Hello darkness, my old friend.
Impression
I’m so done with this loop. I swear, the author is a fucking sadist. Subaru spent most of last week enduring the humiliation of being pushed around by the other king candidates, so I thought he’d just get eaten by the White Whale and that would be the end of that – in other words, he’s already suffered enough for a loop. But no, it gets worse. He gets betrayed by that little shit Otto, Rem is erased from existence and he indirectly kills Emilia before being warped to the KKK and Betelgeuse. It’s like the worst loop ever. I wonder when exactly it is that Subaru starts thinking a loop is irredeemable? Has he ever thought that in situations other than that one time he committed suicide in front of Betty and Ram? He sank into despair when Rem died, but it’s never felt like he gave up on living altogether – did that change when Emilia died? I know it’s much easier to give up on loops from a viewer’s perspective – we all want him to experience a ‘perfect’ run-through, and the line is probably crossed when an important character dies. For Subaru, I guess Rem’s death hasn’t changed his overall goal of trying to prevent the cultists from killing everyone in Roswaal’s domain, not least of all Emilia herself. And there’s also the issue of Satella’s scent becoming more intense every time he abuses his powers.
Then again, there are times when Subaru acts so recklessly that you wonder whether he only proposes what he does because he knows he has another shot at things if something does go wrong. For example, insisting that Otto goes back to rescue Rem was a dumb idea from a rational perspective – although that could have just been his natural brashness and his tendency to act without thinking beforehand. Rem was clearly sacrificing herself by intercepting the White Whale, and Otto not going back at that point isn’t something I’ll fault him for, especially since Rem’s death was going to happen in all likelihood. Him pushing off Subaru to save his own skin was less easy to swallow. It isn’t like Subaru has never said or done anything despicable, and I understand that the two are basically total strangers to each other, but Otto’s panicked expression really pissed me off for some reason. No, it wasn’t just that – his attempts to justify pushing Subaru off as he ran away was absolutely the worst. I have no idea why the KKK just killed him and let the ground dragon leave, but I’m not sad he’s dead at all. Also, the ground dragon was cute. I love how it managed to find its way back to Subaru and continued following his orders, plodding along to the mansion.
When Subaru woke up, I thought we had returned to the mansion arc for a couple of seconds. That was scary. What is now clear is that the White Whale doesn’t merely erase the memories of victims from everyone else’s minds – it erases them from existence entirely. And no-one knows about this, because it’s not like any survivors will be aware that this is one of its abilities. So Ram has never had a sister, and Rem’s room in the Roswaal mansion became one that was never used. I assume the most convenient explanation for various events that Rem’s been involved in is what fills the gap she leaves behind – everyone now believes that Subaru killed half the dogs back during the previous arc. In his current state, it’s probably going to take Subaru some time to figure all this out. He needs to fucking sit down and think things through properly – I know that’s hard given what he’s just been through, but his performance has honestly been really poor this loop. Even when confronting Emilia, I don’t understand why he didn’t mention the witch cult when telling her that she needed to leave with him immediately. Him not explaining a single thing to her was the precise reason they fell out – fine, he can’t mention anything about his abilities, but he can say he knows the witch cult is coming, right? It’s exactly what he told Crusch! And unlike Crusch, Emilia is more likely to listen to him without questioning exactly why he knows about the cultists and their movements, at least not immediately. He’s just telling her to do things with zero basis to them, and given her current position and responsibilities, it’s not something she can just blindly comply with at all.
And then on top of all that, he killed her. Actually, I guess that wasn’t entirely his fault. Did Satella sense that Subaru would endure the pain, or was willing to die if it meant finally being able to tell Emilia? It’s like she’s not willing to kill him directly – which is conceivable, but killing Emilia instead is a little odd. Wasn’t she trying to manipulate Subaru into being around Emilia? Why would Satella kill Emilia herself, unless her plans for Subaru don’t involve Emilia at all? And does this mean that Subaru can get Satella to kill people for him and exploit the rules she’s set down, just like how he got all the dogs to target him in the forest during the mansion arc? It was a really weird scene. Also, Satella’s miasma hand fondling his heart was kind of lewd. I’m sorry, for some time now I haven’t been able to think of Satella as anything but an evil but cute half-elf girl who looks like Emilia.
I’m glad Puck is here to save the day. And by ‘save’, I mean him finally putting Subaru out of his misery. He doesn’t look too happy, does he? He used to be so soft and fluffy, too. I have no idea whether he’ll find out that it was Subaru who caused Emilia’s death, but either way I’m anticipating a repeat of the blizzard that we had a few episodes ago. What I’m not sure about is exactly why Betelgeuse was fucking around with Subaru – didn’t Subaru deliver Emilia to the KKK’s doorstep? Isn’t that what they want? And Betelgeuse even seems to think that he did it for their sake – it sounds like a potential way out of this mess would be to hand over a fake Emilia corpse to them, since she’s what they seem to be after (as opposed to killing everyone in Roswaal’s domain for the sake of it, although I’m sure they were perfectly happy with doing that too). Was it because Subaru could see the Unseen Hand or whatever it was? Could he not see them before?
If it makes you feel any better, redemption is here.
