Re:ZERO Episode 30

Re:ZERO Episode 30

A Step Forward

Re:ZERO episode 30, like the rest of season 2 so far, didn’t really answer any of my questions. I can’t say I have any better understanding of what’s really going on this week — and that’s been a running theme throughout season 2. It seems like every episode just opens up more questions that we’re not going to have answered in the near future.

I’d like to say that this cour is setting up for the events of the next cour, but at this point, I’m not even sure that’s the case. With the winding (and reversing) paths this series takes, I have no idea how long it will be before we start figuring out the mysteries of this world.

One of the few pieces of concrete information we got this time around came from Echidna telling Subaru that he’s passed the first of three trials. But, while we know that facing his past was the first trial, there were no hints regarding the next two. They could also be about facing one’s past, but I doubt it.

Echidna from the anime series Re:ZERO season 2
Echidna

If I had to take a wild guess, these three trials are set up in a past, present, and future model. Subaru has overcome his past, so next, he’ll have to face the present, and finally, he’ll have to face the future. The problem with this theory, though, is that I have no idea what form those second two tests could take.

How is Echidna going to make Subaru (or anyone attempting the trial) face his present and future?

I think facing the present could have something to do with bringing both sides of the demi-humans together — those who want to leave and those who want to stay. And then facing the future could be about one’s mindset like facing their past. Are they ready to accept what they need to do?

Emilia’s Trial

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see what Emilia’s trial was. But we do know that it had to do with her past. And I think it’s safe to say that it had something to do with the events of the movie The Frozen Bond (which I just watched and reviewed earlier this week in preparation for this episode).

If you haven’t yet watched The Frozen Bond (or read my review of it), I suggest you do so before continuing on with this section, because there will be spoilers.

Alright, now that you’ve been warned, there’s only one thing in Emilia’s past that I can think of that would cause her to have the reaction she did. And that thing is when her magic used to go out of control and harm those around her. This is no longer a problem she has, obviously, but it’s part of the reason she feels that she can’t fit in with human society.

Emilia after the trial from the anime series Re:ZERO Episode 30
Emilia after the trial

Aside from that, there’s nothing else Emilia has “done” that I could really see her regretting. And I put “done” in quotations because, as she says while still waking up from her trial, she didn’t mean or want to cause harm to anyone. Even when her magic went out of control and hurt people who were attempting to capture or kill her, she wanted to stop herself.

Of course, there could be something else in her past that she’s facing, but I’m not so sure about that. She has no memory (as far as we know) of anything before waking up in the forest, so it probably isn’t related to that time. And I just don’t see Emilia doing anything else that would cause her this much distress.

Also, she calls out for her “father” and Puck (she considers Puck to be her father, so those are one and the same). This is something Puck tells her to do whenever she’s in danger in the movie, again tying back to that point in time.

Partners in Crime

There’s a lot of scheming going on at this point in the series. Roswaal is scheming (as usual), Garfiel and the loli-hag are scheming, Frederica is scheming, and even Subaru is scheming to an extent. It seems like the only person who isn’t scheming is Emilia.

I guess I’ll start off with Roswaal since we’ve known he’s a schemer for a long time. This week, we learned that he planned to activate the Witch’s Cult by entering Emilia into the royal selection. And further, he didn’t tell Emilia about it because he knew that she wouldn’t have agreed if she knew that would be the result.

He claims that the reason he did this was so that Emilia (and later Subaru) could defeat the Witch’s Cult and thereby clear Emilia of any association to Satella. But, while that might be all there is to it, we still don’t really know why he wants Emilia to become the next ruler in the first place.

Roswaal from the anime series Re:ZERO season 2
Roswaal

Garfiel and the loli-hag (I don’t remember her name) are scheming to release the boundary against the wishes of the more conservative demi-humans who reside within it. This doesn’t seem to be too complicated though. It’s basically just that they want to be free, while others feel the barrier keeps them safe from the rest of the world.

Frederica is the one I understand the least. I figured she would be working alongside Garfiel and the loli-hag, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. In fact, nobody seems to know what she’s planning. Garfiel and Roswaal also even give Subaru advice on how to deal with Frederica. But, they still seem to trust her. So I have no idea what’s going on with her.

And lastly, we have Subaru. You might not think Subaru is much of a schemer, and that’s because he normally isn’t. But after talking to Garfiel I think he’s considering completing the trials in place of Emilia without telling her. I doubt she would want him to do that though. It would be undermining her right after he vowed to support her.

Conclusion

What did you think about Re:ZERO episode 30? Do you have any predictions regarding the next two trials? Do you think Roswaal has even more schemes he’s not telling Subaru about? Probably. And, do you think Emilia will be the one to take down the barrier, or will it be Subaru? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

6 Replies to “Re:ZERO Episode 30”

  1. DoubleSama, I argue that we do know why Roswaal wants Emilia to be the next dragon. The next ruler enters a covenant with the legendary dragon, and given that Roswaal wants to kill the dragon, it’s clear he wants to be present when Emilia is with the dragon, as that would be his opportunity to kill the dragon. Choosing a candidate who would draw out and lead to the Witch Cult being defeated again and again would be a good way to gain goodwill among the citizens as he indicated today. Having said that though, I do think that killing the dragon would unseal the Witch of Envy, which would bring ruin to the world, and given Roswaal said twice this episode that he wants Subaru to be his partner in crime, it shows that whatever his goal is, it’s not a benign one, and freeing the Witch of Envy would be the worst of the worst of the things he could do.

