History Recap / TheRisingOfTheShieldHeroS1E4LullabyAtDawn

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Motoyasu is not truly evil and in any other situation, his accusations would have been justified. However, he tries to take Raphtalia away from Naofumi, a man with no attack power and no other way of getting allies, in a one-sided fight, with the express purpose of leaving Naofumi with ''nothing''. At no point does he ask Raphtalia about her own personal feelings or bother to check if she really is suffering as Myne claimed. To put it simply, Motoyasu comes across as a real jerk in this episode and seeing him get his well-deserved comeuppance made more than a few people cheer.

** In fact, it could even be argued that this Trope applies to every single person in that arena, besides Naofumi, Raphtalia, Ren and Itsuki, given that they permitted Malty's cheating and proceeded to [[KickTheDog slander Naofumi]]. Raphtalia's speech, coupled with Ren and Itsuki's ShamingTheMob was essentially a big ShutUpHannibal to the whole lot of them. By the end of the spectacle, none of them can say anything, and they simply slink away.

** Raphtalia later explains that one of the factors behind humanity's discrimination against demihumans is that their ability to age quicker by levelling up makes them seem more like magical creatures than people and thus no different than monsters.

* RestoredMyFaithInHumanity: When Naofumi realizes that Raphtalia is still loyal to him after she regains her freedom, he breaks down crying in her arms. This also [[SanityStrengthening tempers his troubled mind]], allowing him to see her as the woman that she is and regains his ability to taste.

* AlphaBitch: Malty once again tries to hurt Naofumi for no apparent reason. Having previously succeeded in [[FalseRapeAccusation framing him for rape]], this time she deliberately tries to have Raphtalia taken away from Naofumi so that he will be on his own again. [[spoiler: Fortunately, on this occasion, her plan ''doesn't'' work!]]

** King Aultcray decries that SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil and that Naofumi "violated ''their'' customs" for practicing it, conveniently forgetting that slavery is still legal in ''his kingdom''. Either he doesn't even know that it's legal in his own kingdom (unlikely) or he does and arbitrarily picks it as a reason to demonize the Shield Hero. [[spoiler:It's made worse in hindsight, when we learn that the King either directly ordered the attack on Raphtalia's village or willingly turned a blind eye to what happened, meaning that ''he'' is responsible for Raphtalia being a slave in the first place!]]

* ArmorPiercingSlap: With Motoyasu on the receiving end, followed shortly thereafter by a massive and well-deserved [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech reason you suck speech]], courtesy of Raphtalia.

The Wave has ended, Naofumi and Raphtalia had saved the village and the Three Heroes have killed the Boss. Time for a celebration at the capital and the Shield Hero is invited! Unfortunately, Motoyasu challeges Naofumi to a diel for Raphtalia's freedom and he has no choice but to accept.

* TheReveal: Naofumi discovers that Myne is actually the King's daughter Princess Malaty, realizing that the King and the Princess were both orchestrated his downward spiral the entire time.

* Foreshadowing: Myne will do ''anything'' to get what she wants.

* UngratefulBastards: King Aultcray and his subjects are arguably the very definitions of this trope. Naofumi risked his life to save the citizens of Riyute village. In fact, it was mostly because of him and Raphtalia that the number of casualties from this particular wave was as low as it was. How do they repay him? They ignore both his presence and accomplishments, whilst lavishing praise upon the other three heroes, i.e. the ones who willingly left the citizens of the said village to an uncertain fate in order to fight the boss. They then reinforce the Spear Hero's demand for a duel, where the Shield Hero stands to lose everything. When Naofumi starts winning, they call him a cheat and then refuse to speak up when Myne illegally intervenes on Motoyasu's behalf. Once the duel is over, they proceed to insult Naofumi, with one man even demanding that the Shield Hero be put to death. If not for the ever-loyal Raphtalia and the honourable Ren and Itsuki, Naofumi ''would'' have crossed the DespairEventHorizon.

%% [This description was copied in violation of our Plagiarism policy. Please replace it with original writing.]

A celebration is being held to honour the success of the Heroes in subjugating the Waves. Motoyasu came to know of Raphtalia being a slave of Naofumi and challenges him to a duel for her freedom. Naofumi is forced to participate in the Duel.

How can the Shield Hero win with only defence alone? Will he be able to keep Raphtalia as his comrade? Or will Raphtalia part away from the Shield Hero?

** The King, Malty and the audience are visibly shocked when Raphtalia slaps Motoyasu.
* BlowYouAway: Myne wins the battle for Motoyasu by using a wind spell.

* LaserGuidedKarma: After Myne [[EvilIsPetty secures Motoyasu's victory]] and frees Raphtalia in the process, all Motoyasu gets is a slap in the face, who points out that he didn't actually care about what ''she'' wanted and [[PyrrhicVictory goes back to Naofumi willingly]]. Ren and Itsuki also [[NoFairCheating call the citizens of Melromarc out for cheating]], citing that the only reason why no one was defending Naofumi is because the King had ordered the crowd to stay silent.

* MomentOfAwesome: This episode contains some of the '''best''' and '''most remembered scenes''' from ''The Rising of The Shield Hero''.
** Naofumi held the upper hand throughout most of his duel with Motoyasu, despite his lower level and lack of an attack stat. His resourcefulness proves that he has not been sitting idly by, in the weeks since his framing.
** Raphtalia however, gets not only the best scene in the episode, but arguably, the whole series as well. She not only strikes Motoyasu across the face, but when he tries to defend himself and insult Naofumi, she systematically dismantles his entire argument, making him look like a fool in front of everybody.
*** In the English Dub, Raphtalia's speech also includes a well-deserved insult at Myne.
--->'''Raphtalia''': If that were true, you'd have someone loyal by your side too, instead of that two-faced Princess!
** Ren and Itsuki actually stand up for Naofumi, despite the fact that they are '''not''' his friends or allies.
** Raphtalia pulling Naofumi out of his BSOD is a combination of both awesome and heartwarming.
** A minor one, but following the end of Raphtalia's speech to Naofumi, the villains (i.e. the King, his daughter and their subjects) quietly slink away. There is literally '''nothing''' that they can do to separate Raphtalia from Naofumi now and they know it!

** Just because Ren and Itsuki are Aultcray, Malty and Motoyasu's allies doesn't mean that they want to see Naofumi needlessly suffer. Appalled by what they saw, they [[CallingTheOldManOut call the Princess, her father and their subjects out on their actions]].

** When Raphtalia calls Motoyasu out for freeing her against her when she didn't ask for or want it, Motoyasu insists that nobody should be forced to fight against their will. Bear in mind that ''' he''' just forced Naofumi to take part in a duel that the Shield Hero not only wanted no part of but stood nothing to gain and everything to lose.

** Motoyasu shows us what can happen when you not only judge a book by its cover but charge blindly into a situation without gathering all the facts. He automatically assumed that Naofumi was mistreating Raphtalia, based solely on her status, Naofumi's status as a criminal and what Myne told him. Once all was said and done however, Raphtalia scolded him for trying to interfere with her life, spelt it out to him that his information was wrong and effectively called him a jerk for having never once thought to ask what ''she'' wanted. It should be noted though that, unlike his girlfriend, the Spear Hero genuinely thought that he was helping Raphtalia.