This was an interesting episode even if it was a bit cliché how Theresia fell heads over heels for Wilhelm at first sight. Personally, that happened to me too, so I can’t complain about it being extremely unrealistic. Sometimes something just clicks immediately when you meet someone, and you are engrossed by them. I didn’t see anything that was obviously foreshadowing future events aside from what happened when Reinhard drew the Dragon Sword, which seemed very interesting. In a flashback, Theresia ignored Wilhelm’s question about what she’s doing out there at that time of day and instead asked him whether he likes flowers, and after learning that she fell in love with him at first sight, that may be ’cause her asking that is the equivalent of asking about the whether the moon looks beautiful given how precious flowers are to her.
Back to the fight, Wilhelm acknowledges that before Theresia picks up a sword she may have doubts, but never once it is in her hand and that she knew that better than he did given she deliberately cut Wilhelm on the shoulder so that he couldn’t stop her from going to battle against the White Whale. She had made a promise for when they come back, and Wilhelm declares that he will fulfill it. Wilhelm then gets into an advantageous position with him having Theresia on the backfoot, but Heinkel stumbles into the area, distracting Wilhelm, causing him to take a big slash through his right leg, which obviously means he can’t handle her anymore. Theresia then motions to kill Heinkel before she is stopped by Reinhard.
Interestingly, the first thing Heinkel thinks is what he did wrong (to deserve this?), and I’ll delve more into this later. Reinhard, fully aware of Theresia being a corpse soldier, muses that the dead shouldn’t move and that he will not allow such an absurdity, and I thought it was very curious how as Reinhard drew out his sword, part of the wall it panned to looked as if it was being cut from the act of drawing the sword, and the world shook as it were phasing in and out of existence, almost as if the Dragon Sword rewrites the world itself when drawn. If that’s the case, how can such a sword even exist? Did it even originate from this world? Wilhelm pleads to Reinhard to not kill her since that’s his Theresia, and Reinhard just says what the family has been telling him since he was a young boy, that Theresia died by his hand fifteen years ago, a testament to what a horrible grandfather and father Wilhelm and Heinkel have been. After slashing her with the Dragon Sword, Theresia’s eyes finally brighten to indicate that the mind control was beginning to end, and we get another flashback to when Theresia was younger.
Apparently, Theresia inherited the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint when she was twelve years old after she had just finished tending to a flower field. Her uncle had her defeat her brothers with wooden swords to confirm that, but given he was watching her when she received it, he probably knew she was indeed the one that got it. Her uncle urged her to take the Dragon Sword, but she feared it and swords in general. She had though her older brother who trained every day with his sword would’ve been a better recipient of her Divine Protection, and she loved him for his dedication and effort.
Theresia’s first campaign came two years later during the Demihuman War, Lugunica’s greatest and most horrific civil war. If you recall from Season 1, Theresia did her duty as the Sword Saint to protect Wilhelm, who had nearly died in this war, citing she didn’t dislike the idea of fighting to protect someone else, probably Wilhelm most of all since she loved him. At the time of the flashback, Theresia still hasn’t gone out to fight, and her older brother says he understand if she’s afraid since she’s the sort of sweet girl who wouldn’t even hurt a fly. Her brother revealed that although he was initially frustrated by his defeat to her two years ago, he was grateful to be born into the Astrea family and also grateful to the sword, his way of life. He said he’d protect her if she didn’t want to do this as her old brother, and due to Theresia’s refusal to do her duty, all of her brothers as well as her uncle, the previous Sword Saint, died during that campaign, but she still wasn’t allowed to step down as the Sword Saint since the Sword Saint is the moral support for the kingdom. She thought back to her uncle’s words about drawing her sword, and after picturing a flower next to the sword, which symbolized her foregoing her way of life to be the Sword Saint, she drew it, thinking back to the day at the flower field when she met Wilhelm, showing her inspiration for drawing the sword was to protect Wilhelm, the one she fell in love with at first sight.
