Re:Zero Season 3 Episode 8 Analysis and Important Details

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Okay, I ended up being right that Otto may have been in possession of the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom originally used by Roswaal, but I was wrong about the details. I thought it seemed too convenient that he ended up being where Felt, Reinhard, and Heinkel was while having his zodda bugs ready to distract Heinkel, but it seems it really was a coincidence like Otto had said it was. Apparently, the tome was left with a professional trying to restore it to a usable state, which was the reason Otto split up from the group in Episode 51.

And in comes Liliana with her new song that she came up with right on the spot, “Crazy Obsessed With Everything About You”. Given Reinhard revealed that he can wish for any power, and he will gain a Divine Protection for that power, resulting in him gaining his new Divine Protection of Judgement, which allows him to see and understand what Divine Protections other people have and what they do, Reinhard saw that Liliana has the Divine Protection of Telepathy, which may show that Priscilla is into Subaru. It’s possible that Liliana came up with this song ’cause she felt Priscilla’s affection for Subaru during the short time they were together outside and felt Priscilla’s mood improving as she approached the meeting place where Subaru would be. Priscilla notably announced that she is giving Subaru another reward for calming Priestella’s citizens down in allowing herself to be included in the group’s plan. She may have called his broadcast ugly, but ultimately respects results, but I think part of her just wants to be involved with Subaru. Given how Priscilla poked at Liliana later in the episode to get her to agree to accompany her in fighting Sirius, she may have been trying to poke at Subaru in a similar way to assess his manhood or banter with him, but Subaru still has deep insecurities over his self-worth. Priscilla even said after Subaru began to remark about how Priscilla must also be here ’cause of Liliana’s presence that of course she came here in person, most likely ’cause of his broadcast despite on the surface calling it ugly, addressing him as “fool”, much like she did in Episode 56. Maybe she has a thing for fools given Heinkel is a part of her camp.

Liliana’s songs tend to have meaning with her singing a song about a lonely wanderer (herself), age differences in love (regarding Subaru and Beatrice even though they aren’t romantically interested in each other), the Sword Demon’s Love Ballad (when Wilhelm was known to have visited the city), a song about dragon blood, and a song about how awesome life is to ease the mind of the city’s citizens, insulating them from Sirius’s Authority of Wrath, so I find it hard to believe that Liliana randomly decided to sing a love song for no reason but was inspired to do so. That’s what makes me believe the song is about Priscilla being into Subaru. Priscilla also notably gave Subaru two rewards on the same day, clearly showing Subaru favour. Liliana may have noticed how Subaru being around lifted Priscilla’s mood during the short time they were together in addition to whatever effect Subaru’s broadcast had on Priscilla, and that would be her inspirations for the new song.

Priscilla also made a good observation that Al was helping that group instead of accompanying her and forcing her to look for Schult on her own shortly after she made her entrance, calling Al and Schult rude for making her do that, but I believe part of it is show to demonstrate her lording over her power to outsiders due to her possibly carefully crafting her image to be this way. Al certainly has his own agenda, whatever it is, given his independence from his master. When Priscilla declared her intention to join the battle against the Witch Cult, he tried to talk her down from doing it, which is similar to how he wanted Emilia to be coddled and protected by Subaru instead of strong and independent. Given this recurring behaviour of how he wants a woman protected by a man and to tamp down their confidence/strength, it wouldn’t surprise me if he indeed lost to Roswaal if he was the immediate previous Hero of the story as I pose with how Roswaal wanted Emilia to be completely dependent on Subaru. Re:Zero Season 3 Breaktime Episode 4 also showed that Subaru physically needs Beatrice around due to his gate being destroyed making it so that his body can’t regulate its mana levels, and given we know Al does not need to hang around a spirit, Al’s gate most likely didn’t break when he was the hero, possibly ’cause he faced a crushing defeat to Roswaal, which set up his heroic delusions remark to Subaru.

Otto and Subaru have a 1-on-1 conversation as Al brings Priscilla up to speed, and Otto reveals he picked up the charred remains of the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom a year ago ’cause he wants to check its contents due to him not trusting Roswaal as far as he could throw him. He said that aside from what had engineered at the Sanctuary, Roswaal had all sorts of schemes that others let slide. Subaru then implies that they don’t let him get away with everything but that they need his strength. Otto says that it’s fine and that he’ll be wary enough of Roswaal for both him and Emilia. He said that as Subaru’s internal affairs officer, Roswaal didn’t behave as if he were up to any conspiracies or schemes that would weight on his conscience, but he was worried that Roswaal had set up some plans with a time lag so that they wouldn’t be able to see them coming. Otto wanted to ensure that nobody from their camp could be hurt by Roswaal again, which is very good reasoning that makes him a very good ally to those he believes in, although the Emilia camp probably doesn’t have anything to worry about unless Roswaal loses his desire to live due to the curse on his soul that will incinerate his soul ’cause of him losing his bet to Subaru in Season 2. Otto revealed his intent to retrieve the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom and that he could do it without any help from the group after Subaru remarked about not being able to spare anyone to help him do it since they’d be focused on the control towers, reminding Subaru that he was able to navigate around this danger-filled city and bring them the Sword Saint. Wilhelm then called for Subaru ’cause Crusch requested that he fetch Subaru.

When Subaru is in Crusch’s room, Felix tells him not to push Crusch given she’s in critical condition. Felix has blood on his face and clothes, which shows he probably tried to forcibly take the dragon blood out of Crusch’s body with that intervention failing completely and utterly. Everything below Crusch’s head and even part of her face have completely changed colour and filled with many veins, which shows she got the short end of the stick compared to Subaru with the curse of the black dragon blood. It’s hard seeing someone who was so charismatic and a natural leader end up like this. Subaru upon briefly touching Crusch’s left arm was in pain and transferred some of Capella’s black dragon blood from Crusch’s body into his own. When he saw that this improved Crusch’s condition, he did it again but for a longer portion of time by touching her face, and it resulted in Crusch’s face becoming normal again. As I indicated in Episode 56, it appears Subaru has a resistance to the curse to his dormant Ulgarm curses from Season 1 fighting with the black dragon curse, which weakens the black dragon curse so that Crusch saw more relief than Subaru gained in symptoms of the curse. Subaru intended to do more for Crusch, but Crusch wisely dissauded him as if they both become unable to fight the outcome would be fatal. She tells him to instead to assure that she can leave everything to him, which he does. All throughout that entire interaction, Crusch was looking to Subaru since him being okay had resulted in him being her hope. She not once looked towards Felix, her knight, and that must’ve really hurt Felix, which Felix alluded to with how he was powerless to do anything to help the one he wants most when Subaru said that there still many people who will require Felix’s aid.

When Subaru finally stepped back outside and showed Wilhelm his hand, which Wilhelm was undoubtedly grateful for, Wilhelm shared the identities of the two strong Witch cultist who were with Capella, “Eight-Arms” Kurgan, formerly the Volakia Empire’s most powerful swordsman, and Theresia van Astrea, the previous Sword Saint. Wilhelm revealed during the demihuman war several decades ago when he was in his youth there was a person who used the forbidden art of corpse manipulation. He revealed that that individual is long gone but that the art still exists and that those resurrected were referred to as corpse soldiers. Wilhelm pleads to Subaru not to tell Reinhard about Theresia. He reveals to Subaru that the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint is a Divine Protection that is inherited, which makes it different from all other Divine Protections. That Divine Protection was passed on to Reinhard when Theresia was fighting the White Whale, and ’cause Wilhelm was adamant that Theresia give up fighting since it was his job as the stronger of the two to protect her, she suddenly became very ordinary on the battlefield, which he clearly regretted since he indirectly caused her to die.

If you recall from Season 1, Wilhelm insisted that ’cause Theresia had a face like hers that she was not suited to the battlefield and that he would take the sword away from her. That flashback always pissed me off and came across as really sexist and was a big yikes despite it taking place in a medieval setting. Theresia also notably said in the flashback when Wilhelm defeated her in a duel that she wants to hear him say he loves her, and Wilhelm promised to do it someday with it being implied that it never happened as he only said it after he killed the White Whale… I’m glad to see that Wilhelm has wised up and realized that him preventing Theresia from fighting in an effort to protect her given his views led to her being mostly helpless after she lost her Divine Protection of the Sword Saint due to Reinhard inheriting it. It shows he has changed with his realization he caused her death. Even if Theresia personally didn’t want to continue fighting, which is probably she constantly asked Wilhelm if he likes flowers and why Wilhelm said she never wanted to pick up a sword, I believe she should have at least trained herself in self-defense instead of fighting. He rebuked Reinhard when he inherited the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint as he could not forgive young Reinhard for being saddled with a fate far too heavy for someone still mourning his grandma. Wilhelm says clearly that Reinhard bears no responsibility for Theresia’s death, which rings true since the rift with Reinhard was one of his three biggest regrets that were alluded to in Episode 51. Wilhelm doesn’t want Reinhard to be burdened with having to deal with Theresia, and it shows the love he has for his grandson. When Subaru says that they don’t know when the corpse soldiers will show up, Wilhelm asserts that Theresia will definitely come find him, most likely ’cause he believes in fate.

Back in the group’s meeting room, Priscilla insists she will take on Sirius from the Fourth District with Liliana’s help. Priscilla believes Liliana’s singing can counter Sirius’s Authority, and when Subaru wondered there was a way to test that, Reinhard received the Divine Protection I mentioned earlier in this episode and saw that Liliana’s ability would indeed be able to stop Sirius’s Authority, so the group finally settles on Priscilla fighting Wrath when they were deadset against it at first. Next Subaru brings up that the Lust faction with the two strong cultists and the demi-beasts are probably where most of the Witch Cult’s forces are concentrated, and he wants Wilhelm and Garfiel to be the ones to take them on. When Garfiel protests, saying that they need to save Emilia, Subaru reminds him that he has his own score to settle as it was due to those two cultists that Mimi is close to death. Wilhelm volunteers himself to fight Capella’s faction, but Reinhard objects ’cause he believes Wilhelm’s mind isn’t clear right now due to what happened to Crusch. Wilhelm says a bunch of things to get the point across that he is not to be underestimated and urges Subaru to choose him for the task, which Subaru was already going to do as he wants Reinhard fighting Regulus since it’ll be a fight with the strongest against the invincible. Garfiel begs Reinhard to help Subaru and Emilia, and Reinhard agrees as long as Garfiel promises that he will see through the mission at all costs and that they will both win. Garfiel probably needed to hear that due to him being low on confidence after letting Mimi get hurt so badly and having his punch be easily blocked by Reinhard, and having Reinhard in addition to Ricardo in Episode 54 put their faith in Garfiel might be just what Garfiel needed. Subaru says he’ll do whatever he can to cover for Reinhard in areas he’s lacking, which has Reinhard shocked, as he has probably never been told that before due to his immense strength ever since he was a young boy and him saying he will have faith that Subaru will fill in in the areas he will fall short might be the first time he has ever placed his faith in another person. Julius then says that he and Ricardo will take on Gluttony, but they still don’t know that there is more than one Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, so I wonder how that will go.

