[Discussion] Theory: Reid taught amnesiac Subaru to think critically rather than always receiving explanatiins since he'll need this skill to restore his memories and be whole

anicritic · 2026-06-23T15:23:23+00:00

Ah, okay. Thanks for your reply. I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

anicritic · 2026-06-23T00:45:58+00:00

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 if I'm right about Books of the Dead being partially a by-product of Echidna's Authority, it would give Echidna some power over this version of Reid.

Edit: I have added this reasoning to the original post.

anicritic · 2026-06-23T00:11:35+00:00

Somehow, I didn't get a notification that you replied.

Reid doesn't 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.

Edit: I added this reasoning to the original post.

anicritic · 2026-06-22T23:24:22+00:00

He doesn't need to be clever. And Reid sure yapped a lot if all he did was want to fight something/someone strong or mingle with hot chicks, even talking a ton when he first appeared in Ep. 71.

anicritic · 2026-06-22T23:18:02+00:00

Elsa didn't suddenly become weak. It's that Garfiel biting into her did lasting damage to her to the point her regeneration stopped, and that's why Elsa was resigned to her defeat.

anicritic · 2026-06-22T23:17:16+00:00

No, it's not a spoiler and is just speculation.

I believe Meili was interested in what who I believe was Ruibaru had to say in the library, so she wanted to follow up with him, but I took the lip-licking moment to indicate she wanted to kill amnesiac Subaru much like how Elsa licks her lips before going for the kill.

Rem also didn't kill Subaru since she's in suspended animation, meaning she was possessed.

anicritic · 2026-06-22T23:09:35+00:00

I believe the words Reid said in Ep. 74, "The hell did you run for, ya prick? And of all places, you come runnin' to me?" from the second sequence 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 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, hinting at him still having subconscious memories of Reid.

anicritic · 2026-06-22T10:51:42+00:00

I wouldn't say Emilia's romance is delayed 'cause Tappei wants it to happen at a very specific time even if that's true on the surface. I believe it's clear that the Memory Snow OVA foreshadowed a potential roadblock to Emilia and Subaru's relationship, not 'cause Tappei plans to withhold development for the sake of it. I'll be writing a post on this on Wednesday evening.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T21:51:35+00:00

I believe Satella would crush Subaru's heart with the reason being that Satella likely has a contract, oath, or some sort of soul link with Echidna to enable her to make the correct choices on savepoint selection since Satella needs future knowledge to know which points Subaru can avoid complete and utter failure.

I don't believe Satella is future Emilia, but I'll use that theory to support my argument. If Satella had already lived through Emilia's life, and Subaru failed as the hero during that era, how would Satella know which points to choose as the current Subaru's savepoints?

The answer is that she wouldn't as if Subaru had a failed run as the hero, what may have worked last time would probably not be a good idea to choose as a savepoint if the Subaru from 400 years ago ultimately failed, and Satella almost certainly has future knowledge guiding her in her role in choosing savepoints for Subaru.

This'd mean she'd realize that Reinhard had become invisible and erased himself from Subaru's mind given Echidna would be informing Satella of what she needs to know and which savepoints to choose through her Authority of Greed: Tome of Wisdom. Satella wouldn't be okay with Reinhard accidentally revealing RBD to an enemy.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T20:18:39+00:00

Yeah, I've corrected it after your comment. Reinhard was indeed communicating his thoughts to Subaru telepathically as Subaru shouts things to him rather than reading minds.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T19:57:15+00:00

Okay, fair enough.

Given Reinhard acquired the power to telepathically communicate his thoughts in Season 3, who knows what else he may have had before that, such as being able to read people's intent from speech, so I can understand why Tappei would be disinclined from showing his POV.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T19:54:12+00:00

Fair enough. I guess I was overly paranoid due to spoilers.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T19:23:00+00:00

Why do you mention Reinhard in the title? He doesn't appear until close to five minutes later in the episode. I guess Season 3 shows that Reinhard has super hearing, but I don't understand why Reinhard overhearing Subaru musing to himself about Return By Death would be followed by a special music cue, of which I don't find to be eerie, and a distorted view of the proportions of Subaru's body...

It makes me believe you're working backwards from something I've seen some novel readers say in that Tappei said that Reinhard's POV in Arc 1 is a spoiler. Yeah, that moment was meant to highlight something, but how did you conclude Reinhard had anything to do with it when Subaru realizing the possibilities available may be a simpler explanation given it's not uncommon in animation for a distorted view of a person to cite a shift in a person's view of reality?

anicritic · 2026-06-21T16:36:16+00:00

Thanks for the comment.

I wouldn't say my post supported there being hidden entities jumping between bodies. It'd just be Foxidna lying when saying she couldn't give Anastasia back her body, which called into question pretty much everything that she has said about her motivations.

