Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari Episode 4 Discussion

Chimerared said:
I actually like all the heroes including the Spear Hero, he seems to be genuinely misguided and not malicious, if you look at things from his side he is absolutely in the right. I think that if the princess wasn't whispering in his ear all the time and leading him to believe the lies about the Shield Hero then he would be a pretty decent guy.

This was a good episode and I'm glad Shield Hero won the duel through his cunning, he's never had it easy and had to always rely on roundabout ways to fight rather than brute force and that shines through in this episode.

JuNex03 said:
Wow the idiot couldn't even realize that the MP of his party member dropped right after his opponent's hp was reduced

Jak said:
Motoyasu is a real piece of shit because of how easily he lets Malty manipulate him.

NothinComplexPls said:

And don't forget the 20+ Level difference. Note that Naofumi atm is at Lvl 20(or 21? I forgot), but spearc*ck being lvl 43, still can't beat him 1v1 lmao. Either spearc*ck is REALLY dumb, or Shieldbro is just close to genius.

Kilaldagren said:

I don't hate the Spear Hero like others do. I make an effort to be understanding of the Mentally disabled

NothinComplexPls said:

And don't forget the 20+ Level difference. Note that Naofumi atm is at Lvl 20(or 21? I forgot), but spearc*ck being lvl 43, still can't beat him 1v1 lmao. Either spearc*ck is REALLY dumb, or Shieldbro is just close to genius.

nightcrawlercyp said:
Some people are really thirsty for that pussy!

Kurumelzzz said:
truer words have not be spoken

Kougeru said:
This show still just feels like it's trying hard to defend slavery. As I said last week, there was no logical reason for him NOT to free her already. This episode tried to make everyone else look like bad guys and Naofumi a good guy but sorry, he's still the real bad guy for wanted to keep her as a slave and for (as he admitted) seeing someone as a "tool" and not a person. Then Malty shows her racist side so she's still getting worse, too. Basically Malty and Naofumi are both terrible but the other heroes don't seem too bad,just ignorant of the truth. But the author still seems to be pushing awful messages like "slavery is okay if the slave says so" and the other stuff from earlier episodes.

JuNex03 said:


I wouldn't if I were you. You do not know where that's been, or what's been in it and how many.

hifutakiko said:
Thanks for spoiling an on-going adaptation for everyone else, in a reply to someone who specifically asked not to have it spoiled for them too, use your brain before you hit submit.

Daniel_Naumov said:
He had enough brain to write Faustian properly, yet he did THAT as his closing remark. A true villain amongst the generic uncultured simpletons.

idodo35 said:
i have three major consistency issues with this episode, which are starting to make my interest wane...

first is the spear hero. at times he's just another jerk, working with the princess to embarass naofumi (whatever) but at times he seems like we are supposed to see him as misled but well meaning. he seems to be catching on and having a bit of a crisis, before going right back to blindingly following the princess... you gotta choose one...

second, during the fight naufomi uses that "two headed cerebrus" attack, hold on, i though that he was'nt supposed to have an offesnive capability, that's why he needs to rely on the fucking orphaned slave girl, ya know, the thing making your action not just another generic fantasy fare? no? ok... either he has no offensive capabilities and has to be creative or he does and this is all for show... again, pick one!

and finally, the treatment towards demi humans. everyone seems shocked and appauled by naofumi owning a slave, understandable for the other heroes and for the commonfolk i guess we are to assume that slavery is frowned upon though legal (i can buy that, though it is a bit off) but then they also seem cartoonishly bigoted towards demi humans? considering them beasts as we're constantly hammered with? so why are they so opposed to the (legal) enslavement of one?
again and this is a disturbing underlying theme with this siries, YOU HAVE TO PICK ONE

one last minor nag, how did no one catch those orange balloons he snuck into the arena? he was under heavy guard... where did he even get those in such short notice? (that's a nit pick though, not a biggy)

idodo35 said:
i have three major consistency issues with this episode, which are starting to make my interest wane...

first is the spear hero. at times he's just another jerk, working with the princess to embarass naofumi (whatever) but at times he seems like we are supposed to see him as misled but well meaning. he seems to be catching on and having a bit of a crisis, before going right back to blindingly following the princess... you gotta choose one...

