Again, as I stated in a previous write-up, I feel I didn’t do a good job doing Ep. 77 justice by not being thorough enough in my reasoning as I shouldn’t just assume that everyone remembers everything I’ve posted before, especially since it’s been four episodes since I last commented on Foxidna being suspicious, so I am again posting a supplementary write-up.
As seen from the content of the GIF, which I have brought up before previously, Foxidna stated that she didn’t share her secret with Julius ’cause he didn’t see through her act like Subaru did, but Subaru’s first glimpse of Foxidna not being Anastasia was when she said that she thinks that Reinhard and Felix were more than just friends to Julius, something Subaru found surprising due to the face he made since he had previously not known anyone who could remember someone whose name had been eaten by Gluttony.
That’s why Subaru said later on that something’s been off the whole time ’cause of that moment hinting that Foxidna remembers Julius before talking about how coldly Foxidna spoke about Ricardo, which I believe was Foxidna deliberately cluing in Subaru on her identity since she had already given him a hint, meaning that next hint would confirm his suspicions.
Then when the tower’s under attack, Foxidna said, “I should have listened to Ana’s intuition. I shouldn’t have brought anyone else here.” (which is in the GIF) meaning that she shouldn’t have brought anyone else to the tower, going with those from her own camp and listened to Anastasia. This calls into question pretty much everything she’s said this season given she said that Anastasia had been asleep in her od ever since the battle with the Witch Cult in Priestella, but apparently, she either had a talk with Anastasia sometime during the battle or pre-planned the Priestella visit with Anastasia’s consent, bringing into question her motives for gathering everyone to Priestella. Any way you slice it, Foxidna is a serial liar.
To top all of this off, Foxidna also says in the GIF that this pain is penance for Ana since if she were to give back control to her, Anastasia would feel the extreme pain and the horror of death, implying she had the power to give back her body to Anastasia the whole time but didn’t, flying in the face of her previous remarks about not being able to give back Anastasia’s body, showing she’s just very suss in general since she contradicted her statement about not being able to give Anastasia’s body back twice in the same episode.
I believe Foxidna was outright trolling/following the Tome of Wisdom when she said that she should’ve listened to Anastasia’s inuition, and that was to stay in character regarding her not trusting Subaru when she knows full well that he’s trustworthy. That would be why I propose she said it should’ve been Beatrice instead of her that Subaru was dragging along with him, highlighting that Beatrice is an unfortunate girl to draw sympathy to Beatrice from Subaru despite Foxidna not really even knowing Beatrice well to aid in learning to believe in himself. While it may just be survivor’s guilt, Foxidna is just so suspicious that this interpretation I’ve come up with just can’t be ruled out.
And I do believe Foxidna still remembers Julius given the content of Episodes 67, 70, and 72 with Episode 72 providing a further hint of Foxidna remembering Julius with how she aggressively used Jiwald to try to defend Julius when he was fighting Reid. Someone who barely knows him wouldn’t do that, and Subaru even pondered about why she’d go to such lengths, which means Tappei intended for viewers to think hard about that detail. After Episode 67 with Foxidna putting it out there that Reinhard and Felix were more than just friends to Julius, which Subaru notably reacted to with his face before later saying something’s been up the whole time after she talked coldly about Ricardo, which was a reference to that first scene, and her general gaze toward Julius along with her look of discomfort in Episode 70 when Shaula was shattering Julius’s fantasy about Reid Astrea being a man of great character ’cause of his sword skills when nobody else was paying him any heed, showing she knows that Reid had been Julius’s idol since childhood, there’s a clear pattern of Foxidna showing a level of connection with Julius no one else in the group has, not even Subaru.
