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themostrandomfandom · 7 years

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hey jj! i'm incredibly late to the party but i recently rewatched seasons 2-3 (i've watched till the end once before) and i was wondering if you have any thoughts about where brittana stood both off screen in between those two seasons and in the first few episodes of season 3, till "pot o gold" when they become official. i feel like by season 3 a lot is different in comparison to the end of s2 and i'm really fascinated by their relationship in those first three episodes.

Hey, @deleteee!

So here is the thing:

The hiatus between S2 and S3 is kind of a lost period in Brittana history. As S2 ended, fans had high hopes that we would see a lot of Brittana development play out in S3, but that’s not really what ended up happening. To be sure, things, as you say, were most definitely different for Brittana once S3 started. It’s just that we didn’t get a lot of answers as to how that difference came about. So much was left open to interpretation and introduced through insinuation.

The bad news is that because the show kind of glossed over this transition in canon, we can’t really say, “The Brittana relationship specifically underwent X, Y, and Z changes between S2 and S3.”

The good news is that we have a lot of room for imagination due to the lack of canon evidence—which means that this time period is open for a lot of headcanon.

If you’ll allow me a good jabber, I’ll do some recounting and offer my take after the cut, okay?

______

When episode 2x22 “NewYork” originally aired, spoilers per Brad Falchuk suggested that Brittana would end S2 “with abang.”

Many fans hoped that this “bang” would take the form of a first onscreenBrittana kiss and/or Santana coming out of the closet and/or the girls finally decidingthat they were officially dating.

Instead, the “bang”played out as the Heart Locker, a scene which gave us a reaffirmation ofBrittana’s best friendship, a really sweet hug and a pinky-link, and Brittany tellingSantana that, for them, “anything is possible” because they love each othermore than anything else in the world.

Initially, therelative quietness of this “bang” left many fans feeling underwhelmed. For allthe ups and downs that last six episodes of S2 had provided, Brittana had neverthelessmade very little in the way of measurable progress towards dating. No one wasexactly sure where they stood or even if TPTB at Glee were going to continue topursue a romantic storyline for them come S3.

During the summerhiatus between S2 and S3, rumors and fears abounded. Some fans worried that thewriters might introduce a new love interest for one or both of the girls comeS3. Others worried that once S3 started, Brittana would once again be relegatedto background status and all forward development for them would cease.

As the summercontinued, hopeful spoilers started to leak out, and the fandom allowed itselfto imagine some more favorable scenarios: Maybe Brittana would kiss or startdating in the season premiere. Maybe Santana would begin S3 out. Maybe she andBrittany would already be dating by the time S3 started. Maybe we would seeflashbacks to what they did with their summer vacation or at least hear aboutit in a JBI retrospective.

But, again, thingsdidn’t unfold exactly as the fandom expected.

Episode 3x01 “ThePurple Piano Project” was not the Brittana watershed we were hoping for.

The S3 premiere sawBrittana back on the Cheerios for the first time since episode 2x11 “The SueSylvester Shuffle,” with Santana being awarded dual captaincy with Becky.

In Brittana’s firstscene together, Santana got a lunch tray for her and Brittany to share andwalked with her arm-in-arm to their seats. They did talk to JBI but not abouttheir love lives, only about Santana’s plan to rock her senior year andBrittany’s efforts to assemble a functional time machine.

There was no explicitconfirmation that Brittana were dating each other—but, then again, there wasalso nothing to say that they were dating anyone else, either.

They tried to re-recruitQuinn to the New Directions and Cheerios together, but it was unclear what, ifanything, Quinn knew about their relationship.

The girls were onceagain a two-shot, appearing in almost every scene together. They danced on thetables with each other during “We Got the Beat” and sat side-by-side followingthe food fight (“Those are your nipples”).

Later on, Sue seemedto intimate that she knew the truth about Santana’s sexuality and used thatknowledge to blackmail Santana into sabotaging Will’s piano project. Santanadid not appear to be out, but she and Brittany were being awfully chummy inpublic. When Santana got kicked out the glee club, Brittany appeared noticeablydistressed, to the point that even Finn seemed to notice.

Everything was,frankly, ambiguous.

There was nothing tosay that Brittana had made progress between S2 and S3. There was also nothingto say they had regressed.

After working throughsome initial feelings of disappointment, the fandom held its collective breath,waiting to learn more.

