First thoughts after watching Re:Zero season 4 episode 6

I watched the Re:Zero season 4 episode 6. I remember the story for season 2 and 3 only a little, but don't remember the details of each character that much.

So this episode is half story and half action. At first, Julius started fighting against the stick swinger. The stick he used is chopsticks and he was able to use it to block Julius's sword completely and even broke it. Anastasia, or Echidna, couldn't keep watching Julius be beaten by him so she decided to help him with her magic, but he could even block them with the chopsticks. She even got a nosebleed from using too much magic and lost consciousness, so I wondered again what made her care for him that much. Anyway, Julius was completely beaten by him without giving him any scratch. And then, he asked who was going to challenge him and Emilia decided to face him. That said, Reid said at first he wouldn't move a single step because it sounded cool. So, she persuaded him to win against him by setting that as a winning condition. And then she used her magic. The memorable scene was she dropped a lot of weapons made of ice to the ground surrounding him, and fought while moving to places where they were and used those weapons. Also these ice weapons could be moved by her magic, so it was exactly like Unlimited Blade Works. Well, he made some lewd attacks but she didn't care and she won at the end. Subaru also was able to follow their battle so he had already a great sense for fighting, actually. However, even though passing him was the way to the next exam, she was the only one who could, so the rest of the people still need to fight him.

Subaru and others went back to the downstairs, and left Julius and Echidna in a spirit's room for healing. Then they talked with Ram and figured it out he was a Reid Astrea, who is the first Sword... Saint? There were actually 3 other characters who are as strong as Reinhard so it sounds interesting to see them in the future, but probably not in this season.

Then Julius woke up and fought against the Reid again, but no match with him and lost it. Reid even insulted him as his style of fighting was boring. Then this episode showed a little bit about the past of Julius and he had the past that he admired his teacher or father but he lost against the kids' Reinhard. It surely beaten him up. But because of that, when he saw Subaru in the royal selection in season 1 at first, he was moved from how Subaru behaved because, well, obviously, he was very powerless but with ambition, and so was he, as far as I understood.

And that is the episode. This arc is probably mainly about Anastasia's side of Royal selection, maybe, because I didn't know the details of Julius and his character, and same thing for Anastasia. So it will have the past episodes for Anastasia and Echidna, perhaps, in this season.

Watched 2nd time. Reid talked about the name Trische looking at Emilia. Who was it? I vaguely remembered that name but maybe that's my misunderstanding. Looking at Reid's fighting scene. As a genius's character often does, he was left-handed, and he used chopsticks for both sides to attack, actually. And one hit didn't beat Julius at all, and also he enjoyed fighting him at a moment right after Echidna lost her consciousness. The BGMs were also exaggerated but good in the scenes where he blew Julius out on the 2nd time, and also when Julius and Subaru went downstairs at the end.

And obviously, Julius and Subaru are alike. They were stubborn, and felt powerless, but still fought against stronger opponents, invincible opponents. That might be the reason why their relationship was good since season 1.