would live a happy life even if it’s only herself and her money. I’m just saying that the wise, visionary swordswoman is slightly cooler to me than the pragmatic young economist.)

Before we discuss Jolenta more, the other major characters should aslo be mentioned. This is the episode where we meet Asch, a young but passionate Inquisitor who works directly under Bishop Anthony. For his debut, Asch was torturing a heretic. That should tell you something about his beliefs. In contrast to Asch, old Bishop Damien is a more compassionate and reasonable believer who knows that religious violence is A) wrong; and B) could make the Orthodox Church crumble further.

When he hears about the ongoing heliocentrism case, Damien says that Asch should enlist the help of Nowak. He’s now an older man who essentially receives a pension and doesn’t need to work. Instead, he spends his time at local bars and taverns, getting completely shitfaced to forget his grief and frustration. I’m the first one to say that alcoholism is no joke, but it was still amusing for me to see Nowak’s drunkenness. I think it made me empathize with him slightly.

Despite knowing better, I started to hope that Nowak would be done with the Church forever. However, as explained in the introduction, Nowak’s convictions have not changed. He still believes that heretics are evil people who will destroy society. In fact, Nowak has actually become more radicalized with age – a sad fate quite common for those indoctrinated by religion. He now hatefully refers to heliocentrism as the root of all evil. Predictably, Nowak agrees to help Asch with the case.

Let’s go back to Jolenta. She didn’t trust Draka at first and was upset that she burned Oczy’s book. But once she had a better understanding of Draka, Jolenta sheathed her sword. The conversation that followed was positively intriguing. Jolenta tried to communicate how heliocentrism inspired her to fight for freedom. Much like Rafal, she knew that inspiration is sometimes the key to letting ideas and knowledge survive. We learned only a bit about Jolenta’s life, but a lot about her motives and feelings. Draka also raised some salient points to challenge her, which she took in stride.

At one point, Draka asked whether Jolenta was repeating the same crimes as the Church. Jolenta said it’s possible that she had turned to blind faith. But I don’t think that’s so. Jolenta’s mission involves violence, which goes against humanism. Is the violence justified in this case? Evidence shows that people live better lives when they have more freedom, education, and human rights. The mission of the Heretic Liberation Front is therefore justified by evidence and progressive thinking rather than blind faith.

There’s a lot more I could analyze about these conversations, including definitions of freedom. But for brevity’s sake, I’ll mention just one other point. Jolenta said there are times when one must act outside their usual convictions. Draka argued that without convictions, people would only wander. Jolenta simply replied, “Keep wandering.” That might be my favorite line from her so far.

I don’t think she was trying to say that people should have no direction or relative certainty about things. Rather, Jolenta meant that it’s best to keep an open mind. If we allow ourselves to wander, we will see new and different paths, which we are free to try if not bogged down by dogma.

In the end, Jolenta decided not to sell or mass-produce Oczy’s book. She did, however, write down her own copy – at least, as best as could be reproduced from Draka’s memory. Draka won’t be permitted to sell this book, but Jolenta gave her permission to use the printing press for a different literary work. This way, Draka can make money and also help the Heretic Liberation Front by spreading ideas that weaken the Church. It’s up to Draka to find and choose a powerful book that can do this. To be continued.

~Thanks for reading~

Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants

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