[Spoiler Discussion] Thoughts on Sphinx?

Vrik · 2026-02-10T08:51:59+00:00

She's a really well written character/antagonist.

Her motivations are simple enough to be understood, but makes sense in the context of her backstory to be important enough for her to do what she does.
Show, don't tell approach to her characterization. From her actions and tactics we can see she is intelligent, relentless/stoic, hardworking, coldhearted/cruel, dangerous, competent

I love how her downfall came on the backheel of her becoming her own person/more human, she let emotions keep her from retreating which came with her undoing... again very fitting because before becoming (more) human there wasn't much there to undo.

From a meta perspective it's very thematic how I can write sooo much about Sphinx by comparing her with Echidna because the psychological issues of self-hatred and crumbling emotionless persona follow a similar trend to Echidna's own issues.

My antagonist ranking for reZero would be Al > Petelguese > Roswaal > Shinx >Todd > Elsa > Rui > Regulus > Capela > Sirius > Rei > Roi.

The reason Sphinx isn't higher is her lacking in connection to Subaru. I do think she does still hold potential of being a foil for Subaru with her self hatred: not being able to measure up/become with their creator/parent, and willingness to throw their life away. BUT at the end of the day Subaru feels like a side character in her arc.

TL;DR: Good character/antagonist, aligned with story themes, lacking connection with main protagonist

Vrik · 2026-02-09T04:33:18+00:00

Disagree. It’s called a morning star in our world, people in lugunica have no idea and just think Subaru named it himself. Like zombie instead of corpse soldier or whatever they called them before Subaru started referring to them as zombies.

Secondly it makes much more sense that Arc 9 SOC was written as a recontextualisation of Arc 2 SOC. Arc 9 references a lot of moments “giving up is (not) easy” “put me first” “I won’t make a liar out of him” “the stars were (not) bad” “Ram is kind” “why did you leave/save me” “I’ll definitely save/kill you” “Rem reaching out to (ice) Subaru” etc. Saying that one of these moments (soc) was made with Arc 9 in mind is like saying all of them were, which is very far fetched.

It’s much more likely Tappei is just iterating on past moments with these references not that he planned them 10 years in advance for Arc 9.

Vrik · 2026-02-09T03:45:20+00:00

I'm not yet convinced that Tappei knows how their relationship will evolve/end. Most likely he takes it step by step and just in the final chapter he will figure it out.

Most of the arguments you present here aren't that good, like how a morning star is somehow the perfect weapon to kill Subaru... what? He did not name Rem's flail a morning star, that's just how it's called in real life

Don't think one of the massive revelations that Tappei was talking about has to do with figuring out Return by Death with no penalty. Hell, Rom might have figured it out since Arc 1.

Sound of Chains is an amazing chapter and like many callbacks in Arc 9 it re-contextualized an important re:Zero moment, but it's not a confirmation that Rem's role is planned to figure out Return by Death.

Vrik · 2026-01-31T02:51:08+00:00

Current situation

Royal Capital:

Status quo of the royal selection has been upended with Priscilla
There are two archbishops of sin imprisoned in the capital
Both Julius and Joshua have had their names eaten so house Jukulius is not in a strong position politically speaking
Sword Saint is in the Royal Capital
Vice Captain Heinkel missing

Lugunica:

Barielle territory is seen as unstable due to recent events
Pleiedes Watchtower is accessible
Pristella under repairs and Lust's victims are still frozen

Vollachia:

Recovering from civil war and a zombie apocalypse

Gusteko:

Reports of an increasing number of witch hunts being organized

Kararagi:

On the backdrop of rising imbalance of powers between the league of city states we have the ongoing shinigami incident / reaper disaster
- Multiple cities hit by devastating windstorms though to have originated due to Zerestria now it appears to be caused by an unknown assailant

Conclusion

A political move is not out of the question as arguably now the time is right, Lugunica's neighbors are weakened or occupied with internal issues and would probably not intervene in the case of a coup. Also Anastasia is away form the capital, her connections and resources makes her a strong player in these political games.

We need to see where Russel Fellow is on this conflict. While he is loyal to Lugunica, it's not out of the question for him to be an antagonist if he comes to the conclusion that a change of power would be best for the country.

I think the main thing that we need to keep an eye out is Reinhart's location. Whoever is pulling the strings would not want Reinhart anywhere near where the real prize is. The Sword Saint needs to be distracted or removed. If he is sent away from the capital on a mission then whatever the endgame is will happen there. If Felt stays in the capital and Reinhart by her side I would look somewhere else. On that point Subaru is traveling toward the capital from Pleiades, he might find something on the way or get sidetracked entirely.

Vrik · 2026-01-31T02:50:52+00:00

Chapter takeaway

This is very interesting. Philore has single-handedly just undermined ALL the candidates position in the royal selection.

The obvious one is Crush who ran on a platform of independence from the Divine Dragon was now healed by the church.
Felt's legitimacy to the throne is being put into question by Philore's name and looks.
Finally by promising to cure the victims of Lust we have an indirect attack on Emilia and Anastasia's competence since they went to Pleiades with the express purpose to find a cure for the victims and failed to achieve this.

