...A lot of my ideas are ReinSuba lol, but I have some other ideas up my sleeve that I'm thinking about.
1/18/26: Currently, I'm reading the light novels/web novels/side stories before getting into writing more ambitiously, as I've decided to stop just being an anime-only. This series in particular has a loooot of content and will often drop pieces of world-building and character details in the most unexpected of places.
See below for my AUs and certain tags. Click on the links for a masterpost of each or just search by tags. I only have so many fics out at the moment, but there are other outlines and concepts on these, though for some more than others.
My AUs:
"Heart on Trial" AU: (ReinSuba Felt Camp/Soulmates) In Arc 1, Subaru gets revealed as Reinhard's soulmate and gets taken to the Astrea residence alongside Felt. In which Subaru dies, goes through a bisexual awakening, and begins to learn that being bound by Fate to the Sword Saint has...consequences, not necessarily in that order. Still outlining future arcs before I really get into it. (#heart on trial au)
"Buried" AU: (ReinSuba Omegaverse) Post-Arc 4, the Emilia and Felt Camps get into a close alliance to combat the Witch Cult and help the victims of Gluttony. Reinhard is a mild alpha whose instincts are suppressed by his Divine Protections. Subaru was turned into an omega upon being isekaied and is struggling with the changes. The two get steadily closer and neither of them are ready for what follows. Heavily inspired by a number of ideas from @sufferu as well as active discussions with others. (#buried au)
"Wildest Dreams" AU: (ReinSuba Soulmates/Childhood Friends) Subaru and Reinhard are soulmates that grow up being able to visit each other in their dreams. Told all his life that "Haruo" wasn't real, Subaru's life changes forever when he's isekaied to a parallel world and is able to met his friend face to face for the first time. (#wildest dreams au)
"Otherworldly" AU: (ReinSuba Reverse Isekai/Dandadan-Inspired) Reinhard is isekaied to Japan. Trying to help him get home, Subaru's entire world is thrown upside down when supernatural forces take issue with him and his nerfed otherworldly companion. At least permadeath isn't an issue—at least for him. (#otherwordly au)
"As Above, So Below" AU: (ReinSuba Magnus Archives Crossover) In a world where nothing is what it seems and dark forces poke at the crevices of reality and reason, Forsenics student Subaru is desperate to find his missing friend Emilia, former archivist of the Magnus Institute. In a moment of compassion and naivety, he frees a monster from his shackles, setting in motion a series of events that may bring him closer to his goal as much as it could condemn him. (#as above so below au)
See also:
#resource for useful info on reading/writing for Re:Zero or fanfiction in general
#rezero thoughts for many misc topics, discussions, and joke posts
One question: do you think there's a level of homophobia and transphobia in the Re:Zero fandom?
I've noticed some... not-so-nice behavior from the fandom regarding LGBT posts, and I wanted your opinion.
Oh certainly. Tumblr rz is kinda free from that but twitter + tik tok fandom definitelyyyy have issues (especially tt). Its a male-targeted anime so yk ofc the fandom is gonna be full of the kind of people who will comment “why cant two guys be friends” under a reinsuba post or diminish Natsumi to a fetish
Tiktok in general, like a lot of more "mainstream" media platforms, has a very big ouroboros kind of thing going on: an endless cycle of superfluous, redundant arguing. It praises the "enlightened internet cynic." The kind of person that can't be fooled by any type of bait, whether it's a "seemingly wholesome" video, AI garbage, ragebaiting, etc.
And it's this breeding ground for not being "caught off guard like an idiot" to such a degree that "debates" pop up for the stupidest of reasons. You'll find every bump in the road is a hill to die on for somebody. Posting on there and being a clean slate of neutrality is impossible. Because somebody will have a problem with you. Even if they don't have a dog in the fight, and it's just to relish in the fact that they can get you upset.
And when you have this kind of environment, that's when people that aren't exactly the best to begin with start hitting below the belt. Ragebait culture in particular runs rampant on there. To anger and upset is a goal that many are convinced to be proud of, even to the point of casually bringing up actual heinous stuff and not just nitpicky opinions.
So when you already have a spectrum of bristling cynics with their own personal opinions, you'll get anything from people that don't like queer stuff and loooove to make it everyone else's problem to full-on slur-slingers that pursue their hate in spirals, dragging everyone down with them.
Ferris as one of Louis Wain's cat paintings which I do not remember the name of.... erhm. I've had this idea for a couple of months now. LMFAO I drew one of Julius' best friends instead of him on his birthday..
