#otp: the witch and her archbishop

[spiegelgestalt]

Have you ever asked yourself - what does it do to the damsel if they are saved?

So re:zero has one of the most interesting explorations of the prince-who-saves-the- damsel-in-distress trope this side of Utena. And it's breaking my brain.

You see like Utena re zero begins with a princley character who saves our protagonist who his so touched by this encounter that he vows to become a prince himself. (And was that really such a good idea....?)

Spoilers under the cut

Emilia saves Subaru. He lies there, beaten up by thugs, completely at his wits end, despairing about the world and in comes Emilia who not only chases the thugs away but heals Subaru and doesn't want anything in return for her troubles. And he can't stand it. And so he offers help. His reasons are the following:

Narrative conventions dictate that the summoned person is the protagonist and hero while the cute girl who summoned him is the damsel. In a more progressive text she also gets to do some stuff to show that she isn't useless only to cutely fail and be saved again. Isekai protagonists don't get saved

He's really grateful and he's ashamed that he has troubled her and he wants to.pay her back (and how is he supposed to do that if he isn't the pretty girl who pays with sex! And he has nothing else to offer...)

He sees himself in her. He sees a genuinely good person who's a bit awkward but who means well and who will be crushed if no one's taking care of her (and maybe just maybe he wishes someone could take care of him...)

Subaru objectifies Emilia in two ways: as the shining hero who can do no wrong. She is from now on the glorious person who saved him. And at the same time he never wants her to be this hero again. Because than she might get hurt. Because than she might decide she won't need him anymore. Emilia has to be the damsel because that's his way to.make sure that she never can leave him. The man provides and the woman smiles and needs. (Subject and object)

And if this was all there was re:zero wouldn't be different from your typical isekai story. But as the story goes on some cracks start to show, some questions become louder and louder: isn't Emilia far more suited to the knight role? She is far stronger than him... Why does Emilia always remember Subarus smiling face when she thinks about what he does for her, why does she seem miserable when she hears that everything has been taken care of for her, why does she turn Subaru away again and again and tells him he is hurt and he must promise to wait for her...and how can Subaru be a good knight if he wishes for his beloved to be in danger only to prove himself. Isn't that kind of fucked up?

And you notice two things: As Subaru damsels Emilia, Emilia damsels Subaru. She's looking back. Because from her perspective Subaru came out of nowhere and saved her without any reason. And she can't stand it. It makes her feel terrible (see reason 2 +3 from Subaru) So she tries to protect him back, which he can't stand etc. Etc.

AND this game of hot potato who's supposed to be the damsel in distress becomes even more complicated if we add Satella into the mix (who Is probably (???) Emilia, kinda -kinda not) and who since the beginning of the series saves Subaru again and again and again ( and Subaru loathes her....)

where was I going with this?

Oh I know: at the end of season 2 Subaru and Emilia realized that what they need from each other is a good pep talk - they fight their own battles and the fight together and that should be enough.

[princesssarisa]

Fictional Character Ask: Princess Elisa, from Brothers Grimm's Six Swans/Andersen's Wild Swans?

Favorite thing about them: Her sheer perseverance and inner strength as she weaves the magic shirts out of stinging nettles and never speaks even when faced with death by fire.

Least favorite thing about them: That she ends the story still married to the king who sentenced her to burn at the stake. Even though he was reluctant, the fact that he was persuaded to believe she was a witch and condemn her is still troubling. At least in the Grimms’ version, her apparent crime justifies the sentence more: she’s framed for killing and eating her own three children, with all the evidence pointing straight at her. In Andersen’s version, she’s condemned just for behaving strangely and for picking nettles from a ghoul-filled graveyard, without having apparently harmed anyone.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I love my family.

*I like swans.

*I’m good at keeping promises if I think failing to do so would hurt someone.

Three things I don’t have in common with them:

*I have trouble knowing when to stop talking.

*I have low tolerance for physical pain.

*I’ll never be so beautiful that roses will say I’m more beautiful than they are, or so pious that a hymn-book would say I’m more pious than itself.

Favorite line: From the 1940s Let’s Pretend radio version, when the Voice of the Wind tells her the ordeal she’ll have to go through to free her brothers:

“Try me, Voice of the Wind! I shall not fail!”

brOTP: Her brothers.

OTP: Her husband, as long as he apologizes profusely for her near-execution.

nOTP: Any of her brothers.

Random headcanon: When she and her brothers were growing up, her brothers were fairly prone to mischief and fighting with each other, and she felt the need to be the family conscience and peacemaker, so she never let herself misbehave at all. This ties into Andersen’s conceit that the success of evil spells or lack thereof depends on the virtue of the victims. Elisa he describes as too good and innocent for her stepmother’s magic to have any effect on her, so when the stepmother sends magic toads to hop on her and turn her evil and ugly, the toads turn to flowers. Likewise, when the stepmother tries to turn the brothers into ugly birds, their goodness makes them turn into beautiful swans instead. But the fact that the brothers are transformed at all implies that they’re not quite as saintly as their sister.

