Meili Portroute – Thorough Watch

Re:Zero Episode 75 (Season 4 Episode 9) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on June 5, 2026 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode has so much interesting things to bite into, and I’ll do my best to put forward my best possible theories into this write-up. It opens with amnesiac Subaru venturing out of the tower as he did last episode and is immediately attacked by a sandworm, which before it can eat him, is filled with holes by Shaula and crumbles to pieces. Shaula, however, doesn’t continue her onslaught, which is a surprise given she said in Episode 71 that she’d have to kill Subaru if he were to leave, and I reckon that indicates she’s being attacked by others, which is why she didn’t one-shot Subaru right then and there.

He then sinks into the sand having pleaded to Natsuki Subaru, asking what he should do, and then he sees a bunch of mabeasts, specifically oiran bears, and then the screen flashes to a no signal screen one would see on a TV back in the day, and that is what’s referred to as a blackout. Maybe the younger generation isn’t as likely to know about it, but anyone older than thirty is highly likely to know that this was probably a creative liberty to indicate that he lost consciousness. When he regains consciousness, all those oiran bears are dead, and he has no idea what happened and runs off. After having traversed through the path on the right he originally took in Episode 69, in which he likely took ’cause of him subconsciously remembering Satella, Subaru again passes through three doors and can’t get past a fourth, and as he slams his head against the slab of rock due to having been driven insane by the miasma, he starts glowing, and he has no idea what’s happening, and as he tries to slam his head again, he finds himself teleported back to the entrance of the tower where he’d left.

As for what could be the reason for amnesiac Subaru glowing before teleporting, I see three possibilities:

Beatrice, due to her bond with him, could feel his distress and pain, and in her final moments as she died, she teleported him using the last of strength, hoping he’d have a less painful death.
I suspect the Books of the Dead are based on Echidna’s Authority, and depending on which particular scenario it could be regarding how many Books of the Dead Subaru is and what RBD actually does regarding multiple timelines being created or whether the world itself is re-created, Subaru himself may be a product of Echidna’s Authority, so this may give Echidna some direct control over him, meaning she either planted a spell on him around the time he was born for this specific moment or actively teleported him right at that moment.
Satella, given she is always nearby, likely ’cause she lies within the dark world within the vicinity of his soul, teleported him ’cause she still had more plans for him in guiding him along the future I believe she, Echidna, and Flügel are trying to make a reality.
Flügel himself, or Kenichi, since I believe Flügel was originally Kenichi and Subaru in the same body, may have planted a spell on Subaru specifically to have it be activated at that exact moment.

It’s now night, and he decides that instead of running, he’ll just kill the one who pushed him as he thinks of the everyone he’s met here while eventually their faces are altered as if they were angry at him while he gets crazier and crazier and starts moving up the stairs in a strange way, repeating, “Kill” over and over, before being very eager as he makes his same weird movements after he’s done with the stairs, and he finds Shaula dead with her spine having been ripped out. He concludes it wasn’t Shaula who pushed him, and then thinks Beatrice and Meili would be easy since they’re just kids as he continues searching, saying that Emilia didn’t seem wary of him, making Ram and Foxidna the real threats to him along with Julius, who he hopes is already dead, probably since he knows he can’t take on Julius in a fight. Amnesiac Subaru then finds Ram dead, sprawled over at Rem’s wheelchair, with her spine ripped out much like Shaula’s had been. As he continues his search, he finds Julius dead, having protected Meili, who had also been killed, and he picks up Julius’s broken sword. After that, as he finds the path to Reid on the second floor, he sees a dead Foxidna.

He then comes to the conclusion it’s either Emilia or Beatrice who killed him since he hasn’t found their bodies and stumbles upon Patrasche, who keeps following him before he gets pissed up and stabs her, and she doesn’t even flinch in the slightest. Upon seeing how selfless Patrasche is, he directs his energy to ranting about how everybody is pushing their problems onto him as he very much has his own problems as he begins to start crying. In Season 1 and 2, Subaru had been trying to live up to his daddy’s name due to his inferiority complex toward Kenichi, his dad, and now he’s in the shadow of the previous version of him who everyone thought highly of, whereas they are dismissive of him and don’t include him in their plans. Patrasche then approaches him, and then this huge, thick mass of smoke shoots out and does huge damage to the tower, leading to Patrasche tossing him onto her back as she tries to get him to safety. When it appears as if they’re surrounded, he stops ranting about how he doesn’t want to die, and Patrasche tosses him through the hidden passage leading to the balcony, which I’m guessing she knew was there given how the air would flow differently at that spot. As he sees the tower getting destroyed, he asks himself, “Just what the hell are you?” since he probably sees the previous Subaru as being somewhat akin to a monster if he could handle the situations he finds himself currently in. Someone in Rem’s body then lops his head off, telling him to try to figure it out next time. Now it’s time to drop a theory given it really made no sense how all those oiran bears had been killed as I could see Subaru perhaps defeating one of them if he had his memories, but without them, he wouldn’t be able to take out any of them.

As you can see, someone in Rem’s body killed amnesiac Subaru, but it wasn’t Rem herself. We have seen from Episode 66 (Season 3 Episode 16) that Rui could take the form of somebody she’s erased, so it’s possible that Lye could do that with regards to Rem given he asked for the group to let “us” see our hero in Episode 65, meaning he’s very interested in Subaru.

However, each member of the trio tends to speak as if all of them are speaking instead of individually with each of them doing that at one point (First time for Lye Ep. 26, Roy Ep. 54, Rui Ep. 66). Given all 3 have their own eating style and thoughts, there should be something more to this given Tappei uses speech patterns to indicate relations to other characters.

We’ve seen this with how Roswaal mimicked Hector’s speech pattern for four hundred years ago ’cause he’d been traumatized from his beatdown by him, not ’cause he’d merged with him and how Foxidna speaking momentarily in an Echidna-like cadence in Ep. 67 and also in Break Time Season 4 Ep. 8 shows that she may not just be an artificial spirit but also a soul clone of Echidna’s.

Where I’m going with this is that when Bennett Mossa, August Valen, and Carsiff Finrell were eaten in Ep. 66, they shattered into glass and became like Rem, being in suspended animation. The green-haired person Rui had taken the form of also shattered when she transformed back into Rui, and maybe this is the key to what the three of the trio could possibly share in common.

Maybe everyone who has his/her name + memories erased are gone so that not even the Great Pleiades Library has a Book of the Dead on them since it’s like they never existed. Thus, the memories/true bodies had to go somewhere as if the Gluttony trio can morph into them and use their memories, what consists of their memories and bodies must lie somewhere.

Perhaps it may be a central shared system between the trio that’s not a hive mind created by the Authority of Gluttony, a shared mindscape of a world between the 3, a special pocket dimension for those who’ve had their names and memories eaten, or something I haven’t thought of. I believe the Gluttony Trio must have some way to access them.

So assuming my speculation isn’t entirely off, any of the three could’ve been in Rem’s body when amnesiac Subaru was decapitated. Even if it makes the most sense for it to be Lye Batenkaitos, it may also be Roy Alphard or Rui Arneb with Rui being more likely due to amnesiac Subaru remembering a line from her seiyuu in Episode 74 at around 19:26 in the episode, “Memories are what shape a person.” showing she likely ate Subaru’s memories.

That’d be why whoever was in Rem’s body said, “Try to figure it out next time” to amnesiac Subaru, and whoever it was knows he can Return by Death by either having eaten his memories or having been told of it by Rui. Ultimately, I still expect Subaru to win since I believe Gospels don’t truly tell the future but are meant to keep the world on a particular which would be why Regulus thought he’d meet Emilia again despite it not happening until the 4th loop.

Given Regulus told Subaru to thank him for mauling a chunk of his leg off when he would’ve preferred doing more, and in Eps. 53/54 after the tower bell rung, Sirius shouted she must cease hostilities ’cause they were told to stop and Capella had to move into the government office in, and Foxidna indicated Capella’s blindly following whatever the Gospel says in retreating, this shows there’s a greater plot rather than Gospels telling the holder’s best path to happiness.

This’d also be why Patrasche was unharmed while everyone else killed, and it’s ’cause the Gluttony trio’s Gospels didn’t tell them to kill Patrasche ’cause Echidna, who I believe is the one making the text in the Gospels appear, wanted amnesiac Subaru to trust Patrasche for now and find out about there being an unknown attacker. It’d also be why they were cornered at the hidden passage to the balcony ’cause Satella likely broke out of her Seal, and the black smoke was actually her miasma with her coordinating with Echidna to make that happen since that loop was clearly a disaster with Subaru having opened three doors making it easier for Satella to break out.

Of course, there’s something I believe may be more likely than someone morphing into Rem. Perhaps Rui’s spoken line from amnesiac Subaru’s memories have a second meaning in that if memories are what shape a person then whoever ate that person’s memories has a say in shaping that person’s life, as in those who’ve had their memories eaten can be claimed/possessed by the one who ate their memories. Given there was no trace of Rem’s body among the many corpses even though she was defenseless, one of the Gluttony trio may have possessed her. This’d also explain how Subaru survived in the midst of so many oiran bears, and it’d be ’cause Rui, who likely ate Subaru’s memories, possessed him. We’ve seen with Foxidna that when you possess someone the possessor can use their gate, which is why she can use magic in Anastasia’s body, so Rui possessing Subaru’s body should be able to use mana flow to boost her strength while also tapping into any skills she may need from people she’s eaten.

As for how the Gluttony trio would even be at the tower:

Sirius warned Subaru that the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony are targeting him, meaning they may have followed them to the Pleiades Watchtower, and given Shaula has stopped taking up her sniper role, they were free to directly come to the tower given Subaru walking away not being affected by the distortion meant that Beatrice’s yin magic may have deactivated the distortion and the Sand Time.
I’ve speculated that the second floor where Reid is on another dimension/plane of existence, meaning the Pleiades Tower could be multidimensional. Thus, perhaps there is a room or floor at the Pleiades Watchtower that connects to the space where I believe the memories and the bodies of the people who had both their names and memories eaten lay. Given Rui clearly teleported from somewhere in Season 3 to switch places with Lye, that could’ve been the place she came from. As for why Shaula had never been able to detect them, maybe it wasn’t possible until recently for whatever reason. Maybe it physically required for Subaru to be there, or the exam on the third floor needed to be successfully completed before that could happen.

Back to what’s airing, amnesiac Subaru then wakes up, and his first instinct is to strangle Emilia although he stops after she asks him what’s wrong, and this isn’t surprising given he’d been insane for at least a few hours due to the miasma and had just woken up while thinking that one of the members of the group had killed him due to the events of Ep. 74. Beatrice thinks he’s just asleep and is none the wiser, and he then sees Patrasche and showers her with affection as Beatrice remarks that she’s unhappy about that given she and Emilia are the ones that found him and at least expected praise as the spirit he’s contracted to, but Emilia is fine with it given the bond she knows the two of them have, showing she probably doesn’t see a land dragon as a threat to her relationship with Subaru.

When they’re at the dining table, Emilia asks if he’s sure that he’s feeling all right, probably ’cause she can feel the negative energy he’s giving off negative energy, and she ends the interaction by telling him to tell them if he feels tired, probably ’cause she doesn’t want to overstep and make him admit to something he doesn’t want to. He’s resolved himself to not tell everybody of his amnesia since he wants to see whether it’s connected to why he keeps getting killed. He sees no reason for somebody wanting to kill him ’cause he’d lost his memories, but he can’t rule it out, and Subaru having lost his memories would be a reason for Meili to kill him. He then concludes that although he didn’t find Beatrice’s and Emilia’s bodies, the voice he’d heard didn’t belong to either of them. Ram then asks him to fetch water with her and says that he shouldn’t try and do things on his own given he fell asleep in the archive by himself, showing her worry for him and how despite his best efforts to play it cool, people can tell something’s off. Shaula then greets him, saying she dreamed of the past with herself, him, and mom, who I assume was Daphne given Shaula doesn’t seem human and could very well be a mabeast given Meili’s obsession and disrespect for her, the magic circle seen from her sniping vision, her ability to smell his scent, mabeasts themselves being her main diet, and quite possibly her inability to read social cues given she didn’t sense anything off with him, which is why he decided to trust her.

Julius then walks by with Foxidna, likely to share the news on Foxidna being here in Anastasia’s place, and the look he gives amnesiac Subaru shows he’s still thinking about last night. He has a man-to-man talk with Julius and realizes that Foxidna apparently doesn’t remember Julius, but he doesn’t understand why due to his lack of memories. Through this conversation, Julius also realizes this isn’t the Subaru he knows, which is why he said to himself, “There’s no way to know now, however.” in response to saying that if Subaru had apologized, he himself wouldn’t know how he would’ve responded. Shaula then springs out of a barrel after Julius leaves the storeroom, and when she asks amnesiac Subaru whether he’s okay with leaving it at that, he answers that it’s fine since he realizes that Julius didn’t have anything to do with what happened in the archive, leading to Shaula asking for her promised reward, and although Subaru is reluctant, he eventually yields and gives her her hug. He’s still unsure of what’s go great about Subaru that makes Shaula’s goal of making herself as convenient as possible for him worth it, but Shaula then immediately thinks of going for a kiss after getting her hug, and it makes me think Flügel indeed had something going on with her for Shaula to say that she’d been waiting hundreds of years for him to propose to her.

Back in the dining room, he thinks back to how everybody was treating him differently and believes that Patrasche is the only one he can trust after all and muses about a paradise with just the two of them, which catches Meili’s attention. She says that even if that’s how he really feels, she can’t blame him since she was raised by mabeasts, which he comments on, demonstrating to Meili that he isn’t the Subaru she knows. She reveals that her mom, the one who’d taken her in, is really strict, and Elsa, who she was around all the time, was really lax, so she had tons on her plate when she was working with Elsa, and I guess that explains why Meili’s so mature for her age. When he remarks that she’s making his head hurt even more racking over the details and tells her to play with Shaula, but Meili says that he’s the one she has business with, and she licks her lips in a manner striking similar to how Elsa used to do it before attempting to murder her prey, and after she asks him how seriously she should take what he said yesterday, which could be him saying he’d help her find her parents or something else entirely sometime before Subaru lost his memories and the end of Ep. 73, he again blackouts and finds that Meili is dead, having been strangled after he got the shock out of seeing her on the ground like that after he tried to do CPR on her. He wonders whether he was the one who did it given the condition of his own hands, and then after feeling a sharp pain, rolls up his sleeve and sees that “Natsuki Subaru was here”, and it wasn’t transcribed using Re:Zero’s writing system but actual Japanese, and now it’s time for yet another theory to close this post.

It would be easy to just claim that Rui possessed amnesiac Subaru’s body given his memories were eaten by her, but carving “Natsuki Subaru was here” into his flesh is very much not something Rui would do since Subaru probably didn’t remember writing his name in Japanese in this fantasy world given it wouldn’t have a purpose, and since Rui doesn’t have access to Subaru’s memories from Earth, there has to be an alternate explanation. Thus, given he spoke as if he wasn’t Subaru multiple times this episode, perhaps Subaru dissociated right before Rui ate his memories or even as his memories were being eaten. Given Subaru in Seasons 2, 3, and 4 has emphasized how his goal to save Rem is driving so much of his actions, he likely felt an intense desire that he can’t possibly let Rem down with that being something he cannot accept, and as a defense mechanism, he dissociated to give himself some hope. It is known in real life that people who have powerful emotions about having something or someone they can’t lose may experience dissociation. And given Subaru has been busy forming his own identity separate from his father, that may be an additional factor that could’ve increased his chances of experiencing dissociation. This would also explain why after amnesiac Subaru fell to his death a second time in Ep. 74 he heard a voice very much like his own say, “Who are you?” If he has another self who may have some memories who’s lying underneath the surface, that could explain why he carved “Natsuki Subaru was here” into himself when he was unconscious. If that other self has Subaru’s memories, it may explain why Meili had been strangled, and it’s ’cause Meili had taken on some of Elsa’s mannerisms, much like the licking of her lips before going for a kill, and that’d be why the other self killed Meili, ’cause she was a threat to his life, which he picked up on due to viscerally being reminded of Elsa. I’d say this episode drastically increased the odds of Meili having been the one who pushed Subaru to his death twice. Subaru without his memories is basically the one who killed Meili’s big sister rather than a big brother figure, so it’s not a surprise she wants to kill him right now. I’m guessing the title of the episode “Empty Shell” refers to how amnesiac Subaru is very different to the past version before he’d lost his memories and how pretty much everyone can see it aside from Shaula and perhaps Patrasche.

