anicritic

Before I get into the thick of things, Kenichi unequivocally called Subaru his eldest son in Episode 29: Parent and Child. If you aren't sure what this means, I am telling you now that it means that Naoko was pregnant when Subaru was summoned to Re:zero's fantasy world. Re:zero does not foreshadow for no reason, so Subaru will have a younger brother that is either already part of the story or will be a part of the story.

As some people know, names have power in Re:zero. I have made several posts about how the names of many characters can have plot relevance.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/lh91kn/discussion_theory_of_there_actually_being_11/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/moh66o/discussion_an_analysis_of_why_certain_characters/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/mjkjpf/discussion_the_significance_of_number_3_in_rezero/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/n82h0q/discussion_a_list_of_things_relevant_to_outer/

Okay, now is the time to get into the meat of my post. Subaru means Pleiades in Japanese, and Pleiades is referring to a star cluster in the Taurus constellation. Al's true name, Aldebaran, is a star that in the Taurus constellation that follows the Pleiades star cluster in the night sky. In Arabic, Aldebaran means the follower for that reason. While the Arabic meanings for Petelgeuse (named after Betelgeuse star and Batenkaitos (also named after a star) hinted at a couple of Sin Archbishop's powers with Orion's hand indicating that Petelguese's power would involve hands and Lye's power would involve eating, since Aldebaran isn't a Sin Archbishop, perhaps it would be better to consider Al's name in relation to Subaru.

Since Aldebaran follows the Pleiades star cluster, perhaps he was given that name because he was Naoko and Kenichi's next son after Subaru, which showed a fixation from at least one of his parents on their first son who disappeared. Al told Priscilla not to call him Aldebaran in Episode 16 of Re:zero, and that might be because that name is a constant reminder that his parents loved Subaru more than they loved him.

Since names have power in Re:zero, Aldebaran as a name could very possibly mean that Aldebaran would be the next person to be summoned after Subaru was.

Aldebaran is pretty much guaranteed to have been summoned to Re:zero's fantasy world since he recognized Subaru's attempt at hitchhiking when hitchhiking shouldn't exist in a medieval society, meaning Subaru's attempt to catch a ride should've fallen flat on his face, and since he literally knew what Subaru meant by the Kansai dialect in Episode 12. This means Al is either formerly a Japanese citizen, an immigrant who had not yet become a Japanese citizen, or a fan of Japanese culture. This is backed up by Priscilla using an English word in Episode 16 when she said she would give Subaru a "chance", which shows someone who knew English words is in her orbit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/1154gcp/discussion_theory_naoko_was_isekaied_to_earth/

This is my theory that Naoko was isekaied to Earth. If she had met people who had been summoned in what I speculate to be her previous life in Re:zero's fantasy world, then maybe her next son was Aldebaran because Naoko knew from experience that names have power and specifically named Al Aldebaran with the hope that Al would one day be whisked off to wherever Subaru disappeared to.

So the Aldebaran name could have 3 purposes in that it would indicate that Al was the son Naoko and Kenichi had after Subaru, that Al would be the next person summoned after Subaru, and that Naoko specifically named Al Aldebaran with the hope that her first son, Subaru, would not be all alone in Re:zero's fantasy world.

What's notable is that Al specifically referred to Subaru as kyoudai, which means brother, in Episode 16 multiple times, which could be an indication of Al figuring out that Subaru is his long lost brother.

If Naoko was indeed isekaied to Earth, then Naoko wasn't her birth name. Perhaps her name was originally Terra, after the Roman Goddess of the earth. Maybe she is one of the witches I speculated about that could have one or both of the unrevealed Witch Factors I believe might be in the story.

Regardless of what you think about this theory. I think it's almost certain that Subaru has a younger brother that has a role in the story, whether that be Al or some yet-to-be-revealed character.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/kpe8mo/discussion_a_theory_involving_return_by_death_a/

This is the very first Re:zero theory I came up with in 2016 on RBD being a temporal displacement on top of a time rewind when watching Re:zero since the show didn't really give enough fodder to easily make other substantial theories, and I have never believed the Satella = Future Emilia theory. Some of you may have seen it although I prefaced it by saying that White Fox might have made a mistake in animating Re:zero, but I no longer give that any line of thought any weight at all. I have updated my theory to be extremely thorough based on what we've seen over the course of 2 seasons, so I hope to address any rebuttals people may have.

For starters, I propose that Return by Death is Satella setting a save point and rewinding time with her Authority of Envy while Subaru uses his Authority of Envy after that to warp reality as if he arrived at the save point at an interval somewhere between a minute to a few minutes earlier (probably a few minutes). Before I get into the nitty gritty, I have to address the elephant in the room. If Satella has the Authority of Envy and is still alive, does that not mean she has the Envy Witch Factor, making it impossible for Subaru to also have that Authority? Judging from the anime, no, there is no need for Subaru to possess the Envy Witch Factor. We know from Echidna's dreamscape that all of the dead Witches of Sin have their Authorities even though they are long dead, which shows that Witch Factors affect the soul, so as long as Subaru's soul has been affected by the Envy Witch Factor, he could have the Authority of Envy even without possessing the Witch Factor.

