Episode 05: Sailors and a Spoiled Brat
Episode 05: Sailors and a Spoiled Brat
If you need to watch the episode, check out this post (community locked) for information!
Beware… it’s long(ish). I probably went into slightly more detail with the summary than I should have. I did end up shortening it from how it used to be, but… yeah…
And, please pardon my randomness…
SUMMARY
Our story continues in the same place where the previous episode left off: Castle Voltaire.
Yuuri has gone off to fine the Demon Sword MelGib Morgif, and Gunter is fretting, and ends up knocking over two vases, thus breaking them. Crash! Boom! Bang!
Apparently, this is an ominous sign.. Oh, Your Majesty! Whatever should we do without you?!
Gwendal comes into the room and tells Gunter to please not destroy his castle, k thnx…
Gunter responds by grabbing onto his face and wailing about the three new wrinkles found there. Apparently, they’re ominous as well.
Yes, that’s right… Gunter can read the future in the wrinkles on Gwendal’s face. Nifty, huh?
Anissina is sitting at a table nearby, casually sipping her afternoon tea. She seems highly amused.
Gwendal decides he doesn’t have the patience to deal with Gunter at the moment, and turns to leave.
Anissina asks, “By the way, I haven’t seen Wolfram. Have you?” as innocently as Anissina could possibly ask a question.
The mention of Wolfram’s apparent disappearance causes Gunter to stop his moaning and groaning and he replies (according to the Geneon release) “What? That selfish Pooh?”
A Pooh?? What is a Pooh?? Perhaps, this??
And so, from this point on, Wolfram shall forever be referred to as ‘Pooh Bear.’
Anyway… Gwendal questions Gunter’s nickname for his baby brother, but after a few seconds he continues to leave the room and says, “I thought so, too.”
“One vote for selfish Pooh from me, too,” Anissina chimes in as well.
Somehow, Gunter seems to have calmed down some during this whole little exchange, though he still remains incredibly worried. He is, after all, His Majesty’s true and humble servant.
(Random Side Note #1: It should be stated that in the dubbed version, Wolfram is referred to as Little Lord Brat, which may, in fact, be a throwback to the book Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett, whose summary can be found here on Wikipedia. Note at the bottom of the page, under the topic of Modern Usage, where is says: "Little Lord Fauntleroy" is now most often used as a term of derision. It describes a pompous spoiled brat, usually a young male, who takes his wealth and privilege for granted.)
The scene cuts to a ship at sea…
… and inside one of the staterooms/cabins, we hear Conrad and Yuuri having sex talking.
Conrad: “Here I come.”
The scene changes to show Wolfram sleeping/resting on a bed…
Yuuri: “Don’t make it painful, Conrad.”
Conrad: “Please, leave it to me. You will be all right. You know I’d never hurt you, baby.”
Wolfram’s eyes suddenly pop open… *gasp*
… and he bolts up on the bed, turning to look towards the two in question, asking them what the hell they think they’re doing. What do you think they’re doing, Wolfram?
Yuuri blinks and shakes his head, while Conrad informs him that the contact lenses are in, claiming that now he looks like a human from every angle… except for the fact that he’s still dressed in all black; you might want to fix that, guys…
Yuuri complains about the contacts and say they hurt like a bitch, and since the technology in this world is questionable, and it seems unlikely that Yuuri carries around a box of colored contacts with him, it’s assumed that the ones he’s wearing are glass.
It should also be noted that Yuuri’s hair has magically changed colors. It is not explained in this episode whether he’s wearing a wig, or if he somehow managed to dye his hair.
Conrad asks Wolfram, “What’s the matter, Pooh Bear?”
Wolfram blushes and turns back to lay down, saying that it’s nothing.
Yuuri comments that Wolfram is seasick, and asks if it’s worse than the night before. Conrad answers for his little brother, and says that the fact that the blond smuggled himself on is an outrage. He then goes on to tell Wolfram that he deserves it real supportive there, Conrad and ushers Yuuri along to go to break their fast. Wolfram tells him not to talk about food in front of him.
Yuuri says he should have something in his stomach, and suggests yogurt because it goes down easy.
Wolfram’s response to this it to throw up. Bleh!
Yuuri observes that his desire to help had the opposite effect. No duh!
Conrad and Yuuri exit out into the hall, with Yuuri now wearing a blue tunic over his black jacket, seen here:
Conrad again comments about Wolfram smuggling himself in - he isn’t happy about it, nor is he happy about Gunter booking a luxury passenger liner.
Yuuri still seems focused on the fact that Wolfram gets seasick.
(Random Side Note #2: Ironically, Wulfram of Sens is a patron saint who protects against the dangers of the sea.)
They’re interrupted when another door on the hall opens, and they turn to watch two of the other passengers exit their room - a middle aged man…
…and a cute little girl.
Yuuri greets them, and the man responds with a greeting of his own, pulling his hat off (along with the attached wig) and tilting his head in a little bow, making his baldness shine brightly in Yuuri’s direction.
Yuuri seems slightly weirded out by this and calls him Mr. Shiny. That’s… sort of rude, Yuuri…
Conrad apologizes for him, claims that Yuuri is his master, and explains that he’s not used to the Cavalcade style of greeting.
Mr. Shiny then tells him that he heard his fiancé followed him by smuggling himself on board. This is the third time we’ve heard this now, so the fact that Wolfram smuggled himself onto the ship must be pretty important.
Yuuri does not seem happy that the rumor is spreading.
Mr. Shiny then apologizes for not introducing himself sooner, and says that he is Heathcrife of Missinigh. The little girl with him is his daughter, Beatrice.
Because Yuuri is a moron and doesn’t know how to introduce himself in return, Conrad breaks in and saves him, saying that Yuuri his lord and master is a chiffon merchant named Mitsuzaemon. Conrad introduces himself as his sex slave attendant, Kakunosuke.
Yuuri: “Eh??”
Heathcrife observes that they must have come from far away. Actually, they’re evil demons who’ve come for your women and children. Conrad has a serious look in his eyes…
They’re interrupted from their delightful conversation by shouting from above decks. Yuuri, of course, dashes up to see what’s going on.
Run, Yuuri!! Run!! Someone needs your help!!!
Conrad calls after him and mistakenly refers to him as “Your Majesty,” but corrects himself and changes to “Young Master.” He bows to Heathcrife, then goes to follow his charge.
Up on deck, we see one of the crewman beating on a young teenage boy/apprentice with funny eyebrows.
Yuuri does not like this, and tells the man to stop. “How dare you discriminate against people with funny eyebrows?!”
The crewman begins to shout back, but stops himself when he sees the distinguished young gentleman. Propriety dictates that he must now kiss this young gentleman’s ass and apologize for the fact that he saw something unpleasant.
Yuuri starts to lecture him, but is stopped by Conrad, who approaches the crewman, saying that his master is offended.
He gives something to him, and from the sound it makes, we can correctly assume that it is money.
The crewman thanks him, and is told to go away. He does so.
The apprentice gets to his feet, gives Conrad a smile and an appreciative nod…
… then bows to Yuuri before heading off as well.
Yuuri throws his arms in the air, seeming a little exasperated, and says, “How disgusting. It’s all about money.”
Conrad replies that at least they know that man will work for money now.
Yuuri doesn’t like this, and moves over to the side of the ship to look over the water, reflecting on his feelings, claiming that he’d felt unlucky for being Demon King.
Conrad looks at him seriously.
Yuuri continues on, saying there are more unlucky people in the world. Conrad questions this. Yuuri uses the kid they just met as an example, and Conrad asks, “Isn’t it one-sided to determine if he is unlucky?”
Yuuri comments on his maturity, to which Conrad replies that he is much older than Yuuri.
The scene changes again, to show the upper deck that evening, where the passengers are having a good time. Yuuri teaches everyone the Electric Slide and the Macarena… kidding, but seeing as they’re just being boring and swaying back and forth, it might be preferable.
Liven up, people! It’s a party!
Our hero is introduced to the human custom of throwing bones and excess food right onto the floor when one is done consuming it.
Yuuri seems just a little bit disgusted.
Conrad and Yuuri suddenly hear a voice behind them, and turn to see a very tall, very muscular orange haired woman(?) dashing towards them, gushing over the cuteness that is Yuuri.
Yuuri awkwardly greets her, and is impressed by the size of her biceps.
She thanks him, then asks him to dance.
Yuuri doesn’t know what to say.
“Eh??”
Suddenly there’s a whole group of young women, all of whom claim that it’s their right to dance with Yuuri, not anyone else’s, because Yuuri is just HOMG, so super sexy~
The women attack.
Amongst the boobies, Yuuri screams for Conrad’s help…
…but Conrad just stands there smiling and says that Yuuri is considered uber sexy in this world, and that he can’t do much for him. Yuuri yells at him for being heartless.
Heathcrife approaches, laughing, and comments, “It seems you are having difficulty choosing your partner.” … -.-
Yuuri pops out of the gaggle of women to see him standing there with a smile on his face. He asks Yuuri if he would mind dancing with Beatrice, who’s being all cute and sitting by her lonesome.
Uhh… why don’t you dance with her, Heathcrife?? She’s your daughter. Of course, if this is just your plot to get sexy Conrad alone, then it’s understandable.
Yuuri approaches her, gets on one knee with his hand extended in her direction, and ask, “Miss, may I borrow your hands?”
You think you’re so cool, don’t you, Yuuri?
A few Boneys appear on screen to clap.
WTF?? Random!
Yuuri blushes and awkwardly wonders if he’s said the wrong thing, but eventually Beatrice hops off of her seat and starts heading towards the dance floor. They dance, which proves awkward because of the height difference.
Beatrice comments that Yuuri is her first dancing partner. Yuuri says that he’s honored, and they briefly discuss her mother and father dancing together. Beatrice says that Yuuri is super cool, which seems to surprise him a bit.
But then Beatrice claims his hair and eye color looks funny.
Yuuri: “Really?? This color looks odd??” *rub rub*
Ho crap! He’s shifted his contact lens out of place!! What’s a Demon King to do?!
Why, leave a sweet innocent little girl there all by herself and dash off to go fix it!!
Yuuri runs around the ship, and ends up running into someone.
Of course, instead of just falling to the ground, Yuuri has to be propelled dramatically into the air before falling…
“Owies!”
But who did he run in to?? The apprentice with the funny eyebrows, of course! Why else would he have been introduced earlier if Yuuri wasn’t going to be seeing him again??
