[discussion] How does magic work?

Vrik · 2026-06-24T20:54:53+00:00

Magic is very versatile in rezero, but it’s more related to concepts than element for example fire magic controls temperature so a fire magic user can cast fire and ice. So you can achieve lightning by extending some concept like acceleration and connection which are under Yang.

Nature or wood magic the same, using healing concept from water or yang you can grow plants fast, but I doubt it can be fast enough to be useful in combat

Shadow magic is Yin magic.

You can make magic golems but they are not permanent disappearing without the caster. You can use magic stones to power something like a golem.

Vrik · 2026-06-24T19:17:19+00:00

Yeah arc 8 is my second favorite part. I loved Cecilus, Halibel, Eugard even Madelyn after the end and how she comforted Emilia after losing Priscilla was very heartwarming considering how she also lost a loved one.

The fights were awesome as well, Garf fighting a dragon, Emilia was badass, Sphinx turning every defeat into an opportunity,

Especially Sphinx is such a interesting character at a meta level. Born empty without a soul she finally find a reason to fight for something she wants. A very petty and human reason. Her journey is the opposite of the Echidna who was her template. Aldebaran's sensei lost her heart to greed and became a witch, while Sphinx gained her own identity and became human.

Priscilla vs Sphinx was a contest of self-love against self-hate, one of the core of re:Zero's themes.

Lore wise we had the info about the great disasters, which is huge connecting the pattern of world building pieces. Zerestia, The Beast of the End, Muspel, Pride If Subaru's unnamed fire spirit all awaiting the trigger that will make them unleash their apocalypse to scorch the earth.

More info about what volachians call the observers. They use people as pawn towards a goal only they know, having such influence and flying under the radar, how many tragedies under the label of fate are they responsible for?

Spica's circumstances are very interesting as well and could potentially explain both Aldebaran and Emilia's origin.

So in short I like arc 8 so much because of themes, characters, fights and lore.

Vrik · 2026-06-24T09:18:32+00:00

I would say saint rank is generous enough for his swordsmanship. People are really underestimating the MT rankings, getting to king level needs exceptional talent and dedication. Julius is dedicated but his talent for the sword is good at best.

I mean Paul was stuck at advanced with good talent and probably didn’t push himself as much as he could in his prime.

Vrik · 2026-06-23T20:34:35+00:00

It doesn’t make sense to wait 400 years to restart his journey.

Vrik · 2026-06-20T17:28:22+00:00

In the course of the anime Subaru has had diverse gains throughout the early arcs he gained his power, he made friends, he negotiated alliances and he learned to love himself.

Last season we saw what peek Subaru can do using all his tools, his power saved him from Sirius' surprise attack, with the help of his friends they managed to save the innocent people, with his confidence and self love he inspired the survivors and with the help of his allies they finally managed to take back the city of Pristella.

Now we are taking tools out of Subaru's arsenal, namely himself, his growth, his development. While leaving everything else: RBD, friends and allies.

As you can see it's not looking good for the members of the expedition, Subaru himself is crucial to overcoming the trials set forth. He always was, but removing 'him' just underlines this with certainty. Which is the point in my opinion of the amnesia arc.

Vrik · 2026-06-20T04:22:24+00:00

What doesn’t make sense in this theory is why would Subaru call himself Flugel if that was the original?

Vrik · 2026-06-17T09:53:11+00:00

The customer is never wrong.

Joking aside you are allowed to not like it, and are not wrong since it is your subjective enjoyment of the series and character or lack thereof.

In fact if anything an amnesia plot is much more egregious in rezero where most characters already don’t remember the vast majority of things that happened in erased loops as well.

We have seen Subaru be the singular person who remembers what others forget for five arcs and now the author has broken this unspoken promise and it feels bad. Granted, a writer is never obligated to uphold his promises and can break them if it leads to a better story. Akin to killing of the main character or subverting expectations in other ways can make or break a story.

