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「その光は誰が為に」 (Sono Hikari wa Ta ga Tame ni”)
“For Whom Does That Light Shine?”
Diane’s heart, Escanor’s message.
I believe it’s clear by this point that I ship Diane and King. Hard. There are probably Nanatsu no Taizai things that would make me happier than seeing them finally together, but I’m hard pressed to name them now. So, when Diane starts delivering lines like this, I leap for joy:
“Hey, Harlequin. What do you mean to me? And what exactly do I mean to you? When this fight is over, you’d better tell me!”
Oh man, so good!! And add onto that how Diane summoned more powerful golems, and the strongest of them all was King’s—I mean, look. It was expected once the Harlequin golem showed up. Doesn’t make it any less awesome, at least if you’re on that ship. I can’t wait until Diane gets her memory back!! Hurry up with that already, Gowther.
Speaking of, Gowther’s (and Jericho’s) battle against Escanor (and Hawk) was—well. I’ll admit that Gowther’s lack of a heart isn’t a plot line that does much for me. He acts alien, which is all well and good, but where the Guila events worked because they showed a truly alien way of thinking, he keeps doing things that seems desperate and even angry—all of which arise from emotion. Creating truly emotionless characters is hard, and the more Gowther acts in ways that can’t in any way be construed as “logical” or “dispassionate”, the less he works. He’s a hard character to write, but it’s not quite working, because he keeps acting like a villain in the pursuit of his goal (which is consistent, and that’s good). It just feels too much like an excuse to inject drama instead of a natural consequence of things. Or maybe it’s just not working for me period.
Delving into Escanor’s back story was super cool, though, especially since they clipped through it at a nice pace and didn’t sink too far into melodrama. It is, of course, convenient that a sun in his mind can lead to a temporary power up at night, but I’m willing to roll with it if it goes good places (and, as already noted, Gowther isn’t working for me, so anything that leads to a kick in his tail is appreciated). Escanor choosing to use his shot to toast two more Ten Commandments is a helluva way to send a message. We know they aren’t going to stay down, alas—the spoiler preview tells us as much—but him choosing not to attack Gowther, and choosing to attack the one who could fulfill Gowther’s wish, speaks volumes. We’ll see whether Gowther got the message next time.
My SECOND novel, Freelance Heroics, is available now! (Now in print!) (Also available: Firesign #1 Wage Slave Rebellion.) Sign up for my email list for updates. At stephenwgee.com, the latest post: Forbidden Island, coast to coast.
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Omake
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Well, the thing is I don’t think Gowther really is emotionless. But he truly believes he is.
True. I think a better way to play it might be more of how they played New|Spock in the latest Star Trek movies (or at least the first two, haven’t seen the third yet). There the central struggle was that he was trying to be logical and dispassionate, but kept so obviously failing at it as he showed how deeply he felt his emotions, even if they were regularly repressed. Maybe that’s a reading we could give to Gowther, but aside from this episode, I don’t think there’s a huge amount of text to back it up. Mostly he’s seemed Emotion Lite as opposed to “heartless.”
He definitely believes he’s emotionless, though. That’s definitely true.
obviously failing at it as he showed how deeply he felt his emotions, even if they were regularly repressed. Maybe that’s a reading we could give to Gowther, but aside from this episode, I don’t think there’s a huge amount of text to back it up. Mostly he’s seemed Emotion Lite as opposed