Re:ZERO Episode 41

Re:ZERO Episode 41

Subaru’s Sloth Witch Factor

There were a couple of potentially “big” reveals in Re:ZERO Season 2 episode 41. However, I didn’t find any of them particularly surprising. The first of these reveals is the fact that Subaru is able to use Betelgeuse’s Unseen Hand ability.

While it hadn’t actually been mentioned before that this was a possibility, I think most of us probably saw it coming. I’m not saying that I knew he would use it in this fight against Garfiel. But I am saying that I expected him to be able to use it at some point in the story.

Unseen Hand is an ability granted to those who wield the Sloth Witch Factor — which Subaru does. He gained the Sloth Witch Factor, also referred to as the Authority of Sloth, after killing Betelgeuse and taking his Gospel.

Subaru using his Invisible Providence ability on Garfiel from the anime series Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2
Subaru using his Invisible Providence ability on Garfiel

For now, it’s unclear if a single person can wield more than one Authority. However, we do know that a single person can be connected to more than one witch in differing ways. For example, while Subaru has the Authority of Sloth, he’s also considered an Apostle of Greed.

Personally, I don’t think this is the kind of series in which the protagonist gathers a lot of different powers. I don’t think that we’ll see Subaru collecting all seven Authorities. Maybe he’ll get one more along the way, but even that’s a bit iffy for me. I think it’s more likely that he simply learns some new spells instead.

Oh, and as one last comment on this topic, I think it’s funny that Subaru renamed this skill “Invisible Providence.” You’d think that would be Betelgeuse’s name for it and “Unseen Hand” would be Subaru’s.

Garfiel’s Past

I don’t really have much to say about Garfiel’s past, but I’m going to dedicate this entire section to it anyway. Obviously, there was something traumatic in Garfiel’s past that was preventing him from completing the trials. It had been hinted that he was suffering from abandonment trauma.

However, I thought it was just as likely that the past trauma he couldn’t face had to do with failing to protect someone — at least in his mind. For example, it could have had to do with him being unable to stop Frederica from leaving what he viewed as the safety of the Sanctuary.

In that case, to complete the trial he probably would have had to accept that the world outside the Sanctuary isn’t as scary as he thinks. Though, to be fair, with the Witch’s Cult and giant monsters running around, it’s probably scarier than he thinks.

Baby Garfiel being held by his mother from the anime series Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2
Baby Garfiel being held by his mother

Anyway, it’s revealed that Garfiel’s trauma was actually caused by the trial itself. He did have some abandonment issues before going through the trial, but it was the trial itself that truly broke him.

He thought that his mother had abandoned him and Frederica in the Sanctuary so that she could find a better life for herself. But what the trial showed him was that not only did his mother not abandon them — she was going out to search for and bring back his father — but she died right after she left.

What all of this means is that, oddly enough, Garfiel’s trial was about him overcoming the truth that the trial itself showed him. Sure, technically speaking, what he had to overcome was the idea that he didn’t need to be bound to the Sanctuary for someone else’s sake. But I think we can all recognize what the real hurdle there was.

Witch’s Daughter, Emilia

I don’t really pay attention to what other people are saying about Re:ZERO on other blogs, YouTube, or social media. But even so, I was surprised to find that nobody else really cared about the fact that Echidna called Emilia a “witch’s daughter.” Nobody in my Discord server (join it) seemed to put any weight in those words.

Well, I’m here to say that Echidna meant it literally when she called Emilia a witch’s daughter. Normally when someone would be calling Emilia a name, they would call her a witch due to her sharing a likeness with Satella. But Echidna specifically calls her a witch’s daughter.

I don’t think that’s merely Echidna teasing her. She would have called her a witch and commented on the two of them being similar if that was the case. The inclusion of the word daughter here definitely has weight behind it.

