@Gl0rp What the hell are you talking about LOL
Those 5 episodes are all about his past and how he came to his personal belief humanity is better off dead.
He didn't become a "plot device", that was his character arc and if anything, the plot was completely driven by it.
Let's go step by step to absolutely dismantle this absurd claim of yours.
1- Growing up in a harsh reality of what was supposed to be a better life within the kingdom, as someone that didn't care for heroics and just wanted his brother safe and sound somewhere, he regains faith in the people around him after seeing that some nobles do want to make a difference and would go as far as rescuing his brother from certain death once he got very sick. He was never one for heroics unlike his lil bro, but he starts to use his power to defend villages from monsters with a mercenary group after being dragged into the war and separated from him, now nominated a hero.
2- They don't get to reunite again because his brother returned comatosed from his expedition to kill the Demon King, and seeing that it was for naught, as the monster onslaught continued anyway, he put matters in his own hands and decided to pay the seemingly not quite dead Demon King a visit. Upon arriving he realizes after an in-depth talk with a major demon figure that humans and demons are not that different after all, and that both are suffering in the hands of monsters, moreso the demons themselves, living and fending within their same territory while being attacked by humans attributing them the fault for everything.
3- Helck start perceiving the common men and nobles the same way he did back then, but believing that there could be someone that would hear him about the demons, he puts himself between the ones at stake being stoned to death by the villagers and decide to explain the demons' own reality, for their ire only to befall upon him as well.
4- Helck now is a heroic figure who took on himself to create peace in his brother's tragic absence, trying to be empathetic with the reality Azudora provided him, a demon lord he caught by surprise while he was making tombs for both humans and demons, he knew in his guts reality was being twisted. He ends up discovering a web of conspiracy by the Human King, who is now using his brother for something terrible, and the real reason why he was in such a state. Deciding to confide his doubts and hopes to the companions the either love him or trust him by the word of his own brother about what he thought, who despite their own prejudice, just knew Helck wouldn't lie or be tricked in that regard (at this point, we also know that his own brother tried to make peace with the Demon King assassinated, before the both of them fell by the hands of Mikaros).
5- And after a tragic battle that made so that his brother cut himself down with the hero sword, doomed everyone to be captured by the Human King & co-conspirators, and heavily hurt Helck, he is then forced to see every single person he loved and tried to protect, as well as the hopelessly brainwashed population (now actually immortally zombified) get turned into monsters with almost no semblance of their humanity, including his most beloved companion. All by the hands of the first human noble that first gave him hope in said civilization once again, back when he just thought anyone but his brother would just mistreat him and leave them to die in the cold.
6- Failing to do anything to stop that and being teleported far away into the demon realm, Helck was bitter and wouldn't trust anyone, even doubting again Azudora, who could possibly be more of the same lying about demons. But soon he realized Azudora never lied to him, and he was warmly welcomed and taken care by the demons who found him in there. Helck then decided to protect the demons from erradication, and possibly lead them as their hero, so that they wouldn't fall in the hands of the corrupted humanity, who now barely ressembles their former existence at all, nor the real cause of why monsters are running rampant.
That's a full character arc in 5 episodes that got carefully built up and foreshadowed in the first half, and fully displayed in the second half (and it's not even concluded yet, we have more development for these next final episodes). And all that WHILE we got the world building developments and the rest of the demon cast fending for survival in the war.
Sure pal, "just a plot device". Without Helck as a character, most of the story wouldn't even be happening. |