Top Dark Moments That Make Sentenced to Be a Hero Unique
- animefocusnetwork
- Feb 17
- 5 min read
There's many reasons why Sentenced to Be a Hero feels so dark, and honestly, its such a breath of fresh air amongst all the saturated anime out there. Having one like this that has a twist on words (Hero in this world means a criminal), and even the art style compliments this genre.
Sentenced to Be a Hero is actually a dark fantasy, action and adventure anime. The most prominent one that shines through from these genres is the dark fantasy aspect, which I LOVE! So in this list we will break down the top dark moments that make Sentenced to Be a Hero unique.
Who Are The Main Villains in Sentenced to Be a Hero
The main villains of the series is the Demon Lords and these creatures are responsible for the Demon Blight. We see this corruption right at the beginning of the season, and it was spectacular I'm not going to lie. During this episode Xylo and Dotta help the knights escape and we see a large horde of creatures, these creatures are known as the faeries. Soon after, a larger one appears that has one large eyeball and is flying, this is one of the Demon Lords. These Demon Lords are higher ranked than the faeries (corrupted beings), although not directly under their control. However, to understand the faeries, we need to understand what the Demon Blight is.
This is a supernatural corruption of sorts that spreads from all the Demon Lords' territories and infects everything around it, including the land, creatures and sometimes even humans. The aggressive creatures that we see running without any purpose in large numbers are called faeries and are directly created by the Demon blight.
On the other hand, there is also villains from inside the human nation. These aren't creatures or Demon Lords. Rather, they are the corrupt officials and everyone in charge that sit at the very top of the hierarchy system. These officials keep the balance by sentencing criminals as heroes. At the end of Season 1 Episode 1, we see this corrupt system in action.
Xylo was sentenced to be a hero for following orders. During a big fight with Xylo and a Demon Lord, Xylo's goddess, Senerva, was starting to become affected by the Demon Blight, so Xylo was commanded to end her. He did not do this out of rebellion, rather out of duty.
The higher up officials treated this as high treason and sentenced him to be a hero.
Top Dark Moments That Make Sentenced to Be a Hero Unique
The Betrayal
Xylo Forbartz wasn't just any ordinary person before he was a sentenced hero, he was actually a Holy Knight Captain. Meaning, he was a highly respected figure in this world, and his presence and reputation earned him the trust of both the military and the ordinary citizens. However, all this changed simply because the system demanded it. And I'm not talking about some artificial system that controls everything, rather humans who control everything.
The council could not publicly admit that the goddess who Xylo killed was about to be corrupted, so he had to end her life. This would undermine their authority and above all else, their religion. This would mean they had to preserve the system that is in place, the higher ups framed Xylo as the evil villain and claimed he murdered the goddess without a just cause.
Out of everything that can happen, this is the worst possible outcome. Not only did Xylo lose his standing and a full life's worth of work to reach where he was, he also lost the trust he once had with everyone around him.
However, when I go more into detail with this, the story doesn't seem to show anything about his old comrades (the knights who served under him). But with his former goddess being defeated, I'm guessing everyone who happened to be at that big battle, perished as well. Afterall, the higher ups would have dealt with any witnesses in the same manor. This betrayal would leave Xylo completely alone in the world after the tragedy that changed his life indefinitely.
Forced sacrifice
Being a hero or a sentenced convict in Sentenced to Be a Hero can be a lonely one. Some people get convicted even because of petty crimes (Xylo's case), although, majority do deserve it. The main reason for this is because the higher-ups need more people to do their bidding, and be expendable on the front lines. A sentenced hero is also one of the kingdom's strongest weapons.
These heroes are pawns to be sacrificed in order to help a retreat or even to complete a mission. Meaning, they are basically property and nothing else. This is more evident in episodes 2 and 3 of the series.
In episode 3, the Heroes are tasked with clearing the Zewan Gan tunnels. This is a mine that's been overrun by the Demon Blight. The orders of the unit is basically to supress the enemy, rather than saves citizens lives. Unfortunately there were still mine workers left in the tunnels and the higher up and knights knew all about it. The Heroes went far into the tunnels to fight off waves of enemies, while the Knights simply just sat and did nothing. They have the power and the numbers, but would rather watch the Heroes die than do anything to help.
The worst part is that the heroes were doing this to help the citizens. After winning the battle, the citizens still pretty much treated them the same, except for very few. This just shows that a heroes entire existence is meaningless, and all they live for is to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others, or more specifically "The higher ups."
The Dehumanization of the Goddesses
Goddesses, as the name implies refers to divine beings or something straight out of mythology. However, in Sentenced to Be a Hero, a goddess refers to something else. While they do rank far above the heroes and citizens, and are highly protected, this does not mean they are respected. Rather, they are placed above others because they are symbols of order or justice or as the name implies, a sort of divine mandate for the people.
The goddesses feelings, moral judgement or even their urgency to do something is largely ignored by the higher ups. They are solely used to keep order and are treated as a powerful weapon instead. So, think of them as a nuke that need to be protected, it does not need to think or act on its own, rather it just needs too be used or send a message across of it's power or authority of the people in charge of it.
How These Dark Moments Capture the Heart of the Story
Every good story needs a deep rooted idea that captures the hearts of people. For example, in Attack on Titan, Eren seeing his mom getting eaten alive by a titan not only added depth to the story, it captured our attention like no happy moment could. It made us invested in seeing the outcome of the story and how Eren would respond. The same can be said about this series.
These dark themes that show how bad the goddesses are treated and how bad heroes are, this makes us want to give our full attention to the series to see how it concludes. The Goddesses needing praise and pats gives a light in the darkness, showing that these powerful beings aren't just weapons that need to be used, rather they have emotions and wills of their own.
With the higher ups only caring about themselves, this gives us another reason to want to see them fall. Its a tale as old as time, and more importantly "it works."
Sentenced to be a hero is currently airing on: Crunchyroll
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