Just started watching the first season for the 2nd time in like 6 years so i didn't remember almost anything.Everythings went good i was hyped asf i loved the writing the mystery and then boom S1 ep 18. I was mad asf for the rejection but i later understood that it has been fir the better of both Rem and Subaru.Until i came here and scrolled a bit thats when i learned that not only this triangle doesn't stop here but in the novel (wich i had no idea existed) Rem and Subaru were considering about a polygamy but only if Emilia agreed Ren would become his "2nd" wife.And not only that i also saw that Subaru genuinely had the audacity to say to Rem that he wouldn't let her with another man?? And the final nail was when i learned that for some reason (SPOILERS) Rem loses her memory and the author could have made her find a new love interest but DOUBLED DOWN and even without memory she still loves Subaru.Yeah im done with ts i cant fr look at the characters the same and i am Genuinely considering hard to not drop it right here and start larping the manga.Pls for the love of the dragon somebody tell me it gets better.Im so mad at the author ts is unfair for Rem, why did the author had to make ts a disgusting triangle when Emilia was supposed to be the love interest from the start? Im so tired of that isekai shi which every female being falls for the male mc just because it ruins everything.Thank yall for reading this post wasn't made to hate the series nor i want somebody to drop this just because of me i just said my issue with the series and unfortunately its such an issue for me that idk if its worth watching anymore.
First, we know that Pandora is Echidna’s mother. Echidna hates her and even refuses to talk about her.
We also know that there’s a scene where Emilia says that she hates someone and has always hated that person. This implies that it’s someone she has known for a long time. She wouldn’t normally speak like that about someone she had just met or someone she had only encountered briefly. The wording makes it sound like her hatred goes much deeper than a single encounter.
And we also know that Emilia is the daughter of a witch.
Now, there’s another interesting scene in the Sanctuary. When Emilia is talking to Echidna, she says something along the lines of “as if we were sisters,” and that really bothers Echidna. Emilia then asks, “Do you really hate being my little sister this much?”
Echidna responds, “Whether elder sister or younger sister, I dislike both equally, but I stumbled over that part beforehand.”
She also makes it clear that she hates Emilia.
What I find particularly interesting is how strongly Echidna reacts to the idea of being Emilia’s sister. It almost feels like Emilia accidentally touched on something Echidna really doesn’t want to acknowledge. Of course, that could just be Echidna’s usual attitude toward Emilia, but I think there’s a possibility that her reaction has a deeper meaning.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Emilia froze herself even before the Witch Cult attacked Elior Forest. We still don’t fully understand everything surrounding Emilia’s origins and what happened to her before those events.
So, what if Emilia is also Pandora’s child? What if the reason Echidna reacts so strongly to Emilia calling her a sister is that there’s actually some truth behind it?
I know a lot of people believe Emilia is Minerva’s daughter, and I used to believe that too. But I no longer think that’s the case. I feel like the mystery surrounding Emilia’s parentage might be more complicated than we originally thought.
The way Echidna reacts to Emilia, her refusal to talk about Pandora, and Emilia’s strange statement about having always hated someone make me wonder whether there’s a deeper connection between all three of them.
And if Pandora really is Emilia’s mother, it could explain why Echidna has such an unusually strong dislike for Emilia. Maybe her hatred isn’t simply about Emilia herself, but about what Emilia represents or her connection to Pandora.
What if Emilia and Echidna are actually sisters, with Pandora being their mother?
I know this is just a theory, and none of these details prove anything on their own, but I think they’re interesting enough to consider together. There are still so many unanswered questions about Emilia’s origins, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Tappei has been hiding something important about her family all this time.
What do you think about this?
Note that I enjoyed S4, and that this isn't a hate post, but rather a confused post.
So, Subaru lost his memories, learned the lessons he already learned in the previous seasons, and then regained his memories? I don't exactly get what his character development in this season was.
I want to see what arguments y'all would make for either side.
Some people will say that oh The twins, Roswaal, Annerose, and Beatrice would already part of the camp, but some will also note that Beatrice was barely part of the camp as was more also just associated by the fact she lived in the same house, or the fact the twins didn't really care for Emilia that much(they cared don't get me wrong) but weren't invested in her, with Ram only swearing loyalty in arc 4 after Emilia's development(and even then she's still a Roswaal dick rider first)
But at the end of the day the camp members still very mucb care about Emilia and her goals. By the time of arc 10, and she has there loyalty.
Some will say that Subaru bringing in some of the camp members was also due to Emilia's own actions, like helping in arc 2 leading him to help Rem at the end.
Ah I can't wait for the carnage in the comment section, just people tearing into each other.
