Fire Force Season 2 Episode 11

Fire Force Season 2 Episode 11

Dark Hero

Fire Force season 2 episode 11 may have been my least favorite episode of the season so far. I mean, the first episode of the season wasn’t that great either, but I’ll forgive it since it was serving as a pseudo-reintroduction to the series. This episode really didn’t do anything or give us much information.

I think the only new piece of information we were given in this episode is that Joker views himself as a “dark hero.” So now it’s pretty much confirmed that Joker isn’t a villain of the series. He’s not a good guy, but he’s also not necessarily a bad guy either. He’s basically chaotic neutral.

The problem with this information is that I don’t really know what to do with it. Okay, we know he’s neutral, has some history with the church, and wants to uncover what they’re hiding. But so what? He’s not the only person who wants to do that.

Joker writing "Stray Dog" with flames from the anime series Fire Force season 2
Joker writing “Stray Dog” with flames

As far as his role in the series goes, I think he’s probably going to play the role of minor antagonist to the Eighth Company. He’s not an antagonist from the storytelling perspective, but I could see him antagonizing them into action. Basically, he’ll probably lead them to important discoveries by making them chase after him.

Of course, that’s not going to be the full extent of his involvement in the series. I just think that’s what his “dark hero” persona is going to lead him to do. There’s still the whole thing with his left eye being similar to Captain Burns’ eye as shown in the OP. So I’m sure there are still plenty more secrets about his character to uncover.

Destroyer God, Shinmon

As with Joker, I don’t have all that much to say about Shinmon from this episode either. I wouldn’t exactly call it discussion-worthy information, but we did learn that the leader of the Holy Sol Temple refers to Shinmon as “Destroyer God, Shinmon” — at least in the English translation.

This is an odd epithet. On one hand, I get it. Shinmon is known to destroy even his own town in the process of protecting it from Infernals. So I could see why he would be referred to as a Destroyer God. But, we have to consider who’s referring to him in that way.

It’s the head priest of the Holy Sol Temple who calls him Demon God, Shinmon. For the head priest to refer to Shinmon as a god, even a Demon God, is a bit strange. Shouldn’t he believe that Sol is the one, true God? You might not think this is a big deal, but words and phrasing are very important, especially in religion.

Benimaru Shinmon from the anime series Fire Force season 2
Benimaru Shinmon

Maybe the English translation was a bit off, or maybe that’s really what the head priest said — I don’t know. But I think it would make a lot more sense if he instead referred to him as “God Destroyer, Shinmon” since Shinmon doesn’t believe Sol is the one, true God, and actively works against the church.

Sure, then you get into trouble with the implication that Shinmon could destroy the Holy Sol Temple’s god, but I still think that’s a better descriptor of him from the church’s perspective. Of course, the high priest could have also just been parroting what the commoners refer to Shinmon as.

I don’t remember if Shinmon was referred to by this epithet earlier on, but I’m sure someone will let me know if that’s the case.

The Holy Sol Temple

The Holy Sol Temple doesn’t make a lot of sense to me as it’s been built up throughout the course of the series. We know they work alongside the Fire Soldiers to put Infernals to rest via supplying them with priests and priestesses. And they also provide various services to people in need around the nation.

But on the other side, it’s highly likely that they’ve been sacrificing people with Adolla Bursts to Amaterasu in order to keep it running and providing energy for the country. Now, all of that might generally make sense. Everything they do, good or bad, is to uphold the status quo of human civilization and prevent another Great Cataclysm.

But what I don’t understand are the people within the church. I get their supposed mission, but take a closer look at the people who make up the church.

Inside the Holy Sol Temple from the anime series Fire Force season 2
Inside the Holy Sol Temple

From what we’ve seen, the bottom rung of the church is made up of the orphans who are raised as priests and priestesses. Some of them go on to work with the Fire Soldiers, others probably go on to work at or run other orphanages, and some probably just do random priest/priestess things in the main church.

Then, there’s the head priest and all of his higher level priests who reside at the main church as we saw in this episode. One thing you’ll notice about them is that none were shown to have pyrokinetic abilities, even the main guards. Why is that? Shouldn’t the church want members who have special abilities granted by Sol?

Well, I think the Holy Sol Temple is basically just a group of people who are mad about the fact that they don’t have pyrokinetic abilities. They don’t have abilities. So through the church, they’ve manufactured status and power of their own over those with pyrokinetic abilities.

I really don’t see any other reason for there to be no pyrokinetics in the upper levels of the church. They work with the Fire Soldiers who employ pyrokinetics, so I don’t think the church views them as “demons” like the Infernals. They just view themselves as above the pyrokinetics because it’s the only way they can feel special.

Conclusion

What do you think about Fire Force season 2 episode 11? Did you think it was boring as I did? Or did you like it? What role do you think Joker is going to play going forward? And what do you think will become of Shinmon here? I think it’s pretty clear that he’s not dead, but will he be captured? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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