Written by Geats

RE:Zero: Are Roswaal and Subaru the same?

No, Subaru and Roswaal are different people. 

The past several episodes in RE:Zero have been confusing. At the current time point of writing I have watched up to episode 46. Tracking the events at play make sense. I can follow the fact that two simultaneous battles are about to happen. My confusion lies in the statements that characters have been making. The conflicting wishes of the characters are coming to a head, each with their own obstacles to overcome. We have multiple characters in play including Roswaal, Ram, Subaru and Emilia as the main players. Each has their own motivations and drives. 

The overall feeling that I get is that Roswaal wants to lose. Despite the things he is saying he more than anyone wants to overcome the past that has consumed him for a long time. Roswaal designed an impossible test for Subaru and Emilia to overcome. He wants to kill the dragon protector of Lugunica. Part of that plan involves Emilia ascending the throne. In Emilia’s current state, she isn’t fit to lead the kingdom. The cards are stacked against her, as she is a half-elf that looks like Satella; reminder Satella is the arch-enemy of the realm. 

How would Roswaal be able to get what he wants? He has a book that tells the future. I wonder what is written in the book. Given that other iterations of Subaru’s sanctuary arc have all ended in abject failure, it’s hard to gauge how accurate the information in the book is or how detailed it is. Either way Roswaal trusts it more than anything else. It feels like Roswaal is trying to force another miracle event, even after Emilia’s faction can claim some credit for the defeat of the white whale and Betelguese. I am curious as to how the aftermath will play out. 

So how does Ram factor into all this? 

That is also another point of confusion for me. I understand her motivations, and the desire for revenge on Roswaal for destroying her village. We are introduced to the fact that there was a pact made between Roswaal and Ram. They have their own vested interests in each other, and  want to use the other to further their own objectives. This makes sense given the fact that Ram is a demon, and that demons play by their own rules. But the Ram double-cross of Roswaal might be ill-fated. 

Why this confuses me is the fact that we are blind-sided by information and situations presented. There is no build up for this moment, and while I can buy into the idea of the Ram double-cross, it just feels random. Jamming this idea into the sanctuary arc feels forced. And while it’s awesome that Ram confronts Roswaal, it also feels weird. We have no forewarning that Ram has her own plans or intentions. It would have been nice if there had been something at play or in the works hinting towards this. While from an overview of the grand-scheme of things this makes sense, it’s a bit overwhelming to accept at the moment. 

Admittedly RE:Zero is famous for blind-siding us with things. But they happen in context to Subaru, who isn’t as observant or keen to detail. Also Subaru doesn’t think things through. So when they happen to his character they are easier to accept in the greater context of the story. The Subaru mechanism for the story is gone in the battle between Roswaal and Ram. I wonder if the aftermath will lead to a satisfying conclusion, or if I will need to readjust my viewing expectations for RE:Zero.  

Do you agree? What are your thoughts? I want to know!

Is there anything you would like me to cover? Do you want to know my thoughts on anything? Have something I should know? If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, comment below!

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7 thoughts on “RE:Zero: Are Roswaal and Subaru the same?”

  1. First off, I do not think Roswaal is trying to lose. He stated very confidently that he thought Subaru had no help of winning, and Roswaal indicated in Episode 45 that he still has the advantage. I do not believe Emilia needs to be fit to rule the kingdom for Roswaal’s wish to kill the dragon to come true. In Season 1, it was stated that the winner of the Royal Selection had to enter a covenant, which is another word for contract, with the dragon before she officially became the ruler, so Roswaal likely intends to be present when Emilia meets the dragon so that he can kill it. After that happens, he probably doesn’t care whether Emilia does a good job of ruling the kingdom or not. She’s just a pawn to be used to make his goal come true.

    I do think there is more to Ram’s relationship with Roswaal than a desire for revenge because it’s clear she is interested in him romantically. That’s part of the reason she said she wouldn’t be interested in receiving him when he’s an empty husk. It’s because she wants Roswaal to offer himself up to her when he is full of hope and desire to live as she wouldn’t be satisfied otherwise.

    I have to disagree with you on there being no buildup to Ram’s double crossing of Roswaal. She deliberately helped Subaru in Episode 39, saying that Emilia doesn’t even know why she is struggling, giving him advice in the process even though she was allied with Roswaal. Even when she helped Otto face Garfiel, she was going against Roswaal’s wishes, so there was definitely something going on with Ram. Viewers just didn’t completely figure out the reason until now.

    I actually enjoyed these last 2 episodes a lot after Emilia’s backstory concluded because Emilia is more self-assured now and less timid after hearing Subaru’s pep talk and getting all her memories back, and I feel these episodes were better written than episodes 42-44. We learned that in Episode 45 that the main reason the Sanctuary was built was to keep Hector, the Warlock of Melancholy, away and that Roswaal is probably imitating Hector’s speech and attire because he’s so focused on people’s weakness that he is forcibly reminding himself of that beatdown every day. Ryuzu and Beatrice’s friendship and Ryuzu’s sacrifice were presented in a much more satisfying way than Emilia’s backstory in which there was tons of crying over and over and lots of “I love yous”. I was also very interested in the decision to not show Echidna’s face for the entire episode that episode and wonder if the end of this season will reveal she had something more in mind in building the Sanctuary. Roswaal falling for Echidna because of the way Echidna emotionally manipulating him and seducing him was very believable, and it goes to show how Echidna is very hypocritcal, saying Emilia has loose lips for kissing Subaru. Echidna clearly cares almost entirely about herself and her own goals, and that’s why Beatrice and Roswaal are so broken in the present because of her actions.

