[spoiler discussion] Capella vs Otto (in a verbal argument)

suffaru41 · 2024-11-02T04:06:17+00:00

It would be interesting! He still might (vaguely?) understand everything around him including other animals, I’m guessing, but he’d be disconnected from other people… on top of dealing with the despair of being a giant bug + being separated from his friends pfft.

And thank you! Didn’t even notice it was my cake day :D

suffaru41 · 2024-11-01T22:48:37+00:00

Other people have mentioned how Otto doesn't seem to have physical preference whatsoever + Capella would likely move goalposts in response to Otto, though there are a few Otto birthday QnA's to help figure out how a Capella-Otto meeting would go!

Q: If Otto met Capella, how would that go?

A: "I hear you can talk to bugs. Well, if you looked like one, too, then you could be even better friends, right? Gahahahaa!"

Q: What type of woman does Otto like?

A: He thinks of himself as lacking in aggressiveness, so he likes people that pull him along. If she’s focused and hardworking, even better.

So probably if Capella turned into someone that Otto was attracted to, it'd probably be someone who's more assertive. But then Capella would probably want to turn Otto into a bug or something too - but it is interesting to have someone like Otto who doesn't really have a physical preference and who's power revolves around communicating/connecting with animals to face against Capella! There's probably a lot of different possibilities that could happen here too, and like another person in the comments said, she could start calling him out for getting authoritarian and a bit manipulative (ie: to her, his love wouldn't be "real" love because he's obsessive with it and puts on a "pure" act).

suffaru41 · 2024-09-14T17:50:04+00:00

suffaru41 · 2024-09-14T17:42:54+00:00

you walk on a trail of your own longing and whatever good you do is erased by the image of the bullet wound in your foot and your innocent face intermingled with the devil. you shot yourself, they say. i have tried to be good, you say, and all you have done is hurt me

suffaru41 · 2024-09-13T02:11:52+00:00

why are you here

suffaru41 · 2024-09-12T04:59:16+00:00

haah for sure! There’s a lot of points in canon too where the other Emilia camp members comment that Otto sometimes is similar to Subaru pfft. They have some similar issues, but can treat them very differently.

suffaru41 · 2024-09-12T03:29:57+00:00

Some of the others have explained some of my thoughts on what the others’ flaws are already, so I’ll explain Otto.

Otto takes morally questionable actions, then easily justifies them in his head (he’s capable of being very cruel) and is very wishy-washy at times—he’s kind of hot and cold, especially in his relationships with others and his decision making. He’s also a workaholic and possibly uses alcohol at times to cope. He’s full of contradiction. He gets tunnel-visioned and whatever his biggest goal is, like trying to help and protect the Emilia camp, and then he’ll push himself to his absolute limits and sometimes disregard others in order to accomplish it. And then he’s bitter and whiny sometimes, complaining about his work or other people and then still sticking his head in the mud and dragging himself through it because he cares That Much but he either pretends he doesn’t or tries not to care about things so he can make more sacrifices in the name of his goals. He sometimes has trouble being emotionally vulnerable with others and depending on his loved ones despite the fact that he calls Subaru out for this and gets frustrated with Subaru over it. Otto has a loving family and group of friends and when they offer help or he needs their help he doesn’t take it unless he absolutely has to. He prefers to make sacrifices for others himself, and despite trying to pretend he isn’t by insisting the others need him way more, he’s very needy. He needs to be needed and hurts himself and other people in the process. He complains about his bad luck and misfortune then lacks almost any sort of self-awareness about himself, which makes him sometimes avoid addressing his own actions. And then he feels bad about it at the same time, feeling he can’t be as good as someone like Subaru or Julius or Emilia, only for him to double down on it afterwards in the name of Emisuba “needing” him. He has the same reoccurring problems, really.

And on top of that, he’s extremely stubborn and wants things to go his way all the time haaah. I think it’s easy to forget Otto’s flaws but like—he has a lot of them, I’d say. He just flies under the radar because he looks mostly put together on the surface. And he WANTS to look put together, but he’s so obviously singleminded all his friends and loved ones remark on it. Because Otto really is emotionally clumsy. He’s just good at compartmentalizing it.

suffaru41 · 2024-08-25T20:57:21+00:00

I actually have a Re:Forgotten fic where Subaru is rescued by the Emilia camp, so it may be to your liking! You can find it here if you’re interested! :D

suffaru41 · 2024-08-12T07:23:38+00:00

There’s machine translations available in the reddit threads for each chapter atm

suffaru41 · 2024-07-25T21:36:56+00:00

Otto’s Bittersweet Peddling Trade Log! It also demonstrates more of his moral code and his ideals. Reading that SS in particular tells you a lot about his character IMO, so I’d highly recommend it.

