And just when you think the episode is going to end one way, it ends differently. This was a very intense episode and the episode leaves off an a great cliffhanger for next time.
As I suspected, Subaru’s reset point is right after finishing his trial. He wakes up beside a scared Emilia just like before and things proceed a little differently. They all gather and Emilia comes in to talk about the trial, and Subaru kind of annoyed me here. We all know what he means when he told Emilia that he could take part in the trial for her. We know that he does trust her but he doesn’t want her to be in pain and not have to face it if she doesn’t want to. But Emilia rightfully took it as Subaru not believing in her to complete the trial, and it bothered me that Subaru didn’t even apologize for it. He tells Garfiel later to do it for him, and that he also left a letter, but c’mon man. You should know better than that by now. :/
After Subaru’s conversation with Roswaal, I’m 100% convinced that he knows that Subaru has Reset by Death. That “this time” was so obvious, he said it as if he knew what Subaru was talking about and yet Subaru didn’t even catch his mistake? Roswaal didn’t sound confused like other characters have when Subaru let something slip, so I just believe he knows something. And this isn’t the only thing I’m suspicious about. We now know that Frederica is innocent in all this, at least I think all suspicion isn’t on her anymore. Frederica has no idea about the teleportation from the crystal, and we know that the crystal from Garfiel makes her transform into her beast form (I guess the same for Garfiel?). She’s definitely not working with Elsa and she risked her life (and died) to protect the others. Elsa said that she was told that she would only have to deal with three, two maids and a shut-in (Beatrice) and then Subaru afterwards. She was told that Subaru arrived earlier than expected, so my question is who is her client and how is she getting this information? There’s a traitor giving away inside information and to me, the only person that might do that would be Roswaal.
If so, then why? What does it have to do with anything? Is he relying on Subaru to take out Elsa like he eventually did taking on the Witch’s Cult and Betelgeuse? That just further proves that Roswaal knows about Subaru’s power and he’s using him for ulterior motives. I’m not sure why, but I think Beatrice might be in on it too.
She seems to have some sort of bond with Roswaal and she seems like an all-knowing person. Ram surprised us when she mentioned she felt as if Subaru threw her aside before, which he did in a certain timeline. It might be possible that the other characters can be aware of the other timelines as well, maybe some more than others and that might include Beatrice. Unless she’s like Roswaal and totally does know it. I feel like Subaru is going to die in this timeline, but first we’re probably going to get a really good conversation between him and Beatrice. Why would she bother saving him now and not everyone earlier when things were bad? And even though it wasn’t mentioned in this timeline, Subaru can ask Beatrice that question. We’ll see what we learn then.
This was a very intense episode, and it hurt to hear Ram say that she’d rather leave Rem behind, even though she believes that Rem is her sister. If this memory loss wasn’t a thing, I don’t think Ram would have said something like that but since she doesn’t have any emotional attachment as of right now, she can say something like this. Frederica is pretty cool and I love her beast form, and Petra is much stronger and braver than I thought. It’s sad that they were killed though. I do wonder if we’ll ever get a timeline where characters will permanently die, though I don’t wish for that to start now. >_<
This is the first episode of season 2 that is past my knowledge from the novels. So it’s exciting not knowing what’s going to happen next.
Early on in the novels during the Roswaal Manor arc there were a couple of pages from Ram’s point of view where she mused over the fact that she was the most important person to Rem. However for Ram the most important person in her life was Roswaal. She cared deeply for her sister but Roswaal came first.
The power of the Archbishop of Gluttony and the White Whale to eat/erase people seems to be imperfect in that the way the world adjusts for their absence leaves things that don’t add up. Ram vaguely remembers Subaru throwing her at Rem as a decoy but because the incident involved Rem her memory of it is jumbled and confused. She remembers bits of what happened but can’t connect the dots. That incident happened in the current timeline so it’s not proof that Ram can remember things from other timelines.
In the novels Crusch actually had a technique for keeping track of when soldiers from her army were erased by the White Whale. The trick was that the soldiers were divided into squads of 10. They would do a head count on each squad and know if they had lost someone even if they couldn’t remember them. Because there were supposed to be 10 people in a squad if they only had 9 and they couldn’t remember the 10th person they would still know they had lost someone.
I always wondered about Ram and her close relationship with Roswaal. In this particular timeline you’d think that Ram had 100% loyalty to him because he’s the only one in her life (and not Rem), but they’ve always been very close. Is it simply because he brought them into his mansion or is there something I’m not remembering? I’m sorry if I am. >_<
Huh that’s a very smart tactic from Crusch. I’d really like to check out the novels to see what details the anime skipped out on.
I’m not a 100% sure but I have a theory for why she is so loyal at least in part.
It’s more explicit in the novels but it is referred to in season one that Satella was too powerful to be killed and was sealed away instead by a dragon, a sage and a hero.
The first King of Lugunica formed a contract with a dragon for the protection of the Kingdom. This contract was passed down through the bloodline so that each new ruler inherited the contract. It’s a little unclear even in the novels but I think the dragon that protects the Kingdom is the same dragon that was involved in sealing Satella away. In fact Satella may have been the reason the contract for protection was formed in the first place.