Yuuri and the apprentice exchange apologies, then our hero realizes that the contact lens he’d previously shifted out of place has fallen out of his eye. Oh noes!! He tells the apprentice to help him find it.
As they’re searching, Yuuri, the social butterfly, strikes up a conversation, saying that it must be hard to be an apprentice. The other boy disagrees and says that he’s lucky.
“Eh?” Lucky?? But how could he possibly be lucky?? He got beat on and butt raped and stuff…
Yuuri is confuzzled.
The apprentice says, “B-but this is my first voyage and I’m on a wicked awesome ship!! Who could be luckier than me?!” *smile smile*
Yuuri has a flashback of what Conrad said that morning, about his one-sided way of thinking. He still doesn’t seem to understand, though. “Buh?? But you get beaten and butt raped!”
The apprentice pretty much tells him that he deserved it, and then goes on to stare wistfully at the sails and say how he wants to navigate a ship like this one day.
The apprentice soon turns back to him, and points to something shining on his chest. Yuuri looks down to find his missing contact lens, which seems small in comparison to his huge black eyes.
Yuuri laughs awkwardly.
The scene changes once again, and we see Wolfram looking quite angry.
He shouts at Yuuri, “You traitor!” then he throws deadly projectiles a pillow at him.
Yuuri: “B-b-b-but, Pooh Bear!! What did I do~?!”
Wolfram: “What did you did?!?! You danced with another woman behind my back!!!!”
Pay no attention to the fact that this “woman” was a little girl that must have been between the ages of seven and ten. But how does Wolfram even know that he was dancing?? He was below decks the whole time.
… unless Yuuri was stupid and told him…
Either way, Wolfram seems very worked up about this.
Yuuri looks like he doesn’t really know how to deal with him.
It cuts scenes briefly, and we see a ship flying a Jolly Roger.
Uh oh! What could possibly be happening next?!
I wonder…
Back to Yuuri and Wolfram…
Wolfram goes on to lecture his wayward fiancé. “Listen, you may look good on the outside, but being cute doesn’t make it okay to lose your virtue.” Because we all know Wolfram is the epitome of virtuousness…
There’s suddenly a loud bang, and the ship shakes, causing things to fall to the floor and break. Yuuri and Wolfram stumble.
Uwaaaaaahhhhh!!!
Wolfram falls to the floor by the bed.
WTF was that?!?!
Yuuri grabs onto the wall, and screams in fright. “It’s the Titanic! We hit an iceberg!”
They hear screaming and shouting from up on deck. “Oh, no! Everyone’s panicking already! WTF are we gonna dooooo?!?! Lifeboats!! We have to get to the lifeboats!! Even if there’s only enough for half the people on the ship!!”
Sorry, Yuuri, but it’s women and children first, and there were no fifteen year old male survivors of the Titanic I looked on a survivor/victim list that I just so happen to have right here. I think you’re just old enough to be considered a man. Lucky for you, huh?? [SPOILER]And while we’re on the topic of the Titanic, when watching Episode 31, when Wolfram caught Yuuri before he could fall from the cliff and said his “I’ll fall with you” line, did anyone else have flashbacks of “You jump, I jump” from the movie? Anyone??
Wolfram gets up and begins heading for the door, and it’s more than likely that he has a better idea of what’s really going on than Yuuri does. However, the door opens before they can leave. They look up to see who it is…
… and it’s Conrad coming to save the day!!
He’s relieved to see them safe, and moves across the room to open the closet doors.
He tells them to hurry inside, and so Yuuri and Wolfram are then in the closet. Think of it what you will.
Yuuri says that this is not the time to be doing this. “It’s an iceberg!”
This whole Titanic thing brings to mind an epic crossover…
Envision it now…
(This image was edited by Guinechan because MS Paint just doesn’t give the same effect. Apparently she tried to get “Yuuri’s” shirt white, but it didn’t want to or whatever. Oh well…)
Er… yeah… ahem!
Conrad explains that the ship is under attack. Yuuri asks him who they’re being attacked by. Wolfram is the one who responds to him. “It’s the Black Pearl!” “Of course, by pirates!”
Conrad nods. Yuuri looks a bit distressed and tells Conrad he needs to hide, too. Conrad tells him not to be ridiculous, then takes out his sword and says he’s here for emergencies like this.
Wolfram starts to move foreword and says that he’ll fight, too. Conrad stops him with a hand to his chest. Wolfram looks up at him and asks, “Don’t you believe in my skills?”
Conrad smiles lightly…
… and says that, yes, he does, but that Wolfram needs to stay and take care of His Majesty. Wolfram looks like he’s about to argue, but curses and moves back to sit next to Yuuri again.
Conrad tells them to be patient until they hear no more footsteps, and not to be rash. Gunter and the people would cry if anything were to happen to Yuuri. Gunter?? Definitely. The people?? Probably not, considering Yuuri’s only been the king for a short while now and he hasn’t been seen by very many of them, nor has he been given the chance to do much to be remembered by. They’d probably mourn his passing a little, and then quickly look for a replacement.
Yuuri asks, “What about you?”
Conrad: “Me?”
Yuuri gives him a cute-ish smile.
“Won’t you cry for me?”
Conrad pauses before responding, then smiles lightly back at him and says, “If that happens, I’ll see you again in a different place.”
Then he shuts the door and leaves.
We hear lots of screaming and shouting, and see a couple of images of the ship, but as of yet the pirates are not shown. Yuuri and Wolfram continue to lay low in the closet, listening to everything. Eventually it grows quiet, which Yuuri observes by saying “It’s quiet now.” Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Wolfram looks over at him and says, “Listen, even if they find you, don’t resist too much. They won’t take your life because you look good.” What are they going to do with him, then?
“Then you, too. Don’t fight. You’re much cuter than I am,” Yuuri replies.
Way to go, guys. You’re hiding in a closet from pirates, and you’re getting into the girly “Uh uhh, you’re way cuter than me!” discussion that takes place between my friends and I all the time.
Wolfram tells him that, as a warrior of the Demon Tribe, he can’t back down without a fight.
Yuuri calls bullshit.
Wolfram shushes him and they hear footsteps approaching.
A band of pirates - with shirts on that look like girly school uniform tops - come into the room with their cutlasses at hand. They talk amongst themselves.
One of the asks what happened to "that brave guy."
“He’s with Captain Barbosa.” “I’m sure Boss has already taken care of him for good.”
Yuuri the genius is able to figure out that they’re talking about Conrad. In his surprise, his foot/leg moves and accidentally hits against the trunk in front of him, making a noise that attracts the attention of the pirates.
Yuuri tries to think of something to do to fix his mistake, but he thinking isn’t really a good thing apparently, because when one of the pirates reaches out to open the door to the closet, Yuuri makes what is supposed to be the sound of a cat meowing. In all honesty, it sounds more like a cat dying. Good job, Yuuri!
The pirates are, like, “Ho shit!! It’s a Zomosagoli Dragon!”
Inside the closet, Yuuri is confused, while Wolfram looks exasperated.
They hear the pirates saying that even a baby Zomosagoli eats humans, and that they’re going to need more help to take care of it. Why don’t they just leave it alone if they’re so afraid of it eating them??
Yuuri doesn’t understand what’s going on, and says that a cat’s meow is always supposed to work in situations like this. Wolfram informs him that cats do not, in fact, say “meow” but “baa” instead. Yuuri looks highly confused, and says that sheep say “baa.”
Wolfram draws his sword just as they hear more men entering the room.
Yuuri: “No, Pooh Bear! You can’t fight! There are too many of them!”
When one of the pirates tells them to come out and opens the door of the closet, Wolfram comes out ready to go. He clashes swords with one of the pirates…
…and just when he and a few others are about to attack him, he jumps onto the bed behind them.
Yuuri comes out of the closet as well it’s about time telling Wolfram not to fight.
Wolfram, of course, doesn’t listen. Yuuri responds by making it an order.
Wolfram is a little surprised that Yuuri has just given him an actual order, and he does not seem as if he wants to follow it.
The group of pirates chuckle amongst themselves. Look at the pretty little lap dog being led around by his master.
Wolfram stands there for a few moments, debating with himself, before finally dropping his sword onto the bed.
Our would-be heroes are then brought outside, where the upper deck is overrun by pirates, and the women are being led away. The children are also being taken.
It is then that we see our illustrious pirate captain for the first time.
Honestly, it’s difficult to see how anyone can take him seriously when his outfit is taken into consideration.
He goes on to announce that the women will work on their ship and the children will be sold at a hefty price. Yuuri thinks this is terrible.
The men of the ship have been separated off to the side. Conrad is with them.
Hey, what are you doing there, Miss Biceps??
He does not look happy.
The pirate captain then addresses the men, saying that he does not like men and that they are to be disposed of. The pirates cheer, and a man in the group stands up to exclaim “Oh, noes! I dun wanna die!!” He’s knocked back down by a mean, nasty pirate.
Yuuri is understandably angry,…
…and starts to move foreword, and starts to rant. “Hey! Real robbers are supposed to take money and goods and leave, aren’t they?”
The pirate captain kindly informs him that they are not robbers, they are pirates and that they are going to rape, pillage, and plunder to their hearts’ content.
Yuuri says that isn’t the point and starts to struggle, but Wolfram holds him back and tells him to calm down.
They then hear a little girl screaming. It’s Beatrice, who’s having her hair pulled on by a pirate as he tries to drag her away.
How rude!! Pulling on an innocent little girl’s hair like that!!
Heathcrife stands up in the crowd of men and calls out to his daughter. Poor little Beatrice calls back to him with tears running down her face.
H-how could anyone want to hurt her?! Look at her!! She’s sooooo cuuuuuute!!!
Yuuri is getting very pissed off, as you can tell from the look on his face, as well as the fact that he’s shaking.
All this proves to be a bit too much for him. Cue super-sexy-transformation-sequence…
There’s a bit of an explosion, people scream, the pirate captain nearly falls off of his perch, and a figure begins to walk foreword. And who else would it be other than the Maou? Hi, sexy…
He gives an obligatory speech. “You resort to attacking a helpless passenger liner, blah blah blah…”
Pirate Captain: “What are you?” That’s what I’d like to know, too… He orders his men to get this strange man, and they all dash foreword to follow his orders.
Wolfram looks on, and Conrad approaches him.
