Nalu Walker

Amo and Rudo

…Oh.

He gets attacked by Gluttony and wakes up with Emilia and Betty, and it goes about the same as it does in canon, with him catching on to their worry and immediately trying to raise their spirits. He acts just as he normally does and then they get very painful whiplash when he asks for their names please.

He is very nervous when he’s immediately introduced to everyone as an amnesiac because they. They look pretty scary. He tries to joke around, and it falls flat because the only known person to defeat a Sin Archbishop suddenly contracting amnesia right after an attack is bad news.

When he first talks to Julius post-amnesia he calls him “Julius-san” in front of everyone. As Julius has not lost his name in this version of events, everyone has to immediately fight back their laughter. Julius is incredibly creeped out. Ferris jumps in before he can ask Subaru to please just talk normally, and now Subaru is treating Julius respectfully and. It is so weird. If they When they get his memories back, nobody is ever going to let him live this down.

Subaru might have a bit of a crush on Julius, just like he did Emilia when he met her for the very first time. He’s trying not to acknowledge this but it’s even more obvious now than it was when he still had his memories.

He tries to flirt with Emilia at one point. Emilia flirts back way too hard and Subaru nearly trips over himself in fright (might even end up falling into the river lmao) because he did NOT expect that, and now he’s a little scared of her. Someone comments about this being sad to watch and Subaru gets embarrassed thinking that they’re talking about his attempt to flirt with her and not his rejection of her reciprocation. Ferris comforts Emilia about this development a bit later.

They stay in Priestella with the other camps to help with reconstruction.

Someone tells him he’s a servant, kind of joking due to his status as Whale/Rabbit/Archbishop Slayer, but he doesn’t catch on and is immediately is like “okay :)” and starts obediently going off to help with servant tasks as Emilia and all the others watch with sad looks on their faces. This is especially heartbreaking to everyone who watched him prematurely declare himself a knight about a year ago.

Someone tries to tell him he was a knight and he laughs hysterically because he thinks it’s a joke before catching on that they thought he’d actually believe it and scolding them for telling such an obvious lie, because come on, he’s not THAT stupid. They don’t try to convince him again. It’s a little too painful.

He’s terrible at chores. He forgot how to do all of them, except for sewing — which is adorable because it gives the impression that he was practically born a doll-maker. The others have to teach him everything else from scratch, but he works hard and eventually gets alright at it again.

He is also now illiterate. This is when everyone learns that the Emilia Camp had to teach him how to read and write. This explains a few things.

He is very embarrassed about this because hasn’t he been doing these things for a year?? And everyone else has so much on their plates already, what right does he have to add to it all like this…

Julius starts teaching him how to read and write. This only furthers Subaru’s impression of him as “Julius-san.” It also does nothing to help the fact that Subaru is developing a crush on him.

He’s kind of scared of Wilhelm, who always looks like he’s out for revenge against someone who just murdered his grandson or something.

(Subaru no longer has the look of a dead man in his eyes. Is that a curse or a blessing in disguise? Wilhelm doesn’t like the fact that he can’t immediately answer that question.)

Reinhard always looks super guilty all the time, like some sort of kicked puppy. Subaru is just as friendly with him now as he was when they first met. This gives everyone the impression that Subaru has no sense of self-preservation because anyone in their right mind would be at least a LITTLE nervous.

Garfiel is devastated. Where did his Captain go?? Subaru and he get along pretty well, mainly because Garfiel isn’t trying to kill him this time around, but — where’s Captain???

Otto. Is kind of okay with this. It’s not IDEAL, but — he can work with this. Controlling little bastard <3

Roswaal is not okay with this. He shows up in Priestella FAST when he gets the urgent letter saying that Subaru lost his memories. Subaru thinks he’s a funny clown man. Julius whacks him on the head when he calls him a clown the first time he sees him. The Emilia Camp is very much not willing to leave this dumb, inept version of Subaru alone with their very suspicious sponsor.

All in all, things go alright for the first month. Subaru is a dumb shit, but he’s helping with repairs and he’s more emotionally aware right now than it was in season one because like, he knows that the people around him are tense. It’s rocky, but it’s fine. And he’s distracted by work, so he doesn’t have to think about his parents or his home, and so he’s okay too.

