#btz!priscilla

[sufferu]

What would happen if BTZ I Subaru managed to escape the Crusch Estate and join the Priscilla Camp (maybe with a good word put in by Heinkel and Al)? From his perspective they have no reason to want him back, and none of them have the authority to force him out of another camp (especially Priscilla's lmao, she's not bending for shit)

If Subaru ended up with Priscilla in any timeline, he’d eventually end up being encouraged to abuse RBD to its fullest extent in order to fulfill his role as “a brilliant knight.” This is what is…pretty explicitly stated, frankly, by both her response to Natchuki Subawu in Arc 8 and her relationship with Aldebaran, who foils Subaru in a number of ways, including this. There’s a reason I stand by the interpretation that Priscilla is one of the villains of Re:Zero (if not technically an antagonist) as well as both an in-universe monster and an antithesis to the themes of the story. Subaru ending up as Priscilla’s servant is a very clear Bad End, even if it might take a while for him to crack.

The other camps would likely fully understand this, however, so they’d probably be working to chip away at her control over Subaru in order to save him from that fate (and perhaps Aldebaran, too: I’m actually considering adding a subplot like that to BTZ depending on how Arc 9 turns out, but I can’t do anything until I know the full story there lol). And it would be difficult, and it would take a long time, but I think they’d eventually be able to succeed. Re:Zero is about triumphing over fate, after all — and what clearer way to do that than to triumph over Priscilla Barielle?

Though honestly, I don’t think Subaru would ever even consider joining her camp, even in BTZ. Subaru does not like Priscilla: he thinks she’s unreasonable, unpredictable, and really rather off-putting — it’s one of the ways he contrasts against Aldebaran, who follows her like a dog. Not to mention that he’s still very attached to Emilia and wouldn’t want to ally himself with someone who is explicitly her rival.

[sufferu]

priscilla wouldnt let them take Al and to be frank I feel your takes on how they would react rbd and Subaru be ooc of them

Though I pretty much agree with your take on reforgotten if and Subaru wouldn't go on revenge against juli etc see his reaction to rem torturing him because he has the scent

To be frank I find the most popular ideas about how the rest of the cast would react to RBD within this fandom to be rather OOC: I think they often underplay just how horrific RBD would likely be in the eyes of most characters in Re:Zero, especially when they often tend to stop in the middle of chapters to give monologues about suicide and sacrifice and death and immortality that are FILLED with dramatic irony in how they’d reflect on Subaru, “if only they knew.” That’s the whole reason why I decided to write my own react fic.

As for Priscilla — that’s just a good source of conflict. Two characters wanting two contradictory things is one of the most basic ways to create conflict in a story. Priscilla vs. Everyone Else could be fun. (Assuming she doesn’t just let them “borrow” Aldebaran just to suit her own amusement, which I could see her doing but am unsure if I’d commit to writing.)

[sufferu]

Curious question would BTZ Subaru have been allowed to date one of the other royal candidates if he was interested in them and vice versa like Anastasia or Crusch?

Yeah sure. If he and the other person were interested in one another, there wouldn’t really have been a reason for anyone else to get in the way of that. They’d have an issue with him getting with someone like Priscilla because she’s — batshit — but someone like Crusch or Anastasia would probably be absolutely fine.

I don’t think Crusch OR Anastasia are in any position to see him as a prospective romantic partner though, lmao, that ship has SAILED—

[sufferu]

So since BTZ is going to be an adoption fest you think anyone going to take in Al and raise him into a model citizen lol.

Well. There’s an entire country that owes him BIG TIME for putting him through horrors far beyond mortal comprehension for fuck knows how long. And its leader does have a bit of a history of being mistaken for the father of a de-aged castaway already.

So that’s one option.

[sufferu]

In your BTZ fic, which memory stood out the most to each cast member?

I don’t think I can say for EVERYONE, but — here’s a couple:

Crusch: Her own refusal to help Subaru when he came to her begging for her to save his loved ones. She gets it — she does — but holy crap is that a hard pill to swallow. She never wants to make a mistake like that again.

Anastasia: The sheer extent to which Emilia has apparently completely failed as Subaru’s liege. Holy shit. Subaru apparently having what she might very well consider a genuine mental disability comes as a close second, though.

