Oh hey, I guess the Witch of Yore is still a thing.
This one is another fantasy-side episode. As has been the case, Liselotte seems to be in a good position: Seig loves her, Fiene accepts her as a big sister and seems to be on a Baldur route herself… it’s all going so well.
However, while it was hinted that there might still be some lingering issues for Lise, this episode makes it clear that the Witch of Yore still has our favorite tsundere in her sights. While Lise does a good job setting up Bal and Fiene when the two of them are being foolish about their feelings. During this latter scene, Fiene becomes able to hear our normal universe leads as well. Lise, however, is continually assaulted by the idea that no one could love her and Seig will leave her for Fiene.
These are no natural intrusive thoughts – they’re sendings intended to shatter her heart and leave her open to possession, which she barely resists. With the situation leading to constant nightmares, she distances herself from her friends and family and tries to put on a brave face. Fiene and Bal, however, catch her and confront her, while Seig overhears and, when she’s busy freaking out, goes to her. She won’t hear his words, but a kiss breaks through to the point where she passes out.
While Lise is passed out, the Witch redoubles her efforts, nearly taking control of Lise until Seig’s voice (along with that of our leads) brings her back to the light (though not to consciousness just yet). The kids come clean with Seig about the Witch, and have the fairly good excuse for not telling him sooner that they couldn’t exactly ask him to fall in love for ulterior reasons. Thus, he’s now aware of the final form of his task: keep the heart of his beloved from breaking so that he doesn’t have to put her down.
During this episode, we also get the origin of Lise’s attitude: when she was quite young, she and Seig were introduced, and she took very kindly to him, falling essentially head over heels. She expressed her desire for a fairy-tale romance to her father who decided to rain on the parade, telling her that even though the two of them were betrothed, he would still have duties to the nation that would come first and that she must not be a burden to him. Maybe if she were older this would have gone over well for a more balanced approach, but little Lise took it as an injunction against showing her love at all.
All in all, it was something of a needed stepping up of the drama. My big hope, coming out of this episode, is that since we’re only at the halfway point, I’d like it if we actually learned more about both the whole inter dimensional thingy (which I expect) and about the Witch of Yore – who or what she is, where she came from, what she wants or at least why she wants to destroy everything, and maybe why she’s targeting Lise in particular for this possession ritual.
With the fantasy characters now aware of who their final boss might be, I feel like the show is stepping into a second phase. Which, frankly, is needed as the simple Lise antics, while charming, were wearing thin in how well they could carry episodes. We’ll see how well it manages to sustain through the transition