#Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aros001 · 3 years ago

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First time read through light novel vol. 14. Random thoughts.

...Are we going to get a "No, Emilia. I am your father." kind of moment? Because that guy on the cover looks kind of like...

“That is truly a thought befitting an uncivilized Witch. However, what you are imagining is impossible. Right now, you are a being half a step removed from this world, meaning you are unable to interfere on a level sufficient enough to affect it. Nor can you make contact with the people within the memory. Though, I suppose if you could, it would be a Trial in a different sense.”

I thought about this last time with Garfiel's trial but wanted to wait to see if Emilia's would be the same. Why did Subaru's trial allow him to interact with the "past" but Garfiel's and Emilia's don't? I suppose it could be the simple differences in their regrets. Garfiel and Emilia's trials concern events where they couldn't do anything and even in the present still can't, while Subaru's regret was that he already had been doing nothing even though he could have.

“—My mother, Fortuna.”

This was the woman who had lived with Emilia in the Great Elior Forest as her surrogate mother.

At the very least, to Emilia, she was family as much as any real mother could be.

Still leaving the door open for time travel shenanigans and those "Emilia is Satella" theories, I can't help but notice.

Right off the bat I really like how child Emilia is being presented, because she does really feel like an actual kid. She was a good, sweet lil girl, but she wasn't perfect princess who never did wrong. Sneaking out when she's not supposed to, feeling proud of how often she did so without getting caught, having fun hearing and seeing things she's not supposed to while no one knows she's there, getting jealous of Geuse's interactions with Fortuna. I loved when she came back to her room with muddy clothes and was about to be caught. My most immediate thought was "She's going to hide the clothes in the toy box. That's what I would have done as a kid." No, she dumps ink on the clothes to hide the mud! That's still just such a kid logic thing to do.

I like to believe Echidna keeps referring to Subaru as him because she's still a little sour and petty about him choosing Satella over her.

Emilia wondered if she could grant him happiness the way her mother had done for her.

“It’s all right, Geuse. It’s all right. It’s okay.”

Consoling him, Emilia stroked Geuse’s head with her free hand.

When Geuse went rigid at the first touch, Emilia embraced his head against her tiny chest. The tremors of his sobs shot straight to her heart; it felt like she could feel the warmth of his body reaching deep inside her.

I think it was Alfred Hitchcock who had a speech about the difference between surprise and suspense. You're watching a scene of two people at a table. BOOM! Table explodes. There was a bomb underneath. The audience was surprised. But inform the audience prior that there's a bomb underneath the table, now the audience watching the exact same scene is being held in suspense, just waiting for that bomb to go off.

This really reminds me of that. If we'd started Re:Zero with Emilia's past, this would be a somewhat weird but overall perfectly innocent and even nice scene. But since we know what happens to Emilia, what happens to Geuse, but don't know how exactly they got there, there is just this massive sense of unease, because we KNOW something is going to go wrong.

“—I’m scared, but I won’t cower.”

“Could you keep your decisions from sounding like they come from the disagreeable, weepy, clinging to a man whom I substitute as a father figure woman you are?”

I'm curious if Subaru would consider that a step closer or further from the relationship he wants with Emilia?

“My reply just now was nothing short of clichéd, but that said, I think anyone can appreciate the temptation to react that way in this kind of situation. Even though we are meeting each other for the first time and we stand on completely equal ground, why must you arbitrarily look down upon me and demand my name like this? Do you even realize the fact that you have subconsciously, inconsiderately, carelessly, and one-sidedly classified me as inferior?”

“...For a man, you certainly like long-winded speeches.”

“Stating for a man is nothing less than comparing me with the men you know simply based upon my outward appearance alone. In the first place, the creatures known as men are innumerable throughout the world, so by what standard can you judge me? That attitude... I just can’t let it go. It is excessively lacking in manners. It flies in the face of my individuality, my rights.”

...

“I am a member of the Witch Cult, the Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins who has been entrusted with Greed—Regulus Corneas.”

