©大木戸いずみ・早瀬ジュン/KADOKAWA/「歴史に残る悪女になるぞ」製作委員会
The focus of this episode is the tea party—the “test of wickedness.” It's a pretty brilliant scene because it does so many things at once.
First, we see a growing rift within the younger generation. Liz's sympathizers will side with her on any subject—believing that all her plans are perfect—just because she proposed the idea. They feel saved by her and thus their reaction is based on emotion rather than logic. The whole situation becomes so serious that Alicia and Jill wonder if some magic is involved. But regardless of whether it is true or not (or even whether it is done with malicious intent or not), the kingdom is divided into those who worship Liz and those who are not charmed by her existence. namely the King, the Duke, Henri, Jill, and, of course, Alicia.
Luckily, there seems to be hope for the kingdom even as Liz continues to rise to power. Although Liz's ideals are just that—as she doesn't think about the consequences or long-term problems that could arise from her flowery words and half-baked plans—she can see problems when facing them directly. And once she is forced to face them, she can be guided to find (at least surmountable) solutions. Therefore, if Liz can continue to learn how to think things through like a leader, she may be worthy of the title of saint.
The problem, of course, is that Liz needs someone willing to speak truth to power. Unfortunately, whoever takes on that role will earn the wrath of her fellow communists. While Alicia may be more than willing to take on that role, that doesn't mean she's safe from retaliation — hence her kidnapping at episode's end.
This ties into the episode's other running theme: Alicia slowly realizes that she's not imitating the original Alicia Williams but is using her as a basis to create “the greatest villain all time”. Time after time she surpassed the original Alicia. This created a butterfly effect—an effect she could no longer ignore. Because of her, both Henri and Duke act far differently than they did in the original game — and that's not even mentioning Jill, Rebecca, and the villagers. I mean, Jill and Rebecca will die and the rest will live in hopeless misery while dreaming of revenge.
So we are left on a cliff. The plot so far has been so far removed from what Alicia knows that she's now in real danger—she's been kidnapped and Jill has been beaten. How will she get out of this? We'll have to see next week.
Rating:
Random thoughts:
I have a feeling the kidnappers are seriously underestimating Alicia. Even if they knew about her magic, I bet they wouldn't expect her proficiency with a sword.
→ I sincerely hope that Liz is as innocent as she seems. Nowadays, a frequent trope is to turn the heroine into a secret villain. I'd rather see Liz as an unwitting pawn of a larger villain or simply a puppet of fate.
→ What exactly causes Henri to take off his “Liz goggles”? Maybe Liz isn't the only one accidentally unleashing seduction magic (if that's what's going on).
I like how instead of rescuing everyone, Alicia makes everyone stand up for themselves. She talks more about “teaching a man how to fish” while Liz only thinks about “giving fish.”
I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more companies mentioned in this article are members of the Kadokawa Group.
