This write-up will be a lot shorter than what I usually put out, but I’ll be drawing upon what I have previously posted for reference. There was one huge thing from a story perspective that I’ll stress to readers, and I’ll make it clear what I’m referring to.
The episode starts with Emilia and Subaru basically telling Julius to take it easy, and after Emilia tells Julius that he’s one of them, meaning he can trouble them as much as he likes, he finds comfort and reassurance in that since he’s currently struggling with his identity after having been forgotten by the world, leading to him saying that he’d rest up as they intend for him to do. His remarking about being surrounded by lovely maidens is also true to his knightly self, so Subaru could tell that Julius had perked up a little.
At the group’s meet-up room for talking strategy, Ram puts it out there that she’d never though that Julius would act in the manner that he did last episode in challenging Reid, and Subaru basically said that it was like a man getting measles, which I believe isn’t meant to downplay the seriousness of measles as a viral infection but to showcase that it can be easy for men to act out when they have self-worth issues, showing that Subaru was drawing a comparison to Julius’s actions in Episode 72 to his own in the past and reinforcing my analysis for that episode. Nonetheless. Ram’s very worried that Julius’s actions could have meant failure of them all if Julius had died since Reid intended for seven people to pass, and Julius dying could mean someone else might have to challenge him twice to pass to also pass for a placeholder spot that Julius had even if were no longer of this earth. She put it out there that not even Shaula, who she calls a sham of a Sage, would be able to help them out if Reid were to rogue, and of course Shaula said that she was never the Sage in the first place and that she only has eyes for her master, which is why she looks at Subaru with such passion and spark in her eyes. Subaru then tells Ram that she should take it as a win since Julius’s mistake wasn’t fatal, and of course in Ram’s typical snarky fashion, she says that she just doesn’t want anyone getting in her way, implying all she’s here to do is save Rem.
Meili then calms the group down and its members start talking about how they can pass Reid’s exam. Ram notes that Emilia passed ’cause she drew concessions from him while fulfilling the new conditions she laid out which he agreed to. Thus, she concluded that the conditions for passing the exam aren’t uniform but whimsy. Shaula then interjects that Subaru should take as along as he likes no matter how many days, months, years, or centuries it takes since she’s been waiting for him for hundreds of years and hopes they have some fun with her before they leave, showing how lonely she has been these last four hundred years, backing up my analysis on her carrying Patrasche over her head with both arms raised being both a visual and symbolic allusion to the Titan Atlas carrying the celestial sphere as his punishment, which is how she forgot that Reid had died of old age, and Subaru saw her loneliness given the animation from his eyes showed that he was emphasizing with her. Then Subaru’s stomach indicates that it’s time for food.
Dinner is prepared by Ram and Emilia, who notes that they need to bring Julius some too, and Subaru tells Beatrice to not be shy about holding his hand given the relationship between a spirit and her contractor is special, and given it seems from Season 3 and 4 that the only reason Beatrice could use Al Shamak on such a wide area to remove the Great Rabbit from this dimension in Season 2 was that she had collected a ton of mana over four hundred years from the mansion residents and mansion visitors, which is why she needed large magic crystals in Season 3 to cast big spells and why when Subaru asked if Beatrice was ready in Episode 68 she replied by saying that the problem would be if he runs out of juice, showing that Beatrice’s ability to restore her own mana seems to be impaired, but of course Beatrice and Subaru are still really close regardless of Subaru replenishing her mana, and it’s cute to see Subaru tease her, especially since Beatrice was suicidal before forming a contract with him. Shaula of course has no table manners and just wolfed everything down, saying that she usually eats mabeasts and stuff, noting that she didn’t think she was particular, but the food is truly exceptional to her, to the point she said that’d even become Emilia’s apprentice so that she could make food this delicious to please Subaru since that’d be the way to his heart, and she finished that by saying that she hoped that her master would say, “I’m not letting you sleep tonight.” showing that she and Flügel may have had a sexual relationship and that Flügel might have been the type to sleep around given if Subaru was part of Flügel as I believe, he could’ve been Satella’s lover four hundred years ago given Subaru’s implied dormant memories of Satella from Episodes 18, 25, and 38,
As they get ready to prepare for sleep, Subaru again jokes about Beatrice never growing up meaning she’ll always be cute like he’d done earlier at dinner, and Beatrice and Emilia head to sleep. He then goes to the healing/green room, and Julius suggests that he’ll leave to give Subaru some time with Rem, who has surely longed for night to come. Subaru of course is uncomfortable with Julius leaving Anastasia’s side since she means so much to him, and he asks him if he’s sure with Julius replying that he’s not sure what’s the first thing he should say to her when she wakes up, and Subaru replies in typical Subaru fashion that he should just tell her he’s glad she’s awake and be focused on what her response to that should be, leading to Julius saying that he envies Subaru for being able to think so freely, ’cause no doubt many things are going through his mind, and he of course leaves the room to reflect on his thoughts.
