This was another one of those episodes that was full of monologuing and exposition. It went in a crazy direction and the ending was a great cliffhanger and while lots of stuff happened, there’s not much to dive into too deeply.
Subaru wakes up and heads to the ruins in this new time loop, hoping to speak with Echidna and get some help. However, he was accidentally thrust into the second trial and it took me awhile to understand what was happening. We don’t really know for sure if there actually are parallel worlds Subaru left behind, with the characters having to deal with the aftermath of his death. The second trial, like the first, takes the memories in Subaru’s mind and creates a world from it, but since Satella has the authority over Return by Death, we have no idea if what we saw was real or not. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that if that were to be true, the problem was that this second trial happened a little too quickly. I was intrigued by it but it all ended too quickly before I could really get into it. I suppose the episode wanted to get to the witch’s tea party as quickly as possible since I feel that would have been more entertaining to most people. Also, fake Rem appeared and at least he was able to figure out she was a fake. From what Echidna revealed afterwards, it doesn’t sound like Subaru even passed the trial…I think. Again, it happened too quickly for me to understand. But man…if Emilia can’t even pass the first trial, I don’t know how she’ll be able to pass the second one. T_T
We finally got to meet all the witches, meeting Camilla and Sekmet, whose sins don’t really match up with them design wise. Looking at them, I would have guessed their sins to be the other way around. And again, I’m not really feeling any of the character designs or them as characters. They all feel a little too out there and too tropey for my liking and too…waifu? Certain designs in this show have been a little out there, like Felix, but for some reason I feel like the witch designs are taking things a little too far. A little too anime, if that makes sense, especially when they’re all fighting over him like a harem, which is not my thing.
I like Subaru but the fact that he almost agreed to Echidna’s contract was so unbelievably stupid. If something ever sounds too good to be true, that’s because it probably is and there’s always a catch. The fact that he didn’t even think of that makes me want to pull my hair out, Subaru you idiot! Whenever there’s a contract, make sure to learn everything about it, especially when it’s a witch of all people making that contract. It just blows my mind, really, and it’s hilarious in a pathetic way that one of the witches had to tell Subaru to ask her for all the details, not just the supposed “good” ones. Goddammit Subaru…
Echidna shows her true colors, and she’s a witch to the core and it’s not surprising. I never fully trusted her but her unabashed love for knowledge, wanting to take advantage of Return by Death, and not feeling a single thing for Beatrice was pretty awful. That entire speech of hers was extremely unsettling, especially when I’m not a fan of the super obsessive crazy characters. That speech, the music, the sparkles, camera angles, and that smile…NOPE. No thank you, I’ll pass. I’m glad that Subaru backed out of it, but things suddenly get worse when Satella casually struts in. It’s weird that only a few of the witches there showed a negative reaction, while a couple others were excited. But to be honest, I don’t really know anything about them so there might be some reveals next time. I can’t possibly imagine what will become of this tea party now that Satella is there, but with Echidna trying to take Subaru away from her, it maybe won’t go well. Still, it’s exciting that we’ll possibly hear Satella speak for once. You know, without the million “aishteru…aishteru…aishteru…”
Given what Subaru saw in the second trial, I can only imagine that Emilia would see Satella possessing her, given that the Witch Cult’s goal to test her to see if Emilia would be a good vessel for the Witch. Maybe she will see the exact way she dies at the end of the series, in which I predict that Subaru and his friends will kill an Emilia that has been possessed by Satella. I wonder just what it’d take for Subaru to get Emilia to pass the first and second trial given the first trial is traumatic and the second trial could show her what might come to pass.
I researched Ryuzu’s name and think there are some interesting tidbits there. Ryuzu means dragon’s head. There’s the Ryuzu Falls in Japan, and it is one of the Three Great Waterfalls of Oku-Nikko. Given that the legendary dragon of the story was driven past a great waterfall with two mentions of the waterfall in the anime so far, Echida’s goal to use Ryuzu to become immortal is probably very important to the story in some way unless all the author intends from this is for viewers and readers to focus on there being a great waterfall in Re:zero’s fantasy world.
Berry, Subaru in this episode mistakenly believed that Roswaal has the Tome of Wisdom because he didn’t pay close attention to what Roswaal said in episode 32, which is that he has an unnamed text that is the closest thing to the Tome of Wisdom, not being the actual Tome of Wisdom itself. Given that Echidna can likely see the future, which is how she knew to transform Petra’s handkerchief into a spirit blade, she likely has the Tome of Wisdom since Beatrice and Roswaal have the two copies of the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom. Beatrice also said that the last words Echidna gave to her was that she would wait for that person to come, which suggests that Echidna is the one who makes the text in the not-quite Tome of Wisdom appear, and Echidna should not be able to do that unless she had the actual Tome of Wisdom to tell her what was in store for Beatrice’s future.
Agreed. Seeing as how the two people connected to Echidna both possess the not-Tome of Wisdom, it makes sense that the owner of the true Tome would be Echidna herself. Question is, how did Roswaal get his hands on one of them? Did he also get to meet Echidna?
That’s an interesting question, Berry. Considering Roswaal probably has a human lifespan, he most likely met Echidna himself. I think if he had inherited it from an ancestor that the Tome would have stopped working after that ancestor passed away unless it’s possible to transfer ownership of it.
Berry, I think Subaru saw how actual previous timelines continued on after his death. Remember in episode 15 of Season 1 when Puck cut off Subaru’s head? After that happened the snow continued to fall in an epic credits scene that was like a tribute to a movie.