The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season

Episode 30

This episode features the return of Epsilon to the spotlight, sets up the looming season climax, and is chock-full of sight gags and comical misunderstandings. However, when it comes down to it, this episode is about one single conversation: the one between Rose and Cid.

Now, it's important to note that this entire conversation is one of the aforementioned comical misunderstandings. However, that doesn't make what they say (or the emotions behind their words) any less important. Both Rose and Cid are talking about dreams and giving up on them—but the joke is that each completely misunderstands what the other's dream actually is.

On Rose's side of things, she dreams of being a good ruler of her people and marrying the man she loves—i.e., Cid—despite his much lower social status. In her eyes, the entire conversation between them is Cid confessing his love to her, begging her not to give up on their potential future, and refusing to do so himself. Unfortunately, the problem Rose is facing seems to have no happy ending, no matter what she does.

She is in the middle of a hostage situation. Unless she does exactly what Perv Asshat says, her innocent mother will be harmed. But if she does what he says, her people will come under the complete control of the cult, and she'll have to give up on her true love. As a good and moral person, Rose has resolved to choose her mother's life over her own wishes. However, even she can see that's not really the end of it. After all, no matter what she does, her kingdom is primed to be the first public battleground in the war between Shadow Garden and the Diablos Cult.

On the other side of things, we have Cid. In the last episode, Cid stated that his reasons for seeking out Rose were out of frustration that she had seemingly given up on being a tyrant queen—throwing his hard work to help her gain the throne and his dreams of future dramatic events out the window. However, with this episode, we see it's far more than that.

In this conversation, we see Cid as we have rarely seen him. He is not Cid, the bumbling student, or Shadow, the supreme power in the shadows fighting shadows. No, we have Cid at his purest and most vulnerable in this scene. While Cid is almost entirely focused on his self-gratification, that doesn't mean he is completely ignorant of the world around him and its people.

Cid sees Rose as a true kindred spirit. Sure, it's a classic example of projection, but in his eyes, she is a person driven to do whatever it takes to become the "Tyrant Queen" (even kill her father) just as he's driven to be "The Eminence in Shadow." Cid cares nothing about good or evil. He only cares if you're following your dream or not. The more fanatical you are in chasing it, the more he respects you.

That Rose could give up on becoming the Tyrant Queen is akin to an anathema in his eyes. It's the same as him giving up on being Shadow. On one level, his reaction is a pragmatic one. The idea that this could happen to her also means it could happen to him. So he does what he would want someone to do if he thought about giving up on his dream and encourages Rose to fight on regardless of the consequences.

But even more than that, this whole situation strikes at the core of who Cid is: a lonely kid watching his favorite character on TV as his friends "grow up" and abandon him one by one. While it's rooted in his insecurities, Cid truly does care about Rose in this moment. He wants to be the friend he never had in his first life—the person who says, "I'll cheer you and your dream on even if the rest of the world thinks it's stupid."

That's why he hangs around even after Rose kicks him out of her room. He needs to know what could break her spirit. And when he discovers it—that her mother is a hostage—he understands in a way no one else could. Cid has said more than once that he realized that the only way to achieve his dream was to consciously separate the things that truly mattered to him and those that didn't—with "becoming The Eminence in Shadow" almost the only thing in the former category. If Rose's mother's life is as important to her as her dream—well, then this is the expected result. After all, despite his actions in the last arc, it's clear that Cid puts the Seven Shades in his category of "important things" as well—or he wouldn't have felt guilty for his actions or run away because they would be mad at him. He wouldn't have cared.

Luckily for Rose, a hostage situation is something Cid can help with. Unluckily for Rose, if the last scene in the episode is anything to go by, her mother may be less of an innocent ditz and more of a willing participant in the Diablos Cult—she is having an affair with her daughter's evil fiance after all. We'll see how it all shakes out in the next episode.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• While Cid eating cookies during the ultra-serious conversation is a visual joke, it's a well set up one. Cid tried to eat breakfast, but the street food was so bad he could only take a single bite. Then he met Epsilon, had to perform in front of an audience, and then climbed a tower without using magic to see Rose. I'd be devouring those cookies, too.

• My favorite little moment of this episode is Cid reminiscing with Epsilon about their time together as kids. He treasures those moments just as Epsilon does (or he wouldn't even bother to remember them).

• It's nice to see that neither the Seven Shades nor the Named Numbers truly see Rose as a traitor. They blame themselves for her situation as much as they do her.

• In this week's Kage-jitsu!, we learn that, while Alpha can't play the piano, she's a beast on the synthesizer.

The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season is currently streaming on Hidive.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.