Quick Summary • Best Moment • Setup • Delivery • Other Posts
Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 02 – Quick Summary
In Wistoria: Want and Sword episode 2, “As Though Undaunted,” Sion Ulster seethed. His companions told everyone that Sion had defeated the Evil Sentinel, but Sion himself knew Will Serfort had done it. What will he do if the truth gets out? But Sion has an ally in Professor Edward Serfence, who came up with a plan to take care of the Will problem once and for all. And he even got the headmistress, Caldron Anouve, to go along with it. Is even the headmistress against Will? Or is something else going on?
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
Favorite Quote from Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 02
She seemed quite confident in Will. I think! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
At first, I wondered if the headmistress was secretly plotting against Will. She let him stay (after not taking action against morons savagely bullying him), but I wasn’t sure about her motives.
After my favorite quote, I’m more convinced that she recognizes Will’s worth. I think. I’d love to know if you think I’m reading this right!
Edward Serfence came to the headmistress and demanded she expel him. She pointed out that (07:31), “If we ignore the fact that he cannot use magic, he excels to a degree that calling it mere excellence is insufficient.” Of course, that wasn’t enough for Edward. He was indignant that Will wanted to be a Magia Vander.
This is where I started to really wonder about the headmistress’s motivations. She suggested that Edward himself administer the test. I had zero confidence that Edward would be in any way fair or reasonable in the test – I wondered how Caldron Anouve could think otherwise.
I don’t think she did.
She thought (08:32), “Test him to your utmost and determine the truth for yourself.”
This is my favorite quote because I’m reading it as her having the utmost confidence in Will. Is that how you read it?
Favorite Moment from Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 02
Will aligned his words and actions – and cut the professor’s attack in two. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Clarity and Simplicity Can Be Good
This episode actually did my heart good. Seriously. I’m not being facetious or hyperbolic. It helped me remember something that Sam said in the Lord of the Rings, when, on the arduous trip to Mordor, he looked up and saw a single star through a break in the clouds:
The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
- Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Return Of The King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings (p. 95). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
In this episode we learned Colette has a lively imagination! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
I write novels that often contain political thriller plots. I also live in the USA, where cruelty is now a tool of state. Notice I didn’t say state craft – I don’t believe what many people practice rises to that level. But the key idea is that the intent to hurt others, or belittle others, or in some way “come out on top” or “fight” rules the day. It’s dark, it’s oppressive, and it’s real life.
Setup: Will Has Clear Goals
There are times I don’t want that in my fiction. And in this episode, Will gave me something different.
Professor Edward had been using his magic to abuse Will for a few minutes. I say “abuse” because he denied Will any weapon. A combat-capable mage beating the tar out of a defenseless student doesn’t present the best optics, does it? But he had more or less beaten Will to near the point of unconsciousness.
Edward appeared to admit to some level of amazement that Will had lasted so long. He demanded to know why Will fought so hard, given he had no magic. Words have more mean when combined with action. Pulling out his goggles as a sign that he wasn’t done yet, Will said (18:01), “I want to be with the person I love!” In the face of the professor’s bald astonishment, Will added, “I want to make the promise I made with Elfie!”
The professor did not seem to have a great deal of respect for Will’s position. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Edward is one of the cold, bitter people (and I’m not saying that in a judgemental way, because throwing rocks while living in a glass house is a dumb idea) But I am saying he showed no respect for Will view of life. He let loose an invective quite unbecoming a man of letters.
But Will didn’t back down. In a very determined voice, he declared that (18:32), “I will go and see the sunset with Elfie!”
Colette – bless her heart! – chose that moment to arrive with his sword. I’ll give credit to Kiki – the little familiar went after Will’s sword. Colette picked up on it and delivered the blade herself. Will even thanked her for it. And now, Will had a weapon, and the volition to use it. He pulled on his goggles.
Delivery: The Pen and the Sword
Remember how I mentioned that actions make words more powerful? It’s not about the pen or the sword being stronger. It’s about how to wield them together to utterly overwhelm a foe. Or, even better, turn them into an ally. Use the sword to keep them at bay; the pen to rhetorically engage them. Edward knew only his version of the sword – his wand. He threw his most powerful attack against Will.
My favorite moment, to which the rest of the stuff I just talked about built towards, was this. Edward fired. Will cut the attack in two (19:06).
