Quick Summary • Best Moment • Setup • Delivery • Other Posts
Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 Episode 02: Favorites – Quick Summary
In Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 episode 02, “The Party from Hell Begins,” the attack that Marze and Headless launched proved brutally effective. The beasts overcame even the front-line mages. That was, until Will shrugged off his despair at failing and launched his own counterattack. But even his best effort was only so effective. Can the mages devise a strategy that includes Will’s strength? Or does their enemy have something else in mind for them?
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
Favorite Quote from Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 Episode 02
Colette didn’t approve of mistreating statues of notable figures. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
I think I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: I feel sorry for Colette. She’s head over heels in love with Will. Sure, he thinks well of her, and I think it’s pretty clear he’s her friend. But he has it bad for Elfaria. As in, he’s willingly dedicated the entirety of his efforts to joining her in the tower. That makes Colette a really sympathetic character to me.
She’s very, very powerful in her own right. She also doesn’t seem to give herself enough credit. I also like that trope, far, far more than its opposite, where a character goes into arrogance territory. I get plenty of that in real life; I don’t really need it in my fiction.
Though, some of the mages calling Will “laggard” while he’s freaking saving their lives seemed to cross into that territory. But I digress.
My favorite quote comes at a point where Colette’s fighting alongside the others who were veterans of their expedition with Will into the deeper dungeons. They functioned well as a group, especially with Lihanna taking point. She gave Colette a specific task – use the mammoth statue in the center of the city as a hammer to smash a group of enemies.
“Saint Viola!” she said, using her magic to lift the massive thing from its mount (11:11). Saint Viola had been one of the first Magia Vanders. “I’m so sorry!”
That’s such a Colette thing to say.
Favorite Moment from Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 Episode 02
No matter what he did, he couldn’t gain the upper hand. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
A Redditor’s Perspective
This episode developed my favorite theme in this series. I was all set to talk about it, but then Redditor OldInstruction5368 went and described it perfectly. To set the stage, the episode presented the front-line mages as thinking they had repelled the attack. Only seconds later to be sliced (literally!) into pieces.
OldInstruction5368 said:
Most mages have zero tactical sense and are just arrogant glass cannons.
The pew pew didn’t work. The pew pew always works…
Wot
The “pew pew” didn’t work this time. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Which is also why I wasn’t surprised it took so long for someone to realize “indirect attacks” are the secret to bypassing the anti-magic equipment.
And not at all surprised it was Will’s A-team of misfits that adapted first. That group is skilled enough to be great mages, but just a bit off that they have to really work for it. Plus, they’ve seem Will in action, and survived the deep tower, so they know about the value of unconventional tactics.
Everyone else is still in a very immature mindset of “dakka, and then more dakka, and then… I dunno, someone should be dead by that point. Either you or the enemy.”
Setup: Will’s Impact on People
I love seeing Will’s impact on his “A-team of misfits.” It’s part of what makes this series fun for me. Kinda like how Jin-Woo Sung goes around willy-nilly saving Hunters in Solo Leveling. So you’d think a scene like that would be my favorite moment. But it wasn’t. Actually, I shouldn’t call it my favorite moment. I should call it my acknowledgement of a consequential moment.
Will’s a good fighter. So good, in fact, that I have to constantly remind myself he’s a kid. I seem to remember thinking like him, but it’s so long ago that it’s hard for me to emulate it now. Let me tell you the moment, then explain why that point’s important.
Will had a heck of a time even keeping up with the Devander (named, I assume, because it could de-alive a Magica Vander). When the thing sucked down the traces from all the fallen beasts, it became unbeatable. It smacked Will around so hard for so long that when he came to rest on a rooftop, he could just sit there.
He’d taken the fight as far as he knew how. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
“No matter how angry I am, I can’t best it,” he said, running through his options (20:46). “No matter how level-headed I am, no plan works against it! Not my wits or knowledge… Not the skills I’ve drilled into my body… Not these pitiful feelings… In the face of this outrageous situation, nothing I have is of any help at all.”
At which point, the Devander delivers its death blow. Only for Rosti to shove him out of the way. Placing him in the path of the strike.
RIP, Rosti. Seriously. Even if he was, as internet rumor suggests, a clone for Elfaria, he was still a real friend to Will.
Delivery: Will’s Plight Felt Real
First, I want to give Will props for even being able to think in this situation. I’m sitting here in comfy chair watching an anime, and I was stressed on his behalf. Hard to imagine how he really felt. But even saying that, I watched that scene with a very uncharitable thought.
“Dude,” I thought. “You got people who love and care for you. And you’re sitting there feeling sorry for yourself? And you see what price you paid for your little pity party! Rosti didn’t give up, did he?”
Rosti gave it his all. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
I’m a bad man for thinking that. Will’s a kid. That he got so far at all is a testament to his strength. Me berating him for a moment of despair, after withstanding blow after blow from an unstoppable killing machine that is rumored to have freaking killed Magia Vanders is not very charitable of me.
But it tells me how deeply the show got me to buy into the scene. I was reacting to Will as if he were real. So, kudos to Wistoria for that. And now we need to wait a week for see what Will does with the realization that his hesitation cost his best friend his life.
What did you think of the initial response to the incursion? What were your favorite moments? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 Episode 02: Other Posts
Other Anime Sites
This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)
- Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 Episode 01: Barrier Day
- Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 Episode 02: The Party from Hell Begins
- Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 Episode 03: One Single Magic Spell
- Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 Episode 04: And the Story Begins
- Wistoria – Wand and Sword Season 2 Episode 05: The Day of Departure
