転生したらスライムだった件 第4期

I think the hype was genuinely lower this time. It's been a while (how many years ago did season 1 start?) so I might be forgetting some things, but I think it has to do with how they portrayed her as an antagonist compared with the rest. Every enemy we've had before this arc has either been the classic cartoon type, aka Clayman; a good guy with misunderstandings, aka Hinata; or a major OP smarty pants, aka Yuuki. The first option is fun to watch get destroyed, Rimuru being OP is part of the fun. The second usually poses a threat, but their "defeat" just involves a correction of misunderstandings, so the power balance works out. The third option is where the true antagonists lie due to being equally or more powerful than the protagonist while also being fucked up, and they drive the entire plot forward. You can't have multiple characters fill the third role at the same time. One has to die and/or supersede the previous one. Yuuki was set up as this main antagonist, and was established to have some level of power that was far beyond even the omnipotent viewer's comprehension. When they tried to write Maribel as being an overarching mastermind with control over everyone, she ended up competing for his role. You can't come in and one-up the big bad like that, it doesn't make narrative sense. As a result, literally everyone knew Yuuki was faking it, and her character ended up becoming this weird cross-hash between roles 1 and 3. Her existence had little to no impact, there was minimal buildup before her downfall, she was "evil" but didn't really do anything "bad" other than have a few people killed, and she was in the body of a child to boot. You can't get any satisfaction out of watching a character like that lose.

I don't know that it's really just an archetypal issue. I think if she'd been properly humbled and forced to face reality there could have been something to the resolution. But the way they set her character up it just was never in the cards. She was too brutal, too greedy, and too callous for a redemption arc and too ideological to be properly humbled. There was definitely a version of this where Mariabell actually did her homework (using Gaiye as a shield was just embarrassing), stayed in the shadows, and realized she had to play the long game. Using greed to control people behind the scenes could create a lot of complications you can't just resolve with combat. One major tweak would have been making it so that Rimuru couldn't so easily snap those afflicted out of her control, the decision to make her power literally powerless against Rimuru took the teeth out of any final conflict like this way more than her not having a clear role in the villain hierarchy. Instead we should have gotten more of the espionage piece and political instability. More assassinations, more using politics and the populace to cause problems, ideally doing things like drawing Rimuru away and working around the edges of Tempest society to sow discontent in a way that's harder to root out. Basically rather than being the classical 'mastermind' type pushing pawns into direct conflict, she should have been a more 'rot' type of character who's mere existence slowly eats away at your nation, allies, and standing. And Rimuru definitely should have been the one chasing a face to face conflict.

Yeah, they tried to tell us that she was the shadow ruler of Europe for decades during two world wars and she got played by some dude from Japan and the best plan she came up with was beating up the demon lord in a dungeon hoping she could Greed him, after she already lost control over several pawns. I don't know how she established control over her pawns but I doubt it was necessary to drag them somewhere unseen and hold them down while she worked her magic. She could have tried it at a social event and even if Rimuru found out it was her, he couldn't simply say: "Excuse me for a moment, I have to kill that little girl over there, she's trying to mind control me."

She had an astounding lack of information on who Rimuru actually is as a person, much of which is just borne of her arrogance coming from her accomplishments of her previous life and the circumstances she was born into and powers she was given in this one. Her whole basis of why to go after him was flawed from the beginning: that he was somehow an existential threat to the existence and prosperity of humanity in this world which couldn’t be further than the truth. But then she goes on to make more assumptions and then builds her entire plan around them, and when they inevitably turn out to be false she loses badly. Her arrogance and reliance on assumptions instead of facts killed her.

In fairness to Mariabell, 20th Century Europe didn't have magic and skills in play. She could succeed in a world without them by relying on socioeconomic power, but this world requires that also be backed by genuine personal power and she was simply outmatched by those around her in that respect. As Yuuki said, part of it was probably that she came into that world too late, though it probably still wouldn't be enough given some of the other enemies to contend with in that world. When it comes to controlling Rimuru, it was established that her power is less effective on those who possess unique skills. Even leaving aside ultimate skills, Mariabell would know that attempting to slowly control him over time was dangerous as discovery would have her immediately identified as an enemy. Another problem is that, as she noted, the size of one's greed and desire influences her power's effectiveness. Rimuru just isn't all that greedy and if he does desire anything, he can usually get it easily enough on a whim.

It looks like she was a british noble. What the story tries to tell us that she effectively controlled Europe and maybe even the world from the shadowa during WW 1, WW 2 and the height of the Cold War. Not sure how literal we should take her claim that she ruled in the shadows but the story tries to tell us that she wielded considerable influence all over the world during very tumultous times while spies from the great powers were waging a shadow war and manipulated people who could crush her like a bug. Not with skills but does it matter if Stalin crushes you personally, sends the NKVD to deal with you or leak enough of her shady dealings with hostile powers to get the brits to do his dirty work. Mariabell had to work with people who had more direct access to military, intelligence and other assets than her without a brainwashing skill. Her actions in the new world don't reflect that.

