Shaula & Flugel | Re:ZERO Season 4 Episode 4 Reaction/Analysis

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]What up, weebs? Happy Re:Zero day. This episode was awesome for me, but pretty confusing for my roommate who's an anime only. So, if anyone else didn't quite understand what happened, I can try to spell it out for you. First of all, this absolute baddie, Shaula, who we thought was the sage, actually thinks that Subaru is the sage. So, we're kind of screwed because our goal was to come here and meet the sage so that she could wake up Rem, but it turns out that the sage is >> retarded.

[00:00:27]>> Anastasia shows us what the sage looks like on the coins, and it clearly doesn't look anything like Shaula. It also doesn't really look like Subaru, either. So, the reason Shaula thinks the sage is Subaru is because of his smell.

[00:00:38]We've known since season 1 that Subaru has the witch's scent, so the implication is that this Flugel person must also have had a similar connection with Satella. Shaula also says a few English words this episode. For example, "No problem." Or, if you're watching the English dub, she says, "No problemo."

[00:00:54]The point being, English and Spanish don't exist in the Re:Zero world, so it's implied that someone from Earth must have taught those to Shaula. Also, the name of the watchtower itself is a reference to a constellation that can be seen from Earth. Pleiades is a constellation known as the Seven Sisters, an obvious reference to the Seven Witches, and also Subaru is another word for Pleiades. Except, in Japanese, Subaru also means unity. So, that's why I think Subaru's destiny in Re:Zero is to unite the Seven Sisters, and thus I think he will have all seven witch factors by the end of the story.

[00:01:27]Anyway, it seems like Shaula didn't have many friends because she's been alone for 400 years. Although, she does mention two names: Volcanica, who we know is the Divine Dragon, and Reid Astrea, the stick swinger, who was the first sword saint. I think it's safe now to show you what Reid used to look like back when he was alive. And remember, Reid is also the name of Reinhard's dragon sword. [music] So, maybe that's what the title stick swinger is about, or maybe Reid was blind and he had to swing around one of those blind people sticks to be able to see where he's going. This episode got me thinking about how bad it would suck to be blind, though, because you would completely miss all the Shaula jiggle physics. If any blind people are watching this, make sure you hit the like button. I'll try to guide you to it with my voice. It's like right over here on this side of the screen, and if you're on mobile, I think it's like over this way somewhere.

[00:02:13]Shaula also implies that she herself isn't human because she acknowledges that it's normal for a human like Reid to die of old age, even though she clearly hasn't even aged in 400 years.

[00:02:23]She could be another spirit created by a kidna, because we do have confirmation that a kidna was involved with the tower, and locking someone in a library for 400 years is one of a kidna's favorite hobbies. But, most of the time, her creations look a bit different, and um well, Shaula's design kind of looks like it was made by one of the boys. I'm not going to elaborate on that, but whoever gave her this outfit had extremely good taste. Anyway, we keep hearing the name Flugel in season 2.

[00:02:50]Betelgeuse says, "I'm sorry, Flugel."

[00:02:51]right before consuming the sloth factor.

[00:02:53]And we also know Flugel planted the Flugel tree, and even carved his name into it. In this chapter of the light novel, Subaru actually mentions that he also considered carving his name into the tree. And that was just a little bit of cut content, but I thought it was interesting because it's yet another similarity between the two of them.

[00:03:10]Although, it seems pretty out of character for Subaru to order Shaula to snipe innocent people and then abandon her alone in a tower for 400 years.

[00:03:18]That's the only reason I don't think Subaru is Flugel, but I don't know. Some more cut content from this episode.

[00:03:24]While they're walking up the stairs, Shaula actually reveals the names of all the floors in the tower. Each floor is named after one of the seven stars in the Pleiades constellation. Asterope is the circular basement floor. Celaeno is the empty ground floor with nothing except a large door to the outside.

[00:03:39]Alcyone is the floor with the green room and the healing spirit, as well as some other rooms, a balcony, and Shaula's room. Taygeta is the library floor that we just unlocked. And then there's two floors above that, Electra and Maia. The numbers of the floors are also reversed, almost as if the tower was designed upside down. But anyway, Shaula only mentions the names of six floors. And according to the Pleiades constellation, there should be a seventh floor called Merope. Subaru knows this because on Earth he had a vast interest in astronomy. And so, when he asks about Merope, Shaula just kind of shuts up and refuses to talk about it.

