Interesting episode this time around.
I wonder if every episode from now on will start with Elaina rightfully boasting about her beauty? I would be cool with it.
We begin the story with an old saying “Every rose has its thorns”. Remember this. As she flew across a beautiful flower field she met an equally beautiful lady. She was given a bouquet to deliver to the nearby town.
At the entrance she was “greeted” by a rude guard questioning her about the flowers. An older guard excused him as he explained his unease and that the flowers were poisonous to regular people. Witches were immune. Elaina remembered a passage in The Adventures of Nike about a cursed plant.
Things didn’t end well…
The next stop saw her meet a nobleman’s son with a bottle filled with happiness. Literally. He collected happiness across the land as a gift for the girl he liked. This reminded Elaina of a similar story about a mage who traveled worldwide recreating beautiful vistas as gifts for his depressed bedridden wife. More on this later.
Nino. The girl he liked. Right. Nino worked at his father’s place. He was the village chief. In short she’s a slave and the boy wanted to hook up with her regardless of his cruel papa’s plans. An accident happened and Elaina was about to unleash righteous justice on the fucker but chose a less violent route. Later the time came for the boy to gift Nino her present…
Elaina remembered how the story of the magician and his sad wife ended. The moral of this episode, apparently, sometimes being nice isn’t the right answer. First was the already doomed town and the second it being a bad idea to show someone who can never experience the wonders of the outside world what they’re missing out on.
Again this was an interesting episode. The comparisons to Kino’s Journey are more apparent now.
The Yuri Empire 
Very dark, and definitely reminds me of Kino’s journey. I hope Elaina learns that you cannot stand to the side when evil happens: either you fight it, or you become evil yourself by letting it continue. There is no such thing as being morally ambivalent. I wish she had either beaten up the man or bought the girl freedom.
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Indeed. Something she will hopefully consider next time.
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Wow, this took a dark turn I wasn’t expecting. At first I was kind of disturbed by Elaina not helping in either situation, especially the second, but then I thought about it some more. The end where she says “just because you do something kind for someone, doesn’t mean it’s right” really made the point. The doomed town I think would’ve been doomed regardless, and I don’t think she could’ve done much for them. The Nino situation was different though. Yes she could’ve offed that douche and potentially left Nino and the son to their freedom together, but who’s to say they would’ve been ok? Maybe the town would’ve retaliated, thinking they killed the chief. Or where would they go? Could the son have supported them when he was still basically a kid himself? Maybe he would’ve abused her too? Should Elaina have taken them with her? It’s a terrible situation all around, but there’s times when you have to just step away from situations you have no control over or that there’s no easy solution. At least that’s my take on it. I really enjoyed this episode though and appreciate the unexpected twists this show seems to offer.
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The one point that definitely came to mind watching the 2nd part was retaliation from the villagers if the chief got axed. The doomed town was already a lost cause. It seemed like a real toughie for one witch to solve. Hopefully next time she’ll consider more options if there are any available and not look away.
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I think it’ll be a case of sometimes she helps, sometimes she doesn’t. She’s one single traveler. She showed a kindness by fixing that thing for the girl. Personally, I was a bit worried about the son too, he seemed….off. I don’t think he was right in the head. I’m pretty sure she was sandwiched between two horrors. The way he treated her,,,it’s hard to explain.
As all have said, the plant town was doomed. She’s not some all powerful being.
I really enjoyed the episode! Loving this show, and can’t wait to see more countries!!
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Yes same here – I got some Kino’s Journey vibes as well. Its really an interesting ep, especially compared to the first too/
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This was a sudden dark twist to this show I wasn’t really expecting, okay at some point yes but I wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.
The girl in the field was pretty cute, too bad things didn’t end well there. And that town too, they’re done for. Yikes!
The second half was uncomfortable to watch, at least that’s how it made me feel. Not to say I didn’t like it, it was well done and it really shows off different situations Elaina will run into during her travels, but man it wasn’t fun to sit through.
Good ep all in all, just not a happy one. But hey, I don’t mind having stories like this, it can’t all be sunshine and rainbows all the time.
Looking forward to next week!
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Precisely. It would be silly to think there wouldn’t be serious/dark chapters like these somewhere in the story. Like any journey across the globe it’d be a miracle not to run into something dark.
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Beware of plant zombies!
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Yup.
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Welp, that town’s done for. I don’t think burning the fields down would’ve prevented that plant zombie apocalypse. I guess the flowers couldn’t wait for their prey to come to them.
Nino’s cute but it’s unfortunate that she’s a slave. Hopefully, she doesn’t meet an end like the wife in that story Elaina read. Speaking of Elaina, she could’ve dropped the chief right there and liberated Nino but she didn’t. The consequences of doing such a virtuous act would’ve been more dire than beneficial. My reasoning is that I think taking that action would’ve broken that promise she made with her mother because killing a village chief would’ve escalated things. Leave it to Emil to make Nino happy…in the genuine sense…if he can… 😦
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Unfortunate.
It’s a lose-lose situation.
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Things got dark really quickly.
So far we had 3 completely different episodes. I like it, it keeps things interesting and it shows the wide range of stories we can expect from this series.
Burning the flowers you know contain a powerful toxin don’t seem like the wisest idea also considering what happed afterwards.
Unfortunately good intentions don’t always lead to good things. There wasn’t much Elaina could have done without also having lot more consequences.
Looking forward to more.
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