The Vampyre's Den

Like, this show's always been about the toxicity of the otaku mindset. It's always been critical of the misogyny and objectification that defined the worst of Subaru's instincts and refused to let him off the hook for them.

But I don't think I expect it to be this naked about it.

Like, there's no sugarcoating the parallels here. There's no misinterpreting the common ground between Regulus' attitude toward Emilia and how Capella's calling out Subaru. The Archbishop of Greed outright says that Emilia's physical attractiveness and desirability is the only thing that matters about her, that she exists to be objectified by him in every sense of the word. And on the other side of the capital building, here's Capella confronting Subaru with the same subconscious way he's been looking at her.

It would've been so easy for Lust to be an evil seductress like basically every incarnation of her in fiction. But instead, she's something genuinely horrifying: a reflection of how our physical desire poisons our sense of morality. For all Subaru's high-minded talk of being her gallant knight and loving her honestly... I mean, let's be blunt, he wants to have sex with her. He's attracted to her on a sexual level. And that lust is as core to his morality towards her as his more nobler intentions, maybe even more so. Like, would he still love Emilia as much if she wasn't attractive? Would we? Is the fact that she's a cute anime girl the actual reason we become attached to characters like her? How many of anime's iconic Best Girls would still earn so much affection without their adorable faces, their moe voices, their frequent flustered blushing to show how innocent they are, their breasts shaped at whatever size their artists deem the most desirable?

And if that sounds extreme, just consider how many incel gamers have been losing their mind lately over Western games choosing to design their female characters with actual realistic bodies and features (that are often plenty physically attractive in their own right!) instead of making them all look like Dead or Alive extras. Look how quickly this "fandom" turns on fictional women for the simple fact that they can't jack off to them, regardless of context. It doesn't matter what stories those women have to tell, what human connections they offer through their trials and growth. It doesn't matter whether they're well-written or not. If these chuds can't beat their meat to the Star Wars Outlaws lady, or the Silent Hill 2 trauma victim, or how Lara Croft looks in the Netflix cartoon, then as far as they're concerned, these characters are fundamentally worthless.

And Capella has their number dead to rights.

Do we actually love Emilia? Do we love her courage, her kindness, her refusal to give up, her willingness to brave the deepest darkness to believe in a better world? Or do we just love the bombshell beauty all those traits are served packaged in? And how can we disentangle those feelings to love her- and characters like her- for who they truly are instead of becoming just like Regulus?

In other words:

The funny part is in the light novels you never get the sense that Subaru objectified Emilia. We have Subaru explicitly be upset about the fact he knows nothing about Emilia's goals and why she is aiming to be ruler and whatnot, and he tries to close the gap, and he was objectively at his peak as a person at the start of LN 4, but everytime he tried closing the gap, either Emilia or Puck would shut him down, because Emilia is basically "locked" until Subaru can confess his love to her... basically his resolve is apparently not enough, the author is telling us that saving her and doing all sorts of things and basically changing her whole life plus the lives of several other people to the point where Emilia cannot ditch Subaru without upsetting several people (which is what happens... the villagers get upset, and Rem, Ram, and Beatrice would all also be upset) is apparently not enough.

In the end the person who objectifies Emilia is not Subaru but the author himself. Subaru is the one actually challenging her to step out of her little shell at the start of LN 4. Honestly the guy never came across like an incel or otaku or any of that bullshit in the LN, the anime just... kinda completely did a 180.

We have to ask, does the story actually offer Emilia any chances to do shit other than just be a fighting bimbo who is mentally stunted and looks pretty? The answer is no, the story cannot take medieval politics, class divide, the royal selection, so on seriously, because exposing Emilia to those things would accomplish two things

It would make Subaru's life easier because Emilia would better understand the cost Subaru bore in arc 3 due to being a commoner, and if she understood it (and didn't do stupid shit like joking about the duel) then Subary won't hate himself as much, which would stall the plot cuz the plot depends on Subaru constantly hating himself

Emilia would no longer be the author's idol. In the end Regulus and Capella come across as the author bashing himself more than anything, because at the start of LN 4, Subaru is perfectly alright and he is thinking about all sorts of things around him, beyond just Emilia. He calls out people saying Emilia is just a figurehead, and his proclamation is really a challenge for Emilia to step up and take ownership of him

What arc 3 is a battle between Roswaal's belief in people's weakness vs. Subaru's belief in their strength. In the throne room, everytime Subaru chooses to believe in inherent goodness, he is brutally punished, the most devastating being Emilia failing in her role as liege.

His selfish desires themselves aligned with Emilia's own self-interests, what triggers her is being called "special," and she doesn't know Subaru meant it in an entirely positive way, and there where Subaru decided to trust the camaraderie built up between them over several months, she chooses instead to be weak, to hinge everything on a single misspoken word.

The author writes Emilia in a way where she can never understand things like class divide, the other candidates' goals and backgrounds, medieval sociopolitics, so on. The only thing that changes about Emilia in arc 4 is... basically she accepts that Subaru is kinda immortal and will always come through for her and she doesn't have to particularly change as a person beyond just learning to accept Subaru's love which is framed as her accepting responsibilities, which in the end amounts to just giving Echidna an answer, so the trials too were basically free.

