Emilia – Thorough Watch

Re:Zero Episode 66 (Season 3 Episode 16) – Analysis and Important Details

Posted on March 28, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

I thought the episode was a satisfying conclusion to this season although there was one detail I hoped would be revealed that didn’t. Included in my post this time will be an update on how I believe Al relates to Subaru as I’ll be including something I didn’t in my previous write-ups.

The episode opens with Beatrice and the group fighting Lye, and she notes to Otto she can use up to five magic crystals as she needs to save one to bring back Puck. Two of them were used up as they fought with Lye eating the names and memories of three of the White Dragon’s Scales mercenaries with the special effect of them being shattered and reforming showing that they had entered the same state Rem and Joshua are in. When Felt returned, Lye attempted to eat her name but faced serious negative effects with his eyes becoming bloodshot and him feeing nausea that resulted in vomiting given it seemed to be a fake name Rom gave her in childhood. This gave them the opportunity to use two of the remaining of three crystals to fire the special metia Felt brought to them that appears to have once belonged to Echidna judging by Beatrice’s reaction to it. Lye was defeated, but he somehow swapped places with his sister, Rui Arneb, who gutted Dynas’s legs and then did the same to Otto when Rui had moved to strike Beatrice with Otto getting her out of the way. Apparently, one of the powers of the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony is to transform into people you’ve eaten before although we have yet to see Lye or Roy do that since Rui had taken the form of a man before going into her true form. Rui realized that Felt herself didn’t realize that her name is not her true name upon interacting with her. Rui notes that she’s backing off, most likely due to her Gospel’s instructions, reasoning that since Lye was beaten to a pulp and since Roy just does as that woman, who I assume is Capella, says. Rui says it’s not whether you’re a gourmand or a foul feeder as what you eat isn’t important, and it’s who you eat with that’s important. Beatrice, with only one magic crystal she can use, since one must be saved for bringing back Puck, decides not to pursure Rui although Felt really wanted to even though they were clearly outmatched.

If it wasn’t clear from Rui’s interaction with them that she was holding back severely, I’ll make it clear now. It’s clear with how Regulus’s Gospel making him believe he’d meet the Emilia camp again despite it not happening until the fourth loop of Arc 5 is that Gospels are meant to keep the world on a particular path as I have long believed rather than being an object that makes the holder’s goals/dreams come true. This was also likely why Capella went to attack the government office the heroes had made their base of operations when if she had stayed with Theresia and Kurgan both Wilhelm and Garfiel would’ve both 100% died and why Capella was certain that she accomplished all that she had needed and was leaving, when her pursuing Al, Felix, and Anastasia would’ve resulted in one or more of them dying, and for this very reason, Rui left as well when she could’ve butchered them all since Beatrice only had one magic crystal left aside from the one she was saving for bringing back Puck. I believe people who have treated Re:Zero as a serious story are meant to pick up on this, but people who expect the usual from most isekai series that don’t have much happening on a story front don’t realize that Re:Zero is a deep story and that it wants you to draw conclusions from these things happening multiple times in succession. You have to actually think critically when you watch Re:Zero. After all, Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom was basically a tool meant for Echidna to keep the world on a particular path, and it wouldn’t be a stretch if the Gospels had a similar purpose.

Kiritaka then announced that they had taken control of all four control towers and had driven away the Witch Cult. After Subaru and Emilia make their way to the government office seeing that it had been destroyed, they are reunited with Beatrice, and Subaru princess carries Beatrice, leading to Anastasia saying that Subaru can be a boy after all, which Emilia affirmed, although I’m not sure Emilia affirmed that in the same way Anastasia did. First with Ricardo joking earlier in the season that Subaru seduces little girls and now this bit with Anastasia showing that characters are openly mocking Subaru about him attracting little girls knowing that Subaru isn’t really that type of person as that’d be inappropriate, which isn’t a bad thing of course given how serious of a show Re:Zero can be.

Subaru and co. then pay a visit to Garfiel, who is proud of Subaru for showing off what a man he is by saving Emilia. He’s in good spirits given he joked that he didn’t want to hear about his condition from Subaru of all people, which Emilia could see, and Beatrice resorted that he’s feeling too good about himself given it’s usually when he’s nice and quiet that he’s actually suffering. Mimi then barges in and has her way with Garfiel with Otto saying that he really should’ve acted like a man who’s hurt. Otto is expected to be able to recover from his injury, and Subaru wishes that he’d consult with him before leaping into danger since they’re friends after all with Otto replying that there’s no way he could just sit back and do nothing when Subaru had so much on his plate, ESPECIALLY since he’s his friend, and that just shows why Otto is such a good person to have on your side. Otto says he’s sorry that Gluttony got away but that they did gain something from this since Priscilla captured Sirius.

They start interrogating Sirius, and when Subaru asks what made them think about demanding the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom and the artificial spirit, as in Beatrice, Sirius remarks that she doesn’t even care to think about what the others were thinking and that they only gathered here ’cause of the instructions from their Gospels. When Subaru puts it out that there that they follow their Gospels so religiously to revive the Witch of Envy, Sirius retorts by saying she doesn’t give a damn about that and that the only one she loves is Subaru with her going up to him to lick him, which Emilia struck her hard for doing so. When Beatrice urged them to leave, Sirius started singing horribly since she had realized the power of song from Lilliana, and Subaru says that she shouldn’t consider Liliana and her singing to be the same with it being completely different. Fortuna then taunts Subaru, saying the situation is the same with him in that he’s not Petelgeuse but with both his soul and body and Petelgeuse’s melding together with her goal being to drag Petelgeuse out from within him although it’s hard to say whether this is pure delusion or a fact. Although I do believe Petelgeuse exists in a pocket dimension within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul, I do not believe their souls have literally melded together. Before they leave, Sirius warns them that Gluttony will be after Subaru. The subs say Gourmand, Foul Feeding, and Satiation, but given the words are used to describe their representation of the Gluttony sin, I feel it should be Gourmet (since Lye wants Gourmet food, which is why he makes his prey feel strong emotions to juice them up and fights them as if to prepare them well for being eaten), Foul-Feeding (Hyphen for grammatical purposes), and Satiation are the right terms to use, and I will use them moving forward since I’m not going to expect Crunchyroll to have any sort of consistency moving forward. I’m guessing Sirius got wind of this ‘when she compared the text written in the Gluttony Archbishop’s Gospels compared to her own ’cause Lye, and Roy and Rui by extension, have been after Subaru since Lye ate Rem’s memories, which is part of the reason he was so hyped for a confrontation with Subaru in Episode 59.

After they walk out of Sirius’s cell, Al replies that they got nothing aside from making them feel gross, which Subaru shoots down immediately, leading to Al saying he sure knows how to make those freaks like him, which suggests that Al is not Subaru himself since it alludes to him not being able to ingratiate himself with some of the Sin Archbishops whereas Subaru has, possibly showing that he was a failed hero of the story. Beatrice then tells Subaru to not get too friendly with Al, which Al is disappointed to her after he helped wake her up, calling her Beako, which she remarked she only lets Subaru do, and Emilia thanks Al for helping her pass a message to Subaru, which Al reacts well to, similarly to how Subaru said in Arc 2 that he’s the type to like to be rewarded for his efforts. When they emerge from the underground, Beatrice reveals that Al visited her and got her Kiritaka’s magic crystal, which is what woke her up but that he wouldn’t tell her anything about how he got it, and that soured Al on Beatrice even though Subaru does the same thing to others. It was only after Emilia spoke well of Al that they were forced to admit that Al’s not a bad guy.