After Echidna's massive multi-page speech some volumes ago, I suppose being wordy could be considered greedy, hogging all of the attention and conversation and whatnot.

Subaru could say it didn’t match with the Echidna he knew, but that was as far as it went. It had been four centuries since her death; perhaps a period so long brought tremendous changes even to the mind of a Witch possessing such great power.

Perhaps that had resulted in a twisting of the Witch’s personality, rotting her core nature.

I'll be very curious to see if that's the case. If time or even Satella brought about such a change in Echidna or if she always had been this way and was just good at hiding it. Then again, she did act somewhat different when she and Subaru first met and then revealed her true greedy nature much later.

“Even if your life has been twisted or corrupted somehow...you became your current self through the choices you made, no matter how limited they were. Don’t try to pass yourself off as a victim...Devil of Melancholy, Hector!”

You know, I was just thinking he looked

like a twisted fusion of Subaru and Roswaal. That does sound like what an evil Subaru would be like. Trying to justify his evil because of what RBD put him through.

It's between Beatrice and Wilhelm right now for who is the bigger tsundere in the series. Wilhelm never told his wife he loved her until after he finally killed the White Whale but Betty's constant bullheaded refusal to admit she likes spending time with Ryuzu while doing anything and everything to have an excuse to be around her, including helping with chores, certainly pulls her a bit ahead in that regard.

“The Seven Deadly Sins are Pride, Jealousy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust...but I’ve heard that in the past, it was different, and there were other Deadly Sins included with the ones currently recognized.”

“Where did you...? I suppose it is futile to ask... So what were these other Deadly Sins?”

“I’m...pretty sure they were Melancholy and Vanity, I think.”

—Stripped out of the Seven Deadly Sins, Melancholy and Vanity could be called the “old” Deadly Sins.

We have two more of these assholes?! We haven't even met everything to do with the first seven yet!

No matter how small the wound, it would not heal if time did not advance. That was why—

“—This time, I’ll smash her stopped time apart.”

Somewhat ironic that the guy who keeps getting looped through time is the one to try and undo the stopped time for three others; Rem, Emilia, and Beatrice. But I guess you could say that's the big ongoing mission and theme of Re:Zero. To find ways to move forward.

“So that is the Greed of this age. When I consider this encounter is normally impossible, it is deeply interesting indeed.”

“...Echidna, do you know what happened just now?”

Emilia posed the question to Echidna as the latter departed from the shade of the trees, shifting to a location from which it was easier to observe the battle. Echidna lifted the corners of her lips as she frowned at Emilia, who’d moved right beside her like it was the natural thing to do, but she immediately sighed and spoke.

“I can hazard a guess, but I am far from certain. I would have liked to observe the situation a little longer before speculating about his Authority...but it would seem the circumstances will not permit it— They are on the move.”

I've wondered about this since Petelgeuse but the implication here and arc 3 seems to be that the archbishops' connections are with Satella and not the witches associated with their respective sins.

“Just what do you see with those scarlet-hued eyes, Archbishop Romanée- Conti?”

“—Love.”

Heeeee's heeere.

What had he taken inside him? What was the power he had used to bury Regulus with a single blow? It was as if something had happened that she could not see, and yet, Emilia had a feeling of déjà vu nonetheless.

—Somehow, it resembled the blow with which Subaru had settled his duel with Garfiel.

So did Subaru take the same freakin' Venom symbiote inside of himself as well during his final battle with Petelgeuse and I'm just not remembering? Then again, isn't part of the Witch of Envy's story that she destroyed and absorbed the other witches? Maybe Subaru is unknowingly doing the same with the archbishops and took in Petelgeuse's Witch Factor and authority.

“You, without qualified flesh, have done well to accept the Witch Factor into you. In the name of the Witch of Vanity, I hereby honor your resolve and resolute will by granting thee the seat of Sloth.”

Oh sh*t, she's one of the assholes!

I felt the same way when I was reading my way through Goblin Slayer and the parts about that character's past, but another sadly very child thing for a child to do is to think everything bad that's happening around them is because of something bad they did, no matter how minor. Poor Emilia crying and begging and promising she'll be good and thinking everything terrible that's happening is because she broke her promise and left the room.

“An Archbishop of the Seven Deadly Sins...but what problem is there beyond him?”

“The demon beast Black Serpent has been released into the forest.”

“Th-the Black Serpent—?!”

Of f**king course it is. We joke about Subaru getting all the suffering but it seems like Emilia is the one who's the actual magnet for everything that causes it.

No blood spewed from the fallen arms or from where they had been severed. In fact, the arms were shriveled in an unnatural way that had nothing to do with age, rotting like tree roots starved of water.

“The Black Serpent’s vicious tongue...! Please flee!”

...

Moaning in anguish, the armless man collapsed onto the ground, his upper torso writhing. Black blood gushed out of his eye sockets, nostrils, earlobes, and more places, until finally, he stopped moving at all.

The man’s final moments left Archi, let alone young Emilia, in a panic.

“The crucible of disease...the plague-bearing demon beast the Black Serpent...!!”

So what was the mentality behind the Witch of Gluttony creating this f**king thing?! The White Whale and Great Rabbit made sense in a horribly twisted way in helping to deal with the world's hunger and her own. What does disease and rot offer for her?

“Really, I hate all this. Maybe you think I like hurting other people out of some kind of sadistic hobby, but you would be mistaken, and I would take great insult at that mischaracterization. I’m not doing this because I particularly want to. It only seems like I’m bullying you because you’re weak. I don’t have any desire to do things like this any longer. For good or ill, I, a satisfied man, do not want to interfere with anyone else. I am content, without want. You need to accept that.”

So is the archbishops' thing that they try to be the pure opposite of their respective sins? Petelgeuse was of sloth and he was a maniac with many hands that allowed him to do many things. Regulus of greed wants nothing and will take nothing, not even damage. I wonder if that's part of why Petelgeuse thought Subaru was pride, since he seemed to have none. But Lye, the archbishop of gluttony, was constantly hungry and eating, though what he ate were memories and names. Maybe I'm not paying enough attention but I feel like I'm missing the common theme.

“After calling me here, you tell me to go now that you’re satisfied? Just how much do you think you can make a fool out of me...?”

“Is it that unacceptable? Then I shall take care of it. Archbishop Corneas cannot possibly be here. He is spending time at his mansion, surrounded by his wives.”

“Wa—”

The instant she made that one-sided argument, Regulus tried to shout something as he suddenly vanished from sight.

It wasn’t that he sank deeper into the ground. His very presence had truly, suddenly disappeared. As a matter of fact, the place where he had assuredly been bore no trace of burial at all.

It was as if, when Pandora said, ...cannot possibly be here, the very world had affirmed her words.

Regardless of the archbishops, the witches certainly seem to exactly embody their sins. The witch of vanity. Her words must be so important that they alter reality itself.

“But of course you do. You must have the Key— After all, whatever you may look like, you are still a Witch’s daughter.”

“Witch...?”

I'm somewhat hoping Emilia doesn't turn out to be Satella's daughter. Rosario+Vampire already made me feel conflicted enough about the romance drama there because of a twist like that.

Well, I'll give Petelgeuse this...he definitely had a good reason to go crazy. The Witch Factor was already tearing his mind apart and then he's tricked into murdering Fortuna, it makes sense that his maddening state would latch onto Pandora's "love" explanation as the only way he could live with himself.

She had seen for herself all of young Emilia’s days, all she had forgotten in order to go on living up to this day.

Fortuna’s death, Geuse’s madness, the reason her homeland had been encased in ice, everything—

Yeah, I can see why Emilia had failed the Past Trial so many times before, beyond just not being able to retain the memories. Nothing like finding out you're the one responsible for freezing your entire homeland and all the people in it.

When Emilia’s heart flirted with self-doubt, there was one thing that gave her the strength to steady herself.

—Don’t give up. Look forward. Raise your head high. Look straight at me.

Over and over, time and time again, he’d told Emilia those things.

