Warning: Contains spoilers for The Rising of the Shield Hero season 3, episode #2.Rise of the shield hero season 3 offers the opportunity to resolve a major issue with Raphtalia’s character. While Raphtalia starts out with a lot of agency, that gradually fades as the series begins to focus primarily on her relationship with Naofumi. Season 2 was especially bad in that regard due to so much content being cut out, as Raphtalia was one of many characters that wasn’t fully developed.
Raphtalia has certainly struggled along the way, but The Rising of the Shield Hero season 3, episode #2 offers a perfect opportunity to fix that. Episode #2, “Nadia”, sees Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo battle Nadia, and through their fight, there are revelations about Nadia that tie into Raphtalia’s personality in ways that are independent of the relationship. her relationship with Naofumi.
By building on that, Shield Hero can develop Raphtalia in a way that doesn’t focus on her relationship with Naofumi, and both Raphtalia and the overall story of the series will be stronger for it .
The new Shield Hero Rises character could bring Raphtalia back to her roots
The reason why Nadia could be so important to Raphtalia’s development in The Rising of the Shield Hero season 3 is because of how she can bring Raphtalia back to her roots. Episode #2 reveals that Nadia’s true identity is Sadeena, a demi-human from Raphtalia’s village whom Raphtalia considers a sister, so their move could bring their focus back to the tragedies that Raphtalia has endured and how she and the other villagers changed because of them. Something like that could bring some much-needed introspection to Raphtalia’s character, and since it wouldn’t automatically go back to Naofumi, it would be even better as a result.
Why is Naofumi and Raphtalia’s relationship problematic?
Sadeena’s presence could go a long way in fixing Raphtalia’s handling of her relationship with Naofumi, and it raises the question of why this is an issue in the first place. While the fact that Raphtalia is technically Naofumi’s “slave” – bound to him by a magical contract – was controversial from the start, the real problem is that there are too many characters. Raphtalia’s story focuses on her feelings for Naofumi, something that became especially true then. she took revenge on her former employer in season 1 and had no part in the rest of the season. It makes one of the more interesting characters in The Rising of the Shield Hero boring to watch, and very little is done to justify it.
Unfortunately, that kind of problem is common not only in anime and manga but also in fiction in general, as stories will often struggle to give certain characters any meaningful role. in addition to becoming the main character’s love interest. Of course, that’s not a common thing and by using Raphtalia’s relationship with Sadeena to develop her in a way independent of Naofumi, Rise of the shield hero Season 3 could do a lot to break Raphtalia out of that mold. There’s still no way to know if that will happen, but the series will certainly be better off if it does.
Rise of the shield hero Part 3 releases new episodes every Friday on Crunchyroll.