He could be written as an absolute mess and you know what? That'd be in character. Have y'all SEEN the way he almost throws himself down the stairs, ON PURPOSE, in arc 6 or 7? Or how he wanted to be a fairy tale character? Or how insecure he is, but absolutely loyal to everyone?

On first impressions, he's cool and collected, but the dry humor is still there. He writes journals. He loves alcohol and would be the biggest wine nerd you'd ever need. He's got spirits clamoring for his attention constantly, to the point they wage wars on themselves.

And Julius doesn't even know.

The amount of girls swooning over him but he's laser-fricking focused on the sword, or the fact that his spirits are all like little girls for him, or that he's got a brother that worships him to no end, or how prideful he is that he can't admit things, to the point he takes it to the grave, or his rare, eyes-only-for-Julius earth dragon-

but eventually you realize otto is a little bit different- he's willing to sacrifice a WHOLE lot more than just himself. if it's for subaru's sake, he's willing to let an entire country die. it doesn't matter, his goal is to save subaru, he doesnt care about anything else. everything else can die as long as subaru is safe. he'll do anything. his codependency is a lot more twisted than originally thought.

YEAH and whats even worse is that julius’s dynamic with subaru is EXACTLY the same as otto’s dynamic with subaru on the surface except julius is the one that does the teasing. and then whats Even Worse is that julius is actually a Good Person with More Power Than Otto and otto cant be that so hes even more pissed!!! hes getting deja vu looking at this better version of himself i think wkdndnd hes like URGH fuck this guy got to be subarus boyfriend for MONTHS and i didnt so now theyre besties!!! they do the same things me and subaru do but better!!!! subarus always gonna choose him over me!! fuck!!

Rem doesn’t remember beating him to death or remember torturing him for hours. Ram doesn’t remember slitting his throat or chasing him down screaming that she is going to kill him. Puck doesn’t remember freezing him to death three times. Garfiel doesn’t remember holding him hostage in a cave for three days. Otto doesn’t remember throwing him off a wagon and leaving him at the mercy of the Whale. Anastasia, Crusch and Priscilla don’t remember turning him away when he begged them to help fight Petelgeuse. Petelgeuse doesn’t remember anything he did to earn Subaru’s rage. Even Roswaal, who knows that such occurrences must have happened in some loop, doesn’t remember what shit exactly Subaru has gone through in the name of his precious Book of Wisdom.

Julius, however, very much remembers the painful, humiliating demonstration in which he thoroughly beat Subaru unconscious in front of a crowd of spectators.

And, look — it was necessary. It saved his life. It was the only way to save his life in that instance, for reasons that were almost entirely Subaru’s own damn fault. But it was also very clearly traumatic: Subaru even explicitly tells Julius that he still has nightmares about that incident a year later in Arc 5. And Julius acknowledges it, even, replying somewhat jokingly (but also honestly pretty kindly) that he hopes to stop appearing in Subaru’s dreams in such a manner. Even other characters are honestly pretty understanding of Subaru’s hostility to Julius — in part because it’s obviously at least partially an act, but I’d argue that it’s also because him holding a grudge for that would be totally understandable, because even though he was the one in the wrong that was still pretty brutal, especially since Julius purposefully overdid it in order to make absolutely sure that nobody would continue to target Subaru after the demonstration was done. Also Julius asking Subaru in Arc 8 if they might possibly be friends now hints that he very likely did not catch on that this was an act at all, which is. Fucking hysterical, first of all, like MAN this boy is dense — but it also points to him being shockingly accepting of the idea that Subaru genuinely did not like him or trust him after The Incident that was their disastrous introduction to one another.

He doesn’t remember killing him, sure, but I honestly believe that Subaru wasn’t bothered much by that incident anyway: the traumatizing part of THAT would be the sensation of his body being stolen away from him by Petelgeuse, or even Ferris boiling his blood and demolishing every nerve in his body to paralyze him and keep him still. If anything, he probably saw Julius swiftly and painlessly putting an end to that nightmare as one of the kindest, most merciful things anyone’s event managed to do for him. So the one big thing that Julius did that really left a mark is also the one big thing that is actually remembered by the other party in question.