Ok, I've just ended that episode, and god it was so great, I wanted to share my opinion on that and the anime so far. Of course there will be some spoils from the beginning to that episode, also if you want to give some answers, make sure to not spoil a lot, I think I'm asking some sensitive questions, lemme know!
First of all, FINALLY that dumbass Subaru understood he's loved by people ( which is a bit of nonsense somehow regarding how Rem and Emilia treat him but whatever), it was really touching and well done.
Echidna definitely became my favorite character, she is so well written, and as a profound cartesian, I understand and fuck with every one of her believes, I would've definitely accepted that contract ( is it an unpopular opinion?).
There's a narrative process that built up and I think it will be the same for the nexts arcs: Subaru's happy, then he dies, then his friends sad, then he's very very sadd, and he cries under some chick underwear and finally get some courage and resolve the issue. I'm a bit sarcastic but it is a very effective narrative, it's simple and can be repeted easily, but the author let himself a lot of creativity since there's barely to no exactly similar loops at all, which never get boring to watch and can even help the reader to know where he is in the intrigue.
I've recently posted another comment on how I felt about dialogues, specifically the ones that let us know more about the plot, and I found them quite bad and forced, well they are still forced, I kinda still feel that we don't know some things to maintain the plot and not for deeper reasons( the "secret contract that I can't break" method is really overused). But we're approaching the end of the arc and finally get some answers, at least they're coherent and even lead to the next intrigues, the content is really good, unfortunately the form is a bit badly done.
Now I want to talk about the witches, I love them as much as I don't understand their purpose. My question is simple: Should I see them as concepts or characters ?
What I mean by concept is that the character not only represent its concept/idea, but becomes it, behaves and acts only to fullfill his idea, such as the 7 seven sins in Full Metal Alchemist ( I love that archetype of character, it gives them some mythic aura, you're not just in front of a person, but a total impersonation of an idea).
Because when you look at Echidna, she's a total psycho tbh, but if you take into account that she is Greed, it totally makes sense, since she inevitably follows her devotion. And it seems to be the case of quite every witch, but not really, Daphne and Typhon are a bit off, but the worse is definitely Satella, as being Envy, she's totally contradicting her concept, the love she feels about Subaru seems to be honestly pure and not affected by some jealousy, she even asks him to love himself more, very altruist for Envy you'll tell me.
Maybe I'm too early to understand what she truly wants, and it'll become clearer in the next seasons, but I put it here. It doesn't really bother the writing of the characters, I just find it weird to make some very perfect representation for Greed, and Luxure (which is a good idea to make her this way), and some others that have it just as names.
Other little thing, I love the chara design of Daphne, her being literally encaged to limit her gluttony is so fire, it really sickens me that they didn't find a better idea than putting a 6 year old in a latex comb, really disgusting.
Also what the fuck is going on with Subaru's sex appeal? every female close to him wants to date him or what ? Like from the 400 years old witch, to fucking 12 y/o Petra ?? Even Patrasche, what the hell ? Please tell me it will not become some cringe harem at the end of the series.
Well I think I've told everything in mind, the story just keeps getting better and better. I was a bit frightened when Subaru entered the second test, with all the possible alt futures where he died. I really think the series should dodge this bullet, it's unnecessary and don't provide more to the plot, but since it is a theory and only Satella knows, we're going to see...
I'm hyped to finally end with this arc and start the next one, Roswaall seems to be implicated in many more things than he lets appear, I hope the next arc will treat more about him.
If you have any answer to provide me, I would love to read you!!
Tbh Im probably gonna get some hate for this, but let’s go anyway.
I honestly hate the Subaru x Emilia ships bc its just pathetic how head over heels he is for a woman who likely doesn’t love him outside of a friendship or maybe even Emilia seeing him as a brother or just a protector, plus, Subaru could have literally anyone he wanted, as of course Rem has a massive crush on him, Satella (although a bad ship) obviously loves him, Felix (I know hes a boy) he has shown to put Subaru’s life before his own in quite a few chapters of the anime and manga, and Felt too as if it weren’t for Subaru she would’ve died during the trade between Old Man Rom and Elsa so it’d be likely that Felt has grown a small crush on Subaru even if its not confirmed. Then we have to mention the obvious of Shaula showing a great love for Subaru as he is her Master, then Echidna constantly tries to get Subaru’s attention during the second seasons of the anime plus showing her affection to him through giving him her “special tea” (we all know what was actually in that tea). So Subaru could have literally anyone he wants, even if they’re not on that list, as with Return By Death, he could learn what leads to what or learn what {Insert Name} likes, if he ever wanted to date someone else or if he wanted to go straight down the Lust Route.
Rant finished.
If you want to know anything,
Ask me whatever the hell.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is mostly gonna be a series of posts made here and reposted in other subs tackling every bad faith critique directed at Re:Zero. It will tackle several topics like stakes, dialogue, Re:Zero's side cast character writing and more.