At Regulus and Emilia’s wedding, Regulus is amazed at Emilia’s beauty and remarks that he was right to keep seat number 79 open. He remarks that there was a woman he thought was the perfect fit for that seat when he first met, but he deemed her unsuitable before they married and left it open. I had previously speculated that Regulus chose his wives’ positions subjectively based on who he finds most attractive, but this episode calls that into question with this info likely showing that he chooses wives to fill particular seats based on particular physical characteristics. Regulus says that as a wife of his, Emilia will be forbidden from smiling and having any change of expression ’cause some women become ugly when they smile, and it might be the case that seeing a woman genuinely happy with a man who will treat her right pisses him off since it reminds him of his own failures as a man. This might be why Regulus was so enraged after seeing Fortuna return to fight with Petelgeuse in Season 2. Pandora told Regulus to calm his anger due to beauty of the love Fortuna and Petelgeuse had together, which resulted in him striking Pandora with all his might with the intent of killing her. Emilia then talks about how she believe marriage is supposed to be a happy thing, a ritual embodying the desire two people have for each other to be together. She then asks Regulus why he addresses his wives using numbers, and Regulus retorts by saying that being fixated on what people called is the same as being fixated on looks, the most shallow form of relationship there is, which shows extreme hypocrisy since looks are all that matters to Regulus with him even threatening to erase anyone who moves from the neck down since he doesn’t want to destroy a beautiful face once Emilia repeatedly brings up Subaru, much to Regulus’s chagrain. Regulus’s wives were terrified during the entire exchange as they fear Regulus and his temper deeply. When Emilia finally responds by saying she won’t be Regulus’s woman, Regulus is infuriated and is about to kill her right as Reinhard kicks open the door of the venue and knocking Regulus away. Subaru and Reinhard both had to introduce themselves given Regulus probably doesn’t remember Subaru due to seeing most men as ants who are beneath his attention, and Subaru coolly ends the episode by saying that he objects to the union. It was great that Emilia talked back to Regulus in such a manner as I’m sure none of his other wives were willing to do so out of fear of him. It goes to show how she has such faith that Subaru will save her and that she will eventually fall for him, not wanting to live a life where she is subservient to Regulus.

I guess this is as good of a time as any to take a break before Re:Zero Season 3 returns in February. I wonder whether Subaru will die any more times given the OP of the first part showed him looping after going right at Regulus, but that might have been misdirection since it showed him with Beatrice, who is out of commission due to being low on mana.

An association between some Re:Zero characters’ names and flowers and a prediction for far into the future

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I started looking up the names of Re:zero characters after the episode, A Flash Of Sloth, which was Episode 22 of Season 1, given it had multiple instances of sloth, like how Petelgeuse was going on and on about showing proof of love, which resulted in Mimi and Tivey launching a joint attack on the Sloth camp’s stronghold in the Roswaal domain and Petelgeuse’s main body being killed by Wilhelm in an anticlimatic fashion, the joint Witch Cult hunting force suffering casualties due to their guard having been lowered with their belief that Petelgeuse had been killed, and the hunting force falling under Ram’s spell when they were on their way to the mansion.

Since Theresia made a big fuss about flowers, that was the reason I looked up Re:zero names for associations with flowers. Aster is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. The aster flower is also associated with Astraea, a Greek goddess of innocence and purity that is closely associated with Dike, the Greek goddess of justice.

If Wilhelm’s words are to be believed, Theresia never wanted to take up the sword but was probably forced to because she became the Sword Saint as indicated by him saying that the sword loved her more than anyone, which maybe ties into Astraea being innocent and pure. Astraea’s association with Dike may be the reason Tappei made the Astrea family to be the one that produces Sword Saints. I have no proof of this, but I believe that Tappei did not have Reinhard in mind when he first thought up the concept for the Astrea family, meaning he came up with Reinhard after he had decided on the concept and naming of the family.

Asters are symbols of love. Trias, Wilhelm’s birth surname, is a genus of orchids. Orchids are also symbols of love. That should be obvious how this relates to Theresia and Wilhelm since the two were a part of a love story. The yellow flowers the pair were always looking at were yellow wood sorrels. Wood sorrels are symbols of health and healing, which might be a sign that Tappei intended for Wilhelm to live healthy well into his senior years and for his heart to slowly heal once he got his revenge on the White Whale.

Emilia is a genus of herbaceous plants in the sunflower family, known as tasselflower or pualele. They can bloom even throughout a significant portion of the year. From what I can see, sunflowers are symbols of fertility, wishes, health and wisdom. So given that Emilia seems to be Subaru’s ideal woman, I can see that being related to wishes and fertility as she is probably the one he wants to bear his children. Given that elves are long-lived, allowing them to learn much about the world, I can see that playing a factor in why Tappei gave Emilia some elven blood from Fortuna’s brother since elves are typically quite healthy and can gain significant wisdom over their long lives.

Scilla can be short for Priscilla, and scilla is the Italian word for squill flower. I don’t know how reputable this information is, but I see that the squill is a symbol for money, protection, and the breakage of hexes based on some sites that seem to be big on dabbling in magic, and being rich and lucky fit the money and protection parts to a tee. It won’t be clear whether Priscilla can break/undo hexes until someone Priscilla cares about is under the influence of a hex, allowing for us to see if she has such a power.

Why I am focusing on this is that I believe Subaru might fall under a hex and have his soul corrupted, turning him evil based on Emilia’s third trial having Garfiel say that he’ll kill Subaru in a glimpse of the future. I believe Priscilla can break/undo hexes based on scilla being the Italian name for the squill flower, so she could make him normal again if Subaru is affected by a hex in a future arc. Given Beatrice confirmed the existence of hexes in Season 3, I look forward to seeing a hex actually being used.

For why Subaru’s soul being corrupted would matter, Subaru’s entire body resets when Return by Death activates, meaning that the seat of memories and the mind in Re:Zero is the soul. All physical damage to Subaru past a save point is eliminated, but something that affects his soul in that sort of manner should be possible, and since his soul is continuously sent back into his body after physical death, his soul would remain corrupted after using RBD.

Given I believe that Subaru and Priscilla will be the endgame couple, maybe it’s no surprise that I ended up making this connection. I’m still convinced that Emilia will be dead at the end of the story based on Season 1 and Season 2’s content, and I will stand my ground on this no matter what happens.

Re:Zero Season 3 Episode 7 Analysis and Important Details

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So it was revealed that Al killed a bunch of Witch cultists to obtain the metia from Capella’s tower. I apologize to my those reading my blog about about my conclusion from the previous episode. I had gotten tunnel vision over the watergate opening, which ended up saving Subaru from certain death, and believed that it must have been Al when it could have been any cultist who opened it if I’m right about how the Gospels are meant to keep the world on a particular path. This episode also had emphasis on the watergate being opened at a time that helped them, so I’m sure this will be an important plot point in the future. Al’s behavior while on call with Emilia was very interesting. Al told her that if she needed help that she can just ask for Subaru for help and that she doesn’t need to act tough, which seems as if he wants Emilia to be completely dependent on Subaru much like Roswaal had wanted to happen based on Echidna’s plan. If Al was the immediate previous hero of the story as I have speculated, he may have lost his bet to Roswaal and became focused on doing everything for his lover, never allowing her to grow. Al seemed quite taken aback by Emilia’s confidence, which shows his lover was probably more meek and relied solely on him.

While Subaru, Anastasia, and Julius had a brief talk about the broadcast metia’s ease of use, Al returned earlier than expected as Anastasia noted, which shows that they knew what he would be doing. Al had returned sooner ’cause he had a message he wanted to deliver to Subaru from Emilia. Anastasia questioned Subaru whether he believed the message since Capella can transform into people and even mimic their voices, which was unstated but must have been the case, and Subaru said that last part about Beatrice was totally in character for Emilia. Anastasia reacted well to that remark, but Al didn’t with his “hmph”, which made me think that Al had accepted Echidna’s contract since the only other person we know that dislikes Emilia’s selflessness that much is Echidna herself in Episode 49 when she broke her ruse in Ryuzu Shima’s body to speak with her own voice out of irritation when Emilia suggested that they all take the original Ryuzu Meyer back to the graveyard, the moment which showed that Echidna had successfully revived herself. This shows that Al in time took on some of Echidna’s dislikes with how Echidna hated Emilia’s selflessness even if the object of Al’s affection when he was the hero of the story was someone else if it was a different heroine that fits the same mold as Emilia and Satella. Subaru indicated that that’s what makes him want to believe in Emilia but that he just hopes that she isn’t being too reckless, which Al agrees with strongly, likely ’cause he had become someone who focused exclusively on one person when he was the hero as Roswaal had intended and projected his past situation onto the current situation given the heroine when he was the hero was probably similar to Emilia in some ways if most of the heroines fit most of the same mold given what we’ve seen from Emilia and also Satella when she was in the Dream Castle.

Wife Number 184 then caught Emilia coming back and dematerializing her ice stand-in, and she remarked that she was surprised that Emilia came back. She had hoped that Emilia would run away ’cause she had mustered up the courage to defy Regulus in what she believed were her final moments. Of course Emilia would never have done that since she cares deeply about others and didn’t want to create trouble for her and the other wives.

Back to Subaru and the group, Subaru answers that the metia will be the key to taking back the city after Al inquires what the group here is doing and what is the huge metia there, and it’s a quintessential Subaru plan. There’s a lot of talk about how Sirius’s Authority of Wrath affects the citizens and how evil it is, which leads to Garfiel asking Subaru what his plan is, which Subaru and Julius responded to by saying that since the Authority of Wrath amplifies the anxieties of people in the city that were caused by Capella’s malicious broadcast they need to spread a message of hope to counter that. Garfiel believes they need to use this plan ASAP, and Anastasia interjects by saying that the Witch Cult might not close the watergate this time if they do that. They had determined that it was the First District’s watergate and that Capella had not been in it when the watergate opened due to Emilia’s info, so why did it open up as if to help them escape and then close right away? Subaru remarks that the Witch Cult can be inconsistent, but there must be some rules, and I maintain that the only rule is to adhere to their Gospels as Regulus and Sirius had done in Episode 53. If the whole point of the Gospels is to keep the world on a particular path as I have long speculated, the watergate was opened primarily to save Subaru and prevent him from dying by falling onto pavement. They speculated about why they left the metia intact, and Al interjects by saying that the cult doesn’t care what is that they do ’cause they’ve never lost. As he put it succinctly, “What dragon would care what the ants at its feet are planning?”

Anastasia then notes that she’s on board with the plan and that the only question is who will do it. Subaru brings up and tries to volunteer a whole lot of people, and all his suggestions get turned down until Garfiel brings up that Subaru himself should do that since he’s the only one here who has directly defeated a Sin Archbishop and beaten the Witch Cult, and to this city, there’s probably nothing more important than that. Everyone aside from Al gives Subaru encouragement, saying that if Subaru has doubts he shouldn’t do it. After Al asked if the guy standing there really that great to the crowd, Garfiel got pissed, and Al responded by saying if taking everything upon himself somehow makes everything work out, then yeah, he’s great, but the majority of ordinary folks can’t handle that burden. He says he’s sure he can’t, and he knows Garf can’t either, so he questions why Subaru has to do it at all and that he feels sorry for him, and it might be ’cause Al was speaking from experience due to having been defeated by Roswaal. Al then asks Subaru if that little lady more important to him than anything else, regarding Emilia. Al says he everything he does is for his princess, and that it’s why he’s happy to put off everything else, which is eerily similar to how Roswaal wanted Subaru to be. He suggests that Subaru should do the same, which is focus on saving Emilia ’cause Witch cultists are just passing evildoers and that nothing good can come from getting involved with them.

