Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table

Episode 4

No matter what world you're in, politics are politics. In all honesty, the last thing I'm in the mood for right now is an election storyline, but Log Horizon manages to make this just as much about the people themselves as it is about the people's decision about what direction they want to see Akiba head in. Mostly that's because this election is tied up in Rayneshia's shifting understanding of the world and her role in it. Raised as a princess in a culture that's at the very least 200 years behind the one the Adventurers come from, she's been taught that her role is to basically lie back and think of Eastal, doing what she's told when she's told to do it. That perception has her seeing herself as someone less important than her younger brother, less than a full person even, with her mother as the arbiter of what one ought to do. So when her mother showed up and told her that she was being betrothed to the prince of the Saiguu family, Rayneshia's initial thought was that she was being ordered to accept that betrothal.

That, however, may not be entirely true. For most of the Adventurers, Rayneshia does have a choice, albeit one that might not go over all that well with her family. They see it more as her being offered the marriage rather than being forced into it, and when the princess herself sits back and thinks about her moderately terrifying mother's actual words, she realizes that she was never directly instructed to marry the Saiguu prince. In fact, she was being given a way out when her mother spoke of having no regrets. As we see when Rayneshia and Kalashin actually go to talk to the Cowen family, it's more that she didn't think her daughter would be able to overcome her upbringing and indoctrination as a noblewoman, but she still wanted to use words that might be understood to mean something more, should the princess have changed enough to hear them.

And hear them she did. We may be only four episodes in, but Rayneshia's character has shown the most impressive change thus far of anyone. In fact, it's probably a good thing for her that Krusty has been absent, because while interacting with him helped to start the changes to her worldview, it's clear that everything she's doing now – from refusing to marry the man her family chose for her to standing for election as a representative of the new Round Table – is something that she herself has decided. Yes, she gets advice from the others, but she's ultimately the one making the decisions in her own life. That's a huge change from the laconic, uninterested princess who'd rather hide in a gazebo we first met in season one, and one of the first major People of the Land characters we've seen embrace the changes not just in technology, but in attitude that the Adventurers brought with them from the modern world.

That does make things a bit trickier where the election is concerned, though. Rayneshia is definitely looking more like an exception than the rule when it comes to social attitudes among the People of the Land. Remember how excited they were to have a Duke of Akiba named? That joy is a double-edged blade when it comes to the princess, because much as they love their nobility, the People of the Land are not impressed that Rayneshia refused her betrothal to a prince. They seem to see that as a dereliction of duty, because that's what princesses do: marry who they're told for the political good of their countries like sweet little pawns. To refuse to do that can therefore look like putting herself above her people in terms of the greater good. Of course, it's worth noting that we only see male People of the Land making these statements; I could be reading too much into things, but the women may have a completely different view of Rayneshia standing up for herself and embracing a very different interpretation of what it means to be a princess of the ruling class. Certainly her mother seems proud of her daughter's decision in her own, understated way.

We'll have to wait until next week to know what the outcome of the election is. Will Tetora steal any votes? (Because I totally needed another reason to find them annoying…) Did Akatsuki's unorthodox “dream influence” method of gathering votes work? How did they keep Minori from making more posters? Even though I'm very electioned-out, I'm still looking forward to how Akiba's turns out.

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Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table is currently streaming on FUNimation Entertainment.