There we go, this is a logical explanation of Heinz' wrongdoing, without exaggerating his crimes, or adding in false motives. He wants to do what's right (for everyone) without having to think about it himself, and therefore not being responsible for when he gets it wrong. He was on the kill them all, and let god sort them out wagon, felt guilt over Darcia, and moved over to the less extreme: Kill them all (except Dark Elves and Dhampir), God will sort them out. He seemed to be hoping to get an explanation from Alda, about why they all need to die, but Curatos only relayed "just do it, don't worry about it" to him, and he accepts that, as God's Will.
and he has no real defense to that. The best he could do was dodge the question and try to accuse Van of worse crimes because apparently he's not responisble for his crimes if he's talking to a worse criminal or something. The ultimate issue is that Heinz doesn't want to help people because of his core ethics. He does it to feel like a hero. That's why he can unthinkingly follow Alda's commands since he garners the most followers that means following his will makes him a hero in the eyes of most people. He also supports he hypocritical "peaceful faction" because it's milder image gets him support from the races of Vida thus raising his hero status further. In his defense this seems to be mostly subconcious meaning he's not intending to side with Alda for selfish reasons but it's pretty clear the reason he has such unthinking loyalty isn't because he's a fanatic believer otherwise he wouldn't even consider questioning the church of Alda. Everything he does is for the sake of his hero image both externally and internally. That's why Darcia's death bothered him so much. Not because it was truly wrong, because if that was it then he should have learned to second guess persecution of other races like Ghouls as well, but because he couldn't see himself as a hero after what he helped do. He opposes genocide of Vida's races but he's totally okay with their enslavement like with the Titains in the slave mine. Because, again, his main concern is his hero status not the happiness of people he doesn't know. So as long as it doesn't weigh on his conscience it's not his problem. So while he's not exactly guilty of any major crimes (unless you count ghoul slaughter), he also doesn't deserve any praise and can also be considered guilty of inaction where it really mattered. Van points that out as well with how his hero actions don't have a meaningful impact and is mostly just him making a show to gain supporters.
Is just me or does any else agree that 1 of the 2 no of Lambda and an Evil God are going to get further involved with the situation then they already have. Like "Physically " showing up there in aid to Van. Especially the god of origin who is most adversely affected by the situation.
What are you talking about? The Gods can't physically appear because it would force them to sleep for millennia. And the God of Origin is a contradictionary mess that can only agree to say Fuck Rodcorte.
Heinz is an interesting character. If we were following him as the mc with Van being the villain, he would be like a normal isekai protagonist, just without the dying or traveling to another world part. Changing your entire worldview is not as easy as some commentors seem to make it out to be. Spoiler: The story of Heinz We don't know his childhood, but we know he was raised in Amid, so he was raised to worship Alda as the great God who saved the world. He learned that only humans, elves, and dwarves are people, and that all other races must be destroyed, because it is the will of god. Yes Heinz wishes to be a hero. He dreams of becoming a great hero who will someday join the gods themselves. So he sets out as an adventurer, with his group of close and trusted comrades, the five blades. They do missions and climb the ranks, becoming stronger and getting paid better. These missions are things like clear some bandits or get 15 demon wolf pelts or eliminate a horde of ghouls. Eventually, they get requested by a famous priest of their God Alda. There is a dark elf who has been seduced to darkness and has created an unholy child- a dampier. They capture the dark elf, and hand her off to the priest. But something doesn't seem right to Heinz. The dark elf that he captured and was eventually burned because of him didn't seem evil. She was just a mother. But, his god said they were evil. Riley, his long time friend, tells him not to worry about it. Eventually this difference in opinion splits the party, leaving Riley behind in Amid while Heinz and the rest travel to Orbaum, which still believes in Alda but allows dampiers to live as people. He finds a dampier being prosecuted and attacked, her parents already dead. Heinz runs in and defends the poor girl, bringing her along and giving her a new family. Heinz is now more conflicted. This girl he has effectively adopted, essentially his daughter, is