#(the one that killed theresia)

[j2x3e]

Reinhard and Felt Role Swap for @deafknell's fanweek: Day 2

[cursed-dreamers-dream]

I think my first experience with Heinkel was through a fanfic that also introduced me to Joshua.

so, dead wife huh

[suffarustuffaru]

terrible ideas for rezero matching icons (arc 8 and ex spoilers)

spica going :D while julius and otto plot to kill her. this can even work extremely well without spica. here is some concept art. im gonna make this one real bc me and a pal wanna do it

^^ add in rem and subaru matching icons if you want (they’re screaming in horror)

felix / fourier / crusch but fourier is Deceased and felix and crusch are bawling

felix and julius………………………….. from That Scene in pride if

rowan, cecilus, and the heavenly sword.

cat garfiel and cat heinkel from garfiel’s theatre dream

rabbit. and subaru.

normal julius icon paired with a gluttonyed joshua.

pandora. and theresia. and a white bird

a set of astrea icons but louanna is eepy and theresia is just a jar of ash

greed if ottosuba icons but it’s a transparent otto going “gay gay homosexual gay” and subaru going “FUUUCK I CAN STILL HEAR HIS VOICE”. add in a matching echidna icon too

greed if subaru / a half-dead echidna. if you know you know

gluttonybaru / random ass book of the dead. like the matching icon to subaru is just a whole ass book

todd and subaru but like this:

^^ alternatively the same as the above but with louis and subaru

main route otto / a literal wall / greed if subaru

cute 🫶 matching icons but one is subaru and the other is satella’s shadow hands

emisuba icons but its them dead and holding hands from arc 1

anastasia, ram, subaru, and patrasche………………. from the miasma tunnel scene

meili / pushing amnesiabaru down those stairs

subaru…………………. and an unwashed cup

cute icon of emilia kissing subaru / subaru being FUCKJNG DEAD

arc 3 julisuba duel

julius / reid beating his ass

normal natsuki family icons!!!! with naoko, kenichi, an empty frame ("Subaru, where are you?"), and a jar of mayo.

subaru + getting stabbed/jumped by rachins, camberley, and gaston (the three guys from arc 1) + a hot woman watching them bc camberley has the dp of bedroom wiles—

cecilus / halibel / subaru (wrath if edition)

subaru, rem, their children, and appa man raising an eyebrow and asking him whether he is fine (sloth if subaru returning back to the arc 3 save point after dying of old age)

rem and “who?”

the barbie and ken meme with otto and subaru bc theyre definitely the kind of people to get arrested together. they literally have in a lost in memories if route

pridebaru doing half a hand heart / reinhard too busy crying to do the other half / emilia killing pride

little kid otto, otto’s cat crush, and the cat’s crush

joshua. and an apple. if you know you know

louis / rem strangling subaru LMFAOO

subaru flinging paperwork off frame / otto drowning in paperwork

the three idiots crossdressing! :) this is the most normal idea on this list.

EDIT BC I FORGOT TO ADD THIS ONE: regulus and reinhard in arc 5 being launched to the moon :)

some of these are ideas from my pals (you know who you are). also if you have more awful ideas or wanna see some of these become real feel free to say so 🙏🙏🙏

[nesiacha]

Relations between Babeuf and Robespierre

Babeuf had a rather complex opinion of Robespierre (worship then hate then worship). In fact, this dates back well before the French Revolution. Through Dubois, Babeuf praises Robespierre. After all, Babeuf already had strong views about the Revolution. Here’s what he says about Robespierre: “He knows, as we do, that most of the time, bastards are the children of poor girls and ‘young men,’ sons of families whose parents would disinherit them if they had the misfortune of marrying beneath them, to avoid committing an outrage, to avoid sullying themselves with a crime. He knows, as we do, that the great factory of bastards is in the convents, and that among both sexes, the vow of celibacy is not a vow of chastity... I sense that he is a man of exact integrity and rare selflessness.”

When Robespierre delivered his famous speech in response to Louise de Kéralio’s remarks, saying: "It must be admitted: the admission of a woman into a literary society was regarded until now as a kind of phenomenon. France and all of Europe offered very few examples of it. The power of habit and perhaps the strength of prejudice seemed to oppose these two obstacles to the wishes of those who might aspire to take their place among you. Two charming and learned women deigned to address you this year, and you did not hesitate for a moment to grant their request. Their sex did not cause them to lose any of the rights their merit gave them. What do I say? Their sex probably seemed to you an additional merit. (…) Would I have to fight those who, wishing to condemn all women to ignorance and frivolity, would regard as scandalous anything that would suggest in them a particular taste for useful knowledge? I will certainly avoid reopening this great question, which would itself be the scandal of an enlightened century."

Babeuf, in turn, would take up the pen (he was more committed to women's rights than Robespierre, but less so than Charles Gilbert-Romme and Condorcet, although Babeuf used sexist terms against Theresia Tallien) to go further than Robespierre: "The woman would not have taken refuge in these sad imitations if her genius had not been killed; there would then have been a literature of women, a poetry of women, music, painting, sculpture by women; alongside and equal to the genius of men, the genius of women would have risen with its own character, and the two sexes would have admired and charmed each other mutually. How much happiness and joy we would have gained from this!"

"True civilization halts and majestically sets a level, there lies the end of all misery, all groaning, all sobbing, all gnashing of teeth. Only there, when everyone is reassured about their fate, is the goal of society realized, for unless it is a league hostile to the principles of justice, it must be instituted solely for the purpose that the weak is no more unfortunate than the strong, the woman no more unfortunate than the husband, the mother than the father, the children than the father and mother, the sisters than the brothers, the younger than the older; the happiness of individuals, families, peoples, and sexes can only be a result of equalization: equalization perfects and destroys nothing but that which destroys. Sooner or later, it will destroy the servitude of women; it will proclaim their emancipation. What would be the consequences of this emancipation, what new laws would be indispensable for it to have only salutary effects? These are questions I am not in a position to answer, but one day we must consider them."

In 1791, Babeuf held admiration for Robespierre, Pétion, Abbé Grégoire, Buzot, and people like Chapelier, Malouet. He said to Robespierre, "Analyze Robespierre, you will find him also agrarian in the final result, and these illustrious figures are obliged to maneuver because they feel that the time has not yet come," Babeuf would assert to Abbé Coupé in a letter on September 10, 1791.

Even though Babeuf’s social ideas went much further than Robespierre’s, he still held great admiration for him. Here’s what he wrote to his wife in May 1793: "I have here as friends the most distinguished people in Paris: Chaumette, procurer of the Commune, Pache, mayor, Garin, municipal officer and general administrator of supplies, Robespierre, Sylvain Maréchal, editor of Les Révolutions de Paris, and many others. All these people give me the warmest welcome despite my shabby attire."

We know that during this period, Babeuf would say of Robespierre: "But you, Robespierre, who have precisely defined property, who have outlined the boundaries within which this right must be confined to prevent it from being harmful to the great majority of society... Come, you are our legislator. And you, Jacobins! [...] come stand beside our Lycurgus..."

However, his opinion changes as we see in Thermidor. Is it because Robespierre never followed deeper social policies, like the fact that he wasn’t in favor of the maximum but had to accept it under pressure from the Hébertists (where the Enragés, the Hébertists, and part of the Babouvists supported this maximum)? Regarding the sharing of property rights, which he refused (like the vast majority of revolutionaries, including the Enragés or the Exagérés, with the exception of people like Momoro, etc.)? It is true that Robespierre was conservative in some aspects (particularly on women’s rights, on taxes, whereas Babeuf went further)? Or is it the fall and execution of certain people that Babeuf esteemed, such as Chaumette (where Babeuf, despite his modest needs, would do what he could to support the widow Chaumette, considered the widow of a traitor to the country)? Babeuf had criticized, even before Robespierre’s fall, the question of religious reason. On the other hand, Victor Daline states that there is no evidence that he was close to the cult of reason with the Hébertists (even though he shared some of their ideals) because in Histoire nouvelle de la vie de Jésus-Christ, he told Hébert: “Jean-Jacques, Père Duchesne, citizen Gillet, I do not fear giving you a formal denial. Jesus was neither more than a man, nor sans-culotte, nor a true Jacobin.” Even though he said of Robespierre, “Robespierre provoked an invitation for silence to all French people on matters of religion. This measure seemed necessary, and I do not intend to contradict it; its purpose was to suppress a vast fire of fanaticism, some sparks of which had already lit up and threatened to ignite the entire Republic.” He adds, “Certainly, the goal may be achieved by this measure, for it is impossible for something that is not discussed to cause fermentation. But one must rely on the possibility of general deference to the recommended silence. And would this goal be enough for us? Should we be content with precautions to prevent the monster of fanaticism from doing us harm? A kind of transaction with it, a clause allowing it to retain a semblance of existence within us, would it not warn us that we still recognize its power? We have done too much, it seems to me, against superstition to remain halfway; there is force in retreating or advancing.”

