Natsuki Subaru – Thorough Watch

A Re:Zero theory: Before Arc 12, the final boss will in a moment of hubris give Subaru the chance to bring back one person who was lost during his journey

Posted on September 27, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

I believe that before the final arc the big bad will give Subaru a chance to bring back one person who was lost on his journey since I believe the big bad’s Authority allows him/her to affect the story path. This would be why Melakuera in The Frozen Bond OVA said that he faced world-ending crises countless times, and it’s ’cause the world is stuck in a cycle of being destroyed and reconstructed due to the actions of an ancient selfish hero, and the big bad used his/her Authority to make the world highly biased to repeat the general story path the Hero of the world at the time went through when the Seal was likely opened with the Heroine of the story becoming the Witch of Envy in order to stop what comes out of the Seal only for the Hero to not put her down after she becomes a world-ending threat when the threat from the Seal is gone.

I believe that due to the locked-in story path, the big bad cannot meet Subaru much until they are destined to meet late in the story, and due to the big bad having won hundreds of thousands of times or even millions of times, when he/she sees how physically weak Subaru is compared to past heroes, in an act of hubris he/she will give Subaru the choice to bring back a person, who turns the tables on the big bad and shows that perhaps the fucked up story path might be heading in a different direction ’cause of Subaru overcoming his character flaws unlike past Heroes of the story. The big bad would be able to do this due to his/her Authority allowing the guaranteed return of any one person since that Authority is largely responsible for this warped cycle to be present in the first place. The villain would do this since he/she sees no way for Subaru to win since he/she expects for Subaru to be like all the other failed heroes who never overcame their character flaws.

Whether that person outright died due to mortal injuries, had his/her soul destroyed, was sealed, never to return, or taken out of the story through some other means, I believe the big bad will give Subaru a chance, and whether it be through instinct, intellect, or a combination of both, Subaru will choose the right person for the job.

A Re:Zero Theory: Two hidden mural birds from Re:Zero’s first key visual could point at how multiple forces are conspiring to save the world from its cycle of being destroyed and reconstructed

Posted on September 19, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This is the first key visual for Re:Zero all the back in 2015, and I think it could highlight some important things. First, I’ve highlighted two depictions of things that are either birds or closely resemble them. Given this is Re:Zero, these two objects, which could very well be birds or were intended to be seen as birds, could be important to the plot. Of note is that two birds were also initially present right as the From Zero moment was about to begin at 17:22 of Episode 18 before tons of them emerged at the height of From Zero and also during Subaru’s speech in Episode 57 in Season 3 when they hung out where Emilia was held captive at 25:37 before flying over to the government office where Subaru had his speech at 25:45.

Here’s a link to the image of the birds in Episode 18:

Here’s the links to the images in Episode 57:

https://ibb.co/xK0sXz46

https://ibb.co/v4WgfzWQ

Birds were heavily featured even when Subaru was summoned to Re:Zero’s fantasy world:

So there may have been an unknown force observing Subaru since he was summoned through the birds in addition to Satella, who we know is always watching Subaru.

Given how important the number three is in Re:Zero, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were actually three forces watching Subaru from the moment he stepped out into Re:Zero’s fantasy world. Who could it be if such a thing is indeed happening?

I believe it is Echidna who is the third force that has been observing Subaru since the beginning. Echidna literally said at one point that she had watched Subaru every step of the way of his journey after he was killed by the Great Rabbit, and while it could’ve been a false statement since she has literally lied to Subaru three times already, I’ll share why I believe that she was telling the truth.

We’ve known since the beginning that Satella is choosing Subaru’s save points, which begs the question about how she knows at what point Subaru can make a difference. A lot of anime-onlies believe in the theory that Satella travelled back in time four hundred years to ensure that this current Subaru succeeds, and although I am adamant that this theory is false I will nonetheless use it to support my argument.

Let’s say that this is true and Satella actually is a future variant of Emilia. How would she know in the current day at what points Subaru can make a difference so that he succeeds this time? The answer is that she doesn’t. Even if she knew how the previous Subaru’s run through as the hero worked, that doesn’t mean Satella 100% has an ironclad way of knowing what’s the best point for him to still be able to make the most impact given what failed last time would obviously fail again while what would’ve worked last time may not this time. The only way to know for sure is with future knowledge for this current world, which is why I’m now proposing that Satella has a contract with Echidna in that Satella shares her field of vision with Echidna for some unknown price we viewers aren’t privy to.

If Satella did have this sort of arrangement with Echidna, it’d explain why she makes the save points she does, and it’d be ’cause she consults with Echidna beforehand, who we know to have future knowledge and acts with it in mind as shown when she turned Petra’s handkerchief into a spectral knife for Subaru to kill himself after he revealed RBD to her. Echidna also looked forward into the future hundreds of years ago given she made Puck with the express intention of defeating Melakuera only for Puck to lose his memories so that Roswaal could draw Emilia into his camp with Puck losing his memories of the Roswaal who co-existed with Echidna four hundred years ago, making him oblivious to Roswaal’s Soul Transcription. Evidence suggests that Echidna has been regularly using her Authority since at least hundreds of years ago.

Now I will draw your attention to the rest of the mural’s images, which show a city split in half with destruction to varying degrees all around it with the top right of the sky having cracks, similar to when Echidna’s Dream Castle shattered and when Beatrice’s Forbidden Library disappeared for good. Thus, I propose that the mural is depicting the beginning of the end of the world. I believe that Satella, Echidna, and the unknown force are probably working together to push Subaru to break the cycle of the world being constantly destroyed and reconstructed that has been alluded to by Melakuera in stating he has faced world-ending crises countless times that may be the result of an unrevealed Authority that affects the story path of the world. I believe hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago in the world’s history, an unidentified hero of the past chose his lover over the world in a moment of weakness, dooming it the destruction, and the big bad of the series used his Authority to keep the world biased towards repeating this general cycle, and it’s up to the characters from four hundred years ago to push Subaru to defy the unnatural story path so that this cursed cycle will end, bringing about an age of freedom from predetermination.

A Re:Zero theory: Sirius was right about Petelgeuse and Subaru’s souls fusing, and it’s ’cause she was speaking from experience

Posted on September 6, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

I retract what I had previously said when covering Season 3 given I was adamant that Subaru and Petelgeuse’s souls had not fused and that Sirius was delusional in uttering that. I had tunnel vision about one of my previous theories and didn’t see what Tappei was trying to tell in that moment. I now believe Sirius was speaking the truth when she said that Subaru and Petelgeuse’s souls amalgamated/fused, and I also believe Sirius, who happens to have elven ears, silver hair, and purple eyes, isn’t Fortuna but also an amalgamation of Fortuna and a spirit, which would allow Petelgeuse and Fortuna to parallel each other in how they continued to exist after they were supposed to die, and this would explain Sirius’s obsession with Petelgeuse given Fortuna said that she came back to ensure that she and Petelgeuse either both lived or that they died together due to her not being able to live on without him visiting her.

Why Subaru and Petelgeuse’s souls likely amalgamated into one is that Sirius felt Petelgeuse’s presence when Subaru used Invisible Providence in Episode 53. Regulus was under the impression that Sirius thought that Petelgeuse had taken control of Subaru much like he did with his Fingers, but that was likely not correct given Sirius said in Episode 66 that Subaru and Petelgeuse’s souls had amalgamated into one, showing she never thought that it was what Regulus said in the first place.

This is backed by how Emilia in Episode 62 thought to herself that that’s where Geuse was all along after Subaru used Invisible Providence to have a shadow hand phase through Emilia’s chest, and only then was Emilia able to sense Petelgeuse. Emilia may have subconsciously recognized Petelgeuse in Episode 23 of Season 1 after she defeated him when he had possessed one of his Fingers, but Emilia has never known Unseen Hand to be able to phase through objects, so she shouldn’t have been able to intuit that it was Petelgeuse just by the hand phasing through, and thus I conclude that what she sensed was the genuine Petelgeuse.

Now on Sirius, I believe Sirius isn’t Fortuna but also an amalgamation of Fortuna and a spirit, which would allow Petelgeuse and Fortuna to parallel each other in how they both continued to live on despite what should have been their deaths.

I think one of the spirits who guided Emilia to the Seal may have matured into a full-fledged spirit and felt strong emotions from Petelgeuse and Fortuna’s feelings for each other, fusing with Fortuna’s soul in the process with the hope that their love would continue. Pandora may have planted the seed in a spirit similarly to how she asked Regulus if he felt nothing from seeing Petelgeuse and Fortuna. The spirit may have been emotionally affected in a positive way whereas it sent Regulus into a flying rage since he had come to make Fortuna his wife and was incensed to see that she already loved someone else.

We know spirits that aren’t full-fledged can ensure that they don’t physically materialize, so you never know when there might be a spirit nearby. What we do know is that there were spirits when Pandora and Regulus arrived, and there were spirits when they brought Emilia to the Seal, so it’s possible one spirit vibed very strongly with Petelgeuse and Fortuna’s love and tried to ensure that it continued only for it to be all fucked up ’cause this is Tappei’s story.

Given Fortuna indicated she’d have nothing to look forward to if Petelgeuse stopped coming to the forest, and that’s why she came back to ensure that they either both lived or that they died together, Petelgeuse probably featured very heavily in Fortuna’s final thoughts, and said spirit I propose was there may have desired so much for Fortuna and Petelgeuse to be together that it amalgamated with Fortuna’s soul, hence becoming the entity we came to know as Sirius. This would be how she knows Subaru and Petelgeuse’s souls fused ’cause it literally happened to her, and she was speaking from a position of experience.

A Re:Zero Theory: Echidna didn’t cast the complex spell in the tomb entirely by herself but with an associate as well

Posted on August 31, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

As you might recall in Re:Zero Season 2, after Emilia passed all the trials, she was able to enter the room with Echidna’s corpse, which had a complex, interweaving spell emanating from it. On the surface, it may seem like she alone casted it, but upon thinking it over, I don’t 100% believe that’s the case if one thinks about one crucial detail in how Roswaal spent four hundred years traumatized by his defeat to Hector.

That detail is that Roswaal, Echidna’s most loyal follower, spent four hundred years imitating Hector’s speech pattern, showing that defeat by Hector’s hand caused him to see Hector as being power incarnate likely ’cause Hector caused him to lose the one most precious to him, Echidna. It’s possible Roswaal had trauma from that fight even if Echidna didn’t die as a result of it, but I’ll explain why I believe what I do.

Trauma can manifest in different ways and even different timeframes. One’s relationship to what/who caused the traumatizing incident, one’s relationship to other victims of the perpetrator, one’s stress levels at the time, one’s mental resilience, and one’s temperament all factor into how one processes difficult events in their lives. The question is whether Roswaal’s trauma manifested immediately or over time.

I know for some people, something as small as a bug bite can traumatize them. Whether one becomes traumatized has a lot to do whether the particular event(s) change their worldview. Is it likely for Roswaal to be instantly traumatized after his loss to Hector? I’ll try to answer this by showing why I don’t believe Echidna necessarily successfully repelled Hector from the Sanctuary without lasting physical injuries.

If Echidna had specifically repelled Hector from the Sanctuary, I’m not entirely convinced that Roswaal would see Hector as being power incarnate since Echidna would’ve defeated him. If Roswaal actually lost his beloved, it’d increase the chances he’d view Hector that way, but if Echidna successfully set up the Sanctuary and repelled Hector as well, there’s fewer reasons for Roswaal to worship him like that.

What I mean is that Echidna’s the world to Roswaal. If Echidna had successfully expelled Hector from the Sanctuary, would Roswaal really see Hector as being power incarnate? Smaller things have caused people to be traumatized, so it’s possible, but considering his relation to Echidna, I think Echidna dying by Hector’s hand or as a result of injuries from that fight would be more believable for the ensuing trauma.

