Here we go again.
Impression
What the fuck? Again? Oh, come on! It was so comfy! Subaru was building a life for himself! And the banter was so good! I mean, I did have a premonition that something might go wrong. It did all seem a little too happy and straightforward in comparison to the other episodes, and even though this is two-cour I wasn’t about to believe that they would use up an entire episode on setting up the next arc without any major plot points happening. But everything was fine until the last few seconds! Subaru does have a ‘save point’ now, but I was hoping with all my heart that he would return to the fifth night (i.e. after he’d built all his relationships with the mansion inhabitants). It’s precisely what I feared the most. I can take gore. I can take screams of pain. But I can’t take screams of pain in my heart. Of course, in the interests of maximum suffering, he’s back to knowing no-one except kind of Emilia and maybe Beatrice. He woke up with Ram and Rem next to him, so he should have met Beatrice by now. If the save point was at the start of the episode, he’d have woken up alone.
At this rate I’m going to get super desensitised and non-committal to any scene that’s remotely happy. I’m going to watch a scene and, even if I laugh because it’s funny, I’m not going to be laughing inside because I know it’s not going to mean anything once a reset happens. And if the previous arc is anything to go by, his relationships by the time the successful loop comes around will never be anywhere near as good as they were the first time – because Subaru will sacrifice such encounters to pursue his greater goals, just like how he didn’t meet Emilia until right before they were all attacked by Elsa. Maybe the bigger issue right now is that no-one except for Emilia and Puck really trust him at all, and even Puck screened him before determining that he wasn’t a threat.
I guess that leads on nicely into the question of what (and why) a reset even happened. Subaru was happily counting Pucks and all of a sudden he’s gone back five days in time. At least he figured it out really fast this time. What’s the trigger? Is he supposed to do something within these five days that he failed to accomplish? Or was he killed in his sleep? I’m leaning towards believing it’s the latter, since that’s what his power has been premised on up until now and I don’t see a reason for that to change. So that now leads to the issue of exactly why he was killed, and by who.
It’s not Emilia or Puck, and I don’t think it’s Beatrice because she doesn’t really seem to care about him beyond finding him annoying. It’s most likely Ram or Rem acting on the orders of Roswaal – which I have a problem with in itself. If his concern was that Subaru might be a spy, why accept him as an employee in the first place? Okay, you could say he’s trying to determine whether he really was a spy, but Ram said that the chances were slim. Of course she was never going to categorically say no, she’s only known him for five days. It’s like how Felt was never going to trade the insignia for the Keit-Ai without waiting for Elsa to show up. So then if Roswaal was going to, regardless of anything, arrive at the conclusion that it’s not impossible but very unlikely that Subaru is a spy, then why not kill him immediately? Why go to all the trouble of employing him and watching his movements? This all hinges on Roswaal actually being the one who killed him, by the way. It might have been some sort of third party assassin, but I have a feeling we were introduced to all the major players of the arc in this episode (maybe a wild Reinhard might appear later).
As for the characters themselves, they’re as colourful as the last arc’s were. So far they haven’t really upset my best girl rankings, but they’ve only been around for an episode after all. I currently like Felt better than any of them, for example. I thought I would like Beatrice the best by virtue of her being an Arai Satomi-voiced loli, but that was before I knew there were twin sisters in this show. I get to cover something with twins! Again! As you might know from my Haruchika coverage, I’m a twins… enthusiast. Let’s put it that way. I’ve now developed a desire to be softly insulted by Ram and Rem in unison, one twin in each ear. Rem in particular, I love Minase Inori’s voice almost as much as I do Yuuki Aoi’s. Forget the maid outfits, those are just a side attraction. Subaru should have been focused on how he woke up to twins sisters serving him! I’m so jealous.