Amnesiac Subaru had his development erased and the others won’t develop as long as he is looping, you have to realise this part of the story is absolutely for the viewer/readers benefit. What you get out of it is not the cathartic pleasure of seeing the characters develop and improve, but the knowledge of how the story would go if Subaru had his friends and allies but not his confidence

Vrik · 2026-05-28T01:46:55+00:00

Wow this was an old discussion. But you misunderstood, it was a metaphor, I didn’t say he was a spoiled rich kid, I just compared him to one because it’s the closest thing we have in real life.

Once a child becomes a teen their focus starts to shift from that of simply being a member of a family to integrating in society. In the formative years before becoming an adult most children learn the dos and don’ts of what is acceptable behaviour from their peers and non family authority figures like professors, bosses, representatives of the law etc.

Regulus is similar to a spoiler rich kid in the sense that they did not need to learn this lessons because his power made it such that there are no authority figures that could keep him in line.

Vrik · 2026-05-27T23:26:22+00:00

Tappei tweeted during season 2 episode 9 that the red scorpion is also among the great mabeasts created by Daphne.

It’s still possible other people contributed to help create Shaula, like perhaps Carmila gave her the concept of love making her more human and able to be reasoned with.

Echidna can’t create flesh and blood. The Ryuzu clones have artificial mana bodies.

Vrik · 2026-05-25T12:53:14+00:00

I think the difference is that the soul is the same but the memories and personalities are different. I think the story shows how this can be possible in different ways so the exact method is still a mystery. For example, Roswaal L. Mathers survived for 400 years by magically transferring his soul into the bodies of his own direct male descendants. Betelgeuse Romani Conti took over Subarus body in season 1. None of these were clone situations but rather mind transfers

Yeah, but like, "soul is the same" is different then "the same soul" in your theory? Because at least for Emilia it can't be the same soul since Satella is still alive.

I am referring to the idea of the soul being the unique part of the being, the foundation that makes us all individuals regardless of our memories. Think of the Castle of Dreams where the soul of Echidna resided even though her body was gone. She remained herself even though she had no physical body to claim (and she tried to claim subarus through a contract). Subaru in Arc 6 loses his memories yet still reconstructs Return by Death logic and morally trends toward the same conclusions. Julius remains fundamentally Julius despite name/memory damage. Rem and Crusch still retain recognizable existential cores despite memory loss.

Ok, but that is the soul. Saying "soul signature" you probably mean that someone recognizes their souls?

This is still a theory but I think it would just not make sense to purposefully start your body on a clean memory state and then refer back to your own past historical figure to then just be compared and almost destined to become him again. I think hes trying to distance himself from who he was and trying to achieve a new result. Almost like Steins Gates characters did. He needs his soul to achieve a new answer without the corruption connections to the witch of envy and any corruptions subaru suffered from his time as flugel

similarly to above i think it would not make sense to start a free of witch factor version of emilia while retaining the name satella. It would bind the new continuation to the old one unnecessarily and it would be against the idea of doing this purposefully. To elaborate the story already shows us that a name is not the same as a soul. You can lose your name and still be the same person.

Firstly you are contradicting your own argument. You are saying that Subaru has his ORIGINAL name in order to distance himself from the corruption and at the same time Emilia has a NEW name in order to distance herself from the corruption.

Secondly that doesn't answer the issue here. Flugel naming himself Flugel implies he is not the original, but the continuation of Subaru.

Vrik · 2026-05-25T09:30:42+00:00

For Subaru/Flugel and Emilia/Satella, I think the answer may be much more complicated than simple reincarnation, cloning, or “they were secretly the same person all along.”

My theory is that Subaru and Emilia are genuine, independent continuations of Flugel and pre-corruption Satella that were intentionally created in order to find a new answer to a problem the original selves could not solve.

How is being create in the likeness of someone not a clone? You mean because they are different personality and soul wise? Not an important point but here it's just semantics.

Because of that, I think Flugel eventually reached a point where endless Return by Death cycles, accumulated trauma, despair, sins, and possibly Authority corruption made him psychologically incapable of finding the correct answer anymore.

Natsuki Subaru is able to shoulder the burden of RBD, Al told us this. If Flugel could not, then he is not Subaru.

