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Re:Zero Director's Cut: Episode 7 Reaction! (Patreon)

Published:
2026-09-13 13:00:04
Edited:
2026-10-16 21:16:35
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Content

*DIGGING YOUR GRAVE HEADPHONE WARNINGS*

Know how you dig yourself in a hole sometimes? Well, a trip to the Capital with Emilia provides Subaru not only with the shovel, but with an endless trench to keep digging in and hooooo boy, the discussion gets LENGTHY this week, as I have a lot to talk about with all these new characters and Subaru at his newest low point.

LINK TO REACTION: https://mega.nz/file/DzgkTCLR#nXoLrBoQ2r1WSLkkfpztf2fIcgqxAb7nBZafV6ufap8

00:00 INTRO - WE'RE BACK TO THE DIRECTOR'S CUT! 00:55 The (probably) Last of the Lap Pillow Discourse 05:58 Other Comments From Y'all! 10:14 Notes for the Week on the Fandom 14:51 Link to Reaction! 14:56 DISCUSSION START! 19:16 Episode 12 Discussion! 01:27:12 Episode 13 Discussion! 02:16:19 OUTRO -- And Now We Wait for the Next Episode!

Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!

Files

Romania Black - Re:Zero Director's Cut: Episode 7 Reaction! SELF-PROCLAIMED KNIGHT NATSUKI SUBARU?!

LINK TO REACTION: https://mega.nz/file/DzgkTCLR#nXoLrBoQ2r1WSLkkfpztf2fIcgqxAb7nBZafV6ufap8 **DIGGING YOUR GRAVE HEADPHONE WARNINGS** 00:00 INTRO - WE'RE BACK TO THE DIRECTOR'S CUT! 00:55 The (probably) Last of the Lap Pillow Discourse 05:58 Other Comments From Y'all! 10:14 Notes for the Week on the Fandom 14:51 Link to Reaction! 14:56 DISCUSSION START! 19:16 Episode 12 Discussion! 23:33 Looking up Wilhelm & About Wilhelm 27:24 New Characters & Subaru's F-Up Listing 36:36 Planning to Go to the Capital 47:20 Julius, Pricilla, & AL! 01:00:42 Subaru's Problems Escalate 01:15:41 The Royal Selection Ceremony! 01:27:12 Episode 13 Discussion! 01:33:41 Emilia Needs a Man to Stand Beside Her 01:41:50 Subaru is a Knight now, Apparently 01:50:31 Felt Gets Forced to Participate 01:52:52 Subaru gets his Butt Kicked 01:58:19 THE BEDROOM SCENE 02:16:19 OUTRO -- And Now We Wait for the Next Episode! Know how you dig yourself in a hole sometimes? Well, a trip to the Capital with Emilia provides Subaru not only with the shovel, but with an endless trench to keep digging in and hooooo boy, the discussion gets LENGTHY this week, as I have a lot to talk about with all these new characters and Subaru at his newest low point. Thank you for watching with me and for all the support! #romaniablack #rezero #rezerodirectorscut Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RomaniaBlack My Anime: https://myanimelist.net/profile/RomaniaBlack Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/RomaniaBlack You can mail me a letter or anything (except food, please) at this address: Romania Black PO Box 768 Harrisburg, IL 62946 USA

Comments

Rabestor

Great reaction! You know it's f-ed when you think it would be better for Subaru to die instead of... this. This is the episode that made a lot of people drop the show, and I'm one of them :D. I was in high school when I first watched it, but I've come to love it nowadays. I still skip most of the episode on a rewatch (due to overwhelming secondhand embarrassment) but that bedroom scene is still one of my favorite scenes to this day.

Szynapka

Loved the episode, loved the discussion. I suspect most comments will talk about the emotional core of the episode (and for a good reason), but I don't think I have anything to add to it, the episode speaks for itself [insert the "Absolute Cinema" meme]. Instead, I'll just say that I have a hard time thinking of an episode of a series that would spoil the viewer with so many vibrant character designs (and character personalities) in such a short time. Both the candidates and their attendants are fantastic, and I immediately wanted to see more of them on the screen and know more about them. But there's one thing that's known for sure: Al loves appas.