Mariabell would have had plenty of direct access to those assets through economic power. Those with money are able to hire all kinds of powerful security who can do the dirty work. It is theoretically possible for people to have overpowered that and taken her out, but it isn't quite as simple as it is in this world. Rimuru has spies who can literally hide in the shadows, teleport, and function as human radars. He himself can basically understand and see through anything with a glance. A lot of her schemes would have been effective even against powerful figures of that world, it is just that Rimuru and his subordinates are even more brokenly powerful.

It was just silly to have Maribel Rozzo... a literal child, throwing hands in a melee fight. We've seen Rimuru throw hands with Hinata, a Saint (enlightened human equivalent to a Demon Lord Seed majin). We even saw him obliterate a partially awakened Demon Lord (Clayman). And Hell, we saw him eradicate and devour an army of 20,000 professional soldiers, single handedly, like it was nothing. It was just a huge mismatch of the threat Maribel Rozzo presented and Rimuru's strength: there shouldn't have been a physical fight. Think of Lex Luther Vs Superman. Lex is always trying to outsmart Supes, often via turning public sentiment against his adversary or exploiting Supes emotional weaknesses. Maribel's final plan was to... physically overpower a Demon Lord? At least Lex always uses Kryptonite to strip Supes of his strength before trying to throw hands... and even then, it's mostly an expression of Luthor's arrogance of wanting to crush Superman at his own game (throwing hands). This was just... dumb. Maribel comes across as a petulant child suffering from Big Fish/Little Pond syndrome. Really, she should have remained a political and economic threat. Someone that was a schemer and not a "shank you in the back alley" type. Honestly, it fills like Rimuru got away too easily with his desecration of Falmoth kingdom. There was untapped potential there to present him as a world-devouring threat as he broke one of the strongest human kingdoms and remade it into a puppet state. There is also the 'racism' angle as his main backers are the demi-human nations of Dwargon and Tharion, with a minor human nation like Blumund being the "Judas" of the West to be taken down with the monster and demihumans. She would have been better off instigating a war with an alliance of Western Nations against Rimuru, perhaps by goading Rimuru into attacking some other kingdom as a martyr to rally the others. You know, break the trade links he was forming while pushing a military alliance into consolidating against Rimuru. That would have been a more interesting way to explore the threat a schemer with geopolitical ambitions could present. Instead we got... a little girl throwing hands and sulking when that didn't work? sigh

Mariabell knows and even stated it herself a couple of episodes ago, that even if all the Western nations came together and formed a coalition, they'd have zero chances of defeating Tempest. There's no point in wasting time and resources forming an alliance that is doomed to be defeated by Tempest. Especially when one of the main pillars of humanity (the Western Holy Church) has already entered a non-agression pact with Tempest and have opened diplomatic relations with them. - Lubelios? Has ties with Tempest and the whole Seven Days Clergy scandal severly weakened them (out of the Ten Great Saints four of them either died or left the Church + the Seven Days Clergy has been annhilated + Hinata now pubblicly endorses Rimuru and Tempest) - Engrassia? The Inquisitors are strong but not strong enough to take down Tempest - Falmouth? Severly weakened and turned into a puppet state by Rimuru with the king himself begging Diablo for mercy in front of dozens of journalists Therefore, it would be an alliance of Human nations without the backing of the Western Holy Church, Blumund and Falmouth. A suicide. Furthermore, don't forget that she was basically groomed by Yuuki. From the start Yuuki fed her false intel and made her more arrogant and greedier that she already is.

I think the point is that all her efforts as a political operator are pointless in the face of the monstrosities of this world that can just brute-force their way through all her schemes. Mariabell can buy off or mind-control the majority of the regional governance body, but Rimuru's analysis skill and super-spies will just unravel all of it in a matter of minutes. All the arrangements to have a royal assassinated to frame him in the eyes of the ignorant people of that world and he just stops the bullet in mid-air. Her assassin has absolute loyalty due to a spell only for the assassin to be captured, freed from her control, and blab everything so that even her ultimate plan of having another pawn win him over by posing as an ally fails and further allows Rimuru to lure her into a trap thanks to her connection to Yuuki. Of course, Yuuki himself is an example as he completely overpowers her ability and plays along with her just to take advantage.

