5 Point Discussions – Black Clover 39: “Three Leaf Salute”

With the aid of Asta, the Magic Knights are finally able to root out the traitor in their organization. But will that really stop the Midnight Sun? Remember, if you like this article and 5 Point Discussions, please share it on Facebook or Twitter! It really helps. And if you’ve got any comments or questions, please hit me up @SageShinigami.

1. Unsurprisingly, the traitor is revealed to be the guy we just met, and thus have the least attachment to, Gueldre Poizot of the Purple Orcas. Which, considering his introduction is “money-loving guy who wears a mask and looks super shady“, that about lines up…it’s just lazy, because it’s not like they had to go out of their way to make his turn believable. The most interesting thing we know about him right now is Captain Yami thinks he looks like a boneless ham.
He tries to convince them he’s not at fault, but after that fails he casts a spell to make him invisible to the naked eye and intangible to all magic in an effort to escape and clear his name. Given the rest of the Captains are completely worthless without their magic, this should have put him in the clear…but then Asta knocks him out of his invisibility with his anti-magic sword and the power of Righteous Protagonist Fury. In Asta’s eyes, Poizot didn’t just betray the Magic Knights…but got Captain Fuegoleon mutilated, so he’s pretty ticked. But being a young kid up against a Captain-class magic user, Poizot still almost escapes. Almost.

2. This might be the most creative magic user we’ve seen in Black Clover the entire series. At only nineteen years old, Rill’s the youngest Magic Knight Captain, and uses magic paint to alter reality itself. He’s absurdly powerful, but his age means he doesn’t fit in with the rest of the group, and…he’s also completely unfit to lead anyone as he’s still enough of a child to not even understand the seriousness of the situations he finds himself in.
The Clover Kingdom’s false meritocracy is frequently shown to be flawed, but Rill is a particularly standout example. He’s got no business leading one of the premiere military forces of a major country just because he’s more powerful–surely the job should go to someone more tactically qualified?

3. This was set up a while back, where Raia and the rest of the Midnight Sun talked about having several of their numbers captured.  However, I take issue with the execution here. We knew Raia was going to try to do something to stop the Clover Kingdom from figuring out who was really behind what happened, but the way it’s been done…we have no idea what happened. Who did he even fake being? The Purple Orca Captain? In that case, did they kill the real one? And if the Clover Kingdom jailed that Captain, what happens when they check his cell and realize no one’s there?
In any case, the incompetence of the Clover Kingdom continues. They had to deal with a sneak attack because they let a traitor into their midst, and now those same people get to do whatever they want because their enemies think they’ve already rooted out the trouble. It’s almost like hiring people purely based on their powers rather than their loyalty and ability to do the job is a bad idea. Who would’ve thought.

4. The Black Bulls do get assigned to stop things from getting any further out of hand though, as the Wizard King decides to send them after the Magic Stones, a collection of items that the Midnight Sun think assembling will allow them to attain their true forms. Yami agrees to help and is uncharacteristically professional about it, before it’s revealed Yami was recruited personally by the Wizard King.
We get another flashback into Yami’s life, this time where we see it was Julius who brought him into the Magic Knights. He was the first person to recognize Yami’s talent, and before that he was a pariah in their lands because he spoke another language and was from another country and…why do we care if this place gets destroyed, exactly?
In any case, realizing Yami’s the only Captain he can really trust, Julius assigns him and the rest of the Black Bulls to track down another of the magic stones, sending them into a region with extremely strong magic in the hopes they can slow or stop the Midnight Sun’s plans. Basically we’re heading into a sequel of the Dungeon arc from the start of the series, on a higher difficulty setting to make up for the level gains.

5. Well, nuts. That stupid beach thing wound up being accurate. Of course as a manga reader I knew they were going, but given this show’s penchant for dragging things out to pad the screentime out, I have this sneaking suspicion they’ll be focusing on the beach and swimsuits for far longer than they should.
Black Clover is available for streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu.