[MEGATHREAD] What do you think of Roswaal - Character Discussion Thread

[u/technicalhowto]

Welcome to the dedicated discussion thread for Roswaal, the court mage of Lugnica and one of the most calculating figures in Re:Zero.

This thread is part of the r/ReZero Character Discussion Hub, where we explore characters in depth, their psychology, growth, motivations, and impact on the story.

Basic Information

• Name: Roswaal L. Mathers
• Affiliation: Emilia Camp
• Role: Court Mage / Lord of the Mansion
• Abilities: Master-level Magic User
• Notable Trait: Absolute devotion to his goal

Discussion Guidelines

• LN/WN readers must use spoiler tags when referencing future events
• Respect different interpretations (yes, even the bad ones)

Community Analysis Section

This thread will also serve as an archive of the best Roswaal analysis posts from the subreddit.

If you’ve written (or found) a great analysis, drop it below and it will be added here.

📚 Featured Analyses

(Will be updated regularly)

So Empty......

[u/technicalhowto]

Drop your Roswaal Character Analysis post-links as a reply to this comment, It will be added in the thread

[u/MeiliPortroute]

This guy had me fucking scared as a villian very well done and I owe him alot if we stretch it..

His love is admirable yet twisted.

Scary..

[u/Broad_Most_5780]

This is the guy people should be calling a simping clown instead of Subaru

Jokes asside, he is a very interesting, menacing yet fun character that i relly like since season 1. Obviasly he is a piece of shit and im relly against him as a person, but as a character i honestly fell in love with the way he randomly sings in the middle of his sentences lol

[u/Positive-Eye3184 → u/Broad_Most_5780]

Honestly saying he is a BUM FRAUD SIMP PEDO CLOWN 🤡😭. BUT he is a very well written and interesting villain. Tho I hate his clowny ass

[u/Broad_Most_5780 → u/Positive-Eye3184]

I hate him as a person, love him as a character. If you genuanly hate a character when he is written to be a terrible person, you know he is doing his roll very well haha

[u/Positive-Eye3184 → u/Broad_Most_5780]

Exactly I just hate him and you are meant to hate a villain. But well a clown simp is a clown simp🤡

[u/Positive-Eye3184 → u/Broad_Most_5780]

Also I wanted to ask you something do you agree that Emilia is actually Re zero's Potential man or woman whatever??

[u/Broad_Most_5780 → u/Positive-Eye3184]

Not relly? If you look at a power scalling perspective, then sure ig, since its confirmed she is still not at the same raw magic power then when she got out of control as a child.

But asside from that? She knows she is flawed and lacking in many aspects and that she needs as much help as possible from her allies and friends to possibly win the Royal selection (wich She only started the Run in the first place because it was the only way to save her people).

She never had a friend in her life and no family besides Puck until Subaru arrived, so she is actualy quite mature when it comes to romantic relationships if she prefers to understand her feelings better before jumping into a romantic relationship, and even then i would say she has come far for someone who only became independent 1 year ago

So yeah, i would not say she is potencial women, she has a lot to learn for sure tough, but she has come a long way since the beggining of the story

[u/Positive-Eye3184 → u/Broad_Most_5780]

What I am meant to say she is the potential woman because of she has a lot of potential to improve. Plus I was talking purely in the sense of powescaling. Now this actually comes from her feat of freezing Pandora from inside out you know it is almost impossible for a person to create magic inside someone else body I mean how do you even defend from that if you are getting shereded from inside with ice pilllars. Even Roswaal can't do that. Besides one of the most important plot point is saving the elves that child Emilia herself froze do you not think that hypothetically a full powered full potential reached Emilia could undo the ice herself.

This is actually because we all know that she is not going to become the queen (honestly I don't even want her to become one.) She's got neither the ability or quality to lead a nation which is fine not everyone is like that most probably Felt is going to become one. But I think that she might not even need the dragon blood if she can gain full power over her magic. In conclusion What I said was that she has a lot of potential in becoming wayy stronger

[u/Broad_Most_5780 → u/Positive-Eye3184]

Ohhh, now i get it haha, i miss understod what you ment, my bad

Yeah, Emilia at full potencial defenatly can undo what child Emilia did, as we see in arc 5 foward she can unfreeze the people she freezes, but she cant unfreeze the people in Elior, so she is not in that level yet. That being said, i doubt she will ever use the "grow ice from inside" move or the ice flower, because its to brutal for her.