Some fans, myself included, wondered if Brittana werealready secretly dating and suspected that maybe a big reveal would come about at somepoint later in the season. Other fans fretted that maybe we would never see anymore mainline development for romantic Brittana at all—that this “Are they oraren’t they?” ambiguity was all we were ever going to get.

True to form, Gleestrung us along. The next two episodes of S3 tiptoed around Brittana’srelationship, with each new episode offering tantalizing clues but never delivering anything definitive.

In episode 3x02 “I AmUnicorn,” Brittany seemed bound and determined to make WMHS a safe space forLGBTQ kids, and she attempted to use Kurt’s campaign for the senior classpresidency to achieve that end. When Kurt rejected Brittany’s designs,Santana made a point to compliment her genius and encourage her to believe inherself. Everything was very sweet and seemed significant, but, again, nothingwas explicitly explained.

In episode 3x03 “AsianF,” Brittany showed up the Booty Camp, seemingly in support of Santana. Later,she performed “Run the World (Girls)” with Santana singing backup. Theperformance was definitely sexy and suggested Santana’s devotion not only toBrittany’s cause but to Brittany herself. However, it was perhaps lessintriguing, from a Brittana perspective, than Mercedes’s dream sequence performanceof “It’s All Over,” in which Mercedes clearly identified Brittana as a powercouple and talked about Santana “knocking off that piece who thinks she’sbetter than everybody running for president”—i.e., Brittany. Once again, fanswere left wondering what, if anything, was the deal with Brittana. Were theydating or what? If so, did the whole school know about it? Or was Mercedes aspecial case?

Finally, episode 3x04 “PotO’ Gold” provided some answers—though, again, not the answers fans perhapsexpected.

It turned out thatBrittany and Santana had been going on dates—eating out at BreadStix, takingromantic baths together, etc.—only Santana wasn’t sure if that meant they were actuallydating. Brittany reassured her that they were, in fact, dating if she wantedthem to be dating (“I ordered shrimp”). And Santana did want them to be dating, just with the stipulation that their relationship remain private (“under thenapkin”), at least for the time being.

This developmentfilled in some blanks for the fandom:

Santana was not yetout.

Brittana had spent the summer and early school year going on dates but notdefining their relationship.

Brittany was fine with taking things at Santana’s pace.

Santana was ready to date Brittany and be in a committed relationship with herbut not yet ready to make their relationship public.

What it didn’t tell uswas how, exactly, Brittana had spent their summer vacation or to what degreethey had discussed Santana’s coming out process to date. Did they have a planfor how they were going to proceed or were they more playing things by ear?

To this point in showhistory, we, as the audience, still had yet to meet Santana’s family on screen, soquestions remained as to how accepting or unaccepting they might beconcerning her sexuality.

There had been some hints to suggest that Santanafeared their potential reaction to her coming out but nothing had beenexplicitly stated.

Fans wondered to what degree the Lopez family would figure into Brittana’sstoryline going forward.

They also wondered how much or how little Brittana’sromantic development would feature in the show throughout the rest of theseason.

When spoilers startedto leak for Santana’s “coming out” arc, set to feature in episodes 3x06 “MashOff” and 3x07 “I Kissed a Girl,” the fandom hoped that maybe we would learnmore about the nature and history of Brittana’s relationship from the end of S2until present.

But that’s the thingabout Glee: The writers very rarely examined developments in retrospect. Thingshappened off screen, through insinuation, and in passing and were never againrevisited. No new details or developments were made, and the story clipped alongat its same heady pace, full steam ahead.

So was the case withBrittana’s relationship.

We got developmentsgoing forward in S3, but the narrative never looked back or provided any newinsight into what had happened to get Brittana from the Heart Locker in 2x22 to “Iwish you’d hold my hand” in 3x04.

That being the case,there just aren’t that many concrete answers to be had about the summer S2-S3 hiatus period in Brittana history. All we can dois make inferences and write fanfiction.

My personal inferencesabout that “lost summer” are these:

I believe that,following the Heart Locker conversation, Brittany and Santana’s relationshipachieved a state of new equilibrium.

