sufferu

[sufferu]

…Eh, I’ve written about this before, it’s not a huge spoiler—

Okay so basically: Emilia and Julius were both REALLY CLOSE with Subaru in the last timeline. Emilia was likely actually in a relationship with him, and even if Subaru and Julius weren’t official there was definitely something there. But now they’re three years in the past, the Subaru they had grown so close with is gone forever, and — they love this old one, they really do, but they’re slowly coming to the devastating realization that they can’t love him Like That. It feels too unbalanced. He’s not the same Subaru. They just can’t.

So, they bond over this shared grief, on a level that basically nobody else really shares. And they grow closer, and they realize that they’re developing feelings, and — you know. It’s nice. They’re both stable forces in the other person’s life now, and it’s not particularly exciting, but it’s cozy. They understand one another very well, now, and they respect each other, and now they love each other, too. —And they both LOVE Subaru, even if it’s not like That anymore, and that’s become a genuine point of connection, too. Emilia might even get the strength to go and reconnect with him, someday, since Julius has helped so much with her processing all of…everything. Even if she wants to take care of the Witch Cult situation first.

—Subaru does not have ANY CONTEXT for this. In his mind, Emilia just went and started dating the guy who nearly beat him to death. Was it because he wasn’t enough of a man for her? Does she hate him so much that she was glad to see him do that to him? Was he really that horrible back then?

…He can’t even really be mad at her. He lost, didn’t he? He lost. That’s…that’s on him.

Hello! I can’t help but to ask, have you ever read or heard of Omniscient Readers Viewpoint (ORV)? The way you talk about the themes of self-sacrifice and worth in Re:Zero reminds me a lot ORV, which makes sense considering that both tackle similar themes and consequently are some of my favorite series because of that.

Also, love your work and writing, can’t wait to see that BTZ fic cause chaos >:)

I have not, but I have heard that it’s very good lol: it’s definitely on my list.

And thank you! That fic is. God. “Subaru gets cucked by Julimilia” is completely unironically a plotpoint in the story, I am so cooked—

[sufferu]

I absolutely love the way you write your BTZ post. I wonder if subaru's mental health would be much worse than canon. He thinks everyone just suddenly hates him lmao. Will subaru stay hoping he could someday be useful to them or will he try to leave after everything? Anyways, I love your post man.

I’m so glad you like it! :D

…Eh, I’ll try to answer your question so it’s as spoiler free as possible. ;)

So, this story is basically three fics long, and each one has a very specific vibe to it.

ONE: Subaru is in hell and doesn’t know how to get out. Very angsty and it just seems to get worse and worse to the point of absolute absurdity. Also everyone feels like they’re straight out of Re:Forgotten or something lmao, WHAT is HAPPENING—

TWO: Context is suddenly given for why everyone is acting the way that they are. Pure crack. Benny Hill Theme on full blast. Everyone is rushing to keep Subaru out of harm’s way with all the grace of a bunch of college students trying to wrestle an oiled pig. Things keep going wrong and Subaru’s desperate attempts to be a problem(???) are really not helping.

THREE: Subaru has given up and everyone very suddenly realizes that They Fucked Up. Everyone is desperately hoping that he’ll go back to being a spoiled brat, please. He can be an actual delinquent this time if he wants, even, they’ll put up with it. Welcome it with open arms, even. Subaru gradually learns that this was an enormous fuck-up and no, these people don’t actually hate him, they’re just kinda dumb. The “it gets better” part is finally here. (At one point he starts being an absolute shit and Julius is so happy to see him getting a personality again that he instantly sucks all the fun out of it and then starts pleading with him to PLEASE go back to being a brat, he’s sorry, he’ll act annoyed this time, he PROMISES—) (This one’s so fluffy it might actually give me a toothache ngl)

[sufferu]

we know that if Subaru doesn't help crusch she dies due to the white whale .

I don’t know what point it is that you’re trying to make here lol

[sufferu]

volcanica would completely undo what the nameless spirit did so rem back to sleep ( how was it able to do that) and she will wake up later with no memories of the vision

Not sure there would be a story after that if that were the case lol. I mean, if everything gets reset and nobody remembers anything, what was the point of the whole react fic? May as well not have happened.