I have to mention this regarding Al now. I don’t believe he is Subaru himself since there is a good deal against it, but I do believe that he and Subaru both originally came from the same soul. Ever since Episode 22, A Flash Of Sloth, I have been looking up the names of Re:Zero’s characters since that title could’ve referenced multiple things from that episode, showing that names are important in Re:Zero. Subaru’s dad is named Kenichi, which means ‘wise man’. Subaru said in Episode 16 that Flugel’s Tree was planted by a wise man centuries ago, and while this wouldn’t mean something in a different show, its presence in a show with Re:Zero’s long-term planning suggests that Kenichi himself might be Flugel. As for the time period in which Flugel existed, Petelgeuse apologized to Flugel-sama in Episode 43 for taking in the Sloth Witch Factor, which shows that Flugel was from the same time period Satella was from.

Episodes, 18, 25, and 38 show that Subaru has dormant memories of Satella as shown by how Puck indirectly revealed in Episode 18 the number of shadow hands Satella could generate to Subaru by asking Petelgeuse summon a thousand shadows if he truly wants to kill him, half of what Satella could (two thousand), Subaru using a number associated with Satella (two thousand) to indicate his appreciation for Emilia in Episode 25, and Subaru suddenly having an upswelling of positive emotion for Satella in Episode 38 that led him to say that he’d save Satella after she asked him to love himself and then some day come kill her, which shows that Subaru and Satella may have a past history together.

Given we know Echidna succeeded in creating a soul clone of herself with how Echidna spoke in her own voice in Ryuzu Shima’s body in Episode 49, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Kenichi, if he is Flugel as I speculate, also did that as well and Subaru and Al were both split off from Kenichi’s soul, and Kenichi made his sons his soul clones, and that would explain why Al and Subaru both call Beatrice ‘Beako’, not ’cause they are the same person but because they were created from the same soul. It’d also explain why Subaru has dormant memories of Satella despite it not being possible for him to have lived at that time, why Al also likes being rewarded for his efforts, why he failed when Subaru succeeded, and why he didn’t know about Capella’s powers.

When the group reconvenes without Julius and Ricardo, Anastasia, or whoever she is, reveals she is against letting Sirius live, which upsets Felix since Sirius is their only lead on how to save Crusch. Anastasia doubts they’ll get anything useful on Gluttony or Lust from Sirius, but Subaru disagrees and doesn’t think it’d be a total waste of effort although he does understand she’d uneasy about keeping her in custody. Wilhelm then shuts Felix down for making a fuss of things. Reinhard also takes Subaru’s side and says he’ll transport Sirius to the castle since this is a rare opportunity to learn about the Witch Cult. Then the topic comes to Lust’s victims, and Felix says that they can’t be healed since they’re creatures that’ve been completely remade. Priscilla suggests giving the people turned to flies death since they’d probably prefer that, and when Subaru starts to protest, she calls him a fool and that ideals that are all talk have no value, which leads to Emilia saying she’ll handle that by putting all of Lust’s victims in cold sleep, and Priscilla backs down after seeing Liliana’s exuberant confidence in Emilia and even says she’ll make Emilia her rival after she does, probably ’cause she was again as I said in my write-up for an earlier episode saying things that were stressful to others to bring out the best in them.

As dawn breaks, Kiritaka thanked Subaru for saving the city, and that he was had been fully prepared to die until he heard Liliana’s song. We get shots of all the relevant parties and then have Subaru thank Subaru and for Reinhard to say it’s a tremendous honour to help a friend, probably since Subaru treats him like an actual person like others instead of a weapon.

Subaru and Emilia are then happy that Lusbel and Tina are safe, and Emilia says that they have to celebrate that since everyone worked so hard to make that happen. Subaru then sees Subaru, who is wounded in a lot of ways and has lost an arm. When he makes a remark about Julius, Ricardo doesn’t respond, but Subaru sees Julius all by himself in the shadow of a building, and Julius is astounded that Subaru remembers him since Emilia doesn’t. This shows that Roy ate his name, which rewrites reality as if no one ever remembered his existence. I don’t believe Julius’s possessions were also erased given how three members of the White Dragon’s Scales broke into pieces of glass and reformed into their current state of being in suspended animation, showing that they had become something fundamentally different than before. As Puck revealed in Episode 26, if a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony eats your memories, you lose your memories, your name, your existence erased, and if both your name and memories are eaten, you become a shell of who you were in suspended animation. Given even Rem’s possessions disappeared when she had been erased by the White Whale, your possessions probably don’t disappear unless both your name and memories are eaten.

What this shows is that Subaru has a resistance to Authorities for some reason. After Unseen Hand was used in his presence once, he was able to see Petelgeuse’s Authority the next time he saw it being used. When the White Whale, which Puck referred to as Gluttony in Episode 18, erased Rem, Subaru was the lone person who remembered her, which showed even back then that he had a resistance to the Gluttony Authority. When Rem was again erased by Lye, he still remembered her, proving that the White Whale was either made or modified somehow to have its mist have a similar effect to the Authority of Gluttony. After Sirius used her Authority on Subaru, in subsequent loops, it took longer and longer for him to fall under her control. This latest incident shows that Subaru still retains his resistance to the Authority of Gluttony. I don’t know where this resistance comes from though and expect it will be made clear towards the end of the series.

Anyway, with Season 4 being confirmed to be in production, I eagerly await to learn more about Re:Zero’s fantasy world and the aftermath of Julius having been forgotten. I also wonder what is up with whoever this Anastasia is. This season was fun and a refreshing change of pace compared to previous seasons.

Re:Zero Episode 62 (Season 3 Episode 12) – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on February 28, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode was more straightforward than most Re:Zero episodes, but there were still some very interesting details in it, including Subaru honouring a fallen foe and a very important detail regarding Petelgeuse.

The episode opens with Emilia rushing to the chapel where the wives are, and it flashes back to Subaru whispering to her that the key to defeating Regulus lies with his wives and that they are the key to his little kingdom. Upon arrival, Emilia pleads to Regulus’s wives that they’re going to defeat Regulus but that they’ll need all of their help. Given Emilia knows that the wives have been beaten down, she acknowledges that she knows winning or losing a fight isn’t what determines who’s in the right and indicates if she loses here that she knows Regulus will trample over something precious to her. Emilia looked across the room to see if anybody reacted, and then Wife Number 184 asked if that precious thing is her life? Wife Number 184 then replies that for them life is really are there is after Emilia suggested there was more to life than just life being precious and that they don’t dare wish for anything more, showing just how fearful they are of Regulus. Emilia then changes her approach and asks for Wife Number 184’s name, saying that she doesn’t know anything about her, so it was selfish of her to ask for a favour, which noticeably affected Wife Number 184 if you had a look at her eyes. But still, Wife Number 184 responds that she has nothing further to say to Emilia as she is not even their husband’s bride anymore, so she’s different from them, which prompts Emilia to say that she’s a half-elf since she wants the wives to know that she has faced hardships even if their circumstances are different, sharing something they did have in common with their like of daisukiyaki. When pressed about what she’s trying to say, Emilia responds that they’re different, and that’s fine, again asking for Wife Number 184’s name and sharing that her name’s Emilia and that she’s different from them in many ways but is confident she shares things in common with them as well, which is a good way to try to connect with someone and build bridges with them. When Emilia puts it out there that she wants to help them, Wife Number 184 responds in frustration about why Emilia would go to the trouble of making them feel human after all this given that as long as they keep him satisfied, he won’t kill them, which is what they have believed all this time is the way they should be approaching things, prompting her to ask Emilia just what she even knows about them. Emilia responds confidently that she knows that they’re kind, that they’ve been trying their hardest, and that they’re all crying for help, saying everything about Wife Number 184 was pleading, “Help me”, both through her eyes and voice, so she’ll help them, but first they must allow themselves to be saved. It just shows how much kindness and compassion that Emilia had that she could soften Wife Number 184 like this.

