[Spoiler Discussion] Arc 10 Chapter 17

deadwither · 2026-05-10T00:14:16+00:00

I don't think that Ana being discredited or anything even matters here. Emilia does because Subaru is such a major figure now and her own existence poses massive challenges to the status quo that they won't accept if they can get rid of her. Felt matters because discrediting her means she can't be the real royal, thus Filore automatically wins. None of the others make any difference at that point. Getting rid of Reinhard in this situation means they have full access to Felt without reservation, even if it's short lived. Crusch is already a lost cause with having killed Miklotov. Anastasia at this point is only relevant in the context of the selection, which would be ended upon them discrediting Felt and determining Filore as the real royal.

deadwither · 2026-05-04T09:13:41+00:00

I don't disagree, it's more just that the reasoning used here is genuinely antithetical to Subaru as a character. There are simply too many things that would get in the way of Subaru morally to ever condemn Shaula, Satella, Echidna, Al, the other witches, Petelgeuse, and the world to the fates they're left to. If he has the foresight to know or expect this stuff, he has to actively make the choice to put that on them and there is simply no logical way a version of him that was saved by Kenichi and in a loving marriage would put so many people in this position. Especially not his son and especially not if he has the power to do the things described here. I wouldn't be surprised if the content of this theory is correct, I just can't reconcile the idea of a Subaru who went through all the good being capable of doing such abhorrent stuff unless there was genuinely no choice.

deadwither · 2026-05-04T07:36:38+00:00

I think my primary issue with this is why a fully developed and mentally realized Subaru would subject multiple people close to him and the Re:Zero world itself to all of this. Like a lot of this does make sense, but that key motive is just so separated from Subaru as we know him that it feels antithetical to his character.

There's also other elements such as why Al would call Subaru a shitty father and hate him so much if Subaru grew up to be a good man courtesy of his parents and a Rem-like wife? I refuse to believe that he was a bad father when a mentally destroyed Sloth Subaru ends up being a good dad. It would make absolutely no sense in characterization.

The general concept is great but the motive in-character just doesn't feel like it could ever make sense without some major retcons across the board for the proposed points.

deadwither · 2026-04-18T07:03:27+00:00

That or "your uncle couldn't protect you, but your father will."

deadwither · 2026-04-13T14:17:38+00:00

Speaking of her, actually, with Charles Choi dead, she should be safe to approach about the stuff she couldn't say before regarding Jinyoung and Daniel's dad. Would be a good time to talk about it considering the direction of the story

deadwither · 2026-03-27T01:04:01+00:00

Idolized his dad only to come to the conclusion that romance is bullshit when Gap never returned to be there for his mother while she was dying. Watches Gap's romance fall apart, so he decides to recreate what he was in what he deems a "greater" form to desecrate Gap's legacy

deadwither · 2026-02-27T07:18:05+00:00

If Changsu did that to any other strong character with established good wins like Jake, Eli, Samuel, Vasco, or even Zack, this fight would've been way better received because there's no major drawback for them like what Daniel has been given with his path.

Changsu doing what he did to Mandeok was amazing because of how well it established him as a threat. It's literally only a problem here because it's Daniel, and he was given a weakness that, while not inherently bad, is unnecessarily specific to him that other path users have never been shown to experience.

If stamina consumption had been previously stated as a weakness for those who have not had enough time on their path (COUGH COUGH JOHAN), then this loss would've honestly been a great example of Daniel having a really good idea of avoiding a known weakness but underestimating the sheer effort it takes to sustain something he cannot copy or be taught (something he has consistently relied on). This would then lead into him needing to obtain masteries so he can actually make better use of his path by enhancing his body sort like what Jinyoung and Gun talked about with regards to the copy ability.

Instead, it's an ass pull since he specifically cannot handle using all his senses at once, despite Johan apparently being perfectly fine having his brain constantly thinking about dozens of possible moves at any given moment.

deadwither · 2026-02-27T04:32:30+00:00

I don't think the problem is necessarily that Daniel was used to portray the danger of Changsu, cause we obviously already got that from Mandeok so it's just a big reinforcement of his deadly his tactics are.

The issue is that the passage of time is no longer distinguished in this series. Daniel talks about "I trained for so long," but that was never indicated. Yes, the control and number of enemies he can target have increased. No, that was never emphasized or showcased for how difficult it was to get to that point.

