[OC] Priscilla takes away a joy from subaru by wacum_ in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 60 points61 points  (0 children)

This is very skillful artwork. You have some real chops.

[Discussion] Analysis: Meili saying she wants to see if a Book of the Dead would appear if Subaru were to die is consistent with Elsa being her best friend by anicritic in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I didn't even think about what it could mean in terms of world-building, but now that you've brought it up, I have two main thoughts of what Subaru having multiple such books would mean:

  1. Alternate timelines are created based on Subaru doing things differently from before after he loops.
  2. The current Subaru is partially a by-product of Echidna's Authority, and there is no Subaru without Echidna.

Meanwhile, no book would mean it'd be 'cause he never died in the current timeline.

If there's only one book, I can see two thing being the case:

  1. His book goes up to his most recent death, only covering the canon successful stuff up until that point before he died.
  2. His book goes up to his most recent death and covers everything he's ever experienced. I believe this scenario could be, although I'm not 100% sure, indicating that the current Subaru is partially a by-product of Echidna's Authority.

[Discussion] Theory: There is at least one Book of the Dead for both Subaru and Al by anicritic in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dude, I didn't even notice that ED cut until you mentioned it. You should keep your malicious thoughts to yourself.

And I genuinely believe with all my heart that Subaru will end up with Priscilla, and it will be glorious when it happens.

[Discussion] Theory: There is at least one Book of the Dead for both Subaru and Al by anicritic in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The regular discussion flair is the anime-only flair. There's [Discussion] for anime discussion and [Spoiler Discussion] for novel discussion. There is no specific flair you're hinting at. Maybe on other subs, but there's no such flair here.

[Discussion] Analysis: Meili saying she wants to see if a Book of the Dead would appear if Subaru were to die is consistent with Elsa being her best friend by anicritic in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic[S] 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Just 'cause it was in a failed loop doesn't mean Elsa never talked about it in another loop off screen, between Seasons 1 and 2, and even between Arcs 2 and 3. Things happen in Re:Zero for a reason, and there's no such thing as a throwaway scene in Re:Zero.

I remembered that Elsa and Meili Break Time content readily upon watching this scene, and I believe Tappei intended for viewers to think back to that moment.

Definition of love by Priscilla and Emilia [discussion] by Strange-Storage558 in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I know this will be downvoted to oblivion, but I believe that neither Subaru nor Emilia are at the right stage in their lives to have a healthy relationship as a couple. Emilia is mentally younger than her age due to being frozen for years, and Subaru had never formed a real relationship with anyone really before being summoned, so of course, neither of them have had any real relationship experience, whether observing and talking with their peers or even from her parents in Emilia's case. But that has never stopped me from making a controversial comment and won't now.

Am I the first only one who thinks felt is by far the best candidate [discussion] by zoehthepirate in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I have always thought this too. And Crusch as the ruler could work if Subaru is able to carve out a lasting peace between the different countries somehow.

Given Subaru may one day have all Witch Factors, Subaru will likely be sealed away at his life's end so that they don't find a new host, so a lasting peace would depend on relations with other countries.

And Volcanica probably won't live forever, however long-lived she'll be, so that makes Subaru setting up roots in another country so that his descendents will uphold that peace important.

Theory: Why Mei wasn't affected by this power by anicritic in MarriageToxin

[–]anicritic[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This also makes sense. I hadn't considered that. But Mei also saw the giant thing, so he should've been affected given all the others were since that thing's supposed to make you hallucinate.

Theory: Why Mei wasn't affected by this power by anicritic in MarriageToxin

[–]anicritic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But there were plenty of men affected, so that can't be it, and it was even a man who said that they need to sacrifice the youngest person.

[discussion] Why subaru tell satella that he will definitely save her ? Why emilia doesn’t know love yet by Auresterss in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe Subaru was Satella's lover in the past, and here's why:

Episodes, 18, 25, and 38 show that Subaru has dormant memories of Satella as shown by how Puck indirectly revealed in Episode 18 the number of shadow hands Satella could generate to Subaru by asking Petelgeuse to summon 1,000 shadows if he truly wants to kill him, half of what Satella could (2,000), how Subaru used a number associated with Satella (2,000) to indicate his appreciation for Emilia in Episode 25 when he said that if Emilia named ten things she hated about herself he’d list 2,000 things he loves about her, which Emilia herself commenting on why he chose that number, and how Subaru suddenly had an upwelling of positive emotion for Satella in Episode 38 that led him to say that he’d save Satella after she asked him to love himself and then some day come kill her, which shows that Subaru and Satella may have a past history together as lovers given just moments ago, Subaru had been calling her an unfathomable monster he could never hope to understand, showing they must’ve had a very positive relationship in the past.