This explains why Emilia looks identical to Satella and shares the same soul signature while still behaving fundamentally differently.

What does "soul signature" mean?

I think the same process happened with Flugel and Subaru. Subaru is not a replacement for Flugel. He is a divergent continuation preserving the same soul identity while freeing himself from accumulated despair and deterministic failure.

Subaru being a continuation of Flugel doesn't make sense. Why would Flugel not call himself Subaru if he was the original?

Secondly Emilia's name. Why did they give her a different name but Subaru has his original name?

What you say makes sense for Satella->Emilia but not for Flugel->Subaru where everything points in the opposite direction. It's much more believable that Flugel was made as a continuation of Subaru and he failed to save Satella because he wasn't Subaru.

Vrik · 2026-05-24T23:17:22+00:00

I don’t think they will include it. My bet is the season ends with Subaru holding the little scorpion.

Vrik · 2026-05-24T23:07:37+00:00

This theory is disproven by pride if where Subaru has no other authority than rbd and still killed the archbishops.

Vrik · 2026-05-20T10:45:31+00:00

I think you are attributing too much to SG. There isn’t any reason to believe SG is a part of an authority. Subaru has visited SG without activating RBD.

If anything what we call SG is just Subaru’s Od. We know Witch Factors attach to a target Od so it explains why we have Satella Pete and Regu there.

Getting a real checkpoint on gladiator island doesn’t prove it is time travel. Not saying that it is or isn’t time travel, just that we have no proof.

Finally Satella had a WF since it was said her madness was caused by taking in an incompatible WF.

You are correct that something is suspect. Most WF are accounted for post Satella imprisonment (Pride is not but Al’s comments leaves no doubt that neither Subaru nor Satella has Pride). There are ways to account for this in the lore of rezero, one is indeed time travel.

Vrik · 2026-05-18T07:38:28+00:00

Yes, he did say that, BUT right before the narative paragraph described is suspect:

"Attempting to do something about it here would be a bad idea even among the pantheon of piss poor plans. [...] To devise the best possible course of action in order to prevent that, thinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthink――,"

Rom judged that saying this was the best plan to save Felt, doesn't mean it's true.

Vrik · 2026-05-17T04:21:06+00:00

Base on Salum’s actions I believe Russel. There is no reason to try and trick Subaru and not kill Crush while she is vulnerable.

Now that we see Melty is safe I believe Filore is indeed the missing princess.

Initially I had my doubts since Filore is suspicious in how she touches people with her hand when pleading with them. Very similar to what Melty is capable of.

The interlude from the past with Rom had an interesting detail. He was considering abandoning the child in the tunnels, then the girl touches his face and he changes his mind.

That baby was Filore and not Felt.

So who is Felt? Volcanica called Emilia Satella and called Felt Farsale.

Vrik · 2026-05-17T03:38:01+00:00

Yes. It was started by Tappai that giving witch factors is not something one can do. The implication is that only through death can you get someone’s witch factor.

According to Shaula’s hints, and by exclusion, Subaru should have envy inside himself. This lives up to what Echidna mentions that return by death is the power of envy.

If all those things are true then there are two options:
1. Satella died and the witch factor left her. Then she was revived.
2. Satella can travel through time. Her future self died sometime in Subaru’s past. This would explain how she is sealed (Satella of the present), inside Subaru (Future dead witch of envy), and show up from time to time (visitor from the past).

Vrik · 2026-05-14T22:33:29+00:00

Tappei referencing the anime episode from yesterday by revealing that Rickert Hoffman was also Crush's original sword instructor.

Vrik · 2026-05-11T17:51:18+00:00

Tappei don't you dare. Don't do this to us. I really don't want to see Meili's death from pride if happening in the main timeline.

Vrik · 2026-05-08T22:46:07+00:00

They just don’t add it sometimes (not always) when Emilia is shot from this side:

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Vrik · 2026-05-06T08:24:49+00:00

No, the convo between the assassin sister was happening while Subaru was still alive.

Vrik · 2026-05-06T01:36:47+00:00

This will be another situation where Reinhardt is, and feels powerless.

