#Arc 6

[spmcomic]

[melancholicmaze]

Natsuki Subaru was here

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Arc 6, Reflections

A lot of people will talk about about how with or after Leviathan, people stopped liking Worm, or felt like the work really changed after that, and there's something to that, to an extent.

But honestly, Arc 6 feels like the real sea change here, the real shift. Maybe post-Leviathan will to, but with Arc 6, the last nails in the coffin of the idea 'Taylor the Hero' is done.

I feel like it's quite likely, just as there were people who kept powering through the dark and despair hoping it would get better (spoiler alert: It doesn't), there were people who were counting on Taylor's eventual turn to heroism.

And here, Taylor has burnt her bridges with the heroes, and basically burnt her bridges with dad now, and decided... nope. Fuck it. I pick friendship and what Coil is offering and friendship and the one outlet I have left over the heroes.

As she notes, if she'd had someone she could have talked to sooner, maybe it works out. Maybe she makes it work, maybe she doesn't, maybe she finds a way to keep going.

The thing is, if she had turned on Coil and the Undersiders right now... what would it have accomplished? She doesn't actually know the truth of Coil's rather broken af power, so it's impossible for her to give the heroes adequate information. She just screws herself over, honestly.

Like, I've seen a lot of people say that if someone reads worm and comes away thinking Taylor is completely correct in what she does and really did make the best choice, they're wrong, and I'm right there with that take, because I mean - fuck, no, none of this is the best choice she could make with the information she actually had.

And yet, when you look back on everything, in hindight... maybe my opinion will change as I keep reading, but it's hard to imagine a universe where Taylor hands all this over to the Protectorate and quits villainy and even tries a run as an Indie hero (I mean, really, her actual list of crimes - not counting what she does to ABB gangsters or Lung, which, I mean, bad, but context - is really minor at this point) actually works out?

Like, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but there's a lot of AU work that needs to be done to ground all that, because taking down a guy like Coil isn't easy. Because doing all the things she ends up doing down the line is far, far from simple.

I mean, I've read AUs where things get wrapped up easier, in very different contexts, and though I often enjoy them, sometimes they do feel like it's all... a little too easy? Just a bit?

Not always, not every time, but like, the Wormverse does run on 'it gets worse' and 'people constantly making bad decisions', so on the one hand a fic where neither of those narrative principles holds quite as strong a grip, it makes sense that these problems might be more easily solved.

On the other, it kind of cheapens the canon narrative and the hard choices the characters make, if the problems really could be solved that easily, you know? It's like in Buffy fics where the Scoobies somehow defeat and utterly destroy Wolfram and Hart with a plan so stupid they clearly rented it from the ACME corporation. Because that makes sense.

(Well, I say fics as if there's more than one fic that did this that I know of. Just the one, and I'm still fucking salty about it. *grumble*)

Anyway, circling back on topic - the point is, as much as I want to yell at and shake Taylor for this choice, for not turning in what she knows, I can't blame her because A) I get why she picks her friends over anything else (maybe if the transfer to Arcadia was going through, or if the School actually punished the Trio she might have held out some hope for normality) and B) Honestly, this probably is the path to actually stopping Coil, given what's available to her at this point.

She doesn't know it's B, not yet, but I'm pretty sure.

I do wonder what the live slug reaction to this was though, by the fandom. Were there people who dropped the work believing the prospects of Hero Taylor were now gone? Were people still hoping for Taylor to pick Hero path down the line by now?

Did the tantalizing promise of what Coil represented, narratively, keep people in, and going?

Certainly would have me, I think. But I'm not, and never can, reading this blind, so... who knows.

[yarn-dragon]

New fic! I think about Beryl's emerald eye A Normal Amount

[mollysfuturemishaps]

Molly's Future Mishaps Chapter 28: The Troubles of the Time Facility

In the year 4000, the time travel facility is struggling to get back on its feet after Jo’s break in and theft. Tensions are high as they decide what to do going forward. 

[motherofmabari]

Unprepared Casters Arc 6 Episode 2 spoilers below

"If you had died, if Beryl had died, I would have blamed myself for the rest of my life but it would have been your fault."

Lottie omg just shatter my heart and show it to me

[c0rle0nis]

Arc 6 Chapter 39 — [Ruins]

[vo1tur3]

Ignore the watermark from the snow filter pleabe

[mogamuncher]

Let's play a game Rezeronation: Is This Gluttony IF/Arc 6 or Is This a Trans Allegory?

I love the "came back wrong" trope but from the opposite side.

Imagine you are dead. And then you are RIPPED from the embrace of decay into the world of the living again. Your memories are hazy and you don't recognize any of these people, but they act like they're close to you? Like they love you? So you try to get your memories back, to act like you belong here, but everybody tries to forget you died. And you can't. It is omnipresent. And just trying to grapple with that fact pushes the people who "love" you away, and they're incapable of understanding, and they're so confused, what's wrong N̶̄̀O̶͛͗T̷̉́ ̷͋͝Y̴̎̌Ȍ̴̈U̸̓R NÄM̴̃͑E̵̾̇? And you just need them to understand, you aren't that person! You aren't! You don't know who that person is! You don't know why any of this is happening, but they're unwilling to bend, they keep insisting you are that person, your memories will come back, everything will be normal again, and you want to scream and cry and claw yourself open to show them you're different. Your existence as a being wholly separate from whoever you "used to be" is a sin unto itself. All you can do is scrabble for life and to them, you're killing whoever they loved to do it.

just. lots of fun in that concept, you know?

