Banished from the Hero's Party

Episode 12

In this episode, we see the final destruction of the heroes' party. Everyone is forced to take a side in the battle for Ruti's soul (even the kidnapped, evil apothecary who has no clue what the hell is going on) and through this we see where the various characters fall on the whole “Blessing versus free will” debate.

Red, Rit, Tisse, Mr. Crawly Wawly, and Ruti herself are fighting for human autonomy—the idea that people are more than slaves to their Blessings. This is because they see the hell that is Ruti's life—that a little girl who wanted nothing more than to grow up with her brother has been forced to sacrifice everything she is for complete strangers. Danan sides with them because, while the theological free will debate is beyond him, seeing a trusted friend in trouble is enough for him to help out.

It's the other side of things where it gets really interesting, however. Ares believes that Ruti is his destiny. He is the Sage and she is the Hero. They were literally made by God for each other. He is supposed to be her main bastion of support as they save the world together. However, despite the fact he is supposed to be the smartest man alive, he kept getting shown up by Red (in Red's own desperate struggle to remain relevant to the party). The further things get from the divine ideal he believes in, the crazier he has become. Now he will do anything to get the story back on track—even team up with an evil demon responsible for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands.

Theodora, on the other hand, is a crusader—a holy knight of the church. She believes that God is infallible and that everyone is simply a vehicle for their Blessings—that it is a person's role in life to do everything they can to follow the Blessing they have been given. In a very real way, she sees the Blessing as the real person rather than the original personality. Of course, it's clear that she struggles with this idea which begs the question: How much of her beliefs on this matter come from her Blessing and how much from the little girl who one day found that she could only find happiness in life through devotion to the church and its teachings?

And then there's Shisandan. Interestingly, he is actually more on the side of Red and friends on an ideological level. He does not believe that The Almighty is infallible and sees people being forced to take up roles they are not suited for to be a mistake. However, at the same time, he does believe that things need to unfold as intended—that the Hero needs to follow her path and kill the Demon King. However, why he believes this remains a tantalizing mystery.

All this drama is given even more weight by the new information on Blessings we get this episode—information that is staggering in its implications. We learn that there was an original hero—one whose personality is now forced on each “Hero” across the generations in the form of the Hero's Blessing. From this we can extrapolate that all Blessings are fragments of personalities from those long dead. This likewise implies that Demis is trying to create an endless cycle—forcing humanity and demonkind to fight the same war, repeated for all time. Worse still, it seems that Demis cares nothing for the free will of humanity at large and simply believes that forcing roles upon the people at random will be enough to have the cycle continue—and judging by the fact that Ruti is far from the first hero, Demis seems to have been correct so far.

While this means that Demis is the true villain of the show as far as our heroes are concerned, it also begs the question as to why Demis has chosen this path for intelligent life on the planet. For all we know, this could be Demis' way of saving humanity and demonkind from a greater threat—or simply from extinction at the hands of the winning side. All in all, it's a tantalizingly brief look at things behind the curtain that makes the world even more interesting than it was before.

Rating:

Random Thoughts

• Ares, who looks down on people like bugs deserving nothing more than to be smooshed beneath his boot is defeated by a literal bug who has been smooshed beneath his boot. Karma's a bitch.

• Mr. Crawly Wawly remains best girl.

• Despite the development he got in this episode, I still feel that Ares needed to be more fleshed out as a villain. Watching him die wasn't cathartic nor was it particularly tragic.

• It happens in the background but Albert earns a bit of redemption in this episode. Upon seeing a dying Danan, he doesn't hesitate to try and save him (showing there is a legitimately good man still inside the fallen Champion). This then allows Danan to save Red and Rit from their deadly fall.

• It's surprisingly realistic that nearly everyone involved in the big action climax thinks they're doing the right thing. After all, as the saying goes, “everyone is the hero of their own story.”

• The notable exception to this is the kidnapped, evil apothecary. He knows he's the bad guy and is annoyed that the others don't have the objectivity to see where they fall on the good/evil spectrum. It's a fun little lampshade on the whole situation.

• We've ended this week on a solid cliffhanger—one that will decide the direction of the story to come. Will Ruti be forced back into her life as the Hero or will she get to live the slow life with her brother she always dreamed of?

Banished from the Hero's Party is currently streaming on Funimation.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.