The following contains spoilers for Episode 12 of The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody, "Beyond Our Determination," now streaming on Crunchyroll.

In Episode 12 of The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody, "Beyond Our Determination," Ard faces off against his alter ego Disaster Rogue to fulfill the request of God and save his timeline. The pair swap powerful blows but appear to be equally matched when it comes to their swordsmanship and magical capabilities. However, “The Complete Failure” has a few tricks up his sleeve to make the battle more interesting, from capturing Ireena and Ginny to separating his soul to become an immortal being.

So far, the series has gone through many ups and downs. While The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody showed promise in its early stages, it quickly declined in quality and became a cookie-cutter mess. Over the course of this dimension-hopping arc, characters have finally started to receive the attention they deserve and the show’s law has been expanded. Unfortunately though, "Beyond Our Determination" marks another step backward, ending the first season of the show with a whimper rather than a bang.

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Ginny and Ireena’s Poor Character Development

Ireena And Ginny

Ireena and Ginny discover that Ard has left them behind to face Disaster Rogue. However, Latima quickly informs them that they’ve been tasked with destroying a crystal that is the source of The Demon Lord’s immortality. After arriving, Latima betrays the pair by binding them to magic-nullifying crosses and revealing that she is working for Disaster Rogue. While Ireena and Ginny are able to escape from their bonds by using atypical magic taught by Ard, they are ultimately saved by Lydia, who placed tracking devices on them.

Throughout the series, Ireena and Ginny have often been a burden on Ard (and other characters), who continuously save them due to their lack of strength, magical capabilities or quite frankly, intelligence. The pair have repeatedly been captured and placed those around them at great risk. This episode offered their final opportunity to grow as characters, take responsibility for their actions and become independent figures within the story. While they managed to remove themselves from the magic-nullifying crosses, Lydia’s entrance prevented them from any further development.

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The Death of Disaster Rogue

Ard and Demon Lord

The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody’s late inclusion of infinite timelines, worlds and universes was certainly an interesting twist. Mix this with some "historical" world-building and a villain that is the older self of the show’s protagonist from another dimension and the series began to look like it was making strides in the right direction. Was any of this complex, in-depth or well done? Not really, but at least it was a bit of fun and more interesting than the harem-driven stories seen previously.

While it’s unclear what will happen in the following season, the death of Disaster Rogue, plus Ard, Ireena and Ginny’s return to their original timeline, likely mark the end of this plot line. This might mean that better things are still to come, but in all likelihood, the series will continue to chop and change villains and remain focused on the day-to-day of the Laville National Academy of Magic.

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God

It’s a shame that the series ended in this way. The premise of a powerful magician being reincarnated into the body of a "nobody" held promise, as did the beginnings of the world that is built around this concept. However, the lack of each character's development, Ard’s overpowered capabilities and the show’s sheer lack of consistency when it came to each storyline led to a rather mediocre viewing experience.

While there are certainly positives to take away from the series, they are too few and far between to recommend sitting through this season's nearly five-hour runtime. With any luck, subsequent installments of the show will improve upon the rocky foundation that it has currently built and make better use of its characters.