Reaction Shot: My Next Life as a Villainess E11 (or, BUT THEY LOVE HER)

[spindizzy]

OKAY, EPISODE ELEVEN. THIS IS FINE.

• The fact that there's no preamble before the opening credits is honestly alarming! Which I know is why they did it but also: ALARMING.


• (I thought this might be the episode where someone rummages through the Secret!Catarina journal and I for one am okay with them NEVER DOING THAT. ... Although now I'm worried about the Catarina Council and what happens to them once Catarina's escaped her doom/succumbed to her doom/been shunted into a magic version of her previous life.


• I love these ridiculous babies, okay, so this episode of everyone realising how much they love Catarina brings me a lot of joy.


• HEY THIS DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A FANTASY SETTING.


• DOES CATARINA FINALLY GET A FACE?!


• Oh no, she remembers Anne, but she doesn't remember Anne! And she's not sure about her own face! Oh no! D:


• I wonder how it feels being an anime fan when your family has very anime dynamics. (Angry mother who has to literally roll you out of bed, cool brother who's been awake for hours gently mocking you as you run late...)


• I am always thrown off by rl!Catarina not wearing glasses. Is it because she's a dork? Or is it because glasses are one of the easier ways to avoid showing a characters face if you don't want to? WHO COULD SAY.


• ... Did Catarina just rush off to school while munching on a frozen cucumber?


• Look! It's Catarina's neighbour! The one who will trap you for half an hour if you speak to her!


• (Me, the first time I watched this episode: If it turns out that everyone in Fortune Lover has a real world parallel Wizard of Oz style instead of just Acchan/Sophia, I'm going to be sad.
  Me, now: I think we got away with it?!)


• SHE WAS SO CLOSE! Oh bless her.


• Acchan and Catarina are so cute, oh no, I love them. And I admire Acchan's pivot from friendly scolding about overdoing video games straight into "BUT TELL ME HOW YOU'RE DOING IN MY FAVOURITE VIDEO GAME."


• Her memories of the real world and the Fortune Lover world are merging together, but she has no idea that it's happening! (And Acchan just there like "... Nice? You think Prince Alan is nice?"


• Acchan feeding Catarina because she's a good friend who loves how happy Catarina is! Aaaaaaaaa.


• Aaaaaaaaaaaaa Catarina feeling nostalgic about her normal life! ;_________;


• Everyone waiting to hear how Catarina is doing gives me a lot of feelings. Especially because Keith has his hand on the wall to Catarina's room like he can't bear to be separated from her, and Geordo is looking out of the window like he can't bear to see or be seen at this moment.


• Where are Duke and Duchess Claes? Have they not been called in for this?


• And this was the point where I realised that Geordo hadn't told the rest of them about dark magic, only Catarina.


• "She may wake up at any moment, or she may never wake up again." YOU ARE A DOCTOR, WHERE IS YOUR BASIC EMPATHY AND SPEAKING TO PEOPLE SKILLS.


• Look at how upset all of these babies are, oh no, oh this is terrible. Like, it's beautifully well done! But also terrible!


• Is she feeding Catarina water through a tiny teapot? Because I feel like there needs to be a better way to deal with that. On the plus side, no one's trying to get her to swallow stuff by kissing her yet!


• Anne loves her too!


• Oh no, kneeling at someone's bedside and having intense feelings while they're unconcious is exactly my sort of nonsense, help!


• "I was full of existential enuie and/or depression when I was eight, and then there was you!" is a hell of a weight to attach to a relationship, but let's face it, all of Catarina's friends having the backstory of "Everything was terrible, and then there was you," so it's at least a weight that other people understand.


• ... What I'm saying is that if this is the episode where we get to see everyone's feelings for Catarina from their perspective, rather than an outside observer's, I'm just going to end up lying on the floor wailing weakly. Fair warning.


• He learned to feel jealousy and loneliness because of how many people love Catarina, oh no. I guess this is good for him? And also explains why his deepest fantasy is being able to lock everyone else out so she focuses on him.


• GEORDO DO NOT. I KNOW I SAID "YET" ABOUT THE FEEDING HER BY KISSING HER THING, BUT I WAS JOKING!


• Keith sitting in front of a door like he did when he was tiny is fucking me up. Oh no.


