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.

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.

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.

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.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Senpai tiers respectively this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Otto Suwen

I don’t think that Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2 episode 40 was all that amazing of an episode. But I will say that I’m glad we finally got some backstory on Otto. Otto isn’t one of my favorite characters in the series. However, his backstory makes him much more interesting.

Obviously, the biggest piece of Otto’s background information that we got is that the name of his ground dragon is Fulfew. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t previously known. But at the same time, I could very well be wrong about that. It’s possible that he mentioned Fulfew’s name even back in Season 1.

But actually, it was interesting to learn more about how his divine protection works. Back in Season 1, he had mentioned that he was able to communicate with animals. Specifically, I believe this line came when he and Subaru were fleeing from Betelgeuse in his monster form.

Not only can Otto understand what animals are saying, but he can even talk back to them as well. Originally I thought that he could simply understand them. But as it turns out, he can have full conversations with them. And when he was younger, all of his friends were animals.

Unfortunately, at the start of his life, Otto’s divine protection was more like a curse than a blessing. He could hear so many voices all at once that everything sounded like a jumbled mess. It wasn’t until he was older that he learned to seal and selectively use his divine protection.

It also seems that while he could always hear the voices of animals, he has to use magic (or maybe just extra brainpower) to actually understand them. This is why he was fine hearing hundreds of voices at once as a child, but his nose started bleeding when he was using his divine protection while fleeing from Garfiel.

Buying Time for Subaru

Considering the fact that Garfiel has beaten Otto twice in previous timelines, killing him in one of them, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Otto didn’t stand a chance this time around. And even though he had some traps and plans laid out, it’s not like he put up that much of a fight.

But he got the job done, mostly thanks to some help from Ram. Ram siding with Otto and Subaru is potentially very telling. As she states, she would never go against Roswaal. So you could take this to mean that Roswaal actually told her to help Subaru.

I don’t believe that’s the case, though. While I do still think that Roswaal is laying plans for just in case Subaru succeeds, I don’t think he would actively help Subaru win their bet. As Ram also says, she’s still helping Roswaal, just in her own way. So it’s safe to assume that Ram thinks Subaru’s success at this moment will help Roswaal in the long run.

Something else we have to consider here is that there’s more going on than just Subaru needing time to talk to Emilia alone. Remember, Garfiel is going into a rage because Emilia was missing and then he was unable to find Ryuzu Shima. This means that it’s the disappearance of Ryuzu that Otto and Ram planned for, not necessarily Subaru’s talk with Emilia.

So what’s really going on here? I think Subaru left Emilia’s side in the middle of the night to speak to Ryuzu. He probably tasked Ryuzu with protecting those at the mansion, which is why she’s gone. Since Ryuzu is a clone, she may not actually be bound to the Sanctuary by the barrier.

And if this is the case, he knew that Ryuzu’s disappearance would antagonize Garfiel. I don’t believe Subaru was counting on Emilia suddenly disappearing as well. He just wanted Otto and Ram to keep Garfiel occupied until he could return to Emilia’s side.

A Reason to Believe

Alright, let’s get it out of the way. Subaru and Emilia finally kissed. Technically Emilia actually kissed Subaru in an earlier timeline, but he was already dead at that point. So this is the first real kiss. Good for Subaru. He’s accomplished the first step of his dream.

The kiss aside, I liked what they did with Subaru’s and Emilia’s eyes in this scene. Throughout their whole conversation, we saw Emilia reflected in Subaru’s eyes. But we didn’t see Subaru reflected back in Emilia’s eyes until the very end when she finally trusts him again.

To be honest, it was predictable, and even a little cheesy. But I still liked it nonetheless. And, something I’m remembering now is that the last time eyes were focused on in this series was actually just before Emilia kissed Subaru’s corpse in Season 2 Part 1.

Now more than ever, I’m certain that Subaru is on the right track to escape the loop he’s been in. Resetting now would make this whole scene between him and Emilia a lot less compelling because we would know that he has to do it all over. But, that also means Emilia needs to complete the trials within 2 days or they need to figure out another way to defeat the Great Rabbit.

I’ve also seen some concern over whether or not Otto and Ram survived their fight with Garfiel. If they didn’t, it would likely mean that this isn’t the final timeline for this loop. But, while Garfiel has killed Otto in the past, I don’t think he did this time. He wouldn’t kill Ram. And since Ram was defending Otto, he probably wouldn’t kill Otto either.

Conclusion

What do you think of Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2 episode 40? Did you like Otto’s backstory? Where do you think Subaru disappeared to in the middle of the night? And do you think he’s finally on the path out of this loop? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Senpai tiers respectively this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Straight Bet

Re:ZERO Season 2 is back with episode 39 (the first episode of Part 2). There’s a lot that I could discuss regarding this episode, but I don’t want the review to go on for too long. So some topics I’ll be skipping over are everything involving the four Ryuzu and Otto. I’ll most likely go over that stuff in a later review once we have more information.

