Why is Betty so perfect?
Impression
I knew lolis were the best. I knew it. It’s what I’ve been saying for years now. Emilia-tan, you’re super cute as well, but I just can’t. I can’t. Betty is too… too perfect. Remember how I said her scenes were calming? That she’s one of the least likely to have any ulterior motives towards Subaru, and her library could be a potential place of refuge for him? All my feels have now overflowed. All of them. Subaru was going through the worst despair he’d ever experienced up until now. It was a really shitty loop in terms of his relationship-building. He seemingly has no-one on his side. He’s pushed away Emilia and Puck. Betty has absolutely no reason to trust him or believe in him. But even though he smells of the Jealous Witch, even though they don’t know each other at all, even though her contract with him was only supposed to last until the fifth morning… she still protected him. She was willing to oppose Roswaal for his sake, and fight Ram for his sake. She was even ready to get him out of the country somehow. I don’t know why Betty is willing to go this far (she didn’t have to contract at all if she didn’t want to) but I’m just thankful she’s there for him. Please, please let them have a good relationship during the successful loop. Subaru’s finally gained an ally during this endless hell of suffering. And I’ve gained a best girl.
I thought this was an excellent episode. All the others have been tense and exciting too, of course, but today’s definitely set itself apart from the rest. It broke off from the episodic formula of having a loop play out followed by a death, and we learned a hell of a lot amidst all the suffering. I think the two strongest scenes were the beginning scene where he was brutally hacked apart and healed by Rem while he cried and asked her what he did wrong, and the ending scene where he confronted Ram before finding his resolve and committing suicide. I really didn’t want that to be one of the ways he resets, but in its own strange way it was a beautiful death. It was full of hope and dreams. Perhaps the most important thing we learned was that Subaru smells of Satella, the Jealous Witch. I don’t know why it’s taken this long for it to be properly mentioned, but I guess no-one mentioned it because the implications were clear, and mentioning it to (who they thought was) a spy would be the stupidest possible way to alert him to the fact that they were on to him. It’ll probably be some time until Subaru calms down enough to realize the implications, but obviously this points to Satella being the one who cursed (if that’s the right word) him with Revival. She might also have been the perpetrator who reincarnated him. I’m not sure what that scene was where he attempted to tell Emilia about everything and just couldn’t for some reason – is that an instinctive inability or fear to say anything, or will he outright die if he speaks about it? I’m guessing it’s the reason he couldn’t say anything to everyone about Rem’s death, but couldn’t he have just mentioned that he recognized the shaman curse from somewhere?
Rem’s death was the other major shock of the episode. Rem died! And she was supposed to be capable in combat, too. Subaru clearly thought that his first loop death was conducted by one of the twins too, and that was also my train of thought – I thought it was Ram, because he’d gotten closer to Rem in that loop and the non-relevant sister would always try to save the other from the heartache of having to kill someone they’d gotten close to. But now it can’t have been either of them because Rem died in the same way, before the Dawn of the Final Day. In fact, the mere thought of any one of the mansion inhabitants (apart from Subaru, unfortunately for him) killing Rem is simply ridiculous. So it follows that there’s a Reinhard-like character in this arc too – someone who’ll only turn up later on but will have a decisive influence on the arc. Except this time it’s a negative influence.
It also prompts fresh questions about the first loop. The curse death is separate from the Rem deaths. That means that the twins never killed him in the first loop. What was it about that loop that made Subaru not suspicious enough to have the twins not target him? Betty protected him this time, so they were practically neutral to him either way. If Subaru died from the curse initially, was it just him that night? Only Rem died in this loop – why was it just one person, and why Rem? Why is Subaru not a specific target, like we’ve been led to believe this entire time? Or was it because he was protected by being in Betty’s library? Is the curse death something that will happen irrespective of whether Subaru gets killed by the twins? And by that I mean, if the timeline continues in the world where Rem killed Subaru on the sunset of the fourth night, would it mean someone (possibly her) dies anyway that night? It’s got to be someone who’s genuinely from the anti-Emilia faction, but everything else is a mystery for now.
Ram’s pain made me sad. You could tell that those sisters cared more about each other than anyone else. Now Rem suddenly dies a few days after a weird suspicious stranger turns up, and he clearly knows something but runs away instead of spilling the beans. I don’t blame her for being as angry as she was, or wanting to kill Subaru. And in the end, they’re targets and thus victims in all this as well. Subaru did technically survive, but I’m glad he’s willing to accept nothing but a happy ending, not least because it wouldn’t be too great having to live life on the run. He committed suicide for their sakes, you know. Even if he did leave, we have no idea whether it’d count as a ‘success’ such that he’d earn a new save point. I hope things are finally looking up for him now that he’s regained his resolve. If Betty wasn’t there for him I don’t know how bad it all would have gotten.