someone his god says he should kill. He doesn't understand, and so he tries even harder to become a great hero. He wants to talk to Alda and discover the reasons why. He fights anot organization of vampires until he faces a pure-blood, a creature so abnormal and twisted that plays with life. One day he finds another dampier trying to become an adventurer and being harassed by the guild, so he comes over to try and help him. The boy runs away and later a new dungeon expels a horde that all want to kill him. He defends the town, but gets a bad feeling about that dampier. He then faces the Trial of Zakkart, trying to clear it and become Bellwood's successor. Unfortunately, he fails and looses Maria, one of his companions and possibly more. Distraught, he presses on training for a rematch with the dungeon until it disappears. Just when all seams lost, a new glowing white dungeon appears before him. Clearly, this is the work of his god Alda, and a sign that Heinz has been chosen, even though he has Selein the dampier. Inside he fights both old enemies, heroic gods and the dampier boy from before. Eventually something changes. The boy stops acting as he did and starts talking. He claims that ghouls, thought to be some kind of mutated undead monster, are actually a race of Vida. They just live in monster dens, eat people, and don't even know themselves that they are descendants of Vida. While the 5 blades are shocked by this, it's just one more thing Heinz needs to ask Alda about. Then the boy turns into a hulking monster, using various Demon King parts, the things that corrupt the user without fail. A god decends to save them and is killed along with most of the dungeon. Then, when the new demon king has exhausted himself, another person comes. The dark elf woman they watched die years ago. She claims to be the reincarnation of the mad godess Vida, who does not forgive them, before sending their spirits back to their gods. Now, Hienz's soul is being repaired, but it is slowed because of the great turmoil inside of him. Did he cause the dampier to become the new demon king? Is Alda wrong to hate them? Can gods even be wrong? And if Alda is wrong about Vida's races, what else is he wrong about? Is everything Heinz was taught a lie? TLDR: Heinz is a man who was raised to believe in Alda, and cannot let go of his fundamental teachings because he doesn't know everything. Someone saying "Your god is wrong, you're evil and must be destroyed!" is not a convincing argument. Edit: Remember we get Vandellieu's point of view. We don't get to follow Heinz and see his daily interaction and thought. We only see snippets whenever it's relevant for Van's story.
I think, even removing their history with each other, Heinz and Van were always going to fight. Van was always going to be death attributed and gather undead. He was always super compatible with the demon fragments. Heinz is a Holy guider that's able to take anti-vampire fanatics and turn them into anti-undead, anti-demon fragment followers. Even if somehow he becomes okay with an undead city, he's guiding people towards making an optimal undead slaying fighting style while his god is prepping a war against them. I kinda think his specialty against undead is a wish for completely safe targets. Without Van around it's the sort of thing anyone can agree killing is the right call.
The problem is almost every pro-ketchup logic is disproved by Schneider's existence, and that Heinz has years to self reflect. Change in the short run is hard, change over a decade is not nearly as hard unless you put in no effort. Heinz has seen more then enough evidence that he no longer has any excuse for blindly trusting Alda, and is well within wilful ignorance territory.
Schneider is only on Vida's side because the girls are hot and have open relationships. He is not a normal person. And he hasn't had years to self reflect. He saw one event, got uncomfortable, changed his ways. You might say he didn't change enough, but he hasn't had more events in his life that tell him he needs to change more. Now he met Van and learned that ghouls are people. He will change more. His problem isn't that he's willfully ignorant, it's that he believes in Alda, and everyone around him believes in Alda. He has no opportunity to grow. We sit here and say he has seen more that enough evidence to no longer believe Alda, but has he? What events, other than Darcia and Selein, has he had that contradict Alda'so message? We know Vida's thoughts, we have had conversations with gods who know all the circumstances. Heinz doesn't. He doesn't know much of anything. Could he have done more? Almost definitely. He could have gone to places that had Vida's races and talked to them, interact with them and learn from them. That's what Schneider did. But that's like saying, "You get all your news about the Middle East from bias news stations, why don't you go there and talk to them yourself to get a truer understanding?"
