I always find it interesting when characters who appear so overtly feminine and beautiful opt to refer to themselves using the more masculine "Boku." I guess that's just one of the many oddities that make up who Echidna is. She appears on the surface to be a very casual, flippant, and charming woman, with a dash of ditziness, but at times you can peer beneath the surface and see the darker underbelly of someone who the world would come to refer to as a Witch
.
Hearing Echidna describe the other Witches, it sounded like most of them actually tried to benefit the world in some regard, albeit likely in a "we're above humanity so we can just do these impossible things we want to do" kind of way. I always kind of assumed they were this cabal of evil, but it sounds more complicated than that. The only exception seems to be Sloth, who wanted to sleep, Echidna who was greedy for knowledge at any cost, and Satella who killed them all
.
I love how Echidna offers Subaru the opportunity to finally explain everything to him, but he's all like "I don't have time for exposition, just get me back to Emilia." It's so brazen and kind of stupid that Echidna had no idea how to respond. I mean, I'm not sure she wouldn't have just given Subaru some half-truths that served her own benefit, but who walks away from a prime opportunity to finally understand what's going on
?
Look, it's Bakug...I mean, Garfiel! No, seriously, it's like Nobuhiko Okamoto is basically playing Bakugo in a fantasy setting. Although I guess Garfiel is a little more reasonable to Subaru and company once he figures out why they're there than Bakugo would've been. And he's probably Frederica's brother right? The resemblance is uncanny
.
Ram! It was great to see her again, scathing comments towards Barusu as always. I can understand why Subaru is refraining from mentioning Rem to her yet, there's no easy way to explain that
.
Roswaal! It's been even longer since we last saw him, although he looks a little worse for wear. I wasn't expecting him to be closely connected to a Witch, let alone Echidna, but I guess it explains why Echidna had some control over Sanctuary. He did seem very insistent she be referred to by her name instead of as a Witch
.
So Sanctuary isn't so much a sanctuary, but a prison. That village looks almost as bad as Raphtalia's village in
Shield Hero. How did it end up like that? Was it some kind of curse left over from Satella and Echidna? Why did Echidna even create this place in the first place
?
Of course Emilia would go through the Trial for the sake of the villagers, and now they seem truly grateful for all that she's doing for them. I also love how mutually supportive she and Subaru are to each other now
.
Garfiel can't participate in the Trial? Does that mean he's not a half-breed
?
The Trial seems like our next major breakpoint for Subaru, and Echidna has given him the ability to aid Emilia in completing it. It doesn't seem like it'll be so much a trial of death though, as it seems to test you more emotionally, as it sends Subaru (and presumably also Emilia?) to face their past and Subaru flashes back to being back home with his shirtless, muscle-bound, father
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With all those figurines in his room...I guess Subaru always had a fetish for white-haired girls
.