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「血と臓物まで愛して」 (Chi to Zoumotsu Made Aishite)
“Love Me Down to My Blood and Guts”
Well things are certainly set up for the finale now wouldn’t you say? From eye opening discoveries to crazy fights, surprise appearances to “oh you better not” shockers, we got everything this week in Re: Zero – and the best part is there’s still a chunk of Sanctuary arc left to go. Not that I’m implying what’s to come will be even better, but I think it stands a pretty good chance of being so.
Arguably the big thing this week was the Elsa-Garfiel showdown, and I dare say for pretty obvious reasons. Besides Elsa being seemingly taken down for the count (finally), we also got a good idea of just what lets her survive all the damn time time. Oh, and also some surprise family relationships, but I think that’s secondary to full-on vampirism. How the hell did she pick it up? God only knows, but I think it’s fair game wagering whether Garfiel happened to acquire it through some mutual neck biting. Wouldn’t be the first time for some weird left field developments in Re: Zero after all, although I cannot deny I’m slightly curious seeing how a vampiric tiger man would work in practice.
As for the other developments, well, I think the pictures speak for themselves. To probably no one’s surprise (given Echidna teased it and all), Emilia came through the last trial no problem, however the appearance of Minerva (not including the seeming failure to notice Echidna and that snowy ending) likely set some back a few. And not just appear either, have a direct relationship with Emilia’s biological mother. While this definitely will lend further credence to Emilia being the daughter of Satella, it’s good to note this hasn’t actually been confirmed even in the light novels (spoiler alert). All that can be said is Emilia’s mother is closely intertwined with the witches, that her fate is due to them, and that Emilia is a key tool – a key if you will – to what the current batch – i.e. Pandora – is desiring. Hell that even extends to those not immediately tied to Pandora as Puck’s coy mention of Roswaal’s deliberate manipulation of Emilia’s thoughts and feelings indicate. For better (or worse) Re: Zero is quietly turning into a tale of old unfinished business finally playing out in current times, and it’s anyone’s guess just who will emerge victorious once the dust settles.
Well, I can at least guarantee it won’t be Roswaal, because there’s no way he gets out freely if Ram just kicked the bucket. After all, not even precious must protect Rem went that far.
I now see how this ties into The Frozen Bond as the voice, who was revealed to be Echidna, said that if Puck got too close to Emilia that he would cease to be himself, and this episode reveals that Puck’s memories were also sealed when he entered into a contract with Emilia, meaning it wasn’t just Emilia whose memories were sealed. He has now regained his memories about Hector. Roswaal also confirmed he was backward-facing, which leads more credence to him imitating Hector to constantly remind himself of the beatdown Hector delivered to him over 400 years ago. The fusion theory really doesn’t make much sense considering Beatrice could have just healed Roswaal in that flashback and even indicated her intent to do so.
I don’t think Satella is Emilia’s mother. Fortuna’s brother, a full elf was Emilia’s dad, so Emilia’s mother was a human, not a half-elf. Minerva probably isn’t Emilia’s mother either. She and Echidna probably both knew who Emilia’s mother was though. Echidna probably hated Emilia’s mother, and that hate transferred over to Emilia. I still think there are 11 witches/warlocks because it appears that Subaru’s name is a major part of the lore of the series on witches. For those who don’t know, Subaru is also what the Japanese use to refer to the Pleiades star cluster. Six of the stars in that cluster are visible to the naked eye, and there are six dead Witches of Sin. The Pleiades star cluster is also referred to as the Seven Sisters, and there are seven witches bearing the name of the seven deadly sins in Re:zero. Vainglory and Acedia are historical sins, and vainglory and acedia aren’t popular terms in modern times, with people using vanity to mean the same thing as vainglory and melancholy can be used to describe acedia, so Crunchyroll probably just went with the modern terms. Given the presence of Pandora and Hector in the story, Tappei is clearly drawing from historical sins for the lore of his story. My point is that there are eleven stars in the Pleiades star cluster with nine of them having names, making it fitting that there might be 9 Witches of Sin. Two of the stars have yet to be named, and as such, I propose there might be two secret witches that have some other concept applied to them instead of sins. Given that Pandora also referred to Emilia as “Witch’s daughter”, meaning that Echidna might not have said that to insult Emilia and maybe that Emilia’s mother is one of those yet-to-be-determined witches. I think the reason Minerva was crying was because Echidna’s first trial allowed Emilia to regain precious memories with Mother Fortuna, and Minerva just teared up because of that, saying there is some good from Echidna’s evil plots after all.