Here is what he says about Robespierre after Thermidor. Babeuf called Robespierre the “most cruel enemy of liberty” and said, “There were two people, that is, Robespierre, sincerely a patriot and a friend of principles until the beginning of 1793, and Robespierre, ambitious, a tyrant, and the deepest villain since that time; this Robespierre, I say, when he was a citizen, is perhaps the best source from which to seek the great truths and strong proofs of the rights of the press. It is with the weapons he left that I will begin the battle of sophisms against the reasoners of the day.” (Babeuf, Journal de la liberté de la presse, N°1, p. 3 and 4, September 1794).

In fact, it seems that Babeuf was one of the first to use the word "terrorist" for the revolutionary excesses: "Patriot terrorists (the French love variety, this expression will soon come into fashion).” But Babeuf, at the same time, attacked other members of the Committee of Public Safety, like Barère, saying that Robespierre was not the only one. “Today, patriots who dare preach the rights of man are not off the hook so easily. First, they are chased from the Jacobins, then imprisoned, and then assassinated. But let us not say to Barère, Billaud, Bourdon, Collot, Carrier, Louchet, that chasing, imprisoning, and assassinating is not the answer. No matter how much you imprison, assassinate patriots, you will not kill the truth: it will come to light through the grates of your new bastilles…” (Babeuf, Journal de la liberté... op. cit., N°12, De la fête de l'Opinion, fourth sans-culotte, Year 2). So he does not fall into the ease of blaming just one man. Furthermore, he calls Collot d’Herbois, for what he did in Lyon, “a scourge of mankind, a monster of evil like Carrier, like Lebon.” It should be noted that at that time, Babeuf was unknowingly surrounded by people trying to blame Robespierre to cover up their own crimes, starting with Fouché, who exploited Babeuf’s humanist values, as I discussed here about the Fouché-Babeuf relationship and their ruptures here. And how strangely Turreau (one of the authors of atrocities in Vendée) adopted the son of Gracchus Babeuf, Camille Babeuf, after his father’s execution (the only good deed I found from him), while Gracchus Babeuf was fighting against the atrocities in Vendée with sincerity. However, he was definitely not a friend of the Muscadins or the jeunesse dorée, nor was he an anti-Jacobin; he always maintained his socially committed ideals, contrary to what some sources claim.

Yet, he would later reconnect with Robespierre posthumously and had close ties with the Duplay family. Babeuf even thought that Hébertism was a minority in the revolution. Here’s what he wrote to his Babouvist colleague, who was also an Hébertist and anti-Robespierre, Joseph Bodson, in February 1796: “I confess today, honestly, that I regret having once seen in black both the revolutionary government and Robespierre, Saint-Just, etc. I believe that these men were better than all the revolutionaries combined, and that their dictatorial government was devilishly well-imagined... I do not agree at all with you that they committed great crimes and caused the death of many republicans. Not so much, I believe. It was the Thermidorian reaction that caused many to perish. I do not enter into whether Hébert and Chaumette were innocent. If they were, I still justify Robespierre... Draftsmen, half-hearted men, hungry for glory and full of presumption, such as Chaumette, may have been seen by our Robespierre as wanting to challenge his leadership. So the one who had the initiative... must have seen that all these ridiculous rivals, even with good intentions, would hinder and ruin everything. I suppose he would have said: Let’s extinguish these annoying imps and their good intentions. My opinion is that he did well. The salvation of 25 million people must not be balanced against the deference to some ambiguous individuals... Rogues, fools, or presumptuous and ambitious for glory, it doesn’t matter, tough luck for them. Why are they in this? Robespierre knew all this, and that’s partly why I admire him. That’s what makes me see in him the genius where true regenerative ideas resided.” He says that a revolutionary cannot remain an Hébertist. He resumed his admiration for Robespierre. Nevertheless, one could argue that it is a pity he approved of the execution of Chaumette and even Hébert, stemming from a parody of justice (even more so Chaumette, who, despite his flaws, was a complex character and an effective prosecutor of the Commune as you can see here https://www.tumblr.com/nesiacha/753092098599829504/pierre-gaspard-chaumette?source=share , but on the other hand, Babeuf, while adoring Marat, as you can see here, did not hesitate to make harsh criticisms of him; for Babeuf, friendship did not exclude severity, so it is also possible he did the same with Chaumette and the hebertists ). He went from one extreme, criticizing the entire Committee of Public Safety, to another, saying they made few mistakes overall, whereas the truth lies somewhere in between, even regarding Robespierre.

An interesting fact among the Hébertist anti-Robespierre Babouvists, there was not only Joseph Bodson (who resented Robespierre for what he did to the Hébertists, if I understand correctly), close to Babeuf, and they held each other in high esteem, with Bodson being one of Babeuf’s "lieutenants," but also Clémence and Marchand, former members of the Paris Commune, whom the Committees of Public Safety and General Security had sent on mission to the departments of Oise and Seine-et-Oise in Year II, who were imprisoned before the 9th of Thermidor, along with General Fyon and Clerex. They played an important role in Babouvism.

I’m not sure about including Rossignol (Momoro’s friend and considered close to Ronsin and Vincent) because for a time, Robespierre defended him, but later abandoned him due to doubts about his connections with Ronsin and Vincent.

Buonarroti further developed Babeuf's thinking, who had now reconnected with Robespierre's ideas concerning the Hébertists.

“Hébert and Danton gave their names to two factions which, although both were enemies of the revolutionary government they had helped establish, differed fundamentally in their objectives and the character of the individuals they consisted of. Generally, the Hébertists were made up of hardworking, honest, straightforward, courageous men, who were not very studious, unfamiliar with political theories, who loved liberty for its own sake, enthusiastic about equality and impatient to enjoy it. They were good citizens in a settled popular republic but poor leaders in the storms preceding its establishment. It was not difficult to stir them against the prolongation of the revolutionary institution, by portraying it as a wrongful attack on the sovereignty of the people. It was also not hard to persuade them that in order to forever extinguish the source of superstitions and the power of the priests, all religious ideas should be banned. However, such men, more inclined to resolve difficulties through quick action than to carefully weigh the utility and consequences of a political crisis, had the same goal as the wise friends of equality, but they did not form a clear idea, like them, of the institutions through which it could be achieved, nor of the path to get there. Therefore, the blame for the disastrous division and misfortunes caused by the faction to which they belonged should not rest with them. A grave responsibility lies entirely with the influential men who, in the name of the public good, inspired unjust suspicions in them, and whose criminal blindness we regret not being able to excuse.”

Thus, Buonarroti, in some ways, aligns with Babeuf's thinking and, at other times, contradicts it. In reality, the Hébertists were more competent and more important to the revolution than popular culture often acknowledges (although they also had their share of faults and responsibilities). Moreover, Babeuf, in a piece addressed to Bodson, even though he speaks harshly of Chaumette, a man whose widow he supported, acknowledges Chaumette's good intentions.