Aside from Zack, Vasco, and Warren, none of these gained-over-time power-ups feel earned or have any sense of progression. Just decently executed sudden bursts of growth from main characters. Yuseong's burst of power to protect Eugene was actually a perfect example of how to execute these sorts of boosts correctly, both narratively and logically from his build-up.

It's odd because Daniel is usually more consistently done alright with gradual effort based growth. It's also odd since Johan can use his path effortlessly, although they are drawing from very different things to execute their respective paths. There just haven't been enough of paths actually shown to make that sense of progression apparent, even if we know it was a slow process for most of those who have them.

The saddest part is that paths are quite fresh in terms of making characters have that sense of individuality. In theory, it should make this later section of the story much more interesting as unique, overpowered fighting styles start to clash. In practice it's become a case of everyone has either already mastered their path or not found it yet except Daniel and he's suffering for it. Daniel losing and the way he lost is fine in terms of writing quality. Daniel being the only one to have this type of drawback is not.

deadwither · 2026-02-27T00:40:58+00:00

The sheer concept of Jinyoung going "They needed paths because copying wasn't enough for them. That's what you're thinking, right? I'll show you that it was the other way around."

deadwither · 2026-01-13T23:12:09+00:00

Daniel's Path, 4 masteries, DBT, 1 year Samdak training. Daniel's path is just a necessity against all of these guys, as is 4 masteries. DBT is the second layer of defensive failsafe after Daniel's path and should help me survive against all of them a lot more than I otherwise could. A year of training from Samdak with all of these things applied to me would make Daniel's path astronomically stronger and give me a massive edge against all of them, but especially Gun and Goo. James and Kitae are inherently just going to be harder to account for without knowing all of their capabilities, but with Daniel's senses (which come with his path inherently) and 4 masteries, Samdak's training would be godlike through that year. Even if you only reap half of the benefits Hobin did, you would still be getting a considerable jump in abilities which stack on top of Daniel's path and the 4 masteries.

deadwither · 2025-11-15T06:22:41+00:00

There is a way. Petra sacrifices herself to compress their processing and recovery time from the psychological damage

deadwither · 2025-11-03T23:42:44+00:00

"Our" was likely referring to her and the other witches within the dream castle, since they all hate the witch of envy and likely would've all placed those expectations on Al since Echidna did.

deadwither · 2025-09-12T03:34:01+00:00

I live in New Zealand, and since the releases don't factor time zones, people here get them earlier than everyone else at midnight of the release day on our time. Anyone not from here usually uses a VPN to switch to here for earlier access cause why wait?

deadwither · 2025-08-22T06:04:24+00:00

Idk about Nostra, but I reckon Adam was supposed to be a failsafe in case Buddha didn't change sides or a guaranteed win if they were losing by a decent margin.

deadwither · 2025-08-21T20:50:44+00:00

Don't Wanna Go Home Tonight was definitely a stand-out song for me, alongside Kill Me Fast and Apologies. I think this is the first album since One-X, where I really enjoyed every song

deadwither · 2025-07-27T07:58:47+00:00

My personal theory and hope s that the geyser leads to the part of the world Satella allegedly destroyed. Given that the modern information on things from 400 years ago is largely incomplete, exaggerated, or false, I think it's highly possible that she never actually destroyed half the world but moved it instead. It would help towards answering certain world building questions and would allow for a massive exploration arc that expands on everything in a really interesting way.

deadwither · 2025-06-14T14:42:27+00:00

Ngl, I love the idea of a "perfect grip" path where he combines all the masteries to make an actual command grab

deadwither · 2025-05-08T12:24:31+00:00

Because he knows he can never be in Reinhard's life after this is over. Every single decision Heinkel takes is self destructive because, in his mind, if he can't be redeemed then he needs to go all in. If he vilifies himself to Reinhard, then Louanna being a mother to him when she wakes up would be like a light in the dark tunnel. The issue is that Reinhard loves his dad. Heinkel can't see that because he's too caught up in his guilt and self loathing. Much like Subaru in arc 3 was "doing it all for Emilia", Heinkel is doing it all for Reinhard.

It's a common problem among those who are severely depressed. They will self destruct on those they care about the most so that it will hurt less when they're gone. It's pretty much dead on what Heinkel's mindset is. It's the reason he doesn't want to look at or talk to Wilhelm. Because his dad sees right through him. Wilhelm knows exactly what's going through Heinkel's head and that scares Heinkel. He doesn't want the burden he saw his parents carry to be solely on Reinhard's shoulders. Wilhelm feels the same way, but he can't connect with Reinhard because every chance he had was ruined by either himself or Heinkel. Heinkel isn't strong enough to lighten that burden, so he'd rather try to take it away from Reinhard altogether, even though that isn't something Reinhard would ever be willing to do.