Continuing on with the context gleaned from Re:Zero Season 3 Breaktime Episodes 5 and 6 with the confirmation that Al was also summoned and likely specifically from Japan, Subaru then responds that if a kid jumped out into the street at a red light he’d grab the kid’s hand and pull them back to the sidewalk without thinking about why, and that’s what the situation’s like, and Al responds that if he does that, the only thing he’ll be carrying is heroic delusions with losing being unacceptable and that he must win since he’d carry people’s hopes, shoulder their expectations, and fight for the future. Subaru replies that isn’t losing always unacceptable, to which Al responds that it carries a different weight ’cause his losses won’t be his own anymore. Subaru thinks back to a lot of moments and says that it’s just business as usual. Subaru gets more encouragement and when he makes a self-deprecating quip to Julius, Julius indicates that he’ll be completely respectful the whole time, which grosses Subaru out since he still bears a lot of resentment to Julius, and I hope he gets over that one day. Subaru then thanked Al for helping him make his decision, and Al kind of sulks and picks a spot far off where the others aren’t to sit as Subaru prepares to make his speech.

It then switches back to Emilia and Wife Number 184, who indicated that she hoped Emilia didn’t return so that Regulus would’ve killed her and that now everything will remain the same. Emilia tells that if she was able to back up, she should try again and that she herself has never given up. Wife Number 184 tells Emilia that she is free to insist she will never give up but that she herself will never be tempted again with the other wives being in agreement with that. She revealed that she was a simple girl living in a small village and that to make her his wife, Regulus killed everybody who knew her and that the same thing happened to all his other wives.

Subaru then begun his speech much like how someone would test a mic back on Earth. He said he apologized for startling the citizens, but he just wanted to get it across that he is not with the Witch Cult. The people in the shelters had gotten their hopes up that the Witch Cult had been run out, but Subaru indicated that the threat from the Witch Cult had not yet ended as they took back the government office but still hadn’t regained control of the control towers. He wanted to level with them that the city can still be flooded and that the cult’s demands are still very real. Subaru then said he’s sure they’re all really anxious and him doing a broadcast that got their hopes up probably got some of them thinking, “Who does he think he is?” It showed what a lot of characters were up to, including that Heinkel had knocked out one of three thugs from Season 1 with an alcoholic beverage bottle and unbound himself. Subaru says that like everyone else he is at the mercy of what is going on here. He feels that the unfairness of it is crushing him and shares that he’s really scared, and that’s just who he is. As such, he feels he’s in no position to be calling out to them like this and that he thinks there were better people for the job. He says a lot of people a lot more amazing than he is insisted that he should do it and that it would have more meaning that way. He says a lot of self-deprecating things, which leads to the citizens being downcast, and then says that he can’t run, and that’s why he fights. Subaru says a lot of things that show his concerns for them, and he urges them to not end up alone even if it’s a selfish thing to ask, and they don’t understand the request. He says when they’re alone that their heads just fills with senseless thoughts and that he’s speaking from experience. He encourages them to look at the face of someone around them. He says a lot of things about what motivates him and indicates that he wants the citizens to stop casting their gazes downward ’cause staring at their feet all the time won’t change anything and that making eye contact with people who share the same anxieties they do and who don’t want to lose will make them stronger due to him believing that’s the way to overcome Sirius’s Authority. He wants them to all believe in each other ’cause if they do he can fight with all his heart, which lifted their spirits. It’s a very powerful speech to uplift people, and Tappei does seem to get what moves people.

Back to Emilia and Wife Number 184, Emilia reveals that the one who was speaking was her knight to Wife Number 184 when prompted and says that he’s someone who always tries really hard. Emilia says that she won’t run and leave the rest of the wives. When Wife Number 184 presses Emilia on why she’d do that for them, Emilia indicates it’s ’cause she knew she was scared but still helped her when Regulus pressed Emilia on why she had such a bitter look on her face, which was also unstated and another moment Tappei expects viewers to remember the details from previous episodes. Emilia wants them all to be happy due to her belief that marriage should be with the one you love so that you can be happy. She knew that Fortuna and Petelgeuse loved each other and couldn’t get married and that it still hurts to think about them and indicated she’d never want to be in a relationship in which she was married but unhappy. Wife Number 184 says that’s an admirable thought, but if she’s going to act, she should act alone, and Emilia says she’s not alone and says let’s do the wedding. Emilia indicated that she almost made a mistake, likely ’cause she had intended to save all the wives by herself instead of working to encouraging them to help themselves.

Subaru is then embarrassed but got a lot of kudos for his speech, and they say that they have to conquer all four control towers at once. Otto then shows up and reveals that he managed to make it back despite some things having happened and that he brought Reinhard with him, and we get the title of the episode, which is “The Newest of Heroes, and the Most Ancient of Heroes.” On the surface, it may seem like the title is mainly about the original Sword Saint, who was an ancient hero, and consequently Reinhard as the current Sword Saint, but I believe the title also refers to Al. Al was also much more prominent in the episode than Reinhard was with how he tried to talk down Subaru from being the hero and focusing on Emilia, and that may be a hint to the sort of path Al previously took when he was the Hero of the story. One meaning of “ancient” is “bygone”, and if Al was from a bygone world, that would also mean he is an ancient hero even if he weren’t that old himself. I believe the title also refers to the group of characters from 400 years ago in my theory, such as Satella, Echidna, Pandora, Flugel, Subaru from 400 years ago, and others as well since they were heroes for enacting the grand plan for a good future.

I believe Subaru was summoned to bring the world to a free future and stop the cycle of the world being destroyed/reconstructed from the curse of the selfish hero who lets the world burn in an attempt to save his love, which has led to countless iterations of the same type of story happening with a different hero and heroine every time. The key is to have Subaru be born weak and improve Subaru’s self-esteem so that he isn’t conceited like past heroes and also to develop Emilia to be someone whose wishes Subaru will not dare trample over.

The time period from 400 years ago in which Satella, Echidna, Pandora, Flugel, Subaru, and others existed may have been the first time in the world’s history that the world didn’t come to an end and be reconstructed, and it’s most likely due to a grand plan that was formed in that time period. I believe Satella may have willingly become the Witch of Envy to destroy half the world, becoming the bogeyman of all the world’s evils in the process with the help of those other characters, in particular, Echidna and Pandora, in order to ensure that the possibility to unite the world against the Witch of Envy exists in the future to reduce the odds off the Hero of the story going against the plan.

Whatever the situation was at the time, since I’ve speculated that Al was summoned after Subaru but came to Re:Zero’s fantasy world before Subaru did, I believe Al was the immediate previous iteration of the Hero of the story who chose his lover over the world, dooming it to destruction, and that yet-to-be-determined force that constantly re-summoned Melakuera into reconstructed worlds re-summoned Al into the newly constructed world (Subaru’s world) after Al’s world came to an end.

I believe that in the age of Satella after she caused the calamity, she caused enough of a divergence from the story that whenever the world is reconstructed after its destruction it is reconstructed to the point right after she caused the calamity as a self-preservation mechanism from the world, so Al would also have been frozen in time in some place (perhaps the dark world Subaru is pulled to when he tries to reveal the Taboo) for hundreds of years much like I propose Subaru was before Al was re-summoned 18 years before Subaru’s arrival in Lugunica.

Al probably loved a different silver-haired half-elf in his iteration of the world, who may or may not have looked exactly like Satella and Emilia, and for whatever reason, he ended up being one of the failed heroes. Episode 57 suggests that Al may have lost his bet against Roswaal in the Sanctuary arc and accepted Echidna’s contract with how he was beseeching Emilia to ask for help from Natsuki Subaru and that she doesn’t have to act so tough, which is strikingly similar to Roswaal’s vision in Arc 4 to have Emilia be completely and utterly dependent on Subaru, and thus, Subaru may be the successful hero in the end whereas Al was a failure.

Maybe Al being a failure is exactly why Echidna is even playing along with the grand plan despite her desire for endless knowledge. Echidna may have deliberately pushed Subaru to reject her contract ’cause she had already seen through her Tome of Wisdom and saw Al’s playthrough as the Hero since the Tome of Wisdom can likely see all of the world’s history given how it could fully reconstruct the past and show glimpses of the future. This episode did strongly hint that Al entered a contract with Echidna with his implied dislike of Emilia’s selflessness that Echidna also had.

Thus, the title of the episode would refer to Subaru, the newest of heroes, and the most ancient of heroes, being the Sword Saint, both the original from 400 years ago and the current one Reinhard, Al, and many characters from 400 years ago with Echidna being the most important of them given the hint that Al accepted Echidna’s contract.

Tappei’s other anime works, Sen`yoku no Sigrdrifa, Vivy: Fluorite’s Eye Song, and Isekai Suicide Squad could be hinting at my grand plan theory

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As anyone who has read my posts know, I believe that multiple characters from 400 years ago, including, Echidna, Pandora, and Satella, are guiding the world to a specific path in which Natsuki Subaru frees the world from its cycle of being destroyed and reconstructed by the seemingly endless iterations of the selfish hero who chooses his lover over the world with the Seal in Elior Forest or the equivalent of that being opened, leading to the world’s destruction. For more on that theory, read this:

A Re:Zero theory: Why Subaru was summoned and Al, quite possibly the brother Subaru never knew and a previous iteration of the Hero

Regulus specifically stated in Episode 51 that fate would have him meet the Emilia camp again. This info explicitly shows that Regulus’s Gospel made him believe that they would meet again despite it taking until the 4th loop for it to actually happen. This shows, as I have long proposed, that the Witch Cult Gospels are meant to keep the world on a particular path rather than being texts that give real forecasts about the future.

If you’ve seen Sen’yoku no Sigrdrifa, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song, and Isekai Suicide Squad, Tappei’s other anime works, a common element of all those series is that in some or way or another, there was a force controlling or influencing opposing sides with Odin directing both the Pillars and the Valkyries, the collective hivemind Archive both giving advanced tech to Vivy’s enemies and also limiting humanity’s advancement of AI to prevent too much divergence from the future from the timeline it left, partially due to a rogue part of Archive wanting Vivy to succeed, and The Joker playing both sides, the Empire and the Kingdom, partially to make sure his lover, Harley, enjoys her time in the isekai world and to further his own agenda.

Thus, I believe it is likely in Re:Zero based on past precedent that there is a whole faction, not just one entity like those other shows, likely including Pandora, Satella, and Echidna, all hoping to push the world towards a specific future since Re:Zero is meant to be a more epic story compared to Tappei’s other works. Tappei might even be constructing these other anime works in the manner he did to give a hint to Re:Zero fans rather than simply reusing a similar concept due to laziness.