This leads to Wife Number 184 asking if there are any of them among Regulus’s wives that love their husband, and none of them do, with most of them having disparaging things to say about Regulus, and Wife Number 184 finally reveals that her name is Sylphy and says that they all hate Regulus’s guts but didn’t have the courage to speak out and proclaims that they will help Emilia after all the effort she put into understanding their plight. After an offscreen talk in which Emilia explained the situation, some of Regulus’s wives questioned whether they really are the key to his kingdom as they doubt he’d entrust something like that to them, and when they put it out there that she may be mistaken, Emilia has full confidence that Subaru is right on matters such as this. Emilia then draws out one of her lesser spirits, which goes though Sylphy’s body, and that gives her the idea to listen to Sylphy’s heartbeat, which confirmed the existence of a second heart belonging to Regulus that he affixes to those he considers his brides. It then flashes back to Regulus and Subaru, who underestimates Subaru so badly that when Subaru reveals he knows that he is using his brides as his Authority, Regulus reveals that he has total confidence about the situation as even if his wives wanted to betray him, they’d have to stop the hearts of all his wives to defeat him. Clearly, Regulus is toying with Subaru since physical domination is not enough, and he wants Subaru despairing before he kills him.

Back to Emilia and the wives, Sylphy is emotional after having learned what Emilia found out, and she reached for a piece of glass thinking that killing herself is the only way to defeat Regulus since their hearts need to be stopped. She scraped herself thinking that that wound is proof of her freedom, and when Emilia posits that there must be another way as otherwise Regulus would have even more victims, Sylphy responds that there’s no way he’d give them an out as the only one Regulus is capable of loving is himself, and the rest of the wives also pick up shards of glass with the intent of killing themselves, leaving Emilia to think quickly to freeze them, saying that she can stop all their pulses as she herself had the experience of having been frozen.

At the same time that was happening, Subaru had gotten up and stopped pretending he was close to death, taunting Regulus about how he’d be the type to monologue against a dying opponent, which infuriated Regulus and got him attacking Subaru again with him dodging the attacks since Regulus just throws attacks straight at him with no regard for strategy. Subaru and Regulus then see that Emilia has frozen the chapel, and Regulus starts freaking out how normal humans wouldn’t do something like taking the lives of all those innocent brides, and Emilia having arrived, launches an attack on him, telling him to consider that the divorce paperwork from all his wives. Regulus then breaks free from the ice and starts taunting them as his Authority is still working as normal, so he thinks Emilia may have miscounted the number of lives she took or something, but it was really that Emilia had Regulus’s heart in her own chest since he still considers her a bride with all his yapping about not suitable for a bride and such in a previous episode, which shows he still considers her one of them. Regulus still thinks nothing of the situation and believes that Emilia and Subaru have checkmated themselves, and he then taunts Subaru, suggesting that he kill Emilia now to see whether his heart will have anywhere else to go. Emilia then makes an ice blade, which gives Subaru the idea that Emilia is going to kill herself, but he was probably mistaken, and she was planning to freeze herself as well, which is likely why she said, “But”, before Subaru interrupted her. Subaru was completely out of ideas, but then Regulus continues taunting him, saying he recognizes Subaru as the one who made the broadcast about having killed a Sin Archbishop and that killing a failure like that doesn’t mean he could kill him, and Subaru finally gets the idea after thinking back about how the shadow hands could phase through objects that the issue of Regulus’s heart will be solved by using Invisible Providence on Regulus’s heart. It appears he called it Unseen Hand this time to honour Petelgeuse as a worthy opponent given how much suffering he had put him through instead of disrespecting him as Regulus does given he has called it Invisible Providence every other time before this.

Regarding why Emilia said so that’s where you were, Geuse, when Subaru used his Authority of Sloth, we know Subaru’s entire body resets when he dies, so this means the soul is the seat of memories in Re:Zero. Given Satella can read Subaru’s mind and know whether he intends to reveal Return By Death or that he has lived more than one life, perhaps it indicates that Satella’s soul is the vicinity of Subaru’s soul, and that is how she reads his mind due to close proximity.

We’ve seen in Episode 8 in Season 1 when Puck used Shamak on Subaru that Subaru saw himself in a dark world where Satella was grabbing his heart, which was a memory from when he tried to reveal RBD to Emilia. You have to pause to see this as it doesn’t linger on this for long. Episode 20 also had Satella whisper “Aishiteru” to Subaru when he tried to reveal Return by Death, and that was also likely ’cause she froze the time of the world and pulled Subaru’s soul to where hers was so that she could whisper that to him. Satella being able to his read Subaru’s mind and thoughts suggests that her soul might currently exist in a pocket dimension in the vicinity of Subaru’s soul, and the closeness of their souls is what allows her to do that and also pull him into another dimension.

So if my hypothesis is correct, Petelgeuse’s soul may be currently in this dark world/dimension, and that is how Emilia sensed his presence, not ’cause she recognized Subaru’s Authority to be Geuse’s. This indicates Petelgeuse didn’t completely die and that his soul is where Satella is in the pocket dimension within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul. This explains why Sirius was convinced that Petelgeuse had returned after Subaru used Invisible Providence in Episode 53, and it’s ’cause, like Emilia, she also felt Petelgeuse’s presence. I would never have guessed that that moment in Episode 53 was foreshadowing, but I guess this is Re:Zero, and you can’t rule out something like that being foreshadowing. I would never have thought that Petelgeuse would actually get his wish to be with Satella after he was defeated. I’m glad he got a chance to be happy after he was driven insane by Pandora.

Anyway, as Regulus yaps, he doesn’t realize that his feet are wet, and Emilia starts attacking him, leading him to ask what they’ve done to his Authority of Greed as it’s clear Crunchyroll botched the translation with its text asking why they have the Authority of Greed. Subaru then responded that Regulus got counterattacked by an enemy he took too lightly, which shows he indeed was showing respect to Petelgeuse on this occasion by calling it the Unseen Hand instead of Invisible Providence since he got the inspiration to use his Authority on this occasion ’cause of Petelgeuse. Emilia then gives Regulus 53 punches for all of the wives that suffered under him, and then when she launched an Al Huma on behalf of herself, it was revealed he can still use his Authority by stopping his own heart temporarily to maintain some invincibility like before but with a time limit. The reason he was completely invulnerable before was that since his heart was gone from his body there was no need to stop it since it was if he had no heart in the first place.

A battered Regulus then suggests that Emilia and Subaru are playing unfair by ganging up on him. He then spouts a whole bunch of contradictions, which makes Emilia pity him, and as Subaru sees Reinhard descending from the sky, he suggests Regulus can get the 1-on-1 fight he wishes. Reinhard then arrives in fiery fashion while any normal human would’ve died from re-entering the atmosphere like he did. Regulus messed up royally by sending Reinhard to the moon instead of outward to the stars since that allowed him to come back. Reinhard then sends Regulus up into the sky, and Regulus then does more of his unhinged rants and then pictures in his head all his wives laughing at him in their final moments as an act of resistance to him, showing what a truly pathetic man he is, before Reinhard sends him down to a pool of water at ground level, breaking the ground and resulting in a vertical shaft being made as Regulus uses his Authority to prevent him from dying from being crushed by the impact of the rocks. As the water starts filling the shaft, he remembers that the Wife Number 79 position was originally meant for someone else and that Emilia was the one Fortuna and Pelgeuse adored. He said that the thought of Emilia getting to avenge them makes him want to vomit. Emilia can’t quite put where she has seen Regulus before as she is sure she has before, which she also thought in Episode 51. Regulus then intermittently uses his Authority to avoid drowning quickly, and this guy just never stops talking/thinking, and then finally the colour from his eyes fades, and he dies.

Previously, I put it out there that the reason Emilia might not remember Regulus was due to trauma and also ’cause she actually saw very little of the fight with Regulus in the first Sanctuary trial, and given she could remember Fortuna dying by Petelgeuse’s hand, it probably wasn’t due to trauma but that she saw so little of Regulus and also ’cause what little she saw of Regulus was when he was with Pandora, and given Pandora erased herself from Emilia’s memories, that affected what little she remembered of Regulus although she still subconsciously recognized him.

