No one’s going to die, right?
Episode 8 Impression
I was initially planning to write both of these up as separate posts, but before I knew it a couple of weeks had already passed. Whoops. Note that I’m writing each post not having watched ahead, though.
Above all, I could sympathise with Subaru a great deal. I know that feel. Well, not literally. But I’ve… felt that sort of feel, I guess? It’s been tough for me over the past few weeks too, so that scene hit pretty close to home. Except I don’t have an Emilia-tan to give me a lap pillow. It was rather obvious that Subaru has been really, really straining himself during this loop so far – he’s trying too hard, and it had a visible impact. Puck and Emilia can easily tell, and I suspect that Ram and Rem might be able to as well, which might not be too good with regards to his long-term relationship goals with them. It’s strange actually, because I found his previous upbeat personality (e.g. in previous loops) just fine – I was under the impression that a toned-down version of all this is what his normal self was like. But now he’s cranked it up a little too far, and it just comes off as forced as a result.
Are these flowers poisonous? Rem is more suspicious than Ram, I think. And we know why, given her dislike of the Jealous Witch (who’s now been confirmed to have the same physical appearance as Emilia, although I swear they’ve already heavily alluded to that in the past). It could have gotten rather dangerous during the scene where Subaru broke the vase – if she decided to ask Ram it would all have been over, given that the maid sisters probably trust each other more than anyone else in the world. Them accompanying Subaru to the village is most likely in order to keep watch over him. And maybe to protect him, but I doubt they’re looking after his welfare for it’s own sake at this point. God knows how he’s going to deal with their wariness towards him given that after each failed loop, Satella’s scent on him gets stronger and stronger. Why did he react to the Shamac spell like that, by the way? He acted just like he did when the Revival curse stopped him from saying anything to Emilia-tan. It felt like it had an effect on him that it shouldn’t have, given that Puck seemed to think it was a fairly pedestrian curse.
Episode 9 Impression
It was the dog! Subaru was bitten by the dog! Is this why it was significant that he never visited Betty’s room to say goodnight before the end of that one loop? She’d have been able to sniff out the curse on him immediately, and things might have ended differently. I wasn’t sure what he was up to when he got himself cursed on purpose, so I was quite worried until he revealed that he made sure everyone touched him in different places. Can dogs even be shamans, though? It looked like that harmless-looking thing was the one controlling the rest of the dog beasts, but is it the actual shaman itself? Aren’t shamans supposed to be people? It’d make the dog a mere carrier of the curse – and if it is, is that a coincidence? Or is there someone or something who intentionally planted the dog in the village? Presumably with the intention of targeting Emilia, although it seems like a roundabout way of doing things. For example, it’s strange that the blue loli was just left lying on the ground while knocked out. I don’t think those dogs are intelligent enough to not harm her on purpose, while leaving her in the open as bait for whoever comes to rescue her. It’s like they knew someone was going to rescue her. It’s also weird that Roswaal’s departure was seemingly triggered by Subaru having gone to the village earlier than he did last time. Roswaal looked like he was attending to important business which had nothing to do with the village at all. More butterfly effect shenanigans?
I’m so happy that Subaru and Rem seem to be getting along. I was hoping that the twins would realize that he wasn’t aiming to do anything shady but was genuinely concerned that harm would come to the village children, but I don’t think Rem was convinced until Subaru began putting his life on the line for them. I think she’s also starting to become aware, if only vaguely, that Subaru really doesn’t have any hidden combat powers or abilities (beyond the physical strength needed to lift and kill one of those beasts). And the way he pushed her out of the way and was torn apart by multiple dogs as a result must have really earned him some points with her. I hope. I think Subaru’s managed to touch upon the real issue with his relationship with the twins – the banter and all that exists only at the surface for them, because deep down Subaru is sending a lot of mixed signals to them. He’s been friendly and has done lots of good stuff, but their default position with regards to him is well-founded suspicion because of Satella’s scent. The more both sides put off addressing this point, the more unsettled Ram and Rem (mostly Rem) will feel, until the only solution from their point of view is to kill him just in case. It was an issue borne from a lack of communication, and I think he’s taken some real steps forward now that he’s promised with Rem that they’ll stop tiptoeing around each other.
Of course, now that something good has happened, this is the bit where the suffering meter ramps up another notch and Subaru gets mauled by rabid dogs. Great. He’s not going to die, right? You know, I was actually more worried for Subaru when Rem went batshit insane and started tearing through them all like tissue paper. Would she have attacked Subaru in her crazed state? What even caused it? Emotional instability? Can Ram not do that because she cut off her oni horn?
