The Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 13

The Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 13

The Devil of the Shield

It’s time to review the 13th episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero, and I have to say that I always look forward to watching and writing about this series each week. No, it’s definitely not the best anime, but it does include a lot for me to discuss, and that’s something I appreciate.

So, let’s start off with the attempted assassination of Melty by the royal guards from the end of last episode and the beginning of this episode. As I predicted, Myne was behind the whole thing, although it is stated that the soldiers in question answer directly to the king.

However, this plot was even more well thought out than I originally guessed. There were two possible outcomes of the assassination attempt, and both served to make Naofumi and his party look like the enemy, just in different ways.

First, if Melty actually was assassinated, the royal guards would have simply reported that she was killed by Naofumi. This would have gotten Melty out of the way for Myne and justified Myne’s hatred of the Shield Hero to the rest of the kingdom.

Second, if Melty isn’t assassinated, the soldiers had a crystal ball with them with which to record the ensuing fight. By recording Naofumi and his party fighting the royal guards, and then doctoring the “footage,” they can, and did, make it seem like Naofumi kidnapped Melty and attacked her guards.

While this doesn’t solve the problem of having Melty being alive, it gives more concrete proof that Naofumi and his party committed a crime. If Melty had been killed, it would have just been the soldiers’ words against Naofumi’s. But, with this outcome, there’s evidence of Naofumi’s crime in the form of a video.

Onward to Siltvelt

So, now that Naofumi & co. are seen as enemies of the Kingdom for the kidnapping of crown princess Melty, they’ve decided to leave. But, now that he’s decided to leave Melromarc, Naofumi must choose which country to head to.

The two options he considers are Shieldfreeden and Siltvelt, which are both demi-human countries. From what we know, the main difference between the two is that Shieldfreeden is welcoming to humans, while Siltvelt is not. Because of this, it was previously hinted that Shieldfreeden would be Naofumi’s next destination.

However, in the previous episode, Elhart begins to say something about Siltvelt possibly being a good choice due to the fact that Naofumi is the Shield Hero, but he gets cut off by Filo. So, why would Siltvelt be welcoming to him because of his title?

In my mind, there are three possibilities for this:

  1. Rumors of the Shield Hero’s treatment of demi-humans have reached Siltvelt.
  2. The religion of Siltvelt worships the Shield Hero as Melromarc worships the other three.
  3. Rumors of the Shield Hero fighting against Melromarc have reached Siltvelt.

Other than those three possibilities, I see no reason for Siltvelt to be welcoming to a human just because of his title as the Shield Hero. But, the fact that Siltvelt might actually be welcoming to him doesn’t seem to have played a role in Naofumi’s final choice to go there.

Instead, Naofumi chooses to head to Siltvelt simply because the army of Melromarc was defending that border much more heavily than their border with Shieldfreeden. Why is it that they really don’t want Naofumi heading to Siltvelt compared to Shieldfreeden?

As far as I’m concerned, this is just another hint toward why Siltvelt might be welcoming to the Shield Hero. Perhaps the third possibility I mentioned is actually correct, and Melromarc doesn’t want the Shield Hero to be recruited by their enemy.

The Royal Family

During the trip towards the border between Melromarc and Siltvelt, Naofumi learns a bit more about the royal family from Melty. And, as it turns out, the royal family of Melromarc is matrilineal, which means the right to rule is passed from mother to daughter.

Why is this important? Because it means the queen is the true ruler of Melromarc, not the king. In fact, after the queen, the next highest ranking person in the royal family would be Melty, then Myne, and finally the king.

But, while Naofumi finds it comical that the king married into the royal family and isn’t even true royalty, this is actually a much bigger revelation than he realizes. For one, this partially explains why the king goes along with anything Myne says and does, and may hint towards the king not entirely being against the Shield Hero.

A picture of the King and Queen in Melty's locket from the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero
A picture of the King and Queen in Melty’s locket

But, what’s more interesting is that despite the queen being the true ruler of the kingdom, she appears to be locked away under house arrest in a different castle. Yes, she still has her network of spies to work on her behalf in the outside world, but if she were truly free I assume she would be in the capital.

So, why is the ruler of Melromarc locked away? And, who ordered it?

Is she locked away by her own design? Perhaps she learned of a plot against her life and thought she and her family would be safer if she went away for a while. Or, perhaps this is Myne and the king’s doing. Maybe Myne needed the queen out of the way before she dealt with Melty.

Unfortunately we don’t have enough information to know for sure just yet, but the longer this series goes on the more I’m starting to think it may be a combination of the two. Perhaps the queen left the capital for her own protection at the request of Myne who was pretending to worry about her mother’s safety as a ploy to remove her from the picture.

Conspiracy Revealed

Naofumi and his party are eventually spotted by some Melromarc soldiers, and it doesn’t take long for them to be cornered by a contingent of soldiers as well as the three other heroes. But, bringing the other heroes along to capture Naofumi and Melty may have been Myne’s downfall.

Sure, Motoyasu is still an idiot and doesn’t really matter at all, but Itsuki, and especially Ren, are a bit more logical. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that Naofumi and Melty might actually be telling the truth about the kidnapping all just being a setup so Myne can kill her sister.

And, after the brief fight that follows, Naofumi leaves uncovering the truth behind the conspiracy to Ren while he heads out of the country. I’ve mentioned before that I like Ren due to the fact that he tries to see both sides of every situation, and maybe this is the start of him becoming more of a main character.

Raphtalia stabbing Myne with the mana sword from the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero
Raphtalia stabbing Myne with the mana sword

But, before we get to the part when Naofumi entrusts Ren with the future of the kingdom, we learn some interesting things about the offensive capabilities of Naofumi’s party. And, I should point out that Melty appears to be all but an official member at this point. She’ll probably be added officially in the next episode or two.

First of all, we see Filo use her new gloves, and they work exactly as advertised, so there’s not much else to discuss there. More importantly, however, is that Melty reveals she’s fairly proficient in water magic. At the very least, this means she actually has something to contribute to the party.

And, last, but not least, we see Raphtalia use her new mana sword. However, something’s not quite right with how she uses it. In the instructions for the sword, she was told to use it on enemies which don’t have a physical form, so why did she use it on Myne?

Myne clearly has a physical form, right? So, what does using the mana sword on her actually do? I’m sure being stabbed through the chest by it didn’t kill her, but it must have done something. So, maybe when used on physical beings, it slices through their “magic circuits” or whatever they’re called in this particular series.

Conclusion

Anyway, let me know what you think the effects of the mana sword are down in the comments. Or, if you think that Raphtalia used the mana sword because Myne is actually a ghost, let me know that too. Also, what are your thoughts on the new OP/ED? I like the animation of the new OP more, but everything else is worse in my opinion.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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