At the end of the episode, Emilia unfreezes all the wives she put in suspended animation, and she said she hopes everyone’s all right with Subaru remarking that’s what Reinhard is for. It then flashes to the Wilhelm and Theresia and Garfiel and Kurgan fight with Garfiel emerging out of the black mass in his beast form, so now we know what the focus of the next episode will be.

It’ll be interesting to see how that fight goes, and I very much look forward to seeing next week’s episode. I thought it was satisfying seeing a guy as terrible as Regulus get his just deserts and how Emilia won over the wives, and I’m curious how this Petelgeuse reveal will be relevant in the future. If you have anything to add, feel free to do so.

Re:Zero Episode 60 (Season 3 Episode 10) – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on February 15, 2025 | by anicritic | 2 Comments

We start off this episode with Capella back the government office. Apparently, Felix and Anastasia prepared a ruse for Capella with Felix’s hope that Capella would tell her how to cure Crusch, but Capella herself doesn’t know how to heal a body that has given in to dragon blood as she wishes she knew the answer herself. Capella also remarked that Crusch’s blood couldn’t overcome her blood even though it’s noble herself, which suggests that some bloodlines may have special properties. We know there was an Emerada Lugunica that existed 50 years ago was beautiful, intelligent, and feared by all. Could Capella be Emerada who was resurrected by black dragon blood? Or did she see herself in Emerada’s story and took on her name? After it is clear that Capella doesn’t have the answer to what they want, Anastasia gets out of bed and hits Capella with yang magic (Season 2 revealed that yin and yang are the two other elements aside from the four primary ones with shadow from Season 1 appearing to be a mistranslation) and activated her trap, which broke part of the floor, revealing that they had already dug a tunnel down to a lower floor as part of their prep for this encounter. Anastasia had worn a wig and wore bandages to mimic Crusch’s condition, which was very well-played, and then used the same magic from before to knock Capella to that lower floor, where she encountered Al, who warned Capella to get out of there before he dies. This indicates that just like for Subaru, death is likely not the end for Al, which was something Elsa hated about Subaru’s eyes since he clearly didn’t see death as the end of the road.

Theory crafting the specifics about Al’s powers outside of it involving time seems to be an impossible endeavor given how many things it could possibly, so I won’t bother doing that. Instead I will reiterate that I believe Subaru was summoned to bring the world to a free future and stop the cycle of the world being destroyed/reconstructed. I propose the key is to have Subaru be born weak and improve Subaru’s self-esteem so that he isn’t conceited like past heroes I believe existed in the world. Al and especially Subaru were perhaps both born weaker compared to previous heroes to give the world a chance to end the cycle of the world being destroyed and reconstructed by making it so that their lived experiences were different from that of the previous very strong and conceited heroes I believe existed in the past with both of them probably having been summoned by Satella. For more on my main theory, read one of my previous posts here: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=36

Afterwards, after Reinhard tries to follow one of Subaru’s plans, which ends in failure with Reinhard being knocked probably across the whole town, Regulus says that he is a perfect, complete human and that he’s entirely fulfilled with there not being such a thing as more or less for him. Emilia has a great moment where she calls him out by saying that has been coming out of his mouth has been “I want this” and “I want that”, citing that he’s an incredibly selfish person. She says that if he’s fulfilled then he should take better care of his wives. Sounding very hurt, she mentioned how Regulus tied his wives down and made them give up, and then she realized that she absolutely hates Regulus on every level, which pissed Regulus off so much he started picking up huge portions of water into cubes and accelerating the water once he stops having them stay in place.

After that, an ice chase ensues as Emilia freezes water as they try to escape Regulus with Regulus in hot pursuit of them since he can walk normally on ice and doesn’t need to skate like Emilia and Subaru do. Emilia then suggests handing Subaru one of her lesser spirits and asks if he can hang on by himself, to which Subaru replies that as a kid he was called the “Ice Princess”, which suggests he either cross-dressed or cosplayed as a girl frequently in his youth while skating for whatever reason, possibly as a way to avoid being compared to his dad due to him being desperate to get out of his dad’s shadow. Subaru having an inferiority complex was a plot point in Episode 29 (Season 2 Episode 4), and I thought it was the best episode in the series for the subject matter it touched upon, which explained Subaru’s behaviour throughout the first season and up to that point. There is no filler in Re:Zero, so whether it was cross-dressing or cosplay, perhaps Subaru will be forced to pull out a trick from his youth.

I’ll stray from the scene order now to focus on Priscilla. Sirius again does something to make herself the center of attention. If you recall from Episode 51, Sirius’s antics at the clock tower in Episode 51 and 52 were meant to get people’s attention on her specifically given her power allows her to nudge people’s emotional states to what she desires after first getting their attention. In this recent episode, Sirius makes a fuss about how she brightened up the place since it was so dark, and this led to Liliana falling under her control. Priscilla, being the scene-stealer she is, decided to give Liliana a passionate French kiss to free her from Sirius’s control, which was not a bad idea since she already knew Liliana had some level of attraction to her. After that, Sirius directs a whole bunch of people from the city who had fallen under her control towards Priscilla and Liliana, which led to Priscilla using her Yang Sword to create a line of fire on the bridge leading to them, which stopped those under Sirius’s mind control from advancing. She then tasked Liliana with breaking those people from Sirius’s control, putting extra stress on Liliana by emphasizing that all of their lives are depending on her voice. This reminds of earlier this season in Episode 58 (I didn’t include that in my analysis, which was an oversight, I guess) when Priscilla said something that appeared to demean Liliana which motivated Liliana to do her best to live up to her family name. Perhaps Priscilla has the habit of saying something that is demeaning or stressful to the recipient of her words so that she can draw out a person’s best qualities. This was again shown in a more extreme fashion when Priscilla tested Subaru’s strength of character with her proposal that Subaru lick her foot in Episode 16. Priscilla had intended for Subaru to reject that offer, but Subaru was in very poor shape mentally to consider that was what she was gunning for.

Priscilla then engages Sirius and is definitely a match for her in combat, but Sirius appeared to taunt Priscilla with the mentioning “Iris and the Thorn King”, “Teleos’s Rose Knight”, and “Magritzer’s Gibbet”, which provoked Priscilla into becoming enraged. Whatever these three terms are, they clearly have a personal significance to Priscilla. I have an idea of why Priscilla had such a strong reaction based on previous content. Clearly from Episode 12, Priscilla must’ve come from a very high-class background given she had no idea that appas have red skin. Given “Iris and the Thorn King” and “Teleos’s Rose Knight”, whatever they are, involve a king and a knight, Priscilla may not be your average noble and might be royalty, and given it’s clear that Priscilla is not from Lugunica’s Royal Family since everyone would recognize her and ’cause Lugunica’s Royal Family perished, she might be royalty from a different nation. When Priscilla remarked in Episode 13 that Felt must’ve remained a slum dweller ’cause she can only manage tedious conversation, that might not have been a random insult but a hint that Priscilla went through hardship and lost her status as royalty at some point. I always thought the way Priscilla spoke to Subaru in Episode 16 at points made it seem like she was a queen or empress given the sort of inflections the voice actress used, and perhaps that was intentional and just phenomenal voice-acting.

Also of note and relates to the stuff with Priscilla is that I missed something for last week’s write-up. I had noticed that Julius looked surprised after Roy said something to him, but I was unsure of what to make of it, so I rewatched Episode 59, and Roy addressed Julius by “Nii-sama”, meaning Crunchyroll botched the translation, showing that Roy knew Julius is an older brother, and that is why Julius seemed taken aback. We know that Sirius did not know Priscilla personally yet said the perfect things to unnerve her, so it seems the reason Julius didn’t stick with the original plan to not use your real name if you encounter the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony is ’cause Roy probably said things that made Julius believe Roy knew info about him. We know Sirius didn’t actually seem to know Priscilla at the start of their encounter, so either the Gospel gave her instructions, or there was some other tell we’re not aware of. Perhaps Sirius and Roy both had instructions from their Gospels to say what they did or had good info from the Witch Cult’s spy network, and that’s the main reason Julius abandoned their well-thought out plan.