We then get a flashback that covered material covered in the first season and more with Wilhelm defeating her in a duel, and saying he would inherit her reason for wielding a sword, showing that for the sake of Theresia he became the strongest in the world since he knew how much she didn’t want to be on the battlefield. Of course the series rehashes Wilhelm being too emotionally stunted to say that he loves Theresia, much like how it was implied in Season 1 that he never told Theresia he loves her while she was alive. They were happy though and had a son, Heinkel, who got married to a beautiful blonde woman, who gave them a grandson, Reinhard.
A middle-aged Wilhelm then said that he’s against Theresia fighting the White Whale, blaming Heinkel for putting silly ideas in her head, showing he’d rather have his only son die than let Theresia go out on the battlefield, which is quite a horrible stance for a father to have. He seems more and more ill-suited to being a parent as the episode goes on. She said calmly that neither he or herself have the right to say what he did given the White Whale suddenly appeared, and he, the leader of the Imperial Knights, the Sword Demon, was unavailable due to being tasked with searching for the princess of the Royal Family that had been abducted, making her the Sword Saint the right choice for the job as Heinkel indicated. The relevance of this is not lost to me given we are finally given a timeline regarding the princess’s abduction, which we didn’t get in Episode 51. Reinhard had said earlier in the episode that his grandmother died by his hand 15 years ago, and Felt was 15 in Season 1, so if she had been abducted when she was a year old, it makes sense why Reinhard said he personally reveres Felt as queen in Season 1, and that’d be ’cause he believes her to be that princess who had been abducted. Theresia then scratches Wilhelm’s shoulder on purpose so that he can’t follow her, and when he protested that he would no matter how bloody he got, she said but that would render what she did to him meaningless. She then says she’s the second strongest swordmaster after him, even if that’s merely ornamental since he’s truly the strongest, and as he still protests, she shushed him and told him that she loves him and wants to hear the words he couldn’t say to her at the moment the next time they meet, which is “I love you”.
As the battle begun, Theresia lost the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint and fell back to the rear as the order to retreat had begun. The whole strike force was lost without that Divine Protection, and she had realized that it had passed on to Reinhard. Pandora then makes an appearance, and Theresia instinctively believed that she was an enemy, so she rushed towards her, thinking at the same time that she hoped Reinhard wouldn’t be tied down by the sword and will have more encounters in life outside of his duty, much like she did. After Theresia seemingly cut off Pandora’s head, it was revealed that that was not actually the case, and she put her arms on Theresia and said, “I want to understand you”, which resulted in Theresia losing all of the strength in her body and dying with her last thought being about Wilhelm.
As for how Pandora killed Theresia, I have two theories:
- Beatrice mentioned in Season 1 that curses require physical contact with the target, and given Pandora had both arms on Theresia, she could have launched a curse that drained all of Theresia’s mana similar to how Subaru died in his sleep to the Ulgarm curses in the second arc, so her saying she wants to understand Theresia might not have had to do with anything, and Theresia lost all the strength in her body due to running out of mana.
- Theresia may have been hoping to be released from the burden of having to fight since she hates fighting, and Pandora made that a reality by killing Theresia with her Authority once she made herself understand Theresia. If Theresia were to die, she’d never have to fight again, and so, it happened. I have no idea what Pandora’s powers are, but I felt this could be plausible. This could be the reason she couldn’t make the Seal open in the reconstruction of the past in Emilia’s first Sanctuary trial since Emilia wished to respect Fortuna’s wishes.
