All I want is for Emilia to not be sad but I guess that’s too much to ask.
After a bit of a break, we come back to Re:zero and it looks like things are going to ramp up now that Subaru made a deal with Roswaal. It’s a pretty huge bet that he’s making, hoping to both liberate the Sanctuary and protect the mansion. We know this is a huge feat, and I wonder what’ll happen to Subaru if he happens to fail. Dying…maybe. But I’m sure that Roswaal will have his own condition as Subaru does, being that Roswaal must be there in the future for Emilia. Roswaal never stated what he wanted if Subaru would lose the bet so I’m just afraid that Subaru jumped into something a little too quickly again.
I like that we started off with the Otto scene from last time. The first time Otto and Subaru declared each other friends was really sweet and wholesome, but this time it left an even bigger impact. This was a real turning point for the both of them, Otto pleading with Subaru and Subaru seriously relying on others for help. I’m not sure if Subaru told Otto EVERYTHING but they seem to be on the same page, and Otto is just really cool. What a bro.
This was a pretty good episode but I feel like there was a bit too much going on and it was a little fast, which is a complaint I’ve had for this season. Emilia’s past, the bet with Roswaal, the Ryuzu convo, Puck, and Ryuzu Shima missing. These are all great and interesting things but they kind of went by a little too quickly and didn’t quite have the emotional impact.
Emilia’s past I know was just a little snippet, I’m so excited to see what else we’re going to learn. I just realized I didn’t watch Memory Snow and there were a couple of scenes I didn’t recognize? Shit. It was great knowing Emilia’s reason for wanting to take part in the royal selection, which is to hopefully save her family and people that are encased in ice with Roswaal’s help. I always wondered how the two of them met and what kind of relationship they had, so that was a great reveal. We also see a tiny snippet of Emilia’s memories with a woman named Fortuna (her mother?) and nothing more.
It’s interesting that Puck’s contract sealed away some of Emilia’s memories. I sort of had a theory of who Puck made a contract with, but I’m not sure why Emilia’s memories of her youth are a concern but there’s still so much of Re:zero with its characters and world we still don’t know much about. Also it’s just suffering that we finally get to see and hear Puck after such a long time and then he breaks the contract and disappears just like that! T_T Puck and Emilia’s relationship is really special and I grew to love it so much more after the movie, and I would have been more of an emotional mess when Puck disappeared, but like I said the moment felt a little too quick and didn’t feel right. If this really is it for Puck, that’s really how it’s gonna go down? I don’t know if we’ll ever see Puck again so I will say I’m a little disappointed in with this scene, but it still makes me sad. He couldn’t even explain why he had to break the contract and leave, but I’m going to guess that he at least had enough time to explain it all to Subaru before that scene cut away to Emilia. Just another thing we’ll have to wait the answers for.
This hasn’t happened in any of the previous loops so this could possibly be the thing for Emilia to pass the trials. Subaru is finally giving Emilia his precious time and is actually listening to her, and that scene of them together made me so happy. Also a little exasperated because the entire time I was thinking “Damn it Subaru, this is what you should have been DOING FROM THE START!”
We learned about lots of other things, such as various Ryuzus being in command and Shima (the one that hangs out with Garfiel) going against the contract with Echidna in order to help Garfiel. There’s also still much we don’t know about Garfiel and his family situation, but they sure love to tease this stuff.
A pretty good start to this half, and it looks like Subaru’s plan is already in action. What on earth is he going to do to liberate the Sanctuary and save the mansion? It’s way easier said than done, but so far things seem to be going well. But…Puck… T_T
Berry, the Re:zero OVAs had 2 parts. Memory Snow and The Frozen Bond, the latter which you may have missed if you didn’t recognize the frozen elves in the forest.
Subaru ended up being wrong twice in one conversation with Ryuzu Arma this episode. One, he thought that Ryuzu was against liberating the Sanctuary, and two, he thought that Garfiel was against liberating the Sanctuary when in that same episode Garfiel said Emilia going nuts and being unable to do the trials would mean she’s of no use to him, which shows that Garfiel wants the barrier lifted as much as anybody else and that Subaru jumped to conclusions again just like when he somehow assumed that Emilia didn’t want to participate in the Royal Selection because of a conversation he had with Beatrice.
I think we’ll see Puck again because it’s not like he died. He merely broke the contract he had with Emilia, and if she finds him and makes a new contract, he’ll probably be back unless he actually really did die without any of us viewers knowing.
I think if anything, even if this loop ends in failure, Subaru will come out with a lot more knowledge than he usually does given he is actually giving Emilia the attention she needs this time. I doubt he will succeed on one try with his new approach given that there’s 12 episodes this cour.