Suffice to say, I’m really looking forward to seeing how the rest of this season goes. This was quite a whammy of an episode with a lot of content to chew on. As for the link to the relevant Break Time short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exix9t4o490

Re:Zero Episode 74 (Season 4 Episode 8) + Relevant Break Time Ep. Analysis + Important Details

Posted on May 29, 2026 | by anicritic | 2 Comments

The episode opens with Subaru introducing himself to Emilia and Beatrice, which leads right away to a time skip of an indeterminable amount of time, and they’re very surprised that he remembers nothing of what he has experienced recently along with having no recollection of either of them. During that event I mentioned, Subaru came to the realization that he really remembers nothing of his time in this world with his musing about his hand not being in the condition he remembered it was in, and Emilia was at the same time clasping her hands together much like in Season 1 when she figured that Subaru was the one wearing her cloak that made it hard for people to recognize the person wearing it during the battle against Petelgeuse and was praying for his safety, only in this scene she was praying for him to get back his memories partially due to the distress it was causing her. After Subaru told the two to cheer up since everything will probably be okay in two hours much like in similar movies, Emilia says that she has no idea what he’s talking about, but Subaru often did that when he had his memories, which is try to approach things with a good attitude even if others didn’t understand what he was talking about as it cheered her up, leading to her smacking herself on the face since Subaru clearly has it worse than she does, meaning she can’t just mope around either. Beatrice herself is also quite distraught by Subaru not knowing what she meant by contractor given how close they had become and how Subaru told her to choose him in Season 2 ’cause he’d make sure she has so much fun that it’ll be worth it even after he dies given she was suicidal at that point and lonely about how those she knew were all leaving her behind, which is why she said that this better be the last time Subaru has amnesia, or she’ll lose all patience with him, and I believe this is a possible hint that Tappei will not abuse Subaru forgetting his memories as some authors do with making the same person forget his/her memories repeatedly. Subaru then snaps his fingers and requests for Emilia and Beatrice’s names, and Emilia is taken aback since she remembered that that’s exactly how he asked for name in the loot house arc when Elsa was tasked with stealing her insignia, but that melts into a smile since it’s further proof that this he’s still the same person. She replied that she’s Emilia, just Emilia, to harken back to that moment and treat it genuinely as a fresh start with amnesiac Subaru, which is what I’ll be referring to him from now on.

The next scene is when they’re back in at the dining table where they both discuss strategy and have meals, and Ram’s immediate reaction is whether it’s a joke since she’s really relying on Subaru to wake Rem since he’s the one who comes through in a pinch for everybody with his plans and ’cause he’s the only one she believes still remembers her sister, serving as her anchor to her dear sister. When amnesiac Subaru replies whether her nickname for him, “Barusu”, is referring to a spell, it is a callback to Season 1 when Ram first used that nickname to disrespect him, and he remarked about it being a blinding spell/curse due to the pronunciation of the Japanese. Ram obviously didn’t like hearing that since it called back the situation from the mansion, showing her that he may not be joking about his memories, and what hurt even more, which is why her facial expression immediately changes to that of someone who’s pained, is when amnesiac Subaru asked if she’s the sleeping girl’s sister since Subaru is the one she knew as the one lone connection to her sister that had remained, probably not even including herself since she personally has no memories of Rem. And when he makes his comment about saving her complaints for when his memory comes back, which is in the spirit of something Subaru would’ve said in the past, she said that that makes it hard for her to believe he’s actually lost his memory since she desperately hopes that he remembers Rem and wants for it to be the case with all her heart given he’s still acting like the Subaru she knows. Of course, he continued to be oblivious to who Meili and Shaula were given he’d lost his memories, and this changes Foxidna’s and Julius’s plan to reveal that she’s an artificial spirit right away since Julius is horrified by this latest development since his last interaction with Subaru was speaking to him in anger, and to his knowledge, Subaru was the only one who remembered him although I believe Foxidna also does but just isn’t revealing that, which is horrible for Julius given his current struggles with his identity.

Then Ram asks Emilia if she can borrow amnesiac Subaru, and he says that he’s fine when Emilia protests, calling her Emilia-chan, which upsets Emilia as her expression clearly gives way to her becoming crestfallen since the Subaru she knows would use Emilia-tan. He does notice Emilia’s discomfort, but he doesn’t understand what could’ve brought about that change in expression. Ram then openly confronts him on their fake water-hauling run, which is a pretext to grill him due to her being desperate and wanting to convince herself that this is an act from him even though he truly presents as having lost his memories. Her suggesting that it’s nothing new for him to shoulder something everything alone is her desperately trying to convince herself that’s what he’s doing since she’s having difficulty keeping it together. When she suggests to him that he tell her everything, promising that she’ll keep it a secret, his reply that having a secret between the two of them has a nice ring to it being followed by a “but” seriously pisses her off due to the change in expression on her face ’cause more and more, he’s confirming that Rem has lost her most powerful ally. Ram using physical force and her eyes narrowing in anger show just hard this is on her, which is why she starts pleading to Subaru to reveal everything ’cause if he has forgotten too then Rem will truly have nobody. It’s a very sombre cry for help due to how powerless Rem feels in this situation with having lost her pseudo-brother-in-law who was her sister’s biggest champion. Subaru replies by telling her, “Sorry”, in a manner that suggests he’d like to do as she says since he himself realizes just how much Ram is struggling.

When they’re back in the dining room, Julius introduces himself once again saying that he and Subaru were something akin to friends, and when Subaru asks why he sounded so unsure about that, Emilia replies that he and Julius are really close, and I’m guessing Julius sounding so unsure about their former relationship is ’cause Subaru harboured some residual resentment from since the time Julius emasculated him at the Royal Selection and had never really let it go except maybe until recently when he’d seen that Julius had similar issues to what he did and that they are at least somewhat alike. Meili then puts it out there that that’s the least of Julius’s problems since Foxidna had dropped her Anastasia act since this morning and many among the group had already picked up on her being somebody else. Foxidna then reveals that had hoped to build a similar relationship with Anastasia as the one Beatrice and Subaru had and the true situation of how things are concerning Anastasia. When Emilia hears that her name’s Echidna, she has a strong negative reaction, much like Subaru did, and Foxidna says that she’s a completely different person, which I suspect is false given even in the Re:Zero Break Time Season 4 Episode 8 short, Foxidna is speaking similarly to Echidna, much like she did in Episode 67, suggesting she may very well be a soul clone of Echidna’s who also doubles as an artificial spirit,. Emilia then says that she’ll need to give Echidna a piece of her mind next time with Foxidna replying that she’d give Emilia her full support in doing so ’cause she keeps getting slandered due to the association between their names, and the reason from the short is supposedly that Foxidna was destined to die due to people hunting her ’cause of her name, but I’m convinced Foxidna completely planned out her meeting with Anastasia with her Tome of Wisdom specifically so that she wouldn’t die even if she grew to become fond of Anastasia in time. As for the link to the short, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yc4z2iYkKE

Amnesiac Subaru then changes the subject, bringing up that they’re all here to help people, and Ram rudely interjects that now they’re here and working through the tower that Subaru has gone and forgotten what little memory he had of his time in this world while Anastasia’s consciousness isn’t available at all. When he brings up that there’s no good news at all and seems down, Emilia says that they shouldn’t mope around as it won’t get them anywhere, which was something Subaru taught her, leading to him perking up and saying that they should look on the bright side since he’s free from the logic of this world and may be able to cook up some fresh ideas that resolve the situation, turning a crisis into an opportunity, which Beatrice remarks is very much a Subaru-ism. That also freshly reassured Emilia that he’s still Subaru given she’d been shaken earlier when he’d called her Emilia-chan. Julius himself also seems to feel better upon hearing that, saying that amnesiac Subaru’s loss of memories hasn’t affected his inability to differentiate between bravery and recklessness, which is the sort of thing he’d say to Subaru. When he broaches the subject of Subaru’s amnesia, Emilia and Beatrice note that they found him lying on the ground unconscious in the library, and that’s when they carried him to the green room where he was lying down at the end of Episode 73 and the beginning of this episode. Foxidna believes that the library’s likely the problem given all the Books of the Dead with the group explaining what they are to the amnesiac. They’re not ruling out that it’s one of those books that messed up Subaru’s memories and believe it’s worth investigating, but the group decides that amnesiac Subaru won’t investigate with them, and he curses himself for giving into peer pressure as he walks aimlessly before deciding to say, “Status Open!” hoping he’d find a game screen like many of the isekai stories he’s read and seen have, only to be completely disappointed, confirming Beatrice’s words to him that since he destroyed his gate using beginner magic he can never use magic again. He also whips himself when he thinks of the remaining tool he has at his fingertips, failing so hard that he wondered why he didn’t make a diary for if something like this happens, which we know that Otto (From the Season 2 Break Time shorts) and Julius (from a Season 4 Break Time short) are doing by documenting things of importance to them. He then gets himself together, thinking that in this world, even someone like him can do it, as in do great things, due to his belief that he’s an isekai hero even if didn’t really do anything when he was still on Earth. He then spots a really long staircase and thinks it may go on forever and is pushed off and dies headfirst.

When he awakes, amnesiac Subaru is confused about what happened and believes he may have had a prophetic dream since Emilia and Beatrice act similarly to before, and he explained everything like he did before only omitting that he believes he has the power of prophetic dreams. Then the interactions with all the rest are mostly the same aside from Shaula running back to him, saying that he has a scary look on his face when the group had again decided on leaving him, snuggling up him to him really hard before Meili pulls her scorpion tail since she doesn’t want Ram and Beatrice getting mad at her, which Shaula is very hurt by, leading her to suggest that he tell Meili off and him thanking Meili instead since he doesn’t really know Shaula and doesn’t want her clinging to him, and that deeply saddens Shaula, resulting in her slamming the door as tears flow from her eyes. I really feel for Shaula given the visual and symbolic allusion to the Titan Atlas in Episode 70 and then her remarks in Episode 73 that pointed to loneliness that one might say is as deep as the Mariana Trench. This leads to Meili to say that he really doesn’t remember anything given he’d tasked her with handling Shaula and his surprise of having thanked an assassin, and Subaru talks about how he may have made an important promise and forgot the next day, showing that his past self was careless, which Meili readily agrees with given even she isn’t happy with amnesiac Subaru either given her earlier remarks about him being hopeless in the first loop after having lost his memories given the reason she’s even at the Pleiades Watchtower is ’cause of her wanting to help him due to the good relationship they had since they had a big brother-little sister dynamic, somewhat similar to Meili’s sisterly relationship with Elsa which was depicted in the Break Time Season 2 shorts.

The next scene after that has amnesiac Subaru observe the staircase where he fell, and he looks back to see if he’s about to get pushed since he remembered being pushed and feels reassured that there was nobody there. Then with oddly precise timing, he walks by to overhear Foxidna saying it might be dangerous to have him accompany them, which I find highly suspect as if she guided the conversation in that way so that he’d hear that right during the moment he did with her Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom, which I still suspect she has. The whole group aside from Emilia and Beatrice are against having Subaru aid them given he may be very unreliable and even a liability due to his lack of memories, although Ram is at least quite concerned for his safety given she mentioned it and wouldn’t have if the thought hadn’t come to mind, and the only one part of the group without any lines during that scene was Meili, either due to her not being there or due to the others not counting her as part of the group.

Subaru is of course distressed in hearing that and ran back to where the large staircase was, and as he becomes despondent about whether the group will even believe him about the prophetic dream given his lack of credibility, someone shorter than him pushes him down again as he falls while remembering things that had been said regarding the group’s lack of trust in him, how he’s still Subaru, and one line which I believe was huge foreshadowing.

Around 19:26 of Episode 74, Subaru heard Rui’s words, which shows he remembered her words as he fell, showing Rui may have eaten his memories. After she ate them, she likely said what she did either immediately after eating them, as she was carrying him to the library, or after she had dropped him off at the Great Pleiades Library. Subaru may have heard something while he was in between unconsciousness and being awake, which is the N1 light sleep phase when she said what she did. She could have knocked him out and then carried him to the library. She likely carried him to the libary to provide cover for herself, which if she did, worked very well since the group appears to believe that Subaru’s amnesia is due to a Book of the Dead. Given Shaula’s no longer sniping due to her orders, that should’ve opened the door for others to come to the Pleiades Watchtower.

Why amnesiac Subaru would remember this as he’s dying is that when someone is dying, the brain can trigger a surge of gamma brain waves associated with long-term memory retrieval, which is responsible for the life flashing before your eyes phenomenon, so Subaru may have remembered that specifically ’cause he was dying and otherwise wouldn’t have. Given Subaru’s identity issues and his fear of abandonment that had been revealed in Episode 7, reinforced in Episode 13, and shone a light on in Episode 29 as well as his hearing of “Who are you?” which very much appears to be his own voice after he awoke from his second death, that may be why that memory of Rui’s words surfaced since it was highly relevant to what he’s going through with regards to his identity crisis.

He then panics upon looping, and after Emila pats him on the back in an effort to comfort him, he remembers being pushed off the ledge, and that’s what led to him freaking out and shoving Beatrice to the ground, causing him to run straight to Reid on the second floor, which possibly was ’cause of his subconscious memories of Reid hinted at in Episode 70 given he lacks any memories of the group he’s with, possibly suggesting that Reid was a friend of his four hundred years ago, and if Subaru was indeed half of Flügel as I speculate, it’d make sense given Flügel, Reid, and Volcanica travelled together in the past. Upon reaching Reid, who was standing close to the stairway, Reid mocks him in saying what he’s doing here so early and asks amnesiac Subaru whether he had a fight with his friends since he’s crying and saying that he shouldn’t have ran, especially not to him, puncturing his body in the process. Anyway, I find it suspicious that Reid was hanging by the stairwell given the two others times people came through it he was quite a ways off from it, perhaps implying that he was waiting for amnesiac Subaru in that very moment.

While Reid saying that Subaru came too early may imply he’s aware of the passage of time, in all the instances Reid had screen time, there was zero indication of where the sun was shining, and given how heavily Re:Zero focuses on details and how I’d previously speculated that the huge field Reid is in another dimension entirely, Reid shouldn’t be able to perceive how much time had passed as getting exposure to sunlight is important in ensuring one has a normal circadian rhythm, and this space possibly has no sunlight but merely mimics daytime conditions, so even this Reid who apparently only remembers having swung a sword for three months may be on the same side as Satella, Echidna, and Flügel and is acting with future knowledge from Echidna through a soul link, contract, or oath with the assistance of her Tome of Wisdom. More to potentially back this up is that Reid basically said that amnesiac Subaru shouldn’t have ran and instead hashed things out with his people, which is useful advice for someone who’s supposed to be an enemy. Thus, Reid may have told amnesiac Subaru that he’s early ’cause he knew that the poor guy wasn’t really ready to face him. Yes, Reid’s the type who likes to bully the weak as Shaula had said, but I suspect there was more to this interaction than what was on the surface.

Reid then pushes him down the staircase, and amnesiac Subaru is writhing in pain as he remembers having been with his parents not that long ago before being summoned and not having washed his dirty cup after his meal with his mom not complaining about that, ruing how she should’ve replied to her “Take care” and how he never paid his parents back, both of which were callbacks to Episode 29, Parent and Child. He then hears laughing, whether it be internal or external, who knows? And now it’s time for a detour as I go into who I believe are the most likely suspects for having pushed him down the ledge, and I promise I will segue back into what comes next as I discuss the options.

As for who are the suspects for having pushed Subaru off the ledge, the only people in my opinion who would push Subaru are people I believe who have future knowledge, supposed future knowledge, or are interested in whether there is more for Subaru after death, of which only apply to Lye Batenkaitos, Roy Alphard, and Rui Arneb, the three Sin Archbishops of Gluttony, Foxidna, and Meili.

