Score: A

This episode pushed forward the serious situation surrounding Lieselotte as well as cementing the ship between Fiene and Baldur. One side is a perfectly sweet relationship and the other keeps the tension present in the story. Things have gone remarkably well so far. The story could have easily lost all sense of tension as things continued to build in a lovely and positive way. But this episode helps keep things steady. The direction for the story is good overall. Everyone in the main cast wants things to end on a happy note. But there are factors outside of their vision and control that are seeking for things to end in a less than pleasant way.

Hopefully Endo survives all this…

If things do steer a bit close to disaster, I wonder how Kobayashi and Endo will handle it? As time goes on how well can they draw a line between these individuals as characters and as people? Obviously, Kobayashi has had an emotional connection with this game for a long time. But at the start it would just be the emotional connection people have to fictional characters. But after all that’s gone on how do they actually view these characters? It’s just something I’ll be curious to see. Since there is no undoing things if they go wrong. There could be a real sense of powerlessness for them since all they can do is give advice.

This episode also showed how their vision is limited. They couldn’t see the dreams that were being shown to Liese. Now they could note that something was wrong and guess at what it meant. But they can only see so much. If the attacks continue down a track where they can’t see then their advice to Sieg and Fiene will be limited. It’s a good thing that they can talk to some more characters, but it’s all the more difficult that the one person they still can’t talk to is Lieselotte herself.

The battle to save Lieselotte has truly begun

I was wondering how far they’d take keeping things a secret. Thankfully they did start opening up near the end. Their reasoning is solid. If they influence Sieg’s feelings in the wrong way then it could make this a no-win scenario. He always had some interest and attachment to Liese. But years of her tsun would start wearing him out. It makes sense in the game that Fiene did win his affection at times. Someone who is purely open with their feelings would be a breath of fresh air. Especially when he didn’t notice or get to see any dere from Liese. So, they just needed to help him see her charms once again and fall in love with her on his own. They were pushing him in that direction, but at least it still felt like his feelings grew in a genuine way.

Things have reached a point though where secrecy just isn’t an option. At the very least Sieg needed to understand how important his feelings are. He’s not being pushed to fall in love, but to just keep expressing that love. It does make things a bit heavy since he can’t afford to let up in the slightest. Any sign of rejection could break Lieselotte in the condition she’s in right now. But at least the people closest to her understand the situation. Fiene being observant about Liese’s nightmares helped push things along and Sieg won’t willingly back down here.

Imagine telling this sweet girl not to express herself…

Some criticism has to be given to Liese’s father. So much of this trouble is directly on him. I get that he didn’t want his daughter to cause trouble to Sieg who will have the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders in the future. But he pretty much turned her into someone that couldn’t honestly express her feelings. And if he noticed then he either didn’t think it was a problem or failed to correct things in a timely manner. If her being too open about her feelings was such a problem…just ask her gently to ease up a bit. I get that they weren’t engaged at that point in time, but Liese was basically left in a bad state because he badly handled the situation.

The mighty wink!

Fiene and Bal’s scene was good and I almost feel bad for not acknowledging them sooner. That whole sequence reflected well on everyone. Liese showed her sweet side by helping get these two to talk things out. It was a pretty basic strategy to have Fiene hide nearby and just openly press Bal about his feelings for her. But it worked and credit goes where it is due. I also want to give credit to Kobayashi and Endo. Their feelings had to have played a part in getting in contact with Fiene. She had the potential to receive their words and thankfully it happened now. And they didn’t overwhelm Fiene with too much. Just had her talk things out a bit with Baldur and understand that she has options. How Fiene feels about Bal doesn’t lock her into becoming marquise or anything.

Bal’s approach of going on the attack when in a bad spot definitely worked out here. He understandably felt uneasy about making his move once Fiene’s situation changed. Not because he felt differently but because he didn’t want her to misunderstand his motives. Maybe he was a bit cowardly there, but at least he changed tactics in a hurry. And Fiene is definitely weak to romantic pushes when delivered in such a straight forward manner. It is for the best since she has had so few connections to others that she’s left uneasy about jumping into romance.

Glad these two are doing alright

This episode felt like a big step forward. It gave some positive developments, but it also rekindled the tension. We still have mysteries surrounding that actor and the witch as well. But at least the risk of what could go wrong feels real again. Things are as good as they can be right now for them. But that dark presence isn’t giving up. Even with Liese having as little reason to worry and doubt…she’s still vulnerable. The one thing that isn’t easily dealt with is the self-hatred that Lieselotte has. Lieselotte understandably doesn’t view her tsundere behavior as a charming quirk. The one thing left to really save her might be letting her know that it’s fine. If she can change that’s also ok, but she doesn’t have to worry about her feelings being misunderstood.