The fight in this episode definitely was over a lot quicker than I expected. I expected the fight between Wilhelm and Theresia to last a lot longer and actually be more sad than it was. Though despite the fight concluding very quickly due to OP Mcgee over there, it didn’t make the overall moment less sad. Especially when we find out just what being the Sword Saint meant and exactly how Reinhard “killed” Theresia.
Also the fact that Reinhard’s sword actually came out of its sheathe for the first time says a lot about Theresia’s abilities.
Theresia’s backstory was nothing short of tragic just like everyone else in this world. Not only did it choose her over her brother, who she thought deserved it more because of how long and hard he’s trained with the sword, but girl didn’t even seem to be interested in becoming a swordsman in the first place. She was just minding her own business gardening when the Sword Saint power chose her to be its vessel. She was essentially just a normal girl forced into a position she didn’t want and take part in horrific wars where people are constantly dying. If I were in her shoes, I don’t even know how I’d function. As soon as I saw her brother receive the best brother reward by reassuring he’d fight in her place and didn’t hold any resentment towards her for being chosen, I knew he was going to die. Considering we haven’t even seen or heard of any of Theresia’s other family members until this episode, it probably was expected they were already dead. But man, I wasn’t expecting to see a close up of all of them just dead on the battlefield. Of course, this is ReZero so really, I shouldn’t be surprised.
In the end, Theresia was forced to take up her sword and essentially be used as a weapon in the war. And because of what she was forced to go through, it makes so much sense as to why Wilhelm having her step down as the best swordsman probably meant a lot to her especially since she felt like she had to take up the title and not genuinely wanting it. Girl probably just wanted to be normal and Wihelm seemingly was able to give her as normal of a life as possible by taking the title of “The Strongest Swordsman” judging from the stills we saw in her flashback until the end. The sentiment probably also reminded her of her brother in a sense as well since he promised to fight in her stead way back when. But bro, TELL YOUR WIFE YOU LOVE HER DANG IT. If I had to fault him for anything, it’d be that.
Also completely off topic, but can we just talk about how ugly Reinhard was as a baby lol.
Like everything else in this world, all good things must come to an end when Theresia goes back to the battlefield to settle things against the White Whale and even injures Wilhelm in the process so he can’t stop her. And man, it HURTS me whenever I see an instance of “you can tell me” or “do this thing with me next time” and then something happens where someone ends up dying or disappearing. So Theresia telling Wilhelm to give her an answer when she comes back just had me writhing on the floor because we know this is when she ends up dying. Again, YOU GUYS ARE MARRIED AND THE GUY STILL HASN’T SAID HE LOVES YOU????
Here I thought it was the White Whale that ultimately ended up killing Theresia. Nope, freaking Pandora makes yet another appearance to destroy another set of lives. We still have not seen her in present day, but the long term effects she’s inflicted on so many people are still prevalent to this day. As soon as I saw her outline, I knew we were in for a bad time. And while the scene with her didn’t last too long, her actions caused such a powerful rift within the Astrea household. After what she did to Emilia and the others, it was honestly triggering and sad to see how she just offed Theresia without a care. And probably because no one lived to even witness Pandora, no one knows who truly killed Theresia. So while Wilhelm was able to deal the final blow against the White Whale, Theresia’s death hasn’t been truly avenged yet. I think what was the most sad about the scene was it was at that moment that the power of the Sword Saint transferred to Reinhard, leaving Theresia essentially powerless against Pandora.
