Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? V

Episode 10

I've been saying right along that it's important to have read Familia Chronicle: Episode Freya to fully understand Freya's attachment to Bell, but there's another little piece of DanMachi lore that I wish had gotten animated in the main series: a short story where Finn proposes to Lilly. Nothing really comes of the piece, but it adds context to how Finn repeatedly shows up to help her. Yes, part of that is absolutely his desire to see other prums succeed, but I can't help but feel that his dedication to training and helping Lilly, in particular, is at least partially informed by this proposal. It's not important from a romantic subplot perspective, but from the way the Loki and Hestia Familias interact.

Finn's decision to aid Hestia Familia is almost certainly because he's furious with how Freya Familia acted. Even though Loki Familia has been formally barred from participating in the War Game out of fear that Orario could lose two of its top familias (the fact that both Zeus and Hera Familias are gone clearly sticks in Royman's craw), several of Loki's children aren't willing just to sit idly by. With the twins training Bell and Finn training Lilly, the group's participation is really just a formality away from being real, which isn't surprising. What's more important is that they're registering a protest with the guild in order to do so. It feels fair to say that Royman is giving Freya Familia a pass for their bad behavior. By forbidding Loki Familia from participating in the War Game, he's giving Freya Familia a tacit pass, saying that they can do anything they want, no matter how awful, as long as the Three Great Quests remain unfulfilled. Since Freya's the furthest thing from stupid, she undoubtedly included that in her plans when she brainwashed the city, and that exposes a real weakness in Orario's governing body. Those quests make it susceptible to corruption because they're willing to turn a blind eye to misbehavior if it helps them meet their goals.

Can we say the same about Hermes Familia? That remains to be seen. Hermes definitely has a history of doing his own thing and looking out for number one, but he's also the one who enabled Hestia to use Dio Aedes Vesta…which, frankly, is pretty typical for a trickster god. He's declining to participate in the War Game, which sounds bad (although he's perfectly fine with Aisha joining, not that he could stop her), but he's also clearly got a trick up his sleeve. I can't help but think that Cassandra's prophetic dream about “the wind being on Hestia Familia's side” has something to do with it. Yes, it's almost certainly a reference to Lyu's nickname, Gale Wind, but maybe it also has something to do with who else the wind will blow in. Some of the other tavern ladies are gearing up to join, and they may be strong enough to help usher in a wind of change.

I'm not sure anyone is convinced they can win this Game. The allied coalition of gods on Hestia's side, which has several participating against the gods' will based on their children's desires, doesn't feel shaky precisely, but when you bring that many gods together, there are bound to be problems. Freya talks a good game about doing anything to get Bell, but at this point, I'm not sure she truly believes she'll pull it off. There's something sad about her demeanor, almost as if declaring a War Game was her last-ditch effort to look powerful when she really feels like she's lost everything by not winning Bell's heart. It's easy to forget that many of the older pantheons depicted their gods as remarkably human, and little as I like what Freya did, I feel like we're seeing that now, and I do feel a little sorry for her. She's a goddess of love who can't find love for herself…and she knows full well that stealing it won't actually help. But what choice does she have? She must live up to what's expected of her as a goddess, even if, ultimately, it leads to her downfall.

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