I'M LOVING THIS!!! Spice and Wolf Episode 3 Reaction

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My reaction to Season 1 Episode 3 of Spice and Wolf. #SpiceandWolf #SpiceandWolfReaction #animereaction
0:00 Intro
5:40 Reaction

[@UncensoredScion]

Holo is a spirit, she's never really given a full explanation in the story of what she is but it's heavily implied to be a Pagan Nature spirit associated with the Harvest. The form we see, that interacts with the world is "her body" equally as much as the wolf form that she showed to Lawrence, to take on these forms she needs to be given a sacrifice of some form, whether that be the millet she ate in episode 1 or a donation of blood by someone - which doesn't have to be a large amount. The thing that Holo here is referring to when she says she's been forgotten is the amount of time between when she was first set up as t he God of the Harvest and the current time - which is implied to be a VERY long time - and in that length of time, her story has changed quite a bit from the original form. It's one of the reasons I love this story so much as it goes into the spread of myth and legend, how one will change greatly over time and how others will grow out of different stories, it doesn't go deeply into that but it does give an overview of it. So when Holo says that if they saw her they'd not associate the beautiful girl with red eyes they see with the legend of their Harvest Goddess, it's that what they say as the Harvest God Holo is so tremendously changed at this moment from what she is today. They will have forgotten parts of it, mixed up other parts with the legend of the beautiful young girl and combined other legends they have to make what they today call the legend of Holo the Wise Wolf. And this sort of thing I find fascinating as it's a very real phenomenon that happens in the world when it comes to legends and myths.

[@superionmaximus9900]

I mean really from the very start paying close attention was important in this series, but from here on out, yeah it's a lot of economics. But Holo and Lawrence have decided there's bigger players involved here and Zheren is just the small fish that was tasked with spreading false information. So now the fun is trying to figure out the real plot and discovering the players involved. Also, Holo's story will be told slowly over time but the answer to is she or isn't she a god depends mainly on your definition of a god. Despite the setting of fictional medieval Europe, Holo as a character is actually very Japanese. She's very much a deity as understood in Shinto beliefs of ancient Japan. So you can think of her as a god or spirit or just a supernatural creature. She's Holo the wise wolf and that's all that really matters

[@bojxit52]

Ngl, near bedtime or not sometimes spice&wolf just gets hard to follow depending on how much general knowledge you have with trading/money concepts and whether the translation from jp is clear enough for some of the wordplay. So really no judging here if something doesnt make sense the first pass. Especially in some of the later schemes in the light novel, I would go back and check long af reddit posts explaining things to make sure I was understanding everything right lol Edit: Also with the english dub now airing that might make it easier to follow? Watching both either way since holo+lawrence dubbed was an absolute gem

[@yucinalo]

The god vs not god thing is mostly about perspective. For the villagers, Holo's abilities seemed supernatural, plus she had agreed to help the village out, therefore she both appeared to them like a god and provided them with "blessings" like a god. Holo herself said she does not see herself as a god, as she said "I am just Holo and nothing else". To her, her abilities are nothing extraordinary, which could imply that in her home village she might be just like the others. So I'd say as a viewer, it is fine to classify her as either - you're basically just choosing whether you're classifying her from human perspective or Holo's perspective.

[@Szystedt]

Personally I call her a demigod when explaining the series to someone!

[@matilozano96]

No, what she meant is that she herself has lost some wolf acquaintances to encounters with Humans. Wolves hunt humans, humans hunt wolves. She peobably meant other spirit wolves like herself, like the ones she mentioned earlier. Her kind are very long living, so the disappearance of her friends can only be explained by them being hunted down by humans.

[@kristoffer2250]

Aside from the economics stuff, the banter between Holo and Lawrence is soooooo good. Each line exchanged is either clever or really deep when you think about it. I remember the dub of the original spice and wolf being enhanced by the VAs fully immersing themselves in the medieval-esque banter. So good.

[@oscarh112]

New dub is also very very good! Ep1 is out with dub now, the old VAs for Holo and Lawrence are returning for their roles. I recommend giving it a watch if you are interested :)

[@animeproblem1070]

Holo is much more like a Japanese Kami than a full god a spirit of the land or water or mountain in this case she is a wolf spirit who has taken on the aspect of wheat into her "domain" as we'll call it she bound herself to the village in the first episode by the harvest of wheat and protected and provided for the village she could only provide for the limited area of the village if it expanded too far she would have been stretched too thin she's much more equalivant to the western fae than any deities really she's timelessly immortal she can't age like humans do yet she can be hurt she can be killed she isn't immune from being injured so don't see her as all powerful it's inaccurate. Also Holo was hinting at without saying that humans have terrified attacked and hurt her and she has killed humans and she doesn't like it that much because it still hurts to kill someone even if wanted you dead.