[sufferu]

thoughts on how crusch will get cured people have suggested that it will be via volcanica healing her after she humbles herself and accepts that she was wrong ( and also mention without  Subaru, she would never have a chance to defeat White Whale in response to her beliefs ( though even powerful beings can need help)

I mean, regarding Volcanica, Crusch was absolutely right. Maybe her initial reasoning of “Volcanica violated his contract with our kingdom” is debatable (I think that a breach of contract like that is a perfectly reasonable cause to terminate it but w/e), but — every single thing we have learned about that fucking dragon says that Crusch was ABSOLUTELY CORRECT in her decision to work to break that contract. She didn’t even know how right she was. That thing has some sort of advanced dementia to the point where it barely understands what’s even happening around it anymore, it could hardly move when Emilia confronted it, and also Aldebaran just successfully hijacked its body and flew off into the sunset. Crusch could not have been more correct in her assertion that they need to break their contract with the dragon, and everything we learn about it has been driving that point home more and more.

(Also, in a story about defying fate, it’d be kind of odd for a character’s arc resolution to be “submitting to higher powers is the right thing to do.”)

[sufferu]

Hello, was reading your take on the Sloth IF and while I do see the themes of repression, I feel like you're selling Slothbaru short here.

When Rem asks him "Do you regret it" she's talking about having a kid (With all that happening, she had this confession. …Did he want this child to be born?).

And Subaru responds honestly, about how he tried to be a perfect husband to make up for running away (But, I can’t..show you that I am. I……I brought you with me. I’m the one who brought you with me. I wanted to give you everything I had to make you happy. I told myself that I had to do it……).

...and faces his insecurities and self-worth issues head on by accepting that he'll always be afraid, that his fear might never go away (Subaru, as someone who couldn’t look at his parents in the face, always had a fear of becoming a parent. He still does. It wasn’t gone. It probably would never go away... But, at the same time, Subaru knew something. He knew the love of the best role model parents in the whole world.) He thinks of his parents for the first time since he came to this place, admits that he wasn't a good kid, and remains determined to love his kid anyway.

It's essentially everything he was meant to say on the rooftop in From Zero, just filtered through the lens of being a parent. Sure, it took him over a year to get there, but he did face his issues in the end. Thematically, the story wouldn't have ended with that exchange between Subaru and Rem, as well as how he handled Zarestia/Reese, if the story was about him avoiding his problems and succumbing to Sloth.

I really don’t agree with that, to be honest — for starters because Rem’s question about if he regrets it or not is explicitly stated, by Subaru, to be the first time in a year that either of them have actually acknowledged the decision made in the Capital that day to run away. Even if you want to make the argument that Rem wasn’t asking about that (I’d disagree but if you wanted to make that argument) — it’s still very explicitly how Subaru interpreted the question that she was asking him. At the very least, the question of the child is the culmination of “Do you regret…any of the decisions that led to this moment?” In which case, of course, he’s only focusing on one aspect of the question — that being the birth of their child. Even as Rem explicitly grows her hair out in order to emulate her, Emilia still never gets brought up even once. He is ONLY focusing on being a parent and husband — and he’s making a commitment to that role, but in doing so he is avoiding everything else.

And, of course, he is committing to become a copy of Natsuki Kenichi, the man who’s shadow he never really managed to step out of.

This decision later reflects in his relationship with his son being the same as the one that he had with his old man, right down to him passing down that exact same hairstyle to Rigel. —Hell, Rigel’s whole character is just the culmination of all of the things that Subaru and Rem never really managed to properly digest. He’s a one-horned oni, he’s the son of one of the most respected men in his town, he’s even a closet crossdresser. Subaru never really figured out what Natsumi Schwartz was to him and never stopped emulating his father, Rem never stopped feeling guilty about being Ram’s twin and making it so both of them only had a single horn, and now Rigel gets to deal with all of it at once.

(Plus there’s the QnA detail that Subaru gets sent right back to Arc 3 when he dies, which is a pretty major hint that he really, REALLY never managed to come to terms with what happened that day.)

