Sentenced to Be a Hero

Episode 7

Episode 7 of Sentenced to Be a Hero lets our heroes take a fake day off while the plot thickens.

I think it's safe to say that we've turned a corner this week. The castle siege of the past few episodes was a little too heavy on rehashing prior ideas without much to show for it, but we've got a big new lane opening up for downtime and simpler pursuits. The mission framing of having to do some normal out-and-about activities while watching for potential assassins trying to gank Teoritta is a great hook. It gives the team a chance to engage in more mundane shenanigans without feeling as though they are wasting their time or not participating in the broader war effort.

Xylo having once been engaged is a good new wrinkle for his character. It gives him a more textured past, and adds an interesting layer to the hero stigma. Not only is it something you are frowned upon more generally, it is a mark of shame which might cost you love, betrothal, and more. Xylo doesn't seem all too broken up about it, and it's clear that can be read as him being genuine or trying to appear stoic in the face of what he's lost. Either reading adds to our understanding of him as a character, and there's probably space to see it as a mix of both too.

The assassination attempt is very well done. I think this is a much more effective take on the human traitor concept than the randos riding mutated beasts from the last battle. Internecine conflict between those of different views or pure and simple power struggles are a dime a dozen in human history. Even in the face of overwhelming defeat and a need to unify there will always be some group or another trying to play an angle and get one over on perceived foes. This is a far more believe source of conflict to my mind than the normal humans somehow being able to cooperate with mutated exploded frogs or whatever.

The fight with Shiji Bau and Boojum is terrific. We haven't had a claustrophobic, close-in fight like this one yet. The tight confines and superhuman-but-maybe-not-human foes with wild powers makes for a great contest. Even the victory rings hollow since it turns out Boojum can survive the horrific dragon fire - though it appears to cost him something in the process. All in all, this is great stuff, and the horizons for the show just keep expanding.

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Sentenced to Be a Hero is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.