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First he calls his wife a homosexual, then he tells her dad that he fucked his daughter. Wilhelm has no chill.

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I always thought Daphne's mentality about gluttony was super interesting, because like, she's right. Most people really do overlook it as, like, "oh it's just eating." But the way she points out that is the ONLY one of the seven deadly sins that is actually necessary for survival paints it in a new light. People don't NEED things like sex or material wealth. But they really do die if they don't eat.

And I think this is also interesting how this relates to gluttony's themes. Like, on the literal level it's eating, but the metaphor surrounding gluttony in the story relates to identity, connection, and memory. To indulge in gluttony is to consume those of another person, that's what the authority is.

Those who have their names and memories eaten become "nulls"- with no one to remember them (including themselves) they stop existing in the eyes of the world.

That's tantamount to saying you die without connections and self. So much of the story is about the idea of recognizing yourself through others, self identity though other people's perceptions (the story LOVES shots of people reflected in eyes).

These are things that satiate the self as a whole, not just the stomach. And you'll die if you don't eat.

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You know I’ve seen posts about how Arc 3 Rem is going buckwild for the most average dude you’ve ever seen in your life and that’s not WRONG from our POV because Subaru IS a totally average teenage boy as we would see him, but I want to point out that Subaru is ABSOLUTELY NOT the most average dude ever to Rem or any of the people surrounding them. Subaru is a fucking freak who spouts near-constant nonsense, has massively violent mood swings/nightmares every night/some sort of horrifying PTSD from SOMETHING that nobody knows about, completely disregards basic etiquette all the time, and all in all is about the furthest thing from “normal” in the Re:Zero world that you can get. Especially pre-Whale, this is the equivalent of Rem looking at the most mangy, badly-trained, psychotic mutt in the pound and going “my sweet angel :3” while everyone else stares at her in disbelief.

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Arc 8 speculation under the cut:

So uh. Anyone else get the feeling that everything is about to go horribly, horribly wrong?

Contributing factors:

Arc 8 has been going far, FAR too well for a Re:Zero arc. And I’m normally not one to take the author’s word at face value (Death of the Author and all that: I will take the actual story over word of God basically every time) but it is very odd that not only has Arc 8 been basically nothing but Ws, but that we’ve gotten an arc that has been basically nothing but Ws so soon after Tappei declared post-Arc-6 that he was going to stop going easy on Subaru.

Natchuki Subawu has absolutely none of the emotional intelligence that has been central to basically all of Natsuki Subaru’s big victories so far.

Natchuki Subawu has been stomping on basically every message that Natsuki Subaru has had to learn up to this point in the story so far, not the least of which being his Arc 4 lesson about valuing his own life. He has died so many times that the narrative isn’t even keeping count anymore. He has a suicide pill to facilitate this.

Natchuki Subawu is currently paralleling every single IF route. He has developed an affiliation with a member of the Witch Cult (Ayamatsu), he is leading an organization called the Pleiades and is partnered with both Cecilus and Halibel (Oboreru), he is arguably taking the easy route forward (by over-relying on RBD, in this case) and has a daughter named Spica (Sloth IF), he is dying over and over again to get the perfect result (Kasaneru), he has utilized RBD in order to learn more about the people around him for the purpose of being exactly the type of person who they would like + has a direct affiliation with the sin of Gluttony (Tsugihagu) — maybe none of these would be particularly noteworthy on their own, but ALL AT ONCE? Naw, naw—

The absolute menace that is Rowan Segmunt is set up as a narrative parallel to Subaru, at one point even getting an ability of which the narrative snidely remarks, “if Natsuki Subaru were here, he would perhaps call it Learn By Death.”

Sphinx is a direct parallel to Subaru and his relationship with RBD right down to wanting to create a utopia where nobody has to die.

Roswaal approves of how Subaru is currently using his time travel ability. ROSWAAL.

Speaking of — Roswaal currently has that pact with Subaru that he made a point to bring attention to directly prior to this battle.

There have been so many snide comments about RBD via having characters talk about the sheer horror of the zombies. So many of their comments could apply directly to RBD and are absolutely SCATHING.

Sphinx just finished all of her trials and is ready to get to work, Palladio’s Evil Eye that is currently attached to multiple characters (including Subaru) has not been brought up since it’s inception, Todd Fang is still MIA, we have yet to see any true drawback to this second use of Cor Leonis, neither we nor the characters know exactly what Spica is eating with her Authority (which Sphinx is apparently able to see through with little difficulty), and Mariuli’s Prophecy still hasn’t been fulfilled.

Instead of being anything related to the actual battle central to the narrative, this arc is named after Vincent Vollachia.

We have one volume left, and the last one ended with Sphinx basically saying “alright; it’s time to REALLY get to work”

…I don’t think the final chapters of this Arc are going to go very well, guys.

#re:zero

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fambly...

#re:zero #re zero #natsuki subaru #beatrice rezero

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gongeous

#re:zero #re zero #julius juukulius

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Re:Zero Season 3 key visual announced!!!! We will be getting new clips from the anime on March 24!!!!!

#re:zero #re zero

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OTTO???

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I'm imagining a rz au where Satella accidentally isekais Kenichi (While he's holding Naoko's hand or something) and then she's like "ah fuck got the wrong guy again hold on." And a few minutes later she grabs Subaru, and the rest of arcs 1-4 play out exactly the same from his perspective. Meanwhile his parents are off in some other part of the country, living more mundane fantasy lives after the initial "what's going on where are we is that guy a lizard" shock. And naturally they're worried about their son being by himself on earth, wondering where they went, barely getting by all alone etc. until one day they hear about the amazing new knight who defeated the Great Rabbit and White Whale, Natsuki Subaru! And they're like what the fuck

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Subaru’s Royal Selection Incident is so fascinating because it is just constantly being recontextualized, over and over and over again. Like, in the beginning when Subaru’s still kinda just serving the role of A Generic Isekai Self-Insert and hasn’t really differentiated himself from the crowd too obviously yet, it comes across as him being an Isekai Fanboy with entitlement issues due to genuinely seeing himself as the center of the world, and the story uses that in order to give a really strong lesson about the dangers of projecting escapism onto others and the pitfalls of feeling entitled to those around you. And it works! It’s a really strong self-contained lesson that has hit home for a lot of young boys/people who remember being young boys who made similar stupid mistakes.

But then both Rem’s Speech and Subaru’s First Trial happen, and it’s recolored as Subaru specifically trying to deal with his depression, self hatred, and feelings that he hasn’t done anything to measure up to who he’s supposed to be, and instead of it just being his selfishness it’s him trying to assert himself as a bigger, better person than who he feels he was in his old life without putting in any of the legwork that he actually needs to get to that point. It wasn’t really entitlement, it seems — it was him trying, or attempting to try, to be the person he thought he was supposed to be, to fulfill the role he thought he was supposed to fill, and fucking up majorly because of a fundamental self-centered misunderstanding of himself and the world around him. There are still elements of entitlement, but it’s more complicated.

AND THEN we get Amnesiabaru in Arc 6, and Subaru is — totally different than what we might have expected. This is a Subaru faced with everything Arc 3 Subaru seemed to expect from an Isekai fantasy: unbridled respect from his peers, a whimsical adventure in a faraway tower, a colorful cast of friends who see him as one of their most valuable members — he even gets a beautiful woman clinging to his arm and calling him “Master” as she attempts to make a move on him every ten minutes. It’s everything Subaru might have thought he wanted back then, but now he has it and he HATES it. He’s deeply uncomfortable with Shaula’s advances to the point where Meili feels the need to step in at one point and drag her away from him, he startles away in fright when Emilia responds to his flirtation attempt by immediately offering him a lap pillow and stutters out something about it being “a bit rushed,” he mentally responds to every comment about his value to the team with “yeah, right.” This isn’t an entitled boy who expects to be the main character out of nowhere, he’s completely different. And that means that the Arc 3 incident HAS to have been something resulting from Arcs 1 and 2, because Amnesiabaru’s attitude makes it so obvious that it wasn’t there from the start. And from there it is very easy to conclude that his tantrum was actually a total breakdown, because he had been using the fantasy of being a hero to hide from the realities of RBD and the things that the people he loves had done to him during his past lives, and once his coping mechanism was shattered — because of COURSE it was, it was a terrible coping mechanism and a flimsy way to paint the world as Not Real so that he didn’t have to face it — the only thing he could think to do was lash out and cling to what remained the best he could.

And then we get Natsumi Schwartz and suddenly that incident has a whole new layer of him repressing his “ideal self” in order to present himself as a Hero and a Man in order to fill the role he had decided to pretend was there in order to avoid thinking about the painful and traumatizing world as anything other than a story. It just keeps getting more layers.

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Spotted this small moment while rewatching the first episode and fell in love with Subaru all over again. You just KNOW this dumbass saw a boarded-up area and thought “!! I’ve seen this in video games!!!” Meanwhile Emilia has to sit there and watch for a second as it sinks in that this stupid boy she just picked up off the street is trying to break into a place very clearly labeled “DANGER: DO NOT ENTER” while several bystanders turn to watch and do nothing to stop him.

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aspec terms for beginners!

since it's trending right now, i feel like it might be helpful to clear up some basic aspec (but particularly aromantic, as we are the center of attention currently) terms. if you have absolutely any questions, i would be happy to answer, either in the replies, dms, or my inbox!

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the split attraction model (SAM): a model of human behavior that posits that, for some people, romantic and sexual attraction are not the same.

[most often this will come in the form of someone being aspec on one axis and allo (not aspec) on another. for example, a biromantic asexual may be romantically attracted to two or more genders, but sexually attracted to none. some people may even use SAM for allo identities– a bisexual lesbian may be sexually attracted to multiple genders, but only romantically attracted to women (note that this is not the only way that someone can be an mspec lesbian, just one way!). the SAM does not apply to everybody, not even all aspecs! there are non-SAM aros, for instance, who do not differentiate their aromanticism from their sexuality.]

aspec: a collection of queer spectrums centered around the lack of a certain attraction or identity. the most common spectrums under the aspec umbrella are asexual, aromantic, agender, and aplatonic, though there are many other ways to be aspec.

asexual: experiencing little to no sexual attraction.

[aces can still have sex– whether its because they experience some amount of sexual attraction or they just want to participate in sex because they find the act appealing in some other way. that being said, there are still plenty of aces who have not and will never have sex. it is a spectrum.]

aromantic: experiencing little to no romantic attraction.

[aros can still have romantic partners– whether its because they experience some amount of romantic attraction or they just find relationships appealing in some other way. that being said, there are still plenty of aros who have not and will never be in a romantic relationship. it is a spectrum.]

agender: having no gender or little relation to any gender.

aplatonic: experiencing little to no platonic attraction.

[similarly to aros and aces, apls can still form friendships if they so desire– whether its because they experience some amount of platonic attraction or they find friendships appealing in some other way.]

aroallo: combination of aromantic and allosexual– allosexual being someone who fully experiences sexual attraction. an aroallo, then, is someone who is aromantic but not asexual. aroallos often do not have a standard relationship with sex due to its romantic connotations and the stigma against loveless sex. someone having sex with someone else they do not love does not inherently make them aroallo, much in the same way that having a nonsexual relationship with a partner doesn't inherently make either participant asexual.

aroace: someone who is both aromantic and asexual. because aro and ace are both spectrums, an aroace may still experience some amount of attraction on either or both of those spectrums, or they may experience attraction of some other kind (platonic, tertiary, etc.), and that attraction may be only for a certain gender or genders– these are known as oriented aroaces.

queerplatonic relationship: a type of relationship that is defined only by the people within it. i have a post dedicated to explaining this in larger detail.

