English Dub Review: Wistoria: Wand and Sword “He Said He Would No Longer Hang His Head”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
The First Bloom has begun.  Will takes Julius’s magic into his mageblade and defeats the monsters that were summoned to the ceremony grounds.  Five factions, including the ice faction, want to recruit him, but Kreutz puts a stop to it.  To test Will’s aptitude as a mage, Kreutz orders him to battle a Wors Ooze, a monster that can only be defeated through attacks carrying a magical energy.

Our Take:
No one has said that Will’s ascent to the tower would be easy, and it shows.  Despite Will’s improvement with his own power, his path is still blocked by the tower’s strict preference for magic over a “measly” sword.  While he managed to defeat the Zoctonias with no problems, Will discovers that he is no match for a Wors Ooze due to the prohibition of using outside magic.  It’s moments like this that made me realize they’re still enjoying giving Will a hard time.  I mean, Will saved an entire town, for Pete’s sake!  You would think the Magia Vander and Kreutz would go easy on him just a little bit after that crazy battle, but no.  They just have to abide by the rules of magic.
But if there’s one thing to admire from the episode, it’s that it shows Julius’s opportunity to help Will train to harness his own magical energy.  It’s funny because ever since my first encounter with Julius in season one, I wanted him to be frozen in ice for thousands of years.  But afterward, I’m starting to see that the show is trying to make me feel bad for Julius because he wasn’t scouted by the Magia Vander.  It may take me a bit to warm up to Julius’s arc because his abusing Will was absolutely pathetic, and his training with Will is actually for his own gain.  But it was nice to notice that there’s a small attempt to make him feel less of an asshole compared to his appearance in season one, emphasis on the “small”.