One final note I had on Episode 70 itself is that when Shaula said, “Again?”, in reference to her master forgetting many things once more, that may have been the single most suspicious line in the entire anime as there are a number possibilities for what it means, the first of them being that if Al was split from Kenichi’s soul, he may also have the same scent as Subaru, meaning Al may have reached the Pleiades Watchtower within the last nineteen years he had been summoned to this current fantasy world. As for the implications of Shaula having previously met Al before, there are four things that come to mind:
- Shaula has Alzheimer’s disease after having lived for so long, meaning it slipped her mind that Al, who she would’ve recognized as her master, had visited her within the last twenty years, which is plausible given she remembered her master forgetting many things, and if Al was in a similar position as Subaru, this would make a lot of sense since he wouldn’t have recognized himself as Flügel. Based on the allusion to Atlas, this thematically makes sense for consideration.
- Shaula has a secret oath with Al that she made sometime between the last nineteen years he arrived in the current fantasy world and now, and Shaula is deliberately withholding info from Subaru’s group, and Al was the one who ordered Shaula to shoot anyone who approaches the Pleiades Watchtower as he’s getting instruction from the copy of the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom I believe he may possess, which means this was a part of the plan from Echidna and the heroes from four hundred years ago. It could still make thematic sense with the allusion to Atlas since Shaula still forgot that Reid was a human.
- Al visited the Pleiades Watchtower when he was the Hero of the story in the immediate previous iteration of Re:Zero’s fantasy world before Subaru became the current Hero of the story. In this scenario, Shaula would’ve recognized Al as her master, and then after this iteration of the world was destroyed, Shaula was re-summoned into the next iteration of the world in which Al would eventually be re-summoned into that Subaru would eventually be brought to Lugunica in in which I believe that Subaru had been frozen in suspended animation in Flügel’s tree for hundreds of years, so Shaula’s memories are jumbled up or potentially have been modified to an extent with Shaula saying, “Again? in reference to her master not having her many memories being her subconsciously remembering her time from when Al was the Hero of the story in the previous iteration of the world before the current world. Thematically, this still fits since it’d show that the passage of time has really done a number on Shaula, making the allusion to Atlas fitting. As for Shaula being re-summoned into the world, it’s 100% possible since Melakuera referenced himself facing world-ending crises countless times, which shows he remembers himself being re-summoned into the world after it is destroyed repeatedly by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed.
- Al visited the Pleiades Watchtower both when was the Hero of the story and during the years between he was summoned into the current world and Season 4 with an oath or straight up memory modification being responsible for Shaula saying that she had been waiting for four hundred years.
But Shaula having referenced her master forgetting many things again could also involve different scenarios including the original Flügel, who I believe was originally both Kenichi and Subaru, and even Kenichi himself after having split Subaru away from his soul, and I can think of two possibilities for such situations:
- Flügel, who I believe was originally Kenichi and Subaru, literally lost many memories himself, possibly ’cause something happened, whether it was someone in the tower that caused it or something that occurred during his time as the hero. Thus, that time from four hundred years ago would be the true context for Shaula saying, “Again?” to her master forgetting his memories again. This isn’t thematically in line with the allusion to Atlas as if Shaula was referring to a moment four hundred years ago, she would’ve been thinking hard of other characters who were alive at the time, such as Reid, meaning it could’ve been a simple slip of the tongue ’cause of her reminiscing of the past for a moment, and this is the possibility I’m least in favour of since it contradicts what I believe is an allusion to Atlas given the Sigmund Freud reference in Episode 69 since Freud is known for emphasizing subconscious thoughts, hunches, and slips of the tongue, and given Subaru also showed signs of acting on two subconscious thoughts in Episode 70, Shaula may have acted on a subconscious thought, resulting in her having a slip of the tongue, to make the episode have three moments of acting on subconscious thoughts given how important the number three is in Re:Zero.
- Kenichi, after having split Subaru from his soul when he returned to Earth to set up Subaru and Al as future Heroes of the story, may have returned to Re:Zero’s fantasy world at one point using his super Authority to fly through dimensions and visited the Pleiades Watchtower, and he lost his memories ’cause he was no longer the Hero of the story as that would’ve been Al or Subaru, meaning there was a drawback to what would usually be a drawback-less super Authority. In this scenario, Shaula would’ve been referring to her master forgetting many things “again?” ’cause of that moment, and whether Kenichi returned before Al’s time as the Hero in a previous iteration of the world, before Al became the Hero in the iteration of the world after that while Subaru was frozen in suspended in animation in Flügel’s tree, during Al’s time as the Hero in that same iteration of the world in which Subaru had been in suspended in animation up until that iteration of the world was destroyed, or in between Al’s time in the current world up until Season 4, which could’ve been an indication of Shaula having become senile, having been re-summoned into the world with her memories in a mess or modified in some way, having been sworn to silence by an oath with Kenichi she can’t divulge, and it could be thematically relevant to the allusion to Atlas depending on what the actual scenario is, which I don’t hazard to guess what it exactly is.
- Flügel lost his memories for some reason 400 years ago, and then after he returned to Earth to split his soul and make Subaru and Al heroes, Kenichi also returned returned to the fantasy world and lost his memories with an oath or straight up memory modification being the reason Shaula said that she’d been waiting for four hundred years.
In actuality, there are still three more distinct possibilities I can think of with variable expressions of them since Flügel having forgotten in the past doesn’t necessarily mean that Al never went to the Pleiades Watchtower, so here’s what I can think of:
- There’s the scenario of Flügel having lost his memories for some reason that I had previously mentioned along with any of the four distinct Al possibilities I had mentioned came after that with memory modification being possible for all of them.
- Kenichi, having returned to Earth and lost his Hero designation of the fantasy world, created his two sons to be future Heroes of the story, and then due to any variable expression of what I had mentioned before, returned to Pleiades Watchtower with no memories, and then any of the four distinct Al possibilities I had mentioned came after that with memory modification being possible for all of them.
- Flügel lost his memories for some reason 400 years ago, and then after he returned to Earth to split his soul and make Subaru and Al heroes, Kenichi also returned returned to the fantasy world and lost his memories with any of the four Al possibilities being on the table with an oath or memory modification being the reason Shaula said that she’d been waiting for four hundred years.
I’m serious when I talk about just how suspicious this line is as based on current content it’s impossible to know what it really could be even if I have narrowed it to down to roughly ten possibilities, the last three of which could manifest in several different ways.