How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 11 Impressions - Souma's Easy Victory

Does Having a Bad Plan for a Good Reason, Make it a Good Plan?

Our realist hero, Souma, in the space of a twenty minute episode, takes over the air-force, has Duke Carmine surrender and removes all the corrupt nobles from play, and moves his army to the south to first cause the invaders to hurry back to their own kingdom straight through an ambush before occupying an enemy city. Wow, Souma’s amazing.

So let’s break down each of these three ‘conflicts’ that Souma’s kind of just walked through as if they were nothing. And while I get, they are trying to position Souma as someone who thinks things through and strategizes and has back-up plans, mostly his enemies are just looking really stupid.

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A Realist Hero Takes the Air Force

Episode 10 saw the start of this battle with Souma and his forces using an entire battle-ship crossing the land as a decoy (cool move). This week Castor, leader of the forces, takes on Souma (or at least Souma’s harem) and in a fight that is actually kind of cool to watch loses soundly.

Then again, Castor was only ever following Carmine and honestly, of everyone involved in this war, Castor seems to have the least stakes, purpose, or thought processes. He doesn’t seem to want anything and yet still doesn’t surrender when given a chance to do so.

So our Realist Hero wraps up this fight, takes control of the air force, also brings Castor’s daughter Carla along for the ride (wearing a shiny new slave collar – and why do so many isekai anime have slave collars), and heads to the battle against Duke Carmine.

The Duke’s Position

This is where the words bad plan don’t even begin to express my feelings about Duke Carmine’s actions.

Incidentally, plot spoiler below if you haven’t watched the episode, but it doesn’t make a great deal of sense anyway.

Carmine opposed Souma, without discussing it with Souma, in order to have all the corrupt noble men gather under him. Thus he could ensure that they were positioned as insurrectionists as all be removed in one fell swoop.

Which, on the surface doesn’t sound too bad except for the part where he could have actually communicated that idea to Souma rather than just ignoring the new king.

Furthermore, he let the nobles spend their hidden money on hiring mercenaries, sending money out of the kingdom, because once the mercenaries were captured they could ransom them back…

It could just be me but I’m sure the Realist Hero Souma could have found a far more logical way to go about getting this money. You know, encouraging the nobles to pay the duke directly as a war fund for hiring of mercenaries who just didn’t arrive (because the duke never hired them). Then the money would just stay in the kingdom in the first place.

Anyway, on Souma taking the air force, Carmine rounds up the corrupt nobles, something he could have done ages ago, and then puts a slave collar on himself and surrenders. Souma doesn’t even have a conversation with him because he’s off to war front number 3.

Don’t Upset the Realist Hero

Souma may just be an acting King but he is taking his duties seriously. The Kingdom of Amidonia has invaded Elfrieden during their moment of internal crisis and not only is Souma not letting that stand, he’s pretty much making them an example to anyone else who might try to take on the weakened Kingdom.

Realist Hero - Episode 11 - Declaration of War

It’s a sensible move from the Realist Hero when you consider how the other kingdoms who might threaten Elfrieden will view this situation, only it leaves me wondering where this common sense was when he more or less promoted the first guy he heard talking about betraying him.

That said, this conflict at least isn’t completely wrapped up, but given they took out half of the opposing forces in transit and the replacements are hardly trained soldiers, and they are already occupying the city, it seems unlikely Souma is going to lose this fight.

I guess, the only question remaining is how does this resolve? it isn’t as though the other human kingdoms are going to let Elfrieden conquer their neighbours without raising an eyebrow. Or do we end up with the cute and sassy Princess character becoming a hostage in Elfrieden to ensure Amidonia’s good behaviour?

Realist Hero has 2 episodes to figure it out so I guess we’ll see.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Dir. T Watanabe. J.C.Staff. 2021