Episode 19 of Log Horizon 2, titled “The Red Night,” is currently streaming on Crunchyroll for paid members. Free members can watch the same episode six days from now on February 20th.
S—t has hit the fan for the younger members of Log Horizon, who have taken a mission from Shiroe to capture wyverns to collect certain materials. Those youngsters found the wyverns, but things quickly go south and down s—t’s creek when those monsters invade the town that they are staying in.
The Odyssey Knights came to the rescue, but it is a creepy moment because they lack emotions.
I don’t think it is the miniature cathedral that is to blame. It made me think about what Shiroe said in the first season and experienced in this season regarding dying in Elder Tale. Adventurers can still revive at the temple, but at the cost of losing money and experience points.
But Shiroe had a startling and horrifying theory that dying in the game also takes away bits of your memory, which makes me assume that the Odyssey Knights have died in-game many times that they lost so many memories.
Minori states the obvious: the Odyssey Knights are reckless and undisciplined. The actions of the Odyssey Knights in battle proves it. It is obvious that the Odyssey Knights have taken the miniature cathedral for granted because they don’t have to re-spawn inside the actual building.
This leads to recklessness, which Shiroe wanted to avoid when he participated in a dungeon raid with Demikas and Massachusetts at the beginning of this season.
Power causes stupidity because it poses the rhetorical question: why should you take the time to formulate a strategy when you have the power and numbers to crush your enemies? The device enables the Odyssey Knights to act like a bunch of stupid amateurs.
If the device is gone, the Odyssey Knights would be royally f—ked.
Roe-2 points out something else, the resurrection device is handmade meaning it is not an in-game item. It leads to the conclusion that somebody invented the machine, which means somebody outside Akihabara was thinking like Shiroe.
She makes a valid point that the device acts within the laws of Elder Tale much to Tohya’s disdain and disgust.
Roe-2 calls it a logical device, which she has a point because it would be handy in dangerous quests and dungeon raids. She, however, points out that the device has a drawback of sapping away the users’ empathy.
The episode becomes depressing when the leader tells Tohya that they are miserable in Elder Tale because they are separated from their friends and family. He tells Tohya something depressing: they can see bits of the “old world,” the real world, every time they die.
It is something that nobody including Shiroe have fathomed.
When I thought about the concept, the resurrection device reveals its hidden purpose. It teaches a hard lesson that there are fates worse than death, which means death can be a gift depending on the situation and circumstances at hand.
The Odyssey Knights are homesick and truly wish for a true death so they can return home. It made me think of the first season of Sword Art Online, when players die in real life if they die within the titular MMORPG title.
It was more saddening when the leader told Tohya that he was planning to get married in the summer.
The opposite holds true for Tohya, who is a paraplegic in the real world because of a car accident. This becomes a sheer twist of painful irony because Tohya has the freedom to move his legs again in Elder Tale.
That should make one understand why Tohya cares so much about the in-game world. Tohya’s situation mirrors Yuuki’s situation in Sword Art Online II, when it was revealed that she was an AIDS patient nearing death.
Tohya makes a strong valid argument in his defense because he can sympathize and empathize with the Odyssey Knights leader.
One person’s paradise is another person’s hellish torture. The game world that made Tohya feel alive is that man’s living nightmare and the real world that the man is supposed to be a husband in is death for Tohya.
I have to say that “The Red Night” was enjoyable to watch because it ultimately f—ks with your emotions. This is perhaps the most tear-jerking and emotionally charged episode of the entire Log Horizon series.
Tohya and the Odyssey Knights leader present the gray mass from both sides of the debate.