Wolfram observes that they’re in human territory, and that the particles that obey the Demon Tribe are supposed to be extremely rare in these areas (therefore, they shouldn’t be able to utilize their magic). Conrad agrees, and says that he’s worried about that, too.
The Maou stands on deck, surrounded by the pirates. “It is not in my nature to kill or threaten…” Then why are you always threatening people?? “…but I will have no pity this time. I’ll send you to the path of evil in hell all together!”
Rawr!
The bones and such that had been thrown onto the deck earlier that evening suddenly begin to move, and the pirates watch as they rise, startled by this sudden turn of events.
Wolfram doesn’t seem to like this too much either, and clings to Conrad.
The bones and such move towards the Maou, and begin to build up until they create the figure of a giant skeleton.
The Maou announces that justice is done.
The pirates, either disgusted or frightened for their lives, begin to run away as soon as the skeleton moves foreword. The Giant Skeleton of Doom steps on a fallen pirate…
… and grabs hold of two of them and shoves their heads together.
All the while, bits and pieces of this evening’s dinner fall away from it.
Conrad: “Dude, that’s sick nasty!“
Wolfram: “IthinkI’mgonnapuke!! Bleh!!!”
Giant Skeleton of Doom grabs onto the pirate captain and lifts him up towards his mouth. The pirate captain tries to stop it from eating him, and exclaims that it’s a devil.
The Maou questions this statement…
… and takes some of the fire from one of the torches to spell out the word “Justice” by his creation’s head, saying “Don’t tell me you forgot these letters spell ‘Justice’.”
The pirate captain screams and wets himself.
Wolfram wonders if they’ve met Yuuri before, and Conrad says it’s best to ignore the details.
An alarm suddenly sounds, and every looks to see another ship approaching.
It’s a Cimaron patrol boat (or ‘Shimeron,’ if you go by the fansubs), and all of the ship’s passengers seem relieved.
“We’re saved! Yay!!!”
Of course, the Maou can’t just leave it at that, and lectures the pirates a little more before collapsing to the ground. The Giant Skeleton of Doom collapses as well, taking the pirate captain down with it.
We’re hit with another scene change. Yuuri is sleeping, and by the looks of it, he has his head resting on Wolfram’s leg/lap.
He wakes up and removes himself, and Wolfram’s asks if he’s awake. Uhh… duh?
Yuuri doesn’t remember what happened, so Conrad and Wolfram explain, telling him of his sexcapades escapades as the Maou and how they were thrown into the jail of the Shimeron patrol boat when they were discovered as being mazoku.
Yuuri, as per usual, doesn’t understand.
Wolfram uses this occasion to once again claim that humans are the scum of the Earth… er… the world.
Yuuri has his patented confused look on his face, though they’re suddenly interrupted by a noise coming from outside in the hall. The door opens, and a man with orange hair appears, dressed in common clothing and carrying their swords and a set of keys.
“Ta-dah! I’ve come to get you, Your Majesty!” he says.
Yuuri looks dumbfounded as the man approaches, asking who he is.
The man claims that is an unkind remark, smiles and winks at him, and says “let’s dance.”
Yuuri’s big, innocent black eyes widen, and he exclaims, “Miss Biceps!”
No kidding…
“Bingo!”
Yuuri asks him why (s)he became a man.
Carrot Top explains that he dressed up as a woman for business purposes.
Conrad introduces him as Guriere Josak (although considering they’re speaking Japanese, it’s safe to assume that ‘Guriere’ is his family name and ‘Josak’ is his given name - some fans choose to use the spelling of ‘Yozak’ instead), and then explains that he was to guard them in case of an emergency. Apparently he followed them from Schildkraut (where it is assumed that they boarded the ship).
Yozak greets Yuuri, and then says, “To tell the truth, I’ve already seen you naked, Your Majesty.”
Yuuri asks him if he were, by any chance, at the bath that he had appeared in in Episode 04. Wolfram is quick to pull him into a choke hold and ask him what the hell he thought he was going bathing with a man behind his back.
“B-b-b-but Pooh Bear!! It wasn’t my fault!! I swear!!”
Yozak cuts in, “Come on. Enough with the lovers’ quarrel,” causing both Yuuri and Wolfram to blush.
Yozak then goes on to say they must escape at once.
The scene cuts again, to show Yozak, Yuuri, and Wolfram in a tiny wooden boat. Conrad is still up on deck, giving something to one of the crewmen. Yuuri watches, though he doesn’t seem very happy. As they row away, Yuuri says he hopes the man won’t tell on them, to which Conrad replies that he should keep his mouth shut as long as he has money.
We see Yuuri rowing, when suddenly the boat begins moving sideways. Yuuri looks over and is surprised to see Wolfram falling asleep.
He shouts at him not to, and Wolfram is able to open his eyes, though he still looks very tired. Yuuri tells him to keep rowing or they’ll go in circles, and then begins to go “Hee hee hoo… Hee hee hoo…” Wolfram picks his ore back up and tiredly joins in.
Conrad observes that His Majesty is using Lamaze, a prepared childbirth technique. Yozak says it gets him pumped up, and joins in as well.
They continue hee-hee-hoo-ing into the night…
MY THOUGHTS
(Sometimes it’s hard to decide what should and should not be considered spoilers. I’ve put what I know for sure to be spoilers in white, but please be aware that there could still be very minor ones within the following text.)
Main Characters
Unfortunately, though the episode begins with them, we are not given a very great look into the lives of Gunter, Gwendal, and Anissina. From their interaction we’re able to get a feel of Gunter’s anxiety (though if his theatrics are an over exaggeration of his true feelings towards the king or not, or if they are the real deal remains to be seen), Gwendal’s unwillingness to put up with it for very long, and Anissina’s nonchalance concerning the whole thing.
Basically what we were able to get from their short exchange is:
Gunter = spaztic
Gwendal = reserved
And Anissina = amused
All of this we could easily discover from previous episodes.
Without much on them, we move on to the characters that took up the main chunk of the episode, starting with our hero, Yuuri.
In this episode, like in those before, he once again shows us his naivety. You’d think he’d understand the idea that “money makes the world go ‘round” considering his father apparently works with money, and would probably be aware of that principle more than those who do not. Instead, the fact that one can buy a man’s silence disappoints Yuuri, and even seems to disgust him to a certain degree.
Yuuri also cannot seem to grasp the idea that those living in poorer conditions than himself (and not just financially, but in how he compares their lives to his own) may, in fact, be happy right where they are. Many people seem to view Yuuri as a very open-minded character, but I think this episode shows that his way of thinking is surprisingly narrow, or, as Conrad said, “one-sided.” If he finds something wrong with a situation (such as the crewman beating on the young apprentice), then he automatically thinks that the entire situation is wrong, and that those involved are, as he terms it, “unlucky.” He puts his focus on things that he doesn’t approve of, and forms his opinions based on that, instead of putting himself in the other person’s shoes and considering the fact that there may be more to things than meets the eye. He separates things into black or white, good or bad, when things might actually be more in a gray area, entirely different from what he thinks. When this proves to be the case, he’s immediately confused and bewildered.
Considering all that, it shouldn’t seem too strange that he uses this same way of thinking in dealing with others and his relationships with them. He’s already decided that Conrad is ‘good’ and that his advice should be sought after when things are beyond understanding. It is also apparent that he views Wolframs as being ‘good,’ but that the engagement part of their relationship is ‘bad,’ leading to a great amount of conflict between them. He’s willing to be friends with Wolfram, and even shows some concern for his wellbeing when he’s not feeling well or is putting himself in danger. However, as soon as the engagement is brought up in anyway, he begins to question it and thinks badly of it. To him, it’s doomed from the start and not worth much effort (though perhaps this lack of effort on his part stems from the hope that he won’t have to follow through with it).
Any further discussion into this aspect of Yuuri’s character definitely contains SPOILERS.
Yuuri does seem to change and grow out of his “one-sided” thinking at least a little bit as the series progresses, especially on the account of Adalbert. He initially views him as ‘bad,’ but later comes to understand him better and realizes that things aren’t exactly what they seem as far as that situation is concerned. Once Yuuri takes the time to get to know people further, he can reassess his thoughts and change his opinions about them.
And it’s this sort of narrow thought process, this stubbornness, that leads him to be able to continue trusting Conrad even when the man turns traitor. Having one of your dearest and most trusted friends turn against you it probably the most emotionally painful thing besides losing someone to death, especially if there appears to be no reason for the sudden turn in behavior (there are still people I hold grudges against because they pulled that sort of back-stabbing shit on me, and I admire Yuuri for his ability to still see the good and believe in a positive outcome). Yet Yuuri is able to hold onto his memories, and goes with what his heart tells him - that Conrad wouldn’t do it without a perfectly good reason, that it’s probably not Conrad’s fault, that Conrad would never do anything to hurt him, and that he can still trust and have faith in him. Everyone is worrying and trying to move on without him, except Wolfram, whose feelings on the matter seem to mirror Yuuri’s at that point - although his thoughts of “no, that’s not true” and “that can’t be possible” seem more like denial than unwavering confidence. Yuuri remains absolutely convinced that Conrad will come back. He ends up being right.
During the pirate attack, we’re given another glimpse of Yuuri’s powers, as he transforms a second time. Instead of using water as he had the last time, however, he creates his own “spell” by using the objects he has around him. He even manipulates fire. Perhaps the most significant thing is the fact that he’s able to use his magic in an area where mazoku normally are not able to, because the “particles that obey them” are rare. Yuuri, then, must have a great deal of power within him if he’s able to use particles that exist in such small quantities so easily.
Next, we move on to Conrad. It should have been obvious from the beginning that he is devoted to guarding and guiding the king (his spoken willingness to sacrifice everything made that more than apparent in Episode 01), but in this episode we are able to see more of his efforts to do so. After the incident with the crewman and the apprentice on deck, he patiently listens to Yuuri’s mini rant concerning the incident, questioning him to elaborate on his thoughts and feelings, then playing the devil’s advocate and wondering if Yuuri is perhaps thinking in a “one-sided” manner. Whether Yuuri takes this to heart is up to him, but it seems quite clear that Conrad sees the king’s shortcomings as far as looking at a situation objectively and from an angle besides his own is concerned, and is trying to gently push him in the right direction.
With the way he acts sometimes, I wonder if perhaps Conrad sees Yuuri as a younger version of himself (albeit more awkward and clumsy), but unless his youth is further explored, (because even in future flashback episodes it’s difficult to say for certain how Conrad was in his childhood and adolescence) there’s no way of knowing.