Re:Zero Season 3 Episode 6 Analysis and Important Details

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This was a slower-paced episode, but it still had some very engaging content, some of which were likely very important details. The first of which is that while Subaru was unconscious, he saw himself being washed away by an inundation of purple water, and while he was being washed away, he vomited out a dark substance that formed imagery of the Ulgarm mabeasts from Season 1 and the black dragon Capella transformed into, which then clashed, likely to signify that the dormant Ulgarm curses in Subaru weakened the influence of the curse of Capella’s black dragon blood when the two curses mixed, which is why only Subaru’s right leg was affected by the blood’s curse instead of his whole body like it was for many other people. For reference, Beatrice indicated in Season 1 that ’cause Subaru was bitten in so many places, the Ulgarm curses got knotted up, so she couldn’t dispel the curses, so the only way to prevent the curses from activating would be to kill all the Ulgarm that bit him, and that would be why the Ulgarm curses are dormant. Interestingly enough, Subaru not only regrew his leg but also the bandages wrapping it and his shoe, which suggests that there may be something more at play as well. Given Capella could transform herself and make new clothing for herself when she transforms, when Capella drips her blood on you, she may be sharing part of her Authority of Lust with you, and that is how Subaru regrew the bandages and his shoe. As we’ve seen that there are more than one Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, it should theoretically be possible to share an Authority even if it’s not clear why Lye and Roy can both be a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. One other possibility if the dragon blood is a part of Capella’s Authority is that since Subaru had a resistance to the Sloth (could see the Unseen Hand in Episode 17 after failing to see it the first time) and Gluttony (remembers people erased by Gluttony as shown by Episodes 17 and 26 and the White Whale, which Puck called Gluttony in Episode 18, probably ’cause it’s the White Whale of Gluttony) Authorities that he also has a resistance to Capella’s Authority ’cause he has a resistance to Authorities in general, and that is another reason only his leg was affected and that injuries to his new leg are healed.

Another thing to note is that Priscilla asked Subaru not to scream when she cut open his leg with her fan. Clearly, she did not expect that to do permanent damage to Subaru and knew it would heal. Maybe Al’s right or left leg is in a similar condition, and that is why she did what she did, and it wasn’t out of curiosity. I believe that Al and Subaru both served as the Hero of the story of their times/world in the cycle of the world being destroyed and reconstructed and that Al was born as Subaru’s younger brother and was the immediate previous iteration of the Hero of the story. The reason Al is older than Subaru would be that Subaru’s body was frozen in time for centuries, and Al was re-summoned to Subaru’s world after his world came to an end eighteen years before Subaru arrived in Lugunica. Al knowing Subaru’s nickname for Beatrice, Beako, lends credence to this theory. Or maybe Priscilla just has incredible intuition, which is a point in the relevant Breaktime episode, but I think reading into there being more makes it much more interesting to think about. Subaru then revealed that it was Capella dripping dragon blood on him that led to his leg becoming like that. After this, Priscilla remarked that dragon blood is one of three treasures the Holy Dragon bestowed upon the Royal Family, and I wonder what the other two treasures are.

Priscilla then shares Capella’s new demands, which Subaru was pissed off at and loudly declared that he’d kick the whole Witch Cult out of the city, and that it’s not a matter of whether he can do it when Priscilla prodded him but whether he will do it or not. Showing off some gumption led to her saying she would give him a reward, and she proceeded to knock him down to the ground to prevent him from being targeted by an attack before fighting off a whole crowd of demi-beasts, which may have formed from the purple eggs in Episode 54. After saying that whoever made the demi-beasts had no sense of beauty, she easily cuts all of them in half and burns them to a crisp with her Yang Sword, which she pulled out of a fiery void, and declares that Subaru’s reward is seeing the shine of her Yang Sword and the knowledge of the Demi-Beasts. Even if Priscilla has good intuition, it’s clear she’s not infallible as I believe it’s the case that Capella deliberately wants her creations to not be beautiful due to her insecurity rather than her having no sense of beauty. Priscilla was also massively wrong about Subaru in Season 1 Episode 16 such that when she posed the foot licking test to him which she thought he would pass she was enraged due to how badly Subaru defied her expectations.

Priscilla then leads Subaru to one of the shelters, saying it is her objective, and the people there are being affected by Sirius’s Authority. Priscilla then casually remarked “Not here either…” which shows she was looking for someone, which she revealed to be Schult, the little boy who serves her, after Liliana calmed the civilians, who Priscilla noted were easy to rile up with the smallest of things, with her singing.

I understand Priscilla on the surface confirming Al saying Priscilla likes seeing vicious beasts torment weak creatures in Episode 13 followed by Priscilla beating the shit out of Subaru for complying with a request she made to him made her seem very cruel in Episode 16, but as I have argued in the past, that is likely the wrong read of things one might come to based only a surface-level reading of the content.

This recent episode shows Priscilla going out of her way to search for Schult by going to as many shelters as possible, showing motherly qualities for her vassal. She also called the situation in the shelters an ugly, meaningless reality, which directly contradicts how Al indicated that she loves seeing vicious beasts torment weak creatures, as if that were the case, she’d be cheering on Sirius for her Authority causing the discord it did.

Then when Subaru revealed to Priscilla that the Authority of Wrath throws people’s emotions into chaos and that a shelter full of unrest is the perfect prey for her, Priscilla narrowed her eyebrows in anger. She may have said that she was just looking for Schult, but I don’t fully buy it. I believe she really wanted to help the citizens in addition to finding Schult. Does this look like someone who likes seeing the weak be preyed on as Al suggested?

Much like I had thought after watching Re:Zero in Season 1, I do proclaim once again that Priscilla is kinder than she lets on, and even Subaru himself might’ve started realizing that given how he reacted in the shelter before he shared his intent to go back to the Muse Company. It is simply wrong to say she only cares about what sort of entertainment you can give her. I believe I have long been on the right track about her, and Tappei often plays with viewers’ expectations of a player by introducing them one way and showing that there was more to them, much like with Crusch, Julius, Otto, and Anastasia.

After Regulus’s Wife Number 184 changed Emilia into new clothes, Regulus noted how unhappy Emilia was and asked what’s wrong, and when Emilia didn’t respond, he prodded Wife Number 184 for an answer, and she remarked that it was probably the broadcast that upset her. After Regulus asks Emilia whether she’s still not better, Emilia looks really uncomfortable, prompting him to say she has a really bitter expression on her face and sternly asking why she has no answer, to which Emilia said she thinks she’s a bit tired. Regulus then reveals after saying it was negligence on his part to not notice that that he and his wives are preparing a temple for them to get married at and that he has had 291 wives total with many of them sadly having perished with 54 of them when including Emilia remaining. He says he will love them all equally, and he launces an attack that would’ve killed Wife Number 184 after he remarks that the one closest to Emilia should’ve noticed her exhaustion. Regulus forcing Wife Number 184 not to smile and deciding to her on a whim shows that his wives are all disposable dolls to him even if he’s not so evil as to seek out child brides and that he doesn’t understand what love actually is. Emilia says it’s wrong for that wife to start cleaning up after Regulus’s mess after he tried to kill her, but that wife says it’s not within her right to ask for anything further, which Emilia protests, asking if all of the wives shrink in fear of Regulus and accept when it when he tries to kill them, and Wife Number 184 responds by saying that is the nature of some spousal relationships and that Emilia will get used to it in time. Emilia believes that marriage should be the happiest picture of happiness, and Wife Number 184 says that marriage can exist without happiness and to do as their husband commands, which Emilia says isn’t right. It shows what a disgusting pig Regulus is for oppressing so many women.

Julius then saves Subaru after he was being hunted by a demi-beast and brings him back to the government office after informing him that the Muse Company was attacked and that everyone who went to take back the government office made it back alive and that it now serves as their base of operations. Inside, Felix slapped Wilhelm for not protecting Crusch, and it was made implicit that she implored multiple people to at least make an excuse why the situation couldn’t be avoided, but no one did so and accepted the responsibility of their actions as they believed there was no other approach they could have tried. If you recall from Season 2 with Episode 26, Felix wanted to abandon the alliance with the Emilia camp since the Witch Cult had attacked and eaten Crusch’s memories as Felix’s #1 priority is keeping Crusch safe even if Crusch herself feels a strong sense of duty in honouring her commitments as shown by when she agreed to have Felix heal Subaru’s gate in Season 1 and also deciding to stick with the alliance ’cause Crusch didn’t want to go on with her life knowing nothing, preferring to make that choice for herself rather than simply do as someone else says. Ricardo handed back Subaru his whip and indicated it was used to restrain Crusch and the black dragon that is most likely Garfiel’s mom’s husband. Julius indicated that a foreign substance, which Subaru knows to be Capella’s dragon blood, had entered Crusch’s body, which causes her suffering, and urged Subaru not to see her, which Ricardo agreed with since since she was such a beauty, making it painful to see her in her current state.

Emilia then does something proactive which is make an ice sculpture figure and place it under the covers so that Wife Number 184 wouldn’t notice that she wasn’t in bed. She makes ice platforms attached to the building so that she can move around freely outside. She saw that all of the 4 towers were taken at once, and that’s why nobody can move freely. She realized that she’s in the Third District and believes if she can find out which Sin Archbishop is in each tower, it’d be helpful info for Subaru and the others. Emilia is not content with being a damsel in distress, and I commend Tappei for writing her to be this way. Regulus was apparently having a conversation with Capella through his metia and was threatening to blow her tower to pieces for distressing Emilia, and Capella revealed that it wasn’t her who opened the watergate, which Regulus didn’t buy at all. Then, the conversation was cut short as one of Regulus’s wives indicated that preparation for the interior of the temple had begun, and he told her he’d be there right away. Emilia then said that the tower she can see straight ahead must be the First District tower since she’s at the Third District, which she wants to let Subaru know eventually.

Back at the government office, Anastasia asks Subaru whether Beatrice is an artificial spirit, and he confirmed it right away since hiding the info would only benefit their enemy. This lines up with what Seasons 1 and 2 presented since Echidna and Beatrice herself had indicated her artificial origins as there’s no way a spirit would call a human her mother unless she was artificially made. Subaru then told Anastasia that the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom is the prototype of the Witch Cult Gospels, and that it is more complete than the Gospels, which I swear was not shown in Season 2, so it must have been cut content that happened during one of Echidna’s tea parties. Subaru insists that the 2 copies of the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom were burned to ashes, and they think that the Witch Cult must’ve not realized it, but as I said in my write-up of Episode 55, Roswaal may not have confirmed that it had burnt to a crisp due to him believing that that must have been the case, meaning Otto saved Felt by using it, or the Tome of Wisdom could be referring to the true Tome of Wisdom from Echidna. The group indicated that they won’t cave to any of the Witch Cult’s demands.

