The ride never ends.
Impression
Is it too late for Subaru to kill himself yet? After recovering from my initial moment of disbelief and despair at Rem’s death, some rational thought has led me to the conclusion that this is unlikely to be permanent. I’m basing this on the fact that there’s not enough despair, along with the timing of the reveal – the episode ended right as Subaru stumbled across her dead body. If Rem really had died and the intention was to make her stay dead for good, Subaru himself would have been killed sometime soon after and the episode would end with him having looped back to a time after her death. Admittedly that could still happen, so I’m really not sure. It must have been a horrible feeling for him though – after Emilia returned to the mansion without him, Rem was his last reliable ally (and she was reliable to the point that she stayed with him even though his heart was clearly with another girl). Him discovering that Rem, too, believes that he can’t change much even if he returns to the mansion must have hurt him terribly. It all goes back to what I said last week about a lack of communication and a basic inability for everyone else to view things from Subaru’s perspective, because they simply do not and cannot learn about his time loop ability. It is, however, true that Subaru can only do so much – his power can only get him so far in a situation where he’s wholly outclassed. Both arcs saw him ultimately being saved by someone else, remember? If he was stuck in an eternal loop of having to fight Elsa over and over again, he would never be able to beat her no matter how many loops he endures because the disparity in their power levels is just too high (assuming Elsa is not interested in talking).
That being said, it’s rather ironic that Subaru was right about one thing – everyone died (presumably) and if he’d been at the mansion or village with them, they might not have all met that fate. All the KKK cultists were bowing to him, right? It’s all a little confusing, but from my understanding it was the cultists who massacred the villagers and everyone in the mansion – most likely the same group who attacked Ram and Rem’s village, and probably because Emilia is a half-elf participating in the royal selection. And they bowed to Subaru because he had the witch’s scent, and they must have thought he was her subordinate or something (which isn’t exactly true, but it’s a little hard to believe she’s not helping him at least in the short-term). What I don’t understand is why, if they worship Satella, they would want to kill Emilia. Isn’t everyone’s reason for sabotaging her chances at the throne because she’s a half-elf rumoured to be related to the witch? Or is she a target by virtue of being a king candidate and nothing else? Were the others attacked as well, in that case? Is Emilia even dead given that she has Betty and Roswaal to protect her?
I can definitely understand the citizens being scared of her, though. Satella is probably the most terrible existence that they’ve ever heard of, and she and Emilia both happen to belong to a unique hybrid race that is easily identified. It’s a prejudice that has been long ingrained into their hearts as a product of their environment, and above all tolerating her is a different thing to accepting her as their monarch. I’m unsure as to why Subaru didn’t mention to the shopkeeper that Emilia was the one who saved his daughter – she still had the flower pin gifted to her by the loli in the successful loop of the first arc (it being why Subaru realised that Emilia was genuinely kind no matter the circumstances and would try to help her in every loop) so that event must still have occurred. Anyway, I think I became more of a Crusch fan this episode. Boobs notwithstanding (I will admit I noticed those too) she has a very level head as her character design has indicated. If not for her Brexit tendencies, she’d probably make a good leader. She’s got strong military capabilities and strong allies, and will be the easiest fit for the current state of the country – compared to Emilia, who can’t win the people’s trust, and Priscilla who doesn’t really care.
Subaru has, in general, not learned much from his recent experiences with her and Wilhelm. Julius was even punished, and it was all for nothing apparently. I can tell he’s been getting really irritated and worked up lately, and we can all guess why, but wanting to go help Emilia indicates that he understood absolutely nothing from their huge fight and what she was trying to tell him during it. Emilia even left him Rem for safety, and by setting him up in Crusch’s mansion he can benefit from their protection, Felix’s healing and Wilhelm’s training. Why would he leave?! And was it implied that he resolved to kill himself after the talk with Crusch? Is that how he interpreted her words? Is that why he wasn’t scared when he went into the forest even though the cart driver dude told him not to? I thought he was going to slowly improve over time, but he seems even more set on doing things his way than he was before. He’s only going to create his own suffering that way.
Over the entire time that subaru was talking I was like “No subaru, stop, pls dont talk and calm down for the sake of everyone. Think”.
How broken do you have to be to think that your death is going to solve everything? He thinks that if he can’t do it now, he will die and just do better which is why Wilhelm said he won’t teach someone who doesn’t want to get stronger. Even managed to make himself believe that HE is the ONLY ONE at Emilias side. Turning every word that has been said to help him into words of hate and betrayal.
But I am definitely fine with how he is, beeing different than most MC from animes. Now let’s see what kind of suffering is still to come.
Btw we got to hear the new OP/ED what are your thoughts? Rem is such a waifu.. if he won’t notice than we will :'(
Poor Subaru. He has no choice but to die now though, or we’ll lose poor Rem-rin. It’s also not like he hasn’t committed suicide before with the intent of doing things better the next time round, but this time his hatred and bitterness makes it all feel so different.
OP2 is okay. It’ll take some time to get used to, and I honestly doubt we’ll even be hearing it all that much. But ED2 is nowhere near as good as Styx Helix, I realised how much I missed it when a slow instrumental version started playing during the Rem-Subaru scene in the inn.
…All the smiles are gone. ;_;
Smile? What’s a smile? Is it tasty?
;_;
“Why would he leave?! And was it implied that he resolved to kill himself after the talk with Crusch? Is that how he interpreted her words? Is that why he wasn’t scared when he went into the forest even though the cart driver dude told him not to? ”
Subaru left with Rem to check what going Roswaal’s territory because their was suspicious activity remember? It is his home livelyhood now. And Crusch was the one to point out they were enemies to begin with (as competitors) and Subaru was mainly being to stay with for his treatment.
But leaving was exactly what Emilia and everyone else told him not to do. It shows that he’s learned literally nothing from what Julius and Emilia were trying to teach him. Felix said he wouldn’t be able to change a thing even if he left, and he’s safest with Crusch as, even though they’re enemies, Emilia made her promise to heal and protect him. Even Rem thought it was a bad idea for him to go.
Of course, now that we know that everyone will die without him being there to change things, it’s probably for the best that he did leave. But without hindsight, it was a reckless decision.
This is just a wild guess, but is it possible that Emilia is to become the witch (who, I assume, is capable of bestowing time traveling powers and therefore must be able to use them as well) and, Subaru and his stubbornness, were brought to that world in order to be the catalyst of that change?
I’ve heard about that theory, although I presume we’re way too early into the story (and will still be by the time we reach the end of the season) to even get any hint of whether Emilia and Satella are the same person. If they are, then I guess at least one person around him will finally understand the true extent of his suffering.