Given Regulus told Subaru to thank him for mauling a chunk of his leg off when he would’ve preferred doing more, and in Eps. 53/54 after the tower bell rung, Sirius shouted she must cease hostilities ’cause they were told to stop and Capella had to move into the government office in, and Foxidna indicated Capella’s blindly following whatever the Gospel says in retreating, this shows there’s a grander plot at play rather than Gospels telling the holder’s best path to happiness.
That’d be why whoever was in Rem’s body said, “Try to figure it out next time” to amnesiac Subaru, and whoever it was knows he can Return by Death by either having eaten his memories or having been told of it by Rui. Ultimately, I still expect Subaru to win since I believe Gospels don’t truly tell the future but are meant to keep the world on a particular path which would be why Regulus thought he’d meet Emilia again in Ep. 51 despite it not happening until the fourth loop.
This’d also be why Patrasche was unharmed while everyone else killed, and it’s ’cause the Gluttony trio’s Gospels didn’t tell them to kill Patrasche ’cause Echidna, who I believe is the one making the text in the Gospels appear, wanted amnesiac Subaru to trust Patrasche for now and find out about there being an unknown attacker. It’d also be why they were cornered at the hidden passage to the balcony ’cause Satella likely broke out of her Seal given he’d made multiple doors disappear, making it easier for the Seal to be broken, and the black smoke was actually either her miasma or her mass of shadows with her coordinating with Echidna to make that happen since that loop was clearly a disaster, and heneeded to learn to trust at least one of his allies since Patrasche would never betray him. This would be why the miasma or shadows deliberately cornered him and Patrasche where it happened so that Patrasche would be forced to toss him through the hidden passage leading to the balcony.
Additionally, this would be why amnesiac Subaru opts to trust Shaula later since she treats him the same as always as Patrasche does unlike the others who notice that he’s acting differently, leading to him learning to trust a second person, which he very much needs at this point in time given he’s not in the right mindset to trust others due to being in the shadow of both his father and pre-amnesiac Subaru, as shown by him talking about how they’re pushing their problems onto him, not to mention having been pushed to his death twice being on his mind, showing a direct through-line between the third loop and the fourth loop of Ep. 75.
We’ve known since the beginning that Satella is choosing Subaru’s save points, which begs the question about how she knows at what point Subaru can make a difference. A lot of anime-onlies believe in the theory that Satella and Subaru travelled back in time four hundred years to ensure that this current Subaru succeeds, and although I don’t believe in this theory I will nonetheless use it to support my argument.
Let’s say that this is true and Satella actually is a future variant of Emilia. How would she know in the current day at what points Subaru can make a difference so that he succeeds this time? The answer is that she doesn’t. Even if she knew how the previous Subaru’s run through as the hero worked, that doesn’t mean Satella 100% has an ironclad way of knowing what’s the best point for him to still be able to make the most impact given what failed last time would obviously fail again while what would’ve worked last time may not this time. The only way to know for sure is with future knowledge for this current world, which is why I’m now proposing that Satella has a contract with Echidna in that Satella shares her field of vision with Echidna for some unknown price we viewers aren’t privy to.
If Satella did have this sort of arrangement with Echidna, it’d explain why she makes the save points she does, and it’d be ’cause she consults with Echidna beforehand, who we know to have future knowledge and acts with it in mind as shown when she turned Petra’s handkerchief into a spectral knife for Subaru to kill himself after he revealed RBD to her. Echidna also looked forward into the future hundreds of years ago given she made Puck with the express intention of defeating Melakuera only for Puck to lose his memories so that Roswaal could draw Emilia into his camp with Puck losing his memories of the Roswaal who co-existed with Echidna four hundred years ago, making him oblivious to Roswaal’s Soul Transcription. Certain parts of the fandom say that Echidna doesn’t use her Authority, but I call BS as she has clearly used it well in advance hundreds of years ago.
This situation in Ep. 75 would also force Subaru to confront his insecurities about how the pre-amnesiac Subaru was such an incredible guy with his comment about “Just what the hell are you?” showing he thinks that his past self was a helluva guy, and if my write-up three days ago had some truth to it, it’d serve a point on pre-amnesiac Subaru perhaps having dissociated due to the imminent threat of his memories being either about to be eaten or in the midst of being eaten by Rui given Subaru remembering her seiyuu stating, “Memories are what shape a person.” in Ep. 74 at 19:26 with Tappei clearly planning to address this in some way, possibly by having Subaru become more self-confident or at least a part of him becoming more self-confident.
As for how the text in the Gospels may appear due to Echidna, given Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom didn’t include Otto in it, I posit that this is also the case for that text as well, and it was also meant to keep the world on a particular path rather than be a true future-telling text and since the prototypes of the Witch Cult Gospels is Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom, they may be partially made of the same materials, such as Echidna’s fingernails, toenails, hair, body hair, dead skin, or body fluids, and if they are indeed partially constructed by such materials, the Witch Cult Gospels and Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom could be connected to Echidna’s mind through magic, and she’s the one who makes the text in the Gospels appear, meaning Echidna may be stealthily manipulating the Witch Cult through her Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom with the Witch Cult being created four hundred years ago so that it could eventually be used to give Subaru and others character development and achievements.
I guess Echidna could be using Satella, but a potential relationship with this level of coordination suggests that Satella might not just be being used but is closer to that of an equal partner compared to Roswaal. And if Echidna does in fact love Subaru given she said that she’s very fond of him in Ep. 38, she and Satella could have the same goal in trying to get him to save the world from being destroyed in part through the eventual slaying of Satella at the end of the story.
Echidna being partners with Satella could explain why she cried during Emilia’s second Sanctuary Trial with the reason being that she’s actually fond of Satella in spite of supposedly hating her with all her heart, and whatever the relationship between Satella and Emilia is, Echidna may hate that she herself’s the reason Emilia’s going down the path she’s headed toward, not that she truly hates Emilia after all without ever really having met her, and it might’ve been a moment of self-hatred. That may even be the reason she let Minerva see Emilia if Minerva is Emilia’s mother due to her feeling that she robbed Emilia of a happy life.
I believe the final boss biased the story path when an ancient hero, after his lover, the heroine, became the Witch of Envy, chose not to strike down his lover after her yin magic power was used to defeat what came out of the Seal in Elior Forest, which I posit was a monstrous horde of creatures with passive AoE auras that Reinhard cannot protect the world from due to not being able to be everywhere at once, and that’s why the heroine had to become the Witch of Envy, and then the world was destroyed due to the heroine not having complete control over her powers with that being the start of the wretched cycle. And Subaru may be the first Hero of the story since the cycle had started who’s overcoming the fatal character flaw all the previous Heroes of the story had, which is that they considered their lovers everything to them, leading to them choosing their lovers over the world, which is why the cycle has persisted up until now.
Feel free to share your thoughts on this.