Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 3

Episode 55

This week's Re:Zero is our big introduction to the Archbishop of Lust, Capella Emerada Lugunica. Like the other witch-factor holders, Capella's embodiment of her deadly sin, Lust, strays from the expected stereotype. Rather than being a hyper-sexual woman focused on sex more than anything else, Capella is obsessed with the love/lust dichotomy.

The idea of love comes with all these ideals of purity and permanence while lust is looked down upon as vulgar and temporary. Yet, in Capella's mind, love doesn't truly exist. Rather, love is just lust with a prettier name—and she is psychotically driven to force people to agree with her on this.

She does this by the use of her powers—which allow her to reshape herself at will into any form she chooses (conservation of mass be damned). But more importantly, she can also reshape others—into abominations like giant flies. By showing these transformed people to others, she proves that their love for humanity is only skin deep—after all, don't they feel revulsion at seeing what these people have been turned into? It's even better when she does something similar with a pair of lovers—showing unconditional love to be a fantasy and thus confirming that what they had was simply lust all along. And besides, if everyone around her has been transformed into something hideous, won't people naturally lust after her as the only attractive thing around?

Capella just wants to be “loved” by as many people as possible for as long as possible. It's as simple as that. Her thought process makes her terrifying in the extreme and solidifies her as another powerful force for Subaru to overcome in this arc.

The rest of the episode is largely spent resolving cliffhangers and setting up new ones. Emilia struggles to understand what has happened to her—who Regulus is and what he wants. Meanwhile, with a little help from Otto, Reinhard can save Felt from his cowardly father. As for new problems, Anastasia finds herself targeted by Sirius—and at a time when her strongest defenders are out with Subaru or are injured themselves.

This is a solid episode with a lot of action and an introduction to another big villain. No complaints from me!

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Granted, it's been a few years since I watched the previous seasons, but I don't remember Emilia wearing the outfit Lust transforms into. This caused a thought to enter my head: maybe that wasn't Emilia's form but Satella's.

• Hopefully, Lust's little announcement will convince Emilia that she needs to get out of her situation on her own—that she can't wait for Subaru to rescue her or innocents will die.

• Regulus calls Emilia his 79th bride but has his 184th bride care for her. Does he just arbitrarily give them numbers or does this mean there was a previous Number 79 who Emilia is replacing?

• Legitimate question: after being air-juggled by Capella, how isn't Subaru dead? If she's hitting him that hard his ribs should have shattered or his organs exploded.

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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