© Izumi Okido/Jun Hayase/KADOKAWA/”I want to be a bad girl who will go down in history” Production Committee
Much of this episode falls into the “necessary world-building” category. Through Will’s backstory, we can see what brought the kingdom to its current precipice. With his mother fueling his insecurities as a young king, the king sets the stage for Will’s fall from power – robbing the kingdom of three of its other brightest and most visionary men in the process. Not only did this leave the kingdom to rot in a generation of stagnation, it also forced three of its most talented individuals to defect to neighboring Laval. Now they have spent a lifetime consolidating power in the isolationist country.
This adds a whole new level to what’s going on – one that Alicia seems completely unaware of, even if she has the knowledge in the game. Knowing that there is a think tank hostile to the Kingdom makes you wonder just how many of the Kingdom’s problems are being exacerbated by foreign agents. Additionally, it looks like Liz is unknowingly at the center of LaVar’s plans – though how they plan to use her remains a mystery.
Of course, Liz knew nothing about this. She’s preoccupied with the fact that she’s growing uneasy about Alicia – despairing at the idea that she and Alicia might not be friends. This was something she had never experienced before – something that would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago.
But what’s really telling is that it never occurred to Liz that she didn’t actually have to be friends with everyone. It never occurred to her that some people would have a different opinion about something. Liz couldn’t really understand that Alicia didn’t want to be friends not because of hatred or misunderstanding but because of differences in core values.
Things are always good and bad for Liz – she’s able to make everyone around her see the good and accept it as the right thing to work towards. It was hard for her to see the world as full of grey. But more importantly, she fails to understand that some people might agree with her goals—like Alicia and Duke—but not how she achieves them. After all, despite being a self-proclaimed villain, Alicia isn’t antagonizing Liz just for fun. She sees herself as a necessary foil for Liz’s growth. She’s one of the few who can speak truth to power – which is especially important considering Liz’s brainwashing abilities.
As we see throughout this episode, these powers spiral out of control as Liz becomes uncertain about Alicia and her own place in the world. While her power seemed to have a subtle effect on others in the past – making them sympathize with Liz and her ideals – we now see her power shatter a group of girls’ core values, leaving them in conflict with themselves in the chaos. (They both hate common people and respect saints – saints are common people – but there is no obvious contradiction.)
This leads to the possibility that her powers are the story of trying to make everything happen as intended. It’s one thing when Alicia is just doing her thing – all it takes is a little subtle manipulation to get things moving in the right direction. However, things take a different turn when Liz begins to question her role and how to play it. Now, her powers seem to be taking more drastic measures to emphasize to Liz that her way of seeing the world was always the right one. Or maybe they just wanted to keep her pliable by keeping her as innocent as possible.
It’s a cool concept with all sorts of possible implications for future stories. I can’t wait to see how things develop.
grade:
Random thoughts:
• How does Will know that his brother had nothing to do with his blindness and imprisonment? I suspect Duke does not have access to such information either.
• While this is baseless speculation at this point, I’m starting to suspect that Curtis and Finn are spies for LaVar, tasked with spying on Saint (and maybe even influencing her).
• It’s nice to see Alicia react to Duke’s stereotypical romantic words, pointing out the highly controlling bullshit they imply.
• I’m glad to see that Jane and Carol aren’t disposable characters and that something else is going to happen to both of them sooner or later.
I want to become a villain who will go down in history Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the majority shareholder of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