We never saw the aftermath of Echidna and Hector’s fight, but there are three outcomes I can see having occurred in light of my proposing Echidna dying due to Hector making more sense, the first being Echidna died in her fight against Hector, the second being she was mortally wounded and cast the spell in her last moments, and the third being she received lasting injuries, dying from complications from them.

In the first scenario, there was no chance Echidna cast the spell in the tomb. For the second, it’s possible she did, but it most likely wasn’t since one’s mind deteriorates with the condition of one’s body, and I believe it’d be too laborious for a dying person to cast it. The third scenario best supports that she cast it, but if she were dying, she may also not have had the mental faculties to do it given the spell’s complexity.

Your mileage may vary, but this makes sense to me taking into account what a person on death’s door is capable of. Thus, given my theory that Echidna, Satella, and Pandora and potentially other characters from four hundred years are all in on a grand plan to steer the world to one specific future, I propose Echidna had assistance in casting the spell, and that person who assisted is a part of that group from the past.

Thus, sussing out who had the capability of casting it and the knowledge of Echidna making the Sanctuary her home may be a future clue to whether my theory about the grand plan to steer the world to one specific future with Subaru being the designated hero who does what all the previous heroes of the story refused to do, ending the cycle of the world being destroyed and reconstructed, is true.

In conclusion, I know it’s possible Roswaal was traumatized even if Echidna had survived with minimal injuries, but I wanted to explore what I described as a legitimate possibility and a genuine thought exercise. Of course future content could contradict this, but given how much of what the characters know about from the period four hundred years ago is false, I won’t yield easily unless a flashback contradicts it.

For the record, here is a list of info that is guaranteed to be false or highly likely to be false that has been spread throughout the story as of Season 3, and I will use logic to explain why the info is false:

Beatrice and Echidna have said that Satella, the Witch of Envy, killed and devoured the other witches of sin, which is 100% false since if that were the case, there would be no corpse of Echidna at the Sanctuary. Echidna has likely been speading this lie deliberately to unite the world against Satella in the future, and she likely had Beatrice unknowingly cooperate with her by having her tell this to outsiders like she did with Subaru.
Beatrice also said that legends say that the Witch of Envy doesn’t understand human language, which was proven false when Subaru said that he’d rather love Echidna than her, which had her flying into a rage. After rewatching Season 2 a third time, I believe the Witch of Envy and Satella are separate personalities given Subaru directly called the being that manifested in the Sanctuary the Witch of Envy, while all the dead witches aside from Echidna referred to the one who manifested in Echidna’s Dream Castle Satella, or Tella, in Typhon’s case. That would explain why she can only repeat “love you” and “love me” in the physical world if she’s a separate personality and why Satella is clear of mind and can speak normally in the Dream Castle as compared to the Witch of Envy that manifested in the Sanctuary. I’m not sure why there are two personalities though. Suffice to say, there is more than enough reason to believe that Echidna and others tried to pin the blame on Satella for everything, likely to unite the world against her at the end of the story.
Ram previously indicated that folklore indicates that the great dragon that protects Lugunica lies beyond a great waterfall. Echidna said that Sekhmet, the Witch of Sloth, drove a dragon past the Great Waterfall all for a chance to rest. Why this info is almost certainly false is ’cause if said dragon really were trapped beyond the Great Waterfall, how would the Royal Family have entered a covenant with it? This fake lore is probably meant to keep people from seeking out the holy dragon.
Crusch called mabeasts the creation of the Witch of Envy, but if mabeasts really were created by the Witch of Envy, of which Subaru smells like, why do mabeasts try to eat him? In Season 2, it was revealed that mabeasts were created by Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony, and that she and her mabeasts find Satella and Subaru’s scent irresistibly delicious, and there’s no way the creator would make beasts that want to eat her, which could have been sussed out in Season 1 with logic.
Echidna said that Carmilla gave emotions to non-human beings, which is demonstrably false since insects likely existed long before she even existed, and we know insects can feel emotions.
Hoshin was believed to have been one of the founders of Kararagi, where Anastasia and others who speak in the Kansai dialect live. In Season 3, buildings in Priestella were constructed with Japanese-style architecture with uniquely Japanese meals served with different names, and Priestella was also noted to be built by Hoshin, leading to Subaru believing that Hoshin was also Japanese, but given the Isekai Quartet movie revealed Alec Hoshin isn’t Japanese and how he indicated that problems from specific worlds should be handled by those who are natives to it, he may actually not have been one of the founders but somehow ended up being credited for the founding of Kararagi and Priestella since it’s an odd statement to make for someone who was isekaied.

Re:Zero Episode 66 (Season 3 Episode 16) – Analysis and Important Details

Posted on March 28, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

I thought the episode was a satisfying conclusion to this season although there was one detail I hoped would be revealed that didn’t. Included in my post this time will be an update on how I believe Al relates to Subaru as I’ll be including something I didn’t in my previous write-ups.

The episode opens with Beatrice and the group fighting Lye, and she notes to Otto she can use up to five magic crystals as she needs to save one to bring back Puck. Two of them were used up as they fought with Lye eating the names and memories of three of the White Dragon’s Scales mercenaries with the special effect of them being shattered and reforming showing that they had entered the same state Rem and Joshua are in. When Felt returned, Lye attempted to eat her name but faced serious negative effects with his eyes becoming bloodshot and him feeing nausea that resulted in vomiting given it seemed to be a fake name Rom gave her in childhood. This gave them the opportunity to use two of the remaining of three crystals to fire the special metia Felt brought to them that appears to have once belonged to Echidna judging by Beatrice’s reaction to it. Lye was defeated, but he somehow swapped places with his sister, Rui Arneb, who gutted Dynas’s legs and then did the same to Otto when Rui had moved to strike Beatrice with Otto getting her out of the way. Apparently, one of the powers of the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony is to transform into people you’ve eaten before although we have yet to see Lye or Roy do that since Rui had taken the form of a man before going into her true form. Rui realized that Felt herself didn’t realize that her name is not her true name upon interacting with her. Rui notes that she’s backing off, most likely due to her Gospel’s instructions, reasoning that since Lye was beaten to a pulp and since Roy just does as that woman, who I assume is Capella, says. Rui says it’s not whether you’re a gourmand or a foul feeder as what you eat isn’t important, and it’s who you eat with that’s important. Beatrice, with only one magic crystal she can use, since one must be saved for bringing back Puck, decides not to pursure Rui although Felt really wanted to even though they were clearly outmatched.

If it wasn’t clear from Rui’s interaction with them that she was holding back severely, I’ll make it clear now. It’s clear with how Regulus’s Gospel making him believe he’d meet the Emilia camp again despite it not happening until the fourth loop of Arc 5 is that Gospels are meant to keep the world on a particular path as I have long believed rather than being an object that makes the holder’s goals/dreams come true. This was also likely why Capella went to attack the government office the heroes had made their base of operations when if she had stayed with Theresia and Kurgan both Wilhelm and Garfiel would’ve both 100% died and why Capella was certain that she accomplished all that she had needed and was leaving, when her pursuing Al, Felix, and Anastasia would’ve resulted in one or more of them dying, and for this very reason, Rui left as well when she could’ve butchered them all since Beatrice only had one magic crystal left aside from the one she was saving for bringing back Puck. I believe people who have treated Re:Zero as a serious story are meant to pick up on this, but people who expect the usual from most isekai series that don’t have much happening on a story front don’t realize that Re:Zero is a deep story and that it wants you to draw conclusions from these things happening multiple times in succession. You have to actually think critically when you watch Re:Zero. After all, Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom was basically a tool meant for Echidna to keep the world on a particular path, and it wouldn’t be a stretch if the Gospels had a similar purpose.

Kiritaka then announced that they had taken control of all four control towers and had driven away the Witch Cult. After Subaru and Emilia make their way to the government office seeing that it had been destroyed, they are reunited with Beatrice, and Subaru princess carries Beatrice, leading to Anastasia saying that Subaru can be a boy after all, which Emilia affirmed, although I’m not sure Emilia affirmed that in the same way Anastasia did. First with Ricardo joking earlier in the season that Subaru seduces little girls and now this bit with Anastasia showing that characters are openly mocking Subaru about him attracting little girls knowing that Subaru isn’t really that type of person as that’d be inappropriate, which isn’t a bad thing of course given how serious of a show Re:Zero can be.

Subaru and co. then pay a visit to Garfiel, who is proud of Subaru for showing off what a man he is by saving Emilia. He’s in good spirits given he joked that he didn’t want to hear about his condition from Subaru of all people, which Emilia could see, and Beatrice resorted that he’s feeling too good about himself given it’s usually when he’s nice and quiet that he’s actually suffering. Mimi then barges in and has her way with Garfiel with Otto saying that he really should’ve acted like a man who’s hurt. Otto is expected to be able to recover from his injury, and Subaru wishes that he’d consult with him before leaping into danger since they’re friends after all with Otto replying that there’s no way he could just sit back and do nothing when Subaru had so much on his plate, ESPECIALLY since he’s his friend, and that just shows why Otto is such a good person to have on your side. Otto says he’s sorry that Gluttony got away but that they did gain something from this since Priscilla captured Sirius.

They start interrogating Sirius, and when Subaru asks what made them think about demanding the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom and the artificial spirit, as in Beatrice, Sirius remarks that she doesn’t even care to think about what the others were thinking and that they only gathered here ’cause of the instructions from their Gospels. When Subaru puts it out that there that they follow their Gospels so religiously to revive the Witch of Envy, Sirius retorts by saying she doesn’t give a damn about that and that the only one she loves is Subaru with her going up to him to lick him, which Emilia struck her hard for doing so. When Beatrice urged them to leave, Sirius started singing horribly since she had realized the power of song from Lilliana, and Subaru says that she shouldn’t consider Liliana and her singing to be the same with it being completely different. Fortuna then taunts Subaru, saying the situation is the same with him in that he’s not Petelgeuse but with both his soul and body and Petelgeuse’s melding together with her goal being to drag Petelgeuse out from within him although it’s hard to say whether this is pure delusion or a fact. Although I do believe Petelgeuse exists in a pocket dimension within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul, I do not believe their souls have literally melded together. Before they leave, Sirius warns them that Gluttony will be after Subaru. The subs say Gourmand, Foul Feeding, and Satiation, but given the words are used to describe their representation of the Gluttony sin, I feel it should be Gourmet (since Lye wants Gourmet food, which is why he makes his prey feel strong emotions to juice them up and fights them as if to prepare them well for being eaten), Foul-Feeding (Hyphen for grammatical purposes), and Satiation are the right terms to use, and I will use them moving forward since I’m not going to expect Crunchyroll to have any sort of consistency moving forward. I’m guessing Sirius got wind of this ‘when she compared the text written in the Gluttony Archbishop’s Gospels compared to her own ’cause Lye, and Roy and Rui by extension, have been after Subaru since Lye ate Rem’s memories, which is part of the reason he was so hyped for a confrontation with Subaru in Episode 59.

After they walk out of Sirius’s cell, Al replies that they got nothing aside from making them feel gross, which Subaru shoots down immediately, leading to Al saying he sure knows how to make those freaks like him, which suggests that Al is not Subaru himself since it alludes to him not being able to ingratiate himself with some of the Sin Archbishops whereas Subaru has, possibly showing that he was a failed hero of the story. Beatrice then tells Subaru to not get too friendly with Al, which Al is disappointed to her after he helped wake her up, calling her Beako, which she remarked she only lets Subaru do, and Emilia thanks Al for helping her pass a message to Subaru, which Al reacts well to, similarly to how Subaru said in Arc 2 that he’s the type to like to be rewarded for his efforts. When they emerge from the underground, Beatrice reveals that Al visited her and got her Kiritaka’s magic crystal, which is what woke her up but that he wouldn’t tell her anything about how he got it, and that soured Al on Beatrice even though Subaru does the same thing to others. It was only after Emilia spoke well of Al that they were forced to admit that Al’s not a bad guy.

I have to mention this regarding Al now. I don’t believe he is Subaru himself since there is a good deal against it, but I do believe that he and Subaru both originally came from the same soul. Ever since Episode 22, A Flash Of Sloth, I have been looking up the names of Re:Zero’s characters since that title could’ve referenced multiple things from that episode, showing that names are important in Re:Zero. Subaru’s dad is named Kenichi, which means ‘wise man’. Subaru said in Episode 16 that Flugel’s Tree was planted by a wise man centuries ago, and while this wouldn’t mean something in a different show, its presence in a show with Re:Zero’s long-term planning suggests that Kenichi himself might be Flugel. As for the time period in which Flugel existed, Petelgeuse apologized to Flugel-sama in Episode 43 for taking in the Sloth Witch Factor, which shows that Flugel was from the same time period Satella was from.

Episodes, 18, 25, and 38 show that Subaru has dormant memories of Satella as shown by how Puck indirectly revealed in Episode 18 the number of shadow hands Satella could generate to Subaru by asking Petelgeuse summon a thousand shadows if he truly wants to kill him, half of what Satella could (two thousand), Subaru using a number associated with Satella (two thousand) to indicate his appreciation for Emilia in Episode 25, and Subaru suddenly having an upswelling of positive emotion for Satella in Episode 38 that led him to say that he’d save Satella after she asked him to love himself and then some day come kill her, which shows that Subaru and Satella may have a past history together.

Given we know Echidna succeeded in creating a soul clone of herself with how Echidna spoke in her own voice in Ryuzu Shima’s body in Episode 49, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Kenichi, if he is Flugel as I speculate, also did that as well and Subaru and Al were both split off from Kenichi’s soul, and Kenichi made his sons his soul clones, and that would explain why Al and Subaru both call Beatrice ‘Beako’, not ’cause they are the same person but because they were created from the same soul. It’d also explain why Subaru has dormant memories of Satella despite it not being possible for him to have lived at that time, why Al also likes being rewarded for his efforts, why he failed when Subaru succeeded, and why he didn’t know about Capella’s powers.

When the group reconvenes without Julius and Ricardo, Anastasia, or whoever she is, reveals she is against letting Sirius live, which upsets Felix since Sirius is their only lead on how to save Crusch. Anastasia doubts they’ll get anything useful on Gluttony or Lust from Sirius, but Subaru disagrees and doesn’t think it’d be a total waste of effort although he does understand she’d uneasy about keeping her in custody. Wilhelm then shuts Felix down for making a fuss of things. Reinhard also takes Subaru’s side and says he’ll transport Sirius to the castle since this is a rare opportunity to learn about the Witch Cult. Then the topic comes to Lust’s victims, and Felix says that they can’t be healed since they’re creatures that’ve been completely remade. Priscilla suggests giving the people turned to flies death since they’d probably prefer that, and when Subaru starts to protest, she calls him a fool and that ideals that are all talk have no value, which leads to Emilia saying she’ll handle that by putting all of Lust’s victims in cold sleep, and Priscilla backs down after seeing Liliana’s exuberant confidence in Emilia and even says she’ll make Emilia her rival after she does, probably ’cause she was again as I said in my write-up for an earlier episode saying things that were stressful to others to bring out the best in them.

As dawn breaks, Kiritaka thanked Subaru for saving the city, and that he was had been fully prepared to die until he heard Liliana’s song. We get shots of all the relevant parties and then have Subaru thank Subaru and for Reinhard to say it’s a tremendous honour to help a friend, probably since Subaru treats him like an actual person like others instead of a weapon.

Subaru and Emilia are then happy that Lusbel and Tina are safe, and Emilia says that they have to celebrate that since everyone worked so hard to make that happen. Subaru then sees Subaru, who is wounded in a lot of ways and has lost an arm. When he makes a remark about Julius, Ricardo doesn’t respond, but Subaru sees Julius all by himself in the shadow of a building, and Julius is astounded that Subaru remembers him since Emilia doesn’t. This shows that Roy ate his name, which rewrites reality as if no one ever remembered his existence. I don’t believe Julius’s possessions were also erased given how three members of the White Dragon’s Scales broke into pieces of glass and reformed into their current state of being in suspended animation, showing that they had become something fundamentally different than before. As Puck revealed in Episode 26, if a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony eats your memories, you lose your memories, your name, your existence erased, and if both your name and memories are eaten, you become a shell of who you were in suspended animation. Given even Rem’s possessions disappeared when she had been erased by the White Whale, your possessions probably don’t disappear unless both your name and memories are eaten, or Rem’s possessions were just thrown out ’cause no one could remember her.

What this shows is that Subaru has a resistance to Authorities for some reason. After Unseen Hand was used in his presence once, he was able to see Petelgeuse’s Authority the next time he saw it being used. When the White Whale, which Puck referred to as Gluttony in Episode 18, erased Rem, Subaru was the lone person who remembered her, which showed even back then that he had a resistance to the Gluttony Authority. When Rem was again erased by Lye, he still remembered her, proving that the White Whale was either made or modified somehow to have its mist have a similar effect to the Authority of Gluttony. After Sirius used her Authority on Subaru, in subsequent loops, it took longer and longer for him to fall under her control. This latest incident shows that Subaru still retains his resistance to the Authority of Gluttony. I don’t know where this resistance comes from though and expect it will be made clear towards the end of the series.

Anyway, with Season 4 being confirmed to be in production, I eagerly await to learn more about Re:Zero’s fantasy world and the aftermath of Julius having been forgotten. I also wonder what is up with whoever this Anastasia is. This season was fun and a refreshing change of pace compared to previous seasons.

Re:Zero Episode 62 (Season 3 Episode 12) – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on February 28, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode was more straightforward than most Re:Zero episodes, but there were still some very interesting details in it, including Subaru honouring a fallen foe and a very important detail regarding Petelgeuse.

The episode opens with Emilia rushing to the chapel where the wives are, and it flashes back to Subaru whispering to her that the key to defeating Regulus lies with his wives and that they are the key to his little kingdom. Upon arrival, Emilia pleads to Regulus’s wives that they’re going to defeat Regulus but that they’ll need all of their help. Given Emilia knows that the wives have been beaten down, she acknowledges that she knows winning or losing a fight isn’t what determines who’s in the right and indicates if she loses here that she knows Regulus will trample over something precious to her. Emilia looked across the room to see if anybody reacted, and then Wife Number 184 asked if that precious thing is her life? Wife Number 184 then replies that for them life is really are there is after Emilia suggested there was more to life than just life being precious and that they don’t dare wish for anything more, showing just how fearful they are of Regulus. Emilia then changes her approach and asks for Wife Number 184’s name, saying that she doesn’t know anything about her, so it was selfish of her to ask for a favour, which noticeably affected Wife Number 184 if you had a look at her eyes. But still, Wife Number 184 responds that she has nothing further to say to Emilia as she is not even their husband’s bride anymore, so she’s different from them, which prompts Emilia to say that she’s a half-elf since she wants the wives to know that she has faced hardships even if their circumstances are different, sharing something they did have in common with their like of daisukiyaki. When pressed about what she’s trying to say, Emilia responds that they’re different, and that’s fine, again asking for Wife Number 184’s name and sharing that her name’s Emilia and that she’s different from them in many ways but is confident she shares things in common with them as well, which is a good way to try to connect with someone and build bridges with them. When Emilia puts it out there that she wants to help them, Wife Number 184 responds in frustration about why Emilia would go to the trouble of making them feel human after all this given that as long as they keep him satisfied, he won’t kill them, which is what they have believed all this time is the way they should be approaching things, prompting her to ask Emilia just what she even knows about them. Emilia responds confidently that she knows that they’re kind, that they’ve been trying their hardest, and that they’re all crying for help, saying everything about Wife Number 184 was pleading, “Help me”, both through her eyes and voice, so she’ll help them, but first they must allow themselves to be saved. It just shows how much kindness and compassion that Emilia had that she could soften Wife Number 184 like this.

This leads to Wife Number 184 asking if there are any of them among Regulus’s wives that love their husband, and none of them do, with most of them having disparaging things to say about Regulus, and Wife Number 184 finally reveals that her name is Sylphy and says that they all hate Regulus’s guts but didn’t have the courage to speak out and proclaims that they will help Emilia after all the effort she put into understanding their plight. After an offscreen talk in which Emilia explained the situation, some of Regulus’s wives questioned whether they really are the key to his kingdom as they doubt he’d entrust something like that to them, and when they put it out there that she may be mistaken, Emilia has full confidence that Subaru is right on matters such as this. Emilia then draws out one of her lesser spirits, which goes though Sylphy’s body, and that gives her the idea to listen to Sylphy’s heartbeat, which confirmed the existence of a second heart belonging to Regulus that he affixes to those he considers his brides. It then flashes back to Regulus and Subaru, who underestimates Subaru so badly that when Subaru reveals he knows that he is using his brides as his Authority, Regulus reveals that he has total confidence about the situation as even if his wives wanted to betray him, they’d have to stop the hearts of all his wives to defeat him. Clearly, Regulus is toying with Subaru since physical domination is not enough, and he wants Subaru despairing before he kills him.

Back to Emilia and the wives, Sylphy is emotional after having learned what Emilia found out, and she reached for a piece of glass thinking that killing herself is the only way to defeat Regulus since their hearts need to be stopped. She scraped herself thinking that that wound is proof of her freedom, and when Emilia posits that there must be another way as otherwise Regulus would have even more victims, Sylphy responds that there’s no way he’d give them an out as the only one Regulus is capable of loving is himself, and the rest of the wives also pick up shards of glass with the intent of killing themselves, leaving Emilia to think quickly to freeze them, saying that she can stop all their pulses as she herself had the experience of having been frozen.

At the same time that was happening, Subaru had gotten up and stopped pretending he was close to death, taunting Regulus about how he’d be the type to monologue against a dying opponent, which infuriated Regulus and got him attacking Subaru again with him dodging the attacks since Regulus just throws attacks straight at him with no regard for strategy. Subaru and Regulus then see that Emilia has frozen the chapel, and Regulus starts freaking out how normal humans wouldn’t do something like taking the lives of all those innocent brides, and Emilia having arrived, launches an attack on him, telling him to consider that the divorce paperwork from all his wives. Regulus then breaks free from the ice and starts taunting them as his Authority is still working as normal, so he thinks Emilia may have miscounted the number of lives she took or something, but it was really that Emilia had Regulus’s heart in her own chest since he still considers her a bride with all his yapping about not suitable for a bride and such in a previous episode, which shows he still considers her one of them. Regulus still thinks nothing of the situation and believes that Emilia and Subaru have checkmated themselves, and he then taunts Subaru, suggesting that he kill Emilia now to see whether his heart will have anywhere else to go. Emilia then makes an ice blade, which gives Subaru the idea that Emilia is going to kill herself, but he was probably mistaken, and she was planning to freeze herself as well, which is likely why she said, “But”, before Subaru interrupted her. Subaru was completely out of ideas, but then Regulus continues taunting him, saying he recognizes Subaru as the one who made the broadcast about having killed a Sin Archbishop and that killing a failure like that doesn’t mean he could kill him, and Subaru finally gets the idea after thinking back about how the shadow hands could phase through objects that the issue of Regulus’s heart will be solved by using Invisible Providence on Regulus’s heart. It appears he called it Unseen Hand this time to honour Petelgeuse as a worthy opponent given how much suffering he had put him through instead of disrespecting him as Regulus does given he has called it Invisible Providence every other time before this.

