After Subaru’s completes his own trial, he makes it back to the graveyard to find Emilia struggling. Subaru’s opts not to take part in the other two trials of the Sanctuary since Emilia was the one to do it, but it seems like it’s going to be tougher than they all thought. We briefly meet a new character, learn certain things, and we get an ending very akin to typical Re:zero. Things are going to heat up.
Garfiel brought up something when it came to Emilia, and it’s whether or not she even wants to face her past. Subaru opts out of completing the rest of Echidna’s trials because Emilia chose to do it herself, but we can see that she can’t get through the first trial of facing her past. I don’t think we’ll get this considering how the episode ended, but again I’d love to actually have an episode where we completely focus on Emilia and we get to see the fabrication and memories of her past like we did with Subaru. We still don’t really know a thing about Emilia’s past and upbringing, and I kinda wish Subaru maybe talked to her about it. He could see that she was struggling and I know he probably has no say in what she can do since this is a very personal trial that she needs to overcome herself, but at least to lend an ear and talk with her about it. Back to Garfiel said whether Emilia even wants to overcome her past or not is interesting and at this point even I wonder if she wants to as well. It seems to be a very traumatic thing, whatever happened with her, and it seems that Emilia always wanted to run away from whatever happened a long time ago. And I just feel so bad for her since she feels obligated to complete this trial and having to go through with it every night seems to be taking its toll on her. Also where are you Puck?! I wish we could focus more on her but things are getting intense on Subaru’s end.
Eventually Subaru convinces Garfiel to let the villagers go, but it’s pretty interesting what we hear from the new character we saw before, Ryuzu. A mix blood’s soul separates from their body when passing through the barrier so in essence they’re basically dead. This then lead’s to Subaru questioning why Ryuzu or Garfiel aren’t able to free the Sanctuary. They both can take part in the trial but they are not able to free the Sanctuary as it is contracted for residents of the Sanctuary. If I understand right, then that means the only one that can free the Sanctuary is a mix blood from outside the Sanctuary. I wonder why this came to be?
This also poses a possible problem as Ram explains to Subaru that there are those in the Sanctuary that do not want their home to be “free”, and Frederica might have some hand in that. Or something, but I still think that’s she’s just following Roswaal’s orders. There’s still many things we don’t know but considering what we hear from Roswaal this episode, I wouldn’t be surprised if the orders Frederica was following was from Roswaal. Though it’d be interesting that Ram wouldn’t know seeing as how close she is to Roswaal.
Speaking of, I knew there was always something off about him but this guy is pretty insane. Either he’s so stupid or he has to know something about Subaru because no other sane man would put all of this trust on this random kid, especially to make him go up against the freaking Witch’s Cult. Roswaal makes it sounds like it’s a good thing that he was out of the picture while Subaru and Emilia handled everything else because in the end Emilia’s reputation with the villagers is better, Subaru was able to form an alliance with Crusche and all that, they got all the credit. But there’s no reason why he would trust some random kid with weird clothes and a weird name. He may know about Subaru’s powers and maybe his message/the question to Beatrice might have something to do with that, I don’t know. If not the powers, it could be that Roswaal saw potential in this kid that can solve things easily because he has no idea that Subaru resets a bunch of times to get things right. Either way, I don’t know, Roswaal is kind of scummy and he freaks me out. He still intrigues me and I wonder what else he has up his sleeve.
Subaru returns to the mansion and honestly, whenever you see the harsh red sunset in this show you know something bad is going to happen. Disemboweler Elsa is back after such a long time of absence and things are going to ramp up quick. I’m guessing that Subaru’s save point is going to be right after him completing his trial, so we’ll see what Subaru will have to do to evade death this time.
Subaru thinking that there’s something up with Roswaal saying he had utmost confidence that Subaru would do his (Roswaal’s) work excellently in his (Roswaal’s) absence because of what Subaru had done during the Royal Selection and because of Subaru’s ugly one-on-one with Emilia after that is something that warrants serious scrutiny in my opinion.
When you examine the conversations Subaru has had with Roswaal in episodes 3 and 5 of Season 2 together, it suggests that Roswaal knows that there’s more to Subaru than meets the eye. In episode 3, Roswaal said Subaru is the once-in-a-lifetime windfall that he has long waited for, and if you take this at face value, Subaru is someone of great value that he has been waiting to come in contact with for a long time, and this suggests he knew that he and Subaru would meet one day. That suggests that Roswaal somehow has knowledge of the future.