Currently, there is a lot of forced hate being spread around the series, mostly as a result of two things:
1)Re:Zero is more popular than ever before, as a result of the anime adaptation of Arc 6. Many people, sadly, derive their sense of value from trying to be different to the majority, hence, slandering stuff others like in order to try to feel fulfilled.
2)A very limited amount of people within the Re:Zero fandom do have a habit of trashing on the series that other people like, which in turn generates retaliation from the fans of said series towards Re:Zero, despite the fact that Re:Zero did absolutely nothing nor has anything to do with the toxicity of some fans, lol.
As a result of these two reasons, people just start making a lot of shit up and spread it around to discredit the series, on top of participating in hate subs directed towards it, which is the most unemployed form of behavior any human being on reddit can possibly have (and reddit already establishes a very high bar, lol).
I will begin with this because a lot of the critiques towards Re:Zero's dialogue are of the form:
a) "Dude, nobody talks like those characters in real life!"
b) "Sin archbishops rant a lot, characters have episode length monologues, that shit does not happen with real people"
Well... guess what. None of the stories that people (including yourself) consume and regard as good have realistic dialogue.
Why? For many reasons, but I will just mention a few:
Stories with actually realistic dialogue would contain an enormous amount of material that has no particular reason to be preserved, and would be an absolute SLOG to read through: repetitions because someone wasn't listening, unfinished sentences, corrections, mundane coordination, conversations that go nowhere, etc. Stories mostly are only focused on particular points in time and events within the universe of the story, they are not meant to show every single little thing; hence, it is expected for the author to curate stuff. Even dialogue that sounds spontaneous has been constructed specifically to produce that impression.
Characters are talking to each other. But the author is also orchestrating what we can guess from that talking (to elaborate, a joke can be used to establish status, hide insecurity, provide setting information, and all that without anyone having to stop to say those are the purposes). That orchestration will never be what you get from a non-edited recording of a random conversation.
Dialogue has a rhythm in a work, with which it can convey an emotion, hence, prose matters a lot. Some conversation may be perfectly normal and completely useless for the scene, yet extremely stylistically heavy, since all the meat is in the prose. Other conversation may be not that stylistic and completely critical for the scene.
So, as per the title of this section: realism isn't quality. This is not to say that good dialogue can't be natural sounding, of course, but most of the time, good dialogue will almost never be realistic.
If your complaint about dialogue is something like "speaker has information they shouldn't" or "speaker is trying to accomplish something they don't have a reason to" or "speaker sounds the same as everybody else no matter what" then call out that specific issue, but don't say shit like "dialogue is bad because it is unrealistic", since this has nothing to do with realism.
A very obvious example counter to the supposed rule about realism in dialogue being something extremely important for a good story is Shakespeare; one of the best dramatists to ever exist in the history of Theatre. He abused the aesthetic function of language; what a character felt or thought was pretty clearly communicated not only through their words, but through the way in which they decided to communicate them.
That doesn't mean that every long speech in anime is Shakespeare, of course, but rather that this criterion excludes excellent writing on account of the method by which some of the excellence is produced. Meaning that the criterion is bonkers.
Aristotle in the Poetics is a better starting point. Character is communicated by speech, through what is chosen or avoided. So it points us to look not at the similarity of the vocabulary to chatting but the intent of the utterance in context (Poetics, section VI).
What are they trying to get? What are they trying to not acknowledge? Why is this the chosen description as opposed to another description? Does the other person agree, disagree, or re-interpret? What's now possible after the conversation that wasn't possible before?
You can actually use these to analyze dialogue. And if your answer to all these questions is that the character talked too long, then you have failed to articulate what the speech didn't do, and why a shorter speech would do a better job.
Language is allowed to do more than deliver information; Language should do MORE than just deliver information
Now we are going to introduce some concepts of literature that may be relevant for this section, particularly those of the Russian Formalists.
Practical language vs artistic techniques that disrupt or even contradict habitual perception was a focus of the Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsky. Art as Technique talks about how we can experience something that would normally be automatic perception through structuring, repetition and presenting it in a new way; meaning the aesthetic function of language we talked so much about in here. We're not just trying to get a fact into someone's head most efficiently (Shklovsky's essay).
If that were all there was to literature, we could just compress most novels down to a summary of the plot. We'd save the information, and kill most of the experience.
So that aesthetic function, which is relevant here, is the structuring of experience by language, as opposed to mere conveyance of fact. That doesn't mean that making the experience complicated or unusual is necessarily good, but it also doesn't mean that it's automatically better to convey the same fact in fewer words.
Roman Jakobson's (another formalist) description of the poetic function also puts emphasis on the structuring of the message itself, saying that poetic/aesthetic function isn't only in verse (Linguistics and Poetics).
