nenena | Liveblogging Soul Eater Episode 43: The Ballad of OCD Goth Cowboy Jesus and the Evil Robot Clown

!!! WARNING: COULROPHOBIA TRIGGERS LIKE WHOA !!!
Also, spoilers.

LAST WEEK: The Apocalypse started. WHOOPS. Maka ditched one battle for another, God weasled out of his deal with the Devil, Stein got in touch with his inner lolicon, Giriko and Justin ended up ~~lip-~~locked in mortal combat, Yumi smacked down Spirit, Marie and Crona rocked their exile, Blair got her yellow hat on, and Black Star... did nothing. Well, okay, he ate a SoyJoy or whatever. And applauded his own cleverness with his feet. Oh, Black Star. You so crazy. Anywhoo.

This week!

Art by Ragweed

Pre-credits: Black Star uses the Feyblade mode to take down a shitload of golems. A "shitload" is like, three, but whatever, Feyblade Mode looks freakin' AWESOME. He's using his shadows to slice the golems a la Lucy from Elfien Lied. Holy shit.

Oh yeah and other characters do stuff too.

CREDITS! La la la Paper Moon...

Free has more screen time in the opening credit sequence than he's had during the entirety of the second season so far. Le sigh.

Anywhoo.

Kid, Liz, and Patti are headed toward the Stone Sarcophagus, which is like the bastard lovechild of the Bermuda Triangle and Stonehenge, only with more suck. The "suck" in this case being that one day every single human within the village walls vanished... And then all groups subsequently sent in to investigate the incident, including what looks an awful lot like an entire army, also vanished.

Just the humans, though. Everything else about the village - buildings, plants, abandoned army tanks - remained untouched, albeit eventually falling into ruin.

So after a couple mass deaths or so, the humans got smart, and stopped trying to enter the village walls. Smart move!

But now Shinigami needs the Magikul Key to activate the Magikul Brew that's totally stuck inside the Stone Sarcophagus, OOPs. Good thing he has a son who is famously stupid for running headfirst into really, really dangerous situations that most mere mortals would be far too intelligent to run headfirst into.

~~Oh, and as we find out at the end of the episode, Daddy hasn't even TOLD Kid that they Key is for the Brew. Wow.~~

Also, despite being convinced that Daddy is pulling a Darth Vader behind his back, Kid is still unquestionably doing whatever the heck Daddy tells him to do. Hmm.

Scene change! The Troika is hanging around outside the stone walls, Liz is freaking out, and Kid's all like, "Hey no worries, I'm going in alone."

Oh yeah, that's way better.

Kid tells Liz and Patti that if he's not back in forty minutes, they should head back to Shibusen and totally, absolutely, under no circumstances attempt to enter the walls.

Scene change! Ehhhhh, Yumi and Spirit sniping at each other. Bored now. More clown plz?

Oh yay back to the ebil village!

Oh hell there's a creepy ferris wheel inside the ruined village. OH THAT'S NOT FOREBODING AT ALL.

Kid notices that there are living things inside the village - i.e., plants, a creepy dandelion that he walks right by - but no humans.

In the center of the town, there is a church. A garishly-painted church. The church, unlike everything surrounding it, does not look weathered or ruined at all.

NOPE, NOTHING FOREBODING ABOUT THAT.

Kid goes in. The church is a lot bigger on the inside than the outside. Bad sign. Bad sign.

Ehhhhh, brief aside with Blair and BJ. BJ, I totally agree with you, coffee in a can sucks. But moving on.

Kid has presumably made his way to the "bottom" of the ruins, which happens to look like an abandoned circus. In the center of the center ring is a sword... stuck in a star-covered ball.

Okay, that is awesome.

"Awful big for a key," Kid comments. Why yes it is.

Utterly unconcerned with the possibility of Indiana Jones-esque traps, Kid pulls out the swordkey (heeee!), then comments out loud on how easy that was.

Oh Kid. Oh, Kid. I cannot believe you just did that. You should never, EVER say "Well, that was easier than I thought it would be!" in these types of situations, because that is an automatic invitation for disaster.

.....Yyyyyeah, pretty much that.

Oh crap cut to Maka and Soul. They are RUNNING DRAMATICALLY across the desert, full of DETERMINATION TO SAVE CRONA, untiiiiiil....

Soul points out that they don't actually know where Medusa's hideout is. Oh, whoops.

But back to this clown shizibt.

Ah ha ha ha ha, Kid is actually complaining about having to fight the clown. "So this must be the security system protecting this thing!" What, like he didn't expect that the key would have any sort of protection? Oh, Kid. I love you best when you bring such deliciously flailing stupid to the table.