In the novels the current royal selection process that Emilia is taking part in is explained more clearly. The purpose of the selection is to find someone to form a new contract of protection with the dragon now that the previous royal family has been wiped out. Whoever forms the contract will automatically become the Kingdom’s new ruler.
The Kingdom’s elders who are temporarily governing are orchestrating the selection process according to instructions that are on some kind of magical stone tablet. The instructions on the tablet are incomplete and are magically updated periodically. So basically the elders have to carry out the instructions as they appear and then wait for new instructions.
The first part of the process was to search the country – possibly the world – for the five eligible candidates for the throne. This task was assigned to the Knights of Lugunica. They searched far and wide to find these candidates with the aid of five magical insignias that would glow when an eligible candidate touched them. This was why in season one Reinhard carried Felt off when originally he was going to let her go. He saw the magical insignia in her hand glow and realised she was one of the candidates the Knights had been searching for.
In season one Roswaal said to Ram that his goal is to kill the dragon that Emilia will form a contract with if she succeeds in the royal selection process. From what I can tell the only way he can get into the dragon’s presence in order to kill it is if he accompanies Emilia when she goes to form the contract.
So the question is why does Roswaal want to kill the dragon? Assuming that it is the dragon that is keeping Satella sealed away I can think of two possibilities. The first is that he is affiliated with Satella in some way and trying the free her. The second is that he wants to kill Satella but in order to do that he has to free her first. I think the second possibility is more likely because if Ram knew that was Roswaal’s intention it might go a long way towards explaining her loyalty to him. It was Witch Cultists devoted to Satella who destroyed Rem and Ram’s village and killed their family. It would stand to reason that Ram sees Satella as the ultimate source of all her woes. It may be that Ram wants revenge more than anything and that Roswaal is the one offering it to her.
For Roswaal’s part he seems to hold Echidna in high regard and Echidna was killed by Satella. Whatever grudge he holds against Satella may have been one passed down in his family over generations. Perhaps his family owes Echidna some debt that they have never been able to repay.
Well damn that’s a really great theory and I hope you’re right because it sounds plausible, and also amazing! It does make sense for Ram to hold that much loyalty for Roswaal if that were all true. I’m looking forward to see if this is how things will play out~
Elsa revealing that she was supposed to kill Frederica, Petra, and Beatrice shortly before Subaru arrives, which is what happened in the previous loop, shows that whoever hired Elsa knew exactly when Subaru would come back in that loop, which suggests that whoever that person is has knowledge of the future.
Last week, I noted that I think Roswaal can see the future, and given that it’s extremely unlikely that any of Ram, Frederica, Petra, and Beatrice would hire Elsa just to get themselves killed, Roswaal is very likely to be the culprit. As for why Roswaal would hire Elsa, maybe he is just trying to figure out Subaru’s power. Puck saying, “I’m counting on you to protect Lia.” shows that he is not coming out to help Emilia on purpose and is likely in on part of Roswaal’s plan (to have Emilia complete the trials) even if Puck doesn’t 100% know all the details. Whether Beatrice is also in on the plan is something I am wondering as well, Berry. I just can’t believe that Beatrice knows 100% of Roswaal’s intentions given that Elsa had been instructed to kill Beatrice, but whatever response that statement Ram said to tell Beatrice (Roswaal said to ask the question) is meant to elicit will likely be important in showing just what exactly Beatrice knows about the situation, and this should be something to look forward to.
As I expected, Frederica was simply acting on Roswaal’s orders, and the crystal’s teleporting had nothing to do with her. Either Roswaal had tampered with her crystal, or the crystal was innately tied to Echidna for some reason, but given that the crystal makes Frederica and presumably Garfiel transform, the latter being true would not make much sense at all. All signs point to Roswaal at this point, and maybe this is one grand scheme to give all characters involved some information but not all of it, so he can figure out how Subaru gets things done.
Knowing the future makes sense, but I wonder that because if we had to figure out Elsa’s arrival from putting both timeloops together, it gets a little strange. Elsa did say in the current loop that Subaru arrived earlier than expected, which means that she was expecting him the same day and time as in the previous loop. If in that previous loop Elsa killed everyone in the mansion at the same day and time as the current loop, does that mean she waited 2-3 days for Subaru to arrive or did she kill them all right before he arrived? They made it sound like she waited but I’m not too sure.
Yeah all fingers point to Roswaal, but at this point I wonder if he already knows how Subaru gets things done. He could possibly be testing his powers more, and if he is behind all this, he’s actually having more of an influence in everything compared to the other times (maybe?).
I think Elsa waited to kill them in the first loop. She said it’d be timed so that they’d be dead shortly before Subaru arrives. The only problem with her plan was that Subaru arrived earlier than she expected, and that’s probably why she needed Maylie’s help. She said Maylie took some of her credit for the kills, so Maylie is probably the one who let the mabeast in.