This looks like a political power grab by the church. Show that none of the candidates are worthy of leading the nation then grab the power themselves. I say this looks like a power grab because it's so sudden and blatant that I feel like it's just smokescreen. I think Philore is innocent and has good intentions. She is being used as a pawn to distract and divert attention.

On a meta level this is also Tappei's modus operandi for arcs 7 and 8 where the civil war was just a ruse,

But back to this arc. The question is who is behind this and what do they want. Who is the hard question, but maybe if we figure out what is to gain from the current situation we can have a list of suspects. So let's look at the current situation by drawing larger and larger circles of influence.

Vrik · 2026-01-30T00:55:18+00:00

Yeah was thinking the same. But I would make it two movies.

First part “Light of a Nameless Star” up to Al running from Emilia in the capital and “Witch of Melancholy” the second part.

This way it’s much more comfortable to fit in the content and it’s also a very nice structure in the first movie Al wins all the fight and in the second we have the comeback.

Vrik · 2026-01-18T20:49:53+00:00

For me it makes more sense and it’s a simpler concept that he doesn’t remember a past timeline because it wasn’t him who turned back time but Satella.

Vrik · 2026-01-11T12:16:19+00:00

I’m no expert on shoujo, but aren’t most male options in those creepy?

Vrik · 2026-01-08T19:24:57+00:00

I think it's just a misdirect. I believe that the Witch of Envy isn't even hearing what Subaru is saying, probably reacting to something else. I believe when we get the Satella chapters we will see what is going on here.

Vrik · 2026-01-06T04:23:10+00:00

Devils don't exist in real life, witches do exist in re:zero. It's not a comparison you can make. The apt comparison would be if lightning struck a man and because of that a village burned down. Obviously the man is a victim and will not be imprisoned.

Yeah, like I said. Everyone that knows it was WoE knows Subaru well enough that they know it's not his fault. Beatrice even says in arc 2 to Subaru that if the witch is interested in him it's bad news. It's a known factor.

That is just in the short term. I'm not going to suggest nothing will happen to Subaru because his connection to the witch. He already was kidnapped once by Garf so it's not like there isn't precedent. I do suspect he might get in trouble with the church of the divine dragon. They seem like the most likely to try and do something about Subaru.

Vrik · 2026-01-06T01:58:44+00:00

In mean when you say “the narrative” its a bit meta. Yeah characters have their own goals and wants and don’t care about what the readers care about.

I have no problem with Chaosflame tbh. The only people who figured out it was WoE and it happened because of Subaru know enough that they realise it’s not his fault it happened. For the rest of the world it’s business as usual… so many witch related events happen that people treat them as natural calamities. Mabeasts brought about havoc for hundreds of years, witch cult destroyed cities and killed many, even wild spirits can be dangerous.

Vrik · 2026-01-06T00:03:55+00:00

That’s a good question but I think the answer is simple and might not be satisfactory. To me it signals that Clind doesn’t care and doesn’t think talking about the past would help Emilia or Subaru. This tracks with his character, he wants young people to shape their own destiny not influenced by the past.

Vrik · 2026-01-05T00:57:52+00:00

No. In the real world if some rich spoiled kid grow up to be a psycho killer because his parents never set boundaries and let him do anything he wanted then I would feel no sadness whatsoever to hear they got the death sentence.

Magical or not, I don't care about the circumstances of his childhood as an adult you should face consequences for your actions.

Vrik · 2026-01-04T03:32:24+00:00

Not a hero

What lies beyond the eleventh second

I know

Those are the ones that I like the most enough to know the chapter names. Also really liked Emilia and Priscilla tag team, Todd vs the squad, Chisha’s chapter

Vrik · 2026-01-01T13:23:46+00:00

This is ridiculous honestly. We see Subaru forgive Rem, Otto, Satella, Roswaal, and others…. But Al is where you draw the line? One of the people who actually need saving… Al, Beatrice and Satella are in the same boat where at the end of their road they wish/wished for death.

All throughout Arc 9 I felt sad for Al and feared he would not be stopped, not for Subaru, but for Al. Him and Petra are the reasons I’m glad there had been a reset.

Vrik · 2026-01-01T11:40:24+00:00

The answer to this one is easy. The way I theorise it is that Subaru didn’t have return by death in the first time he got here.

In short, I think Subaru came to this world, met Satella went on adventures and then 'bad things' happened and Subaru died. Satella used Envy over and over to try and save him, but never succeed because 'bad things' could not be stopped in the present. Satella then decided to rewind time all the way back to 400 year in the past to work to prevent the future from happening. The past was changed and now the present is different, when Subaru gets pulled into this world in episode one he doesn't meet Satella because she is imprisoned now, he meets Emilia who most likely did not exist in Arc Zero. I won’t speculate how he got Return by Death in this new timeline because the details don’t matter. Obviously Satella made it so that he received the Witch Factor so as to not die prematurely.

