Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2 Episode 43

I also agree with you that Re:zero’s dramatic scenes could use a little more understatement.

In Beatrice’s case, I think there is probably a real distinction in what she said and what Beatrice said. Echidna stated in the first cour that she was highly involved in Beatrice’s birth, which doesn’t outright indicate that she conceived Beatrice in her womb. Echidna saying Beatrice is like a daughter to her in this episode with the context of the first cour suggests that perhaps she created Beatrice, making Echidna moreso Betty’s creator than her actual mother. To Beatrice, she says that she is Echidna’s daughter, and she has a point given that Echidna is the one who raised her. Echidna herself asked Beatrice if she had raised her to act like that, so Echidna is clearly a mother figure to Beatrice, and I believe this could be why she says she actually is Echidna’s daughter. To a kid, the one who raises her might as well be her mother and see herself as that person’s daughter. I believe this also applies to the Emilia and Fortuna dynamic in that Fortuna was the one who raised Emilia and gave her the affection and attention that mothers provide to their children even though she isn’t Emilia’s biological mother, who is some yet-to-be-identified human and may or may not be a witch depending on whether Echidna was just using her “witch’s daughter” comment as an insult or whether that comment was meant to be literal.

As for Roswaal, he clearly and unambiguously said that he met Echidna 400 years ago in the first cour, so I take that as being a true statement, and thus, one way or another, it’s the original Roswaal who is driving the events of this arc even though the current day Roswaal identifies as Roswaal L. Mathers instead of Roswaal A. Mathers as he does in the flashback. Hence, I can think of 2 possibilities:

1. Roswaal has cloned his body multiple times and injected his soul into the clones

2. Roswaal possessed the bodies of his descendants.

Given we know that cloning exists from Echidna’s experiment with the Sanctuary, that first possibility is highly plausible. I don’t know how a human would be able to possess bodies, so I’d say that second one is not as plausible although still within the realm of possibility. There’s no clear explanation for who and what can possess bodies in Re:zero so far.

As far as the box, I don’t think there’s any special significance to it aside from containing the Sloth Witch Factor. Petelgeuse having a box with the Sloth Witch Factor could be a sign of his status in the Witch Cult. Already in this flashback, people were calling him Bishop Romanee-Conti, so it’s possible that he was given the box when he became a Bishop of the cult. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason Petelgeuse had followers in the first place was because he carried the Sloth Witch Factor with him. In that case, I wonder who gave him the Sloth Witch Factor. Before taking in the Sloth Witch Factor, Petelgeuse said he was sorry to Flugel-sama, and I’m guessing this is because Petelgeuse promised this Flugel to never take in the Sloth Witch Factor. If you recall from the first season, the people referred to the tree that the strike force burned down to trap the White Whale as Flugel’s tree, and Rem indicated that Flugel planted the tree hundreds of years ago. Given that Petelgeuse knows both Beatrice (who got stuck in a library 400 years ago) and Flugel, Petelgeuse was very likely to have been around for at least 400 years at the minimum. I guess him being a spirit explains how he could have survived for so long while maintaining a youthful appearance. Whoever Flugel is, we will probably eventually see a flashback of him from hundreds of years ago. I wonder if he knew Flugel from 400 years ago or whether from a period even before that. Regulus also identified Petelgeuse as a spirit, so that’s probably how Petelgeuse looked so youthful despite being ancient. I wonder if Petelgeuse’s face in Season 1 had more to do with Petelgeuse being insane and mutilating himself rather than him naturally losing his good-looking face as he aged since as far as we can tell with Petelgeuse’s words in episode 18 of Season 1 that Puck, and likely all spirits by extension, live forever.

I also find it interesting that Regulus has not seemed to age at all since this flashback, and I assume that he isn’t a spirit given the manner in which he indicated that Petelgeuse is a spirit, so if there’s something keeping him young, I think it could be the Greed Witch Factor. Perhaps Witch Factors extend the lives of their hosts. That could mean Subaru will start aging very slowly. Of course, I don’t rule out that there’s a different reason Regulus isn’t aging that is still unknown to viewers.

Pandora’s power seems incredibly overpowered. The power to selectively rewrite reality as she wishes will make her very difficult to defeat. I also wonder how she found the seal even before Emilia did. Did she use her powers to rewrite reality as it she had been there all along it or was the seal in the opposite direction Archi had told Emilia to run in, meaning the seal was closer to Pandora than Emilia, allowing for Pandora to have more time to search for it? Maybe Pandora had Regulus look through his Gospel to get a hint about where the seal was.

2 thoughts on “Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2 Episode 43”

Vance says:

February 8, 2021 at 1:06 am

One another point I forgot to Regulus didn’t seem too happy about Petelgeuse taking in the Sloth Witch Factor. I wonder if it has anything to do with Petelgeuse actually being diligent rather than slothful whereas Regulus is super greedy in that he tries to control the conversation, hating being interrupted in the process, has multiple wives, and a mansion making him the embodiment of greed. Subaru really isn’t slothful either, and after Subaru used his Invisible Providence, he either coughed out a lot of saliva/vomited (it’s hard to tell which it is) and felt awful. Maybe how your personality matches up with the Witch Factor you have influences whether you’re a good fit for it. Petelgeuse was straight up bleeding after all from using the Unseen Hand, and he works very hard, which might be the reason it took such a heavy toll on him. Subaru usually tries hard, but he has moments where he considers giving up on everything, which could be why he isn’t as badly affected by the Sloth Witch Factor as Petelgeuse is.