He’d scolded Emilia for being weak, for giving up. Without any basis, he’d declared, You’re the best.

Their teeth had hurt when they’d clumsily butted together, but the heat of their tongues meeting had lit Emilia’s heart on fire.

There were some conversations I'd been having recently on the Boku no Hero Academia Reddit (a series I really like) about Ochaco Uraraka (a character I really like) and how despite having a lot of potential her character isn't being used a lot and is mostly revolving lately around her secret romantic feelings for the main character Midoriya. I've gushed about Subaru and Rem enough to make it no secret I'm a shipper and I'm no different with Midoriya and Uraraka. However, I think this section here with Emilia really highlights what's lacking in the latter. Like Uraraka, Subaru has other parts to his character but a large part of his character still revolves around his love for Emilia, and similarly with Rem's love for him. However, the difference is we get to see how his love actively effects Emilia, both situation-wise and character-wise. Midoriya, despite having a crush as well on Uraraka, has no awareness of her romantic feelings towards him and thus that plotline has no effect on him. Subaru's love for Emilia and Rem's love for him is front and center in the story. It is played up and has enough of an impact to where it feels really important, while Uraraka's love for Midoriya is more off to the side and mentioned only every now and then. It's not yet that relevant to Midoriya's story while the love Emilia and Subaru were given is HEAVILY relevant to theirs. Another example I'd give is Sakura from Naruto, a character more in the spotlight than Uraraka, given even less of significance to do, and had her character revolve heavily around her feelings for Sasuke. We are told after the fact, after the story is done, that Sasuke was always secretly grateful for her love for him, but that doesn't mean anything because the story itself never showed that. It rarely to never showed the effect Sakura's love had on Sasuke and that sends the message to the audience that that plotline doesn't/didn't matter.

I know some will point out that it's not fair to compare Re:Zero to series in the Shonen genre, as those series are more about action than romance, but I've always felt that's a bullsh*t excuse. When you introduce a plotpoint or plotline into the story, you need to DO SOMETHING with it or otherwise why is it even there to begin with? Drawing heavy attention to the fact that a character loves someone is no different than playing up the fact that a character has someone they really want to fight or beat. It's an expectation the author has set up for the audience and there needs to be follow-through. Otherwise, it's bad writing. It's something I weirdly respect One Piece for. Author doesn't want to write about romance, so he doesn't have any romance or hints of it among the main characters. What love or attraction there is is played for laughs, so the audience knows not to take it seriously and focus on it too much.

Even if Subaru, Emilia, Rem never get together romantically (even though, obviously, I hope one of those pairings will), Re:Zero is still following-through on those plotlines, exploring the dynamics, and giving resolution to those stories. Subaru's feelings for Emilia and Rem's feelings for him don't feel like a waste of time. Again, I like Uraraka. I like Midoriya. I ship the two of them because I like the relationship they have and can buy their crushes on each other. But I want freakin' PAY-OFF to that plotline WELL BEFORE the very end of the series and that's something Re:Zero is doing very well.

“Now, let us return to the first question, Subaru— Why have you come here?”

This was the first serious question Roswaal posed to Subaru upon his arrival to this room, but it was also what Garfiel had wanted to know earlier as well. Prompted for an answer, Subaru caught his breath. They had come here with one objective.

Namely—

“—I’m here to demand your surrender.”

...Well damn. When Subaru's balls drop they're like thunder.

His voice was quiet, yet heated all the same. What had begun as censure for having a change of heart had become a plea, an earnest wish; merely listening to it struck one’s heart with sadness.

—To him, what was most precious to you was what you stripped away everything else for.

Previously, Roswaal had said as much to Subaru. And this was the nature of Roswaal’s love. To Roswaal, this was the only way to love something; he recognized no others.

Jeez, Roswaal is such a good villain.

“Please, Lady Emilia— I beg you, save my liege, Master Roswaal.”

“He is completely possessed by obsession, obsession that has bound his heart like a curse for a very, very long time. Perhaps, Ram was fine with him like that even so. Perhaps, Ram was fine even if he did not look her way, even if he thought of Ram as nothing more than a useful tool with which to satisfy his obsession.”

