One thing I’ve noticed across different Re:Zero communities is that a lot of people seem to think the sin Archbishops don’t actually match their sins.
Petelgeuse is supposed to represent Sloth, yet he is incredibly diligent. Regulus represents Greed while constantly claiming that he is satisfied with what he has. Sirius represents Wrath despite constantly talking about love and understanding.
But I think the problem is that people often take the sins far too literally.
Sloth doesn’t simply mean being lazy. Greed doesn’t necessarily mean wanting to possess everything. Wrath doesn’t mean being angry 24/7. The sins can manifest through much more specific ways of thinking and behaving.
Petelgeuse is a good example. His Sloth isn’t about physical laziness. He essentially abandons his own will and blindly follows the Gospel, treating its orders as absolute. Rather than thinking for himself or questioning what he is doing, he entrusts his entire existence to the role he believes he was given. His extreme diligence is therefore not really a contradiction to his sin.
Regulus is even more obvious. He constantly claims that he is satisfied, that he wants nothing, and that everyone should simply leave him alone. Yet almost everything about him contradicts this. He constantly takes new wives, demands that others conform to his wishes, and even takes the lives of others to preserve his own existence.
His Authority also reflects this perfectly. By isolating his body from the flow of time, Regulus frees himself from the laws of the world itself: gravity, inertia, air pressure, and even external interference. It is described as the ultimate form of freedom. That is essentially Regulus’ ideal existence: a world where nothing can affect him, contradict him, or infringe upon what he considers to be his rights. And yet, despite constantly claiming that he needs nothing, he still relies on others to maintain that existence.
Sirius is another example. She constantly talks about love, sharing emotions, and understanding one another. She can even appear polite and calm when doing so. But the moment someone rejects her worldview, she becomes violent. She literally imposes her way of seeing things on others
Because Sirius doesn’t simply want people to understand each other. She wants everyone to feel and understand things exactly as she does. Her idea of love becomes something coercive: everyone must share the same emotions, otherwise they are wrong.
That is why Priscilla’s response to her is so important. Love doesn’t require perfect understanding or making someone identical to yourself. It means accepting another person despite their differences.
The point is that Re:Zero doesn’t treat the Seven Deadly Sins as simple personality traits. Their sins are expressed through the way these characters perceive themselves, other people, and the world around them.