No I recognize the frozen elves in the forest, I don’t recognize the part where Roswaal met with Emilia and Puck at the forest so I may have missed something.
Lol so basically Subaru needs to stop jumping to conclusions.
Hopefully we’ll see Puck again. I don’t think he necessarily died, but there has to be a reason he had to break his contract with Emilia. He probably won’t be able to be around her again if he really needed to leave her.
That’s very true, but this show could also surprise us and he might succeed and the rest of the episodes will move on to the next arc, or we have many episodes of this single time loop. But yeah, I’m at least glad that Subaru is finally spending the necessary time with Emilia. That’s one good sign.
The part where Roswaal met Emilia in the forest is new material. You didn’t miss anything.
I think Puck broke his contract with Emilia to help her pass the first Sanctuary trial. Emilia can’t pass it if part of the reason she is struggling is because some of her memories were sealed, and since Puck indicated that breaking the contract would unseal some of her memories, she’ll probably remember a lot more now.
One thing I forgot to mention is that when Subaru said, “Unlike Garfiel, I don’t have to worry about dying”, was he referring to himself being immortal, meaning he told Otto can’t die? Or was Subaru indicating that if Garfiel tried to talk to Emilia to get her to pass the trial that he wouldn’t succeed and might die if Emilia panicked with her powers going out of control whereas Subaru would be able to do that given his connection with Emilia?
If he told Otto that he is immortal, I wonder if that is a convenient to tell people what he can do without angering the Witch by indicating that he can Return by Death or loop over and over again. Echidna did say that Subaru would never experience true death, so it could be a way to get around a pesky problem.
It took me a while to think about this, but I think I thought of something horrible that could happen to Subaru.
I am very leary of what Roswaal might have planned for Subaru given Roswaal said it’s not a bad idea to lay some groundwork for next time, which indicates Roswaal thinks that the bet he and Subaru made will affect Subaru in the next loop, which will be something Subaru has never experienced before, having a consequence from a previous loop directly inconvenience him in the next loop. Roswaal would never lay groundwork for Subaru to beat him in the next loop, so it’s clear Roswaal is indicating he is laying some groundwork for himself. I have previously stated my theory of souls and soul scents before, and now I am going to post an updated version I believe is immediately relevant to what could possibly happen.
As you recall from episode 18 of Re:zero, Petelgeuse indicated that in death, he would be reunited with the Witch, which indicates there’s an afterlife and strongly indicates the presence of souls in Re:zero. Arbiter Melakuera indicated there was reincarnation in Re:zero in the Re:zero OVAs, which is a second instance that suggests that there are souls in Re:zero. Season 2 confirmed that souls are a thing in a Re:zero when Echidna indicated that her soul was trapped in the Witch’s Graveyard in the afterlife. As we all know, the Witch has a very foul smell given what we know of Subaru and Witch cultists, and I speculate that the reason they reek of her scent is because her soul smells horrible considering that her body is very likely sealed and should have no biological function. This suggests that Subaru and Witch cultists have their souls bonded to Satella, the Witch of Envy’s soul, and that is the source of the smell. I’m now getting to my point. I believe that the first step of Return by Death involves resetting time, restoring Subaru’s body and resetting to a previous point in time and that when Subaru dies, his soul goes to the afterlife, and the reason Subaru smells more strongly of the Witch after a death is because of increased exposure to the Witch. This suggests that the soul does not reset with Return by Death, or else he wouldn’t smell more strongly of the Witch after a death. This also suggests the soul is the reason Subaru retains his memories from previous lives since his brain shouldn’t remember anything since it is straight up restored to its previous state, meaning the second step of Return by Death is sending Subaru’s soul back into his restored body. As for why Subaru can’t remember spending time with Satella in the afterlife, remember when Echidna forced Subaru to forget that he had met her after her first tea party with him? That shows that the Witches of Sin have the power to do that and would explain why Subaru wouldn’t remember meeting Satella.
So if Roswaal and Subaru’s bet somehow has a mandatory effect on the soul, then Subaru would be forced to do whatever Roswaal wishes even after a death because Return by Death does not reset the soul. This could have some very huge implications if this is indeed what Roswaal has in mind. I hope Subaru can actually win on this loop, as otherwise, I think he might be in for another mental breakdown if he is forced to choose either the Sanctuary or the mansion in the next loop against his will if he fails during this current loop.
Knowing how cunning and sly Roswaal is I wouldn’t be surprised at all. Subaru kind of jumped the gun…again. Which is why I’m wondering how the hell he will even pull this off. But like you said, Emilia’s got her memories back and that might be the key to complete the trials so that at least is going well. We’ll have to see.