Behold the Beauty Of Life
- Original Airdate: January 28, 2024
Written by: Minato Takano
Directed by: Hiroyuki Kato
Summary
With Minongan taken care of thanks to Rita and Kaguragi's efforts, the team set their sights on Grodie. Hymeno wants to use her King's Proof to finally kill him once and for all, but his immortality puts a massive wrench into her plans for vengeance. Wanting justice for the lives of the Bognnaarok that he has taken, Jeramie decides to help out Hymeno with her efforts, discovering that his King's Proof may be the key to finally taking down the undying Jester.
Will Hymeno finally avenge the death of her parents?
Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Question: Hymeno scolds Gira for taking his immortality for granted, but he responds by stating why eternal life would suck.Hymeno: (Holding back Tranquil Fury) Don't ever say that again. Death causes pain for everyone...But if everyone had power like yours...
Gira: Do you really think that? To never die...Is that the same thing as being alive? - Bad Boss: Already a given, but reinforced here: Dagded laughs like an amused child in the face of Grodie remembering his origin as a superweapon of Dagded's.
- The Bus Came Back: Gerojim makes an appearance for the first time since the Kings returned from Earth. Likewise, the Tarantula Abyss makes its first appearance since #26.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Grodie launching a second Fury of the Gods.
- Dead All Along: Hymeno reveals to Grodie that he's essentially a living corpse, with his power having kept him alive all this time.
- Due to the Dead: Early on in the episode, Jeramie and Racules are seen digging holes for an unknown purpose. Later on, it's revealed that those holes are to bury the deceased Sanagim, as indicated by the various plots marked by the Sanagims' weapons. Jeramie even reveals that he's attempting to teach the Sanagim to invoke the trope in the hopes of teaching them empathy.
- Jeramie and Hymeno also pay visits to their respective parents' graves.
- Exotic Eye Designs: While consuming the various corrupted Shugod Souls, the pupils of Grodie's eyes manifests a spiral design seen on his true form's hat.
- Heel Realization: Hymeno spends the episode debating whether or not to upend life and make everyone on Tikyu immortal. Upon seeing Grodie's mindless quest for killing persist even after the discovery of his true nature, she realizes eternal life would be torture in and of itself.
- Immortal Breaker: The crystal in Jeramie's chest turns out to be the key to un-doing Grodie's immortality...by giving him life.
- Irony:
- Continuing the trend of the King's Proof giving powers that contradicts their kingdoms, Hymeno's grants her the power of life taking when she's supposed to be a healer that saves life.
- Likewise, Jeramie's power being that of Immortality is juxtaposed with the Bognaarok being prepared to throw away their lives in an effort to destroy humanity before he came to the throne.
- Also Grodie's obsession with being dead before learning he was Dead All Along rather than being simply immortal to explain his inability to die.
- Grodie's origin as a creation of Dagded's powered by corrupt Shugod Souls is the same fate Corsus intended for Gira back in the day. Grodie is what Gira could've been.
- It's Personal: Hymeno asks the others to deal with Grodie giving her past with him, and they let her.
- Medium Awareness: During the monarchs' first bout with Grodie, Kamejim wonders aloud if he'll be the last of the Jesters to remain alive.
- Mineral MacGuffin: Jeramie has one embedded in his chest - It's the source of his immortality.
- Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Played for Horror. Grodie was already a handful-and-a-half before the heroes' gambit. Giving Grodie life actually makes him even stronger, allowing him to end the episode with another Fury Of the Gods.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jeramie granting Grodie true life as part of Hymeno's plan of killing the jester for good greatly increased his power, worsening his mental state as he promptly revives the dead Semi-Shugods and begin another Fury of the Gods.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: Justified. After Hymeno learns that the King's Proof in Jeramie's possession grants him immortality, they discuss the potential of using it to eliminate mortality from Tikyu's citizens. They ultimately choose to use it to grant life to Grodie instead in a bid to get around his immunity to Hymeno's powers.
- The Reveal:
- Racules reveals Reiniol purposely let Jeramie's father and mother escape to ensure the former's part of the King's Proof was safe. Said seal is revealed to be embedded in Jeramie's chest and is granting him his long life.
- Grodie, revealed to be a corpse continuously reanimated by his own power, is another Dagded's creations like Gira and is fed Shugod Souls.
- Revive Kills Zombie: Invoked. Hymeno and Jeramie weaponize the latter's immortality as contained in his King's Proof to render Grodie vulnerable to Hymeno's life-taking powers. Unfortunately, it backfires and a strengthened Grodie escapes containment and starts a second Fury of the Gods.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Heroic example. Hymeno gets angry at Gira for shunning his own immortality. He responds with an Armor-Piercing Question about whether eternal life qualifies as life at all. This takes her aback and she concedes his argument.
- Switch-Out Move: Dagded swaps his position for Kamejim's, allowing the latter to be hit by Grodie's scythe in anger.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Jeramie somewhat sympathizes with Grodie's plight; noting that "eternity is a lonely place."
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: A recurring theme throughout the episode is the immortal characters - that being Grodie, Jeramie, and Gira - expressing how much they detest being immortal, for various reasons:
- Concludes Grodie's Running Gag of simply wanting to die for the sake of dying upon learning that he is Dead All Along.
- Gira worries that his immortality will eventually strip him of his humanity.
- Jeramie ponders the idea of living past his comrades, believing that his immortality will eventually make him lonely despite its benefits.
- You Killed My Father: The main focus of the episode is Hymeno finally getting her shot at Grodie for his role in causing the Fury of the Gods and killing her parents.
