#btz!rem

[sufferu]

@cipher-wise brought up an absolutely brilliant idea that deserves its own post: Subaru needing to learn to groom himself. Oh my god that’s so cute.

Okay so — I’m thinking that in the old timeline, it actually WASN’T Rem who decided to groom his fur while he was at the manor, even though that seems obvious. No, I’m gonna go ahead and say that it was RAM. Ram, who didn’t want her little sister getting so “intimate” with Subaru so fast, who was largely responsible for mentoring him during his first few days, who is very much Subaru’s big sister whether she will admit it or not.

In BTZ, however, Ram no longer wants to touch him — and neither does Rem, for similar reasons, and for reasons that are much more intense. And as he has no idea why this is the case, that breaks Subaru’s heart :(

[sufferu]

BTZ just got so much funnier oh my god

Subaru, hugging his beloved pet alone in his room: They’re gonna kill my rabbit. I messed up, they found my pet, they’re gonna kill my pet. Stupid, stupid, stupid, why do I always mess things up, I don’t want to lose my—!

Meanwhile—

Wilhelm: I can’t believe I’m arguing to keep the Sin Archbishop of Greed alive right now, but Subaru already named that fucking rabbit and I don’t have the heart to take it away from him

Julius: Subaru named that horrible rabbit Mister Fluffermittens, I can’t tell him that we have to kill Mister Fluffermittens

Olbart: Look, the Sin Archbishop is functionally harmless now, so surely we can let Subaru keep Mister Fluffermittens, right?

Anastasia: Can’t we get him any other pet??

Wilhelm: He already named it. He’s attached. It’s too late.

Rem: How did this even happen??

Vincent, to his own useless Generals: How the FUCK did you guys mess up this badly, you had ONE JOB—!

[sufferu]

Funny thing you just brought up for BTZ, I like the idea that there are some in the cast struggling to adjust to the new timeline. Otto making an ass of himself and Beatrice floundering to get Subaru to make a contract with her again only for it to blow up in her face sounds like comedy cold lmao.

PS: Would you ever consider having Zarestia appear in the story and take a liking to Subaru? Perhaps she's or other Sprits are tempted to make a contract with him only for Beatrice to act like a complete nutjob each time Subaru tries to make a contract with any Spirit other then her and tries to prevent it - making Subaru even more terrified of this apparently 400 year old Eldritch loli

I’m pretty sure that damn near every single one of these characters is gonna have their dignity completely trashed by the time BTZ is over lmao. The only reason it looks like Subaru’s getting the brunt of the bad fortune in BTZ I is because it’s from his POV. In BTZ II — especially the later chapters — it actually starts to come off like Subaru’s the only person here who even remotely has his shit together. I keep saying that BTZ II is a comedy, but maybe I haven’t emphasized yet just how much that EVERYONE ELSE is the punchline, with Subaru being the straight man to everyone else constantly ramming themselves into walls.

Otto is near-constantly making himself look like a fucking lunatic, Wilhelm refuses to stop bullying Julius at every opportunity, none of the Astreas know what “healthy communication” looks like and that keeps leading to both undersharing AND oversharing while they keep encouraging each other like “yeah that seems like normal behavior :)” and nobody knows how to correct them, Emilia is flying by the seat of her pants and trying to do everything at once like the world’s most pathetic wet cat, Rem keeps on ending up in situations that are actively going against her goal of being less impulsive, Vincent is an utter mess desperately trying to maintain his “imposing Emperor” facade, Cecilus is everyone’s worst nightmare at once, and Aldebaran is currently the world’s angriest ten-year-old intent on committing as many felonies as he can out of pure spite.

Then there is Subaru, who is dutifully sticking to a routine in swordsmanship (and slowly getting better, too), teaching Mimi how to sew, making dolls for Meili, showing what looks like an extraordinary amount of patience even when everyone around him feels like they keep making absolute fools of themselves, and just generally seeming like the most sane person in the room at all times. Despite how often they seem to have to save him from certain death, it often feels like he is the one thing in their lives that is not currently on fire.

