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.