As alluded to in the title, I believe Reid was teaching amnesiac Subaru to think for himself in Ep. 77 since this version of Subaru was really used to having everything explained to him, much like how he’d get an explanation on everything after he’d initially lost his memories and immediately after the first time he fell to his death.
More on this front is that I also believe Reid saying, “Ah, finally.” is him potentially following Echidna’s instruction in waiting for a specific cue before going after Julius, which was that rumbling he heard, which may have been what prompted him saying that.
Of course, maybe this is just White Fox being lazy on details, but while the first part of the GIF has Reid saying that Subaru came too early in Ep. 74 may imply he’s aware of the passage of time, in all the instances Reid had screen time, there was zero indication of in which direction the sun was shining, and given how heavily Re:Zero focuses on details and how the area in the second exam may be a special sort of space like Echidna’s Dream Castle, 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 3 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 Authority of Greed: 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 in the second and third parts of the GIF, which is very generous advice for someone who’s supposed to be an enemy, almost as if he’s guiding him in his own way, and this is especially notable since Reid is supposed to be someone who loves bullying the weak, so why did Reid seemingly give him any advice when the interaction could’ve been much shorter and even harsher (Yes, I know piercing his body was harsh)?
The words Reid said in the second and third cuts of the GIF may have been meant to highlight just how strange it was that amnesiac Subaru went to a higher floor, and particularly to him, even though amnesiac Subaru 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, which suggests something’s up.
Thus, I conclude Reid may have told amnesiac Subaru that he’s early ’cause he knew that the poor guy wasn’t really ready and was in no condition 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.
I strongly believe the Freud reference in Episode 69 was meant to show that Subaru’s the type to act on hunches and subconscious thoughts given what Freud is known for (and yes, I as told that in the WN it was a Kurapika reference and was a different reference in the LN, but the point still stands given an extra loop was cut off in this episode according to LN viewers as the Freud reference makes great sense in the anime given Subaru chose the path on the right). That’d be why Subaru chose the path on the right, ’cause it led to Satella’s sealed body as shown by the ever increasing amounts of miasma, and Satella herself had asked Subaru to love himself and then someday come kill her in Episode 38, which could be indicative of a lovers’ promise to kill her four hundred years ago, which Subaru subconsciously tried to fulfill or fought against fulfilling (either could work).
Where I’m going with this is that I’ve extrapolated the Freud content from Subaru in Ep. 69 to Ep. 70 to show that Subaru wasn’t crazy or stupid to think he had 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 where Satella lies within the vicinity of his soul, and since most visits to this dark world involve him dying, 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 in Ep. 70 despite it having been explained earlier in the episode that Reid died of old age 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 a version of Reid on one of the higher floors due to his time in the world 400 hundred years ago, 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.
That’d be part of the reason why amnesiac Subaru asked Reid any questions at all in Ep. 77 despite his last memory of him being how he pierced his body and inflicted so much pain to him, ’cause Flügel, Volcanica, and Reid were part of the Hero’s party, and Reid was most likely his friend 400 years ago, and amnesiac Subaru felt an affinity with him despite the pain he made him suffer through him. For more on why amnesiac Subaru could have any subconscious memories of Reid at all despite likely having his memories eaten by the Authority of Gluttony due to the line in Ep. 74, “Memories are what shape a person.” from Rui Arneb’s VA, read this: https://thoroughwatch.org/?p=281
Thus, I believe that Reid may have given Subaru a very teachable moment that he’ll need to draw upon by thinking for himself instead of having everything answered for him, which will be crucial for dealing with the issues of this arc. And given Reid’s words in Ep. 74 basically stated what amnesiac Subaru had to do, which is not avoid his friends and face them honestly, which is what he resolved to do in Ep. 77, I’m leaning to Reid perhaps having intentionally given him a leg up this episode.
Reid doesn’t necessarily need to be a nice guy. This version of Reid and perhaps even the original may have been in on the plan of the original Echidna to save the world, which Tea Party Echidna herself may have been following.
