Fire Force Season 2 Episode 13

Fire Force Season 2 Episode 13

A Pair of One-Eyes

Fire Force season 2 episode 13 wasn’t at all what I expected it to be, and I’m not really sure how I feel about the developments just yet. It was still a good episode with some very good visuals, but I think there were a few weak storytelling moments mixed in. The major issue I had with the episode will be addressed at the end of this review.

Before we get to that, let’s start off with the first thing that surprised me: There was no fight against Burns. I thought, and was hoping, that we were going to see Joker, or Joker and Shinmon, fight against Burns. Burns and Shinmon are the two strongest fire soldiers, Burns and Joker have a history, and Shinmon and Joker are teaming up right now.

Everything was set up perfectly for this, and it probably would have been the biggest fight of the entire season. But that’s not what we got, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.

Joker and Burns meeting the Evangelist from the anime series Fire Force season 2
Joker and Burns meeting the Evangelist

Instead, we learned that Burns has actually been investigating the Holy Sol Temple on his own. And, in fact, he has been ever since he and Joker experienced an Adolla link back when they both worked directly under the church. During this link, they even came face-to-face with the Evangelist himself.

I don’t really mind the twist that Captain Burns is actually working to uncover the secrets of the church. But, even without getting a fight between him and Joker, I would have liked to learn a bit more about the situation surrounding their Adolla link. Do their eyes do anything? Does Amaterasu spawn Infernals often? I need answers.

The Diary of Raffles I’s Wife

The setup to the part of the episode I didn’t like comes when Burns reveals that the only significant piece of information he’s found in his years of searching is a single book. It’s the diary of the wife of Raffles I, the founder of the Tokyo Empire and the supposed creator of Amaterasu.

In her diary, she mentions two, very important, details regarding the story about how the nation, church, and Amaterasu were founded. First, she stated that the caravan that was traveling with Raffles never made it back to Japan with him when he brought the “unsullied flame of Amaterasu.”

That’s pretty suspicious on its own, but the second thing she notes is that Raffles acted like an entirely different person upon his return. Either the events he witnessed on his travels had affected him to an extreme extent, or the man who returned was not the same Raffles that left on the journey.

The diary of Raffles I's wife from the anime series Fire Force season 2
The diary of Raffles I’s wife

I’ll get to what’s going on with Raffles in the next section, but what about the caravan that was with him? Obviously, they were killed. But, I’m thinking that those killed members of the caravan were actually turned into the original Amaterasu flame.

Maybe I’m forgetting my own theory, but I’m pretty sure I’ve said that I believe that while the First Pillar is the current “flame” of Amaterasu, she wasn’t the original. If she was, she would have barely any power left just like we saw with the Benefactor. But, I’m not sure the first flame was a human now.

Wouldn’t Raffles’ wife have mentioned if he brought a human back with him? She said he was alone. So the flame he brought back must have been an actual flame, not a metaphor for someone with an Adolla burst.

Remember Yona? No? Me Neither

So, now we get to the worst part of the episode, and probably the worst part of the entire season, or even series, so far. Right after Joker, Shinmon, and Burns questioned why Raffles I was acting strangely upon his return, the episode cut to a scene of Yona telling Inca that it was him who impersonated Raffles and founded the church as a way to help the Evangelist.

For starters, I forgot that Yona existed. So cutting to some random character I don’t remember just so they can reveal something major probably isn’t a good play. Next, they had already heavily implied that whoever was able to alter their appearance in the modern day is probably who did it 250 years ago. They didn’t need to explicitly tell us.

But it gets worse. In what context would Yona have brought up that information to Inca? I doubt she cares, and she definitely didn’t ask. So does Yona just immediately tell that to everyone who joins the Evangelist’s side? There’s no reason for him to have done that, which means it was done purely for the viewer’s sake.

It was like a worse version of when you have two characters who clearly know the same piece of information, and yet they explain it to each other for the viewers.

Yona from the anime series Fire Force season 2
Yona

This would have been a terrible development in any series. But it felt so much worse here because Fire Force season 2 has done an amazing job of building up the mystery. Every time we’ve gotten a bit more information, it’s brought up even more questions — exactly like Re:ZERO, which is why that series is so good.

Yona revealing the answers to our questions just seconds after they were asked and without leaving anything up to the imagination basically brought the episode to a grinding halt. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when that happened. The beginning of the episode had some amazing direction, and then I guess they let the intern take over for a moment.

Conclusion

What do you think about Fire Force season 2 episode 13? Do you like the development with Burns actually being on the side of justice? Would you have rather seen him fight Joker and Shinmon? And what was your reaction to Yona effectively spoiling us? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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