In which we wonder just how much it takes... for a man to become a monster.
"It's your memories that make you who you are."
That's a statement we heard back in episode 8 as Subaru tumbled down the stairs to his death the second time. And I didn't comment on it at the time because, well, it's obvious, right? It's as direct a statement of this arc's themes as you can get: without his memories, Subaru is no longer the same. He's returned to zero, and now must find a way to fight his way through this trial with none of the inner strength he's cultivated over three seasons. But in retrospect, there's a pretty important subtext to that statement I didn't recognize: what about new memories? After all, just because Subaru forgot his last year or so doesn't mean he isn't still having new experiences. A blank slate does not remain a blank slate for long; as long as a person is living any sort of life, they will continue to make memories, and those memories will shape who they become. In other words, this arc isn't just asking "How would Old Subaru handle the pressure of being New Subaru?" No, it's asking a far, far darker question: if you started over from zero, but things had gone differently, what kind of person would you become? And how much would it take for this Other You to be so different that you no longer recognize them?
That's not to say pre-amnesia Subaru had an easy time of things himself. We all know the shit he went through to get where he is today. But Current Subaru has been put through an Arc 3-level wringer before he even had a chance to get his feet under him. He didn't make any friends he could trust whole-heartedly like Emilia or Reinhardt. He barely had a chance to this strange new world before the slaughter started. He is, quite frankly, in the least supportive environment imaginable, at a time in his life when he was already stuck deep in the pits of his own despair. And all his attempts to make some kind of sense of this supernatural murder mystery only push him deeper and deeper into self-imposed isolation; hell, after Meili's murder, he can't even trust himself now. The memories this Natsuki Subaru is making are much, much uglier than the other Natsuki Subaru's memories. And if, indeed, our memories are what define us, then the person Current Subaru is becoming is going to look very different than the Subaru we've become so accustomed to.
It's fitting, then, that Meili's character is the catalyst for his worst turn yet. As we discover by reading her Book of the Dead, being abandoned and raised by mabeats as a child essentially left Meili as the ultimate blank slate. Since she never learned to be human, she never had any human desires or experiences until Elsa took her under her murderous wing. And, well, we all know what kind of life she lived. From the second she officially entered the "human" world, Meili's life was defined by pain and blood and hate and sorrow. Her life was defined by death, and that shaped her into a person who could never imagine a world beyond those borders. How could she understand happiness, hope, compassion, and so on if she could barely even comprehend the darkness she spent all her life within? No, Meili is what happens when you fill a human being with nothing but the worst of human experiences, leaving it no choice but to become the sum total of that cruelty. And the first time she considered maybe trying some kind of connection? She was murdered for it.
On the bright side, this at least gives us some clue to what's going on: this isn't Subaru. Not by a long shot. And I'd have to guess that wasn't really Rem last episode either. My best guess is some kind of dark spirit has been possessing people in this tower, erasing their memories as it commits evil deeds. But who that spirit might be is anybody's guess; as familiar as this creepy neck dislocation is, I seriously doubt Betelgeuse somehow found a way back from the grave. Maybe it's somehow the spirit of Flugel awakened in his dormant host? Or possibly someone entirely new? Who knows! I'm sure we'll find out eventually (and to be clear, anyone who even TRIES spoiling me on this will wake up to find their computers eaten). For now, the specifics of the mystery matter less than the emotional crux of what Meili represents: the ultimate worst case scenario for Subaru. Because if this is the kind of person you become with nothing but bad memories... what will all of Current Subaru's bad memories turn him into?
It's far from a clear-cut explanation, of course. The question of nature vs nurture makes it tricky to discern how much of a person is a result of their experiences, and how much is just innate. Even in past episodes, Re:Zero made sure to highlights how Amnesia Subaru still carries so many of his old self's fundamental kindness and compassion. And for all his current paranoia, it's hard for him to truly disengage with his old friends when they keep showing him how much they care. God, Emilia's little speech here got me all sorts of choked up. This girl doesn't have an ounce of shame or manipulation in her body; she just loves Subaru, and she knows now more than ever she needs to express that love when he's so clearly Going Through It(tm) for reasons she desperately wants to understand. But again, that just makes it harder to understand why someone like him could be worth so much to them, especially now that he has pretty good reason to believe he's secretly a murdering psychopath. Even her guileless attempt to reach him just drives him further and further into darkness.