Felt: The fact that Anastasia, Priscilla, and Crusch ALL abandoned Subaru at the same time. She didn’t like the nobility before, but that just — made her position SO much clearer to her.

Wilhelm: Subaru crawling away from the White Whale and crying for help. You can assume that this is now playing on loop in the back of his mind almost constantly.

Ferris: Just — the concept of Return By Death. It’s like it was purposefully designed to trigger him, specifically.

Julius: Subaru’s near-complete inability to recognize danger before it hurts him, or worse.

Ricardo: The First Trial, and the reveal that Subaru’s parents probably think he went and killed himself. He made the mistake of thinking of how he’d react if it had been him and Anastasia and — yeah. Traumatizing.

Mimi: The fact that she didn’t help Subaru when he came to her and her Lady for help. She completely failed him, didn’t she?

Eridna: Beatrice leaving him to die to the Wolgarm curse. Seeing him meet Echidna in the Sanctuary was a shock, but — the idea that his own contracted spirit left him to die offended her on a very personal level.

Reinhard: The fact that he apparently Was Not There when Subaru needed him most.

Rachins: The fact that he fucking killed Subaru in an alley that one time.

Rem: Seeing herself torture Subaru in the woods for hours on end. And then — everything she did after that. What the fuck, she had thought HE was the dangerous one—!

Ram: The fact that she killed Subaru in the woods. That — completely recontextualizes their entire relationship. What the fuck.

Otto: He threw him to the White Fucking Whale. …Seeing him trapped in that same damn cave by Petelgeuse is a close second, though.

Garfiel: Kidnapping him in that cave for three days. And also like, just — almost everything he did in those failed Arc 4 loops. What was he DOING?!

Beatrice: It’s a tie between him conversing with her mother and seeing herself leave him to die.

Emilia: Just — her poor knight. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want any of this!

[sufferu]

Finally read the most recently translated Arc 9 chapters (up to chapter 18).

Aldebaran is fucking crazy but we all knew that. Wasn’t prepared for him to start paralleling all of the IF Routes and also Natchuki Subawu like that though oh my GOD. —Well I WAS, but not to THAT EXTENT—

Including a parallel to the pinky promise scene was vile lmao. Love it

Heinkel is amazing. Truly the universe’s punching bag. I’m really wondering about his “sturdiness” now lol — but also, him and Reinhard…!

PETRA KNOWWWS— But she only read that one Book, hmm…? So she only knows a little bit… BUT ITS ENOUGH—

I wonder if the Witch of Envy would have come out if Petra had read Any Other Book, or if it was specifically because Subaru had confessed about Return By Death that she surfaced like that…

I love that none of these people were trying to kill Aldebaran lmao. Ezzo, Garfiel, Reinhard, and I’m pretty sure Felt, too — all of them were just trying to fucking pacify him. And then he kept killing himself over and over again. What were they thinking in all those loops? What the fuck was that?

What do you MEAN Reinhard doesn’t actually have the [Divine Protection of Wind Reading]?! I mean it makes sense in context but WOW. OKAY.

(…BTZ just got ever so slightly easier to write, not gonna lie— like I had plans for how to deal with that, but I guess I don’t need them after all)

…You know, I knew that Al would be paralleling Subaru and Subawu and all the IF Barus. I did NOT expect to see Arc 3 Rem being paralleled by an “all-purpose maid” character who is explicitly, openly, and gleefully facilitating Aldebaran’s sprint towards his own self-destruction and eventual suicide. That’s — wow. Even when Amnesiac!Rem isn’t around, Arc 3 Rem isn’t getting even a single break in the subtext of the story, is she?

Interpreting Priscilla as a symbol of fate within the story of Re:Zero really adds a whole other layer to Aldebaran’s internal contemplation about her character and how she interacted with those around her.

These characters sure do love commenting on death, suicide, immortality, and all that junk, don’t they? It really takes on a different tone when you realize that everything they’re saying is supposed to be applicable to Subaru in some way (and also Aldebaran).

Aldebaran needs to get rid of Natsuki Subaru “So that I can be myself.” …I really have the feeling that he read Subaru’s Book of the Dead and it blended their identities together somewhat, and that’s why he’s like this. Could also match with him losing his Authority when he got de-aged while Subaru didn’t — as well as why baby!Al was like. DRASTICALLY different from baby!Subaru, with him being a huge crybaby and all while Natchuki Subawu himself was off chasing shinobis and being a little hell-raiser. If that experience got temporarily reversed due to the whole de-aging thing, then that could very well explain all that. …Wonder who he would have been before that.

