The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountain

Episode 8

Episode 8 of Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountain does even more of what this series does best, which is showing William to be the best lad in the whole wide world.

We are introduced to the Lothdor elves in this episode, an interesting bunch. They appear to be rather traditional fantasy Elves - living in the woodlands, being prim and proper, etc. The caveat here is that their forest has become a Soulslike poison swamp, and everyone is taking constant damage over time. Thankfully, William is willing to help and sets about curing hundreds of people of their illnesses.

This was the best part of the episode. I know the anime has paladin right there in the title, so seeing William do a bunch of lay-on-handling shouldn't be such a surprise, but it's amazing how often this sort of detail gets overlooked or forgotten about in most media. The use of curative or restorative abilities outside of a combat scenario to better the lives of average people is a profoundly good thing to do, and I'm glad we get William making a point of doing so. It's such a big deal that Stagnate shows up again in crow form to get in a few jabs during downtime for himself.

The party continues towards the mountain and encounters some insect beasts. This was something of an odd sequence in my mind. Usually, the fights in this series feel substantial, or at least like there is something at stake. The music lets the audience know this is a trivial encounter and the bugs explode in a single attack, which is sort of an odd vibe to give off. The intent is to show the party's strength, but it makes the elves look silly by comparison. In any case, the magic spell at the end reaffirms the danger they are heading toward and gets the tone right back to where it should be heading.

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Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountain is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.