some theorizing / meta about pride if reinsuba

i think their power dynamic is super interesting because on the surface, obviously reinhard is more powerful than subaru. theres no question about that. reinhard is the one person subaru cant beat with enough tries at rbd. reinhard has killed subaru in pride if, what, i think it was either 1,000 or 10,000 times? but reinhard only powers over subaru PHYSICALLY. mentally, reinhard is already weak, but he’s doing better in pride if purely because wilhelm was erased by the whale. we can then assume that this reinhard is not as insecure as his main route self—wilhelm was the one that blamed him for killing theresia, and heinkel was the one who defended reinhard at first before eventually growing to believe this too. because wilhelm’s gone, all of that conflict is gone—or at least mostly gone, but we do know that reinhard and heinkel make up again regardless.

on the other hand though, pride if reinhard starting off happier than main route reinhard means he has a longer way to fall. subaru specifically cant directly beat reinhard. except—the only way to win over reinhard is to fight him indirectly. his mind is easily the only weak part of him because hes still human. he already has built-in insecurities from his upbringing and how the kingdom itself has treated him as a weapon and a tool. we only see julius die on screen, and we get a small mention that felix dies later as well, and then of course theres the whole kingdom—but i 100% think subaru killed basically all of reinhard’s loved ones. of course felix is targeted because its so easy to manipulate and use him after the whale erased crusch. of course julius is targeted because hes a knight to a rival competitor to emilia. but its a great coincidence that theyre also both reinhards closest friends—its a win win for subaru. theyre stepping stones in his plan to also bring the sword saint down to earth.

how do you kill a hero if you cant physically kill him? you kill everyone he cares about. you kill his purpose. his purpose as sword saint is to protect the entire kingdom, and he was told—at the age of FOUR—that if he cares about his family, then he must protect the kingdom. in pride if, he essentially fails at both of those things. julius and felix and likely people like heinkel, carol, and grimm (the latter two are also people who looked after reinhard ever since he was a child, in addition to other astrea family members) are dead. the kingdom is burning and in ruin. reinhard, whos been conditioned into being the kingdom’s hero, is forcefully broken out of that in the worst way possible. look, reinhard, the entire country is broken and all your loved ones are dead and now, theres no obligation to save any of them when they’re all already gone—it’s technically what reinhard’s always wanted. reinhard’s hero image has been shattered. and im sure that in the aftermath of pride if, after subarus death, theres likely going to be at least one person out there going, “why didnt the sword saint save us? why couldnt the sword saint stop any of this from happening?”

its no wonder, then, that subaru is the one that makes reinhard—emotionally repressed and almost always collected and subdued reinhard whos always asking even SIN ARCHBISHOPS mid-fight to surrender—to feel pure hatred for the first time. that’s how subaru won over reinhard.

and now that reinhard isnt the Hero anymore, emilia can replace him—just as subaru planned.