Regarding why Emilia said so that’s where you were, Geuse, when Subaru used his Authority of Sloth, we know Subaru’s entire body resets when he dies, so this means the soul is the seat of memories in Re:Zero. Given Satella can read Subaru’s mind and know whether he intends to reveal Return By Death or that he has lived more than one life, perhaps it indicates that Satella’s soul is the vicinity of Subaru’s soul, and that is how she reads his mind due to close proximity.

We’ve seen in Episode 8 in Season 1 when Puck used Shamak on Subaru that Subaru saw himself in a dark world where Satella was grabbing his heart, which was a memory from when he tried to reveal RBD to Emilia. You have to pause to see this as it doesn’t linger on this for long. Episode 20 also had Satella whisper “Aishiteru” to Subaru when he tried to reveal Return by Death, and that was also likely ’cause she froze the time of the world and pulled Subaru’s soul to where hers was so that she could whisper that to him. Satella being able to his read Subaru’s mind and thoughts suggests that her soul might currently exist in a pocket dimension in the vicinity of Subaru’s soul, and the closeness of their souls is what allows her to do that and also pull him into another dimension.

So if my hypothesis is correct, Petelgeuse’s soul may be currently in this dark world/dimension, and that is how Emilia sensed his presence, not ’cause she recognized Subaru’s Authority to be Geuse’s. This indicates Petelgeuse didn’t completely die and that his soul is where Satella is in the pocket dimension within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul. This explains why Sirius was convinced that Petelgeuse had returned after Subaru used Invisible Providence in Episode 53, and it’s ’cause, like Emilia, she also felt Petelgeuse’s presence. I would never have guessed that that moment in Episode 53 was foreshadowing, but I guess this is Re:Zero, and you can’t rule out something like that being foreshadowing. I would never have thought that Petelgeuse would actually get his wish to be with Satella after he was defeated. I’m glad he got a chance to be happy after he was driven insane by Pandora.

Anyway, as Regulus yaps, he doesn’t realize that his feet are wet, and Emilia starts attacking him, leading him to ask what they’ve done to his Authority of Greed as it’s clear Crunchyroll botched the translation with its text asking why they have the Authority of Greed. Subaru then responded that Regulus got counterattacked by an enemy he took too lightly, which shows he indeed was showing respect to Petelgeuse on this occasion by calling it the Unseen Hand instead of Invisible Providence since he got the inspiration to use his Authority on this occasion ’cause of Petelgeuse. Emilia then gives Regulus 53 punches for all of the wives that suffered under him, and then when she launched an Al Huma on behalf of herself, it was revealed he can still use his Authority by stopping his own heart temporarily to maintain some invincibility like before but with a time limit. The reason he was completely invulnerable before was that since his heart was gone from his body there was no need to stop it since it was if he had no heart in the first place.

A battered Regulus then suggests that Emilia and Subaru are playing unfair by ganging up on him. He then spouts a whole bunch of contradictions, which makes Emilia pity him, and as Subaru sees Reinhard descending from the sky, he suggests Regulus can get the 1-on-1 fight he wishes. Reinhard then arrives in fiery fashion while any normal human would’ve died from re-entering the atmosphere like he did. Regulus messed up royally by sending Reinhard to the moon instead of outward to the stars since that allowed him to come back. Reinhard then sends Regulus up into the sky, and Regulus then does more of his unhinged rants and then pictures in his head all his wives laughing at him in their final moments as an act of resistance to him, showing what a truly pathetic man he is, before Reinhard sends him down to a pool of water at ground level, breaking the ground and resulting in a vertical shaft being made as Regulus uses his Authority to prevent him from dying from being crushed by the impact of the rocks. As the water starts filling the shaft, he remembers that the Wife Number 79 position was originally meant for someone else and that Emilia was the one Fortuna and Pelgeuse adored. He said that the thought of Emilia getting to avenge them makes him want to vomit. Emilia can’t quite put where she has seen Regulus before as she is sure she has before, which she also thought in Episode 51. Regulus then intermittently uses his Authority to avoid drowning quickly, and this guy just never stops talking/thinking, and then finally the colour from his eyes fades, and he dies.

Previously, I put it out there that the reason Emilia might not remember Regulus was due to trauma and also ’cause she actually saw very little of the fight with Regulus in the first Sanctuary trial, and given she could remember Fortuna dying by Petelgeuse’s hand, it probably wasn’t due to trauma but that she saw so little of Regulus and also ’cause what little she saw of Regulus was when he was with Pandora, and given Pandora erased herself from Emilia’s memories, that affected what little she remembered of Regulus although she still subconsciously recognized him.

At the end of the episode, Emilia unfreezes all the wives she put in suspended animation, and she said she hopes everyone’s all right with Subaru remarking that’s what Reinhard is for. It then flashes to the Wilhelm and Theresia and Garfiel and Kurgan fight with Garfiel emerging out of the black mass in his beast form, so now we know what the focus of the next episode will be.

It’ll be interesting to see how that fight goes, and I very much look forward to seeing next week’s episode. I thought it was satisfying seeing a guy as terrible as Regulus get his just deserts and how Emilia won over the wives, and I’m curious how this Petelgeuse reveal will be relevant in the future. If you have anything to add, feel free to do so.

Re:Zero Episode 61 (Season 3 Episode 11) – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on February 20, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

Although this episode wasn’t as well-animated as last week’s, I did appreciate it for making me like Liliana given I found her somewhat annoying before and ’cause of some interesting details that may be relevant later, character moments I enjoyed, and ’cause of this episode’s most important message. I’ll go into topics such as child abuse and what it means to be tolerant and accepting of others’ beliefs, the latter of which made this episode of Re:Zero my favourite of the season.

First off, we see a flashback to when Liliana was younger, and when her mom smacked her on the back of the head for biting her tongue and continuing to speak anyway, I rooted hard for Liliana to get away from this family. Although Liliana’s mother had a beautiful voice, and her whole Masquerade Troupe was competent, I immediately got the impression she doesn’t make for a particularly good mother even if Liliana exaggerated the issue when she bit her tongue. The proper way to teach Liliana not to do that would be explain to her what is professional and what isn’t since she is an aspiring performer herself. With that aside, you can see how in awe of her mother’s singing Liliana was during the performance in the small town they were in when Liliana stopped shaking her maracas, and it’s clear she loves music.

Back when the troupe has made camp for the night, Liliana is struggling to play her instrument, and she gets inspiration looking at the stars when she sees a group of them resembling a guiltylowe’s fang and came up with a song on the spot much like she does in the present although it was a pretty poor song. The next time, Liliana’s eyes sparkle at seeing the big city, but they choose to go on a different since her mother’s troupe only performs in small towns ’cause they don’t like following the rules in big cities and want to do things exactly the way they like, which isn’t exactly the best way to earn a living or raise a child for the matter. When Liliana enthusiastically suggests singing the song, “Reid the Sword Saint”, next, her mom just taunts her saying it’ll be a good ten years before Liliana can pick their performances, which is again very bad parenting. If her mom had clearly explained that Liliana doesn’t have the experience to know what song to pick for what audience, that would’ve been much better than the smug response she gave her child. On top of that, Liliana’s father said he’s not sharing the rabbit he caught with such an impudent brat, which shows he’s going out of his way to give Liliana less food, which no respectable parent would do. Perhaps the reason Liliana is so short ’cause she was malnourished due to her parents holding back food from her. Given they only performed in small towns, it wouldn’t surprise me if money was an issue. Liliana then splashed her parents with a bucket of water and declared her intent to leave the troupe and become the king of bards, which isn’t surprising given this probably isn’t the first instance her parents did this to her with their mocking her openly. On the surface, it may have seemed as if Liliana was being a petulent brat, but I got major bad vibes from her parents. Some people should not be parents, and I believe this applies to them as I believe all children should grow up in a warm and encouraging environment, not whatever that was.

Back to the fight with Priscilla and Sirius, Priscilla immediately recovers from the blow Sirius dealt to her, and apparently, Priscilla has an ability that lets her have items valuable to her take damage in place of herself, which is extremely handy in combat situations. I wonder if this is limited to precious items or people she loves as well. Priscilla gets mad once again when Sirius mentions “Iris and the Thorn King”, and Sirius asks her to not be so angry since she considers wrath the most detestable emotion there, which has parallels with Petelgeuse, who hated sloth and was extremely diligent and rewarded his followers for being diligent despite being the Sin Archbishop of Sloth, and Sirius also bleeds from her eyes (shown in Episode 53) much like how Petelgeuse would get hurt from using his Authority in Seasons 1 and 2, which likely shows that Sirius is also incompatible with the Wrath Witch Factor. Sirius believes that people’s hearts should always be filled with joy, which is why she uses her Authority to open their hearts and have everybody share in the joy and understand each other, which she believes is the first step to love, and Liliana rightly trashes that line of thinking and believes Sirius is disgusting for suggesting the mind-controlled people are in a state of mutual understanding.

Enraged by hearing this, Sirius aims to strike Liliana with her chain, which Priscilla blocks, leading to her taunting Sirius by saying that she finally showed her true colours, that she wanted to silence Liliana for not falling under her control a second time, which sent her into a rage. Priscilla said that’s what Sirius’s cheap wrath amounted to, which enraged Sirius further as she said her wrath is what her husband gave her, so she doesn’t want it to be made out as something so tawdry. Priscilla shines even more by taunting Sirius about how it’s laughable that the only gift her husband gave her was anger when she has had eight husbands with each of them giving her one gift after another to attract her interest. This seriously irked Sirius with her remarking how she had to spend so much time forming a connection with one man, leading to Priscilla saying that she wonders whether the poor man she loves so much even sees her, which was very likely to be true given Sirius went into a rage in Episode 52 about how the half-devil (Emilia) is the one you’re really after after she deluded herself into thinking Subaru is Petelgeuse, and this shows that Petelgeuse’s extreme focus on Satella probably enraged Sirius since he wouldn’t give any other woman aside from Satella the time of day, and this could be how Petelgeuse “gave” her this wrath that she treasures as ridiculous as it may sound, but the Sin Archbishops ARE messed-up people after all. Priscilla having had 8 husbands up to this point also seemed strange to me, and I suspect this happened due to her fall from grace as royalty, her royalty status being something I speculated about last week.

All of this taunting leads to Sirius becoming extremely rageful and launching some powerful attacks at Priscilla, which her 2 remaining precious jewels and necklace protected her from. Priscilla then gives Liliana the opening she needs to get inside the tower by using the flames from her Yang Sword to override Sirius’s flames, and since those flames only burn that which Priscilla desires, Liliana is safe even if the flames are still hot. Inside the tower, Liliana indicates she had only been running for a short while and is exhausted, which she reasons is due to Kiritaka and the rest since her days travelling from town to town had ended, but that’s exactly why she can’t lose heart since she has people she cares about. When she has reached the top of the tour, she loudly declares, probably with the help of the Divine Protection of Telepathy, that she intends to perform “As the Sky Overtakes the Dawn”.