And also — just, on a meta level: it’s a Sin Route. It’s a little different than the others because it does not look all that bad on the surface — everything that makes it a Sin Route hinges on what Subaru specifically Does Not Say, and that honestly makes it look almost downright utopian at times — but it’s still an IF Route labeled after one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It’s marked as a Bad Ending for a reason, and it’s marked as Sloth for a reason, too.

[sufferu]

Volcanica worshipped by lugunicas and so he could force them to obey his will since they wouldn't defy the dragon

So God comes town, forces everyone to accept Subaru as a knight whether they like it or not, and then offers to reset the status quo (either partially or completely) so that things can continue as they were.

Man, Crusch would suddenly get So Many Reasons to continue what she was doing lmao

[sufferu]

it would be interesting if we had an oc like a dragonkin of volcanica who comforted Subaru at the start of no refunds and pointed out they were just over protective and called them out for trying to take his choice away ( pointedly asking them what would you do for your loved ones ) Subaru hasn't abused rbd etc ( basically his efforts force them to go down the og arc 5 route with minor changes ( or he outright offers them the chance to erase their memories of it ( and erase subaru's memories because the whole thing was traumatic alongside calling the nameless great spirit of yin an idiot)

So, a random third party shows up with no prior personal or emotional connection to Subaru (or anyone else), orders everyone to allow him to continue being a knight, and then offers to entirely undo the RBD reveal so that they can all go back to living in blissful ignorance about what’s been going on this whole time (or erase just Subaru’s memories so that he won’t have any idea how they suddenly know everything, or maybe even that they know at all).

…Honestly my main question here is why you specifically think that the third party in question should be a dragonkin of Volcanica.

[sufferu]

I was reading your BTZ posts and saw Subaru’s “they all hate me” followed by “they know EVERYTHING about me HOW” do of course my immediate thought for Subaru was “they hate me because they know everything about me” which… imagine the poor guy comes up with a rationale like that lmao

Pfft, this guy’s mental state is FUCKED.

[sufferu]

You know, it’s a very minor thing, but it does make me a little sad how the Re:Zero anime adaptation…really DOES tone down a lot of the queer subtext in the original LN.

No Subaru proudly remembering his past as an androgynous, long-haired kid and lamenting that “time has not been kind to him”

All of Subaru’s comments about women being very pointedly based around their clothing (with the only exceptions being when he’s explicitly trying to distract them from something/lighten the mood) being changed to him making sincere comments about their actual bodies

No Subaru crossdressing for the first three days of high school (despite it being hinted to be a really pivotal part of his character actually, in both the text and QnAs—)

No Subaru accidentally dressing as a maid during the last day of the first Arc 2 loop and having a genuinely really hard time stepping out of that more feminine persona

No Subaru calling Otto his boytoy and. Honest to god, with context of what Natsumi Schwartz is like, I’m pretty sure Subaru was straight up flirting

No “supple hips” Julius, or Subaru allying his feelings with Patrasche when he thought she was being aggressive towards Julius’ steed before being told that actually she was trying to MATE with the other ground dragon, and even when they do include some of their interactions it really is toned down from the LN (I get that a lot of it is just visual vs prose medium but it still makes me kinda sad)

No Subaru referring to Reinhard as an ikeman

No Ferris jumping on Subaru’s bed and then going, “Wait did your heart flutter just now—?” and then explicitly staring at him with shock when Subaru hastily tries to deny it

Emilia’s definition of marriage being “between two people who love each other” being changed to “between a man and a woman who love each other” (though maybe that was just Crunchyroll? idk)

No Subaru explicitly being a really insane flirt with men (though I’m kinda holding onto hope that it’ll happen later as it comes up)

Ah, I hope they don’t alter Natsumi Schwartz’ appearance in Arc 7 too much…

[sufferu]

Hello! I can’t help but to ask, have you ever read or heard of Omniscient Readers Viewpoint (ORV)? The way you talk about the themes of self-sacrifice and worth in Re:Zero reminds me a lot ORV, which makes sense considering that both tackle similar themes and consequently are some of my favorite series because of that.

Also, love your work and writing, can’t wait to see that BTZ fic cause chaos >:)

I have not, but I have heard that it’s very good lol: it’s definitely on my list.