As for Reid not recognizing Emilia’s appearance or Shaula’s, this could possibly be explained by this Reid being an artificial construct of the Pleiades Watchtower, which was hinted at in this episode given it was implied that since the tower was under attack that he no longer had to stay on the second floor. Thus, this Reid may have partially formed due to a Book of the Dead, specifically Reid’s, and not its entire contents, with the memories he did have forming the basis of this version of Reid’s soul, and if I’m right about Books of the Dead being partially a by-product of Echidna’s Authority, that may give Echidna some power over this version of Reid.
This episode isn’t filled to the brim with content, so I’ll take a more standard approach and try not to recap as much as humanly possible. The episode leads with Ram calling amnesiac Subaru an imposter, so he charges right at her with the intent to kill, leading to Emilia trapping him in an ice cage with Ram threatening to kill him if he implies one more time that he forgot about Rem, having pushed Emilia out of the way when Ram had otherwise initially intended to torture him due to believing he might be a Sin Archbishop.
I don’t consider Ram’s anger at Subaru to be misplaced. Ram was really reliant on Subaru ’cause she can feel that Rem carries the same blood in her veins as she does, and given Rem’s feats in the mansion arc were adjusted in her mind, she has a higher opinion of Subaru than before Rem was erased by Lye Batenkaitos. To Ram, Subaru is the anchor tying her to Rem, and was the lone person, to her knowledge, who remembered her, and it just shows much she’s relying on Subaru that she’s lashing out in anger due to her own feeling of powerlessness since Subaru not remembering Rem means that Rem has lost her greatest champion. I feel calling Ram’s anger misplaced shows that one’s not being empathetic enough of the current situation as even though Julius had completely forgotten Joshua in Season 3, he still felt an emptiness and sense that something was missing, which is why Roy Alphard was able to mess with him, showing that Ram can also certainly feel that something was missing herself. It’s all the more understanding that Ram had the level of anger she did at amnesiac Subaru since to her Subaru’s possibly the only person in this world who’d never forget Rem even if everyone else did, so this man before her acting as suspiciously as he has would of course test her patience given she doesn’t know him to be the Subaru she put her faith in for restoring her sister, and we know how much she approved of Subaru’s relationship with Rem and his resolve to save her in Ep. 67 despite having no memory of it herself.
Amnesiac Subaru then blacks out and finds the ice cage destroyed with “Natsuki Subaru was here” carved into so much of the wall, and Reid comments on that with the scene change showing that it was almost certainly Rui Arneb, who could change into the form of somebody who’d previously been eaten, who made the carvings as there were carvings even above the door, which Subaru wouldn’t have the strength to carve into the wall himself given his height. He then asks Reid whether he didn’t previously say that he couldn’t leave the second floor, to which Reid says that the whole premise behind that is gone now, likely ’cause whatever mind manipulation magic or spatial loop that stopped him from leaving was no longer in effect due to one of the tower’s rules having been broken in that the tower was under attack, which of course comes with a flick to amnesiac Subaru’s head since amnesiac Subaru isn’t thinking things through, and I believe it’s a valuable lesson he needs to learn, possibly an intentional lesson from Reid given his cryptic remark at 3:22, “Ah, finally,” showing he may have been been waiting for that specific moment when the tower starts crumbling as a cue to when to engage Julius due to this version of him possibly still being on the side of Satella and Echidna with his mind being linked to Echidna’s, giving him future knowledge that can explain why he may have wanted to teach amnesiac Subaru a lesson.
Once they’ve made it to where Julius is, Julius is fighting a ton of those centaur/horse mabeasts, and when Julius is about to take a fireball at full strength, amnesiac Subaru warns him, saving him from certain death, much to Meilibaru’s chagrin, and Reid joins Julius and just shreds all the mabeasts to death while putting up a stink about how the exam is beginning again, forcing Julius to fight him once more, and Julius remarks that he leaves Foxidna and Anastasia to amnesiac Subaru, which stirred something in him given most of the group hadn’t been trusting him.
