#emilia: subaru what the actual fuck are you talking about

[thesoundofchains]

Capella is WRONG, Subaru is absolutely a "Would you love me if I were a fly worm" guy.

[sufferu]

Hey what do you think of this take on rem’s love for subaru?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/t85er7/novels_character_analysis_someone_just_like_her/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I think it brings up some very interesting points — I particularly like their point about Rem seeing herself in Subaru, as a fellow below-average individual trying their best regardless of their weakness — but I don’t think it captures their entire relationship and I feel like it paints Rem as a fair bit more…stable, than she actually is. Like, yes, she does see Subaru as her hero precisely because he works hard despite his weaknesses, but she DOES still see him as a hero, and she IS still putting him on a pedestal for it. Hell, her final act defending Crusch’s caravans from Lye Batenkaitos is punctuated by her CHALLENGING TWO SIN ARCHBISHOPS on Subaru’s behalf.

(we don’t talk about the fact that she did that enough tbh. what the fuck girl)

And like — I feel like this analysis completely glosses over a lot of the really fucked up stuff she does to Subaru pre-Gluttony. She DID torture him in the woods for several hours due to being suspicious of him, traumatizing him to the point where he’s still frightened of chains a year later. She DID murder him in the hallway of the manor, in a way that is explicitly called out as needlessly brutal by Emilia in the WN’s Unthinkable Present of Arc 4 (it was cut for time but it wasn’t replaced with anything, so I think it’s still worth bringing up). She DID sneak into his room to watch him sleep every night even after he said that it was…really kinda creepy. She DID have that internal monologue in the LN where she considered running away with Subaru while he was too braindead to protest so that she could have him all to herself, with nobody to get in her way. She DID call caring for him while he was too dependent on her to so much as eat, use the bathroom, or even sit up on his own “the pinnacle of joy.” She DID say that she “never would have resisted him” if he had forced himself upon her in her sleep. She DID fake dying to the White Whale in order to manipulate Subaru into saying he loves her. SHE DID ALL OF THOSE THINGS.

And also, the meta is NOT kind to her. Her love of Subaru gets paralleled to Petelgeuse’ love of Satella in Arc 3, with Petelgeuse praising her as the height of devotion (something he DOESN’T do with Wilhelm, notably, despite Wilhelm being Arc 3’s example of a more healthy form of devotion). Her love gets paralleled with Subaru’s early obsession with Emilia, too. She is the ONLY NON-SUBARU CHARACTER to be directly responsible for an IF Route, because Sloth:IF entirely hinges on whether or not she decides to take Subaru’s hand — NOT on Subaru’s decision to extend it in the first place, which is an important detail regarding how the IF Route is framed. And in Arc 7, her amnesiac self explicitly starts referring to everything she instilled in Subaru in those first couple arcs as insanely toxic: the more she starts to care about him, the more she tells him to slow down, to think about himself more, to — for the love of god — stop trying to be a hero. In the early part of Arc 9 she is one of the only people to say “yeah, I won’t rely on him right now, specifically because he’s dealing with enough as it is and he needs to slow down.” Rem, more than anyone else, absolutely despises the very things she pushed Subaru to believe during those first couple arcs, because she sees it as incredibly, actively harmful (and considering what Natchuki Subawu does during Arc 8 in order to be a hero, she is absolutely right).

I’m really looking forward to Rem regaining her memories, because the moment she realizes that SHE is the reason Subaru is like this, she is going to absolutely lose her shit.

(Also there’s something to be said about how her projecting herself onto Subaru and then being very strict with him — to the point where her amnesiac self goes directly against her earlier advice by telling him repeatedly to slow down, for fucks sake — there’s something to be said about how that reflects on how her treatment of herself is toxic and unhealthy. Which, you know, fits with how she forced herself to be Ram’s Perfect Replacement and pushed herself to her absolute limit for years. So.) (Like the way Arc 2/3 Rem treats herself is canonically Very Unhealthy, and also her self esteem is absolute shit. Let’s not forget that part lol)

[mogamuncher]

“You're on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path, is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin, is a knight. You are here to slay him. If you don't, it will be the end of the world.”

Please accept my meager shitty art as we come back for part three of the "Moga fuses her hyperfixations together" saga! Aka: Slay the Knight AU!

Here's what I think Emilia and Subaru would look like, in true STP fashion I imagine both would never be referred to by name, instead being The Knight and The Frozen Bond (hah, get it?)

I made Emilia a little scary (and kinda Satella-esque), but that's mainly because from what we see in The Princess and The Dragon route, The Long Quiet is just actually fucking scary, so having Emilia be similarly intimidating would be fun.

Though I do think her personality would remain the same in this au, mainly because she's nice enough that she would naturally play mediator to the the voices, but malleable enough that she could just end up going with their whims when pushed enough.

Now for Subaru, I actually wanted to give him a definitive outfit that would kinda function like the Princess's dress, something that is a constant in every design but changed to fit the theme, the recognizable trait that showcases that no matter how fucked up these forms get they're still the same person

That's kinda why the little cape is there, it's supposed to be a significant design choice that can be warped with future forms

For the official lore, I like to think that it's still actually very similar:

The Frozen Bond, the manifestation/god of stasis, consistency, the chilling frozen in time allure of stagnation

While Subaru would be something like The Returning Cycle, the manifestation/god if constant change, perspective and identities splitting depending on choices, the constant cycle of time

Together they'd make the cycle of life and death, in a sense, and since Echidna in canon was trying to find a way to reach immortality, it is only fitting that she would split them apart and attempt to pit them against the other, as to goad Emilia into killing Subaru, this ending the concept of change, making it so that there is no means of which others can die.

But that's what I have for the moment, now, let's talk about some more ideas I have for the IF Barus

The Prisoner, my beloved

I rewatched someone playing her route and it dawned on me when The Shifting Mound described her as a vessel, but she's oddly a lot like Slothbaru

The idea of someone cautious to the point of stagnation, content to let the world pass her and remain in inaction, I mean, that's literally what Sloth is shown to be in the og series. That's also inherently what Slothbaru did when he took Rem's hand and ran away, leaving everyone else to die, but gaining a happy life for himself

Prisoner is like an Slothbaru that can't take Rem's hand, content to let the world pass him by for the sake of self preservation, but stuck in one place without the chance of running away, he can only wait and see because he's inherently passive, as he thinks he has no other choice

The Adversary, however, is the funniest one I think

Someone mentioned in the last post in the tags that Adversary is kinda Smolbaru coded, so I went back to read the arena fights in arc 7 and y'know what? They're correct, they're absolutely right, The Adversary is very much just Smolbaru

Which is funny, because The Adversary is supposed to be bigger and stronger than usual, though maybe it's either just that his personality is Smolbaru and his appearance is still intimidating, or we go all in and have Smolbaru just absolutely kick Emilia's ass with his bare hands in this one

Either way, I love it, also this is the route where Priscilla (Voice of the Proud) would show up, so having an Arc 7 Baru here would be a nice touch

Ok so I'm about to sound unhinged, but the Grey's

What if they were Natsumi.

Now, look, I have no evidence to back me up on this, I'm going off from pure vibes alone, but like what if

Honestly, it would be fun to have most of the Deadbarus be in some way or another Natsumi coded, though that would be fused with the Baru that lead to their routes in the first place (like Arc 1 Baru for the Burned Grey and Slothbaru for the Drowned Grey)

I mean, look at The Wraith and The Spectre

Imagine if the Spectre was more akin to Natsumi in her purest form, since the Spectre is actually surprisingly chill and nice about this whole thing, and then if you attempt to leave him there, you get the Wraith

A withered rotten version of Natsumi, falling apart at the seams and determined to hitch a ride and finally leave

In more confirmed Barus; Wrathbaru as The Witch and The Thorn, Greedbaru as Happily Ever After and Arc 1-2 Baru as The Damsel, The Nightmare would be Gluttonybaru and A Moment Of Clarity would still be Gluttonybaru but with more Louis/Rui elements

Again, I accept suggestions, and tell me if you want me to make more art for this AU, maybe I can draw more Barus and also the voices, who knows?

Edit: good news gang, I actually did in fact write this! The first chapter of this au is out here!

[zeivira]

How do you think Emilia and the others would react to the concept of dreaming in No Rest for the Wicked?

“If I’m honest— sleeping isn’t even that bad,” Subaru starts, rubbing his eyes. He woke up an hour ago, but he still feels pretty sleepy— and how could he not, when Otto decided that the first thing he needed to do in the morning was discuss taxes with him? “You get to dream every night, which is pretty cool if you ask me.”

Subaru lets himself sink deeper into Emilia’s office couch. He loves it when she lets him watch her work.

He doesn’t usually like talking about sleeping much, not after all the trouble it already gave him— but today he dreamed he had momentarily traveled back in time to when he was eight years old, and was able to hug his parents one more time. Waking up hadn’t left him fatigued, on the contrary, it left him much better rested than usual. At least until Otto decided to be a pest, of course.

“Dreams?” Emilia raises her gaze from the papers in her desk and tilts her head to the side. “What are dreams?”

“Dreams are, uh…” He blinks. How could one describe dreaming? “It’s like traveling to another world—” no, that doesn't sound right, “—except the world doesn’t really exist ‘cus it’s merely a product of your imagination.” He crosses his arms. Did that even make sense? “Do you not do something like that when you are unconscious?”

People from Lugunica can still faint from blood-loss or other wounds. They surely had to dream then, right?

“You travel to another world when you sleep?”

Ok, maybe that was too much. Subaru blushes at the wonder marrying her voice. “Well, not literally. They are just a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep.”

“Natsuki-san, are you implying that when you sleep you… hallucinate?” The reason for his current nightmares —Otto— opens the door of Emilia’s office with a sack of papers in his hands and turns to stare at him.

Subaru pauses and rubs his chin, deep in thought. Can dreams be considered hallucinations?

“Hallucinations?” Emilia repeats, voice distant.

Otto sighs. “Indeed, when people are in agony, they sometimes see things that aren't there."

Subaru starts laughing, then stops when he realizes what Otto actually meant. “Wait— what?” Oh cmon, this can’t happen again.  “I already said I'm not in pain when I sleep.”

“You say many things,” Otto glares. “But Lady Beatrice said you often squirm or wake up crying.”

Emilia gasps.

“You know that?!” Subaru stands up, then raises his hand to hold his head at the whiplash from changing positions so quickly. His own words finally sink in as his eyes widen. “I mean— I absolutely do not do that.”

Otto squints at him. He hadn’t missed his slight headache. “You should have told the healer about the hallucinations when he visited last week, Natuki-san.”

“They aren’t hallucinations.” Subaru blinks.