And, of course, during the attack Conrad’s main priority is to keep Yuuri safe. He immediately goes back to the room as soon as the attack begins and helps him hide, and his response to Yuuri’s “Won’t you cry for me?” is one that further highlights his intent to fight to the death on the king’s behalf. If Yuuri were to ever die, then it would only be after Conrad has given his life to try and prevent that from happening.
This does, however, bring into question why the pirates were able to find Yuuri, and why we did not see Conrad fighting off the pirates when he was shoved aside with the other men. The pirates referring to him as “that brave guy” does imply that Conrad might have fought against them for a while, but why did he stop? Was it because there were just too many of them and he was waiting for a better opportunity? Or was he perhaps not trying to draw too much attention to himself? If he’s the best swordsman in the country, a former prince due to his mother being queen, and one of the only two survivors of the Battle of Lutenberg, you’d think he’d be pretty well known for his skills. I think this seems likely, especially seeing as how he didn’t seem very thrilled with the sort of ship Gunter had booked them on. A luxury passenger liner would imply very wealthy people. (i.e. Heathcrife, who's the eldest prince of Cavalcade, isn't he??) This would lead to a greater chance of being recognized by those of the same social class.
We are also shown a bit of Conrad’s feelings toward his younger brother. Initially he seems concerned by his seasickness, asking him is he’s alright and such. Soon after he seems a bit cross that Wolfram snuck on board, even going so far as to say he deserved to be miserable because of it. During my first viewing of the series, I merely thought he was being a jerk. Now I believe there’s more to it than that. Assuming my hypothesis on he wanting to be more inconspicuous to decrease the chance of being recognized is correct, then Wolfram being there is not only a danger to their mission, but to himself as well. His resemblance to the former queen (who should be recognizable to people, even if they’ve only ever seen her portrait or something), and more than that, his resemblance to Shinou (and considering what happened 4,000 years ago and how large a role he played in it, I don’t see why the humans wouldn’t know who he is and what he looked like as well) would make him far too noticeable to be deemed a safe asset on this journey.
And now that I’ve actually sat here and thought of all this in more depth, I’ve become more confident that this may perhaps be the case. Surely Yuuri transforming and using his magic was a dead giveaway that he, at least, was mazoku, but there would be little way to tell if Conrad and Wolfram are, too, unless they were simply seen as guilty by association. But I think Wolfram being there didn’t help matters at all, as he could have easily been picked out as being the former Demon Queen’s son by the crewman of the Shimeron patrol boat. (Wasn’t Shimeron the country they’d fought against in the war twenty-years ago, or was it someone else?? Or is it even stated?? If that’s the case, then they’d be more likely to recognize one of the sons of their enemy, I assume, especially one that looks so much like her.)
Any way… I’ve gotten off track a bit… back to the last little bit about Conrad…
Despite all of thee above, he shows a great amount of trust in Wolfram when he places he and Yuuri in the closet together, and tells him to look after the king. He believes in his skills to protect Yuuri should anything happen to him (although I think a lot of us would also like to think that he put Wolfram in there for his own safety as well, and not just to protect Yuuri).
Lastly we have Wolfram, whose act of smuggling himself onto the ship was nearly shoved down our throats (considering it was mentioned three times within ten minutes), and so we shall deal with that first in assessing his character.
The fact that he smuggled himself on obviously means that he was not originally supposed to go. I’d really like to know how he accomplished this, then. Did he hide in their luggage? Did he somehow manage to sneak on when the ship was at port? Does he have mad ninja skillz that would allow him to do something like that with ease?
However he did it, I don’t think there’s any question as the why he did it: to be with/look after Yuuri. It is in this episode that he starts to get serious about following Yuuri around, and we begin to see the lengths at which he will go to do so. He not having been part of the mission to begin with and his sneaking onto the ship undoubtedly means he went along against orders - and the fact that Gunter, Gwendal, and Anissina didn’t know where he’d gone off to pretty much lets us know that Wolfram didn’t bother telling anyone he was leaving, nor did he leave written notification of his whereabouts. He went knowing that he was probably going to be reprimanded in some fashion, and also knowing that he was going to suffer from seasickness. Even this early on he’s beginning to deviate from his “big brother knows best” mentality in order to be with his fiancé.
This is also where we get our first real taste of his jealousy issues. He does not like the idea of anyone else with Yuuri, be they his brother, a tiny little girl, or random men in a bath, and if Yuuri happens to show too much attention to these people, he becomes angry and worked up about it, even slightly violent (for although throwing a pillow isn’t much, throwing it at Yuuri is still considered an act of violence, as was the chokehold towards the end). To continue on with this discussion results in SPOILERS:
It seems as if these violent tendencies are always directed towards Yuuri, rather than the person “with” Yuuri. He’s seen throwing pillows at him, pulling him into choke holds, shaking him, pushing and shoving him, and other things like that (and while these instances are mostly for comedic purposes, that doesn’t make them anything less than what they are). It’s because of this - because his reactions are focused on Yuuri instead of on any of his fiancé’s potential partners - that I feel that even though he grows to accept and trust Yuuri, he still has a great deal of distrust in him as well, especially as far as their relationship and engagement are concerned. His repeated accusations make him appear as if he’s convinced that Yuuri is going to cheat on him, be it with a man or a woman or a sheep or a dolphin. Someday it’s going to happen, and all he can do is try to prevent it by hanging around him as much as possible and trying to keep him to himself.
I think this particular insecurity comes from the sense of abandonment he feels - his mother was probably hardly around when he was growing up, Gwendal is obviously very devoted to his work, and he had to watch he and Conrad go off to war, not to mention the issue of Conrad being half-human. He’s used to people ‘abandoning’ and ‘betraying’ him, and he no doubt expects that Yuuri will be no different (especially since he’s human, and Wolfram thinks of humans as no good anyway).
Of course, he grows and changes, and eventually these sort of thoughts and feelings begin to fade away as he matures. Presently, though, they’re very much at the forefront.
Even still, his loyalty and pride as a warrior are unquestioned. He’s as willing to fight as Conrad, and will risk anything to protect Yuuri, no matter who the enemy is or how many of them there are. He doesn’t seem as if he enjoys taking orders, but that doesn’t mean he won’t take one at all, though the slight surprise he expressed at Yuuri’s order to stand down caused him to look as if he hadn’t expected to receive an official order from him, at least not at that time, when Yuuri has only been king for a short while and isn’t quite used to the role yet.
And, while in episodes before we saw him pushing Conrad away and insulting him for being human, already he seems to have mellowed out some as far as his second brother is concerned. Conrad touched him to hold him back while trying to get him to stay in the closet with Yuuri, and instead of acting insulted or disgusted that he’d tried to touch him, Wolfram questioned his belief in his skills. He may claim to hate his brother for being human (and I truly believe that at this point the hatred he feels for the humans is genuine, just not so far that he’s completely alienated his brother), but asking a question like that instead of shouting at him for not allowing him to fight, and cursing his inferior human blood, shows that he wants Conrad’s respect and approval, just as not struggling against him as he could have shows that he respects him in return, and he knows that Conrad would know best in situations like this.
Then later we see him clinging to Conrad, even going so far as to lean against him when he begins to not feel well again, which is something one would not do with someone they truly hate. He’s also seen sitting right next to him in the jail on the Shimeron Patrol Boat, but when we get a better view of the room we can tell there there’s enough space for him to be able to keep at least somewhat of a distance if he would rather not be so close. The fact that he chooses to stay by Conrad could point to him feeling safe in his presence, and perhaps even taking some form of comfort from his being there.
The changes that take place in their relationship are something I look foreword to watching as the series progresses.
Finally, I debated on whether to discuss Wolfram’s morality at all, but his talk of Yuuri loosing his virtue causes me to feel as if it must be addressed, however shortly. Obviously Wolfram does not approve of infidelity in any form, and quite probably has pretty high standards when it comes to the people he associates himself with or allows himself to develop romantic feelings for. My personal opinion is that he’s never had a serious relationship before. The immature way in which he deals with his relationship with Yuuri just makes it seem as if he doesn’t have much experience in behaving toward people in a situation like that. Then, of course, there’s his disdain for humans. He obviously places himself above them due to the simple fact that he’s a pure blooded mazoku.
Seconday Characters
In this episode we are introduced to Heathcrife and his daughter Beatrice, who we know must be from some part of Cavalcade judging by the type of greeting that was given. Not much else can be said about them, although my interest was slightly piqued by Conrad’s reaction to Heathcrife’s comment about them coming from afar when they were making their introductions. Conrad’s eyes narrowed just a bit at that, which makes me wonder if perhaps he thinks Heathcrife might know who they really are, and just isn’t saying anything. I can’t think of any other reason off of the top of my head as to why Conrad would suddenly look so serious, unless he recognizes Heathcrife himself (if only by name).
And of course there’s Yozak. Not much is known about him at the moment, but by his actions and the way he presents himself we can tell already that he’s quite the character. His clothing looks pretty plain in comparisons with the others, which points to either he working a lot out doors and needing to blend in with the common folk, or being a commoner himself. Obviously since this episode ends with him accompanying Yuuri, Conrad, and Wolfram, we’ll see him more as their adventure continues.
Aspects of the World
From this episode, there are a couple of things we can gather about the world Yuuri’s been brought to.
1) There are widely different social classes (which is probably to be expected). We’ve already seen a bit of both in previous episodes (the commoners we well as the nobility), but this time Yuuri was immersed in a noble lifestyle on a luxury passenger liner. He didn’t seem to like it very much, finding their custom regarding food disgusting, and appearing awkward while dancing (and somehow I don’t think it was just because of the height difference between he and Beatrice). He seemed more comfortable talking with the apprentice (who was obviously of a lower social class), than he was with those on deck at dinner. This potentially has something to do with his inferiority complex, a sense that he’s not good enough to be among so many well-to-do individuals.
2) There are pirates, albeit badly dressed ones. Nothing much can be said about them besides that fact that… well… they’re badly dressed.
3) The people from Cavalcade have funny greetings, bringing into question whether other countries do as well.
4) Humans like to litter.
5) Cats don’t meow.
6) Money makes the world go ‘round.
And, 7) Slavery. While we don’t see it firsthand, just hearing the pirates talking about selling the children makes it seem as if such practices are a great possibility. One has to wonder if the mazoku engage in this as well, or if it’s solely a human practice.