[sufferu]

I realize this might be self explanatory and the point of BTZ already, but does there come a point that the cast realizes they have flaws to - the same if not greater then Subaru's and aim to fix it?

Doesn't seem fair that Subaru is the only one expected to change?

Aka: Felix fear of death? Emilia's naivete? ect...

Something important to note about BTZ is that none of them are actually trying to change Subaru in basically any way, shape, or form: as far as they’re all concerned, he is already a perfectly good kid who just needs some security and space to grow into his own. Legit the only thing they are really pushing back on here is the idea that he should be putting himself in danger for anyone else’s sake, because 1) they’re all traumatized from watching Subaru Gets Eviscerated Repeatedly: The Real-Life Snuff Film and 2) the world will literally end if he dies apparently. Everything else is just like — “Yeah, we can help him learn to read.” “Learning how to use a sword for self-defense purposes probably isn’t a bad idea. I can spend two hours training him every morning, sure.” “I hate that it apparently has to be THIS rabbit, but if Subaru wants to keep the rabbit then Subaru gets to keep the rabbit, and I am going to do my damn best to hide how much of a menace this thing is from everyone else just to make sure that happens.” “Hey Subaru likes sewing right? Why don’t we get him these rare fabrics as a souvenir?” “Subaru looks a little downer than usual, I’ll ask the staff to make one of his favorite meals for dinner tonight.” Like they are GENUINELY trying, they just keep running headfirst into various walls while Subaru stares on as the unfortunate straight man to all their clownery.

Nah, most of the intentional character growth is on their own ends. Like, Wilhelm is actually making an effort to reconnect with Reinhard and Reinhard trying to connect more with the people around him, even if both of them are so emotionally stunted that they’re kinda just fumbling around blind here. Emilia is trying to take on more responsibility without relying on Subaru quite so much, and is also gonna eventually start putting more thought into what SHE wants, as opposed to what’s expected of her (ie. the Royal Selection). Julius is making an effort to be less uptight and more playful and approachable — and not just with Subaru, because he also remembers just how much of an impact Subaru’s more playful and easygoing nature was able to have on the world around him. Garfiel considers himself Subaru’s senior, now, and as such he is trying to be the kind of older brother figure that Subaru once was for him — assisted by Mimi, who is of much the same mindset (and also keeps trying to force Subaru into calling her “Onee-chan”). Rem is making an effort to be less impulsive and think things through more, and when she eventually starts reconnecting with Subaru she tries to be more honest with him about what kind of a person she is (as opposed to putting on a show of being the kind of girl that she knows he would like). Ram is trying to be gentler, especially with Subaru, who she apparently hurt really badly (even if she knows he wants to forgive her for it).

Of course, not EVERYONE is actively trying to better themselves. Otto just got WAAAY worse, for example, and is now up to all his old hijinks turned up to eleven in the worst Mission Impossible parody of all time. Vincent is just cranky that Subaru won’t pick fights with him anymore and is trying to hide the fact that he keeps sulking about it. Cecilus is Cecilus and is thus immune to character development. There’s a lot going on.

(And then on the Aldebaran end of things — basically all the Vollachians (even CECILUS) are going “Damn we fucked up” and trying to make up for it by treating this extremely irate ten-year-old like a Vollachian Prince (which. He essentially is, at this point).)

[sufferu]

When comes to BTZ and Subaru's swordsmanship it would be entertaining to watch him actually become a descent fighter who can go toe to toe with the average run of the mill knight. But he's constantly surrounded by MONSTERS like Wilhelm, Julius, Cecilus and Reinhard that he thinks he's terrible when - lmao no.

Most people are astounded with Subaru's grit and fighting spirit and the fact that he was able to pickup on skills that take years to develop - were talking about early childhood. Subaru does it in three which is damn impressive!

