So when you hear the word regret,
what's the first thing that comes to your mind?
What do you wish you had never done or never said?
But more importantly,
how long are you gonna punish yourself for your mistakes?
You know, it's easy to put ourselves down
and to think that we are the worst of the worst.
But in reality, we're all flawed, but we're also loved.
And for this season finale,
we're gonna look at a character who had to learn
how to change her self view
and to accept the fact that she is loved
despite her mistakes.
And I'm talking about the blue hair demon made herself, Rem.
Hey, what's going on guys?
My name is Nate and you're listening to the Otaku Liberation,
a show where we help you break the chains
that are holding you back in your life
by connecting some biblical principles with the Bible.
The Blue Hair Demon Made Herself Rem.
And we're gonna talk about the
The Blue Hair Demon Made Herself Rem.
And we're gonna talk about the
The Blue Hair Demon Made Herself Rem.
By connecting some biblical principles with themes
from your favorite anime.
And without further ado, let's get into it.
So again, this episode really going over
the idea of regrets, right?
Because I mean, this whole season,
this whole season covering ReZero
has been about facing your past, accepting your past
and doing what you can to move forward
and move beyond your mistakes, right?
And we've seen that similar theme
throughout each of the characters, right?
All of it about how they had to face their own past,
but in different aspects and in different ways.
And in Rem's case, it's about, you know,
dealing with her regrets over her mistakes
and her mindset that she's had in the past,
really up until she met Subaru.
And the Bible verse I wanted to kind of tie into that
is Psalms chapter 139, verse 14.
I will praise you because I have been remarkably
and wondrously made.
Your works are wondrous and I know this very well.
And essentially what it is is, you know,
you're seeing yourself in a positive light
because you are made just to be who you are, right?
You're not defined by the mistakes that you've made.
You know, you're not defined by the burdens
and regrets you're holding onto.
You're defined by our Lord, right?
He's called you to be more than that.
He knows about the mistakes you've made,
that you're going to make and you know,
everything in between, right?
So, I mean, that was the case.
All of us are just terrible beings, right?
And none of us are perfect.
None of us have lived that perfect life, right?
We've all done something or said something
that we regret and wish we could take back, right?
And for Rem, it starts back in, really,
from the very beginning, from her birth.
And to kind of really, in order to really show that,
and kind of go back to how Rem and her twin sister, Ram,
were born and kind of grew up, right?
So, for Rem, she has a huge inferiority complex
to her older twin sister, Ram.
And she holds both respect and guilt for her sister.
And that's because, so, like I said before,
Rem and Ram are onis or demons
or whatever you want to call it.
But in the verse, they're called onis, right?
And typically, onis are born with two horns.
You know, that's kind of just like a trademark of their,
they have the two horns.
And when it comes to twins,
their twins are seen as a bad omen
because both twins or each twin
is only born with one horn, right?
The pair is just split between the two.
And normally that kind of dampers
their overall capabilities, quality of life,
things like that.
So they were actually going to be executed
the day they were born because they were twins.
And Ram, the older one, she protected both her and Rem
with her extraordinary magical power, you know?
Because Ram was pretty much good at everything.
Pretty much every, literally everything from magic,
you know, cooking, hunting, all the different things
that were valued in their culture, Ram excelled at.
While Rem did, you know,
not to say she was bad at those things,
she just wasn't as proficient as her sister was.
And that started to be the sense of,
like I say, inferiority and kind of resentment within Rem,
not so much towards Ram, but towards herself,
where Rem believed that if she,
if she being Ram and she had never been born,
then her sister could have been that much more better off,
right, than can have been way more successful,
whatever the case may be.
And it feels like, again,
that she's just better off not existing.
And I know, I know a lot of us kind of go through
that whole thing.
You know, you think, you know, the world or whoever you're,
you know, the people that you care about,
you may think that they may be better off without you
for whatever the case may be, whatever the reasoning is.
That's not true.
That's not true at all.
You know, you were put here for a reason
and you've made the relationship you've made for a reason.
And, you know, your life and their lives
would be changed drastically if you weren't here.
Well, obviously your life, you wouldn't have a life
because you wouldn't be here,
but you get what I'm saying.
But anyway, back to the whole kind of mindset thing,
you know, you don't, you may not,
you may think that you don't deserve to know these people,
to be in this situation, to have favors shown upon you.
And, you know, in whatever the case may be,
maybe you've been told your whole life
that you don't deserve anything.