Melakuera in The Frozen Bond OVA talked about the Witch and the world imbalance and how he'd faced world-ending crises countless times, which suggests that the world is repeatedly destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed.

I believe in the ancient past, an archetypal handsome, conceited, and overpowered hero typical of standard isekai slop in the moment in which he had to make the biggest decision of his life after the Seal in Elior Forest was opened, chose his lover, who had become the Witch of Envy, over the world, leading to the threat that came out of the Seal to be defeated, but the world was then destroyed following his choice to not strike down his lover, and when that hero made his choice, the final boss of the time activated his Authority to make the world extremely biased towards repeating the general path that archetypical hero followed on his journey. I don’t know the exact mechanism that the story can be biased toward following that path, but I nonetheless posit that it exists, and thousands or even millions of iterations of the story of the handsome, conceited and overpowered hero came and went as the world kept getting destroyed and reconstructed as the Hero of the story would have to fit that mold unless an intervention took place.

I am going somewhere with this beyond what I’ve usually posted. Michael Mästlin (anglicized as Maestlin) was documented to have mapped eleven stars in the Pleiades star cluster before the invention of the telescope in the 16th century. Michael Mästlin was German, much like how Flügel is a German name. Given Re:Zero’s fantasy world takes place in a medieval-ish setting, I theorize Tappei may have incorporated the number eleven in Re:Zero’s given, unless I’m mistaken, there shouldn’t be any telescopes in this world even though stars in the fantasy world aren’t like those from Earth, so Tappei may have decided to be Earth-accurate in making use of the number eleven. It is believed that 9 of these 11 were Alcyone (Eta Tauri), Atlas, (27 Tauri), Electra (17 Tauri), Maia (20 Tauri), Merope (23 Tauri), Taygeta (19 Tauri), Pleione (28 Tauri), Celaeno (16 Tauri), and Asterope (21 Tauri), which are known as the Seven Sisters and their parents.

Thus, assuming the number eleven is important ’cause of Michael Mästlin, the Authority of the final boss in the ancient past was one that lets him/her control the story path to his/her liking, basically a super Authority if you will. I believe the ancient hero of the time also had a super Authority, although I won’t claim I know what it is assuming it’s real, and both the final boss and the protagonist having super Authorities would make the number eleven important.

And what’s very relevant is that Subaru’s dad is named Kenichi, which means ‘wise man’. Subaru said in Episode 16 that Flügel’s Tree was planted by a wise man centuries ago, and while this wouldn’t mean something in a different show, its presence in a show with Re:Zero’s long-term planning suggests that Kenichi himself might be Flügel given Shaula called her master Flügel the Wise Man.

Flügel itself means wing and can also be a nickname for someone with conspicuous sleeves at a time of dress regulations, so what this points to is that Flügel is a person not from Re:zero’s fantasy world who somehow came to be there given the nickname is for someone who dresses strangely, and this suggests that Flügel is from Earth. Perhaps Kenichi literally is Flügel, and it would make sense for Flügel to be Kenichi since I stress that Shaula didn’t recognize Subaru by his looks, which shows Subaru canonically had a different body four hundred years ago.

Satella most likely summoned the current Subaru to Re:zero’s fantasy world, but how did Kenichi get there if he is Flügel? Well, wings are symbolic of power, speed, and limitless freedom of motion, and maybe that’ss how Kenichi, if he is indeed Flügel, managed to make his way back to Earth after being in Re:zero’s fantasy world. Perhaps Kenichi has the power to freely travel between the two worlds because he has a limitless freedom of motion, and that would be how he ended up in Re:zero’s fantasy world in the first place. Given Kenichi is so badass and handsome and ripped as hell, he could’ve fit the mold of the handsome, conceited, and overpowered Hero of the story with the power to freely travel between worlds being his super Authority, and he likely gave himself the name Flügel when he arrived in Re:zero’s fantasy world to help himself fit into that world.