partnering: an aspec (usually aromantic) person who has and/or desires to have a partnership or multiple partnerships– romantic, queerplatonic, or otherwise.

non-partnering: an aspec (usually aromantic) person who has no desire to form a partnership of any kind.

romance/sex/plato favorable: an aspec who desires or would not reject a romantic, sexual, or platonic relationship. they are also generally not particularly bothered by seeing these relationships in their day-to-day.

romance/sex/plato repulsed: an aspec who does not desire a romantic, sexual, or platonic relationship and generally does not like seeing those relationships in their day-to-day. [x] repulsed people are not necessarily judgemental towards people who desire or participate in those relationships, they just do not desire them for themselves. repulsion often takes the form of discomfort or annoyance. [x] repulsed people are not necessarily cruel sticks-in-the-mud– they are perfectly capable of being respectful, and they very often are. repulsion does not always stem from trauma, though it certainly can.

romance/sex/plato positive: not to be confused with favorability, [x] positivity is the belief that romance, sex, and platonic relationships are human rights that should be supported and uplifted. someone can be [x] repulsed and [x] positive at the same time, because favorability/repulsion revolves around the self, and positivity/negativity extends to others.

sex/romance/plato negative: not to be confused with repulsion, [x] negativity is an inherently judgemental and harmful ideology. most commonly in the form of sex negativity, these ideologies are centered around the opposition to or personal judgement of people who engage in romance, sex, or platonic relationships. sex negativity in particular is embedded in western white supremacist societies and it is important for aspecs not to play into that.

those are the basics, but i have more information below the cut!

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> how are aspecs queer?

aspecs are queer because "queer" does not only mean LGBT. queer theory is about far more than just LGBT people– though they are undeniably a large part of it– queerness is any subversion of the traditional cisheteronormative standard. this includes things that cishets may take part in/identify with, because you do not have to be LGBT to subvert those standards. cishets who are gender-nonconforming are queer, for example. a good rule of thumb is that if you have to explain what you whole deal is to cishets, you're queer. queer does mean strange, after all.

traditional cisheteronormative conceptions of attraction, gender, and relationships do not account for aspecs. it is expected that everyone will one day form a traditional partnership with one other person, and that relationship will include sex (even if only for procreation, under some dogmas). virginity past a certain age is seen as a point of shame and something indicative of a larger problem in someone– in men, a red flag even. people past 30 without a relationship are pitied. our economic structure is build for couples and families– it's near impossible for someone to live comfortably alone. romance, friendship, and love are placed on a pedestal, treated as the meaning of life, the best thing anyone could ever experience. "love is the point of everything," as many posts on this site like to claim. people who reject these ideas are undeniably queer.

> i can get behind aros and aces, but the whole "aplatonic" thing feels like a stretch to me. how is not having friends queer? "platonic attraction" isn't even real.

aplatonicism is more than just "not having friends," and many apls have friends anyway, much in the same way that aros can date and aces can have sex. someone who does not have friends is not inherently aplatonic, they only are if they identify that little-to-no platonic attraction in themselves and choose to label themselves that way (just like how virgins aren't inherently asexual). still, apls who don't have friends exist, and they are all queer. what is a greater subversion of traditional cisheteronormative relationship structures than an outright rejection of what's seen as the most basic, fundamental relationship our culture has to offer?

you may not feel that platonic attraction is a distinct phenomenon in your own experience, and that's fine! ultimately, a lot of aspec terms exist for the utility and comfort of aspecs themselves. the SAM isn't for everyone, and platonic attraction isn't for everyone either. you do not have the authority to tell people what their own experiences are, nor should you care.