Things weren’t thesame as they had been pre-Hurt Locker, where they were friends who slepttogether but never talked about feelings (even though feelings were obviouslythere). Things also weren’t the same as they had been throughout the Back Six ofS2, with so many stutter steps and hesitations and backslides andcomplications, each new week trading heartbreaks and triumphs.Neither one of the girls was dating anyone else, and they weren’t desperately tryingto maintain the image of heterosexuality, as they had in the past.

Instead, Brittana achieved a new normal.

They spent timetogether—probably lots of it in each other’s homes, as we can infer from thefact that they occasionally bathed together—and they gradually resumed theirphysical intimacy, only this time it was different, because the feelingsunderlying it weren’t being suppressed and secreted anymore.

Though fans hadoriginally inferred that Brittany wouldn’t be ready to date Santana untilSantana came out, the truth was that Brittany was ready to date Santana as longas they were exclusive with each other and there was no more obfuscationbetween them about the nature of their feelings.

They didn’tnecessarily have explicit conversations about the nature of their relationship,hence why Santana remained uncertain, even going into the new school year, asto whether or not Brittany was actually her girlfriend. Brittany, on the otherhand, knew that she and Santana were steady dating, but she wasn’t about toforce Santana into labeling their dynamic before she was ready, so she just playedthings cool, waiting for Santana to come to her.

In the meantime, thegirls decided—together—that they would rejoin Cheerios and attain leadershippositions in Sue’s organization.

They also decided thatthey would try to reform the Unholy Trinity and get Quinn to rejoincheerleading and glee club with them.

When the school yearbegan, they essentially hid their new and improved dynamic in plain sight.Santana didn’t come out to the school, and she and Brittany didn’t tell anyonethey’d been going on dates. However, the girls also made no efforts to hide theircloseness or to beard with boys, as per their m.o. in years past. If people sawthem together and made inferences, then so be it. They just weren’t going tomake any public announcements themselves—and especially not before they haddefined their relationship between the two of them.

There was perhaps somesense between them that they were gradually working towards “going public”—thatSantana was trying to become more comfortable with herself and that they werebuilding up the kind of social capital that would afford them the freedom to dowhat they wanted within the walls of WMHS—but I don’t think they had a stricttimeline on coming out or even a real plan as to how that process might unfold.

Things were still newbetween them, and they were still figuring out how to bridge the gap betweenwhat they had been in the past and what they were now—hence all the ambiguityduring the first few episodes of S3.

Honestly, this periodin Brittana history is one of my favorites to imagine, specifically because itis so open to interpretation, so I’ve written a lot of fic about it. If you are interested, you can find my main “summer between S2-S3″ stories here:

AndEverything is August You

Can’tHelp but Fall Just to Land

Of course, these stories are just my take on this particular period in Brittana history, and other authors have imagined things in delightfully different ways.

As stated above, we don’t have many hard answers about how Brittana made the transition between S2 and S3. We just have the sense that things were keenly different between Brittana, starting their senior year.

In any case, I have jabbered a lot now.

Thanks for the question! If you continue with your rewatch, I hope you enjoy it.

#Crazy Brittanalyst answers #deleteee #Brittanalyzing #Brittanalysis #P.S. The Brittanalyst is traveling so all my answers are on delay #I apologize for the lag #I just want queue

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scizor4u · 5 years

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I, me, and myself.

The good. I notice a downgrade to my existence. In my childhood, I was regarded by my parents as a prodigy. I was top of the class easily. I aced all my exams and chose books and reading instruments rather than toys. After graduating Nursery, I skipped Kinder-level education and immediately studied Preparatory-level education. Later on, I realized being labeled as a prodigy by parents was common and nothing to be proud of. I grew tired of reading. I longed for toys and mundane objects that I never need, will only use for a week, and subsequently lose in my room. I grew tired of studying and just decided to "wing it" when exams came up.

The bad. I could say one of my traits is rewatching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (a work of genius by the way) and listening to undistinguished girl groups like Dreamcatcher. Why? Because it makes me special and quirky when I am doing something that isn't recommended by my peers, not only because I enjoy doing it but simply because no one else is doing it. That is why I almost always never relate to any discussion in school. All those books, films, music, political discussions, and trends are what I proactively avoid. This gives me the feeling of uniqueness even though the fact of the matter is that at the core of my existence I'm really exactly the same as everybody else. But that fact scares me so I go out of my way ignoring the norm and engaging in non-popular activities to make myself feel like I really am a special snowflake. Anyway, now that I have gotten my bi-weekly existential crisis out of the way, I just realized that those were my traits alone. Apart from obsessively playing League of Legends and occasionally playing basketball, I offer nothing special and unique.