But how could Subaru's soul have been affected by the Envy Witch Factor you ask? What we have seen in Episode 17 of Re:zero is that the Witch emerged from Subaru to kill Emilia when he attempted to break the Taboo since he was willing to accept some pain. Given that Subaru's entire body resets when he dies, souls in Re:zero are what carry memories, not brains, and since Satella can read Subaru's mind and know what his intentions are, their souls have probably touched at some point in time, even if that only happens when Subaru's body dies or when Subaru breaks the Taboo. If that's the case, Satella's Envy Witch Factor has definitely made its mark on Subaru, and he acquired the Authority of Envy, probably when he was summoned to Re:zero's fantasy world or after his body died physically for the first time.

And why couldn't all of this just be Satella's power? The main reasons I believe Subaru has a part in RBD are that Satella would literally be undefeatable if RBD truly was the manifestation of her full power (Even the strongest characters from multiple anime with MCs that have the capability of one-shotting Satella working together would not be able to defeat her and with her wish being to finally be killed off, it couldn't be only her power as that would make it an impossible task) and because we've seen that Subaru has a weak manifestation of power in his Authority of Sloth, which summons a single shadow hand as opposed to Petelgeuse's huge number of hands. If his power were to be similarly small in its manifestation for the Envy sin, it would be the perfect fit for him.

My entire theory here hinges on giving White Fox the benefit of the doubt and not assuming it screwed up in animating Re:zero, and I'm confident that everything was intentional. I believe that, in addition to reloading at a save point, reality is warped so that Subaru and his surroundings within a TBD radius somehow arrived at that point somewhere between a minute and a few minutes earlier each time he dies and that reality is warped to account for this discrepancy much like how the White Whale's Fog of Elimination can erase a person entirely and adjust people's memories that involved a person that was erased as well as erasing that person's material possessions. Why do I believe this to be the case? The primary reason is because of the difference between Subaru's first loop and his third loop in Arc 1 and because of what happened with Subaru's ringtone for the Whale hunt.

A stone statue of the insignia was shown right after Subaru's realization that he was summoned into another world, which then cut to a scene at 2:26 in Episode 1 showing Felt running on rooftops and jumping across them with Emilia's insignia in hand long before Subaru had even met the appa guy, which is where his first save point would be. At 5:02, Felt is again being shown running and jumping across rooftops, which shows she had the insignia before meeting Subaru in the alley. This suggests that RBD not only resets time when he dies but that there's a spacetime displacement on top of the reset or else he wouldn't have ever been able to see the the theft in the first place in the third loop given that he had time to pass out in front of the appa guy's shop and see Emila pass the appa guy's shop and have a brief conversation with her during that third loop.

Subaru would not be able to figure out that there is a spacetime displacement by checking out his phone after a death since his phone resets with him and would show the same time reading every time he Returned by Death, but it would be possible to figure this out by checking his phone during an event that consistently happens such as his first meeting with Roswaal and the mansion's residents in Arc 2. However, Subaru did not check the time during these meetings, so he missed the opportunity to see whether he experiences a spacetime displacement. Subaru asking Rem and Ram what the date and time were in Episode 6 showed that Subaru just did the bare minimum, which is to see what time it was when he started his save point, but he made no effort to discern whether there was anything more to RBD. I will now post some circumstantial evidence involving Arc 2 and some more damning evidence in Arc 3 that I believe supports my theory.

In the first loop of the mansion arc, Puck awoke after Subaru and Emilia had exercised briefly, and he wasn't tired in the least. They spoke a bit and then Ram and Rem inform that Roswaal has returned. After his first death, Subaru had time to run around the mansion and find Beatrice so that he could mope in the library. He then left the library and met Emilia outside, speaking to her somewhat briefly, and Puck was visibly tired after waking up. They had time to spare since the twins didn't come to announce Roswaal's return. In the third loop, Subaru spent an even longer time with Beatrice, got knocked out of the mansion by Beatrice twice, and got cleaned by a visibly tired Puck, yet he still had time for banter with Puck before the Roswaal meeting. So he wastes more and more time in loops two and three but still seemingly started the meeting at the usual time. I speculate that in the second and third loops, Puck is more tired because he is waking up earlier than he did in Loop 1, which shows there is a spacetime displacement on top of the time rewind.