And there is definitely something up with Echidna’s face given that Emilia didn’t recognize Echidna. It seems there was a purpose to the flashbacks hiding Echidna’s face other than showing that Echidna is a sketchy character after all. Maybe her physical body has a face different than what we see in Echidna’s dream world where her soul is sealed.
Wow, what a change of pace! This was incredibly intense. That satisfaction at the end of the battle between Garfiel and Elsa, never expected that. I thought one reset would happen but it didn’t. Plus, the final scenes with the song in the background? I loved it, and when the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but picky my jaw on the floor. This might not be the best episode in Re:Zero’s history, but it sure kicked ass. No minute wasted at all. Of course, the episode loses points in the narrative department, but we had too much narrative already for the past few episodes so this was a refreshing change of pace.
This episode was…wow!!! Really incredible! Yesterday i jumped on my bed when Garfiel finally killed that witch! It was really long time that an anime make me jump and shout inciting Garfiel. Wonderful. I think it was one of the best episodes of this series.
OK so it was just a love triangle between Roswall, Ram, and Echidna this whole time?
Was that a Dr. Stone reference because the Subaru’s VA also voices Senku? XD
After Garfiel astutely determined that Elsa was a vampire and Elsa herself revealed that to be true with her having fast regeneration, I began to have doubts about Pandora undoing her own deaths, believing something was amiss. As such, I rewatched Episode 44 and saw some interesting things, and assuming that White Fox did not mess up in animating that battle, I have arrived at a different conclusion than most of the fandom.
The ice formations from Emilia’s attacks remained where they were when they hit Pandora. They were not undone when Pandora was shown to be living after supposedly being killed. With this information in mind, since Pandora’s Authority of Vanity/Vainglory selectively rewrites reality based on cause and effect with her undoing something removing the direct evidence of something happening, I believe that Pandora is a vampire with lightning fast regeneration and that she can be killed if she takes enough damage. In my opinion, it’s just a matter of her facing someone strong enough to deal enough damage to her until the limits of her regeneration have been reached. Maybe she is an original vampire or something, which could mean that her regeneration abilities have an incredibly high amount of uses, making her harder to kill than most other vampires.
Pandora isn’t a vampire. Time just works differently for her. She basically explained her power in the flashback – she can reverse cause and effect. This power is certainly limited, but it probably means that she can’t die by being killed directly – her existence would probably have to be erased by someone who has more complete control over time/reality itself.
If she were actually experiencing death, her Vanity/Vainglory Witch Factor would go to the person that killed her, so it’s clear that all those things that looked like they killed her never actually killed her. That is made clear with Emilia’s ice attacks remaining instead of being erased because of Pandora undoing the cause and effect of events related to her.
I don’t doubt that Pandora can selectively undo the cause and effect of effects related to her, such as when she made it so that Regulus was sent back home instead of tagging along with her, removing all the physical evidence of him being there, but there is clearly something different happening when Emilia is trying to kill Pandora. Maybe it’s not regeneration and something as simple as Pandora being able to mess with people’s sight/hearing as she did when Pandora made Fortuna think she was Emilia.
By the way I say it’s limited because the power appears to be limited to *things that happen that are directly related to her* – she can’t reverse cause and effect for anyone.
One Elsa and the other assassin who’s name I cant remember being Sister: That was sort of explained in a previous Break Time short that as (from what I have read) they also include canon information that didn’t fit in the episodes proper as well as the usual comedy.
Awww, so that’s it for Elsa? At least she went out in a state of blissful joy. 😀
Echidna in despair and therefore replaced by Minerva? Still not clear to me why exactly the Witch of Greed feels that way. Is it regret, is it envy, something else?
As for Ram, no way is she dead. Rem needs her twin sister for more Re:Zero mechandise sales. 😀 Though she seems to have a severe case of stockholm syndrome.