The ugly. I really could not remember anything particularly important that I did during grade school. All I remembered was being extremely childish up until I was in 8th Grade, or 2nd year highschool. I loathe myself for that and I toss about in my bed nightly, my thoughts being consumed of my ways before. Sometimes, people might see me randomly crumple my face. That is me unluckily remembering those memories, hoping to never reenact it.

The darker the night, the brighter the stars. I guess the highlight of my life so far is senior highschool. When my peers disliked senior highschool because it was senseless, I disagree. Without senior high, I might as not well not be here. I bloomed like the flower in the dawn. Here, I found friends for life, learned life-long lessons, even my first love and heartbreak. This is the part of my life exempt of downgraded performance and I developed. This was my rebirth. I began reading and writing again. After class, I went to my friend's homes and participated in activities. I barely felt alone. I won essay writing contests and I also found myself in the top of my class. The whole batch knows me and I am friends with most of them. My dream of being a lawyer was inevitable. I effortlessly balanced my social life, leisure, education, and family life. I even had international friends. Those were the best years of my life. I have risen from the filth and muck, like a lotus blossom.

Beauty fades, that's why it's beautiful. I only tried three entrance exams for college during my last year of senior high. Those were the entrance exams of University of Sto. Thomas, University of the Philippines, and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. PLM was my last choice as I only planned to study in UST and UP. I didn't even know that PLM existed until a friend of mine convinced me to try because studying there was free. Heck, I was only able to study for and remember the dates of the entrance exams of UST and UP. For PLM, I was only reminded of the date by my friend, prior to the night before the exams. I passed both UST and PLM examinations so I chose the latter and the rest was history.

Curse. Unfortunately, college life was not the same as senior highschool life. I digested lessons extremely slow and never spoke up during class discussions. I lost confidence in myself. I was surrounded by people better and smarter than me. I was the black sheep of the section. I was a nobody- my blockmates even forget my name at times. I had friends; however, I feel like a burden to be with. I just stand next to people and slowly start killing them in the inside just by existing. It's just like being a child all over again. After class, I always run over to computer cafes, always isolated to myself and my thoughts. Going to friend's houses were simply an afterthought. My dreams were gone. I fear my looming future, like a mounting dread.

Redemption? So far I am still a sophomore in college. I am trying my best to turn my life around. I even had a job that i subsequently left during summer break. I joined organizations trying to mold an identity. The situation at the classroom is still the same, though. People think nothing of me as passing-by thought, ready to be forgotten. I still run over to computer cafes but sometimes I have activities to do now as I am now a PRO of Red Cross Youth here in my college. I don't particularly enjoy my life so far but I love the memories. 18 years and still counting; I am still breathing in the atmosphere.

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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The GREAT CRUNCHYROLL Re:ZERO REWATCH Loops over Episodes 6-10 with a Shocking Revelation!

Welcome back the GREAT CRUNCHYROLL Re:ZERO REWATCH! I'm Kara Dennison, and I'll be your host this week as we make our way through Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-. Last week we traveled with Subaru to a magical new realm in episodes 1-5, and this week we're picking up from a rather gory cliffhanger and getting a few mysteries solved in episodes 6-10.

Despite covering Re:ZERO-related news constantly over in the news room, I never actually knew a lot about it. A few reveals got to us early by way of things like special-edition Rem figures, but—for me, at least—Subaru's Return by Death power and its implications were a complete surprise. With this week's batch of episodes, we got to see the toll this takes on him emotionally and how he recovers from it. There's a lot I still want to know about his life prior to the series, especially regarding how quickly he took to his new company and how little he thinks of his original world.

We're still watching Subaru evolve and, as commenter BlackRose0607 pointed out, he's "starting from zero," as it were:

That's the thing though, Subaru ISN'T a hero. He's an ordinary guy who got transported to another world and thinks he has powers right away, but really his only power is coming back to a certain point after he dies, to try and redo things and make them work for him and those around him to keep himself and everyone else alive.

It looks like we've got some viewers who gave Re:ZERO a try before and never finished, but are picking it up as we do. Welcome aboard... and now, let's see what the Crunchyroll Features team has to say about this week's episodes!