It flashes back to when she made her declaration earlier to be the king of bards, and things are rough as she nearly dies from starvation living life rough on the streets. She was taken in by a group of merchants who helped her until she was able to earn some money due to her own performance for the first time in her life after honing her craft for a while. As she continued on with her life as a struggling artist, she saw her parents had a new kid and didn’t have the courage to face them, though I doubt that they’d care given how poorly they treated her as a child and given they replaced her with another child. Liliana reasoned that this is the way a bard should be, walking side by side with music, living together with her song. During one particularly bad struggle when she nearly died from dehydration, Liliana said that no hero would die at a time like this, but she’s no hero and that this sort of thing wouldn’t happen to Reid or Flugel. Liliana indicates she’s just been taking the liberty of telling people others’ stories, making her no more than a thief, so she has an existential crisis before passing out. About those mentions of Reid and Flugel, if you don’t remember, Flugel is the name of the wise man from centuries ago who planted what was known as Flugel’s tree that the White Whale extermination force burned down to trap the White Whale. Reid was revealed to be a previous Sword Saint when Liliana asked her mom if they could sing a song about him. Given how important the time period 400 years ago was with Satella, the dead witches, and the legendary hero, sage, and dragon that sealed Satella, perhaps Flugel and Reid were from that era.

When Liliana woke up in the flashback, she rushed towards a lake she saw and had her fill of water since she was so parched, and after seeing the beautiful sight with the bird singing, the flowers, and the sun slowly rising, she had the inspiration for her first impactful song. Back at the city, although the cityfolk have their reservations about Liliana, likely ’cause of how awful she looked and probably how horrible she smelled as well, she won them over with that new song, and maybe that moment when she saw the sun rise was when she awakened her Divine Protection of Telepathy since there was no previous indication that she had it in the past. It’s a lot easier for people to appreciate your singing if you can literally tell them how you feel. Part of Liliana’s strength comes from Kiritaka, who saw the wonder of her voice and wanted her to be his songstress while not monopolizing her voice since it’s so captivating and can bring happiness to everyone. She then breaks free those in the vicinity of the tower who were under Sirius’s control, and Priscilla remarks that she was not mistaken in her evaluation of her as being the one she should take with her to fight Sirius. Curiously, Priscilla says that a simpleton, which Liliana is, is not the same as a fool, with a fool having no right to live while a simpleton can at least be amusing. Priscilla then notably says Liliana has proven her worth as far more than amusement and implies she will reward her by defeating Sirius.

That remark about fools having no right to live might be hinting that Priscilla knows that Subaru and Al do not stay dead when they die, which is why she refers to both of them as fools. Given Al hinted in last week’s episode that death is not the end for him with how he warned Capella to get out of there before he dies, perhaps with Al you can physically see him being unable to die unlike with Return By Death, and that’s how Priscilla may know what Al’s power is and intuited something about the nature of Subaru’s power. That would explain why she cut open a wound on Subaru’s leg in Episode 56 and poked a hole through his neck in that same episode, and that’s ’cause she doesn’t believe he will remain dead if he did in fact die due to blood loss. Priscilla should believe that Subaru has SOMETHING given how weak he is, and that would be one of the reasons she came to believe that he doesn’t stay dead. Given Al uses the Japanese term “kyoudai”, which means “brother” to address Subaru, and Al and Subaru were talking about having come from the same hometown in Re:Zero Breaktime Season 3 Episode 5 to avoid talking about being from a different world, Priscilla may have outright been told by Al that Subaru is in a similar position to him with how he was originally from a different place (Earth) and that they’re in fact from the same hometown. Although I literally believe Subaru and Al are actually brothers, I wonder what Priscilla herself believes about their relationship. Episode 60 introduced the concept of certain bloodlines perhaps having special properties with Capella remarking about how Crusch’s blood couldn’t overcome hers despite being quite noble itself, and maybe Priscilla believes a special magic runs in Subaru and Al’s family that allows them to defy death.

Sirius is enraged that the cityfolk have been freed from her control, and she mutilates herself to temporarily increase her powers, again, much like Petelgeuse used to do, resulting in her causing the top of the control tower to slowly fall off and Priscilla’s hairpin to be destroyed, and hair down Priscilla is really beautiful, what a sight to behold. Liliana is then revealed to be okay and still singing as that part of the tower falls. Sirius says to love is to become as one while Priscilla interjects that to love is to tolerantly accept each other despite your differences. Everyone facing the same direction, thinking the same things, and feeling the same way is revolting. Priscilla then destroys Sirius’s chains and says that it’s over, but Sirius uses yin magic to pull Tina out from wherever she was hiding her, intending to use her as a hostage, and Priscilla just charges straight at Sirius, breaking the chains that bound Tina and dealing heavy damage to Sirius. Sirius then asks Priscilla if she understands her pain, probably ’cause Priscilla seems so on the mark about everything, and Priscilla simply roasted her again by saying that she doesn’t care and that she can die while embracing her falsehoods, knocking Sirius into the water and saying that Sirius should count herself lucky since her sword ran out of power. On whether Sirius is dead, that’s hard to say. She does have elven ears, so her body might be stronger and more resilient than the average person. The cityfolk search the waters desperately for Liliana, and Kiritaka comes in to save Liliana just as she is about to drown, which was a nice moment for the two.

On that point of tolerance Priscilla brought up, I believe the U.S. has a serious problem with people lacking empathy and the ability to tolerate others’ beliefs, and this is not limited only to intolerance from Republicans but also the Democrats with the extreme amount of shaming Democrats due to anyone they perceive to support someone they dislike or hate. Tearing into people of colour for voting for Trump despite what it’d mean for them in having less rights and opportunities is not the way to win over people and only serves to make them double down on why they voted for Trump as humans tend to be emotional creatures first before logical. Showing people you understand why they did what they did and where they’re coming by having honest, nonjudgemental conversations with them is more likely to result in mutual understanding (over a long period time since you have to show time after time again that you care as if they don’t believe you care about them they won’t care about anything you have to say) than demeaning everyone for not feeling the same way you do, which is why this episode of Re:Zero resonated so strongly with me since Sirius’s Authority forces everybody to feel the same way and doesn’t truly lead to societal improvement. Positive, lasting change happens by increasing mutual understanding and building a consensus over time, not by forcing things through.

This is not just an issue in the U.S. as it’s starting to creep into Canada, where I live, as well. The social media giants and their algorithms drive people to get more and more political and radicalize them with the “us or them” mentality, which is a scourge to the world. People are ending ties with their family members over their support for the current U.S. president even if his supporters don’t necessarily have racist or misogynist views. If you want to know their beliefs, go and actually talk to them instead of prematurely judging them. This is a problem that’s contributing to the breakdown of society. The oligarchs and monopolies in the U.S. and Canada love and want people to be fighting each other all the time instead of the corporations that are conspiring to race prices across the board, depress wages, and take away everybody’s freedoms, and we need to do something about it before our countries completely unravel, such as with laws heavily restricting the amount of political content that makes it onto people’s feeds or creating a national holiday for everybody except students and teachers (mandatory school day whether you are in Kindergarten or a post-high school educational institution that can impact your marks for skipping without a valid reason, and religious exemptions shouldn’t be permitted) so that’s there’s a specific day for teaching kids to engage with each other respectfully.

My point isn’t about tolerating ANYTHING (like Musk doing a Nazi salute), but showing empathy to your fellow human beings. When people are not making a decent living and their family situation sucks, it’s easier to fall for a bald-faced lie due to them being in turmoil. We need to show people that we care about their well-being and where they’re coming from as people who think that you don’t care about them won’t care about what you have to say. We need to have their backs time after time again and not cut ties with them so easily unless they are so clearly beyond help that there’s nothing we can do about it. I believe this is the sort of message we need at this time.

At the end of the episode, Subaru reveals that all of the Sin Archbishops are named after stars from his world to Regulus and that their Authorities are based on the origins of their names. That’s how he knows Regulus’s ability isn’t invincibility but the ability to stop time for things he wants, which is why he can make his body not take damage or get wet ’cause he stopped time for it. Regulus then interrupts him to say he has no interest whatsoever in your thoughts after previously indicating he would listen, showing he deems Subaru as a threat for the first time since meeting him and starts attacking him, and Subaru starts running away, hoping that Emilia can figure out how to free Regulus’s wives from his grip, thinking that there must be a limitation to Regulus’s Authority, whether it be the number of wives, the distance from his wives, or something else.

Anyway, I hope I was able to clearly explain why I enjoyed this episode so much. I loved very much Liliana being able to make a name for herself after her terrible childhood in which she was abused and the message about love and tolerance from Priscilla, the scene-stealing queen.

Re:Zero Episode 60 (Season 3 Episode 10) – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on February 15, 2025 | by anicritic | 2 Comments

We start off this episode with Capella back the government office. Apparently, Felix and Anastasia prepared a ruse for Capella with Felix’s hope that Capella would tell her how to cure Crusch, but Capella herself doesn’t know how to heal a body that has given in to dragon blood as she wishes she knew the answer herself. Capella also remarked that Crusch’s blood couldn’t overcome her blood even though it’s noble herself, which suggests that some bloodlines may have special properties. We know there was an Emerada Lugunica that existed 50 years ago was beautiful, intelligent, and feared by all. Could Capella be Emerada who was resurrected by black dragon blood? Or did she see herself in Emerada’s story and took on her name? After it is clear that Capella doesn’t have the answer to what they want, Anastasia gets out of bed and hits Capella with yang magic (Season 2 revealed that yin and yang are the two other elements aside from the four primary ones with shadow from Season 1 appearing to be a mistranslation) and activated her trap, which broke part of the floor, revealing that they had already dug a tunnel down to a lower floor as part of their prep for this encounter. Anastasia had worn a wig and wore bandages to mimic Crusch’s condition, which was very well-played, and then used the same magic from before to knock Capella to that lower floor, where she encountered Al, who warned Capella to get out of there before he dies. This indicates that just like for Subaru, death is likely not the end for Al, which was something Elsa hated about Subaru’s eyes since he clearly didn’t see death as the end of the road.

Theory crafting the specifics about Al’s powers outside of it involving time seems to be an impossible endeavor given how many things it could possibly, so I won’t bother doing that. Instead I will reiterate that I believe Subaru was summoned to bring the world to a free future and stop the cycle of the world being destroyed/reconstructed. I propose the key is to have Subaru be born weak and improve Subaru’s self-esteem so that he isn’t conceited like past heroes I believe existed in the world. Al and especially Subaru were perhaps both born weaker compared to previous heroes to give the world a chance to end the cycle of the world being destroyed and reconstructed by making it so that their lived experiences were different from that of the previous very strong and conceited heroes I believe existed in the past with both of them probably having been summoned by Satella. For more on my main theory, read one of my previous posts here: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=36

Afterwards, after Reinhard tries to follow one of Subaru’s plans, which ends in failure with Reinhard being knocked probably across the whole town, Regulus says that he is a perfect, complete human and that he’s entirely fulfilled with there not being such a thing as more or less for him. Emilia has a great moment where she calls him out by saying that has been coming out of his mouth has been “I want this” and “I want that”, citing that he’s an incredibly selfish person. She says that if he’s fulfilled then he should take better care of his wives. Sounding very hurt, she mentioned how Regulus tied his wives down and made them give up, and then she realized that she absolutely hates Regulus on every level, which pissed Regulus off so much he started picking up huge portions of water into cubes and accelerating the water once he stops having them stay in place.

After that, an ice chase ensues as Emilia freezes water as they try to escape Regulus with Regulus in hot pursuit of them since he can walk normally on ice and doesn’t need to skate like Emilia and Subaru do. Emilia then suggests handing Subaru one of her lesser spirits and asks if he can hang on by himself, to which Subaru replies that as a kid he was called the “Ice Princess”, which suggests he either cross-dressed or cosplayed as a girl frequently in his youth while skating for whatever reason, possibly as a way to avoid being compared to his dad due to him being desperate to get out of his dad’s shadow. Subaru having an inferiority complex was a plot point in Episode 29 (Season 2 Episode 4), and I thought it was the best episode in the series for the subject matter it touched upon, which explained Subaru’s behaviour throughout the first season and up to that point. There is no filler in Re:Zero, so whether it was cross-dressing or cosplay, perhaps Subaru will be forced to pull out a trick from his youth.

