I have to admit that I was very nervous about this chapter. On the one hand I was excited because the last chapter ended on such a cliffhanger, so I was dying to see what would happen next, but at the same time, with two weeks of hype built up for myself and the fandom in general, I feared a lot of backlash if things didn't go as people wanted with the whole potential kiss scenario. But now that the chapter is here, I'm happy to say that it went just about as well as it could have!
I'll get the Twiyor gushing out of the way first 😅 We got more protective Loid! Of course, he could give the whole "for the mission" reason for why he can't let anyone harm Yor, but c'mon, the fact that he so effortlessly moved in front of her without even thinking about it, even before Yuri did...there's no way he had the mission in mind at that moment.
This scene reminded me a bit of the below panel in chapter 91, where Yor slips in front of Millie to protect her from being bullied. In both cases, Loid and Yor have these kinda neutral faces, as if they didn't have to think about what they did, it just comes naturally to them to protect others when things are taken too far.
Then we get Loid's rare "suppressed anger" face, when he's dropping the nice-guy facade because someone he cares about is being threatened. This reminded me a lot of how he reacted when the group at the ski resort were accusing Yor of being the culprit.
After he sees how much the whole situation is making Yor uncomfortable, he makes a sort of unreadable face. I know he's made a similar face before in other intense situations, the one off the top of my head is right after he refused to kill Yuri in the sewers.
My interpretation is that this is the face he makes when he doesn't know what other expression to have...like, he's feeling emotions he's not familiar with or doesn't want to confront, so his face becomes "plain," almost like it's too tiring for him to figure out the right expression, so he he shifts to a "default, Twilight-mode" face.
I like how Yor interprets Loid's actions here; for someone with such a low sense of self-worth, I like how she entertains the idea that he could possibly not want her to kiss another man, which would mean he sees her as more than just a "fake wife." Of course, she quickly dismisses that idea, but it's nice that she's beginning to see more of her own worth from others.
Back to Yuri though, there was such good character development for him in this chapter! First off is him insisting that Loid take the place of the actor who's supposed to kiss Yor. As much as he despises Loid, he'd rather see Yor kiss him "for real" than "fake kiss" an actor.
But most of all was him showing sincere gratitude to Loid for getting Yor out of an unpleasant situation. He could have reverted back to his usual self immediately, like "thanks for helping my sister...but how dare you make me wear such an embarrassing outfit!" But he didn't. He stayed earnest about his gratitude the whole time, even internally acknowledging how Loid was so quick to protect Yor AND offering to fist bump Loid. That was something I was not expecting from Yuri, but I'm glad he's warming up to Loid a little...which will make things even more tragic when identities are revealed later 😢
Lol, Camilla and Becky seemed to have forgotten that this is still a hostage situation 😂
Even though the main conflict of this arc seems to have been resolved, it's definitely not over. I predict the last chapter will wrap things up, or possibly two more chapters depending on what happens. I don't think the rabid fans will just be able to leave without any consequences from the law. Plus there's gotta be some more emotional fallout from all this for Yor, Yuri, and, hopefully, Loid. I especially want to see how this situation affected Loid, even if just a line or two of dialogue. We haven't seen him acknowledging his feelings since the Wheeler arc, so it's long overdue!
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