This is a very busy batch of episodes! For starters, Subaru seems to be coming to terms with his "new normal" after some really rough restarts (and a literal emotional breakdown). Has your view of him as a character changed at all from last week?

Kevin: I really like seeing the sheer emotional toll that the time loops take on him. Even if he tries, he literally can’t tell anyone about how he knows that terrible things are about to happen. In the first set of episodes, we saw how that can make him plan things out and try different methods, while this time we got to see how the constant fear and frustration leave him a step away from insanity almost constantly, especially when he knows that he’s in a loop.

Joshua: Since watching Okabe in Steins;Gate 0 and Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange, I’ve been fascinated by the potential mental impact of repeating so many traumatic timelines. So at the risk of sounding like a sadist, I really liked Re:ZERO’s direct approach, and seeing the emotionally vulnerable side of Subaru unfurl out of his forced bravado.

He’s died repeatedly in brutal, painful ways, before having to act like nothing happened. It’s understandable he’d be traumatised, which makes the fact he can’t even confide in anyone, a cruel stroke of narrative genius. Despite all the pain, and occasional blips in his fight-or-flight reflex, he’s shown an admirable selfless resolve in situations where I’d sympathise with just wanting to run away though, so I’m starting to respect Subaru a bit more, I suppose.

Paul: I'm not entirely sure what to make of Subaru. He keeps taking credit for saving the day when really it’s the more powerful characters (Reinhard, Rem, Ram, Beatrice, etc.) who do all the heavy lifting, and even his seemingly courageous acts seem to be borne out of cowardice and desperation. It makes him a complicated and interesting character, but I'm not sure whether I like him or merely pity him.

Noelle: I’m still on the fence with Subaru. On the one hand, the time loops and constant deaths are extremely cruel, and having to reconcile that people he might have possibly become close to would happily see him dead. On the other hand, he hasn’t really improved as a person; he still reeks of entitlement. These are fine character flaws, but it’s not very palatable to me. Still, I don’t think he’s a bad person. Just not a type of character whose story I see as having a need to be told.

Jared: I’m still very unsure about him. Sure, he did some things that could be seen as good in this set of episodes, but I still feel like this isn’t done just because he’s a good person. There’s still parts of him that seem highly suspicious.

Carolyn: I’m really liking this minefield that he has to navigate every time he is rebooted. It’s very interesting to watch him put pieces together but then constantly seem to be three paces behind anyway. I’m not certain he’s my favorite character, I think Emilia holds that title right now. But the whole premise has me intrigued.

Austin: If anything, I've become more sympathetic towards him. His emotional breakdown in Emilia's lap really hit me for this rewatch and honestly makes it a bit difficult for me not to feel sorry for him.

Danni: For the most part, yes. I think he’s really likeable and has a great rapport with the rest of the cast, but characters with uninterrogated martyr complexes irk me. To his credit, there’s a logic to it given he knows death isn’t permanent for him, but that doesn’t negate how ultimately self-destructive and harmful it is. I guess that’s not so much his fault (he is just a fictional character, after all) as it is a qualm I have with the writing as a whole.

David: Unfortunately in this case I am tainted by having seen the show before. Given all of the criticisms of him, I am extremely interested in what everyone’s take on where his character arc goes in the next couple weeks, though.

René: I think that this batch of episodes really drives home how Subaru isn’t your run-of-the-mill overpowered isekai protagonist and is also a big part why Re:ZERO became so popular so fast back when these aired. It’s really hard not to sympathize with him through all this suffering and builds a really good emotional basis for what is yet to come.

Was the revelation of Rem as Subaru’s attacker a shock? Similarly, what about the revelation of Ram and Rem’s demonic nature?

Kevin: When I was watching for the first time, I don’t remember predicting either. On a rewatch, I don’t think there was any real way to guess the outcome, since we had never seen either maid show fighting ability and didn’t know that oni were an actual race in this world. Despite that, I really like how both are handled, since it fits with the logic of the world. Also, Subaru’s story about the red and blue oni was a nice hint.

Joshua: I think anyone watching for the first time would’ve been shocked - I certainly was back when I was a newcomer. Up until then, we hadn’t really seen Rem as more than Ram’s cute sidekick, so the reveal that she’s more than capable of a little cold-blooded murder was a shock, to say the least. Their demonic nature was less of a surprise to me though, as the seeds were quietly sewn when Subaru and Rem visited the village in last week’s episodes. Although, perhaps I picked up on that hint due to already knowing, I suppose?

