So somebody DM’d me this template and wanted me to fill it out and it seemed neat, so thus I obliged. Below is my reasoning for each pick if you are interested.
All Time Favorite - Do I even need to explain? My sheer amount of analysis and dedication of 2 whole featured tags to this doofus speaks for itself.
Favorite Candidate - Really, only Felt or Crusch were in the conversation for me. But I personally vibe w/ Felt more as a Candidate. Her growth is much more profound compared to Crusch’s for starters, but I also feel like compared to Crusch the audience gets to see Felt grow more and develop as a ruler. I enjoy seeing the emotional journey of characters.
It also helps to me that Felt is actually addressing the lower class (and whilst Crusch’s platform is solid) the Valkyrie I feel doesn’t particularly show any signs of wanting to change the Nobility whatsoever which isn’t inherently bad mind you if she can corral them well, but it seems Crusch wouldn’t really provide much of a quality of life change for the ordinary citizen but rather just make the nation itself more able to stand on its feet.
Favorite Knight - Another instance of me liking Reinhard lol what to say. But honestly to add a smidge unto it, Reinhard is my favorite knight when it comes to his dynamic w/ his Candidate. There is more of a push/pull compared to the other Candidate/Knight duos. You can also tell Reinhard as a knight unlike the others is sorta having his position in this role be something of self discovery journey for him whilst the others don’t really have knighthood be like that for them.
Favorite Sin Archbishop - Petelgeuse. He’s just such a mad fucker and I unapologetically adore it.
Favorite Witch - The others don’t have NEARLY as much depth and emotional complexity as Echidna. She’s one of the characters most prone to getting me thinking period in this series. Love anytime she is on screen.
Favorite Side Character - Stride is someone whom challenges a lot of the ideas of free will, fate and the status quo. That was something I appreciated the glimpse into. He’s also just pretty fun in general. Guy is SUCH a supreme asshole at times and it’s entertaining.
Favorite Design - Really, really contemplated Crusch for this spot but Al just barely nudges her out. His design has the dark soul looking helmet which is such a great troll by Tappei on his abilities but the design also does something in this series that no other characters does.
It successfully tricks the eye and helps conceal a significant part of Al as a person via making his missing arm not really that apparent. No other character design (that I’ve seen thus far anyways) plays such a role in perception of a character that it effects one’s view of them that much. Best Writing - It’s the Main Character so one might say more screen time = better writing and thus this was a natural choice, right? But that’s not why I picked Subaru for this position. The reason I did so is that the way Tappei’s written is Subaru contrary to other characters in the series.
Subaru requires a bunch of subtext to pick out the actual nuances of his feelings/thoughts on matters underneath his conscious thoughts which try to point the reader one way. Other characters in the series don’t have nearly as unreliable internal monologues. Even those with huge self worth issues like Rem.
I think it speaks to a very high consistent lvl of skill in writing applied to him that Subaru mimics a human very well in only thinking conscious things he will accept rather then the more uncomfortable or unpleasant thoughts that he buries underneath those conscious thoughts of his. It is not just how Subaru feels a variety of emotions that makes him so human but also his consistent avoidance of things that cause one discomfort.
Underrated - Anastasia. Just. Gets written off a lot I feel? Yet there’s a really solid fleshed out character here that I don’t feel is appreciated enough.
Overrated - Welp, before the pitchforks come. I want to say that I think the idea of Rem is overrated. As a character Rem is honestly excellent. However the perception around her elevates her into a status that I believe isn’t accurate to her as an individual.
Overhated - Honestly, I can’t see how anybody BUT Felix could fill this spot. The guy is literally mass blamed for shit he didn’t even do like supposedly having planted a bomb in Subaru’s gate. Then also Felix gets slandered for brainwashing Subaru when that’s def not what happened.
Most Like You - Gonna be real this is probably the one square I was most hesitant to fill. But. I think that yes, Echidna is actually the correct choice for me.
To break down why that’s the case first is the fact that Echidna isn’t particularly obvious in her kindness and the ways she gets to the kind things she does is very emotionally backwards compared to normal societal standards. I see a lot of myself in the abnormal way Echidna can get to an end result that would be considered compassionate by others but wasn’t exactly borne of empathy.
The second reason I think this is the case is how Echidna is very non-judgemental. She typically tends to listen to someone and only offer opinions when it’s sought. When I’ve given advice to others upon request I am told I match these characteristics a LOT.
Another thing that adds unto me seeing a lot of myself in Echidna is how whenever I look at something I view it through a strictly logical lens unless I put a focused conscious effort to factor in an emotional angle to things.
The final thing that I’d say makes me see a lot of myself in Echidna is that she happens to just enjoy knowing things for the sake of knowing them and no other purpose. I spend a lot of my own time simply learning about the world around me, even things that wouldn’t really be considered practical to know.
