English Dub Review: Clevatess “Fake Hero”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Alicia alerts T’ala, Luna’s mother, of her son’s survival, while Clen witnesses the dark secret of Haiden heritage.

OUR TAKE

We’re at the second to last episode of the season (and possibly series) and things are ramping up at expected levels. Alicia is facing her father’s killer and trying to live up to her title as hero, while Clen (AKA Clevatess) faces the core of the corruption in the kingdom, and sees if he can truly redeem humanity. Also, Drel plots his endgame, which apparently involves taking whatever is in the Haiden Forge and “destroying the world”, which…I’m going to go out on a limb and say is not going to happen. Drel, despite powering up to his second stage boss form, is more than likely going to be defeated next episode, as per narrative convention. What’s really at stake here is what has been the main crux of this series: Clevatess determining whether humanity is worth keeping alive. He’s seen a lot on this journey, including the spark of compassion from the weakest and most unfortunate and the banal cruelty of those who manage to get the slightest bit of power, all while holding onto Luna in hopes that he may be able to guide humanity to greater heights. But now, it is revealed that the throne that Luna would one day take is simply the tool of a greater deity, whoever was powering the Great Forge and whatever efforts he may have made would be forfeit.

Compare this with Alicia and her fight against Drel, someone else who has become completely disillusioned and resentful of even the idea of a hero, and for good reason. As T’ala explains to Alicia, the legend of defeating the Demon Beast Lords in order to open up pathways to the rest of the world was nothing more than a fable, and so many would be heroes, including Alicia and the other twelve who went to fight Clevatess, died by being led by a false promise. Were it not for Clevatess’ morbid curiosity, Alicia would just be one of those corpses left to rot. But however you want to define it, she’s alive now, and despite knowing that what she was told was a lie, she still plans to protect people until she no longer can. Is that what makes a hero? A TRUE hero? Or is it just continuing a broken status quo? Hard to say, but we’ll probably get some sort of answer to that in the final episode of the season, next week.