What can we conclude? Surely, at times, Babeuf viewed things too black and white, given the horrible trials he had endured, and his enthusiasm sometimes led him to be careless. Had he lived longer, I believe he might have placed Chaumette on a pedestal alongside Robespierre, but that is just my opinion. Just as he initially placed Robespierre on a pedestal, then accused him of tyranny before rehabilitating him. However, Babeuf had brilliant ideas, economic plans at times, and was no fool. He was a humanist who managed to establish many important contacts across different political factions, such as Albertine Marat, who gave him a letter to publish against Fréron and subscribed to Le Tribun du peuple (she admired Danton and disliked Robespierre), Lindet (who, however, was not part of the conspiracy), as well as both Robespierre's supporters and the Hébertists. This is a significant quality.

I also think he was capable of forgiveness and understanding, provided that the person who committed the reprehensible acts did so with the intention of saving the revolution or France, and not out of a desire for corruption (even if it is only a theory). Example? During his last trial, Carnot was the one who harshly led the repression of the Babouvist movement, while Barras was more passive. Yet, during his trial, Babeuf only expressed a few criticisms of Carnot, even though he knew Carnot's role in leading him to his death, as you can see here. The theory, therefore, should be approached with caution: despite knowing what Carnot had done against him, Babeuf often criticized people like Fréron, Tallien, Fouché, and Barras. However, he recognized that, for all his flaws, Carnot was more sincere than they were in safeguarding the Republic. Or perhaps he simply never forgave Barras for feasting on corruption while Babeuf’s daughter slowly died from malnutrition.

But regardless of the revolutionary factions, our opinions on them—these were not monsters (I exclude the turncoats like Fréron, Barras, Tallien, Fouché, Turreau, and people like Carrier)—but rather complex men caught in a complicated period, as I have already said.

Even though I am quite (even very) critical of Robespierre, I leave this quote from Babeuf to conclude this article: "Maximilien Robespierre... this man whom the centuries will appreciate, and whose judgment it is for my free voice to anticipate."

P.S. If you're interested, here is Babeuf’s opinion on Abbé Grégoire: "Regarding what he calls vandalism," he says, “How old is he? Give him a decent pension and let him be quiet.” This is off-topic, but it might interest you.

Sources:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41921463?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41925466

[blobbei-art]

Hai :33 okay so your recent post involving kasifer and marzie has the caption "two people in one body" and I got curious and looked through their tags but couldn't find anything else expanding on that? Has their lore changed? I'm very interested in your characters so even if I'm just misunderstanding something if there's anything you would want to share about them as just fun facts that would also be cool and fun. I liek characters

LMAO no you caught me. I was unhappy with the original version and so I've recently completely overhauled their lore into something more clean and solid. Here's a quick summary of the updated version!

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Theresia caught a glimpse of God a long time ago and had been obsessed with it ever since. She's been on a personal quest to cast divine justice on humanity. Eventually, through some human experimentation, she brought a small part of that God into our reality to judge humanity. She regretted it pretty quickly once it got out of hand and tried to stop this "God" by splitting them into two parts - Beginning and End. Watered down, the two halves acted a lot more human. The Beginning, Marzie, took interest in her human side but resents her supernatural nature. The End, Kasifer, is still trying to accomplish his mission, but is a lot kinder about it now and decides to start with Theresia. He would rather be free of his human side. Theresia is caught right in the middle. ...unfortunately the split has created a time loop and they are all stuck in it together. Trying to kill each other is hard when your deaths trigger the reset. Fortunately, none of them really mind do-overs.

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The split into 1 in 2 bodies came with this update to the story and I'm enjoying the dynamic of hating each other but also being unable to be without each other at the same time a lot. I know I say "split" but they really are still one soul in two bodies that just focus on different aspects of themselves.

They eventually collide with a different story happening in the background but that's less worked out.

Either way thank you very much for the ask btw! I don't really do text only posts on this blog without an excuse so i didn't share any of the new lore at all....oops.

Here's a little random doodle compilation from the past week!

[zeivira]

In “No Rest For The Wicked” — how would Reinhard and Wilhelm respond to Subaru’s “condition”?? I can’t stop thinking about them —

Short reply: Badly lol.

Long reply: Reinhard tells Felt in one of the SS that he considers Subaru one of his dearest friends (Term is vague enough it can be considered “best friend”) this is after they met only twice— during arc 1 and arc 3. Those meetings remain canon on 'No Rest For the Wicked'. 

Now, the way I see it, Rein doesn’t only consider Subaru his close friend just because of his personality but because Subaru gave him another chance to save the Royal Family (by helping him meet Felt). 

So, we have a Reinhard who thinks Subaru (a kind, friendly person that doesn’t care he is a monster AND helped him fulfil his dreams of serving the Lugunican Royal Family again!!!) dying of the same ailment that took the Lugunican Royal Family from him originally!!! This is devastating news from him. He was very close to them, especially Fourier (though less than Ferris ofc.)

Reinhard was one of the people in charge of trying outside help to save the royal Family, and in addition to that: his mom has Sleeping Beauty Syndrome!! So he knows a lot more than the average person about the ailment that Subaru supposedly has. That’s why I imagine Emilia would go after Arc 3’s Royal Meeting to the Astrea manor and try to enlist his help to save Subaru. Felt would be there too, but he would of course, accept her request (Felt wouldn't be against it, ofc)

It would be Reinhard’s second chance to save someone from that disease. 

This was all actually explained in a scene from the fic that I cut because it felt too…. different compared to the rest of the fic. It’s pretty serious for a crack fic (Random fact: whenever I write a fic, I usually draft many scenes and then cut down the ones that in my opinion don’t fit the general mood/style.)

About Wilhelm:

He knows that: Heinkel is using him as a rat lab to save Louanna. Subaru helped Reinhard meet Felt. And now Subaru is helping him kill the whale. In Wilhelm’s eyes, Subaru is putting the Astrea Family together again, despite being close to death himself!!! 

As Subaru is going to the Whale hunt with Heinkel, I imagine the Wilhelm & Subaru interactions would get reduced on this verse. Those two still don't get along, after all. And Subaru needs him to keep Ferris away.

Somehow, I feel that No Rest!Wilhelm would see more Louanna than Theresia in Subaru. A very tragic figure he admires a lot.

And well, as we know, meanwhile Heinkel is:

Thank you for the question OP! i had lots of fun replying to this!!! Feel free to ask more whenever you want!!

[megashadowdragon]

reinhard and priscilla as foils and on reinhards mindset during that situation in arc 5

Reinhard Van Astrea is a character heavily associated with the moon. In his very first appearance, he stares at the moon and thinks to himself about the future and the duty he must perform. We've also seen him doing this in other side stories such as Felt Forms a Hooligan Squad.

There is also a lot of imagery in illustrations connecting him to the moon, particularly in volume 20. And Reinhard himself wears pure white clothes just like moonlight.

The moon has a lot of positive connotations in Japan. The most well-known example of this is its connection to spirituality and enlightenment in Zen Buddhism. Reinhard's connection with godlike beings like the Od Laguna and the Sword God could be seen as a nod to this.

The story of the rabbit on the moon tells that one day the man on the moon came down to earth and disguised himself as a beggar. When he asked four animals for food, three were able to provide some. But the rabbit was only able to give him grass.

Without anything of value to give, the rabbit asked the man to build him a fire. When the fire was complete the rabbit jumped onto it to offer itself to the man. Impressed by his self-sacrifice and generosity, the man saved the rabbit and brought it back to live with him on the moon. That's why you can see the outline of a rabbit on it today.

Because of this, the rabbit and the moon represent charity and self-sacrifice. These obviously are core facets of Reinhard's character. It's also noteworthy how Rein is in the center of the moon, just like the rabbit, in this volume 20 illustration. This could possibly hint at some self-sacrificial motives for him killing Zombie Theresia. You can read more about that here:

Seeing as Reinhard has always come off as being timid and hesitant considering matters about his family, it was a… — Reinhardt's mindset during the Thearesia fight is actually something I have a lot of thoughts on, I might as well make this a thread

The idea that Reinhardt is this emotionless robot is something I've seen circulated too often and the reality couldn't be further away. As you said, Reinhardt is very timid in family matters because he's been dominated to the point of giving up on any actual will.