    I also think that Roswaal somehow knows that with Subaru, there’s more than meets the eye. That he trusts Subaru so much and had a happy just as planned smile when Subaru interjected when members of the Council of Elders and other people were talking about Emilia in a fashion that Subaru didn’t like. It’s almost as if Roswaal knows what will happen in the future, and this would make sense if he had a Gospel and was a Witch Cult member since Petelgeuse indicated that he looks to his Gospel to see what is in store for him.

    1. I don’t think Roswaal is a villain of the series despite how he seems. Even if his goal is to kill the dragon, which might unseal the witch, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. He could need her unsealed for some other reason, such as killing her once and for all. Why he would need to kill her rather than keep her sealed, I don’t know. But it’s a possibility.

      Also, I don’t think Roswaal simply knows that there’s more than meets the eye with Subaru. Betty knows about Subaru’s ability to return by death, and it’s been implied a few times that Roswaal does as well. The reason he trusts Subaru even with important tasks appears to be that he knows that even if Subaru fails, he has the ability to keep trying until he ends up in a timeline in which he succeeds. We know Betty, or at least her library, exists outside of the timelines Subaru creates. So it’s not all that outrageous to think Roswaal does as well considering how he’s acted all this time.

      1. Beatrice said that the Witch of Envy’s body cannot be killed, so Roswaal would not be able to kill her by killing the dragon. I speculate that the only way to kill the Witch of Envy would be if she possessed another body, which is the Witch Cult’s plan to make Emilia a vessel for the Witch of Envy. Emilia’s body is definitely not immortal, and if the Witch of Envy possessed her, she would finally be in a body that could be killed.

        I have seen no evidence that Beatrice knows about Return by Death. Beatrice once said that she and Subaru had hardly met, so she doesn’t understand why Subaru is acting like they’re close. She also either ignores him or dismisses him when he is talking about death as if he were just ranting to himself.

        So far, based on what has been presented, only the Witch of Envy, who summoned Subaru to this world, and Echidna, who has seen Subaru’s memories, should 100% know about Return by Death. Roswaal may have an inkling that there’s something special about Subaru, but I don’t think he knows he can do everything over again and again until he gets it right. If Roswaal did outright know about Return by Death, he would probably outright strategize with Subaru about it.

        1. Betty’s library is cut off from the rest of the world. In season 1, after Subaru returns by death, she still knows who he is even though she shouldn’t have previously met him in that timeline yet. Also, when he’s in a bad timeline, she tells him to “at least die somewhere I can’t see you.” If you put both of these things together, it seems pretty clear that Betty understands what Subaru’s power is.

          As for Roswaal, he does strategize around Subaru’s ability. He doesn’t strategize with Subaru, but it’s becoming clearer that he understands what’s going on. Not only did he trust that Subaru would be able to accomplish all the tasks he left for him, but even back in season 1, he operated outside Subaru’s resetting. In one of the successful timelines, Subaru mentions that Roswaal left the mansion despite not doing so in any of the previous attempts. And there doesn’t appear to be anything different about that timeline that would make Roswaal’s actions change (this came shortly after the reset) — so he must be operating independently from Subaru’s resetting.

          1. I recommend that you rewatch episode 4 of Season 1. In the mansion arc, Subaru met Beatrice BEFORE he met Ram and Rem. Betty drained his mana shortly after he woke up when he found her because he noticed a looping hallway. Since Subaru’s save point is when Ram and Rem are in the room, it means his save point is after he met Beatrice, so Beatrice was always going to remember him.

            Also in episode 4 was that Roswaal asked Ram if it was possible that Subaru was a spy. So Roswaal certainly didn’t know about Return by Death in that moment. If’s not something he should know considering Roswaal has no memories of what has happened to Subaru given Subaru can change timelines.

            Recall in episode 28 of Season 2 that Roswaal said that Subaru is the once-in-a-lifetime windfall that he has long waited for. If you take this statement at face value, it means Roswaal knows Subaru is of very high value and that Roswaal has actually waited for a long time to meet Subaru, which means he can somehow see the future, and the only method anime viewers are familiar with that allows you to see the future is with a Gospel from the Witch Cult. I don’t know why Petelgeuse could not see Subaru in his Gospel, but Roswaal, assuming he is a member of the Witch Cult, can see Subaru in his Gospel, but that statement in episode 28 when looked at with the additional context of episode 30 suggests that Roswaal knew that one day he would meet Subaru and that Subaru is special in some way. In episode 13 of Season 1, Roswaal also said, “Ah, he knows little of our world…” in regards to Subaru when he declared himself to be Emilia’s knight, which suggests that Roswaal thinks Subaru came from a different world. All of this shows that Roswaal knows Subaru came from a different world, but that remark about him potentially being a spy shows Roswaal doesn’t know exactly what it is that lets Subaru do the things that he does but knows that Subaru is someone who can get things done somehow.

          2. You’re correct about when Subaru and Betty met. However, I’m fairly certain there was some point in season 1 when Betty had knowledge about Subaru that she shouldn’t have due to a reset. I don’t recall exactly what it was, but she mentioned something that she would only know if she was privy to the events before Subaru’s latest reset.

            And as for Roswaal, I think the fact that he trusted Subaru with Emilia’s life when the Witch’s Cult attacked despite having no real reason to is pretty substantial proof showing that he knows Subaru can keep resetting until things go his way. Sure, it’s possible he just knows that Subaru will succeed without knowing how he’ll succeed. But as I mentioned, some of his prior actions seem to imply he can work outside the timelines Subaru creates by resetting.

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