With last week’s anti-climactic battle sequence between Yuno and the Golden Dawn against Zenon Zogratis, Black Clover redeemed itself with an action-packed Episode 162 “The Great War Breaks Out”. Find out what's up with the devils, how they're used as a symbolism, and why we loved Rouge so much in this episode.
Black Clover Episode 162 also covered Chapters 240-243 of the manga. Tread lightly, spoilers ahead!
Quick Recap
Here’s what you’ve missed in the last episode:
Yuno goes head to head against Zenon Zogratis and his minions. Unfortunately, Yuno was no match at the hands of a mage possessed by the devil and Zenon, with the use of his Bone Magic, was successful with his objective to capture Captain Vangeance.
Captain Vangeance unleashed a spell to save his comrades who were on the verge of death, including Yuno, but not the ones who already perished in battle.
Klaus and Letoile stood their ground against Foyal’s Mist Magic and showed great resolve to defeat the enemy.
The full review of the previous episode can be found here.
What’s the Devils’ Deal?
This episode solely focused on the heavy introductions of Vanica and Dante, the two remaining members of the Dark Triad. Although it was mostly Dante who had most of the screen time, Vanica caught everyone’s attention as it was made known that she was the host of the devil Megicula. This detail goes way back as it was connected with the death of Noelle Silva’s mother.
With this realization, there seems to be a common denominator with the recent sequence of events. The Dark Triad definitely made preparations with their invasion of the Clover Kingdom and have devised their plan with each member having their own objectives to accomplish.
In the previous episode, Zenon was able to capture William Vangeance. While this episode shows the clear intents of Vanica and Dante to target Princess Loropechika and Yami Sukehiro respectively. It begs the question, what’s the deal of these guys and they’re targeting these specific people? Being arcane stage mages is obviously the main reason but there are also other mages who are at the same level, Asta and Nero. So why not target them as well?
It was also made clear that Dante was unaware that Asta is also a devil’s host. But that doesn’t necessarily exempt him from being a target as there were no indications from the Dark Triad how they were familiar with Yami, Loropechika and Vangeance.
Symbolisms of the Devil
As a personal opinion and share on perspective, the use of “devils” in the anime is quite creative. We’ve all heard the phrase “everyone has their own demons” and this particular arc is a play on that which is quite literal and figurative.
The Dark Triad and Asta are hosts of the devil and their powers are unmatched when used in battle. If you think about it from a figurative standpoint, actions with the heaviest impact root from very deep emotions that cause internal struggles. The manifestation of those thoughts is through the Dark Triad and how they’re too powerful for the mages of the Clover Kingdom. It shows how people are consumed with rage, hatred, greed, that they’re pushed to the brink of doing unthinkable things.
Quite ironically, it also translates into Asta but with an opposite effect as he tries his best to not let those emotions consume him and instead use them as fuel to defeat his enemies. With this episode, Asta was enraged that Dante caused harm to his comrades and got consumed by this emotion to defeat Dante.
This episode could serve as a great reminder that everyone is struggling with their own demons. It shows that despite being consumed by such internal struggles, we always have a choice on which action to take. We can all choose to be like the Dark Triad and be consumed by these emotions, or we can all choose to be like Asta who uses them as fuel and motivation to do better.
Let’s all hope for more action next week as it’ll be interesting to see how Asta and Dante’s battle pan out. What would Vanica and Loropechika’s impending battle look like? How will Noelle face the host of the devil that killed her mother? How will Yuno bounce back from his crushing defeat against Zenon?
Black Clover Episode 163 “Dante vs. The Captain of the Black Bulls” comes out on February 9, 2021 at 6:25PM (JST).
PS.
As intense as the battle got between Dante and Asta, I think we can all agree that Rouge definitely stole the spotlight in this one. If it weren’t for that amazing cat, the black bulls would have been annihilated and Asta would’ve been dead by now. Let’s all show some love for Rouge!
Okay fine, Vanessa too.
PPS.
Interesting how Grey had that very brief screen time at such a critical part of the episode. A foreshadowing? Hmm.
TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
The Dark Triad is specifically targeting arcane stage mages like Vangeance and Yami but why are Asta and Nero not part of their objectives?
The Spade Kingdom Arc is a play on the phrase “everyone has their own demons” and is a great symbolism of how people can choose to deal with it
Rouge definitely stole the show!
Official Anime Website: Black Clover
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What did you think of the episode? Let us know in the comments below!
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