I’ll stray from the scene order now to focus on Priscilla. Sirius again does something to make herself the center of attention. If you recall from Episode 51, Sirius’s antics at the clock tower in Episode 51 and 52 were meant to get people’s attention on her specifically given her power allows her to nudge people’s emotional states to what she desires after first getting their attention. In this recent episode, Sirius makes a fuss about how she brightened up the place since it was so dark, and this led to Liliana falling under her control. Priscilla, being the scene-stealer she is, decided to give Liliana a passionate French kiss to free her from Sirius’s control, which was not a bad idea since she already knew Liliana had some level of attraction to her. After that, Sirius directs a whole bunch of people from the city who had fallen under her control towards Priscilla and Liliana, which led to Priscilla using her Yang Sword to create a line of fire on the bridge leading to them, which stopped those under Sirius’s mind control from advancing. She then tasked Liliana with breaking those people from Sirius’s control, putting extra stress on Liliana by emphasizing that all of their lives are depending on her voice. This reminds of earlier this season in Episode 58 (I didn’t include that in my analysis, which was an oversight, I guess) when Priscilla said something that appeared to demean Liliana which motivated Liliana to do her best to live up to her family name. Perhaps Priscilla has the habit of saying something that is demeaning or stressful to the recipient of her words so that she can draw out a person’s best qualities. This was again shown in a more extreme fashion when Priscilla tested Subaru’s strength of character with her proposal that Subaru lick her foot in Episode 16. Priscilla had intended for Subaru to reject that offer, but Subaru was in very poor shape mentally to consider that was what she was gunning for.

Priscilla then engages Sirius and is definitely a match for her in combat, but Sirius appeared to taunt Priscilla with the mentioning “Iris and the Thorn King”, “Teleos’s Rose Knight”, and “Magritzer’s Gibbet”, which provoked Priscilla into becoming enraged. Whatever these three terms are, they clearly have a personal significance to Priscilla. I have an idea of why Priscilla had such a strong reaction based on previous content. Clearly from Episode 12, Priscilla must’ve come from a very high-class background given she had no idea that appas have red skin. Given “Iris and the Thorn King” and “Teleos’s Rose Knight”, whatever they are, involve a king and a knight, Priscilla may not be your average noble and might be royalty, and given it’s clear that Priscilla is not from Lugunica’s Royal Family since everyone would recognize her and ’cause Lugunica’s Royal Family perished, she might be royalty from a different nation. When Priscilla remarked in Episode 13 that Felt must’ve remained a slum dweller ’cause she can only manage tedious conversation, that might not have been a random insult but a hint that Priscilla went through hardship and lost her status as royalty at some point. I always thought the way Priscilla spoke to Subaru in Episode 16 at points made it seem like she was a queen or empress given the sort of inflections the voice actress used, and perhaps that was intentional and just phenomenal voice-acting.

Also of note and relates to the stuff with Priscilla is that I missed something for last week’s write-up. I had noticed that Julius looked surprised after Roy said something to him, but I was unsure of what to make of it, so I rewatched Episode 59, and Roy addressed Julius by “Nii-sama”, meaning Crunchyroll botched the translation, showing that Roy knew Julius is an older brother, and that is why Julius seemed taken aback. We know that Sirius did not know Priscilla personally yet said the perfect things to unnerve her, so it seems the reason Julius didn’t stick with the original plan to not use your real name if you encounter the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony is ’cause Roy probably said things that made Julius believe Roy knew info about him. We know Sirius didn’t actually seem to know Priscilla at the start of their encounter, so either the Gospel gave her instructions, or there was some other tell we’re not aware of. Perhaps Sirius and Roy both had instructions from their Gospels to say what they did or had good info from the Witch Cult’s spy network, and that’s the main reason Julius abandoned their well-thought out plan.

After many failures regarding penetrating Regulus’s seeming invincibility, Subaru asks Emilia for a hint by asking what happened to her after she was taken prisoner. Emilia responded by saying that he asked her if she’s a virgin, that he calls his wives by numbers, and when she said that that makes him seem like an evil king, one of them (Wife #184) called him “Little King”, which Subaru knew as the Latin name for Regulus, and he stated that it has another name, which is implied later in the episode to be “Lion Heart”, and I will get back to that at the end of my post, but I first I have to leave it out there that the Memory Snow OVA hinted that Subaru is a star nerd since he knew his own name was referring to a star cluster in that animation project that happened in the off years between Season 1 and Season of Re:Zero. Subaru then asked Emilia what Regulus’s hand felt like when he was strangling her, and she said it felt like nothing, which prompted Subaru to ask Reinhard to find out whether his heart is beating, which Reinhard confirmed it wasn’t to Subaru as he was being sent flying into the moon. This leads to Subaru beating Regulus at his own game at yapping by saying that Regulus has a right to hear about how he’ll lose since he’s all about his rights. Regulus, who says he is merciful, will allow Subaru to talk, and Subaru first says that Regulus’s power is the ability press the start button in the middle of the game, maybe ’cause when you start a game there’s a rush of momentum with all the animations starting up and everything, and that’s how he can launch dirt, air, and even water as we see in this episode at very high speed. Subaru says his ability is Lion Heart, the ability to stop time for his own body, and Regulus’s face shows that Subaru nailed it.

As I have noted in a previous post of mine, I have been looking up Re:Zero names ever since Episode 22 of Re:Zero, “A Flash of Sloth”, in which there were several instances of sloth that impacted the story. I had already looked up the names of the Sin Archbishops before, but it appeared my initial search was not enough with how Subaru was able to draw conclusions about Regulus’s ability when I couldn’t, so I expanded my search to more star facts and even mythology.

Betelgeuse, the name Petelgeuse is based off, is a star, in particular, in the constellation of Orion and the ninth-brightest star of the night sky. It’s called “Orion’s hand” in Arabic, which is almost certainly why Petelgeuse’s Authority was the “Unseen Hand”.

Baten Kaitos meant “belly of the sea monster” in Arabic, and I reasoned after Season 2 that that must be about Lye’s eating ability, but after seeing that Alphard is referred to in Arabic as the “backbone of the Serpent”, Baten Kaitos is most likely hinting at the White Whale while Alphard refers to the Black Serpent, the last of the Three Great Mabeasts. Lye Batenkaitos had called the White Whale “our pet” when he and Regulus attacked the White Whale extermination force on its way back to the capital. At the time, I thought it may have just been a pet in general of the Witch Cult, but since Season 3 shows that the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony have a speech quirk in which they speak as if they are more than one person despite being individuals themselves, Lye probably had direct control over the White Whale, and that’s why he personally came to avenge it. Interestingly enough, on names.org a user-submitted meaning indicates that Lye means “fog” in a Native American language, and this may be how Tappei decided to have the White Whale emit a dense fog.

The ancient Greeks observed that the appearance of Sirius as the morning star heralded the hot and dry summer and feared that the star caused plants to wilt, men to weaken, and women to become aroused. Owing to its brightness, Sirius would have been seen to twinkle more in the unsettled weather conditions of early summer. To Greek observers, this signified emanations that caused its malignant influence. All people perceived to be suffering from its effects were said to be “star-struck”, which may be how Tappei decided to make Sirius’s Authority involve people falling under her control and feeling a sense of closeness to Sirius. Sirius means “glowing” or “scorching”, and the glowing part could be referring to how she makes herself the center of attention while the scorching part could be how Tappei decided to make her a fire-magic user.

Capella means “little goat” in Latin. In Greek mythology, the star represented the goat Amalthea that suckled Zeus. It was this goat whose horn, after accidentally being broken off by Zeus, was transformed into the cornucopia, or “horn of plenty”, which would be filled with whatever its owner desired. Perhaps this is how Tappei decided to allow Capella to transform into anything she desired. Since she took the Royal Family’s name, “Emerada” could be a perversion of “Emeralda” much like “Satella” is a perversion of Satellite. “Emeralda” is a variant of “Emerald” with emeralds symbolizing rebirth and wisdom, which may be why Capella is good at reading people and why she might have been resurrected by that black dragon blood in her body.

The Arabic meaning of Regulus is Lion Heart, and that should be part of how Subaru figured out Regulus’s power. Regulus is a fixed star, and fixed stars are luminary points, mainly stars, that appear not to move relative to one another against the darkness of the night sky in the background. Due to their immense distance from Earth, fixed stars appear to move so slowly in the sky that the change in their relative positions is nearly imperceptible on human timescales, except under careful examination with modern instruments, such as telescopes, that can reveal their proper motions. Hence, they can be considered to be “fixed” for many purposes, such as navigation, charting of stars, and timekeeping even though they do move but not to an extent that the naked eye can detect such movements. This should be how Subaru concluded that Regulus’s Authority freezes time for his own body since a fixed star seems frozen in time. As for how Subaru concluded that’s what makes him invincible, the Nemean lion in Greek mythology had impenetrable fur, and that should be how he figured that Lion Heart had something to do with Regulus’s actual heart.

Re:Zero Breaktime Season 3 Episode 5 is a must-watch since its shows unequivocally that Al was summoned to Earth much like Subaru was: https://x.com/LoremIpsumVerb/status/1851218364317761852?mx=2

Now I will explain how Al factors into this and why I believe he is Subaru’s brother and a previous iteration of the hero of the story. Although I posted the link to my main theory, you might not have time to read it, so I’ll post mainly the Al portion of my main theory. Subaru means Pleiades in Japanese, and Pleiades is referring to a star cluster in the Taurus constellation. Al’s true name, Aldebaran, is a star in the Taurus constellation that follows the Pleiades star cluster in the night sky. In Arabic, Aldebaran means the follower for that reason. While some of the Arabic meanings for Sin Archbishops hint at their powers, perhaps it would be better to consider Al’s name in relation to Subaru since Al isn’t a Sin Archbishop.

Since Aldebaran follows the Pleiades star cluster, perhaps he was given that name because he was Naoko and Kenichi’s next son after Subaru, which showed a fixation from at least one of his parents on their first son who disappeared. Al told Priscilla not to call him Aldebaran in Episode 16 of Re:zero, and that might be because that name is a constant reminder that his parents loved Subaru more than they loved him.

Since names have power in Re:zero, Aldebaran as a name could very possibly mean that Aldebaran would be the next person to be summoned after Subaru was. Aldebaran is pretty much guaranteed to have been summoned to Re:zero’s fantasy world since at least one of the carriage driver, Priscilla, or Al recognized Subaru’s attempt at hitchhiking when hitchhiking shouldn’t exist in a medieval society, meaning Subaru’s attempt to catch a ride should’ve fallen flat on his face, since Al literally knew what Subaru meant by the Kansai dialect when he was exasperated about hearing it in Episode 12, since Priscilla used the English word “chance” knowing Subaru knew the word (and given that Priscilla doesn’t know what apples are, she probably isn’t from Earth since pretty much every grown adult on Earth has at least seen an unpeeled apple before), which shows that she did so knowing Subaru was from the same world as Al, and since Mimi was eating cheeseburgers, which shouldn’t exist in a medieval society, meaning someone from Earth has previously invented them in Re:Zero’s fantasy world. This means Al is either formerly a Japanese citizen, an immigrant who had not yet become a Japanese citizen, someone whose work brings him to Japan sometimes, or a fan of Japanese culture.

Now, I have to say that Re:zero is a logical series. Unlike tons of poorly made isekai series out there, all characters in Re:zero have their own underlying motivations. Something like the isekai protagonist of other bad isekai stories would be made to look good for being self-righteous against Lugunica’s knights, but Subaru got his shit kicked in ’cause Re:zero is a serious story not meant to solely be wish fulfillment. It’s clear that Re:zero is a story where there are actual consequences ’cause of this.