Then the clown goes all creepypants and starts talking to Kid. "Are you qualified?"

To which Kid is like, jigga-what?

"Are you worthy to hold that key?"

Kid, being Kid, answers this by yelling questions back at the clown. He demands, demands, DEMANDS to know if the clown was responsible for vanishing all of the humans in the village.

This is his Respect My Authority face.

Unlike Stein, however, the crazypants Clown actually does answer Kid's bitchy questions. To whit: A) Yes, that was all him. B) Well, it was the humans' damn fault. Twenty years ago they uncovered these ruins and tried to take the "final" demon tool, but they weren't properly qualified.

"So I ate them."

"They were nummy-yummy."

"I devour all sinners."

"So, you know... Hold still."

Kid, at this point, is smart enough to start running the hell out of there. Yay, go Kid!

"You won't eat me that easily!" And suddenly I'm having childhood flashbacks to the story of the Gingerbread Man.

So then Kid's like, LOL, you can't follow me up here, ha-ha!

Back in stupid mode again. Because, seriously, Kid: That's the OTHER thing that you're never supposed to say out loud.

Case in point.

OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT

Now there's TWO of them OH SHIT

Oh yeah. He's boned now.

Totally boned.

SAVED! By the only two characters in this series who are stupider than he is. ROCK.

I think it really is part of his psychosis that he feels the need to always make things more difficult for himself. I mean, this fighting "stance" is several times worse than the pinky thing, IMHO.

Ha! I knew that ferris wheel was going to come into play at some point.

He's sad because he had to kill something symmetrical. (*emo tear*) Also, because Daddy might be ebil, too.

This ends about as well as you would expect.

So then Kid is doing the manly post-explosion Action Hero strut over the strewn wreckage of the clowns. And then one looks up at him and OH SHIT it's still functioning. Wolves of the Calla flashbacks ZOMG! But! As the Clown dies, a voice totally different from the voice that it used before broadcasts a final message:

"To you whom have destroyed this guardian: Heed this warning. Be you unworthy of weilding my demon tool, it will bring you not great glory, but rather unfathomable devastation."

To which Kid actually responds, "Yeah, most likely."

Beautiful. There actually are moments when Kid is beautifully insightful.

But now he's wondering if it might be a bad idea to hand the stupid thing over to Daddy. Uh-oh.

Aaaaaaaaand scene. Well not really. Before the credits roll, some other characters do stuff too... But whatever. We don't care. There will be more of Giriko, Justin, Black Star, Tsubaki, Crona, Marie, Medusa, and Stein next week.

Ohmigod Narumi Takahira does the next episode preview in her normal voice. Oh, lulz.

....

So, what have we learned today? There are two things that no action!heroes should ever, EVER say out loud:

1. "That was easier than I thought it would be."

and

2. "There's no way you can follow me up here!"

I mean, come on. Saying either of those things is basically just asking for it. But, to Kid and Company's credit, at least they managed to avoid the dreaded "At least this can't get any worse!" Because that line would have brought total disaster upon them.

In short, Kid should watch more Buffy. Being genre-savvy saves lives, you know.

So, final impressions! This was a great episode. There was plot development, decent juggling of multiple storylines, several totally awesome action sequences (including a great Patti-versus-Clown fight scene), plenty of nightmare fuel, ~~two or three d'awwwwww Troika-shipping moments~~, and some epic lulz.

Next week! The Marie v. Medusa smackdown that I, at least, have been long waiting for. Hopefully.

Edited to add: A post in which

chiikaboom points out the STUNNINGLY OBVIOUS. Plus,

hat_and_sandals breaks it down for you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I thought this was funny as hell XD

i got so horrified when they hit kid in his pretty little face D; then i had to look at it for the rest of the ep, emos arnt fun when they're not cute

yeop

this sure was An Episode!

Thanks again for these entries. :)

Based on your (great) commentary, this looks like another fun case of Kid focussing on one thing and... rather missing the point. He runs into something threatening to kill him, around a ebil Demon Tool, and interrogates it. Of course he does.

I don't suppose there was any explanation why Kid, who has been shown to doubt his daddy for a while, actually took the mission?

Yeah, there was a lot of explanatory dialoguing/monologuing that I skipped over in my post. But Kid did explicitly explain that Shibusen suspected that a biochemical agent - or a virus, or something - was responsible for what happened inside the village, hence making Kid (who would be immune to such things) literally the only person on the planet qualified to go in there.

Plus, Kid may have his doubts, but he's not about to leave a potentially dangerous demon tool just lying around for other people to find.

I think that Kid is still in his "barking, but not willing to bite" stage with regards to his father. But now we'll see if maybe Kid tries to keep the Key from Daddy.