But Julius? Julius knows what he did, and sure, he doesn’t regret it exactly, but he also very much understands why someone would hold a grudge over something like that. And unlike Roswaal, Julius isn’t actually a dangerous person that he needs to keep an eye on — and Subaru very clearly recognizes this (see him agreeing to share his eyes with him through soul magic — or even how his second trial revealed to him the truth that he had been hiding from himself but known all along about how Julius had genuinely wanted to be his friend). Thus, you have a situation in which Subaru is allowed to be angry with someone for something that hurt him — something they actually remember doing — and without having to worry about when they’re going to do something like that again.

Honestly, as much as we (or maybe it’s just me :/) lament how Julius and Subaru would have gotten along like a house on fire if not for their disastrous introduction to one another — what a freeing moment, for Subaru to be able to openly tell someone that he’s had nightmares about something that they did to him, and for them to know what he’s talking about and why. And Julius might be the perfect person to be put in this position, because he’s able to walk this line between not making a big deal out of it (which would probably do more to discourage Subaru from letting himself be mad due to him not wanting other people to feel bad about that sort of thing, especially because he knows he was in the wrong and all for this particular event) while also treating the incident (and Subaru’s reaction to it) with a certain level of tact and understanding — he doesn’t even regret what he did, because he knows damn well that Subaru would have died otherwise, but he’s the kind of person who’s mature enough to both keep that in mind while also accepting that Subaru might not be over it.

Honestly can you imagine what that looks like from an outsider’s perspective???

Okay so, Subaru and Julius first meet when Subaru makes an ass of himself during the Royal Selection Ceremony, insulting the Knights Order and getting challenged to (and accepting) a duel, during which he gets beaten so thoroughly that Julius is subsequently suspended from the Order for a week. That was certainly A Thing That Happened, but not too weird right? Those two are gonna have some bad blood, we suspect it might evolve into some further skirmishes going forward, understandable, try not to mix those two going forward.

And then five days later those two not only Team Up, but they willingly merge their souls together to defeat the Archbishop of Sloth.

Whenever Julius speaks about Subaru following this incident he has hardly anything but praise for the guy he introduced himself to by beating half to death, except he also worries about him often enough that Anastasia referred to it as an infatuation(???) which is very interesting, and meanwhile whenever Subaru speaks about Julius he’s got this weird animosity that is also very clearly mixed with something else to the point where several characters make fun of him for pretending that he and Julius aren’t friends. They clearly are, though, because literally everyone recognizes them as such regardless of however much Subaru may protest. And then a year later when they finally meet up again, Julius steps in to stop Subaru from picking a fight with Heinkel and he LISTENS, and then later the two of them are seen having a private talk that at one point involves them both showing off their flexible legs, with Julius winning their competition and Subaru being playfully pissed off about it.

After Julius gets his name erased things start to make a little more sense because they really do just look like they’re probably gay for each other, and like, that’s not so strange, right? Without the context their relationship looks almost normal. Reid met them like Once and decided they were probably boyfriends, Eridna was openly curious about the nature of “her knight”’s relationship with Natsuki Subaru, and also I wouldn’t be surprised if them being fellow knights gave everyone the impression that this was some sort of Comrade Affair or other between fellow soldiers, which is whatever. They probably met on the battlefield or something and have had a fling going ever since, it happens.

Person who has watched rezero: rz isn't a harem, the vast majority of the girls have 0 genuine romantic interest in subaru. The romance is more of a love triangle

Person who has watched re:zero: subaru is trying his hardest to fit into a specific masculine role as a mask and the entire series is about deconstructing that male power fantasy

Subaru, desperately trying to convince himself he’s straight on the way to fight Petelgeuse: I don’t like your stupid face or your stupid hair that falls just so or that stupidly graceful way you walk or that stupidly eloquent way you talk stupid stupid stupid—

Julius, so unquestionably straight that the idea of seeing gayness as a threat to his masculinity is laughable: Ah. I see.

_

Subaru, trying not to let on that the Gay Thoughts have come back with a vengeance: Hey jackass, where do you get off with a voice that graceful? Training to be a singer or something on your off time? Prick.

