Episode 12 – I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History

You just have to feel for Liz. Being confronted with the idea that you’re subconsciously mind-controlling all of your friends and they don’t actually like you is one hell of a thing to have sprung on you. Yet, that’s just the tip of what Liz is going through.

In the past, we’ve seen the naivety that comes part and parcel with her powers. Things always seem to work out for her, not due to her thoughts or ideals but simply because what she wants to happen always seems to. She’s come to believe that everyone can befriend each other if they talk, which is a reasonable belief if that’s what has always happened in your life.

Then, imagine one day that someone tells you you’re the Saint: you’re the woman destined to bring prosperity to the kingdom. You are a woman of purity and virtue, and that’s so darn good that the world will change around you. But what if, on the inside, you don’t feel that way? What if you have all the thoughts and feelings of a normal young woman—because that is still what you are?

Well, in Liz’s case, she suppressed anything that didn’t fit the ideal of the Saint. Any negative ideas and emotions were buried deep. But then came Alicia. With her charm powers not working, Liz was suddenly confronted with situations where everything didn’t work out in her favor, where the flaws in her thought process and way of acting were violently pulled out into the open. Suddenly, it was much harder to keep her darker thoughts in check and be the ideal everyone wanted her to be.

No doubt, Liz has tried her best to live up to expectations. But doing so hasn’t brought her happiness. The one person Liz loves doesn’t even like her. Instead, she’s in love with the person who seems literally designed to show Liz how much she is failing at her divinely assigned role.

But here’s the thing. Liz isn’t the only one who has been assigned a role. Alicia has as well. She’s the villainess. The difference between them is that while Liz has been trying to be what everyone seems to think she should be, Alicia has taken the role of villainess and made it her own. She doesn’t just want to be the “Alicia Williams” from the original game. She wants to be the ultimate villain based on her ideals and no one else’s.

It is this that Alicia tries to pass on to Liz. Liz is the Saint. This is an objective fact and no one can change that. However, Liz gets to define what that means for her. She doesn’t need to pretend or repress. She is free to be herself and take control of her life. She can one-sidedly love Duke and hate Alicia, and that doesn’t make her somehow unworthy. Now, with the truth of her powers out in the open, Liz can start again and discover what it truly means to be “Liz Cather.”

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• What was it with the book warping for a moment when Liz was holding it?

• I feel bad for the guys as well. It would throw me into an existential crisis not knowing where the charm magic ends and my own thoughts and feelings began.

• Wild speculation #1: Liz’s subconscious powers aren’t responsible for Duke’s memory loss. Alicia’s are (as there is clearly a part of her who wishes she could just focus on being a villainess instead of dealing with romance).

• Wild speculation #2: The world (or a similar outlying force) is rejecting what has happened and forcing the story back toward how things should go.

I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.