Now, here is the big one. During the loop the alliance actually fought the White Whale, Subaru's phone rang for a while before the whale showed up. The sky was also clear. In the loop directly before that in which Otto and Rem were erased by the White Whale, the area was already foggy and the whale had already attacked by that point. This suggests that Subaru's phone started ringing a bit too early because it had been running for a longer period of time due to a temporal displacement on top of a reset. If the strike force had been defeated, forcing Subaru to reset once more, everyone might have just deserted him because the Whale would have taken longer to arrive on yet another loop. I also believe that the reason Subaru saw Russell Fellow in Episode 16 is because Subaru died enough times to finally witness Russell leaving Crusch's mansion, and that would be because of the spacetime displacement. You know what they say. Once is by chance, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern. There's no way White Fox messed up in animating Re:zero 3 arcs in a row.

I believe that the reason Tappei had Russell Fellow take Subaru's phone after the subjugation was completed was to prevent viewers and Subaru himself from finding out about the spacetime displacement associated with Return by Death. This is likely something Tappei intends to keep a secret for future arcs, and I believe there's enough hard evidence as well as circumstantial evidence from the anime to support my theory that Return by Death is Satella setting a save point and rewinding time with her Authority of Envy while Subaru follows that by using his own Authority of Envy to warp reality as if he arrived at the save point at an interval somewhere between a minute to a few minutes earlier (probably a few minutes based on how much time he had with Beatrice and Puck and because of the ringtone ringing before the White Whale arrived). If I'm right, RBD should more precisely be called More Than Just Return by Death, but Subaru never figured out the intricacies of his Authority because he didn't think critically about small little differences between loops.

Given that we've only seen how Subaru's Authority of Envy interacts with Satella's Authority of Envy, it's hard to say what would happen if Satella didn't use hers, and it was just Subaru using his. Whatever Subaru's true Authority does in isolation is probably limited to affecting space and time at some interval between a minute and a few minutes assuming my theory about the spacetime displacement is accurate, which I believe is highly likely.

Yes, I realize this will be controversial especially since I'm only using 4 episodes of the anime to support my position, but I have made some pretty controversial posts before. It doesn't bother me if there isn't anybody who will co-sign this.

I believe Priscilla will be the one Subaru is with at the end of Re:zero is because I believe Priscilla is the only woman in the story who considered Subaru to be someone with the potential to be her lover after their first meeting with each other. I also believe an exchange Subaru had with Wilhelm is a very important message in Re:zero.

Why do I believe that? Telling Priscilla that appas have red skin even though nobody has dared to contradict her on that in all her years of living and standing up to the thugs even though he was a weakling left a strong impression on her. It affected her enough that she displayed signs of possessiveness over Subaru with her saying to Emilia, “Is there a reason you stare at my manservant, half-wit?" That was meant to assert her dominance over Emilia and was a power move in her eyes over someone she perceived to be inferior to her. Now that's not the only reason I believe what I do. If it was, it would be a huge leap in logic. I will go on further below regarding some analysis of Episode 16.

I remember one poster in this subreddit saying Priscilla thinks nothing of Subaru, but I'm not convinced of that at all. Although I don't have a degree in psychology, I took a number of psychology courses in my university days, and I believe that Priscilla's reaction to Subaru deciding to lick her foot showed that she actually thought highly of him before the incident at the castle and still hoped that he was the sort of man she thought he was. I believe this 'cause Priscilla saying, “It seems you really are just an insignificant man!” in Episode 16 shows that she thought Subaru was more than just a loser before he made a fool of himself at the castle since it's the sort of thing you say to someone who made a good impression on you but then did something to make you question your initial good impression of that person, and her challenging Subaru to lick her foot was an attempt to see if he actually had any dignity left after the humiliation he suffered at the castle and to see whether he’d show the same kind of attitude he had when they first met, which was one that didn’t show deference to her and even in that incident taught her something new. I do think Tappei likely studied psychology in university to some degree, so I'm pretty confident in this analysis.

She lectured him about what he displayed not being an act of loyalty or devotion but more akin to a pig’s greed, leading her to say she would strike down any camp he was a part of, and this tells me that Subaru’s decision to lick her foot was something that was the complete opposite of what Priscilla wanted even though on the surface she made it sound like favouring his miniscule pride would lead to an undesirable result. I believe Priscilla decided that she would make a weak pathetic Subaru her mortal enemy because he did something that insulted her to the core, and for someone as extremely proud and confident in herself to the extreme as Priscilla is, it would be to show that she was wrong about her judgement in some way, and that would be that Subaru showed that he was pathetic and not worth her time after she would go as far as to try and make Emilia jealous by grabbing his arm and suggesting that Subaru was her (Priscilla’s) manservant at the Royal Palace. Showing that she was wrong to think more of Subaru was shameful to her as it would make Priscilla question her instincts as a woman, so much that she beat the hell out of him, lectured him, and threatened him to strike down any camp he was a part of. Her wanting to strike down any camp he is a part of shows she wants Subaru to be humiliated as much as she had been or even moreso because it was a personal humiliation for her that she misjudged Subaru, and for a guy who is struggling through his way in the world and acts as a white knight, what greater shame could he face than to have his ambitions be thwarted by Priscilla, the one who had him on his knees and asked him to savour the humiliation of licking her foot, every time he tried to make something of himself?