As I said with my post from four weeks ago, I believe Foxidna staged the talk she had with Subaru and Julius following her Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom due to her being a soul clone of Echidna’s, not just an artificial spirit, so that Julius would feel insecure about his role as Anastasia’s first knight as well as cause a fight between Subaru and Julius right before Subaru loses his memories to bring Julius to a new low with the one person he believed to have remembered him also forgetting him and that she likely spammed Jiwald not for the reason she stated in Ep. 73 with being unsure about Reid having lethal intent but ’cause she wanted to direct Subaru’s thoughts to Julius instead of the exam so that she could prevent the bad future from Emilia’s third Sanctuary line in Episode 48, and Muse Asia’s translation was: “I have bent my knees and lost even my sword. Just what do I have left?” This line suggests that that depicted a future in which Julius had to bend his knees in deference to Reid while also having lost his sword, leading to him being crushed emotionally and possibly suicidal.
Why Foxidna would be able to psychologically prime Subaru to do this is that he’s the type to follow his hunches and subconscious thoughts, as seen by when he likely chose the path on the right in Episode 69, ’cause of the ever-so increasing miasma and the doors that he could open that may have been built or cast by himself, subconsciously remembering his promise to Satella to kill her as she’d requested for him to do in Episode 38, and when he thought he’d Returned by Death when he woke up in a new location without it being exactly warranted since he associated a visit to the dark world/shadow garden with death, and why he thought to Reid as an answer for the exam on the third floor even though he had learned that Reid died of old age not that long ago, ’cause he subconsciously knew that Reid is in the tower.
If she’s indeed a soul clone, Foxidna should also have the same Authority the original did. And given Satella wouldn’t know which savepoints to choose without future knowledge, she probably has either an oath or contract with at least one or more Echidna soul clone(s) given Satella wouldn’t know what would be the right future/path to follow based on Subaru’s previous time as the Hero and what worked then wouldn’t necessarily work now.
As for how Foxidna would remember Julius, the common denominator between Subaru and Echidna is that they were Witch Factor holders who emitted miasma, so I believe the mechanism by which Subaru and Foxidna would remember Julius would be either ’cause of their Witch Factors or their miasma.
I believe Foxidna stating in Episode 67 that she will choose the option that has the highest possibility of success, no more or less, may be low-key a consistent character trait of all of Echidna’s soul clones, and that’s why Tea Party Echidna pushed Subaru to reject her contract even if she would’ve liked for him to take her contract since the world continuing rather than being destroyed very much aligns with her goal of attaining more knowledge. This would be the reason I posit that all Echidna soul clones follow the plan of the original Echidna.
And as for Anastasia being pragmatic and someone who would follow the mindset Foxidna mentioned, plenty of merchants do not choose the option with the highest probability of success ’cause that option may yield the smallest margins, so they weigh their decisions against their personal risk tolerance to go for something that has a higher reward, and if Anastasia is indeed a skilled merchant, this would perhaps be moreso her mindset, not that of which Foxidna shared, and you know since it’s Tappei, he’s done his research and should know the type of reasoning merchants deal with with it not simply being going with the option with highest probability of success.
If Foxidna is a soul clone of Echidna and her Authority, I also posit that she wouldn’t grant Anastasia her every wish much like those who genuinely believe in Foxidna’s goodness believe. Tea Party Echidna followed the plan of the original Echidna in Season 2, and the original Echidna may have made her soul clones specifically ’cause she knew they’d follow her plan ’cause of the core personality trait I’ve proposed they all have, so if that means following one specific future, Foxidna would do it even if it wasn’t the optimal choice every time but the choices that helps Subaru learn important info and give the cast character development.
I acknowledge a possible counterpoint anyone in that anyone with adequate social awareness should realize that Reinhard and Felix were more than friends to Julius based on Julius’s reaction, and I I may have been reading too much into Foxidna’s apparent connection to Julius, but the attention she showed him in Ep. 70 when none of the others paid Julius any attention when he was going on about Reid makes me believe there’s something more to it as it would’ve been easy for her to treat Julius like all the others did, not acknowledging him at all, if she really doesn’t remember him, and given Re:Zero is a series with a ton of details while also being short on available time, showing Anastasia’s reaction at all appeared to be like a big thing to me given her previous attempt to distance herself from Julius in Re:Zero Break Time Season 4 Ep. 6 even if I acknowledge she may have just figured out that Reid was his idol.