Anyways... Comment away!!
Next Episode: Episode 06 hosted by glitteringloke
If you need to watch the episode, check out this post (community locked) for information!
Beware… it’s long(ish). I probably went into slightly more detail with the summary than I should have. I did end up shortening it from how it used to be, but… yeah…
And, please pardon my randomness…
SUMMARY
Our story continues in the same place where the previous episode left off: Castle Voltaire.
Yuuri has gone off to fine the Demon Sword MelGib Morgif, and Gunter is fretting, and ends up knocking over two vases, thus breaking them. Crash! Boom! Bang!
Apparently, this is an ominous sign.. Oh, Your Majesty! Whatever should we do without you?!
Gwendal comes into the room and tells Gunter to please not destroy his castle, k thnx…
Gunter responds by grabbing onto his face and wailing about the three new wrinkles found there. Apparently, they’re ominous as well.
Yes, that’s right… Gunter can read the future in the wrinkles on Gwendal’s face. Nifty, huh?
Anissina is sitting at a table nearby, casually sipping her afternoon tea. She seems highly amused.
Gwendal decides he doesn’t have the patience to deal with Gunter at the moment, and turns to leave.
Anissina asks, “By the way, I haven’t seen Wolfram. Have you?” as innocently as Anissina could possibly ask a question.
The mention of Wolfram’s apparent disappearance causes Gunter to stop his moaning and groaning and he replies (according to the Geneon release) “What? That selfish Pooh?”
A Pooh?? What is a Pooh?? Perhaps, this??
And so, from this point on, Wolfram shall forever be referred to as ‘Pooh Bear.’
Anyway… Gwendal questions Gunter’s nickname for his baby brother, but after a few seconds he continues to leave the room and says, “I thought so, too.”
“One vote for selfish Pooh from me, too,” Anissina chimes in as well.
Somehow, Gunter seems to have calmed down some during this whole little exchange, though he still remains incredibly worried. He is, after all, His Majesty’s true and humble servant.
(Random Side Note #1: It should be stated that in the dubbed version, Wolfram is referred to as Little Lord Brat, which may, in fact, be a throwback to the book Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett, whose summary can be found here on Wikipedia. Note at the bottom of the page, under the topic of Modern Usage, where is says: "Little Lord Fauntleroy" is now most often used as a term of derision. It describes a pompous spoiled brat, usually a young male, who takes his wealth and privilege for granted.)
The scene cuts to a ship at sea…
… and inside one of the staterooms/cabins, we hear Conrad and Yuuri having sex talking.
Conrad: “Here I come.”
The scene changes to show Wolfram sleeping/resting on a bed…
Yuuri: “Don’t make it painful, Conrad.”
Conrad: “Please, leave it to me. You will be all right. You know I’d never hurt you, baby.”
Wolfram’s eyes suddenly pop open… *gasp*
… and he bolts up on the bed, turning to look towards the two in question, asking them what the hell they think they’re doing. What do you think they’re doing, Wolfram?
Yuuri blinks and shakes his head, while Conrad informs him that the contact lenses are in, claiming that now he looks like a human from every angle… except for the fact that he’s still dressed in all black; you might want to fix that, guys…
Yuuri complains about the contacts and say they hurt like a bitch, and since the technology in this world is questionable, and it seems unlikely that Yuuri carries around a box of colored contacts with him, it’s assumed that the ones he’s wearing are glass.
It should also be noted that Yuuri’s hair has magically changed colors. It is not explained in this episode whether he’s wearing a wig, or if he somehow managed to dye his hair.
Conrad asks Wolfram, “What’s the matter, Pooh Bear?”
Wolfram blushes and turns back to lay down, saying that it’s nothing.
Yuuri comments that Wolfram is seasick, and asks if it’s worse than the night before. Conrad answers for his little brother, and says that the fact that the blond smuggled himself on is an outrage. He then goes on to tell Wolfram that he deserves it real supportive there, Conrad and ushers Yuuri along to go to break their fast. Wolfram tells him not to talk about food in front of him.
Yuuri says he should have something in his stomach, and suggests yogurt because it goes down easy.
Wolfram’s response to this it to throw up. Bleh!
Yuuri observes that his desire to help had the opposite effect. No duh!
Conrad and Yuuri exit out into the hall, with Yuuri now wearing a blue tunic over his black jacket, seen here:
Conrad again comments about Wolfram smuggling himself in - he isn’t happy about it, nor is he happy about Gunter booking a luxury passenger liner.
Yuuri still seems focused on the fact that Wolfram gets seasick.
(Random Side Note #2: Ironically, Wulfram of Sens is a patron saint who protects against the dangers of the sea.)
They’re interrupted when another door on the hall opens, and they turn to watch two of the other passengers exit their room - a middle aged man…
…and a cute little girl.
Yuuri greets them, and the man responds with a greeting of his own, pulling his hat off (along with the attached wig) and tilting his head in a little bow, making his baldness shine brightly in Yuuri’s direction.
Yuuri seems slightly weirded out by this and calls him Mr. Shiny. That’s… sort of rude, Yuuri…
Conrad apologizes for him, claims that Yuuri is his master, and explains that he’s not used to the Cavalcade style of greeting.
Mr. Shiny then tells him that he heard his fiancé followed him by smuggling himself on board. This is the third time we’ve heard this now, so the fact that Wolfram smuggled himself onto the ship must be pretty important.
Yuuri does not seem happy that the rumor is spreading.
Mr. Shiny then apologizes for not introducing himself sooner, and says that he is Heathcrife of Missinigh. The little girl with him is his daughter, Beatrice.
Because Yuuri is a moron and doesn’t know how to introduce himself in return, Conrad breaks in and saves him, saying that Yuuri his lord and master is a chiffon merchant named Mitsuzaemon. Conrad introduces himself as his sex slave attendant, Kakunosuke.
Yuuri: “Eh??”
Heathcrife observes that they must have come from far away. Actually, they’re evil demons who’ve come for your women and children. Conrad has a serious look in his eyes…
They’re interrupted from their delightful conversation by shouting from above decks. Yuuri, of course, dashes up to see what’s going on.
Run, Yuuri!! Run!! Someone needs your help!!!
Conrad calls after him and mistakenly refers to him as “Your Majesty,” but corrects himself and changes to “Young Master.” He bows to Heathcrife, then goes to follow his charge.
Up on deck, we see one of the crewman beating on a young teenage boy/apprentice with funny eyebrows.
Yuuri does not like this, and tells the man to stop. “How dare you discriminate against people with funny eyebrows?!”
The crewman begins to shout back, but stops himself when he sees the distinguished young gentleman. Propriety dictates that he must now kiss this young gentleman’s ass and apologize for the fact that he saw something unpleasant.
Yuuri starts to lecture him, but is stopped by Conrad, who approaches the crewman, saying that his master is offended.
He gives something to him, and from the sound it makes, we can correctly assume that it is money.
The crewman thanks him, and is told to go away. He does so.
The apprentice gets to his feet, gives Conrad a smile and an appreciative nod…
… then bows to Yuuri before heading off as well.
Yuuri throws his arms in the air, seeming a little exasperated, and says, “How disgusting. It’s all about money.”
Conrad replies that at least they know that man will work for money now.
Yuuri doesn’t like this, and moves over to the side of the ship to look over the water, reflecting on his feelings, claiming that he’d felt unlucky for being Demon King.
Conrad looks at him seriously.
Yuuri continues on, saying there are more unlucky people in the world. Conrad questions this. Yuuri uses the kid they just met as an example, and Conrad asks, “Isn’t it one-sided to determine if he is unlucky?”
Yuuri comments on his maturity, to which Conrad replies that he is much older than Yuuri.
The scene changes again, to show the upper deck that evening, where the passengers are having a good time. Yuuri teaches everyone the Electric Slide and the Macarena… kidding, but seeing as they’re just being boring and swaying back and forth, it might be preferable.
Liven up, people! It’s a party!
Our hero is introduced to the human custom of throwing bones and excess food right onto the floor when one is done consuming it.
Yuuri seems just a little bit disgusted.
Conrad and Yuuri suddenly hear a voice behind them, and turn to see a very tall, very muscular orange haired woman(?) dashing towards them, gushing over the cuteness that is Yuuri.
Yuuri awkwardly greets her, and is impressed by the size of her biceps.
She thanks him, then asks him to dance.
Yuuri doesn’t know what to say.
“Eh??”
Suddenly there’s a whole group of young women, all of whom claim that it’s their right to dance with Yuuri, not anyone else’s, because Yuuri is just HOMG, so super sexy~
The women attack.
Amongst the boobies, Yuuri screams for Conrad’s help…
…but Conrad just stands there smiling and says that Yuuri is considered uber sexy in this world, and that he can’t do much for him. Yuuri yells at him for being heartless.
Heathcrife approaches, laughing, and comments, “It seems you are having difficulty choosing your partner.” … -.-
Yuuri pops out of the gaggle of women to see him standing there with a smile on his face. He asks Yuuri if he would mind dancing with Beatrice, who’s being all cute and sitting by her lonesome.
Uhh… why don’t you dance with her, Heathcrife?? She’s your daughter. Of course, if this is just your plot to get sexy Conrad alone, then it’s understandable.
Yuuri approaches her, gets on one knee with his hand extended in her direction, and ask, “Miss, may I borrow your hands?”
You think you’re so cool, don’t you, Yuuri?
A few Boneys appear on screen to clap.
WTF?? Random!
Yuuri blushes and awkwardly wonders if he’s said the wrong thing, but eventually Beatrice hops off of her seat and starts heading towards the dance floor. They dance, which proves awkward because of the height difference.
Beatrice comments that Yuuri is her first dancing partner. Yuuri says that he’s honored, and they briefly discuss her mother and father dancing together. Beatrice says that Yuuri is super cool, which seems to surprise him a bit.
But then Beatrice claims his hair and eye color looks funny.
Yuuri: “Really?? This color looks odd??” *rub rub*
Ho crap! He’s shifted his contact lens out of place!! What’s a Demon King to do?!
Why, leave a sweet innocent little girl there all by herself and dash off to go fix it!!
Yuuri runs around the ship, and ends up running into someone.
Of course, instead of just falling to the ground, Yuuri has to be propelled dramatically into the air before falling…
“Owies!”
But who did he run in to?? The apprentice with the funny eyebrows, of course! Why else would he have been introduced earlier if Yuuri wasn’t going to be seeing him again??