Given Season 3 revealed that Witch Cult Gospels don’t actually truly tell the future but are meant to keep the world on a particular path, which is why Regulus thought that he’d meet Emilia again in Episode 51 despite it not happening until the fourth loop, showing what was depicted in his Gospel was meant to make the Sin Archbishops act the way they did in the fourth loop when Subaru had a successful run until the end. This is backed by Regulus telling Subaru in Episode 53 to be grateful to him that he adhered to his Gospel in only shredding much of his leg off since he’d have preferred a massacre. Sirius and Capella also backed this up in Episodes 53 and 55 respectively when they were listening to the toll of the clock tower to either cease their hostilities or change their plans. Additionally, Episode 65 had Foxidna point out that Capella does whatever her Gospel says, and that’s why she was retreating, suggesting that some other force is what is causing the text in the Witch Cult Gospels to appear, indicating they are meant to keep the world on a specific path. Given Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom didn’t include Otto in it, I posit that this is also the case for that text as well, and it was also meant to keep the world on a particular path rather than be a true future-telling text.

And given the prototypes of the Witch Cult Gospels is Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom, they may be partially made of the same materials, such as Echidna’s fingernails, toenails, hair, body hair, dead skin, or body fluids, and if they are indeed partially constructed by such materials, the Witch Cult Gospels and Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom could be connected to Echidna’s mind through magic, and she’s the one who makes the text in the Gospels appear, meaning Echidna may be stealthily manipulating the Witch Cult through her Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom with the Witch Cult being created four hundred years ago so that it could eventually be used to give Subaru and others character development and achievements.

Where I’m going with this is that if any of Lye’s, Roy’s, or Rui’s Gospel told each of them to push Subaru, he/she would do it to adhere to his/her Gospel, no questions asked, even if the whole point was to ensure Subaru learns about Return by Death. Even though the footsteps of the one who pushed Subaru indicated that person was wearing shoes, and the Gluttony trio’s known to go barefoot, Rui in Season 3 transformed into somebody she had previously eaten, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that the other two can as well.

The one thing that makes Rui more likely to have pushed Subaru than the others is that this episode hinted that she was the one who ate his memories given Subaru remembered while he was falling the second time that Rui speaking about how precious one’s memories are right before he remembered Emilia saying that Subaru’s still Subaru. And given Satella emerged to slow down his Subaru’s heart after he was punctured by Reid when he was talking about specifics regarding Return by Death in that he’ll die and return, it means that the Taboo had been triggered, and there was an enemy observing him, which was likely one of the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony, and that’s why the time stop happened to get Subaru to calm down and not talk about dying, which would otherwise risk an enemy figuring out Return by Death.

And given what I’ve brought up about Foxidna across most of my write-ups this season, I’m not going to rehash it but only talk about new content. Foxidna bringing up the danger of having Subaru accompany them right as he walks by is incredibly suspicious, and if she timed the conversation with the Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom, it’d make a lot of sense. She said that just in the nick of time to make Subaru hear what would distress him the most, leading him to think that one of the members of the group pushed him when it could’ve been a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, which may be intentional to bring Subaru to a new low this season. Suffice to say, if I’m right about all Echidna soul clones having the Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom, she could’ve had a vested interest in pushing Subaru to force him to learn about Return by Death as I believe Echidna both in the past and now is collaborating with Satella, which is how Satella knows which moments should be Subaru’s savepoints in which there is zero chance he’ll get trapped in a death loop.

As for why Meili’s a suspect, she said in Episode 71 that she’s wondering what would happen if Subaru were to drop dead right then and there regarding whether a Book of the Dead would appear as that’s what piques her interest. Why this is relevant is that in one of the companion shorts to Season 2, Elsa shared with Meili that she dislikes the look in Subaru’s eyes ’cause they indicate that he believes that death isn’t the end for him, and Elsa may have mused about this in the past in between the mansion arc and Season 2 or even between the start of Season 2 and when their assassination duties began in Season 2 given Elsa even protected Meili in that season, showing that Meili might’ve been the only one on this earth Elsa considered a friend.

Alternatively, Meili could’ve figured it out herself due to being a seasoned assassin and observing Subaru after he’d looped in Season 4, showing some great astuteness despite her young age, and given she showed much more maturity compared to most of the cast in Season 4, it wouldn’t be a shock for her to have arrived at that conclusion. And what Meili also has going for her is that she was the only one who’s part of the group without any lines during that scene in which the group was questioning whether to take amnesiac Subaru with them, either due to her not being there or due to the others not counting her as part of the group, and I lean toward the former although I don’t rule out the latter. Additionally, Meili may hold it against Subaru for killing Elsa, and now that she’s lost her ‘big brother’ due to his amnesia, her good relationship with him no longer applies, especially given Meili only came to the Pleiades Watchtower in the first place ’cause of Subaru and only has weak ties to the rest of the group.

As for who I think are the most likely suspects to have pushed amnesiac Subaru out of the five I mentioned, I’d say it’s the three female characters I listed with my leanings being Rui first, Meili next, and Foxidna last given Rui would have the speed to creep up on him, and we knew that one of the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony was likely observing him, given Meili didn’t have a line when the group was discussing him and since the sound of the footsteps of the one who pushed Subaru best matches Meili’s from earlier in the episode when she walked out after Shaula slammed the door on her way out as she was bawling her eyes out due to his not being open to sharing with her what burdened him as well as what I’d previously mentioned, and given Foxidna may have timed the conversation on Subaru for maximum impact, but since she’d been in that room in which they were discussing him, it would’ve been very difficult for her to catch up to Subaru without mana flow, which we saw multiple people, such as Gaston and Garfiel, use during Season 3.

Back to the chronological order of events, Emilia then appears and brings amnesiac Subaru back to the green room with him looking as if he’s living his own personal hell. Ram outright says that she feels sorry for Rem given Subaru was the only one she believed to remember her, showing she’s devastated for her sister given she approved of the relationship between Subaru and Rem and ’cause Subaru was her hope for restoring Rem, and Beatrice swears that she’ll figure something out as they won’t leave him to suffer alone, probably indicating that they’ll do yet another search of the library. Subaru then walks down the stairs after the group has left him and calls his ability Return by Death, swearing he won’t allow the group to kill him again, which is why he leaves the tower, triggering Shaula losing her mind and becoming a mindless killing machine that she stated would happen in Episode 71. I don’t believe that he didn’t know the rules of the tower as there were multiple scenes in this episode that involved a time skip of some indeterminate number of minutes or hours, and Subaru even mentioned at one point that he was looking forward to turning a crisis into opportunity, implying that he does know about the group being trapped in the tower, so Subaru was just so paranoid that someone among the group had been killing him that he chose to leave willingly rather than being pushed off the ledge again.

I found this episode to be outstanding given the directing, the character work involving so much of the cast, including Ram, Subaru, Emilia, Meili, Beatrice, and Julius, the sound direction as Subaru fell to his death the second time, the attention to details, and the potentially powerful foreshadowing in it, all of which are what made me fall in love with Re:Zero to begin with. In my book, this is clearly the best episode of the season so far, and I can’t wait to watch the rest of it. While I can see why people might claim that the group leaving Subaru on his own is bad writing, I believe that a significant amount of time had passed in between him having passed out and getting people back up to speed, so the individual members probably spent quite some time with him, and given how horrible he looked, they probably didn’t expect that he’d actually leave the tower given what they were told about Shaula becoming a mindless killing machine.

Re:Zero Episode 73 (Season 4 Episode 7) – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on May 22, 2026 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This write-up will be a lot shorter than what I usually put out, but I’ll be drawing upon what I have previously posted for reference. There was one huge thing from a story perspective that I’ll stress to readers, and I’ll make it clear what I’m referring to.

The episode starts with Emilia and Subaru basically telling Julius to take it easy, and after Emilia tells Julius that he’s one of them, meaning he can trouble them as much as he likes, he finds comfort and reassurance in that since he’s currently struggling with his identity after having been forgotten by the world, leading to him saying that he’d rest up as they intend for him to do. His remarking about being surrounded by lovely maidens is also true to his knightly self, so Subaru could tell that Julius had perked up a little.

At the group’s meet-up room for talking strategy, Ram puts it out there that she’d never though that Julius would act in the manner that he did last episode in challenging Reid, and Subaru basically said that it was like a man getting measles, which I believe isn’t meant to downplay the seriousness of measles as a viral infection but to showcase that it can be easy for men to act out when they have self-worth issues, showing that Subaru was drawing a comparison to Julius’s actions in Episode 72 to his own in the past and reinforcing my analysis for that episode. Nonetheless. Ram’s very worried that Julius’s actions could have meant failure of them all if Julius had died since Reid intended for seven people to pass, and Julius dying could mean someone else might have to challenge him twice to pass to also pass for a placeholder spot that Julius had even if were no longer of this earth. She put it out there that not even Shaula, who she calls a sham of a Sage, would be able to help them out if Reid were to rogue, and of course Shaula said that she was never the Sage in the first place and that she only has eyes for her master, which is why she looks at Subaru with such passion and spark in her eyes. Subaru then tells Ram that she should take it as a win since Julius’s mistake wasn’t fatal, and of course in Ram’s typical snarky fashion, she says that she just doesn’t want anyone getting in her way, implying all she’s here to do is save Rem.

Meili then calms the group down and its members start talking about how they can pass Reid’s exam. Ram notes that Emilia passed ’cause she drew concessions from him while fulfilling the new conditions she laid out which he agreed to. Thus, she concluded that the conditions for passing the exam aren’t uniform but whimsy. Shaula then interjects that Subaru should take as along as he likes no matter how many days, months, years, or centuries it takes since she’s been waiting for him for hundreds of years and hopes they have some fun with her before they leave, showing how lonely she has been these last four hundred years, backing up my analysis on her carrying Patrasche over her head with both arms raised being both a visual and symbolic allusion to the Titan Atlas carrying the celestial sphere as his punishment, which is how she forgot that Reid had died of old age, and Subaru saw her loneliness given the animation from his eyes showed that he was emphasizing with her. Then Subaru’s stomach indicates that it’s time for food.

Dinner is prepared by Ram and Emilia, who notes that they need to bring Julius some too, and Subaru tells Beatrice to not be shy about holding his hand given the relationship between a spirit and her contractor is special, and given it seems from Season 3 and 4 that the only reason Beatrice could use Al Shamak on such a wide area to remove the Great Rabbit from this dimension in Season 2 was that she had collected a ton of mana over four hundred years from the mansion residents and mansion visitors, which is why she needed large magic crystals in Season 3 to cast big spells and why when Subaru asked if Beatrice was ready in Episode 68 she replied by saying that the problem would be if he runs out of juice, showing that Beatrice’s ability to restore her own mana seems to be impaired, but of course Beatrice and Subaru are still really close regardless of Subaru replenishing her mana, and it’s cute to see Subaru tease her, especially since Beatrice was suicidal before forming a contract with him. Shaula of course has no table manners and just wolfed everything down, saying that she usually eats mabeasts and stuff, noting that she didn’t think she was particular, but the food is truly exceptional to her, to the point she said that’d even become Emilia’s apprentice so that she could make food this delicious to please Subaru since that’d be the way to his heart, and she finished that by saying that she hoped that her master would say, “I’m not letting you sleep tonight.” showing that she and Flügel may have had a sexual relationship and that Flügel might have been the type to sleep around given if Subaru was part of Flügel as I believe, he could’ve been Satella’s lover four hundred years ago given Subaru’s implied dormant memories of Satella from Episodes 18, 25, and 38,

As they get ready to prepare for sleep, Subaru again jokes about Beatrice never growing up meaning she’ll always be cute like he’d done earlier at dinner, and Beatrice and Emilia head to sleep. He then goes to the healing/green room, and Julius suggests that he’ll leave to give Subaru some time with Rem, who has surely longed for night to come. Subaru of course is uncomfortable with Julius leaving Anastasia’s side since she means so much to him, and he asks him if he’s sure with Julius replying that he’s not sure what’s the first thing he should say to her when she wakes up, and Subaru replies in typical Subaru fashion that he should just tell her he’s glad she’s awake and be focused on what her response to that should be, leading to Julius saying that he envies Subaru for being able to think so freely, ’cause no doubt many things are going through his mind, and he of course leaves the room to reflect on his thoughts.

And then it turns out Subaru fell asleep for an indeterminable amount of time, and he follows a bird that leads him to a hidden passage that leads to a balcony where Foxidna is with a whole flock of birds. After a bit of small talk, Subaru cuts to the case and asks her why she snuck out of her room in the middle of the night, slip through a secret passage nobody knows about, and hang out with some weird birds in the night breeze, and she just brushes Subaru off as her having followed a bird to this spot much like he did, and they are apparently the same birds that led the group through the sand time when Ram used her Clairvoyance to borrow their vision.

Around 10:58-10:59 of Episode 73, Foxidna’s smile transitioned into a look of surprise/shock as if she detected something very particular, such as a hint of mana from somebody else or detecting somebody’s else presence outright. Given Beatrice is reliant on Subaru’s mana, touching Beako can probably result in you detecting Subaru’s mana (since draining mana allows you to determine whether someone is an enemy, touching someone probably does at least what I stated) and realizing the connection the two of them have, and Foxidna may have detected an unseen force spying through the birds or at least that one bird since she stroked that bird’s chin.

Subaru has also an unreliable narrator on multiple occasions, such as believing that Julius beat him at full strength, believing that Crusch was a heartless person for being unwilling to help Emilia, and counting his chickens before his eggs hatched in thinking he’d get a perfect victory in the first loop after the White Whale fight, and given viewers are getting direct images of what the birds are seeing, it would be very fitting if this is another case of that, meaning somebody else is also observing them.

I’ve noted the possible importance of birds before in my post here with the one very tiny bird and the outline of a bird embedded in the wall if you look at it from a particular angle: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=179 And I encourage anyone who has read my theories to refresh themselves on the content.

Birds were present during Subaru’s summoning, the moment preceding the From Zero Moment in Episode 18, and at two points in Episode 57 when Emilia was held captive by Regulus before those birds flew to the location of a fight:

So there’s likely to be an unseen force observing Subaru since he was summoned through the birds in addition to Satella, who we know is always watching Subaru and also Echidna, who I believe has been observing Subaru as long as Satella has.

Foxidna then put it out there that Anastasia couldn’t find any background on Subaru until he was involved in an incident at the capital, likely referring to when he retrieved Emilia’s insignia which was surprising given her extensive connections, which was frustrating for her. She then motions as if she’s afraid of Subaru ’cause of his origins, but I believe it’s a ruse to make the future the characters from four hundred years ago want to come true a reality. She needles him on his relationship to Shaula and whether it was a coincidence that he solved the exam from the third floor so easily, and Subaru replies with what he has always said. She also states that she’s afraid to accept it at face value that Subaru knows nothing about these birds, and then Subaru says that it’s his turn to ask questions.

He then asks how is Anastasia, and Foxidna said that things are still unchanged from before and that she’s unable to give Anastasia her body back even though she’s eating away at her life, which prompts Subaru to ask how Anastasia will even be the ruler if her body’s such a mess, and Foxidna said that Anastasia has a reason she cannot give up the throne even after Subaru brings up Anastasia having to give up the throne almost as soon as she gets it.

Julius is then led to that balcony with a bird and demands answers, even willing to point his sword at Foxidna, resulting in her getting him back up to speed, and I believe Foxidna pretending that she’s still Anastasia before fessing up was meant as a continuation of what she did in Episode 72 in the Break Time short, which was to make Julius feel isolated. I was wrong that Julius knew that Foxidna had taken Anastasia’s place, and I chalk it up to the bad translation from Crunchyroll in Season 3, so I’ll rewatch the relevant episode with Muse Asia’s subs, which although may not always have the best English, tend to be way more accurate than Crunchyroll’s. Foxidna reveals that she told the truth to Subaru ’cause she saw through his act with Julius feeling shame that he wasn’t able to as her first knight, and I believe she fully intended for Julius to hear this to bring him down some more to develop his character. Subaru wanted to say that the reason he knew was only a coincidence, and that’d be ’cause of when Foxidna indicated that she thought Reinhard and Felix were more than just friends, which he believed that nobody aside from him should know, so yeah, it’s not something Julius could ever know. Subaru tells Julius to drop that first knight stuff, but Julius, who’s having an identity crisis due to people having forgotten him, of course says that he’s afraid of losing anything of his right now, which backs up my read from Episode 72 that Anastastia was trying to force Julius to feel isolated and insecure.