After many failures regarding penetrating Regulus’s seeming invincibility, Subaru asks Emilia for a hint by asking what happened to her after she was taken prisoner. Emilia responded by saying that he asked her if she’s a virgin, that he calls his wives by numbers, and when she said that that makes him seem like an evil king, one of them (Wife #184) called him “Little King”, which Subaru knew as the Latin name for Regulus, and he stated that it has another name, which is implied later in the episode to be “Lion Heart”, and I will get back to that at the end of my post, but I first I have to leave it out there that the Memory Snow OVA hinted that Subaru is a star nerd since he knew his own name was referring to a star cluster in that animation project that happened in the off years between Season 1 and Season of Re:Zero. Subaru then asked Emilia what Regulus’s hand felt like when he was strangling her, and she said it felt like nothing, which prompted Subaru to ask Reinhard to find out whether his heart is beating, which Reinhard confirmed it wasn’t to Subaru as he was being sent flying into the moon. This leads to Subaru beating Regulus at his own game at yapping by saying that Regulus has a right to hear about how he’ll lose since he’s all about his rights. Regulus, who says he is merciful, will allow Subaru to talk, and Subaru first says that Regulus’s power is the ability press the start button in the middle of the game, maybe ’cause when you start a game there’s a rush of momentum with all the animations starting up and everything, and that’s how he can launch dirt, air, and even water as we see in this episode at very high speed. Subaru says his ability is Lion Heart, the ability to stop time for his own body, and Regulus’s face shows that Subaru nailed it.

As I have noted in a previous post of mine, I have been looking up Re:Zero names ever since Episode 22 of Re:Zero, “A Flash of Sloth”, in which there were several instances of sloth that impacted the story. I had already looked up the names of the Sin Archbishops before, but it appeared my initial search was not enough with how Subaru was able to draw conclusions about Regulus’s ability when I couldn’t, so I expanded my search to more star facts and even mythology.

Betelgeuse, the name Petelgeuse is based off, is a star, in particular, in the constellation of Orion and the ninth-brightest star of the night sky. It’s called “Orion’s hand” in Arabic, which is almost certainly why Petelgeuse’s Authority was the “Unseen Hand”.

Baten Kaitos meant “belly of the sea monster” in Arabic, and I reasoned after Season 2 that that must be about Lye’s eating ability, but after seeing that Alphard is referred to in Arabic as the “backbone of the Serpent”, Baten Kaitos is most likely hinting at the White Whale while Alphard refers to the Black Serpent, the last of the Three Great Mabeasts. Lye Batenkaitos had called the White Whale “our pet” when he and Regulus attacked the White Whale extermination force on its way back to the capital. At the time, I thought it may have just been a pet in general of the Witch Cult, but since Season 3 shows that the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony have a speech quirk in which they speak as if they are more than one person despite being individuals themselves, Lye probably had direct control over the White Whale, and that’s why he personally came to avenge it. Interestingly enough, on names.org a user-submitted meaning indicates that Lye means “fog” in a Native American language, and this may be how Tappei decided to have the White Whale emit a dense fog.

The ancient Greeks observed that the appearance of Sirius as the morning star heralded the hot and dry summer and feared that the star caused plants to wilt, men to weaken, and women to become aroused. Owing to its brightness, Sirius would have been seen to twinkle more in the unsettled weather conditions of early summer. To Greek observers, this signified emanations that caused its malignant influence. All people perceived to be suffering from its effects were said to be “star-struck”, which may be how Tappei decided to make Sirius’s Authority involve people falling under her control and feeling a sense of closeness to Sirius. Sirius means “glowing” or “scorching”, and the glowing part could be referring to how she makes herself the center of attention while the scorching part could be how Tappei decided to make her a fire-magic user.

Capella means “little goat” in Latin. In Greek mythology, the star represented the goat Amalthea that suckled Zeus. It was this goat whose horn, after accidentally being broken off by Zeus, was transformed into the cornucopia, or “horn of plenty”, which would be filled with whatever its owner desired. Perhaps this is how Tappei decided to allow Capella to transform into anything she desired. Since she took the Royal Family’s name, “Emerada” could be a perversion of “Emeralda” much like “Satella” is a perversion of Satellite. “Emeralda” is a variant of “Emerald” with emeralds symbolizing rebirth and wisdom, which may be why Capella is good at reading people and why she might have been resurrected by that black dragon blood in her body.

The Arabic meaning of Regulus is Lion Heart, and that should be part of how Subaru figured out Regulus’s power. Regulus is a fixed star, and fixed stars are luminary points, mainly stars, that appear not to move relative to one another against the darkness of the night sky in the background. Due to their immense distance from Earth, fixed stars appear to move so slowly in the sky that the change in their relative positions is nearly imperceptible on human timescales, except under careful examination with modern instruments, such as telescopes, that can reveal their proper motions. Hence, they can be considered to be “fixed” for many purposes, such as navigation, charting of stars, and timekeeping even though they do move but not to an extent that the naked eye can detect such movements. This should be how Subaru concluded that Regulus’s Authority freezes time for his own body since a fixed star seems frozen in time. As for how Subaru concluded that’s what makes him invincible, the Nemean lion in Greek mythology had impenetrable fur, and that should be how he figured that Lion Heart had something to do with Regulus’s actual heart.

Re:Zero Breaktime Season 3 Episode 5 is a must-watch since its shows unequivocally that Al was summoned to Earth much like Subaru was: https://x.com/LoremIpsumVerb/status/1851218364317761852?mx=2

Now I will explain how Al factors into this and why I believe he is Subaru’s brother and a previous iteration of the hero of the story. Although I posted the link to my main theory, you might not have time to read it, so I’ll post mainly the Al portion of my main theory. 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 in the Taurus constellation that follows the Pleiades star cluster in the night sky. In Arabic, Aldebaran means the follower for that reason. While some of the Arabic meanings for Sin Archbishops hint at their powers, perhaps it would be better to consider Al’s name in relation to Subaru since Al isn’t a Sin Archbishop.

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 serious story not 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 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. This is why I do not believe Al is a future Subaru.

A Re:Zero theory: Echidna might have a deep respect for Emilia and Satella despite seemingly hating them

Posted on December 16, 2024 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

The way I interpret Re:Zero scenes is to look at the entire series holistically. Echidna notably cried during Emilia’s 2nd Sanctuary trial in Episode 47, in which Emilia was shown an unthinkable present in which Petelgeuse and Fortuna had frequently gone out together with them going on a picnic with Emilia on that particular occasion. I can’t believe that Echidna had been crying at the sight of Emilia being happy although if she hates Emilia as she claims, it’d make sense since seeing Emilia happy and strong would be infuriating. I don’t know of any woman or man who can hate someone so much that he or she would cry at the sight of her being happy, and so tonight, I’ve formulated an alternative interpretation as I can’t help but believe that something is amiss.

We know based on Petelgeuse apologizing to Flugel-sama before taking in the Sloth Witch Factor meant that Petelgeuse likely promised Flugel not to do so, and that Flugel may have had more Authority in the Witch Cult than Petelgeuse, possibly being a potential founder. Echidna also had Puck enter into a contract with her in which if he entered a contract with Emilia he would lose some of his memories, the tell being when the special font from The Frozen Bond OVA was reused in Season 2 to denote Echidna’s speech, and these two incidents show that both Flugel and Echidna possessed future knowledge and did what they did so that Petelgeuse and Puck would only take in the Sloth Witch Factor and enter a contract with Emilia when there was no other choice, which shows that they were specifically trying to steer the world to a particular future, which we know was 100% true with regards to Echidna for 400 years before the start of the story up until even the end of Season 2 and possibly beyond. Pandora also specifically said that her goal in bringing Regulus to Elior Forest had already been fulfilled, leading to her returning him home with powers, which shows that she specifically brought Regulus to the forest to force Petelgeuse to take in the Sloth Witch Factor, eventually drive him insane by having him kill Fortuna, and have Emilia freeze the whole forest.