But I think it was a tornado of emotions Reinhardt was feeling in those moments that made him so determined, not lack thereof. There is no question even a part of Reinhardt would've wanted to save Thearesia. But it's Wilhelm and Heinkel who taught him to disregard such personal emotions. Not only were Wilhelm and Heinkel's lives at risk, Reinhardt perceived Thearesia to be beyond salvation and that is a show of his lack of self worth. Could Thearesia be saved, 80% of the Astrea drama would be solved. But Reinhardt, disregarding his own emotions- · and wishes like always, chose not to delude himself with that possibility, unlike Wilhelm and Heinkel. This tragic determination that Wilhelm and Heinkel resent him for, is the direct product of what they have implanted into Reinhardt. · Reinhardt's actions are exactly what those two have coerced him into taking and perceiving himself as all his life, which is why I really detest Wilhelm's stance in the battle. Reinhardt has come to a point of worthlessness where he genuinely puts no effort in- · defending himself and genuinely takes all of the Astrea problems as his fault. This is perceived as emotionless for some reason but it speaks as something incredibly emotional to me. Him taking it in his hands to kill his grandmother is the greatest show of his devoid self worth- and also the fact that he sees no worth in defending himself, readily accepting Wilhelm and Heinkel's resentment. In such an emotional situation, it is only natural Reinhardt would fall to the method of coping he knows best in life, ignoring personal feelings and value and- · taking all the blame, as taught by this grandfather and father. Another aspect which maybe played into him steeling his resolve is on the contrary and him prioritising personal emotion, and that's the fact Reinhardt may not have excused the possibility of Thearesia being alive. · If Thearesia was alive all this time, then what did he suffer all his life for? What was the point of all his endurance up until now? Thearesia, to him, needs to stay dead in order for things to make sense, otherwise his life falls apart. Reinhardt probably hasn't changed one bit since the day Wilhelm left the household. He is still a child, devoid of any opportunity to just be him, forced by others, and also forcing himself, to disregard anything which brings about any worth in himself. · Because all he is a worthless nuisance that only brought about ruin to everyone he loved and absolutely nothing else, and he is completely convinced. He isn't emotionless, not at all. He simply has an astounding degree of lack of self worth that allows him such levels of- · ignoring personal desires, like even his family living happily. Though that itself is something driven by immense emotion, not being a robot. · May 21, 2021 Though I think my former point is the more dominant aspect of it, the latter may have played a role as well. I can go on forever honestly, I have much more to say, my thoughts won't fit on Twitter, so I'll stop now.

Another connection Rein has to the moon is through Tsukuyomi, the God of the moon. Although there isn't a ton of connection between them, there is one major link. Tsukuyomi is also the God of order. However, in the pursuit of order, Tsukuyomi often instead caused chaos.

This can easily be seen in Reinhard with scenes like him trying to comfort Wilhelm after killing Theresia and with the results of him killing Sirius and Miles.

My friend Asa also pointed out how Rein's connection to the moon could relate to his relationship with Theresia while I was talking about these connections with him. I highly suggest you check it out. Quote

from asarthaHS Throughout the main story, Reinhard is always associated with the moon, and Shakespeare once called the Moon 'an arrant thief, her pale fire she snatches from the sun'. Could definitely be interpreted in the vein of Reinhard being perceived to snatch Theresia's fire as well

It's also fun that in terms of old timey literature analysis, the Moon was always considered a 'she' and the Sun was considered a 'he'.

Reinhard & Priscilla frequently having Moon & Sun imagery respectively is always interesting. Priscilla, the sun, gives off a vibrant aura which grants life, and has the world bend itself to suit her. Reinhard, the moon, lacking autonomy, bends his life to suit the world.

)

Priscilla's connection to the sun is a bit more obvious. She's literally nicknamed The Sun Princess after all. She uses a blade made out of fire hotter than the typical, wears bright red clothes, and has orange hair. Even her pupils are a bright yellow-orange like the sun.

Priscilla as a ruler can be viewed like the sun as well. She is known to bring great prosperity to her subjects from afar. However, those who get too close to her may be burned by her harsh temperament.

In Japanese mythology, Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, is commonly associated with fertility and growing crops. This is the very first thing she becomes known for after becoming ruler of her domain, as she helped her subjects grow their crops.

Amaterasu is also connected to pride. When she caused her brother Susanoo to go on a rampage and destroy a lot of heaven and earth she fled to a cave in shame. This caused the first winter, a very harsh period at the time.

To draw her out the other gods threw a party. In curiosity, she drew closer to the entrance only to find a mirror. Her own reflection would be what finally drew her fully out of the cave.

Amaterasu, as queen of heaven, the gods, and creation, is also associated with the idea of powerful women and female rulers. Another contrast worth mentioning is luck. As Priscilla says, the world itself bends to always suit her. She often finds herself on top even without much effort of her own.

Conversely, Reinhard is a character closely tied to tragedy and misfortune. Vortechs The most notable example is the death of Theresia. The blessing of the Sword Saint was transferred to him during the great expedition by pure bad luck. This led to her death, him being blamed for it, and the degradation of the entire family's mental well-being. His mother also mysteriously fell into a coma, further damaging the family's mental health. Finally, there's the case of him accidentally killing Subaru and a bunch of civilians alongside Sirius through no fault of his own in Arc 5.

Rein is constantly described as blessed despite his misery. From an outside perspective, he was born into a famous noble family with power unrivaled by anyone else. But in reality, he has never felt truly happy a day in his life.

Reinhard is a man ruled by the pressure of being the strongest. He has a distinct lack of autonomy. His actions often conform to what the kingdom expects of him. His self-sacrificing nature often causes him to put his own needs after those of the kingdom and his family.

Priscilla is the exact opposite. She does whatever she wants to do and doesn't consider what others think she should unless she thinks it's a genuinely good idea.

She has rather extreme reactions to anyone trying to oppose her or tell her what to do. In fact, multiple of the threats she faces in her side content have the goal of controlling her.

In EX 5 there's a scene where Priscilla remarks that even she doesn't read only to learn but also reads just for pleasure. Reinhard has a similar scene in the Felt camp SS's where it's shown he only has educational books. He declares that "Books exist to garner knowledge."

In her fight with Reinhard in arc 5, Sirius says that he is the ideal of her concept of "love." She says this is because everyone has the greatest trust and expectations in him and because everyone loves him while he also loves everyone.

Reinhard's tendency to conform to what is simply expected of him and his lack of individuality is in essence the exact kind of "love" that Sirius pursues.

But when Priscilla faces Sirius she challenges this idea, declaring that "To love is to tolerate and to accept differences. For everyone to look at the same person, to feel the same way, to share the same feelings, what else but nauseating and disgusting would it be.”

Reinhard's fight with Sirius ends with him killing Subaru and a large number of civilians. It is effectively a complete and utter defeat for him. Yet Priscilla wins her battle despite being far weaker. · Sirius is only defeated when her idea of love is completely rejected. This serves as a denunciation of the controlling, anti-individualist love that governs Reinhard's life and Sirius embodies. Vortechs · I think it’s really interesting how Reinhard and Priscilla contrast each other in so many ways. And I love how Sirius is used to emphasize their differences. It's given me more appreciation for Priscilla and Sirius and a LOT more for Reinhard.

[nijigasakilove]

White Fox thank you for giving us the best season of Re:Zero yet. I have zero idea how anyone could even debate this not being the best the story has been at combined with the vastly improved production values. That said, this was a little weak for a finale for me.

Seeing Beako and Felt taking on Lye and beating him, knocking that annoying ass smirk off his face was so satisfying, but of course it wouldn’t be that easy. It’s one thing to take on the standard sin archbishops, but when there’s multiple versions of one that’s just unfair! Smart move by Beako to let Rui retreat and prioritise healing the wounded.

Keeping Wrath as a prisoner is a massive W for Lugunica. Should be able to get some valuable information from her and learn more about the cult. Interesting that she sees Gluttony as the biggest danger to Subaru right now.

AL continues to be sus as hell, how did he get that crystal.. just what is he planning 🤔 he’s hiding a lot under that helmet.