Good animation. Impactful audio. Very, very effective build-up. And best of all? Will did it for a motive that is as pure as the motives I give my villains are evil. The dude just wanted to stand beside Elie, like he promised her.
If you can’t keep the promise to made to someone you love, then what’s the point? Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
In the world I live in, I have memories of reading the Lord of the Rings. I remember the feelings I had in my youth when, yes, I would conquer a world for the smile of someone I loved. The world’s bigger now; or I understand it better. I have no sword; any enemies I have are in the abstract, or are on such a scale that I cannot affect them. So in my fiction, there are times I want to see someone stand up to the world just for the smile of someone they love.
No. The world’s not that simple. But it could be.
What did you think of Workner Norgram’s reaction to the headmistress showing him the fight? What are your favorite moments? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 02: Other Posts
Other Anime Sites
- Reddit: Tsue to Tsurugi no Wistoria • Wistoria: Wand and Sword – Episode 2 discussion
- Anime Corner: Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 2 Review – Will Is Easy to Root For
- Anime House: Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 2: As Though Undaunted
- Otaku Sinh – How to Anime: How to SHONEN
This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 01 – Like a Lone Sword
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 02 – As Though Undaunted
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 03 – Order & Watcher
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 04: The Eve of the Grand Festival
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 05: Raise the Starting Pistol
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 06: Between Pride and Passion
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 07: Twelve Secret Ice Magics, El Glace Frosse
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 08: Shall We Date?
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 09: Praxis Begins
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 10: Our Dream
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword Episode 11: The True Name of Cowards
- Wistoria: Want and Sword Episode 12: Wand and Sword
Honestly, I have quite a bit of sympathy for that teacher’s postion. It *is* sort of silly to go to a magic school when you have no talent for magic. Anime tends to call that “dedication”, but to me it feels like stubborn foolishness. I like an underdog story, but this doesn’t seem to be it. Now, of course, if magic has made warriors obsolete and the only way to power is magic, then there’s some sort of society’s-blindspot to it. (Mashle did the same thing recently, but put it up front and centre.) Maybe the show’s going somewhere in that respect, but I’m not rooting for a protagonist who chooses an ill-fitting carreer just to keep a promise. From the information I have now, the protagonist just looks foolish and the promise looks foolish, too. Maybe there’s more to it, though (and the headmistress knows something?). We’ll see.
Collette reminds me a little of Katie from the recent Spellblades anime (similar character design and personality).
The cat’s named Kiki, and she tried to “deliver” a sword? Heh.
Like based on what the main character can do, he’d excel at some sort of martial field, but here he can’t even open his locker without someone else doing it. If the position he’s aiming for requires magic for anything, he’s a liability.
On the school grounds, he’s clearly a charity case. In the dungeons, he can fight and win — and fight and win against a candidate for the tower magia. I hope the show goes into more detail about why some people like not-Snape (I know — I should look up his name, but I’m running on fumes right now) are so furious about his capabilities instead of embracing him as an alternate tactic in the field.
If it was just fighting then that’s fine, but if its a case of magic being absolutely required for their duties then for all intents and purposes he’s wasting his talent and the others will have to work harder to fulfill the duties he needs to do.
Like, if it was just getting into the tower that was his goal, then that’d be fine. But he’s aiming for one of the top positions when he isn’t qualified for it.
I hadn’t considered his tenacity from that perspective. Right now, I’m going on the theory that he instinctively knows magic has a blind spot, and that the headmistress and a handful of others know it, too.
In my head canon, they don’t just come out and tell everyone because they’d be branded heretics, regardless of their pedigree.
Not sure that theory holds water, but it’s a work in progress!
I need to watch Spellblades. It’s on the backlist!
You’ve forever endeared yourself to me by referring to the ultimate authority in my little world – the original LOTR books 😀 Add to that a dose of the real world we currently live in (BLEH) and the reminder that in the larger scale of things… there’s always the stars in the sky.
Thanks! I was surprised how much rereading the quote to write this post affected me. Tolkien’s words are just so powerful I’m in awe. Someday, I want my writing to affect folks like that.
I love Will’s tenacity. I am leery of the headmistress. What are her motivations? Does she know something we don’t? I’m looking forward to finding out.
I really like the ambiguity about some of the motivations. Is the headmistress just that confident in Will? Does she have a plan of her own for him? Both? That kind of thing keeps me interested!