BeaDoeBee

Al loves Appas! I love how in-depth you went especially for this episode. This is the episode where most people dropped the show and it’s obvious why. This episode is so hard to get through, but that’s why I love it so much. I love how ugly and pathetic they made Subaru look this episode. It doesn’t sugar coat his twisted thinking, and it’s abundantly clear we’re supposed to root against him and want him to change and improve. Seeing Subaru blatantly show the jealousy and entitlement that’s been brewing since the beginning is weirdly satisfying. All the previous episodes even when he’s being cute and silly, you can feel those traits lurking in the background. I see this as the most important episode regarding Subaru character in season one. I remember watching it for the first time and just being so excited to see how Subaru will grow and change after this episode. This show managed to make me hopeful, even after witnessing such a brutal rock bottom. This episode is a huge reason why Subaru is my favorite character of all time.

Catmanmanson

Hood weebs is indeed a straight up racist dogwhistle, only used by people who hold other unsavory and unacceptable views

sillyspartan

Fun Fact - Emilia's voice actress sings the song "Stay Alive" in the ending credits.

That Guy

"Relationships that have depth and stability are not based on transactions" Romania really pre-fired the ending scene of this episode haha. "You owe me a debt you can never repay" I think it's fine to use "Feminine" and "Masculine" energy as terms because they are well-established terms that hold many deeper meanings that would be hard to describe with any other single word. As long as we agree on the premise beforehand that both men and women hold both feminine and masculine energy within them, to varying degrees depending on the person, and both energies have healthy, wonderful aspects and potentially toxic aspects depending on how they are used. As long as we agree on this you are in the clear so don't worry about anyone but trigger-happy redditors to misconstrue your words, Teach. PS: Priscila will always be my favorite candidate. I always think "I simultaneously respect her for always standing on business and wince as she crashes out on the universe" both a true queen and an agent of chaos.

Catmanmanson

Also Trogdor mentioned. We love Burninating the townspeople

epicgamesbr

i think you could understand why everyone was SO excited for rezero- absolutely LOVE this episode Incidentally, this ep is a big part of the reason why Re:zero had such a polarizing reputation- Nowadays this episode is received really well by most people, but when s1 was first releasing, people saw this and took it in really bad faith, which caused a big amount of the anime community at the time to drop it. It was very bad at the time but in hindsight, it is really fun to see how the average audience perception of the episode changed drastically, as most people nowadays love it, even on a first watch/read. I overall love this episode, as it really felt like the 'explosion moment' the story needed and was building up to with Subaru's red flags he showed from time to time, as it even covers things such as how he perceives Emilia as this angel or tropey heroine that would understand him magically just because he feels like she needs to. While typing this, it made me realize that the lap pillow scene most likely made this issue even worse in Subaru's head, as Emilia did the perfect thing at the perfect time for him, which most likely created or at least made the 'perfect emilia' cement in Subaru's head What always scared me about this conversation isn't the fact that he can't talk about return by death, but that he can use that as an excuse for his behavior "Hey i made her really angry and she pratically cut ties with me, but that wasn't my fault ! If i could talk about my time powers with her, i would've been in the right!" Well anyways ! I could talk a LOT more about this episode, but i've already typed out a lot- Glad to see you enjoyed this episode ! Man, Al sure does love appas hm

epicgamesbr

Also- I'll mention this in a different comment from my main one since i don't know how the mod team is handling spoilers/cut content currently, but there's some cut from the light novel here that is really interesting, i'll leave it to the mods to see if this is something that should be told to you or if we'll leave it in the light novel- I'll leave some dots on the way so the actual important info is behind the 'click to see more' button. . . In the light novel, during the scene where Subaru hitches a ride with Priscilla and Al, they have a longer discussion than in the anime, Subaru remarking and making jokes like "Catching the train station"/things of that caliber, of course, Priscilla does not care nor understand these phrases, however, a little while later, Subaru asks Al “Is it too rude for me to ask where you lost that arm of yours?”, with Al replying “Sure, I can see why it’d bug you. It was my baptism to a whole different world. You know what I mean, don’t you, bro?”, Subaru then gets surprised and Al essentially begins to talk about how he has been Isekai'd to the Re:zero world for about 18 years already and lost his arm around Subaru's age when he had just been teleported here Al also talks about how he tried to find out why he had been transported, but never got anything and thus just decided to find ways to survive. Priscilla hearing this conversation essentially jumps into it saying “You two men and your glum faces are dulling the luster of my dragon carriage. From what I have heard, ’tis all trifling issues of the past. Even those clownish tall tales about your homeland beyond the Great Waterfalls make for a more amusing conversation for me.” explaining to Subaru that the rezero world is actually a flat earth and that there are "great waterfalls" on the edges of it, with people like Subaru and Al coming from "beyond these waterfalls", however she also says that a lot of the people that claim to be from beyond the waterfalls are liars/scammers, with the only one she feels like is true being Al, based on her intuition There's some other cut content as well in this episode, but nothing as insane as this