And then it turns out Subaru fell asleep for an indeterminable amount of time, and he follows a bird that leads him to a hidden passage that leads to a balcony where Foxidna is with a whole flock of birds. After a bit of small talk, Subaru cuts to the case and asks her why she snuck out of her room in the middle of the night, slip through a secret passage nobody knows about, and hang out with some weird birds in the night breeze, and she just brushes Subaru off as her having followed a bird to this spot much like he did, and they are apparently the same birds that led the group through the sand time when Ram used her Clairvoyance to borrow their vision.
Around 10:58-10:59 of Episode 73, Foxidna’s smile transitioned into a look of surprise/shock as if she detected something very particular, such as a hint of mana from somebody else or detecting somebody’s else presence outright. Given Beatrice is reliant on Subaru’s mana, touching Beako can probably result in you detecting Subaru’s mana (since draining mana allows you to determine whether someone is an enemy, touching someone probably does at least what I stated) and realizing the connection the two of them have, and Foxidna may have detected an unseen force spying through the birds or at least that one bird since she stroked that bird’s chin.
Subaru has also an unreliable narrator on multiple occasions, such as believing that Julius beat him at full strength, believing that Crusch was a heartless person for being unwilling to help Emilia, and counting his chickens before his eggs hatched in thinking he’d get a perfect victory in the first loop after the White Whale fight, and given viewers are getting direct images of what the birds are seeing, it would be very fitting if this is another case of that, meaning somebody else is also observing them.
I’ve noted the possible importance of birds before in my post here with the one very tiny bird and the outline of a bird embedded in the wall if you look at it from a particular angle: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=179 And I encourage anyone who has read my theories to refresh themselves on the content.
Birds were present during Subaru’s summoning, the moment preceding the From Zero Moment in Episode 18, and at two points in Episode 57 when Emilia was held captive by Regulus before those birds flew to the location of a fight:
So there’s likely to be an unseen force observing Subaru since he was summoned through the birds in addition to Satella, who we know is always watching Subaru and also Echidna, who I believe has been observing Subaru as long as Satella has.
Foxidna then put it out there that Anastasia couldn’t find any background on Subaru until he was involved in an incident at the capital, likely referring to when he retrieved Emilia’s insignia which was surprising given her extensive connections, which was frustrating for her. She then motions as if she’s afraid of Subaru ’cause of his origins, but I believe it’s a ruse to make the future the characters from four hundred years ago want to come true a reality. She needles him on his relationship to Shaula and whether it was a coincidence that he solved the exam from the third floor so easily, and Subaru replies with what he has always said. She also states that she’s afraid to accept it at face value that Subaru knows nothing about these birds, and then Subaru says that it’s his turn to ask questions.
He then asks how is Anastasia, and Foxidna said that things are still unchanged from before and that she’s unable to give Anastasia her body back even though she’s eating away at her life, which prompts Subaru to ask how Anastasia will even be the ruler if her body’s such a mess, and Foxidna said that Anastasia has a reason she cannot give up the throne even after Subaru brings up Anastasia having to give up the throne almost as soon as she gets it.
Julius is then led to that balcony with a bird and demands answers, even willing to point his sword at Foxidna, resulting in her getting him back up to speed, and I believe Foxidna pretending that she’s still Anastasia before fessing up was meant as a continuation of what she did in Episode 72 in the Break Time short, which was to make Julius feel isolated. I was wrong that Julius knew that Foxidna had taken Anastasia’s place, and I chalk it up to the bad translation from Crunchyroll in Season 3, so I’ll rewatch the relevant episode with Muse Asia’s subs, which although may not always have the best English, tend to be way more accurate than Crunchyroll’s. Foxidna reveals that she told the truth to Subaru ’cause she saw through his act with Julius feeling shame that he wasn’t able to as her first knight, and I believe she fully intended for Julius to hear this to bring him down some more to develop his character. Subaru wanted to say that the reason he knew was only a coincidence, and that’d be ’cause of when Foxidna indicated that she thought Reinhard and Felix were more than just friends, which he believed that nobody aside from him should know, so yeah, it’s not something Julius could ever know. Subaru tells Julius to drop that first knight stuff, but Julius, who’s having an identity crisis due to people having forgotten him, of course says that he’s afraid of losing anything of his right now, which backs up my read from Episode 72 that Anastastia was trying to force Julius to feel isolated and insecure.