That is useful here because Re:Zero may repeatedly make use of the same expression to perform a different job after its context changes, for example, at the beginning of Shaula's named chapter in the novel, we have the following expression repeated along different sections of it:
Crumbling away.
Peeling away.
Fading.
Everything gleaming in the distance.
Which then becomes:
Crumbling away.
Peeling away.
Fading.
Everything gleaming in the distance.
Everything gleamed so much in the distance.
Everything crumbled, peeled, faded, gleaming far, far in the distance.
Left behind, memories fading, but it was definitely shining.
Because those days were so precious, she was desperately gathering them up.
Which, finally, becomes:
Crumbling away.
Peeling away.
Fading.
Everything gleaming in the distance.
Everything gleamed so much in the distance.
—And it’s because you were there.
A case in which repetition has an obvious purpose; to trace the gradual transformation of a memory from something distant and fading into something precious precisely because of the person who shared those days with her.
Another thing Re:Zero's prose can do is to have an identical structure with different verse, example:
Patching together, patching together, continuing to form its shape.
Patching together, patching together, continuing to mold its shape.
Patching together, patching together, continuing to fill in the colors.
Patching together, patching together, patching together, and continuing towards bringing himself closer to completion. (Gluttony IF, Re:Zero)
And, from Shaula's own novel:
Twinkling, twinkling, flickering.
Twinkling, twinkling, shining.
Twinkling, twinkling, dazzling.
Twinkling, twinkling, sparkling, everything was vividly gleaming. (Scorpion tale EX)
The structure is even more similar in Japanese, but as you can see, both are meant to mirror each other; one piecing a memory together, the other trying to builld the vivid image of it.
As it should have been quite visible by now, Re:Zero uses the aesthetic function of language a lot, and it uses it extremely well.
Spoilers from here through Arc 9. I am discussing the light novels, not pretending every sentence survived the anime adaptation. The English novel excerpts below are my translations of the Japanese text, since Yen Press sucks ass.
An example of excellent dialogue construction: From Zero
First of all, From Zero is not one continuous monologue that's just fed to the other character like many haters seem to imply in their critiques of the series. From Zero, more than a monologue, is a continued conversation that's transforming what the next speech has to do with every response. If one wanted to give it a proper name, it would be a duologue. Half of the construction is already missed if you treat it like some one big motivational quote.
Let's elaborate on the construction that it does, step by step.
At first Subaru wants Rem to come along with him, yet Rem doesn't immediately respond with a rejection of the idea of that kind of life being an appealing life to live. Instead she's starts to envision it: finding work, stabilizing their income, obtaining a home, raising children and growing old. That sequence gives her refusal a cost, both for her and the reader/viewer, who can imagine the happiness she is refusing, and that she wants it.
That already is an amazing usage of dialogue, since Rem talking about the life they could have makes the reader/viewer itself feel ilusioned with it, feeling what the characters are feeling.
Then there's the phrase about giving up:
“Giving up is easy.”
“—”
“But…”
Rem repeated the words that had made Subaru furious before.
Unable to believe what she was saying, Subaru raised his head in astonishment.
Why couldn't she understand?
Even after all that, could she still not understand his suffering?
That frustration within him, that dissatisfaction, those feelings like a displaced outburst—
“—It doesn't suit you, Subaru.”
They scattered before Rem, who looked directly into his black eyes and made that declaration.
Rem spoke clearly, as though she believed it to be absolutely true.
“I don't know how much you have suffered, or what you know that is hurting you so much. I also think I shouldn't carelessly say that I understand.”
“—”
“But even so, there are things that even I know.”
“—”
“That you are someone who can't abandon something halfway through.” —Volume 6, chapter 5, my translation
That thing is met with resistance before it gets to him, in the form of Free Indirect Speech through internal monologue (which is kinda lost in the anime). Subaru has already objected that surrender itself cost him enormously. So it forms a dual progression, in which the rejection of both characters grows with the progression of the dialogue (another excellent use of the dialogue structure chosen).
She also hedges her knowledge, since she doesn't know everything he's been through. And that's important because it means that her talk isn't going to just be a replacement of his experience with some omniscient lecture.
That then creates the question of whether the person she believes in exists at all.
And he starts his self-damning by starting with behavior, going into his whole being. Going from what he's failed to do, into the idea that there's nothing in him that's worth saving. Piling on more force with the accumulation of 1st person pronouncements, and the merging of doing bad stuff with being irredeemably worthless.
That is a level of characterization that, personally, I haven't seen in any other important duologue/character moment from a Light Novel, much less serious fantasy works like Asoiaf, LOTR or Dune. Managing the progression of a single dialogue to that extent and inserting that many layers into it is one of the main reasons why I believe that Tappei's handling of dialogue is more than just good.
