Holy
Shit
This episode blew me away and caught me completely by surprise. I’m giggling like a huge idiot right now BUT WOW! With a fantastic backstory episode for Otto, Ram just being fantastic as usual, the Subaru and Emilia to that kiss. This had to be one of my favorite episodes, along with Subaru’s backstory episode. This season has been one hell of a wild ride.
So this was a very character-driven episode and these are always my favorite. I really wasn’t expecting a whole backstory for Otto but I absolutely enjoyed it. Otto is one of those characters that I really didn’t expect to like at all when he was introduced in the first season. Honestly, he didn’t seem like a character that would stick around for too long, who would just appear once in awhile to help Subaru and the others out. But here he is and now he’s stolen my heart.
Otto’s backstory sort of reminded me of Zenitsu’s from Demon Slayer, but much worse. Otto was born with divine protection with the “soul of language”. The anime did a great job really giving us a clue to how Otto as a child lived his life, with constant deafening sounds of pretty much everything all at once. For awhile there it was driving me crazy but imagine living with that. It’s maddening, and even worse that he couldn’t really communicate with his family. And what a nice family. I was worried they were going to abandon him or neglect him, but his parents did their best and his older brother was wonderful in helping him write his thoughts so he could communicate since speech was pretty much impossible. And while we don’t know what Otto wrote (darn you fake language), I’m sure it was along the lines of “i love you” and his family being relieved and reciprocating that love, and all of them having a happy cry together. It was an extremely touching scene that got me emotional as well, and I’m glad that none of them changed after that. Unfortunately Otto got himself screwed over with his town and had to leave, and through some ups and downs made a living as a traveling merchant.
I find it so interesting that his ability kept growing along with him, where the deafening sounds faded away and he discovered that he could speak with animals. And we could see from his fight with Garfiel that if he uses it too much it can actually hurt him. I’d love to learn more about it. Otto did so well and my love for him skyrocketed, learning about him and really putting himself out there all for Subaru. Especially when he was alone for a quite awhile, for him to trust Subaru this much and care about him is incredibly sweet and makes their friendship stronger. It’s just crazy how strong the side characters in Re:zero are. Even Ram, who I feel is extremely underappreciated, especially when compared to her much more popular twin. Rem is great, I love her too, but Ram is just as good. Seeing her fight off against Garfiel was super entertaining and her interactions with Otto are fun. The fight with Garfiel was a little off but I thought it was still done well. I just hope these two made it out okay since it looked real ugly.
Now…it’s hard to even start with the second half. If I had to complain about one thing, it would be the lack of interesting angles throughout Subaru and Emilia’s exchange. Re:zero has always done well with its direction and camera angles and I felt it was sort of lacking this time around, but they did do one detail with their faces being reflected in their eyes that I love.
It’s no secret that I love Emilia, and no secret that I ship her hard with Subaru. And this whole scene really shows why I love it so much. First of all, I feel so bad for Emilia and I don’t exactly blame her for how mentally and emotionally weak she is right now. One of Emilia’s biggest fears was being abandoned and left all alone like she once used to be. With Puck being such a huge part of her life, losing him was one step to her breakdown. The only other person she could depend on was Subaru, and he ends up breaking her promise of staying by her side until the next morning. Sure, it may seem like she’s overreacting since it’s not like Subaru’s left her, but we already know from the many time loops before that Emilia isn’t too mentally strong and lost her mind when Subaru left her without saying. What’s a little worse now is that Emilia’s past memories from when she was a child is also coming back, and at this point the anxiety is more than she can handle and she doesn’t even know who she is anymore. Her one bit of support system and friend disappears without explanation and this whole life she didn’t even know about is coming back to her, I don’t blame her for not really knowing what to do and running off.
Now this! This is what Subaru should have done from the start!! He was honest with her and while he screwed up, professed his love to her once again. This time it was sort of akin to Rem’s confession to Subaru back in the first season but less…grandiose. It felt much more heartfelt and sweet, telling her all the things he loves about her and also pointing out her flaws, but still saying he loved her. And it made me giddy that he also used his mother’s words to give Emilia that push. Damn it, it was all just so romantic. I was actually really shocked that they ended up kissing because I really thought that they would save a moment like this for later. I was still in denial it was going to happen because once Subaru started leaning in, I thought “Ah, they’ll just get interrupted like in pretty much every other anime in existence”, with Garfiel busting into the place after dealing with Otto and Ram. Nope. It actually happened, it was beautiful, and I couldn’t stop myself from screaming a tiny bit but giggling a lot. And I think my favorite part from the kiss was Subaru asking for Emilia’s consent before he did it. He gave Emilia the choice to dodge away if she really didn’t want it, but she made her decision and they kissed. That tiny gesture may not seem like such a huge deal, but with so many anime having kiss scenes be sort of one-sided with one person surprising the other with a kiss, it’s so refreshing and sweet for Subaru to ask Emilia first before kissing her. Just him asking her shows how much he loves and respects her, and that his love for her is the real thing.
