Let’s continue our journey through the strange and fascinating Simoun! Last week offered our first Floe-focused episode of the show so far, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Floe has always been one of my low-key favorite members of the cast, not necessarily because she herself is charming (I mean, it’s obvious she’s kind of a pill), but because she’s willing to be expressive and needy and petty and generally a full-fledged person in a show where so many of her compatriots work hard to maintain their above-it-all priestess persona. The cast of Simoun are teenage girls who’ve been taught to present themselves as flawless religious icons, and Floe refuses to stop being a teenage girl.
Of course, Floe’s actions aren’t some thoroughly intentional choice designed to undercut the sanctity of her position – she simply does what she wants to, and doesn’t really consider the consequences. It was thus the same qualities that make her such a welcome antidote to the usual priestess image that also put her in a terribly vulnerable position last episode, where she was forced to reckon with the immediate consequences of what priestesses do after developing feelings for an ordinary soldier. Floe has been able to maintain a certain distance from the reality of her situation, but having now destroyed her lover’s home town, I’m guessing she’ll have to finally reckon with her unconsidered feelings on the nature of priestesses. Floe is certainly headstrong, but I feel that her act first, think later philosophy could actually help characters like Neviril, who have many of the same disagreements with Simulacrum society, but less willingness to break protocol in order to voice them. And with Kaimu also being shaken by last episode’s violence, it seems likely the whole team will have to question how they feel about their own work. Let’s dive right back into Simoun!