Continuing with the progression: where does it become our responsibility to agree with every sentence because Subaru said it?
So to start, Rem's response starts with specific examples. His voice, his eyes, his hands. The way he checks up to see if she can keep up as they walk, finding the value in the things he left out in his self-description.
So then the disagreement becomes clear.
“If you say you hate yourself, Subaru, then I wanted you to know that Rem knows this many good things about you.”
“Those things are an illusion…!”
What Rem saw was a convenient illusion.
The real Subaru wasn't that sort of person. The real Subaru was dirtier. The uglier Subaru, the opposite of the person Rem viewed so favorably, was the genuine one.
“You just don't understand! I know myself better than anyone!”
“You only know yourself! How much do you know about the Subaru that Rem sees?!”
Subaru raised his voice reflexively, and Rem shouted over him.
For the first time since they had come here, she raised her voice, startling Subaru.
Startled, he caught his breath and finally noticed the large tears gathering in Rem's eyes as she tried to keep her expression composed.
Hearing Subaru's confession couldn't have left her unhurt.
Hearing all his self-abuse couldn't have failed to pain her kind heart.
Even so, she believed in Subaru.
Even after learning of the inner thoughts he described so harshly, Rem believed in him. —Volume 6, chapter 5, my translation
There is an inversion now: he has the monopoly on knowing what his intentions are. And he's using that monopoly on the knowledge of his intentions to declare the meaning of his actions for others. And she's not allowing him that monopoly. He can have bad intentions and also have actually helped someone. His ability to know his bad intentions doesn't mean she didn't experience the helping he actually did.
And the narration is going along with him pushing the idea that her perception is an illusion. Because that's his current POV. And that POV is being challenged by this dialogue. If you read it as the author having conclusively proved Rem wrong, you have removed the conflict from a scene whose entire construction depends upon that conflict.
So then it moves into arguing by claims and counterexamples.
“No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't save anyone.”
“Rem is here. The Rem you saved is right here, now.”
“I'm empty. I've done nothing. No one will listen to me.”
“Rem is here. If they're your words, I'll listen to anything. I want to listen.”
“No one expects anything of me. No one believes in me… I hate myself.”
“Rem loves you, Subaru.” —Volume 6, chapter 5, my translation
Is "Rem is here" doing the same thing in both cases here? For the first claim, it's a sign of someone who was saved. For the second claim, it's a sign of someone who is open to listening. For these answers to be redundant, you have to ignore what she's replying to. By the time we get to the end, he made the claim that no one values him. And it collided with someone in front of him.
That repeated collision with Rem's words is yet another amazing construction that makes this duologue amazing.
And it's not a scene that ends by him being totally healed. It ends with him deciding what to do. And not liking himself. The novel actually makes sure to keep that self loathing around. Right near the end of the chapter.
So his response to love from Rem is also important, since he doesn't get her support by feigning like his feelings for Emilia just went away. He acknowledges what he wants but on different terms.
But the way he experienced those growing feelings was different from before.
“Using ‘because I love her’ as an excuse and expecting her to understand absolutely everything… that's arrogance, isn't it?”
“—”
“She doesn't have to understand. Right now, I want to help Emilia. If a painful, cruel future is going to fall on her, I want to bring her into a future where we can all smile together.”
So—
“Will you help me?”
He held out his hand and asked Rem, who stood right beside him.
Having told her he couldn't answer the feelings she offered, knowing it was unfair and that he was using her feelings, Subaru still couldn't give up the future of the person he cared about—because she had loved that Subaru.
“I can't do anything alone. I'm lacking in everything. I don't have the confidence to walk straight. I'm weak, fragile and small. So will you lend me a hand, so I can walk straight and notice when I go wrong?”
“You're a terrible person, Subaru. Are you asking that of someone you just rejected?”
“It's hard for me too, asking this of the person who rejected the proposal of my life.” —Volume 6, chapter 5, my translation
Instead of demanding that his sacrifice be automatically recognised and rewarded, he's asking for help. He doesn't have to hide his weakness by putting on a show of competence first, in order for cooperation to take place, which is progression from what he was doing in that arc.
Rem doesn't self-affirm his view at all, and is strict on him. She will not allow him to give up. She put a form of curse into him, that also worked as his salvation.
Even the narration refers to it as a curse for their bond. Sure, her belief helps him up, but it also imposes an obligation he feels he has to answer to. They aren't pretending support and pressure are mutually exclusive. This isn't some perfect therapy session they're pretending to have.
Then, those negotiations demonstrate the effect of that change in action. He engages with other people's interests and constructs cooperation. He doesn't use his own agony to justify their obedience. And it's significant that his behavior changes in the story after this speech.