The whole time Subaru was really looking at Emilia, and I loved the detail of Subaru’s eyes reflecting Emilia’s face into them. While Emilia wasn’t sure to trust him, we could see that Subaru meant every single word he was saying. Emilia didn’t have that same detail in her eyes as she was so unsure, but it wasn’t until the end after their kiss that her eyes finally reflected Subaru’s face as she was finally able to see him and trust him. Ugh, my heart. It was just so well done and completely took me by surprise and I can’t stop being happy. What a beautiful moment.
There’s no way in hell Subaru can die in this time loop. With all we got this episode, I can’t see it happening. Please, don’t take this away from me… I’m so happy and satisfied. <3 Looks like we might get back into plot stuff next time with whatever is going to happen with Garfiel, but man it’s nice getting character-centric episodes like these. It just really makes me appreciate the characters and their relationships more. c:
♥
I also like that Subaru asked for Emilia’s permission unlike the one-sided kisses that are popular in other series.
Ram started bleeding from her horn area, and I’m guessing that because she no longer has a horn that if she exerts herself too hard, she’ll bleed from there. I remember back in Season 1 when Roswaal touched her horn area, saying something like she expended a lot of mana and that he was going to tend to her, so maybe her horn area after the Ulgarm fight was feeling tender or stressed out from exertion.
yea this episode was pretty much make you wanna cry and happy at the same time especially the kiss scene. Now I’m so eager to watch the next episode
I have a possibly controversial theory about why Subaru has such unwavering affection for Emilia based mainly off of Episodes 18, 21, and 25 of Re:zero.
In episode 25, Subaru said if Emilia mentioned 10 things she hated about himself that he’d tell her 2,000 things he likes about her. In episode 18, Puck told Petelgeuse that if he wants to kill them he needs to generate a thousand shadow hands, half of what Satella could, which is 2,000. This suggests that perhaps the reason Subaru thought of that specific number is that Satella influenced him subconsciously.
I’m positive that Satella can influence Subaru given that she can read his mind and determine if his intent is to reveal Return by Death, which shows that subconsciously, there is a connection between them even if Subaru has no access to Satella, the Witch of Envy’s thoughts. So if Satella can make Subaru think of the number 2,000, which is associated with her, it’s possible that part of the reason Subaru’s affection for Emilia is so strong is because Emilia looks just like Satella, and Satella is subconsciously making him obsessed with someone who looks just like she does.
In episode 21, when Crusch offered to Subaru to become one of her men, he turned her down and said it wasn’t about loyalty or allegiance, but his faith lies exactly where it should. This shows that his reason for supporting Emilia perhaps does not have a very solid foundation if loyalty has nothing to do with it
I want to state clearly now that I’m not saying that the entire reason Subaru is attracted to Emilia is because of Satella. He does have a thing for silver-haired girls as shown by his taste in anime heroines, and Emilia did show that she had very good character when he first got summoned to the world and was struggling by himself in a foreign land, but I do think what he feels for Emilia is partially a result of the Witch of Envy’s influence.
I know posting this right after Subaru kissed Emilia is bad timing since it’ll be a sensitive topic, but I meant to post this earlier in the week before the latest episode aired, but I was busy and didn’t have the time to do so.
On another note, I’m now going to post my analysis of the Priscilla and Subaru scene in episode 16, which I feel is related to the topic given that I think Subaru will end up with Priscilla.
My interpretation of the scenes in which Priscilla had an extreme reaction to Subaru considering licking her foot and her decision to grab Subaru’s arm and say to Emilia, “Is there a reason you stare at my manservant, half-wit?” is that Priscilla actually found Subaru to be attractive and possibly a potential lover after he had the moxie to show her that appas have red skin and stand up to the thugs even though he was a weakling. To me, Priscilla saying, “It seems you really are just an insignificant man!” shows that she thought Subaru was more than just a loser before he made a fool of himself at the castle, and her challenging Subaru to lick her foot was an attempt to see if he actually had any dignity left and to see whether he’d show the same kind of attitude he had when they first met, which was one that didn’t show deference to her and even taught her something new. Basically, I believe Priscilla was shit testing Subaru to see if he was worthy of her after her initial positive impression of him contrasted with his ugly outburst at the castle.