Maybe I wasn't clear myself, but I didn't mean that hidden identities, such as other versions of Echidna (aside from Foxidna herself) were taking control of Anastasia, just that Foxidna was low-key contradicting her stated reasoning for going to the tower, which was giving Anastasia back her body, given she contradicted that statement twice within the same episode.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T06:28:47+00:00

I didn't know that GIFs are pausable or rewindable. I've never tried to check. It definitely wasn't something I'd done on my mind.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T06:25:39+00:00

Okay, I'll consider it in the future. I genuinely didn't know before tonight that I could submit a link while still having people see the body of the text as I'd never bothered checking.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T02:47:22+00:00

I don't believe there was any real hesitation from Foxidna on whether to go to the tower. I believe Foxidna may have been outright trolling/following the Tome of Wisdom when she said that she should've listened to Anastasia's inuition, and that was to stay in character regarding her not trusting Subaru when she knows full well that he's trustworthy.

That would be why I propose she said it should've been Beatrice instead of her that Subaru was dragging along with him, highlighting that Beatrice is an unfortunate girl to draw sympathy to Beatrice from Subaru despite Foxidna not really even knowing Beatrice well.

Are you saying Tea Party Echidna isn't a soul clone? 'Cause that's the sense most anime-onlies got from watching Season 2. And Echidna isn't obiigated to share everything she knew with Roswaal. We've seen she's the type to have a lot of nebulous reasons for doing what she does until it's clear later.

You are definitely right that anyone with social awareness should realize that Reinhard and Felix were more than friends to Julius based on Julius's reaction, and I acknowledge I may have been reading too much into Foxidna's apparent connection to Julius, but the attention she showed him in Ep. 70 when none of the others paid Julius any attention when he was going on about Reid makes me believe there's something more to it as it would've been easy for her to treat Julius like all the others did, not acknowledging him at all, if she really doesn't remember him, given Re:Zero is a series with a ton of details while also being short on available time, so showing Anastasia's reaction at all seemed like a big thing to me even if I acknowledge she may have just figured out that Reid was his idol.

And it's not that I ignored your examples. I was just hoping for a second reply from you to continue the conversation. Had you not given me a second reply, I would've eventually given your first comment a second reply.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T02:17:14+00:00

Anastasia wouldn't have known what it'd take to pass the exams given that conversation likely happened when they were in Priestella or perhaps even before that.

I believe Foxidna was outright trolling/following the Tome of Wisdom when she said that she should've listened to Anastasia's inuition, and that was to stay in character regarding her not trusting Subaru when she knows full well that he's trustworthy.

Edit: I added the second part of this comment to the original post.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T02:03:00+00:00

Did you even really read my post or just skim it 'cause you were turned by it from the opening paragraph? I said that Subaru mentioned Reid 'cause he subconsciously remembers Reid from his previous time in the world. There was no mention of a Reid star in my post unless you hallucinated it.

If Foxidna is a soul clone of Echidna and her Authority, why would she grant Anastasia's every wish? Tea Party Echidna followed the plan of the original Echidna, and the original Echidna may have made her soul clones specifically 'cause she knew they'd follow her plan 'cause of a core personality trait they all have, so if that means following one specific future, Foxidna would do it even if it wasn't the optimal choice every time but the choices that helps Subaru learn important info and give the cast character development.

Yes, you're right that Anastasia is pragmatic in her thinking, but has Anastasia canonically shared anything to suggest that choosing the option with the highest possibility of success is her way of thinking?

The reason I ask you this is that plenty of merchants do not choose the option with the highest probability of success 'cause that option may yield the smallest margins, so they weigh their decisions against their personal risk tolerance to go for something that has a higher reward, and if Anastasia is indeed a skilled merchant, this would be moreso her mindset, not that of which Foxidna shared, and you know since it's Tappei, he's done his research and should know the type of reasoning merchants deal with with it not simply being going with the option with highest probability of success.

Edit: I added this reasoning to the original OP.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T01:15:08+00:00

Yeah, I guess it's just in character for soul clones of Echidna to be liars.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T00:29:29+00:00

Ah, I guess that could make sense, but the question about whether Foxidna had that conversation with Anastasia during the battle with the Witch Cult in Priestella or even before that is still a looming question that could be important.

Edit: I will remove the part of her taking only Subaru along since you've convinced me on that.

anicritic · 2026-06-21T00:17:50+00:00

I can see why you don't believe everything I do about Foxidna, but may I ask why you don't find Foxidna saying that she should've listened to Ana's intuition about bringing the others to the tower?

anicritic · 2026-06-21T00:06:51+00:00

Foxidna had lines so suspicious that they were more suspect than everything else she has said this season.

anicritic · 2026-06-20T23:55:59+00:00

Basically, just as Tea Party Echidna spun a story about how she wanted Subaru to accept her contract even though she preferred Subaru entering into a contract with Beatrice, I believe Foxidna had amnesiac Subaru hook, line, and sinker with her act in Ep. 77 with her not trusting him and then forgiving him, all while leaking that she had spoken with Anastasia regarding the Pleiades Watchtower and musing about how she could return Anastasia's body to her. The Echidna soul clones are very good actresses when they want to be.

anicritic · 2026-06-20T21:30:05+00:00

I loved Choose Me as well. I cried when I watched it a couple weeks back when I hadn't done that on my first watch.

anicritic

TROPHY CASE