“Your description sure matched them. What is the difference between hallucinations and dreams, then?”

Emilia interrupts. “Are dreams another symptom of Subaru’s Partial Sleeping Beauty, then? Should we make sure he doesn’t dream?”

Otto shakes his head. “The only way to make him stop dreaming would be to make him stop sleeping, and the doctor said we shouldn't.”

“But that’s…”

“Time out!” Subaru raises his arms, crosses them and forms a stop sign. “The squirming is completely unrelated to the dreaming. I like dreaming, It’s relaxing.” Unless he is having a nightmare, he knows better than to address that topic.

Emilia’s purple eyes fill with tears. “Is your condition so bad that you prefer spending so many hours in a fake world rather than real life?”

What the fuck.

“No, absolutely not! I love real life is just—” Subaru groans.

He should have learnt to shut up by now.

(Some hours later:

“I wonder if Heinkel-san’s wife dreams,” Emilia says during dinner, after calming down. “If she has to sleep for so many years, it would be nice if she were to hallucinate that she is in a world in which her family is safe and sound.”)

[suffarustuffaru]

A while ago someone asked you for your thoughts on Garfiel. I figured the sibling set should be complete, so what are your thoughts on Frederica?

HALLO FINNB!!! interesting question :o my thoughts on frederica are. a little mixed. but ultimately i think what we’ve seen from her so far is interesting and that she has a lot of potential here.

we just dont know all that much about her :(( on one level i get it—rezeros cast is immense and naturally tappei has to rotate through everyone and give every character focus and spotlight at different times. but bc we dont know that much about frederica i feel like shes mostly just Kinda There, yknow? :<< we know way more about garfiel and i feel like frederica being kept on the backburner for so long kinda works against her and the emilia camp in general writing wise just bc she just has to be stuck in I Havent Had My Character Arc Limbo when the emilia camp is the main group we see consistently for rezeros main route ig. or at least thats my thoughts on it atm :<<

plus i was honestly kinda sad frederica didnt get to go along in arc 5 If Only bc she didnt get to see what her mom is up to firsthand. then theres the actual arc 4-5 interlude with frederica and garf trying to bond after sanctuary that i HOPE gets included in s3 :<< frederica is just lacking in screentime and literally almost any info at all for sure. which makes me sad bc tappei LET ME IN I WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT HER !!! >:(((

and again i get it that tappei cant develop every character in existence at the same time. dude has to juggle the most massive cast especially by arc 7. but definitely this has its drawbacks especially with the way tappei writes everyone. bc at the moment frederica is one of the characters suffering the most from it—she appeared all the way back in arc 4 and four arcs later i cannot tell you all that much about her :<

i do think though that what we do see from her so far is interesting!! her insecurity regarding her appearance, like her sharp teeth, her being so fond of petra while also being so dead set on disciplining petra firmly when needed (which is sweet!!!), that one ss where frederica takes care of ram when shes feeling more under the weather than usual (which is Again super super adorable), frederica listening with a smile as emilia gushes about subaru to her. and also her just flatly pitying otto and hearing this guy say hes totally normal and being like “he Literally cannot perceive himself accurately at all” + dropping otto in the anime just to hug petra is fucking hilarious i need fredotto fics to actually acknowledge this.

but also other details like—and ok granted i dont remember every detail on frederica (yet) but leaving garfiel like that is still kind of. a dick move HAH. and i know her reason was smth along the lines of wanting to improve the outside world for demihumans iirc but like whats her Full Reasons for doing all that?? what was she even planning to do?? why couldnt she talk to or see garfiel more in this entire time period?? i think it comes with the interesting implication that frederica isnt entirely as nice and sweet as she looks—or at least that of course she herself is flawed. which is fun!!

also her relationship with clind is. ………..naturally of course i dont trust tappei with anything regarding children and clinds weird shit with children but ignoring tappei for a moment i do at least appreciate the complicated thoughts frederica has about clind. how she had feelings for him once and they still linger but she keeps her distance bc hes like That, you know? that feeling of broken trust and “i cared for you now what do i do with This Feeling” is So interesting to me i just hate clind’s whole thing with children bc tappei will never write it in an entirely serious and satisfactory manner 😭 BUT greed if and the dynamic between frederica and clind and frederica having to help kill / kill clind bc of greedbaru and echidnas shit is SO interesting (and clinds lore apart from being Creepy About Children is very interesting). but also poor frederica……….. ;-;

and poor frederica bc if the rumors about her getting more development by like arc 10 or 11 are true then shes gonna be stuck in I Havent Gotten Development Yet Limbo for a while ;-;

but yeah anyway. the frederica crumbs so far are interesting, the shit going on with frederica and garfiels family is Interesting, and i definitely dont trust tappei with children 👍 but i hope we get more info on frederica and that her character arc slaps really hard !! i Need to learn more about her!!!

im not fully familiar with fredericas side of the complicated family drama but if memory serves me right her birth was. not an entirely happy affair bc her poor mom has been through A Lot of shit and frederica was a product of that. and then her mom later tries to go find garfiel’s dad. like all of that is just so incredibly sad to me and again, i wish frederica was there to see what happened to her mom in arc 5, and also im curious about how thats affected frederica more in depth. knowing she wasnt exactly wanted. having these demihuman features from her dad (im assuming), whos also One Of the people who hurt her mom. knowing that she was born a burden, learning that her mom cant entirely take care of her and isnt in a stable life situation and almost certainly isnt mentally stable herself. garfiel coming along and their mom leaving. frederica leaving garfiel in sanctuary herself. her growing up admiring clind, which is an unfortunate parallel to what couldve happened with her mom and garfiel’s dad. its just so so tragic to me and theres a lot of things you could explore there!!

frederica to me seems like someone whos probably grown up too fast, who comes off as composed and very disciplined and likes taking care of others but also fumbles a little at growing closer and is insecure and uncertain herself even as shes good at being the older and wiser one to petra and later garfiel a bit. but also we dont know much about her so im kinda just spitballing here but she has potential methinks :,) im definitely sad that it seems like the fact that shes a pretty anime waifu or whatever kinda overtakes discussions on her character sometimes ;-;

and also one of my pals is really passionate about animals and gave me a whole lecture once a few years ago on why they think fredericas beast form design fucking sucks and i cant remember all of their points now but like i Will back them up i think garfiel and fredericas beast forms could look better but im not an expert at illustrating animals so HAH i cant speak on that. but def the eyebrows on the beast designs is so…… whaaaaat is that 😭 go FULL beast design or NOTHING. WHERE IS MY EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA BUFF FREDERICA BEAST DESIGN !!!

also ngl i just think frederica looks really cute in this shot <333 ALSO iirc she feels like she cant wear cute outfits bc shes insecure about her body and :((((( GIVE THIS GIRL ALL THE CUTEST OUTFITS IN THE WORLD PLEASE :((( and also i just think its a tragedy just how much shes sexualized :(( and i just think there are. a lot of AFAB specific and girlhood specific themes you could explore with fredericas storyline but tappei is tappei so all the foundation is there but idk if i entirely trust him. but on another level i think its fascinating yeah!!! sad how much it flies over audiences heads sometimes.

in conclusion: i like frederica i hope we see more stuff from her. and im crying about how she reportedly wont be getting development for a wall :<<<<

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V2 57

Vinland Saga S2 - At long last, I return to this series and jump right into Episode 1 of its second season that aired earlier this year. This episode told the tragic tale of a man named Einar, who lost his homeland, his mother, and his sister in a horrific attack by marauding brutes who took him prisoner and sold him into slavery. At one point he tries to flee only to get found, recaptured, and brutally beaten. At another point we see old man Leif, looking to find his lost nephew among the slaves. At the end, Einar is sold to Ketil to work at his large, vast farm in southern Denmark, where he is introduced to another of Ketil's slaves: a moody, badly damaged young man with dirty blond hair...named Thorfinn. And thus, a connection is made!

Hunter x Hunter - New information regarding how the Chimera Ants operate in their different heirachies and their ongoing breeding patterns is given to us as the Hunters Association is now tasked with fighting and killing the Ants, hoping to slay the Queen before she can give birth to a King. We also got some neat fights of Gon, Killua, and Kite in that order against Chimera Ant footsoldiers sent after them by the big lion guy. And on the side, Colt and the other leading soldiers are discovering the secrets of Nen, continuing to be easily the most intriguing part of the show at this point and I await more from them.

Fruits Basket - First episode of the pair I watched was mostly set at school, with the first half delving into Machi's backstory, how the trauma messed her up, and her blossoming relationship with Yuki, and...OK, which female student council member had the parody "tragic backstory?" Because Machi's backstory just did not click for me AT ALL. I could get the idea behind it and wanted to appreciate it but the execution was absurd; it legit felt like something someone would make up to convey how Fruits Basket does traumatic past-based stories, yet we're meant to take it seriously. I like Machi, but her development with the backstory and romantic material just sucked. Ironically, the second half that put focus onto Yuki's biggest fangirl, Motoko Minagawa, actually landed better and got me more emotional and choked up! Yuki, you took for granted what you had in this girl and her wacky fangirl posse! The one weird part was Naohito having feelings for Minagawa the whole time. THAT'S what he meant when he declared Yuki "his rival" when they first met? C'mon now!

The second episode brought Isuzu and Haru's subplot to its climax in a truly beautiful fashion, along with some payoff for Hiro and Kisa as well, and the best part of all was getting to see Haru grilling Akito for the truth, standing up to her, and coming just short of decking her in the face. Kureno helping Haru to go reunite with Isuzu and Akito starting to break down about this was icing on the cake. I might not be the biggest fan of Kureno but compred to Akito, Ren, Shigure and the head servant, he's a good lad who understands wrong and right.

Re:ZERO - Season 2 is a go for this too, as we're treated to a horrific Happy Ending Override where Rem has ended up vanishing from everyone but Subaru's memories again and a whole bunch of Crusch's soldiers got slaughtered by two new Archbishops of the Witch's Cult, a white haired Simon Laurent and a crazed beastman who talks like Erik Scott Kimerer doing Alexander Polinsky. For some reason, the effect went in reverse for Crusch, as now she's lost her memories of everyone else. The episode's last scene with Subaru and Emilia was nothing short of extraordinary for its pathos, it really got me. Things look to be taking a darker direction for this season, and y'know what? With a show of this quality, sign me the fuck up!

Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works - Now this was a lot more interesting compared to what I'd been watching before. Lots more serious and involved discussion between Shirou, Saber, Rin, and Archer, a scene where Shinji reports to Kirei at his church and he even references his grandfather Zouken, Rin and Shirou staking out to confirm or put to rest any suspicions regarding their bespectacled classmate who lives at the temple, Rin alluding to the true connection she has with Sakura, and Shirou thinking back to Kiritsugu and why he's adopted the "hero of justice" ideals from him to the point of a stubborn, unhealthy Savior Complex. Good stuff to see get adapted.