Paul: This plot detail was spoiled for me long ago, and so the reveal itself wasn't a surprise, although the sheer violence of Rem's rampages was pretty shocking. I want to know more about their background and how they came to be employed at Roswaal Manor.

Noelle: I was surprised by Rem, honestly, mostly because there were… almost no clues that she could have been the attacker? Suspicion doesn’t translate into murder, and we don’t really get any proper hints about why she would want to have him killed. So it’s not really a mystery, is it? The demonic nature was hinted at with the red oni blue oni story, so that didn’t come as much of a surprise… although I was expecting that to be metaphorical instead of literal.

Jared: In hindsight, it makes a ton of sense since you wouldn’t normally point the finger at her, but it was a bit of a surprise. It does seem weird that she was going after him just because he seemed shady and had the witch’s scent on him, so hopefully that whole thing gets explained at some point. The demon reveal again is something that you can look back on and see how they made a trail to that reveal. Although Rem being a violence machine wasn’t what I was expecting when she turns.

Carolyn: I already knew because spoilers. But had I not known, I don’t think I would have been terribly surprised. We are led to believe the whole castle is full of strange people who could murder Subaru at any moment. The entire vibe is just bizarre during his first few days there. I was surprised about the demon part, however.

Austin: On my first watch I was really surprised about Rem being the killer! I remember thinking about why she might have attacked Subaru for the whole week leading up to the next episode and initially even thought she killed him in the first loop. As for Ram and Rem’s demonic nature, Re:ZERO unfortunately wasn’t the first time I’ve seen Naita Aka Oni, the Japanese children’s story about the red and blue ogres, referenced so that wasn’t as surprising.

Danni: I had honestly expected it to be Ram, so it was a bit surprising to see Rem in the end. Their nature wasn’t a surprise, though. They telegraphed it from a mile away last week while the two chatted on the walk back from the village. I did feel pretty dumb for not noticing the red ogre/blue ogre motif given how often it seems to pop up in different anime.

David: I had no clue at all, but the show doesn’t really give you any chances at guessing it could be her before the reveal, so I think the intrigue is more in the “why” than the “who”.

René: I have to unfortunately second a lot of the previous comments. I tried to approach it like a proper mystery but there wasn’t nearly enough adequate foreshadowing to point towards Rem so logic-wise, it wasn’t as satisfying. It did provide us cool action, though.

There’s a lot of intrigue (and a lot of murder) surrounding Emilia’s claim to the throne of Lugnica. Subaru’s newfound knowledge and trust aside, is there anyone in Roswaal’s household you still consider suspicious? If you’ve already seen the series, which character were you suspicious of the longest?

Kevin: To this day I’m not sure what’s up with Roswaal and Beatrice. I don’t think anyone ever mentions what specifically Beatrice is, but she is clearly extremely powerful but also bound to Roswaal’s mansion, and we have already seen that Roswaal himself is pretty powerful, magically. We’ll get some more detail about him later, but I’m still not convinced I know his entire motivation.

Joshua: Mach 1 Mary Poppins, without a doubt. His design is unusual to say the least, but the way he stands with an imposing presence, and seems to always be looking through Subaru when he talks, makes me suspect that he knows a lot more than he’s letting on. The problem with Roswaal though, is even when you put aside his makeup and exaggerated voice, he’s impossible to read. We also know he’s supposed to be incredibly powerful, which could make this mystery all the more important for the struggles to come, I suppose.

Paul: Roswaal himself is completely shady. I have no idea who he is or why he supports Emilia's claim to the throne, and I doubt he's acting out of a sense of philanthropy. How does he benefit in all of this? Does Emilia trust Roswaal, or is she merely using him out of convenience? I'm eager to find out.

Noelle: Roswaal, for sure. Granted, I like him (and his voice). He’s a fun character for sure, but I have no idea what he wants. I don’t think I’m particularly suspicious of him, but I do want to know what his objectives were.

Jared: At this point, I think it’s better to be suspicious of everyone since they could certainly pull out a surprise turn at the drop of a hat.

Carolyn: Roswaal seems like he’s up to some stuff every time he does, basically, anything.