• *lies on floor INTENSELY over Keith thinking he was a monster and going to be alone forever, and then there was Catarina* *thumps fist weakly into the ground over the way Keith's voice catches*


• Both Keith and Geordo beating themselves up for not protecting Catarina against a threat neither of them could have predicted is fucking me up in a good way.


• MARY WENT TO CATARINA'S PLANTS, BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE CATARINA'S HEART IS.


• "I was a weakling and a coward, always looking down, always running away." MARY NO, THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU WERE AT ALL, PLEASE STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP FOR BEING AFFECTED BY YOUR FAMILY BEING TERRIBLE.


• "I am who I am today because Lady Catarina was by my side. Because she loved me and said I was important. I hated myself, but she made me love who I was." *sobs grossly*


• ALAN WENT TO A TREE BECAUSE THAT'S THEIR PLACE, AND STAYING BY HER SIDE WAS THE MOST NATURAL THING IN THE WORLD BECAUSE OF WHO SHE IS. AND HE HAS SUDDENLY REALISED HOW HE FEELS ABOUT HER, OH MY HEART.


• Alan: Why did it take me until now to realise how I feel?!
  Me: Because Mary has spent the last seven years doing everything in her power to stop you realising it.


• (Alan's voice actor is my favourite of the male leads, btw, this might be why I love him so much.)


• CATARINA WAS THE FIRST PERSON WHO UNDERSTOOD THAT NICOL LOVES SOPHIA AND DOESN'T CONSIDER HER A CURSE! *lies on floor some more* (Also if he's childhood friends with Geordo and Alan, I assume this meant that they gave no opinion about Sophia or he would have fought them, peaceful nature or not.)


• ... This is probably a contributing factor to why Nicol works in microexpressions, now I think about it, because if he actually showed how angry he was at anyone who didn't love Sophia that would probably have ended in a diplomatic incident.


• I think that the thing that gets me about Nicol is that he's the one who has realised that he has feelings and explicitly given up. He's not going to try to get them reciprocated! He's not trying to get between Geordo and Catarina! He's just acknowledged that these feelings exist and gone on with his life. ... As someone who dealt with every crush I ever had by ignoring it, I find this very relatable.


• "Don't go anywhere, Catarina!" ;_;


• "I thought being so happy every day was a dream only found in books, but then I was living it." *LIES ON FLOOR HARDER*


• Seriously, Catarina being Sophia's first friend is just! Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!


• Acchan! Sophia heard Acchan! ... Does this mean that Acchan's reincarnation doesn't work like Catarina's? Are they separate people instead of reincarnations? Or is the dark magic giving Acchan more autonomy in the Fortune Lover world because she's also with Catarina in the dream/rl world?


• "I finally managed to find her! I won't lose her again!" ACCHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! D:


• Sophia seeing Acchan's reflection instead of her own is cool, but she walked past a mirror to get to that window, so I'm confused.


• ACCHAN IS GOING TO SAVE CATARINA! AND SOPHIA IS SO DETERMINED TO HELP!


• Oh no, is this everyone gearing up to go and save Catarina? Because I guarantee to you this sort of thing makes me flail every time.


• Mary: I am Lady Catarina's best friend, Mary Hunt!
  Keith: What am I sitting around here for? I have to save my sister!
  Alan: She saved me. Now it's my turn.
  Nicol: *silently raises head*
  Me: *wails quietly*


• Look at those green sparkles when everyone decides to take action! What do we think? Dark magic made their despair worse, so those sparkles are them driving it away? Or those sparkles are the representation of their determination and that's going to break down the dark magic keeping Catarina under?


• THEY ARE ALL GOING TO STAY WITH CATARINA UNTIL SHE WAKES UP, BECAUSE THEY LOVE HER!


• Sophia: Please, I beg you... Save Lady Catarina.
  Acchan: I'm on it! I'll bring her back, I promise!
  Me: *wails*


• Acchan looking at this beautiful sunset while she waits for the last time these versions of herself and Catarina are going to see each other, and Catarina's greeting being "Acchan! I'm finally here!" are combining to smite me in the feelings.


• Catarina not being able to make any progress with conquering the black-hearted sadistic prince is feeling like a better and better joke every time we see Geordo try to express his feelings and Catarina completely not notice them.


• "Are you having fun?" as a lead-in to a goodbye also fucks me up every time I see it, good to know. (Source: a surprising amount of the Fate franchise.)