That is a technical reason for its length: multiple positions have to be proposed, resisted and revised before the new agreement can mean anything.
That people belive this could be equated with or replaced with a generic sentence about believing in yourself is ludicrous.
Re:Starting Life in Another World from Zero
First of all, it is not a replica of Rem's speech and it has nothing to do with it: I don't even know where this larped take even originated from, because the only thing in common between these two duologues is that they are a) long, and b) address a particular flaw that Subaru has.
But saying that they are equal just because of those two features is extremely stupid, by that argument all speechs/duologues Subaru has would always be considered to be the same thing no matter how different literally everything else aside those two points is.
For this speech, things have shifted significantly since From Zero. Amnesiac Subaru experiences the remembered Subaru as another individual; an impossible predecessor, an incomprehensible predecessor that achieved relationships Subaru himself does not comprehend, which makes his impostor syndrome that normal Subaru already had get worse. Emilia talking about the past initially exacerbates that separation, because Subaru can't access the experiences she's talking about.
Which is why there's a series of inquiries about whether he remembers. Because from our perspective as the reader, she's recalling things we're aware of. But from Subaru's perspective, she seems to be talking about someone who he can't be. So the same story is one of recognition from one audience, but it's one of exclusion for another, again showing the double function of that scene and the dialogue chosen.
So it's doing different things in the guise of the supposed "recap" I've seen some larpers call it. It's not there because the reader forgot the plot to Arc 1.
Then she shifts what she's asking him for:
“There are lots of things we need to talk about, and lots I need to ask. Lots and lots. But right now, let me ask just one.”
“—”
“Julius, Beatrice, Echidna. And now I've taken your hand, run with you, wanted so badly to protect you, wanted you not to die, and…”
Filled with emotion, Emilia closed her eyes.
For a few seconds, she stopped speaking. In that brief silence, he could tell that many feelings passed through her. Her concern for their companions who weren't here reached him too.
Holding those feelings, Emilia's pink lips trembled.
“Who are you, the person who made us feel that way?”
“—”
“Please. Let me hear your name.”
At Emilia's question, his heart shook deep within his chest.
It wasn't an expression of an intention to reject the Natsuki Subaru before her and recover the Subaru of the past.
—It was an affirmation of Natsuki Subaru. —Volume 23, chapter 6, my translation
Instead of asking him to show the right memories, she's asking him to identify the person their attachments are directed toward. Functionally, that has the purpose of moving the focus away from this test he can't pass and towards the relationship being offered to him at the moment.
There is also some awkwardness, and a pause before asking the question, used to portray the effort of gathering feelings about absent people.
“There are people stronger than Subaru, and I'm sure there are lots of people smarter too. But whatever happens, I want Subaru beside me. I believe he'll do that, and I wish for it. Because…”
“—”
“Because rather than someone helping because they can, or because they happened to be there—I'd be much, much happier if the person I like did that for me.”
Emilia said it with a smile.
Smiling, with her cheeks just a little red. —Volume 23, chapter 6, my translation
He's saying that a more capable substitute would be preferable. She's responding by saying that it's not the only measure for someone being desired. And as such, the monologue has progressed from "Who are you?" to "Why do you believe people would only care about others for what they can provide?".
Something that we can constantly see in these monologues is that they aren't constantly repeating the same stuff for the sake of it; there is a clear axis of progression, in which you have a particular idea challenged until its very limits.
It annoys me a lot to see it constantly repeated that Re:Zero's monologues are repetitive when they are not, whatsoever.
—Entrusted with hopes, believed in, forgiven and wished for.
If he was qualified to receive those things from Emilia and the others in this desert tower—
If there was someone who could help Emilia and the others out of this desert tower—
If that was “Natsuki Subaru,” and that “Natsuki Subaru” was nowhere to be found—
“—My name is Natsuki Subaru.”
“—”
“If the name of the man Julius entrusted his hopes to, Beatrice believed in, Echidna forgave, and Emilia… you wished for, is Natsuki Subaru…”
Black eyes looked into violet eyes, and the black-haired boy answered the girl whose silver hair shone.
Lips stained dark red with blood answered the question her pink lips had trembled to ask.
“—Then I am Natsuki Subaru.” —Volume 23, chapter 6, my translation
The four relationships are arranged in the same order in the narration and in his answer. What had made the predecessor seem impossible becomes the set of attachments he chooses to answer himself, an amazing progression.
Followed by him, giving his name. One that understood that language serves a larger purpose than just communicating information would know that the author is not giving Subaru's name again because the audience forgot it; that would be extremely and utterly stupid, yet it is what some of the people criticizing Re:Zero's dialogue seems to believe.
The reader knows it. The function of him saying that name is to take a position, to answer to that internal progression the narrator has built, not inform the audience of the protagonist's name.