“But his obsession has already strayed far from the path. He has lost sight of the objective that is the foundation of all his hopes, and Master Roswaal clings to his text in name alone... I beg you, break his obsession.”

“He will not. He will most certainly panic. He will lose his reason to live and might well collapse completely. However, Lady Emilia, you are the only one who can do this. Perhaps, by moving Master Roswaal away from his way of life that has buoyed him all this time...my feelings might succeed in reaching him.”

I think I mentioned way back when reading through arc 2 that the LNs were getting me to like and appreciate Ram in a way I didn't when first watching the anime. I'm glad that's continued. I find her to be genuinely the funniest character in Re:Zero but she's also not one-note during the serious scenes. I wouldn't have predicted her taking action against Roswaal, much less later directly standing against him in the replication facility, yet I have no trouble buying her reasons, and the speculations both Emilia and Roswaal give do make you question exactly what she's feeling.

“After all...you were forced to pledge loyalty against your will and spend your days with the man who caused the destruction of your homeland. Even if, without your horn, your body required my support in order for you to live, it must have been exceedingly agonizing. I am sorry to have acted as if it is not my affair.”

Ever since that line way back about those will horns obeying the person who cuts it off, I always had wondered if Roswaal had anything to do with how Ram lost her horn, even if he didn't directly do the deed himself. Unless I'm misreading, that basically seems to confirm it.

The conversation made her head hurt, but Petra widened her eyes at Frederica’s quick wit. Through offering a little casual conversation, Frederica had learned the woman’s objective straight from her lips—Rem wasn’t among the woman’s targets. The Sleeping Princess had vanished from the enemy’s memory as well.

So Roswaal must have come up with the plan for sending assassins to the mansion before the siege on the White Whale, at the very least. There's no reason he wouldn't have Elsa kill her too, given he's doing this to get at Subaru.

Can I just say that I absolutely love the friendship and bromance between Subaru, Otto, and Garfiel? They've got a lot of nice diversity in their personalities and backgrounds that makes them really fun to watch interact. Plus it's always just good for a protagonist to have friends who can't be considered either his child/parental figures or part of his potential harem (though I'm certain without even looking Subaru's probably shipped with at least one of them (I know for a fact he's shipped with Julius a lot)).

“—Subaruuu!”

When her weakness slipped out, Petra spoke a single boy’s name, as if clinging to it for dear life.

To Petra, this was the name of the bravest person in the whole world.

He was someone with incredible courage, who forced his trembling legs to face an opponent he knew he could not defeat.

When Petra and the others from the village were truly in danger, when they really might have died, he was the one who’d rushed off first and saved them—and so she called his name.

Even though, in that moment, she understood he wasn’t there to save her.

“Subaru, Subaru... Save me, Subaruuu!”

“You got it. Sure thing, Petra.”

“—Eh?”

I'm a big superhero fanboy, so yeah, I love me some Subaru heroic moments. There's a reason arc 2 has such a special place in my heart. I also like that Petra isn't deluded. She knows he's weak and that he's scared. But he's still her hero nonetheless because he still pushed himself to save her in spite of all that.

“I’m getting you out of here, Beatrice— This time, my hand’s gonna lead you right out under the big ol’ sun, and we’ll play around until that dress is totally black from mud.”

Faced with Subaru’s provocative words, the girl—Beatrice—remained seated on the same stool as she always did, clutching her own book.

With those arms still wrapped tight around her black-bound book, she stared at Subaru, trembling.

WHY DOES THE NEXT VOLUME NOT COME OUT UNTIL THE END OF FEBRUARY?!?!

Well, at least I can finally watch the season 2 anime... the first half...which I think ends around when last volume started up....

...If Lolimancer Subaru is a general and the Ryuzu copies are his soldiers, I want to see Beatrice as his lieutenant!

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/kl9ngr/novels_first_time_read_through_light_novel_vol_14/

#re:zero #random thoughts #reddit repost

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