And thank you! That fic is. God. “Subaru gets cucked by Julimilia” is completely unironically a plotpoint in the story, I am so cooked—

[sufferu]

Your fantastic writing skills gave me angst I demand compensation. Lol. You gave me a lot to think about and I have to say, in my nearly 9 years of being an avid fanfic reader. A writer never made me THIS invested.

After being abandoned by everyone, do you think subaru will go to Priscilla? She was the only one who saw his side.

I have to say tho I get Subaru's side more. He can't control RBD. If anyone had the power to bring back loved ones they would. I'm sure Ferris wouldn't hesitate to save crush. I think everybody is so upset that they tunnel visioned and didn't do right by him. Everything is outside of his control. He doesn't choose to come back. But he is, so he tries to save more people everytime.

Subaru obviously has issues. And I don't like the way the re zero narrative punishes him for using RBD. Meanwhile, Al is over here spaming reset with no consequences.

The world hates Subaru and the rest of the cast blame him. He is trying harder then ANYONE to LIVE, but they call him a suicidal monster.

I’m so glad that you’re enjoying my fic! That is some high praise right there, lol: I do hope to meet those expectations going forward ;)

Though I will say…I am approaching this from a slightly different angle. For starters — this will be a lot clearer in the actual chapter than it was in this ficlet, but Arc 5 does not go the same way it does in canon, hence how Subaru managed to save EVERYONE and capture/kill literally every attacking Archbishop in Priestella. This is the main reason why everyone is so angry and devastated. If it were canon Arc 5, things might have gone differently. …Then again, Arc 8 DOES exist. So maybe we would have ended up in this situation someday regardless.

But also…well.

Return By Death isn’t JUST a powerful ability that Subaru has access to: it is the epitome of weaponized self-destruction, in which he can literally sacrifice himself over and over again for the sake of those around him whether they like it or not. He is fully capable of taking all their pain on himself, of placing himself in unimaginably horrible situations on other people’s behalf, and doing it for…maybe even all of eternity, depending on how things go. If you’ve ever read The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K Le Guin — Subaru has the potential to basically become That for the entirety of Lugunica. And even worse: if he’s employed as a knight, it is arguably his sworn duty to do exactly that, because a knight is a profession in which one lays down their life for the people they want to protect. What does that turn into when the knight can do that again and again, indefinitely?

The cast of Re:Zero shows every sign that they would absolutely fucking hate the idea of being reliant on something that disgusting. Julius sacrifices his reputation to try and keep Subaru alive, Tivey and Hetaro declare that throwing away one’s life for a cause is a fucking joke, Ferris has this whole thing about valuing life to the point where just a hint of Subaru being suicidal sends him into an actual nervous breakdown, Vincent is raked through the coals for his attempt to sacrifice himself for his country just that one time by both the narrative and the people around him, Arc 4 exists — there’s A Lot that points to most of these characters finding the idea of this cycle of repeated sacrifice bring just AWFUL, and even to the idea that they’d actively take offense to someone attempting to do such a thing on their behalf.

There is one exception to this rule, however, and that is Priscilla Barielle — who actively praises subjects that sacrifice themselves for her, who forces Aldebaran to reset whenever he does something she doesn’t like, who praised Subaru as a brilliant knight when he was (narratively speaking) at his very worst, who symbolizes the mechanisms of fate itself, who’s final moment involved her sacrificing herself for her homeland, and who is in every way the pinnacle of the Sword Wolf that Vollachia praises as the ideal subject (VOLLACHIA, mind you, which is a nation that has the whole Muspel contract going on). Priscilla is an actual monster, an awful personality, and the antithesis of the themes of Re:Zero. So her siding with Subaru in this instance is — completely in character, but it’s one of the most damning things I feel I could have done.

