In Fire Force Season 3 Episode 9, “Holy Sword, Resurrected,” Arthur heads into the Nether with Vulcan, Yu, and Lisa to find a rare metal to forge Excalibur. But what they run into down there is way weirder than expected.
Most of the episode plays with Arthur’s obsession with being a knight. On the way into the Nether, a girl asks for help getting her cat out of a tree. You’d think Arthur would help — knight and all — but he straight-up ignores her, saying he’s busy with the main quest and doesn’t have time for side quests.
Arthur’s parents are terrible
Once inside the Nether, they run into Arthur’s parents. Turns out they’ve been on some kind of quest too, following visions Arthur’s dad had that led them to their son. It explains a lot about Arthur — mainly how out of touch he is, because his parents are the same way. They don’t even seem to notice how strange their choices are.
They tell Arthur they left him behind because the Nether wasn’t safe for kids… but then casually mention they’ve had three more kids and are raising them down there. Everyone sees how messed up that is except Arthur, who still thinks they’re heroes trying to save the world.
Back on the surface, Vulcan starts forging Excalibur. The sword design looks great — royal, flashy, very Arthur. And unlike his last sword, this one actually has a blade. So now the question is, what happens when Arthur powers it up?
Opinion:
Arthur is a complicated character. His apparent delusion seems to be a consequence of his parents abandonment. While they seem to also be delusional, he couldn’t even comprehend what they did. Maybe its for the best. Regardless, I don’t think Fire Force is the type of series to handle this complex narrative well anyway. They try to play it for laughs but it falls flat.