[00:04:15]And that's another classic Re:Zero mystery. I don't know why they cut that content. Maybe they plan on mentioning it in a later episode, but it was part of this chapter in the novel. Speaking of Subaru's knowledge of astronomy, though, this trial was complete bullshit. It's an asterism of a constellation that doesn't [music] even exist in the sky of the Re:Zero world, and the answer was related to mythology from Earth. The answer being Rigel is also kind of crazy, because that's what Subaru names his son in the sloth if.

[00:04:42]Rigel was also different from his father in a lot of ways. For one, he was able to produce a single horn from his forehead, which would gather mana and fill his body with strength, making him feel like he could do anything. But yeah, to solve this, you not only have to be able to fly, but you also need to be from Earth, and you have to be a fucking astronomy nerd, as well. This puzzle was clearly designed only for a very specific person to solve, and obviously whoever designed it had knowledge of our world, too. The library seems like something Echidna would do, and also fun trivia fact about Echidna, she used to live in a Actually, I'm going to make this a quiz on the side of the video, since YouTube lets me do that now. Think about the answer to that quiz, and then think about when I said it seems like the tower was built from the top down. I'm not saying Echidna built the tower. I feel like sometimes I try to give her credit for things she didn't actually do, but at the very least, I think she was involved. I also want to talk about that opening scene with Regulus and Betelgeuse. This wasn't just an ordinary dream. It's actually a real dimension called Satella's Shadow Garden. In the novel, Subaru goes here sometimes after he dies, and then Satella typically shows up and love bombs him with Riz until he wakes up and immediately forgets all about it. Until this episode, though, it's mostly been cut content. We did get a brief glimpse at it in season 1 when Betelgeuse possesses Subaru's body and gets rejected by Satella, but other than that, it's just been entirely cut content. And even the scene this episode had some cut content, as well. The really interesting thing in the novel version of this scene was how deeply in love with Satella Subaru was. I fucking pray this kind of shit finds me one day, but it says there was an unbearable, unending passion at the core of his consciousness, or perhaps within the formation of his consciousness itself.

[00:06:27]No, more so, it was dear love, adoration, deep, unconditional love. I got no bitches right now, but even if I did, I don't think I could ever love someone that much. I mean, the emotion Subaru felt in this dimension was beyond love. It was like cosmic soul bonding or some shit. And that bondage was unbreakable. Anyway, I don't know if this is true or not, and I haven't had the time to research it, but I bet Subaru goes here literally every time he dies. Like, from our perspective, he might get his head blown off, and then a second later, he's immediately back at his respawn point. But, if my theory is correct, I think he goes to the Shadow Garden first, and they just haven't been showing it to us. He also never has any recollection of going there, so it could be happening literally every death, and the only reason we don't know about it is because they skip it most of the time. So, I actually don't think return by death is automatic anymore. After Subaru dies, I think he goes to the Shadow Garden, and Satella has to find him there, and then manually use return by death on him. But, because they don't always show that part to us, it looks like he just respawns automatically.

[00:07:28]This episode was a 10 out of 10. It was a great episode for the material it was given to adapt. Honestly, this will probably be the weakest episode of the season, other than episode 1, but it was nice that we can finally start gooning to Shaula. And it's honestly crazy to me that this season of Re:Zero is actually being adapted. Like, I remember back to when I first started my YouTube channel, that was when this arc was being written, and I would make these really shitty chapter summaries using Google Translate because I didn't know DeepL was a thing. And then this Reddit moderator accused me of stealing his translations, and a lot of people believed it. It was good times. This season really takes me back to the early days, and it's just surreal to finally be watching it. So far, I've been super impressed with this adaptation, and I can't wait for it to get crazy. I think after this week, that's when the roller coaster really begins, so I hope you guys are ready. Anyway, thanks for watching. Keep talking about Re:Zero.

[00:08:19]I'm out for now. Peace.

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