Recall that Roswaal’s ultimate goal is to kill the dragon, and he likely wants to be present when Emilia enters a covenant with the dragon if she becomes the ruler so that he can kill the dragon in that moment. Given that viewers know through Beatrice in Season 1 that the legendary dragon, sage, and hero sealed the Witch of Envy, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that killing the dragon would unseal the Witch of Envy if the dragon is the last part of the seal on Satella assuming that the sage and the hero died of old age. If Roswaal’s plan is to bring back the Witch of Envy and bring ruin to the world, he is almost certainly a member of the Witch Cult.
Why I think this is important is because Petelgeuse (and probably all Witch Cult members do the same) looked to his Gospel for guidance, and he could not find any instance of Subaru in his Gospel, which shows that he was looking to see if his Gospel had foretold Subaru interfering with his plan to carry out his Ordeal for Emilia. Assuming Roswaal is a Witch Cult member, and he also has a Gospel, why can his Gospel foretell of Subaru, but Petelgeuse’s did not? Is it because Roswaal is more directly connected to Subaru, and that’s why Subaru is more of a factor in Roswaal’s Gospel? Or is there a different reason?
After watching this episode, it brings me back to episode 12 and 13 of Season 1. IIRC, Roswaal reasoned that it could be entertaining if Subaru was present during the Royal Selection, and that’s why he allowed Subaru to accompany Al to the spot where the knights of the candidates stood. This was a grossly irresponsible thing for Roswaal to do given that he is Emilia’s sponsor. Then in episode 13, he smiled after Subaru interjected when Emilia was being compared to the Witch of Envy and that even allowing her to step forward in the room could lead to disaster. At the time in Season 1, I debated on whether Roswaal was just being mean-spirited and smiling because a train wreck was about to unfold or whether it was something else, and I am now leaning towards the latter. After this episode in Season 2, I think it’s possible that Roswaal’s Gospel, assuming Roswaal is a member of the Cult, foretold that Subaru would create a fuss during the beginning of the Royal Selection, and that is why he said it could be entertaining if Subaru was permitted to be around and smiled when Subaru started acting out because it went according to what he believed would happen.
It also seems that Subaru told Ram about the crystal teleporting him, and that’s probably what she meant by Subaru’s relatively noble sacrifice. The stone wasn’t supposed to glow and teleport someone away, and Subaru did well to take it off of Emilia according to her. But Frederica said she had done exactly as Roswaal told her to do when she sent Subaru, Emilia, and Otto off, so I’m not sure what other plan Frederica could even have if the stone was something Roswaal mansion has access to. I wonder if it’s just a misunderstanding, and it was Roswaal who intended for Emilia to have that teleporting stone, and Ram is just unaware of that because he left her in the dark. As for why Roswaal would want Emilia to have that stone, I have no idea. Maybe this will be made clear in a future episode of this fourth arc.
Subaru will likely respawn at a spot that gives him more time to fix things, and I wonder if he’ll respawn right before he ran after Emilia when she entered the Graveyard for the trial. This will give him time to redo his trial his trial even faster and get working on a way to get back to the mansion sooner before Elsa gets there as he probably needs all the help he can. Since he can’t ask any of the demi-humans in the Sanctuary for help, I wonder how he’ll find able-bodied people to help him face Elsa. Maybe his save point will be even earlier with it being right after Frederica sends Subaru, Emilia, and Otto off, which would give Subaru time to call for a punitive force from the Capital to help them fight off Else. It’s clear that Emilia alone is not a match for Elsa, and he’ll need a lot more help. Or maybe instead of calling for someone from the Crusch camp to help, he’ll ask Beatrice to help. I really wonder how strong Beatrice is, and what it would take for her to leave the library in Roswaal’s absence.
It’s all really fascinating. I did notice that comment Roswaal made to Subaru in episode 3 and I did think it was really strange as well, and it kind of confirms after this episode that he probably knows more about Subaru that we all think. I do think that Frederica was following Roswaal’s orders that were written in that envelope, and I do think that the jewel necklace was specifically intended for Emilia since Frederica handed it to her and not Subaru. But like you said, what the significance of that stone I don’t really know either.
But your theory is really interesting and I’ll keep that in mind. I always thought Roswaal was a strange one but I didn’t really know how he would tie into the story but I think we’ll get some more focus on him this season.
I think Subaru will respawn AFTER his trial because it still gives him the time to get to the mansion faster, and I think him finishing his trial is a significant enough spot to respawn after. As well as trying to get to the mansion faster and getting some allies (I can also see Beatrice helping out), he might probe Roswaal for even more information.