So what exactly would we gain by replacing the exchange with a narrator saying he regained confidence?
We lose Emilia finding the way to reach him. We lose Subaru deciding to make the statement. Which are the actual actions that the scene is about.
Also, the talk doesn't bring back his memories, and doesn't immediately remove all the suspicion, with the following narration keeping his distrust against the previous Subaru and him still emotionally impacted. The tower still collapses around them.
The purpose of this duologue was that what changes is his willingness to do stuff for them even with that less than full certainty.
One of the best dialogues in the entire story: Petra versus Aldebaran, a repeated sentence changes sides, an anti-parallelism
This is from one of my favorite chapters in all of Re:Zero, one which I consider the absolute peak of Tappei's character writing.
Al's recurrent blame towards the stars in this scene corresponds with Petra's recurrent experience of failure; a cool detail to note is that this original phrase, "Your stars were bad", was something he inherited from Echidna herself, who said those words to Aldebaran after he failed to defeat Satella. It would be a phrase he would use to blame himself, and later on, a guilt he would try to project onto others. Which is what he does here, while Petra gets absolutely mentally destroyed by his aggressor.
Throughout all of it, text alternates the regular repeat of the commands that set things in motion again with Petra's declining internal speech. While the outside sequence remains recognisable, her speech fragments, and through that speech we can see Petra's descent into insanity. That parallel is achieved solely through prose and dialogue, text at no point in time tells you "Petra is going mad while Al's loops happen over and over again".
Yet finally, Petra opposes Aldebaran's iconic phrase, in her internal monologue, which concludes talking about the stars that Aldebaran blames haven't done a single thing wrong:
“Even if I could live my life over and over, I'd stray from the ‘original’ path again.”
Yes. Leaving the “original” behind, Petra would come here again, whenever it might be.
And she wanted to tell the person who had taken her from that “original” path and saved her—
The person desperately trying to take her hand with a pained face and clumsy lies—this:
“—It's thanks to the stars that I can be here.”
“—”
“—”
At Petra's words, as she wiped her lips with the back of her hand, Al and “Subaru” were both speechless.
Leaving Al aside, she understood why “Subaru” was speechless. He must have thought his clumsy lies and encouragement had left her too dejected to speak.
They certainly had been clumsy lies. She had just said good lies included a little truth, but these had contained none at all. The most terribly clumsy lies.
“But I don't want to make the person I like into a liar.”
So she stood up again. By herself. The consolation and encouragement weren't dependable, but he kept watching so anxiously, trying to pat her head or support her back when he couldn't even touch her. That earnest desperation made her think she had no choice. It was the weakness of being in love.
“The person I like isn't a liar.”
Because she had stood up. Because Petra had stood, Subaru wasn't a liar.
The repeating world had been painful. Rebuilding a heart that had nearly died wasn't easy. In fact, it was harder and more difficult than anything else in her life. But she stood. She had stood, because right there was someone believing in the newest, feeble, weak Petra.
“My star hasn't done a single thing wrong.” —Volume 43, chapter 5, my translation
Al wants to get the star to explain the intolerability of her life. She uses the same figure to explain the possibility of the life she wants to keep, being the star in this case Subaru. There is a parallel, in the usage of the same language, and an antiparallel, in what Natsuki Subaru means for both.
Again, amazing dialogue. There is a reason why this is one of the best chapters in the entire series.
And after this, Petra sacrifices all of her potential for Subaru, breaking her own humanity and her heart before the loop itself does it:
“This is a loop that repeats until the heart of your enemy has worn away completely, right?”
Even winning against Al, killing him or sending him far away hadn't ended it.
Even losing to Al, being captured or trying to flee far away hadn't ended it.
Even killing herself, having herself killed or throwing everything away in despair hadn't ended it.
It hadn't ended after more than ten thousand repetitions.
“But you must be the one deciding when to stop, right?”
There was no way to end the unending loop other than for Al to release his Domain.
It couldn't be such a convenient loop that it ended automatically when the target's heart broke. The Al within that loop must consciously decide when to end it each time.
Ultimately, if she could make Al give in, this loop could end on the first attempt, let alone the ten-thousandth. If she could make the cautious, fearful Al, always on his first attempt, decide that.
“So I'd like you to stop here. Everyone except me has already fallen. You've achieved enough, haven't you? There's no point continuing.”
Again, this was neither a bluff nor bravado from Petra.
Even if this loop continued, Petra's heart wouldn't break.
Because Petra had chosen.
“I can't give up anymore, or regret, or cry in frustration, or forget everyone I love. That's the kind of ‘Witch’ I've become.”
—Because Petra Leite had chosen to become the Witch of Melancholy.
