Welcome all, to another week of Wolf’s Rain! Apologies for the delay, I had a tattoo appointment today and that took up most of my time. This is a big week for our villains, with lots of important drops, so lets dive right into it!
First up we have episode 11, “Vanishing Point”. This episode felt like it was all about the Nobles. Orkham, Darcia, and this new one named Jagara. Starting with Orkham, this really surprised me and I’m honestly not sure if I like it or not. The dude makes his first on-screen appearance and then just immediately dies. Does this demonstrate Jagara’s power, that she can so easily waltz into another Noble’s city and just end it? Yeah. But so would have simply letting Jagara replace Orkham in full. The Nobles are already terrifying. All this does is show us something we already knew, that they weren’t all necessarily friendly with each other. It just feels unnecessary to me to spend all that time setting Orkham up just to use him to prop up someone new that we are just now meeting. Even if they are our new primary antagonist.
Diving into Jagara herself (?), you have to ask what it is she actually wants. Why is she attacking Orkham and Darcia? Does she want Cheza? If so she should know he doesn’t have her anymore. Is it just for the sake of wonton destruction? Maybe. It’s implied via the soldiers that when a Noble falls, their domain begins to decline as well. It’s what happened to Darcia’s lands and, presumably, the other towns we’ve passed through to get here. So if her plan is to just slowly kill off the world then I suppose she’s succeeding. But the why is still important I feel, and something I hope we learn as we move into Wolf’s Rain’s second half. Also, she has techno-knights. What? They seem pretty OP, but really that’s just Nobles in general it feels like.
And then we have Darcia, who has moved in to take Cheza back, and convincingly at that. Wolf’s Rain showed just how different the powers of the Nobles are to the Wolves, and why they’ve been driven to the brink of extinction. Kiba and Tsume couldn’t even touch Darcia. Sure, it was mostly the force field of the ship and it’s lasers. But if Darcia can put that on a ship, surely he can put that one a castle or something. Whatever the case, they get their asses kicked. For a moment though, Darcia seems… understanding? Sure he’s won, but he still lets Cheza have a moment with each of them. He should know she’s probably healing them a bit with her Lunar Flower magic, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Maybe he even wants them to live, or needs Cheza at least moderately happy. Who knows!
What makes it really sad though is that the Wolves had just won. This was Wolf’s Rain’s endgame. They had the full moon, that one special day, a road paved with Lunar Flowers leading them straight to Paradise. It was so infectious that even Tsume, Tsume of all people, was frolicking in the water like a child. It feels like they all came together here for a moment. Like they finally got proof, even beyond Cheza just existing, that Kiba’s plan and instincts weren’t insane. And now, with Cheza gone, they feel united under a common cause. Before they were kind of just a bunch of people thrown together making it work and slowly coming to trust each other. But this moment felt like a turning point from a group of individuals to a pack. Was good stuff! I’m glad they got this moment of victory before Darcia snatched it.
Finally we come to Hubb, who has finally left… What is it, the Freezing City? Weird name, but it’s very cold there so I guess it works. Hubb finally got caught by Orkham’s men, who clearly wasn’t happy with him snooping around about Cheza and Cher. Here we get to see the real political police state power of the Noble’s. More then just their raw military strength, but the influence they hold over their cities. Most of this stuff was pretty small, but the big thing was that he has escaped the city and is on his way to rejoin the rest of the cast. He has his mission: Find Cher. And judging by episode 12, he’s right on everyone’s heels on that one.
Speaking of, this brings me to episode 12, “Don’t Make Me Blue”. Unsurprisingly, this episode is all about Blue! Also unsurprisingly, Blue is a wolf! But also… a she? And a… half wolf? Ok Wolf’s Rain, you have successfully thrown a curveball at me. I wasn’t expecting either of these. And while one makes sense, I’m glad to have more female characters, the other confuses me. How does one become a “Half-wolf”? I get that she was raised as a dog, and that Cheza awoke the wolf side of her. But is she like… half dog? Half human? Is this just a “I was raised a dog and didn’t know it so I’m a half-wolf thing”? I’m very curious, can’t lie. More interesting then that though is what Wolf’s Rain seems to be asking with her character.