Echidna states that her goal upon being prompted is to return Anastasia’s body to her and that this is a situation she didn’t want, but I’m not convinced of that and believe she’s deliberately guiding Subaru and Julius to a particular future that Satella, Echidna, Flügel, and perhaps others are working towards bringing about. Julius seems satisfied with Foxidna’s answer when she says that her spamming Jiwald on the second floor was ’cause she didn’t know whether Reid had lethal intent, meaning she couldn’t allow for them to lose a valuable asset in Julius, and given Julius’s insecurities at that moment, appealing to his ego worked very well, and he accepts it almost immediately even though Subaru questions whether that’s sound judgement. Julius then says that it’s their problem and that Subaru need not worry about this with Subaru protesting that whatever he chooses to worry about is his business, leading to Julius justly saying that in doing so, Subaru’s shielding him from facing his problems, much like when he stayed quiet about Anastasia and Foxidna, which he said with anger. Julius apologized of course, but I believe Foxidna and the unseen force may have both intended for this to happen with a worsening of relations between Subaru and Julius. Julius then motions for he and Anastasia to head back inside and make preparations on how to explain this to everybody else tomorrow, leading to Subaru asking Julius if he had something to say him, and Julius responds that he knows what Subaru is thinking and why he hid the truth from him and that it was out of consideration for him and that if their positions were reversed he likely would’ve done the same, but even so, he doesn’t want to be seen as unfit to be a knight, which backs up my analysis of Episode 72 perfectly.

After Subaru has gone back inside, he runs into Ram, who mentions that she considered heading up to battle Reid but turned back halfway there. She catches on to Subaru seeming miserable, and she asks astutely whether it had to do with getting into a fight with Julius with her saying that it’s a mix of Subaru being too easy to read her being too intelligent when Subaru says something out of embarrassment. On the surface, one may think that Ram used her Clairvoyance to see through the birds, but these birds have been around since the beginning of the story, so it shouldn’t be her. Subaru says that he intends to sort it out tomorrow, which Ram says is a very vague and evasive answer. Subaru wishes “Big Sis” good night, and of course, Ram replies that she’s not his sister even though she basically already treats him as a brother-in-law and accepts what he feels for Rem. Subaru then thinks it’s awkward to go to the green room where Julius and Foxidna are and decides to think of a plan to take out Reid, and then he sees a stairway leading upwards that he may have never seen before, leading to him most likely thinking that he could cheat by avoiding the exams to get to the top of the tower even though Shaula said that that’s not acceptable, and Subaru wakes up in the green room the next day with no memories of his time in the fantasy world, leading to him thinking he’d been summoned for the first time. I suspect that the Authority of Gluttony erases memories from the world you’re currently in, which is why Subaru’s memories of Earth have been retained with Subaru’s memories of Earth likely being erased if his memories had been eaten on Earth.

As for the possibilities for why Subaru has no memories, I can think of two:

Subaru’s memories were eaten by a Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, and given the three of them were seen in the OP, it’s the most obvious possibility. Shaula has not been sniping from a distance since Subaru’s group arrived to the tower, so others may have beelined to the tower without worrying about getting sniped by her.
There’s something in the Pleiades Watchtower itself that can cause one to lose his/her memories. Given Shaula had said, “Again?” in reply to her master having lost many memories, Flügel himself had an ordeal in which he lost his memories. Given the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony are in the OP, I believe the first possibility is more likely.

In the Re:Zero Break Time Season 4 Episode 7 short, Subaru informs Julius when they hadn’t yet arrived at the town near the Auguria Dunes about how things are awkward for Anastasia since he’s overcompensating by being even more knightly/courtly. He suggests to Julius to tone it down in case stacking blocks upon a new foundation makes it collapse, but Julius doesn’t want to abandon his previous relationships and wants to preserve them, and when he asks Subaru whether that’s greedy, Subaru relents and tells him he shouldn’t listen to somebody who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, encouraging him to stick to what he’s doing as long as he minds his distance with Anastasia, leading to Julius thanking Subaru with all his heart ’cause even he saw the awkwardness himself and would’ve been at a loss about what to do. This concluded with Julius stating he was writing about this moment to remember it for all time, and he said that Subaru actually features in his journal a lot with Subaru saying that he better not be saying nasty things about him ’cause he doesn’t realize just how much Julius respects him. It goes to show that Foxidna was deliberately setting up Subaru and Julius to get closer while making him insecure about his position as her knight. The link to the short is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br0FPRIyzb8

Re:Zero Episode 72 (Season 4 Episode 6) – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on May 15, 2026 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

I’m just going to let readers know ahead of time that this write-up will be different than most of what I’ve done before since the bulk of the episode is dedicated to one character, so it’s only fitting the crux of my post is a complete character analysis of Julius across four seasons. Any other miscellaneous points will be dumped at the end of the post. I love when previous episodes properly build up to something, which is why Episode 29, Parent and Child, is still my favourite episode of the series since it used the build-up from Episodes 7 and 13 to outright confirm just what the entirety of Subaru’s issues of self-worth involved, and this episode was similarly a long time coming with all of the foreshadowing.

What I realized after this episode after seeing the brief flashback with child Reinhard and child Julius is that Julius’s mantle of being the most knightly of knights is a mask he puts on due to feeling inferior to Reinhard, which is why this episode flashed back to child Reinhard easily defeating Julius’s swordplay instructor. This is also why Julius insisted on being called Juli when he and Subaru met again, both ’cause he subconsciously wanted a break from being Julius the most knightly of knights due to having had to do things he detested as a knight in beating Subaru even though he wouldn’t like to have if the circumstances had been different and not speaking out about so many people smearing Emilia during the initiation of the Royal Selection, not just ’cause it was unbecoming of a knight to take on the role of a mercenary, and ’cause he may have thought Subaru would react better to him if he did that even though Subaru ultimately didn’t at the time since he found it to be annoying roleplaying.

This is why Julius said in Season 3 that he was extremely angry at what Heinkel did and wished he could have done what Subaru did, which was yell at Heinkel since everybody was mad at that bumbling oaf but didn’t dare say anything ’cause of Heinkel’s rank as he saw proper decorum as being a liability in that moment with Subaru’s outburst allowing everybody to stay calm. This is why Julius kind of saw the light when Subaru told him to be Juli more since the mask he puts on is very much a burden to him with him realizing how much brighter the light out is when he first decided to be Juli ’cause Subaru was right about how having more flexibility would help him out in more situations rather than being so rigid with closing off his heart.

People who are less discerning when consuming media or have a very rigid worldview saw Episode 51 (Season 3 Episode 1) of Re:Zero as lowering Re:Zero to that of being like standard isekai slop, which is straight up incorrect, and I will call it as I see fit. Julius himself said that sometimes Subaru’s imprudence is useful on certain occasions, showing he understands the ugliness of Subaru’s actions, but nonetheless, he saw Heinkel turning what was an otherwise orderly gathering between people who respected each other with a reconciliation between Wilhelm and Reinhard being near given they were acting at least somewhat warmly to each other for possibly the first time since Theresia, his mother, had died, into a dumpster fire was disgraceful, and that’s why Julius thanked Subaru for his righteous indignation, not ’cause he was trying to put out there that every time Subaru has an outburst that it’s a good thing, but basic media literacy is dying off quickly in this day and age, partially due to kids and adults alike being glued to slop from their phones, resulting people in being unable to remember things said on screen a few minutes ago due to acting mostly on emotion and wanting immediate gratification.

Julius saw some of himself in Subaru in Episode 13, only Subaru chose a different path than he did, and even if he recognizes that what Subaru did was quite ugly and doesn’t condone all of what he did, which is why he took multiple shots at Subaru’s behaviour, saying that it can reflect badly on those around him, some people, such as Julius, feel a sense of awe or kinship with those who allow you to see a different approach to life. He saw Subaru as being someone rough around the edges but still fundamentally a good person even in spite of Subaru’s flaws, and that’s why he was calling Subaru a friend after the White Whale fight.

The reason Julius deliberately challenged Subaru to a duel ’cause he knew one of the knights or multiple of them would probably attempt to execute Subaru for insinuating that they inherited their status as knights from their families, and Julius saw that as being an injustice that must not be allowed to happen given he knows that Emilia is a good person and since he himself doesn’t discriminate against demihumans as seen by how he did a curtsy to kiss her in Episode 12, which is typical for someone to do for a woman of higher status, and nobody in Anastasia’s camp is allowed to think of demihumans as lesser. So of course he shared those same values and took to Subaru to an extent after the latter said that he chooses to stand by Emilia’s side ’cause she’s special, and Julius acknowledged those feelings given his own feelings for Anastasia. This is backed by how in Season 2 Subaru’s second Sanctuary trial had Julius saying, “I wanted to call you a friend.” since he ultimately sees that both he and Subaru want to fight against the injustices of the world.

As for the Kingdom of Lugunica itself, Julius knows that it’s far from a utopia given he acknowledged to Subaru that the White Whale was left unchecked for too long, which is why he thanked Subaru from the bottom of his heart for ensuring it was defeated in Episode 22. He most likely personally believed that the job should’ve been carried out much sooner and that that too was an injustice, which is why he was so keen on mending fences with Subaru since Subaru took action to make that happen when the kingdom would probably have kept dillydallying.

Basically, since Julius can’t be the strongest, he used the mask of the most knightly/courtly knight since that was something he could realistically aspire to, and now that most people don’t remember him he doesn’t have that anymore, which is why he took to heart Subaru saying that his humiliation is a testament to Julius’s strength and why he’s so adamant about proving his strength, mirroring Arc 3 Subaru to an extent.

This is backed by how Julius thought back to being made Anastasia’s personal knight in Episode 72 and defeating Petelgeuse, which he considered badges of honour that validated his self-worth. I believe even Julius saying, “I am the Kingdom’s sword that will slay you.” was also potentially signifying his insecurities about being inferior to Reinhard while also signifying kinship with Reinhard with it not being just a cool line for a knight to say but something Julius said to mean he’d be the weapon of the Kingdom that slays Petelgeuse, much like how Reinhard is first and foremost thought of as weapon of the kingdom before he is a person. Thus, it both signified that he was stepping into that role and that it was something he very much relished doing. The flashback to Petelgeuse was followed by a shot of Emilia, who Subaru had indicated passed Reid’s exam, and then to Subaru, who remembers him, intermixed with shots of him being frustrated about his current predicament after becoming a Gluttony victim, before finally remembering Subaru saying that his humiliation is a testament to Julius’s strength and then finally hearing Subaru call out to him, which was showing to viewers that Julius was going through much of the same thing Subaru was going through in Arc 3 and that Subaru rushing toward Julius was to stop him from having something worse happen to him, much like how Julius beat down Subaru in that arc to prevent worse happening to him, which is backed by how Subaru remarking that he hopes Julius isn’t too feeling too down since he’s realized that Julius also has self-worth issues from the talks he’s had with him, like during the scene he mentioned that his humiliation is a testament to Julius’s strength and his talk about the situation regarding Julius’s spirits when he said that Subaru is currently the one who knows him best.

There’s even a bit of a Subaru Season 2/Arc 4 parallel in that after Subaru lost Rem, who was his main pillar of support, to Gluttony, he saw no value in himself aside from Return by Death ’cause of the transactional nature of the events of Arc 3 that allowed him to win given the main point of Arc 3 for Subaru was to see that others have their own wants and goals, and how that applied to Julius is that since his reputation as being the most knightly of knights was gone due to the masses forgetting him, which was his big loss, he would use the only tool he believed he had at his disposal, which is his sword skills, to prove his worth given he believed that he had nothing else left that could validate him as a person, although it’s not a 100% parallel since Subaru was struggling due to him taking on the role as Rem’s hero only to lose Rem, resulting in him losing the mask he put on, and Julius right now is struggling ’cause of all the self-worth issues he had in the past, which have been exacerbated by the world forgetting him, as well as trying to live up to the ideal of being the strong knight Subaru believes he is, so the difference ultimately lies in his emotional support ultimately being an able-bodied person right now.

And that’s why Subaru and Julius’s voice-acting during the stairs scene, the direction overall, the effects regarding the footsteps, as well as the silence and tone of melancholy as Julius struggled, followed by Subaru seeing just how much Julius’s current situation reminded him of what he went through, allowing for him to comfort Julius and for the pair to grow closer made for a fantastic viewing experience.

I believe Julius’s character arc this season will almost certainly involve not clinging to his identity as the most knightly of knights since Reid was having the most fun with him when Julius tried to kick him instead of using just the sword, showing that Tappei very much intends for Julius to embrace Juli to finally overcome Reid. Julius can very much stay true to his character and fight against injustice without needing to stay fixated on chivalry and fighting with knightly honour, which would get him to be more on Wilhelm’s speed, who said in Episode 22 that chivalry was becoming a thing of the past. Tappei has plotted out Julius’s character arc so well from the beginning in making him a foil to Subaru, and he’s an amazingly well-written character. If I can make even one person realize how great of a character Julius is with this post, I will consider it mission accomplished.

Now for the stuff on the periphery, this episode provides further proof of Foxidna remembering Julius with how she aggressively used Jiwald to try to defend Julius when he was fighting Reid. Someone who barely knows him wouldn’t go to such lengths, and Subaru even pondered about why she’d go to such lengths, which means Tappei intended for viewers to think hard about that detail. After Episode 67 with Foxidna putting it out there that Reinhard and Felix were more than just friends to Julius and her general gaze at Julius along with her look of discomfort in Episode 70 when Shaula was shattering Julius’s fantasy about Reid Astrea being a man of great character ’cause of his sword skills when nobody else was paying him any heed, showing she knows that Reid had been Julius’s idol since childhood, there is a clear pattern of Foxidna showing a level of connection with Julius no one else in the group has, not even Subaru.

A line from Episode 48 (Season 2 Episode 23) depicting a possible future had Julius remarking about how he’d bent his knees and lost even his sword, pondering what he even had left, which could’ve been a future in which Reid forced Julius to yield to him, stripping him of all his dignity, and given Julius was thinking his sword skills were all he had left, implying he may have been borderline suicidal, this could suggest that Foxidna, again, as I have speculated has the Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom that I have posited she has like the original Echidna and Tea Party Echidna did, which is why she suggested to Subaru to take Rem with him to the Pleiades Watchtower and why she forced Shaula to reveal her hidden rules/orders for protecting the tower, the reason being she’s invested in Subaru’s success as the Hero of the story and also didn’t want to see Julius be reduced to a hollow shell of himself with nothing to live for, preventing that future from happening, meaning that her spamming of Jiwald was to deliberately signal to Subaru to think hard about why she’d do that instead of thinking of how to overcome the exam for the entire group, leading to his thoughts drifting to Julius instead of the mission of passing the exam even though Ram wanted him to focus on the exam given Subaru is somebody who follows his instincts and hunches as shown by Episodes 69 and 70.