second, during the fight naufomi uses that "two headed cerebrus" attack, hold on, i though that he was'nt supposed to have an offesnive capability, that's why he needs to rely on the fucking orphaned slave girl, ya know, the thing making your action not just another generic fantasy fare? no? ok... either he has no offensive capabilities and has to be creative or he does and this is all for show... again, pick one!

and finally, the treatment towards demi humans. everyone seems shocked and appauled by naofumi owning a slave, understandable for the other heroes and for the commonfolk i guess we are to assume that slavery is frowned upon though legal (i can buy that, though it is a bit off) but then they also seem cartoonishly bigoted towards demi humans? considering them beasts as we're constantly hammered with? so why are they so opposed to the (legal) enslavement of one?
again and this is a disturbing underlying theme with this siries, YOU HAVE TO PICK ONE

also minor nag but the whole point where naofumi seems to be loosing his shit and regressing into some sort of demonic possession state was poorly done, i get that raphtalia's encouragement guides him off the edge but it was poorly communicated (as it just seems to not happen suddenly rathar then show us something to symbolize his calming down...

one last minor nag, how did no one catch those orange balloons he snuck into the arena? he was under heavy guard... where did he even get those in such short notice? (that's a nit pick though, not a biggy)

Killuan said:

He's a womanizing dunce who thinks women can do no wrong. He is being manipulated because that is his weakness. 'misled but well meaning' sortof defines him but he's also idiotic and has a chivalry complex so it takes him far longer to see that he's being manipulated by a women than it would for a normal person to come to that conclusion.

That was after he consumed a cerberus which Raphtalia killed for him. At level one he had no offensive abilities. And even then, how effective is that really going to be as far as killing things go? The other heroes are already twice his level, even with Raphtalias help.

I mean he's had them latched onto him throughout the whole series and they're never visible. I doubt they did a pat down on the heroes before letting them into the castle.

Demyx_IX said:

1. Spear hero is an idiot who thinks with his dick and doesn't think Melty is evil at all.

2. The shield he uses has a special effect, which is a counter attack with a chance to paralyze the attacker. The anime doesn't really explain that that's the case, but it isn't hard to see that Spear hits the shield, and the counter activates. Paying attention to what is happening helps ;)

3. It's called being hypocritical. A common thing for antagonists and assholes. The whole thing was just to make Naofumi look even worse than before. Saying that he would stoop so low to force someone to being in his party when nobody else would, when given the choice to do so , of their own free will.

4. He's had them on him since episode 1. Also nobody is going to think a sane person would willingly go around with monsters biting them.

idodo35 said:


1.in universe he has no reason to suspect her, we know she's a coniving cunt but she has'nt revealed her true colours aside from being racist (which seems quite common) he seems like he's being built as a fool being tricked by melty for whatever reason, but he's just acting like a jerk regardless...

2. ok so it's a counter, but in the show he activates it himself, we have no indication he needed to be hit for that to work (it looks like he just wanted him to get closer for a cleaner shot, which makes sense) if this is just a counter i guess that's fine (kind of) but still kind of takes away from the interesting idea of him being purely defensive and reliant on others to deal damage

3. that's a lazy excuse "oh they are being inconsistant because they're hypocritical" then why does ncall that out? not even naofumi? like a "you were fine insulting her until it was conveniant to care" or anything would make the inconsistancy make some sense but it goes unacknowledged

4. of course they'd suspect him, if he's been running around with those fuckers for 4 episodes (also they don't always seem to be there) they should be ready for him to cheat...

mecegirl said:


There is a lot going on with the show and its writing. Mostly I'd say that the show has great potential but the execution isn't always that great. And yes it can be inconsistent. There will be spoilerish information in what I am going to write next but I do try to keep it to things that you can guess based on the 4 episodes so far.

The spear hero is easily duped. He just is. Light spoilers but from what I can remember from the manga it has something to do with the circumstances of his life prior to being brought over to this world. Still he is just an idiot. It's a recurring theme with the antagonists in the story. So get used to it....That sounds judgemental, but from what I've read in the manga it doesn't get any better. There are bright spots characterization wise, but for the most part the stupidity will make you want to reach into the screen and choke a bitch....The other three heros just come off as dumb for dumbs sake. Or cruel for cruels sake at different parts of the story moving forward. Motivations do get revealed later, but hell as a reader/watcher ya gotta enjoy the ride ya know? Like me or anyone just saying that things get revealed later doesn't mean that the execution is done well. Media viewers/readers are supposed to have questions. Events in the story are supposed to make you curious, it's supposed to make you want to watch/read on in order to make you want to know more. Not frustrate you.

