Compared to the previous episodes, this episode felt so much more lowkey. Which is probably a good thing because that last episode left me extremely on edge and uncomfortable. So we were in desperate need of a cool down episode where we can actually breathe. Okay so the party being separated was a very brief thing. I thought they’d stretch that out just a LITTLE longer, but I guess we move on.
There were a lot of things that interested me and also worried me in the first few minutes of the episode. Like how the sin archbishops that Subaru had helped kill show up at the start of the episode. Not exactly sure what part they’re playing here, but I honestly did not expect to see them make a comeback. Though it does have me wonder if Subaru will actually inherit Greed’s Authority just like he did Sloth’s. If he does, that will definitely make him fairly overpowered, but an interesting development nonetheless. Especially since it would most likely help him avoid death a lot more. Another thing that was brought up that ended up making me very worried was how much attention they paid to Subaru putting Emilia’s hand to the side. It’d be one thing if he did that while the camera was pulled out on him, but the fact that they were zoomed in on their hands has me a bit worried. Does this mean that something may create a rift between them or Subaru will be growing further away from her? I don’t like the idea of that, so I guess I’ll have to see what the heck that is foreshadowing. Especially since it does seem like Emilia may be slowly developing actual feelings for him considering she got jealous.
To which, brings us to this new character that was teased in the opening… She already exhausts me. I don’t understand why every season HAS to add a hyperactive, genki girl to the mix. The other girl last season was annoying and exhausting enough, but Shaula… I wish to leave. They also just sound the same and it makes me tired. It also doesn’t help that she already has an infatuation with Subaru because she believes he’s her master. However, it does seem like there’s more to her than this genki persona she has going on. Considering Beatrice warned Subaru not to reveal he’s not actually her master and she had a momentary unreadable reaction to Subaru telling her to not attack anyone. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding her at the moment so I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up being a reason for one of Subaru’s deaths in the future and is probably integral to the overall plot unfortunately. Especially since she shares the same name as one of the people on this world’s coins.
I am a bit bummed that Ram is already getting sidelined at the moment to watch over Rem while the others are doing puzzles. But hopefully she’ll have more screentime later. In the meantime, Julius continues to amuse me. The fact he believed the one who would become the beginning of the Astrea family would be this upstanding warrior and hilariously asked for Shauna’s opinion on him even though she initially replied that he was a jerk. That part had me cackling. Julius just continues to give me more reasons as to why he’s one of my favs in this series lol. And then he goes on to be in total disbelief while Shauna goes on to explain why the guy he looked up to was a bully and a jerk. Poor guy literally had his world rocked from that information lol.
After several seasons of Re:zero, I have begun to notice something about it that does bother me a little. Isekai series have a really bad habit on making the main character who got transported or reincarnated into a new world as someone who ends up being the best and everyone loves them. Now, Subaru didn’t start out that way and I believe they did a really good job on developing him as a character. However, lately, it seems like he’s slowly devolving into the typical isekai protagonist as he is attracting a lot more attention, everyone is constantly praising him and he’s the only person who can figure things out because he came from a different world. While rewatching the previous season with my friend, she pointed out as to why the archbishops have star names from earth and their abilities are directly influenced by the source of their names. Which, is honestly a good question. Since in theory, their names should probably correlate more to the world they are in. One could argue that it could tie this world and Subaru’s world together in a way. But on the other hand, it starts feeling like an excuse for Subaru to come in with his worldly knowledge to save the day. Which is kind of how I felt when he figured out the puzzle since no one in this world could possibly figure it out. While I still like that the series continues to uphold the theme of Subaru being unable to do things on his own, I am starting to notice that it is starting to fall into typical isekai tropes. Hopefully it doesn’t completely fall into that trap.