Julius indicates that there are numerous shelters throughout the city and that that there is also unrest, which Subaru knew of, and that they’re trying to minimize the harm down, and that results in Anastasia saying that some are too far gone and that people will die, meaning it’s cowardly to mince words like that. Anastasia plans on making sacrifices to save the majority, which Subaru objects to, and Anastasia in return says that it’s silly for him to say that and it’d be like his outburst at the castle and reminded him there were casualties during the White Whale hunt. She was going to say something about Subaru being a knight now means he needs to act differently, but Subaru cut her off to say that the people who died fighting in the Whale Whale hunt were prepared for that but questioning the resolve of people who’ve had their city turned into a battleground is wrong. He indicated that people who’ve made up their minds about the situation need to met by people with the same resolve and that being aware of that at all times and being prepared for what it means is what being a knight is, and he believes that Julius feels the same and goes on a long diatribe about how knights want to look cool as much as possible, even on the brink of death, declaring that he’ll save everyone, which is the lesson he learned in the Sanctuary arc, which I believe Echidna deliberately pushed him to make by saying something so evil about why she had Beatrice wait in the Forbidden Library for 400 years. Although it’s nice to have that mindset, I wonder for how long Subaru will be able to keep it up. Given Re:Zero’s story is often much more realistic than most isekai stories, I do not expect Subaru to be able save everybody for the rest of the story and that he will eventually learn that Return by Death is not infallible, whether that happens now or in some future arc.

The post-credits scene has Emilia sneak into Regulus’s office and pick up his metia, and when there was a connection, she hid her face, only to hear Al say, “What’s this? I got a response.” showing that Al was likely not expecting to get a response since Regulus had just left the building. I always thought it was suspicious that Al left the group that attacked the government office just as they were rearing themselves up for a fight in Episode 54, and it might be ’cause he can’t be seen fighting the Witch Cult since he’s a Witch cultist. That would be why he has access to Capella’s metia. But if Capella wasn’t the one who opened the watergate, which ended up saving Subaru since he would fallen to his death since he probably would have fallen onto concrete, than perhaps it was Al. As I’ve been speculating for years that Witch Cult Gospels are not true forecasters of the future but merely texts connected to Echidna’s mind, Al was perhaps pushed to save Subaru by opening the watergate. Alternatively, if Al was summoned as the immediate previous iteration of the Hero of the story as I’ve been speculating, he might’ve also been summoned by Satella, meaning he also has the scent of the Witch, and that’s how he was able to pose as a Witch cultist, not that he actually is one since Witch cultists can physically see the amount of Witch miasma emanating from you as shown by Episode 22 from Season 1.

Here’s the link to Re:Zero Season 3 Breaktime Episode 6:

KakoeiSbi provides an English translation in the comments section.

Continuing off from last week’s Breaktime episode, Al says that Subaru saved him from going crazy with the knowledge there’s someone like him out there. Beatrice indicated that the Great Waterfall was probably what Subaru meant when he would say he was from a very far away place when he first arrived in the world, which Al also would say back when he was a newcomer to the world. The Great Waterfall apparently sits at the edge of the world with the world being flat considering Emilia said there is no nation east of Lugunica in Episode 1, and no one has seen what’s beyond the Great Waterfall. Al indicated that Priscilla’s good intuition allowed to realize that Al was from beyond the Great Waterfall as opposed to the hipsters who pretended that that was the case for them even though Al didn’t exactly say that when Subaru asked if Priscilla fell for the excuse they use. It’s nice to get some good lore out of this, and this week had some nice info to chew on despite being slower.

Re:Zero Season 3 Preliminary Capella Character Analysis: Capella’s projecting when she calls others meat scraps

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When Capella she stepped on Crusch, which prompted Subaru to tell Capella to get her leg off of her, to which Capella responded whether he’s infatuated with her beautiful legs or just Crusch, who she called female meat, saying she does have quite an erotic figure as she stepped on Crusch’s breasts. Subaru responded by saying Capella is not worthy of holding her Crusch under a foot and launches a piece of the building at Capella with his whip, which she easily started regenerating her wounds from. In the meantime, she sprouted a long tail and knocked Subaru to the side with it before asking if her beauty rendered him speechless. That was the second time Capella has tried to fish for a compliment, so this may point to an insecurity she may have.

She later hinted to Subaru what the passed out dragon and flies really were since he didn’t get it, and when he finally realized the reality of the situation, he questioned why she did that. She prodded him by asking if he found it disgusting, to which Subaru called it blood-curdling. Capella coolly says that it’s so disgusting and repulsive that it makes him hate her. She says seeing what he saw regarding the flies and the dragon made him hate her on a visceral level, and that’s the “right” answer. She said that no one could love creatures like those. Subaru then requests for her to kill him, to which she says she’d never do something so barbaric and throws out that she wants as many people as possible, for as long as possible, as deeply as possible to love her as being the reason she doesn’t kill him ’cause it’s her wish, which is quite odd given she’s been pushing him to hate her, so I take it that she does have an insecurity after all, probably about her own worth/beauty.

My takeaway from these incidents is that Capella very much wants to be loved and that she pushes others to hate her ’cause she fundamentally believes that no one can love her. Capella transformed other human beings into creatures she feels no one can possibly love ’cause that makes them more grotesque than she is, which is reinforced by her saying she wants as many people as possible, for as long as possible, as deeply as possible to love her, so not killing Subaru would mean the possibility is there for Subaru to love her physical form more than the flies as long as she drags the situation out.

Subaru then makes a move to save Crusch, and Capella said that Subaru always ends up drooling over that female meat ’cause he wants her so bad. Subaru notes that there’s already someone he likes, and Capella remarks that can he really swear he hasn’t had lewd thoughts about Crusch for even a second? She asked him if he didn’t think about stroking Crusch’s hair or kissing her supple lips. Capella then raged about how Subaru shouldn’t dare take his carnal desire for the one he fancies he can’t speak of in the open and call it love. She then proceeds to transform into Emilia although without the right outfit and without the hair clip, which shows one of Capella’s powers may be to able to read your psyche and be able to transform into an approximation of your ideal lover without knowing all the exact details. She then belittles Subaru by saying if Emilia were a fly, he wouldn’t still love her ’cause she believes love is not possible without physical attraction.

Wilhelm noted in Episode 54 that the Emerada Lugunica who existed over 50 years ago was beautiful and also ruthless, which matches the description of Capella, so Emerada Lugunica may have somehow been transformed if she had an identity before Capella currently with the dragon blood. But does Capella herself even think much of her beauty herself? Judging from that previous content of Capella, she doesn’t believe that having high sexual desire for someone is the same as having love for that person. When you couple that with her fishing for compliments, I believe Capella may have slept around a lot with tons of men, but none of them loved her or accepted her for who she is, which might be why she calls others meat scraps ’cause she personally feels that she herself is a piece of meat like in the manner she spoke degradingly about Crusch. Capella would call others meat scraps ’cause if everyone else is a meat scrap, then that elevates herself by bringing down everyone to her level. Thus, she still fishes for compliments and does all she does ’cause she still clings to the hope that somebody will love her even if nobody has in all her years of living.

Echidna’s Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom, possibly the strongest Authority to have existed and Re:Zero Season 3 Breaktime Episode 5 Analysis and Important Details

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Here’s the link to Episode 5 of Re:Zero Season 3 Breaktime:

Apparently, it was leaked before the regular broadcast episode aired.

This short shows Al confirming that he came from Japan since he used utterances only a Japanese person would know, which had Subaru really stoked. Al also knew Subaru’s nickname for Beatrice, Beako, and I suspect what I brought up in last week’s theory post about Al may be relevant.

We saw in Season 2 that Echidna’s trials were probably based off of or use the Tome of Wisdom with how it could fully reconstruct the past, show possible continuations of failed loops, and show true glimpses of the future, likely regardless of whether it’s a failed loop or Subaru’s final good loop for an arc. As it contains all of the world’s past history, current information, and possible futures, it may be the most broken Authority to ever exist.

Thus as I’ve speculated last week that Al was summoned after Subaru but came to Re:Zero’s fantasy world before Subaru did, Al would be the immediate previous iteration of the hero of the story who chose his lover over the world, and his summoning might’ve been meant to be a trial run for Subaru’s success.

The group from 400 years ago may have peered through the Tome of Wisdom and saw that the world has been destroyed and reconstructed constantly. The Tome of Wisdom should be powerful enough to see the history of previously destroyed worlds, and that’s how the grand plan was created in the age of Satella.

Al and Subaru might not have been meant to be the hero of the stories for their respective times with Al being the immediate previous iteration of the Hero, but the group of characters from 400 years ago forcibly injected them into the story for their plans, possibly to use Al as a trial run for Subaru’s success.

That means Beatrice was also Al’s partner much like is the case with Subaru ’cause she was created to be the partner of the hero of the story with the group from 400 years ago hijacking the path of the story so that the cycle of the world being destroyed and reconstructed that I believe exists ends. I believe Al and Subaru may have originally came from the same soul, being splinters of the same person, which would be why they have the same nickname for Beatrice.

Re:Zero Season 3 Episode 5 Analysis + Important Details

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I found this to be quite a powerful episode with potentially lasting consequences.

Continuing on with Regulus and Emilia, Regulus said that Emilia has shown him a new way of thinking when she responded to his question by asking what is a virgin since she had never heard the term before as it shows she has a virgin soul, which he thought made Emilia the very picture of his ideal woman as he probably prefers sheltered women since they are easier to dominate, and dominating is something he very much enjoys doing given he told Wife Number 184 she is a good girl for no longer smiling when she carried out her tasks at his instruction. Given Emilia is considered Wife Number 79 even though he has someone in the 184th position, he probably numbers his wives based on how physically attracted to them he is, which may have been hinted at in Episode 53 when Regulus responded that having a pretty face is all that matters when it comes to love. He likely has many placeholders for how attracted he is to a certain person based on all the wives he’s ever had, and Emilia’s beauty may have matched whoever used to be in the 79th position. Wife Number 184 made it clear that Regulus merely sees those he deems his wives as objects given she indicated whether they want to be his wife is irrelevant, so he’s some nasty piece of work. Emilia remarked that Regulus reminds her of some evil king she read about in a book, to which Wife Number 184 said that that it is a fitting description and that he’s a king in his own right, specifically worthy of the title, “Little King”, which almost certainly has some significance since Re:Zero has no filler. As an aside, Regulus indicating that Emilia having a virgin soul showed him a new way of thinking in that it’s possible to live life up until that point without knowing what a virgin is suggests to me, although I could be mistaken, that he doesn’t take child brides and may only come for women who are of age since it shows he has never encountered a woman who didn’t know what the term virgin means. I believe everything in Re:Zero is intentional to the point that that line may have been included to let viewers know Regulus is undoubtedly evil but not SO evil as to seek out kids.

Back on the roof, Julius reminds Subaru what he set out to do when he was extremely angry after meeting the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Roy Alphard, for thinking he had eaten Rem’s name and memories, which resulted in her ending up in suspended animation, and it wasn’t even Roy that did it but Lye. Rem was his strongest emotional support, so it’s no surprise he reacted the way he did. Julius refers to Subaru as “Little Girl User” and Crusch as “The Valkyrie” to avoid having their names be eaten by Roy. I didn’t get it in Episode 54, but after a second episode of Crusch being afraid of being in the air, I see that she is afraid of heights, which is why she was screaming in fear when Subaru carried her through the updraft, when he jumped over to the window of the office where the broadcast metia was, and why Julius told Subaru to take care of Crusch in Episode 54 and to look after her in Episode 55.