Austin: Despite everyone being so suspicious of Roswaal, I actually kind of stopped seeing anyone in the household as suspicious after the reveal that they could smell the witch on Subaru… That said, I am beginning to put that initial dismissal into questioning.

Danni: I’m still suspicious of Roswaal, just because we’ve seen the least of him. He’s always come across to me as pretty menacing, but that might just be because of the clown makeup.

David: Yep. Roswaal. We’re not given almost any information about his thought processes or motivations at this point, so it’s only natural he is the most suspicious character.

René: Honestly, how could you not find Roswaal suspicious? I still expect him to be revealed as someone mischievous later on who at least tries to get favors out of Queen Emilia once she has ascended the throne as payback for his support, in a Rumpelstiltskin-kind of way.

If you had Subaru’s Return by Death power and a blue-haired oni maid with a morningstar killed you tonight, about how long ago do you think you’d wake up?

Kevin: I bought some apples about a week ago.

Joshua: I’d hope it would be before I had to make choices that were a little more life defining, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I returned to something more mundane. Last week, I was standing in an aisle contemplating which toilet seat to buy, so maybe then? I went for the middle priced of the three options, so perhaps my destiny would change had I went for the cheapest or more expensive, I suppose!

Paul: Hopefully far enough back that I could reconsider some of my current career choices. Working as a clerk in a public library may be a soul-crushing and monotonous job, but it beats being a starving artist.

Noelle: Similar to Kevin, I did go apple picking two weeks back-- I’m kidding. It’ll probably be at my desk at work, or on the bus.

Jared: I’d probably get unlucky and it’d send me back a year and I’d have to go back to school again.

Carolyn: Oh, boy. Probably stuck in the land of Naruto filler.

Austin: It’d probably get sent back to watching a virtual YouTuber’s stream since I’ve been doing that a lot recently.

Danni: I don’t know. With my luck I probably saved two seconds before my head caved in and would just be caught in a death loop until the console bricks.

David: At my desk watching anime, naturally. Thinking of which, Return by Death would be a convenient tool for catching up on seasonal shows…

René: Hopefully, not too far back. I’m close to having an empty email inbox for the first time since April. I would hate to lose all that finished work ...

And finally, highs and lows of the week?

Kevin: High - Subaru and Rem’s fight scene. From the choreography to Rem and Subaru exchanging trying to save each other, leading in to Rem wandering the forest as a demon to try and save Subaru, I really like the sequence. Low - Subaru figuring out that the puppy was the shaman. It took a rewatch or two for me to realize it, but Beatrice only tells him about the curse requiring physical contact before Subaru had the entire village touch him. He got every single person to touch him somewhere unique, so he knew that he would be cursed, but only later learned that when removing the curse he would be able to see where the shaman touched him. It’s a minor plot hole, but I really like these episodes, so I have to look pretty deep to find a low point.

Joshua: I adored Beatrice this week. Her constant irritation towards Subaru was adorable, and her snappy comebacks gave me life. She also shown incredible loyalty and resolve to stand by her word when she opposed even Mach 1 Mary Poppins and Ram when Subaru was accused of killing Rem (which was a really cool sequence too!).

The compassion Emilia shown in the lap-pillow moment was wonderfully pure, allowing Subaru to let his guard down and finally offload the feelings eating him up inside. Rem’s demonic outburst was tantalising to watch, and then there’s little things like the absolute heartbreak in Ram’s mourning cries (Rie Murakawa did a great job there!), and the perspective of Subaru’s pacing around making it look like Beatrice was spinning on the spot!

Frankly, these episodes were so good that I’ll have to get a bit nitpicky to find a fault, but I’m a little confused as to why everyone trusts Subaru so much? Their world is politically volatile with Emilia a likely target, yet when Rem dies of weakness only a day or so after Subaru asked Beatrice about the same subject, she still stood by her contract to protect him? I can’t exactly fault Rem there, to be honest. That’s a small detail compared to the bigger picture though, I suppose.

Paul: My high point was when Beatrice entered a contract to protect Subaru and followed through with it even though it set her against her employer and his entire household. I wasn't expecting that, and I think it hints at interesting (maybe even fiendish) possibilities for her character. My low point is the reveal of the shaman's true identity. I felt like I'd somehow missed two or three important chapters of a book when the story pivoted to focus on a minor mabeast invasion. I had assumed the curse was related to Emilia's election (and maybe it still will be), but the shift to a concurrent but unrelated threat struck me as jarring.