So judging by all of this, all of Echidna, Flugel, and Pandora are trying to make a specific future happen, and I’d be surprised if there was no collaboration or knowledge of what the others are doing, which is why I have proposed that they are all on the same side. If that’s the case, perhaps the reason Echidna was crying is that she robbed Emilia of being potentially happy with Petelgeuse and Fortuna. Perhaps, they didn’t have to instigate Emilia losing everything back in the past when that event in Elior Forest happened when Echidna brought Regulus and the Black Serpent with her, and in that sense, Echidna feels guilty for what actually happened, which would be the reason for her tears.

And yes, I know the big thing I have yet to do is suggest why I believe Echidna might actually like or love Satella, and I’ll get to that eventually. We know whereas other Witches of Sin simply call Satella by her name, Echidna calls her Satella, the Witchy of Envy. We know from Seasons 1 and 3 that there is knowledge about the Witches of Win that have been lost to history with Crusch believing Satella created the White Whale when it was Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony, who was revealed to have created the Three Great Mabeasts in Season 2, and that Typhon’s name didn’t become commonplace with how nobody knew the corpse of the witch in Kararagi in Season 3 belonged to Typhon except for Al. This shows perhaps a deliberate intent to conceal or make lost to history information about the dead Witches of Sin, which is an activity Echidna deliberately partakes in as seen by how she said that Satella killed the other witches and used them for sustenance, which some critical thinking debunks since if Satella had done so there would be no corpse of Echidna at the Sanctuary. Thus, I conclude that for whatever reason, Echidna is very invested in making sure that Satella is the bogeyman for all the evils of the world, and this is likely part of her grand plan to ensure that the world, including Subaru, unites to kill Satella at the end of the story.

How does any of this show that Echidna likes or loves Satella? In Episode 49, Echidna spoke in Ryuzu Shima’s voice, saying “Unbelievable. You see this, and that’s the first thing you think of?” after the first thing that comes to Emilia’s mind is getting the original Ryuzu Meyer out of the crystal and taking her to the graveyard. How this is relevant is that Echidna has acted very clinical in how she presents herself to others, so Emilia’s words must have stirred something within her. We know that Echidna can break out of the character she plays as seen by how she said she didn’t want Subaru to think that she was the only one of the witches who was evil, leading to her taking away his qualification for entering the tomb since he was using that as a crutch instead of genuinely helping Emilia. Perhaps the reason Echidna had that thought is despite sounding/being irritated she respects and even admires Emilia’s selflessness and propensity to help others. We know that Echidna hinted that she isn’t even adverse to helping Emilia with how she revealed to Subaru that after three days of trial of error she had no hope of breaking Emilia out of her shell, which shows she tried to help Emilia pass the trial even against Subaru’s wishes since he had been determined to not let Echidna keep making Emilia cry, and that isn’t something you do for someone you actually hate even though Echidna claims that to be the case.

If Satella was a previous heroine of the story much like I have proposed in my main theory, she may have been a lot like Emilia since I expect the heroines to mostly fit the same mold even if they aren’t exactly the same person, and thus, Echidna might have also respected or admired Satella. If my theory about a group of characters from 400 years creating a grand plan to steer the world to a future in which the world is saved, breaking the cycle of the world being destroyed and reconstructed, is true, Satella might have sacrificed all of her life’s potential to help enact this plan by becoming the Witch of Envy, and Echidna might have seriously respected that decision despite the cost it would bring to Satella. If Echidna knows that Emilia is headed towards her life also being sacrificed, maybe that’s the true reason for her tears.

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

Posted on November 19, 2024 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

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 Episode 57 (Season 3 Episode 7) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on November 17, 2024 | by anicritic | 1 Comment

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.

Re:Zero Episode 56 (Season 3 Episode 6) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on November 9, 2024 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

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 that he exists. 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 Episode 55 (Season 3 Episode 5) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on November 4, 2024 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

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 – The implications of Regulus’s words in Episode 51 and Garf’s mom being alive but without memories of her past

Posted on October 25, 2024 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

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 elsewhere, 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.

TL;DR: I do not believe Witch Cult Gospels or the not-quite-Tome of Wisdoms that Roswaal and Beatrice had actually truly tell the future but are merely connected to Echidna’s mind, and she can freely decide what appears on those texts.

If Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom actually told the true future, it would account for Otto’s actions. I do not buy into it being what happened in the alpha timeline or first loop as some have proposed based on Petelgeuse having no knowledge of Subaru in Episode 24 since it’s a document that updates and should be able to account for changes like that unless the source of that text didn’t want to happen. That kind of flaw literally should not exist in a document that can update itself on future happenings. I don’t consider a stretch at all that the Gospels are also Echidna’s creation given how Echidna’s Tome of Wisdom Authority was still active in Season 2 with how her Authority could reconstruct the past as well as show the future, and making something ‘inferior’ to the not-quite Tome of Wisdom would be very easy for her, especially if the common denominator of those texts is that they are linked to her mind rather than being anything particularly special. If how some people believed it worked was correct, none of Ram, Emilia, or Petra would be in Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom since they also died in a previous loop much like Otto did, so the idea that Otto wasn’t included in it ’cause he died in a previous loop is categorically false.

While there’s some mystery on where the Witch Cult Gospels came from, I believe the simplest explanation that they are Echidna’s creation is what is likely the reality of things. Petelgeuse apologized to Flugel-sama a long time ago back when he was already a member of the Witch Cult, which suggests that Flugel may have been the original leader of the Witch Cult as Petelgeuse shouldn’t have been subservient to someone else in the cult. Maybe Echidna distributed many, many Gospels to Flugel 400 years ago, and that is how the Witch Cult was founded. She may have distributed enough Gospels for all cultists who existed at the time and would exist in the future, so there wouldn’t have been an issue with the supply of them. Pandora, if she is the current leader of the Witch Cult, probably took control once Flugel was gone.

How Garfiel’s mom’s amnesia plays into this is that the reason Garfiel stayed in the Sanctuary is ’cause he had seen that his mother’s carriage had been caught in a landslide, which was the reason he was afraid of the outside world due to a fear of death, and Garfiel’s issues forced Subaru to learn to depend on his friends to win over Garfiel so that he would be able to defeat Elsa. I believe Echidna specifically had Lye Batenkaitos eat Garf’s mom’s memories through a suggestion in Lye’s Gospel, which resulted in her current situation with her new family. I believe this was specifically done to give Garfiel more character development in the future since he will likely be a huge key piece in the story with my prediction that he will become the next Sword Saint when Reinhard is sealed.

How would Reinhard even get sealed? I believe there will be a plot to seal Subaru, and it won’t be just any seal, but a seal that if broken, results in the person who was sealed dying. Now I know what you’re thinking… Why would there would be a seal that kills the person sealed if the seal is broken when you can just kill that person? The simple answer is that everything from Seasons 1 and 2 and even hundreds of years before that was planned out in advance with Echidna having Roswaal drawn Subaru into the Emilia camp, with Pandora commanding the White Whale to leave Subaru alone so that he could make it back to Roswaal’s mansion and inadvertently kill Emilia by invoking the Taboo, leading to the From Zero moment, with Subaru being trapped with the Sanctuary and mansion dilemma that required him to sacrifice nobody to succeed and lean on his friends, which Echidna deliberately pushed him toward even if she seemed to really want Subaru to accept her contract on the surface. I’ll elaborate on all of what I just typed, but I have to finish up my point on what I believe will be a future seal on Reinhard. Therefore, there is a seal that kills the person sealed if the seal is broken because it is another plot to trap Subaru into making a very specific decision, and that would be to get Reinhard to be sealed.