Symphogear GX - I thought Hibiki's father seemed bad, and Tsubasa's father also seemed cold and unloving, but now we get the full truth about her birth...her grandfather is thought to be her biological father who impregnated his own daughter in law just to breed a worthy family heir and spite his two sons. DEAR GOD. Seeing how fucked up this clan is, it was unsurprising to learn that Tsubasa's father was wanting to protect his girl from dealing with it all. What was very surprising was the full extent of Carol's plan, which turned every triumph the girls had made against her Dolls upside down into defeats that only got Carol closer to her objectives, and how she accomplished so much just by spying through Elfnein's eyes. The two biggest delights here were more of Chris bonding with Kirika and Shirabe as their senpai and working together to kick ass, and the glorious return of none other than DR. VER! Extra batshit as ever and still claiming himself to be a hero, he's with Carol and the Autoscorers now! Can this possibly get any wilder? I sure hope so!

Eureka Seven - On errands with Eureka and her kids, Renton meets a kind elderly lady who turns out to be a Vodarac religion member and a suspected terrorist who Holland is after in order to turn her in and collect the bounty on her. The morality of what Gekkostate is doing suddenly gets a lot blurrier to Renton, and he and Holland now clearly have more than a few issues with each other even in spite of Holland coming through in the end to ensure the old lady evades the military after he's taken his pay. Eureka is still awesome, though!

Gintama - So this might've been my absolute favorite episode of Gintama yet. Just all the ways they played with the "whodunnit" mystery genre while also lampooning stalkers, selfish, dishonest and unloving boyfriends, and tight parental control without the child's input all in one hilariously twisty and turny episode kept me immensely engrossed and entertained from start to finish. Also, Otsu continues to be surprisingly amazing, and we even get the backstory for why Shinpachi became such a die-hard fan of her, with the one thing that distracted me is that suddenly she's singing in Japanese even in this dub; did the constant English singing of "Your Father's Bleep Bleep" face such backlash that they dared not attempt a dubover of Otsu's songs again? Ah well, that's no big loss at all!

[liquidstar]

OKAY BUT SERIOUSLY THEY DO. REINHARD AND SUBARU ARE LITERALLY DOOMED BY THE NARRATIVE (OR METANARRATIVE) TO GET DIVORCED

Their dynamic in Pride:IF has been talked about to death but like how can it not be? Subaru seeing him, deciding he possessed "beauty born from chaos transcended of gender" and proceeds to gain a complex around his vary existence, which culminated in Subaru burning down THE ENTIRE COUNTRY just to spite him. And Reinhard for the first time in his life feeling something strong enough to call hatred for another person, and Subaru's response to this is telling him he's been reborn. While the country burns down. HAPPY BIRTHDAY REINHARD!

Anyway in Wrath:IF their dynamic isn't centered stage quite as much, but it's still absolutely pivotal in the way things end. They had already met at this point, and though you can't say they were close it was apparent from the end of arc 1 that Reinhard was very fond of Subaru. Keep in mind timeline-wise they've known each other just as long as the LiM Reinhard route where Reinhard just shows up the second he senses Subaru in distress. He already sees him as a friend. So learning Subaru is actually the Purge King and Reinhard has to take him down is certainly a shock... And not something Rein is happy about (and Subaru has forgotten what happiness is)

Sloth:IF centers them even less. Not at all actually, because the entire premise is literally that Subaru straight up left the plot. In a sense it's a betrayal of everyone (but Rem, but in a way also Rem with how much she had to give up). When it comes to Reinhard specifically, we know that in loops where Emilia dies he has to be the one to fight Puck. And their whole interaction.... Especially the part where Puck tells Reinhard that he's a true Hero. And a Hero is all he can ever be. That's like the most deeply cutting thing to him. That's not Subaru's fault, but he was still the one that left, even with the power to change things. I wonder if that's worse in the timeline where he didn't die, but ran away.

Anyway Greed:IF is also a bit different because their relationship falling apart isn't a big fight like in wrath and pride. It's just... A lot more fucked up. Subaru essentially returns by death multiple times in order to manipulate Reinhard to join the Emilia camp. The biggest thing was convincing Felt to drop out of the selection of course. Reinhard is just... Very emotionally broken. He's getting along decently with everyone but he's so far removed from it. And honestly the exact same could be said for Subaru, his tens of hundreds of millions of deaths in this timeline have left him broken, and determined to do whatever it takes to just get to the "best" ending. Ends justify the means and whatnot (that's what Echidna wants). They don't end this route with a huge fight but like with everything else in Greed:IF it's just fucked up and sad. Subaru was one of the only people that didn't see Reinhard as a weapon, but as a friend!!! But now... He's willing to strip away his personhood in order to have him as a weapon for the Emilia camp, because that's what will lead to the best route. It doesn't matter if he manipulates or breaks him, he's another tool. There's just nothing there anymore.

Gluttony:IF has the more traditional confrontation, though we don't actually see the end of it this time. Subaru is on a fucking mission to kill all his friends in order to read their memories of him and patch himself back together. Reinhard is his friend. But only one of them. He's already gotten the whole watchtower gang (aside from Shaula who is down to help) and his next most troublesome opponent is... Otto! And this comes as a shock to even Otto himself, who says that it would make more sense to go after Reinhard after flooding the city, but Subaru says that would take more planning. Their whole interaction there is incredibly tragic to me, but for the purposes of what I'm saying here it's not super relevant. The important part is that after this, Reinhard DOES confront Subaru though it just teases the future (in which Subaru will learn that killing all his friends can't be undone oops). So their eventually falling out and fight will still happen. It's bound to happen.

Is it always bound to happen? In the main timeline, the actual canon story, the envy route... They are such good friends. They trust each other so much, and both think incredibly highly of the other. The foil each other, one without power but with a loving family, the other with all the power in the world but a broken home... But despite all the Astrea family drama, there's no resentment (even if Subaru stole Reinhard's estranged grandfather). They just wanna support each other. They like each other damn it! They really do! And I don't mean that in the romantic sense (though who knows), they just both have such a strong mutual admiration and their bond is effortlessly strong.

But it's also doomed. All signs in the alternate routes say they're doomed in one way or another. Of course the alt routes are filled with killing and backstabbing and manipulating of who were once friends... But Reinhard has the most consistent PATTERN appearing, especially with Pride, Wrath, and Gluttony. Since Sloth is a non-route and Greed is a "perfect" route- in which the only way to truly avoid this outcome is to just break Reinhard.... It just seems destined.

The ReinSuba divorce is written in the fucking stars. I wonder how it'll go down in the actual story.

honestly does anyone else think that the what:if routes are perhaps telling us that some sort of collision between subaru and reinhard is just inevitable in nearly every route

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Re:Zero Re:Cut episode 10 was pretty fucking popping! First half is the infamous episode 18, the “I love Emilia” line being the subject of such great controversy. Now when I first watched the show I didn’t know anything about it beyond the fact that Rem, Ram, Rom and Felix existed, plus that episode 18 was controversial for some reason, and that was it, literally nothing else. But when I watched episode 18 I didn’t even really know why it was controversial. I mean, I knew why, but I so couldn’t relate to the people that had the problem that I imagine if I watched it not knowing episode 18 was controversial I wouldn’t even be able to guess that it was controversial. Long ass explanation that amounted to nothing there. Point is episode 18′s great, it’s nice seeing Subaru tear into himself for being such a piece of fucking shit, but it’s also nice seeing Rem reassure him of the value he really does have, the things he really has done. And it’s nice that that leads to that resolution between the pair, yeah they both wanted that same thing of running away and couldn’t meet it due to conflicting motives and perceptions, but I still think their compromise is nice. And on the rewatch I think I understand a bit more why people that wanted Rem and Subaru to fuck are so annoyed, but that’s only because I’ve come to perceive Subaru’s perception of Emilia as more of a “she’s my waifu” thing than an “I love her” thing. But then he also has as about as little genuine reason to love Rem as well I feel, just because she loves him doesn’t mean he should just unconditionally reciprocate her feelings rather than work out his own, you know?

And then the second half is episode 19 which I’m kinda conflicted on. I feel like Subaru just does unreasonably well in the negotiations and recovers in what feels like way too little time following what he’s been through for the past like, 7 episodes of the show proper. There are a lot of things he notices and pieces together and uses to form an advantage but I don’t know how much I can buy him being able to do that given that he’s been pretty fucking stressed out for a long ass time, it just kinda feels like a somewhat-uncharacteristic-of-this-show moment of OP protagonist, even if he has literally no powers. But on the other hand, he is basically taking every single lesson he learned while talking to Crusch, Anastasia, the foot fetish bitch, about just kind of conducting yourself well in a negotiation and, well, actually negotiating, rather than begging. And that’s satisfying, because at the end of the day he’s just normal enough to where observing stuff and using those observations to help people out is beyond reasonable for him, hell we’ve seen him do it before. And moreover it puts an end to that cycle of suffering that we’ve been going through for so fucking long. So I also actually enjoy the scene. TL;DR though is I am what I said at the start, conflicted.

Rest of the episode is spent prepping for white whale, and honestly I have no idea how long the actual fight goes on for. If it’s short enough it should hopefully be covered in full with just next week’s episode, but it might actually be a longer wait, I don’t remember. Either way I am actually looking forward to it, in truth the end of this episode had me feeling the hype and I remember really enjoying it when I watched the first time. I think I just conditioned myself to not like it because it’s one of the complains I saw the most but that might’ve just been because if you’re watching that week after week it feels like more time than if you watch every episode in a row like I did. Idk. White whale’s fun, excited to see so much fucking blood.

[multi-fandomtrashtm]

So I watched Re:Zero and...

That was some of the most depressing shit I’ve ever experienced. 

It starts off dark as fuck despite the quirky protag with jokes. One of the first scenes you see in episode one is a dead guy with his throat slashed. 

Then, it’s mostly nice again until Subaru dies horribly because something and someone kept killing him in Emilia’s mansion. 

THEN, Rem asserts herself as best battle girl while being batshit crazy. During this time, Ram has solidified herself as Re:Zero’s Senjougahara. They’re so similar, it’s frighting. If anyone ships her and Subaru, look up Araragi x Senjougahara and it’s almost the same thing. 

Then, the Royal Selection happens. Subaru immediately antagonizes Julius for an incredibly petty reason (this actually sticks, btw). Then there’s that one episode that has several minutes of Subaru being both a dumbass and an asshole. If you didn’t like him already, that episode made you hate him. 

