Review: Hammer and Bolter “A Question of Faith”

No matter how difficult things get, there’s no reason to abandon your duty and your faith. This is how I describe the latest action-packed chapter in Hammer and Bolter. The anthology series started its next group of episodes last week with an enjoyable yet middling Hunger Games-like short that saw three warriors getting their butts kicked by monstrous creatures. This week, we have another intense scenario that involves more on protecting a valuable corpse and less on gathering teeth. Both of them sounded pretty unsanitary, but it’s pure fantasy, so I’m not going to argue.

The fifth episode, titled “A Question of Faith”, centers on two Battle Sisters, Elena and Agatha, from the Adepta Sororitas. They are tasked to protect the shrine of Saint Josephine, a legendary figure, from the rampaging Chaos Cultists. While waiting for help, the sisters will do whatever it takes to keep the shrine from falling into the wrong hands despite being outnumbered and having low ammunition.

Like the previous episode, “A Question of Faith” is a 17-minute, action-filled mini-story that pits the main characters against unstoppable forces. The main element that kept these episodes engaging, in my opinion, was that they put the characters at a disadvantage. This episode sees two warrior sisters fighting off an entire army of bloodthirsty savages without any additional help whatsoever. That alone helps drive the intensity in the action scenes, even though the stories and characters aren’t fleshed out more.

“A Question of Faith” did have a similar situation regarding its short runtime and storytelling like “Fangs”. However, I happened to dig this one a bit more than last week’s episode. In addition to having decent animation in its graphic novel style, “A Question of Faith” featured two characters that managed to capture my interest compared to the ones in “Fangs”. The reason for that was the poetic nature of its narrative. The episode explores the concept of faith and how it helped the sisters defeat the army, not just brute strength and guns.

One of the sisters, Agatha, firmly believes that her faith will guide them to victory. So when she was stabbed to death and was resurrected by Saint Josephine’s sword, it symbolized that faith always triumphs over evil. The execution for its theme was respectable in providing some engagement and thoughtfulness, which is part of what made the show riveting in the first place. The episode is also backed up by some suitable voice work for the two sisters.

Overall, “A Question of Faith” is an acceptable improvement over last week’s episode regarding the execution and characters. Despite the short runtime, its stylistic animation and themes help provide enough faith to continue the show’s run. It’s pretty amusing to see that the middle episodes of the two trilogy packs are the best ones. Maybe it’s the philosophies of those episodes that entertained me the most? Either way, I’m pleased that this show is still delivering some interest despite me not knowing much of the franchise. Let’s see if next week’s episode has enough faith in itself to maintain Hammer and Bolter’s momentum.