With Subaru choosing to save Emilia, Felt, and Rom in Ep. 2, and amnesiac Subaru deciding to save Julius, instinctively save Foxidna, and refuse to end Foxidna’s misery, defying the environmental influence of the Meilibaru personality from having read Meili’s Book of the Dead, this shows that Subaru is inherently kind and that even though Re:Zero’s story focuses heavily on how one’s environment influences your personality and behaviour, Re:Zero doesn’t outright ignore the contribution of one’s genetics, showing Tappei believes that both nature and nurture influence one’s being.
I believe Subaru may be resistant to overcoming his self-esteem issues, so this turn of events with amnesiac Subaru may actually further Subaru along on that front by helping him see he’s an inherently good person, and this episode dramatically increases the chances of Re:Zero having a good ending.
Melakuera’s words about the Witch, the world imbalance, and how he’d faced world-ending crises countless times suggests that the world is constantly destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed. Given Melakuera likely didn’t exist at the start of the time if Re:Zero’s fantasy world had ever been molten as lesser spirits take time to become Great Spirits, his words indicated that the world is constantly getting destroyed, and given Melakuera has retained his memories, it’s likely not an infinite loop as at least one entity is being re-summoned into the next iteration of the world with his memories, and that’s how I formed this theory.
In the distant past the final boss could very well have used his/her Authority to bias the story path of the world after the handsome, conceited, and overpowered hero of that era chose his lover over the world, and since then all iterations of the Hero of the story had to fit that mold of handsome, conceited, and overpowered until Flügel, Satella, and Echidna interrupted the story path of the world being destroyed for that iteration of the world/story to make artificial Heroes of the story in Al and Subaru. That could be why Flugel was such a bastard ’cause the final boss’s Authority forced him into that mold I mentioned, assuming my theory is sound.
I don’t believe Subaru is fully Flügel but moreso half of Flügel in the past given Naoko in Subaru’s first Sanctuary trial from Ep. 29 said that all Subaru needs to do is become half as cool as his dad, which is a strange thing to say to your son you know has an inferiority complexity centered around his dad, especially since he’s your husband, and thus, Naoko’s remark could have been foreshadowing of the situation from four hundred years ago given Kenichi means “wise man”, Subaru called Flügel a wise man who lived centuries ago in Ep. 16, and Shaula called her master, Flügel the Wise Man in Ep. 70.
While Flügel was the Hero of the story, 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 due to soul eradication wouldn’t be permitted by the parameters of the story path, 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 previously had as he’d have lost his Hero designation.
Anyway, assuming my theory has some truth to it, that crazy Authority could be bending reality and make it harder for Subaru to overcome his self-esteem issues to try and maintain the basic story path of the original turning point event eons ago, so having Subaru become whole again with amnesiac Subaru’s experiences may help him improve his self-esteem, even if only a bit, showing that a combination of nature and nurture will allow Subaru to do what Flügel couldn’t, which is truly save the world instead of letting the world burn for his lover and not just punt it down the road for a future Hero of the story as I believe Flügel did, and that may have been why Satella even became the Witch of Envy 400 years ago, both to serve as an example to Flügel four hundred years ago and influence Subaru in present-day Re:Zero as part of the grand plan from that time period with Subaru’s words in Ep. 29, Parent and Child, on how only someone who hates the world would choose mayonnaise over the world possibly being foreshadowing of Subaru’s main dilemma at the end of Re:Zero, choosing between Emilia and the world. I know it’d be painful for Subaru to part with Emilia, but I believe they’ll at least get married before that happens, and Subaru will be able to put aside his own strong inclination to choose Emilia over the world to end the cycle of the world being destroyed and reconstructed, culminating in him challenging and defeating the final boss of the series, whoever he/she is.
As the title indicates, I don’t believe that Subaru can have both his name and memories eaten like Rem or the three Lye had eaten in Ep. 66 of Re:Zero, and Subaru potentially not being able to experience this doesn’t disprove my previous speculation about him not having immunities to Authorities.
Given Melakuera likely didn’t exist at the start of the time if Re:Zero’s fantasy world had ever been molten as lesser spirits take time to become Great Spirits, his words indicated that the world is constantly getting destroyed, and given Melakuera has retained his memories, it’s likely not an infinite loop as at least one entity is being re-summoned into the next iteration of the world with his memories, and that’s how I formed this theory.
In the distant past the final boss could very well have used his/her Authority to bias the story path of the world after the handsome, conceited, and overpowered hero of that era chose his lover over the world, and since then all iterations of the Hero of the story had to fit that mold of handsome, conceited, and overpowered until Flügel, Satella, and Echidna interrupted the story path of the world being destroyed for that iteration of the world/story to make artificial Heroes of the story in Al and Subaru. That would be why Flugel was such a bastard ’cause the final boss’s Authority forced him into that mold I mentioned, assuming my theory is sound.