Finally, Emilia gets tired of his shit and gives him the talking to that he needed. 

Then it’s just 40 or so minutes of crippling depression. I’m not kidding. 

Best girl Rem gets killed over and over, everyone else keeps dying, Subaru is beaten down mentally and emotionally until he’s straight up in a trauma induced catatonic state complete with the thousand yard stare. Fuck everything about the Witch’s Cult. That scene with the Unseen Hands and Rem was soul crushing. 

Fuck the White Whale, too.

Surprise, Puck was badass all along and really did think of Emilia as his daughter. Too bad he kills everyone and everything.

Rem gives the most heartfelt speech and confession I’ve ever heard. 

“Rem...I love Emilia.” Me: “Hahaha...tHAT’S NOT WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO SAY WHAT THE FUCK-”

FINALLY, Subaru manages to keep everyone from dying. Cue one of the most epic anime battles I’ve seen in a long time. Everyone vs the White Whale legit had me smile and feel legitimately worried about some of the distinct characters.

Subaru fully redeemed himself during this time. Being able to fight, but not using the power of friendship or plot powers to do so, and even then not being OP or even close to the strongest one there? Hell yes. 

Wilheilm asserts his status as best guy. I’m 99% sure that he’s Reinhart’s grandpa or something judging by his wife’s looks. 

For any of you FT fans out there, Crusch Karsten is what Erza could’ve been if done right.

As Subaru once said, “If I didn’t already have a number 1 and number 2 in my hear, I’d be in trouble.”

Again, fuck the Witch’s Cult. Also, at this point the plot armor starts to kick in a bit considering that neither Wilheilm nor Felix died despite being hit point blank by explosions. I was surprised that those random soldiers got straight up killed by that one finger lady, though. So sudden.

Just when you thought it was over, best boy Otto returns to show how badasss (and slightly crazy) he is with a carriage while helping Subaru save Emilia. 

And after all is said and done, Subaru confesses to Emilia uSING REM’S SPEECH ALMOST WORD FOR WORD, YOU DUMB FUCK WHY DIDN’T YOU PICK HER-

Ahem. I just...couldn’t seem to like Emilia, honestly. For the most part, she just felt kind of like a cardboard cut out for Subaru to fawn over. I know that she has some issues with people calling her a half devil and such, but the anime just didn’t garner enough sympathy for me to really care. The worst it got was people talking about her and the only one who really insulted her to her face was a bitch, anyway. Maybe if she’d faced some hate crimes of some sort or hard cried in private over such things, I’d feel more for her. As she is now, I just...don’t see why Subaru loves her so much. Especially over Rem.

Overall, good stuff. Maybe 7/10? The crippling depression made it hard to properly evaluate the plot as it happened and hell no am I rewatching that torture. 

Also, I saw some plot threads left hanging like Felt and the Royal Selection and Roswaal(?)’s desire to win it. Hopefully there’s a season 2 and hopefully it’s not quite as soul crushing. 

On a side note, I find it funny that the show played the exact same music every time something even remotely spooky happened. Imagining it being spammed at earrape levels makes me laugh. 

Maybe KonoSuba next. I’ve seen clips of it and it seems hilarious.

[sufferu]

What do you mean by BTZ I, BTZ II, and BTZ III? You've been talking about them a bit, but I haven't seen any references to them before. Are they different stories, different phases of the same story, or something else?

BTZ is an abbreviation for my Back to Zero IF, and the numbers refer to three different fics I have planned to explore the story.

BTZ I is from Subaru’s POV alone and it’s…kind of using the premise as a response to the OOC-ness of stories like Re:Forgotten? Wilhelm is arguably kind of abusive, Emilia ditches him, Julius is a sadist and also straight up steals his girl, Ferris is an asshole for no reason — it’s just a lot and Subaru doesn’t have the context for any of it.

BTZ II IS that context, because it’s from everyone else’s POV, and suddenly it’s revealed that everyone is actually trying to keep Subaru safe and happy by any means necessary and they’re just failing miserably. The whole story is suddenly a comedy. All of these people are idiots. Cue the Benny Hill Theme.

BTZ III is the aftermath where — SOMETHING went down at the end of BTZ I and II that I have kept to myself so far, and now everyone has realized just how badly they fucked up. Everyone’s POV. Finally, the “comfort” of the hurt/comfort fic.

[suffarustuffaru]

Okay, this is a random request, but Sean Chiplock (Subaru voice actor for the English dub) is gonna be at a comic con I’m going to in 2 days and I want to get an autograph but I haven’t decided yet what quote to get along with the signature.

So what are your fav re:zero quotes said by Subaru (that I could realistically get written on a print)?

I’ve only just started reading the light novels as well (though I am tempted to get “you are an amazing guy, Natsuki Subaru”, because I know the context of the scene even if I haven’t read it yet ahaha) but since it’s the dub voice actor it’d probably make more sense to get a quote he’s actually already voiced (and since season 3 isn’t out yet).

So anyway, now I’m just rambling, but any suggestions?

YOOOOOO i hope you have fun at the con anon!! :DD and i hope you get to see other rezero fans there if that is something you want. !!

im definitely fond of the rezero dub and sean chiplocks performance as subaru is one of the standouts fr. and of course the "youre an amazing guy" quote is SO GOOD i hope youve had a good time with reading the light novels :o but trueee gotta save that quote for After season three...

alright so i have some quotes for you :3 you can shorten them or paraphrase them or something as you see fit <3 i tried hard to find quotes by like. googling. or consulting fellow rezero mutuals. or by pirating rezero english dub HAH

"My name is Subaru Natsuki! Not only am I totally clueless, but I'm also broke beyond compare! Nice to meet ya!" / "My name is Subaru Natsuki, son of Kenichi Natsuki! I can do anything, and I will do anything! 'Cause your son's just that awesome!" this is The quote of all time fr.

"Take care." :,))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) not directly from subaru but like We All Know the significance of this quote + its easy to write down ;-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

"Tell me your name." / "I want you to tell me what your name is." this is from @eiese who is fucking hilarious so like. this is the quote for when subaru asks for emilias name at the end of arc 1 right? so just. imagine this quote... next to chiplock's signature... HAH....

"Let's start from zero!" not a quote thats always said by subaru of course across the many rezero media but it is just So Iconic :,)))) <333

"I will always believe in you." / "Believe in you." so simple but so real <3

"No matter how silly it is, you can talk about tomorrow because you have a tomorrow."

"As long as I have life, all I can do is fight with all my might."

"You are demonically inspired!" not necessarily a subaru line but it is similarly subaru related and iconic imo <3

"Choose me." :,)))))))))

"If bringing happiness to other people is one of the main reasons you wanna work so hard, then let your number one help you." <3

"Emilia - I am your knight. Yours and yours alone."

"Who says dunderhead these days?" a silly one but <3

"What happens in the beginning or middle isn't what matters. It's the end that counts." said by naoko and said again by subaru ;-;;;;;;

anyway thats all the quotes i came up with alsdjfl if i come up with more before your con ill reblog this pfft. i hope these helped or at least gave you ideas!! have a good time at your con once again :o

[suffarustuffaru]

hey so not too long ago, i saw a post from rz twitter that said that during the first loop where subaru meets otto, when subaru met the witch cultists and were chanting something to subaru before they left, that these cultists left because some outsider (who's therefore an enemy to their witch and its prophecy) was nearby. And the tweet said how that "nearby outsider" was actually otto who stayed behind because he was worried that subaru, (whom he met only as a customer in that loop and otto had already fulfilled his job) would succumb to danger. And despite frufoo's warnings, it's heavily implied that otto had in fact died in that loop waiting for subaru to come back. And the replies were saying that it's common knowledge?

First of all, is that true? I can see how one would come to the conclusion that the cultists left because otto, an outsider, was nearby. But i haven't seen proof of the implication that otto died from that loop. Secondly, with this perhaps being true, does that confirm that any loop in which otto was nearby and subaru is in danger, that otto risked his life for him? Some ppl say "but the whale incident!" But like you said way earlier, otto came back to him after pushing him off, and it's implied that he died trying to save subaru. There's no loop i can recall otto leaving him to the dust, even when he doesn't know who subaru is. And thirdly, Otto get some self-preservation skills, you barely knew the guy and already risk your life for him. What the fuck.

HAH anon your ask intrigued me so much i immediately went to the anime to try and confirm this. and bc the anime is the closest bit of info i got wjdndn i dont have arc 3 ln or access to arc 3 wn (i do not understand japanese either, sadly) but!! while the anime doesnt explicitly confirm otto died in that first loop his character debuted in, i think its definitely a possibility that he died to the witch cult there. (if anyone knows the lore on this for sure though feel free to add?? yeah)

also regarding about whether this is common knowledge or not—id argue its kind of not, at least in certain circles, bc im gonna be completely real i had to double check the anime to see how well i remembered it bc its 1. been a while since i’ve watched season 1 in full and 2. when i was looking at it on my first watch i was focused more so on what the hell was happening to subaru, rem, emilia camp rather than otto, who at the time seems like just some random guy who wont appear ever again. but also maybe im a little too used to people misinterpreting rezero over on reddit ajfbdnd bc some people STILL completely forget that otto went back after pushing subaru off the wagon. and some people still forget ottos died for subaru even though its super obvious in arc 4?? so i dont think ottos involvement with subaru across loops is really common knowledge? or at the very least its not common for Certain portions of the rezero fandom bc i see ottos whole fixation on subaru gets glossed over at times. but i do genuinely think moments like the first loop with otto are probably easy to sort of miss if youre not paying attention. but also again i might be a little bit brainwashed by rezero redditors misreading things bc the amount of people that forget otto went back for subaru in the white whale loop made me doubt my own memory of that scene to the point where i rewatched it in the anime just to be sure wkdndnd. i dont really see any english rezero people talk about this loop in particular too unless theyre referring to you know, rem arlam and emilia camp dying. but anyway moving on for now…

alright!! lets go over this scene i suppose. the anime doesnt go into like. Specifics, like how the tweets you mention do anon, but it does have some interesting stuff.