It's not like he didn't have the opportunities to talk to them. When Van confirms Ghouls are a race of Vida he isn't surprised. Considering he is built for killing undead I'm sure he noticed his anti-undead techniques didn't behave the same. Van specifically asks if he's tried talking to ghouls or majin. He changes the subject and tries to make it about the ways Van has made human lives harder. It's silly to say he can't just go and talk them when he's going out and putting swords in them instead. Him not being educated is more in his favor when he talks about trying to prevent a major war between the races, since he doesn't seem to know how hard Alda is pushing for one.
Little excuses left for Ketchup. He did have the time to go around and gather information, but alas he is completely deluded by his religion and confirmation bias at this point. Similar to plenty of people in our world (More than a third of us citizens are creationists, which is denial of reality). He is simply showing the same behaviour. and that in a fairly fascist manner (Boko Haram and IS say Hi).
Edgar is the one that knew they were people, he considers it a necessary evil that he needs to shield Heinz from, just like assassins that never get found after they fail to kill Selen, or Heinz. Edgar considers himself the anti-hero that dirties his own hands, so his companions can keep their ideals.
Good work from an artistic perspective, but it makes her look more like a naga than a dragon-woman. Maybe have more of the dragon body visible so it's clear that's a woman's body on a dragon's neck rather than a woman with a snake body where her lower body should be?
Nope. He's on Vida's side because he saw Alda's followers in action, particularly corrupt nobles. Unlike Heinz, he didn't sneak off in the middle of the night, to call that "atonement" and then spend the next 10 years lying about his involvement with said nobles, to everyone, including himself. I know it was a time skip, so maybe you missed it, but he's been in Orbaume for at least 10 years. This means he's been around people of many faiths, not just Alda, for years. To get to Orbaume, he had to go through the Scylla territory. Doing so, he got to see with his own eyes that they were being mistreated, and that the humans weren't as noble as he preaches, but he turned a blind eye to it because anyone that Alda doesn't see as a person, he doesn't see as a person. Yes, he's had years to self-reflect and take in other views, yet chose not to do so. This is what makes him willfully ignorant. On screen? Not much, but he has used his [Guidance] skill to convince Alda fanatics to stand down by telling them that Alda's views are wavering. Furthermore, he himself said Alda's views need correcting. What's more, he's seen Alda's sub-god Curatos outright lying by putting Van alongside Ternecia and Gubamon, when Heinz himself knows that no such alliance occurred, even stating that Ternecia was fleeing someone when the Five Colored Blades struck her down. As for Selen? Don't go clinging too tightly to that as a redemptive feature. He has openly used her as bait at least once, to lure out said fanatics so he can [Guide] them, and he has an annoying tendency to leave her unattended for years at a time, as he's doing now in what remains of [Bellwood's Trial] dungeon. What's more, the narration states, or at least strongly implies, he had foreknowledge that a corrupt noble hired mercenaries to wipe out her family and gouge out her eyes for his sick collection before killing her, yet only showed up at the last possible second, after her parents were already dead. Sure, the rest of his party, save Edgar, view her as a younger sister figure, but Heinz viewing her as a daughter? That's a bit of a stretch. [ And that's the problem, he has gone there, in person, countless times, not only crossing through Scylla territory to get into Orbaume, but he goes to villages of Vida's races and when he and his party get there, wipe out everyone, man, woman, child, then collects the body parts to turn in for cash, satisfied with himself. He never stops to ponder just how one-sided and gruesomely violent his actions are, until Vida and Darcia catch up to him and show him how it feels on the receiving end. Yes, he may want to be a hero, and may well believe he's being heroic, but no. He's turned a deaf ear to all the warning bells, a blind eye to all of the writing on the wall, and even ignored his own instincts that he's being played by Alda's faction. He's got noone to blame but himself, no matter how much he tries to blame Van and excuse his crimes or soothe his own guilt. His token "reform" is better than absolutely nothing, but it's not enough to excuse him, especially when he refuses to admit what he's done and gets defensive. And when the truth does finally smack him in the face, rather than surrender, he makes himself a bigger threat, caught red-handed training to harm Van's loved ones AGAIN, and is shocked that Van says "no. This stops now, and since you won't be swayed, I have to kill you because you are a threat." Considering that he turns around after targeting women and children, hunting them down like animals, patting himself on the back as a "hero" who gave them a "mercy kill because they can't survive on their own", and gives the parts to Heinz to sell for cash, that just makes Heinz's actions even worse. To willingly side with a psycho who happily kills kids and pregnant women and then goes "nah, they weren't people" and Edgar's character sheet says he doesn't revere Alda, so he can't use fanaticism as an excuse, doesn't exonerate Heinz in the slightest. He chose to partner up with Edgar. He knows where Edgar came from. He knows what kind of guy Edgar is, and yet turns a blind eye to it all? Yeah... That's pretty damning.
