Banished From The Hero’s Party, I Decided To Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Episode 9 – At Long Last, Ares Has been Left Behind

Banished From The Hero’s Party Episode 9 begins with the Hero (Ruti) and the shy assassin girl, whose name I don’t remember because I’m endlessly distracted by the cute spider she carries around on her shoulder, ditching Ares and the other random member of the hero’s party in the desert and flying the airship toward Zoltan. Now you might think Ruti knows she heading toward her brother but in point of fact she’s planning a prison break to get more of the drug that Red worked pretty hard to eradicate from Zoltan.

There’s reasons but they aren’t great and I’m guessing largely this was just a massive plot device to get the two into the same geographical region so we could get that final scene of Ruti walking into Red’s shop. And I can’t even complain about it too much because that scene was worth it.

Did anyone else cheer at the start of this episode of Banished From The Hero’s Party as Ares stared in disbelief at the sight of the airship (carrying the hero) deserting him?

Speaking of things that were worth it, Banished From The Hero’s Party finally gave Ares his comeuppance. Honestly, while I may have wished death or injury upon him, he was too pathetic a schemer to really deserve such a fate (and honestly Red really shouldn’t have left on Ares say so, that really doesn’t say much for Red’s character). Nope, he royally deserved simply being left behind like unneeded baggage. It is the inglorious end to his role in the party that absolutely matches his contribution.

It would be nice to believe this is the last we’ll see of Ares but I somehow doubt he’ll accept being ditched lying down. I’m almost sure he’s going to become a two-bit villain further down the track and maybe that will lead to the satisfaction of getting to see the hero or Red swat him but mostly I’d just be happy to never see Ares again.

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Be that as it may, Banished From The Hero’s Party still spends plenty of time on just kind of hanging around. This week Red is sad he doesn’t have many customers because apparently people in Zoltan don’t like the cold (they also don’t change how they dress despite complaining about being cold or even snow falling which just seems weird).

Anyway, after some encouragement from Rit, Red heads out to distribute a new product he’s made which is essentially a hand warming pouch and so we once again see the smiling faces of everyone who loves Red.

There’s also this weird side bit where there’s some random knight blocking a bridge. He first encounters the hero who knocks him flying and then we see him, in his boxer shorts, try to take Red’s money and that ends much the same way. Like brother like sister I guess.

All of this is just kind of a delaying tactic on behalf of Banished From the Hero’s Party. We know that sooner or later Red or Rit is going to run into Ruti now that she’s arrived in Zoltan so it really is just building up suspense until the moment the two actually meet.

And the whole episode of Banished From The Hero’s Party kind of rides on that anticipation and really makes you wait while these characters go about their business. Ruti’s assassin companion eats at a food stall right next to Red, Ruti imagines a conversation with her brother while scouting the prison, and all of this kind of leads up to the moment they actually encounter one another.

This kind of tactic would have fallen flat if it wasn’t worth the effort but Ruti’s expression and even Red’s widening eyes, as Ruti walks into the shop and recognises Red makes everything in this episode feel worth the time.

I guess we’ll have to see what Banished From The Hero’s Party does next week and You can read my full thoughts on Banished From The Hero’s Party here.

Images from: ‘Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided To Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside‘. Dir. M Hoshino. Studio Flad and Wolfsbane. 2021

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Karandi James

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