After Theresia wakes up, she probably remembered her promise to Wilhelm and motioned for him to tell her something, but Wilhelm interrupted and said that his being bad with words, which manifested in his inability to tell her what she wanted to hear, ’caused her suffering. As tears began to stream down his face, Theresia comfortshim, implying him that his eyes, voice, bearing, and actions all this time have shown that he loves her, and after they exchanged an “I love you”, she started dissipating and some of her mana took the shape of flower petals, which I assume is an artistic liberty, much like in Episode 19 when the soldiers eyes were blinking as if they were cameras taking pictures, in Episode 37 when the animators animated the madness in Emilia’s eyes, showing that her mind had broken, and in Episode 61 when a green light coming from Liliana was meant to show that her music was resonating, not that she had some special singing power outside from her Divine Protection of Telepathy that lets her share how she feels. As she fades away, she thinks that her life was blessed from beginning to end given she had so many people supporting her and since she was able to meet Wilhelm. She believes that they’ll all be fine despite what we know of their current situation and that she’ll always love them.
After the ED finishes playing, Heinkel, like a douchebag, asks if Reinhard is satisfied since the title of Sword Saint is now his both in name and substance he defeated Theresia, which is clearly him acting out since Theresia was the heart of the family and perhaps his only emotional support 15 years ago. He then taunts Reinhard saying now there’s no denying the rumour that he let the previous Sword Saint die and stole her Divine Protection. Reinhard of course says he has no idea what Heinkel is talking about, and Heinkel interjects that he knows what what he saw, that Reinhard cut down his mother, and he’ll make sure everyone knows that so he isn’t accepted as the Sword Saint as it’s ridiculous that the Sword Saint killed his own flesh and blood. This makes sense that Heinkel feels this way since he was unconscious and not with the main strike force when it revealed that there were corpse soldiers among the Witch Cult’s ranks. Reinhard then shared that it couldn’t have been her since she was just a corpse that had been reanimated, and Heinkel spilled out drivel about the reproachful glare she had given to him and Reinhard, and given how happy she looked when she was fading it, it was probably his way of processing with the loss given he had a terrible reputation and wanted to believe Theresia was disappointed in him for falling to this point and in Reinhard for killing her since his mother was the most precious person to him in the world.
After Heinkel kept continuing on his rant, Wilhelm urged him to stop. He then put the remaining ashes from her body into the outer layer of his outfit that he had taken off during Heinkel’s rant. Reinhard wanted to console Wilhelm, but he just told him to stay back. He asks him whether he regrets killing his grandmother even though it was a merely a corpse soldier with her soul, which I guess isn’t surprising since this episode has clearly shown that Theresia was the entire world to him, and Reinhard merely says he did what was right and that he’d never regret that, which has Wilhelm begrudgingly, not that he believes it, says that Reinhard is right and that he is wrong, so he has nothing more to say to him as his strength will surely be needed elsewhere in this battle. When Heinkel actually showed concern for Wilhelm for the first time in the show given the state of his injuries, Wilhelm merely dismisses him saying that he should focus on his own safety, which is such an incredibly disrespectful thing to say to a family member, and it’s no wonder Heinkel just says that all of them, as in Reinhard and Wilhelm, should just die, given how cold and distant they were in what should have been an emotional reunion. From Heinkel’s perspective, it seems that Reinhard and Wilhelm are both forces of nature with ridiculous determination, and he’s the normal guy who just wants to feel like a normal person, as who wouldn’t be upset that their husband, mother, or grandmother just died. Although it’s obvious that Heinkel has fallen from grace, the blame probably has to go to Wilhelm for initially blaming Reinhard all those years ago when Heinkel needed an adult figure who he respected to give him guidance, and given what a terrible father and grandfather Wilhelm was, Heinkel spiralled into the person he is now.
I believe this episode was a fitting closure for Wilhelm and Theresia given Wilhelm clearly regretted not being able to tell Theresia he loved her, and it was clear that for the two of them, at least initially in Theresia’s case, the other was their entire world aside from their respective passions. As for Reinhard, he clearly told Regulus that he was a monster that hunts other monsters, and it’s no surprise he’d believe that given what his father and grandfather had been saying to him since he was young, so he of course ended up as cold and detached as he is now, as that’s what he feels he should be due to his upbringing. I hope that Theresia gets her wish that he will experience more than just living for his duty and that Heinkel eventually stops being such a mess.