Wonderful episode overall, and one of the best episodes of this series so far. An episode that made me forget about everything else that was happening in the world and kept me glued to my screen as Balsa's past is showcased in such a poetic manner. The funny thing is, Balsa's past in this case doesn't actually affect the grand narrative that much for the final arc, but what it does is not only flesh out Balsa's character to endearing heights, but also shows the parallels between Jiguro-Balsa and Balsa-Chagum quite beautifully, making Chagum even think about how Balsa has treated him in the past and connecting the dots, that even Balsa's had to go through a ton in the past and not just him.
The story that Balsa shared with Chagum about her life was pretty emotional and terrible. She was someone who was happy when she was young, living nicely with her father who was a doctor and were going through life nicely. Her father is blameless for what happened to Balsa, but he had no choice. He was forced to poison the king of Kanbal by the king's younger brother, Logsam, who wanted to overthrow the king and take the throne for himself. And the reason Balsa's father had no choice, was because Logsam threatened to kill Balsa if he refused, and that's the one thing Balsa's father would never want since he earnestly loved his daughter.
So Balsa's father went towards Jiguro, one of the king's Nine Spears, and asked him to protect his daughter while revealing the whole plot to him for what Logsam wanted to do, and asked him to protect his daughter by running away together. Like how Logsam asked something terrible for Balsa's father to do, Balsa's father did the same to Jiguro by essentially asking him to throw his status, honor, home and life away for the sake of someone else's daughter. Jiguro initially declines but because of the man he was, decided to accept and escape Kanbal with Balsa.
Not only did Balsa have to run away from her life at Kanbal and abandon her father in the process, but it really hit her how much danger she was in as she consistently had to witness Jiguro fight his own comrades in the process, including his best friend Tagul, and she could do nothing to prevent or stop it, and the other Spears were unwilling to listen to reason due to their orders. What made this even more emotionally painful for Balsa to take in, was the fact that she had to witness Jiguro not only kill his comrades first hand, which is traumatic for any child, but she had to see him cry in silence and bear the pain alone, since only he can handle that responsibility of protecting her. That is soul crushing stuff right there, but all of this and more would also eventually steel Balsa's heart and strengthen her resolve to protect Chagum in the future, no matter what.
Like Chagum when he was afraid that Balsa was hiding stuff about him, Balsa herself knew of what he was feeling since she also experienced similar feelings of her own. Other than revealing to her that her real father was killed, Jiguro was a man of silence. He would reveal nothing to her as he chose to bear everything on his own other than helping her live and survive, and would even strike her down in anger after she copied and studied her father's fighting style since he didn't want her to go through with this responsibility whatsoever. But due to how stubborn she was to learn and the potential she had to fight, he decided to finally give in and train her in the end, especially because he heard that the other Spears were going to target him at once and for Balsa to survive without him in the future, she would have to get stronger as soon as possible to fend for herself.
This flashback was not only the best way for Balsa to open about her life to Chagum and apologize to him for everything wrong she's done with him, but it really does show the parallels of what Jiguro and Balsa have gone through as surrogate parents who aren't role models but willing to fight to protect the kid they travel with, and what Balsa and Chagum have gone through as kids who feel snubbed by their surrogate parent's emotional wariness and felt alone because of it. By doing this whole flashback however, Balsa also gives Chagum the one thing which Jiguro never gave her, the comfort and strength of emotions and care. Jiguro only gave Balsa the methods to fight with the spear and martial arts for the long run, but Balsa's openness also gives Chagum the love and affection that he needs to have not only the physical but mental strength too to not give up on her, on life and try to live on together as they try to find the answers to his survival, if possible.
It was a really emotional, thought-provoking and impactful episode as a whole, and a really excellent and well-crafted backstory for Balsa that continues on to the next episode. Plus, some of the choreography and animation for the fight sequences between Jiguro and the Spears look absolutely breathtaking, especially when he fought his best friend Tagul underneath the night sky. |