And who should he find in that isolation but Meili herself. The specter of the girl "he" killed now haunting him like a promise that this is the path he's doomed to follow. Flattering all his worst fears, preying on his worst impulses, all but suggesting he join her in the depths of human ugliness. It's also a clever little bit of nastiness for her to call out Emilia's hypocrisy over her death: why pretend to care about her now when she was little more than a tool to them alive? I mean, sure, you can't blame them for being suspicious of the little murder goblin, and Emilia was hoping to start trying to make amends, but it's a weird situation when you don't really start looking out for someone until after they're gone. Perhaps it's a subtle suggestion that Subaru, too, might be treated differently upon his death, that even now these people are lying about how much they value him and will change their tune once he's out of the picture. Do you really think there's love for you here, pretty boy? You've known nothing but suffering and misery for years, how could you possibly believe them when they say they care about you? Just embrace the darkness and stop trying to be better. It'll feel so good to take those expectations off your shoulders.
And you know the worst part of all? We know Meili's got a point about Subaru... because we just saw firsthand how far he can fall. Remember back in episode 3 when he strangled one of his closest friends? All it took was a little witch's miasma, and all of his worst instincts twisted him into a murderer. And that was before the amnesia! That was fully-developed, self-actualized Subaru who'd faced his inner demons and become the hero he'd always wanted to be! And he still had the capacity for evil buried deep inside him! Sure, it practically took magical brainwashing to pull it to the surface, but like I said in my episode 3 write-up, the miasma's darkness was as horrifying as it was because it amplified what was already there. Natsuki Subaru, both now and in the past, both with his memories and without, has the potential to become a monster. And it's only thanks to just how damn much he's grown that this potential has remained nothing but potential for this long.
Except, of course, he hasn't grown. Not anymore. Now he's in the worst state of his life, with nothing but hardships hounding him at every turn, surrounded by people he can't emotionally afford to care about. Now he no longer has the memories that forged him into the Natsuki Subaru we know and love. Now, he's been trained on very different memories. Memories that tell him the best course of action is to become the worst he possibly can. Memories that compile and compound in darkness until what once seemed unthinkable has been repeated so many times as to be commonplace. Natsuki Subaru doesn't know who he is, and he doesn't know who he used to be.
But after everything he's been through? He damn well knows who he can become.
Dragonstone: Welcome to the Royal Selection Ceremony! Sorry that your god didn't save the royal family:( As an apology, we've conjured a list of only the best replacements!
We have:
The devil herself and some guy with no traceable background!
A feral rat with criminal connections and her pet depressed god!
A genderswapped QPR with a grudge against your entire religion!
A foreign CEO color-matched to one of the prettiest boys we got!
A foreign totalitarian princess several times divorced (by elimination) and her Craigslist barbarian!
Wow! 5 options! You've got 3 years to pick who you want! Hopefully, nothing bad happens!
[ID: Re:Zero Break Time screenshot of Julius having a pleasant conversation with the Pearlbaton triplets, by all appearances completely fine with the fact that Mimi, having climbed up on his shoulders, is currently nomming his head.]
Broke: Tales of the Abyss time-travel fixit fic starring Luke fon Fabre. He's not an asshole and he knows Van is the bad guy so he doesn't kill 10,000 people, boring.
Woke: Tales of the Abyss time-travel fixit fic starring Anise Tatlin. She knows the entire plot and would really like to prevent its 5-digit body count that includes her closest friend, but she is 13 years old, her parents owe eighty gajillion dollars to a guy who wants that body count as high as possible, and most of her allies would sell each other to Satan for one corn chip. Her weapons are the ability to spoil plot points to the other party members, very carefully choosing what she reports to Mohs, and unhinged ultraviolence, and she is so mad that she's having to learn to play 5D chess instead of relying on the last one.