• "I'm having a lot of fun. I'm glad I was able to find you again and spend time with you. But... This isn't your world anymore, is it? Your world is somewhere else now. There's a lot of people waiting for you there. Listen. They're all calling for you."
  Geordo: I can't even imagine life without you anymore!
  Keith: Didn't you promise you'd always be with me?!
  Mary: Lady Catarina, I can't do my best at anything without you!
  Alan: Are you just going to sleep forever?! Wake up already, you dumb rich girl!
  Nicol: Wake up, Catarina!
  Anne: Please open your eyes, Lady Catarina!
  Sophia: Please wake up Lady Catarina!
  Me: *frantically wiping away tears so that I can read the subtitles*


• Listen. Alan goes full hypocritical tsundere and both Nicol and Anne express emotions out loud with words, how was I ever not going to be a mess about this?


• "Why... did I forget?"


• "This world feels comfortable. But... I have to go back! To the world where all the people I love are waiting for me!" THERE SHE IS, HI CATARINA! YOU BROKE THROUGH!


• The classroom disintegrating into stardust around them is such a beautiful look.


• I love that Catarina looks so sad, like she's going to say goodbye, and then visibly remembers that Acchan had the strategy guide for Fortune Lover and thus knows the plot.


• "Save the president, just like you saved all of us!" ;____________;


• Catarina: Acchan! I'm so glad I got to see you again! Goodbye! Thank you so much for always being there!
  *fingers brush*
  Acchan: Goodbye, and thank you, my precious best friend.
  Me: *has to take a break to happy-cry a little bit*


• Catarina doesn't know that Acchan and Sophia are the same person, so she doesn't know that she and Acchan are watching over each other in this life too! *sobs*


• And the way that Acchan fades out there is just! MY HEART!


• HER FIRST WORDS WHEN SHE WAKES UP are "Don't cry, Sophia," and "Good morning!" AND I AM VERKLEMPT.


• "I want to protect this world and the people I care about. I won't let the bad end happen!"


• SHE SWITCHES STRAIGHT TO ACTION MODE AND I LOVE HER. SHE IS SO GOOD. HER FRIENDS ARE SO CONFUSED.


• Everyone is appalled that she's going by intuition for some of it.


• I'm glad they're all going together, because I think there would have been an honest-to-god brawl is someone had suggested they leave anyone behind.


• (Thing I'm taking from this: Alan is the muscle. Keith, Geordo, and Catarina are all competent fighters, but Alan is there to do the literal heavy lifting.)


• MARIA! SHE'S OKAY! ;_______________________;


• "I should apologise for putting you all through so much trouble." MARIA CAMPBELL, NO YOU SHOULD NOT.


• Catarina wants to talk to Sirius, because she is a true shoujo protagonist and everything can be solved through sincere emotion.


• ... Well this is a room full of nightmares.


• I'M JUST SAYING, AN OMINOUS ROOM WITH A MAGIC HEXAGRAM ON THE FLOOR, UNNATURAL SHADOWS, AND LIKE A HUNDRED VERY MELTED CANDLES THAT GIVE OFF PURPLE LIGHT ARE PROBABLY NOT A GOOD THING.


• Okay, whoever Flashback Redhead is, they're apparently too similar to Catarina for Sirius' comfort. My current guess is a mother or sister who sacrificed herself/was sacrificed by Someone Who Is Not Sirius to give Sirius magic powers, but maybe the show will keep surprising me!


• ... Hang on, is he possessed?!


• "The moment of my doom has come" HE IS ALSO AWARE OF DOOM FLAGS?!


• Okay, she's his mother, and it's looking like "Someone else committed that murder" is the right angle!


• Oh, that's a bad sign. That's a LOT of dark magic right there.


• WHO IS LETTING THE PRINCES GO FIRST – christ on a haddock, I take it back, that is a lot of dark magic. And either it's thick enough that even people without light magic can see it, or they can really feel that blast.


• The princes drawing their swords ready to fight, and Catarina just walking out from between them, perfectly calm. I love it? I love them? Yes, this is what I wanted, good job everyone on this team. ... I'm now picturing them prising a sword out of Keith's hands before they left, on the grounds that Keith isn't royalty and might actually get in trouble if he murders a man.


• NEXT EPISODE: CATARINA DISCOVERS SIRIUS' TRAGIC BACKSTORY???????