English Dub Review: How NOT to Summon A Demon Lord “The Young Girl Awakens”

I almost made a pedophile priest joke, but I think tonight’s South Park killed those.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Klem is adjusting pretty well to her life in the outside world, but aside from Shera, everyone seems uneasy. The group goes to check in with Celeste on the matter, who decides it’s best to leave things be for now. At least Rem is finally free from having to carry that burden and ambiguity for the rest of her life, and she seems to be warming up to Klem pretty easily now that it’s clear she’s just a kid who doesn’t want to hurt anybody.

Alicia is not as happy about this, however, and lures Rem and Klem to a dark alley to finally reveal her evil plans, as well as her part in the Fallen invasion back in the first few episodes. She hopes to make Klem feel hatred and fully unlock her Demon Lord powers, but she isn’t certain who or what could help her just yet. So, under the guise of capturing Demon Lord worshippers, she brings a vengeful Saddler to the alley to capture the two and take them to be tortured. On the way there, they bond over how Rem’s family carried Klem’s spirit for multiple generations and Rem’s new conflicted feelings about finally meeting Klem as she is now, as well as Klem’s feeling of imprisonment when she was sealed. Both of them had burdens thrust on them without choice, and are therefore similar. But, for some reason, Rem tells Klem to not get them out of there with her powers.

Diablo begins feeling nervous about Alicia once he notices they’re gone and goes to his guild for help. Unfortunately, his Demon Lord persona doesn’t allow for him to be subservient, and his anxiety keeps him from breaking the act. Luckily, he manages to overhear a boy reporting that he saw them being taken by paladins, and goes to the church to find them. Outside, a Fallen army begins to surround the city with Edelgard at the front, so Celeste begins forming a barrier. At the church, the torture begins in earnest, with Klem begging Rem to let her attack and Rem continuing to refuse, though soon she’s mortally wounded. Finally feeling true hatred, Klem unleashes her true power (apparently going through demon puberty), killing Saddler and the paladins.

Diablo meets up with Shera, who tells him Rem has been hurt. He gives her potions to heal her while he confronts Krebskulm head on.

OUR TAKE

As the penultimate episode of the season, this sure left things off in a way that will leave people eager to see how they resolve. We have the unveiling of Alicia’s true plans and intentions, the city being surrounded by Fallen, the killing off of Saddler and the paladins after using them to their utmost villain potential, and of course the full resurrection of Krebskulm to lead us into the final battle as seen in the OP. I’m glad we wrung out as much bad guy time as we could with Saddler, showing him at both peak bad guy AND peak idiot, as well as seeing how his fanaticism ironically blinded him to how he was being manipulated by an actual Demon Lord worshipper. Calling himself a god was a bit much, but it was worth it to see him find out that wasn’t true seconds before his obliteration.

We still don’t know exactly what has driven Alicia to be this obsessed with killing mortals, but it’s neat to finally see her become the true villainous ham she was destined to be. That said, I still have to question her plan’s logic here. She heard that Klem could become fully resurrected by feeling hatred, which would make her go berserk and use her full power, and they need to lure her away from Diablo in case he interferes. That makes sense. What doesn’t is how she pulled her and Rem out and random to get captured and expected to be around each other less than a full day would be enough to form a bond that would make Rem’s seeming death enough to trigger this. I know we heard that she told Klem about her impact on Rem’s family, but going from sympathy to being that upset about her being injured is really dubious. I mean, it worked, but if that was all that was needed, why call Saddler if you just needed to torture and mortally wound her. In fact, why target Rem at all, who Klem barely had any interaction with before this? Klem seemed a lot closer with Shera by far.

And Rem doesn’t get off easily from this either. The multiple times she asks Klem to hold back during the torture are clearly meant to evoke an emotional reaction, but based on what we know and based on what we know she knows, this was a really dumb move on her part. For one, we have no idea what kind of power Klem has control over in that form, so for all we know, she could probably just fend the paladins off without killing them. If we had been shown that Klem still had that sort of capability but had to be called off before, then that sort of fear would be understandable, but we don’t and, therefore, it isn’t. Knowing that, there’s no way Rem couldn’t have known that allowing herself to be subjected to torture in front of Klem would only increase the chances of her going berserk, so clearly, that wasn’t a good long-term solution (or even a short one if Rem could remember basic self-preservation). It’s weird saying this because I did like her mature approach towards viewing Klem as someone with the potential to be taught good instead of simply being a monster, as well their oddly quick bonding over their remotely similar situations that caused them both to suffer without the other knowing it, but this was too much of a logical leap than I could bear.

Still, it’s certainly not the worst this show has given me overall, so I look forward to the finale.