Re:Zero Season 4 Episode 4 – Shaula's 400-Year Mystery Unveiled
Overview After Episode 3's brutality, Episode 4 of Re:Zero Season 4 swings back toward comedy and lore. Shaula — the woman raining lightning on intruders for four centuries — explains why: the sage Flügel told her to "intercept anyone who approaches the tower." She's mistaken Subaru for Flügel, since "Subaru" is literally a star name. The episode plants major foreshadowing about Subaru's connection to Flügel without spelling it out. Japanese 5ch reactions cover three threads: (1) the comedy tone of Shaula's scenes, including her flip from supreme confidence to begging "don't leave me alone" once she's been incapacitated; (2) the meta-debate over Reid Astrea and how his ridiculous "chopstick swordsman" gimmick can possibly be made serious in adaptation; and (3) a long-running spoiler-etiquette fight between LN-reader fans who want to "be helpful" and anime-only viewers who feel ambushed. As one commenter wrote: "The difference between a merchant and a scalper isn't that big."
Japanese Fan Reactions (22)
Total tonal whiplash from last week. Scorpio-Lady (Shaula) thinks Subaru is a sage called Flügel? And was told "intercept anything approaching the tower," so she's been firing needles for 400 years? Then why'd she fire at Subaru? She literally aimed at her own master!
Subaru is literally a star name (the Pleiades), so that's the foreshadowing right there. The reason Shaula targeted Subaru? Probably explained later, or cut from the anime. I forget.
When Subaru first begged Shaula for help, she was all swagger and confidence, completely in control. Then the second she wakes up missing her lower half, she's panicked and crying "don't leave me alone." A whole new door is opening in my brain.
Subaru's name literally being a star is why he was researching stars in the first place. Got a school assignment to look up the meaning of his name as a kid, found out, then kept studying stars after that. He's a romantic. (I think this was cut from the anime?)
Yeah, the star-knowledge backstory was an anime cut. And the explanation of WHY Shaula targets Subaru — was that cut too, or coming up later?
Subaru's star knowledge actually paid off in the Regulus fight last season. Without that he wouldn't have figured out the constellation thing.
Subaru and Flügel's connection is probably tied to the core mystery of Re:Zero, so we won't get a clean answer until very late in the LN. Same for Emilia and the Witch of Envy. When those two reveals land, the whole story clicks into place.
There's a Sage in this universe named "Flügel" and a transferee from Earth named "Subaru." Watching all the pieces line up like an 8-bit retro game without enough info — without Beatrice this would be unplayable. The brute-force speedrun is not allowed.
Re:Zero foreshadows so much then leaves it sitting for years. Now Episode 4 drops more Flügel hints. Could we just focus on the tower without piling on new mystery? Even the tower itself might not get solved at this rate.
Random thought: who's stronger between the witches and the cardinal-sin Archbishops? The named Archbishops seem absurdly strong, and Beatrice basically had to flee from the Memory-stealer. I can't tell anymore — witches, factors, gluttony, that random town-defense flashback — too much hits at once when binge-watching. This anime is too dense.
Anime-only here, watching it the first time: I thought Julius initially hated Subaru because his behavior wasn't fit for someone calling himself a king-candidate's knight. Then later he accepts him because he proves himself with attitude and results. Was that not the read?
Julius and Subaru getting along now is wild considering how they met. Subaru got beat up. Question: that beast-tamer girl on Subaru's back — when did she first appear? And the girl who was playing the ukulele or whatever — is she gone for good?
I was scared to watch this season but I finally started. The line "stop ranking suffering against each other" hit hard. People love going "your 50-pain doesn't matter, there are people at 100." This show calls that out and it stuck with me.
Long weekend's about to end... and on day 1 of the holiday I did NOT Return-by-Death. Lucky me. Imagine looping the first day of vacation infinitely. Subaru would mentally reform himself overnight.
In response to the spoiler debate: "Anime threads should stick to what's aired." There are dedicated novel-reader threads. Why insist on dropping future plot HERE? Just to flex how much you know?
Honestly even thinking "if I drop a hint maybe they'll buy the novel" — most people respond by leaving the thread, not buying anything. Your self-indulgence destroys the one space anime-onlys had.
The author writes deliberately confusing foreshadowing, and the death-loop story structure makes "wait, why is this happening?" common. Going online for answers means walking into spoilers. It's genuinely hard to avoid.
When someone asks "was that explained in an earlier season?" the answer should be "yes, in season X" or "no." Dragging out future-arc spoilers and calling that being helpful is exactly why people hate it. The difference between a merchant and a scalper isn't that big.
You all keep dunking on Regulus, but there's an old manga argument: "if you say someone is trash, you're saying you're worse than that trash since you couldn't beat them." Reading the Regulus hate threads with that in mind is its own kind of funny.
Actually if Regulus hadn't gathered all his wives in one place, he'd be unbeatable and his weakness wouldn't even be findable. He lost because he was Regulus. Self-defeat via personality.
Today's episode being almost a comedy episode after last week's gore was a smart breather. Production knows when to pull back.
Coming up: the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony attack the Pleiades Watchtower. Reid gets eaten by Gluttony's power, but Reid is so strong he overrides the Archbishop's consciousness and walks around freely. The setup for Naked Shaula appearing properly is still a while away though lol.
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