Subaru Has No Character (According to Him)

Previous Title: Subaru, Hamlet, and Soliloquy

Warning, spoilers for both Re:Zero Season 1 (2016) and Hamlet (1600ish). Also I know I mispronounce "ay," sorry I stuttered!

Back in the era of stage plays, they dealt with many challenges that some take for granted today. For example, how do you deal with the lack of access to narration? Sure, you could have someone pretend to be the character off-stage, with the actor looking wistfully out into the distance. But Shakespeare approached it a little differently.

His characters would wrestle with their inner demons, exposing themselves in moments where they felt truly alone with their thoughts—giving the audience the feeling of listening in to something you weren't supposed to hear. And rather than being cheap, almost omniscient exposition, his characters often failed to find the flaws in their thinking—being unreliable narrators to even themselves... which rings pretty true to life.

While I was enjoying Re:Zero just fine before then, I absolutely adored episode 18. It really felt like a turning point, a Shakespearean-esque exploration of a truly flawed individual—but also their return (ha) from their darkest depths.

References and additional reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soliloquy
https://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/qu...
https://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/qu...
I wrote down the Episode 18 dialogue here: https://pastebin.com/BR0SPyvB
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/hamlet/...

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