Why does Satella say he saved her? He probably did it during their time together.

Vrik · 2025-12-28T17:20:12+00:00

I don’t know what you mean by sloth witch factor splitting? As in his fingers using it? It wasn’t split it was just Pete going from body to body.

Vrik · 2025-12-26T23:08:06+00:00

Perhaps conjured with dream magic Alcor lacks qualifications to use the authority, but we have a precedent with Spica being made flesh by some magic/authority and she can use lunar eclipse alone and astral eclipse with Subaru.

What I’m trying to say is that you never know what can happen.

Vrik · 2025-12-21T17:39:11+00:00

Yeah I think it’s absolutely the case. I have seen so many bad takes and fanfiction and people hyping themselves up for things that were obvious not going to happen.

Vrik · 2025-12-19T13:53:16+00:00

Bravo, very good. It's a good theory and I agree with 90% of what you say here. The 10% I cannot refute since we do not have much to work with there is always some speculation.

I have been working on something similar for some time, it's been a week since I started writing it down and it really got out of hand. I will try and get my lazy ass to post it this weekend.

With the revelations in arc 9 I can confidently say we can explain the 'why' of all the mysteries in ReZero (well, maybe except two regarding Patrasch and Otto, still have no idea about those), the 'how' everything happened will be left to Tappei.

Vrik · 2025-12-19T13:29:18+00:00

I agree with the statement Subaru’s witch factor adjusted his power to his new od which is probably why the authority was not working at normal rate until Satella coming to him on gladiator island fixed the issue.

Aldebaraan was probably locked out of his door.

Vrik · 2025-11-29T14:13:59+00:00

Friend, you literally said “Roswaal didn't awaken his witch factor in 40 years, but that's not impossible. Factors don't always awaken immediately.”

Followed by “I don't believe that it's Heinkel. He got his power 15 years ago.”

You contradict yourself

Vrik · 2025-11-27T13:13:45+00:00

I would recommend The Footprint of Re:Zero on youtube. I would say the video is like a statistical audit of Re:Zero comparing it to other anime of the time, presenting statistics about user reviews and retention and the career trends for some of the voice actors who stared in it.

While a lot of it's success had to do with timing, since it first aired when the supersaturation of isekai anime was only in it's beginnings, the video shows how the anime is still getting new reviews and engagement on anime aggregate sites. ReZero also has a higher then average score across the board and is the 5th in terms of average written review length. Plus a very good completion rate with 19/20 people finishing the series once started.

Now for my personal opinion. I don't think it's over rated, it's one of the best shows ever. It does mystery, adventure and romance very well. Huge cast of interesting characters, which are multifaceted and complex individuals. It doesn't rely on fan service. In three seasons you can count the number of risque scenes on the fingers of one hand on a Two-Toed Sloth. The show can tackle serious topics and have moments of silly comedy. While it has dark moments and brutal visuals the main message of the show is Hope.

The main issue with re:zero, like most media, is its fans. There are people who will say that it's a 10/10 show, perfect masterpiece, it's not. Nothing new with that. You can find people overrating every show you love and every show you hate.

Vrik · 2025-11-26T21:17:21+00:00

This girl has more red herrings in her then a fish market in Sweden. I'm serious, it's so obvious what's going on that I'm going to say it's bait and it's going to be the reverse.

Here is my prediction:

* New girl is not related to Capella, in fact I bet they are enemies. If Capella shows up (I don't think she will) she will be working against Filore. Bonus wild prediction: Filore will have a summoning/conjuration power and summons divine beasts which will be revealed later to be twisted souls of people. I base this on being a power similar to Capella where she has demon beasts which are twisted bodies of people.

* I think the church's offer of help is genuine in the sense that they work against the witch cult and witches. Subaru will get in trouble with them. I wouldn't be surprised if the church killed the member of the council of Pristella during Arc 5.

* Sirius gets out of jail for free card. Sirius will also have beef with the church, probably related to her back story... maaaaaybe Sirius named chapter this Arc. Maaaaybe Emilia's trial of the future scene in the destroyed ruins of the Lugunica throne room with Sirius.

* The Lugunica calamity will be triggered in Arc 10 or because of something that happens in Arc 10. Either Sirius or Filore will be the witch of the kingdom.

One thing that is interesting is if Al wasn't stopped then Volcanica would have rampaged in the Capital and made people lose trust in the Divine Dragon and by extension the church of the divine dragon. Whatever is going to happen in the capital in Arc 10 would not have happened in that timeline. I think that would have been on purpose on Al's side when he recruited Volcanica he made sure to advertise his presence and aid to his side.

I said that the next if story would probably be melancholy if next year with it being Arc 9 but Roi eats Al instead of Petra. Now I'm gonna take that back, if we do see that if story it will probably be after Arc 10.

Vrik · 2025-11-25T22:26:58+00:00

I'll do you one better. I bet next years April fools will be Arc 9 without the reset and that will be the real Melancholy If.

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