We're not shown how Heinz and Edgar first met, but Edgar's character sheet shows that he grew up in the slums, stealing to survive. He feels a certain "sympathy" for Vida's races, since he grew up along-side them in said slums. Despite this, whenever he goes on a subjugation quest with Heinz, he turns a blind eye to this fact and treats them like animals, hunting them down to the last child, then pats himself on the back "for quickly ending their suffering because women and children can't live on their own." When Vandalieu calls him out on this, despite Edgar being hip deep in the hard evidence that he's training to massacre the people of Talosheim, he gets angry and dares to accuse Vandalieu of "feeling good about himself by acting like a hero by causing suffering" because Vandalieu rescued the Titans, and others, illegally enslaved by the Hartner Duchy, and rescued the people of the Cultivation Villages that the Hartner duke made a very public showing of sending an army against, yet Heinz, willfully ignorant, states "disappeared, cause unknown." As the party leader and the one calling the shots, Heinz is ultimately responsible for the actions of his party. Turning a blind eye to Edgar's crimes does not absolve him.
i really hope we eventually get a side story that is Heinz' story from begining to end, because so many fans hate heinz like rabid dogs based off their assumptions that he does everything with a malicious and conniving spirit deluding himself with mental gymnastics into thinking he is the good guy. at worst i see a guy who is very much just a man of action and not deep thought. he does what he thinks is right and when presented with new info, acts on it through the filter of his current understanding of the world. is he a saint? no because the actions he has taken include the murder of innocent people that he at the time did not see as people. Its like if a person who was born and raised as part of the KKK starts asking questions about if its right to treat black people the way they do reforms his ways by removing black people and asians from his list of must hate on site list. but then gets surprised when people are mad at him hating muslims and hispanics because he thinks he has reasons for actually hating them.
You go too far with Heinz, he's just a person who takes the easy road of heroes. He lives under the religion of Alda and when he saw something he did not like (the death of Darcia), he reflect on that (that's good) but he just went to the Alda's peaceful faction and did not seek too far (not good). For me in Heinz's party, only Jennifer and Diana are good heroes: when you do something wrong without knowing it and the truth is revealed, you correct yourself (I hope it happens to them). Here, Heinz just thinks "I guess that, but I didn't want to do anything because the peaceful faction of Alda doesn't allow it". Furthermore he have a good excuse of Vandalieu is the new Demon King so he only see that and nothing more now. Heinz is just a junk hero.
Note: I'm not saying I like Heinz better or am on his side vs. Van, just trying to show he is not a horrible person; just a man who does bad things while doing good things and makes mistakes. We must remember what Van is, for all that we love him. He is insane. He acts entirely on emotions. If it's someone he loves or cares for, he will move heaven and earth for them. If it's someone he dislikes, every single action they do or do not make is horrible and wrong. This not an isekai where the Mc is a flawless good guy and all the villains are cartoonishly evil for the sake of being evil. Everyone is a person shaped by their desires and responsibilities, and that's one of the reasons I like it so much.