Finally, Emilia revealing the purpose of the insignia and her status as a king candidate (if you’ll forgive the Magi terminology) raises some questions of its own based off the previous arc. Now we know why its theft was such a big deal, but what did that mean for Felt? Could it be that the insignia can only be touched by king candidates, and so Reinhard took Felt away when he saw her holding it? Is Elsa an anti-royalist? What would she have done with the insignia – use it to make someone else a candidate for the throne? If the king has abdicated, what about his children? Roswaal mentioned he had children – why can’t one of them be slated to ascend the throne, with the council ruling in the interim?
“What the fuck? Again? Oh, come on! It was so comfy! Subaru was building a life for himself! And the banter was so good!”
This. This is why he suffers. He builds relationships with the people around him, only to have the slate wiped clean again and again. It’s even worse now than before. At least what he lost with Emilia, as close as they had gotten the first time, was just one day’s worth of experiences together. Here he has spent several days in a place where he thought he was safe, with people he was growing close to and starting to think of almost as a family, people he trusted, only to have it all disappear.
Now he no longer knows who he can trust, but he doesn’t want to believe that the relationships he’d forged in those days meant nothing to the people on the other side. The idea that Ram or Rem could kill him after they seemed to have gotten as close as they had is more than he wants to face.
“What would she have done with the insignia – use it to make someone else a candidate for the throne?”
I’m uncertain, but it seems like the primary intent was simply to prevent Emilia from being able to become queen. After all, she wasn’t too concerned about failing to get the insignia in the second iteration, but she went completely nucking futz as soon as Subaru said he was going to give it back to its owner.
He can trust Emilia and Puck! I hope. There’s a 99% chance it wasn’t them. It really is a lot more painful when he’s lost several days instead of just one, huh. Emilia is still grateful to him, but now it’s an Emilia who never did radio calisthenics with him in the morning, who sat outside in the grass with him at night, who agreed to go on a date with him the next morning… ;_;
I guess there’s confusion on his part too. As viewers we can kind of see that the mansion inhabitants don’t really want to kill him from the bottom of their hearts (again, I hope) but have to do so because needs must. From his perspective he was just randomly killed for no good reason, and he has to think of a why before he can start working to succeed.
I think ram killed him 🙁
If I had to pick between the twins, I’d want it to be Ram purely because I like Rem better.
That feeling when you wake up to people you grow to love and grow to like only to realize them watching you like you are nothing but a foreign subject which is allowed to stay for reasons.
This time it is even slightly more different. The last time he went through Revival, everything afterwards happened in the exact same order but not this time. Even if we only saw a glimps of the 2nd run now, this time the twins are not simply standing at the end of the room and hold each other but are staring coldly at him.
Who wants to believe that the place you grow to live and to love is trying to kill you one way or another.
Roswaal has to accept him into his household because of certain reasons. 1. He saved Emilias life. 2. He Subaru would tell someone that Emilia lost the insignia, it would mean the end for her as well. 3. You can’t expect him to kill Emilias savior and not expect Emilia doing something bad
I think many people don’t want Emilia to be a candidate simply because she is a half. Remember when Subaru is asking her out to simply walk the town and she hesitates as it might cause trouble for him? Now imagine her beeing a ruler.
There is a little hint from Betty as well concerning what might be wrong with subaru but she does not care for now since it has nothing to do with her.
I guess we will have to survive this arc first before getting more information on Felt.
Did you notice the little joke btw? Subaru -> BaruSu – english -> Balls 😀
EMT FTW xD
EMILIA-TAN MAJI TENSHI
I didn’t notice the Barusu pun at all, nor that the twins aren’t holding each other any more. That’s really weird. I won’t get to watch the episode until tomorrow, but that really is strange.
Roswaal having to accept him makes sense, but if he did kill Subaru I just don’t see why he would wait five days before killing him if he wasn’t going to change his mind no matter how long he waited. Assuming that it was him, that is. Actually Emilia would immediately suspect him if she suddenly found Subaru dead, so maybe he wouldn’t try?
As for Betty, I interpreted that line as her knowing Subaru would be killed due to distrust and suspicion, but that she wasn’t in a position to do anything about it. I could be wrong.