“Al. How many more times are we going to have this conversation?” —Volume 43, chapter 5, my translation
The final question changes who's threatened by the possibility of repetition. So far the repetitions were Al's way of wearing her out. Now she's turning it to a way that can't get what he wants and makes him try to imagine that uselessness of continuing.
So, the language of not giving up has picked up a troubling second meaning. It's resistance and an account of the capacities she's given away. Not giving up and being unable to give up aren't the same thing. And the scene finds a way to have them converge in the words.
Also, the conversation is not the whole resolution to the confrontation. After the threat, Petra weaponizes Al's own unresolved pain with Compress Agony to elicit his response. So the speech sets out the weakness. And sets up the psychological pressure the action will be operating within.
So beyond the aesthetic function, it also has a plot function. Even though I am sorry for having repeated this so many times throughout this essay, it remains necessary to keep saying it: Tappei's handling of dialogue and prose is far, far above the standard of the medium. Far above almost all Light Novels, and far above the vast majority of manga (though that can be due to limitations of the medium itself).
"Show, Don't Tell" is not a valid critique of any of these dialogues
People use this phrase as if it meant a character saying something is telling and a character silently punching something is showing. Which is a pretty useless way to describe things for either narrative or drama.
A narrator summarizing that Rem persuaded Subaru is not the same as having it played out with his objections and her responses and the shift in terms in their agreement. Both use words. But only one gives us the experience of the exchange itself; one, even if it has a lot of dialogue, a lot of telling, is filled with showing, as dialogue itself can fulfill the function of showing rather than telling.
And for Subaru's own condemnation, we need access to the contrast between what he believes is demonstrated by his actions and how other characters are affected by those actions. An external image of him looking sad cannot, by itself, supply the particular argument through which he converts failures into a total judgment of himself.
I've made another lengthy essay on why "Show, Don't tell" is terribly mistaken, so if you wanna read it, it is right here:
TLDR; Re:Zero's dialogue is at the peak of its respective medium
Light novels are usually commercialized as works for Young Adults (which shouldn't discredit their quality whatsoever, but either way, it is important to clarifiy that for some elitists lurking around), meaning that they are meant to be delivered in short volumes and a fairly easy to read language for the average Japanese Young Adult.
Re:Zero is a fair bit above that; the Japanese LN, first of all, uses a lot of Kanji that the average Japanese person doesn't usually learn about, and not just for show. It uses language constructions that are very complicated, so as to build parallels and metatextual meaning (example, using the same kanji root yet changing the words constructed around it to build up a particular emotion or tonal progression) and it uses a lot of layering and literary devices for its dialogue (Free Indirect Speech being one of the most prominent).
It is fair to say that, if one removed a bit of the otaku-ness of it (and got rid of the disaster that we have as an illustrator) it could be perfectly published as a standard Shosetsu due to the richness and complexity of both prose and dialogue.
Obviously, we aren't gonna be as delusional as to compare Tappei's prose with Akutagawa's or Dazai's, but for the restrictions of the medium in which he chose to write, it is extremely good.
So, Re:Zero is far, far beyond in that regard to other works of Japanese Animanga, and its dialogue (and prose) are the main reasons why.
Also it's going to be a smut. I don't think i can continue it though, maybe a extra chapter but that would be it.
If this fic of mine does well, i will also write Subaru getting Rem pregnant in a seperate fic.
It'll probably hard to write but i think i can manage it, i definitely can't see myself making it a full fic though, like 20+ chapters or something.
So, any tips and suggestions before i start writing it? I did write fics before but never published them, and this one has been on my mind for a very long time.
(I had to scrap the old unfinished one, because it was ass.)
When Subaru read books about his deaths in the anime, our Subaru returned to memory loss or was Subaru left who lost his memory but just got Subaru’s memories to the point of memory loss?
Arc6 definitely received a lot of interaction, and many series fans were disappointed with the "Natsuki Subaru" episode. Arc7, on the other hand, will be much darker than season 4. It definitely shouldn't fall into the hands of the Larpers because they'll ruin this season as well and end up slandering Rezero within their own fandom.
Light has Return By Death and Yin affinity. Also he has no knowledge of the Death Note as he’s a regular college graduate in this timeline.
How big would the change in the arcs be? Light’s main skills as in lore are his intelligence. I assume he’d try to learn and study about the world and its magic?
He’d definitely try to get some resources and a job by becoming a knight so he can learn to defend himself. Magic? Probably would practice that.
Camp? Who knows? He’d probably try to be a shadow ruler once his camp wins.
I assume he’d of course come across Shaula eventually.
The Subaru character definitely has a style that can draw readers and viewers in; his determination and behavior are very human, and sometimes he really becomes a complete Aura Farm monster.
Absolutely, his friendly nature and the connections he has with his surroundings are what make me see myself in Subaru.
