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This Week in Anime - What Has Re:Zero's Subaru Learned?

Which fits Subaru pretty well. 10 bucks says he's got a Stella Vermillion body pillow stashed somewhere.

I like Asterisk War and remember Absolute Duo. Am I strange?

In Episode 18, Subaru needed empathy and an appreciation of his self worth to help him climb out of rock bottom. Shaming individuals relentlessly is counterproductive; if someone doesn’t feel capable of doing better or worthy of trying, they fall further. It was a bit much that it came in the form of a love confession, especially from someone so vulnerable to similar issues of self hatred, who, just like Subaru, started finding their own reasons to live only when they met an unrequited love interest to obsess over (Subaru is to Rem as Emilia is to Subaru; in that respect they are very much alike). But I actually like that this show emphasized the power of vulnerability and connection over superpowers and fighting ability to rebuild the main character’s self confidence.

I’ve been trying to reconcile the psychological themes well portrayed through fantastical supernatural trials and trauma with the ordinariness of the home life depicted in the latest episode. Subaru has loving, supportive parents, and we are told, rather than shown, that his treatment at school reinforced his internalized self hatred. When the story shifted to flashback, I was hoping there might be a clearer—or even supernatural—reason for Subaru’s insecurities. I would be all for his mom being a witch or his dad being an isekai hero, but his back story is much simpler than that. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, and perhaps even proves a point that you don’t have to be an orphaned demon girl discriminated against for being a one-horned twin to carry trauma.

(Now I want to find an AMV to REM’s Losing my Religion)

He lashes out at a moment of piling up stress from basically living as a penniless immigrant

and getting all his limbs broken for the entertainment of a crowd

I think I'd like episode 18 more if Subaru legit had qualities to like

Is this hyperbole? It's one thing to not like the character because you believe his various faults real or perceived outweigh any good qualities he might have but to say he has no good/likeable qualities is absurd.

Throughout the series he has demonstrated kindness, compassion, a decent work ethic along with fair bit of self-honesty as well as occasional thoughtfulness. Obviously he has also demonstrated pride, ego, varying degrees of entitlement and thoughtlessness as well as a unhealthy dose of self-loathing.

There were definitely more than a few viewers who were immediately turned off by Subaru’s antics (a very intentional move in hindsight), and I can definitely see people interpreting Subaru’s good qualities being motivated by bad intentions (in a very “please notice me, Emilia-senpai!” kind of way) that just paints Subaru in an overall bad light.

And there's so much to pick on the second arc, from how he acts the same with everyone, to how he feels about work, betrayal or the plights of others. The lengths he went to don't match what someone so frivolous would do. Nobody puts themselves through so much pain exclusively to get laid or praised.
So rather than not seeing his positive traits, it was more about refusal to acknowledge them.