Ookami to Koushinryou - Season 2 - 6: "Wolf and Trustworthy God" ("Ōkami to Shinzubeki Kami") (狼と信ずべき神)

Title:Ookami to Koushinryou - Season 2
Episode:6: "Wolf and Trustworthy God" ("Ōkami to Shinzubeki Kami") (狼と信ずべき神)
Synopsis
Lawrence participates in the pyrite market, selling small quantities several times to combat the rapidly rising prices, but to no avail. Lawrence's original plan falls through when Diana's messenger informs him that the negotiations did not go as planned. In despair, Lawrence all but gives up before he is spurred on by Mark's apprentice, Lant...
Comments
[2010-03-01, Devil Doll]

As for Horo's reaction that Stretch has issues with: It's not the tale that bothered Horo, it's the fact that Lawrence hid this information from her - and what's more, he knew about the fate of Yoitsu all the time (as confirmed by the short flashback, showing Lawrence as child being told this very legend), thus undermining the foundation of their mutual trust. Horo with her centuries of experience and knowledge of human nature understands this instantly - and she tells Lawrence right in the face, only to see her suspicion confirmed! She's certainly overreacting at this point with the "lamb" comparison and all that stuff, but her whole future appears to be destroyed now ("solitude is a lethal disease" - remember?). So now she needs support by the "nice" Lawrence more than ever before, explicitly questioning what she means to him - and he lets her down, missing the opportunity to defend her once again (Horo was so happy that Lawrence at least tried to act like a knight in the "silver arc"). Her next few lines are sheer panic, and at the end of this scene she already regrets her words, knowing she went too far and hurt Lawrence deeply in the process.

The interesting part of her story here is the scheme that Diana is said to have come up with, in order to test Lawrence's determination. As we see during episode 6 this plan comes with a significant risk of Lawrence failing to understand what happens, and he almost messed up the whole plan because of this. So why did Horo play along, only giving a slight hint in the form of these feathers? It must have been interesting for her as well to see how Lawrence would fight for her, if only to rebuild the trust between these two.

Another aspect that made me wonder was why Diana agreed to Horo purchasing the pyrite on credit without any collaterals. Horo could just have run away with the money, she's not a merchant; and Diana had no reason to make Horo wealthy. It's not like Diana would need the money, but why would she interfere in this traders' battle in the first place? Was it just because both she and Horo weren't human? Or did Horo "pay" by telling her full story? Batos giving Lawrence the password was something Diana learned only later, she sold the pyrite to Horo at this point already. According to her own words it was just to "entertain her a little" - is she as lonely as Horo? I would love to be allowed to observe the conversation between Diana and Horo in order to understand Diana's character better.



Stretch:
It just seemed to me that previously Horo was a cool and confident person who had completely dominated Lawrence intellectually, always being two steps ahead of him when it came to scheming (or anything else), then all of a sudden she emotionally goes to pieces. It seemed like her entire personality up to that point was discarded so that the audience could be made to feel sorry for her. She can deal sharp wit out, but apparently she can't take bad news herself (and I don't think Lawrence ever intended to hurt her). That wasn't the same Horo as I had become familiar with.

Devil Doll:
But that's exactly what I liked about her behavior: Horo's character is developing gradually. Yes, the capricious wolf was toying with Lawrence and dominating him, but she did depend on him already to counter her solitude (and to take care of her when she's drunk ;-), she showed a certain degree of jealousy in the Shepard arc, she was the first one to attempt holding hands, and her dream about Lawrence's bones lying on the ground proves that she's thinking about a long-term bond with that short-lived human already. The whole conversation at the end of episode 1 of this sequel is about how close the two leads have become, and how much Horo values Lawrence as companion now; we've seen her reaction when Lawrence asked whether she could travel the last part of her way to Yoitsu on her own, so Horo was obviously questioning her priorities at this point already, and "If I don't sleep now who knows what nonsense I might utter" was a clear sign that she is holding back her feelings for Lawrence. But now, two episodes later when she's in serious trouble for the first time (potentially losing both Yoitsu and Lawrence at the same time - what would be left for her then? She faces a similar fate as Diana!) we can see much of her "cool" facade crumbling, and this makes her more "human", thus ultimately making a lasting relation between her and Lawrence more likely. I agree that this might be necessary for the final arc (whose content I don't know yet); if Horo were in fact so much superior to Lawrence then the whole romance aspect of the show wouldn't make any sense.

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