I know Shadow says this every week but I love Emilia just as much as her and I will continue the tradition because she absolutely deserves it after this episode…
I LOVE EMILIA!! I love her I love her I freaking love her
This was a great episode and I’m glad we came back to this fight immediately. I don’t want to be too annoying and gush about Emilia forever but I just have to point out her growth from being a more soft-spoken character on the side, not sure of herself, to now being a strong-willed lady standing up for herself and others. She’s so full of compassion and kindness but isn’t afraid to speak her mind and show Regulus what she really thinks. I loved the scene back in the cathedral with Emilia and the wives as she tried to convince them to stand up for themselves and to help uncover Regulus’ secret. Even something as simple as asking for the blonde wife’s name, Sylphy, is enough to form a connection and trust. Emilia telling people that she’s half elf with such normalcy is different than how she used to be hiding this detail about herself and even being scared. It shows just how much more Emilia is comfortable with herself that now she can truly reach out to others and not close herself away anymore. Sure Subaru could maybe rally the girls up himself but this was really something that only Emilia could do, and I’m glad she was able to move the wives and have ALL of them speak up. Hearing them all absolutely trash talk Regulus without holding back was wonderful, that man deserves all those insults slung at him.
Sure enough the wives absolutely had something to do with taking down Regulus. I had every right to be worried about them at the end of the last episode, but with how hopeful the scene was and Emilia not letting a mass suicide happen, I knew that she must have used her ice on all of them to stop their hearts. Such smart thinking! Now it makes sense why Regulus had gone out to grab as many wives as he could, other than his obvious greed. Planting a piece of his own heart into all of them is such a cruel, albeit smart for him, move to secure his own safety. The more wives the better and if they couldn’t figure that out, Regulus could have easily carried on. No one would want to mercilessly kill a bunch of innocent women. Regulus is truly a despicable man.
Truly a despicable man with such a pathetic disrespectful death that he 100% deserved. Even though I hate how overused this word is on the internet, Regulus would not stop yapping. Through and through he would not shut his mouth and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes whenever he would shift blame and try to make himself as the victim. How could you murder the wives, how inhumane can you be, how dare you team up against me two to one? Having his breakdown while flying through the sky, dude who cares. The second the tables turned on him was so satisfying, even more when he finally reached his end. From beginning to end he was an aggravating villain with a most satisfying death. The second he was stripped of his Authority he was a pathetic man and he died that way. And it came full circle as he died with his own greed, abusing his last resort power of stopping his heart to try and save himself. Good riddance.
The action scenes as usual were incredible. Now let me just say…this totally felt like a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure episode, right? The absolute absurdity of everything, especially with Reinhard, reminded me of JJBA so much that I couldn’t help but laugh. The best scene in this episode was Emilia beating the absolute shit out of Regulus with her 53 punches reminded me of Jotaro’s 1000 punches. But instead of a badass ORA ORA ORA we continue to get Emilia’s adorable battle cries of “Eyy! Ha! Kyaaa!” Reinhard jumping off the moon (and leaving a crater), crashing down in a ball of flame like a meteor, throwing Regulus into the sky and then somehow landing on top of him while in the sky has to be one of the craziest things we’ve ever seen in Re:zero and I couldn’t stop laughing. Jojo reference again, it reminded me of Battle Tendency when Joseph sent Kars to space to kill him. If only Reinhard actually sent Regulus to the moon or just in space that would have been even more funny and beautiful. I sure hope Teppei was inspired but JJBA when he wrote all this, that would be funny.
Funny bizarre moments aside, I really love seeing Subaru and Emilia work together. The trust they have in each other is wonderful, with Subaru sending Emilia to the cathedral and Emilia trusting Subaru to help with her heart. I almost forgot that Subaru also possesses the Unseen Hand and lucky for him too. It’s a great thing that Emilia froze all the wives to temporarily stop their hearts because it seemed like it took a lot out of Subaru to use the Unseen Hand that one time. There was no way he could do it 53 more times to save the rest of them, but it’s great that if he focuses enough he has total control over this terrifying ability.
This was a fantastic episode and I’m glad Regulus is done for. The Subaru/Emilia/Reinhard teamwork was great to see, as well as the wives being able to live and start over. Now that we’re done here and (temporarily) done with Wrath, looks like we’ll be getting back to the fight with Wilhelm and his wife. That should be an emotional one.
Shadow will be back with next week’s episode, thanks for sticking with me! This is a great season of Re:zero so far and I can’t wait to see how this particular season will end~ <3
Berry, Subaru’s Authority isn’t Unseen Hand but Invisible Providence, but it seems he called it that to honour Petelgeuse as a strong adversary who caused him much suffering since Regulus was trashing him and for being his inspiration for saving the day. That’s somewhat confirmed when after Regulus asks them what they did to his Authority Subaru says he was counterattacked by an enemy he made light of, showing he was indeed honouring Petelgeuse.
If you recall, Subaru revealed in the Memory Snow OVA he was named after a star cluster. Subaru means Pleiades in Japanese, and Pleiades is a star cluster in the Taurus constellation. Al’s true name, Aldebaran, is a star in the same constellation following that star cluster in the sky. Aldebaran means “the follower” in Arabic for that reason. While the names of certain stars hint at the powers of Sin Archbishops, it’s probably better to consider Al’s name in relation to Subaru since Al isn’t a cultist.
Since Aldebaran follows Pleiades, perhaps Al was given that name ’cause he was Naoko and Kenichi’s next son after Subaru, which showed a fixation from them on their first son who disappeared. Al told Priscilla not to call him Aldebaran in Episode 16, and that might be ’cause it’s a constant reminder his parents loved Subaru more than they loved him.
Since names have power in Re:zero, his name could indicate that Aldebaran would be the next person summoned after Subaru was. As for why he was summoned to this world before Subaru was but knows more info about the Witch Cult, he might’ve been the previous hero of the story before Subaru was.
In The Frozen Bond OVA, Melakuera, the previous Great Spirit of Fire, stated he had faced world-ending crises countless times and ranted about the Witch’s return. Some people may dismiss it as discrimination against Emilia ’cause of her resemblance with Satella, but he may have witnessed a Witch returning repeatedly with the world burning every time.
This potentially implies a curse was casted thousands/millions of years ago (the world being destroyed repeatedly doesn’t mean those events aren’t part of the world’s history) in which the world’s reconstructed repeatedly after its destruction from a powerful Witch. In the distant past a TBD hero may have faced off against the big bad of Re:Zero, and in a moment of weakness when the hero had to choose between the world and his lover, he chose his half-elf lover, dooming it to destruction with that final boss cursing the world to be biased toward repeating that hero’s failure for eternity.
Al may have been the immediate previous hero, and he might’ve known all too well in the short the only person Beatrice would allow calling her Beako is Subaru isn’t ’cause he’s Subaru but ’cause he has some of his memories, which was driving him insane until meeting Subaru, which was revealed in the next short. Can’t share more on theories since Eva limited me to 500 words.