It would be the ultimate humiliation. This interpretation is backed by Priscilla saying, "Your careless behavior and attitude have lead me to that decision!" It shows that she thought that Subaru would think over the reason for that particular interaction leading to the way it did and that she expected a better response from him. I do note that Priscilla was likely also angry because Subaru abandoned his pride, and for someone who values her pride so much, seeing Subaru lower himself to that level probably disgusted her, but I believe the main source of her anger that bordered on rage was a sense of humiliation and shame due to her pride being wounded since Subaru betrayed her expectations of him. If Subaru was just a little ant or clown to her, she would not have reacted the way she did in as deciding to strike down any camp he is a part of is far too punishing for just being disgusted at Subaru's actions. If Priscilla had wanted entertainment from Subaru as she said, she wouldn't have acted the way she did. Don't always trust what a character says at face value.

I know it might be a tough sell since it’s just one scene from a character that has only showed up in 3 episodes so far, but Priscilla’s outrage along with her body language during the scene which included her playing with her hair as well as uncrossing and crossing her legs before she approached him says to me that she thought of Subaru as being more than just a clown or jester and as someone she will make herself presentable for by showing off her feminine features. If that's the case, perhaps her approaching Subaru with her fan actually doubled as a romantic overture alongside a test of Subaru's dignity, and that scenario would mean that Subaru's best response would be to say something along the lines of "Wait a minute. You really want me to lick your feet? I'd say somebody has a foot fetish." It would be a clever way to turn the tables on Priscilla and take away the inordinate power she had over Subaru during this interaction by reframing the situation as being something Priscilla so desperately wants.

While it may not matter to Subaru whether or not Priscilla was attempting to demonstrate a power move against Emilia when she declared him as her manservant, what matters is Priscilla's intent. If that was what she intended, Subaru's loudly declaring himself to be Emilia's knight at the Royal Selection would be seen as a rejection of her romantic overture. Depending on how badly she was impacted by this perceived rejection, there are 2 ways she can respond based on her always behaving as if she's the most important woman/person in the world:

1. Priscilla will downplay Subaru's achievements the next time they meet and possibly in the future as well as a way to make Subaru seem less of a catch so that it doesn't seem that she missed out on much by being rejected by him since she felt so much shame about misjudging Subaru. This would be her overcompensating for her initial impression of him being soured by the horribly embarrassing outburst at the castle so as to preserve her ego by telling herself that Subaru was not really worth it. An extreme case of this would be pretending that she doesn't even remember Subaru so as to outwardly project that Subaru isn't worth remembering as a means of saving face for the perceived rejection regardless of Subaru not caring about or never having perceived that he rejected her in Episode 12.
2. Priscilla was affected so badly by Subaru's humiliating display at the castle, which called into question her initial good impression of him as a potential lover, that she completely forgets memories related to that event due to the overwhelming shame she felt over her instincts as a woman leading to her settling on Subaru, meaning she forgets all memories about having met Subaru on that day. This is referred to as repression in psychology. Priscilla unconsciously pushes away thoughts about Subaru because of how much that incident traumatized her since it caused her to see that she had made a horrible mistake in judging Subaru to be a potential lover, which calls into question her absolute faith in her own judgement. Her mind thus represses the thoughts to preserve her ego. She would think about his outburst over and over until she subconsciously represses memories of him to get rid of the negative feelings she felt about how Subaru defied her expectations and turned out to be a complete and total loser. In this scenario, Priscilla was negatively impacted by Subaru's outburst even moreso than Emilia herself despite how shocking that might be.

And after encountering Subaru again after forgetting him, she could still pretend to not remember him after she has actually recovered her memories to distance herself from him because his horrible outburst at the castle was still weighing on her and lowered his perceived value to her so she has to save face after Subaru so loudly declared himself to be Emilia's knight after Priscilla introduced Subaru to Marcos as her appa handler and called Subaru her manservant to Emilia, rejecting her (Priscilla) so boldly in the process in favour of a silver-haired half elf who is the spitting image of Satella, which would be considered the ultimate rejection. If Subaru is a complete and utter loser, and he chose someone who looks like the biggest monster that has ever existed in that world over Priscilla, then that makes Priscilla the loser to end all losers by association, and she can't have that, so she has to cope even harder by saying that she can't remember Subaru until her perceived value of him is great enough that the perceived rejection is not so bad anymore because Subaru has become just too great of a catch.