When Subaru and Crusch are in the building, they see a dragon that is not happy with them when they motion to get closer. Crusch downs the dragon and they rescue a small girl they believe is a hostage who they don’t realize is actually the Sin Archbishop of Lust, Capella, who has the power to shapeshift at will. Capella points Subaru to the room where the hostages are, and the hostages have all become giant flies as a result of Capella’s dragon blood which transforms those who succumb to its curse. Capella knocked Crusch unconscious while Subaru was checking in on the hostages, and she stepped on Crusch, which prompted Subaru to tell Capella to get her leg off of her, to which Capella responded whether he’s infatuated with her beautiful legs or just Crusch, who she called female meat, saying she does have quite an erotic figure as she stepped on Crusch’s breasts. Subaru responded by saying Capella is not worthy of holding her Crusch under a foot and launches a piece of the building at Capella with his whip, which she easily started regenerating her wounds from. In the meantime, she sprouted a long tail and knocked Subaru to the side with it before asking if her beauty rendered him speechless. This is the second time Capella has tried to fish for a compliment, so there may be something more underneath the surface here with an insecurity.

Subaru asks her if she’s a dragon that takes human form, and Capella says Subaru displays irrationality that makes him a moron for coming to the conclusion, and she proceeded to beat the shit out of him, which shows she is likely a human who somehow has dragon blood in her body, and she incidentally said that she’d transform into the kind of girl he likes just for him during that exchange. She then hinted to Subaru what the passed out dragon and flies really were since he didn’t get it, and when he finally realized the reality of the situation, he questioned why she did that. She prodded him by asking if he found it disgusting, to which Subaru called it blood-curdling. Capella coolly says that it’s so disgusting and repulsive that it makes him hate her. She says seeing what he saw regarding the flies and the dragon made him hate her on a visceral level, and that’s the “right” answer. She said that no one could love creatures like those. Subaru then requests for her to kill him, to which she says she’d never do something so barbaric and throws out that she wants as many people as possible, for as long as possible, as deeply as possible to love her as being the reason she doesn’t kill him ’cause it’s her wish, which is quite odd given she’s been pushing him to hate her, so I take it that she does have an insecurity after all, probably about her own worth/beauty.

Subaru then makes a move to save Crusch, and Capella said that Subaru always ends up drooling over that female meat ’cause he wants her so bad. Subaru notes that there’s already someone he likes, and Capella remarks that can he really swear he hasn’t had lewd thoughts about Crusch for even a second? She asked him doesn’t he want to stroke Crusch’s hair or kiss her lips. Capella then raged about how Subaru shouldn’t dare take his carnal desire for the one he fancies he can’t speak of in the open and call it love. She then proceeds to transform into Emilia although without the right outfit and without the hair clip, which shows one of Capella’s powers may be to able to read your psyche and be able to transform into an approximation of your ideal lover. This is likely given she was able to read into what Subaru thought of his relationship of Emilia and then belittle him by suggesting he couldn’t possibly love Emilia if she were a fly. With all of this content, I am confident I can make a preliminary Capella character analysis that I will save for another post.

Capella then rips off Subaru’s leg and notes that Subaru and Crusch are both dying, and she started injecting her dragon blood into her and then Subaru, which the dragon Crusch had defeated reacted strongly to as seeing Capella do that probably reminded the dragon of how most of the hostages had become flies, clearly having gained sympathy for Crusch and Subaru. Given Garfiel’s mom’s husband was the only character introduced so far that works in this government office, he probably became this blue-eyed black dragon since their eye colours match. The dragon then blasted a hole through the office as Julius, Garfiel, and Wilhelm’s fight against the strong Witch cultists continued.

Back at the Muse office, Kiritaka reveals that he has learned that no one can get in contact with any members of the Council of Ten aside from himself. He believes it must be the work of the Witch Cult. He tells Anastasia to prepare to evacuate, but she tells him not to throw his life away, which surprises him ’cause he thought Anastasia would say something more self-serving, to which Anastasia says that she does business under the motto, “Your friendly neighbourhood shop.” And this brings me back to Season 1 when Anastasia directly gave Subaru a lesson in negotiating for business when she publicly humiliated him in exchange for a dragon carriage. While Subaru’s behaviour at the time had been clearly self-destructive, she personally helped Subaru get something he needed, all while squeezing the last bit of useful info from him with the knowledge that he had left the Crusch camp on a sour note, only giving him what he wanted after he revealed that Russell Fellow had been to Crusch’s mansion. Sure on the outside it may have seemed like Anastasia was being sadistic, deriving from pleasure from Subaru’s humiliation, but Subaru was pretty much a lost cause at that point, and I believe Anastasia gave him some tough love ’cause it was sad seeing someone walk the path that he was on, and this episode confirms that was what had happened.

Sirius then smashes right through a building, which would have killed Anastasia had Kiritaka not caught her by acting quickly. After remembering Sirius taking a direct blow from Reinhard and be all right, I guess she has to be pretty damn strong after all. Sirius then applauds them for working together to stay alive. When Anastasia reveals that she knows it’s the Sin Archbishop of Wrath, Sirius says she’s embarrassed. Sirius approaches the pair with the intent to kill and Hetaro and Tivey come in to save them even though they’re wounded ’cause of Mimi’s wound from the strong female regular Witch cultist due to their Divine Protection of Trisection causing them to share the wound, which is likely why Mimi hasn’t already died. Hetaro and Mimi springing into action made Anastasia believe that Mimi had perished, but Felix indicated that he used a forbidden method to prevent the wound from getting even worse, which she had also done for Subaru’s leg in Episode 53 after Regulus had attacked him. Anastasia tells Hetaro and Tivey she’ll buy them 2 minutes of time, and Hetaro and Tivey should theoretically be safe from Sirius’s Authority since Sirius isn’t within Mimi’s line of sight, and since you have to see Sirius to fall under her control, Mimi being holed up somewhere should shield Hetaro and Tivey from the effects of Sirius’s Authority. Anastasia then tells Felix to get Mimi and the others who were wounded out and says that she’ll meet him outside. When Anastasia and Kiritaka run into his guards, he says to leave the rest to them while she leaves. He says he is entrusting the city to her, which she says isn’t fair.

Back to the situation with Felt as a hostage, Felt sees a bunch of zodda bugs which come to distract Heinkel, letting Reinhard pin his father to a wall, and with his reluctance to do anything, Felt smashed Heinkel’s head with a bottle of booze, knocking him out so that Reinhard could tie him up. Otto reveals his presence and that he had been looking for a place to hide ’cause of his encounter with Lye, the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. Apparently, white dragon scales saved him somehow. After that, I’m guessing Lye probably wasn’t too focused on pursuing Otto to eat him given he said Otto won’t even amount to an appetizer, so Otto most likely didn’t have to do all that much hiding. I have to more to say about this after a later reveal towards the end of the episode. Felt then tells Reinhard to go help Subaru and that she’ll take Heinkel to the nearest shelter, which Reinhard reluctantly agreed to. Felt doesn’t know what to about Heinkel, but then two of the thugs from Season 1 who attacked Subaru show up, and Felt commented on their great timing.

The Witch cultists then toll the bell and start flooding the city, and the black dragon/Garfiel’s mom’s husband attempted to carry away Crusch and Subaru, but after Capella latched onto the dragon, Subaru fell off the dragon as the dragon attempted to get away. Emilia is horrified seeing the destruction, and Capella makes three more demands in addition to Typhon’s remains, the Tome of Wisdom that’s been brought into the city, the artificial spirit that’s been chilling in the city, and that the wedding with the silver-haired girl that’s to be held in the city won’t be interrupted although she doesn’t really care about that last demand.

Regarding the Tome of Wisdom, Echidna’s Authority of Greed is the Tome of Wisdom as was revealed in Season 2. Echidna made two “imitations” of her Tome of Wisdom, and Roswaal colloquially called his copy the Tome of Wisdom given they had no actual name. I personally call it the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom. If you recall towards the end of Season 2, Echidna spoke in her own voice through Ryuzu Shima’s body in a moment she was disgusted with Emilia’s selflessness, and I believe this shows that Echidna was successful in her immortality experiment. Given Beatrice can use teleportation and portal spells, she most likely learned it from Echidna, the one who created her, meaning when Ryuzu Shima’s body disappeared with the original Ryuzu Meyer, Echidna had faked her own death although Emilia had not realized it

I believe that neither Roswaal’s not-quite Tome of Wisdom nor Witch Cult Gospels are true future-telling texts but texts connected to Echidna’s mind through magic that she has been using to control the world’s events. Regulus saying in Episode 51 that fate would bring him and the Emilia camp together again despite that not happening again until the 4th loops suggests that Gospels don’t actually tell the future but are meant to keep the world on a specific path that Echidna, Satella, Pandora, and likely others as well all desire.

So based on Capella’s demand, either Echidna herself is in the city with her actual Authority, or someone from the Emilia camp picked up Roswaal’s not-quite Tome of Wisdom ’cause it wasn’t burned to a crisp after all as viewers were led to believe. I had thought it was very peculiar that Otto was hiding out where Felt, Heinkel, and Reinhard were given Episode 51 showed that none of the other camps (aside from Priscilla’s) knew that Anastasia had invited them to Priestella, so he shouldn’t have had any idea where they were staying, so after that reveal at the end about the Tome of Wisdom, Otto is likely the one in possession of what they’re looking for if it’s not Echidna herself with the genuine article in her Tome of Wisdom. Perhaps one might think that Roswaal would’ve checked to see if his Tome had truly been burned, but I believe the events of Season 2 show otherwise. Roswaal, after seeing Ram drop his not-quite-Tome of Wisdom in flames, launched a powerful attack at her, likely ’cause of the intense frustration and anger he felt over Ram doing that since he had been do dependent on the Tome and ’cause Ram was his loyal servant, which made her betrayal feel even more overbearing. After that, he was so intently focused on Ram that I can see him having overlooked checking to see whether his Tome was actually burned since he wouldn’t have been so mad as to launch such a powerful attack at her if he hadn’t thought it was a done deal.

The artificial spirit Capella is demanding is most likely Beatrice given Echidna indicated that she was highly involved in her birth in Season 2. More to support this is that Puck was revealed to have been sent by Echidna to find Emilia in the past in The Frozen Bond OVA with a woman’s speech being denoted by a special font when a woman forced Puck into a contract by which he would lose his memories if he entered into a contract with Emilia with that special font having been revealed to be denoting Echidna’s speech in Season 2, making it likely that both Puck and Beatrice were created by Echidna, which makes Puck calling Beatrice her little sister make sense and gives context and meaning to Beatrice referring to Echidna as mother.

As for that bit about Regulus and Emilia’s wedding, as I’ve previously posted that I believe Witch Cult Gospels are meant to keep the world on a particular path that a group of characters from 400 years ago desires rather than be true forecasters of the future, I believe all three additional demands Capella made were likely due to instruction from her Gospel, and that bit with the wedding was meant to let Subaru know that the wedding is happening soon so that he can stop it even though he had made securing the government office with its powerful metia as his first priority.

A Re:Zero theory: Why Subaru was summoned and Al, quite possibly the brother Subaru never knew and a previous iteration of the Hero

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I believe Subaru was summoned to bring the world to a free future and stop the cycle of the world being destroyed/reconstructed. The key is to have Subaru be born weak and improve Subaru’s self-esteem so that he isn’t conceited like past heroes.