AlmyJoyous

Now you finally saw the start of what the Author is trying to tell the viewer what not to do and that every questioning in Subaru's character that you made beautifully was correctly made. Yes Subaru has both amazing and terrible traits and Subaru will learn that if he doesn't learn, well his Author will not let him get away with it unharmed like other Authors do. (Out of love of course)

baseballlover723

Episode 13 is one of my favorite Re:Zero episodes. And it's a shame, cause most people hate this episode cause it makes them feel 2nd hand embarrassment and end up dropping Re:Zero because of it (some of whom become life long haters of Re:Zero). It's just such a nuanced episode and it's because it makes the viewer feel so vividly that Subaru is just fucking everything up that makes it great. Because he is. Subaru is just straight up, fucking everything up this episode. I think you put it well, that Subaru digs a hole, and then keeps on digging, the whole episode long. Dude must have excavated an entire mine's worth of dirt by the end of the episode. It's good intentions, with the absolute worst execution of all time. And buckle up, cause I got a lot to say about this episode. Though I was really satisfied with 2 hours of discussion, I thought you were on point with so many things, which is a rarity for this episode, since a number of people don't get past "Subaru, you should have just taken the L at the start." and don't think about it indepth like you have. In the interests of shortening this some (with dubious success), I'm omitting the numerous times where I thought you nailed it. — On the topic of Subaru going to the castle against Emilia's wishes. I think it's a really interesting situation, and one that I think can be argued that the fantasy world and Subaru's specific fantastical powers affect the morality of his decisions. Put simply, Subaru's RBD can effectively functions as a foresight ability. Ie, the fundamental "power" part of RBD is the knowledge that Subaru carries over to the next loop (in contrast to a more traditional power that would help him exude his will on the world or something. Subaru is fundamentally the same physical being between loops). And certain foresight I think can affect the morality of one's decisions, and especially relevant, their mutual understandability of said decisions. For instance, lets imagine a simpler scenario with much more obvious classifications. Lets imagine that Emilia takes all of her money to gamble at the blackjack table. Blackjack is a game that is probabilistic in nature, though also has a skill component, as to how one manages the probabilities to be best in your favor given the information available and some math (which I think is quite representable of generally doing stuff in life based on what is likely to happen). There are definitive strategies that can be proven to be optimal given various information states, card counting being the extreme end of that, and even just a generalized lookup table / strategy (see https://www.blackjackapprenticeship.com/blackjack-strategy-charts/ for examples). Of course, blackjack, like all casino games, favors the house, so before Emilia leaves for the casino, Subaru would be wise to advise her to not gamble her money there. Let us pretend that Emilia insists she's going to go to the casino and Subaru won't come as well (like she does in the anime with the castle). Subaru can obviously choose to respect that (and this is the option people should 100% be picking when they do not have foresight). But since Subaru does practically have foresight, Emilia would actually benefit from Subaru's presence and importantly, Subaru's increased agency. Let us imagine that Emilia plays only 1 hand of blackjack (with all of her money on the line for simplicity). Dealer shows a 10 (quite a strong card), and Emilia is dealt a 10 and a 9 for a 19. Now, conventional logic would scream that the proper play here is to stand (under the general strategy of never hitting above 17). Lets say that our dealer's facedown card is a 10, thereby giving them 20, and thus, when Emilia stands, she loses. However, if we have the power of foresight, and we know the top card of the deck that will be dealt to us is a 2, then the optimal play becomes to hit, getting a 21, and beating the dealer's 20. Now, it's important to note that this is only a good decision because Subaru has the foresight to know that they're gonna hit the 5% play. So long as Subaru insists on the best outcome for Emilia, Emilia generally benefits by trading her agency for Subaru's (which is absolutely a terrible thing without foresight). If Subaru were able to demonstrate the trustworthiness of his foresight to Emilia, then if Subaru were to tell Emilia at the blackjack table to hit on a 19, then Emilia could understand that his foresight is in plan, and choose to trust Subaru over her own decision. Obviously, Subaru cannot communicate RBD or how that implies foresight for him, so Emilia, in her perfectly reasonable ignorance, thereby rejects Subaru's plan for being obviously terrible blackjack strategy, stands, and loses all of her money. It reminds me of the killing baby hitler (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_baby_Hitler) thought experiment. Where the agent has certain and fundamentally untransferable information, and as a result, only they can know the greater value of a superficially terrible action. It's what I would like to categorically group as "unproveably true statements". We can know they are true etc, but they cannot be proven to others as true. Of course, Subaru does not know for sure that terrible things will happen to Emilia while they are separated, and nor do I think Subaru really gave much indication that this was his line of thinking (even to us the viewer, who could understand). But I do think that at the root of Subaru's psyche, he has formulated something similar to this and hence why he says things like "I'm only of any use when something happens. I want to be with her when important things are going on." Now, does that justify fighting to go to the Capital with Emilia? I think so. The cost of bringing Subaru along isn't that much, perhaps some extra lodging or food / a ground dragon ticket etc, and Subaru and Rem do bring up some value for Subaru to physically be located in the Capital. Does it justify him hitchhiking into the Royal Selection meeting with Priscilla? I'd be very hard pressed to say so. I think the downside of breaking Emilia's trust heavily outweighs the small increase in agency he gets by being directly there, instead of hearing about things 2nd hand after the fact. But as you mentioned, Subaru did not make a lot of good decisions in this episode. And to be frank, teenagers frequently make bad decisions (even if Subaru's old enough to probably know better). And I think even if it doesn't fully justify Subaru's actions, I think it's quite interesting to analyze how the fantastical elements of Re:Zero can shift the context in which all morality (and everything that derives from it, like cultural taboo and usually laws) must take place in (even if just mildly). For an extreme example, in a story where everyone is immortal, and dying merely incurs some pain and say an hour's time to fully regenerate, would murder be a crime or viewed in the same way we the viewer would view it? I would say no, it would be perfectly natural for muder in that environment to be thought of as an inconvenience, and more on par with like petty theft. And looking for explanations for Subaru's actions (which is distinct from justifying it), even if we disagree with them, helps us to understand the character. And I'm not saying that you aren't aware of this or whatever, but I do find that people generally subscribe that the things they've been brought up to think of as "good" or "moral" are objective truths or are otherwise biased towards their own experiences and moral framework and struggle to handle. I think the concept of blue & orange morality (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality) comes into play with these kinds of things, even if in this case, it's more of a red & scarlet difference in this case. — @35:55 I do really like how you handled this. Cause yeah, I don't think anyone when they first see Felix thinks to themselves, "yeah, that's a man". And frankly, I don't think that's unreasonable, to presume someones gender in the absence of contrary information. Of course, once contrary information is had, then it's a different story, but presuming someone who presents feminine is female seems quite reasonable. I should also note there is some gender stuff that doesn't come across into English well (though it's irrelevant for the duration of the Felix's gender ambiguity in the anime). Japanese has a wide selection of personal pronouns, many of which are, while not strictly gendered, are strongly leaning in one gender or another (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronouns_in_Japanese for more info). And Felix uses "Ferris-chan" as his pronoun. Not only is using your name as your pronoun (which is not weird in Japanese, like it in English), a personal pronoun that is heavily skewed female, but he also uses the "-chan" honorific, which also heavily skews female (at least in this kind of situation. "-chan" is also commonly used for young children of both genders and I think also sometimes by people way older than you for longer, like your grandma). So Felix also speaks like a Japanese woman would as well. There might be more advanced gendered speech patterns that Felix uses during the gender ambiguous section, but my Japanese is nowhere close to being able to analyze that. Personal pronouns differences are common enough that you can just listen for them and do some googling on what they imply. — I also love Priscillia. I got a soft spot for ultra confident / arrogant characters who can seemingly back it up with power (given she one hand threw Subaru into the wall). She's also a shit stirrer, willing to do shit (like take another candadite's associate under their own banner) just to fuck with other people. And that generally makes for an entertaining character. Probably not someone I'd enjoy interacting with in the real world, but extremely fun to watch from a safe distance. Big chaotic neutral energy. — @1:20:02 Given the noble's response to Felt's slum origin, I imagine him wanting to dress up Felt could be an attempt to try and avoid that issue, by having her appear more palatable to the noble class. — @1:23:05 Emilia mentioned when the candidate stuff got mentioned in Arc 2, that it was an epidemic that killed the Royal Family. — @1:23:35 About the Kararagi / Kansei accent. I'll note that accents are quite difficult to translate. Though in Re:Zero, the Kararagi / Kansei accent generally tends to be represented by Southern Drawl. IIRC, in Japan it also tends to have some of the "country bumpkin" stereotype of low class / low education / lessor like heavy Southern Drawl can kinda be viewed as. Looking up some stuff (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/JapaneseDialects, https://www.reddit.com/r/yakuzagames/comments/qljaty/is_majimas_dialect_kansai_the_japanese_equivalent/), it's generally been associated with a Deep South (in terms of a "dumb hike" vibe) or a Brooklyn (in terms of being "brash, rude / impatient") accent. Obviously I'm no expert, so don't quote me on that, but it's quite noticeable (to a Japanese speaker) and invokes some connotations. — @1:29:54: Technically, it did play the OP at the start of the DC episode, but it was the old one (that you've already seen). — @1:33:42 Tbh, I'm not really sure that Emilia can effectively stand up for herself here. As you've noted, she is viewed as having a lot of connections to the Witch of Envy, who Betty described as "Long ago, she devoured the other six witches who bore the names of the remaining