[egophiliac]

queen of diamonds, upright + reversed 💎

I've redone this like eighty times, I have to just be done with it now and stop staring at all my mistakes oh no 🫠

[spmcomic]

it was a normal day, until...

part 1 of 2.

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start at the beginning

[formulanni]

Dragon Slayer

Tag list: @st-leclerc @rubywingsracing @saviour-of-lord @three-days-time @the-wall-is-my-goal @albonoooo @ch3rubd0lls

[teh-inggris]

pvp civ nation...... this aint much but pls take my contribution for this series bc im going insane i love hate this man so much get him out of my head

[rrivvy]

Loved your commentary on this entire arc, and the summary at the end is incredibly accurate. One scene I was sad to see not directly mentioned though was Subaru's scene with Eridna where he failed to mercy kill her and she apologized for suspecting him. It genuinely ripped my insides out to an extent I'll never recover from.

Screenshots of my favourite moments of Re:Zero Arc 6: (part 2) (the emotional rollercoaster of a lifetime)

Subaru may have lost his memories, but he hasn’t forgotten the importance of committing to the bit.

“Everyone is physically attractive” - a thing that people who are only attracted to one gender definitely say.

Subaru: So what are we? Julius: (How am I supposed to explain that I want to be friends, but he’s going through a one-sided “rivals-to-lovers” arc towards me?) Julius: We’re… friends. Yeah. Subaru: ? Why was there a pause there?

There’s not one left to remember left to remember Rem. But worse then being entirely forgotten, there are people who know that no one remembers Rem. This is messed up.

No you didn’t Subaru. You said exactly what you where supposed to.

I’m glad it’s canon that Subaru has watched magical girl shows (or at least familiar enough with them that he has the poses memorized)

So I know the Gluttony IF exists, and because of that, on a logical level I know that Subaru wasn’t going to go through with the plan to read everyone’s books of the dead….

But I was not comfortable with how close he got.

Yeah at this point, Subaru has lost his memories, has been possessed by [Natsuki Subaru], and is being haunted by the memories of Meili, leaving him in a very unstable state, mentally. To top this off, Reid (who is supposed to be a trial) is roaming the tower, the tower is also being attacked by a horde of witchbeasts. Also in a previous loop it looked like everyone killed each other? And then the whole tower was swallowed by a shadow? And there hasn’t been an explanation for any of this yet.

So I’m with Subaru. What IS going on.

Like I mentioned before, logically I knew that Subaru wasn’t going to kill all of his friends….

But that didn’t stop me from breathing an audible sigh of relief after reading Subaru reach that decision himself.

he’s a good person he’s a good person he’s a good person Natsuki Subaru is a good person he still cares about them he still cares about them he still cares about them-

Rather than Screenshot the entire chapter, I just decided to screenshot the title. Just…. This chapter. They trust him. They saved him. Emilia trusts him. Emilia saved him. And in return, he’s going to save all of them.

No Beatrice, Subaru’s actually completely right about all of this.

Fellas, is it gay for a man’s appearance to make you except things of of him?

(Not necessarily. But I guess if you want to read it that way, you could)

Rather than try and make my own, less funny joke, I will instead refer you to the words of tumblr user Liquidstar:

it’s so over….

we are so back.

HA GOTTEM

Subaru: I’m Nothing like [Natsuki Subaru] Also Subaru: (does the exact thing Natsuki Subaru would do)

Call me crazy but I’m starting to think that Subaru Natsuki and Subaru Natsuki are the same person.

It’s so over….

oh it is so over.

So I love the whole exchange in the corridor of memories between the two Subaru’s. So rather than screenshot the whole thing, I just made this meme:

We are so back

OH WE ARE SO BACK!

Huh. I feel like this is going to have an effect on the whole…. Royal Selection thing. Maybe it’ll be fine though.

Fellas, is it gay to um... to uh… literally blast your enemies with a rainbow?

(Not necess- Oh who am I kidding. We aren’t escaping the gay allegations with this one, fellas)

Huh? I am now very curious about what exactly happened 400 years ago.

Nooooooo Shuala! I wanted her to learn that her master wasn’t coming back and come to terms with that! I wanted her to be able to leave the tower And see the world! I wanted her to be allowed to make connections outside of her devotion to her master! I wanted her to have friends! Shuala deserved better.

So that was Arc 6.

I feel like my heart was torn out, sent on a rollercoaster ride, was stabbed a bunch of times, Was put back together with tender love and care, and then was shoved back into my body. And then that process was repeated several times.

I guess I’m off to read the short stories, the EX novels, and the IF routes now. Or maybe just lie down and emotionally process everything some more.

[mollysfuturemishaps]

Molly's Future Mishaps Chapter 35: Uncertain Compromise

Leaf is exhausted after recent events; Jo sneaks his way back to the end of time to make a strange compromise. 

[motherofmabari]

Arc 6 has the strongest first episode in all of Unprepared Casters I stg, like Gus just reaches through my headphones and has a CHOKEHOLD on my brain from beginning to end. A+++ storytelling would sit spellbound in a dissociative state of rapture again