Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? III Episode 9

Finne Deimne

DanMachi III episode 9 puts a lot of emphasis on the Loki Familia, and specifically Finne Deimne. Finne is the leader of the Loki Familia, just as Bell is the leader of the Hestia Familia. So naturally, he would be someone who’s on the same level as Bell.

However, Finne is basically superior to Bell in every way except for the fact that Bell has the power of being the protagonist on his side. I don’t think that Bell and Finne are actually going to fight in this arc, but their two sides are going to be battling it out.

From the OP, it’s pretty clear that Bell’s main opponent in the Loki Familia is going to be Ais. And from what we’ve seen of Finne in this episode, it looks like he’s going to be taking more of a commander’s role than a fighter’s role in the upcoming battle.

Finne seems like a fairly interesting character, but unfortunately, I don’t know much about him. Maybe his background was explained better in the light novels, maybe it was explained in the anime (or Sword Oratoria) and I’ve just forgotten, or maybe it has yet to be explained.

Based on what’s said in this episode though, we know a couple of things about him. First, Finne is a strategic mastermind who’s going to be one of the Hestia Familia’s toughest opponents. And second, he wants to restore honor to his family, or race, or whatever.

Despite his want for all monsters to be eradicated, it wasn’t stated that he seeks revenge for anything, so I don’t think monsters slaughtered his clan. I’m guessing that he failed some mission in the past and is trying to make up for it in the present.

Stigma | Downfall

Why Bell is currently hated by all of Orario may be a little confusing when you consider that Ikelos and his familia took the fall for the release of the monsters into town. After all, that part isn’t Bell’s fault, so why should he be taking some of the blame?

The reason Bell is being blamed is that in the minds of the townspeople, he prioritized the capturing/killing of his “quarry” over the safety of Orario and its people. From their perspective, their town was destroyed because Bell chased a monster through it and wouldn’t allow other adventurers to help take it down.

I’m not sure how different their feelings would be if the townspeople knew that Bell was actually trying to protect the monster. On one hand, it would mean that he wasn’t letting the town be destroyed because he wanted to take down the monster himself. On the other, it may be interpreted as him prioritizing monsters over the townspeople.

In either case, Bell is in a pretty bad spot from a public relations standpoint. The latter option is probably the better of the two in the long term. But in the short term, that one’s probably the worse of the two.

Moving on a bit, I also want to touch on the idea of getting the other gods/goddesses onto Bell’s side. This is something I mentioned a few weeks ago and didn’t really understand why it wouldn’t work. I said that a majority of the gods would probably agree that the Xenos counted as “people” if their plight was explained.

However, this episode made it clear that what the gods/goddesses think doesn’t really matter. Apparently, even if Loki sided with the Xenos, the adventurers of the Loki Familia wouldn’t. I thought familia members were sworn to obey their respective god/goddess, but I guess that allegiance only goes so far.

Strategy Meeting

I’m interested to see how this whole “get the Xenos to the safety of Knossos by using Bell as a diversion” plan is going to work out. It’s a pretty simple plan on the surface, but I feel like there has to be more to it. I don’t see any situation in which Bell, even accompanied by his fellow familia members, is a good enough diversion alone.

I can think of one way to make the diversion more effective though. We’ve seen Lilli wear disguises and seed disinformation before. So, might she do the same here? Perhaps Bell being a diversion is itself already misinformation so that the Loki Familia ignores him.

Or, perhaps after the operation is underway, misinformation will be spread about sightings of monsters with Bell. This could cause the Loki Familia to doubt their assumption that Bell is being used as a distraction which may then lead to their forces being divided.

I could see both situations playing out. The first makes sense because it would place Bell in a position to fight alongside the Xenos. That kind of happened when they were up against Dix, but not to a great extent. This would also explain how Bell and Ais come face to face on the battlefield.

Alternatively, the second situation also may explain how Bell and Ais confront each other. Ais could be a member of the group sent to Bell’s location to verify the monster sightings.

The one thing I’m hoping doesn’t happen is that the Hestia Familia will somehow be two steps ahead of the Loki Familia the entire time. Finne has been established, albeit briefly, as a master tactician. So it would be pretty lame if all of his planning didn’t make things difficult for the Hestia Familia and Xenos.

Conclusion

What do you think of DanMachi III episode 9? Has Finne’s past previously been explained and I just forgot about it? Do you think Bell should tell the truth about the Xenos? I mean, he probably will to Ais. And what do you think is going to happen once the operation is underway? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.