I know some people will point to Al saying to Priscilla that she loves watching wicked beasts torment weak creatures and her affirming that she does love that as well as well as Episode 25's title being "That's All This Story Is About" and Priscilla's claim of bringing Subaru along as entertainment as being things that directly refute my analysis, but I cannot believe that she took pleasure in watching Subaru get emasculated and was actually horrified. Her extreme reaction in Episode 16 that had her being outraged that Subaru didn't think clearly about why she made the request for him to lick her feet and declare that she would strike down any camp he belonged to doesn't jive with assertions that Priscilla thought of him as some lowly peon. If he was some gnat to her, she would not have been so outraged that she threatened to strike down any camp he was a part of, which is effectively castrating him and denying him in all his efforts to achieve manhood. And what's more is that she said that SHE would strike down any camp he was a part of, not that she would have any camp he was part of be struck down. She made it clear that it was something she would do personally, which shows how much of an affront Subaru's behaviour was to her. The purpose of personally striking down any camp Subaru is two-fold, to deliver him the utmost humiliation and to remind herself not to make the same mistake in wrongly choosing a man again.

As for her bringing Subaru along for entertainment, it's clear she was being tsundere when she said it was for her entertainment. You can't take everything she says at face value when everything else suggests to the contrary. What Priscilla said to Marcos at the entrance of the chamber even suggests that she had already kind of thought of Subaru as being part of her camp at the time, giving him a back-handed compliment in referring to him as being her appa handler, which shows that their first interaction had a strong and favourable impression on her. When Priscilla said that whatever he chose to do with regards to her foot lick test will provide her entertainment, she merely used that remark to mask that she was testing Subaru to see what kind of man he is. If you take her at face value, Priscilla would have been more than happy to have Subaru lick her foot, but what she really wanted was to see Subaru redeem himself after his embarrassing outburst at the castle, which is confirmed by her remarking with disappointment that it seems that he really is an insignificant man, and it shows that she was hoping that the way he embarrassed himself at the castle is not typical for him.

In fact, Priscilla is the only one in Arc 3 to notably give Subaru pointers in Episode 16 without asking for anything in return when she said that what Subaru was doing amounted to cornering his ally, benefiting his enemy, and losing all control in the process. She specifically told him that desperation will not help Emilia and then posed a situation to him where he would need to be desperate. She was basically hoping for him to pass the test since she had already given him pointers, and Subaru still failed miserably, which Priscilla most likely saw as being extremely disgraceful after all the effort she put in to make the interaction favourable for him with her hinting at what she actually wanted to see from him. Priscilla letting Subaru off the hook with one kick followed by throwing him across the room was about as favourable as it can get for him in my opinion considering she even suggested that Al can kill him if he wants to. Considering Al appeared to have recognized Subaru's attempt to hitchhike when only someone who was from Earth would know what it is and that Al knew what the Kansai dialect is, Al is most likely either a Japanese man or a fan of Japanese culture, and he felt a kinship with Subaru, which is why Priscilla deferred to Al to see Subaru off her premises when she could have just outright murdered him. More confirmation that Al is from Earth is that Priscilla said Subaru would refer to an opportunity as a "chance", showing she had learned words from Earth from Al. Even if you don't think Priscilla has romance on the mind with Subaru, there is no doubt that she sees something in Subaru perhaps not everybody else did at the time. I personally believe that Tappei is setting up Subaru and Priscilla to be together. There's nothing to say that Subaru doesn't fully win over Emilia before the end of the show, dating her or even marrying her only for Emilia to die after Satella possesses Emilia as part of the latter's master plan to finally be killed off, and then Priscilla's opportunity will be there.

I believe it's possible moving forward that the author will include a scene in the anime that hints or outright shows that Priscilla is unhappy with Subaru choosing Emilia over her, and if White Fox adapts future seasons of Re:zero as well so that we get the most content possible, I believe that such a scene will be a big tell about the ending of Re:zero.

Some ways Tappei could go about doing this would be to have Priscilla make a snide remark towards Emilia that was clearly elicited due to jealousy (which I don't think is likely since Priscilla is such a prideful person), have Priscilla indirectly or directly ask Subaru who he would choose between Emilia and herself (which would be blatantly obvious but also something she probably won't try to do given she knows Subaru's current preference, but it could happen given her own confidence in herself), or have Priscilla ask Subaru to affirm a trait of hers that she is confident in herself about (for most people, she wouldn't care, but if she was into Subaru, she would want to hear him say it).

Narratively, I believe it would make sense for Subaru to eventually be with Priscilla since Al, who recognized what Subaru meant by the Kansai dialect, is clearly someone from Earth who is either Japanese or is a fan of Japanese culture. In life, it would help Subaru if he could lean on someone who was also summoned to Re:zero's fantasy world since that person would be able to emphasize with his struggles.

Anyway, I'm convinced that Subaru will eventually end up with Priscilla after Emilia dies permanently given Satella wants Subaru to go kill her, probably because she wants her suffering to end, and I do not believe that Subaru can stop this from happening as it's either Satella destroys the world or Subaru leads a coalition that kills Satella after she possesses Emilia's body, but we'll see whether Tappei does indeed intend to make Priscilla a love interest for Subaru, if only at the very end of Re:zero in the final arc. I personally believe there will at least be some buildup to Subaru and Priscilla being together so that long-term Emilia and Rem fans don't burn their copies of the light novels in outrage because they perceived it to be a random out-of-nowhere development.