To me, it feels like Wolf’s Rain is asking “Is ignorance bliss” with Blue. She claims to have had a happy life with the hunter up until now. Happier then she is now at least. Sure she had to hunt wolves, but she didn’t know she was one so there was no conflict there. Now though? Now she’s conflict, separated from someone she’s known her whole life, thrust into traveling with a bunch of people she was hunting until just yesterday. Maybe with them she will find happiness as a wolf, she seems to enjoy spending time with Hige after all. But I imagine it will be a rough road that eventually culminates in confronting the Hunter, who must then choose between revenge or her. And to be honest? I’m not sure which choice he would make.
Funny he should come up though, as this episode also sees the Hunter team up with Hubb! This is another surprise I wasn’t expecting from Wolf’s Rain, but I really should have. Both have lost someone close to them recently. Hubb with Cher and the Hunter with Blue. Their goals, and attitudes, are directly aligned on this one. Plus it seems like neither has a home to return to outside this hunt, as Hubb had to leave the Freezing City and the Hunter lost his family. Though there is some mystery around that last one, as Wolf’s Rain is dropping a lot of hints that it wasn’t actually wolves that did it, they just happened by near the end. Personally? My money is on Darcia or Jagara, as that would push the Hunter into alignment with Blue by the end and sort of complete our ragtag force.
Speaking of Jagara, this is the final piece of the episode puzzle and a sequence I absolutely loved. Her assault on Darcia’s keep, and the aftermath, was definitely my favorite part of the episode, mostly due to Darcia but we will get to that. It would seem that Jagara really is all about making enemies, as for some reason yet unknown she not only attacked Darcia’s keep but killed Hamona. Or at least thats what Wolf’s Rain seems to be implying. Why? What did she do? What are Jagara’s motivations? I’m really curious, because they seem to have it out for literally everyone. Attacking Nobles, setting bounties on Wolves, and generally causing conflict. Is it about preventing someone from reaching Paradise? I don’t know, but I’m eager to meet her.
As for Darcia himself… Like I said, I loved it. This is the most emotion he has shown so far and he is absolutely breaking down. Remember my comparison to Zuko these past few weeks? Well now I feel even more sure of it, because he is off his rocker. Hamona as his life, his everything, the only goal he had. She’s probably why he had a Wolf’s Eye installed in his face, whatever that does. And now she’s dead, murdered by the same person that’s hunting the Wolves, driving them together to face her. It’s just another step of making him a tragic anti-hero in the story who wants nothing more then to burn her house down with her inside it, his own life be damned. And I’m here for it. I love characters who start reasonable and then become unhinged for justifiable reasons. Don’t disappoint me here, please.
Anyways yeah, all in all these were another two good episodes of Wolf’s Rain. Some small nitpicks here and there, I’m not sure why Jagara won’t pay for wolf pelts nor do I think the elderly couple added much, though they did make for nice bookends on the episode. I also think Cheza got sidelined a bit in episode 12, though Darcia basically being done with her now that the only thing he needed her for is gone was nice. Really I’m just hoping to see more Darcia moving forward, because this breakdown has quickly made him one of the most interesting characters. Both Tsume and Kiba seem to be in solid places without any immediate character arcs, and while the Hunter/Blue storyline is interesting Darcia’s breakdown just stole the show. So yeah, good week, looking forward to the next.
Get ready. The recap episodes are coming up very soon
Yeah, aware of those, going to just skip them/mention them a little in these posts. I don’t want to waste 2 weeks on recaps.
Kudos to you for nailing the fact that Blue was a wolf pretty much from the beginning, you just got her gender wrong (not that the show ever gave indication that she was a girl until now).
Was all the stuff with Orkham really necessary? I think it does a good job showing that the state of the world isn’t really the nobles versus everyone else. It’s also the nobles fighting amongst each other. Would that have been accomplished better if Jaguara had captured Cheza and Darcia stole her back rather than having Orkham involved? Perhaps. Any scenes involving the nobles to this point comes off as ominous and scary, and I really like the atmosphere said sequences bring so I’ve never had it as a complaint.
I can’t recall if the dreaded recaps start with episode 14 or 15, but they’re coming in the near future…
I will agree, all the nobles scenes are pretty cool, like Orkham’s séance and such. They look very different to the rest of the show. I guess I’m more confused as to why Orkham was made this important character and then just gotten rid of before we ever really got to know him?
That said, Nobles are cool, Darcia is still my favorite character at this point so I’m not complaining that much.