Overlord S02E07 Review: Houses of Morrowind

Overlord, Season 2, Episode 7: Blue Roses

This is an episode equivalent to episode 3 of this season, except we swap out lizardmen tribal problems with that of the Re-Estize kingdom. The thing is, though, unlike the sudden tonal and focus shift to the lizardmen that we had earlier, we actually already had hints about the Re-Estize's kingdom's crappy politics and internal conflict between the Royal and Noble factions foreshadowed all the way back from the first season with how the Noble faction essentially attempts to get rid of one of the King's biggest supporters Gazef. So it's inherently a lot more interesting to see the introduction of the various factions of Re-Estize.


We get to see a brief bit of Ainz in this episode, though, as he splits up the money he's earned, noting that he's going to have to split up the funds between Sebas's efforts to infiltrate the Re-Estize kingdom, as well as giving money for Cocytus to build up the Lizardmen village. It's like an RPG character that has to spend money to rebuild a town, huh? All Assassin's Creed style. It also answers a bit of a burning question I had as to just where Sebas managed to get all that money to buy scrolls and a mansion in the middle of Re-Estize. We also have a brief bit of talk between Ainz and Narberal about Narberal buying iron ores to see their 'exchange rate' in the 'exchange box', whatever it means. Also, Narberal is also serving as bait to the nebulous Yggdrassil-related forces that took over Shalltear.

Meanwhile, we finally get a good look at Climb, the youthful blonde kid in silver armour that we briefly saw earlier in the series, and he's apparently a commoner orphan picked up by Princess Renner, but all the nobles scoff at him even worse than they do at Gazef. This does give Gazef and Climb something to bond over, though, and we get a pretty neat bit of the two of them training in a tower, with Gazef noting that Climb isn't born with any sort of talents -- but he can at least try to improve himself. In Gazef's case, he tells Climb to actually use all parts of his body,  even his legs, when fighting, and not be obsessed with just the sword.

Climb ends up being our POV character for the next couple of scenes, as we meet Second Prince Zanack, who's a pudgy short man with a mean tongue who constantly insults Renner and her naivete, something that Climb ends up having to swallow politely due to his inability to actually stand up to another member of the royal family. Also with Zanack is the tall, handsome Marquis Raven, someone who Climb thinks to himself (and the audience's benefit) as an opportunist who jumps back and forth between the Noble and Royal factions of Re-Estize.

Again, just as the previous episode, this is just kind of introductions for a later date, because Climb quickly gets thrown into another meeting, where Princess Renner is talking with Lakyus, the leader of Blue Rose, the all-female adventurer squad from last episode. Apparently Blue Rose is also adamantine-ranked, Lakyus herself is a noblewoman of some sort and a personal friend of Renner, and they've been working behind the scenes to bring down the Eight Fingers crime syndicate and protect the people. Princess Renner is shown to be the good royal successor to the throne compared to the sneering Zanack and another unseen brother that's actually working with Eight Fingers. Renner is apparently the one behind the recent abolishment of the slave trade, and apparently using Blue Rose as her own black ops team to take down branches of the Eight Fingers organization. She's also very smart, able to decode the mystery code that the adventurers brought back to her.

Renner is kind of an interesting character, and if not for the opening and ending clearly emphasizing her, I would've brushed her off as, well, an NPC quest giver whose function is to serve as the 'big good' of Re-Estize, the underdog royal that has the best interests of people in mind. We get a brief introdump about the Eight Fingers and how they are eight different criminal organizations dealing with different crime as opposed to a proper organization, which is why the note left behind seems to be trying to direct Blue Rose's efforts elsewhere. We also get a brief hint of the maids assigned to Renner being spies for other political parties.


The final parts of this episode goes back to Sebas, and Tuare has apparently recovered and is now working as a maid in Sebas and Solution's mansion. Again, Solution is clearly displeased and barely buys Sebas's insistence that Tuare's presence is needed to maintain cover that they are nobles living in a mansion. Sebas's insistence that Tuare is a mere 'distraction' not worth losing their heads about (while clearly the man has taken a liking to the girl) ends up being challenged when Steffan Harvish, a clearly-corrupt constable, shows up at their mansion and accuses Sebas of engaging in slave trade (which is clearly not allowed!) because witnesses place him at leaving a brothel with a lady while giving money to the brothel's owner. They're trying to squeeze money out of Sebas, while also getting Tuare back, and puts him in a pretty bad position.

After the constables leave, Sebas takes a walk after a brief talk with Solution, and Solution ends up reporting this incident to Ainz, noting that "Sebas has turned".

It's definitely a very slow-paced episode, and, again,  tries to introdump a bunch of major characters like Climb, Princess Renner and Blue Rose, as well as establishing a lot of the internal politics of the Re-Estize Kingdom. Watching this immediately after the previous episode and going to follow it up with episode 8, it's not quite as bad, but it's clearly not that good of a standalone episode. An unfortunate side-effect of adapting a novel, I suppose.