So the guy really was Reid Astrea, to which felt really obvious considering the physical similarities that all Astrea members share. But that also meant that this guy was going to be a PROBLEM. And he is… in more ways than one. Poor Julius though. He was definitely the focal point of this episode and I think it shed a lot of insight on him. Julius has always been portrayed as someone who comes in clutch whenever called upon with an air of confidence albeit very different from Reinhard. However, this was the first time we actually saw him get absolutely thrashed and couldn’t stand a chance against Reid with chopsticks no less. Though considering Reid’s lineage, it’s not too surprising.
To which, it must have been extra frustrating to find out that Emilia was able to defeat Reid right after his defeat not by ability, but by Reid being stupid. As much as I was rooting for Emilia to completely smoke him, especially with her literally just going ice Unlimited Bladeworks on him, the only reason she was able to defeat him was because she set up a bet in her favor and doesn’t react like a normal person in certain circumstances because girl is just too pure for this world lol. Though I guess you could say that Emilia was able to take advantage of Reid’s “weaknesses” even if she wasn’t aware of them or did it purposefully. However, even though Emilia was able to defeat him, we were soon made aware of a condition I don’t think anyone was thinking of. I think we all figured that if one person was able to defeat Reid, the whole group would be able to pass. So the fact that EACH PERSON has to defeat him in order to pass through, made this challenge essentially impossible. Especially since I doubt the rest of the group can even take Reid on one-on-one. Unless they challenge him to a specific circumstance similarly to how Emilia did. But gosh… the guy is so freaking gross, I can’t with him.
I do like we got more Julius focus in this episode since I do really like the guy. While we don’t know the whole context of his background, from what we were shown, it does seem like while he has a good relationship with Reinhard, there is probably a sense of inferiority towards him. Considering how Reinhard is, it’s hard not to blame Julius for feeling that way if it’s true. Especially with the amount of effort he must have put to even get to his position. And because of Gluttony, all of his efforts and recognition got stripped away from him. While he often doesn’t show it on the outside, he must be feeling absolutely devastated on the inside. And we can see cracks of it showing in this episode.
It’s so interesting to see how much Julius and Subaru are actually fairly similar in certain aspects despite Subaru most likely denying it. Especially with how the show mirrored their match with Julius and Reid with Julius being in Subaru’s position. Both have a stupid amount of pride and stubbornness that got them into messes where they tried to prove themselves, only for them to be completely obliterated in a very one-sided fight. For a moment, I actually thought Julius had died, only to be revealed he was just knocked out thankfully. It was also interesting to find out that Julius actually had a lot of respect for Subaru speaking out against the prejudice of Emilia and trying to protect her despite how that made him look. While I don’t like the aspect of them trying to justify Subaru’s actions in that moment, especially since that scene did not end up going very well in the long-run, I will agree that Subaru lashing out because of Emilia being slandered was valid despite it not being the time or place. And even though what Julius did to Subaru was pretty severe, he did do it to save Subaru from the other knights. Though I’m sure Julius was also rightly miffed by Subaru’s dismissal that all knights only got to their positions because they were born into the roles considering he DID put the effort into getting where he was. But it shows that Julius always had a certain amount of respect for Subaru despite their rocky first impressions.
Despite Subaru’s unwarranted disdain for the guy, he probably is able to see a bit of himself in Julius. Especially when Julius claimed he would be fine on his own. But after all the suffering Subaru went through to really pound the lesson that he CAN’T do everything on his own, Subaru knew Julius wouldn’t be able to continue with that mindset. And I’m sure a small part of him probably is thankful for Julius in that moment since it showed him just how pathetic he was actually being. I’m glad it seems like the two are starting to connect to the other better and hopefully we still get to see their bond grow since I feel like this only touched the surface. Considering we don’t know the full context of Julius’ story and there is still a lot of room for him to grow as a character.
Aside from all the Julius stuff this episode, it did drop a few things on us that makes me wonder where that information will lead. Not only are there actually more people on Reinhard’s level in other countries but it probably means THEY’RE GONNA BE A PROBLEM. Another thing that was brought to attention was why “Anastasia” was so desperate to help Julius. Especially since everyone should have forgotten about him, why was Echidna desperate enough to exhaust Anastasia’s gate in order to help him. I honestly have no idea what that could mean, so I’ll probably just have to wait and see.