Whenever she can't think of an excuse for why she knows about something she shouldn't, she either says, "Ion mentioned it to me three years ago when I was in training to become a Fon Master Guardian! :)" or claims she heard it from Dist in the Oracle Knights cafeteria.
I don't have it in me to keep track of all the moving parts of Abyss's plot well enough to plan the whole thing out myself, but I have decided that the first thing she does is send Mohs a letter helpfully informing him that Ion told her he wants to investigate the Cheagle Woods because of concerns from the locals about liger sightings in the area.
No one asked, but just for the record, the reasoning here is:
In actuality, Ion's decision to go to the Cheagle Woods was a spur-of-the-moment one when Anise wasn't even there, so she couldn't have reported it originally. (Here she sticks with him.)
Anise now knows that the God-Generals primarily want Ion to unlock the Sephiroth and don't care all that much about Mohs's goals, so they're highly unlikely to hurt Ion as long as any of the Daathic seals remain, and in all likelihood he'd need to lift those seals eventually anyway.
It is much, much easier to kidnap Ion from an isolated forest than from inside a heavily-defended warship. Therefore, providing the information to let them do this will prevent the attack on the Tartarus.
Mohs and Van generally want to limit Arietta's access to Ion so she doesn't realize he's not the same person she knew, but if Anise is lucky, "ligers" may be tempting enough keyword to get them to send her anyway. Most likely, they'd send Arietta with Largo as babysitter, since they don't need nearly as much firepower if they're not attacking a warship.
If Arietta is present in the Cheagle Woods, this means there is someone who can translate from Human to Monster who the ligers are much more positively disposed toward than Mieu.
The God-Generals could easily kick Anise, Luke, and Tear's asses and leave with Ion. However, Arietta does not want the ligers to be hurt. Therefore, Anise has a potential opening to do some fast-talking about the fact that if newborn liger cubs eat an entire village, the heavily-armed Malkuth warship full of soldiers would definitely show up and kill all of them, and therefore it would be in Arietta's best interest to convince them not to do that.
There is no other suitable liger habitat nearby. However, you know what Anise has access to that the ligers don't have? A large vehicle that can travel over land.
This opens the possibility of, essentially, a hostage exchange. Anise will convince Jade to ferry the ligers somewhere they won't eat everyone, and Arietta will take Ion to Shurrey Hill. Jade won't kill the ligers because they need Ion back, and Arietta won't take Ion and run because she needs the Tartarus's cooperation to get her family somewhere safe.
Worst case scenario result: Anise has to hand over Ion (she can probably act like she thinks she's just following orders from a trusted superior in the Oracle Knights to avoid getting murdered) and the death toll goes down by 300 Tartarus crew members. Now she has to deal with the ligers and figure out how to get Ion back.
Best case scenario result: the death toll goes down by 300, Arietta no longer hates everyone's guts, Anise gets Ion back, and in all likelihood Largo uses the fon slot seal on Ion as he originally planned, leaving Jade at level 45 and capable of steamrolling every combat situation they come across for months afterward.
For whatever reason I'm thinking about this again, and FTR a major plot issue after this that Anise would not foresee: without the fon slot seal and landship attack, Jade would have MUCH less incentive to cooperate with the rest of these chucklefucks. My guess is that this would first become an issue when Guy shows up, and because Jade still has a small army under his command and the ability to cast Thunder Blade, this time he chooses not to conveniently overlook the sticky political implications of a personal servant of the Kimlascan royal family randomly showing up in the middle of Malkuth. I have no idea what Anise should or would do about this, but I did decide that she can totally deflect any scrutiny that might arise from her being suspiciously patient about explaining things to Luke, simply by loudly declaring that she will be Luke's tour guide because she has relevant experience from having a job doing that in Daath for like a week, then diligently keeping a time sheet for all the man-hours she's going to charge Duke Fabre for as soon as she gets the chance.
yousharknotpass
vaporwave
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
amandla
baratheonpilled
stormborns
jacobvanloon