The idea of Aldebaran wanting to kill himself immediately after gaining his own identity WOULD parallel how Sphinx only finally got her own identity in the instant before she croaked.

The Witch of Envy IGNORES him, he says? …Huh.

Okay so Aldebaran SPECIFICALLY learned Al Shario from Echidna because she expected him to take over Volcanica and use it to fight Reinhard. Which means that she planned for this to happen. Which means that she planned for everything up to this point to happen. …There are a LOT of implications that come with that reveal. A LOT OF THEM.

Felt showed up with FIVE HUNDRED FRIENDS. REINHARD HAS FRIENDS.

Man tho I’m really looking forward to all the Felt Camp focus. They’ve had some really great moments already…!

[sufferu]

how about subaru x priscilla in your btz or dogshow fic since she actually values subaru as a knight and wouldnt coddle him and allow him to grow ( you shouldnt shield someone from all suffering ) he would go from the moon ( emillia) to the sun ( priscilla)

…I feel like there’s a difference between not coddling someone and actively encouraging or enabling their self-destructive behaviors.

[sufferu]

Hi! I read some of your fics, I was really impressed by them (haven't gotten to RTZ yet but after reading the posts about it here I'm glad I haven't yet lol. I think I'll wait until we get some of the comfort in the hurt/comfort tags). The characterization is especially well done!

I noticed you chose to place your Dogshow react fic in Arc 5. Aside from having all the characters in one place for No Refunds, did you have any other reasons for having it take place at that point? Post-Arc 3 I see as having potential for interesting character development with his hero complex, but without having the connections he built in Arc 4 plus the timeskip it loses some sincerity.

I'm surprised more people haven't chosen to use Post-Arc 5/6 as the setting, as everyone's expectations of Subaru at that point are sky high. The realization that all of their victories were bought with Subaru's blood and mental health would bring it all crashing down, and with the improved personal relations with Emilia, Ram, Julius and others it brings a fresh dynamic that hasn't been used often. While Subaru's mental state is arguably the best it's ever been, it's still balancing on the house of cards that is "Good job me for having been able to successfully use RbD to save my friends!"

Not using Arc 7/8 makes sense to me though, that's honestly a mess to sort through.

Keep up the good work! I'd also recommend Turacoverdin's Stars Aligned on AO3 if you haven't read it yet. Definitely feels in line with what you're writing here, and it has a focus on Beatrice and Julius's relationships with Subaru.

I’ve read that fic actually, it’s really good! Honestly all of Turacoverdin’s stuff is kinda incredible lmao, one of my fav authors in this fandom tbh

And yeah, this question has come up before lol — basically it’s because there’s no status quo to reflect back FROM, past Arc 5. Arcs 6-9 (so far) have all been one insane ride with very little time for rest, the Pleiades Watchtower thing went right into Vollachia, Natchuki Subawu is this whole ordeal that hasn’t Really gotten resolved yet, everything’s kinda up in the air regarding the Royal Selection thanks to Priscilla’s fate — it’s just a lot, and it hasn’t really settled into something I can have the characters reflect FROM yet. So I’m sticking with Arc 5 for now.

(For those of you who know about BTZ: you’ll notice that I’m very carefully avoiding the specifics of what events the characters have come back from, specifically to avoid…all that.)

[sufferu]

How would the btz cast react and act about people like aldebaran or greed if subaru? More curious on aldebaran cus idk if they have the power over priscilla to take him away legally

I’ve mentioned before that I’m really not going to be bringing up Aldebaran in BTZ: too much is yet to be revealed, and likely to be revealed SOON, to boot.

Kasaneru would be interesting because they’d probably get even stricter about making sure Subaru absolutely Never Does That Shit. Also Emilia would be completely focused on making sure she never becomes that useless again, and a lot of Subaru’s relationships would become simultaneously more hostile (what the hell did he do to us, manipulating us all like that?) and more pity-filled (what the hell did he do to HIMSELF?) and so. Yeah

[sufferu]

Okay, so, some basic notes:

Secondary genders did not exist back where Subaru came from. Now he’s in Lugunica, and suddenly he has a secondary gender. This is very confusing.

