The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 13 Review

The College on Lockdown

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 13 is the first episode of Part 2 of the season. Part 1 ended with Episode 12 back in June. And this episode picks up from where that one left off. There’s no time skip or anything like that.

At the end of the previous episode, the college principal decided to implement a lockdown. Nobody can enter or leave the college, either physically or by magical means. Though, I wonder if the barrier could stop Elias if he wanted to get out.

There were two reasons for this lockdown — one of which the principal reiterated in Episode 13. That reason is to locate the source of the attacks on the college students and staff. If the attacks continue, the source is within the college. If they stop, the source is outside the college.

Well, that’s the idea behind this first reason for the lockdown. In practice, I’m not sure how well it would work. Couldn’t the attacker simply stop attacking during the lockdown? I mean, that’s what I would do. If they lay low, it may be difficult for the college faculty to discover their identity.

The second reason for the lockdown is the meddling of the Sargeant family. The head of the family wants Philomela to drop out. But, Philomela doesn’t want to leave. And, the principal finds the timing of this request pretty suspicious. The Sargeant family is a family of assassins, after all.

Now, this is unrelated, but, I need to comment on the title of this episode, “Nothing venture, nothing have.” Whoever translated that title from Japanese into English did a pretty poor job. Do they not know the saying is “Nothing ventured, nothing gained?” That was a pretty cringe translation.

Mandatory Lessons

When the college goes under lockdown, the students receive extra, mandatory lessons. One reason for these mandatory lessons is probably to keep track of the students. If you know they’re in class, you don’t have to worry about them as much. They’re accounted for.

But, the more important reason for these classes is what they teach. The mandatory lesson we saw Chise and her classmates had was on self-defense. If the college is under lockdown, it means there are threats to the students out there. And if there are threats to the students, the students need to be able to defend themselves.

Considering this is a magic college, you’d expect the students to defend themselves with magic. But, that’s not what this lesson is about. It’s about defending themselves with weapons. Why? Because they’re not skilled enough to rely on magic at this point.

Chise might be fine defending herself with magic. However, as Zaccheroni explains, it’s often easier to just use physical force instead. Why use magic when a weapon will get the job done? Also, using magic properly requires significant concentration. Would the students be able to concentrate under the pressure of being attacked? No.

In the end, all of the students manage to defeat their respective familiars. But, some have an easier time than others. For example, Chise and Rian have no trouble. Though, in Chise’s case, this is thanks to the dragon’s curse. It took control of her body and killed the familiar for her.

Someone I expected to have no trouble with this task is Philomela. She comes from an assassin family, after all. But, it looks like Philomela doesn’t actually have what it takes to be an assassin. She was struggling to keep it together after killing the familiar.

Chise & the Dragon’s Curse

This episode wasn’t the only time the dragon’s curse saved Chise. It also saved her at least once in the first half of the season. But, why is this the case? Why would a dragon’s curse be protecting her?

I’m pretty sure I covered this in one of my earlier episode reviews. But, I’ll go over it again anyway. What do we know the curse did to Chise? It gave her all of the dragon’s memories. It allows the dragon to control her body temporarily. And, it gave her a cool black arm that can turn scaley.

What does that all point to? It points to Chise being a vessel for the dragon. My assumption is that the dragon’s curse is going to continue taking over her body. And, the end result that the dragon wants is for Chise’s body to become its own.

So, we shouldn’t think of it as the dragon’s curse protecting Chise. We should think of it as the dragon’s curse protecting the dragon’s future body. It doesn’t care about Chise as a person. That’s why, when the dragon’s curse takes over, it makes Chise do things she doesn’t want to do.

We’ve also seen that a few people recognize Chise isn’t normal. The first person at the college to realize this was Zoe. He was afraid of Chise because he could feel the dragon’s curse within her. He didn’t think she was human.

And now, it looks like Zaccheroni realizes this, as well. He already knew Chise was unique because she could see the special plants in the waste tower. I think only those who have killed someone can see them. But now, he’s also seen the inhumane strength Chise has thanks to her curse.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 13? Could Elias escape from the locked-down college if he wanted to? Which students did you expect to perform the best during the mandatory lesson? And, how do you think Chise will beat the dragon’s curse? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 14 is available now.