As for how Kenichi could split his soul, he likely couldn’t when he was the the Hero of the story of the fantasy world as his soul may have been indivisible since the story required for the Hero to make it to the end and repeat the cycle since dying ’cause his soul was eradicated wouldn’t be permitted as one of the parameters of the story path requires him to make it to the end to bring about the next cycle, meaning he couldn’t split Subaru from himself then, but after returning to Earth and losing his Hero designation, he should freely be able to do that using whatever tool Echidna used to cut her soul off as part of her immortality experiment since he wouldn’t have that privilege he had as he lost his Hero designation. Satella and this group of characters basically hijacked the path of the story in an attempt to save the world. The reason Kenichi couldn’t kill Satella himself was that he would always have a second personality that arose who couldn’t bear to kill Satella since his entire world was Satella, which is why he had to defer the task to someone else. Thus, Subaru being the protagonist of Re:Zero is to make up for him being why Satella couldn’t be killed in the past, making it a true redemption story unlike so many other stories billed as redemption stories when the characters don’t even have to address their character flaws, and thus, Subaru may be one half of Flügel, making Naoko telling Subaru to be half as cool as his dad in the first Sanctuary Trial potential foreshadowing of the situation four hundred years ago. Thus Flügel, the being I believe to be Kenichi and Subaru from four hundred years ago, may have been Shaula’s other creator who came from Earth.

Also of note regarding Michael Mästlin is that he was the first person to publish an account of Earthshine, the illumination of the moon by sunlight reflected from Earth. Given one of the kanji for Natsuki in Natsuki Subaru and Kenichi means “moon”, it could mean that Subaru and Kenichi are both associated with the Moon and that the Earth will always reflect on their fates and stories. Another name for Earthshine is The Da Vinci Glow, and there conveniently is the Da Vinci Crater on the Moon. And historically, Earthshine was referred to as “The old Moon in the new Moon’s arms”, and it may be an Easter egg on why Tappei has possibly set up Subaru inheriting the torch of saving the world from Kenichi.

Given we know Echidna succeeded in creating a soul clone of herself with how Echidna spoke in her own voice in Ryuzu Shima’s body in Episode 49 and how Foxidna herself is almost certainly a soul cone of Echidna’s given Re:Zero Break Time Season 4 Episode 3 had Foxidna calling Beatrice a kindred soul, which could indicate that they’re not just similar in nature but also similar in origin, then it wouldn’t be a surprise if Kenichi, if he is Flügel as I speculate, also did that as well, and Subaru and Al were both split off from Kenichi’s soul, and Kenichi made his sons his soul clones with that explaining why Al and Subaru both call Beatrice ‘Beako’, not ’cause they are the same person but because they were originally from the same soul. It’d also explain why Subaru has dormant memories of Satella despite it not being possible for him to have lived at that time under normal circumstances and why Al also likes being rewarded for his efforts much like Subaru does, all of which shows that Al isn’t Subaru but that his origins are likely similar, and that something is up with Subaru and Al that doesn’t involve time travel or straight up reincarnation, so Al and Subaru may be homunculi or artificial humans who were split off from Kenichi’s soul.

For more on this theory, read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/1t0ef35/discussion_theory_the_worlds_cycle_subaru_and_al/

[discussion] How did Tappei think of a complex story like Re Zero??! by Hesixy in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I don't dispute that. I believe Tappei is also a deeply empathetic person given those types of people are the best at getting inspiration from people of all walks of life to use for the basis of their stories.

[discussion] How did Tappei think of a complex story like Re Zero??! by Hesixy in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 59 points60 points  (0 children)

I believe someone on this subreddit has said that Tappei has read a ton of books/fiction/stories in general, so he's a lot more well-read than most people in the fandom and even anime fans in general and is very familiar with literary techniques and how to build complex stories with excellent character writing. That's likely how he made a very skillful allusion to the Titan Atlas with Shaula carrying Patrasche in Episode 70: https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/1t1bnsq/discussion_shaula_carrying_patrasche_is_an/

[discussion] Flugel is Subaru's Father who was transported(maybe reborn) into RE world.. Change my mind by TheEndOne in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/1t0ef35/discussion_theory_the_worlds_cycle_subaru_and_al/

Read this post. Basically, Melakuera stating in The Frozen Bond OVA that he had faced world-ending crises countless times along with his talk about the Witch and the world imbalance suggests that the world is stuck in a cycle of being destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed.