It’s all of these factors that translate a fair amount into my commentary analysis of Echidna where I analyze her pretty deeply and attempt to not write her off as being some evil nasty person as much of the fandom does because there’s a bunch of depth here.
Frankly, I believe Echidna is a great showcase from Tappei on a character with truly stunted empathy that isn’t evil as many other works of media would shoehorn a character as for that lack of empathy.
Least Like You - I simply have never been able to reach that childish naivety Emilia is able to muster. Her faith in people is also something I cannot quantify emotionally despite logically understanding why Emilia is the way she is.
It is a bit ironic that I whom identify so much with Echidna cannot link myself with Emilia on any level. It is no wonder Echidna is ruffled by this half elf.
First Favorite - Julius was simply stellar in my initial viewing of the series. I enjoyed him and that was that. Grapehead got dethroned by Reinhard upon me reading the Novels though and seeing the sheer depth to that sus baka.
Character You Didn’t Expect to Like - So. I’m aware the answer of Heinkel here appears stereotypical but I’d like to expand on my POV of this because I suspect it’s different from the standard view.
I didn’t expect to really like Heinkel when initially seeing him because I was somewhat concerned about the idea of Heinkel being utilized to make him seem like the entire problem in the Astrea subplot (and that concern of mine grew when seeing how Julius spoke of him to Subaru when I watched S3) and that Wilhelm was not holding as much blame which was infinitely far less interesting to me.
Thankfully I was wrong and the Astrea subplot was as complex as I hoped it’d be and it wasn’t chalked up to be all of Heinkel’s fault.
Guilty Favorite - I don’t believe I need to explain the guilty part to enjoying somebody as objectively nasty as Capella lol. She’s so vile though and that’s her draw. She does things no other character would do.
Favorite Female Character - Love Crusch so very much. She has a lot of similarities in how I approach the world with how she cuts through BS. Seriously vibe w/ her on that. Ain’t no time for dancing around something 99% of the time. Her design & tomboy aesthetic is also pretty good. My 2nd favorite in the series honestly.
But also some other stuff I love about Crusch is how Tappei portrays Asexuality through her very well. If this were any other series she’d have been romantically into Subaru or Fourier. However Re:Zero is not the typical series.
Instead, it gives us a look how someone can genuinely consider someone a lifelong partner (Crusch to Fourier) whilst not fitting the traditional view of romance as pushed by society at large.
Another thing Tappei portrays well w/ Crusch is how Autism (or what certainly appears like it on Crusch’s end) doesn’t make somebody dumb. Merely unable to grasp certain social constructs as readily.
Favorite Male Character - To nobodies surprise its the sus redhead. There is a post I’ll link below here that has some specifics on what I adore about Reinhard so much if any of you would actually desire to get a more complete answer in one bite sized snippet rather then formulating a picture of what I like about him based on thousands of posts about Reinhard.
💬 0 🔁 2 ❤️ 3 · Hello! Congrats on finishing Arc 4!! Your analyses have been really entertaining to follow, and have made me rethink a ton
Character You Want to See More Of - Probably a bit of an unusual choice but y’all are reading for my opinions so whoopdey doo here it is.
The reason I didn’t go with somebody like Al or Heinkel but instead Miklotov is that this dude blatantly has a bunch of rlly sus things around him that don’t really get addressed at all and are left to implication for somebody to pick up them being weird in the 1st place.
This continues to captivate my attention because Tappei’s modus operandi is leaving hints scattered about to guess at something. Yet Miklotov doesn’t have much detail there despite Tappei having left hints something is up with him.
It contrasts a character like Russell Fellow where Tappei implies something is up with him then leaves sufficient hints around for future plot plays he may make such as the entire Kadomon stuff I’ve harped on endlessly or other things Russell is sure to pick up regarding Subaru I’ve spoken of. In essence the black void of info (where unlike other major ? marks like Al or Russell I have been able to theorize to get a shape of where they are going) around Miklotov and the jarring nature of the sparse details bucking Tappei’s typical modus operandi has made me more keen to get details on this man.
Least Favorite - Ah Puck. Great character for what he is meant to do. My placing him here comes from my immense dislike of him as a individual.
There is a complete and utter lack of self reflection from him and he is extremely controlling. What makes this even more intolerable to me is that Puck is objectively a failure.
In my eyes it’d be one thing if Puck had those traits I naturally find to be the mark of pathetic people IRL but I could tolerate it from a more inhuman POV Puck is operating under if Puck succeeded. The thing is Puck doesn’t succeed at all with how he shelters Emilia and basically makes his desire to protect her backfire.
In the end results are a concrete part of life and matter more then people like to believe. Yet Puck failed in the only metric that could’ve granted him some absolution in my POV from his dubious operating method.