I don’t believe Subaru is fully Flügel but moreso half of Flügel in the past given Naoko in Subaru’s first Sanctuary trial said that all Subaru needs to do is become half as cool as his dad, which is a strange thing to say to your son you know has an inferiority complexity centered around his dad, especially since he’s her husband, and thus, Naoko’s remark could have been foreshadowing of the situation from 400 years ago given Kenichi means “wise man”, Subaru called Flügel a wise man who lived centuries ago in Episode 16, and Shaula called her master, Flügel the Wise Man in Episode 70.
While Flügel was the Hero of the story, 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 due to soul eradication wouldn’t be permitted, 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 previously had as he’d lost his Hero designation.
Thus, Subaru likely cannot have both his name and memories eaten since it’s basically akin to your soul being eaten with your existence erased from the world, and as the current Hero of the story, his soul should be indivisible, meaning Subaru can only have either his name or memories eaten, not both, due to his unique privilege as the Hero of the story, not some innate immunity to the Authority of Gluttony.
I believe Episode 74 shows may show the limits of the Authority of Gluttony’s ability to erase memories since amnesiac Subaru perhaps still having subconscious memories of Reid, given the words Reid said in the last two images may have been meant to highlight just how strange it was that he went to a higher floor, and particularly to him, even though he was told that the group was more interested in going to the higher floors ’cause they wanted to find out what happened to him and pass the exams so that they could leave, suggests something’s up.
First, I need to go over certain content I have before to ensure this theory makes sense. As shown by Ep. 69, Subaru may have chosen the path on the right since much of Freud’s work involved one acting on hunches and subconscious thoughts. The girls thought that the doors were meant to keep out mabeasts due to Patrasche’s irritability, but given the increasing levels of miasma, that path most likely lead to Satella since someone with a Witch Factor would emit the extremely high amount of miasma that could be found at the end of the tunnel given we know Satella’s sealed somewhere in the Auguria Dunes.
Given Subaru was requested by Satella to kill her some day after he comes to love himself, it may have been a promise he made to her 400 years ago. And whether he wanted to kill Satella or save her, he subconsciously realized she was at the end of the tunnel, and that’s why he chose the path on the right.
Where I’m going with this is that I’ve extrapolated the Freud content from Subaru in Eps. 69-70 to show that Subaru wasn’t crazy or stupid to think he’d Returned By Death at the start of the episode when he woke up on Emilia’s lap given he woke up in a new place, and it was ’cause he subconsciously realized that he’d been to the dark world, and since most of the situations Subaru finds himself in the dark world are after he dies, he instinctively thought that he’d died, not ’cause he has no brain or is a super irrational person, but ’cause he subconsciously linked dying with going to the dark world.
As such, I theorize Subaru thinking of Reid despite it having been explained earlier in the episode that Reid died of old age years ago is also ’cause subconsciously he knows what’s in the tower much like he knew the path to the right in the cave/tunnel led to Satella, and he knows there’s probably a Reid on one of the higher floors, and that’s why Subaru thought about Reid in the moment Shaula said she gives no thought to who she’s killed, not ’cause he can’t remember basic details, but since he’s letting his subconscious thoughts and hunches drive him.
Previously, I suspected 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, but this current situation with Subaru perhaps having subconscious memories of Reid could show that the Authority of Gluttony cannot erase memories of Reid from 400 years ’cause they are considered from a different world entirely, possibly due to the power of the Authority of the final boss of Re:Zero, who I believe has the power to bias the story path to his/her liking with the story of whoever the Hero of the story is at the time considered a different world entirely from the Hero who came before and the Hero who came after and so on. I believe the true final boss is a man/woman with an Authority that biases the story path based on actions that had happened in the past.
To rehash something I need to get across, I don’t believe Subaru is fully Flügel but moreso half of Flügel in the past given Naoko in Subaru’s first Sanctuary trial said that all Subaru needs to do is become half as cool as his dad, which is a strange thing to say to your son you know has an inferiority complexity centered around his dad, especially since he’s your gigachad husband, and thus, Naoko’s remark could have been foreshadowing of the situation from 400 years ago given Kenichi means “wise man”, Subaru called Flügel a wise man who lived centuries ago in Episode 16, and Shaula called her master, Flügel the Wise Man in Episode 70, which are three elements that may be pointing to the same thing given how often Re:Zero makes use of the number three.
I believe “The End of the Beginning and the Beginning of the End” could actually be referring to Subaru’s summoning being the endgame scenario, much like the MCU’s Endgame after Thanos did his snap, meaning a whole shitload of planning happened before that. I believe Echidna, Satella, Flügel, (Kenichi and Subaru in the same body) and potentially others, such as Reid, started a grand plan 400 years ago to make Subaru the Hero of the story in the story who would break the trap the world is currently bound by.
It’s possible Subaru was built up the way he was to end the cycle of the world being destroyed by the Witch of Envy and reconstructed that was alluded to by Melakuera in his remarks about the Witch and the world imbalance and how he’d faced world-ending crises countless times. Given Melakuera likely didn’t exist at the start of the time if Re:Zero’s fantasy world had ever been molten as lesser spirits take time to become Great Spirits, his words indicated that the world is constantly getting destroyed, and given Melakuera has retained his memories, it’s likely not an infinite loop as at least one entity is being re-summoned into the next iteration of the world with his memories, and that’s how I formed this theory.