(I am glad that someone was able to actually connect with her though — was afraid that I made her too cartoonishly evil lmao)

As for what’s happening to Subaru now…well, you’re right about the end of that duel being the rock bottom of his character’s state in this fic. But — just because he was fired from his post doesn’t mean he’s being ABANDONED. They can’t afford to abandon a time traveler to be left to his own devices, first of all. But also, even in they’re all Very Angry with him right now…all these people still love him an awful lot. There’s a reason Wilhelm decided to duel him for the position and take the blame for his removal all upon himself, instead of doing something that would leave Subaru more at the mercy of public opinion. And there’s a reason Crusch’s idea of “suicide watch” was basically, “Hey, Wilhelm, do you want a new grandchild?” instead of something like “Let’s imprison him in the catacombs of the Kingdom.” They DO care about him. That’s the problem.

[sufferu]

It’s also fucking ridiculous on a lot of individual levels. Like—

Subaru: I messed up. I messed up so bad. Emilia hates me now, I messed up, I messed up, I messed up—

Emilia, constantly on the verge of tears: I will not mess up again I will not mess up again I will not mess up again I will not—

_

Subaru: Rem’s mad at me, too? But we were — we were so close before! How did I mess up this horribly? Was what I did really this bad?

Rem, so horrified by everything that she’s practically numb at this point: I cannot do what I did last time, for the love of everything in the world I CANNOT tell Subaru to go and be a hero, for FUCK’S SAKE— WHY DOES HE STILL WANT ME AROUND AFTER I TORTURED HIM TO DEATH?!?!

_

Subaru: Why won’t Ram tease me anymore? Please come back, I’m sorry…

Ram, horribly awkward: Subaru I cannot joke about that sort of thing when I apparently ACTUALLY murdered you. I cannot encourage this behavior on your part. Why are you like this.

_

Subaru: I need to impress Wilhelm. I need to work hard and get better so that he’ll be proud of me. I want him to be proud of me, I want him to be proud, please—?

Wilhelm, achingly: My sweet, adorable, pathetic mess of a new grandchild who I fully plan to adopt as soon as I prove my worth by eviscerating the Witch Cult that is threatening your existence, please stop begging me to train you for lethal combat—

_

Subaru: I think Julius is planning to torture me.

Julius, wistfully: I really did miss this brattier version of Subaru :) I know he’ll need to grow up eventually but he’s just so cute right now, all I want to do is tease him all the time—

_

Subaru: Reinhard hates me now. He’s so strict with me all the time, and he never lets me leave his sight when he escorts me into the Capital, and he always forces me to follow these arbitrary rules, and if I ever fail to do what he says to the letter he drags me back to the Estate by the ear like some sort of—

Reinhard: l i t t l e b r o t h e r.

_

Subaru: The Captain of the Iron Fang really doesn’t like me. I don’t know why I’m on his bad side. Why does everyone hate me so much?

Ricardo, on the verge of an aneurysm: Subaru for the love of all that is holy sTOP SNEAKING INTO OUR CARRIAGES TRYING TO JOIN US ON DANGEROUS MERCENARY JOBS—

_

Subaru: Who is this scheming merchant and why am I the only one concerned by this

Otto, doing a horrible job at disguising his true intentions due to being completely wrong about being the only one who went back in time: I am so good at this. Nobody suspects a thing.

_

Subaru: Who is this monster that almost kidnapped me and when is he going home

Cecilus, beaming: I am never going home :D not without Boss!

_

Subaru: How did I make the Emperor of the neighboring country not like me?? I tried so hard to be polite this time…

Vincent, pouting: why won’t subaru pick fights with me anymore, this is bullshit

_

Subaru: Who are all of these escaped criminals and why are they still here?!

The Pleiades Battalion: s c h w a r t z - s a m a a a a a…

_

Subaru: WHY IS SHE HERE?!?!

Elsa: Why am I here????

Writing the BTZ fic(s) right now and it’s fucking hysterical, because the first one is solely from Subaru’s POV, which is really sad and angsty and him trying desperately to make everyone stop hating him because they all suddenly seem to absolutely despise him right down to his bones — and then you get everyone else’s POV of those exact same events and it’s just the Benny Hill Theme on full blast.