As I have stated in the past, I believe the reason Satella knows what savepoints to choose for Subaru is that she has a soul link with Echidna, whose Authority allows for her to see into the future, meaning they are close collaborators and that Echidna is also observing Subaru, which would make her statement that she was watching Subaru every step of the way on his journey a true statement, and I believe Foxidna much like Tea Party Echidna has the Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom, so she was attempting to advance Subaru to a point in which Satella could update his savepoint to a point favourable for him to succeed, which would be sometime after Subaru has gone down the stairs with Julius. I believe Foxidna acting like she doesn’t know how Anastasia acts in Re:Zero Break Time Season 4 Episode 6 was meant to take away Julius’s sense of pride of being Anastasia’s personal knight and push him into starting a second duel against Reid due to him feeling he lost even that role as her knight, making him feel isolated much like Roswaal would isolate Emilia by making it snow in the Sanctuary Arc in addition to summoning the Great Rabbit. As for a link to the short, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8DLpvo_4cc

As for Emilia, it was smart of her to appeal to Reid’s ego and get him to agree to passing her if she can make him move a single step. Reid seemed to really appreciate her appealing to him like this and relented, saying that she’s the biggest idiot he’s met since Trisha, who is likely to be a character from four hundred years ago although it remains to be seen how long it’ll take for Trisha to be relevant since it took until Season 4 for more information to be revealed about Flügel. To sum it up, Reid lost ’cause he decided to cop a feel on Emilia’s boobs with his chopsticks, and she didn’t even realize that she had been sexually assaulted, probably ’cause the person responsible for her education, Roswaal, doesn’t care to teach her about that. Of course, the episode wasn’t condoning sexual assault given Subaru’s reaction and how the series has previously tried to humanize Elsa by depicting her as having become a cold-blooded killer when she was close to getting sexually assaulted, so anyone who says otherwise is incorrect. Of course, Reid wasn’t satisfied with letting them all pass if Emilia beat him, and everyone aside from Rem will also have to do it since the seven people Reid referred to are Subaru, Beatrice, Emilia, Ram, Julius, Anastasia, and Meili, which is a real predicament.

The group heads back to a lower floor due to not being up for that task, and Ram revealed that there is one person in each nation that can claim to be the strongest with Cecilus Segmunt the Blue Lightning, Divine General from the Empire of Vollachia, the Mad Prince from the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko, and from Halibel the Admirer from the City-States of Kararagi, but none of them fit the description of the stick swinger ’cause they had forgotten Shaula’s nickname for him and don’t know anything about him aside from his wearing Kararagi folk clothes and being skilled with chopsticks, and Shaula reveals that it’s Reid after Subaru gives her a description not long after she has woken from her sleep due to having fallen unconscious due to intense fear ’cause of Reid being a sexual predator. Subaru wanted to ask Julius what he knew of Reid, but Julius had already headed out for a second bout with Reid after having been healed in the same room Rem and Patrasche were in.

Subaru of course was reminded of himself with the way Julius was acting in that he didn’t want Subaru to carry him down the stairs and was straight up iterated that he doesn’t desire for help from him since Subaru was acting out hard at the start of the White Whale and Petelgeuse arc ’cause the world was making him feel small and insignificant, leading to him behaving as if he was more important than he really was due to both an inferiority complex stemming from comparisons with his father, Kenichi, and a fear of abandonment from childhood, and showing his growth Subaru supported Julius the best way he could by not going against his desire to not be carried by lending him his shoulder instead, saying that he doesn’t need to act tough since he knows from experience that Julius shouldn’t be walking down the stairs, implying he knows how alone Julius feels.

Re:Zero Episode 71 (Season 4 Episode 5) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on May 8, 2026 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode is also very interesting potentially from a lore standpoint, and it seems to be only a set-up episode too, which indicates great things about the quality of the season. It starts with Emilia think Subaru is amazing for solving the exam, only Subaru’s reaction was him thinking that the person who made the exam is of questionable character ’cause only people from Earth could solve it, showing Subaru isn’t thinking critically about why the exam would’ve been made to be this way with there being a real possibility the exam was made specifically for him to solve. The group then tries starting to read the books in the Great Pleiades Library, and Beatrice notes there’s a cognitive obstruction denying most of the group from being able to read any random book in this library. One of the books was titled Noah Libertas and another Aegon Voller. At this point, Subaru sees a name he recognizes and opens the look, resulting in his soul being pulled in as a neutral observer of a reenactment of the events of Typhon’s life, much like Echidna’s Tome of Wisdom could do in the Sanctuary Trials.

Typhon’s father was an executioner who decapitated criminals, and he took poor Typhon with him out whenever he did his duty to mold her as being the type to follow in his footsteps, and she thought there was no real rhyme or reason to why her father made his decisions even though he was the one who guided her on what was right and wrong since there’s no simple answer to judge good and evil since crimes and punishments were influenced by various different factors. One day when she saw a scale being imbalanced and accidentally broke something, her father decided not to punish her ’cause she confessed to her crime, and it was that moment in which her Authority of Pride was awoken, which has something to do with a scale since she realized that for herself, the only people who committed the crime can judge whether they did it for bad reasons. She’d ask people whether they’ve done bad things, and if people thought that, they’d shatter to pieces much like Subaru did in Season 2. Typhon was holding a blue rose for much of that reenactment, and blue roses symbolize the impossible since they don’t actually exist naturally. Thus, Typhon most certainly judged every person she would meet after obtaining her Authority as a criminal, and now I can see why a trap had been made for her in Priestella since nobody would be judged as innocent by her Authority as there’s nobody in existence who thinks they’ve never done anything bad, so she was basically a walking death trap.

Subaru had collapsed during that reenactment, and he says afterwards that he experienced the reenactment seemingly as a neutral observer who was actually present, which makes Emilia believe it’s more and more like the Sanctuary Trials, and Beatrice thinks this will come up in handy since they can retrace the past. Julius himself then also collapses, and Subaru makes fun of him as he often does, and Emilia makes him cut it out. Julius’s soul had been pulled into the reenactment of the life of Balleroy Temeglyph, who was a former general in the Vollachia Empire that Julius barely survived an encounter with, and Beatrice concludes that you have to know the person the Book of the Dead is based on be drawn into a reenactment.

Subaru then asks Meili whether she has any interest in this given she seemed disinterested, and she’s not actually all that interested in reading these books even though she’s killed a good deal of people herself. Shaula then blows a kiss to Subaru that he rejects, prompting Meili to call him a terrible person, to which Subaru says hurts more coming from her than Ram or Anastasia, most likely ’cause they don’t really believe it, and I guess part of it is ’cause Subaru thinks of himself as being good to kids. He then goes on and asks Meili what he really wants to say, which is whether she wants to find out about her parents after learning that she’d become an assassin five or six years ago since she’d been taken in by someone she refers to as “mom” after having previously being raised by mabeasts due to her Divine Protection that lets her befriend them. Meili believes that she was abandoned as a child, but in Season 3, one of the White Dragons’ Scales mercenaries mentioned a “Mary”, which may have been a mistranslation for Meili, and maybe it wasn’t that she wasn’t abandoned and that her parents were moreso driven off by mabeasts at one point. Subaru says that he would’ve searched for her parents if Meili had said that she was interested after getting some background info, and she calls him an idiot ’cause he has a big ol’ heart. She then asks Subaru what he believes is the mechanism in these books growing in number, using the example of Subaru dropping dead suddenly to make a point on whether a book on him would emerge from thin air, and that IS something that interests her, and I believe this is consistent character writing ’cause in one of the Re:Zero Break Time Season 2 shorts, Elsa said that she dislikes Subaru’s eyes ’cause they are the eyes of someone who believes that death isn’t the end for him. This could show that Meili believes in Elsa’s intuition since Elsa was something similar to a best friend to her given Meili was the only one Elsa gave any thought to protecting when she was otherwise a cold-blooded killer.

The group then comes together and has come to the conclusion that the books are not ordered by name or date. And Beatrice suggests that they to go to the next floor given their lack of progress, and the group is perplexed about where the stairway to the next floor could be, only for Foxidna to suggest that finding the stairway might be a part of the exam itself considering the jerk who built it, which shows that Foxidna knows who built it, and her lie from Episode 67 is being more evident as time passes by. Shaula is playing with Meili, and then Subaru beckons for Shaula to come over, and she straight up denies knowing where the stairway to the second floor is since she had never been higher than the floor Rem and Patrasche were on prior to this group’s visit, leading to Foxidna to think aloud that Shaula has four or five secret rules she was given for protecting the tower, which is again, extremely suspicious given she said that she knows nothing about herself aside from being an artificial spirit and that her name is Echidna. Shaula then flounders around saying that she didn’t try to hide anything from Subaru and that it’s just that he didn’t ask. One of the rules is that she’d mercilessly kill Subaru if he tried to leave the tower and is bound to doing that, showing that it’s a contract, with her denying that she’s a spirit as she considers much superior to beings similar to fairies. Meili being shown smiling when Subaru asks what Shaula actually is if not a spirit again points to Shaula being a mabeast. When Subaru asks Shaula why she’s so hung up on a contract when she’s not a spirit, Emilia interjects that she has to keep her word even if she’s not a spirit or spirit user, and Emilia is insistent about this ’cause Fortuna ingrained in her the importance of promises when she was very young, and Fortuna breaking her promise of coming back for her was traumatizing to some extent, so Emilia never learned nuance given she has only recently been unfrozen. This is one reason I believe that neither Subaru nor Emilia are at the right stage in their lives to have a healthy relationship as a couple. Emilia is mentally younger than her age due to being frozen for years, and Subaru had never formed a real relationship with anyone really before being summoned, so of course, neither of them have had any real relationship experience, whether observing and talking with their peers or even from her parents in Emilia’s case.

Subaru then blames Shaula for Emilia having yelled at him, saying that it’s all her fault, and Shaula surprisingly acts very happy about that, saying that that’s her master for ya, indicating that perhaps Flügel wasn’t exactly the best role model around. The first order is that she can’t allow any challenges to the Great Pleiades Library leave the tower with the only exception being if they pass all the exams and reach the first floor. The second is that violating the rules of the exams is forbidden. The third is that disrespecting the Pleaides archive is forbidden, and the fourth is that any action intended to damage the tower is forbidden. The group is bothered by how there are likely hidden rules in the exams. Shaula also says that as long as none of the rules are broken, her body belongs to her, which I can see pointing to two possibilities:

If one of the rules is broken, she loses her will and follows her directive to kill people.
Shaula becomes feral like most mabeasts given how proud she was of her scorpion tail, meaning may have been born as a mix of a scorpion mabeast and a humanoid.

Emilia then points out that the situation is really similar to the Sanctuary Trials to back up her thinking of Foxidna mentioning that a jerk built the place. Subaru then declares that this is easier since they can defeat Shaula, which wasn’t an option for leaving the Sanctuary due to the barrier preventing Emilia from leaving. Shaula responded by saying that her master wouldn’t ever do that ’cause he was kinder and more big-hearted than anyone else, which was a lie since apparently she gets very itchy after lying, and this backs up that Flügel isn’t the current Subaru. And Emilia then leads the group to the staircase leading to the next floor with her understanding of the one who built the tower not being a very honest person, and Beatrice mentioned that it must’ve been hidden by cognitive obstruction since they were previously unable to see it much like with the Books of the Dead, and given Beatrice is an expert in yin magic, this could be something Echidna taught her about. Subaru then runs up the stairs as fast as he can with Beatrice in his arms, and although she protests, she’s definitely enjoying it, showing why Beatrice chose Subaru, partially ’cause he’s fun and ’cause he reached out to her in her time of need along with his spirit affinity.

Now for talk on how the developments this episode may be relevant lore-wise, Subaru thought to himself in Episode 70 that Flügel built the Pleiades Watchtower, which is almost certainly true since the first test involved astronomical knowledge from Earth, and Flügel can be a nickname for a person with conspicuous sleeves in a time of dress regulations, indicating that Flügel is someone from Earth, and as Emilia correctly sussed out due to Echidna being a deeply dishonest person, Echidna likely had an involvement in its design, which is why the stairway to the next floor was not in the Great Pleiades Library itself but outside of it and why both Emilia, Julius, and Subaru witnessing things as if they were neutral observers who happened to be there with both the first Sanctuary Trial and Subaru being pulled into Typhon’s Book of the Dead.

The implications of this are two-fold, the first being that the knowledge and experiences recorded into the Books of the Dead, likely come from a source, which is likely a record of all information from the past and present and potential futures, much like Echidna’s Tome of Wisdom, which could see into the past, present, and potential futures, given the Tome of Wisdom’s knowledge had to come from somewhere, and this would be how observers could observe the events as if they personally saw it.

The other implication of this is that the Books of the Dead may be a product of Echidna’s Authority along with yin magic, meaning they serve a very specific purpose and have crucial information for the group who came to the tower this arc and also likely for others in future arcs as part of the grand plan I believe characters such as Satella, Echidna, and Flügel are herding the world towards with the hopes of Subaru breaking the cycle of the world being destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed alluded to by Melakuera with his remarks about the Witch and the world imbalance and how he’d faced world-ending crises countless times.

Shaula recognizing Subaru by his scent and not his looks indicated that he canonically had a different body 400 years ago and that he may have fit the mold of the archetypal conceited and overpowered hero I believe who originally due to the final choice he made, choosing his lover over the world when the Seal in Elior Forest was destroyed, led to the final boss of the time activating his/her Authority to make the world be extremely biased toward repeating the general story path that archetypal hero took, leading to countless iterations of the world being destroyed and reconstructed. Shaula pretty much hinted as such when she said that she had lied in calling her master kinder and more big-hearted than anyone else, showing that Flügel from 400 years ago isn’t the current Subaru. Even Shaula hinting that false accusations were typical of her master supports this line of thinking.

Also, I believe in addition to reminding viewers of Meili’s relationship with Elsa that Meili’s question was posed to make us really think about how new books could materialize and even what would happen in the case of Subaru and Al:

No book for Subaru would mean it’d be ’cause he never truly died in the current timeline, meaning his deaths aren’t recognized by the world. There would be probably be no book for Al either given the world wouldn’t recognize his death given he said that he was secretly crushed three times, indicating he died that many times against Capella, only the world doesn’t recognize any of them. I guess it’s possible there is at least one book for Al in the current timeline given he should’ve died three times canonically in the timeline, but it’s hard to say.
If there’s only one book for Subaru, the book goes up to his most recent death, only covering the canon successful loops up in which he had his best outcomes until that point before he died. Al would also have one book.
Subaru’s book goes up to his most recent death and covers everything he’s ever experienced up until that point. I believe this scenario could be indicating, although I’m not 100% sure, that the current Subaru is partially a by-product of Echidna’s Authority. Al could also have one book given he is dying repeatedly within the canon timeline, and the Book of the Dead would include everything he’s experienced.
Multiple books for each death could indicate alternate timelines are created based on Subaru doing things differently from before after he loops. Al could have one book given the world isn’t re-creating when he loops.
Multiple books for each death could indicate that the current Subaru is partially a by-product of Echidna’s Authority in addition to the Books of the Dead being partially created by her Authority, and there is no Subaru without Echidna with the world being re-created after Subaru dies. Al would also have multiple books.
Al indicated in Season 3 that he had been secretly crushed three times, showing that he’d died three times fighting Capella, so he could also multiple books while Subaru only has one.

Personally, I lean towards the Scenario #1 being nearly completely unviable given that the whole point of Re:Zero is Subaru looping to push forward the world to a good state given how the whole point of the Books of the Dead is to record the experiences of those who have died and that it doesn’t jive with the Books of the Dead being a product of Echidna’s Authority, and because it’d suggest that the current loop is disconnected from the entirety of history, which I dislike, and as for the rest, all of them have some degree of plausibility to me. I’ll explain why that would be the case for each of those other scenarios.

Scenario #2 has some plausibility if the world recognizes all of Subaru’s successful loops up until his most recent death given there’s a straight line of action up until that point. This scenario would suggest that after Return by Death is used, the world is re-created to the point Subaru loops back to, which goes against there being alternate timelines. In this scenario, the Books of the Dead are not tied to Echidna’s Authority, which is something I dislike since I believe these books are tied to her Authority.

I believe Scenario #3 is more likely than Scenario #2 given I believe the Books of the Dead are partially a by-product of Echidna’s Authority in conjunction with yin magic since if Echidna’s Tome of Wisdom in the Dream Castle could see all possible futures it most certainly can see the history of all previously destroyed worlds I believe once existed as part of the cycle of the world being destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed that I propose is happening, so Subaru, if he is partially a by-product of Echidna’s Authority would of course have a Book of the Death that can update itself after each death, and this scenario would also suggest that the world is re-created after Subaru loops back, retaining all of the history of Subaru’s lived experience. Al would also have a book that updates after each death.