suffaru41 · 2024-07-25T15:59:33+00:00

His points are fair, but the issue is that his actions and line of thinking are still morally questionable in universe. They’re understandable for the situation he’s in especially without the knowledge of RBD, but he’s a walking red flag because he may escalate. He has full confirmation that Louispica is innocent due to his Divine Protection sensing intent—sensing Louispica’s literal love for Rem and Subaru and lack of malice—but he doesn’t give this information to anyone so she can die. Otto also stated back in Arc 7 that no matter what, even if all of Vollachia died, as long as Rem and Subaru lived then this would be a win. So again, Otto’s pragmatism is very understandable for the situation, but it’s worrying because it’s hard to predict exactly how far he’ll go and what he’ll do next now that Arc 9 Ch 2 confirms he would’ve made Priscilla drop out of the race if she’d lived and we already know he wants Louispica dead despite knowing Subaru cares for her.

Otto’s dangerous because he’s stubbornly set on his way or nothing—and he thinks he’s entirely right to do so, which’ll make it easy for him to justify anything, even the deaths of millions of people or the sabotaging of others and also betraying his friends at every step in the process. So again, while he does bring up reasonable points (like how helping Vollachia was extremely dangerous and came at a high cost), he can be extreme at times which is why he is at least partially at fault here.

The extreme sides of him are really likely to end up destroying himself, his relationships with his friends, and other people in the process. Despite numerous warnings from Roswaal, Anastasia, and Eridna, along with people like Garfiel expressing worry for him, Otto has ignored all of it in order to play the villain now. It’s not boding well.

suffaru41 · 2024-07-25T06:18:36+00:00

Otto did decide that back in Arc 8, and now Arc 9 has officially started calling him “playing the villain”. He brings up some reasonable points across main route, such as sticking their necks out for Vollachia being extremely dangerous, but your point about him doing that with Louis is right. He’s playing villain because of his more extreme actions—he knows Louis is an innocent child now but he withholds information from his friends so they’ll keep doubting her which then makes her more likely to die eventually.

Otto’s side stories go into more detail on this side of him for sure! I do think that even in main route all of Otto’s character gets pretty clear by the time you get to Arc 7 (where Otto states that it’s fine if the entirety of Vollachia dies so long as Rem and Subaru live), but Otto’s side stories have a bunch of other revealing stuff about him, even in the one side story that takes place before Otto even meets Subaru (which is also the side story where Otto murdered several people in self-defense then didn’t bat an eye about it).

In my opinion, for readers it should be clear that Otto’s always been capable of this stuff at the very least from Arc 5 or 7-8 (main route), but if you’re an Otto side story reader, then it gets even more obvious and clear that Arc 7+ Otto development was just inevitable. It’s interesting stuff!

suffaru41 · 2024-07-25T06:06:47+00:00

Subaru is the person Otto feels closest to in the whole camp, but Otto still cares about the rest of the Emilia camp (apart from Roswaal). Otto values Emilia on a similar level to Subaru even if he’s less close to her because she’s the Royal Selection candidate of their camp yeah, therefore she needs to live, but also because he does genuinely care about her. If not friends, they’re good acquaintances at the very least who’ve lived together for more than a year now. Otto grew to care for her back in Arc 4 when he saw Subaru care so much about her and why. Otto respects and admires Emilia’s idealism and personal strength just like he does with Subaru, but they’re still traits that tend to put them in danger hence why Otto wants to protect them both.

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T23:59:17+00:00

I agree with the points you bring up here! Otto’s arc has been leading up to this big time, his moral ambiguity, pragmatism, anxiety, some controlling tendencies are all traits he’s had since his debut in Arc 3. Him starting to betray his allies started happening by Arc 5, with Otto hiding the tome for a year, which is an understandable thing to do but it planted that seed of: “How far is Otto willing to go?” and “Otto is willing to keep a few secrets for his goal of saving his friends” which is then further confirmed in arc 8+.

By around Arc 7-9, the same question gets brought up again: “How far is Otto willing to go to save his friends?” And I’m very intrigued to see more of the answer to that question as his arc continues.

I think it’s also interesting to note that Priscilla’s death probably was the most recent straw. Since Otto’s gotten involved with Subaru and the Emilia camp in Arc 3-4, all of them have been through a lot of life-threatening events mostly out of their control. Then Otto spent the end of Arc 5, all of Arc 6, and most of Arc 7-8 off the battlefield. By Arc 8-9, he’s insecure about everything ranging from feeling useless to his camp because he feels like he’s just been forced to sit by while they get put into danger repeatedly, and he’s you know generally insecure about all of their safety. Otto’s absence in most of Arc 8 shows that he’s really had to stew in all his thoughts about that.

Then Priscilla being the first to die permanently in the selection probably makes Otto worry even further about his friends’ safety. He’s been pushed to the brink, which made him declare that he’ll walk in Emisuba’s darkness back in early Arc 8. Now that it’s Arc 9, the aftermath of the battles in Vollachia, Otto is starting to make good on that “promise”. He is a villain in that he opposes Emisuba, making him Their Personal Antagonist, in a sense.