He is an omega. He has no fucking clue what that means.

Every member of the Roswaal Mansion Staff is an alpha. Emilia has a complex about being a half-elf alpha like the Witch of Envy, Ram was a perfect alpha from birth, and Rem is an alpha who likes Subaru “as an alpha loves an omega.” The only exceptions are the Great Spirits, who have no secondary genders, and Roswaal, who would have been revealed to be an omega if Subaru had ever gotten to Arc 4 but for now is just kinda…weird. There are even rumors that he doesn’t HAVE a secondary gender lmao

Subaru is surrounded by alphas everywhere he goes. Reinhard, Wilhelm, Ferris, basically the entire Order of Knights and also Crusch’s army of soldiers, Otto (even if he’s pretending to be a beta to blend in), Priscilla — if he meets someone, there’s like a 3-1 chance or something that they are an alpha. Someone help him.

In the old timeline, Subaru took a while to accept his new identity as an omega, but he eventually managed to do it in Arc 4. Now he’s right back to his worst moment in Arc 3 where he was trying very desperately to prove himself as a big strong alpha that can totally protect Emilia, you’ll see! Everyone hated this before, when they saw a painfully insecure omega trying his best to avoid acknowledging his true self, and they hate it even more in this new timeline because it’s even worse than they thought lmao

Subaru is somehow surrounded by alphas even more now than he was in the main timeline, which shouldn’t have been possible. Ferris and Wilhelm are alphas, nearly the entirety of Crusch’s staff is made up of alphas (except for like. A couple of her personal maids?), Reinhard has started to visit very often and he’s an alpha, Otto shows up and sidles right into place and he kinda lets Subaru know he’s an alpha despite keeping his orientation hidden as a beta around most other people, Rem is still around (to detect miasma) and she’s an alpha, the Pleiades Battalion is almost entirely made up of alphas when they show up and scare the living daylights out of him, everyone is a FUCKING ALPHA—

Crusch isn’t an alpha — she’s an omega who presents in a very untraditional fashion — but in the entire Karsten Estate, she is the Only One. And she doesn’t even interact with him very often because she’s extremely busy. And also — she’s an omega, but she’s still just as alpha-like as the alphas, and that kinda just makes all of Subaru’s insecurities worse.

There is one major exception, and it is Julius. I always kind of flip between making him a beta or omega — it is important to me that Julisuba is a little bit queer in every universe — but in the BTZ spin-off I’m making him a beta. This means Emilia, Julius and Subaru were in a bit of an A/B/O dynamic in the past timeline, and it also means that Julius is the perfect combination of “fits with the alphas despite not being an alpha” and “apparently designed to be superior to me by his very nature” to hit all of Subaru’s worst insecurities at once.

Subvocalizations exist! Subaru has literally never had to deal with this before ever, and so he’s kind of developed this weird habit where he cannot control his subvocalizations at all. He purrs constantly when he sees Emilia, he growls and whimpers whenever he’s angry or frightened no matter how much he wants to keep his true feelings hidden, he makes little chirping sounds whenever he’s happy, he has moments where [please don’t kill me] echoed through his subvocal register out of nowhere and freezes everyone in place — it’s a whole thing. In the old timeline it was just kind of an eccentricity, probably trauma-borne but rather harmless and even kind of charming at times.

(Ferris used to have this, due to his traumatic childhood. He uh. He’s got feeling about this.)

It is no longer a cute, charming eccentricity. Wilhelm in particular is very much focused on training Subaru to control himself, because he wants Subaru to not have to deal with the kind of trouble that this sort of thing can bring, especially since Subaru can no longer rely on being the Hero Who Slew The White Whale to make up for his eccentricities.

He thinks he’s doing a good job. He doesn’t realize that, instead of teaching Subaru to process his emotions properly, he’s ended up making Subaru repress everything so that he can just cry into his pillow at the end of the day. He will not figure this out until it’s too late.

(In the old timeline, Subaru used to give these sweet puppy-like chirps whenever he saw Wilhelm, reminiscent of a small child seeing their parent or other trusted elder figure. Now Subaru sees him and whimpers. Wilhelm wants to die.)