in the anime, the first loop with otto happens in episode 14 to about the beginning of 15, but the focus is of course more so on subaru, rem, arlam, etc, bc rem left for the mansion and subarus trying to get there quickly so he pays otto to do that. otto takes the time to warn him before they even set off, not only for his own sake but also for subarus:

but you know, bc ottos desperate for money bc hes in debt, he takes up the job. but once otto and subaru actually get to the road leading up to arlam and the mansion, otto stops bc frufoo’s frightened and shes warning them of danger—

but subaru being subaru jumps off anyway and leaves. he says this quickly before he goes:

otto replies by trying to call out to him desperately as he runs away:

your point about ottos self preservation is super interesting anon because otto DOES have self preservation skills. he almost kind of prides himself on it, sometimes—as a merchant, especially from a merchant family, hes been raised to treasure it. to go for things that work in his favor. especially with his bad luck fucking him over too. and he can be slightly morally ambiguous at times, so he is Very aware of self preservation and staying out of trouble. but at the same time, leaving behind innocents does kind of weigh on him bc. well hes still human. that and the further into rezero you get, the more clear it is that ottos self preservation skills just get thrown out the window the moment he sees subaru. like otto takes a significant amount of time on screen to complain about danger or trouble hes found himself in, or go on and on about how the moment he sees danger, hes just gonna turn around and run—but its just COMPLETE AND TOTAL BULLSHIT SOMETIMES. he has plenty of chances Every Time to turn around and run and the moment subaru enters the picture, he doesnt take it. the only exception to this was him leaving subaru in greed if, but thats because he saw that subaru didnt give a shit about him and even then. he made that choice FOR subaru’s sake too, bc he recognizes that greed if subaru is just gonna micromanage everything and deal with it on his own. otto knows he’d just be another burden to subaru, so he leaves to lessen the load.

main route otto though? yeah youre absolutely right his self preservation is way beyond dead at this point. his self preservation is absolutely gone when it comes to subaru. this first loop is an example of it—while of course ottos you know treating subaru like a stranger bc thats what they are, he goes out of his way to warn subaru repeatedly. at first it looks like its mostly just for his own benefit bc hes Also in danger here, but then he says that he cant just accept taking subarus money and items. he talked about how hed accept subarus payment just a few minutes before this?? and we know in retrospect that he desperately NEEDS money bc hes in debt??? and subarus giving him an out right now to just leave and not look back but he still hesitates and frantically tries calling after subaru??? he has EVERYTHING to gain from just taking the money and subarus things and just leaving, but we dont actually see him leave on screen.

and then right after this, we cut to subaru running to arlam. of course, the witch cult stops him, and in the anime, all they do is circle him, then bow (to foreshadow how the witch cult + petelgeuse think that hes one of them, im assuming), and then they disappear without saying a single word.

its interesting to note though that when they leave, they run towards the direction subaru just came from. which is where otto was.

and then subaru keeps continuing on to arlam and the mansion where he finds out that the witch cult Basically wiped everyone out there. episode 15 continues this loop and then quickly ends it bc subaru is having a mental breakdown finding everyones corpses and then he promptly proceeds to die to puck (iirc?) inside the mansion. and thats all the details the anime gives about the ending of this loop. so no clear hint like the white whale loop that otto Died from this, but i think the implication is definitely there if you choose to read into it. (again, im not sure if the ln adds more details to this or not, but iirc the anime doesnt touch on this much.)

its strange that the witch cultists that find subaru just. up and leave in the direction where we Know otto likely is, bc 1. the cultists move Fast and 2. only a couple minutes passed at most, so its likely that otto is Still There, even if he did start trying to leave. even then though, i think its in character for him to still be there and try to wait for subaru. or, at the very least, otto waited there debating with himself on whether he should just leave or not. waiting there satisfies both his self preservation and the guilt he’d feel if he just abandoned subaru—he doesnt go any further to minimize the danger to himself and frufoo, but he doesnt completely leave just in case subaru comes back or if otto decides to move forward and check on subaru or something. but then we see subaru find everyone at arlam and the mansion dead, and we the audience know the surviving witch cultists left in the opposite direction (where otto is) after killing everyone at arlam, so—i think theres a connection there. as in: yeah. if otto was still there, hes probably dead.

additionally, of course later in arc 3 we see that otto gets captured by the witch cult. this time he was captured bc the witch cult caught him hurrying to get to another location for its job offer, so the witch cult captured him to interrogate him on what exactly he was doing iirc?? so in that sense yeah he was caught by the witch cult for being an outsider getting into witch cult territory while they were in the middle of doing shit (and he likely wouldve been killed if ricardo and the others hadnt rescued him) o.O

but yeah thats all the animes got regarding the first loop (aka ottos official debut into the main story as well)!!!

“There's no loop i can recall otto leaving him to the dust, even when he doesn't know who subaru is." also anon youre so right for saying this bc. yeah i cant recall any loops either bc every time otto is there near subaru. hes risking his life for subaru. hes so incredibly ride or die that its concerning. it kind of boggles my mind that some people overfixate on how he pushed subaru out of the wagon in the white whale loop and YEAH that was fucked up, but not only does he feel bad and die trying to go back for subaru later, but when you watch that scene in the anime and think about it from ottos perspective. yeah some guy you just fucking met is yelling at you about how you apparently forgot about some person youve never heard of in your life, hes yelling at you to go back and TOWARDS THE WHITE WHALE when all youre trying to do is save both of your asses, he starts trying to wrestle with you while youre both being hunted down by the whale, and then he starts rambling to himself about how maybe its his fault the white whale is chasing after both of you while you keep hearing the white whales deranged thoughts in your head the whole time bc of your dp??? its a miracle otto didnt push subaru out of that damn wagon sooner and its a miracle otto even decided to go back for subaru after all that T^TT any person in ottos shoes would be RUSHING to push subaru out of that wagon.

but like. once you think about it - yeah Every Time in the main route that ottos been near subaru and theyve gotten into danger? otto actively puts himself at risk for subarus sake. and he doesnt always die or get hurt for it, but we know that he ALWAYS goes out of his way to help subaru. hes been like this since his debut in arc 3, practically, regardless of whether or not he actually died there. bc he still Lingered around and tried to warn subaru not to leave.

so what im saying is that so much of ottos screentime is spent helping subaru in some way.

[liquidstar]

Oh the timeloop factor is absolutely imperative to this not just becoming a feel-good au where Kenichi and Naoko know their son is okay. Even though it's still partly that. Because even if it seems good at first, this follows canon so he's absolutely not fucking okay.

I set the reunion during the timeskip, where there are no loops, but that doesn't mean Subaru isn't absolutely traumatized. All the great fluff concepts Tumblr user Sufferu gave are awesome, but there's another side of the coin here.

Subaru having panic attacks should be nothing new to the Natsukis (he'd have them every day before school) but they were never quite like... This. It's beyond social anxiety, it's trauma. Seeing their son break down so violently out of no where would terrify them- what the fuck happened??? Why does NO ONE in the Emilia camp have an explanation? They were with him the whole time, and he CERTAINLY wasn't like this when he left home, so when did this happen? Why won't he tell them?

And then there's the self harm aspect of it too. We know from Beako in arc 6 that he'd started cutting over the timeskip but self harming behavior has been present in him since arc 2. I honestly think he'd do his best to hide that from his parents, he never wanted to show how much he was struggling to them to begin with. He'd probably think he was breaking their hearts, he'd probably regress to the same guilt he felt back on earth.

But at the same time, he did learn a lesson from the trial. That his parents love him. So maybe he'd still be more willing to talk to them. Maybe not about everything. But his feelings at least. If anything it's possible he comes out of the timeskip feeling even better than in the canon timeline!

(And on a tangential note, if all his friends start really liking his dad, some of his insecurities around living up to him might return too- maybe he'd withdraw a little before eventually everyone kinda reassures him that they knew Subaru first, that Subaru is their friend that they care about, and SUBARU is the one with amazing accomplishments under his belt. Kind of a reversal of his childhood. Subaru is not Natsuki Kenichi's son, Kenichi is Natsuki Subaru's father.)

Anyway. The timeskip eventually ends. Arc 5 happens. And 6 and so forth (but I don't imagine Naoko and Kenichi would come to the watchtower, they might come to Vollachia out of worry)

If they accompany everyone to Priestella, they may even go on that walk with Subaru when he savepoints. They'd have to see his reactions to RBD. Imagine you're having a normal pleasant conversation with your son one moment and then, out of absolutely NOWHERE, he starts screaming and completely breaking down, inconsolably so. And then he's in a hurry to leave. What just happened?

And God forbid he has to watch his parents die at any point. He's seen his friends die so many times, even Roswaal points out that he no longer feels grief at their deaths, just shock and anger. But no grief. Because it can be undone.

But watching his parents die would be... Different. He loves everyone in the Emilia camp so much, I don't want to understate that, but these are his PARENTS! The people who raised him, the people who seem stronger than anyone to him. The safest people to be around, the ones who protect him. His parents.

How would he feel seeing the unreachable goal that is his father actually die? The man he saw as his role model, something to always try and live up to, the strongest man in the world to him. And he just dies, as easily as anyone else, and Subaru has to watch. It doesn't feel like it's possible for THE Natsuki Kenichi to die, come on, it's a joke. Please wake up. Please save the day like usual. Please.

Or Naoko? The person that he calls "the woman he respects most," the one who told him that it's not how you start but how it ends. And it ends for her painfully, bloody, all the love and bubbliness she possessed entirely gone. All the pride and reverence he holds for her has become a corpse. He's scared, he wants to cry to her, but there's no answer. He's just a kid and he wants his mom.

And the worst thing would be if either or BOTH of them died protecting him. This can be undone, he can reset. But he would have preferred dying before them anyway. There's no reality in which they should die for him. He can reset. They shouldn't waste their lives when he'll reset.

But in timelines where he does die before them... He's watching them watch their son die. He knows the impossible grief he's forcing on them, just like in the second trial. Is there any way you can unsee that? On either side? How can he do anything but cling to them and sorrowfully apologize after. And they'll never understand where this came from.

He'd feel guilty. The guilt he had back on earth would come back tenfold. Why did they have to come here too? Why did any version of them have to suffer these deaths? Why did they have to look for him? They should leave. They should hate him. He shouldn't be their son. He shouldn't have been born. Then maybe they'd be living their happy lives on earth, and none of this would have happened. If he wasn't so useless as a son he could have taken better care of them. He'll always be that same failure. He's so sorry.

I'm imagining a rz au where Satella accidentally isekais Kenichi (While he's holding Naoko's hand or something) and then she's like "ah fuck got the wrong guy again hold on." And a few minutes later she grabs Subaru, and the rest of arcs 1-4 play out exactly the same from his perspective. Meanwhile his parents are off in some other part of the country, living more mundane fantasy lives after the initial "what's going on where are we is that guy a lizard" shock. And naturally they're worried about their son being by himself on earth, wondering where they went, barely getting by all alone etc. until one day they hear about the amazing new knight who defeated the Great Rabbit and White Whale, Natsuki Subaru! And they're like what the fuck

[liquidstar]

hey! i’d love to learn about re:zero! well, not learn exactly but i’m thinking of maybe getting into it so i dunno, i’d love to know what sorta stuff you enjoy about it and everything 🤧 also, same anon who sent you that ask about wanting to be mutuals! so, hello!

