The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season

Episode 26

This episode makes Cid more hateable than ever before. At first glance, this sounds like a crazy statement. After all, Cid's far from a virtuous character. He's killed many people—dragged both the innocent and the evil into his game of pretend simply for his self-satisfaction. However, the issue at hand here is that, at his core, Cid is still that lonely kid playing by himself because, one by one, everyone else stopped playing with him. They grew up and put the world of heroes, villains, and shadows behind them while he could not.

However, his second life is different. Even with Cid unable to see that he genuinely is the Eminence in Shadow, he can't deny that Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, and Eta all still "play" with him—still act out scenes with him and even set up massive set-pieces for him to shine. He has friends, and he clearly cares for them—even if they are less important to him than his dream to become the Eminence in Shadow. However, it's not his dream that leads him astray here; it's envy and greed, pure and simple.

He wants the financial success that his friends have gained using what he told them of Earth. In his twisted logic, this means that he should be the one to reap the rewards. And besides, by bringing down what they have built, he will profit enough to rebuild everything—though now with him at the top. In the end, they'll be where they were before, so it's no harm, no foul, right?

That said, in this episode, it looks like he's on the cusp of a revelation—that his Earth knowledge means little in and of itself. After all, the best he can come up with on his own to make it rich is trying to make soy sauce and a kotatsu—not that he has the needed knowledge or ability to reproduce them. Meanwhile, Beta has retold his stories in her own words to become a world-famous author, Eta has recreated numerous pieces of technology simply from descriptions of the end product, and Gamma has created a business empire from nothing but Cid's half-remembered parroting of economic theory he can't come close to truly understanding. Simply put, it wasn't his Earth knowledge that made them successful; it was their brilliance and hard work.

But what's worse than his inability to acknowledge their role in their success is the massive emotional pain he causes them in this episode—specifically Alpha. This is the first episode where we have ever seen Alpha lose control of her feelings. From her viewpoint, not only was she unable to see John Smith's plan for the destabilizing economic attack that it was, but she also sent one of her best friends—her family—to die despite Rose's warnings about John Smith's strength. The pain, the guilt, and the rage cause her magic to leak out, lashing at the world around her.

Then it gets even worse when she discovers that Cid is John Smith. If Cid is working to destroy Shadow Garden—to the point that he killed Delta—that can only mean that the organization is either unneeded or, worse still, is now in the way of his actual goals. In Alpha's mind, all she's ever done is work to become a woman worthy of standing beside her savior—to do whatever is needed to defeat the cult and save the world. Yet, to be confronted with the idea that she has failed so horribly—that she's still an outsider in his view—is far more than her 15-year-old heart can bear.

Cid's vague reassurances that things will work out in the end ring hollow in her ears—and Cid can see this. Yet, this doesn't dissuade him from his envy-driven task. His friends are all in pain because of his actions. He has made them cry at the very least and shattered their entire worlds at worst. And why? All for money and his ego.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Yukime's backstory is a tragic one. Gettan is a man who longed for the power to protect what was precious to him, and he sacrificed it to get it. Yukime, on the other hand, is willing to destroy a kingdom as collateral damage in her quest for revenge.

• I love that Cid tries to recreate the "looking stoically out an open window while surrounded by priceless art" scene from the first season—but finds that a lot harder to do when it's mid-winter and freaking cold.

• Cid parroting Beta to look smart in front of Yukime got a laugh out of me.

• In this week's Kagejitsu, we finally get to see the battle between Delta and Juggernaut (something that happens off-screen in both the novels and the main anime). It'd went down just about as I imagined.

The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season is currently streaming on Hidive.

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