Shiny Chariot rides once again and I think that’s where most of the animation went besides the showcase at the end of the episode. Wise choice though as it shows that Ursula hasn’t dulled much in her later years. She still seems intent on keeping her identity secret from Akko though this may be because finding Chariot is her main driving force at the moment. We at least are getting some idea of Chariots past as it seems she and Akko are a lot more similar than first thought. Akko and Diana seem to mirror the relationship of Ursula and Croix in their youth. However it would be a strange twist of fate if Akko ended up under Croix’s wing while Diana and Ursula teamed up. Diana has started to look into Ursula so she could very well figure out her true identity.
I feel that Akko’s nativity is getting to be a bit much as her trust of Croix is so much that even when walking up to her lair she doesn’t seem to register how ominous it is. Though Ursula is at fault as well seeing as she doesn’t seem to be making an effort to warn Akko of Croix’s intentions. I don’t really understand why she covered for her when Akko woke up as letting Akko know of the danger Croix possesses would be a very good idea. Though what is Croix after exactly? Others besides Ursula to harbor doubts over her changes to magic and with good reason. Amanda makes a point that with her innovations magic has essentially been supplanted with Science, making it indistinguishable. It does feel like with the technological upgrades it’s getting that something more personal has been lost. However another reason to be concerned is that this direction for magic is heavily dependant on Croix. In fact she pretty much holds full control of magic power distribution with this system and she seems like just the kind of person to take full advantage of that. Those routers may allow magic to be used off grounds but who’s to say she didn’t place a backdoor in them to allow her to shut them down whenever it’s convenient for her. It’s getting to the point that when she makes her move, nobody would be able to do anything about it. For everyone would depend on her inventions at that point and she would have them by the balls.
Kudo’s to the commenter on the last post who correctly guessed the involvement of Yggdrasil as Ursula points out the tree as being the source of magic power. I originally wrote it off as I thought it was strange to involve Norse mythology when so far it’s been mostly Celtic(Though we did have a dragon named Fafnir so it’s not the first time it’s popped up.) but if Wikipedia is trustworthy then mentions of a world tree are in Celtic folklore as well though that tree was unnamed. The final bit of exposition that Ursula gave at the end of the episode was impressive animation wise but admittedly only really served to inform us of what we already know. It clued in Akko to what she needs to do and the main new information to be gleaned from it is that the seven words unlock some sort of reality warping magic and the bit about Yggdrasil. In that regard I feel like unsealing the words can only really lead to trouble as Croix could swoop in to take the magic once Akko has done her job.
The relationship between Akko and Ursula. What started off as a simple master and student blossomed into a beautiful bond of kindred spirits with the full celestial love between parent and child. Akko’s dream has and will always become Shiny Chariot and whatever the case, Akko viewed Shiny Chariot as her Godmother. The one who tell her to stand up even when things were at the bleakest. While she won’t know about Ursula’s real identity, it’s perfectly clear that the girl sees the teacher not a substitute but family.
Ursula viewed Akko more than just her successor. While teaching her to activate the Seven Words was the sole goal but overtime the one thing she couldn’t expect was that she would have grown to love Akko like her own daughter. The entire Witch community viewed her as a pariah and this young girl, without any background of magic at all praised her with high regards and shown in many ways similar to her own. They bonded with their love for magic and the time spent together was ever most nostalgic for Ursula. With knowledge that Akko might be in danger, she went in like a force of nature tearing down Croix’s defences like paper. Had Ursula actually be Akko’s real mother, she would have left no evidence of a body of Croix to be found. In the end, the bond between young girls from generations was a sight to behold. Akko is more optimistic with knowledge that she’ll meet Chariot again and Ursula proud of Akko and the role as a champion among witches.
I find it funny how several episode titles are names of well known songs. I don’t know if that might be a motif for this show at this point.
There is references all over this show. Tons of call outs to western cartoons and in this episode the writing in the newspaper article about Croix is taken from Kafka’s metamorphosis word for word. The screenshot above with Croix’s school picture has the name Salem Saberhagen which is the name of the cat from Sabrina the Teenage witch.