Generally the fights are of two types, 1) where he overcomes a challenge (Ogre early on etc), or 2) where some idiot gets served for underestimating him(Clayman). I think the issue is that the story very much made Maribel out to be a very difficult fight of type 1, but then it turned out to just be a type 2 kind of fight where nothing she had did anything at all on him by viture of him being godlike already. So there was a mismatch in expectation and payoff. Also imo part of it is just that I have lost track on what Rimuru can actually do. Raphael and Beelzebub I remember, but when on earth did he get Uriel and Veldora ultimate skills? They are used so rarely I totally forgot. So a lot of the fight felt like he just whipped some magical bs counter up. Not really the stories fault, but its a result of an 8 year long runtime.

Also imo part of it is just that I have lost track on what Rimuru can actually do. Doesn't matter. He can do whatever the writer wants him to do. It should be evident long ago. Not really the stories fault It is. They've already made clear that non-ultimate cannot beat ultimate. So pretty much once Rimuru got his ult, nobody without one can match up against him. Even Yuuki is not because just think about it, even though Rimuru's skill can't hurt him with skills, that just limits some options he has. It doesn't limit everything he can do with skills. Yuuki doesn't have an advantage because it's not like Yuuki can use skill on Rimuru but Rimuru can't. Yuuki has to overwhelm Rimuru with physical combat, which as we have just seen, he cannot do. Yuuki merely has less of an disadvantage against Rimuru compare to others.

There are two possible outcomes: - Rimuru never meets Veldora, and thus never learns how to use Magic Sense. As a consequence, he'd remain blind and deaf, possibly forever stuck inside the Sealed Cave - If we assume that him meeting Veldora and leaving the cave is taken for granted, he'd die immediately after naming the Goblins and Direwolves. Rimuru managed to survive the Naming act only because Great Sage "stole" magicules from Veldora.

In Rimuru's defense, Raphael had already analyzed Greed and figured out how to break it's effects, via Glenda. Glenda also told him that unique skills give partial resistance to Greed, confirming that Maribel was using a unique skill herself. As Raphael noted, there is a strict heirarchy of skills, with higher ranks holding absolute supremacy over lower ranks. Those witin the same rank compete for dominance. Rimuru has FOUR fucking ULTIMATE skills, including a meta skill that has already shut down Greed. So, while it's easy to point out the arrogance of Rimuru here... I can accept this one as being legit confidence in his abilities.

regardless of his ability to negate her greed, she demonstrated several trump cards in a row, any of those could had worked on the MC. Even when she ran away she was planning on blowing up the country and kill thousands of people just to maybe hurt him. And he let her go. she was a cunning and smart enemy. Letting her live for a second means another second she can pull a trump card, escape via teleport, attack his people, etc. Letting her live or go was stupid, not just overconfidence. she even brought back the dragon pet that will certainly break Milim's heart next episode. How many more cards she has ? He couldn't possible guess that. anyway it is just plot armor to create tension, we know why the author and the anime director did it, even if it is ultimately stupid.

I'm not sure what it is that I'm getting wrong. Yuuki is under Mariabelle's control, Yuuki is the bigger threat between the two. These two things lead to Rimuru focusing on Yuuki because a) if Rimuru were to direct any attack towards Mariabelle and Yuuki keep up the charade of being controlled by her, Yuuki will defend her and b) Rimuru had already judged that Yuuki is the bigger threat between the two of the with how easily he dispatched Mariabelle.

Her strategy itself wasn’t bad (at least before she tried to fight him herself). She basically set up a situation where it’d be impossible for the council not to turn on him and only failed because his skill was exactly suited to countering her greed on everyone. But even then she still had a backup plan to frame Rimuru for murder and even after that, she still made sure that the one council member was on his side so he could manipulate him later. A two bit strategist would’ve just tried to pick a fight with him but Maribel set the groundwork for him to become the enemy of humanity.

And yet every single time it's the same strategy, set Rimuru up to make a typical decision a human might make, RImuru breaks up the game by using some combination his contacts, his personnel, or Raphael, get mogged, surprise pikachu face. She's been beaten by Tempest at least three times already, and yet here she is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. A good strategist would have examined her strategies after the first 3-4 defeats and tried something else. She had already suffered multiple reversals, and it was time to pull back, study their enemy and not assume a generic strategy that would work on a normal human would actually work on a Demon Lord (or for that matter on Yuuki Kagurazaka). Maribel was too used to success, and had become complacent. She was lazy and assumed that because her trump card had always worked so far, it would continue to always work. Like I said, she was not used, either in her past life or her current one, to being told no. She's like the lordling who "practiced" with soldiers who dared not strike him and assumed that made him a master swordsman. That's why I call her a two bit strategist. She literally never changes up her moves. She took her ability to easily dominate summons and random Human politicians to mean she was omnipotent when she was anything but.