In The Frozen Bond OVA, Melakuera, the previous Great Spirit of Fire, stated he had faced world-ending crises countless times and ranted about the Witch’s return. Some people may dismiss it as pure discrimination against Emilia ’cause of Satella and Emilia’s resemblance, but he may have physically witnessed a Witch returning repeatedly with the world burning every time.

This implies a powerful curse was casted thousands or even millions of years ago (just ’cause the world was destroyed repeatedly doesn’t mean those events weren’t part of the world’s history) in which the world is reconstructed repeatedly after its destruction from a very powerful Witch. In the distant past a yet-to-be-determined hero may have faced off against the big bad of the story, and in a moment of weakness in which the hero had to choose between the world and his lover, he chose his half-elf lover, dooming the world to destruction, and the final boss cursed the world to be extremely biased toward repeating the failure of that hero for all time.

What I mean by bias is the Seal in Elior Forest, or the equivalent of that, was probably opened during the first instance of the proto-hero of the story, and so the world’s biased towards that happening. The proto-heroine, who was probably a half-elf, most likely had the power to defeat what comes out of the Seal by becoming the Witch of Envy, after which she’d need to be put down as she’d become a world-ending threat. The world thus became biased towards repeating those events again even if the reconstructed worlds and people aren’t 1 to 1 with the original world.

In my theory, a group of characters from 400 years ago are working to push the world to one specific future in which the world is saved by forcably opening the Seal in Elior Forest on their own terms instead of one day having it be opened under unfavourable conditions if it will open no matter what. If the Seal is opened, a monstrous horde of creatures that have a passive AOE aura not even Reinhard can protect the world from may emerge, which will require Satella’s yin magic to defeat without bringing the world to ruin. Satella would return by possessing Emilia’s body before needing to be killed due to having limited bodily control. Multiple instances up until Season 2 show that characters are acting with future knowledge, and that’s why I believe this is true.

Echidna has shown she was reading ahead in her Tome of Wisdom with how she (the special font from a female in the OVA was revealed to have been the words of Echidna in Season 2) had Puck search for Emilia and have him enter a contract with her in which if he starts a contract with Emilia he’d slowly lose his memories, showing she wanted him not to do it until there was no choice, and how she turned Petra’s handkerchief into a special knife after Subaru spoke with her about Return by Death so that he could kill himself. Why would a Witch who wants unlimited knowledge be so invested in Subaru’s success when she could enter a contract with Subaru and learn about RBD, a pipe dream for someone who loves knowledge? It’s probably if a threat is approaching in the future in which the world’s end is coming, which would end her quest for knowledge.

It’s likely that it’s not just Echidna who had future knowledge but also past Subaru, Flugel, Satella, Pandora, and the other Witches too. Flugel planted what was known as Flugel’s tree centuries ago in the exact spot the Whale subjugation force needed for it to burn the trunk off to trap the White Whale underneath it, showing Flugel did that to help Subaru succeed. Petelgeuse apologized to Flugel-sama after making the decision to take in the Sloth Witch Factor, which likely shows Flugel made him promise not to take it in so that Petelgeuse wouldn’t take it in until he had no choice like Echidna did with Puck. If most Witch Cult Gospels don’t show anything after the first loop, then it was likelly Pandora who ordered the White Whale to stop chasing Subaru in Episode 17 and blow him away with its breath, likely to give Subaru time to reach the mansion before resuming its chase ’cause Pandora might’ve been purposely trying to bring Subaru to his breaking point so that From Zero with Rem could happen. Season 2 showed that mabeasts and Daphne find Subaru to smell irresistibly delicious ’cause of his Envy Witch Factor, so the White Whale wouldn’t have left Subaru of its own accord, and since normal Witch Cultists’ Gospels’ only have info from the first loop, it had to be Pandora’s meddling.

So Subaru and Emilia may have been born and put through suffering specifically so that they could be the hero and heroine of the story in an attempt to the lead the world to a future with free choice. Even if Subaru’s self-esteem is built up properly, he’ll likely never be okay with sacrificing Emilia unless Emilia herself tells him she won’t suffer and accepts her role in the story, which is why Emilia herself needs her self-esteem to be built up in order to be the queen piece who willingly allows Satella to possess her to defeat what comes out of the Seal and be killed by Subaru. The story of Re:zero likely requires the building up of Subaru’s self-esteem and that Subaru be born with a weak body relative to those of Re:zero’s fantasy world so that he isn’t conceited and can one day put down Satella and then finally challenge and defeat the final boss.

I know people will call it a poor development for the story for it to be preordained that Emilia will die at the end, but if the world’s cursed to have the hero of the story let the world burn for his woman, then it’d really be defying fate for Subaru to kill Emilia/Satella, ending the long-standing curse.

As anime-watchers up to Season 2 know, the lore of the Witches of Sin was likely falsified. That is why Crusch wrongly believed that Satella created the White Whale when it was Daphne who did so. If you didn’t know, Subaru not only means “Pleiades” but also “unite”, and this’s likely one of the reasons why the lore was falsified, and that’s so Subaru can unite the world against Satella at the end of Re:zero.

Echidna stated in Season 2 that the Witch of Envy consumed the other Witches of Sin and used them for sustenance, but if Satella really did that, there wouldn’t be a corpse of Echidna at the Sanctuary, which means that info isn’t true. Echidna’s a calculating person. There’s no way she spread a false piece of info on a whim. Therefore, I put it out there that uniting the world against Satella isn’t the only reason the lore of the Witches of Sin was falsified. I propose a secondary reason to falsify this information would be to obscure or make lost to history what the dead Witches of Sin were capable of, and that’d be ’cause those Witches’ll be revived. Just like how Emilia’s choice to say her name is Satella was meant to scare Subaru off ’cause she didn’t want to put Subaru in danger and ’cause he was slowing her down, I believe there are two reasons why the lore of the Witches was falsified. This would explain why nobody except Al knew that Typhon was the witch who had died in Priestella.

So the hero of the story during the time of Satella and Season 2’s Witches (including Pandora but excluding Hector) might have found out about the world being biased toward repeating this failure of a long deceased hero, so they took a step to defy fate by enacting a grand plan hundreds of years in the making. The hero might’ve returned to Earth after acquiring future knowledge with his allies to inject Subaru into Re:zero’s fantasy world in the future as the hero of the story.

As we have seen in the anime, Flugel is the name of the person who planted what was known as Flugel’s tree, and the White Whale subjugation force burned part of the tree off to defeat the White Whale by trapping it underneath the tree’s trunk.

Flugel itself means wing and can also be a nickname for someone with conspicuous sleeves at a time of dress regulations. So what this points to is that Flugel is a person not from Re:zero’s fantasy world who somehow came to be there given the nickname is for someone who dresses strangely, and this suggests that Flugel is from Earth. Flugel may have been the past hero of the story who returned to Earth as part of the plan to save the world.

Assuming this is true, the only way Melakuera’s mind could’ve persisted even as the world restarted repeatedly if there is some yet-to-be-determined force saving Melakuera just as the world is about to be destroyed and summoning him into the reconstructed world, and that would be how his mind persists. I wonder who has been doing the summoning in this case.

Regardless of whether the characters in the past were tipped off by Melakuera or someone else, they probably agreed to steer the world to a future that defies the bias of the world repeating the proto-hero’s failure. The first episode of Re:Zero being titled the End of the Beginning and the Beginning of the End could mean that Subaru’s summoning is the equivalent of the endgame of MCU’s cinematic universe in the battle against Thanos.

I know Emilia’s goal to reduce racial discrimination and rehabilitate the image of half-elves is a topic Tappei intends to address. And I believe there’s no better way for Emilia to show that half-elves aren’t monsters than to sacrifice herself for the world in allowing Satella to possess her body to use her combat powers against the monstrous horde from the Seal. If Subaru and those in the know do a good job of spreading the word about Emilia’s noble sacrifice, even her biggest detractors would have to take a step back and acknowledge what she did for the betterment of the world.

The reason I have predicted that a statue of Emilia would be erected at the end of the story and that people of the world would make pilgrimages to it and bow to this statue in reverence is ’cause it’s the ending that I believe most dovetails with Satella dying and Emilia still being a very respected figure. This is an ending where Subaru can still be happy about his accomplishments while not being destroyed by Emilia’s death because Tappei took care to give him achievements outside of protecting Emilia while also rehabilitating Emilia’s image.

Now I will explain how Al factors into this. Subaru means Pleiades in Japanese, and Pleiades is referring to a star cluster in the Taurus constellation. Al’s true name, Aldebaran, is a star that in the Taurus constellation that follows the Pleiades star cluster in the night sky. In Arabic, Aldebaran means the follower for that reason. While the Arabic meanings for Petelgeuse (named after the Betelgeuse star and Batenkaitos (also named after a star) hinted at a couple of Sin Archbishop’s powers with Orion’s hand indicating that Petelguese’s power would involve hands and belly of the sea monster indicated Lye’s power would involve eating, since Aldebaran isn’t a Sin Archbishop, perhaps it would be better to consider Al’s name in relation to Subaru.

Since Aldebaran follows the Pleiades star cluster, perhaps he was given that name because he was Naoko and Kenichi’s next son after Subaru, which showed a fixation from at least one of his parents on their first son who disappeared. Al told Priscilla not to call him Aldebaran in Episode 16 of Re:zero, and that might be because that name is a constant reminder that his parents loved Subaru more than they loved him.

Since names have power in Re:zero, Aldebaran as a name could very possibly mean that Aldebaran would be the next person to be summoned after Subaru was. Aldebaran is pretty much guaranteed to have been summoned to Re:zero’s fantasy world since at least one of the carriage driver, Priscilla, or Al recognized Subaru’s attempt at hitchhiking when hitchhiking shouldn’t exist in a medieval society, meaning Subaru’s attempt to catch a ride should’ve fallen flat on his face, since Al literally knew what Subaru meant by the Kansai dialect when he was exasperated about hearing it in Episode 12, since Priscilla used the English word “chance” knowing Subaru knew the word (and given that Priscilla doesn’t know what apples are, she probably isn’t from Earth since pretty much every grown adult on Earth has at least seen an unpeeled apple before), which shows that she did so knowing Subaru was from the same world as Al, and since Mimi was eating cheeseburgers, which shouldn’t exist in a medieval society, meaning someone from Earth has previously invented them in Re:Zero’s fantasy world. This means Al is either formerly a Japanese citizen, an immigrant who had not yet become a Japanese citizen, someone whose work brings him to Japan sometimes, or a fan of Japanese culture.

Now, I have to say that Re:zero is a logical series. Unlike tons of poorly made isekai series out there, all characters in Re:zero have their own underlying motivations. Something like the isekai protagonist of other bad isekai stories would be made to look good for being self-righteous against Lugunica’s knights, but Subaru got his shit kicked in ’cause Re:zero is a real story, not shit meant to solely be wish fulfillment. It’s clear that Re:zero is a story where there are actual consequences ’cause of this.

Where I’m going with this is that there are time travel stories out there that posit that all of time is happening at once, meaning there are no real rules and almost anything can happen with it being a matter of the writer’s discretion. The bootstrap paradox commonly featured in time travel stories is also highly illogical and only exists “just because” rather than there being an actual legitimate reason for being used that can be reasoned through logic aside from the author said so.