Emilia stating her name to Echidna from the anime series Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2
Emilia stating her name to Echidna

Now, if we’re going to assume Emilia is the daughter of a witch, there are some questions we have to ask. Which witch is she the daughter of? And how is that possible if the witches all died 400 years ago?

The second question is easier to answer, so I’ll start with that. Remember how Emilia was frozen in the forest for years? Well, we don’t actually know how long she was frozen for. All we know is her estimated age for when she froze. With that in mind, I could easily see her having been frozen for hundreds of years.

As for which witch is her mother, most people would probably assume it’s Satella. But I’m going to say it’s Echidna. And I actually predicted this two weeks ago back on January 6th in my Discord server. The unedited message is still there to be seen.

So, why do I think it’s Echidna? First of all, at the start of The Frozen Bond, it’s Echidna who tells Puck to watch over Emilia. Second, Roswaal is a follower of Echidna and is the one who takes in Emilia. And third, Emilia is half-elf — implying one parent was human (Echidna) and one was elven.

Since Satella is also half-elf, that would mean Emilia’s father would have had to be half-elf as well for her to turn out that way. And based on all of our knowledge about this world, half-elves are pretty rare. So what are the chances two would meet up and have a child?

Also, the simple fact that Echidna knows Emilia is the daughter of a witch is a slight hint as well.

Conclusion

What do you think of Re:ZERO Season 2 Episode 41? Do you think Subaru will obtain more Authorities? Will Garfiel and Frederica finally be reunited? And, what do you think of my theory about Emilia and Echidna? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

2 Replies to “Re:ZERO Episode 41”

  1. I see you indicated you want Subaru to learn more spells, but I’m not sure that’s possible now. Remember when Felix told Subaru to refrain from using magic for 2 months? I think that huge glass shattering imagery was Subaru’s gate breaking. I don’t know what it would take to heal it, but I don’t think he’ll be using any spells for a while.

    I don’t think Subaru merely renamed the ability Invisible Providence. His lone shadow hand comes from the front of his body while Petelgeuse’s Unseen Hand came from his back. It might be possible that there can be more than one manifestation of Authorities instead of all Authorities of a single sin being the same. There’s no way to confirm this theory without seeing more Sin Archbishops though. Are all Authorities of Lust Faceless Bride as is the case with Carmilla, or can males with the Authority of Lust have a different manifestation of it? It would be pretty awkward for a man to have Faceless Bride as his authority.

    As for Emilia being called a Witch’s daughter, I think back to Beatrice calling Echidna her mother. Beatrice in a sense is Echidna’s daughter since Echidna created her. Is it not possible that one of the Witches of Sin created Emilia? That is one way for her to be a Witch’s daughter without actually being conceived in the womb by one of the Witches of Sin, who were either killed or sealed in Satella’s case 400 years ago. I think back to episode 38 when Satella told Subaru to some day come kill her. Petelgeuse also indicated that the Witch Cult’s goal is to test Emilia to see whether she would be a worthy vessel to put the Witch into, and if so, the Witch would be reborn on the coming fated day. This shows that it’s possible Satella’s goal is to die by possessing a body that isn’t immortal like her original body was. Perhaps Satella somehow created Emilia in a similar fashion that Echidna created Beatrice. I don’t know how Satella could accomplish that while sealed, but given her otherworldly powers, maybe she somehow found a way, creating a body that would be strikingly similar to hers and would be compatible enough to be possessed by her one day.

    1. It definitely looked like his gate broke. But at the same time, perhaps he’s now going to receive unlimited magic from Satella or something. I don’t know, but I think it would be a waste to say that he’s not going to be able to use magic again for a while — especially after pulling off this new trick.

      Your theory about Emilia being created by a witch is also something I theorized about over on Discord. I figure she could either be a product of Echidna, or she could effectively be a clone of Satella. Or both could be true, and she could be a clone of Satella created by Echidna. Echidna created the Ryuzu clones in order to give herself another vessel, so why not Satella as well?

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