> i think it's sad that you're limiting yourself with these labels. you'll find someone one day!

for the broad majority of aspecs, our identities are not self-disciplinary, nor are they necessarily permanent. all queer people are capable of misunderstanding their identity or having a fluid identity– it is not a problem unique to being aspec. that being said, a lot of us may always be aspec and completely happy with it. being aspec is not a tragedy. the only thing i don't like about being aromantic is the judgement i receive from other people about it. non-partnering aspecs are not "missing out" on anything, because we don't even want the things we're rejecting in the first place. many of us are romance/sex/plato repulsed and are far more happy engaging with the world and with other people in different ways, because there is so, so much more to life than relationships, and it's wrong to presume that relationships are universally fit for everybody. telling an aspec that they'll find "the right person" one day is no different from telling a lesbian she'll find "the right man" one day. there is no "right person" for an aspec just as there's no "right man" for a lesbian. a lesbian is not "missing out" on a heterosexual relationship just because it's culturally perceived as superior and more fulfilling.

[disclaimer before anyone tries to do a "gotcha," i'm talking about a lesbian who is fully not attracted to men in any way. it's not like homophobes know the intricacies of gender identity and nonconformity as it pertains to homosexuality anyways.]

lastly, i wanna give a special shout out to the loveless aros and the relationship anarchists.

loveless aros are those who either feel little-to-no love as they understand it, or they are someone who supports the de-centering of love. they're worthy of a whole post of their own, but in summary: the loveless experience is all about finding joy in yourself and the countless things our world has to offer that are not dependent on the vague idea of love.

relationship anarchy is another concept worthy of its own post, but in essence it's an ideology aimed at abolishing the standard hierarchy of relationships (in the USA, depending on who you ask, its typically friendship < family < romantic partnership or friendship < romantic partnership < family) and allowing everyone the autonomy to define their relationships for themselves.

if i made any mistakes, let me know! and of course i'm willing to answer any questions anyone may have. :-3 thanks for reading my long ass post!

#I generally stick only to fandom stuff but this is the best I've ever seen this all explained in a neat concise and decently thorough way #It needs more attention i think!!!!

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Rewatching Re:Zero again and noticing that in Arc 1, when Elsa appears from the rubble again aiming to take out Emilia, Reinhard automatically shrieks out SUBARU’s name in warning. Instead of Emilia’s.

He calls out in fear for some foreigner with no clear motives, origins, or status, over a ROYAL CANDIDATE. Because said foreigner may be super suspicious and not at all near the same level as the other person in the room — but he did just call him a friend.

…Oh, Reinhard.

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Rewatching Re:Zero again and noticing that in Arc 1, when Elsa appears from the rubble again aiming to take out Emilia, Reinhard automatically shrieks out SUBARU’s name in warning. Instead of Emilia’s.

He calls out in fear for some foreigner with no clear motives, origins, or status, over a ROYAL CANDIDATE. Because said foreigner may be super suspicious and not at all near the same level as the other person in the room — but he did just call him a friend.

…Oh, Reinhard.

#Oh buddy

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One small part of Julius and Subaru’s relationship that I just realized is that, of all the people who have traumatized him over the course of the series, Julius is the ONLY ONE of them who remembers what they did.

Rem doesn’t remember beating him to death or remember torturing him for hours. Ram doesn’t remember slitting his throat or chasing him down screaming that she is going to kill him. Puck doesn’t remember freezing him to death three times. Garfiel doesn’t remember holding him hostage in a cave for three days. Otto doesn’t remember throwing him off a wagon and leaving him at the mercy of the Whale. Anastasia, Crusch and Priscilla don’t remember turning him away when he begged them to help fight Petelgeuse. Petelgeuse doesn’t remember anything he did to earn Subaru’s rage. Even Roswaal, who knows that such occurrences must have happened in some loop, doesn’t remember what shit exactly Subaru has gone through in the name of his precious Book of Wisdom.

Julius, however, very much remembers the painful, humiliating demonstration in which he thoroughly beat Subaru unconscious in front of a crowd of spectators.