She... continues to be a figurehead. Subaru, Otto, and Roswaal are the ones who handle everything.

Emilia's role in the story is literally to just be pretty and stupid and get spoiled and handed everything on a platter as a reward for merely existing, while Subaru is the one doing all the dirty work.

Emilia's "me in your head" line in LN 4 is meaningless in the sense that it is quite clear that it is Emilia who was being very abnormal because Subaru simply lacks information about all her various quirks and personal issues, he literally expected her to function like a normal adult friend, and promise or no, you tend to develop a camaraderie with people with and for whom you've risked your life, and this camaraderie, you do not get from Emilia.

The conflict in LN 4 is not some politically mature or savvy girl who is distancing a guy who humiliated her, because that is not what happened at all. Nearly every single thing Subaru does only improves Emilia's image and standing, even if the author tries to frame it otherwise, and what objectively happens is a mentally stunted and overwhelmed child with zero agency stuck between Roswaal and Puck's views ("hope is a gentle poison" = "keep people out of your life so you won't be disappointed, you're a half-elf and this is how things are") and Subaru's views (challenging her preconceptions about keeping people out of her life) and she chooses to run away.

At no point in the story (I'm talking about the LN) does Subaru actually treat Emilia like a reward or objectifies her, rather it is Emilia who does that with Subaru, she treats him like the little pet that needs to be kept in the kennel and discplined, she expects to be seen as a normal girl without being aware one bit about the responsibilities that come with her status and power, she simply cannot comprehend concepts like that, and the fact she jokes about the duel with Julius while simultaneously acting like some kinda tragic heroine because people hate her for being a half-elf shows that in the end it is the author and Puck (and not Subaru) who are sexist and hypocritical as fuck.

What does Emilia actually do on her own two feet where she had to push herself which didn't involve other people setting the stage for her?

Nothing. Subaru actually gave her a chance in the throne room, and she threw it back in his face, and the author never truly allows her to engage with royal selection related matters in a serious way. You have Subaru who alone faces all the brutal realities of both combat and politics, meanwhile Emilia... literally does nothing. Mary Sue is underselling it, she can never be at fault, because there's always some bullshit backstory or justification to make the audience pity her or be okay with her being spoiled.

The author cannot write her like a real person by giving as an almost equal amount of the story from her perspective because it would be violating his idol.

He's pathetic.

Subaru suffers over and over again because of this and multiple characters point this out within the story.

In the end Emilia's role in the story is to just look pretty as Regulus says, and Subaru's love does seem to amount to just her looks, and I don't think this is Subaru's fault so much as the author's fault. The author is obsessed with maintaining her "pure" image. You have Emilia say these absolutely idiotic things like how they should be glad the Great Rabbit was wiped out and not be upset about not getting credit (well, Subaru is upset and Emilia is like, hey we did something good though) and when Subaru says for example how they could take advantage of their relationship with Liliana to make the deal with Kiritaka go smoother, she's like that sounds like "using Liliana" or something... man, you're telling me this spoiled child is this stupid and lacking in pragmatism and is aiming to be ruler and nobody sees a problem with this?

At the end of the day the author thinks it's funny Emilia doesn't know about procreation. It's less Subaru and the camp and more the author forcing the story to be this way, forcing the entire fucking plot so it can accomodate his idol, this naive, flawlessly innocent, idol that he beats his meat to.

At the end of the day when it comes to Emilia, 99% Subaru's emotional pain would be alleviated if the story made Emilia grapple with the royal selection on her own seriously, but the story cannot allow that. It can never deal with topics like class divide, politics, poverty, procreation, administration, etc., seriously, because if it did, then the story would basically be over because Emilia would grow the fuck up.

Arc 4 is basically Emilia accepting that Subaru will always validate her ego in the sense that she doesn't particularly have to change as a person, she just needed to accept Subaru will do her job for her and she just shouldn't get in the way, and Roswaal even mocks her saying that Subaru probably didn't tell her about the necessity of the trials, and the story is telling me to see Roswaal as a villain, but the dude is literally right. Emilia can only be stupid because of Return by Desth.

For all the bashing the story tries to do on otakus or whatever for "objectifying women," when do we actually see Emilia do the royal candidate stuff again? She never has to think about how her entire platform and respect and everything is just a gift Subsru gave her, to the point ppl like Anastasia and Priscilla think she's irrelevant, and yet Emilia herself never hears them say these things.

Any royal candidate who can directly challenge Emilia are either killed, become docile, get their Od fucked up and forget their knight, or they are her friend like Felt. The story cannot take the royal selection plotline seriously because if it did, then Emilia wouldn't be who she is now, she would have grown the fuck and been more than an idol.

You always get this feeling that Subaru wants her to grow up so his life is easier, and LN 4 is basically Subaru acting without the information that he's basically dealing with Tappei's fetish where Emilia looks 18 and has big tiddies and is roughly similar height but is mentally a child all sorts of crazy idiotic and impractical complexes that you aren't allowed to fault her for because [insert backstory], but the author himself Subaru to submit and put up with his fetish.

You do not want me to go on.

You do not want me to go on.

Just wanted to draw a quick comic after drawing these outfits. I'm not sure if we'll start Chapter 6 on a light note, so let's pretend it does for these short moments of ambiguity.

You do not want me to go on.

You and Me