Poor, gullible Naofumi.
For full disclosure, I hate her as a character. Malty is a chicken shit villain who knows how to make you hate her. How bad is it? I have friends that refuse to watch the show because of the shenanigans she and her father are playing with Naofumi Iwatani, the Shield Hero. But, my hatred of her is why she is so good at being the antagonist to Naofumi and his party.
Don’t let her good looks fool you.
Malty is/was the First Princess of Melromarc, and the Next Queen of Melromac. After her mother Queen Mirelia Q. Melromarc and her father King Aultcry Melromarc XXXII. She also has a sister, Melty Q. Melromarc, who will be important later. Malty is such a manipulative bitch, so much so that she has Ren Amaki, the Sword Hero and her father doing her bidding. It was Malty who executed the plot to claim she was raped by Naofumi when they arrived, had the King stripped him of his starting items and banished him with nothing to be able to start preparing for the waves. She would then snipe at him from a distance at every opportunity she has.
Malty vs. Raphtalia
Malty has gone as far as to interfere in a duel between the Naofumi and Motoyasu Kitamura, the Spear Hero, over a contrived and blatantly lie about how Raphtalia, who is Naofumi’s party member and slave (that’s a different topic for another day), was being mistreated. Mind you, the rape accusations still have not been cleared up as of this time. It is yet another dagger that is thrust into Naofumi, and another coal that burns his desire and hatred of his situation. The duel which was held during a banquet Naofumi was forced to attend, was the Motoyasu’s attempt to free Raphtalia if he won. Naofumi would have won, had Malty not interfered. A point brought up by Naofumi after the fact but fell on deaf ears. The King dismissed it and Malty stuck to her story. The only people to make a comment about it and call it out were the Lance, and the Sword heroes. Neither going out of their way to push the point.
Malty and the Keystone Kops
Malty’s next attempt to fuck with Naofumi was to levy toll of fifty silvers for entrance and fifty silvers for exit to the village. This was couched as an attempt to help with the rebuilding efforts. Oh, and Motoyasu was made lord of the region, in light of his exploits in the last wave. The tax as Naofumi pointed out was more than a month’s wages for some people. And it spurns a second duel. Naofumi eventually won, even with the interference of the Malty’s knights at her request. Malty attempted to claim that Naofumi cheated, but the Shadows made their presence known to her, and very quickly Malty made her exit. Knowing she did not have a prayer of standing against the Shadows. This will be the first time we run into the Shadows, who are the Queens personal Aides.
The co-conspirators
In each instance, Malty has manipulated the situation to have either her Father, and his power as King, or Motoyasu and his gullibility to do the dirty work for her. She even gloats about it directly to Naofumi, who is seemingly powerless to do anything about it. This is not the worst of it. The absolute unforgivable being involved in the plot against Melty Melromarc, you know, her sister and the important person that I mentioned earlier. The plot itself is not actually of her plotting, by the cult. We find out later that they were using her for their ends. Her group made many obvious attempts on Melty’s life but were defeated each and every time by Naofumi. Her hatred of the Naofumi is becoming more and more prevalent and less and less veiled.
Malty deserves more than a swift death to be honest.
She’s written to be this callous and cruel. This manipulative. This much of a bitch. She comes off as having grown up with the silver spoon and not knowing or caring about what’s behind it or how it got there. Her hatred of Naofumi is that of a prejudice, of a class of people she hates on spec. If Naofumi hadn’t been the Shield Hero, she probably wouldn’t have paid him any mind. But since he, as the Shield Hero, the one who represents the demi-humans, and she is a member of the Church of the Three Heroes. Let the hatred begin. A well written villain will draw out your rage and your frustrations of how they are getting away with everything. They will make you root for the good guy and feel that sense of satisfaction when their comeuppance happens. Malty does this. And she does this in a way that makes it seem easy. She plays the part well. I still hate her. I still want to see her die. I want to see her die in a way, as Solution Epsilon put it, “in a way that is indescribably painful”. Naofumi should have let the Axe fall on her. But that would have been the end of a great antagonist. Let’s see where Yusagi takes us.
-All screenshots used in this post were procured without permission in accordance with 17 U.S. Code § 107 from the US distributor, Crunchyroll.