deadly sins, and drained half the world dry. She's the worst of the worst, I suppose.". Which if we take this at face value (which I don't think we have to, since it's followed by 4 lines that start with "Legends say") is like a Voldemort / world ending level threat. And when everyone thinks that Emilia is that person (or perhaps might be that person), I don't assertiveness will be viewed positively. It very much feels to me that that would be turned around on her like "See, she is that big bad evil Witch". I'm all for characters standing up for themselves, and particular female ones (to buck the stereotype of the meek woman), but I don't think it's effective when everyone is generally afraid of her. It also kinda reminds me of a scene from 42, the Jackie Robinson movie (note: there are some hard r's dropped in this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkKK49vrd6Q), and basically taunting someone who can't fight back because that would confirm to everyone with their preconceived notions that it's correct. Part of me also wonders if Japanese business culture kinda plays a (meta) role in this kind of plot line (and this is something I've only just now thought about, despite having seen this scene with like 30 reactors by now). Japanese business culture is a very rich topic that we could spend all day talking about, but the aspect here I think is relevant, is that it's very seniority based, and the it's not common or desired for someone younger or less senior to ever imply that their senior coworkers are lessor to them in any way. Which kinda promotes this culture where nobody speaks up about a shitty work environment that everyone knows sucks and isn't effective, because that could be viewed as showing up your more senior coworkers. However, foreigners are not subject to this cultural pressure (Dogen has a good video about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcYGUNFY9a8), and so some Japanese people will strategically position or prompt westerners to say the quiet part out loud, because as a foreigner, they are not expected to have to play into all of this Japanese culture. And so part of me wonders if this scene with Subaru standing up for Emilia and making a big scene in the Royal Selection, is intended as an allegory for a foreigner (like Subaru is in Re:Zero), being as Dogen put it, "the bull in the china shop and break things" and speak out when culturally, the Japanese cannot. Maybe I'm overreading this completely, but having recently watched that Dogen video, it really makes me think if there's more to it, and a piece of exclusively Japanese culture is being critiqued, unbeknownst to all of the foreigners watching that scene. — @1:50:22 The line about Emilia "not being one to be feared" is that they all think Emilia is the big bad Witch of Envy. And even though Subaru fucked shit up so bad for her, she stayed composed, and didn't act like how people would expect a monster to. Ie, like striking down Subaru by force or something. I view it as like a "well, if that didn't set you off, then maybe you're not so bad after all". — @2:01:55 Crusch's knight's formal name is Felix, but he often goes by the nickname Ferris or Felis (depending on the transliteration). — @2:10:02 The bedside scene with Emilia and Subaru is so masterfully done imo. Like the whole episode climaxes in this scene, where Subaru is so desperately on the "if I just keep explaining, she'll understand", and Emila's like "why can't you explain this to me", and the very thing that would recover the situation (or more probably, stem the bleeding), that is so wanted by both sides, is the only thing Subaru cannot do, which gets interpreted in the worst way for Emilia (though quite understandably so). It's so tragic. To know the solution, know it would probably help a lot, and be forced away from it. This idea of "oh, if I explain more, they'll eventually understand" is something that I do a lot too. So I feel a lot of empathy for Subaru in this scene, cause if it were me, I'd crash out too. Knowing that the solution is so close and wanting to give it as requested, but being unable to, and being judged for my inaction. Thankfully, I don't have spooky arms coming to fondle my heart and invoke terror in me, and usually there are other ways to go about it that provide me with hope, and usually when those are exhausted still without resolution (usually when the argument starts to recycle points is when it's time to agree to disagree or just disengage), I understand that it's time to just call it quits and take the L, cause falling off the cliff completely (like Subaru did) just creates a bigger mess for future me. — @2:12:18: Also, when Subaru is going on about the debts stuff. He already claimed his rewards for those debts. He chose his reward to be Emilia's name and fur petting rights to Puck. You can't have your cake and eat it too. It was brought up and resolved already, and Subaru effectively chose to throw it away. You can't be clawing that shit back after the fact. — @2:16:02 "That's a rough time. {omitted} That's a real sad time for Subaru. We're not having fun." Suffaru once again makes his appearance. — Al loves apps indeed. 2 hours of discussion is such a joy for these 2 episodes. I usually judge Re:Zero reactors by the length of their discussion segments. Usually, if they're at least 50% the length of the episode length, that's a good benchmark for enough analysis and discussion to be worth my time. Another thing I tend to do, is spot check a few of the big episodes (like this one) and I expect to see a longer discussion section than usual (this tends to filter out the people who mostly just recap, but don't really get deep in to the discussion, as that's generally more consistent time wise). 2 hours of discussion for these episodes is just so glorious to be able to hear. I'm so glad to have my gut validated when I snap subscribed when I saw that you had a 1:1 ratio on the first episode.