In the distant past the final boss could very well have used his/her Authority to bias the story path of the world after the handsome, conceited, and overpowered hero of that era chose his lover over the world, and since then all iterations of the Hero of the story had to fit that mold of handsome, conceited, and overpowered until Flügel, Satella, and Echidna interrupted the story path of the world being destroyed for that iteration of the world/story to make artificial Heroes of the story in Al and Subaru. That would be why Flugel was such a bastard ’cause the final boss’s Authority forced him into that mold I mentioned.
And thus, since Reid was from the era when Flügel may have been the Hero of the story four hundred years ago, which would be considered a different world due to the Authority that biases the story path that I posit exists, meaning memories from the time period of the story of Flügel cannot be erased even though the world wasn’t destroyed in that era due to the current world setting being the story of Subaru, the current Hero of the story, which could perhaps point to the absolute limits of the Authority of Gluttony in only being able to erase memories that came after Flügel’s time as the Hero of the story, aka the current story. I don’t know how Al’s time in this world plays into it, but we’ll see in the future, I guess.
As for why I believe Subaru doesn’t have resistances to Authorities like I had believed in the past, first up will be Subaru’s interaction with Sirius’s Authority of Wrath. Subaru was always shown falling for Sirius’s Authority. It may have taken longer in subsequent loops, but it always happened, and that suggests it’s just ’cause he learned what exactly it did to try to keep him himself in the right state of mind to delay falling under Sirius’s control. Others were also able to resist the effect of this Authority, like with Priscilla, who’d closed her heart to an extent due to a past incident, and Liliana, whose singing could counter it and who was focused on doing her duty to save those under Sirius’s control, which Priscilla worked to make her feel passionate about, including kissing her when she momentarily fell under Sirius’s control herself.
Next up is Subaru’s interaction with Capella’s Authority of Lust. Given that Capella’s blood transforms others if they are defeated by its curse and that she can transform herself, her blood itself may be tied to her Authority of Lust. Thus, I believe Subaru handling Capella’s dragon’s blood way better than Crusch did can be explained by how that blood essentially contains a curse, and since Subaru was already filled with dormant Ulgarm curses which never activated due to Roswaal and Rem slaughtering all those that cursed him, they acted to counteract that black dragon curse.
Episode 56 (Season 3 Episode 6) depicted the Ulgarm curses battling the black dragon curse, and they seemed to reach a harmony of sorts, which is why instead of Subaru getting transformed into something else entirely, the parts of his body affected by the black dragon curse heal when damaged, making it kind of a hybrid state in that his body tries to return to its previous human shape, but due to the black dragon curse, it regrows into the mutated state. So it wouldn’t be that Subaru has a resistance to this Authority but that extraneous factors manifested in him seemingly manifesting a resistance to it.
On the platter next is that many fans have long wondered why Subaru could see Petelgeuse’s Authority of Sloth: Unseen Hand when nobody else could after he’d died after seeing it once. Perhaps this is due to Petelgeuse having licked Subaru’s eye in Ep. 15, and when this happened, part of Petelgeuse’s soul entered Subaru or maybe he was already preparing Subaru as a Finger like he’d done with his one hundred minions in Season 1, and that carried over when Subaru looped, which is how Petelgeuse was able to possess Subaru easily in Ep. 18 after Puck destroyed his main body, laughing until Subaru reset, and again possess him in Ep. 23. So it may not be Subaru having a resistance to his Authority but also externals factors that contributed to Subaru having an advantage against Petelgeuse.
As for Subaru remembering Gluttony victims who’ve had their names eaten, I believe Foxidna also remembers Julius too even if that’s a controversial take. It could just be Subaru being Subaru with his having resistances to Authorities, but Foxidna in Season 4 with how she thought that there’s more to it than that on Reinhard and Felix being friends to Julius in Ep. 67, how her gaze was directed at Julius along with her look of discomfort in Ep. 70 when Shaula was shattering Julius’s fantasy of Reid Astrea being a man of exemplary character ’cause of his sword skills whereas nobody else paid him any heed, suggesting that she knew that Reid had been his idol from his childhood whom he looked up to, indicating a closeness to Julius the others this arc don’t have, and in Ep. 72 when I believe she spammed Jiwald to direct Subaru’s thoughts to be primarily focused on Julius to avoid one of the bad futures in Emilia’s third Sanctuary trial.
Thus, I believe Foxidna herself remembers Julius, either due to having a Witch Factor or witch miasma, which are the common denominators between the original Echidna and Subaru, that they were both hosts of Witch Factors. Echidna may have split her soul into Foxidna 400 years ago, which would make Foxidna speaking with Echidna’s speech pattern in Episode 67 and Break Time Season 4 Episode 8 make sense.
Of course, with Regulus having died without using his Authority on Subaru, we’ll never know whether he can speed up Subaru to into a fast projectile as that might’ve been the best way to find out if Subaru had a resistance to his Authority, but I conclude with the use cases we have currently that, no, Subaru doesn’t have a resistance to other people’s Authorities, and every instance that seems to be an innate resistance can be chalked up to being due to something else.
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.