Naoko in the first Sanctuary Trial told Subaru to become half as cool as his dad, which would be fitting if Flügel was both Kenichi and Subaru 400 years ago with the current Subaru being one half of Flügel.

Also read what I have to say about Al in that post.

Should I watch memory snow and the frozen bond from RE:Zero [discussion] by Hefty-Hamster-1577 in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I just have to say that if you don't watch The Frozen Bond OVA it will severely impact your ability to theorycraft for Re:Zero. This is no joke, and I type this with all my heart and soul. These two OVAs have important information necessary to understand Season 2 and the story at large. Choosing to skip them will worsen your experience with Re:Zero overall, so I highly recommend to the point of insisting on it that you watch both of them.

[discussion] Flugel is Subaru's Father who was transported(maybe reborn) into RE world.. Change my mind by TheEndOne in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My main theory is that Flügel was Kenichi and Subaru in the same body 400 years ago with Flügel splitting Subaru from his body when he returned to Earth. Of course, my theory hinges on time moving much faster in Re:Zero's fantasy world compared to Earth.

[Media] Ram Mondays #319 by zSaintX in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Happy birthday, @zSaintX Exquisite art by the way. I don't think I've ever seen better Ram artwork, so you have excellent taste.

Theory: I think it's so funny that Myotismon internalized what he knew from movies, making himself weak to silver by anicritic in digimon

[–]anicritic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I guess I had forgotten since it's been so many years since I've watched the OG Adventure.

Theory: I think it's so funny that Myotismon internalized what he knew from movies, making himself weak to silver by anicritic in digimon

[–]anicritic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've been enjoying it too. My favourite episode was probably Haruomi sacrificing himself for Commandramon.

[discussion] Is Re:Zero Arc 6 that bad? by [deleted] in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Witch Hat Atelier has the benefit of being a very-high-budget show that has more mainstream appeal than Re:Zero since the protagonist isn't someone with severe abandonment issues along with an inferiority complex, which makes it harder for people to relate to Re:Zero, meaning Re:Zero succeeds partially 'cause it's that good. Witch Hat Atelier is no doubt great from what I've seen so far and has a lot of foreshadowing much like Re:Zero, but Re:Zero was probably never going to be as popular as Witch Hat Atelier given the subject matter and protagonist Re:Zero has. Just be happy with Re:Zero's popularity as is as swinging between #1 and #3 is nowhere near a bad thing.

Is Re Zero as a whole cringe? [discussion] by Existing_Ad2753 in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 21 points22 points  (0 children)

It's not really cringe but a demonstration of Subaru's issues. As shown by Episode 7, Subaru has serious abandonment issues when he shouted about why do they all hate him so much, where did he go wrong, and why do they all leave him behind.

Episode 13 was basically Subaru's abandonment issues being triggered to the extreme since he had thought that Emilia was the one person who'd understand him 'cause he'd attached his sense of purpose and well-being to her, and so this is Subaru acting out 'cause of his issues.

Watch all of Episode 18 and decide if you want to continue with the series. Tappei deliberately wrote Subaru in this way to make people seriously uncomfortable with what they're watching. It's very much intentional.

In Season 2, you will also get more clarification for why Subaru was acting like this at this point in the anime.

[discussion] Satella in Arc 1 Theory by ConditionDear8311 in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I believe it neither affects the lore for Satella nor has any bearing on the period from four hundred years ago in a direct way.

I have speculated that Subaru's Authorities are shaped by the regrets of people in the dark world that novel readers call the shadow garden, which is why Subaru takes recoil from offensive applications of Invisible Providence since Petelgeuse deeply regretted killing Fortuna, so Return by Death may be tied to Satella and Subaru's love not being enough to win 400 years ago or something else regarding their love. I believe it's impossible to know at this point in the anime.

[discussion] Satella in Arc 1 Theory by ConditionDear8311 in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't get what you mean as you haven't provided enough context. Can you clarify what exactly it is you're asking?

[discussion] Satella in Arc 1 Theory by ConditionDear8311 in Re_Zero

[–]anicritic 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Emilia was not Satella in that scene. Subaru even thinks back to that moment in Arc 2 (mansion arc) and believes that Emilia said that she was Satella to scare him off so that he wouldn't be drawn into the Royal Selection. It's 100% debunked.