The battle for Pristella is won, but at what cost. So many innocent people killed or deformed by Capella, injuries, destroyed infrastructure and of course those whose existence were consumed by Gluttony, BUT if there’s any positive to come from this it’s that a city held out against FOUR sin archbishops. Can’t overstate how crazy that is and how much confidence that’ll give Subaru and his group going forward. They can win this thing.

Julius fuck 😭 feel awful for bro, but this is gonna be the start of an amazing relationship with he and Subaru now that Subaru’s all he got. I don’t mind the cliffhanger ending because season 4 is in production and sure to come soon, we thought for a while this season would be like 30+ episodes so I’m sure we’ll get the next arc starting very soon. Teaser just dropped.

I was very happy with the season overall, but feels like this finale was rushed. Could’ve done with another episode or two likely to show more of the immediate aftermath of Julius not being recognized by everyone, Garf and his mom, Mimi and Garf, the aftermath of the Theresia fight.. But we move, they cooked with the hype moments and did the arc justice overall.

[review](https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=556102)

[beevean]

Honestly I feel that if someone were to face Guts about all the shit he's done as the Black Swordsman he'd probably just...grimly accept it and move on

He wouldn't be consumed by guilt and begging for forgiveness, he'd just accept that he did what he did while also insisting that he has no intention of just getting stuck in his past actions or, I dunno, do jail time.

That's not necessarily because Guts feels no guilt about his past transgressions (his whole "weaklings who can't defend themselves" mentality was just a rationalization to protect his conscience from guilt, he felt awful about the priest and his daughter and about Vargas, not to mention the kids of Misty Valley), it's just that, as he tells Casca during his breakdown, he has killed so many people due to his life style that it's easy for him to just stop thinking about it after a while. Even back in Golden Age: he's traumatized after accidentally killing Adonis, a few days later however he's already gotten over it

It's both a result of Guts being accustomed to killing people since he was a child and also due to Guts' philosophy about always moving forward and living life how you want to no matter what, whose only obstacle is Griffith.

Remember: the deciding factor for him to abandon his path of revenge was just Casca being in danger, not him realizing he was ruining people's lives and needed to stop. In the end the Beast of Darkness can be viewed as a form of retribution: it was born due to the Eclipse but it only got as strong as it is due to Guts living such a hate filled bloody life as the Black Swordsman, and if he thinks he can just walk away from that with no repercussions then the Beast is there to remind him of what he used to be. It threatening to kill his new friends is Guts having to come to terms with the monster he had allowed himself to become, except now the target is not just apostles with a bunch of nameless civilians in the way that he can cause the deaths of while having a detatched attitude about it,the target is now his family, every time he dons the Armor Guts gets to experience what it feels like to have the Black Swordsman come in and kill your loved ones while in a blind rage

Now if CASCA were to confront him about what he's done during those years...I feel that would be a much different story...

I can't add much.

At the end of the day, Guts is a child soldier. He was trained to kill, and to kill for trifling reasons like money. While he has a soft spot for children, which is why the entire ordeal with Rosine was so harrowing for him (and while he stopped torturing himself over Adonis quickly, killing him still left an impact on him, not helped by hearing Griffith accidentally dismissing Guts as a friend), death as a whole has no meaning on him. He's used to being hated, which is probably why he has already forgotten about the trauma he left on Theresia.

It's interesting to think Guts and Griffith share a similar "no point in looking back, the only way is forward" mentality, but for different reasons: Griffith has tunnel vision, and he's projected towards the future (he's a pretty skilled manipulator and plotter for a reason), while Guts lives in the present, day by day.

I think his way of thinking can be seen when Farnese pledges her alliance to him, and he says "eh, I killed some of your men, we're even, do what you want", matter-of-factly... while inside he's much more tortured inside over what he has just done to Casca, which is the real reason he's even entertaining changing his lifestyle and travelling with the people he has both hurt and helped.

[felipe-v-fanblog]

Hi my friend 👋, Who is your favorite Habsburg King? One for Austria and One for Spain?

Who is your least Favorite king of all time? I wish you the best.

HIIII !! how good is to receive an ask just the moment i was thinking about going to random dms to infodump people about random hyperfixations . specially from you my friend im wishing you the best too .

I really like habsburg story as it is full of girlbosses and malewifes ( a really cool dynasty ) . IIIII i really like the austrian ones , spaniards are always a mystery to me . I lived there for four years and I still dont catch their accent . My favourite habsburg monarch is emperor Franz II im not normal about him . there is an strong need to scream everytime i think about him . People probably must known him more for the napoleonic wars but I think he is very interesting by his own right . But tbh I really like all habsburgs from Austria they are very babygirls . Maximilian I , Charles V , Ferdinand I , Rudolf II , Leopold I , Charles VI , Marie Theresia , Joseph II and Ferdinand I of Austria ( not to confuse him with Ferdinand I of the Holy Roman Empire ) are my favourites but I really like all of them except for Leopold II and Francis I ( i have a love-hate relationship with him bc he is funny but I hate that he wasnt faithful to Marie Theresia bc !! SHE WAS LITERALLY A 10 ?! ) . From Spain I truly only like Felipe I and Carlos II . The other ones are very boring to me but I get that Felipe II was interesting . I am not mentioning Charles I because I already mentioned him as emperor . Well . He should be here because he is a spanish one yeah . so yeah he is also here i really like him i find him too funny and he was very babygirl . I mostly like infantes of Spain like the Cardinal-Infante Fernando de Austria , Don Juan José de Austria , Carlos de Austria ( son of Felipe II - prince of Asturias before Felipe III ) and Carlos de Austria ( brother of Felipe IV , I really like him !! I find him autistic and awkard asf and I really like that in people . Like Franz II ) . Those are my tastes in Habsburgs sadly I will try not to talk about the women too as to not make this too big but I also love their queens . Felipe IV is an enigma to me I find him incomprehensible . Truly a mystery like Spain itself . I liked that moment when Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orléans went to hug him and cry when they met to give Louis XIV his wife that was hilarious .

2.IIII I would say Henry VIII cus he is easy to hate but I do also hate Henry VII because he is the one who made my homecountry a mess ( Wales - if you ever see me talking weird english , is because its not my native language ! I speak welsh hehe ) . I really really hate Charles X of France because he ruined my favourite queer mentally ill dynasty ( bourbons ) and destroyed everything Louis XVIII worked for ( he is my !! favourite historical figure ever ) . I dont really hate many monarchs bc even if they are bad they are amusing to know about . The real hate I have to a historical figure is to Saint-Just but i completely agree with his ideas but he was a real asshole and i dont know how robespierre was friend of that guy . he was literally an edgy teen trying to be a politic is everything i hate about politics but worse because i agree with everything he said . except killing louis xvi that was a mistake . they should have put louis xvi in a box and send it to austria if they didnt wanted him there

[13eyond13]

Who are your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from Berserk? And why you loved them? And your top 5 favorite moments from the series? Thanks.....

I think I kinda only have 4 main faves, really? And that's probably a pretty obvious bunch (Guts, Casca, Griffith, and Puck). I got attached to them all in the first arcs and then stuck out the rest of the stuff mainly just for them without getting extremely attached to anybody else (though I do think the rest of the story is definitely worth reading, and there are many amazing things that come later on as well).

(Warning for spoilers below):

I love Guts because I just cared about him and what happens to him way more than I initially expected I would. I think he's very relatable to me personality-wise and just not your typical macho protagonist guy in some pretty interesting and unusual ways. I also like that he's both kind of simple and complicated all at once and not just a corny noble typical hero type guy, but not completely boring and edgy and nihilistic either. It's a fun blend. I felt a ton for Casca as well and just thought she was very sympathetic and tough yet vulnerable too. I think Griffith's idealism and ambition makes much of the intriguing drama and plot happen that I actually care about in the story, and that he's definitely a complex character that's maybe the most fun one to analyze in a fandom sense. And Puck is just that cute little voice of reason / comic relief sort of character who keeps you going when Guts is being particularly grim and surly and difficult to connect to and when the story is verging on way too dark and bleak, and since he's with you from the very start it's hard not to get attached!