‘Cause Re:zero is a highly logical series, I posit that time is linear in Re:zero, and I think the main reason Al was summoned to the fantasy world to a point before Subaru’s arrival at Lugunica’s Capital is that Subaru undoubtedly was transported to somewhere in Re:zero’s world or a place that was a limbo between worlds where his body never aged even the slightest before he suddenly arrived in Lugunica’s Capital in Episode 1 of the series and that this period where that happened was before the time Al was summoned to Re:zero’s fantasy world.

Now I know some fans of time travel stories might be rubbed the wrong way by what I have posted, but that has never stopped me from posting something controversial. Re:zero being a logical series isn’t the only reason I believe that time is linear in this story. We as viewers know that when Subaru shows the intent to reveal anything about Return by Death that Satella drags him to a dark world where she often squeezes his heart. Given we know that what is known as Return by Death resets Subaru’s body, meaning that the soul is the seat of where memories and thoughts are held instead of the brain in Re:zero, I surmise that the reason Satella can so easily read Subaru’s mind is that that dark world is a pocket dimension located within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul, and since that would mean she is always lurking around Subaru’s soul, she can readily read his thoughts.

This could explain why Satella’s witch scent is so strong after Subaru dies, and that’s because Satella lurks within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul through that dark world. I believe that in between the time Subaru was snatched away from Earth and Al’s summoning, Satella was building this dark world for some purpose, which I believe is for her to help Subaru bring about her desired future where she is killed by him as she requested in Episode 38. Satella will one day emerge from the dark world that is within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul to possess Emilia in order to fight what comes out of the Seal in Elior Forest, and then Subaru will need to lead the force that kills her after the threat of the Seal is gone for good. There had to have been a period of time where that dark world was built after all. It wouldn’t have existed “just because”.

Thus since I’ve speculated that Al was summoned after Subaru but came to Re:Zero’s fantasy world before Subaru did, I believe Al might’ve been the immediate previous iteration of the hero of the story who chose his lover over the world, and Al’s summoning might have meant to be a trial run for Subaru’s success. It’s possible Al knew that Priestella was Typhon’s grave ’cause in his past world before he was summoned to the current world, the Witch Cult might’ve successfully extracted Typhon’s remains, leading to Priestella’s destruction. That would also be how Al knew that it’s possible that all the remaining Archbishops would be in Priestella and how Gluttony’s powers work. I believe that after the time period from 400 years ago in which Satella caused the calamity which destroyed half the world, the world is reconstructed to be right after that point after its destruction due to that group of characters’ successful intervention, which would be why Al isn’t from an alternative timeline but just the previous iteration of the world. Al would get summoned into the world Subaru is in after his world was destroyed by the same force that re-summons Melakuera repeatedly, the previous Great Spirit of Fire who seemed to have knowledge of the world facing world-ending crises countless times. Satella, Echidna, Pandora, and co. would’ve hijacked the path the world would follow by injecting Al and Subaru to be the heroes of the story, and this could be the only way to break the cycle of the world being destroyed and reconstructed.

Re:Zero Season 3 Episode 4 Analysis and Important Details

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This setup from the previous episode paid off here. Heinkel takes Felt hostage to prevent Reinhard from acting. This is already looking bad for everyone if Reinhard can’t act given Regulus seems mostly immune to damage with the damage he can take being easily undone as shown in Season 2, so Reinhard is probably the only one who can deal lasting damage to him. Heinkel is seemingly making it a point about talking about the succession of the Astrea family, but is it genuine or just seem weird mindgame?

Back at the Muse Company, they talk about the witch’s remains and conclude that it’s not the Witch of Envy’s since she’s alive. Wilhelm also revealed that while he was unaware of the origin of Capella’s name when that point was brought up there used to be a Emerada Lugunica who lived 50 years ago who was as ruthless as one can be and was feared by all. After that, Julius with Tivey and Ricardo with Hetaro communicate through their metia that Mimi is hurt ’cause their Divine Protection of Trisection caused them all to have a shared wound (If you recall from Season 1, their Divine Protection also allows them to do a powerful group attack when they all attack in unison). Capella makes another broadcast where she introduced herself and revealed her intent to kill the hostages, probably to goad them into acting, and it seems that the metia used for the broadcast can eat away at people’s minds and be used to force the citizens to stay in the city, making the situation much like a trap after all as Subaru feared in Episode 1. Garfiel eventually comes into the room distraught ’cause his unwillingness to run and flee led to Mimi picking up a serious wound from the shorter one of the strong Witch cultists who aren’t Sin Archbishops (Subaru remarked that it was a woman, and I’m not sure how they knew unless Garfiel surmised it was a woman since he got a few hits on her and knew from her build it was a woman, but I guess since they’ve cut down the episode length of Re:Zero’s episodes this season, they couldn’t fit that in aside from having Subaru say it’s a woman) when Mimi rushed back to protect Garfiel from the 4-armed Witch cultist and the woman, who apparently has the Divine Protection of the Death God, an ability in which wounds caused by people with that Divine Protection never close, which Wilhelm knew about ’cause he has a shoulder wound from her. When Kiritaka arises, he reveals when prompted that moving the remains of the Witch that died would destroy the city since it has a special power, which prompted Al to say like when Typhon drowned. I have more to say about this in a separate post given it seems he was the only one who knew whose remains it was. I do appreciate how high the stakes are in this arc given how a whole large city is in danger against multiple Sin Archbishops and a couple of powerful Witch cultists.

During that same time, Ricardo had seen how Garfiel was feeling down and afraid to look people in the eye and sincerely thanked Garf for bringing Mimi back as she would without a doubt have died if he didn’t. We know when Garfiel fought those 2 Witch cultists that his fear of death reared its ugly head again after he was struck by the 4-armed one, which was causing him to freeze up, and he swears that he’ll get his revenge after indicating that he blames himself even when nobody else would. As I speculated with my post on Episode 1, this fear will not be going away easily for Garfiel since it’s based on trauma. Garfiel likely would have wallowed in despair even if he didn’t have such a strong support group at this time, and it’ll be interesting to see him grow from this experience. Julius asked what Subaru would do, and it shows that Subaru has earned a lot of respect from others over his feats with defeating the Sloth camp of the Witch Cult with 0 casualties in the first season. It’s no wonder Julius thought Subaru was a wonder drug against the cult given how it looks to the average person who can’t Return by Death. Subaru usually has to die multiple times to get himself into a good position to affect events in a meaningful way, but others don’t see that, making it look literally astonishing that Subaru can come up with such pinpoint strategies for defeating the Witch Cult using info not publicly known. When they’re on their way to the government office where Capella is, Subaru asks whether Crusch can fight (the answer is as she’s still very talented as Wilhelm says) and does the same for Al, leading to him saying that he’s the only one guaranteed to hold them back after Al announces his intention to leave to find Priscilla. It seems Subaru still has much of the same issues with self-esteem he had in the past with this remark, and when Ricardo and Crusch protested that they feel reassured by him ’cause of his achievements, he is somewhat in disbelief, feeling a bit weird with the disconnect between his self-image and how others see him. I believe Re:Zero is a long story of Subaru growing to learn to love himself so that he can be a proper hero at the end of the story who does the world and its residents right, and it’s not character regression for Subaru to still have self-esteem issues when he has such deep-seated issues from his childhood as a result of him struggling in the shadow of his amazing father.

Interestingly enough, Al stated before he left that it’s possible that all the remaining Sin Archbishops are here in Priestella, and he warned them not to use their real names in front of Gluttony. This shows a level of familiarity with the Witch Cult that most people don’t have, and I have more to say about this in a separate post. Anyway, given what we know of current events, I don’t buy into Al’s excuse that Priscilla needs protecting as it doesn’t seem like she is engaging the Witch Cult at this time, so I wonder why he decided to bail right as the group was about to fight the Witch Cult.

After Ricardo indicated that he smells blood, and they’re about to engage the Witch Cult, Julius tells Subaru that he’s too worked up, which Subaru agrees with, and Julius says that if he were in Subaru’s position he’s not sure he could retain his composure either, to which Subaru says Julius is being creepy. It’s clear from Episode 22 in Season 1 that Julius considers Subaru a friend for daring to lead a force to strike down the White Whale when the all nations ignored the White Whale for centuries and ’cause striking down the White Whale was a long-standing goal of Lugunica’s Imperial Knights, which he thanked Subaru for, but Subaru still holds a grudge for the beating Julius gave him back then.

When they arrive at the grounds of the government office, they see a purple eggs with tentacle-like structures growing from the bottom on the ground where the corpses of the guards the 2 strong Witch cultists killed. I wonder if this is also one of Capella’s powers given she has been addressing people by calling them meat scraps in her broadcasts and even in her black dragon form that appears to be a result of a shapeshifting ability she has. The 2 strong Witch cultists easily stop the full frontal assault that Subaru’s group launched at them, and when Subaru bought time for Julius to use his powerful Al Clauseria spell against Cappella, Capella regenerated her wounds quickly, which could be yet another power of hers. Again after the bell tolls, Capella heads back into the office much like how Regulus and Sirius decided to stop what they were doing, which suggests that Capella was instructed to do so by her Gospel. If my theory that the Witch Cult Gospels are meant to guide the world down a particular path in which Subaru is the ultimate saviour, this development should theoretically play into Subaru’s hands.

Julius, Subaru, and Crusch decide to head into the building while they leave the 2 strong Witch cultists to Wilhelm, Ricardo, and Garfiel, and Julius uses wind magic to make an updraft that brings him to the top of the building that lets Subaru kind of shine by carrying Crusch as he goes through the updraft, using his whip to get them to the top of the building, but Subaru ends up being in a lot of pain ’cause of that due to his injury. It is revealed that there is another Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Roy Alphard, and judging by his words, he might be the type to fast or skip meals ’cause it makes the the first bite all the more delicious the longer you go without food. He also indicated that he wants to eat and drink in excess, which seems somewhat contrary to Lye, who prefers eating people who make for delicious meals (and he can tell who is delicious through some unspecified mechanism). He also introduced himself by saying “We are the Sin Archbishop in the Witch Cult representing gluttony” much like Lye did, but given he has different eating tastes judging by what he said, the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony probably do not have a hivemind, which was one of the options I had speculated could be the reality of things. Roy and Lye share a number of similar physical features, so they are most likely siblings instead who happen to have a particular speech quirk where they talk about themselves as if they are a unit. Subaru is of course enraged and ready to go to war due to what happened to Rem after hearing that introduction from Roy.

The episode ends with Emilia being naked in bed under her sheets, and Regulus creepily asking her if she’s a virgin as that’s crucial to their future. Emilia not knowing what a virgin is made him make a hideous smirk, which shows he’s probably the type who wants his fill of virgins who will become his wives. What a disgusting and appalling guy. I’m looking forward to this guy being defeated as he’s just repulsive. It wouldn’t surprise me if his way of keeping his wives with him is through fear of reprisal.

The Re:Zero Season 3 Breaktime Episode 4 short also revealed that Beatrice is the one who’s keeping Subaru alive by being contracted to him since his gate being destroyed means he cannot regulate his mana, meaning he would explode without her.

To watch that Breaktime short, go to this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JNJqrwSQsg

KakoeiSbi provides an English translation once again in the comments section.