The first topic I do want to go over is Subaru’s bet against Roswaal. This bet marks an extremely important milestone in Season 2 because it sets up Subaru’s next checkpoint. Throughout the majority of Part 1, Subaru has been resetting to the same checkpoint within the Sanctuary. But now, he seems to finally be on the right path.

There are other reasons for me believing that which I’ll get to in a later section. For now, the fact that Subaru has confronted Roswaal and that Roswaal accepted the conditions of his bet in order to set things up for the next version of himself, shows that progress is being made.

Of course, Subaru’s bet is that he’ll be able to free everyone from the sanctuary and save everyone at the mansion at the same time. If Subaru’s successful, then Roswaal has to throw away his copy of the Tome of Wisdom ally with him.

What’s most interesting to me about all of this is that Roswaal agreed rather quickly. Perhaps it’s because he realized that Subaru can literally reset as many times as it takes so eventually he’ll win. But agreeing to throw away his copy of the Tome seems like a big deal considering how Roswaal is a devout follower of Echidna.

Can he still achieve his goals by following Subaru?

Emilia’s Trial

For anyone who hasn’t already watched The Frozen Bond, I highly recommend you go do that before the next episode comes out. Most of Emilia’s backstory in this episode came directly from that movie. If you want to fully understand what’s going on, you’ll need to watch it (and should have watched it before this).

Now, the trial we know Emilia has been stuck on was the trial of her past. What we know about her past is that she, and all the other elves of the forest, were frozen and that only Emilia woke up. When she did, she was found by Puck, who formed a pact with her, and then she was eventually taken in by Roswaal.

I’m assuming that Roswaal found Emilia thanks to his copy of the Tome, but this hasn’t been explained yet. However, the fact that we know Roswaal can use some crazy powerful ice magic makes him a bit suspicious. Was he the one who originally froze everyone in the forest? Probably not.

You wouldn’t know this if you haven’t watched The Frozen Bond, but Emilia can also use extremely powerful ice magic — potentially stronger than what Roswaal can use. And when she was younger, her ice magic often went out of control, and even killed people, if she was threatened.

With this in mind, we have to look at what Mother Fortuna said to her in the flashback. She tells Emilia that the people who claimed to want to protect her were lying, but that Emilia shouldn’t hate them for it. I think the people Mother Fortuna is referring to here are the other elves of the forest.

Someone probably threatened them so that they would hand over Emilia. They probably pretended to be protecting her while actually handing her over. And when she learned of this, her magic went out of control and froze them all — including herself. Her memories of this event were also sealed.

This seems like the perfect past event for Emilia’s trial to be based around. First of all, the Great Fire Spirit Melaquera tells Emilia that what happened to the elves of the forest was her fault in The Frozen Bond. Second, Emilia probably blamed herself for what happened. And third, to pass her trial, she probably needs to accept that it wasn’t her fault.

Puck and Emilia

Where was Puck all throughout Season 2 Part 1? He was just hiding inside of the spirit crystal Emilia wears around her neck. He wasn’t missing at all. As for why he was doing this, it was to void his pact with Emilia.

Your next question is probably, “why was Puck trying to void his pact with Emilia?” And that’s a pretty good question. But if you were paying attention, he actually gives a reason before disappearing. He says “Once I’m gone, the seal on your memories will be lifted.”

I’m not going to go back through all of The Frozen Bond to find this, but I’m fairly sure that when Puck made his pact with Emilia, he mentioned something about sealing her memories. So by voiding their pact, her memories will be unsealed and she’ll be able to properly take on the trial.

I’ve seen some people questioning whether that was the last we’re going to see of Puck in the series. I don’t believe that’s the case. Puck voided his contract with Emilia, but it’s not as if he died. He’s a great spirit with the ability to destroy the world. I don’t think he would die so easily.

Also, it was brought to my attention that Echidna was the one voicing the lines in The Frozen Bond telling Puck to watch over Emilia, but not interfere with her too much. So maybe she created Puck just as she created Betty. It’s unclear why she tasked Puck with protecting Emilia though.

But with all this in mind, I think we’ll see Puck return. He’s not dead, he’s apparently connected to Echidna, and he left so that Emilia could complete her trial. I think he’ll either return to Emilia or maybe even form a pact with Subaru in the future. And I think it’s possible that Puck is going to intervene at the mansion on Subaru’s behalf.

Conclusion

What do you think of Re:ZERO episode 39? Do you think we’re finally in the correct timeline to escape from the current loop? What do you think Emilia’s trial is going to entail? And what role, if any, do you think Puck is going to play going forward? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community. We have an entire channel dedicated to the latest Re:ZERO episodes.

Some of the information and ideas presented in this review came from or were developed with the help of Discord members Rain. and PenguinFTW.

And, finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Senpai tiers this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

The Sounds That Make You Want to Cry

Re:ZERO episode 38 gave us a decent amount of new information on the witches, most notably, Satella. But, before I get into that, allow me to update my witch tier list from last week. I think I’m going to move Minerva down a tier and Typhon and Sekhmet each up a tier.