You are actually onto something with this! I don’t wanna spoil where this is going, but I’ll just add a couple details:

Subaru is training for about two hours every day for three years.

Subaru is being trained by the Sword Demon and the Finest of Knights — and even if the two of them are thinking about it more or less as a form of play, they ARE still training him, and it’s not like they’re slacking off.

Subaru is working really, really hard to get stronger in any way he can.

Subaru’s other friends sometimes join in as a way to spend time with him. Subaru’s other friends are esteemed fighters like Reinhard, Cecilus, Garfiel, Ricardo, Mimi, Crusch, Emilia, Rem, certain members of the Pleiades Battalion…

Subaru gets visibly upset whenever anyone pretends to lose to him in order to reward him for making breakthroughs in his training, because they’re all shit at pretending. None of these people want to make him upset, so they quickly stop doing the thing that they believe is making him upset.

Subaru is hardwired to hear any genuine encouragement from these people as sarcasm. Subaru is not a reliable narrator.

Subaru doesn’t think he’s getting any better. Subaru is judging his capabilities by his ability to defeat the strongest people in the world in one-on-one combat, which would not at all be a fair metric in the minds of anyone who isn’t Subaru. This includes the people he’s sparring with AND everyone watching them spar from a distance. Subaru is putting on airs about how “I’m DEFINITELY getting better!” and so nobody feels the need to correct him, because as far as they see it, he is correct.

So…

[sufferu]

Just had the actual funniest idea for the Rem Breakup Aftermath in BTZ

Subaru, wandering back to his room in a daze after Rem broke up with him out of nowhere:

Julius, who was already intending to check on Subaru after his date with Rem due to his own lingering fears about leaving those two alone together: How did it—! …She broke up with you, didn’t she?

Subaru, visibly heartbroken: *nods*

Julius, earnestly and reflexively: Oh thank FUCK—

[sufferu]

…You know what’d be worse than Julimilia? Juliremilia.

[sufferu]

Hey quick question but will other characters have a nickname for subaru? Like what would you have them call him as a sign of affection?

I haven’t actually given a whole lot of thought to it, lol, but — yeah, that could be fun. Even outside of it being a sign of affection, it could also very easily translate tot them attempting to mentally distinguish this Subaru from the one in their memories, which — works, on a number of levels. Open to suggestions!

Some ideas I actually have had already:

Julius: Subaru-chan. I considered Subaru-tan, but that one is a little too closely associated with “Emilia-tan” for me to really see him stealing it to use in this context. Sometimes he shortens it to “Su-chan.”

Ferris: Puppy. Julius is at least a little formal and restrained, but Ferris is exactly the kind of teasy asshole who would continuously call Subaru the puppy of the Karsten Estate. Sometimes he escalates it to “Puppy-chan,” mainly just to rile Subaru up.

Rem and Ram: These two both had nicknames for Subaru in the old timeline (“Subaru-kun” and “Barusu”), so their main change is that now they — don’t. It’s just “Subaru” now. (Or, early on and even worse, “Subaru-sama.”)

Wilhelm: Not normally one for nicknames, but — he can’t say “Subaru-dono” anymore, but every time he says Subaru’s name on its own it just feels WRONG, somehow. He spends ages trying to think of a good one. I’m thinking he names Subaru after some kind of flower…? Anyway, he ends up falling flat on his face somehow, but I haven’t figured out how yet. (I was thinking “Pansy,” but that seems a little too overt tbh.) (Or maybe he ends up calling Subaru something that references an embarrassing moment that he believes was absolutely endearing, but that Subaru — does not.)

Reinhard: Whatever Wilhelm uses, Reinhard will adopt.

Cecilus: At first he just went back to calling Subaru “Boss,” but then he heard Julius call Subaru “Su-chan” and now he won’t stop using it himself.

Emilia: Still haven’t figured it out, but that one reply was absolutely correct. As the woman who would have named her daughter “Chocoreina,” it has to be something utterly ridiculous.