Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari Season 3 Episode 12 Discussion

Raphtalia looked good in her shrine maiden outfit imo. However, this episode was more about her in the role she plays in.

Felt kinda rushed though and it didn't give the finale vibe that I had hoped for. At least we do get all the relevant characters in the show making appearances one more time. Maybe I was expecting more but the season finale definitely felt a little underwhelming.

Alright, since we have a Season 4 in the works, I wonder if Naofumi will use other shield abilities besides the 3 shield skills he's been spamming in Season 2 and 3.
His "Air Shields- 1st Shield,2nd,3rd, Dritie", "Meteor Shield", and his "Cage/Prison Shield". I need to see a variety of shield forms like in Season 1.

Animators and Kinema Citrus may have just decided to make him only use those shield forms because it was easier to animate and keep track of.... *sigh*... I guess..

So they really just decided to spit out a bunch of important lore in the last episode of the season, setting up the whole arc that is going to be the 4th Season?

First things first, I still had the hope that they would explain and explore the whole Itsuki arc better, but I was clearly proved wrong, since they jumped right into some "Dragon Vein" training, that came out of nowhere (once again, another concept of the anime that was presented in the past, but they barely explored it, and now it's super important).

So Raphtalia wearing that Miko made the kingdom of Q'ten Lo want to kill her, because it was a declaration of war. Ok I guess.
Raphtalia is now the heiress to Q'ten Lo. How do we know this? Because Sadeena was actually a guard of Raphtalia's parents, who were part of the royal family, and she decided now that it was time to reveal that information. To be fair, I had already forgotten how they never explained how Sadeena and Raphtalia knew each other, which we can see it's quite relevant.
Like, ahm, shouldn't this info come up earlier? And they really didn't explain why Sadeena didn't say this before.
Also, the Miko Raphtalia used was the one that came from the Other World in Season 2, so how is it possible it's the same Miko they use in Q'ten Lo, that is from this world. Because of this, at first, I thought those assassins were from that World. Do the worlds have some connection with each other? Probably not, at this point I expect everything from this anime.
At this point, Fohl and Atla will end up being the ones ruling Melromac too.
They really never explained or brought these Kingdoms properly before, only mentioned them in the beginning of this season, and now we have a whole arc about one of them.


So Filo and Melty are just doing their trip to level up, while the others start a war againts a whole nation? I thought this trip would be short, but apparentaly Filo won't be an important character next season, which honestly is just sad, because this season she was being constantly demoted from her position of importance in the anime.

It seems that Malty is also going to have a role in all this, great. The person from Q'ten Lo we saw really was similar to Malty, so there's that. Maybe we'll get Witch 2.0


So, talking now about the overall season, I have to say it started off better than how it ended... The first few episodes had that 1st season vibe to it, and they were actually explaining the plot (and the plot itself didn't need any prior moments from the 2nd season to work either), and I liked the introduction of Sadeena, Fohl and Atla.
But after the underground arena arc, things just start downgrading.
Sure, the animation of this season was overall better than the 2nd season, but it wasn't that good either most of the time, look at that Dragon from this episode.
And story-wise, this season made me much more disappointed than the 2nd one, mainly because the arc for this season actually had some potential, but they completely butchered it. Why do they insist on rushing the source material? Did someone at the study made a bet they could adapt the whole material before 2028, and now they are rushing to see if they can do it? Like, I can't find any other reason.
The Fallen Heroes arc from this season actually seemed promising, but it was so disappointing seeing Itsuki's arc resolved in an episode and a half, when it had material for half a season.
This just makes me not connect to the story at all. The only thing holding me to this anime is the appreciation I have for the 1st season honestly.

Overall, this season wasn't the disaster the 2nd season was, but it was still a disaster. Since I actually enjoyed the first few episodes, the latter ones had some potential and the animation was better overall, I'm giving this season a 6/10, one more point than the 2nd season, and it's only because I feel it's unfair for me to put it in the same level as the 2nd season (maybe I should drop the score of the second season to a 4, and then score this one a 5) It's true many of the problems this season faced were due to the disaster the 2nd season was, but they didn't put much effort into correcting those in this 3rd season. I honestly just laughed sometimes with how unbelievable this season went, with facts mentioned that never happened in the 2nd season, and they didn't even bothered in correcting that. That's just lazy honestly. And of course, this last episodes seemed like I was watching a speedrun of the source material, like, c'mon, you can give more time developing whatever is happening on the screen...

If I'm being honest, the only thing that truly carried this season over the 2nd one was the opening and the ending, that are REALLY good, I really enjoyed them, and I believe they might be my favorite for the show so far. The opening always made me excited for the episode, even if the episode was completely underwhelming. The ending in particular is really good, and my favorite so far from the season (although the artstyle was really questionable). I think this is the real reason I'm giving this a 6.

Well, season 4 is coming out right now, so I guess I will start watching that, let's see if it can get at least a bit closer to season 1.

Edit: I also have to thank the users that have pointed out and explained parts that were cut/skipped from the Light Novel, to explain to us what was happening in the anime, just as @mkzxwing and @Yaggami . Without you I wouldn't be able to sleep properly, with how poorly the anime presented its ideas, so thank you!

@PokefanPT Not a declaration of war per se, but Raphtalia's parents ran away and gave up their rights of royal heritage as the condition to the other royals not coming after them, but that miko dress is supposedly the 'royal dress' so to them by putting it on she basically declared she's gonna try to inherit the crown after all, and so the current crown's goons will now try to kill her and the village they built indefinitely unless stopped. Really stupid plot device/point tbh, even in the novel, the novel doesn't properly explain why she didn't tell her the ONE thing she's not supposed to do, aka show her a drawing of that dress and go 'okay, no matter what, don't wear anything like this, okay?'... The reason why the dress from the other world worked for this? Well, both Kuttenro and the country where they where in the other world where built by people from Japan, and so the stying is the same, so that's the connection and why that part works at least.

What's "Melmoraq"? Melromarc you mean? And why would Fohl and Atla rule it? They're royalty from Shieltvelt, not Melromarc. But yeah its yet another thing that's very poorly explained, if at all. As i keep saying, as far as the anime goes, only season 1 is any good, the rest are both generic and drop so much stuff it might as well be a reboot, it turned into an absolute joke of a series in s2.

Filo? She's pretty important in most of the show, i don't think she ever goes away. Yeah she left for training but she's supposed to be back pretty soon.

Idk personally why i even keep watching this, even if it IS on x2 fast forward and with skips, the show barely has anything in common with the novel at this point, and even the novel wasn't something epic and amazing to begin with, but cutting almost everything it did have going for it just made this into another generic forgettable show, to the point that i have no idea why they even keep bothering to adapt more and more seasons.

Yes, that was it, I misspelled that name, sorry my bad! Will correct that in the post too.
I was also joking with the Fohl and Atla thing, because when I watched the episode I just felt like the fact that Raphtalia is part of the royal family came out of nowhere, so maybe they are just doing the same to Fohl and Atla, because why not (especially because tbey were hinting they were related to Trash King), but I never thought that seriously, it was just a way to express how I felt this Raphtalia plot came out of nowhere. My bad for the confusion there!



That explains it, but yeah, the story isn't at its finest in this section.



OK, I thought they would just use this training as an excuse for her to disappear for some time, but at least that isn't happening.



So far I have been enjoying the 4th season much more, at least it isn't in 2x fast forward and they are taking their time to explain stuff! But this season was crazy in that regard, and I was surprised by the stuff you pointed out throughout the episodes that was different from the novels, it does really seem like they are just making their own story at this point. Thank you for explaining the plot better! I really appreciate it!