Yuuri and the apprentice exchange apologies, then our hero realizes that the contact lens he’d previously shifted out of place has fallen out of his eye. Oh noes!! He tells the apprentice to help him find it.
As they’re searching, Yuuri, the social butterfly, strikes up a conversation, saying that it must be hard to be an apprentice. The other boy disagrees and says that he’s lucky.
“Eh?” Lucky?? But how could he possibly be lucky?? He got beat on and butt raped and stuff…
Yuuri is confuzzled.
The apprentice says, “B-but this is my first voyage and I’m on a wicked awesome ship!! Who could be luckier than me?!” *smile smile*
Yuuri has a flashback of what Conrad said that morning, about his one-sided way of thinking. He still doesn’t seem to understand, though. “Buh?? But you get beaten and butt raped!”
The apprentice pretty much tells him that he deserved it, and then goes on to stare wistfully at the sails and say how he wants to navigate a ship like this one day.
The apprentice soon turns back to him, and points to something shining on his chest. Yuuri looks down to find his missing contact lens, which seems small in comparison to his huge black eyes.
Yuuri laughs awkwardly.
The scene changes once again, and we see Wolfram looking quite angry.
He shouts at Yuuri, “You traitor!” then he throws deadly projectiles a pillow at him.
Yuuri: “B-b-b-but, Pooh Bear!! What did I do~?!”
Wolfram: “What did you did?!?! You danced with another woman behind my back!!!!”
Pay no attention to the fact that this “woman” was a little girl that must have been between the ages of seven and ten. But how does Wolfram even know that he was dancing?? He was below decks the whole time.
… unless Yuuri was stupid and told him…
Either way, Wolfram seems very worked up about this.
Yuuri looks like he doesn’t really know how to deal with him.
It cuts scenes briefly, and we see a ship flying a Jolly Roger.
Uh oh! What could possibly be happening next?!
I wonder…
Back to Yuuri and Wolfram…
Wolfram goes on to lecture his wayward fiancé. “Listen, you may look good on the outside, but being cute doesn’t make it okay to lose your virtue.” Because we all know Wolfram is the epitome of virtuousness…
There’s suddenly a loud bang, and the ship shakes, causing things to fall to the floor and break. Yuuri and Wolfram stumble.
Uwaaaaaahhhhh!!!
Wolfram falls to the floor by the bed.
WTF was that?!?!
Yuuri grabs onto the wall, and screams in fright. “It’s the Titanic! We hit an iceberg!”
They hear screaming and shouting from up on deck. “Oh, no! Everyone’s panicking already! WTF are we gonna dooooo?!?! Lifeboats!! We have to get to the lifeboats!! Even if there’s only enough for half the people on the ship!!”
Sorry, Yuuri, but it’s women and children first, and there were no fifteen year old male survivors of the Titanic I looked on a survivor/victim list that I just so happen to have right here. I think you’re just old enough to be considered a man. Lucky for you, huh?? [SPOILER]And while we’re on the topic of the Titanic, when watching Episode 31, when Wolfram caught Yuuri before he could fall from the cliff and said his “I’ll fall with you” line, did anyone else have flashbacks of “You jump, I jump” from the movie? Anyone??
Wolfram gets up and begins heading for the door, and it’s more than likely that he has a better idea of what’s really going on than Yuuri does. However, the door opens before they can leave. They look up to see who it is…
… and it’s Conrad coming to save the day!!
He’s relieved to see them safe, and moves across the room to open the closet doors.
He tells them to hurry inside, and so Yuuri and Wolfram are then in the closet. Think of it what you will.
Yuuri says that this is not the time to be doing this. “It’s an iceberg!”
This whole Titanic thing brings to mind an epic crossover…
Envision it now…
(This image was edited by Guinechan because MS Paint just doesn’t give the same effect. Apparently she tried to get “Yuuri’s” shirt white, but it didn’t want to or whatever. Oh well…)
Er… yeah… ahem!
Conrad explains that the ship is under attack. Yuuri asks him who they’re being attacked by. Wolfram is the one who responds to him. “It’s the Black Pearl!” “Of course, by pirates!”
Conrad nods. Yuuri looks a bit distressed and tells Conrad he needs to hide, too. Conrad tells him not to be ridiculous, then takes out his sword and says he’s here for emergencies like this.
Wolfram starts to move foreword and says that he’ll fight, too. Conrad stops him with a hand to his chest. Wolfram looks up at him and asks, “Don’t you believe in my skills?”
Conrad smiles lightly…
… and says that, yes, he does, but that Wolfram needs to stay and take care of His Majesty. Wolfram looks like he’s about to argue, but curses and moves back to sit next to Yuuri again.
Conrad tells them to be patient until they hear no more footsteps, and not to be rash. Gunter and the people would cry if anything were to happen to Yuuri. Gunter?? Definitely. The people?? Probably not, considering Yuuri’s only been the king for a short while now and he hasn’t been seen by very many of them, nor has he been given the chance to do much to be remembered by. They’d probably mourn his passing a little, and then quickly look for a replacement.
Yuuri asks, “What about you?”
Conrad: “Me?”
Yuuri gives him a cute-ish smile.
“Won’t you cry for me?”
Conrad pauses before responding, then smiles lightly back at him and says, “If that happens, I’ll see you again in a different place.”
Then he shuts the door and leaves.
We hear lots of screaming and shouting, and see a couple of images of the ship, but as of yet the pirates are not shown. Yuuri and Wolfram continue to lay low in the closet, listening to everything. Eventually it grows quiet, which Yuuri observes by saying “It’s quiet now.” Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Wolfram looks over at him and says, “Listen, even if they find you, don’t resist too much. They won’t take your life because you look good.” What are they going to do with him, then?
“Then you, too. Don’t fight. You’re much cuter than I am,” Yuuri replies.
Way to go, guys. You’re hiding in a closet from pirates, and you’re getting into the girly “Uh uhh, you’re way cuter than me!” discussion that takes place between my friends and I all the time.
Wolfram tells him that, as a warrior of the Demon Tribe, he can’t back down without a fight.
Yuuri calls bullshit.
Wolfram shushes him and they hear footsteps approaching.
A band of pirates - with shirts on that look like girly school uniform tops - come into the room with their cutlasses at hand. They talk amongst themselves.
One of the asks what happened to "that brave guy."
“He’s with Captain Barbosa.” “I’m sure Boss has already taken care of him for good.”
Yuuri the genius is able to figure out that they’re talking about Conrad. In his surprise, his foot/leg moves and accidentally hits against the trunk in front of him, making a noise that attracts the attention of the pirates.
Yuuri tries to think of something to do to fix his mistake, but he thinking isn’t really a good thing apparently, because when one of the pirates reaches out to open the door to the closet, Yuuri makes what is supposed to be the sound of a cat meowing. In all honesty, it sounds more like a cat dying. Good job, Yuuri!
The pirates are, like, “Ho shit!! It’s a Zomosagoli Dragon!”
Inside the closet, Yuuri is confused, while Wolfram looks exasperated.
They hear the pirates saying that even a baby Zomosagoli eats humans, and that they’re going to need more help to take care of it. Why don’t they just leave it alone if they’re so afraid of it eating them??
Yuuri doesn’t understand what’s going on, and says that a cat’s meow is always supposed to work in situations like this. Wolfram informs him that cats do not, in fact, say “meow” but “baa” instead. Yuuri looks highly confused, and says that sheep say “baa.”
Wolfram draws his sword just as they hear more men entering the room.
Yuuri: “No, Pooh Bear! You can’t fight! There are too many of them!”
When one of the pirates tells them to come out and opens the door of the closet, Wolfram comes out ready to go. He clashes swords with one of the pirates…
…and just when he and a few others are about to attack him, he jumps onto the bed behind them.
Yuuri comes out of the closet as well it’s about time telling Wolfram not to fight.
Wolfram, of course, doesn’t listen. Yuuri responds by making it an order.
Wolfram is a little surprised that Yuuri has just given him an actual order, and he does not seem as if he wants to follow it.
The group of pirates chuckle amongst themselves. Look at the pretty little lap dog being led around by his master.
Wolfram stands there for a few moments, debating with himself, before finally dropping his sword onto the bed.
Our would-be heroes are then brought outside, where the upper deck is overrun by pirates, and the women are being led away. The children are also being taken.
It is then that we see our illustrious pirate captain for the first time.
Honestly, it’s difficult to see how anyone can take him seriously when his outfit is taken into consideration.
He goes on to announce that the women will work on their ship and the children will be sold at a hefty price. Yuuri thinks this is terrible.
The men of the ship have been separated off to the side. Conrad is with them.
Hey, what are you doing there, Miss Biceps??
He does not look happy.
The pirate captain then addresses the men, saying that he does not like men and that they are to be disposed of. The pirates cheer, and a man in the group stands up to exclaim “Oh, noes! I dun wanna die!!” He’s knocked back down by a mean, nasty pirate.
Yuuri is understandably angry,…
…and starts to move foreword, and starts to rant. “Hey! Real robbers are supposed to take money and goods and leave, aren’t they?”
The pirate captain kindly informs him that they are not robbers, they are pirates and that they are going to rape, pillage, and plunder to their hearts’ content.
Yuuri says that isn’t the point and starts to struggle, but Wolfram holds him back and tells him to calm down.
They then hear a little girl screaming. It’s Beatrice, who’s having her hair pulled on by a pirate as he tries to drag her away.
How rude!! Pulling on an innocent little girl’s hair like that!!
Heathcrife stands up in the crowd of men and calls out to his daughter. Poor little Beatrice calls back to him with tears running down her face.
H-how could anyone want to hurt her?! Look at her!! She’s sooooo cuuuuuute!!!
Yuuri is getting very pissed off, as you can tell from the look on his face, as well as the fact that he’s shaking.
All this proves to be a bit too much for him. Cue super-sexy-transformation-sequence…
There’s a bit of an explosion, people scream, the pirate captain nearly falls off of his perch, and a figure begins to walk foreword. And who else would it be other than the Maou? Hi, sexy…
He gives an obligatory speech. “You resort to attacking a helpless passenger liner, blah blah blah…”
Pirate Captain: “What are you?” That’s what I’d like to know, too… He orders his men to get this strange man, and they all dash foreword to follow his orders.
Wolfram looks on, and Conrad approaches him.