In The Wonderland Alisa

Another classic episode (and one of my favorites/most memorable ones!)... I haven’t finished watching the discussion yet (I’m only up to the part where Subaru claims himself as a knight), but I just can’t resist saying this in advance—I absolutely LOVE your “secondhand embarrassment” CSI checklist. I think your review shows a rare level of meticulousness, thoughtfulness, and fairness in assessment. Personally, I also disagree with the perspective that age or the absence of malice can justify the negative consequences of an action, or serve as a reasonable excuse and a get-out-of-jail-free card for offending or hurting others. Explaining the causes of an action and using it as an excuse are two different things. I think one of the reasons I really like this part is that the author has wrapped it—or rather, borrowed—a layer of the classic male protagonist’s power fantasy: the superficial “rival” waiting to be humiliated, the helpless “princess” suffering persecution and waiting to be saved, the “stage” waiting for the protagonist to make a dazzling entrance, make a splash, and instantly earn adoration... However, it strips away two key external factors: the “protagonist-centric” narrative and “authorial protection”, which are typical interventions from external god-perspectives. Consequently, Subaru—who wants to act like those male protagonists in power fantasies—must bear the consequences of acting that way in real life on his own. (This includes not allowing him to die, return, erase the consequences, and start over.) I also really like how this is constantly being set up, building all the way to the final climax. It’s not just the plot itself—Subaru’s own words, actions, and expressions, as well as others’ attitudes and reactions to his behavior, the atmosphere, and so on—all hint at or clearly state, “This isn’t a good idea,” “This isn’t a decent thing to do,” “This doesn’t look good.” In many real power fantasy stories, this kind of feedback would be removed.

In The Wonderland Alisa

Also, though this might be a bit of a leap, these are just some of my personal thoughts. I think the real problem with the royal selection process wasn’t that Subaru got angry on Emilia’s behalf (in fact, if he’d stopped there, I think the impression some people had of him, Emilia herself, and their faction might actually have improved), but that he turned the whole thing into a stage about himself and a personal showcase. Not only did he steal Emilia’s spotlight and betray her trust, but he also sent out a lot of very bad messages (and rumor material) in the presence of a room full of potential political enemies. Such as the implication that Emilia can’t even control her own servant; that there are internal divisions within her faction; that she doesn’t know what she’s doing or can only rely on others to clean up the mess of her own household—in short, it could nearly destroy the strong image she had just managed to establish for herself. Then there’s the act of publicly offending the entire Knights and the Council of Wise Men. If one thinks about it a bit more… even if, at first, they might have looked down on Emilia as a collective due to deep-rooted discrimination, prejudice, and political factors, they aren’t necessarily “permanent enemies”; not every individual among them necessarily feels that way, and they might change their stance or views for various reasons. But by staging such a publicly hostile spectacle, not only did it greatly amplify negative perceptions, but it also increased the likelihood that even those who might have had positive feelings or could have changed their minds gave up due to public pressure. In short, it can be said that for completely unnecessary reasons, this has potentially greatly reduced the number of political allies willing to talk, interact, and offer help—not very wise of you, Subaru. Anyway, I absolutely love your discussion of this episode! I’m going to keep watching after this, haha.

