In the course of an evening and a day, our fairly standard, mildly cliche, nice guy protagonist is built up with promise of becoming a hero in a magical new world, and has that robbed from him by a VERY predictable betrayal (that I would genuinely be surprised if somebody out there had not seen it coming).
Where I start to draw serious issues with the direction here, is when he's brought to the castle. It honestly feels like the main character just completely switches personality when he realizes he's been betrayed, and is also told he can't even go home.
Now, obviously this is something to be upset about, furious even, but it's such a stark contrast from his naive, bright, and optimistic demeanor that we'd been shown up until that point, and this change comes out of left field in my opinion. He suddenly starts looking like a character that should have very obvious anger issues even at the best of times, which is not at all what we were shown before hand. And this is my lenient criticism, because honestly I don't buy his rage, considering his future as a hero was taken from him just as quickly as it was given to him. He literally spent 1 day as a hero before being falsely accused of an atrocity (which he was also told he wouldn't have to suffer any genuine judicial action for; everyone just knows about it and hates him, and that sucks, but still)
On top of that, he starts acting and behaving like a totally different person for the remainder of the episode(which feels like 1 day). As the episode appears, it looks like he leaves the castle that morning, sulking, and then bumps into the man that sold him his gear. The man lets him off rather than hitting him, and the protagonist makes some edgy remark that doesn't suit him nor the tone of the scene. He's given a cloak for free, which he promises to pay back "some day", and then heads out to slaughter orange balls for a long time. He heads back to the city, selling his drops(where he uncharacteristically torments a man that attempts to give him a raw deal), and seemingly immediately paying back his debt, like 2 or 3 minutes after the promise to pay him back some day. and as far as the episode direction is concerned, this still feels like the same day. He then heads out again, comes back, and goes to a tavern as night falls, where he broods; which makes, and attracts the attention of punks, still fine. He treats them sternly and strictly, makes sense. He gets into a fight with them, still fine. And theeeeeen he's offered a slave by a strange man that strolls up to him, which our main character doesn't seem to have nearly enough of an aversion to.
RECAP: Day 1 - Get whisked away to a fantasy world | Day 2 - Prepare for your adventures as a hero | Day 3 - Get (predictably)betrayed in the morning, instantly devolve into a different, edgier person, and buy a slave that night
I'm not the only one confused and off put by these things, am I? It feels like this 45 minute episode was somehow rushed; like these 3 days are supposed to actually be an appropriate amount of time to justify the portrayed circumstances and character transition that day 3 spews out. How do you even manage to rush a 45 minute episode? And would it have been better if they had ended episode 1 as he stormed out of the castle, to then follow up with more detailed scenes, that properly illustrate the confusing day 3 as the idk, week, or even month, that it feels like it should have been?