Some Top Favourite Moments (I couldn't narrow it down to five):

-Guts's interactions with Theresia, the Count's daughter / that entire scene in the Black Swordsman Arc: Maybe a bit of an oddball choice, but I distinctly remember that this part of the story was surprising and interesting to me in a good way because it just showed some sides of Guts's character that I didn't expect, and made him seem a bit more unusual and interesting of a character to follow in my eyes. I felt like his weirdass/awkward dark advice to her to just kill herself if she really didn't want to live anymore was obviously because he himself had gone through something like that as a kid and then come to that conclusion based on his own survival instincts as well, and just spoke a lot about how strange and rough his own life and upbringing and worldview probably was, to see that as sincerely good advice to give to a kid at that time? It was different than what you'd expect a typical hero to say or do, and the fact that Puck comments on it like "dang, he's not even trying to be an asshole or mean, he legit thinks that's a good thing to say to her" made me laugh as well, because that was the impression I got from it too. It was also surprising to see him like tearing up afterwards? Idk it just marked a moment to me where my interest in the story and in Guts as a character deepened and changed a bit, so I like it for that!

- Guts and Griffith's first swordfight:

So good and iconic and also perhaps one of the most homoerotic things ever to be put on a page

-Guts holding his sword up to the moon and deciding he was gonna fight for Griffith's sake

- Guts and Casca's first kiss: I kinda get the feeling from most Griffguts fans that it's not super popular to have and share positive or warm feelings about this pair, but I thought the moments between them like their first kiss were actually so cute. I thought it made sense for them and their relationship at the time, and was nice to see them both having a soft and warm and consensual moment with someone else that they trusted that way

- Guts explaining how Griffith is the only person he can't stand looking down on him to the rest of Band of the Hawk:

Another moment where Guts pleasantly surprised me as a character, this time with how self-aware and forthcoming he was about his thoughts and feelings on this front. He's a pretty close-lipped character about such things and also pretty private and secretive most times, so whenever he does share those kinds of feelings I'm just like !!! and very invested in what he has to say. I also didn't expect the story to take this direction so explicitly, and thought that his prioritizing of his relationship with Griffith over everything else would remain background and buried in his subconscious at best, so I was pretty intrigued that this part actually happened at all

- Guts and Griffith's second sword fight in the snow:

So many interesting things going on between the main three characters here, and I feel like this was one of the most suspenseful parts of the story to me, I was having actual like heart racing physical reactions to it. I also love how it teases the audience a bit with certain clever fake-outs and whatnot, like making you think this is probably going to be how Guts will lose his arm...

-Griffith's visions of his childhood self / guilt about his dream:

Anytime we got a glimpse right inside Griffith's head was a fascinating treat for me, and I think the scene of him being guilted by the God Hand over his childhood dream was a fantastic bit of writing and artwork, and so important to the story as a whole.

-The Eclipse (up until that one scene):

You love to hate it and hate to love it, basically? It's an awful and traumatic time, but also just so effective at doing what it's supposed to do and such a great buildup of dread for this extremely climactic scene, and the horror of it all is super well done to me (though once it gets to the Casca and Femto part it lost me a bit, because I did not like how tastelessly that was depicted at all)

-Griffith's frozen heart starting to beat again:

There's no way that's just because he's fused with the Moonlight Boy or whatever, right? Love the idea that there's still a kernel of his old vulnerable self in there that he couldn't completely kill

-Casca's healing: this was such a LONG TIME COMING and I was so glad it actually happened and that Miura got to depicting that part of the story before he passed, I felt like it actually took 1000 years, and it was one of the major things keeping me reading due to wanting to see it resolved

[suffarustuffaru]

what is your opinion on the fact that tappei intended us to hate reinhard for killing theresia

hello!! :o im not sure if tappei really Intended for us to hate reinhard for that per say—i think more so tappei intends to show the astrea drama in general in a very nuanced manner (unless he proves me wrong and does weird stuff to develop them later on wjfnd but ill stand by this atm because theres a lot of textual evidence i think!!)

the arc 5 astrea drama is the very first time we learn about Any of that, and the way we learn it is interesting. this is AFTER getting attached to reinhard and wilhelm, who prior to arc 5 were established to be good well meaning and respectable people. then heinkel comes in claiming they both did shitty stuff, and of course heinkel makes the worst impression of all time, is shitty himself, AND interrupted wilhelm and reinhards reunion, so we’re not inclined to side with heinkel here. but the more we learn about the astrea family conflict, the more we realize, alongside subaru, that 1. wilhelm is not as great as he seems to be (its like learning that a close family member or friend has done some terrible stuff!! the common reaction to it is to feel Disappointed or Sad or maybe a little angry!!) and subaru also learns that 2. the entire situation is not black and white. it takes a heavy emotional toll on wilhelm, heinkel, and reinhard.

it’s also interesting that we dont Always learn info about it directly from the family members themselves—theresias dead of course and doesnt say much when she briefly comes back (more on this later), reinhard becomes more subdued around his family (which has gotta be a trauma response in an attempt to minimize the conflict), heinkel and wilhelm are unreliable narrators driven by their emotions. we learn some of the bulk of the drama from JULIUS, an outsider, but someone with ties to reinhard personally and the knights. so we’re also getting unreliable info about someone like heinkel (whos got a reputation thats honestly shittier than even his behavior, which i pity him for), and someone like reinhard is extremely hard to read (we just know that hes. you know. Traumatized. and Sad.)

i DO think though that throughout all of this we’re supposed to sympathize with EVERY astrea family member. every single one. we’re meant to understand each of their actions, because they all contribute to the family dysfunction unwillingly or consciously.

we’re given the reasoning behind almost all of their actions in the conflict. wilhelm lashed out because of grief, and hes spent years regretting what he did and not knowing how to fix things. heinkel’s an alcoholic from stress, trauma, and self-hatred, and post-arc 5 we see more of his psyche (which is shown in a very honest sympathetic light as well, hinting at heinkel getting future development and most likely a redemption arc). heinkel then lashes out (which is a Sad pattern in this family given wilhelm also does that... and its implied that heinkel is also like this Because of wilhelm's influence) to deal with all of this too (and because he Genuinely thinks those things now. hes a sad bitter man). we also know from side stories that heinkel used to be a good man who truly loved reinhard, and we do know that heinkel still loves louanna and has spent YEARS searching for a cure. as for reinhard, he was a CHILD (five when it first started!!) throughout almost all of this conflict, and hes the youngest member of his family and still young even as he’s grown up now. and he certainly didnt Intend to kill his own grandma when he was five, and he definitely deals with the guilt of all that years later. he shuts down around his family in the present, for one. and two—reinhard was failed by his family members, who have been ADULTS for the entire conflict and are his father and grandfather respectively. if anything, reinhard has the least blame here. he was a child!! a child thats been conditioned into serving the kingdom at All Costs to himself!! heinkel and wilhelms grief is understandable but it should not cost them their literal child!! they were the ones with the responsibility to pull themselves together and they failed to do that!!

but then reinhard kills theresia.

the thing with reinhard killing theresia is that reinhard was very much not wrong for that. tappei takes the time to show corpse soldier theresia going after heinkel and wilhelm—both of which are too weak in this moment physically and emotionally to stop theresia, WHO IS THEIR MOTHER AND WIFE RESPECTIVELY. and iirc wilhelm was also injured by her. heinkel pisses himself in fear while begging for her to stop—or something along those lines. its Terrifying. and it shows theresia, as she was in that moment, is a threat!! what else was reinhard going to do?? if he doesnt apprehend theresia, shes going to kill the rest of their family T^T

yeah so. reinhard kills theresia. afterwards, heinkel and wilhelm give reinhard shit for it but again, they were going to DIE if reinhard hadnt stepped in. and its clear that reinhard is saddened by what he had to do, even as he says that the corpse soldier theresia ISNT THERESIA. and reinhard is technically kind of right!! that was a corpse soldier!! she was both theresia (her last words to wilhelm are proof of this) and Not Theresia (she already died years ago!! this was a reanimated corpse!!).