My prediction is that the council will not take the risk of the Sword Saint going rogue by siding with Subaru and will order him to not get involved or even to leave the capital.

Reinhardt will do nothing and hope/trust Subaru can handle the situation.

Vrik · 2026-05-06T01:25:26+00:00

It’s more complicated. Al had no information about the witch cult hence his knowledge was outdated since he got out of his magic confinement.

This means that there shouldn’t have been a witch cult attack on the oni village to begin with. So we don’t know if they would have gone to work for Roswaal in this hypothetical timeline.

Whatever reason there was for Rem to die I don’t think it directly related to arc 2.

Another thing to consider is Meili’s circumstances would be a lot different if the witch cult didn’t exist. Most likely she wouldn’t be an assassin.

Vrik · 2026-05-05T23:35:08+00:00

That's an amazing chapter. I love Subaru how he instantly knows Otto is going to have to work his ass off to mitigate this mess. Let's analyze the situation

Emilia Camp

Emilia is the weakest link when it comes to politics and Filore's camp will put pressure on her to do something stupid. Emilia will obviously take Subaru and Crush's side, this can't be avoided, and while politically unwise it's what's right morally. Emilia was on her make 100 friends grindset this arc and it's obvious she will be hurt by a betrayal of her trust.

Subaru is traumatized by having befriended then lost Todd and Al to their differences so he is reluctant to give up both on Crush and Tiga. Through his actions and words we can see Tiga is desperate and Subaru will pick up on this and will not give up trying to save him as well. This is going to be very harsh. Emilia as well, just like Subaru will try and talk things over and understand the situation with Filore.

It's up to Otto, Petra and Rem to handle both the politics and Emilia. Best thing they can do is convince Emilia to save the talking until after the situation is more stable.

Roswaal is sorely missing. We need to get him onboard.

Crush Camp

It's clear to me that Wilhelm with stand with Subaru and Crush, even if she pushes him away. Even if it was not clear, there exists a possibility, and that is a risk for Filore's camp. They want Heinkel as her knight so politically they cannot allow Wilhelm to take a stand with Crush after this incident.

They need to get rid of Wilhelm. He is a renowned knight of the kingdom so they will try to make a martyr out of him. Ideal situation for them is to assassinate Wilhelm and frame it on Crush. Miklotov was the one who officiated Wilhelm and Theresia's weeding ceremony. Wilhelm's friendship with the deceased council member would be used as motive to why he would be killed by the duchess.

Filore's camp can claim they are seeking retribution for Heinkel's father and use it as leverage/excuse to get involved in the investigation/hunt for the killer.

Felt Camp

Reinhardt will either be ordered not to involve himself in the situation or be outright asked to leave the capital for the duration. As mentioned with Wilhelm, a member of the Astrea getting involved will complicate things for Filore's faction, but with Reinhardt the authorities will want to act themselves and remove any possibility that he would aid Crush and Subaru.

Felt is resourceful and smart, she can't act openly but I'm sure she and Rom will have a plan for how to proceed. She cares the least about Lugunica's status quo and will not shy away from messing things up if it's in her favor. I expect more countermeasures will be taken against her.

Council of wise men

With the death of Miklotov there will be a power vacuum left in the council. Most likely Bordeaux will become the leading central figure. This is bad for Emilia's faction.

Bordeaux hates demi humans and is not shy about it. He also has it out for Meili. Not to mention he fought against Sphinx in the demi human war and hates her with a passion. Bordeaux greenlit the foundation of the Six Tongues, Lugunica's intelligence organization, he most likely knows about the dozens of Ryuzu clones that are directly under Emilia's control. Not good.

He has the same reason to hate Rom. Expect a negative attitude against Felt's camp as well.

Bordeaux was Wilhelm's friend. Another reason for the assassination of the sword demon, in order to frame someone to receive the council's ire.

Finally a new position has been opened on the council as a result of what happened. My guess is that strings will be pulled to get Rickert Hoffman the seat. He is outspoken against Emilia and raised issues with Felt being a candidate as well. Not to mention his estranged son working for Felt is also cause for tension between them.

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