So you start to believe it.
Or on the, on flip side,
maybe not straight out told that you don't deserve it.
You just never been told that you do.
And both of those things make it equally hard
to believe that.
And listen, in Rem's case, she was never,
outside of the initial discrimination for them being twins,
she was never put down or anything like that
in terms of her lack of, lack of ability.
Because again, Rem, she could,
she was able to do everything that Ram could do,
but just not as well, nowhere near as well, honestly.
Ram was actually kind of a genius
when it came to a lot of these things.
But because everyone was praising Ram so much,
Rem just, and Rem just felt like she was, you know,
just there on the sideline, like, you know,
typical younger sibling syndrome, right?
You're living in the shadow of your older,
of your older sibling or your older family member,
you know, whether it might be your parents, you know,
if you grew up in a town where your parents are very well
known for their accomplishments and things like that.
And I kind of touched on this point a little bit
with Subaru during his episode about how his father was,
you know, the greatest thing is to slice bread.
And then you got him, him being Subaru, you know,
everyone, they don't see the actual person that's standing
there, they see who they're related to.
And this is a similar, similar take with, with Rem.
And that's part of the reason why they,
Rem and Subaru were able to connect as well as they do,
because that type of familiarity, right?
At least that's my take on it.
When I, when I was watching it and going back with my
research for these episodes,
I feel like that similarity in both of their backstories
where they were, you know, whether directly or not,
compared to their family members who could do everything
under the sun and they themselves couldn't.
And I think that does breed that type of inferiority
complex, that type of resentment eventually towards
either the person you're being compared to or resentment
towards yourself because you can't live up to other
people's expectations for you.
And both of those are very, you know,
very dangerous places to be.
So again, that's kind of all where it started with Rem.
And where it kind of shifts to the guilt aspect of it
is what happens later.
So, yeah, some years have passed after the twins have been
born, I can't really say how old they are.
Maybe, you know, eight or nine in human years, right?
And they're still children,
but their village is attacked by, you know,
the witch's cult, which is the main,
one of the main bad groups in the, in their series itself.
And during the attack, I mean,
Ram was, you know,
taking care of the vast majority of the enemies.
Because again, she's just that strong, right?
And she was just trying to make sure that she protected her
sister Rem.
But in that process, I guess the main boss of the raid
at that point, he attacked Ram and broke her horn off.
And for Oni's, you know, once they lose their horn,
and that's pretty much a wrap.
Not like they die or anything,
but their magic control is nowhere near what it used to be.
And it's kind of, it's just, it's not a good thing, right?
But in that moment, when Rem saw her sister lose her horn
for a split second, she felt joy in her heart.
And I'm saying like a real brief moment,
like not even something that she didn't really register
until later on when she started reflecting on it.
And that glimpse of joy that she felt at someone else's pain,
not just someone else, but her sister's pain,
her sister's misfortune ate, ate Ram up,
ate her up from the inside.
It, it, and it's funny,
funny's not the right word, but looking back at it, right?
How many people do we know or have known like that
who they do take joy at someone else's misfortune for,
and like genuine joy out of it.
I'm not talking about this fleeting feeling
that Rem had for a brief second.
I'm talking about they get their kicks from it, right?
They love seeing people fail.
They love seeing people go through hardship, right?
And I think as humans, as humans,
I think we do enjoy seeing it to an extent.
And I don't want to say enjoy it,
like we get the pleasure from it,
but it's that's the reason why we watch all these
quote unquote reality TV shows, right?
We, it's something about seeing people go through
some type of struggle,
whether it's something that we can relate to,
whether it's something that, you know,
when they make it to the other side,
that we strive to be, to be at the other end,
whatever the case may be.
But what I'm talking about here
is for the people who genuinely get like,
like how we watch, you know, sports or something like that,
how we get the, you know, that rush, that feeling,
you know, when our team finally wins,
they get that same feeling from people suffering.
And for them, it's a sick kick.
But in Rem's case, it wasn't that,
I mean, again, it was a fleeting feeling,
but for her, she felt just,
oh, she was just overwhelmed with guilt,
overwhelmed with guilt.
I mean, this is something that she held onto for years
and she didn't tell anyone until,
and again, she met Subaru years later.
But this, this, you know, overwhelming guilt
led Rem to essentially strive to be the perfect replacement
for her sister.
And it did two things for me, it made Rem put her sister
on a pedestal to idolize her.
And because she's trying to be everything
that her sister was before,
because after this, after Ram lost her horn,
she essentially became terrible at everything, right?
I mean, it did like a whole 180,
where Rem was better at Ram than everything.
And it's funny, despite that, Rem,
the younger one, she put her sister on a pedestal,
always saying that, you know,
Ram's the best at everything, she can do everything.
But when we see her, when we first meet him,
Ram can't do anything without Rem's help.
So it's kind of, it was funny to hear her say that,
but looking back in the backstory
and how it all played out, it begins to make sense.
And another thing too, is that it kills Rem's self-esteem,
right?
That she's trying so hard to be everything her sister was,
to be the ideal, everything, ideal maid,
ideal sister, ideal fighter, whatever,
in the insert title here,
that's what Rem's struggle showed to be,
she showed to be the best at,
because she's trying to live up to where her sister was.
And she feels guilty, because she feels like it was her fault
that her sister never lived up to her potential
for being born.
And B, she felt extremely guilty,
because in her sister's distress,
she felt just a fleeting moment of joy.
And because she holds herself by a death grip,
essentially that, hey, you know,
I don't deserve happiness because what I did,
because of how I felt when my sister was suffering,
because I feel like I took that from her.
And the question I have is,
how many of us feel like that today,
that we feel like we don't deserve happiness,
that we don't deserve joy and goodness in our life,
because in a moment of weakness,
in a moment of naivety, whatever you wanna call it,
we fell, I mean, there's no better way to put it, we fell.
Whether it's we let ourselves down,
we let our loved ones down,
we got joy out of someone else's torment or whatever,
struggle that they're going through,
we feel like they deserved it,
that it's good for them and made us feel, whatever it is.
I'm just giving general examples,
but I'm sure you thought of something
or a couple of things by now.
And I'm asking yourself,
do you still deserve to be held captive by that, by yourself?
And I ain't talking about someone else bringing it up,
someone else holding you accountable for it,
but you putting yourself down.
Because again, this whole season is about us facing our past,
it's about us facing it and accepting our past
for what had happened so we can heal and move on.
You mean, not saying it's never gonna be there
or it's gonna be long forgotten about,
is the water in the bridge like, no, it's still there,
it still happened, you're still gonna have the scars from it,
but now it's not an open wound.
And that's what we're trying to get.
So I'm really praying that you guys get
and maybe get over that hump and just realize,
it's okay to forgive yourself.
Oftentimes it's the hardest,
we're the hardest people to forgive is ourselves
because we hold ourselves up to a higher standard
that sometimes isn't feasible, right?
Because again, we're all human, we all have to make mistakes.
And it does take, sometimes it does take someone else
to give us an extra push to pull us out,
get us out of our own heads, right?
So we can actually be functioning people again.
And for Rem, of course, that person was Subaru
because he's got that main character energy
that always works on everybody around him.
And Subaru was able to convince Rem to let go
of her resentful feelings
and to actually look towards the future, right?
Again, that the whole thing of letting go of the past
and looking forward.
And the way he does this is essentially,
so after he saves the village
from the demi-human demon attack or whatever,
he ends up saving Rem as well.
Because so the village that's near the mansion
that they stay at was being attacked
by these demon doll type monster things
that if they bite you, they inflict you with a curse
and you're just gonna die.
That's typically how it is.
And Subaru and Rem went to go save some of the kids
who were captured by the beast.
And of course, while they rescue them,
of course they get attacked themselves.
And even though Rem is the better fighter
between the two by far,
she was about to be overwhelmed
and just essentially killed.
But in the last minute,
Subaru came and pushed her out the way
so he could take the brunt of the attack.
No one thought that was gonna kill him.
But luckily Roswaal and them got there in time,
got him to safety and he didn't die.
He didn't have to start over in that loop.
But it was in that moment that Rem realized
Subaru saved her in more than one way.
It wasn't just a physical thing in their talk afterwards.
When he essentially just encouraged her to live for herself,
to not have her whole existence be wrapped up
in being Rom's twin and being what Rom used to be
is just understanding that you're you, she's her.
And whatever might've happened,
and none of that matters anymore
because she still loves you, you love her,
and you're both here now.
So now you gotta essentially turn from that dark place
you're in and face the sun
so you can actually walk towards it.
And basically from that point on,
Subaru becomes a pillar of support for her,
or as she calls him, her hero.
And because he understands and encourages her
to move past her past, to actually not be in that same place.
And I think it's funny how, it's funny
because it's easy for us to tell that to other people
than it is for us to do it ourselves.
Because when Subaru telling Rem this
is essentially the same thing he needed to do
to pass the trial in the sanctuary.
But the trial for him happened way later after this fact.
I mean, this happened towards the beginning of the series
but with him talking to Rem and encouraging her
and then the sanctuary happened.
If you're watching the anime, it happens in season two.
So it's a whole season after this.
And it just goes to show that why we need other people
to help push us through some of the darkest times
in our life, because they are able to see more things
than we are.
And again, I know for me sometimes,
well, that's the long with my thoughts.
I tend to beat myself up more than I need to.
I mean, I've gotten a lot better with it over the years
and doesn't happen nor near as much.
But there are times where you're thinking so much
and you literally thinking yourself to death.
And that's just, that's not gonna help anyone.
So I just wanna ask who is your,
quote unquote Subaru, who's your hero?
Who has been that person who's been there for you
and who helped you get out of your darkness?
And if you have someone like that,
I encourage you to go and thank them really.
If they're still with us, I encourage you to reach out
to them in whatever way you feel comfortable
and just thank them and let them know
that you appreciate what they've done.
And if you don't have anyone like that in your life,
then don't worry.
Don't worry because I truly believe
when you want something bad enough,
God's gonna put the right people in your path,
in your realm.
And again, it may not even be for you,
maybe for you to help somebody else.
But I know for me, one of the best things,
best ways to help get out of a rut
is to help somebody else with theirs.
Because it does something,
one, it brings you closer with that person,
and two, it gets your mind off of your own issues.
A mind, because like I said,
sometimes you think things to death,
you think yourself to death,
and not just taking your mind off a thing,
even if it's just for a day,
really, really helps get the ball rolling
and may help you get to that breakthrough.
I mean, you never know.
So I encourage you just don't give up.
Don't give up.
Don't be bogged down by what you've done,
what you might've done,
what you wish you hadn't done,
what you should have,
what it could've showed us.
You mean, yes, it happened or it didn't happen,
but the fact is you're here now,
you're still standing, you're still breathing,
and that means there's something else,
a memory or something else on the other side.
Just like Subaru, just like Amelia,
just like Roswald, and just like Ram,
they've all had, I mean, not Ram, R.E.M.,
they've all had different things in their past
that have holding them back from their potential,
from moving on, from really utilizing themselves
to their fullest potential,
and they've all had to get through it in a different way
in their own inner internal battles,
and they've all had people there who supported them,
who pushed them forward,
and who truly believe in them for them,
not because of who they know, who they're related to,
not even because they believe in who they are right now,
it's because they believe in who they are,
who they're meant to be,
and who they can see them as,
if that kind of makes sense, right?
Because again, all the people we see who are successful,
nowadays, the professional athletes,
the actors and actresses,
the people in the political space,
the people who you see all the time who have made it there,
they weren't always there, right?
They started from somewhere,
they're human just like me and you,
and they've made their mistakes,
they've put in time, they've put in the effort,
they've reconciled with themselves
in some form or fashion that allowed them to move forward
to get to the level that they're at now,
and that's in all of us, right?
That's in all of us,
that by itself isn't special,
that's something that we all can do,
and I really just wanna encourage each and every one of you
to really strive for that,
strive for that to get past your mental block,
get past your past,
and just be able to move forward, you know?
That's pretty much it, we're just trying to get better,
one day at a time.
Well, this is the end of this season,
I hope you guys enjoyed ReZero,
and hopefully you might check it out at some point.
I think at the time of recording this,
season three was announced, so I'm excited,
can't wait to get back into it,
but for next season, we're gonna look at an anime
that really shows us what it means to go back to basics,
and how starting over isn't always a bad thing,
and really what it means to kinda back to basics
is just kinda really going back to the root of it all,
of whether it's your journey, your passion,
or whatever it is that you're striving for,
and really have some time in order to get ahead,
we gotta start over.
And this is an anime where science prevails overall,
Dr. Stone.
So again, look forward to that,
thank you guys for tuning into today's episode,
and I pray that you got what you needed out of it,
and hopefully you learned something new about yourself,
and throughout this whole journey
that you just learned to reflect, accept,
and move forward, you know?
Feel free to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review,
I would love reading guys' comments,
and it helps me improve each and every episode.
And always remember,
you are the main character of your story,
and that story doesn't end until he says so.
All right, be blessed.
And I'll see you guys next time.
Peace.