Omg hiiii anon! It’s nice to see you again! Please feel free to send asks or even message me any time ^_^ I’m sorry I took a while to get to this but I didn’t have time to type a lot earlier and  was on mobile… but i would SO love to talk about what i like about the series (and a little bit of what i dislike, its got its fair share of understandable turnoffs but ill get to that part later- ill make a little tw list too)

But first i totally wanna share what about it i find compelling and fun as a story. I’ll put it under a cut here so I don’t clog ppl’s dashes tho hehe. I wrote... A lot actually. Like a lot a lot. Sorry .-. You can just kind of skim it if you want I don't want to make you feel like you have to read this fucking novel I wrote lol but here it is

First of all i think what made me agree to watch the series despite my preconceptions of it as a typical isekai harem was that its actually a deconstruction of that genre. “Deconstruction” often gets misused in anime circles to just mean “a genre but with a dark twist” so at first i thought it might just be a typical isekai harem but slightly edgier… but no it actually is a proper deconstruction! It takes the typical tropes of its genre and breaks them down, exposing the issues with the genre and its viewers (i.e. nerdboys wanting escapism). 

The premise on it’s own is relatively simple, it’s about a boy who gets transported to a fantasy world and discovers that he has been given a power that lets him reset time every time he dies. It gets a bit more complex from there, there’s some really cool lore that makes the world feel like it existed before subaru came to it (many isekai cant do this). And the themes of the series are actually pretty dense, which is a LOT of fun for me and the main thing i like about it tbh. So im going to talk about each one of the major themes here (and try to keep it as spoiler-free as i can!)

Escapism

One of the most important themes of the series is fantasy vs reality. Subaru, as the main character, is set up exactly like the typical nerdboy getting an isekai powerfantasy harem, and he’s genre-aware at that. When he first gets transported to another world, he instantly picks up on what's happening, and he thinks its going to go a certain way for him. 

In fact, because of the media he’s consumed in his life, he thinks he’s ENTITLED to an isekai powerfantasy and feels robbed when things end up being much more grim. For the first few arcs he can come off as annoying, he’s trying very hard to act like his idea of a “main character” and he has a tendency to reduce the people around him to tropes. He projects his will onto them, he does what he thinks a hero would do regardless of what they say. In the 3rd arc he becomes borderline unlikable (intentionally so) after a fight with emilia, and the real turning point of him as a character is whether he chooses reality or fantasy in this arc. He could go back to escaping, or he could face whats real. 

After this point in the story he begins to truly develop more as a character too, seeing the people around him as PEOPLE makes him more complete as well, and on a meta level this is also where we start to get his real backstory and characterization outside of just being the “isekai guy.” It’s like the story is telling him that he earned it, but it doesn’t feel like a sudden shift. If anything it feels like everything else about him makes MORE sense in retrospect.

But one thing that was always made clear was that subaru hated himself. A lot. He was a shut-in loser with terrible depression and anxiety, he used to get panic attacks just at the idea of going to school. He preferred to escape in his bedroom and avoid it all, and although his parents loved him very very much, deep down, he always thought they should just hate him instead. He thinks everyone should just hate him instead, which is why he tries so hard. It can be cringy to watch, but knowing where this energy of his comes from as a character makes sense…

He never really learned how to deal with people, he’s selfish and entitled to what media promised him. In this sense the story is screaming at you that NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU USE THESE POWERFANTASIES TO ESCAPE, REAL LIFE PEOPLE WILL NOT TREAT YOU THIS WAY. THEY WILL HAVE THEIR OWN LIVES AND WILLS THAT YOU CANT CONTROL AND THEY DONT OWE YOU ANYTHING JUST BECAUSE YOURE NICE TO THEM!!

This theme is even moreso evident when it comes to the woman in subaru’s life so lets talk about…

Gender 

subaru’s habit of projecting his own desires onto other people makes him place the girls around him into obsequious roles, he objectifies them, treats them like tropes in a video game. The message that the story wants to convey is fairly obvious, that you can’t treat real life women the same way you treat your fictional characters. And that they don’t owe you anything just because you’re nice to them. This is partly what emilia and subaru’s aforementioned fight was about, and it’s important that she only accepts his love after he treats her like a human being. She doesn’t want special treatment or to be placed on a pedestal. This theme kind of went over a lot of nerdboys heads because they wanted to jerk off to rem, who actually presented the “fantasy” ideal- kind of ironic…

On the flip side too, subaru tries very very hard to fit into masculine ideals of heroism (often emulating his father who was an athlete). He thinks he has to be a certain way and act a certain way. Though once he breaks out of this shell he actually ends up being more… Just himself. He’s not afraid to let emilia be the hero, he even compliments her for being “manly” (which she doesnt take as an insult and they have a cute laugh about) and in the ln takes up dressing femininely as something he was afraid to do in earnest before- previously seeing it as a joke.

Whats also notable about emilia is that shes one of the five dragon priestesses thats running as a candidate in the royal selection- that might have just been word soup, but what it basically means is that she and four other girls are running to become ruler of the country. The title that they earn is actually KING of legunica, not queen. This serves as a nice contrast to the room emilia was locked in during her childhood, the princess room.

Its a fantasy story so archetypes like kings and princesses and knights are all present but its more so about what those archetypes represent. The knights are the heroes, that masculine ideal subaru wanted to live up to. He claims to be one without earning it, which gets him beat the hell up by a real knight, julius. Whos also an interesting character in this regard, he’s the “knight of knights” and puts a lot of pressure on himself chivalrous, and subaru is incredibly jealous. Though eventually they grow closer and idk they’re kinda… hm. Anyway there’s also reinhard, another knight who is so ridiculously overpowered that its a joke. Like, one of his powers is he’s blessed to never eat anything too salty. He IS the overpowered isekai protagonist that subaru wanted to be, but unlike julius, subaru kind of admires reinhard (they got off on a better foot). But reinhard himself… the truth is hes so very isolated and trapped, he grew up with a terrible family and because of his powers the kingdom pretty much owns him, he has no freedom. This aspiration is a leesh.  

Mean while other candidates are all interesting in their own ways and also all represent some different ideologies (incase youre wondering the emilia camp is. communism.) but the ones most relevant to the gender theme is probably the crusch camp because… actually its kind of a lot, not all of it depicted well, but not necessarily horribly either. The basic idea is that crusch and ferris are two characters who “swapped” gender performances, though the series may still posit that their actual identities are still their agab this isnt exactly that simple (especially in the ln) and i personally think its a case of a cis author not really knowing how trans people work. Crusch behaves in a more masculine role until their memories are wiped and suddenly starts to behave like a “regular girl”- this is meant to be strange and upsetting because its NOT CRUSCH so i actually think thats well done enough. Ferris is… well, not a character i want to speak as an authority on, i think they could have been handled better, but it could have also been worse. I do like that in the ln they directly dispute the notion that ferris “dresses like a girl” to attract/trick men, at least. 

The series does genuinely seem to want to pick apart some gender norms though, and though i am critical of the ways it fumbles the ball i do enjoy the themes, especially as a deconstruction story. Its NOT perfect and i think one of my biggest gripes with it is that despite this “dont objectify” theme, a lot of the female characters designs are pretty sexualized! Mostly not to an absurd degree, i actually think the maid outfits are cute, but sometimes i feel like it can detract rather than add. You could make the case that its saying “even if theyre dressed like this bla bla” but i think thats a reach… at the very least though theres not that much fanservice despite the outfits, things arent usually framed weirdly just to get tits or ass in frame and all. I think the most the was was a scene in the ova where emilia and rem hug and their boobs touch

One way that the themes do come full circle though is with the emilia and subaru’s first kiss. Their first fight was about subaru denying emilia her personhood by ignoring her will in favor of his own. They have another fight that calls back to this but this is AFTER subaru has character development and one way that he proves to her that he loves her is by getting explicit consent for the kiss (verbally and physically) beforehand- it wasnt just an example of “a kiss solves all the problems” but a demonstration of how far hes come as a character, not assuming that playing out movie tropes alone will fix stuff but actually caring about what she wants.

Memories/Identity

Speaking of losing memories, that’s also a huge theme in the story. The idea is that your memories are your identity isn’t exactly unique, but what i like a lot about how the series does it is how OTHER peoples memories of you matter just as much as your own. It’s what i call “self-recognition through the other.” 

Your identity is molded through how people around you perceive you, and how you perceive those perceptions in turn. Not just about how you see yourself, but how you see other people seeing you. That’s why there are two types of amnesia in the series, one where you forget your own identity and one where people forget who you are. Those are the two things that make you… you! So when a character loses one, they lose half of themselves. When they lose both… they stop existing. They enter a comatose state and are just a “null”- something that never was and yet is right here.

The theme of subaru projecting his will onto other people has to do with this- subaru hates himself so he can only bare to recognize himself through the projection.

The show especially has a LOT of shots of characters being reflected in each other’s eyes, making it clear that whats going on here isnt just a character being seen, but also a character seeing themselves through another person.

One example, heres a scene where subaru is yelling at emilia, he screams at her and calls her useless and tells her she cant save everyone. Throughout the entire scene we dont see subaru’s face, only emilia’s reaction, and when she starts to talk she just says “why are you crying?” and the scene changes to a close up of her eye, subaru reflected in it, crying. He wasn’t really yelling at emilia, he was yelling at himself through her.

Another way memories come into play is because of subaru’s return by death power. Its an isolating power, because when he dies and resets the timeline… his friends forget about him. From subarus perspective these are people he was close with, people hes been friends with for at least a month (in total) but who have no memory of him. Its part of why he blows up at emilia, hes frustrated that his friends cant remember such important memories because to them.. THEY NEVER HAPPENED!!! These are things that only subaru will remember. In arc 2 when he grows close to rem and ram over time and they just keep forgetting about him… it hurts him a lot because his friends just suddenly stop seeing him as a friend. Its not their fault, but its not his either. And they can never fully help him through the trauma because he cant tell anyone the shit hes been through, the power wont let him.

But from THEIR perspectives… its scary. Its scary when some guy you dont know acts so familiar, acts like you OWE him something when you have no idea what hes talking about. Something you cant remember. Of course emilia is horrified when he starts lashing out, she has no idea whats going on! 

Whats interesting is that the SAME THING happens to subaru later on… through the witch of envy. She claims that she loves him, in fact thats all she says, “i love you, i love you, i love you” but subaru doesnt know her. He has no idea who she is, hes terrified of someone who loves him so much for things he doesnt remember. Yeah, doesnt feel so good huh?