Where I’m going with this is that there are time travel stories out there that posit that all of time is happening at once, meaning there are no real rules and almost anything can happen with it being a matter of the writer’s discretion. The bootstrap paradox commonly featured in time travel stories is also highly illogical and only exists “just because” rather than there being an actual legitimate reason for being used that can be reasoned through logic aside from the author said so.

‘Cause Re:zero is a highly logical series, I posit that time is linear in Re:zero, and I think the main reason Al was summoned to the fantasy world to a point before Subaru’s arrival at Lugunica’s Capital is that Subaru was transported to somewhere in Re:zero’s world or a place that was a limbo between worlds where his body never aged even the slightest before he suddenly arrived in Lugunica’s Capital in Episode 1 of the series and that this period where that happened was before the time Al was summoned to Re:zero’s fantasy world. This is why I do not believe Al is a future Subaru.

Re:Zero Episode 59 (Season 3 Episode 9) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on February 8, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

Re:Zero is back after 2 and a half months, and it had some very interesting details that will probably be relevant to the plot in the future, and details like those are why I love series such as Re:Zero and Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (The Apothecary Diaries) since I adore series with very strong long-term planning and foreshadowing. The first two important details are that Priscilla doesn’t completely trust Al since he keeps a lot of secrets from her when Liliana put it out there that she must trust Al a lot since she was leaving him to defend their stronghold at the government office and that Anastasia was keeping secrets of her own from Julius, which has been leading to him increasingly feeling an unseemly guilt from Priscilla’s perspective, and of course, Anastasia retorts that Priscilla shouldn’t make it sound so nasty, showing either a lack of empathy for Julius from Anastasia or a playful jab from Priscilla to get the attention off of herself due to her trust or lack thereof in Al being highlighted. While it may make sense to think that Priscilla was talking about something regarding Anastasia’s arrangement with Kiritaka, I’m more inclined to believe it is referring to something else, which may be brought up again either during Arc 6’s adaption, which is rumoured to be 22-episodes-long after this 16-episode adaptation of the Priestella arc, or a fourth or fifth season. As I’m not a source reader, I don’t know when Tappei intends to flesh out this reveal.

After that, we see the introduction of several of the groups and who they run into, and aside from Wilhelm confiding in Garfiel about his deceased wife, which was probably meant to inspire Garf and motivate him to fight at his best, the two most relevant pieces of info are that Theresia’s soul is being warped and that Priscilla knew that someone got ahead of the Witch Cult’s plan to learn the details of Typhon’s corpse by slaying the other nine members of the Council of Ten aside from Kiritaka. Why the point about Theresia’s soul being warped is important is after Wilhelm slashed off the hood of Theresia’s outfit, the face we saw was that of a young Theresia despite her having died when she was middle-aged when Reinhard was young. In some other fantasy series, modifying or changing someone’s soul can result in that person’s physical appearance changing, which mostly confirms Wilhelm’s belief that her soul is being warped. Back to Priscilla, the Witch Cult’s plan was most likely to kill some of its members to get the remaining members to talk, which the cult can no longer do after the slayings. Priscilla spoke as if that person wasn’t herself, so it was likely either Al or a close associate of hers after the process of elimination. The only named Priscilla associates viewers know of in this arc are Al, Heinkel, and Schult. We know it couldn’t have been Heinkel given the sort of shit he was doing around that time that happened, and little Schult definitely didn’t do it, so that leaves Al unless it was someone yet to be revealed.

A big point from a previous episode is that Al left right as Subaru and his group were getting prepared to fight the Witch Cult in Episode 54, and he said he was looking for Priscilla, but Priscilla confirmed in Episode 58 that he did no such thing, which makes that time period the perfect opportunity for him to kill nine members of the Council of Ten.

More of the presentation this episode indicated that was the case with how Priscilla indicated earlier to Liliana and Anastasia that it’s not a matter of whether she trusts Al as there’s a lot he doesn’t tell her. Perhaps Al didn’t tell her why exactly he needed to kill the other members aside from Kiritaka instead of simply relocating them.

If you recall from one of my theories, I believe Al was the previous iteration of the hero of the story in the immediate previous iteration of the world. Perhaps Al took Beatrice’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom from that previous world and is acting based on knowledge from Echidna, meaning there were more than just 2 copies since Al had a copy from his previous world. That may be why the First District’s watergate was opened right as Subaru would’ve fallen to his death, and that is ’cause Al’s acting with instructions from Echidna. In a previous write-up, I suggested that Al accepted Echidna’s contract unlike Subaru when he was the hero of the story, but maybe that wasn’t it, and Al has a different sort of arrangement with her. He must know Echidna on a personal level to some extent given his distaste for Emilia making others a priority before herself, which appears to be the reason Echidna appears to dislike Emilia even if she has a deep respect for Emilia and Satella if one of my previous theories is correct, showing that Echidna’s tastes rubbed off on Al.

When the show flashes back to Reinhard and Subaru, Regulus is exasperated that Emilia chose Subaru over him. He could understand if he had lost in love to Reinhard, the manliest of men there are, but losing to Subaru is an insult to him, especially since Regulus had forgotten about ever having met Subaru in Episode 53, which called back to Al saying that the Witch Cult had never lost before, and the reason they never made any preparations in case of a counterattack from their group was that no dragon would care what the ants at its feet are planning. This is also relevant later on with Otto, Felt, and the White Dragon’s Scales, what I had previously thought was an item but was actually an armed group employed by Kiritaka that helped Otto escape the first time he met Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Lye Batenkaitos. Lye had no recollection about meeting Otto, which was shown by how Lye said so you met us (Roy Alphard) before meeting us (him) when Otto mentioned he thought the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony went by a different name, showing Lye completely forgot about Otto much like Regulus did regarding Subaru. Thank goodness I have exposure to someone who knows Japanese as he indicated that Crunchyroll botched the translation and that Otto said something along the lines of “You’re different from the one at the government office” instead of the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony went by a different name, which completely changed the translation. The correct translation shows that Otto thought that Lye was a fake Sin Archbishop at first, but this encounter now shows that Lye is the real deal, meaning there is at least two Sin Archbishops of Gluttony.

Lye then said that now that you’re all here you might as well help us look for the hero who will judge us. This is actually a callback to Season 2 with how Rem said that her great hero, Subaru, would bring them to justice. As Lye was the one who ate Rem’s memories and could likely feel the strong emotions Rem felt about how Subaru would defeat them, Lye hearing Subaru’s broadcast hyped him up big time for a showdown against Subaru. I don’t think the narrative will allow that to happen in this Priestella arc as Subaru’s group is really strapped for battle-ready personnel with how it’s just Garfiel and Wilhelm against Kurgan and Theresia, Julius and Ricardo against Roy, and Priscilla against Sirius. There’s just no way Subaru will be able to help with Regulus’s wives and Regulus himself and fight Lye, so this showdown will probably be postponed for a future arc.

Otto motioned to bring Lye to Subaru in exchange for his life as a negotiation tactic, but Lye was furious as he had a very visceral negative reaction to Otto being a merchant who would put a price on anything to line his pockets, so it’s clear he and Roy were either ripped off badly by a merchant or were slaves to one. As Lye prepares to attack, Otto used his Divine Protection to get two Water Dragons to attack Lye before it skips over to Julius and Ricardo engaging Roy Alphard, who is another Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. Interestingly enough, Julius forgo calling himself Juli when the last time he engaged Roy he was careful not to use Subaru and Crusch’s actual names, calling them Little Girl User and Valkyrie instead. Perhaps during his last battle with Roy, which was offscreen, Roy revealed he already knew Julius’s name, potentially due to Julius being a well-known member of the Royal Guard with very distinct physical features. With how episodes this season not being extended-length for the most part aside from Episode 57, it’s possible an explanation for Julius’s decision was cut out of the adaptation although it’s possible to still infer the reason for that decision.

Back to Subaru and Emilia, it seems Regulus’s wives truly fear Regulus on every level. Earlier in the episode, Subaru remarked that they have nerves of steel with how none of the wives reacted to Regulus threatening to kill them all if Reinhard and Subaru advanced any further. Now, they can’t come to believe Regulus can be beaten even though Reinhard had performed a miracle in front of their eyes with how he came back to life after dying due to his Divine Protection of the Phoenix. It’ll take a lot of work to win them over, but I believe Subaru and Emilia have to be able to do something about this, as otherwise they will never be able to stop Regulus’s apparent invincibility. As Reinhard hinted at earlier in the season, he has the ability to wish for any Divine Protection he wants, which is how he could transmit his thoughts to Subaru while fighting Regulus as it seems he received the same Divine Protection that Liliana has. It seems Reinhard also has super hearing as otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to hear what Subaru had been saying. It seems one of Subaru’s plans is to have Reinhard kick Regulus really far away to give them alone time with the wives, so Subaru quite possibly thinks Regulus’s wives might know the secret behind Regulus’s invincibility.

As we get back to Wilhelm and Garfiel towards the end of the episode, Garfiel takes a big blow from Kurgan, and his trauma from his fear of death has again reared its ugly head, and Garf wills himself to continue on as he reasons the only thing he’s good for is fighting. I wonder how they will get out of this situation as retreat is not an option given how completely stretched thin the forces of the side fighting the cult is, and if one part of their group fails they all fail since they must take seize control of all four control towers at once. Garf realizes that the black piece of mass is not actually Capella after all, which may be a blessing in disguise ’cause if she were really with the two corpse soldiers, he and Wilhelm would certainly die.

Felix is then caught off guard by Capella who pretended to be several people on his side, but she’s here to wreak havoc, and given Priscilla left Al to defend the government office, it looks like we’ll have an Al and Capella showdown even though they aren’t in the same room yet. Felix should not be able to put up a good fight against Capella due to Capella’s insane regeneration. A lot is happening this episode, but things are definitely moving along, and I’m looking forward to more strong content from this season.

Re:Zero Episode 58 (Season 3 Episode 8) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on November 23, 2024 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

Okay, I ended up being right that Otto may have been in possession of the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom originally used by Roswaal, but I was wrong about the details. I thought it seemed too convenient that he ended up being where Felt, Reinhard, and Heinkel was while having his zodda bugs ready to distract Heinkel, but it seems it really was a coincidence like Otto had said it was. Apparently, the tome was left with a professional trying to restore it to a usable state, which was the reason Otto split up from the group in Episode 51.

And in comes Liliana with her new song that she came up with right on the spot, “Crazy Obsessed With Everything About You”. Given Reinhard revealed that he can wish for any power, and he will gain a Divine Protection for that power, resulting in him gaining his new Divine Protection of Judgement, which allows him to see and understand what Divine Protections other people have and what they do, Reinhard saw that Liliana has the Divine Protection of Telepathy, which may show that Priscilla is into Subaru. It’s possible that Liliana came up with this song ’cause she felt Priscilla’s affection for Subaru during the short time they were together outside and felt Priscilla’s mood improving as she approached the meeting place where Subaru would be. Priscilla notably announced that she is giving Subaru another reward for calming Priestella’s citizens down in allowing herself to be included in the group’s plan. She may have called his broadcast ugly, but ultimately respects results, but I think part of her just wants to be involved with Subaru. Given how Priscilla poked at Liliana later in the episode to get her to agree to accompany her in fighting Sirius, she may have been trying to poke at Subaru in a similar way to assess his manhood or banter with him, but Subaru still has deep insecurities over his self-worth. Priscilla even said after Subaru began to remark about how Priscilla must also be here ’cause of Liliana’s presence that of course she came here in person, most likely ’cause of his broadcast despite on the surface calling it ugly, addressing him as “fool”, much like she did in Episode 56. Maybe she has a thing for fools given Heinkel is a part of her camp.

