The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? (Episode 12) – The 8th Son? I Guess That’s Not So Bad!
And Kurt’s lost it! But, he hasn’t just lost it, he’s got a rare artefact that could spell the end of Well and his party. How will Well cope when faced with the prospect of fighting his own brother?
What happened?
Kurt meets with Well in the forest and is prepared to fight. The rare artefact that he received from the noble that hates Well is supposed to attract all dragons in the area at once. That might be too much for even Well’s magic reserves. Brantack attempts to stop Kurt but it’s no use. He blows on the flute. However, things don’t go quite to plan. Instead of summoning dragons, it requires gloom and negativity from the surrounding area, transforming the wielder into some sort of undead monster. It’s too late for Kurt, but Well still can’t bring himself to fight his brother. Elize steps in and attempts to purify him, but she’s not strong enough. Finally, Well snaps out of it and helps. A part of Kurt’s gloom escapes and returns to the Capital to take revenge on the nobles that betrayed him. Well inherits the lands and makes an unusual request of the King.
What did you think?
If I’m being completely honest, I was a little disappointed with the ending of this series. We’ve gotten used to lazy fights that don’t seem to require much effort or time, but I still feel like the Kurt situation was closed off fairly quickly. Then, after that, there was the issue with Amalie. I’ve not read the light novels, but Wikipedia informs me that Amalie becomes one of Well’s wives and that’s how he spared her and his nephews. I think that actually makes more sense in relation to the world in which this is taking place. This final episode felt kind of flat and it detracted from my overall feeling of the show. It was fine, but it could have been much better.
What have you learnt?
The ending is one of the hardest things to get right, but makes such a difference. If I look at this series compared to Tamayomi, I think I probably enjoyed them both about the same overall, but Tamayomi finished with a stronger ending and left me feeling more satisfied. It may be harsh to boil down an entire series to how it ended, but a good ending can save a failing story and equally, a bad ending can make a good story fall flat. Ironically, I think this series would have been better with a twenty-four episode season so that it could spend some time developing the intricacies of the politics and provide some entertaining action.
Other reviews in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?
- Episode 2 – A Succession Dispute? Are You Kidding Me?
- Episode 3 – A Loner? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 4 – Obligations? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 5 – Political Marriage? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 6 – A Bullet Tour? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 7 – No Magic? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 8 – Presumed Dead? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 9 – People Hate Me? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 10 – Toxic? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 11 – Between a Rock and a Hard Place? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 12 – The 8th Son? I Guess That’s Not So Bad!
- Bonus Posts
