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EP. REVIEW: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? V

Does the background material try to offer some kind of explanation for why Bell's familia accepted Freya's challenge, if they're so confident they have no chance of winning, and accepting it is apparently the only way for Freya to "claim" him?

In addition to what GhostD wrote: In the LN the fighting got so bad that the guild had to intervene so that Loki Familia (and the others) didn't just raze Folkvangr to the ground. .

So how much power the guild have exactly? They seem very inconsistent in this regard. They can stop a very angry mob of powerful adventurers, but they cannot punish Freya familia enough to satisfy the peolple?

Also it would have been better if they showed that Freya has gods on her side. From the show it seemed like she is completely alone and most people hates her for what she has done.

And I still think the whole wargame is a mistake and it is just a poorly executed plot device to get fights between the characters. As it is shown just makes all the gods who accepted the Hide and Seek rules as fare are idiots, and all the adventurers who attacked the Freya familia, after they blatantly disregarded the intent, suicidal idiots as well.
I have no problem with the seasons first half from a story standpoint (though I can't stand the kind of emotional torture Bell and Hestia was subjected to), but everything that came after lifting the charm is a total letdown.

How else could this be resolved given the setting, though? I'll totally concede that, narratively speaking, this is not the strongest part of the franchise. However, that the situation could only play out this way has been well-established by the franchise's internal logic.

Why not just have Bell/Hestia say, "Uh, no thanks, we'll take you guys on in one of these things when we have some chance of actually winning it."?

NeverConvex wrote:

Why not just have Bell/Hestia say, "Uh, no thanks, we'll take you guys on in one of these things when we have some chance of actually winning it."?

They accepted it thinking Loki familia would be participating, which would mean they'd have a decent chance of actually winning. Them being left out was what blindsided them, and at that point they couldn't just walk out of the deal

Obviously that wouldn't satisfy the rest of the city and their desire to punish Freya family, but they could challenge Freya family to a battle or war game or something if they wanted, I guess, without Hestia, Bell et al, since it seems letting off steam like that is enough to satisfy the others in the current setup anyway? Maybe they could do this without narratively writing the Loki family out of the running, so that the game's conclusion doesn't seem foregone; if they wanted an excuse to show heavy hitters in the cast thrown against one another, it would have actually been really entertaining to sideline Hestia's group like that, and make this about Hestia's family learning about the power dynamics and relative strength of the families in the city from a distance, in the aftermath of Freya's plot. For the viewer, that could establish a sense of stakes and relative power that Bell et al have to learn to contend with in the next season, or some such.

Remember that the Guild doesn't have standing forces on its own; their power is purely administrative. Penalties they could levy against lesser Familias wouldn't work against Freya Familia, financial penalties wouldn't satisfy anyone, a ban from Dungeon access wouldn't faze FF, and exiling or blacklisting would hold little weight if Freya chose to resist it.

Also, the Guild has a vested interest in not seeing FF dismantled. Royman, the elf Guild chief, brought it up a couple of episodes back, but a power as great as FF is deemed essential both for Orario's security (from both monsters and outside forces) and for furthering Orario's grand purpose of the Three Great Quests. The anime has mostly alluded to this in passing, but the last time there was a power vacuum in Orario from major familia getting eliminated, things went very bad in the city.

Also it would have been better if they showed that Freya has gods on her side. From the show it seemed like she is completely alone and most people hates her for what she has done.

How else could this be resolved given the setting, though? I'll totally concede that, narratively speaking, this is not the strongest part of the franchise. However, that the situation could only play out this way has been well-established by the franchise's internal logic.

I still find it strange that they had the ability to stop the fighting on the night the charm was broken, but I will accept that the Loki Familia members had enough self control to not get into serious fights with Freya's men.

Are they okay with a lot of people dying on the alliance side though?

Well it is quiet clear that the rules for the wargame could be anything really. So it could have been a type of one-on-one group fight that the shounen genre likes so much. Where both sides have same number of fighters who go up to fight when the previous one is out and the last man standing wins. This would have allowed for the same things to happen or even more, with less things that are stupid or contrived. They could have strategized about who to send in against who, still would have the option to ask for support from the other gods, because they don't have enough fighters. It would have allowed for the Loki familia to participate, with Hestia getting Ais but with the caveat for only one fight etc. There needs to be something that nerfs or takes out Ottar though, because in any scenario where he is allowed to fight is just unwinnable by the shows own rules.