The Clown's warning did unsettle him, despite the initial "Well, duh" response. He parses it out with Liz and Patti in a scene right before the end credits. I think it sets up an interesting conflict: The Clown(s) reminded me of the evil Santa robot from Futurama, in that they blanket judged everyone and everything as being unworthy, therefore deserving "punishment" - including women, children, and many other innocents who had nothing to do with the first group of humans who tried to touch the demon tool.

It's almost like an invert of Kid, who repeats his stance to the Clown that there is no such thing as a human without sin, and yet he's still unwilling to accept any sort of imperfection in himself.

It will be interesting to see what happens if, at some point, Kid does end up using the Brew. Given this set-up, we could be in for some very, very bad times.

(Sorry for the long comment.)

Oh, I like long comments. Its nice to see how other fans see things.

Kid and sin is...curious, I think. I'm reminded of his comments in the Nidhogg episodes, something about the only thing he's concerned about is having a symmetrical world? That he only handled the captain because it's his duty as a shinigami?

Anyway, yes, I can see how Kid wouldn't leave a Demon Tool around, despite whatever it is he suspects Shinigami of doing.

Having the key gives Kid a chance to (perhaps) start 'biting'. His investigations so far have got him more-or-less nowhere (Stein offered a question of truth but no substantial answer, Joe gave him a bit more but Kid was too easily distracted to make good on it by actually tracking him down), but now with something his father wants, he could use it to his advantage. Not sure how, but Kid having the Tool strikes me as something he could make use of...somehow.

That said, if Kid's method of confrontation is what he used here and with Stein, I don't fancy his chances if he faces his dear daddy any time soon.

XD Wow. That was certainly entertaining. Thanks for the basic overview. Now I can go watch it in Spanish subs and partialy understand more of it!
Seriously, thanks for the luls. I was sorta down today but I feel better now.

I was sorta down today but I feel better now.

^___^ Glad I could help!

<333

This episode only FURTHER proves Kid's need to see a therapist: there he is, down on the ground, about to get/GETTING the shit kicked out of him...and he's just sitting there fantasizing about the symmetry between the clowns...

Anyway, yes, this episode had its lulz...but your preview BY FAR wins in the humor category. XD

I have an exaggerated fangirl moment during the fight scene between Patti and the Clown ~~they totally save Kid's ass <33~~ and the "glance" exchanges between Liz and Kid ~~ok, ok, it meant nothing, but let me be, there is nothing like this in the manga~~ an OT3 moment is always a good thing for me

I REALLY hope that Bones has a great idea behind all this mystery, only 8 episodes left and they have said nothing at all, is really Daddy as bad as Kid thinks? and I really hope that in a future Kid will be able to use Brew.

Thank you very much for this =)

I REALLY hope that Bones has a great idea behind all this mystery, only 8 episodes left and they have said nothing at all, is really Daddy as bad as Kid thinks?

I'm 99.9999% certain that the resolution of the entire Kid/Daddy arc will be either:

1) Daddy was testing him somehow,

or

2) Daddy turns out to be Not Perfect, therefore God is Not Perfect, and Kid has to face up to the fact that he's Not Perfect, and get over himself. At least a little bit.

The latter was basically the way that Harry and Dumbledore's relationship evolved, and Soul Eater seems to be following that trope pretty closely so far.

Haha thanks for that, you made me like the episode more than i originally did.

I was kinda hoping Kidd would pull some awsmcore technique from his arse without Liz or Patti around, plus I really wanted to see the real clown though instead of the robot ones, simply cause i want to see Kidd get infected with insanity o3o

Btw i read some theory on how the whole 'using his guns with his pinkies' thing has to do with the fact theres apparently infinite points of symmetry that way >_O can't say that its true cause its never been pointed out by the Ohkubo specifically but its something to think about.

P.S: His fighting stances always bring epic lulz :3

I laughed so freaking hard at this- I haven't seen the ep yet(gotta stop getting in trouble at home!) but I will- and I have a feeling I'll laugh my way through the actual ep too.
~~Patti for the win~~
I liked those clown things and I hate clowns WTF?
Also- I'm adding you- your posts make me laugh- I just gotta stop reading them in school...

OHYES this episode was the awesome. It made up for all the sad ones we've seen so far and BONUS it was nearly all about Kid. My only nitpick is that some of Kid's monologues sounded like forced plot explanations. But that's just me.

_{Particularly liked that Liz x Kid-ish moment right before the epic trio reunite and kick some clown ass~ XD}

Liveblogging Soul Eater Episode 43: The Ballad of OCD Goth Cowboy Jesus and the Evil Robot Clown

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject