Even though this seemed like a slower episode because it was full of exposition, there was still a lot going on and a lot of things we found out. Also just seeing that after-credit scene with Roswaal holding the second copy of the not-Tome of Wisdom was such a vindicating feeling. So much to unpack this time!
To Echidna, it seems that the Return by Death is limitless. It’s caused by Satella’s delusion and as long as she has this delusion, Subaru will continue to have this power. By “delusion”, what does that exactly mean? Like a delusion in the literal sense? With that ending (thank god i wasn’t wearing headphones), it may be the delusion that Satella is in love with Subaru, but then the question is why Subaru specifically? Satella has this obsession with him and she gave him this power because she doesn’t want him to die ever or make mistakes. But what is she doing this for, why Subaru of all people? There must be some goal she wants Subaru to accomplish for her to go this far, but I can’t think of what it could possibly be. It can’t be anything simple as just finding him amusing. It’s also interesting to learn that it’s only Subaru she cares about, anyone else isn’t part of the future and it’s certainly possible to permanently lose those Subaru cares about if he’s not careful. It would seem that Rem isn’t important (poor girl) and is just a blip in all this, but of course Subaru won’t let that continue, such as he’s been doing for all this time. Since his ability is limitless, which Echidna is only guessing right now but it seems to be correct, Subaru can try as many times as he wants.
We then move on to The Great Rabbit, which we disgustingly saw last time is one of the Three Great Mabeasts that were created by Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony. Just like regular rabbits, they breed pretty quickly but these things also breed infinitely and can spread very quickly. The “future” that Subaru was transported to somehow showed the horrors of these terrible creatures, as they eat any living thing in front of them. It’s horrifying to imagine that everyone else went through the same torturous death Subaru did last time, but it goes to show how powerful these things are. For Echidna to say that defeating these rabbits would be even more difficult than the White Whale is a crazy thought considering many lives were lost to that thing. Subaru having to figure out how to defeat those things, while also having to break the barrier and getting everyone out, take them all to the mansion in four days…ugh, I don’t envy him.
I’ve been curious to meet the other witches but they weren’t exactly what I had in mind. I’m not a fan of these loli designs, and Daphne’s in particular is kind of cool but I feel like isn’t too fitting for Re:Zero? Minerva is cute, but again not what I expected. Daphne looks like she belongs in a sci-fi story and not this one with that futuristic iron maiden of hers, so I’m not quite sure what to think but her and Typhon are pretty unsettling.
I’m just shocked that Daphne was way more helpful than I thought since I thought maybe she would have fought back. Her reasoning for creating these Mabeasts are interesting in a twisted way, and she follows her philosophy of killing to survive to help Subaru out, even if it’s against her own creations. The rabbits are lured out by mana and while he may not be able to destroy every single one of them at once, they all share one consciousness so I guess he just needs to destroy most of them? While it was a bit of a chaotic introduction, Subaru was able to get lots of important information out of her that could help him in his next time loop. Using a powerful magic user is a good idea, question is who it would be?
We didn’t really get the most concrete answer to the conditions of having a tea party with a witch. Apparently they get stricter each time and Subaru’s been able to meet those conditions each time, which is crying out “I want to know” from the bottom of his heart. Not exactly what I was looking for, but…okay then. He’ll also be able to meet with her in the trial, though I’m curious to see how Subaru will convince Emilia that he’ll do it instead. Which makes me pretty sad because I was ready to see my girl Emilia go for it and get her own character growth and some spotlight, so it’s disappointing. :/
The whole tea party was pretty great, and we got lots of information but I can’t believe that Subaru forgot all about the pendant. Sure he mentions that he was eaten by rabbits but he for some reason didn’t even ask about WHY he was even in this “future”. I was hoping that would come up while they were talking about The Great Rabbit so now I’m left wondering what the hell even happened. Honestly, while we did learn a great deal there still could have been things Subaru could have asked Echidna but I guess that would make the story a lot more boring.
Whenever Subaru sees Echidna again, I wonder what it is that she wants to tell him.
And just when we thought that we didn’t see enough witches, we find the Sanctuary covered in darkness as Satella embraces Subaru after repeating I love you. Now, either it’s actually Satella in front of them or it’s Satella controlling Emilia and making her do all this because Emilia wasn’t even in the ruins when Subaru woke up, which I find seriously weird. No way would Emilia leave Subaru behind, and if anyone went in to grab them once they noticed something was wrong, I don’t think they would leave Subaru behind either since he was still on friendly terms with everyone at this point. Dammit Satella, what are you doing?!
And Roswaal, hm hm hm! With his Gospel in his arms, he lets himself get swallowed by the darkness. From his words, it seems like this time loop is already a goner, but we’ll see what happens next time. But seeing Roswaal with his own Gospel answers so many questions I’ve had before and it makes me glad, but it still doesn’t quite say what he’s planning and what he wants.
Just when you think things couldn’t escalate any further they certainly do!
Berry, I figured out after a rewatch of episode 8 and watching episode 9 that Subaru wasn’t teleported to the future in the previous episode. Before Subaru got teleported by the crystal, there was a speck of snow that flew by, indicating that Emilia had died and Puck was raging rather than Subaru having been transported to the future. So after Garfiel left to check on Subaru’s jail cell, the rabbits killed Emilia. Episode 9 showed Echidna saying that the only evidence that the Great Rabbit leaves behind is a deserted field, which lead to Subaru thinking back to the building with empty clothes, meaning that everybody in the Sanctuary had their flesh eaten and their blood lapped up by the rabbits. Because of the abundance of snow, it’s highly likely that even Puck in his giant form was eaten by the Great Rabbit even though he probably put up a decent fight, which is a scary thing if the rabbits can do that.
Now, as for Satella, I don’t think that’s Satella controlling Emilia. For starters, she’s wearing different clothes than Emilia, and there’s the purple aura around her that viewers are meant to associate with Satella, the Witch of Envy as we know Emilia does not emit such an aura. Also, when this Satella’s hands touched Subaru, I got the sense that her body isn’t actually tangible by the color of the skin. So this is likely a spectral projection of Satella rather than being the true Satella. I see people speculating that Emilia’s body is being possessed by Satella, but if that was the case, Satella will be unable to leave the Sanctuary barrier since half-elves cannot leave the barrier, but I suspect that Satella will be able to because this is merely a spectral projection of her rather than it being her in the flesh, and a spectral projection can’t be half-anything because it is not a living being with DNA, so that means the projection cannot be held within the barrier..
I also think Minerva is really pretty. Her facial features are the most attractive to me of the Witches of Sin. I also have a soft spot for blondes, and she is such a nice girl. I think she’ll be my favourite witch.
Haha Minerva is definitely a cute one. She’d look great in a magical girl anime.
Puck raging is an interesting theory, but I feel like Puck would easily be able to freeze them and kill them at once. Then again, it really does depend just how many of these rabbits there are.
As for Satella showing up as a spectral projection may be true, but where the heck is Emilia? >_< There’s no telling what’s gonna happen next…
Maybe the rabbits have a resistance to freezing since they are snow bunnies. There are also so many of them that I doubt Puck even in his monster form could 1-shot them all at once.
I think Emilia was probably swallowed by the darkness like everyone else was just like Roswaal had been at the end of the episode..
Oh man that’s a scary thought. Hopefully we’ll get an actual answer.
Mm, that could be it. I wonder if the darkness is automatic death or just enough to make you pass out and drain your energy. Tbh anything with Satella I just think of the worse case scenario.
Berry, I don’t know if you know this, but Nagatsuki Tappei, Re:zero’s author, wrote a script for an upcoming anime after a studio pitched to him to think of something that will involve the skies. It’s called Sen`yoku no Sigrdrifa, and Tappei also did series composition on it, so he had a lot of involvement in this project. It apparently draws some inspiration from Norse myths and could be interesting if the director has done a decent job and hasn’t ruined the storyboard. I will watch this in the fall since I believe Tappei to be a talented writer, and since he is both the scriptwriter and the series composition writer for this series, I expect this to be a somewhat serious show with minimal fanservice like Re:zero, but I’m afraid because A-1 Pictures is doing it, and the people there don’t really have a good track record. Tappei also released 2 light novel volumes that serve as a prequel to the anime.
Yes, I’m interested in checking it out. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to review it but I’ll be sure to check it out since Tappei is behind it.
Berry, I rewatched the tea party stuff after Daphne left, and I think Echidna hinted to Subaru how to properly do everything right this arc. She said she has no hope of getting Emilia to break her out of her shell, but maybe Subaru could do it since he’s intent on doing everything over and over again.
“Even in three days of trial and error, I can’t hold out any hope that she’ll break out of her shell. Or perhaps… you can do it? Since you’ve made up your mind to keep repeating everything, could you give wings to the cowardly princess?”
Echidna implies here that she might have tried to change Emilia’s trial up (maybe starting from the previous loop in which Emilia went through the trial 4 times), and suggested that maybe Subaru could get Emilia to break out of her shell, doing what Echidna herself couldn’t do, but Subaru mistakenly believes that “Or perhaps… you can do it?” meant that he should definitely undergo the trial himself.
I’m glad I caught this on a second watch. I think it’s time I spread the word on different blogs.
Hmm that’s a really interesting way to interpret that and you may be on to something. That could be a possibility!