Wolfram observes that they’re in human territory, and that the particles that obey the Demon Tribe are supposed to be extremely rare in these areas (therefore, they shouldn’t be able to utilize their magic). Conrad agrees, and says that he’s worried about that, too.
The Maou stands on deck, surrounded by the pirates. “It is not in my nature to kill or threaten…” Then why are you always threatening people?? “…but I will have no pity this time. I’ll send you to the path of evil in hell all together!”
Rawr!
The bones and such that had been thrown onto the deck earlier that evening suddenly begin to move, and the pirates watch as they rise, startled by this sudden turn of events.
Wolfram doesn’t seem to like this too much either, and clings to Conrad.
The bones and such move towards the Maou, and begin to build up until they create the figure of a giant skeleton.
The Maou announces that justice is done.
The pirates, either disgusted or frightened for their lives, begin to run away as soon as the skeleton moves foreword. The Giant Skeleton of Doom steps on a fallen pirate…
… and grabs hold of two of them and shoves their heads together.
All the while, bits and pieces of this evening’s dinner fall away from it.
Conrad: “Dude, that’s sick nasty!“
Wolfram: “IthinkI’mgonnapuke!! Bleh!!!”
Giant Skeleton of Doom grabs onto the pirate captain and lifts him up towards his mouth. The pirate captain tries to stop it from eating him, and exclaims that it’s a devil.
The Maou questions this statement…
… and takes some of the fire from one of the torches to spell out the word “Justice” by his creation’s head, saying “Don’t tell me you forgot these letters spell ‘Justice’.”
The pirate captain screams and wets himself.
Wolfram wonders if they’ve met Yuuri before, and Conrad says it’s best to ignore the details.
An alarm suddenly sounds, and every looks to see another ship approaching.
It’s a Cimaron patrol boat (or ‘Shimeron,’ if you go by the fansubs), and all of the ship’s passengers seem relieved.
“We’re saved! Yay!!!”
Of course, the Maou can’t just leave it at that, and lectures the pirates a little more before collapsing to the ground. The Giant Skeleton of Doom collapses as well, taking the pirate captain down with it.
We’re hit with another scene change. Yuuri is sleeping, and by the looks of it, he has his head resting on Wolfram’s leg/lap.
He wakes up and removes himself, and Wolfram’s asks if he’s awake. Uhh… duh?
Yuuri doesn’t remember what happened, so Conrad and Wolfram explain, telling him of his sexcapades escapades as the Maou and how they were thrown into the jail of the Shimeron patrol boat when they were discovered as being mazoku.
Yuuri, as per usual, doesn’t understand.
Wolfram uses this occasion to once again claim that humans are the scum of the Earth… er… the world.
Yuuri has his patented confused look on his face, though they’re suddenly interrupted by a noise coming from outside in the hall. The door opens, and a man with orange hair appears, dressed in common clothing and carrying their swords and a set of keys.
“Ta-dah! I’ve come to get you, Your Majesty!” he says.
Yuuri looks dumbfounded as the man approaches, asking who he is.
The man claims that is an unkind remark, smiles and winks at him, and says “let’s dance.”
Yuuri’s big, innocent black eyes widen, and he exclaims, “Miss Biceps!”
No kidding…
“Bingo!”
Yuuri asks him why (s)he became a man.
Carrot Top explains that he dressed up as a woman for business purposes.
Conrad introduces him as Guriere Josak (although considering they’re speaking Japanese, it’s safe to assume that ‘Guriere’ is his family name and ‘Josak’ is his given name - some fans choose to use the spelling of ‘Yozak’ instead), and then explains that he was to guard them in case of an emergency. Apparently he followed them from Schildkraut (where it is assumed that they boarded the ship).
Yozak greets Yuuri, and then says, “To tell the truth, I’ve already seen you naked, Your Majesty.”
Yuuri asks him if he were, by any chance, at the bath that he had appeared in in Episode 04. Wolfram is quick to pull him into a choke hold and ask him what the hell he thought he was going bathing with a man behind his back.
“B-b-b-but Pooh Bear!! It wasn’t my fault!! I swear!!”
Yozak cuts in, “Come on. Enough with the lovers’ quarrel,” causing both Yuuri and Wolfram to blush.
Yozak then goes on to say they must escape at once.
The scene cuts again, to show Yozak, Yuuri, and Wolfram in a tiny wooden boat. Conrad is still up on deck, giving something to one of the crewmen. Yuuri watches, though he doesn’t seem very happy. As they row away, Yuuri says he hopes the man won’t tell on them, to which Conrad replies that he should keep his mouth shut as long as he has money.
We see Yuuri rowing, when suddenly the boat begins moving sideways. Yuuri looks over and is surprised to see Wolfram falling asleep.
He shouts at him not to, and Wolfram is able to open his eyes, though he still looks very tired. Yuuri tells him to keep rowing or they’ll go in circles, and then begins to go “Hee hee hoo… Hee hee hoo…” Wolfram picks his ore back up and tiredly joins in.
Conrad observes that His Majesty is using Lamaze, a prepared childbirth technique. Yozak says it gets him pumped up, and joins in as well.
They continue hee-hee-hoo-ing into the night…
MY THOUGHTS
(Sometimes it’s hard to decide what should and should not be considered spoilers. I’ve put what I know for sure to be spoilers in white, but please be aware that there could still be very minor ones within the following text.)
Main Characters
Unfortunately, though the episode begins with them, we are not given a very great look into the lives of Gunter, Gwendal, and Anissina. From their interaction we’re able to get a feel of Gunter’s anxiety (though if his theatrics are an over exaggeration of his true feelings towards the king or not, or if they are the real deal remains to be seen), Gwendal’s unwillingness to put up with it for very long, and Anissina’s nonchalance concerning the whole thing.
Basically what we were able to get from their short exchange is:
Gunter = spaztic
Gwendal = reserved
And Anissina = amused
All of this we could easily discover from previous episodes.
Without much on them, we move on to the characters that took up the main chunk of the episode, starting with our hero, Yuuri.
In this episode, like in those before, he once again shows us his naivety. You’d think he’d understand the idea that “money makes the world go ‘round” considering his father apparently works with money, and would probably be aware of that principle more than those who do not. Instead, the fact that one can buy a man’s silence disappoints Yuuri, and even seems to disgust him to a certain degree.
Yuuri also cannot seem to grasp the idea that those living in poorer conditions than himself (and not just financially, but in how he compares their lives to his own) may, in fact, be happy right where they are. Many people seem to view Yuuri as a very open-minded character, but I think this episode shows that his way of thinking is surprisingly narrow, or, as Conrad said, “one-sided.” If he finds something wrong with a situation (such as the crewman beating on the young apprentice), then he automatically thinks that the entire situation is wrong, and that those involved are, as he terms it, “unlucky.” He puts his focus on things that he doesn’t approve of, and forms his opinions based on that, instead of putting himself in the other person’s shoes and considering the fact that there may be more to things than meets the eye. He separates things into black or white, good or bad, when things might actually be more in a gray area, entirely different from what he thinks. When this proves to be the case, he’s immediately confused and bewildered.
Considering all that, it shouldn’t seem too strange that he uses this same way of thinking in dealing with others and his relationships with them. He’s already decided that Conrad is ‘good’ and that his advice should be sought after when things are beyond understanding. It is also apparent that he views Wolframs as being ‘good,’ but that the engagement part of their relationship is ‘bad,’ leading to a great amount of conflict between them. He’s willing to be friends with Wolfram, and even shows some concern for his wellbeing when he’s not feeling well or is putting himself in danger. However, as soon as the engagement is brought up in anyway, he begins to question it and thinks badly of it. To him, it’s doomed from the start and not worth much effort (though perhaps this lack of effort on his part stems from the hope that he won’t have to follow through with it).
Any further discussion into this aspect of Yuuri’s character definitely contains SPOILERS.
Yuuri does seem to change and grow out of his “one-sided” thinking at least a little bit as the series progresses, especially on the account of Adalbert. He initially views him as ‘bad,’ but later comes to understand him better and realizes that things aren’t exactly what they seem as far as that situation is concerned. Once Yuuri takes the time to get to know people further, he can reassess his thoughts and change his opinions about them.
And it’s this sort of narrow thought process, this stubbornness, that leads him to be able to continue trusting Conrad even when the man turns traitor. Having one of your dearest and most trusted friends turn against you it probably the most emotionally painful thing besides losing someone to death, especially if there appears to be no reason for the sudden turn in behavior (there are still people I hold grudges against because they pulled that sort of back-stabbing shit on me, and I admire Yuuri for his ability to still see the good and believe in a positive outcome). Yet Yuuri is able to hold onto his memories, and goes with what his heart tells him - that Conrad wouldn’t do it without a perfectly good reason, that it’s probably not Conrad’s fault, that Conrad would never do anything to hurt him, and that he can still trust and have faith in him. Everyone is worrying and trying to move on without him, except Wolfram, whose feelings on the matter seem to mirror Yuuri’s at that point - although his thoughts of “no, that’s not true” and “that can’t be possible” seem more like denial than unwavering confidence. Yuuri remains absolutely convinced that Conrad will come back. He ends up being right.
During the pirate attack, we’re given another glimpse of Yuuri’s powers, as he transforms a second time. Instead of using water as he had the last time, however, he creates his own “spell” by using the objects he has around him. He even manipulates fire. Perhaps the most significant thing is the fact that he’s able to use his magic in an area where mazoku normally are not able to, because the “particles that obey them” are rare. Yuuri, then, must have a great deal of power within him if he’s able to use particles that exist in such small quantities so easily.
Next, we move on to Conrad. It should have been obvious from the beginning that he is devoted to guarding and guiding the king (his spoken willingness to sacrifice everything made that more than apparent in Episode 01), but in this episode we are able to see more of his efforts to do so. After the incident with the crewman and the apprentice on deck, he patiently listens to Yuuri’s mini rant concerning the incident, questioning him to elaborate on his thoughts and feelings, then playing the devil’s advocate and wondering if Yuuri is perhaps thinking in a “one-sided” manner. Whether Yuuri takes this to heart is up to him, but it seems quite clear that Conrad sees the king’s shortcomings as far as looking at a situation objectively and from an angle besides his own is concerned, and is trying to gently push him in the right direction.
With the way he acts sometimes, I wonder if perhaps Conrad sees Yuuri as a younger version of himself (albeit more awkward and clumsy), but unless his youth is further explored, (because even in future flashback episodes it’s difficult to say for certain how Conrad was in his childhood and adolescence) there’s no way of knowing.