And boy, did the final farewell between Wilhelm and Theresia DESTROYED me. I knew it was gonna be sad, but I don’t think I expected my eyes to water at the scene. I’m honestly not even sure what was worse between Theresia regaining consciousness or not. Though on one hand I am glad that the two were finally able to finally share a mutual “I love you.” The moment legit made me tear up. And while the sentiment of being able to hear Wilhelm’s form of “I love you” in his actions is beautiful, I still believe it would have also been nice for Wilhelm to have been able to say it from time to time. Like bro, just because you’re not good with words, doesn’t mean you don’t tell YOUR WIFE you “love her.” When Wilhelm was really stretching it out before he actually said the words, I couldn’t help but mentally yell “JUST SAY IT.” But I digress. The moment was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. You could tell just how much Wilhelm loved her just by how he acted towards her and Theresia in return. And while I have some reservations about having Theresia regain consciousness at the end, I think her passing away as herself brought a lot of closure for Wilhelm. Also Theresia having fallen in love with Wilhelm at first sight was just really cute since I think he also felt the same way. Their love story was honestly super strong and touching.
And then there’s the issue with Wilhelm and Reinhard. For Reinhard, he seemed awfully curt and cold about the whole situation. Though he did step in before Heinkel got killed by Theresia. It’s hard to tell how Wilhelm feels about Reinhard at this moment as the whole exchange between the two about Reinhard being right and Wilhelm being wrong felt off. It was probably really hard for him to watch Reinhard kill Theresia, especially since it seems like Wilhelm wanted to deal with the situation personally. I am a bit worried for Wilhelm since he seemed just absolutely done with everything and the next time we see him, he won’t be dead. Please live on, Wilhelm!
Also I saw this information floating around and the place where Reinhard and Felt met was the same place where the field of flowers used to be where Wilhelm and Theresia met. Take that information as you will.
Heinkel’s position is both interesting and kind of sad. Especially when you compare him to the beasts that are Reinhard and Wilhelm, the guy is kind of pathetic. While we don’t know his full capabilities, he was part of the knights at one point and was training dutifully with Wilhelm as a child. However, when up against a reanimated Theresia, the guy was swept to the side really easily and nearly killed. Though that could have been because he was so shocked to see his dead mother’s face after so many years. In any case, from what I can tell from this episode, he probably feels a tremendous amount of guilt for being the one to essentially send Theresia to her death. With Wilhelm having to go find the kidnapped princess, Heinkel probably asked his mother to lead the charge against the White Whale. And the only way he was able to cope was to shift the blame onto Reinhard since it seems like he truly loved his mother. And if it weren’t for Reinhard becoming the Sword Saint at that moment, Theresia might have made it back. Though considering how broken Pandora is, we don’t even know if it would have even mattered.
The way that Heinkel acts is a child acting out to try and get attention. Considering he doesn’t seem to be able to live up to Wilhelm and Reinhard’s levels, he just feels like the odd one out. And while his relationship with Wilhelm has dwindled over the years, it seems like he still cares for him and vise versa. When Theresia turned her attention onto Heinkel, Wilhelm seemed desperate to catch her attention to save Heinkel’s life. And after everything was over, Wilhelm still wanted Heinkel to think about his safety. It just feels like everyone is covering for him, taking on all the responsibility so that he doesn’t have to get involved because he’s not strong enough. That in itself must hurt. It seems like a part of Heinkel does want to help, but everyone dismisses him, leaving him with nothing. It’s honestly pretty sad and pathetic. Especially when it feels like he doesn’t have a place or a role. He’s just stuck floundering around so he takes it out on everyone around him. How would it feel to be the average one in a family of monsters? He probably feels inept compared to them, which is probably where his frustration and anger stems from.
This episode was alright. It did feel a little off to me with how everything transpired. There were parts where I didn’t feel fully satisfied, like how quickly Theresia’s threat was dealt with. Not to mention, I did notice that the animation and character proportions were noticeably more wonky in this episode. Maybe they’re saving the budget for the finale. It is a little worrying on how everything will be tied up since we only have two more episodes left in this season and we still need to deal with gluttony, lust and possibly still wrath. Since we didn’t truly see her die, she just got knocked off the bridge. I need confirmation or I don’t believe they’re gone. I did like seeing Theresia’s pov, though I felt like her reanimated death muddied the waters between all the living Astreas again just when it seemed like Wilhelm and Reinhard were starting over. Hopefully they will get another chance to rekindle their relationship.