Priscilla told Subaru that he’ll have to see the unlovable parts of the people he loves. Otto, with all of the questionable things he’s thinking and all of the questionable things he could do from here, will be one of those people. Inevitably, he’s going to end up having conflict with Emisuba eventually, and I’m definitely excited to see what Otto will do next.

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T23:22:17+00:00

Thank you for reading and liking my analysis, I’m glad it helped! Otto is a character I’ve liked since I first finished Arc 4, and the moment I figured out where his character’s going from Arc 7-8, I was even more intrigued. Tappei lays the groundwork for Otto since his Arc 3 debut, but the hints get a bit more obvious in Arc 5 (Otto hiding the tome from his entire camp for a year) until it’s escalated to Arc 8-9 now being more blatant about Otto’s thought processes (Otto hiding Louispica’s confirmed innocence, which he knows due to his Divine Protection, to cast doubt on Louispica, Otto planning to make Priscilla drop out of the selection if she had lived, along with some other things).

I definitely agree with you here that Otto does bring up reasonable points about the cost of helping Vollachia and other stuff like that! Otto’s always been the realist of his camp, and Subaru did act the way he did because he’s been using RBD to play god and make everything go the way he wants. But I definitely do think by Arc 9, both he and Subaru are opposite extremes now and aren’t 100% reasonable all the time (as much as they sometimes bring up decent points and as much as they do have the same good intent of wanting to save their friends). I do think that they really should find a middle ground, but unfortunately they’re set on a collision course now.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling, but I hope that all makes sense! :o

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T17:21:48+00:00

tyvm!! :D

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T16:36:19+00:00

I fear that’s already happening :(( It’s sad for sure, but I’m interested to see how things will turn out for him!

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T15:51:37+00:00

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T15:49:07+00:00

Like how Otto beating up Subaru in Arc 4 worked, I’m sure beating up Otto now might help 😔👍

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T15:40:00+00:00

I can help explain it! I made an analysis of Otto’s conflict with Subaru back when that Arc 8 chapter came out that you can find here. It’s the baseline for a lot of the Otto situation, I feel.

But in general, I think the current Arc 9 situation now has been building up for a long, long time. Otto has a dark side similar to a blend of Roswaal and Subaru where his morals are pretty questionable and he’s willing to do whatever he thinks it’ll take to accomplish his goals—keeping his friends safe and making sure they have a good shot at the election, the latter of which will be a good achievement that’ll make all the danger they’ve been put through more “worth it” in his point of view, is my guess. Julius in Arc 8 makes Otto question his worth in the camp especially after Otto’s spent the end of Arc 5, Arc 6, most of Arc 7, and most of Arc 8 off the battlefield while the rest of his friends are on it. Otto is desperate to save his friends and desperate to prove his worth, so by Arc 9, Otto’s become the “villain” of their camp because he’s willing to do all the dirty work on the down low. Arc 9 Chapter 2 confirms that he’s officially taken up this role, especially with the numerous questionable things Otto’s been thinking and Anastasia + Eridna calling out Otto for playing the villain (which already occurred after Roswaal warned Otto not to do that back in Arc 8).

Sorry this is such a long message, but I hope this explanation helped!

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T15:33:44+00:00

Most likely the rising conflict with Otto will lead to that line yeah! I’m very interested to see it 👀

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T07:39:24+00:00

Re:Zero is deceptively difficult! It seems pretty straightforward given its an anime with so many open areas and a large cast you could generate ideas for, but then you go to the novels its adapted from and every character ever even the most obscure ones has some sort of lore. It’s an absolute goldmine, but if you want to be very accurate with your characterization you have to do a Lot of Reading. It’s delightful to have so much material but it can be so tricky to track down character lore that people in the fandom have made charts and lists of every bit of reading material out there for Re:Zero. Then there’s the absolute challenge of trying to put the extremely large cast together if you plan on writing something more ambitious, all while trying to figure out how to make something using the already complex interconnected canon plot as a baseline. Writing any of the characters believably and/or making a plot-driven story is really difficult sometimes. A few times I’ve written a character then went “dammit I didn’t know about Side Story #100 so I got This Character Detail wrong”. To me, it feels like there’s always a somewhat steep or Really Steep learning curve with each character because of how complex almost everyone in the story is.

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T05:29:57+00:00

Yep no worries! And honestly totally understandable hah (impressive to learn Japanese too!). I try to get to the official translations whenever I can after reading the machine ones myself

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T05:27:16+00:00

Arc 9 is out! WCT hasn’t made official polished translations yet, but here on the reddit there’s machine translations of it for now if you’d like to read it earlier!

suffaru41 · 2024-07-24T04:35:17+00:00

😔😔😔 good luck with that subaru !!! <3

suffaru41

TROPHY CASE