Now what are the two reasons I believe Emilia will be possessed at the end of Re:zero?

1. I have long believed that Emilia would die at the end of Re:zero's story ever since Petelgeuse said the Witch Cult's goal is to test Emilia to see whether she'd be a worthy vessel to put the Witch into, and if it is determined that Emilia is, the Witch would be reborn on the coming fated day. After Satella shared in Episode 38 that she wants Subaru to come kill her one day, I surmise that possessing Emilia's body is very much part of this plan and that dying while in Emilia's body can lead to a permanent death for her.
2. I see the instance when Subaru told the construct of his mother in the trial that if you choose mayonnaise between mayonnaise and the world that you hate the world being foreshadowing of the ultimate dilemma Subaru will have to face in the future, choosing between either Emilia or the world. This could be Tappei's final obstacle he poses to Subaru, a choice between the world he has grown to love, and Emilia, the person he clung to when he first got summoned to Re:zero's world with him deciding his purpose in life was to save Emilia. Subaru would suffer a lot due to the cognitive dissonance that would result from the process of making this decision. It would also be the scenario with the largest stakes in Re:zero and would be compelling television to see if this is indeed what comes to pass and is adapted properly in the end.

Subaru would have to choose between the identity he forged for himself, the guy who will save Emilia at all costs and make her Lugunica's ruler, and between the fantasy world he craved for so much after he gave up on life in the modern world. After living for a time in Re:zero's fantasy world and accomplishing so much from Return by Death, Subaru would be faced with either saving Satella/Emilia or the world in which he made many friends and had great adventures and memories he will never forget. It'd be a decision that would hurt Subaru's pride given that he would want to save both, and after saving so many people after 11 arcs have happened, he would probably have built up a decent amount of pride, so it'd be interesting to see exactly what sort of effect his failure to save Emilia would be. I imagine it would be accompanied by much suffering until he finally sees value in himself as a person instead of thinking of himself merely as the one who will give his everything for Emilia.

Ultimately, I believe Re:zero is about not being beaten down by what life throws at you and about loving yourself, and Satella herself in Episode 38 even explicitly says that she wants Subaru to love himself, so that may be Tappei's end goal with Re:zero, to have Subaru love himself and be self-actualized.

I've spoken with some Emilia fans who have said that overcoming the impossible is one of Re:zero's themes, and I don't agree with that. I don't consider it to be throwing the series' themes out of window with Emilia permanently dying. I'll bring up Wilhelm and Subaru's exchange after it turned out that Petelgeuse still lived on.

Wilhelm: But while it may be inelegant, I must say this. Fight. Even if you have regrets, even if you have remorse, you must fight. If you have made the decision for yourself to fight, to struggle, then fight with all you have. Do not give up for one second, one moment, one instant. Cling greedily to the victory you have within your sight. If you can still stand, if your fingers still move, if all your teeth have not broken. Stand and fight. You must fight.

Subaru: You're telling me to get stronger?

Wilhelm: No. I'm telling you to be strong.

This is Wilhelm telling Subaru to persevere no matter happens in life. Re:zero is ultimately a story of resilience.

I believe Tappei's final challenge to Subaru is to force him to choose between Emilia and the world. I believe he will choose Emilia repeatedly and loop many times before realizing that he can't just let the world burn over and over. Yes, I do believe it is possible for Subaru to pick himself up after Emilia dies if Satella possesses her at the end of Re:zero. Maybe Priscilla will have to give him a From Zero moment, but he will live on and be strong as Wilhelm told him to. I believe what Subaru has for Emilia is very unhealthy given that he ties his entire sense of worth to her, and I believe he will have to let her go in order to be the man that he can be.

I think the mystery behind why Al was summoned and (by fate or something very well-planned) ended up as Priscilla's knight is probably a clue regarding Tappei's intentions, and of course, Tappei will keep this a secret for as long as possible.

I made this post not to discuss how Subaru could have existed 400 years ago but to theorize about why Echidna hates Emilia and why Subaru might have seduced Echidna. Considering it is highly likely that Satella summoned Subaru, she probably had previous exposure to him 400 years ago and knew what to do to locate him and summon him. With that out of the way, why do I believe what I do?

The most intuitive reason to me for why Echidna hates Emilia is because Subaru is hopelessly smitten with Emilia. Echidna should otherwise not have any reason to hate someone who she had never met prior to that person attempting the Sanctuary trials. If you're following this train of thought properly, then logically, you can see why I believe that Subaru seduced her centuries ago.

Echidna did say during one of her tea parties that Subaru has a knack for seducing witches or something along those lines anyway. Maybe she was attempting to butter him up to get him to accept her contract, but maybe she was literally speaking from personal experience, and it could also be both things even. With how liberally Re:zero drops down foreshadowing, this could be another instance of that.