And, look — it was necessary. It saved his life. It was the only way to save his life in that instance, for reasons that were almost entirely Subaru’s own damn fault. But it was also very clearly traumatic: Subaru even explicitly tells Julius that he still has nightmares about that incident a year later in Arc 5. And Julius acknowledges it, even, replying somewhat jokingly (but also honestly pretty kindly) that he hopes to stop appearing in Subaru’s dreams in such a manner. Even other characters are honestly pretty understanding of Subaru’s hostility to Julius — in part because it’s obviously at least partially an act, but I’d argue that it’s also because him holding a grudge for that would be totally understandable, because even though he was the one in the wrong that was still pretty brutal, especially since Julius purposefully overdid it in order to make absolutely sure that nobody would continue to target Subaru after the demonstration was done. Also Julius asking Subaru in Arc 8 if they might possibly be friends now hints that he very likely did not catch on that this was an act at all, which is. Fucking hysterical, first of all, like MAN this boy is dense — but it also points to him being shockingly accepting of the idea that Subaru genuinely did not like him or trust him after The Incident that was their disastrous introduction to one another.

He doesn’t remember killing him, sure, but I honestly believe that Subaru wasn’t bothered much by that incident anyway: the traumatizing part of THAT would be the sensation of his body being stolen away from him by Petelgeuse, or even Ferris boiling his blood and demolishing every nerve in his body to paralyze him and keep him still. If anything, he probably saw Julius swiftly and painlessly putting an end to that nightmare as one of the kindest, most merciful things anyone’s event managed to do for him. So the one big thing that Julius did that really left a mark is also the one big thing that is actually remembered by the other party in question.

I just think it’s neat I guess.

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One small part of Julius and Subaru’s relationship that I just realized is that, of all the people who have traumatized him over the course of the series, Julius is the ONLY ONE of them who remembers what they did.

Rem doesn’t remember beating him to death or remember torturing him for hours. Ram doesn’t remember slitting his throat or chasing him down screaming that she is going to kill him. Puck doesn’t remember freezing him to death three times. Garfiel doesn’t remember holding him hostage in a cave for three days. Otto doesn’t remember throwing him off a wagon and leaving him at the mercy of the Whale. Anastasia, Crusch and Priscilla don’t remember turning him away when he begged them to help fight Petelgeuse. Petelgeuse doesn’t remember anything he did to earn Subaru’s rage. Even Roswaal, who knows that such occurrences must have happened in some loop, doesn’t remember what shit exactly Subaru has gone through in the name of his precious Book of Wisdom.

Julius, however, very much remembers the painful, humiliating demonstration in which he thoroughly beat Subaru unconscious in front of a crowd of spectators.

And, look — it was necessary. It saved his life. It was the only way to save his life in that instance, for reasons that were almost entirely Subaru’s own damn fault. But it was also very clearly traumatic: Subaru even explicitly tells Julius that he still has nightmares about that incident a year later in Arc 5. And Julius acknowledges it, even, replying somewhat jokingly (but also honestly pretty kindly) that he hopes to stop appearing in Subaru’s dreams in such a manner. Even other characters are honestly pretty understanding of Subaru’s hostility to Julius — in part because it’s obviously at least partially an act, but I’d argue that it’s also because him holding a grudge for that would be totally understandable, because even though he was the one in the wrong that was still pretty brutal, especially since Julius purposefully overdid it in order to make absolutely sure that nobody would continue to target Subaru after the demonstration was done. Also Julius asking Subaru in Arc 8 if they might possibly be friends now hints that he very likely did not catch on that this was an act at all, which is. Fucking hysterical, first of all, like MAN this boy is dense — but it also points to him being shockingly accepting of the idea that Subaru genuinely did not like him or trust him after The Incident that was their disastrous introduction to one another.

He doesn’t remember killing him, sure, but I honestly believe that Subaru wasn’t bothered much by that incident anyway: the traumatizing part of THAT would be the sensation of his body being stolen away from him by Petelgeuse, or even Ferris boiling his blood and demolishing every nerve in his body to paralyze him and keep him still. If anything, he probably saw Julius swiftly and painlessly putting an end to that nightmare as one of the kindest, most merciful things anyone’s event managed to do for him. So the one big thing that Julius did that really left a mark is also the one big thing that is actually remembered by the other party in question.

I just think it’s neat I guess.