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Vance says:

February 6, 2021 at 11:20 pm

I also agree with you that Re:zero’s dramatic scenes could use a little more understatement.

In Beatrice’s case, I think there is probably a real distinction in what she said and what Beatrice said. Echidna stated in the first cour that she was highly involved in Beatrice’s birth, which doesn’t outright indicate that she conceived Beatrice in her womb. Echidna saying Beatrice is like a daughter to her in this episode with the context of the first cour suggests that perhaps she created Beatrice, making Echidna moreso Betty’s creator than her actual mother. To Beatrice, she says that she is Echidna’s daughter, and she has a point given that Echidna is the one who raised her. Echidna herself asked Beatrice if she had raised her to act like that, so Echidna is clearly a mother figure to Beatrice, and I believe this could be why she says she actually is Echidna’s daughter. To a kid, the one who raises her might as well be her mother and see herself as that person’s daughter. I believe this also applies to the Emilia and Fortuna dynamic in that Fortuna was the one who raised Emilia and gave her the affection and attention that mothers provide to their children even though she isn’t Emilia’s biological mother, who is some yet-to-be-identified human and may or may not be a witch depending on whether Echidna was just using her “witch’s daughter” comment as an insult or whether that comment was meant to be literal.

As for Roswaal, he clearly and unambiguously said that he met Echidna 400 years ago in the first cour, so I take that as being a true statement, and thus, one way or another, it’s the original Roswaal who is driving the events of this arc even though the current day Roswaal identifies as Roswaal L. Mathers instead of Roswaal A. Mathers as he does in the flashback. Hence, I can think of 2 possibilities:

1. Roswaal has cloned his body multiple times and injected his soul into the clones

2. Roswaal possessed the bodies of his descendants.

Given we know that cloning exists from Echidna’s experiment with the Sanctuary, that first possibility is highly plausible. I don’t know how a human would be able to possess bodies, so I’d say that second one is not as plausible although still within the realm of possibility. There’s no clear explanation for who and what can possess bodies in Re:zero so far.

As far as the box, I don’t think there’s any special significance to it aside from containing the Sloth Witch Factor. Petelgeuse having a box with the Sloth Witch Factor could be a sign of his status in the Witch Cult. Already in this flashback, people were calling him Bishop Romanee-Conti, so it’s possible that he was given the box when he became a Bishop of the cult. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason Petelgeuse had followers in the first place was because he carried the Sloth Witch Factor with him. In that case, I wonder who gave him the Sloth Witch Factor. Before taking in the Sloth Witch Factor, Petelgeuse said he was sorry to Flugel-sama, and I’m guessing this is because Petelgeuse promised this Flugel to never take in the Sloth Witch Factor. If you recall from the first season, the people referred to the tree that the strike force burned down to trap the White Whale as Flugel’s tree, and Rem indicated that Flugel planted the tree hundreds of years ago. Given that Petelgeuse knows both Beatrice (who got stuck in a library 400 years ago) and Flugel, Petelgeuse was very likely to have been around for at least 400 years at the minimum. I guess him being a spirit explains how he could have survived for so long while maintaining a youthful appearance. Whoever Flugel is, we will probably eventually see a flashback of him from hundreds of years ago. I wonder if he knew Flugel from 400 years ago or whether from a period even before that. Regulus also identified Petelgeuse as a spirit, so that’s probably how Petelgeuse looked so youthful despite being ancient. I wonder if Petelgeuse’s face in Season 1 had more to do with Petelgeuse being insane and mutilating himself rather than him naturally losing his good-looking face as he aged since as far as we can tell with Petelgeuse’s words in episode 18 of Season 1 that Puck, and likely all spirits by extension, live forever.

I also find it interesting that Regulus has not seemed to age at all since this flashback, and I assume that he isn’t a spirit given the manner in which he indicated that Petelgeuse is a spirit, so if there’s something keeping him young, I think it could be the Greed Witch Factor. Perhaps Witch Factors extend the lives of their hosts. That could mean Subaru will start aging very slowly. Of course, I don’t rule out that there’s a different reason Regulus isn’t aging that is still unknown to viewers.

Pandora’s power seems incredibly overpowered. The power to selectively rewrite reality as she wishes will make her very difficult to defeat. I also wonder how she found the seal even before Emilia did. Did she use her powers to rewrite reality as it she had been there all along it or was the seal in the opposite direction Archi had told Emilia to run in, meaning the seal was closer to Pandora than Emilia, allowing for Pandora to have more time to search for it? Maybe Pandora had Regulus look through his Gospel to get a hint about where the seal was.

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