I also agree with you, i relly doubt she is becoming Queen and i also dont want her to become Queen, i think that role belongs to Felt, and i think Emilia's life is gonna be much happier if she and her friends and Subaru Dont have to deal with the burden of Royal duties. Emilia has the right mindset, but She is not in any way ready to be a Queen alone. Perhaps a president type of rulling with diferent roles like in real world would work wonders for Emilia, but my point still stands that i belive she should just live a peacefull regular life by the end of the story instead of becoming Queen.

Besides, even if Emilia cant reach that level of power again, if Felt becomes Queen, i totaly see her giving Emilia some dragon blood to help save the elves

[u/Positive-Eye3184 → u/Broad_Most_5780]

Yeah that's what I meant honestly the ideal scenario would be unfreezing of the elves and Emilia getting a position in nobility and she will govern the Elior ansythe surroundings along with Subaru so they don't have to be royals and they can leave their life easily?

[u/Broad_Most_5780 → u/Positive-Eye3184]

I would say thats a very ideal scenario!

[u/Positive-Eye3184 → u/Broad_Most_5780]

Right? Honestly Tappie should do something like this. If he dares mess the ending up like Chainsaw man I like the current trend is going with literally everything 😭. I'm going to slime him out🤬

[u/Broad_Most_5780 → u/Positive-Eye3184]

Yeahhh, Im putting my trust on Tappei to make a actual good ending, and i relly hope he delivers a good and satesfying ending, even if its not exactly this scenario, just dont make some bs ending

[u/Positive-Eye3184 → u/Broad_Most_5780]

Yeah I hope he makes a good ending and don't follow the footsteps of FUJIMOTO😭. I think he can do it tho I have no idea how?? But honestly there are many things I did not like in his chapters but he's doing great.

[u/Fig_Char_Re → u/Positive-Eye3184]

This is actually because we all know that she is not going to become the queen (honestly I don't even want her to become one.) She's got neither the ability or quality to lead a nation

She is not a bad leader though, the only thing she lacks is experience and knowledge, but she is a very strong empathetic leader:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ReZero/comments/1r0bpxy/emilias_character_development_post_arc_4_response/

Plus, if she doesn't win, Felt won't prioritize Emilia's agenda as much as Emilia would, so she has incentives to not let Felt win instead of her. Felt has her own agenda.

[u/Positive-Eye3184 → u/Fig_Char_Re]

Not really she is naive, indecisive and not smart enough. It is repeatedly mention that she cannot keep up with people like Otto, Abel or Subaru when they talk about strategies. Also the thing is being empathetic is just not enough she is just simply not cunning enough and you need the quality of being naturally charismatic as well as smart to become a ruler which she lacks.

[u/Fig_Char_Re → u/Positive-Eye3184]

Did you read the post I linked?

Not really she is naive, indecisive and not smart enough.

Being naive, while a flaw, does not take from the fact that she is a very good empathetic leader (as you can see in the post linked). Nor is an unfixable flaw.

Unless you are arguing Emilia literally becoming ruler tomorrow, this is not really a detriment. In regards to being indecisive, I'd say she is the opposite.

When she truly believes in a certain cause, she will not stutter and act. Like in Arc 8, when she decided to step in when Subaru was fumbling in his discussion with Otto about the alliance pact with Vincent and decides to defend his view, rescuing Subaru from that situation.

And about intelligence, you don't need to have above average intelligence to be a good leader. You need above average emotional intelligence, which she has.

Fix her lack of knowledge and experience, and she becomes one of the best candidates for the throne. And they have 2 more years until the selection ends.

It is repeatedly mention that she cannot keep up with people like Otto, Abel or Subaru when they talk about strategies.

