What are you doing here?

The boy literally stumbled into not getting any cultural nuances (coupled with Subaru’s inherent natural tendency to misread) and thus promptly fell flat on his face infront of the Council which then led to the whole …saga that was the Conference.

Now. As for the Emilia stuff here. Mmmmmmmh. I agree w/ you on it being problematic how Emilia didn’t particularly explain even relatively basic things to Subaru/tell him of things that directly concerned him (example, Felix healing his Gate) but I think the Arc being about Emilia and learning to not shit on Subaru’s kindness isn’t particularly the point.

My belief is that the Arc is about Subaru and his inability to properly read others around him and getting the consequences for his limited view of the world.

And, of course, finally peeling away the flimsy ass mask Subaru has of this all being a fantasy world which was a coping mechanism but it was still part of Subaru’s thought process.

Now. The promise thing. Hmmmmmm. Well. This might be a bit of what truly nasty things I’ve seen of humanity tainting my view so I am perhaps a bit biased to reach what is most probably a warped conclusion by normal societal standards buuuuut…

Are promises not inherently coercive and manipulative within the context of 2 or more people interacting?

The reason I have this viewpoint is that I think about it like this. A promise is something that is cajoled out of someone to another person, often upon request. That means the promise often wasn’t made for ones own sake but to appease another’s mind and heart.

Now promises could be good if making them to oneself but that came out of something one did for themselves rather then another impressing upon them this proverbial chain that is what a promise in the end ultimately is no matter how fluffy society tries to paint it as.

That’s actually why I think in the end Emilia’s line here is a good answer from her POV because it is NOT distinctly some promise. It’s Emilia (imo atleast) being open and honest in communicating that she needs a reason to trust Subaru rn due to being unable to muster up one and her considering it “not much” to ask for is because Emilia considers trusting Subaru to be very easy so instead of that “not much” being more manipulative it comes across as Emilia being factual to me.

Also. Thanks for your appreciation of my analysis on Emilia’s more murky sides in Arc 3 and after lol. I do feel like Emilia is either whammied between people whom utterly dislike her (of whom I think you fall into that Camp? Pardon me if I’m mistaken though) or people whom adore her and just.. don’t really look at what the story is subtextually dropping.