If there’s a recurring theme to this season, I think it’s “sucks to be Fushi”.  At the risk of repeating myself, I think the first season’s material was largely Fushi learning to be a human being.  This season is Fushi learning how to be an immortal.  But there’s a fundamental problem here, and I feel like it may even be the underlying message.  I think this path he’s on is a fool’s errand that can lead neither to his own happiness or the salvation for the world he so deeply craves.

This is a pattern we see recurring more and more.  The farther Fushi extends himself the more exhausted he gets, but ultimately he never really accomplishes anything.  He’s certainly a powerful being – maybe the most powerful in the world for all we know.  But he’s not powerful enough.  He can’t save everyone from the nokkers, never mind any other threats that may come along.  It almost seems to be as if the nokkers are toying with him (telling him their plans a year in advance supports that hypothesis).  Sure, many of them “die” at his hands – but that doesn’t seem to be something they’re especially concerned with.  They’re a hive mind, and their individual consciousnesses are of minimal importance in their thinking.

This train of thought leads to some interesting questions.  What’s the Observer’s endgame here – is it as simple as what he said last week, he’s grooming Fushi as a replacement?  And what’s in it for the nokkers to play with Fushi like this rather than simply overpower him with sheer numbers and accomplish their larger goal?  I could be completely off base here of course, but this Renril situation is so bleak and depressing that I can’t imagine this isn’t part of the deeper message Ooima is trying to send.

As we join the battle Fushi is engaging with the nokkers 15 km from the city walls.  But even as this exhausts him to the point of collapse, the battle rages on multiple fronts (I admit I didn’t envision the nokkers using trebuchets).  And they manage to poison the city’s water supply via suicide missions (again, hive mind).   Meanwhile March is wandering the streets of Renril looking for “Fu-chan”.  Fushi is vaguely aware of her, though – unsurprisingly – he hasn’t connected this new presence with one of his retainers.  He’s also aware of every defender that dies, and that number is increasing quickly.

Soon enough Fushi does pass out, and he’s unconscious for an unspecified length of time that seems like a few hours at least.  Long enough, anyway, for all of Hairo, Kai, and Massar to fall – a shocking realization for Fushi almost as soon as he wakes up.  This isn’t how I expected the three “immortals” to join Fushi’s ranks (Massar sees to have fallen by Kahaku’s blade, after Massar was taken by a nokker).  It’s a further reminder for Fushi of how futile his efforts to save everyone are – and though he’s killed countless invading nokkers, he doesn’t even have the consolation prize of getting Gugu or any of his other lost memories back.

I feel like we’ve taken this business of Fushi not knowing that he can bring back the dead as far as it can go.  Between what happened with March and now the three amigos, surely the truth has to come out soon.  That may not be crucial in terms of the siege of Renril, but it would at least give Fushi a different perspective on himself and his place in the world.  As noble (and probably futile) as what he’s doing here is, Fushi needs more in existential terms.