Scenario #4 could indicate that alternate timelines are being created after Subaru loops, and it has some plausibility for now given Subaru’s second Sanctuary Trial showed what happened if the world continued during the unsuccessful loops in which he died. Echidna had said that only Satella would know if they were real, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a lie, and it’s actually Echidna herself who knew whether those timelines were real ’cause of her Authority due to it being able to draw upon all information that ever existed in the past and present and could exist in the future. Given that trial was important to Subaru not treating his life as a throwaway in his quest for a good loop, it’d thematically not be a bad idea for Scenario #4 to be the case. As for why only Subaru, not Al, has multiple books in this scenario, he’s the one looping, so his books would go with him when he loops since souls are the seat of memories in Re:Zero and with these books containing the memories of a person, it was information gleaned from actual souls themselves.

My Scenario #5 is different than Scenario #4 in that for this one Subaru, and perhaps Al, having multiple books is moreso due to him having been partially created as a by-product by Echidna’s Authority. In this scenario, it’s not that there are alternate timelines but that the world is re-created after Subaru loops, and given this scenario jives with my belief that the Books of the Dead are partially a result of Echidna’s Authority, I’m more partial to it than most of the other scenarios.

Scenario #6 differs from the rest in that I believe Al has multiple books ’cause his power allows him to cheat death, probably without re-creating the world, given Subaru hadn’t died in the canon successful loop of Season 3, but Subaru would only have one book in this case as was the case with Scenarios #2 and #3 although it has two ways of expressing itself given I draw upon two previous scenarios. One expression of this scenario is also fully consistent with the Books of the Dead in part being a product of Echidna’s Authority, so I’m also partial to that expression of it.

The stairs led to another white room with a sword, and after Subaru draws it, everyone in the group sees the room transform into a field and hears the message, “Fool who has attained the heavenly sword, earn his pardon.” A big, gruff man then repeats that message over and over until he forgets it. Shaula then freaks out, similar to when Reid’s name was brought up, and she passes out frothing from the mouth. Julius approaches the man and says that he’s obviously not an ordinary man, and the man has no idea who he is or even where he is, and he’s weirded out by Julius talking so respectfully as if he’s his follower, and after the man gives his assessment of the group, he tells Julius to quit imitating “him” in acting like his follower, and it’s impossible to tell who he’s referring to at the moment. Subaru calls him the examiner for this occasion, and the man doesn’t care about labels people give him, saying that if they want to have a conversation with him they need to make him move even one step, and Julius decides to step up for this task. The man called himself a stick swinger, which is the nickname Shaula used in reference to Reid in Episode 70, so whatever the situation is, whether this current Reid is a splintered soul fragment of Reid in a different body or a being partially created by Echidna’s Authority, beating him should be no simple task. This now explains why Subaru thought of Reid in Episode 70 when he’d heard that Reid had died of old age, and it’s ’cause he subconsciously knows what’s in the tower.

Another thing to note is that we got the same visual effect as when Subaru’s soul was dragged into Typhon’s Book of the Dead when the second exam’s message was delivered to the group, so this suggests that the souls of the group’s members were pulled to where this Reid is, who’s likely a soul clone of the original Reid, so this should be another dimension entirely with this Reid having been stuck in stasis or something given he was all groggy and didn’t know what was happening.

In the Break Time short for Season 4 Episode 5, Julius gets confirmation from Ricardo that Joshua is likely his brother since he can tell that they grew up eating the same good as each other. I think it was a nice moment showing that Ricardo is still the same despite having lost his arm, blaming himself and not others, which Julius likened to his current situation with being forgotten, finding Ricardo to be a reassuring familiarity given nearly everybody had forgotten him since to him, who was forgotten by the world, with any sense of familiarity being comforting much like Subaru is a source of strength for him right now. Here’s the link to the short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrTqU0w3Js4

Re:Zero Episode 70 (Season 4 Episode) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on May 1, 2026 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode is huge with its lore implications if I’m interpreting the scenes correctly. The episode opens with Subaru being denigrated by Petelgeuse and Regulus in the dark world that we’ve seen Satella/the Witch of Envy in before, such as when Subaru remembered having his heart squeezed and the isolation of that dark world when Puck used Shamak, in the White Whale fight when Subaru was pulled into the dark world so that Satella/the Witch of Envy could say that she loves him, and during the moment when Subaru intended to reveal Return by Death to get Petelgeuse to give up on possessing his body in which Petelgeuse was also pulled into the dark world but rejected by Satella. Given when Subaru tries to reveal Return by Death, the stench of Satella intensifies much like after he has looped back, this suggests that the dark world is a pocket dimension located within the vicinity of Subaru’s soul. This would make both Sirius and Emilia sensing Petelgeuse when Subaru uses Invisible Providence make sense, and it’s ’cause they sense Petelgeuse from within the dark world, and Sirius mistakenly believed that Subaru and Petelgeuse’s souls merged (I had mistakenly taken Sirius’s side last year in a blog post and failed to account for everything that came before that when I believe I’d been on the mark before that) when it was the case that Petelgeuse’s soul is just in close proximity to Subaru’s, which shows that Subaru’s body was constructed with a pocket dimension within the vicinity of his soul, which is not the case for any ordinary human, and that’s probably also the case for Al.

As for why this needs to be the case. I see no reason for a random Joe to have a pocket dimension within the container of their soul. This is Re:Zero, where there are logical reasons for events happening, not random isekai slop where there’s no rhyme or reason for the events happening, so it makes me doubtful that this sort of thing would happen for some random person in Re:Zero’s world. Need I point out that the whole point of Re:Zero was to summon Subaru, not an ordinary person? Authorities from the Witch Factors of the Seven Deadly Sins tend to make you batshit insane if what we’ve seen of the Sin Archbishops is representative of what happens, while Subaru still desperately clings to his humanity with all his being while having multiple of them. That doesn’t seem normal and actually extraordinary to me, to the point of being more than just human.

Now for something really juicy. For years, I’ve wondered why Subaru has recoil from using Invisible Providence offensively, which we’ve seen when he punched Garfiel in Season 2, when he hit Regulus in Season 3, when he crushed Regulus’s heart when it was attached to Emilia’s in Season 3, when Subaru punched Ram and sent her flying given he was sweating hard, breathing heavily, almost kind of slurring his words while advancing slowly to Ram to begin choking her, showing that he was pushing through the pain ’cause he had gone insane, and when he used his Authority against the faceless centaur mabeast to make it lose its footing. And now I believe I’ve arrived at an answer in that I believe that the regrets of the people in the dark world shape some aspect of Subaru’s Authorities.

Regulus’s regret is probably that his first wife laughed at him when she died when she had never showed emotion to him before that given he randomly went on without naming anyone about why you dared to laugh in your final moments in Episode 62, and that incident traumatized him, which is why he forced his future wives to agree to never smile or face death. Although Regulus is a an inhuman monster, he probably regretted that he never found out why his wife felt that way, so I believe Subaru’s Greed Authority will allow him to feel what others are feeling so that Subaru can understand and build better relationships with others. This is backed by Regulus stating in Episode 70 that Subaru violated his rights as an unselfish man who desires nothing but to settle for a tiny bit of simple, ordinary happiness, which shows that Regulus most likely just wanted a wife who loved him even though he killed everyone his first wife knew, which is why she never showed emotion and wouldn’t smile or laugh no matter what he did with him coping by telling himself he never needed any of his wives to laugh since it makes their faces uglier during the scene Reinhard had launched him into the sky.

If you’ve seen my Capella character analysis, I believe Capella’s regret is sleeping around so much and not getting to know the one she truly thought she could love, resulting in him treating her like a piece of meat like everybody else. To refresh yourself on that analysis, read this post: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=44

Suffice to say, I think when Subaru defeats Capella, his Authority might be one that helps him and others around him get to know people they are attracted to rather than rushing toward intimacy. I don’t know what form that Authority will take, but I believe the effect I described will be close to what his Lust Authority will be used for after Capella is no longer of this earth.

I wonder what Sirius’s regret would be. My theory is that Sirius is the combination of Fortuna and a lesser spirit that matured during the Elior Forest attack that was in awe of Petelgeuse and Fortuna’s love for each other, and Sirius came into being when the spirit merged with Fortuna’s soul after Fortuna died, so if I’m right about Subaru’s Authorities being influenced by the regrets of those in the dark world, would it be Sirius’s regret that shapes Subaru’s Authority, or would it be Fortuna’s? I lean toward it being Sirius’s regret that would shape Subaru’s Wrath Authority since I believe Sirius is distinct from Fortuna. I remember in Season 3 during the fight against Priscilla, Sirius’s idea of love was everybody feeling the same thing, and that may have been born from when she was a lesser spirit who felt the intense emotions of Petelgeuse and Fortuna’s love for each other, and it may have misunderstood love as people feeling the same emotion for each other rather than grasping what love actually is.

I don’t know if Priscilla telling Sirius that real love is tolerantly accepting the differences of others would really be Sirius’s regret, but it could be possible if Sirius took it to heart given she seemed inspired by Liliana’s singing and started singing herself in a crude way, and she said that she’d try to drag Petelgeuse out of Subaru, so maybe she’s not all for making everyone feel the same emotion anymore if she wants Petelgeuse’s individuality to emerge from what she believes is Subaru’s and Petelgeuse’s souls amalgamating, so Sirius’s effect on Subaru’s Wrath Authority after Sirius gets killed one day may be an Authority that helps people shine by focusing on their own strengths instead of being worried about what areas they lack compared to others.

I surmise that if Subaru’s Authorities are indeed being shaped by those in the dark world, it’s to prevent Subaru from becoming a conceited person like previous Heroes of the story, forcing him to rely on others, even those he detested and defeated, which would be a great departure from the conceited and overpowered Heroes I believe came before him.

Back to the show, Subaru wakes up and wonders if he’s Returned by Death, which on the surface doesn’t really make the most sense given he wasn’t in the carriage before at his previous savepoint, and he passed out out after being saved by Shaula. But given the reason he believed this must be explainable, I’m thinking Subaru always spends some time in the dark world after dying before his soul loops back, and he just forgets everything about his time in the dark world although he subconsciously understands that he was there, and that’s why Subaru thought that he had Returned by Death, ’cause he subconsciously realized he was at the dark world deep down, meaning the Freud content from the previous episode may have come in handy. In the anime, Subaru hasn’t been to the dark world outside of after his body experiencing death since Season 1, so it’s been over a year since it’s last happened, making him thinking he Returned by Death the most plausible scenario to him given he’d just woken up and wasn’t thinking straight.

Subaru’s on Emilia’s lap, and that was intentional from Emilia given Beatrice said that Emilia gave up two nights of sleep for him, meaning Mr. Subaru was lying on Emilia’s lap a lot of the time, and he probably counts his lucky stars that that was the case. Subaru then exits the carriage and is told that they’re inside the Pleiades Watchtower. Shaula rushed to Subaru since he’s apparently her master, and she locks him in an extremely tight embrace that hurts him given how powerful she is, being distressed that her master doesn’t remember her, his student, and when Emilia wakes up and sees what’s happening, she gives Subaru a kick on the back rather than helping him out as he requested, showing her jealousy.

The whole group is surprised given Shaula barely said a word to any of them and is now clinging on to him for dear life and being very affectionate. Apparently, Shaula had been instructed by her master to never say more than she needs to no matter who asks her anything, and Subaru then tells her it’s okay to talk to the others given he knows Shaula believes him to be her master. Shaula then reveals when prompted that she’s not the Sage. Foxidna then throws Subaru three coins with her saying that the holy gold coin (the world’s word for platinum?) depicts the Divine Dragon, the gold coin depicts the first Sword Saint, and the silver one depicts the Sage, and of course the group remarks that it looks nothing like Subaru, prompting Shaula to say that she didn’t recognize Subaru by his looks but by his foul scent, showing that she can smell witch miasma. And Shaula knows the phrase, “No problem”, showing her master was someone who was originally from Earth. Shaula reveals that Reid was the first Sword Saint, calling him a stick swinger, and that Volcanica the sarcastic is the Divine Dragon. She hadn’t even realized just how much time had passed given Reid had passed long ago, showing Shaula isn’t an ordinary human given she doesn’t age and can smell Witch miasma. After Shaula insists that the group should know who the one she believes is her master, Ram said that her master hit her head on a chamber pot and forgot many things, leading to Shaula replying with “Again” to Subaru, showing that something is up here, revealing that her master is Flügel the Wise Man, the real Sage, the one who planted what was known as Flügel’s tree, the same tree the White Whale expedition force downed to trap the White Whale.

After that, it appears they group has been climbing the tower for a while, and Shaula is carrying Meili on her back with Meili complaining that it’s too bouncy of a ride, and Shaula says that a kid getting a free ride shouldn’t complain. Then Meili abruptly yanks Shaula’s ponytail, which is apparently a scorpion tail, not actual hair, and that fits the name Shaula given the name refers to a scorpion’s tail. When they arrive at the entrance, Beatrice says that Patrasche and Rem are a whole floor above this one, prompting Subaru to wonder aloud how they got Patrasche up that high, and Shaula revealed that she did it easily, which reinforces her incredible strength. I’m thinking the shot of Shaula carrying Patrasche may be an allusion. The most famous Patrasche is a dog from A Dog of Flanders, a TV series depicting a story of a boy and his dog in a village called Flanders within Belgium. Subaru’s ringtone in the White Whale fight was from A Dog of Flanders, clearing showing that he named Patrasche after the dog. The root of the name Patrasche is from Petr, derived from the Greek word, Petros, which means “stone”, with the author of A Dog of Flanders likely adapting the name to invoke a sense of enduring strength, which may be why Tappei wrote Patrasche in one scene of Re:Zero Season 2 to fling Subaru with such force that he was launched back into a building after he had deliberately escaped the building to flee from a very powerful mabeast, showing that Patrasche was thinking mainly of Subaru in that moment and did what she could to protect him even at the cost of her own life. I may be wrong, but I believe the shot of Shaula carrying Patrasche (stone) is a subtle allusion to Atlas carrying a celestial sphere with Atlas carrying a terrestrial globe (stone) being a misconception from a certain period of time about Atlas carrying the world since what Atlas was really doing in Greek mythology was carrying the celestial sphere which consists of the night sky. What may back up this interpretation is that in Belgium there’s the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium that houses a famous 17th-century oil painting titled Atlas Holding up the Celestial Globe. Tappei could’ve chosen any name that meant “stone” or “rock” or had its root having either meaning, but he specifically chose Patrasche, possibly knowing of the association with Belgium and of that oil painting of Atlas, showing that Tappei does his research.

Subaru also reveals when they’re higher up the tower that he had previously heard that Flügel was the Sage and didn’t think his name would come up again, so I’m wondering where he heard it from given no one else in the group knew Flügel was the Sage. My best guess is that he heard the name Flügel from Liliana. As Liliana’s family was a travelling group of bards, the story of Flügel may have been passed down through the generations in her family. Even someone as long-lived as Beatrice didn’t know that Flügel was the Sage, so what was known about Flügel must’ve been lost due to time, possibly even ’cause of Echidna deliberately plotting to obscure knowledge of Flügel, much like how I am adamant she has been ensuring knowledge of past Witches of Sin has been lost so that the world blames everything on Satella, which is why Crusch and many others believed that mabeasts were created by Satella despite them actually having been created by Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony. As it started to hit Subaru about what it means to be climbing this tower, Shaula gives him 99 points out of 100, mostly ’cause of her affection for him, not ’cause of Subaru really realizing the gravity of what he’s doing since she says, revealing that the Pleiades Watchtower is a temporary name for a temporary role. To her Flügel being back means that it’ll return to its original role, which is that of the Pleiades Great Library where you can find everything you’ve ever wanted to know.

When the group reaches the floor where Patrasche and Rem are, Ram takes him into the dwelling of a spirit that has no will of its own that just heals the injuries and cures the sickness of those in it, and of course, Rem isn’t affected since she’s merely in suspended animation, and Subaru entrusts Ram with keeping Patrasche, who had been gravely injured, and Rem safe. He resolved himself to do what he needs to do and confirms sincerely that Ram looking over the two is more than enough, trusting that his not-really sister will do what she can.

