Wilhelm van Astrea / A Wager That Defies Despair

All right, it’s time for Re:Zero again this week! This time it’s the White Whale battle! Let’s get fired up and go!

In the story, this area is the slums of the royal capital about 40 years earlier. Construction got abandoned partway through development, and as a result, a bunch of ruined buildings were left standing, which eventually led to places like the loot house area in Arc 1 of the main story. This flower field probably still exists too, at least technically.

You can basically think of the place where Reinhard and Felt ran into each other in Episode 3 as being around that flower field from earlier.

What Rem called "night banishing" is like temporarily creating a huge space of light in the sky to produce an artificial daytime. Brightening the sky on this scale takes a considerable amount of magic and money, so it’s a lavish strategy.

Nighttime and fog make for the absolute worst conditions to fight the White Whale, so the first preparation for the battle is at least to drag it out into the light. If you don’t know to do that, it can dive back into the night and you won’t even be able to fight it properly.

I have a particular fondness for silver hair and red hair, so looking at Theresia-sama makes my heart race.

Crusch-san’s long-range slash is called "One Blade, One Hundred Men," and it’s a technique that applies her Divine Protection of Wind Indication, which lets her see through lies, by riding her sword strike on the wind. That Divine Protection doesn’t just detect lies, you know.

You can probably tell just by watching, but for the record, among the characters who had appeared in the anime up to this point, Wilhelm-san is the second strongest after Reinhard. Elsa is about on par, though.

If you play TRPGs, you know this already, but dumping as much maximum firepower as possible into the very first turn is basic strategy...!

When you get up close to the White Whale, its whole body is densely covered in white fur, so it actually looks creepier than it does from a distance.

I forgot about giant Puck. I feel like Roswaal and Wilhelm-san could go either way depending on the conditions. Whether they start five meters apart or ten meters apart, for example.

When the subjugation force centered around the previous "Sword Saint" was assembled 14 years ago, they probably managed to push it this far too, maybe?

I really want Kurumi-chan.

That dodge just now was Patrasche's judgment.

The White Whale's attacks are basically mist-based, so Crusch-san's wind attacks are a good matchup. That said, Crusch-san alone would lose on raw strength, so she still couldn't win.

If you've played TRPGs, you know this, but even an enemy boss will properly open by hitting you with high firepower.

It's a mental attack using the mist as a medium, but Subaru takes no damage. Ferris also takes no damage. I won't explicitly say why, though.

He was the decoy in Arc 1, Arc 2, and Arc 3 too. He's really grown into it.

The emblem on Ricardo's shoulder armor is the Hoshin Company insignia. Anastasia-san wracked her brain coming up with it, and Mimi's doodle got picked.

The battle that saved Wilhelm as he is now was Sword Saint Theresia's first battle. It was the first time she ever cut down a person.

Theresia was born with the Divine Protection of the Reaper, which makes wounds she inflicts never heal. The Divine Protection of the Sword Saint is something that's inherited, so that was something she received later.

The DJ bro's reaction here is just the best...

Of course Rem was seriously shaken too when three White Whales appeared, but because Subaru's heart hadn't broken, Rem was able to act right away too. In other words, it's the result of his everyday conduct.

To be honest, even Crusch-san was pretty rattled, but after Subaru, Mimi was probably the calmest. Subaru > Mimi > Crusch-san, I think.

By the way, they're tossing the term around casually, but Subaru would be split clean in two and die from a single One-Hundred Men, One Sword strike.

Subaru obviously has no horseback riding experience, but even so, if it looks like he's skillfully riding Patrasche, it's not because some sleeping talent of Subaru's awakened. It's because Patrasche is carrying him well and running for him.

Hetaro was pretty badly shaken too, but Mimi smacked him on the back, so he pulled himself together. Same here: everyday conduct.

Mimi and Hetaro's combined move is “Roaring Wave,” and any two of Mimi's triplets can use it. With all three, the balance falls apart and they actually can't do it. Two is best. Incidentally, Ricardo can use the same technique alone. The triplets are imitating Ricardo.

Crusch-san is an extraordinary person too, to be able to decide to get on here.

Still, it's impressive they managed to make up with Crusch-san. Things were at their worst about two weeks ago.

Since that was probably a serious full-power blow, I think it might've had about the force of a Thousand Men, One Sword strike.

Conwood-san hitting the White Whale from all the way over there is insane.

I just love scenes where nameless people muster up their courage.

Even the White Whale knew it shouldn't let its main body come down, but it still couldn't help descending. That's how bad the smell is. It's seriously dangerous.

If the battle that saved Wilhelm was her first battle, then this battle with Wilhelm was her first defeat.

Since they had that exchange about how "a knight is someone who protects another person," hearing "Become the reason I swing my sword" really hits hard...

"I love you" is something Wilhelm never once said while Theresia was alive.

Still, the sky is beautiful.

This conversation between Subaru and Crusch-san here is, for me as the author, one of my favorite scenes in all of Re:Zero.

Ferris's seiza posture is incredibly good.

Oni grow horns from their foreheads, so putting foreheads together might have some special meaning, or it might not. I just thought of that now and said it.

Half of the Iron Fang were on the White Whale subjugation, and the other half were keeping watch around the area so no collateral incidents would happen. And then another problem comes for Subaru.

If you give meaning to touching foreheads, then setting Rem aside, Ram also seems like she'd just normally do it to check someone's temperature, so I'm not sure...

Still, the White Whale subjugation being only an hour goes by fast, really fast. The pacing is nice and clean. Very satisfying!