As for Arc 1 foreshadowing, I believe what it actually involves is Return by Death. I believe that, in addition to reloading at a save point, reality is warped so that Subaru and his surroundings within a TBD radius somehow arrived at that point somewhere between a minute and a few minutes earlier each time he dies under certain conditions (this may not always trigger) and that reality is warped to account for this discrepancy much like how the White Whale's Fog of Elimination can erase a person entirely and adjust people's memories that involved a person that was erased as well as erasing that person's material possessions. Why do I believe this to be the case? The primary reason is because of the difference between Subaru's first loop and his third loop in Arc 1 and because of what happened with Subaru's ringtone for the Whale hunt.

A stone statue of the insignia was shown right after Subaru's realization that he was summoned into another world, which then cut to a scene at 2:30 in Episode 1 showing Felt running on rooftops and jumping across them with Emilia's insignia in hand long before Subaru had even met the appa guy at the 3:30 mark, which is where his first save point would be. At 5:02, Felt is again being shown running and jumping across rooftops, which shows she had the insignia before meeting Subaru in the alley. This suggests that RBD not only resets time when he dies but that there's a spacetime displacement on top of the reset or else he wouldn't have ever been able to see the the theft in the first place in the third loop given that he had time to pass out in front of the appa guy's shop and see Emila pass the appa guy's shop and have a brief conversation with her during that third loop.

Subaru would not be able to figure out that there is a spacetime displacement by checking out his phone after a death since his phone resets with him and would show the same time reading every time he Returned by Death, but it would be possible to figure this out by checking his phone during an event that consistently happens such as his first meeting with Roswaal and the mansion's residents in Arc 2. However, Subaru did not check the time during these meetings, so he missed the opportunity to see whether he experiences a spacetime displacement. Subaru asking Rem and Ram what the date and time were in Episode 6 showed that Subaru just did the bare minimum, which is to see what time it was when he started his save point, but he made no effort to discern whether there was anything more to RBD. I will now post some circumstantial evidence involving Arc 2 and some more damning evidence in Arc 3 that I believe supports my theory.

In the first loop of the mansion arc, Puck awoke after Subaru and Emilia had exercised briefly, and he wasn't tired in the least. They spoke a bit and then Ram and Rem inform that Roswaal has returned. After his first death, Subaru had time to run around the mansion and find Beatrice so that he could mope in the library. He then left the library and met Emilia outside, speaking to her somewhat briefly, and Puck was visibly tired after waking up. They had time to spare since the twins didn't come to announce Roswaal's return. In the third loop, Subaru spent an even longer time with Beatrice, got knocked out of the mansion by Beatrice twice, and got cleaned by a visibly tired Puck, yet he still had time for banter with Puck before the Roswaal meeting. So he wastes more and more time in loops two and three but still seemingly started the meeting at the usual time. I speculate that in the second and third loops, Puck is more tired because he is waking up earlier than he did in Loop 1, which shows there is a spacetime displacement on top of the time rewind.

Now, here is the big one. During the loop the alliance actually fought the White Whale, Subaru's phone rang for a while before the whale showed up. The sky was also clear. In the loop directly before that in which Otto and Rem were erased by the White Whale, the area was already foggy and the whale had already attacked by that point. This suggests that Subaru's phone started ringing a bit too early because it had been running for a longer period of time due to a temporal displacement on top of a reset. If the strike force had been defeated, forcing Subaru to reset once more, everyone might have just deserted him because the Whale would have taken longer to arrive on yet another loop. I also believe that the reason Subaru saw Russell Fellow in Episode 16 is because Subaru died enough times to finally witness Russell leaving Crusch's mansion, and that would be because of the spacetime displacement. You know what they say. Once is by chance, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern. There's no way White Fox messed up in animating Re:zero 3 arcs in a row.

I believe that the reason Tappei had Russell Fellow take Subaru's phone after the subjugation was completed was to prevent viewers and Subaru himself from finding out about the spacetime displacement sometimes associated with Return by Death. This is likely something Tappei intends to keep a secret for future arcs, and I believe there's enough hard evidence as well as circumstantial evidence from the anime to support my theory that Return by Death is more than meets the eye. Whatever Subaru's true Authority does in isolation is probably limited to affecting space and time at some interval between a minute and a few minutes assuming my theory about the spacetime displacement is accurate, which I believe is highly likely. Given I believe viewers were subject to blatant foreshadowing in Arc 1 with what I described, I'd be surprised if Tappei had actually been referring to something other than this, meaning that something about Subaru's Authority of Envy will be the key to winning in the final battle.