Shaula then shares that this is floor basically functions as her den and is where she’s shooting intruders, referring to it as Hell’s snipe, another learned Earth phrase with the accompanying gun gestures along with it. Subaru finds out that Shaula was shooting people who approached the tower on her master’s orders all by her lonesome for four hundred years, so he ordered her to not harm him or his friends. And given Shaula is the Keeper of the Pleiades Watchtower, and the tower is named after a star cluster, and Subaru is the term for Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, this may indicate that the decision to have Shaula be entrusted as its keeper was made by Subaru himself four hundred years ago, Shaula’s apparent master, who I’m not convinced is Flügel but moreso half of Flügel. Thus, much like how Zeus, the ruler of Olympus, forced Atlas to hold the heavens/night sky up, and how Flügel entrusted Shaula with the Pleiades Watchtower, it could be read as Shaula figuratively holding up the Seven Sisters in the night sky herself high up the tower similar to what Atlas did with the night sky in Greek mythology, a symbol of immense burden of responsibility, demonstrating the burden Shaula carried with her for four hundred years waiting for the return of her master, even to the point of forgetting that Reid was human. Maybe this is a pretty complex allusion, but I am adamant about its legitimacy nonetheless. Thus, this episode shows that Tappei had mapped out his story to this point with pinpoint accuracy having planned Patrasche to be used such in a way since at least Arc 3 of Season 1.

The third floor has a test that nobody in the group had been able to pass while Subaru had been sleeping. Touching the lone black monolith results in a very large amount of them emerging with the selection of the correct monolith being the test. A voice then emerges that states, “Hero slain by Shaula, touch upon his greatest splendor.” Touching the first monolith he touches ends the test, and touching it again reinitiates the test. The group in general has no idea what to do, and Meili then suggests that they ask Shaula, who doesn’t remember the names of people she killed outside of the first hundred, and she gives Subaru a thumbs up, also another thing not seen in this world. Subaru puts it out there that she killed Reid, which on the surface is strange given it was revealed earlier that Reid died of old age, but given the Sigmund Freud content last episode, maybe it’s not that strange, and Subaru used to know Reid. Given that Subaru almost certainly chose the path to the right in Episode 69 that led to Satella’s sealed body and that he thought he had Returned by Death due to subconsciously realizing he went to the dark world, Subaru may subconsciously realize that there’s a split-soul Reid in a vessel with everlasting youth that lies ahead on one of the higher floors since he knows what’s in this tower.

Of course, Subaru name-dropping Reid elicits pure terror in Shaula, resulting in her dropping Meili so that she could cower behind a monolith, and Meili referred to Subaru as “oni-san” as in “Big Brother” when he caught her, showing that Subaru has an easy time with making kids like him, meaning the Little Girl User is a fitting title for him. When Subaru asks if Shaula is that afraid of Reid, Shaula retreats to a monolith further away, and Julius follows that up by saying that Reid as the progenitor of Wilhelm and Reinhard must have been a man of great character, and he was crestfallen when Shaula mentioned that Reid was human scum who liked bullying those weaker than him, including herself. And Foxidna’s look of discomfort and gaze at Julius during that scene again shows again that she remembers Julius and was sad to see his reaction to learning that someone who may have been an idol to him was actually just a brat who never grew up given Foxidna had been with Anastasia for ten years and would’ve known who Julius probably admired from childhood..

It’s after Subaru heard about Reid’s strength that he gets some inspiration and realizes that the answer has to be something he’d know without asking Shaula since those who want to conquer the tower may have to defeat Shaula to enter it, so it has nothing to do with battle strength and somebody who Shaula has defeated in Re:Zero’s fantasy world, leading to him pondering of a different Shaula, and after he saw Shaula’s scorpion tail, that sealed the deal for him since Lambda Scorpii, formerly known as Shaula, is the second-brightest star in the constellation Scorpius and represents the stinger or raised tail of the scorpion.

Now for some more theorycrafting. Meili taking to Shaula so soon and basically clinging to Shaula seems surprising to me. Shaula also said that she has a scorpion tail, and maybe that was what she was using to snipe Subaru with in Episode 68. Given Ram saw a magic circle from Earth anime and manga, which shouldn’t exist in Re:Zero’s fantasy world, when she used her Clairvoyance, whatever Shaula was sniping with wasn’t a regular weapon powered by magic stones, which indicates she may be a being created by magic, specifically from someone who hailed from Earth.

Shaula having an affinity with Meili may also be why she didn’t create a huge scene out of Meili touching her tail and why Meili was clinging onto Shaula in the exam room when they no longer needed to climb further. Meili also never referred to Shaula by her action name, opting to call her “naked lady”, showing that Meili might see herself as Shaula’s superior, not requiring showing her the basic respect others get. A regular human even with eternal youth also wouldn’t be able to smell Subaru’s miasma. Thus, Shaula may either be a mabeast or a being similar in nature to a mabeast. And given her scorpion tail was key to Subaru gaining a hint he needed, this could be a part of the grand plan from four hundred years ago that I believe the heroes are enacting to bring about a free future. If Shaula is a mabeast, she had to have been created by Daphne, but if the scorpion tail hint for the test and Shaula’s outfit having Subaru’s tracksuit colours are pointing to anything, it’s also the case that she has a creator from Earth.

When Foxidna presses Subaru on how he figured out the answer, Subaru responds that it’s not a big deal and that it’s not their fault they couldn’t arrive at the solution since only someone from where he was from could know the answer since legends from his homeland talked about the hero, Orion, being killed by a scorpion, which resulted in Orion turning into stars, and that scorpion also becoming a star. When he had jumped up with Beatrice’s Murak before this, he had envisioned the constellations and saw both Rigel and Betelgeuse, the two stars of Orion that are said to shine the brightest, and Subaru chose Rigel since it shines consistently whereas Betelgeuse, which glows extra bright at times, and he took the test question with “touch upon his greatest splendor” as meaning he needed to choose the monolith representing the brightest star in Orion, and the Great Pleiades Library emerges. Subaru is of course dismayed by the enormous size of this library since as he said in Season 1, he’s the type to like to be rewarded for his efforts, indicating he doesn’t think working hard should be rewarded with even more work.

Now for my theory about how Subaru relates to Flügel. Of course it goes without saying that I believe that Re:Zero’s fantasy world is stuck in a cycle of being destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed as alluded to by Melakuera who talked about the Witch and the corresponding world imbalance and how he has faced world-ending crises countless times.

Subaru’s name is the Japanese term for Pleiades, which makes it fitting that the Seven Deadly Sins are used, and why since the brightest six of the stars are easily visible to the naked eye that there are six dead Witches of the Seven Deadly Sins in the story. The dullest star of the Seven Sisters is Asterope (Sterope I), which is part of the Sterope double star (Sterope I and Sterope II) in the Pleiades star cluster, and given the role Satella has in the story, it’s no surprise that Tappei made the Witch of Envy a separate personality from Satella, and had Satella sealed compared to dead like the others. And given Pandora and Hector exist, that’s 2 additional Witches of Sin outside of the main 7.

I am going somewhere with this beyond what I’ve usually posted. Michael Mästlin (anglicized as Maestlin) was documented to have mapped eleven stars in the Pleiades star cluster before the invention of the telescope in the 16th century. Michael Mästlin was German, much like how Flügel is a German name. Given Re:Zero’s fantasy world takes place in a medieval-ish setting, I theorize Tappei may have incorporated the number eleven in Re:Zero’s given, unless I’m mistaken, there shouldn’t be any telescopes in this world even though stars in the fantasy world aren’t like those from Earth, so Tappei may have decided to be Earth-accurate in making use of the number eleven. It is believed that 9 of these 11 were Alcyone (Eta Tauri), Atlas, (27 Tauri), Electra (17 Tauri), Maia (20 Tauri), Merope (23 Tauri), Taygeta (19 Tauri), Pleione (28 Tauri), Celaeno (16 Tauri), and Asterope (21 Tauri), which are known as the Seven Sisters and their parents.

I believe in the ancient past, an archetypal handsome, conceited, and overpowered hero typical of standard isekai slop in the moment in which he had to make the biggest decision of his life after the Seal in Elior Forest was opened, chose his lover, who had become the Witch of Envy, over the world, leading to the threat that came out of the Seal to be defeated, but the world was then destroyed following his choice to not strike down his lover, and when that hero made his choice, the final boss of the time activated his Authority to make the world extremely biased towards repeating the general path that archetypical hero followed on his journey. I don’t know the exact mechanism that the story can be biased toward following that path, but I nonetheless posit that it exists, and thousands or even millions of iterations of the story of the handsome, conceited and overpowered hero came and went as the world kept getting destroyed and reconstructed as the Hero of the story would have to fit that mold unless an intervention took place.

Thus, assuming the number eleven is important ’cause of Michael Mästlin, the Authority of the final boss in the ancient past was one that lets him/her control the story path to his/her liking, basically a super Authority if you will. I believe the ancient hero of the time also had a super Authority, although I won’t claim I know what it is assuming it’s real, and both the final boss and the protagonist having super Authorities would make the number eleven important.

Okay, after getting that out of the way, I still have more background content to cover, so bear with me. 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 to summon 1,000 shadows if he truly wants to kill him, half of what Satella could (2,000), how Subaru used a number associated with Satella (2,000) to indicate his appreciation for Emilia in Episode 25 when he said that if Emilia named ten things she hated about herself he’d list 2,000 things he loves about her, which Emilia herself commenting on why he chose that number, and how Subaru suddenly had an upwelling 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 as lovers given just moments ago, Subaru had been calling her an unfathomable monster he could never hope to understand, showing they must’ve had a very positive relationship in the past.

Al, Priscilla’s knight, in Season 3 also referred to Beatrice as Beako much like Subaru does, and I don’t believe that this means that Subaru and Al are the same person. However, I do believe that he and Subaru both originally came from the same soul. As I have said before, I have been researching the names of Re:Zero characters since Episode 22, A Flash Of Sloth, since that title could’ve referred to multiple things in that episode, and what may be relevant is that Subaru’s dad is named Kenichi, which means ‘wise man’. Subaru said in Episode 16 that Flügel’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 Flügel, and given Shaula referred to her master as Flugel the Wise Man, it’d be very fitting if Kenichi were him. Also of note is that Satella developed a separate personality in the Witch of Envy, who can barely talk, and the vocabulary we’ve seen from her so far is limited to “Love you” and “Love me”, and Subaru directly referred to her as the Witch of Envy in that Season 2 episode whereas when we saw Satella in Episode 38, the dead Witches of Sin were calling her Satella, which makes sense given Satella can speak in full sentences. Thus, Satella’s lover four hundred years ago may have also developed a split personality, who was Subaru, and that’s how Subaru can have a different appearance four hundred years ago given Shaula said that she recognized the current Subaru as her master by his scent, not anything else given she recognized the one depicted on the coin as her master, who didn’t look anything like Subaru.

Flügel itself means wing and can also be a nickname for someone with conspicuous sleeves at a time of dress regulations, so what this points to is that Flügel is a person not from Re:zero’s fantasy world who somehow came to be there given the nickname is for someone who dresses strangely, and this suggests that Flügel is from Earth. Perhaps Kenichi literally is Flügel, and it would make sense for Flügel to be Kenichi since I stress that Shaula didn’t recognize Subaru by his looks, which shows Subaru canonically had a different body four hundred years ago.

Satella most likely summoned the current Subaru to Re:zero’s fantasy world, but how did Kenichi get there if he is Flügel? Well, wings are symbolic of power, speed, and limitless freedom of motion, and maybe that’ss how Kenichi, if he is indeed Flügel, managed to make his way back to Earth after being in Re:zero’s fantasy world. Perhaps Kenichi has the power to freely travel between the two worlds because he has a limitless freedom of motion, and that would be how he ended up in Re:zero’s fantasy world in the first place. Given Kenichi is so badass and handsome and ripped as hell, he could’ve fit the mold of the handsome, conceited, and overpowered Hero of the story with the power to freely travel between worlds being his super Authority, and he likely gave himself the name Flügel when he arrived in Re:zero’s fantasy world to help himself fit into that world.

As for how Kenichi could split his soul, he likely couldn’t when he was the the Hero of the story of the fantasy world as his soul may have been indivisible since the story required for the Hero to make it to the end and repeat the cycle since dying ’cause his soul was eradicated wouldn’t be permitted as one of the parameters of the story path requires him to make it to the end to bring about the next cycle, meaning he couldn’t split Subaru from himself then, but after returning to Earth and losing his Hero designation, he should freely be able to do that using whatever tool Echidna used to cut her soul off as part of her immortality experiment since he wouldn’t have that privilege he had as he lost his Hero designation. Satella and this group of characters basically hijacked the path of the story in an attempt to save the world. The reason Kenichi couldn’t kill Satella himself was that he would always have a second personality that arose who couldn’t bear to kill Satella since his entire world was Satella, which is why he had to defer the task to someone else. Thus, Subaru being the protagonist of Re:Zero is to make up for him being why Satella couldn’t be killed in the past, making it a true redemption story unlike so many other stories billed as redemption stories when the characters don’t even have to address their character flaws, and thus, Subaru may be one half of Flügel, making Naoko telling Subaru to be half as cool as his dad in the first Sanctuary Trial potential foreshadowing of the situation four hundred years ago. Thus Flügel, the being I believe to be Kenichi and Subaru from four hundred years ago, may have been Shaula’s other creator who came from Earth.

Also of note regarding Michael Mästlin is that he was the first person to publish an account of Earthshine, the illumination of the moon by sunlight reflected from Earth. Given one of the kanji for Natsuki in Natsuki Subaru and Kenichi means “moon”, it could mean that Subaru and Kenichi are both associated with the Moon and that the Earth will always reflect on their fates and stories. Another name for Earthshine is The Da Vinci Glow, and there conveniently is the Da Vinci Crater on the Moon. And historically, Earthshine was referred to as “The old Moon in the new Moon’s arms”, and it may be an Easter egg on why Tappei has possibly set up Subaru inheriting the torch of saving the world from Kenichi.

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 and how Foxidna herself is almost certainly a soul cone of Echidna’s given Re:Zero Break Time Season 4 Episode 3 had Foxidna calling Beatrice a kindred soul, which could indicate that they’re not just similar in nature but also similar in origin, then it wouldn’t be a surprise if Kenichi, if he is Flügel 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 with that explaining why Al and Subaru both call Beatrice ‘Beako’, not ’cause they are the same person but because they were originally 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 under normal circumstances and why Al also likes being rewarded for his efforts much like Subaru does, all of which shows that Al isn’t Subaru but that his origins are likely similar, and that something is up with Subaru and Al that doesn’t involve time travel or straight up reincarnation, so Al and Subaru may be homunculi or artificial humans who were split off from Kenichi’s soul.

I believe Subaru, and previously Al, is being put through the wringer to fulfill the grand plan I believe the heroes from four hundred years ago implemented, which included Satella, Echidna, and probably Flügel, to save the world from being stuck in a cycle of being destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed as hinted by Melakuera in the Frozen Bond OVA due to the actions of an archetypal handsome, conceited, and overpowered Hero, and Satella destroying half the world four hundred years ago perhaps being a deliberate intervention that was needed to allow the heroes of that era to deviate from the archetypal story path to pave way for first Al and then Subaru with Al’s creation being a trial run in making the perfect Hero with Al’s failure being a necessary lesson for Subaru in the future and also ’cause Al’s future knowledge will be important in the future. I believe both Subaru and Al may be missing the super Authority that previous Heroes of the story had, in part to keep them honest unlike those that came before them although I don’t rule out that the super Authority is suppressed or sealed rather than being completely missing, meaning it could emerge later.