Redemption? It’s late (as am I). You could even say it’s…
TRULY SLOTHFUL
I felt the same way, to the point of yelling at the screen, “Reboot already, for chrisssakes!”
I think that Subaru’s problem is, as you said, he sees to be unable to think the situation through. Before, he was able to rationally figure out what he needed to do to achieve his desired results, even if it meant going through multiple iterations. Now, he’s controlled by rage and fear, and has lost the ability to even think past the next few minutes. I was actually hoping Beatrice would be more helpful in straightening him out, not send him off and tell him to go die away from her sight.
I’m almost expecting that if he continues to act out like he has in his next go-round, he’s going to end up confined in what passes for a mental institution in that world. Of course, that won’t happen, but it would be interesting.
When he got stuck during the mansion arc (with working out what exactly the curse was and all that) he managed to think things through just fine by spending some time in the library and with Betty’s help. I doubt Betty wanted to kill him, but she could probably tell he was so far gone that there was no helping him any more.
He reaches. The young man reaches for so much and yet, pushing everything away for but a moment might actually be for the best. You’re absolutely right that he needs a moment to think, but with ideas being among the most potent weapons… sadly it’s natural that an advantage doesn’t come easy.
As ever, though, it’s hard for me to be discouraged while watching this show. The worse it gets, the more I look forward to seeing Subaru pull it together. Heck, I even had a dream in which he, Papa Puck (best moment for me), a human adventurer on the verge of quitting for good and a full elf who had retired from his own warrior ways, they form a party! It was a REALLY pleasant dream, despite still being in that disastrous loop.
On to slightly more realistic things, I have a thought:
IF Subaru dies “in time” to go back to being in front of the fruits merchant, perhaps he can realize that the White Whale may be key to dismantling the Cult’s invasion. In fact it should be near the forefront of his mind since it’s the first big obstacle in trying to reach the mansion. It should be easier to ask the Knights and Crusch to keep an eye out for it. If they can keep an eye out for it and formulate a plan to throw it off its course (effectively using Subaru as bait)… it could garner support for him if he can survive once again, throw off the Cult’s plans (assuming the fogging up of the main roads was part of their plan) and with that impressive feat possibly then convince people to help him out. I’m really trying to not use too many words here. I’m just trying to say the White Whale is a HUGE (again no pun intended) opportunity as I see it and I can realistically see Subaru realizing it.
You’re not discouraged?! I’m just hoping he’ll pull it together eventually and that he’ll still retain some of his sanity in the aftermath. I don’t know how much more suffering I can watch him take – I’m actually glad that I’m watching this weekly. If you marathoned all of this third arc in one go it’d be bad for your health. I’ve been internally screaming along with him during each moment of despair.
If Crusch already knows about the KKK, she should also already know the White Whale is there. It’s massive, and even Rem knew. Yet Crusch hasn’t done anything about it so far (as far as we know) and so I think Subaru will have to somehow convince her to act when she chose not to do so before. That would let him and Rem travel to the mansion on time, which then brings up the question of whether confronting the KKK or running and hiding is the correct choice to make in order to ensure that nobody dies.
Suffaru needs to calm down definitely. Maybe he could ask Puck for help or even let him read his heart/mind by touch. It would be so helpful if he tries to explain stuff instead of “you have to get away and if I must i will kidnap you for no reason”. Maybe there is a book in the forbidden library that can give him answers.. if only he would ask.
It was definitely a surprise that the curse advanced so much already that he can see those hands and that the curse won’t kill him but emilia (should be obvious now that there is a connection).
But see? It was Otto that mentioned the whale. Tbh every human would react that way when his life is on the line and you live or die just because of 1 random stranger.
Also I am slightly worried that Rem is destined to be dead in every route and won’t come back. That must hurt when you are the only one that can remember your beloved partner that died for you.
Also the opening showed us: Emilia sacrificing herself and Crusch beeing the one fighting the whale.
Just realized that the ending (stay alive) is showing the depressing life of Emilia after separating from subaru, beeing lonely and thinking of their smiles.
Suffaru! That’s the first time I’ve heard him being called that, it sounds like some sort of cake! Usually I see him being called Mitsubishi, Toyota, Nissan or whatever Japanese car manufacturer strikes your fancy.
Puck will most likely kill him. At most he’ll give Subaru some advice, but an ending without Emilia alive isn’t an ending at all for Subaru. As for Otto, I can understand his point of view but as I said, the way he desperately tried to justify pushing Subaru off while accusing him the entire time was what pissed me off. Reminded me of Matou Shinji.
Oh yeah, he manages to get Crusch’s help! That’s nice of her. I wonder how he’ll do it? And by Emilia sacrificing herself, do you mean the last part of the OP? I’m still not sure whether those hands are supposed to be Betelgeuse’s or Satella’s (or both). Stay Alive is actually as heart-wrenching as Styx Helix, it’s really good. Somehow both ED1 and ED2 are better than their OP counterparts, not that any of them are played particularly often.
Hmm, perhaps there are cults based on the witches that Satella absorbed who are seeking revenge and while disposing of this “impostor” is a common goal, Subaru has overstepped his “authority” by seeing more into Beetlejuice’s power than he “should”, as if it could be claimed. It could very well be another power struggle that’s different from this whole candidate and kingdom business. We’ll see someday I suppose…