I wasn’t all that impressed with what I saw of Minerva this week. But on the other hand, I did like what I saw from Typhon and Sekhmet. Sekhmet is still far from top-tier for me, though.

Anyway, carrying on with Sekhmet as the topic of discussion, it would seem that we now know what her authority is. In order to stop Minerva from reviving Subaru against his wishes, Sekhmet appears to have increased the gravity on her body. And with that, I think we know all of the witches’ authorities except for one.

Satella has the unseen hand. Daphne has the ability to erase people and memories. Minerva has the power to heal others. Typhon has the power to shatter people. Carmilla has the power to alter her appearance. And Sekhmet can increase gravity or something. The only authority we don’t actually know is Echidna’s.

Now, we have seen Regulus, the Archbishop Sin of Greed, use some sort of force-field ability to protect himself. It’s possible that this is the authority of greed, as Echidna is able to create a barrier to keep people out of the tomb within the Sanctuary.

The only thing about all of this that doesn’t really make sense, though, is why Betelgeuse had the unseen hand. We know that to be Satella’s authority, but he was the Archbishop sin of Sloth, not Envy.

Is Satella Good?

Moving on to what’s probably more important to a lot of people, it turns out Satella is actually good(?). I had previously stated that I thought all of the witches were either good or neutral with the exception of Satella. Based on the information we had back then, I figured that was a pretty safe prediction to make.

After all, none of the witches we had met at the time seemed evil. And, multiple sources (Betty and Echidna) said Satella killed the other witches. I could see why Echidna would lie to Subaru about that considering he’s connected to Satella, but why would Betty?

So, I actually have a theory about the whole “Satella killed the other witches” thing that I came up with after the previous episode. Even back then, we got to see how the other witches reacted to Satella arriving, and things didn’t add up. Echidna seemed worried, Sekhmet called her troublesome, and Typhon greeted her cheerfully.

What I took from this, and what seems to make more sense now that we actually know more about Satella’s personality, is that she didn’t kill them. If she had, the witches would have had far more negative reactions towards her. Instead, I think Satella did something that caused the deaths of the other witches.

She didn’t kill them directly, but perhaps she did something that inadvertently got them all killed. Maybe she got on the bad side of the wrong person, such as a former hero or king, and that caused the witches to be hunted down and slaughtered.

Perhaps she’s prone to causing “trouble.” She didn’t seem to care about Betelgeuse at all, leading me to suspect that the Witch’s Cult isn’t something she created. In fact, she may want Subaru to kill her so that it will be disbanded and her existence won’t cause any more trouble for anyone.

When Satella mentioned how much Subaru had done for her, that seemed to lend credibility to my theory that Satella and Emilia are one and the same. But, maybe Satella was referring to all the work Subaru has done to destroy the Witch’s Cult.

Roswaal’s Insanity

Was it last week that we discussed Roswaal’s inhumanity, or was that two weeks ago? I don’t even know at this point, but once again, there’s some crazy new information about him. The biggest reveal is that Roswaal is actually the one who hired Elsa and Maylie. I did not see that coming.

However, this may explain some things from the first season. When I questioned whether Roswaal also hired Elsa to steal Emilia’s insignia in episode 1, Envyus over on Discord pointed out that he may have done so in order to get Subaru involved with Emilia as foretold by his copy of the Tome.

However, I’m not sure how Maylie fits in here. I’d have to rewatch that whole saga with Maylie in season one to really make some predictions. But, based on what I remember, Roswaal ended up saving Subaru from Maylie’s mabeast. That leads me to think that he wasn’t involved with Maylie at that point in time.

Another potentially huge piece of information came when Roswaal stated that Subaru and Ram are the only two he trusts and that he views them as special. We don’t really know what’s up between Ram and Roswaal at this point, but it appears safe to assume that the copy of the Tome led him to her.

And the final thing I want to mention here is my take on how Subaru could solve this whole situation with Roswaal’s meddling. Roswaal is trying to force Subaru to either save the mansion or Sanctuary, but not both. However, Echidna did give Subaru a hint: Garfiel.

Subaru may be blocked from facing the third trial, but we already know that Garfiel is qualified. So, if Subaru can get Garfiel to overcome his past, he can leave the protection of the Sanctuary to him. And if Garfiel saves the sanctuary, Subaru (and probably Otto) can try to save the mansion again.

Oh, and Garfiel overcoming his past and completing the trials would be perfect for his character arc. We know he has some unfinished business or trauma in his past that has to do with Frederica. This would be the perfect path toward solving all of that.

Conclusion

What do you think of Re:ZERO episode 38? Have we seen all of the witches’ authorities? If so, which one is your favorite? Also, do you think that Satella is actually good? And how do you see Subaru overcoming the situation Roswaal placed him in? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN, Key Mochi~, and Rob for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika, Senpai, and Kouhai tiers respectively this month. For more information on how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.