Score: A+

This show doesn’t drop the ball. This season has been near perfect and this episode just kept that going. It was a full episode with almost no other characters besides Rudeus and Old Rudeus. But it was so engaging that I was surprised how fast time flew by. In some ways it should be a given that being visited by the older version of yourself would be a massive world shift. But this episode lives up to that in every way. Unfortunately any thoughts I had about how a Future Rudy would get by in the past wasn’t to be…the effort of making this journey cost him his life. But in return…he got to see his wives through that eye of future sight before the end. A nice reward for a man who suffered for so long.

Old guy lost a lot

This episode just opens up the door to a mountain of questions and speculation. Presuming that killing Roxy was the Man God’s goal (which is a presumption to be fair) that just brings everything into question. Why did he tell Rudeus not to go save his mother? Was it because of what he’d lose or that he wanted Rudeus to end up with one or both of the beast girls? Doubtful. This episode raises the answer that he didn’t want Roxy to survive. After all the one major accomplishment was that Rudy 100% was the reason Roxy lived through that. Not even just saving her, but marrying her as well. That was a direct consequence of going against the Man God’s words.

Now he shows up after a good amount of time and the first thing he asks Rudeus potentially leads to Roxy’s death? Now is the Man God after getting rid of Roxy…or her child? Roxy is a powerful mage in her own right and a bit unique among her people. There’s a lot of plausible reasons why he’d want her dead, but I can’t think of one that really stands out. Now we’re entertaining all this based on Old Rudy’s words. But he literally brought evidence and was right about the rat. So…I think we can trust him.

It’s all about Roxy!

I don’t want to just make this all about Roxy…but it kind of is! How many bits of advice that the Man God gave him relate to Roxy when you think about it? The first time was related to Ruijerd. That appeared entirely positive. But it got Rudy moving through the continent faster than he ever could have by himself and that meant less likely that he could meet Roxy. Plus Roxy herself is scared of Ruijerd’s people. Then he gave him tips to just avoid Roxy when they were in the same town. Maybe he even sent Rudy to that school so that he’d marry Sylphie and be less likely to marry Roxy as a result. Or at least give him more reasons to refuse to go to save his mother.

What the heck is this guy afraid of!? His actions have either been directed to keeping Rudy from meeting Roxy or…getting her killed. Is her lack of telepathy like her people a sign of some greater potential or ability she hasn’t tapped into? Does Roxy have some ability to reach the Man God? It’s just way too suspicious. Roxy is amazing, cute, and very special of course. But I’m starting to think Rudeus wasn’t wrong to call her a goddess. She might actually be instrumental.

Completely justified rage

I can understand why old Rudeus is so angry. The man lost everything. We’ve seen this season how much Rudeus has gained. Wives, family, a child, and stability. And because he put his trust in that creepy deity he lost everything piece by piece. He’s obviously as guilty of being naive as present Rudy is, but all he can do is desperately try to get across to him what is at stake. And he’s doing so by using the things he knows matter most to this version of himself. Maybe that’s manipulative as well, but there’s too much at stake!

So many consequences…

Another thread of bad news is that Nanahoshi’s experiments are going to hit a wall. While I totally understand him not wanting to say that she killed herself, I would have appreciated more details about what failure meant. Did they not have enough energy to transport her home? Were they unable to get a lifeform close to human to safely teleport to them? Where was the failure point! If Rudeus knows about it now he can try to figure it out ahead of time or at least have some ideas to keep Nanahoshi from crashing out when they get there.

The threads Future Rudy is willing to drop are rather colossal too! Not only does Nanahoshi kill herself, but Ariel gets into a mess. We could see Perugius testing her and wanting to see her mature into someone who understands what a true ruler is. But in that other timeline she clearly never figures it out and foolishly gambles on a civil war. Also kind of glad Luke only encouraged Sylphie to travel with them. For a moment I thought he crossed a line! But here’s another thing for Rudy to sort out. He can’t just leave Ariel be either. He can keep an eye on Sylphie and keep her out of that conflict, but she’ll still be hurt if Ariel gets killed in it.

Have to smooth things over

I was curious when Eris would enter the discussion and yep she definitely did. No shock that Rudy ended up antagonistic with her for a good while. He was still upset about her leaving him and the ED. But she has been training hard for years for his sake and because she loved him. Eris doesn’t have a clue that she’s hurt him or what happened. And that is her fault. It was thoughtless to not express what she planned to do directly and to his face. But I can imagine how she’d react if he saw her again and was grieving over dead wives and faced with the one that hurt him originally. He’d say something hurtful and things would spiral into conflict.

There’s a chance to get things right here. Rudy wasn’t in the wrong originally, but if he can rise above his pain there’s a win. She clearly loves him and is an insane fighter. Whatever is going to happen (presuming he changes the timeline) she’ll be key to have around. Not that he should only focus on Eris out of merit. Actually falling in love with her again would be better and less…iffy. Plus if he can’t get over it…things won’t end well. He’ll lose her too before he even realizes how much he still loves her.

Use every tool

It’s amazing how half this episode was just a pure conversation. Rudy and Rudy. But it’s truly the turning point and that’s so clear now. How much can change just from Rudeus knowing about Roxy, Sylphie, the civil war, Nanahoshi’s experiments, etc? He has the power to get so much stronger and this time still have what matters most to him.

Thankfully the old guy didn’t just give Rudy great advice, but he left him a walkthrough! Now obviously that’s not a perfect breakdown. Time travel often means grappling with the reality that by changing the past you change expected events. That’s the point of it. But I do think reading the diary is important. It’ll confirm some things and also just give Rudy more to keep an eye on. Some issues and incidents likely won’t be changed anyway. Rudy has been given a gift and it’d be foolish to ignore it. The important thing is just keeping in mind that he can’t completely rely on it.

That thing got off easy!

This was a tough episode for Rudy. Nothing is easy about having to incinerate your own corpse and smell that! At the same time he’s having to face the idea of his wives dying, that Roxy is pregnant, and that he needs to face Eris again. To call Future Rudy showing up a turning point is putting it lightly. This is as much a turning point as any of the other ones. I just hope that Rudeus can make good use of this chance. He also needs to be ready. If the Man God wants Roxy dead he’s not going to stop at this. Have to balance buttering this scumbag up while figuring out what he really wants when offering Rudy advice. What a wild episode!