It will be fully explained later how this came about but there is a prejudice against the Shield hero. From the first episode people had super low expectations of the shield hero. No one else in the kingdom will come to his defence because of that prejudice. For instance, the idea that the Shield hero can only defend despite the fact that he can attack(uhhh spoilers? not only can he counter but he learns some pretty strong offensive magic later on. It just isn't your standard attack magic though) . You aren't wrong that it is an inconsistency. But that inconsistency comes from prejudice. The people of this kingdom are unreliable narrators. Just because they believe that he can't attack doesn't mean that he can't attack. Without getting too spoilery just frame it this way. The prejudice in this world against Demi-Humans and the Shield hero runs about as deep as prejudice against black people in the U.S. pre modern Civil Rights laws. Back then white people had to be bashed across the head to give a black person credit for anything. Black people had to be(and in some circles still have to be) twice as good to get half as much. White people were taught that black people were inferior for a very long time. They believed it because it was convenient for slavery but after a while it moved from a convenient excuse to something that truly believed. Over hundreds of years the lie became truth. So for instance, during slavery black people were supposed to be intellectually inferior, but it was also illegal to teach black people how to read. See the inconsistency? How could black people even learn how to read if they were so intellectually inferior? Why would it need to be illegal to try to teach such inferior people how to read if they really were so stupid? Because they knew on some level that the idea that black people were stupid was a lie and so they needed to manipulate events in order to keep black people as ignorant as possible. Also the more knowledge black people gained the easier it would be for them to either escape or exact revenge upon their oppressors. Naofumi has been caught in a similar trap. He levels up differently than other because he doesn't have a direct attack(or at least he has nothing like one in the beginning). His shield has many applications. It's a pretty nifty device! It is just different, its growth rate and evolution as a weapon is just different. Just like how demi-humans grow and evolve differently than humans. At some point those differences become the basis of a prejudice, which become the basis of the idea that the shield hero is weak/can't attack.

As is pretty evident this episode the princess and king are both power hungry and drunk off their own power. Members of the crowd started murmuring about how they didn't even need to summon the 4th hero, that three would have been enough. And minor spoilers again, but they didn't have to summon all 4 heros at the same time so that complaint is valid. They could have summoned one at a time(or two or three, either way nothing about the hero summoning spell requires that they summon all 4 at once). The crowd is being hypocritical because that is how deep prejudices work. There is no logic it's just cognitive dissidence. The princess and king are simply taking advantage of that. The reasons why the princess and king feel the need to take advantage will be explained later. :P

As for the other three heroes? Fuck your guess is as good as mine. The spear hero is super gullible so he is a lost case. The Sword and Bow are a bit better in that regard, so they were able to easily identify the princesses cheating. But those two will go back in forth throughout the story and even did so during this episode. At first they claimed that the Shield hero couldn't sink any lower in reaction to learning that Raphtalia is his slave. So not only do they not question his guilt when it comes to the rape accusation, they don't take the time to consider the hypocrisy of a king who allows slavery getting upset at anyone owning a slave. They get there by the end of the episode but minor spoiler, the two of them are pretty self absorbed. This sort of thing will happen again with them because they are often more concerned about their own affairs than others.

I have nothing to say about the attached monsters. I think it was just supposed to be a funny call back to earlier events. I guess you could say everyone in the kingdom is content to ignore the shield hero since they think he is a loser? Really if not for the princesses meddling even the spear hero would have left Naofumi alone during the banquet.

idodo35 said:


so basically you're saying the characters keep being inconsistent, the villians are mostache twirling idiots and there are major holes in the lore?
thanks, you just saved my time from watching the rest of this show...

as for the dissonance, naturally there is some dissonance between their views, but they are'nt showing thlem at all, they flip on a dime between their prejudice and being horrified by the LEGAL ENSLAVEMENT OF THE LESSER BEING (by their views) this all sounds like a messy conflict for its own sake thing...

all in all i was drawn in by 2 things, the controversy and a wondering if this is just a "all girls are just mean to me" shpeal (which seems to not be the case, which is nice) and the whole idea of a hero who can't fight for himself.
curiosity sated for the first and the second one being a fucking lie i think i'm done with the naofumi pity party for now...