Now you know. This is why I’ve maintained my faith in Ram and Rem. I KNEW they could not have been the ones ultimately responsible for starting this mess since he came to the mansion, but this piece of evidence isn’t something one spoils ahead of time. I just tried to keep people from condemning them too harshly before they saw this, and hoped this would come across well.
The anime is about to surpass the manga: only a few chapters left before I’ll no longer know what’s happening. The LNs, of course, have lots more material, but I haven’t read them. However, the focus almost all of your questions in the second-to-last paragraph is probably the last significant thing I still know something about that hasn’t been shown yet. Nearly all of them wrap around the concept of why specific people died in specific timelines. And that’s important. There’s a specific event that has occurred, in some variation or another, in every iteration EXCEPT the one where he left the house on the last day. In fact, in that timeline, he specifically commented that said event didn’t happen. Of course, in this last case you only know it happened because of the reason why it didn’t happen in the previous iteration… Regardless, in the first two cases the event involved Subaru. In this case Subaru never left his room until Bea-ko pulled him into the Library to protect him, so the event involved Rem instead.
This episode was simply awesome even though it sounds so wrong. Seeing and hearing his suffering and him breaking down so far that he won’t even rely on his ray of hope Emilia and just like in the OP, that curse is pulling him cruely away from hope, others and a happy ending. This episode was so intense I was crying so hard on the inside and I was only hoping for the suffering to end and I can’t imagine how brutal it must be to be him with all the suffering both mentally and physically. His mental state by now is so horrible that he is getting no sleep and doubts everyone even though he loves them; so much that on the last day he falls asleep and lets down his guard. He isn’t even smiling anymore with his over-positive character (plus seeing Emilia’s disappointed face at that moment because he is force to keep it a secret and deal with it alone)
In this episode we learned that only Rem and Betty can notice the smell of the witch on subaru and comparing to the first loop tells us that everytime he dies, the smell gets more intense, which is why the first time Betty shrugs it of and now she can’t even endure the terrible smell.
Which than means that Rem probably killed him because he is suspicious as fck: Random guy out of nowhere, knows his way around the house, “pretends” to be close to them and the possibility of him beeing part of the witches cult. Yeah I can understand why she gets suspicious and wants to protect her home.
Also remember the story about the blue selfless ogre and the red selfish ogre and how it suits their personality? They really must be caring for subaru, enough to let them break out of their role and for Rem (selfless) to try and kill him out of her own hatred and for Ram (selfish) to kill him by slitting his throat with magic to end his suffering (which is Rem said that onee-san is just too nice to him) or even trying to teach him. And dont forget they were holding both his hands when he was suffering a lot. Not sure if it’s correct to assume or it makes sense since it’s my personal view on this.
Beatrice just beeing awesome just like i told you and she is even trying to protect him by pretending not to care and searching for holes in their contract because she wants to and they are far away from the library which seems to be the source of her power.
Considering that Rem died because of a curse (same as first time for Balls or before he get’s crushed by rem) and I highly doubt someone from the mansion wouldn’t do that, leaves only the option that someone from the vilage must be responsible for this since someone had to go grocery shopping.. at least I doubt Rem can cast curses since Beatrice told us that the only ones with possible suitable magic that are only her and puk (forgot how to write his name). He could probably keep everyone in the house and not go grocery shopping so the curse won’t kick in but I doubt his curse would let him have this neutral route.
For now that’s all I guess. Have to go and pick up the pieces of my broken heart.
Btw. this is one of those shows I enjoy more by watching it weekly rather than watching it all at ones since it leaves you time to think about his pain and theorize everything happening etc.
That part just before Rem kills him… I felt I could relate with what he was saying because of my last break up. That’s how much it hit home… or I ALMOST could relate, because Subaru’s situation was 10X WORSE Only he remembers, literally. That’s harsh.
And then he gets killed right on top of that and the pain and fear all carry through. Damn it all man. At least I was right to assume there is an actual killer.
However.
I’m really afraid for Emilia. If Subaru focuses on Ram and Rem in order to save them from these lethal misunderstandings, but keeps Emilia at arm’s length now… Are we going to see her truly be a “jealous witch”, either due to exploitation of her feelings, like having them preyed upon through magic, or…?
I still don’t understand why she once said her name was Satella other than to confirm he wasn’t from around those parts, but if he’d called out her name that first time it would’ve caused trouble, right? Anyway, she’s kind of isolated in a lot of ways, which Subaru was breaking through up to now.
Is the REAL Jealous Witch’s plot to get her on the throne and exploit Emilia from there ?_?
We’ll see. We will see.