On the surface, Priscilla may have been calling Subaru a jester and a clown, which would give reason for people to think she isn’t attracted to Subaru, but I didn’t take Priscilla’s words at face value because of just how offended Priscilla actually was by Subaru deciding to actually lick her foot. She lectured him about what he displayed not being an act of loyalty or devotion but more akin to a pig’s greed, leading her to say she would strike down any camp he was a part of, and this tells me that Subaru’s decision to lick her foot was something that was the complete opposite of what Priscilla wanted even though on the surface she made it sound like favouring his miniscule pride would lead to an undesirable result. I believe Priscilla decided that she would make a weak pathetic Subaru her mortal enemy was because he did something that insulted her to the core, and for someone as extremely proud and confident in herself to the extreme as Priscilla is, it would be to show that she was wrong about her judgement in some way, and that would be that Subaru showed that he was pathetic and not worth her time after she would go as far as to try and make Emilia jealous by grabbing his arm and suggesting that Subaru was her (Priscilla’s) manservant at the Royal Palace. Showing that she was wrong to think more of Subaru was shameful to her, so much that she beat the hell out of him, lectured him, and threatened him to strike down any camp he was a part of. That shows she wants Subaru to be humiliated as much as she had been or even moreso because it was a personal humiliation for her that she misjudged Subaru. This interpretation is backed by Priscilla saying, “Your careless behavior and attitude have lead me to that decision!” I do note that Priscilla may also have been angry because Subaru abandoned his pride, and for someone who values her pride so much, seeing Subaru lower himself to that level might have disgusted her, but I believe the main source of her anger that bordered on rage was a sense of humiliation. If Subaru was just a little ant or clown to her, she would not have reacted the way she did in my opinion.
I know it might be a tough sell since it’s just one scene from a character that has only showed up in 3 episodes so far, but Priscilla’s outrage along with her body language during the scene which included her playing with her hair and uncrossing and crossing her legs says to me that she thought of Subaru as being more than just a clown or jester. I have seen some people say that the author has a mean streak with that Priscilla scene and was being nasty to Subaru for the hell of it, but I think that that scene had a lot of care and craft in how it was presented based on Priscilla’s tone of voice and also the music and tension and that it might be relevant to the endgame of Re:zero. I do acknowledge that it’ll be extremely difficult to convince Re:zero watchers that this particular interpretation is correct barring the airing of additional unreleased content that might be on the longer side of several seasons away, but I try my best to put myself into the shoes of the characters and see whether their interactions made sense, and coming to the conclusion I did was the only way I could make sense of Priscilla’s outrage in that scene. Her reaction changing from disappointment initially (judging by the voice acting and the line, “It seems you really are just an insignificant man!”) to that of righteous indignation is why I believe what I do about that scene.
Now comes the part that will be something I don’t think anyone but me has predicted. I believe that Subaru will end up with a look-alike of Priscilla at the end of Re:zero when he gets sent back to the regular modern human world after Satella, the Witch of Envy, possesses Emilia’s body and gets Subaru to kill her with the help of a coalition of fighters, and Satella sends him back to where he came from in her dying moments. I believe Subaru will eventually grow closer to Priscilla in future arcs of Re:zero, and Subaru will have to settle with a look-alike of her when he returns to the world he grew up in. Luckily for Subaru, Priscilla has no recollection of the time he seriously considered licking her foot given that he was killed off by Puck in that loop, so there is time to mend that relationship.
Why do I believe that Subaru has no chance of being with Emilia at the end of Re:zero? In the anime, there are already two incidents that suggest that Satella will possess Emilia at the end of the series. In Season 1, Petelgeuse stated that the Witch Cult’s goal is to test Emilia to see if she can be a vessel for the Witch, and if so, the Witch will be revived on a coming fated day. The second incident is in Season 2 when Satella told Subaru to come kill her one day, and given that Satella’s original body is immortal, that would only be possible if Satella possessed a body that can be killed, and Emilia’s body fits the bill for that purpose. Thus, Satella’s endgame goal is to possess Emilia’s body and finally be killed off. Maybe Emilia is Subaru’s first love, but she won’t be the one he ends up with in my opinion.