[sufferu]

Did I ever mention that BTZ!Wilhelm was genuinely looking forward to spending time with Subaru doing more domestic grandfather-grandchild activities? Like this man was genuinely starting to plan shit like going to the local theatre together or playing this world’s equivalent of catch in the gardens or regularly having afternoon tea. It didn’t help that he saw EVERYTHING with Natsumi Schwartz and — once the shock wore off — kinda started thinking like, “…well I guess I’ve never had a GRANDDAUGHTER before…” cause while terms like trans/nonbinary don’t exist in Re:Zero like they do irl, Wilhelm has been serving Crusch for long enough to have an idea that some people “can fill both the male and the female role” and not have too much trouble applying that logic to whatever Subaru’s apparently got going on. So then he started thinking about stuff like makeovers and baking and gardening and whatever else his wife used to force him to go along with way back when—

And then Subaru was like “please train me in lethal combat” and he just. Won’t. Give. Up. He doesn’t even LIKE the idea of being a soldier, Wilhelm KNOWS he doesn’t want to kill his enemies or fight long battles in the sun or even particularly care about swordsmanship as a sport, but for some reason he’s gotten SO much more stubborn all of a sudden. Wilhelm just wanted to read fairytales in the Karsten Library with him or something, why is THIS what Subaru has insisted on doing for Od’s sake—!

[sufferu]

So I know that you've gotten like a dozen asks about later scenes and maintain that there's no new status quo to reflect from, and I don't mean to retread ground. That said I'm reading LN arc 6, an arc I haven't reread since WN arc 6 was ongoing, and I just want to take a moment to lament that Subaru's "resummon" won't be covered. Like having arc 1 fresh on the mind when reading it just makes it crystal clear how much of his behavior is just desperately trying to keep himself from thinking about home. Without saving Emilia to focus on he immediately blames himself and decides it must be his punishment for being a bad son and that unwashed mug and it's just heartrending. Between that and him literally developing an inferiority complex to his past self because his self-worth is so low he can't fathom why these people would like and think highly of him, I think it'd just atomize the hearts of the entire cast.

I see where you’re coming from, but consider: they may just figure some of that out anyway ;)

The cast isn’t approaching this from the perspective of the usual Re:Zero audience: they see Subaru as both their friend and a human individual, and that automatically makes them less likely to — ignore certain aspects of his situation. Plus, Subaru is right there with them for additional insight if they want to prod for it…

[sufferu]

Subaru: Emilia hates me now. Rem won’t talk to me anymore. Ferris thinks I’m scum. Wilhelm-san thinks I’m a useless piece of shit. All of these soldiers are watching me almost constantly to make sure I don’t do something bad again. I want to be useful. I want to be loved. I’m sorry, whatever I did I’m so sorry, please just love me again—

Everyone Else: It is day 25 of trying to keep Natsuki Subaru alive. Subaru tried to sneak into the Iron Fang’s carriages again and was only found by Ricardo due to a stroke of luck. He’s getting smarter. It’s the fourth time this month. Yesterday he tried to mop the second floor for some reason and somehow fell out the window, and was only saved from cracking his head open through Rem’s use of her flail. Ferris still had to fix up his bruised ribs. Julius suspects that he plans to try and sneak out again soon, and although he’s tried to discourage it we must prepare our defenses appropriately. The Emperor of Vollachia has sent his First Divine General with a declaration that he wishes to take Subaru with him to his war-torn hellscape of a country. Cecilus nearly kidnapped Subaru by force and was only successfully stopped because Reinhard happened to be close by. A mabeast somehow snuck past our defenses three days ago and Subaru nearly got killed trying to pet it because it looked soft and fluffy. He has still not stopped pestering Wilhelm for sword lessons, and Wilhelm is running out of ways to make them unpleasant. Trying to keep one guy from throwing himself off a cliff should not be anywhere near this difficult—

Writing the BTZ fic(s) right now and it’s fucking hysterical, because the first one is solely from Subaru’s POV, which is really sad and angsty and him trying desperately to make everyone stop hating him because they all suddenly seem to absolutely despise him right down to his bones — and then you get everyone else’s POV of those exact same events and it’s just the Benny Hill Theme on full blast.

