REVIEW: ‘Fire Force’ Season 3 Episode 23 — “Despair Saintess”

Fire Force Season 3 Episode 23, “Despair Saintess,” sees Shinra (Gakuto Kajiwara, Romantic Killer) and Sho (Maaya Sakamoto, Arknights: Rise from Embers) confront Haumea (Rie Kugiyama, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX) in Adolla. As she strives to break Shinra’s will and trigger the Great Cataclysm, the brothers cling to their hope as they try to weather the emotional onslaught she unleashes against them.

The confrontation that takes center stage here is an emotional one at its core. However, the feelings that Haumea describes as fueling humanity’s despair and proving its desire to fall into death, its only salvation according to her, feel flagrantly misrepresented. In particular, how Fire Force Season 3 Episode 23 addresses anger is particularly flat and ill-conceived.

To hear both Haumea and Sho tell it, anger is the gateway to despair. It is a negative emotion that only leads to death. And while this is often true, uncontrolled anger has led to countless painful moments and much undeserved suffering, to sweepingly cast it as bad leans into a tired, overly simplistic approach to the fiery emotion. 

Anger and what it means is centered in Fire Force Season 3 Episode 23, yet fails to resonate.

Anger can be born of pain and despair, true, but it can also be born of love. It can cause harmful destruction, but it can also fuel a person and give them the strength to push through pain, allowing them to reach a needed goal that would otherwise remain out of reach.

Almost every major social change, even those that led to good changes, began through the anger of those unwilling to accept unfair and unjust treatment. Trying to dismiss Shinra’s anger as purely bad, to the point that acting on it will transform him into a demon and trigger the Great Cataclysm, projects a woefully simple interpretation of a complex and often good emotion. 

Not only does Fire Force Season 3 Episode 23 fail to deliver a compelling interpretation of humanity’s emotions, but it also spends far too long circling the intellectual drain it pours its arguments down. Haumea’s constant counterarguments are little more than rehashes of what she’s said previously, punctuated by marching out the bodies of Shinra’s friends she has slain.

In trying to explain how anger leads to humanity’s inevitable destruction, we end up in circles.

At the opening of Fire Force Season 3 Episode 23, we see Inca and Sumire burned to death to Shinra’s horror. Later, Sister Iris’ body is presented in a grotesque display along with that of Amertarasu. Shinra is also forced to watch as Obi’s throat is sliced by his doppleganger, forcing him to finally relent to his rage.

These moments feel like shock value attempts to create energy out of a largely nonsensical debate. Obi’s death particularly feels this way, given the fact that Tamaki is standing right in front of him, and should’ve easily been able to intervene. She is well aware of the existence of dopplegangers, so the presence of two Obis shouldn’t have a stunning effect on her.

Nevertheless, with Shinra giving into his rage, we see a black smoke begin to encircle the earth. Easily the best moment of Fire Force Season 3 Episode 23 plays out here, as we see the various reactions to the seeming end of days. Some, like Princess Hibana, try to shield those close to them one final time. Others, like Benimaru, raise a cup and try to give cheer and comfort to those around him, even promising to stay with them for whatever journey awaits on the other side.

Shock value is prioritized over sound argumentation.

The ending of Fire Force Season 3 Episode 23 bears one other glimmer of light for a largely draining episode. After a long shot from space shows the world reduced to a ball of black smoke, we see a certain corpse float by. When a familiar sword drifts into its hand, a twitch occurs, showing that one last light may yet intervene to help restore the world. 

While there doesn’t seem to be any possible reason for Arthur to be able to survive being cut in half in the vacuum of space, the moment is presented incredibly well. The camera angles build up the momentousness of the scene perfectly. Showing his fingers move to grip his sword creates an uplifting moment of hope after the painful confusion of the earth’s death. It just remains to be seen if the Knight King will be enough to save the day one more time.

Fire Force Season 3 Episode 23 tries to be an emotionally powerful debate about the nature of humanity, but utterly fails at this task. By grossly oversimplifying one of its key subjects, the debate feels like nonsense. Worse still, it’s nonsense that goes on for far too long. The best thing that can be said about this entry is that the finale almost has to be better than this.

Fire Force Season 3 Episode 23 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.

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