Mael was done dirty at the end. NNT sucked hard at the end.
Yeah, he had to be held down by PIS to let Escanor shine during the final battle because ain't no way in hell I'm believing that Mael out of all people is scared of fighting the Demon King.
But tbh that's more of a NNT problem because as you said, the ending was pretty much garbage.
The moment I learned sunshine is borrowed power , my interest and respect for escanor went to zero. Sunshine should have never been connected to any other character and should have been something special only to escanor.
The only saving Grace is the fact that Sunshine itself picked Escanor because he was worthy. The thing is, what do you understand by worthy; having the capacity to grow a pair of balls when you get stronger while being scared of everything when you are not? Because iirc, Escanor only showed signs of deserving such a grace when he fought a low demon even tho he was getting folded. Which didn't happen until basically the end of NNT itself so... Why did he get chosen? And it's not like you could say that he got picked because his body was capable of handling Sunshine cuz he was literally burning away his lifespan whenever he used the Grace itself.
Like, just imagine if against Galand, instead of being scared and then getting one tapped, he decided to play his cards, to stall for some time for the sun to raise up so that he could actually fight them. Overwhelming enemies at day with strength while outsmarting enemies during the night. Now that would've been someone worthy of a Grace. The Sin of the Pride pretty much takes pride on borrowed power which is insane to me.
Mael/estarossa best character by far imo. My fav NNT character
Couldn't agree more with you. The plot twist was honestly beautiful. I didn't love it that much when I first saw it but it grew up on me very very fast. Mael and Ban are the only good things to come out of NNT. That and the spears of the Fairy Kings. Dunno why but I love them too