If you’re not understanding what I mean, I believe there will be a plot to seal Subaru because it is meant to force Subaru to loop until he has Reinhard take one for the team and be sealed. Why would the Witch Cult come up with such a convoluted plan? That would be because I surmise that Witch Cult Gospels do not truly tell the future but are merely connected to Echidna’s mind through magic, so she can make whatever she wants to appear in any Gospel, and since Witch Cultists try to follow their Gospel exactly as shown in Episode 53, they would make such a weird seal and not question their Gospels’ instructions. Subaru having to work through issues without the incredible Reinhard would be a good way for him to build confidence in himself, and considering Subaru loving himself is one of the principal goals of the story, I believe this is a likely development.

If in every arc, there is one big choice Subaru must make (whether to abandon Emilia, Rom, and Felt, whether to take Beatrice’s offer to be sent elsewhere, abandoning the residents of the mansion and Arlam Village, whether to run away with Rem, abandoning the Emilia camp in the process, and whether to accept Echidna’s contract), there will be a time in a future arc where he has to choose between having some yet-to-be-determined character or Reinhard get sealed in Subaru’s place and one final choice he makes at the end of Re:zero where he will have to choose between Emilia and the world, which I believe was foreshadowed by the dilemma the construct of Subaru’s mom proposed to him with choosing between mayonnaise and the world having Subaru retort that only someone who hates the world would choose mayonnaise. The big choice Subaru has to make in the Priestella arc is so far unclear, but there should be one.

There is a basis to believe this in the anime when Minerva said that sometimes good things happen from Echidna’s evil plots, which shows that the dead Witches of Sin may be in on Echidna’s plans, whether they be stopping Subaru from accepting Echidna’s contract when Echidna strongly favoured Subaru rejecting her contract or other things. I believe a large group of characters from 400 years ago, including Satella, Echidna, Pandora, the dead Witches of Sin, and possibly more are trying to steer the world away from destruction with the Seal in the Elior Forest one day being open under unfavourable conditions, so they plan to forcefully open it under their own terms using Subaru and Emilia and that everything that has happened so far in Re:zero is meant to push Subaru and Emilia to that very specific future.

I believe if this Seal is opened that there will be droves and droves of creatures that cause AoE damage just from existing and that not even Reinhard can stop the world from being destroyed in this case, which would require Satella to possess Emilia since Satella’s power is necessary to counter this threat that emerges from the Seal, most likely because powerful yin magic is needed to handle said threat. I believe Satella knows full well that she needs to be put down after she takes care of the threat from the Seal, and that is part of the reason she requested that Subaru come kill her since she will not have full control of herself and because this is one of the final pieces of the plan those characters from 400 years ago came up with.

Now I’ll get to why I believe everything starting from 400 years ago and even up until this season has been planned by Echidna. Echidna most likely deliberately wanted Subaru to turn down the contract she offered to him in Season 2. And it’s specifically because her actions didn’t line up with her goal of wanting Subaru to accept her contract. Echidna let it slip in Episode 34 that she tried to vary up the trial with 3 days of trial and error for Emilia in an attempt to help Emilia pass the 1st trial, which shows she was actively trying to help Emilia succeed. She then proceeds to tell Subaru that maybe he can give the cowardly princess wings, which is basically telling Subaru that the correct course of action that will lead to him achieving his goals is to have Emilia take the trials. However, this flew over Subaru’s head, and he was determined to do the trials in Emilia’s place after that interaction. Why would Echidna do this if she wanted him to accept her contract? It makes no sense.

Another example in which I propose that Echidna’ intentions were obscured is that she said she gave Beatrice a blank book because Echidna had wanted to see who Beatrice chose. I believe Echidna fully knew that Subaru is the one who would free Beatrice and that Echidna specifically chose to tell Subaru what she did was because she wanted to seem so outrageously evil so as to deter Subaru from accepting her contract. This is backed up by Echidna saying to Subaru after he rejected her contract that she didn’t want him to think she was the only one of the Witches of Sin who is evil, which led to her revoking Subaru’s qualification for entering the tomb. Subaru was using his right to enter the tomb as a crutch at that point, and Echidna did him a major solid by taking it away so that he’d be forced to do all he could to help Emilia pass the trials. Echidna clearly knew how evil what she said about Beatrice was. Echidna’s actions do not read as somebody who wanted to force Subaru to accept her contract no matter what. The true reason Beatrice’s book was empty was probably because Echidna needed Beatrice to stay in the library in case she died or something, and since all she did was stay in the library, there was no need for further instruction. As I have indicated before, Otto not being included in Roswaal’s not-quite Tome of Wisdom, was likely intentional and was constructed this way by design as Echidna fully intended for Otto to be the key to defeating Roswaal.

Given I have proposed that most Gospels are meant to keep the world on a particular path instead of being true predictors of the future, that begs the question of why the White Whale let Subaru go in Episode 17. I believe that Pandora has a Gospel that also accounts for Subaru’s decision-making much like Roswaal’s not-quite Tome of Wisdom since the common denominator is that these texts are connected to Echidna’s mind. That would explain why the White Whale stopped pursuing Subaru and blew him away with its breath after pursuing him for such a long time with the intent of eating him and then likely left the area. Given that Pandora had some control over the Black Serpent in Emilia’s past during her invasion of Elior Forest with Regulus in Season 2, it is not a stretch to believe that she had similar control over the White Whale. I therefore conclude that in Episode 17, Pandora saved Subaru by ordering the White Whale to leave him alone so that he could make it back to Roswaal’s mansion since he intended to warn of the threat of the Witch Cult. Lye Batenkaitos may have called the White Whale their pet, but I don’t believe that the White Whale listened to Subaru’s words “I don’t want to die.” is the reason it let him go. The White Whale stopped in its tracks and blew Subaru away with its breath before Subaru ever said that he doesn’t want to die, which shows that the White Whale was already letting Subaru go. And considering what viewers found out in Season 2 about Daphne and her creations finding Satella and consequently, Subaru, to smell irresistibly delicious, there was no reason for the White Whale to let Subaru go unless it was ordered to.

I believe the point of that happening was to have Subaru try to tell Emilia about Return by Death so that he could indirectly cause her death when Satella would emerge from him to kill Emilia and have Puck admonish Subaru, leading to him wanting to run away with Rem, which led to the From Zero moment. I believe this loop also happened so that Subaru could one day figure out that the White Whale has a special mist that erases someone from existence, which would be something he needed to know for the White Whale fight. I believe Echidna specifically instructed Pandora through her Gospel to have the White Whale leave so that Subaru could finally make progress toward defeating Petelgeuse. I do not believe that Pandora is Subaru’s enemy but that she is merely trying to make a future she and some other characters from 400 years ago wanted to happen be realized. If my speculation is right, viewers should be thanking Pandora for allowing the From Zero moment to happen because she pushed Subaru to his breaking point by saving him from the White Whale.

Okay, so here comes the elephant in the room. Why would Echidna, who thirsts for knowledge, propose a contract with Subaru if she had no intention of forcing him to accept it even though it’d be a dream come true for her to have that contract considering she has an unsatiable desire for knowledge? I surmise that one reason was to keep Subaru in the dark about Echidna’s true role in the story. I have to go on a tangent right now before I get back to this.

Episodes 18, 25, 38 show that Subaru has dormant memories of Satella with how Puck indicated how many shadow hands Satella could generate in Episode 18 by saying Petelgeuse must summon 1,000 shadow hands, half of what Satella could in order to kill him, how Subaru used a number associated with Satella (2,000) to describe how much he loves Emilia in Episode 25, and Subaru swearing that he’d save Satella after she told him to one day come kill her, showing he randomly had a swell in positive emotions for Satella. This shows that he previously existed in Re:Zero’s fantasy world in some form, probably as Satella’s lover.