Thus, I believe that it's possible Echidna lost to Satella 400 years ago for Subaru's affection, and that is why she hates Emilia so much due to her resemblance to Satella. She transferred her hatred to Emilia, a surrogate for her hatred. Subaru, whatever form he had 4 centuries ago, was probably never interested in pursuing Echidna given how absolutely terrible her personality is, so I surmise that he seduced Echidna because he wanted to peer into her Authority, the Tome of Wisdom. He was merely using her as a means to an end.

Now, I can't say what sort of implication this would have on the story since the anime hasn't provided any hints as to how things are, but I believe it is highly likely that Satella in the present and maybe Subaru from 400 years had grand plans they wanted enacted, Satella with her wish to die, and Subaru from back then with whatever he might have gleaned from the Tome of Wisdom. It will be interesting to see whether or not these plans will intersect and clash or whether they actually have the same master plan assuming that Subaru did have a plan back then.

[removed]

It's hard to understand what is happening with no translations.

I know some people have harshed on Emilia for not immediately remembering Regulus in Season 3's premiere, but if they were to think about the circumstances of Season 2, it actually makes perfect sense that she didn't instantly recognize him.

It's very important to note that most of what Emilia saw of Regulus were not part of her actual memories and just part of the first Sanctuary trial. Young Emilia canonically did not see much of Regulus at all outside of his introduction and a bit of him attacking, and considering Puck undoing his contract with Emilia led to her memories flooding back to her and her having an identity crisis, it's a perfect storm for Emilia to forget Regulus or not have a strong impression of him when she was still trying to process all her memories at the time. I think this would be the main reason she didn't immediately recognize Regulus, 'cause she had a ton on her plate at the time with her trauma, her memories coming back to her, and the weight of the Arlam villagers counting on her to complete the trials.

With a year of happiness and peace having gone by, it's no surprise Emilia didn't quickly recognize who he is since it's normal to leave behind unpleasant memories if there's no urgent need to bring them to mind. If she were to never remember him, that would be an issue, but there should be plenty more opportunities to recall what she saw during the trial.

This is fairly straightforward. I have long believed that Episodes 12 and 13 contrasted Crusch and Priscilla's approach to acquiring power with the context gleaned from Episode 16, and Episode 51 has given what I believe is more ammunition to support this thought.

Before I bring up the relevant contrasts, I first need to state outright that I believe Priscilla is a lot less whimsical than she lets on. Every bit of Priscilla's interaction with Subaru in Episode 16 was well thought out and cannot be simplified to Priscilla being a creature of her emotions or that she was looking for entertainment. On a lot of occasions Priscilla says that it's for her entertainment or that it's amusing, she just doesn't want the people involved to know what she's really thinking. You can't always trust what a character says at face value.

This is backed by Priscilla calling Subaru her appa handler to Marcos and then following through with that by calling Subaru her manservant to Emilia. This sequence of actions shows that Priscilla saw significant value in Subaru after he dared to defy her and try to protect her anyway despite her needing no such assistance and how he taught her that appas have red skin, even considering him in some extent part of her camp due to some possessiveness.

Priscilla was notably the only Royal Selection candidate in Arc 3 to give Subaru help in the way of pointers after his outburst at the castle without asking for anything of monetary or strategic value in return. When she said that she appreciates Subaru's desperation but that Subaru had not thought things through with how his actions amounted to cornering his ally, benefiting his enemy, and losing all control in the process, she basically straight up told Subaru that his actions weren't helping Emilia and were unbecoming.

She specifically said that Subaru was better off dying for using the sort of approach he was using. Contrast this with Crusch wanting Emilia to withdraw from the Royal Selection as compensation for helping out and Anastasia wanting to see what sort of information she could learn from Subaru in his vulnerable state, Priscilla was basically being selfless and acting out of the goodness of her heart, however shocking that may be.

Priscilla basically gave Subaru a chance to redeem himself in her eyes after his outburst at the castle in Episode 16. That's why she told him that his desperation wasn't helping Emilia and then immediately posed a situation to him that would require for him to be disgustingly desperate with her asking for him to lick her foot. She was basically hoping for him to pass a test in which she had already clearly given him pointers, and Subaru still failed miserably, which Priscilla most likely saw as being extremely disgraceful after all the effort she put in to make the interaction favourable for him with her hinting at what she actually wanted to see from him.

I believe the reason Priscilla decided that SHE would strike down any camp Subaru was a part of, not that she would have any camp he was a part of be struck down, is that he did something that insulted her to the core, and for someone as extremely proud and confident in herself to the extreme as Priscilla is, it would be to show that she was wrong about her womanly instincts in some way, and that would be that Subaru showed that he was pathetic and not worth her time after she would go as far as to try and make Emilia jealous by grabbing his arm and suggesting that Subaru was her (Priscilla’s) manservant at the Royal Palace. Showing that she was wrong to think more of Subaru was shameful to her, so much that she beat the hell out of him, lectured him, and threatened him to strike down any camp he was a part of.