Why I say Al’s creation may have been a trial-run Hero is that he appeared to be the type of person Roswaal wanted Subaru to be. In Season 3, Al wanted Emilia to be dependent on Subaru and stay out of trouble instead of being her own person with her own contributions, which is exactly how Roswaal intended for things to go with Subaru with Subaru completing all three of the Sanctuary Trials and making Emilia dependent on him for the rest of his life. Al not having his gate shattered, which is why he can use the magic he does, may show that he likely didn’t save Beatrice when he was the Hero of the story and never entered into a contract with her. However, he may have acquired Beatrice’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom when he was the Hero, and that’s how he was able to conveniently time the opening of the Watergate in Season 3 when he did, conveniently kill the rest of Priestella’s Council of Ten, and conveniently wake up Beatrice when he did, and that’d be ’cause he was acting upon advice from Echidna.

I don’t believe that Roswaal’s not-quite-Tome of Wisdom truly did the tell the future as if it did, the omission of Otto simply wouldn’t happen. What that shows is that the source of the knowledge didn’t intend for Roswaal to be victorious over Subaru. For those of you who think Echidna was serious about Subaru accepting her contract, consider the following content from Season 2 from my blog post I posted this year: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=223

Also of note is that in Re:Zero Break Time Season 4 Episode 4, Subaru was hugging Ram tight when they were both asleep. He must’ve been very worried for her given in Episode 69 they were both in poor shape and saved by a mystery person who they didn’t know was friend or foe, so it just shows how much Subaru cares for Ram. Ram being so embarrassed about that was hilarious. And here’s the link to it: Re:Zero, Break Time 70 – English Translated

Re:Zero Episode 68 (Season 4 Episode 2) Analysis + Important Details

Posted on April 17, 2026 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

There’s less to talk about regarding just this episode itself compared to Episode 67, but I still have some big things I want to emphasize here, so this will still be a long write-up since I’ll be highlighting how past content may apply heavily to the content of Season 4. The first of which is that names are very important in Re:Zero, which is why I have kept tabs on the names of Re:Zero characters since Episode 22 from Season 1, “A Flash Of Sloth”, since it could’ve referred to multiple things in the episode.

Based on Sin Archbishops having star names (Regulus’s name was a big plot point in Season 3) and Subaru revealing he was named after a star cluster in Memory Snow, it’s clear stellar names have significant importance in Re:Zero. Subaru is the Japanese term for “Pleiades”, a star cluster referred to as the Seven Sisters, the reason why the Seven Deadly Sins are a plot point, with six of the brightest stars in the Pleiades being visible to the naked eye under average conditions being why are there six dead Witches of Sin. Given Aldebaran means “follower of Pleiades”, this begs the question of why Al seemingly arrived in the world sooner than Subaru did given his name suggests he should’ve came after Subaru.

Thus, I theorize that Subaru was in suspended animation, the state Rem currently is in, within Flugel’s tree for hundreds of years, and that’s how Al seemingly arrived in the world sooner than Subaru did despite his name being follower of Pleiades, which should indicate that Subaru was summoned before Al was. This would be why I propose we see Flugel’s tree slowly grow from a sapling into a world tree before transitioning to the shot of Subaru since Subaru’s whereabouts were a mystery of sorts based on the connection between Al’s name and Subaru’s. And this is hardly a novel idea as other animanga have used the plot element of a person or multiple people being either in suspended animation or at least not aging inside a special tree.

Also of note is that in the OP, Subaru’s depicted as a hunk of flesh in clothes before his skin slowly surfaces when there were back-to-back shots of Echidna, Anastasia, Beatrice, and Subaru. This is very peculiar, and two things I can think of is that Subaru is either a homunculus or at least an artificial human, and both of the things I just mentioned merits raising the point about whether he was always a homunculus or artificial human or became one after being summoned, but now it’s time for a detour to remind readers of a previous theory of mine as my previous speculation actually supports Subaru being a homunculus or artificial human.

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), how Subaru used a number associated with Satella (two thousand) to indicate his appreciation for Emilia in Episode 25 when he said that if Emilia named ten things she hated about herself he’d list two thousand things he loves about her, which Emilia herself commenting on why he chose that number, and how Subaru suddenly had an upwelling 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 as lovers.

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 and how Foxidna herself may also be a soul cone of Echidna’s, 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 with that explaining why Al and Subaru both call Beatrice ‘Beako’, not ’cause they are the same person but because they were originally 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 much like Subaru does, and why Al didn’t know about Capella’s powers, all of which shows that Al isn’t Subaru but that his origins are likely similar, and that something is up with Subaru and Al that doesn’t involve time travel or straight up reincarnation, so Al and Subaru may be homunculi or artificial humans who were split off from Kenichi’s soul.

I believe Subaru, and previously Al, is being put through the wringer to fulfill the grand plan I believe the heroes from four hundred years ago implemented, which included Satella, Echidna, and probably Flugel, to save the world from being stuck in a cycle of being destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed as hinted by Melakuera in the Frozen Bond OVA due to the actions of prototypical overpowered generic fantasy Heroes of the Story who encountered and lost to the Final Boss of the story every time due to the story path that began when an ancient hero in a moment of weakness of weakness, chose his lover over the world when the Seal in Elior Forest was opened, resulting in Re:Zero’s fantasy world being inevitably destroyed with the final boss of the time either activating an Authority or cursing the world to be extremely biased toward following the trend of that story path for all time with Satella destroying half the world perhaps being a deliberate intervention that was needed to allow the heroes of that era to deviate from the archetypal story path to pave way for Subaru.

As for how Kenichi could split his soul when he was the Hero of the story in Re:Zero’s fantasy world, I believe that would be impossible. Given Kenichi would have to follow the general story path I propose is happening, the Hero wouldn’t be allowed to split his soul while in Re:Zero’s fantasy world as the Hero of the story would be pushed to make it to the end to repeat the cycle, so dying by having his soul destroyed by an enemy or by himself, accidentally or intentionally, wouldn’t be allowed, so I propose that Kenichi at some point somehow returned to Earth to cut parts of his soul when he no longer had the designation as the Hero of the story, and eventually made Subaru and Aldebaran, who would eventually become his sons, Aldebaran after Subaru was whisked away. I think after all that I’ve finally explained why I believe Subaru being a homunculus or artificial human is line with my main theory.

As for the last part of the OP, it also has audio saying, “Let the magic stitch you back together”, when depicting Subaru’s sense of self seeming fraying with that out-of-character expression he had on his face and all the weird colours as he’s climbing stairs, so there may be something really stressful or traumatizing that causes some sort of identity crisis.

The first important detail is probably that Emilia still considers Subaru to be someone that needs to be protected, which is sort of a reversal of before in Arcs 1 and 2 when Subaru was doing all he could to protect Emilia regardless of whether she wanted him to, which is why she wanted Subaru stay behind in Arc 3 ’cause of his damaged gate, which eventually ended up being destroyed in Season 2 (Arc 4). Even after Arc 5 when Subaru and Emilia fought together against Regulus, Emilia still considers Subaru to be one of those who need protecting, much like Anastasia and Rem, to Subaru’s chagrin. Thus, since Emilia doesn’t consider Subaru an equal, I’m glad that they aren’t yet together especially since Subaru still has serious abandonment issues that flare up when Emilia doesn’t react to him well.

After that, the ground dragons react badly to Meili since those many years of handling mabeasts means she smells of them, which results in Patrasche and Joseph both picking on her with Joseph having Meili’s cape in his mouth. Julius settles things down by revealing that most ground dragons calm down if you stroke their necks. Roswaal then makes an entrance and tells Emilia and Subaru something offscreen that based on content from Seasons 1 and 2 implies that since Ram lost her horn she can’t replenish her mana, examples being after she expended a lot of mana in the mansion arc and after Roswaal nearly killed her in a fit of rage, both scenarios requiring for Roswaal to tend to her since as Beatrice revealed in Episode 1 one’s mana is that organism’s lifeforce itself, which is why the subs talked about regulation, and I’m guessing it should’ve been rendered as mana regulation.

When the group arrives at Mirula, which seems to be a town close to the Auguria Dunes, Subaru and Emilia meet a man at a bar who tells them that nobody has reached the Pleiades Watchtower in four hundred years and that the place is crawling with mabeasts and miasma, urging them to not attempt the trip. Despite hearing that, the pair aren’t at all perturbed, and before they depart, the man calls out to them and tells them about how locals have always seen birds headed toward the tower, so if they get lost they should follow a bird since it may show them the way. Subaru sees his metal leg, and it’s clear why the man told them what he did as he was genuinely concerned for them as Emilia had said earlier and just wants them to live life and be healthy.

Once they’re out there, Subaru prods Julius about his spirits, and Julius replies that the situation is the same as it was since his name was eaten in that his contracted spirits stay by his side but are perplexed by the situation since they do not remember him. The contract he made with them is still intact, but he cannot use them in battle, probably until his name is recovered from Roy Alphard should that be possible. Thus, Julius shares in that moment that he’s weaker in combat now although Subaru’s reaction proves that he’s not great at keeping secrets, which Julius already knew from spending more and more time with him. And of course, Subaru banters with Julius in a somewhat sour way when he says he doesn’t want to have the title of the one who understands him the most in the world after Julius put that out there, showing that Julius considers Subaru, just like in the previous episode, a source of strength since Subaru’s the lone person proving that he exists.

Then the sand time arrives, and it’s just a huge sandstorm with the group continually headed toward the tower yet making no progress whatsoever. Subaru is wearing something over his nose and mouth to pretend him from breathing in the sand, and Anastasia tells Subaru after he opens the window of the carriage that she will keep her promise since they’re in the same boat here, and Subaru obviously is pretty close to Beatrice given he shared that it’s Foxidna rather than Anastasia operating right now in that body even though he said that he didn’t want to tell the others and cause a stir when they least needed it, but it also reinforced Julius’s earlier point that Subaru’s bad at keeping secrets. Subaru then goads Meili into showing that she has been keeping the mabeasts from acting up by commanding a gigantic sandworm into nearly attacking them before harmlessly sinking back into the sand since he didn’t realize that Meili could command mabeasts with her mind, and that’s a very powerful skill.

Finally, Foxidna chimes in that it’s clear that they might be going in circles ’cause the space here is warped with the sand here not connecting to the Pleiades Watchtower, which she calls a distortion, clearing showing Foxidna has at least some of Echidna’s knowledge on magic, and she says that the sand time when the wind picks up is the recoil from space twisting and returning to normal, meaning that the periods between the sand times are when the distortion is weakening, and that’s when they can find the real path to the tower with the one best suited to the job being Ram since she can use her Clairvoyance, which was revealed in Season 1, to guide them to the right path by tracking the mabeasts’ vision. Mabeasts that are still active obviously came from where the real tower is since Meili has already tamed the ones in their vicinity, but Ram is clearly struggling, and then Foxidna remarks that she saw a bird feather, prompting Subaru to look out and tell Ram to see through the birds based on what the man from earlier told them, which is successful.

They then arrive to what seems like an endless field of flowers, which Meili states are the hideout of Oiran Bears, leading her to quickly tell everyone to can it since this is a mabeast that is difficult to control as most mabeasts she can settle down just with her mind, but with this species of mabeast since she needs to also make eye contact with it and command it with verbal gestures and repeating a tch sound to express disapproval. However, Joseph gets unsettled, resulting in them being chased by a horde of Oiran Bears, and once they’ve nearly made it past the flower field, Subaru gets his head blasted straight to pieces by a light from the tower. Upon Returning by Death, Subaru has no idea what happened, and the same sequence happens again except Subaru tells the group they can’t run straight for the tower, leading to Subaru, Beatrice, and Ram being separated from the group. Then that same light is shot at Subaru again, only Patrasche knocks Subaru partially out of the way before being killed, and Beatrice seeing how hurt Subaru is, tells him with tears in her eyes and an expression of great sadness that he can’t die and leave her alone since before Season 2 all she had experienced time after time again was loss with losing Echidna, Roswaal, Ryuzu Meyer, Petelgeuse, and probably others given in Season 2 Beatrice remarked that Petelgeuse left her too, which was one of the reasons she was suicidal and needed to be persuaded by Subaru to leave the Forbidden Library, which was burning to the ground as part of Roswaal’s mansion, since she was waiting for a person who she thought might never come. Then that same light kills Beatrice before a final shot kills Subaru.

During the third loop of this scenario, Subaru, thinking back to Julius calming down Joseph by stroking his neck before they departed, decides to use his Invisible Providence to calm Joseph down so that he doesn’t make a ruckus, leading to the Oiran Bears attack not happening, and he thought back to Beatrice first, so his not wanting Beatrice to cry and be in despair may have given him the inspiration to dig deeper for a solution. He also put his hands over Beatrice’s mouth during that incident, likely ’cause Beatrice would feel the air current from the hand emerging and potentially get startled, so he couldn’t have her crying out in surprise. He then remarks about a hunch of his about a light from the tower, and the group takes him seriously with Ram pointing her Clairvoyance to the tower and seeing a living being looking at Subaru before shooting something at him, which took the combined efforts of Emilia and Julius to stop, and the light ended up being a needle supercharged by magic, probably yang magic since a lot of yin magic involves debuffs like Shamac, making something powered up like up most likely an application of yang magic. Ram then notes that another needle is coming, and Subaru and Beatrice use their combination technique E-M-T, most likely named after Emilia as in “Emilia, my Tenshi (as in angel)”, which nullifies all other magic from the field generated, which protects them from the needle, but E-M-T also resulted in the distortion in space coming undone, resulting in the group falling to who knows where, whether it be back to the disconnected sand or somewhere else entirely.

Now the rest of my post will be about names or tangentially related to them. I have to give Tappei props for coming with the name Oiran Bears. Oiran is a collective term for the highest-ranking courtesans in Japanese history. The highest-ranking oiran, the tayū, had the prestige of being able to refuse clients, and the kanji for oiran consist of two characters, 花, meaning “flower”, and 魁 meaning “leader”.

Thus, this is almost certainly why Oiran Bears hang out under what seems to be an endless field of flowers and why they are hard to control even for Meili, and this is why making moderate- to-loud noises makes oiran bears go berserk, making them the “leaders” among regular mabeasts in the difficulty to control them even for mabeast tamers.

Tappei has often shown that he carefully considers how he names characters, whether it be due to the star lore (Subaru is the Japanese term for Pleiades, which is also referred to as the Seven Sisters, which is why the seven deadly sins is an important part of the story), plot details (Otto refers to attar, which is a fragrant essential oil, and Otto bought a bunch of oil out of season that he desperately needed to sell), personality traits (Petra means ‘stone’, and she is fearless considering she told the others to abandon her when Elsa took hold of her), mabeast species traits (Guiltylowe has “lowe” in it referring to lion, which is why a Guiltylowe has the head of a lion), character roles (Wilhelm means “resolute protector”, and he did devote his life to ensuring Theresia fought as little as possible), character powers (Betelgeuse means Orion’s hand, which is why his power is Unseen Hand), and names in relation to others’ names (Frederica and Garfiel and Fred and Rafiel to show that Liara subconsciously remembers Garfiel and Frederia), so I’m sure this is another instance of that. Well done, Tappei, my man, in giving that species of mabeast an intriguing name that fits the traits it was given.

As for the name of the Sage, Shaula, it’s a name of Arabic origin translating as the raised tail of a scorpion. It’s also a star representing the stinger of the Scorpius constellation, which is likely how Shaula came to have that meaning. Let’s see whether this is referring to a power, lore, or something else. Tappei surely has cooked up something good for Shaula.

As a reminder from Seasons 2 and 3, Baten Kaitos meaning “belly of the whale”, Alphard meaning “the backbone of the serpent, and Arneb meaning “hare”, likely meant that each of them could control one of the Three Great Mabeasts, which is why Lye referred to the White Whale as our pet since the Sin Archbishops of Gluttony speak as if they are a unit. I’d hazard a guess that Meili cannot control any of the Three Great Mabeasts.

And since Subaru itself is the word for Pleiades in Japanese, the Pleaides Watchtower bearing his name is interesting. We’ll see what’s in store. It could indicate that the Pleiades Watchtower itself was planned to be built with Subaru’s arrival hundreds of years later in mind, meaning it may have been part of the plan the heroes from four hundred years ago I propose made to bring the world to a free future as alluded to Melakuera talking about the world imbalance and the Witch as well as him facing world ending crises countless times, suggesting that the world is stuck in a cycle of being destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed with Subaru being the one they hope will break this cycle.