Log Horizon: Three Meals and a Nap

With the two previous posts about Log Horizon, I have discussed the premise of the show and how Log Horizon came to be. You can find the first post about Log Horizon here: Link and the post about Shiroe and Kanami here: Link. So, what about the people of the land? Is there a character that represents the people of the land in the show? Yes, multiple. Is there a certain one that could be called the stealth protagonist of the show in a way? Yes, there is only one in my mind that counts. It is a certain young Princess Rayneshia or Lenessia or Raynesia or whatever version of her name you choose based on the sub or dub you go with, Cowen. I’m going with Raynesia. She is a character that only appears half way through but she has her own isekai journey she takes because she wills it for herself unfortunately. Or fortunately depending on your point of view.

Princess Raynesia, besides the vast amount of wealth and privileges she has of coming from royalty, is an unpowered character in a world of adventurers with powerful magical spells and weapon skills that go beyond normal comprehension. Introduced at the conference between people of the land and adventurers from the Round Table, she is the most relatable person ever. On the outside, she always looks proper, but Raynesia sleeps in all the time after staying up to late, enjoys eating lots of food, has her own comfortable pair of pajamas she prefers to wear compared to the more proper and royal version, and is as anti-social of a person as she could be. Little did she know that meeting the powerful adventurer by the name of Crusty, who is a fun character but treats her like one of his sisters, would change her life forever. It led to Raynesia getting familiar with the adventurers.

Out of all the moments when Crusty and Princess Raynesia were together at the gathering of adventurers and people of the land, I think she got curious about the adventurers because she sort of was forced into it. She was the first person of the land to gain some kind of intimate relationship with one of the adventurers in a less rigid and more familiarly sort of way. It also doesn’t help that Crusty seems to be able to read her mind due to the fact that he knows people like her and how they think. Raynesia was now activated to solve the problems which come from the stuffy and non-changing way the adventurers and people of the land nobles were trying to make a deal to fight against the goblin invasion. She became the wild card in that deadlock scenario by showing up to the meeting and saying she will ask the adventurers for help herself. That led her to a world she didn’t expect to see.

Raynesia’s trip to Akihabara in ask the adventurers to take on the goblins was her own isekai adventure in an isekai anime. Not just because she went outside of a palace for the first time, but because she went to an adventurer village for the first time and dragged into warrior clothing she found deeply embarrassing for adertisement. She saw who the adventurers actually were more than the others by being people who fought and lived to be free, knew about battle strategy that only head military members of the People of the Land knew about, and didn’t belong to any rigid social structure. That short expedition led to her becoming an envoy for the people of the land in that adventurer city. What was she originally promised, three meals and a nap if she didn’t ruin her life of comfort for herself by doing something active? Well, I bet you can guess what she does.

With the disappearance of Crusty, her first link to the adventurers, in season two, Raynesia spends a lot of time learning about the adventurers after finally managing not to judge them or assume some her own beliefs about them carried on by her noble family. As is shown, the princess is far from perfect as well and must get over her own sense of biases. My favorite thing from season 3 was her making a stand against marrying someone she was arranged to marry and becoming the figure of the new round table by taking the place Crusty used held by his charisma and intelligence with her awkwardness and determination. So yeah, she definitely ruined her perfectly comfortable life away from home to go her own route and go paths that haven’t been done before. Maybe at some point, between all the paper work and propaganda, she can have her naps.

Princess Raynesia is my second favorite character in Log Horizon after Kanami because she is the most relatable character in the show to me. I would prefer to sleep and take naps, but I seem to constantly ruin it for myself for one reason or another. I hope you all enjoyed Log Horizon week. Back to normal next week.

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