Streuselig

I understand your point about the whole Emilia discussion, and you're right that many stories suffer from badly written female characters who just walk around doing nothing, and could be improved with characters like Maomao. But I feel you went a bit overboard. In the end, its genre is still shonen, and it's supposed to be enjoyed by teenage boys — if the characters serve that purpose, everything works as intended. Authors should always be allowed to tell stories however they want, even if that includes bland female characters. You wouldn't go to a shojo and criticize it for lacking violence or something else so the male audience could enjoy it more. Not every female role has to be a strong, independent person, but I think Re:Zero has plenty of those anyway, and that's great. The goal should be to have more and better shojo in different genres in the anime landscape, instead of changing existing shonen stories.

no nickname

No, what you are talking about here is complete nonsense. Whether it is Shonen or not, the inner misogyny in female character writing can't be justified. Also, suggesting shoujo as a replacement for Shonen female characters' bland characteristics is bluntly stupid. I bet you wouldn't understand it, but shoujo has its own misogynistic problems, just like Shonen does. While I do agree that not every female character HAS TO BE STRONG, there is a major problem in Japanese media (mostly written by men) with portraying female characters as stereotypical in a few ways, lacking a sense of humane personality that male characters CLEARLY have. 🥀

Streuselig

Fair, I'm not trying to wave that away, badly written female characters are badly written regardless of shonen or shoujo, and "it's just the genre" isn't an excuse for lazy characterization. But my point was never that the genre gets a free pass, it's that anime as a medium tends to be action-heavy in general, since movement is basically the medium's core spectacle, and that's part of why shonen ends up so oversaturated, because dynamic action and a young male audience line up well. Within shonen, the cast then often gets built around the MC, with side characters defined more through their relationship to him than as people in their own right. But that's more the genre doing its job than an actual bug. Nobody criticizes a slasher movie for skimping on quiet character development, it's just not what that genre is there for. If that bugs you when it comes to female characters, pushing for more female authors to get that chance in shonen seems like the better lever. And at the end of the day, you're always free to choose what you actually read.

romaniablack

Oh yeah, this episode set is SO GOOD! And yeah, I could see Subaru being this AWFUL polarizing and driving some folks away, but I’m over here frothing at the mouth with all the character development potential, here! XD This episode was definitely an EXPLOSION! Thanks for the comment!

romaniablack

This was *whew* the bottom (or near it -- *laughs in Episode 8* ) of the barrel for our boy...It's a LOT to watch it but mannnn what an incredible scene! Thank you for the comment!

Carthaphylus

Al loves appas! This whole episode was what was on my mind ever since the whole... ahem lap pillow discourse, hehe. I will just leave some more fun facts: This is the episode where most viewers started hating Subaru. On my first watch I had the same reaction as Reinhard. 1:54:25 I mean yeah, Subaru was out of line, but do we gotta torture him? But now, on a rewatch, honestly, Subaru got off pretty easy the more I think about it. He had multiple outs and yet he just dug himself deeper. And considering what Subaru was spouting, just like Al said 59:13, some might kill him for that. So Julius kinda saved his ass by turning a possible execution into just some elaborate humiliation ritual. Now, Subaru can return by death, and he probably wished he had by the end of the episode, but now he has to live with the consequences of his actions. 1:46:37 I mean yeah, Subaru was just coping at that point, but he is kinda right. Most of the knights are privileged nobles and they have the money and resources necessary to become knights. And they are also a bit egotistical if they would go as far as murdering someone who insults them. (I think the knights of Lugunica are a mix of the chivalric European knights and samurai. The way Julius greets Emilia is straight out of Arthurian legend, but killing someone for insulting you is something samurai have historically done, and it was seen as the expected retaliation for the insult.) Which might explain why we see only men as knights, since that also applies to samurai. The kingdom of Lugunica seems to have specific gender roles, considering also that only a woman can become the next ruler. Either way, my favourite of the candidates has to be either Crusch or Priscilla. Anyway, great reaction as always, and Subaru can only go up from here, right?

romaniablack

Oohhhhh what a song title!! Thank you for the comment and that information!

romaniablack

Thank you so much for the comment and kind words! The “Absolute Cinema” meme fits it so well! There was SO MUCH to this episode in the best way! I really adored it! I want to see more of all these characters, especially our appa-loving Al! Cheers!

romaniablack

BURNINATING THE THATCHED ROOF COTTAGESSSSSS! Absolutely love Trogdor!

romaniablack

Yeah, definitely good to get that nonsense out of the comment section. I have no time for that! Thank you for the comments!

romaniablack

Subaru really showed how many layers are bubbling under the surface with his character and I cannot WAIT to see what we get with him next in the rest of season 1 -- thank you for the comment!

romaniablack

And I love Al just as much! Thank you for the comment and kind words! It’s such a good episode but I really am EXCITED to see what Subaru is going to do now! Subaru was ROUGHSVILLE in this episode – yeah, this episode really revealed things from the start and how it’s going to be a rough road ahead, but I am rooting for our boy! We can only go up from here…right? 😛Cheers to the future!