[sufferu]

Question, sorry if it’s been asked and answered before. How do you think the cast would react to pride if? Both the envy route and the pride route, what would be the alternative reactions to it? I can imagine the pride route characters after the viewing immediately deciding to go the imprisonment route of containing Subaru because killing him won’t work. And I’m not quite sure how the envy route would react to an alternate timeline of events, but definitely most likely horrified by this route. But you can ignore the envy route questions if you want, but the pride if is very interesting, especially if it’s the exact same cast as dog show. (Again sorry if this has been asked before, and apologies in advance for any follow up questions I might ask later)

Okay so, I feel like you’re asking me two different questions? By that I mean, with two different casts—

1) Original Dogshow Cast, beginning of Arc 5

Honestly I don’t think they’d even take it seriously. Like, maybe at first they’d be taking it seriously, as they watch those first three loops and maybe even those first few scenes of the Ayamatsu story (Rachins freaks at the idea of Subaru straight up murdering him in that alley but like. He DID kill Subaru first, so…) but then it’s like — sometime between Subaru getting a Gospel and Subaru becoming besties with Petelgeuse, everyone one by one completely loses the ability to actually go along with all this. It’s just too much: they KNOW Subaru, and the idea of Subaru going and doing all the bullshit he does in Ayamatsu is so ridiculous that it completely destroys their suspension of disbelief and now they’re all basically watching the corniest slasher movie fanfic they could have conceived of.

Reinhard is horrified at the burning of Lugunica, but that’s more at the idea that the version of himself onscreen can’t do anything about something so awful than it is about Subaru, specifically. Otto shivers at the idea of becoming a debt slave due to Subaru never stepping in to help him with that oil problem, but he puts it aside easily enough as things go on. At one point Ferris almost snaps out of it due to the horror of Crusch being erased, but then it’s followed up by “Subaru brainwashes Ferris into becoming his loyal servant” and now Ferris has decided that he will absolutely never let real!Subaru live down this bullshit parody version of himself, ever. The only person in that room who I think would be seriously traumatized by all that is Subaru himself, whose horrified reactions completely ease everyone else’s concerns about any of this EVER becoming a reality, because — look at him. Afterwards it’s like, “Okay, so — Ferris, stop laughing — those first three loops, did THEY actually happen?” “I’m so glad we got that cheesy-ass fanfic to ease some tension, god I needed that…”

But even that is just considering like — did they see those first three loops, or did they get catapulted into Ayamatsu with no context? Because if they got catapulted into Ayamatsu with no context then absolutely nobody is taking any of this seriously, from basically the moment Subaru kills Tonchinkan in the alley. (Except maybe Subaru, who at least recognizes that Return By Death is a thing that exists.)

2) Pre-Series Cast who never met Subaru before in their lives and is therefore at risk of entering the Ayamatsu route

This is the one time so far where the word “imprisonment” actually fits with what everyone is planning. Like okay — in regular Dogshow, the closest thing to that concept is “we need to put him on suicide watch,” and the one time that idea was developed past anything beyond throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what might stick as a half-decent idea, it was Crusch turning to Wilhelm and saying, “The Astrea Family has the resources to care for a suicide risk. How do you feel about a new grandson?” —But in THIS case, Subaru isn’t their friend: he’s a threat. As soon as he shows up, they’re gonna trap him and imprison him somewhere where he cannot die and keep him there until they figure out a way to neutralize the threat he represents for good.

If Subaru is right there with them and also pre-series, then they might be a little more assured simply because he’s just going “WHAT THE FUCK???” more and more as things go on. They manage to talk to him a bit before he disappears and kinda settle on “Alright, you would probably never do this, but we can’t take that chance — so in case you DO come here we’re just gonna prepare a room in the castle or something for you so that we can keep you secure just — for everyone’s sake.” “You guys have a castle???” The anticlimactic comedy skit of the ages. Subaru gets Isekai’d and immediately wanders over to the knight’s tower to wait for someone to come pick him up. “…You want some chips?” Most surreal series of events ever.

(They’re totally willing to just let him freeload indefinitely so long as he Stays Where They Can See Him, but eventually he convinced them to at least let him do SOMETHING to earn his keep, cause that’s the kind of guy he is. Subaru becomes the royal tailor. Nobody can answer the question of how he got the job, but at least he’s good at it, so whatever.)