OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)Alicia continues her fight against Dorel and learns more about his past with her father Margo. Meanwhile, Clen enters the Forge and meets the King of Haiden, who is somehow alive, but headless.OUR TAKEWe’re down to the final three episodes of the season, and as predicted, it looks like Drel will be the main antagonist to finish off this arc and season. And, as mentioned, we finally get some clearer details about just why Drel ended up resented Alicia’s father Margo so much, and it apparently comes down to Drel’s own ambitions of being a hero coming up short while Margo was able to become one (with a Regalia and everything!). Alas, on one of his first missions, Margo planned to fight one of the Beast Lords, but at the moment of truth, he tripped on a pebble, allowing the beast he fought to maim him. He handed his Regalia off to Drel in the haste of the battle, defeating the beast and taking its soul into the Regalia, and thus gaining its power. Despite him gaining the power and status he had sought, it was this incident and Margo’s subsequent retirement that planted the seed in him to doubt the use of a “hero” in society. The Regalia, despite being a still powerful weapon, was still not as powerful as had been promised, and many aspiring “heroes” were being needlessly led to permanent injury or death on what was basically a fairy tale.This is most definitely not the first anime I’ve seen where the idea of a “hero” is taken off its pedestal and examined, and we can definitely see some similarities between Drel’s critique of this institution and Maynard’s. And maybe it’s because I’ve been binging My Hero Academia to get ready for the final season, but this definitely reminds me of the League of Villains and their goals to dirty the idea of heroes in the public’s mind. Still, Drel’s reasons feel a bit…undercooked, especially if it all comes down to him just having a bad experience with a dangerous battle his overly confident friend dragged him into. I do agree with him on some of his points in principal, namely that soldiers shouldn’t be strung along to their potential deaths just for the honor of a title, but it seems like all Drel’s actions are going to end up doing is clearing the way for a “hero” to kill him and re-solidify people’s hope in that legend. And then there’s Clen, who is watching the headless king about to throw Luna, his grandson, into the massive forge for some strange reason. I guess we’ll see what that strange reason is next time, in the penultimate episode of Clevatess!