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  2. Another point I have is that I think names have significant relevance in Re:zero, and I have some examples below. I first started looking into the names of Re:zero characters after the episode “A Flash of Sloth” because it seemed to point to many different things, not just one thing. There are quite a number of names that are relevant to the plot in the series and lore.

    For example, Otto is another name for attar, which is a fragrant essential oil. That might be how the author decided to make Otto buy an excessive amount of oil. Does the fragrant smell indicate that he uses a lot of cologne or perfume? Suwen, Otto’s last name, is the first part of an ancient Chinese medical text. Perhaps Otto is well-versed in medicine and has bad body odour which he covered up. This is still speculation of course, but the oil thing was absolutely true.

    For those who don’t know, Subaru is also what the Japanese use to refer to the Pleiades star cluster. Six of the stars in that cluster are visible to the naked eye, and there are six dead Witches of Sin. The Pleiades star cluster is also referred to as the Seven Sisters, and there are seven witches bearing the name of the seven deadly sins in Re:zero. Vainglory and Acedia are historical sins, and vainglory is hardly used in modern times, with people using vanity to mean the same thing, so Crunchyroll probably just went with the modern term. Given the presence of Pandora in the story, there should also be a Witch of Acedia since Tappei is drawing also from historical sins for the lore of his story. Interestingly enough, there are eleven stars in the Pleiades star cluster with nine of them having names, making it fitting that there might be 9 Witches of Sin. Two of the stars have yet to be named, and as such, I propose there might be two secret witches that have some other concept applied to them instead of sins. Given that Pandora also referred to Emilia as “Witch’s daughter”, meaning that Echidna might not have said that to insult Emilia and maybe that Emilia’s mother is one of those yet-to-be-determined witches.

    Rom means high in Hebrew. Given that he is a giant, I guess that suits him. Rom also means curving river in Old Welsh. The movement of a river is often a symbol of life. Perhaps there was an event that changed the course of Rom’s life.

    Petra means stone or rock. Perhaps this indicates she is like a rock who is good at keeping a secret and very strong-willed, meaning it would be hard to get information out of her. The other children couldn’t hold back and blab about everything. Petra also told everyone to run when Elsa took hold of her, showing she is very loyal and not afraid to die.

    Kurush (which is closer to how Japanese people would say Crusch) means far-sighted, indicating being able to see far but have trouble seeing things up close. It is a male name, but Crusch kind of dresses like a guy, so let’s just roll with that. Crusch is certainly far-sighted in that she has her eye on her goal, and given that she dresses in her nightgowns without a care about being in the presence of males, it could show that she is otherwise oblivious to her own femininity. Kurush also appears to mean throne, and this could mean Crusch ends up as the ruler of Lugunica at the end of Re:zero.

    Frederica means peaceful ruler, so I wonder if Frederica will become the ruler of the place she built for the Sanctuary residents when the Sanctuary barrier is taken down by Emilia.

    I know stating that I believe Emilia will die at the end of Re:zero after Satella possess her body makes Emilia’s fans sad or mad, but I really think that it will happen and that she has no chance of becoming the ruler of Lugunica. I still believe Subaru will end up with Priscilla even though Subaru probably won’t develop feelings for her until the very end of the series.

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  3. I also forgot to mention in Episode 45 that Roswaal said that Emilia shares the same lineage as Satella, so they are very likely to be blood relatives rather than being the same person. I think Emilia could be Satella’s sister.

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    1. True. A lot of my head cannon is turning out to be wrong. But I had fun thinking about it at the time. It would make more sense that there was some other connection than maybe them being the same.

      Although I thought it would be awesome if Emilia was actually Satella, and Subaru was helping an evil person in ignorance the whole time. It would have made for a interesting moment of realizations and self-reflection.

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  4. I gave it some thought, and I have an idea that explains why Ram is working with Roswaal even though it doesn’t explain everything about their relationship.

    On Ram, I know her relationship with Roswaal is still murky, but I am speculating about something regarding their relationship based off of what we’ve seen in Season 1 and Season 2, inferring that Roswaal is the one keeping Ram alive. Roswaal indicated in Season 1 at the end of the first arc that Ram had used a lot of mana, so he’ll have to tend to her, which entailed touching her horn area. At the time, I thought it had a sexual purpose given Ram’s reaction to it, but after episode 40 when Ram started bleeding from her horn area when she used her demon powers to fight Garfiel, it’s clear that Ram overburdened herself by attempting to tap into those powers without her horn, so given Roswaal’s remark that she had lost a lot of mana, I now conclude that Ram cannot regain her mana naturally because of her horn being cut off, meaning that Roswaal is the one keeping Ram alive. I remember in Season 1 during the White Whale fight that the Night Banisher’s brightness dimmed some time after Rem used her horn, which shows that demon horns draw in mana from the atmosphere, and that’s how I came to this conclusion. Ram lost the part of her that naturally replenishes her mana, so she must have somebody who has the sufficient mana reserves to keep her alive with that person being Roswaal.

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