English Dub Review: The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? “Between a Rock and a Hard Place? Are You Kidding Me?”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Brantack explains to Well about the king’s plan to make him the lord of the land by provoking Kurt into wrecking his own reputation, which he seems to already be doing. Still, Well feels conflicted about replacing his brother for the capitol’s motives. Kurt may be a real petty bastard who abuses the people under him is driving his home into ruin, but he’s the rightful heir. Not only that, his wife and children are innocent in all this but will be majorly impacted by this plan, especially since Brantack admits that Kurt would have to be killed for their plan to work. Unfortunately, despite Well pleading for an alternate solution to take the undeveloped land, Kurt refuses out of pure spite and jealousy.

With that, it seems like they’re out of options, so Well does what he can to help his sister-in-law and nephews retain noble status and begins to go through with the plan, but he won’t let anyone die. He and his party start ingratiating themselves with the people by selling goods from the capitol and offering Kurt’s toadies jobs and money in order to strip away his influence. That should get Well to becoming Lord without needing to kill him or alarm any of his critics. What he doesn’t count on is someone else from the capitol approaching Kurt, who’s at wit’s end, with a magic item called a Dragon’s Flute that could give him an edge against Well.

OUR TAKE

Woah, this show just got super interesting out of nowhere, though it might be too little too late. With the plans of the palace made clear and what they intend for Well, the whole episode has an air of tragedy around it as he tries desperately to find a solution with someone who may not be the best, or even decent, person, but is still his brother and the rightful lord of the territory. This move to orchestrate Kurt’s destruction by the king is a troubling one, partly for its implications and partly because it doesn’t harm just Kurt by removing him. But then, when you look at the guy in any given scene, how he treats his people and how close to a total mental breakdown he is, you can’t help but understand why he SHOULD be removed when he’s causing this many people trouble for little reason more than his own ego. And yet, you feel conflicted like Well in that this is not the right thing to do. It’s that kind of conflict and moral dilemma that this show has been severely lacking. And while bringing it in now probably doesn’t boost my opinion of it overall very much, it is a welcome a pleasant surprise.

But then I guess you could say I’m conflicted about how much of this conflict actually adds up. It’s a stark difference from what we’ve had before, plainly showing how awesome and cool Well is at every possible turn even when he isn’t really doing anything and now showing that he’s a good enough person to not just allow a member of his family to die even if that would get him more power. But maybe it’s that it still makes him look awesome and cool by showing he’s trying to avoid that AND that Kurt is written to BE such a monster that Well looks even better by comparison that’s bugging me? Plus Well IS still basically going along with things because everyone likes him way more than Kurt AND Kurt is being set up get killed anyway, so it seems like all of this is going this way just to wash Well’s hands of responsibility, and I don’t know how I feel about that. Heck, maybe actually have him kill Kurt if need be just so that there is some notable consequences and impact on Well’s character? I don’t know exactly what would be better for this story, but I do feel like it’s long since past the time where it deserves the mental energy to think about it this hard. Thankfully there’s just one episode left before we can close this book once and for all.