He then runs into Beatrice and Foxidna, the latter of whom “outwardly projected” that she believes he can’t be trusted, and Foxidna right then and there drops the most suspicious lines she’s had all season as if the previous stuff wasn’t already enough to make her suspect in that she believes she should’ve trusted Anastasia’s intuition and not have brought anyone else here aside from Subaru, showing she lied about Anastasia lying asleep deep within her od all this time, which is the container of her soul, since that comment shows she had talked to Anastasia about her plans to an extent, and given this is the linchpin of her arguments around having nothing to hide, I believe it calls into question pretty much everything she’s said this season. I believe Foxidna fully has the Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom, much like the original Echidna and also Tea Party Echidna, and that’s why she put it into Subaru’s head to bring Rem with him to the Pleiades Watchtower, ’cause Foxidna had been driving Subaru to one very specific future, which required Rem to be at the tower.
He then has an identity crisis and doesn’t care about Foxidna’s supposed blunder ’cause he’s not like the Subaru they know, retorting that it’s not an act since nobody would actually willingly choose to be Natsuki Subaru and the asshole that he is. As he’s breaking down due to how unfair the situation seems to him, he starts berating himself and asks to be forgiven and sent home due to this being too much for him. Foxidna says that that’s enough and that Beatrice can stay with him since she intends to find Julius, but amnesiac Subaru won’t let her go due to it being in his nature to help others and abide by Julius’s request. They then get attacked by a scorpion mabeast trying to snipe them, which is probably Shaula when she becomes a mindless killing machine when one of the tower’s rules are broken, and he saves Foxidna from falling to her death, leading to her asking him to stop being so unpredictable, and what he’d done was as much of a surprise to him as it was to her. She then blasted Shaula with El Jiwald, which tore off a piece of the scorpion mabeast.
Foxidna then asks him, “What in the world are you? Whose side are you on, and what is your goal?” probably to continue her ruse, and Beatrice finished his sentence in saying that he doesn’t remember, but she’s okay with that since she remembers that he brought her out of the Forbidden Library and always will, showing that Subaru’s words in Episode 49 were correct in that the time she spends with him would be so fun that he’ll forever be ingrained in her memories. Then Foxidna steps on a piece of Shaula’s body that was left behind, and it explodes, killing Beatrice, who took on the full brunt of the explosion so that her beloved contractor would survive. Later, even as Foxidna is getting dragged along the ground by him, asks him whether it should’ve been Beatrice over her that he took with him, which may have been survivor’s guilt or just really good acting, to make him think back to how Beatrice sacrificed herself for him and how he was loved. He then apologizes for Foxidna’s pain, and she merely retorts that her pain is penance for Anastasia given if she were to return her body now Anastasia would experience this pain and the horror of death, so she requests of him that she wouldn’t mind being put out of her misery, and once he again, he hears Meilibaru implying it’s a perfect opportunity to finish her off so that he can read her Book of the Dead, and he seriously considered doing so with a piece of rock but ultimately rejected Meili’s approach, showing he still had his own identity even if he’d taken in the Meili personality as his own, leading to Foxidna forgiving him and being sorry for having doubted him even if it’s potentially a ruse meant to give him the courage to believe in himself.
Then the Witch of Envy appears with her shadow hands from yin magic, not the Authority of Sloth, given Garfiel could see these hands in Season 2 ’cause yin magic can produce these hands, and the tell is that her vocabulary is limited to “I love you” as seen here or “Love me” from Season 2. Amnesiac Subaru is of course ranting that he doesn’t leave love himself, so how can anyone love him? This is despite knowing that his parents loved him deeply ’cause he’s rejecting other people’s love for him due to how much self-hatred he has for himself, much like in Season 1, when Rem had to put it so much effort for his From Zero moment. And he’d realized deep down that people who treated him so well couldn’t possibly be bad, so he wished that this could be his last life for ever having doubted them in the first place due to his doubt of them making him believe he was even more unlovable still, leading to the Witch of Envy enveloping him with her shadow hands before Emilia cuts the hands down and takes him away.