Liliana’s songs tend to have meaning with her singing a song about a lonely wanderer (herself), age differences in love (regarding Subaru and Beatrice even though they aren’t romantically interested in each other), the Sword Demon’s Love Ballad (when Wilhelm was known to have visited the city), a song about dragon blood, and a song about how awesome life is to ease the mind of the city’s citizens, insulating them from Sirius’s Authority of Wrath, so I find it hard to believe that Liliana randomly decided to sing a love song for no reason but was inspired to do so. That’s what makes me believe the song is about Priscilla being into Subaru. Priscilla also notably gave Subaru two rewards on the same day, clearly showing Subaru favour. Liliana may have noticed how Subaru being around lifted Priscilla’s mood during the short time they were together in addition to whatever effect Subaru’s broadcast had on Priscilla, and that would be her inspirations for the new song.

Priscilla also made a good observation that Al was helping that group instead of accompanying her and forcing her to look for Schult on her own shortly after she made her entrance, calling Al and Schult rude for making her do that, but I believe part of it is show to demonstrate her lording over her power to outsiders due to her possibly carefully crafting her image to be this way. Al certainly has his own agenda, whatever it is, given his independence from his master. When Priscilla declared her intention to join the battle against the Witch Cult, he tried to talk her down from doing it, which is similar to how he wanted Emilia to be coddled and protected by Subaru instead of strong and independent. Given this recurring behaviour of how he wants a woman protected by a man and to tamp down their confidence/strength, it wouldn’t surprise me if he indeed lost to Roswaal if he was the immediate previous Hero of the story as I pose with how Roswaal wanted Emilia to be completely dependent on Subaru. Re:Zero Season 3 Breaktime Episode 4 also showed that Subaru physically needs Beatrice around due to his gate being destroyed making it so that his body can’t regulate its mana levels, and given we know Al does not need to hang around a spirit, Al’s gate most likely didn’t break when he was the hero, possibly ’cause he faced a crushing defeat to Roswaal, which set up his heroic delusions remark to Subaru.

Otto and Subaru have a 1-on-1 conversation as Al brings Priscilla up to speed, and Otto reveals he picked up the charred remains of the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom a year ago ’cause he wants to check its contents due to him not trusting Roswaal as far as he could throw him. He said that aside from what had engineered at the Sanctuary, Roswaal had all sorts of schemes that others let slide. Subaru then implies that they don’t let him get away with everything but that they need his strength. Otto says that it’s fine and that he’ll be wary enough of Roswaal for both him and Emilia. He said that as Subaru’s internal affairs officer, Roswaal didn’t behave as if he were up to any conspiracies or schemes that would weight on his conscience, but he was worried that Roswaal had set up some plans with a time lag so that they wouldn’t be able to see them coming. Otto wanted to ensure that nobody from their camp could be hurt by Roswaal again, which is very good reasoning that makes him a very good ally to those he believes in, although the Emilia camp probably doesn’t have anything to worry about unless Roswaal loses his desire to live due to the curse on his soul that will incinerate his soul ’cause of him losing his bet to Subaru in Season 2. Otto revealed his intent to retrieve the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom and that he could do it without any help from the group after Subaru remarked about not being able to spare anyone to help him do it since they’d be focused on the control towers, reminding Subaru that he was able to navigate around this danger-filled city and bring them the Sword Saint. Wilhelm then called for Subaru ’cause Crusch requested that he fetch Subaru.

When Subaru is in Crusch’s room, Felix tells him not to push Crusch given she’s in critical condition. Felix has blood on his face and clothes, which shows he probably tried to forcibly take the dragon blood out of Crusch’s body with that intervention failing completely and utterly. Everything below Crusch’s head and even part of her face have completely changed colour and filled with many veins, which shows she got the short end of the stick compared to Subaru with the curse of the black dragon blood. It’s hard seeing someone who was so charismatic and a natural leader end up like this. Subaru upon briefly touching Crusch’s left arm was in pain and transferred some of Capella’s black dragon blood from Crusch’s body into his own. When he saw that this improved Crusch’s condition, he did it again but for a longer portion of time by touching her face, and it resulted in Crusch’s face becoming normal again. As I indicated in Episode 56, it appears Subaru has a resistance to the curse to his dormant Ulgarm curses from Season 1 fighting with the black dragon curse, which weakens the black dragon curse so that Crusch saw more relief than Subaru gained in symptoms of the curse. Subaru intended to do more for Crusch, but Crusch wisely dissauded him as if they both become unable to fight the outcome would be fatal. She tells him to instead to assure that she can leave everything to him, which he does. All throughout that entire interaction, Crusch was looking to Subaru since him being okay had resulted in him being her hope. She not once looked towards Felix, her knight, and that must’ve really hurt Felix, which Felix alluded to with how he was powerless to do anything to help the one he wants most when Subaru said that there still many people who will require Felix’s aid.

When Subaru finally stepped back outside and showed Wilhelm his hand, which Wilhelm was undoubtedly grateful for, Wilhelm shared the identities of the two strong Witch cultist who were with Capella, “Eight-Arms” Kurgan, formerly the Vollachia Empire’s most powerful swordsman, and Theresia van Astrea, the previous Sword Saint. Wilhelm revealed during the demihuman war several decades ago when he was in his youth there was a person who used the forbidden art of corpse manipulation. He revealed that that individual is long gone but that the art still exists and that those resurrected were referred to as corpse soldiers. Wilhelm pleads to Subaru not to tell Reinhard about Theresia. He reveals to Subaru that the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint is a Divine Protection that is inherited, which makes it different from all other Divine Protections. That Divine Protection was passed on to Reinhard when Theresia was fighting the White Whale, and ’cause Wilhelm was adamant that Theresia give up fighting since it was his job as the stronger of the two to protect her, she suddenly became very ordinary on the battlefield, which he clearly regretted since he indirectly caused her to die.

If you recall from Season 1, Wilhelm insisted that ’cause Theresia had a face like hers that she was not suited to the battlefield and that he would take the sword away from her. That flashback always pissed me off and came across as really sexist and was a big yikes despite it taking place in a medieval setting. Theresia also notably said in the flashback when Wilhelm defeated her in a duel that she wants to hear him say he loves her, and Wilhelm promised to do it someday with it being implied that it never happened as he only said it after he killed the White Whale… I’m glad to see that Wilhelm has wised up and realized that him preventing Theresia from fighting in an effort to protect her given his views led to her being mostly helpless after she lost her Divine Protection of the Sword Saint due to Reinhard inheriting it. It shows he has changed with his realization he caused her death. Even if Theresia personally didn’t want to continue fighting, which is probably she constantly asked Wilhelm if he likes flowers and why Wilhelm said she never wanted to pick up a sword, I believe she should have at least trained herself in self-defense instead of fighting. He rebuked Reinhard when he inherited the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint as he could not forgive young Reinhard for being saddled with a fate far too heavy for someone still mourning his grandma. Wilhelm says clearly that Reinhard bears no responsibility for Theresia’s death, which rings true since the rift with Reinhard was one of his three biggest regrets that were alluded to in Episode 51. Wilhelm doesn’t want Reinhard to be burdened with having to deal with Theresia, and it shows the love he has for his grandson. When Subaru says that they don’t know when the corpse soldiers will show up, Wilhelm asserts that Theresia will definitely come find him, most likely ’cause he believes in fate.

Back in the group’s meeting room, Priscilla insists she will take on Sirius from the Fourth District with Liliana’s help. Priscilla believes Liliana’s singing can counter Sirius’s Authority, and when Subaru wondered there was a way to test that, Reinhard received the Divine Protection I mentioned earlier in this episode and saw that Liliana’s ability would indeed be able to stop Sirius’s Authority, so the group finally settles on Priscilla fighting Wrath when they were deadset against it at first. Next Subaru brings up that the Lust faction with the two strong cultists and the demi-beasts are probably where most of the Witch Cult’s forces are concentrated, and he wants Wilhelm and Garfiel to be the ones to take them on. When Garfiel protests, saying that they need to save Emilia, Subaru reminds him that he has his own score to settle as it was due to those two cultists that Mimi is close to death. Wilhelm volunteers himself to fight Capella’s faction, but Reinhard objects ’cause he believes Wilhelm’s mind isn’t clear right now due to what happened to Crusch. Wilhelm says a bunch of things to get the point across that he is not to be underestimated and urges Subaru to choose him for the task, which Subaru was already going to do as he wants Reinhard fighting Regulus since it’ll be a fight with the strongest against the invincible. Garfiel begs Reinhard to help Subaru and Emilia, and Reinhard agrees as long as Garfiel promises that he will see through the mission at all costs and that they will both win. Garfiel probably needed to hear that due to him being low on confidence after letting Mimi get hurt so badly and having his punch be easily blocked by Reinhard, and having Reinhard in addition to Ricardo in Episode 54 put their faith in Garfiel might be just what Garfiel needed. Subaru says he’ll do whatever he can to cover for Reinhard in areas he’s lacking, which has Reinhard shocked, as he has probably never been told that before due to his immense strength ever since he was a young boy and him saying he will have faith that Subaru will fill in in the areas he will fall short might be the first time he has ever placed his faith in another person. Julius then says that he and Ricardo will take on Gluttony, but they still don’t know that there is more than one Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, so I wonder how that will go.

At Regulus and Emilia’s wedding, Regulus is amazed at Emilia’s beauty and remarks that he was right to keep seat number 79 open. He remarks that there was a woman he thought was the perfect fit for that seat when he first met, but he deemed her unsuitable before they married and left it open. I had previously speculated that Regulus chose his wives’ positions subjectively based on who he finds most attractive, but this episode calls that into question with this info likely showing that he chooses wives to fill particular seats based on particular physical characteristics. Regulus says that as a wife of his, Emilia will be forbidden from smiling and having any change of expression ’cause some women become ugly when they smile, and it might be the case that seeing a woman genuinely happy with a man who will treat her right pisses him off since it reminds him of his own failures as a man. This might be why Regulus was so enraged after seeing Fortuna return to fight with Petelgeuse in Season 2. Pandora told Regulus to calm his anger due to beauty of the love Fortuna and Petelgeuse had together, which resulted in him striking Pandora with all his might with the intent of killing her. Emilia then talks about how she believe marriage is supposed to be a happy thing, a ritual embodying the desire two people have for each other to be together. She then asks Regulus why he addresses his wives using numbers, and Regulus retorts by saying that being fixated on what people called is the same as being fixated on looks, the most shallow form of relationship there is, which shows extreme hypocrisy since looks are all that matters to Regulus with him even threatening to erase anyone who moves from the neck down since he doesn’t want to destroy a beautiful face once Emilia repeatedly brings up Subaru, much to Regulus’s chagrain. Regulus’s wives were terrified during the entire exchange as they fear Regulus and his temper deeply. When Emilia finally responds by saying she won’t be Regulus’s woman, Regulus is infuriated and is about to kill her right as Reinhard kicks open the door of the venue and knocking Regulus away. Subaru and Reinhard both had to introduce themselves given Regulus probably doesn’t remember Subaru due to seeing most men as ants who are beneath his attention, and Subaru coolly ends the episode by saying that he objects to the union. It was great that Emilia talked back to Regulus in such a manner as I’m sure none of his other wives were willing to do so out of fear of him. It goes to show how she has such faith that Subaru will save her and that she will eventually fall for him, not wanting to live a life where she is subservient to Regulus.

I guess this is as good of a time as any to take a break before Re:Zero Season 3 returns in February. I wonder whether Subaru will die any more times given the OP of the first part showed him looping after going right at Regulus, but that might have been misdirection since it showed him with Beatrice, who is out of commission due to being low on mana.