its wilhelm and heinkel that misinterpret reinhard’s demeanor as him Not Caring. because he does care, but reinhard has always had an uncanny personality—likely partly because of trauma (remember how i said he shuts down a bit around his family? common trauma response) and partly because of reinhard’s endless divine protections giving him a very. Unique. perspective on everything. so reinhard has difficulty with connecting with others because of all of that. hes Really hard to read, especially in a complicated situation like this where its basically a lose-lose for everyone involved. wilhelm and heinkel are blinded by their grief and fear and anger and because reinhard 1. killed theresia, 2. said that that Wasnt Theresia, and 3. said he didnt regret killing theresia and 4. said that he did the right thing (which is probably because, again, what else could he do, theresia was going to kill heinkel and wilhelm)... yeah so wilhelm and heinkel read reinhard as being cold and unfeeling and callous so they both completely give up on reinhard in this moment. the coffin is. metaphorically and literally closed here, reinhard killing theresia (again. for the second time. if youre heinkel and wilhelm) was the very last nail.

and ultimately like. again, tappei gives us All the narrative tools to understand each member of the astrea family in this conflict. tappei also even notes the detail (iirc. in like a qna somewhere. if someone can find it or whatever please feel free to add!!) of theresia, on her death bed in arc 5, had nothing to say to reinhard and heinkel. its kind of. weird. when she makes SURE that wilhelm knows that she loves him but she doesnt even bother with her son and grandson - and heinkel does note that she looked at them "hatefully" (which. heinkel is an unreliable narrator, but its interesting for tappei to include that detail because heinkel also goes "she looked at us like That, who else could that be but mother?"). so uh. astrea family dynamics are complicated, have likely always been complicated even before everything went wrong with them, and tappei also gives us theresias full backstory in her pov in arc 5. AND he shows that the corpse soldier was still. Theresia. in the end. its extremely complicated. tappei takes the time to show that with every detail.

so anyway. yeah i feel like we're meant to sympathize with everyone in the astrea family. theyre all people with their own flaws, theyve all contributed in some way to the conflict whether they like it or not, they all have various degrees of blame, if you really want to go into whos the Most Guilty for all the dysfunction. even poor louanna contributed indirectly via falling into a coma T^T

but i dont think tappei means for us to like hate any of them. just because tappei Always shows how complicated the situation is. tappei is Always sympathetic to all astrea members as much as tappei also often calls them out for their flaws (heinkel is the most obvious example, tappei also does it with theresia and wilhelm a bit, and reinhard is shown to be a bit stilted in social situations with a habit of stomping on other peoples boundaries sometimes without realizing or because he thinks its for the other persons good, etc). and as much as i love making jokes at wilhelms expense because he did fuck up quite a Lot with his family (same with heinkel... and im a little sus of theresia but she Did care about heinkel in the past, we know that from her named chapter)...

like. i can understand where someone like wilhelm is coming from. do i hate him for lashing out at his five year old grandson and helping turn his son against his grandson? oh yeah. yeah. but i can Understand why he did it and i feel bad for him, which i think was more so tappei's goal here. so the audience can hate any of these characters if you so feel like it, but tappei means for us to deeply deeply get where they're coming from and why they did what they did. so maybe its more so that we're not supposed to hate these characters, maybe we're just supposed to hate Their Actions and wish that things didnt turn out that way. because it couldve been better at any turn - wilhelm couldve just not lashed out and blamed reinhard when he was five, heinkel couldve also pulled himself together, louanna didnt have to go into a coma, theresia didnt have to die twice, etc etc. but thats the point of it all i think. it turned for the worse but all we can do is try to think about How it turned out this way. and i pity all of them, really.

plus, reinhard, wilhelm, heinkel are 1000% getting some kind of further development with this, i'd say. and rezero is Repeatedly about forgiveness and growth, so yeah. i absolutely dont think we're supposed to fully hate any of them. if anything, im rooting for their growth before its. you know. Too Late. but yeah thats just my extremely long opinion/feelings on all of this, people are totally free to disagree of course :o !! hope that answers your question though!!

[bthump]

Realistically do you think Guts would have been abusive towards Isidro? I know Guts has the rpg group around to make him chill out when he gets too aggressive but I still think the trauma from his own upbringing would worm it's way into his relationship with Isidro much more than what's depicted. I know it sounds awful but I would have liked to see a scene where Guts slaps the shit of him and everyone is like 'WTF THAT'S A KID' and Guts is just like 'You think he has it tough compared to me?"

Honestly no, but I'm not really in the business of discussing fiction realistically, because I don't really think there's much point to talking about characters as if they're real people. Realistically someone like Guts could be abusive, or he might not be. Who knows? Too many factors go into people's behaviour irl for me to assume anything about a real person.

And as for Guts as he's presented in the manga, enh I think the story rushed his character development a bit, but no I don't think it feels wrong that he isn't abusive to Isidro, especially not in the way you describe where he like, hurts Isidro and defensively doubles down. I do think that you could make a case either way in terms of what would fit his character and the themes of the story though.

Like on the one hand his callous behaviour towards Theresia and the way he projected his own self-loathing on her certainly suggests that he could be abusive to kids potentially. I don't think he has enough of a relationship with Theresia to really call his behaviour abusive rather than dickish lol, but he was certainly a dick to her. His advice to Jill to stick with her abusive family wasn't great either.

I can imagine him projecting onto a kid he has a relationship with, like Isidro, and treating him poorly without thinking because of that. Viewing his own child self as weak and trying to stamp it out in the kids he's in charge of, eg. Hurting Isidro would also be thematically relevant, because one of Guts' personal moral boundaries is hurting kids, it's one of the things that makes him hate himself most. His self loathing when he killed Adonis, his hesitation when fighting Rosine, the self-loathing the ghosts express to him after killing a bunch of Rosine's monster children, etc.

In this context I could see Guts pushing Isidro too far during training the way Gambino used to with him, maybe, then realizing what he's doing when Isidro gets hurt and falling into a fit of self-loathing. I think that could've been a very emotionally and thematically relevant scene.

Buuut I also think it makes sense that Guts has grown past that behaviour, and honestly I definitely don't think it would be in character for Guts to hit him out of like, irritation or something like that. As much as Guts lashes out physically as part of how he deals with feelings, he focuses that on enemies, people he has an excuse to fight. Like eg he hurt Casca because he specifically wanted her out of his way and a big part of him wanted to kill her and go fight Griffith instead, not because he needed a punching bag for his emotions. That's what apostles are for.

If Guts was going to be abusive to Isidro I think it would be in a subtler, more emotionally abusive way, eg pushing him too hard, maybe calling him weak, berating him for a mistake during a fight, etc. (I mean technically you can argue he is abusive in canon just by letting this kid risk his life fighting trolls and whatever lmao, but allowances have to be made for genre conventions.) But yeah I think it also does make sense that he doesn't act like that, because he is self-aware that it is bad behaviour and he is consciously trying to be better during the Millenium Falcon arc.

He has hurt kids that way before, again Theresia as an example, but he felt bad about it. And Guts doesn't often lash out at friends and allies when he's in a healthier place emotionally. He does a lot during the Black Swordsman arc, or when he's bitter and resentful with Casca in the Golden Age, but with most of the Hawks, or with the RPG group, he tends to think before he speaks imo.

So basically tl;dr I could imagine another version of the story where Guts was more emotionally abusive to Isidro and I think that could work, but I don't think he necessarily ought to be based on his characterization, and I don't think it would manifest in random physical lashing out.

Thanks for the ask, this is something I've never really thought about before and it's interesting to consider.

[panthera-tigris-venenata]

What is your nickname?

What is your favorite book?

What is something you're insecure about?

What do you consider your biggest accomplishment?

What is a fact about you that nobody would believe?

Describe yourself in one sentence.

What's a totally random and useless fact that you know?

Who knows you the best?

What is your longest friendship?

What kind of first impression do you think you make on people?

I'm gonna go with Tiger for the nickname. There's some forms of my actual name that could be considered a nickname and that I'm not disclosing on my Tumblr.

