The Royal Principle Advisor, who was just as perturbed as his boss, did not dare laugh alongside the Wise Mad King; he just remained calm and quiet, turning over their failed strategy in his head. He then asked, "Have we underestimated the powers of the three guardians? Or, did that traitor lie to us?"
These were the only explanations he could come up with for their unexpected failure.
TL’S MUSINGS:
Ignoring the lack-of-moral aspects of the Mad King… I actually bloody admire this guy! His plan REALLY could have worked.
More importantly, though, is that the Mad King’s strategy was purely tactical. Notice that we haven’t even known his innate capabilities by this point, yet that lack of information had not once stopped us from understanding why his plan could work! To me, this felt like Lex Luthor using his shiny hairless head against Superman, or how Zemo, without any Infinity Stone or apparent superpower, managed to toy with the Avengers in Captain America: Civil Wars.
Sure, the plan was foiled by a bunch of girls and animals who had hitherto served more as Baiyi’s morality pets— which really elicited a loud, sad “WOMP-WOMP!”— but I was really taken by how the Mad King had come in through a tactical angle rather than “I’ll do it myself! ‘Cause like, I’m the High Reverent of the damn cult!” way. Plus, the dude can’t even lift a table despite having the rage of the Hulk, which combined two of my favorite storytelling devices— “dissonance”(“subversion” too, to be honest) and “comedy”. That’s my kind of character, alright! Hee hee!
This Mad King is f*cking dope, you guys!
And also: Come on Cleric, you’re wiping your face with the breasts of girls still considered as minors, bruh. Not even trying to add some good PR to a fantasy religion (that kinda echoes a certain real-world religion)? Ho ho ho.
Lemme tell ya, on Earth, there’s already a rich lore of scandals about priests and minors enough to become plot points in a few South Park episodes…