The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountain

Episode 9

The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountain episode 9 shows the series doing what it consistently does so well: delivering on traditional fantasy tropes in satisfying ways.

The first half of this episode focuses on the skeleton dwarf soldiers within the mountain. This is a scene that is both novel and nostalgic at the same time. It breaks with a lot of contemporary fantasy works in how it portrays these skeletons. Typically when an adventuring party enters the dungeon and encounters hordes of undead, this is a setup for a big fight. Skeletons – like zombies, ghouls, and other numerous formerly living creatures – are typically the foot soldiers of the big villain. They are mindless automata set to guard an area or an object and serve to impede the party's progress just long enough so that the heroes can show off all their cool attacks and powers by browbeating them. In that sense, it's a fresh take to have the skeletons be actual people. They get a chance to converse, have opinions and viewpoints (however limited by their situation), and generally do more than just be mindless mooks to get cut down.

It's a bit of a throwback at the same time, however, a callback to classic fantasy works. Vindalfr is a descendant of the former king and comes to speak with these soldiers who wait for the coming victory. This is similar to Aragorn speaking with the ancestral dead in Return of the King, where he too is a descendant of the royal bloodline. The difference is the intent and the tone of the discussion: Vindalfr is mostly expositing to them, while Aragorn's discussions are more combative. In any case, Vindalfr releases them and there is the sub-text of the promise that he will right what was wronged.

The latter half of the episode is a fight with one of the dragon's generals. This fight is pretty good, but nothing spectacular. Some demons get shot, and Vindalfr gets a big heroic moment, and it all works without wowing necessarily. I wish we had some sense of who this villain was before the crew fought him since he is just a generic monster foe to the audience. Maybe next week he will take on a more unique aspect as the fight continues.

Rating:

Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountain is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.