romaniablack

Sometimes, the themes and the episodes just line up and I am so happy this discussion all had connections! Huzzah! That is a great point on the “feminine and masculine” energy conversation; thank you for saying that! And yes, my fear is always to not be representing correctly – we’re all human and this millennial is likely going to be making errors, so thank you for the support there! TEACH! The new PREACH hahaha! I really love Priscilla and her chaos (and AL) – she’s so fascinating and I can’t wait to see more with her! Thank you for the comment!

romaniablack

Hey, it’s okay if you disagree, but here’s the thing – I’ve been reading manga and watching anime for 30+ years, and it’s well within my rights to say whatever about character tropes. I think you have a bit of a false equivalency here with your counter example and might not be listening to my full arguments or taking in what I’m saying with them, and that’s okay. Please know that I’m getting more detailed than this comment with my analysis and concern with Emily. But thank you for the comment! I appreciate hearing various perspectives!

romaniablack

While the tone here is aggressive, I appreciate your note about how misogyny does exist in literature and it does pervade and have real world consequence, so I think it's good to call it out -- even if it's your favorite character and they can be layered and work beyond it, it's not wrong to call out when you see it happen. Ignoriting it is just as bad as supporting it. Thanks for the comment!

romaniablack

I love Al just as much as he loves Appas, I’m sure! And yeah, this is an INTERESTING follow up to the Lap Pillow discourse! Subaru really just DUG THAT HOLE DEEPER here! Yeah, Julius really saved him in this situation. I am ALL on board with Crusch and Priscilla already! Thank you for the comment and kind words – yeahhhh, it’s only up from here, eh? *sips tea in Episode 8* Huzzah!

romaniablack

Such a good episode, yes!! I’m so glad that you enjoy the “secondhand embarrassment” CSI checklist! Haha!! Thank you for the kind words! I do agree that the “classic male protagonist power fantasy” is definitely picked apart on this and it’s so good to see how Subaru realizes that this is NOT the hero fantasy world he wants it to be. It’s great to see Subaru facing the consequences of his actions! It’s so good in this episode set!

romaniablack

Oh yeah, I think that two things can be true at once, and I think it can be both him making it about himself but also completely upstaging and demeaning Emilia’s place in the entire system. Definitely agreed in the discussion on this! Thank you so much for the comment and kind words – ohhh, things are going to get INTERESTING tomorrow, that’s for sure!

romaniablack

Episode 13 is SUCH a hard watch, but wow, the potential for character building and the setting up of our ‘hero’s’ struggles! But yes, Subaru is the WORST in this episode – just keeps digging that hole! “Expectations vs. Reality,” indeed! Hahaha, I’m always down for a long comment so thank you for taking the time to craft it! And thank you for the compliment; I appreciate it! That’s fun bringing blackjack into this – I’m TERRIBLE at gambling so I’m the worst person to put with that in this! 😛That was such an in-depth analogy in this scenario. Of course, Subaru is too young to gamble, so he shouldn’t be doing that! 😛 Subaru definitely doesn’t make good decisions and even if he felt justified, his execution of going and explaining that to Emilia was pretty much non-existent, thus the ending of this episode. I was not expecting Baby Hitler or so many other outside references to come up in this, though! Thank you about Felix and I really am excited to see more of them in future episodes! That is also fair about a lot not translating into English well – thank you for the link and all the information on that with Felix’s pronouns; I appreciate it! Priscilla is super fun and I get excited about her chaotic energy as well! Thanks for all the other information as well with the Kararagi and Kansei accent! I do feel for Emilia - she has a LONG way to go to be eligible or suitable for folks to root for her as a candidate for the throne, but hey, Roswaal has some sort of faith in her (or something else - we’ll see) so there’s that! It lets us root for Emilia like we’re rooting for Subaru. That could VERY well be in Subaru speaking up a culturally subversive nod to that business culture you talk about here, especially with how you describe it. That also makes WAY more sense about Emilia not being feared because of Subaru messing up! The bedroom scene is SO WELL DONE! And yes, the one thing he can’t do leads to the WORST interpretation! Yeahhhh, the whole conversation is just so much at once! SUFFARU IS BACK! Thank you for the comment and kind words! I’m glad you all enjoyed rambling for this discussion - I can’t guarantee a specific amount every time for an episode discussion, but if an episode gives me a lot, like this one, then it’ll be there! And ahhh, thank you for the subscription and I’m glad you are enjoying my reactions and discussions! I appreciate it! Cheers before Episode 8!