5 Point Discussions – Black Clover 78: “Peasant Trap”

The second round of the Royal Magic Knight begins!  Asta, Mimosa, and Zerx match up against Magna, Sol, and Kirsch Vermillion, Mimosa’s brother! Remember, if you like this article and 5 Point Discussions, please share it on Facebook or Twitter! It really helps. And if you’ve got any comments or questions, please hit me up @SageShinigami.

1. Charmy’s gimmick has always been cute, but this arc has taken it over the top in terms of humor. She’s the same as she’s always been, but up until now she’d pretty much only been around her guildmates in the Black Bulls. Here though, we’ve seen her interact with everyone from Yuno to the Wizard King, and no one seems to tell her to chill out with the food. We see her offering food to Yuno after his fight and he’s too polite to turn it down, even though generally he could care less about appearances. She’s spent most of this tournament sitting in the Wizard King’s lap, and while that lines up with his personality, it’s not like she knew that ahead of time. Even this episode she’s floating over to his lap in clouds and handing him takoyaki sticks. Is her food just that amazing, or is there more to her than we know?

Also, I’m becoming more convinced of Charmy/Yuno as a romantic pairing. Opposites attract is usually pretty gross, but someone as kind as Charmy paired with an icy “cool guy” like Yuno might balance them both out.

2. This episode’s match up is Asta’s Team versus Mimosa’s brother Kirsch Vermillion, Magna, and Sol. Disgusted by the presence of commoners on the field, Kirsch attacks Asta, Zerx, and his sister with a massive field of rose petals. …But we never find out what they actually do, because Asta decides to show us his new technique, the Black Hurricane, to eliminate not only Kirsche’s field, but all of Zerx’s traps.

Asta tries to make this into a purposeful decision, trying to force Zerx into working with them now that his traps are disabled, but it still felt incomprehensibly stupid. Zerx spent an entire night covering the field with traps and Asta erased his work in seconds to force them to play nice? That’s a decision that might pay off later, but Asta’s forced attempt at teamwork and handicapping Zerx’s best ability should come with some consequences.

3. Asta’s overall stupid decision does result in something unintended, though: we get to learn Zerx’s real name and some of his background.  Zerx is actually Zora, and apparently his father was a Magic Knight. Near as we can tell, Zora’s father was a kind man who believed in team work and Magic Knights working together to achieve what they couldn’t by themselves. I’d joke about how Zora’s dad’s trusting nature surely didn’t eventually screw him over later on, but let’s be honest: this is absolutely part of why Zora hates royals so much. They made a laughingstock of his father, turned their backs on him…sky’s the limit. One thing Tabata has shown us about royals and the Knights is they feel entitled to treat those “beneath” them however they choose, and think no consequences should ever come with that.

4. While Asta’s team is improving its teamwork, Kirsch’s team falls apart this week, entirely because he’s a class-obsessed weirdo. He finds out his teammate Magna is a commoner and flies off to beat the entire team on his own. But since he’s an idiot, he just winds up falling right into Asta and Zora’s traps–though not a magic one, a literal old fashioned trap they dug.   This was an especially clever choice on Tabata’s part–Kirsch’s arrogance leads to him not only losing, but losing to something other than magic, because he couldn’t possibly see a world where he lost to anyone with weak mana. It’s the kind of embarrassing loss which hopefully breaks down a bit of his undeserved ego.

5. I don’t often talk about Petit Clover, but there’s not really much to this week’s episode and this skit is hilarious. Mimosa’s generally such a sweetheart, but this arc has allowed us to see she’s so much more than the pushover she’s been portrayed as before now. In their first fight we saw her take on the role of leader, and now we’ve finally found someone who can crack her nice girl shell and bring out a mean streak. She’s actually written a story this episode about her brother’s narcissism eventually leading to him getting old but never finding someone to settle down with, and dying because he fell into a river while admiring his beauty.

Black Clover is available for streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.