Subaru doesn’t actually go through his first heat until after Arc 4 in the original timeline. Now he’s so stressed that his body is not allowing him to go through heat at ALL. His first heat was enough of a disaster in the first timeline. It is about to be WAAAY worse :D but that’s for another post.

Subaru isn’t allowing himself to follow any of his instincts as an omega. He doesn’t go through heat, but he also doesn’t built a nest, or purposefully scent his clothes, or even use his subvocalizations to express himself (thanks Wilhelm). He is actively making everything worse for himself by doing this, but he doesn’t realize it because he’s supposed to be a big strong alpha, so he shouldn’t need to do that stuff anyway.

In this Omegaverse idea, betas are basically combinations of alphas and omegas. This means that Julius is practically the only person in Subaru’s immediate orbit that knows ANYTHING about what it’s like to be an omega. He’s trying to help him. It’s, uh — it’s got mixed results.

Is now a good time to mention that I’ve actually put some genuine thought into an Omegaverse BTZ spinoff

[sufferu]

Okay so, nothing yet about his true identity, or his connection to Subaru, or whatever could inform his role in BTZ I. For BTZ II, however, we have a pretty good idea of what everyone else would want from Aldebaran: to remove the danger of his Authority, to remove him from Priscilla’s care, and to save him from the fate of being trapped by a RBD-like curse.

We don’t know much. But we do know that, when Aldebaran briefly gets de-aged by Olbart in Arc 7, he is no longer able to utilize his Authority.

Once the situation with the attempted kidnapping of Natsuki Subaru is settled, the Vollachians are going to be allies in the “Hijack The Plot” plan cooked up by the Lugunicans. Which means Olbart is going to be RIGHT THERE.

BTZ is, fundamentally, at least in part, about fresh starts and second chances.

:)

Obviously I can’t really make any concrete plans yet. But I think I just struck gold with an idea for BTZ!Aldebaran.

[liquidliquidfruit-blog]

I mean, this is assuming he leaves the Crusch Estate because he's Given Up on proving himself or believing that Emilia will ever like him, a little earlier than normal (and without getting crippled), and goes to basically the only person left who he has a good relationship with who doesn't hate his guts- at this point, anywhere's better than the Crusch Estate. Helps that he'd get along with everyone else in the camp- especially former Wilheim victim Heinkel. And they have small child for him to impress! How can he say no?

I'm kind of interested in seeing what a political clash between the other camps and Priscilla for the fate of Subaru would look like. If you were to spitball a few ideas for how they'd chip away control and triumph over Priscilla, I'd enjoy hearing about it!

What would happen if BTZ I Subaru managed to escape the Crusch Estate and join the Priscilla Camp (maybe with a good word put in by Heinkel and Al)? From his perspective they have no reason to want him back, and none of them have the authority to force him out of another camp (especially Priscilla's lmao, she's not bending for shit)

If Subaru ended up with Priscilla in any timeline, he’d eventually end up being encouraged to abuse RBD to its fullest extent in order to fulfill his role as “a brilliant knight.” This is what is…pretty explicitly stated, frankly, by both her response to Natchuki Subawu in Arc 8 and her relationship with Aldebaran, who foils Subaru in a number of ways, including this. There’s a reason I stand by the interpretation that Priscilla is one of the villains of Re:Zero (if not technically an antagonist) as well as both an in-universe monster and an antithesis to the themes of the story. Subaru ending up as Priscilla’s servant is a very clear Bad End, even if it might take a while for him to crack.

The other camps would likely fully understand this, however, so they’d probably be working to chip away at her control over Subaru in order to save him from that fate (and perhaps Aldebaran, too: I’m actually considering adding a subplot like that to BTZ depending on how Arc 9 turns out, but I can’t do anything until I know the full story there lol). And it would be difficult, and it would take a long time, but I think they’d eventually be able to succeed. Re:Zero is about triumphing over fate, after all — and what clearer way to do that than to triumph over Priscilla Barielle?

Though honestly, I don’t think Subaru would ever even consider joining her camp, even in BTZ. Subaru does not like Priscilla: he thinks she’s unreasonable, unpredictable, and really rather off-putting — it’s one of the ways he contrasts against Aldebaran, who follows her like a dog. Not to mention that he’s still very attached to Emilia and wouldn’t want to ally himself with someone who is explicitly her rival.