Snow White with the Red Hair S1 E8

## Plot

I've seriously been looking forward to this episode guys! Shirayuki has filed her report on Laxdo, but she wishes that she could see how the men are recovering. In the previous episode, both she and Zen were worried about it. People are still gossiping about Shirayuki and Zen and the fake engagement. Zen assigns Obi to be Shirayuki's bodyguard until further notice. His probation/parole period is also over. Obi went on a trip for a few days and came back, thus proving his loyalty to Zen that he'd return. He's now Zen's messenger, which really means that he has to keep an eye on Shirayuki when Zen can't. Obi spends some quality time with her by helping her with her herbalist duties. He asks her if she ever wishes that Zen wasn't a prince or that she had a higher status so they could be together. Zen and Mitsuhide overhear this, and it noticeably upsets them, but mostly Zen. Shirayuki doesn't answer Obi, and she's out of this episode's story after she passes out when drinking liquor. We flashback to when Zen was thirteen, which was when he first met Mitsuhide, who became his attendant. The two had a rocky start. Mitsuhide had wanted to be Izana's attendant at first. Zen didn't want an attendant, and it didn't stop him from sneaking off anyways. He met his archer guard friend Atri. Mitsuhide noticed Atri, but didn't say anything about it to Izana after Zen asked him not to. As a prince, he wasn't allowed to have real friends because of his social status. Mitsuhide offers to be his friend, but he refuses. His words actually hurt Mitsuhide, who reminds him that they're only human, and Zen apologizes. Zen meets with Atri again, and they talk about Mitsuhide. He's different than anyone else that Zen has ever known. He's straightforward and not easy to fool. Zen notices an arrowhead Atri was carving and says that he's good at working with his hands. He also says that the time he gets to spend with him is the highlight of his day. Atri tells him that he's been put on the night shift, so they can't see each other during the day. He asks Zen to sneak out at night though, and he agrees. Mitsuhide is suspicious of Atri. No one knows a lot about him. He voices his concerns to Izana, who says that Zen is in a phase where he doesn't want to be a prince. Zen sneaks off at night to see Atri, but when he finds him, he's bleeding. They're ambushed by a group of bandits. Actually, they're not bandits, they're rebels, and Atri has been working with them this whole time. They plan on using Zen to get to Izana. They're all that's left of the family that Izana destroyed with his scheming. Okay, so your actions *do* have consequences. The rebels injured Atri to make sure he wouldn't betray them after getting too close to his target. He could bleed out at this rate. Mitsuhide and Izana come outside and attack the rebels, who tell Atri to kill Zen. Mitsuhide and Izana absolutely *slaughter* the rebels. There's plenty of visible blood and dead bodies. Zen is hurt by Atri's betrayal, but is prepared to defend himself and promises to remember Atri as his friend. However, Mitsuhide saves Zen and deals a fatal blow to Atri. He says that it's better this way, and wonders if things would've turned out differently if Zen hadn't been a prince. He dies in Zen's arms and sheds a tear as he dies. It's so sad! I'm about to rip into Mitsuhide though. I know Atri was a bad guy, but he had some redeeming traits and became genuinely good friends with Zen. This isn't like killing those rebels, which was still brutal. This is killing a *child* around the same age as Zen, in front of him, and presumably traumatizing him. Also, Zen had his sword out and was prepared to defend himself. I don't think he needed Mitsuhide's help. Atri's aim was unsteady because of the other wound he had, and he was already bleeding out. He also only had one arrow, which Mitsuhide sliced *before* he dealt the fatal blow. All he had to do was slice the arrow and take Atri into custody! Then he'd probably still be alive, assuming they got him medical attention soon enough. And was *killing* the rebels really necessary? It was two against, my best guess, sixteen, but we saw similar numbers in episode 5, and all Zen, Mitsuhide, Kiki, and Obi did then was knock out and apprehend the bandits.

## Review

This was the darkest episode I've ever seen. *Lots* of blood, a lot of dead bodies, the betrayal and death of a friend at a young age, and for once, *visible blood on the swords!* The only other time I saw that was on RWBY, and for a split secret during the sword fight between Justin and Jenner in *The Secret of NIMH*.