After they’d ran for a while, he then protests that that’s enough as he doesn’t understand why she and all the others trusted him and protected him, and after sharing the news of Beatrice and Foxidna’s death, he says that they’re all idiots for expecting anything of him. Emila then gives amnesiac Subaru a touching pep talk sharing all that he did for her, eventually resulting in her falling for him as he’s in complete despair, mirroring Ep. 40, A Reason To Believe, when she was the one with memory issues and at her breaking point, and as this happened, he ranted about how risking his life for somebody else, instinctively saving someone’s life, running around trying his best for someone else other than himself, and putting his life on the line to accomplish something for someone other than himself are things that Subaru couldn’t do as he believes he knows Subaru better than anyone and how pitiful, pathetic, and hopelessly rotten he really is due to his not having any of his memories from his time in the world prior to experiencing amnesia, emphasizing what a piece of trash he believes Subaru is, sounding so pained in admitting it, showing how great of a job his seiyuu is doing.
He then says that it doesn’t have to be him as surely there are others stronger and smarter out there who’s more capable of solving the issues here, and Emilia’s patient with him, merely requesting that he tell her his name even though she has so much she wants to say to him and ask him, and when he pleads to her to give him a reason, she says that she knows there are many people who are stronger and smarter than he is but that she wouldn’t want it to be anyone other than him ’cause rather than someone else doing it just ’cause they can or ’cause they happen to be there, it’s so much better when it’s the person she loves, a callback to when Subaru said in Ep. 40 that he realizes that Emilia isn’t perfect and causes him a lot of trouble but that he loves her regardless and also a callback to Ep. 18, From Zero, when Rem shared all that she loved about him he wouldn’t accept as being legitimately a part of himself, both great moments in the series that rejuvenated Emilia and Subaru respectively. As an aside, I don’t expect Emilia to realize that she’s in love with Subaru as readily as she did in this episode given it took amnesiac Subaru not acting like her Subaru for her to catch on to the fact that she does since that forced her to look inward and see what Subaru really meant to her. Without a catalyst like that, it’s possible there’s some stagnancy in this dynamic.
Amnesiac Subaru then decides he will accept that he’s Natsuki Subaru when prompted by Emilia once again, the one Julius relies on, the one Beatrice believes in, the one Foxidna forgave, and the one Emilia wishes for him to be, taking on the mantle/mask of someone he believes is greater to get him through this situation much like how he became Rem’s Hero in Ep. 18, and he does want to help her and the others and save her from the tower, and if Subaru can do that, he’ll be him, thanking her from the bottom of his heart for allowing him to believe in himself, and then the ground underneath Emilia crumbles, leading to her falling into a deep void with him following her and managing to take her hand before they end up in a pit of miasma that depicts his memories, which I’m guessing is a creative liberty rather than him actually falling into his own memories, and he resolves to remember them all and not to choose to see it as an end but a beginning even though the others will forget since he won’t.
While he says that he’s back after he’s looped, his hair is still in the same style as amnesiac Subaru, showing what he regained was his resolve and conviction, not his memories. From having watched Vivy: Fluorite’s Eye’s Song, which leaned hard into the message that autonomous AI who have a back-up of itself loaded isn’t exactly the same entity, I’m guessing Tappei has a message that’s not entirely the same in that it’s in Subaru’s core to be himself in wanting to help others even if it retains that same message in that memories and experiences shape who you are since amnesiac Subaru is taking on the mantle/mask of Natsuki Subaru rather than truly becoming him outright. Re:Zero seems to be supporting the belief that the nature and nurture approaches are intrinsically linked with its story across four seasons, and I welcome that instead of a hard nature vs. nurture approach. And where I’m going with my comment regarding the nature approach is that he resisted his mixing with Meilibaru, who had an inclination to solve problems through killing even though he’d taken in Meili’s memories, thoughts, and emotions, which was a huge environmental change, and given he’d experienced her whole life, he did really well to fight back that inner darkness in desiring to kill even though he only loosely associated with being Subaru.
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.
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.