7(+2) deadly sins

Each arc of the series actually focuses around subaru making a choice that’s centered around overcoming a deadly sin, and there are also several characters representing the deadly sins, including the two that pope gregory got rid of (vainglory and melancholy). There are the witches of sin, as well as the archbishops that represent those sins. What I find the most interesting is how these sins relate back to the theme of identity through the way their powers are represented as well as the ways their respective arcs are handled.

Gluttony is the most obvious, it’s framed as a sin where you “consume” another person's identity for your own sake, or take it on completely, without regard for them and how they’ll get dulled or lose their own sense of self devoid from you.

Greed is about a desire for connection, which in moderation can be a good thing, but it can also become possessive and entitled. It’s literally objectifying, treating someone else like your possession. On the flip side, placing that desire above all else can also lead to the detriment of your own well-being as well as those around you.

Lust doesn’t just refer to the sexual connotation, but about love in general. Specifically about using love as leverage to take advantage of and manipulate people, even by force, and even down to their sense of self. 

Wrath also isn’t just about anger, it’s about intense emotions in general, and what happens when you project these emotions onto other people, and how this can become a cycle of amplifying these emotional projections back and forth until the person’s identity has been consumed by them.

Sloth can be taken as being slothful in your relationships, not just romantic ones but to the people around you. Neglecting or abandoning them when things get hard, especially if they really need you. Choosing escapism over reality.

Pride seems to be about the arrogant assumption that your perspective of another person is the correct one, and treating them the way that you see fit based on that. You’re in the right, so if you decide they deserve to be punished then it must be justified.

Envy is also about the possession of others, similar to greed but with a much more targeted and controlling nature. The jealousy that comes with it is one that forces the object of desire into being isolated, lonely and unfulfilled, unable to form any true bonds with others.

Melancholy is the one we’ve seen the least of, but it seems to be about forcing your negativity onto others, hurting not just yourself but also other people through your own depression and apathy.

Vainglory is gaslighting. Despite being as mysterious as melancholy, the metaphor is obvious. It’s manipulating another person's entire perspective and reality to fit your narrative, to manipulate them into what you want them to be.

Basically because of the series's themes of identity and projection, the biggest sin you could commit towards another person or even yourself is warping that.

Suicidality

Suicidality is present throughout the entire story. Of course it is! Our escapist mean characters superpower is to fucking die! But it’s more than that… Subaru hates himself. He wants to die. He didn’t consider himself to have a life before, and now he sees himself as an even bigger loser for all the trauma hes gone through and all that hes lost. Even in reflecting on the person he was. In the 4th arc especially he makes it clear how little he values his own life, especially because of how much he cares about his friends (at this point, yes, he sees them as people and loves them more than anything). But hes so traumatized, so down on himself for all his failures, and he cant die no matter how hard he tries.

This theme isn’t limited to him, in fact the same exact thing is true of beatrice, an immortal spirit girl who was abandoned inside a library for 400 years. They actually end up having a very very sweet sibling dynamic later on, but whats more important is that theyre both hypocrites. Subaru wants to save beatrce, he doesnt want her to die. Beatrice doesnt want subaru to die and repeatedly saves him, which he screams at her for. Beatrice begs him to kill her, he wont do it. They both want to save each other from each other but dont want to be saved themselves.

Rem is also an interesting example of suicidality- shes not as outwardly suicidal as beatrice and subaru but she does have a very very very severe inferiority complex, and very intense feelings of guilt and shame for never being enough, only being a replacement for her displaced sister, the literal reincarnation of a god. Rem falls for subaru because he sees her as her own person, for the first time ever (the only other person to do that is ram, but rem feels too guilty to see it) but what makes her feelings interesting is that she sees subaru as her “reason to die”. NOT LIVE! Rem only sees herself as someone worth discarding, if she can die for subaru than she would die happy. Its her excuse. What many many many people overlook about rem is just how unhealthy her ideas about love are, shes so mischaracterized! And its sad because of how interesting and thematically important her arc is… boiled down to a love triangle! Augh!

Stars

I love star themes in stories!!! This is honestly pretty obvious given that I have my own set of star-themed ocs, but i’ll try to put them aside for rn to talk about this lol. First of all subaru loves stars a lot, its something I like about his character too- he’s not just a typical nerdboy who likes anime and games, he has other unique personal interests like mythology and astronomy! Of course he does, his name actually comes from the stars, that’s where his love of them comes from. Subaru is the japanese name for the pleiades star cluster and the individual stars of become relevant later.

Beyond subaru there are plenty of characters whose names come from the stars, though not always directly. 

For example all of the witches of sin (aside from one) are named after astroids. Echidna, Minerva, Sekhmet, Daphne, Typhon, Carmilla, Pandora, and Hector. The exception to this rule is Satella, the witch of envy, who was always an odd-one-out. Her name could mean either star or satellite (like an asteroid!). And all the sin archbishops are also named after stars, and the names of the stars actually directly correlate to what their powers are.

There are also plenty of other ways characters names often tie into stars and mythology, but not always- sometimes theyre just puns. For example, emilia comes from the latin “emilius” which means… Jealous.

Other stuff

Re:zero actually has a lot of different content, one of the coolest to me, because of how they expand on the series’ themes, are the what:if routes. I didnt talk abt them in the above bc i thought it would get too confusing, but theyre basically alternate routes for the story. What WOULD HAVE happened if subaru had made the wrong choice, if the thematic sin of the arc won. So far, and in order, there’s 

Pride:if

Wrath:if

Sloth:if 

Greed:if

Gluttony:if 

There will probably be more in the future, whats funny is that theyre written and posted on april fools day… aka subaru’s birthday!

Theres also ovas which i think are important to watch before season 2, and one that takes place mid-season-1 so my watch order rec is actually

Season 1 episodes 1-11

Memory snow ova (lighthearted and fun!)

Season 1 episodes 12+

Frozen bonds ova (emilia backstory!)

Season 2

Theres also a directors cut version of the show but its basically just two episodes stitched together w some mild animation improvements and ONE scene added at the end (Which gets repeated in season 2 anyway) so which one you watch doesnt make a difference

After that, if you want, you can pick up the light novel at arc 5. Arc 6 s the best one imo but i havent read arc 7 yet (bear that in mind for the tw list)

Anyway now that i talked about the themes, and before i get to the tws, i want to talk about

The characters!!!!

Easily one of the best parts of the series. I feel like I’ve mostly talked about subaru and emilia here but thats because if i were to get Into It with each of these characters on their own we’d be here all day (and this is already so long!) they all have a lot of personality and are genuinely very complex and interesting characters so ill just give little blurbs to explain them here

Subaru: I’ve talked enough about here. I want to say that i genuinely like him a lot as a character, after his growth and development he’s so likable and fun and you just kind of want to protect him

Emilia: A silver-haired half-elf, she’s hated for looking like the witch of envy, a figure from history so repulsive people won’t even say her name. People call her a half-devil, say that she doesn’t deserve to live, that her birth was a crime. But emilia is a kind girl, she wants to change the world so that everyone is equal and no one is treated like she is. She’s also very strong, her ice magic is incredibly powerful and so so so deadly in some really cool and creative ways.

Puck: Emilia’s spirit! He loves emilia so much that he would literally kill everyone in the world and then himself if anything happened to her. For real.

Rem: So mischaracterized by the fanbase! Poor rem! She’s both sweet and also not afraid to cut a bitch at any given point. But for the most part she also kind of hates herself, seen as the lesser of the two oni sisters, she could never live up to ram. One day though, the tables turned, and rem had to take ram’s place, though she only felt guilt and shame for it. Seeing herself as nothing but a replacement, time stopped for her the fiery night her sister’s horn was cut off.

Ram: Also often mischaracterized as being “tsundere” though thats far from the truth- She’s actually just a straight up cunt. Her main character trait is that she’s bluntly honest no matter what, so when she’s being a bitch she means it. She used to be the reincarnation of the oni god (and technically still is) but when her horn was cut off she lost the ability to control these powers. She often gets seen as being “lazy” by other characters, but the truth is that she’s in constant pain because of this. Despite that, she was a little bit happy too when she was finally released from the pressures of a god.

Beatrice: The guardian of the forbidden library, she was abandoned there a long long time ago. Now she only sits and waits for someone to find her, save her, kill her. She can come off as being bratty, but the truth is that she’s very lonely and also afraid to let people in.

Roswaal: The margrave of the estate… He’s so very fucked up in the head… There’s not too much I can say without giving away some major plotpoints but that make-up isn’t there for nothing, he really is a fucking clown.

Otto: A merchant that eventually joined the emilia camp. He spent the first decade of his life completely mute, saying that the world used to be a hellish place of harsh noise for him. Eventually this changed- when he gained his divine protection of spirit voice. Meaning he can talk to animals! And other things. After some loops he ends up becoming a very very devoted friend to subaru, someone he can always confide in.

Garfiel: Sort of a wildcard, but despite everything he actually does have a heart of gold. And everything about him actually makes more sense when you learn he’s actually fourteen. He’s can also transform into a tiger which is pretty sick. And he has mommy issues!

Frederica: Garfiel’s older sister, she works as a maid for the roswaal estate but has taken a leave. She’s very sweet and motherly, especially to garfiel and petra. And she can transform into a lion which again is pretty sick.

Petra: A child from the village who ended up joining the emilia camp as a maid-in-training. I’m not going to lie I think she’s only there so there’s a cute kid that needs protecting and so that we can be devastated when she dies in any given loop. It kind of works

(now onto non-emilia-camp-members)

Anastasia: Don’t let her cute appearance fool you, she’s a cutthroat capitalist through-and-through. A former merchant looking to become the next king of legunica. 

Julius: Anastasia’s knight, the knight of knights. Everything about him screams “chivalry” but in reality that’s a weaning facade. He and subaru don’t get along much at first, but eventually they end up with a really close bond. Subaru is kind of tsundere about it though lol

Crusch: The most militant of the royal selection candidates, crusch is sort of a hard-ass through and through… In fact they’re pretty much just looking to run a meritocracy, and subaru himself calls out the fact that crusch would be a good leader if not for abandoning the weak.

Ferris: Crusch’s knight, Ferris is playful and sometimes a smartass. Also granted the title of “blue” for their status as the best healer in the country.

Wilhelm: Crusch’s butler. He seems like just some old man but in reality he’s badass lol

Reinhard: The current sword saint, and wilhelm’s grandson. He’s the most OP man in existence, but he has so so many family issues, growing up with a terrible family situation and being blamed for his grandmas death. On top of that he lacks freedom and choice, being bound to being a knight for the kingdom. Making it fitting that he’s representing the candidate looking to abolish the current system, Felt.

