English Dub Review: Helck “Traitors”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Helck is forced to face his brother Cless, who is being controlled by the Human King, in battle to the death.

OUR TAKE

And there we have it, we have finally seen the pivotal moment that destroyed Helck’s perception of humans forever. And it’s not hard to see why, as we’ve seen the human armies become more fearsome, even more so when they unlocked Awakening, showing that they view their soldiers as nothing more than tools to be used. Helck, being more focused on smaller tasks and working with mercenaries, somehow avoided this, but Cless basically fit the bill for the poster boy hero they always needed. But when he became injured, he was then put under the control of those in charge, even forcing them to fight and die and the hands of his own brother. With only one more full episode in this flashback, the question remains as to whether other characters introduced in this period survived, though there are implications they didn’t. I’d say that we would see Helck lose the last of his humanity of that were the case, but…we don’t even see him lose that in the present day, so I guess all he really lost there was his brother and any respect for humans. And based on the hints in the OP and ED, I’m guessing he didn’t actually totally lose his brother either.

I’ve made clear already that I don’t think this flashback arc should have gone on anywhere near this long, but even at the bare minimum of episodes it would need, this would definitely be an important moment for it to cover. How we first met Helck was likely with this incident fresh in his mind, so it is very much a defining point in his character development. Though I guess he probably should’ve informed the demons that humans could do this when he was able? Unless he lost enough of his memory during that time to just forget it. I don’t really know, but the point is that this is the first episode to feel like it was actually important in…at least half the show’s run, so I’ll take consequential story beats where I can take them. Hopefully, once this flashback is over, we can properly get back to the more important present day battles and do something meaningful that ends this pretty mediocre series on a good enough note. But I’ve certainly been let down by this show before so I’m not exactly going to be surprised if it doesn’t, but fingers crossed.