This episode is titled Enigmatic Giant’s Curse according to the subbers, and surprisingly, it is not really the focus of this episode, at least not in Gorl’s way.

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Summary:

It was raining, so the trio took shelter under an abandoned house. Jasmine still had a few objections about going to Tegan’s place, but she followed them anyway. The weather cleared, and there was even a rainbow. They continued walking until they reached a bridge, where a giant bulge is blocking the way…which turned out to be a real giant who somehow could only show one eye to the screen at a time.

They got into a fight (obviously), even though the giant claimed to be a reluctant slave of Tegan. Jasmine, from a side, said that they only wanted to get through, so no fight was needed. The giant agreed, and gave them a riddle to be answered before the hourglass finished its round. There were five blocks, they had to make it three. Rather quickly Jasmine re-arranged the blocks to the number 3.

The giant was not too pleased, but he let Jasmine pass anyway. Up next is Barda. He had to make five blocks into ten. Barda took a bit longer (and more frustrations), but hinted by a pool of water, he split each block to get ten. Finally, it was Lief’s time. He got the worst: listen to a song, solve its question. The song cited that there were thirteen children to begin with, a frog times them, two worms time them, and two flies time the worms. So 13 + 13 x 1 + 13 x 2 + 13 x 4 = 104. And then there’s the witch herself, so it’s 105. The giant struck, saying that there was a crow inside the witch’s stomach. Lief, feeling cheated, told him that the giant had just twisted the truth into a lie. Feeling challenged, the giant gave him one more riddle. If Lief chose lie, his neck would be cut off. If Lief chose truth, he would be throttled. After pleading to his belt, Lief chose getting his head cut off. If the giant did as he said, then he would be telling the truth, and he would have to throttle Lief. But if he didn’t do it, then Lief wouldn’t die. So instead of doing as was promised, the giant turned into a huge crow, broken from its curse. It pointed them to Tegan’s house.

The trio treaded through another thick jungle. So Lief asked if she still wanted to go to Tegan. Jasmine didn’t answer directly; she told Kree, who had suffered the same fate as her, to go back without her. Along the way, Jasmine told them a bit more about her past; about how she had used to have a happy life before Tegan destroyed it. They abruptly stopped, however, and climbed up to a tree, hiding under Lief’s Cloak of Invisibility. Directly under them was one of the Rara tribesmen, captured by a group of the Grey Guards. After waiting for night to fall, they rescued him and ran away, though not without the Guards noticing.

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Thoughts:

At first I wondered why the giant only showed one eye at a time (I thought he was a cyclop…), but then it made sense. Birds only have an eye on each side of the head; this giant even had pointy nose that indeed turned into a beak.

The first two riddles are kind of easy, but the third one…why does Lief gets the short end of the stick of anything spelling trouble? Not only does the giant pulled the answer out of Pluto, he also got two riddles that are significantly harder than the two before. Though I do wonder if the belt actually helped during the second one or not. Probably it did.

Heh, I like how the story’s treating Jasmine. She didn’t immediately jump in and get into a fight; during the first quiz she kept her cool and eventually get the answer right; and even though she was used to be alone and whined a bit, she could actually tolerate and follow others.

For a moment, I thought the song (AKA Lief’s riddle) had a mathematical array value to it. Maybe it does…so the formula is 13 . (x), in which x = x_n-1 + x_n; starting from x = 0 and then x = 1 and somewhere beyond if it goes on and on. Ah well.

This episode did make me think a bit, partly because the sub was not clear at all, so I had to use my own mind. It’s actually not that hard to figure out, it’s just that I watch anime to de-stress myself, so I’d rather watching something that doesn’t quite require thinking (unless if I want it to). Though in this case it was more of the language barrier than anything.

My impression? Not much. I guess this is just one of those episodes that’s just sort of happened for the sake of plot advancement…or I was just too tired to be impressed. Heh. I’m actually wondering if reading the books are better than watching it animated. Each has their own charms, I suppose.

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Preview:

They wound up in an old couple’s house named Nij and Doj. They are apparently dangerous. An old fantasy trope of ‘landing in a house with hostile but initially receptive owner’. Let’s see how Deltora Quest approach it, especially when it was so blatantly obvious they would get tricked. And…is that Barda on the floor, again?

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