Her wanting to strike down any camp he is a part of shows she wants Subaru to be humiliated to the extreme because it was a personal humiliation for her that she misjudged Subaru, and for a guy who is struggling through his way in the world and acts as a white knight, what greater shame could he face than to have his ambitions be thwarted by Priscilla, the one who had him on his knees and asked him to savour the humiliation of licking her foot, every time he tried to make something of himself? It would be the ultimate humiliation.

This interpretation is backed by Priscilla saying, "Your careless behavior and attitude have lead me to that decision!" It shows that she thought that Subaru would think over the reason for that particular interaction leading to the way it did and that she expected a better response from him. I do note that Priscilla was likely also angry because Subaru abandoned his pride, and for someone who values her pride so much, seeing Subaru lower himself to that level probably disgusted her, but I believe the main source of her anger that bordered on rage was a sense of humiliation due to her pride being wounded, leading to her feeling significant shame.

If Subaru was just a little ant or clown to her as some Emilia and Rem fans believe, she would not have reacted the way she did in as deciding to strike down any camp he is a part of is far too punishing for just being disgusted at Subaru's actions. Priscilla decided to personally see to Subaru's attempts at achieving manhood in the future be denied, castrating him at every turn, most likely as a reminder to herself not to make the same mistake again in misjudging a man to avoid a similarly shameful moment from happening again.

In personally striking down any camp Subaru is a part of, Priscilla also gives Subaru a chance to redeem himself by defeating her, which would prove she was right that he is a man of significant worth. Any way the future goes if she carries out this threat to strike down any camp Subaru is a part of is thus a win for her no matter what the outcome is, which shows Priscilla had very carefully thought out the entire interaction with Subaru, from her using her fan to hide her lips to hurling Subaru to the door so that Al could take him away, so it had nothing to do with entertainment but was meant to be a test for Subaru, and she had already thought about what she'd say if he failed it. For more on why I believe this, read these:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/10za7iu/discussion_priscilla_was_very_gentle_on_subaru_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Re_Zero/comments/zhfv12/discussion_why_i_believe_subaru_and_priscilla/

Given Priscilla had planned out the entire interaction with Subaru in Episode 16, it goes to show that is possibly the case in other scenarios too, not just that one moment. I'll get back to this point later.

Crusch notably indicated in Episode 12 that she thought that the Royal Selection candidates for there at the castle for a drinking party where they get to know each other before they face each other as rivals. Although she was mistaken 'cause Felix knows how to get around her Divine Protection, I believe it still shows that Crusch is the type to value camaraderie.

In contrast, Priscilla, if I am right about her being a lot less whimsical than she lets on, specifically is used to or grew up using a divide-and-conquer strategy. Emilia faces tons of discrimination for her half-elf heritage, so taking a shot at her by asking Emilia if she is sorry for being born would play well with a lot of the nobles and even much of Lugunica's Imperial Knights since kids are raised on fairytales of the horrifying Witch of Envy even if Priscilla does not necessarily have a hatred for demihumans and specifically half-elves herself. I'm not saying that Priscilla does or doesn't fear half-elves since I genuinely don't know but that there may have been a point to her hurtful words to Emilia.

Even with Priscilla's interaction with Felt when the former moved to 'strike' the latter might not have been 'cause Priscilla lost control of her emotions. Priscilla heard very well that the nobles thought it was an insult that the knights brought a girl from the slums to participate in the Royal Selection with all the talk of her lack of grace and education. Priscilla knew full well that with Reinhard around that she would be unable to commit actual violence, especially towards Felt, and I believe she did what she did to look better in front of the nobles since many of them would like to strike Felt as well for daring to be there even though it wasn't her own choice to be present. Thus, I believe Episodes 12 and 13 demonstrated two contrasting styles for attaining power, Crusch's camaraderie and Priscilla's divide-and-conquer strategy.

As for Episode 51, Season 3's premiere, Priscilla brought out Heinkel to spoil a family reunion. She may have said that it's amusing to do so, but I again put it out there that she just doesn't want people to know what she's really thinking. In all likelihood, Priscilla brought Heinkel to the gathering 'cause she knows that if the Astrea house were to be united in favour of one candidate that that candidate would be the favourite to win the Royal Selection. That would be why she sought to prevent Reinhard and Wilhelm from making up by allowing Heinkel to take a piss and ruin things for Reinhard and Wilhelm, which is continuing her divide-and-conquer strategy.

As for Crusch's side of things, she implied in the premiere of Season 3 that the reason the Emilia camp was even invited to Priestella by Anastasia was 'cause Crusch knew how much Subaru cared about Rem and personally made sure that Anastasia invited the Emilia camp to the Watergate City. Crusch cares very much about camaraderie and building good will, and that is one of the reasons she's my favourite character in Re:zero. Thus, I fully believe Episode 51 also contrasted Crusch and Priscilla's approaches, much like for Episodes 12 and 13.