I really like the Locked Tomb books, just, you don't know what's gonna be on the next page. And the Thousand Floor series cos I've reread it several times and there's a lot of relationships drama (as in "help I accidentally killed one of my best friends in drug-induced mania, am now blackmailing three people and one of them is kinda hot, what do I do??" relationships drama) and scandals. ...I could talk about my favourite books WAY more though.

...honey I have anxiety, I'm insecure about everything.

I don't know. There were some academic competitions that were fun to do, athletic as well. I'm always very happy when the kids at sports club or at camp like me or when people like what I wrote.

Hmm. A fact nobody would believe. People tend to be surprised when I tell them my nails are natural and that I can't stand short nails.

Not doing that, thank you.

I know lots of useless facts! That the egg of ostrich is about as big as twenty four chicken eggs. I can put together fates of most of Maria Theresia's children. I know entirely too much about Ferdinand Kindermann, a local techer & church official from eighteenth century. Probably way too much funky details about famous authors our highschool teacher shared. Definitely WAY too much about poisons and alimentary ilnesses. (Btw, Mad Hatter is mad cos he has mercury poisoning.)

My college friends and my roommate, probably.

I frankly don't know what my longest friendship is.

I think, that I dress loud and don't speak much, lol.

[megashadowdragon]

poor heinkel I feel sorry for him

He and Theresia were the human side of the Astrea.

Wilhelm became stronger than an above-average Sword Saint through pure training. Reinhard was stronger in the world at seven years old.

Heinkel was a normal guy, with normal talent who probably only received support from his mother. Probably her son reminded her of her brother.

Being the son of the two strongest people in Lugunica at the time, I'd bet he had a huge inferiority complex and imposter syndrome because of his position.He surely found refuge in his beloved wife, which was also something normal.

Then his mother died for something that should have been his duty. His wife, his only support, something bad almost certainly happened to her. Left without his only emotional support, he went looking for his father. What did he find? A broken, angry man who blamed his grandson for everything, not a support. I'd bet Wilhelm took it out on both of them, not only Reinhard.

So he seeks refuge elsewhere, in drink. He certainly didn't hate Reinhard at first, but between his inferiority complex, his father's words, the pressure from the kingdom, the lack of support, and alcohol, his mind broke and he ended up needing to find someone to blame. That was Reinhard.

I can almost imagine him regretting it the first time he insulted him, he probably felt horrible, but when Reinhard didn't fight back he must have felt angry. "You think you're so above me that you don't even bother to feel angry? At seven years old? My father was probably right."

Eventually, insulting Reinhard became a habit, a way to let off steam, until one day his words became a reality in his own mind.

Probably his mind now is only filled with resentment for his father and son. In his mind, they ruined his life, so he wants to do the same, hence he doesn't give a shit what happens in Priestella as long as he fucks Reinhard.He knows he can't kill Reinhard so he attacks his mind, his reputation.

So imagine him: he wakes up after a sudden crash. He doesn't understand anything that happened. He walks around for a bit and finds the father he hates trying to kill the supposedly dead mother he loves.

The worst part is that when they kill her, instead of being super emotional, crying, and repenting, they just walk off as if nothing had happened and continue their night (at least on the outside). That's when Heinkel probably realized how alone he really is, surrounded by monsters of infinite determination, while he's just a normal guy.

I don't hate Heinkel, I feel sorry for him.

reddit comments

idk why in the anime was changed but on the novels wilhelm was crying a lot. Like seas of tears ( he likely didnt want heinkel to see him cry

I do understand he did some horrible things, but seeing his own mother point a sword at him, broke me.

I also think his feelings are a bit more complex than what may appear at first glance.

This is a man that lost everything, his wife, his mother, his father, and even his son.

I do not think he hates Reinhard, really, there is sure a lot of resentment, but I do suspect he is more scared of the creature he became, than angry. That's the child he raised, and the Sword Saint took that away from him. At some point he must have realized he wasn't needed anymore, and feeling like your 10 year old kid is a bigger existence than you'll ever be is probably another traumatizing experience. 

Even towards Wilhelm, he was worried about him, when a serious threat to his well being appeard.

I think he's just an old man angry at the world and angry at himself that likes to take out his misery on others. It doesn't help that Reinhard doesn't even try to fight back.

Being the son of the two strongest people in Lugunica at the time, I'd bet he had a huge inferiority complex and imposter syndrome because of his position.He surely found refuge in his beloved wife, which was also something normal.

Heinkel is similar to Subaru, he's a normal dude with incredible parents that he feels inferior against. He desperately wanted to prove himself, anything to live up to his family. 

Except while Subaru found people who gives him positive reinforcements, Heinkel continues to get beatdown with the sword saint blessing literally skipping over him and a son who ended up being better than him in everyway. 

Heinkel was able to slaughter an entire troupe of bandits by himself. Plus in the novels he was able to hold his own vs Theresia for a while.

He's definitely much stronger than someone like Subaru

He's a skilled warrior who only pales in comparison to the geniuses in his family

( he was able to slay a bunch of assassins who attacked priscilla while al could only take down one witha trick)

respponse I'm comparing them base on personality, not skills.

Heinkel doesn't care that he's better than most people, he wants to be as good as his family, which he can't do no matter what.

This part of him is also similar to Subaru. Subaru was also super cool and charismatic compared to every other kid his age, but he still feels inferior because he can't compared to his dad.

Honestly, Willhelm is just an asshole for starting this mess. His wife was the only one who prioritized the love of her son and grandchild. Willhelm was fine letting his son go fight the White Whale to most likely die, leaving Reinhard with no parents (pretty sure Heinkels wife was already in a come) when he's literally married to the strongest possible person in the world. Willhelms' prioritized love for his wife was so strong it ended up destroying his family.

I mean to be fair he was normal not too long ago, when theresia died he defended reinhard from wilhelm. But his severe drinking due to his wife being in a coma musta given him brain damage. That with wilhelms hate rubbing off since we see he does like his father a lil. Also the fact he would likely see reinhard as a monster due to this scene in the ln, an ex novel i think, of reinhard using this wild but also kinda creepy ability.

Reading this, I wonder if Heinkel and his wife (name : [Arc 7 or cut from anime, idk] Louanna ) had a "From Zero", Heinkel desperate to run away from the pressure and Louanna reassuring that even if no one appreciates him, she realizes how amazing he is and how much effort he puts in.

Actually, [same as name] the parallel of both Rem and Louanna being comatose is strong to the point of being Hilarious. Actually, Actually [Arc 7] Louanna would hate Heinkel too if she woke up with no memories, once she finds him cussing at Reinhard like he does.

Damn it, I want to summon the Astrea family drama specialists to infect their brains but I don't know their reddit names…

[frogs-in3-hills]

so having finished the first big berserk volume (covering the black swordsman + a bit of the golden age)… i guess i was expecting to be bored by the edgycoolguy of it all, and maybe it’s just because i’ve seen the anime and have the context to understand what kind of place guts is in, but it’s genuinely really good! there’s a lot here that balances out the edgelord stuff—obviously puck is basically carrying this arc on his back, but one of the things that really struck me was guts himself. him crying after theresia swears revenge on him + all the other horrifying bullshit that happened (griffith!!! holy shit! truly putting into perspective how worthless guts feels) was good ofc, but what really stood out to me about guts’ early characterization is his fear. because look. our edgy cool guy tearing up isn’t THAT archetype defying… plenty of murderboys can also be sadboys and it’s fine, even Cool, if they shed some manly tears. more ingrained is that murderboys don’t get to be afraid. it’s lame. but we see guts scared a lot, and it shows openly on his face (notably puck also makes a point of “you’re afraid aren’t you” in his guts thesis). this arc drives home again and again that even if guts is a master swordsman, he’s so unfathomably insignificant, these demons are so, so much stronger than he is. he is trying to kill a hurricane here. and how could he possibly accept that! it’s a big part of why he behaves the way he does!

anyways i just thought that’s a really good place for miura to take him, because honestly “oh but he’s saaaaad”….. wouldn’t have actually worked for me in making guts more sympathetic. we’ve all seen the sad sad edgelord. an edgelord who screams in visceral terror as he fights demons is a little less precedented.