Noelle: High point, Rem fighting, both in her wailing on Subaru and brutally handling hordes of monsters. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Low point, wow, that dog was 100% not hinted at all to be a monster, huh. I thought it was interesting, because of course we suspected the humans first and not that the culprit could be a monster instead, but I wish there was more leadup to it. We got a lot about curses, I wish that infodump also contained things about monsters too, so we could at least guess that.

Jared: High points for me would be the fight scenes which were really well done and Beatrice just being a ton of fun throughout these episodes. Low point might be the shaman reveal because I thought it was a bit too obvious it would be the dog. Since Subaru learned it was through physical contact, I immediately thought back to the dog bite and figured that’s where it’d end up going. Plus, if Sailor Moon has taught me anything, it’s that pets that have “bald” spots are not what they seem to be.

Carolyn: I actually really liked the scene with Subaru crying into Emilia’s lap. That was very sad and emotional. The kid just needs a break and a friend. I’m not sure I have a low point. I liked this set of episodes quite a lot.

Austin: Gosh, there were so many highs. I actually cried when Subaru broke down in Emilia’s lap and “Houya no Yume yo” started playing, every single reason I really liked Beatrice on my first watch came rushing back to me when she formed a contract with Subaru, Rem’s anger filled questioning before killing Subaru after the reveal and Ram’s blind rage towards him after Rem died both hit me like a truck (voice actors and actresses sure are amazing!) -- I could honestly go on for longer than I probably should about everything I really liked about these five episodes.

As for lows, it felt a little too easy when Subaru won over Rem’s trust to the point where she’d risk her life to rid him of his curse in the tenth episode. Also, Subaru’s emotional turn around after Ram chased him and Beatrice down felt a tad “unrealistic”, for lack of a better word. Ultimately, those are pretty minor nitpicks, though.

Danni: This was a really strong selection of episodes in what I’ve found to be a real great show so far, so it’s hard to pick any single favorite moment. Beatrice continues to be my favorite character in the entire show so every moment with her is a treat, especially her honoring her contract with Subaru despite it pitting her against her employer. Subaru telling Ram the story about the two ogres was a pretty touching scene, as was Subaru breaking down in Emilia’s lap. Those kids are pretty cute together. I can’t think of any ultimately low points, really. Those CGI dogs didn’t look that great, I guess?

David: High is absolutely the scene where Beatrice defends Subaru, hands down. Probably one of the best moments in the whole show, too. Low is just in general how many times Subaru had to die to figure this one out. Gets surprisingly tiring to see the same days play out over and over!

René: I absolutely love the lap scene with Emilia, so that’s definitely the High for me. It’s not only a beautiful character moment but also really hits me as a wonderful anti-toxic masculinity moment as Subaru is just not able to keep up his facade as the strong hero anymore and needs to let it all out. I’m always a sucker for moments like this.

There weren’t really any Lows this week, so I’d have to go with the Shaman reveal, as well which is still not THAT bad. I’ll have to wait for next episode to have something for this segment~

COUNTERS:

Week:

"Barusu": 7

Subaru Deaths: 2

Methods of Death: Slit throat/torture, falling/suicide

Overall:

"Barusu": 17

Subaru Deaths: 7

Methods of Death: Disembowelment, disembowelment, stabbing, curse, curse and dismemberment, slit throat/torture, suicide

And that's everything for this week! Remember that you're always welcome to join us for this rewatch, especially if you haven't watched Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- yet!

Here's our upcoming schedule!

-Next week, on October 4th, Carolyn takes us past the halfway mark with episodes 11-15

-Then, on October 11th, David hosts our penultimate week with episodes 16-20

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Re:ZERO Rewatch! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

CATCH UP ON THE REWATCH:

Episodes 1-5: Starting Life in Another Rewatch

Re:ZERO Introduction Questions

Have anything to say about our thoughts on the episodes watched? Let us know in the comments! Don't forget, we're also accepting questions and comments for next week, so don't be shy and feel free to ask away!

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Kara Dennison is a writer, editor, and interviewer with bylines at VRV, We Are Cult, Fanbyte, and many more. She is also the co-founder of Altrix Books and co-creator of the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. Kara blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.

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