Julius, just happy to see Subaru again in Priestella and amused to see that his obvious crush hasn’t faded even slightly: It’s nice to see you again, too.

_

Subaru, visibly checking him out while he does a split while trying really hard not to make it too obvious: You fucking show off…

Julius, who was absolutely showing off and is feeling only slightly guilty for bullying Subaru because he makes it way too easy: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

_

Subaru, currently being held after waking up screaming on the way to the Pleiades Watchtower: Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap—

Normally I’d actually agree with you, because I do genuinely love brotherly relationships in fiction and don’t actually like the prevalent narrative about romantic relationships trumping platonic ones in terms of value or importance, but—

“A man with an apologetic face and a sweet, soft spoken voice. Just from hearing it, many women would assume it to be the voice of an angel. An amusing pipe dream, but the voice did have the necessary color, beauty, and strength. That was the voice of the Knight of Knights, Julius Juukulius, which existed solely to vex. At least, that was how it felt to Subaru.”

“Looking at only their trivial words at the end of their conversation, maybe they did look like friends. But it was himself and Julius, so that wasn’t possible. He wasn’t a friend, he was something infinitely more annoying. / Although it was impossible to say exactly what that was.”

“As he spoke, Julius spread his legs apart and reached toward the ground. Subaru couldn’t help but admire his control over his slender legs and the suppleness of his hips as he lowered himself to the ground.”

“Viewed objectively, it did seem to resemble friendship, but there was no way Subaru and Julius shared that. They were something worse than friends, but Subaru couldn’t put his finger on what exactly. / ‘Well, we’re not friends. That much I’m sure of.’ / ‘So stubborn…’ / ‘He really is, I suppose.’ / Emilia looked exasperated while Beatrice simply sighed and agreed with her. For some reason, the two were so in sync that it made Subaru feel like he was being left out somehow.”

““Everyone is physically attractive,” was Subaru’s miserable realization about this Parallel World at this point.” (In context, this explicitly includes Julius.)

“???: “OYOY, c’mon are ya crying? Why’d ya start crying? Did you fight with yer boyfriend downstairs? Are ya crying ‘cause I talked you down? / Subaru: “Gh–hh–uuuuu!” / ???: “Good grief, what a hopeless bastard, OY!”” (Not Subaru’s words but like. It SAYS something that Reid saw them and thought this).

“Repeating Subaru’s words, Julius closed his eyes, which were bordered by long eyelashes. Subaru consciously kept breathing out deep, long breaths as he stood in front of the handsome man. He mustn’t be overwhelmed. At least, it’s that his feeling was to not lose.”

“The new white scar on Julius’s profile, combined with his unfamiliar appearance in a Japanese outfit, emphasized his dignified and handsome aura, giving Subaru a strange sensation. / It was not to say that the influence of “regression” had not affected Subaru’s perception, but it was probably more due to the changes on Julius’s side that caused this sensation.” (THE FUCK YOU MEAN, [STRANGE SENSATION]?!)

—At the very least, I don’t think that’s how Subaru sees Julius.

Reinhard is Reinhard

Ferris is very weak so he remains as a second option

Otto has already proven and assured his loyalty and friendship to Subaru

Garfield admires Subaru

Roswaal is Roswaal is already an antagonist (Interestingly, they almost always put him on Subaru's side or eliminate him from the equation? Opportunity missed)

ASo they need someone who makes mistakes, who is strong, who doesn't have a solid relationship with Subaru so that he isn't an OC And poor Julius ends up falling into their clutches

I hope Julius's POV of how he felt about Subaru is maintained of arc 6 ( That little part is so funny a little bit more and julius says "love at first sight" ) and easy to understand so that people who only anime can understand that Julius never hated Subaru

I mean if you want to explore a story where Subaru’s insecurities are placed front and center, Julius is absolutely the best pick for it. Subaru sees Julius as the guy who is his unequivocal superior from the getgo, besting him as both a knight and a man — even though nobody else really sees it that way at all — and the way the guy grates on him on a very personal level is one of the catalysts that leads to the Royal Selection Incidents.