Unpopular opinion: This is about the story as a whole. Even though Andersen’s version is more famous and richer with literary detail, I prefer the Grimms’ version. For one thing, the father-king is forced to marry the wicked stepmother against his will and tries his best to protect his children from her. Even though he fails, he’s still a much better father than Andersen’s king, who marries the stepmother by choice and then turns against his own sons when he believes her lies about them and lets her send his daughter to live with peasants too. Later, when we reach the part where the heroine’s own husband condemns her to death, at least in the Grimms’ version she’s apparently guilty of a crime that deserves capital punishment, not just of vaguely acting like a witch. Although I give Andersen credit for the creative and daring choice to have an Archbishop be the villain who urges the king to execute her, instead of the Grimms’ stock figure of a jealous mother-in-law.

Song I associate with them: None at the moment.

Favorite picture of them: 

[spiegelgestalt]

I was looking through your re zero reblogs and a tag stood out to me. What do you mean you think Otto is a manifestation of Satella? I’m really intrigued by the concept

Ohh! Thank you for the question. So this is a pet theory of mine which is probably wrong but I find incredibly entertaining. Beware this is going to be long and rambley. The TL;DR is probably: the only person who is as obsessed with Subaru as Otto is, is Satella It tries to explain several things that I find weird about Otto (some of these things might be explained in the LN but Tappeis writing style doesn't click with me and so i'm really slow with reading them) :

a) Ottos sudden entry in Subarus story (and the fact that Subaru always meets him no matter what he does) the first time he meets Otto at a pub because Otto made a financial mistake and drank his sadness away. This one's fairly unsuspicious. The second time is stranger. Subaru is going back to the mansion alone in the darkness and meets Otto on the road. Not only that. Otto is standing near the light and waves. Like he was expecting him. Why? Does he do that often - wave to travelers who are just passing by? But the most suspicious entry is his last/permanent entry to the story - his getting saved from the witch cult. Why did the witch cult kidnapp him an no one else? Why did they plan to sacrifice him? Why wasn't he with the rest of the merchants? Suuuuus!!! This at least hints that Otto might have connections/significance to the witch cult

2) why does the whale eat him and not Subaru? Subaru should have smelled tastier so why did it chose Otto? Maybe because Otto smelled of the witch? And if Otto knew that the Mabeast would go after him it would paint his pushing Subaru of the cart in a different light.

3) he's not in roswaals gospel which even has Subaru in it. How/why? Is it really just because he's so insignificant?

So these things make Otto suspicious but they don't link him to Satella necessarily. So here comes my reason for that

3) Otto's behavior in Season 2 don't make sense. Not only is he ride or die for Subaru very very fast while the other is basically nothing but rude to him. He explains this with Subaru saving him but technically that were the iron fang people and Otto isn't thankful to them at all. And even if that were the case - why is Otto so sure that Subaru needs help? As far as I remember he offers Subaru help in every single time loop, even in the ones where Subaru still believes himself to be on top of things (and shouldn't send sadboy pleas help me vibes)

4) And than there is the speech which will save Subaru. And I find it quite suspicious: a) this speech is suspiciously parallel to Satellas speech in the witches tea party it kinda feels like a continuation of it

b) Otto says that he understands that Subaru wants to be strong in front of the girl he likes and in front of the girl that likes him but he shouldn't have to be strong in front of his friend. So the girl Subaru likes is obv. Emilia but why talk about another girl who likes Subaru... who is that supposed to be? Otto doesn't know about Rem. Does he mean Emilia again? But why say it that strangely - or was he just covering his bases. IDK for me it kinda made sense as a Emilia/Satella distinction (or if Otto DOES know about Rem that makes him really suspicious again)

C) Otto takes it very personally that Subaru didn't ask HIM for help. But why should Subaru do that. He technically knows him for what, a few days?

D) Subaru notes that this kind of speech is usually reserved for the heroine (something he also mentioned about being summoned to another world and we know that was Satella - so is that the case here too?)

5) Otto has a lot of parallels to Subaru/Satella has a lot of parallels to Subaru

So all of this could hint to the fact that Otto is a time traveler and/or has some connection to one of the witches (either Pandora or Satella)

But I like my theory of Otto being a manifestation of Satella because it fits neatly into the theme of the parallels between Satella/ Subaru, it is something Satella would do, the thought that Satella sees Subaru dying over and over again and just says: okay have to do everything myself. If he won't accept help if I'm a woman I gotta go in as a guy is extremely funny to me, I believe that being kinda pathetic is an important property of being associated with envy AND Otto is next to Satella the person who most obsesses over Subaru and only Subaru

And Satella could rewrite history if she needed to (that would explain Otto's memories)

[spiegelgestalt]

You know Satella is my problematic fave but reading all of those posts how she's torturing Subaru... you know that's just Echidna's version of events right? Accusing satella of hurting Subaru because she revives him is like accusing superman for saving Lois lane everytime she gets herself in trouble

[spiegelgestalt]

Subarus anguished speech how he loves Rem and Ram (even if they don't know who he is because the world reset) really hits differently if you know who Satella is.

I love you indeed

Edit: to replace apostle with archbishop