[@jmhaces]

I always thought what Holo meant in the previous episode is that humans fear wolves but wolves fear humans and as a result she has in the past been hunted by humans as well as forced to kill humans in self defense. So while it's understandable that Lawrence wouldn't find Holo's joke funny after having been chased by wolves himself and seen people he knew killed and eaten, it's not like wolves are these terrible monsters who kill for no reason and they have also suffered at the hands of humans. Holo compares wolves to dogs when she talks about this, and refuses to elaborate regarding the details of her experience as a wolf, which IMO suggests she didn't want to tell Lawrence that she was hurt by humans and that she killed humans before, since she knows he was afraid of her, but she still let him know between the lines that it's not as simple as he was making it out to be when he got offended by her joke while still admitting that her joke maybe went a bit too far. As for her being an actual god, she's not. She's obviously a supernatural being, since she's wolf-like and has the ability to influence the harvest and stuff like that, including apparently living for hundreds of years, changing shape, and determining when someone is lying. So it's implied by what she tells Lawrence that centuries before she befriended someone from that village and that person asked her to help them get good harvests, which she did, and after enough time had passed she started being worshiped as a god in that village. But she's not really a god and especially not the specific god of the church they keep mentioning. If you remember, at the start of the first episode the guards told Lawrence that they were holding a pagan festival in the village, which means it was a festival in honor a different god that the Church considers a fake god, namely Holo. Lawrence himself threatened to turn her in to the Church because unless she proved to him she was actually Holo the Wise Wolf, he would assume she was possessed by a demon or something like that.

[@TheCheeseman1983]

Yes, Holo implies at the end of episode 2 that she has attacked humans to protect her pack in the past. Lawrence was trying to ask if she had attacked humans before when she cuts him off.

[@ana24c]

Hello, to answer your question about Holo being a god or not, in the town she was in and it's surroundings she was seen as a goddess because of her powers that allow her to give them good harvest and of her ability to change forms, her original form being a gigantic wolf but Holo doesn't see herself as a goddess, it's what she tells Lawrence when they met, she tells him "I'm just Holo" she knows she is not a human but she just sees herself as a being with different habilites, the stories are about her but she doesn't think that they will recognize her because a lot lot lot of time has passed since a lot of people believed in her, like in the town she was in, there they continued to celebrate the festival but without really believing in her, and she hasn't been seen a lot in her human form by them, she is sad while telling Lawrence that no one will recognize her in the city because almost everyone has forgotten her or just think she is just like a fairy tale

[@k9bfriender672]

When humans encounter things they have no way to fathom or deal with, they call them gods. By that definition, she is a god. But she hates being treated as one.

[@oscarh112]

Regarding the value of money in this world there is a huge difference of what amount of money normal people have access too. A whole peasant family can buy basic food and survive for about 2 weeks on just one silver coin as described in the light novel. Fruits are a generally a luxury, especially fresh, but can be bought in trading hubs and towns. In this sense 1 silver coin is quite a lot (as we see how many apples could be bought by just one), and 140-210 silver coins are a huge amount for any one person. A large rural villages emergency fund might be about that size. Lawrence is a mid to high tier travelling merchant, and therefore have a comparatively large amount of capital in this world. The value of the furs are more or less the result of Lawrence trading for 7 years. Above him are basically other merchants and traders, skilled craftsmen, nobels and the church. But the gap from Lawrence in terms of wealth to many of those can be astronomical in scale. Which we will hopefully see if we get a full adaptation :)

[@BakaBaka8146]

I didn't read the ln, i didn't know fruit was a luxury. Hopefully seeing your comment in the next ep

[@k9bfriender672]

It's impossible to do a one for one equivalent to today's money vs a medieval economy (especially a fictional one), but using food, lodging and labor as a baseline, a Trenni silver is worth somewhere on the order of $50. As far as the martin pelt scam, think of it this way, the Milone merchant figures he can sell the pelts for at least 4* silver each. By offering Lawrence a bit less than 2 per, he more than doubles his money. Lawrence gets the deal sweetened a bit, and the Milone still doubles its money. After Holo's act, the merchant figures he can sell them for 6 or 7 silver, so increases his offer. In the end they paid 3 silver per pelt, but can still sell them for 4. They still make a profit, even if it is less than they would have wished. If they had actually lost money on the deal, they may have been upset, but instead, they paid a bit of a tax to learn a new lesson. 70 silver is chump change to an organization like that. A good merchant doesn't hold grudges when they should hold respect. *obviously this is somewhat speculative, but a 100% markup on such goods is fairly reasonable in such a situation.

[@usul573]

13:03 yeah that's a tough question. Paying more isn't being scammed. Though the tall tale Holo tells does not sound like it can ever be proved or disproved. Though this guy is part of a major guild? Though it operates from another country? Still a reputation blow to Lawrence would not be good.

[@nagi8010]

I mean there's no doubt people would forget the face of someone who "if you keep her appearance a secret you will have bountiful harvest". If everyone does it, then in time, nobody would be able to learn her face anymore.

[@Ryo39]

While the villagers may have worshipped her as a god, she herself was not one. She may have power over their harvests and other supernatural abilities, but she is a wolf spirit from the north.

[@HaibaneRakka571]

Holo the Hustler! The EN dub dropped today and they kept the original VAs from the 2008 dub, which is really exciting for longtime fans. Some of the dialogue may be more clear in the dub, but it may also be left to interpretation

[@fckyo7789]

Hoho omoshiroi

[@theguy8412]

I mean the voice actors in japanese are also the original ones so

[@HaibaneRakka571]

@@theguy8412 nobody cares about the news of the JP VAs, it was known for a long time already. It's not news anymore. The news about the EN VAs came out today, so...

[@revyhavoc1386]

That's awesome! I enjoy both dub and sub for this anime but this is one were I loved the dub more and thought Holos english VA did a fantastic job.

[@mageius]

At this point, you can start to decide whether or not you like the show or not because this is what the economic stuff starts kicking in.

[@chinjianle269]

I see, you will be the plaything for holo for sure

[@chinjianle269]

And Lawrence bought 210 of the coins, so he fk up

[@Sunnernite]

I thought the economics would be a turn off for many