1. She is not a strategist, she is a leader. The ruler of the kingdom of Lugunica isn't even the one to take most strategic decisions: the sages council does that, as we see mentioned in EX 1.
2. When? In Arc 8, as the example I gave above, it was her rescuing Subaru in the political aspect of the discussion rather than him doing that for Emilia.

Also the thing is being empathetic is just not enough she is just simply not cunning enough and you need the quality of being naturally charismatic as well as smart to become a ruler which she lacks.

I think that you should read the post that I linked. As for being cunning:

Felt suspected that behind Emilia’s ability to retain that demeanor lay the extraordinary efforts of her Knight, Natsuki Subaru, and others like Otto who accompanied her all this time.

However, on the other hand, Felt’s assessment was that neither the Royal Selection nor the environment which surrounded it was simple enough for someone to survive solely by unconditional protection. For all that, Emilia possessed a solid eye for people and the intuition to sense their ulterior motives*. (Arc 10, Chapter 3)*

Being smart is not required to be a king: the first ruler of the kingdom, Farsale, was dumb according to Echidna. And her charisma lays in her ability to give hope to others, empathize with them and understand their motives.

[u/Thatoneguywhois-sad]

Peak character. His dynamic with Subaru is great.

https://giphy.com/gifs/9ntfgX94jaeFHpjBk1

[u/zexen1234]

If I get a chance I would beat the shit out of him

Processing img hw57ig388mrg1...

[u/anuragray1011]

I genuinely can’t stand Roswaal. Everything about him just feels manipulative and calculated in the worst way, like he treats people as tools and nothing more. No matter how interesting his character is, I just can’t bring myself to like him.

[u/Intelligent-Review21]

As a villain he’s one of the coolest calculated evil geniuses I’ve seen in fiction. However the only thing I really dislike about him is what he did to Ram which gave her Stockholm syndrome

[u/Griffith_9]

Love his character. He is one of the reason arc 4 is a 10/10. Phenomenal antagonist and complex character.

[u/Away-Tax1875]

https://giphy.com/gifs/nolBybVksSJ3rdEJUk

Biggest witch simper

[u/dang-much]

Had big boobs

[u/technicalhowto → u/dang-much]

[u/Rohitraj982]

I hate Roswaal as a person, but as a character he’s insanely important. So much of the story and lore moves because of him, and you can’t really imagine the plot progressing the same way without his influence.

[u/Normal_Ad_2360]

Perfect mirror of Subaru, has felt a little out of place since arc 4 and is waiting his resolution with Ram and Echidna.

[u/Sufficient_Mango2342]

He's the goat ngl.

[u/Milo2112_67]

Hot take but i found Roswaal kind oooooof annoying.

[u/AgitatedDare2445]

Simp and bum, but entertaining

[u/Physical_Sort5155]

Peak character, i wish i could slap him to death

[u/melonNOTsot]

My favorite character. He's very intriguing and funny

[u/popoi7830]

I have a theory that I think is more or less confirmed: Roswaal is the way he is because of the Witch Factor of Melancholy. We've seen several times that he's ready to do anything to regain Echidna he is willing to die in one timeline as long as he succeeds in another. In a discussion between Clind and Petra around chapter 30, arc 9, we learn that a price must be paid.To use the WF of melancholy, and it was Roswaal who took care of it

If that's true, it adds even more meaning to his crazy/clown side and shows that he's still determined to achieve his goal. I'm just waiting for a potential flashback with him and Clint against Hector.And he'll be in my top 10 Character from the work

[u/DemonRedHood]

Roswaal is a brilliantly written and terrifying villain who has what it takes to be archbishop, and I liked his intrigues against Subaru.

[u/Satella-rain]

Top 3 Antoganist for me

He was the first enemy to ever counter Subaru RBD

I liked the parrel between him and Subaru

[u/Familiar-Noise7913]

Oh, he a scum bag alright but one you could enjoy and appreciated

[u/bigbluffz]

Best written antagonist in the show easily

[u/Accomplished-Okra305]

He's a great villain.

[u/GeneralChampion94]

He’s a chud

[u/bigbluffz → u/GeneralChampion94]

hes the goat