Ref below the cut
Wanted to includ the whiskers soooo bad... but alas
I have cuteness aggression with Re:Zero insofar that most of the cuteness goes to my top 5 and most of the aggression goes to Julius. He is my stress ball, and I love him.
Theres nothing I love more than aus where subaru’s deaths have some lingering effect on him other than the usual. And I have some ideas if anyone wants to snatch em!
-keepings scars from previous loops (in some way). Maybe flowers under his skin for the dramatic effect lol. They dont show up immediately, and arent lethal. But they are immensely painful. And are also really hard to explain.
-a mental effect? Some issue with his soul through looping can sometimes cause massive lapses of memory. Like he remembers all the loops ofc, but the transfer isnt always perfect. And the more times a transfer occurs in one loop, the more bugs there are. And it should only be nice things he forgets. Subaru gets out of the arc 4 loop and realizes that he cant remember a lot of moments with his parents. He can no longer picture the taste and appearance of ice cream. He cant remember what happened on his date with emilia. He cant remember the street he lived on. Oh how horrifying would that be <3 (inspired by sentenced to be a hero btw)
-subaru acts as walking deja vu to everyone around him. Nobody knows about RBD but moments of past memory slip through the cracks when in his presence. Hes a walking time anomaly
-angel baru au? Can also not be in the traditional sense. Just the idea that the more subaru loops, the more he gets attuned with death. And that manifests with like, angel wings, or just something from whatever beyond you want.
-ive seen this idea as a oneshot b4. All of the agony and pain from death are not erased. Instead the emotions get dumped elsewhere and are eventually concentrated into a beast that terrorizes the world, completely separate from Subaru. Congratulations baru! Your failures created another great mabeast even more horrific than the big three! Its ending the lives of innocent people and YOU made it! (Immense guilt ensues)
These are actually one of my favorite things to explore, and I wish I could see more AUs like this! The thing about RBD is that important memories, both good and bad, are often lost, but I love to explore the ways he gets inexplicably disconnected from the current world because of it. He's good at hiding things, so I love putting extra pressure on him not being able to hide as effectively.
I remember seeing a fic where he accumulated scars from his deaths, but I can't remember the name of it. But here are two other neat premises:
"Bury Me" (Corpse IF) by TheLeaderKing on ao3: Subaru leaves a corpse behind when he RBDs
"Dogged" by Turacoverdin on ao3: Daemon AU where Subaru's deaths, injuries, and mental scars reflect on his daemon, unnerving a lot of people around him
Also HERE is a convo I got into with @harperd that talked about something inspired by Undertale's Flowerfell AU. Subaru has flowers that grow out of his skin after every death. They behave in certain ways according to the trauma involved in the death, and while they wilt and fall off eventually, the roots stay in him. They have some other posts too talking about this idea!
As interesting as this season is with what's going on with Subaru, I can't help but feel like some of the decision-making pathways and emotional choices were...something.
Is it just because I'm anime-only and not caught up in the novels? That I'm missing scenes and context that fleshes out some of these things more?
It just feels like...When Subaru was found unconscious, when Meili went missing and her Book of the Dead appeared, the questioning and urgency feel so dull. There's little to no pressure to reassess the potential dangers of the tower, Shaula's word, and just what these books are truly capable of. Little guardedness. Just "the mission."
And even seeing Subaru's explosive reactions doesn't seem to create much pause in how to deal with things? Or, well, reflect as much worry and proding as I would expect, even subtly (Not always the case, especially in more one-on-one scenes but it happens enough to give me pause). Additionally, characters in anime generally go very very still and neutral when they're not directly engaging in an action, and as a result, the muted body language and facial expressions make everyone's involvement in Subaru's highly emotional moments feel kinda...dead. In some cases, I get it, and in others, it just feels...too much. Too distant. Too still.
For god's sake, Meili was basically broadcasted as mysteriously dead somehow to the whole crew and they split up to look for her, and it cuts to them being like "Well, we have to keep going." Keep going how? What changed in regards to how we're approaching anything? Because apparently Subaru's freakouts and someone being dead doesn't seem to cause many waves...or at least that's just how the anime feels.
There are fine lines to these things, and I can't tell if they're really being crossed, or if I just think they are, and I can misconstrue them as such. Because people aren't going to always have big notable reactions to things even in high-stress situations (Heck, most people don't. Fiction, especially fanfiction, seems to overemphasize outward expression when a lot of what's going on with a person is naturally highly internalized, which is what gives books such a distinct, invaluable feel to them over most other media), but right now, I just have this feeling of disengagement, and I'm trying so hard to reframe things in a way that doesn't just leave me feeling disappointed but also doesn't feel like a flimsy excuse or half-hearted defense.