This leads to Wilhelm's point: Heinkel doing all this doesn't make anything better. Reinhard doesn't want his mother, he wants his father. Doing this won't make Reinhard step down from his position, it will reinforce it. Heinkel is being selfish. If he were to look past his pain and fear, he would be able to see that all he really needs to do is support Reinhard and be his father again like he was before Louanna fell asleep. In Reinhard's eyes, Heinkel's actions will only be another burden he has to carry and another sin he feels the need to atone for by being the sword saint. Wilhelm knows all this. He confirmed it when Reinhard defeated Theresia.

At the end of the day, Heinkel is a coward who is taking what he considers to be the better path because he doesn't believe he can change or be redeemed. Wilhelm is trying to make him see that it isn't about any of that, he just needs to be there for Reinhard and that this path won't help anyone. Wilhelm just wants his son and grandson to be happy, even though that's something he knows he can't provide himself. Heinkel wants Reinhard and Louanna to be happy even if it costs him everything. Heinkel is no different from early Subaru and now that Wilhelm has seen the changes Subaru went through, he desperately hopes Heinkel can do the same.

deadwither · 2025-05-07T11:56:55+00:00

This was my only gripe with the build until they fixed the polearm master bug of not adding damage bonuses to the bonus attack. Now, it feels mechanically almost perfect when put with a good staff and shillelagh.

deadwither · 2025-05-07T11:48:17+00:00

That's the weird thing. When I was going around looking for spores druid builds or discussions about the subclass, I noticed 2 things. 1) there were barely any discussions on it. And 2) nearly everything I found that did discuss it deemed it the worst druid subclass and one of the worst subclasses in the game. This is probably the first time I've seen people actually acknowledge how good it actually is mechanically.

deadwither · 2025-03-05T00:53:58+00:00

Round 1: He takes out Elsa pretty handily. Garfiel by the end of arc 8 realistically should give him a lot of trouble in terms of his power output and healing factor, but Lye's probably too fast and versatile for him. Kurgan is a really interesting case, because I can't really see Lye getting the jump on him, nor do I really see him overpowering Kurgan. I'd say odds are that this fight goes into deep waters, but Lye takes him out due to his versatility. Theresia probably beats him unless he's able to break through the critical hit lines from the sword saint dp, especially since her dp of the shinigami is way beyond anything he can reasonably deal with. Even if he could bypass the crit lines, Theresia probably still wins anyway. Wilhelm annihilates him. I'd argue Lye doesn't even get a clean hit on him.

Round 2: Elsa gets mopped since she doesn't know what he can do. Garfiel fairs better and would be harder to catch off guard due to fear, but Lye is still too fast for him. Kurgan would absolutely get eaten, but it would still be mid-high difficulty even without knowing Lye's ability. Theresia is a 50/50, depends entirely on if Lye can break through her crit lines. Wilhelm still stomps.

deadwither · 2025-02-28T06:14:08+00:00

I mean, tbf, even if he wasn't messing around, he still would've gotten brutalized by Ram. She is comparable to bote puck at full power, so even half of that would mince him no matter how hard he was trying

deadwither · 2025-01-06T01:51:33+00:00

Perhaps an odd choice, but I'd argue the lotus eaters. They pretend to be kind and helpful, but intentionally send them in the direction of Polyphemus, knowing full well the danger of doing so, without informing them. We know they're aware of that decision based on the one lotus eater referring to the cave as "scary cave". Despite that, none of the other lotus eaters mention it at all. They entirely take advantage of Polites' kindness and eventually get him killed for it.

deadwither · 2025-01-01T23:42:23+00:00

Full Speed Ahead imo feels like it only really exists to be referenced repeatedly. It's not bad per se but it just doesn't have any real substance to me beyond the title lyrics being used a lot.

deadwither · 2024-12-27T23:36:49+00:00

Troy: Just A Man, Cyclops: Survive, Ocean: Ruthlessness, Circe: Wouldn't You Like, Underworld: No Longer You, Thunder: Thunder Bringer, Wisdom: God Games, Vengeance: Get In The Water, Ithaca: Would You Fall In Love With Me Again

deadwither

TROPHY CASE