As soon as Garfiel said that he was going to fight the two witch cult members, I knew something bad was going to happen. Though I didn’t expect to be as bad as it turned out. There was no doubt that someone was gonna get hurt, but my initial thoughts were that they’d get a little banged up, but nothing too serious. I was foolish to believe ReZero would be kind and merciful. If Garfiel wasn’t already in a terrible place emotionally, being the one partially responsible for having Mimi near death like this by engaging in combat must be absolutely crushing. Not to mention he was holding her behind him and if he had been holding her in front, she might not have gotten as hurt as she did. This series feels like they are specifically targeting Garf a lot this season. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were to go mad with grief and guilt in an alternate time line.
But man, hearing Mimi’s brother crying over her being hurt badly and seeing the shared wound on them was really sad to see for me. Especially thinking about how shocking and worrying it would be to just suddenly sustain such a severe wound out of no where. If it weren’t for that bond between the siblings, Mimi would most likely have just straight up died. So in a way, her brothers did end up saving her.
Unfortunately, there seems to be more to Mimi’s wound than initially thought. Not only is it a severe wound, but when Garf came in, there seemed to be a dark aura surrounding the two. And considering her wounds weren’t closing with healing magic and even Wilhelm seemed to recognize the type of wound she sustained, there is definitely more to it. While we don’t know the full extent of it, it seems to be a type of curse from the “Death God.” I have no idea what that is at the moment, all I know that is sounds BAD. It also makes me so curious to see the faces of those two witch cult members because they were a lot more formidable than I had initially thought. Whenever I see witch cult members with their faces covered, I always believe they’re just chumps who will be easy to deal with. NOT THIS TIME. Hopefully there will be an unmasking later on because after seeing what those two are capable of, I do want to know more about them.
Despite viewing it as his fault and personal failure, I’m really glad that Garf is surrounded by understanding people. Subaru has so much faith in Garf and in return, Garf doesn’t want to to fail him. And I am glad that Subaru recognizes that Garf is still a very young teenager and he does need guidance and support from time to time. I also really like the start of a brotherly relationship between Garf and Ricardo. Not only did Ricardo not blame Garf for what happened, but he encourages him to keep going. I feel like Ricardo is Garf’s ideal and I do hope that we see more interactions between the two since I feel like their personalities would mesh well with each other. Especially since I do think Garf would benefit having someone older he could look up to and get wisdom from. Because, heck yes, Ricardo is awesome both in personality and combat prowess. I’ve kind of forgotten just how great he was in the first season since it’s been a while, but I find myself appreciating the guy more now that we’re seeing him again. He even went as far as to carry Subaru knowing that his leg wasn’t doing well. It also just felt so metal with how he was able to restrain all of the multi armed witch cult member and even caught his blade in his freaking mouth.
While we still don’t know a whole lot about Lust, she definitely fits in with the insanity of the Witch Cult members. She is equally annoying as she is terrifying. Laughing hysterically at instances such as the downfall of Garfiel and Mimi and while most likely torturing or killing the innocent people she’s trapped in the tower. Not to mention that she’s a freaking DRAGON???? Of all the things I expected from her, that was certainly not one of them. And though it does feel weird hearing this unhinged cutesy voice coming from a terrifying-looking dragon, I am looking forward to see just what her deal is and what else she is capable of. Even though I’m sure it’s going to end in a lot of deaths through out the alternate time lines. Not only is Lust an issue at the moment, but Gluttony is also in the building. Another Archbishop we don’t know the full extent of his powers. Though considering how he constantly refers to “we”, there might be more than one of him around. Which is definitely going to be quite an issue. With how many massive threats there are right now, I’m not sure how they’re going to get through this without little to no deaths. Since it does feel like they’re incredibly outnumbered in both numbers and power. So it’s hard to picture how they’re going to get out of this situation. I do like all of these characters, so I feel like seeing their gruesome deaths is going to be hard to sit through.
A mild critique, but I feel like they needed a more extreme expression and angle for Subaru when he was yelling at Gluttony at the end. Since this was the moment he finally meets Gluttony, the person responsible for Rem’s situation. I would expect this moment to hit more than it did in terms of framing and art. But whatever, it’s a small nitpick and I’m sure we’ll get more from it in upcoming episodes.
And while all this madness is happening, Reinhard’s freaking dad is being annoying about keeping their strongest fighter out of the fight. When we need him most, he’s being held up by stupidity that is his dad. Literally now is not the time for this! There is a time and place for sorting out familial things, but there are so lives hanging in the balance right now and Reinhard is NEEDED. Granted, the mana users probably wouldn’t be able to fight with him around, but I feel like he could be the key to beating the two problematic Witch Cult members who are still masked. But it honestly infuriated me when Reinhard’s dad insinuated that the people that need to be rescued isn’t as important right now. It doesn’t matter if Reinhard doesn’t know them, innocent lives are in danger and need to be protected!
But nothing disgusted me more than what happened at the very end of the episode. As soon as it was revealed that Emilia was naked under the sheets, I knew what direction it was going. I viscerally recoiled at Regulus asking if Emilia was a virgin and just was filled with so much ick that I verbally yelled in disgust. As much as I hope they can rescue the innocent people in the tower, I really hope they can rescue Emilia soon as well because I don’t want this to happen to her TAT. The thought of Regulus forcing himself on Emilia is so revolting that I really hope and pray they don’t go down that path because after all the pain and trauma Emilia was already forced to go through, I rather not have this on top of it. I hope she puts up a fight and gets herself out of this situation or someone assists her… This episode was so distressing in so many different ways and I know things can only get worse before it gets better.
Man, this season’s stakes and threats makes s2 conflict look like a walk in a park and that’s saying something 😭
Divine Protections or Divine Blessings – depending on the translation – are supernatural abilities that people are born with that are attributed as being gifts from the gods. Even as a light novel reader – only up to where the anime is at – I’m not clear if the gods are real or just something people believe in and attribute the Divine Protections to.
Characters we have seen that the anime has explicitly stated have Divine Protections are:
Otto – hears the “voices” of living creatures
Felt – has a wind-based blessing that aids her movement
Crusch – also has a wind-based blessing – she can sense whether or not someone is telling the truth based on the movement of air around them. Additionally she has a long range wind-based sword slash.
Garfiel – is blessed by the earth and as long as he is touching the ground can replenish his strength and stamina as well as heal rapidly. I believe he also has some ability to make the earth move. I think we see some of that during his fights in season 2.
Reinhard – apparently he has multiple blessings and is pretty much the most OP character in the entire world (that we know of until this point).
All this is to say that when Wilhelm refers to the “Death God” he is talking about the person who slashed Mimi having a Divine Protection from the “Death God”.