And, of course, during the attack Conrad’s main priority is to keep Yuuri safe. He immediately goes back to the room as soon as the attack begins and helps him hide, and his response to Yuuri’s “Won’t you cry for me?” is one that further highlights his intent to fight to the death on the king’s behalf. If Yuuri were to ever die, then it would only be after Conrad has given his life to try and prevent that from happening.
This does, however, bring into question why the pirates were able to find Yuuri, and why we did not see Conrad fighting off the pirates when he was shoved aside with the other men. The pirates referring to him as “that brave guy” does imply that Conrad might have fought against them for a while, but why did he stop? Was it because there were just too many of them and he was waiting for a better opportunity? Or was he perhaps not trying to draw too much attention to himself? If he’s the best swordsman in the country, a former prince due to his mother being queen, and one of the only two survivors of the Battle of Lutenberg, you’d think he’d be pretty well known for his skills. I think this seems likely, especially seeing as how he didn’t seem very thrilled with the sort of ship Gunter had booked them on. A luxury passenger liner would imply very wealthy people. (i.e. Heathcrife, who's the eldest prince of Cavalcade, isn't he??) This would lead to a greater chance of being recognized by those of the same social class.
We are also shown a bit of Conrad’s feelings toward his younger brother. Initially he seems concerned by his seasickness, asking him is he’s alright and such. Soon after he seems a bit cross that Wolfram snuck on board, even going so far as to say he deserved to be miserable because of it. During my first viewing of the series, I merely thought he was being a jerk. Now I believe there’s more to it than that. Assuming my hypothesis on he wanting to be more inconspicuous to decrease the chance of being recognized is correct, then Wolfram being there is not only a danger to their mission, but to himself as well. His resemblance to the former queen (who should be recognizable to people, even if they’ve only ever seen her portrait or something), and more than that, his resemblance to Shinou (and considering what happened 4,000 years ago and how large a role he played in it, I don’t see why the humans wouldn’t know who he is and what he looked like as well) would make him far too noticeable to be deemed a safe asset on this journey.
And now that I’ve actually sat here and thought of all this in more depth, I’ve become more confident that this may perhaps be the case. Surely Yuuri transforming and using his magic was a dead giveaway that he, at least, was mazoku, but there would be little way to tell if Conrad and Wolfram are, too, unless they were simply seen as guilty by association. But I think Wolfram being there didn’t help matters at all, as he could have easily been picked out as being the former Demon Queen’s son by the crewman of the Shimeron patrol boat. (Wasn’t Shimeron the country they’d fought against in the war twenty-years ago, or was it someone else?? Or is it even stated?? If that’s the case, then they’d be more likely to recognize one of the sons of their enemy, I assume, especially one that looks so much like her.)
Any way… I’ve gotten off track a bit… back to the last little bit about Conrad…
Despite all of thee above, he shows a great amount of trust in Wolfram when he places he and Yuuri in the closet together, and tells him to look after the king. He believes in his skills to protect Yuuri should anything happen to him (although I think a lot of us would also like to think that he put Wolfram in there for his own safety as well, and not just to protect Yuuri).
Lastly we have Wolfram, whose act of smuggling himself onto the ship was nearly shoved down our throats (considering it was mentioned three times within ten minutes), and so we shall deal with that first in assessing his character.
The fact that he smuggled himself on obviously means that he was not originally supposed to go. I’d really like to know how he accomplished this, then. Did he hide in their luggage? Did he somehow manage to sneak on when the ship was at port? Does he have mad ninja skillz that would allow him to do something like that with ease?
However he did it, I don’t think there’s any question as the why he did it: to be with/look after Yuuri. It is in this episode that he starts to get serious about following Yuuri around, and we begin to see the lengths at which he will go to do so. He not having been part of the mission to begin with and his sneaking onto the ship undoubtedly means he went along against orders - and the fact that Gunter, Gwendal, and Anissina didn’t know where he’d gone off to pretty much lets us know that Wolfram didn’t bother telling anyone he was leaving, nor did he leave written notification of his whereabouts. He went knowing that he was probably going to be reprimanded in some fashion, and also knowing that he was going to suffer from seasickness. Even this early on he’s beginning to deviate from his “big brother knows best” mentality in order to be with his fiancé.
This is also where we get our first real taste of his jealousy issues. He does not like the idea of anyone else with Yuuri, be they his brother, a tiny little girl, or random men in a bath, and if Yuuri happens to show too much attention to these people, he becomes angry and worked up about it, even slightly violent (for although throwing a pillow isn’t much, throwing it at Yuuri is still considered an act of violence, as was the chokehold towards the end). To continue on with this discussion results in SPOILERS:
It seems as if these violent tendencies are always directed towards Yuuri, rather than the person “with” Yuuri. He’s seen throwing pillows at him, pulling him into choke holds, shaking him, pushing and shoving him, and other things like that (and while these instances are mostly for comedic purposes, that doesn’t make them anything less than what they are). It’s because of this - because his reactions are focused on Yuuri instead of on any of his fiancé’s potential partners - that I feel that even though he grows to accept and trust Yuuri, he still has a great deal of distrust in him as well, especially as far as their relationship and engagement are concerned. His repeated accusations make him appear as if he’s convinced that Yuuri is going to cheat on him, be it with a man or a woman or a sheep or a dolphin. Someday it’s going to happen, and all he can do is try to prevent it by hanging around him as much as possible and trying to keep him to himself.
I think this particular insecurity comes from the sense of abandonment he feels - his mother was probably hardly around when he was growing up, Gwendal is obviously very devoted to his work, and he had to watch he and Conrad go off to war, not to mention the issue of Conrad being half-human. He’s used to people ‘abandoning’ and ‘betraying’ him, and he no doubt expects that Yuuri will be no different (especially since he’s human, and Wolfram thinks of humans as no good anyway).
Of course, he grows and changes, and eventually these sort of thoughts and feelings begin to fade away as he matures. Presently, though, they’re very much at the forefront.
Even still, his loyalty and pride as a warrior are unquestioned. He’s as willing to fight as Conrad, and will risk anything to protect Yuuri, no matter who the enemy is or how many of them there are. He doesn’t seem as if he enjoys taking orders, but that doesn’t mean he won’t take one at all, though the slight surprise he expressed at Yuuri’s order to stand down caused him to look as if he hadn’t expected to receive an official order from him, at least not at that time, when Yuuri has only been king for a short while and isn’t quite used to the role yet.
And, while in episodes before we saw him pushing Conrad away and insulting him for being human, already he seems to have mellowed out some as far as his second brother is concerned. Conrad touched him to hold him back while trying to get him to stay in the closet with Yuuri, and instead of acting insulted or disgusted that he’d tried to touch him, Wolfram questioned his belief in his skills. He may claim to hate his brother for being human (and I truly believe that at this point the hatred he feels for the humans is genuine, just not so far that he’s completely alienated his brother), but asking a question like that instead of shouting at him for not allowing him to fight, and cursing his inferior human blood, shows that he wants Conrad’s respect and approval, just as not struggling against him as he could have shows that he respects him in return, and he knows that Conrad would know best in situations like this.
Then later we see him clinging to Conrad, even going so far as to lean against him when he begins to not feel well again, which is something one would not do with someone they truly hate. He’s also seen sitting right next to him in the jail on the Shimeron Patrol Boat, but when we get a better view of the room we can tell there there’s enough space for him to be able to keep at least somewhat of a distance if he would rather not be so close. The fact that he chooses to stay by Conrad could point to him feeling safe in his presence, and perhaps even taking some form of comfort from his being there.
The changes that take place in their relationship are something I look foreword to watching as the series progresses.
Finally, I debated on whether to discuss Wolfram’s morality at all, but his talk of Yuuri loosing his virtue causes me to feel as if it must be addressed, however shortly. Obviously Wolfram does not approve of infidelity in any form, and quite probably has pretty high standards when it comes to the people he associates himself with or allows himself to develop romantic feelings for. My personal opinion is that he’s never had a serious relationship before. The immature way in which he deals with his relationship with Yuuri just makes it seem as if he doesn’t have much experience in behaving toward people in a situation like that. Then, of course, there’s his disdain for humans. He obviously places himself above them due to the simple fact that he’s a pure blooded mazoku.
Seconday Characters
In this episode we are introduced to Heathcrife and his daughter Beatrice, who we know must be from some part of Cavalcade judging by the type of greeting that was given. Not much else can be said about them, although my interest was slightly piqued by Conrad’s reaction to Heathcrife’s comment about them coming from afar when they were making their introductions. Conrad’s eyes narrowed just a bit at that, which makes me wonder if perhaps he thinks Heathcrife might know who they really are, and just isn’t saying anything. I can’t think of any other reason off of the top of my head as to why Conrad would suddenly look so serious, unless he recognizes Heathcrife himself (if only by name).
And of course there’s Yozak. Not much is known about him at the moment, but by his actions and the way he presents himself we can tell already that he’s quite the character. His clothing looks pretty plain in comparisons with the others, which points to either he working a lot out doors and needing to blend in with the common folk, or being a commoner himself. Obviously since this episode ends with him accompanying Yuuri, Conrad, and Wolfram, we’ll see him more as their adventure continues.
Aspects of the World
From this episode, there are a couple of things we can gather about the world Yuuri’s been brought to.
1) There are widely different social classes (which is probably to be expected). We’ve already seen a bit of both in previous episodes (the commoners we well as the nobility), but this time Yuuri was immersed in a noble lifestyle on a luxury passenger liner. He didn’t seem to like it very much, finding their custom regarding food disgusting, and appearing awkward while dancing (and somehow I don’t think it was just because of the height difference between he and Beatrice). He seemed more comfortable talking with the apprentice (who was obviously of a lower social class), than he was with those on deck at dinner. This potentially has something to do with his inferiority complex, a sense that he’s not good enough to be among so many well-to-do individuals.
2) There are pirates, albeit badly dressed ones. Nothing much can be said about them besides that fact that… well… they’re badly dressed.
3) The people from Cavalcade have funny greetings, bringing into question whether other countries do as well.
4) Humans like to litter.
5) Cats don’t meow.
6) Money makes the world go ‘round.
And, 7) Slavery. While we don’t see it firsthand, just hearing the pirates talking about selling the children makes it seem as if such practices are a great possibility. One has to wonder if the mazoku engage in this as well, or if it’s solely a human practice.
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