Felt: A former thief from the slums, she was selected as a dragon priestess and chose to run in the royal selection… Because she wants to destroy the structures in place. She hates the nobility, she hates the knights, and she’s going to burn it all down. She wants anarchy and she’s got my vote.

Rom: Felt’s grandpa <3 well, adoptive, but still. Their cute little found family is actually adorable and I want them to be so happy. He’s also a giant.

Priscilla: She’s such a bitch. But like, it’s also really funny how much of a bitch she is. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and her powers of luck make it so that everything always works out for her, no matter what. Basically she’s just aiming for totalitarianism, for all her whims to always be obeyed

Al: Priscilla’s knight, he’s pretty much just there to give her whatever she wants whenever she wants it. What's the most interesting about him though is that… he’s from earth. Like, our earth. Subaru isn’t the only one. In fact there are at least two historical figures that are also from earth. 

(now for antagonists)

Elsa: The first real threat subaru encounters, elsa is a vampire and assassin who’s been granted the nickname of “the bowel hunter” because of the way she… Well, she rips people’s guts out and loves to watch them die <3

Meili: Elsa’s little assistent, they actually see each other as sisters and care about each other. She’s also more than okay with a little murder despite being like 12, because that’s all she knows. And she has control over monsters which is awesome.

Petelguese: sin archbishop of the witches cult representing sloth. He’s actually out of his mind… But. There’s some legit backstory. All i will say is that his voice actor has some fucking range i swear. Also the way he’s animated is both horrifying and hilarious. Uncanny in just the right loony toons way

Satella: AKA the witch of envy, she’s sort of mysterious, sort of a contradiction.

Echidna: The witch of greed, an amazing manipulator. All she wants is to know everything, her greed is an insatiable thirst for knowledge and she has no morals. 

Minerva: The witch of wrath. What makes her angry? The injustices of a cruel world, pain and suffering, hardship and strife. She’s angry because she cares so much.

Sekhmet: The witch of sloth, she drove a giant dragon (basically deities in legunica) to the other side of the great waterfall (a barrier considered impenetrable, no one knows whats beyond it) just so she could nap.

Daphne: The witch of gluttony, she created all the monsters that inhabit the world. Why? So that no one ever has to go hungry ever again. But she thinks it’s unfair to not give the monsters a chance to eat too.

Typhon: The witch of pride, the young daughter of an executioner. Watching person after person be put to death, she childishly and cruelly began to judge people’s lives on her own. She might be a kid but she’s horrifying. 

Carmilla: The witch of lust, though not in a purely sexual sense. A vampire who was worshiped in her life- people went to war over her. She has no interest in love herself, however she does recognize how important love is and wants to help people realize it too.

Hector: The devil of melancholy, he’s a bit mysterious but the make takeaway is that he has depression.

Pandora: The witch of vanity, and THE most broken character in anything ever. Her powers are literally just speaking shit into existence. She’s like somesort of goddess, and like her namesake she’s trying to open a box right now…

Anyway. 

Trigger warnings

Re:zero is a dark show with some heavy themes, and despite being a deconstruction its also not immune to some of the grosser things abt the isekai genre. Heres my list of things to be weary of (Aside from stuff that wasnt already mentioned) so…

A not insignificant amount of gore. Its not corpse party or anything, but there are guts and eyeballs flying out, as well as plenty of examples of limbs getting cut off or in one case twisted until they break. In the light novel the descriptions of the gore are more graphic. Subaru dies in all kinds of fucked up ways.. As well as the people around him really.

Theres some pretty graphic depictions of self harm, particularly finger mutilation by one of the antagonists. Subaru also has a habit of biting his lip until it bleeds and in the ln its very heavily implied that he cuts himself. And again plenty of his deaths were suicides. 

It’s really not shown on-screen, but one of the antagonists says that when she was a child she was molested by a man while seeking shelter in a snow storm. She killed him though so theres that

Theres also a pretty gross scene (intentionally so) where echidna, a witch character, finds a young roswaal who had literally JUST THROWN UP and starts to… make out with him. Its literally so gross. On multiple levels. In-universe it was supposed to be to help heal him, but on a meta level i think it was just showing us how their dynamic was a bit... yeah. (Also if vomit in general grosses you out, subaru throws up a few times during the series… understandable. He is so so traumatized)

Speaking of roswaal, hes like, 100+ years old now, and ram is 18. and he burned down rem and rams entire village and took them in to work for him when they were kids. And ram STILL has romantic feelings for him. Girl you have stockholm syndrome!!! But at the very least roswaal doesnt reciprocate (as of rn. Hopefully never) and the other characters straight up tell her she has bad taste lol

Also just in general animals and children will die, sometimes brutally, and even though its usually reset it can still be upsetting to watch.

The series also isnt afraid to depict subaru has having Mental Issues. It can be assumed he developed PTSD from the Everything Going On. and its not afraid to show disassociation, especially in arc 6, he more or less develops DID (though a little misdescribed) but with like some fantasy aid. You could also see emilia as having repressed memories but again theres fantasy aspects to it. I dont think depicting these things is bad obviously but i know they can cause some ppl to have episodes. (I dont have DID or anything but for some reason after i read inside mari i was like completely disassociating for days it was weird). 

But what i find the most unpleasant to watch is the “loli” characters in the show. For the most part i dont find it to be that egregious, so i can handle it. but i think the worst example by far is liliana… i honestly dont know if ill be able to watch arc 5 when she’ll actually be on-screen and ill have to look at her like… eugh. Shes 22 but looks like shes 12 and shes in a relationship with a grown man who the other characters call a lolicon. Its genuinely something i hate about the series but like everything else enough that i dont look directly at it (doesnt mean im not conscious and critical though, please dont mistake that as what im saying lol)

There’s gotta be more so I’ll add on if I remember but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.

Despite all the things that I dislike though you gotta believe me when I say there's stuff I like.. I mean that's what this entire novel was about. This wasn't a an analysis or critique of the show in ANY way, despite how much i wrote i actually feel like i'd be doing it a huge disservice in that regard. No, it's just all the stuff that I like, and on a somewhat surface level too because I didn't want to give EVERYTHING away, though I know I still said a lot!

So yeah! :thumbs_up: if you wanna check it out and the tws dont make you too uncomfortable I say go for it. I understand it's not for everyone and thats okay ^_^

[liquidstar]

hi this is evilmario666 anon. im ok now and i realized that despite the misogyny that does exist on account of genre and perspective re:zero actually understands the subaru archetype of guy very well and i was jumping to conclusions too quickly based on what i was seeing. it was impolite and unfair of me and id like to apologize both to re;zero and you, i am no longer on the verge of a blood rage. thanks once more because i am genuinely having a ball of a time . lost track of arc numbers but im on the one where subaru accidentally SPOILERS kills emilia becaus he tries to reveal return by death

NO YEA ANON ITS OK sorry i didnt respond to ur first ask last night i was too tired to read long things lol

but i TOTALLY get how you feel like subaru early on legit annoyed me with his behavior, and it was completely intentional. not that he didnt have his endearing traits, i think the first thing that made me really like him was the fact that he got to know the names of the village kids and legit cared about them a lot because before getting to know them he just considered them and everyone around him as "npcs", and the village kids in particular arent "important" characters. (also dont take all of what im about to say as subaru hate, having read most of the story now i legit love the guy but im just talking abt his portrayal in the show in the early arcs)

basically arc 1 just served to introduce us to characters and concepts so there wasnt all too much of an arc there, subaru is dense as hell so he still came out of all that thinking he was gonna get his Isekai Harem Fantasy and so when he arrived at the mansion in arc 2 he literally treated all the characters like tropes (even before that though he would assume emilia's behavior based on what the tropey response would be). he just didnt see any of them as people and thats where a lot of the conflict came from, in order to overcome in that arc he had to actually befriend both rem and ram in a way that actually mattered, and he really did start to care about them as people and we know that because of the story he tells ram about the ogres.

arc 3 though addresses his mindset about this hero fantasy he has a lot more bluntly, because while he may have grown some in arc 2, he still has a huge martyr complex and places emilia into this role where he gets to be her hero even though she didnt ask for that, and their fight about it is simultaneously really satisfying to see him called out, and hard to watch because hes being such a child about it, hes so incredibly entitled to her at this point. the show luckily frames him as completely in the wrong and shows us the nastiest parts of this mindset in him. one of my favorite scenes in this arc is the one where he accidentally kills her, but just before that. when he rushes into the room and yells at her about how shes useless and unable to save anyone and we focus on her face, and she just says "why are you crying?" and the cut zooms into her eye to reveal that he was staring at his own reflection in it, he was talking to himself. that just perfectly describes what she is to him at that point- a beacon to project all his insecurity and doubt. re:zero loves using those eye-reflection shots, and i love seeing them because my absolute favorite theme in the story is "self-recognition through the other"

subaru does legitimately learn and become better, he acknowledges how shitty hes been in his convo with rem and it gets turned into a really sweet moment between the two of them, and it gets memed a lot but "i love emilia" is honestly a really good line because its in that moment that he stops trying to either run away or project and face his feelings genuinely in a way that doesnt throw her under the bus. by the time arc 4 rolls around hes so much more likable, and his dynamic and relationship with emilia becomes honestly really cute, the way they talk is sort of dorky and charming (spoilers, but even when they have another argument that calls back to the one they had in arc 3, you feel its coming from a legit place now, and when he kisses her he does so only after getting explicit consent and telling her its okay to dodge). hes so much more sympathetic and you really root for him. i loved the choice to not show any of his backstory until arc 4, the point where youre supposed to be on his side completely.

all that being said though its NOT a series i think is perfect nor do i think its super feminist, i just think its a good deconstruction of these isekai tropes and calls them out in a blunt way that i enjoy seeing. there are lots of things about it that i dont like too though, some of the character designs sort of bother me and seem antithetical to this, part of that is that the writer and character designer are different people but it still passed. but i still enjoy the story and characters enough that it doesnt totally sully my enjoyment of it (some are more egregious than others tho). at the end of the day im so along for this whole ride, i love the way it explores its themes, again especially the whole "self-recognition through the other" thing but also suicidal ideation and of course the deconstruction of what the isekai genre has become.

TL;DR: the series perfectly understands the type of nerdboy that watches isekai anime and wants to be sent to another world just like their favorite blank-slate nerdy protagonist and it directly calls them out, saying "no. youre not gonna be an OP hero who saves the day and gets all the bitches with that fucking attitude. youre not gonna be able to escape your insecurities via this escapism, you treat the women around you like trash, youre not entitled to any of this, youre just pathetic." and though subaru is a character that gets better many of the viewers of the series straight up plugged their ears to its themes so they can jack off to rem lol.