Echidna states that her goal upon being prompted is to return Anastasia’s body to her and that this is a situation she didn’t want, but I’m not convinced of that and believe she’s deliberately guiding Subaru and Julius to a particular future that Satella, Echidna, Flügel, and perhaps others are working towards bringing about. Julius seems satisfied with Foxidna’s answer when she says that her spamming Jiwald on the second floor was ’cause she didn’t know whether Reid had lethal intent, meaning she couldn’t allow for them to lose a valuable asset in Julius, and given Julius’s insecurities at that moment, appealing to his ego worked very well, and he accepts it almost immediately even though Subaru questions whether that’s sound judgement. Julius then says that it’s their problem and that Subaru need not worry about this with Subaru protesting that whatever he chooses to worry about is his business, leading to Julius justly saying that in doing so, Subaru’s shielding him from facing his problems, much like when he stayed quiet about Anastasia and Foxidna, which he said with anger. Julius apologized of course, but I believe Foxidna and the unseen force may have both intended for this to happen with a worsening of relations between Subaru and Julius. Julius then motions for he and Anastasia to head back inside and make preparations on how to explain this to everybody else tomorrow, leading to Subaru asking Julius if he had something to say him, and Julius responds that he knows what Subaru is thinking and why he hid the truth from him and that it was out of consideration for him and that if their positions were reversed he likely would’ve done the same, but even so, he doesn’t want to be seen as unfit to be a knight, which backs up my analysis of Episode 72 perfectly.
After Subaru has gone back inside, he runs into Ram, who mentions that she considered heading up to battle Reid but turned back halfway there. She catches on to Subaru seeming miserable, and she asks astutely whether it had to do with getting into a fight with Julius with her saying that it’s a mix of Subaru being too easy to read her being too intelligent when Subaru says something out of embarrassment. On the surface, one may think that Ram used her Clairvoyance to see through the birds, but these birds have been around since the beginning of the story, so it shouldn’t be her. Subaru says that he intends to sort it out tomorrow, which Ram says is a very vague and evasive answer. Subaru wishes “Big Sis” good night, and of course, Ram replies that she’s not his sister even though she basically already treats him as a brother-in-law and accepts what he feels for Rem. Subaru then thinks it’s awkward to go to the green room where Julius and Foxidna are and decides to think of a plan to take out Reid, and then he sees a stairway leading upwards that he may have never seen before, leading to him most likely thinking that he could cheat by avoiding the exams to get to the top of the tower even though Shaula said that that’s not acceptable, and Subaru wakes up in the green room the next day with no memories of his time in the fantasy world, leading to him thinking he’d been summoned for the first time.
As for the possibilities for why Subaru has no memories, I can think of two:
- Subaru’s memories were eaten by a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, and given the three of them were seen in the OP, it’s the most obvious possibility. Shaula has not been sniping from a distance since Subaru’s group arrived to the tower, so others may have beelined to the tower without worrying about getting sniped by her.
- There’s something in the Pleiades Watchtower itself that can cause one to lose his/her memories. Given Shaula had said, “Again?” in reply to her master having lost many memories, Flügel himself had an ordeal in which he lost his memories. Given the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony are in the OP, I believe the first possibility is more likely.
In the Re:Zero Break Time Season 4 Episode 7 short, Subaru informs Julius when they hadn’t yet arrived at the town near the Auguria Dunes about how things are awkward for Anastasia since he’s overcompensating by being even more knightly/courtly. He suggests to Julius to tone it down in case stacking blocks upon a new foundation makes it collapse, but Julius doesn’t want to abandon his previous relationships and wants to preserve them, and when he asks Subaru whether that’s greedy, Subaru relents and tells him he shouldn’t listen to somebody who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, encouraging him to stick to what he’s doing as long as he minds his distance with Anastasia, leading to Julius thanking Subaru with all his heart ’cause even he saw the awkwardness himself and would’ve been at a loss about what to do. This concluded with Julius stating he was writing about this moment to remember it for all time, and he said that Subaru actually features in his journal a lot with Subaru saying that he better not be saying nasty things about him ’cause he doesn’t realize just how much Julius respects him. It goes to show that Foxidna was deliberately setting up Subaru and Julius to get closer while making him insecure about his position as her knight. The link to the short is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br0FPRIyzb8