Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho Episode 6: Something about betrayal

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While I still think there were some problems, I liked this episode more than previous episodes. The dinner scene was pretty interesting because it finally gave us some more information about the world and the characters. I liked how it cleanly divided Albus’s views that witches should be protected from humans from Zero’s views of coexistence. In short, Albus favors one side, whereas Zero tries to be truly neutral. Thirteen’s conversation with Mercenary also had its fair share of good points.

As for the rest of the episode, I found it kind of frustrating. I just wish we had seen more hints at Mercenary’s doubts before this episode. It felt too much like it was something that get brought up right before his talk with Thirteen just so they could get him to betray Zero. Also, I’m still not convinced about Thirteen as an antagonist. Maybe I’m just not convinced that the main characters are going to be split for too long, so I wonder what exactly Thirteen is trying to accomplish.

Guys, your attacks aren’t even touching anymore.

They’re friends now? I probably should have expected this.

Mercenary claims that he can tell that the food isn’t poisoned because he’s an animal. Is poison detection a common trait for animals? Did he sniff it out? It would be nice to know just what the extent of his animal nature is.

I’m curious about this joke. Is it common folklore that cat tongues are sensitive to heat than those of humans? That would make this joke a lot better. Also, the scene right before this one seemed to be a play on the notion of eating dessert last to avoid spoiling your meal. There are a lot of inside jokes in this scene, which makes me wonder how many I missed. But that aside, it’s pretty entertaining for what is otherwise a fluff scene.

I agree with Thirteen. I was wondering last week why the Sorcerers of Zero simply rejected the rogue witches instead of stopping them from using magic for evil. For example, they could take away a rogue witch’s magic. However, to be fair to Albus, the random flashback we saw last week did clearly show the Sorcerers of Zero pleading with the state to stop the witch hunts. I don’t think it’s safe to assume the Sorcerers of Zero will always use violence to defend themselves from humans.

Well, I’m glad to finally learn all of this stuff.

What exactly is the end goal? Do witches never write anything down? I don’t understand how destroying the Grimoire accomplishes anything at this point now that information has been distributed.

I can see this as a reasonable line of thought, but I think it still qualifies Mercenary as the dense light novel protagonist.

Yup, this is definitely not suspicious. I can understand why Mercenary might be flustered at hearing that his nightmare might finally be over, but I feel like you should still be suspicious that it’s happening so easily.

This scene is pretty cool. We see the normal Mercenary in the mirror and then the camera pans out to show a presumably brainwashed Mercenary with different eyes. It’s as though he was figuratively (or maybe literally) trapped in the mirror.

I don’t think it’s fair for Zero to expect Mercenary to have no doubts. However, I’m assuming that she’s just hurt right here and isn’t being completely rational herself, so I understand.