Given that we know Echidna’s Tome of Wisdom can fully reconstruct the past with her trials and show glimpses of the future after watching Season 2, it’s possible that Subaru gleaned some information about the world’s future 400 years ago through Echidna’s Authority and saw that the world was coming to an end. He could have convinced Echidna by saying that the destruction of the world will end her pursuit of knowledge to help him create a plan to avoid the world’s destruction.

Echidna would have a crucial role as the one who guided the actions of the Witch Cult and Roswaal for 400 years up to the present day with Pandora causing Emilia to freeze Elior Forest and herself and drawing Subaru into the Emilia camp. The Frozen Bond strongly indicated that the one who sent Puck to search for Emilia was no other than Echidna with the reveal in Season 2 where the same font used in the OVA was used for Echidna’s speech in that season. So Echidna knew that Emilia’s memories would be sealed by Puck, and I surmise that Echidna created the Sanctuary trials as a way for Emilia to unseal her memories, regain her memories of Pandora that were erased, to help Subaru learn to rely on his friends and also get Emilia over that hump with the trials instead of bearing the weight of everything by himself, and for Echidna to attempt to give herself time to achieve immortality. Whatever the future holds may require a strong relationship between Subaru and Emilia and needed for Emilia to be traumatized and frozen in the past so that Subaru could help her get past that when all the pieces were in the right place.

If you think Echidna wouldn’t keep tabs on the future, there is clear evidence of Echidna 100% keeping tabs on the future in the anime. She turned Subaru’s handkerchief into a special knife in anticipation of Satella engulfing Subaru in her mass of shadow for all time and made sure there was a way for him to kill himself. She also instructed Puck to find Emilia 400 years ago, and that was also likely an instance of her keeping tabs on the future. Flugel having Petelgeuse promise to not take in the Sloth Witch Factor and Echidna forcing Puck into a contract where if he enters into a contract with Emilia he’d slowly lose his memories shows that both those characters likely had kept tabs on the future to ensure that Petelgeuse and Puck wouldn’t take those actions until there was no other choice. Flugel was also the one who planted what was called Flugel’s tree, and it happened to be in the right spot for the White Whale expedition force to burn down its trunk to trap the White Whale, leading to its defeat, which shows more keeping tabs on the future.

Echidna probably has set it up so that Subaru doesn’t realize that he’s being manipulated into making specific choices, and that’s why she may have hijacked the Witch Cult since the start of its creation to develop Subaru’s character into being a proper hero with high self-esteem who won’t let the world burn over his extreme attachment to his lover. Maybe Subaru will find out about this plot towards the end, but he will need to willingly make the choice to choose to save the world over Emilia.

Re:Zero Episode 52 (Season 3 Episode 2) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on October 16, 2024 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

Okay, obviously with it being a much shorter episode, there was less to talk about this episode. It turns out I was only partially right about Subaru’s reaction at the end of the first episode. He had not entirely realized that he had died, and dying for the first time in a year had him feeling really uncomfortable. I’m sure after a year of not looping, he might’ve thought his days of dying were over and was not prepared for it to happen again, which is why he felt sick to his stomach. It was not due to him also remembering how he was clapping for the death of a child.

The danger of the situation in this arc is that Subaru has maybe 10-15 minutes to act since he looped back to a period close to when Sirius’s attack began, so this is unlike all of his previous dilemmas where he had hours or days to come up with a solution. Given that, I can see why Subaru rushed to try to take action without getting anyone else to help him since there was so little time to act although he did briefly consider getting Beatrice to help only for him to decide not to when he remembered how relentless the Witch Cult was in its pursuit of Emilia, which is not an unfounded concern. He wanted Beatrice to stay and protect Emilia. I know the point in Season 2 was for Subaru to learn to trust his friends, but Subaru did at least consider asking for help from Beatrice before thinking otherwise, so this shows progression compared to back in Season 2, not regression just ’cause he didn’t immediately try to tackle it head-on with Beatrice right from the get-go. Character development is not always perfectly linear and doesn’t always hold up perfectly, especially in the high-risk situations Subaru is forced into a lot of the time, particularly since he has so little time to act this time.

Consistent with what he learned in Season 2 about asking for help from his friends, Subaru did immediately try to get the help of the strongest person he knew the loop after that, which is Reinhard, and that didn’t work out either as Sirius can freely choose who, which includes herself, to share damage and emotions between others with the damage and emotions being shared not necessarily being from the same person, which is how she made everyone happy in the first episode by sharing her manic joy with everyone else while having the crowd take in all of Lusbel’s damage from smashing into the ground headfirst. Her being able to share the damage inflicted on her led to the whole crowd dying in this recent episode since Reinhard cutting off a piece of her body including her head led to everyone else dying in the same fashion. Given that when Reinhard touched Subaru and Rachins they came back to their senses, the solution to combating Sirius is probably preventing the crowd from falling under her control in the first place, whether that involves Liliana’s singing or possibly something else like strengthening the civilians given Beatrice indicated Sirius’s Authority is akin to spiritual interference. At minimum, I do believe Liliana’s singing must be a factor to prevent Sirius’s emotional manipulation from working by making the crowd feel something Sirius doesn’t.

In a nice callback to Season 1 in the loop after Reinhard killed Sirius, Beatrice revealed that when Reinhard fights seriously, all the mana nearby turns to him after Subaru sought out her help, so pretty much all spirits arts users are heavily nerfed by Reinhard’s presence. Emilia also showed her growth from Season 2 with how she doesn’t want to be left out when Subaru takes action and be someone who is just protected. I like that she completely showed how she was completely in the right that even Beatrice couldn’t find any fault in what she had to say and asked Subaru to give up convincing Emilia otherwise.. What’s consistent is that with Rachins when Subaru was trying to get him to call for Reinhard, with Beatrice when he was explaining Sirius’s attack, and even with Emilia when she was trying to convince Subaru to let her fight, Subaru was often grasping at his heart area since he was thinking back to Satella squeezing his heart. Subaru seems to have not yet realized that it’s when he intentionally tries to reveal that he can Return by Death or has had lived more than one life is when his heart gets squeezed. I think it was a nice touch that Priscilla was the reason Emilia went after Subaru and Beatrice. As I’ve indicated before, I believe that much of Priscilla’s public behaviour is put on, meaning she is hiding what type of person she actually is.

Emilia appears to have been training during the 1-year timeskip and used Subaru’s knowledge of weapons to create her ice arsenal and was more than putting up a good fight against Sirius. The battle noises she made were likely also inspired by the anime Subaru watched back when he was on Earth. On Sirius, it seems she hates that Petelgeuse only pays attention to Satella, which is why she remarked in disgust about Emilia’s features since Emilia’s appearance seems pretty much identical to Satella’s, and that tracks with how she was calling Emilia a homewrecker since she fancies herself being Petelgeuse’s wife even though Petelgeuse is unwillingly to give the time of day to anyone aside from Satella. When Sirius was saying Petelgeuse gave it to her, but you’re taking it from me, she was most likely referring to her wrath given Emilia was talking about being angry, which resulted in Sirius talking about how wrath belongs to her. I’d wager that the reason Sirius believes that Petelgeuse gave her wrath is ’cause his devotion to Satella infuriated her to no end or ’cause Petelgeuse found the Wrath Witch Factor and gave it to Sirius when she used to serve in the Sloth camp, leading to her becoming the Sin Archbishop of Wrath. Her marriage with Petelgeuse is probably all in her head due to whatever limited shared experiences they had together.

After Sirius played dirty by using Tina as a hostage, she defeated Emilia and nearly killed her if not for Regulus Corneas, the Sin Archbishop of Greed, taking Emilia into his arms. He had appeared previously in Season 2 and seemed to be able to undo all damage to him as well as have insane immunity to most direct damage, so he should be a serious threat and a major problem given he intends to make Emilia his 79th wife. And as I have said before, Re:Zero has no filler, so it’s likely that there is a reason he already has 78 wives aside from it being pure greed.