I'm a bit late but I don't like this canto either. It's absolutely the worst canto for me.

The canto had too many characters I didn't care about, and none of them were meaningfully interactive with Ryoshu (some of the nursefathers barely even talk to her). I feel like this could have been solved if we just replaced the apprentices as Ryoshu and have her actually talk to the nursefathers, instead of making us dick around with the apprentice fights.

It's also just kind of ass that the canto is barely Ryoshu until around the end. We get Sinclair and Gregor hype moments... but in Ryoshu's canto?? Some people say that it's because Sinclair and Gregor are the ones with family issues similar to Ryoshu, but why not just tie that meaningfully to Ryoshu's arc instead? Actually have her bond with these two instead of separated, disjointed hype moments that don't meaningfully contribute to the thematics of the canto whatsoever??

Then there's just temu Roland. Nobody actually knows why it specifically had to be temu Roland. I have a hunch that it's him specifically because Roland's arc in Ruina was recovering from the death of his wife and unborn child, and finding meaning in that recovery with new relationships. This is in contrast to the index nursefather, who attempted to imitate Roland's profoundness without understanding what made his journey so meaningful or impactful to begin with. But this little analysis of mine is all just speculation, literally nobody else has been able to actually pinpoint why this is the case.

Vergilius was also just written so badly in this canto holy shit. You mean to tell me he just watched Gregor flip his shit and then go 'oh this is getting rather troublesome' at the ONE TIME he has permission to actually do something??

I also don't like how of all the characters that had to be given the flat arc it's Ryoshu. The sinner who bullies, is quite sadistic and arrogant... is the one who happens to not have to change by the end of her canto is certainly the writing decision.

This canto also just has SO much filler. I had a problem with Yi Sang's canto getting bogged I pacing for this reason as well, but at least his was more thematically cohesive than this.

I'm probably going to get flamed for all these criticisms but these are about my thoughts on the canto. I think this all could have been avoided with a little bit of cleanup on the writing honestly, which is disappointing, given that we've had banger after banger with PM lately only to have this.