Anime Watchers’ Guide to the Re:Zero universe
Season 2: Remarks on the Anime / LN / WN

Not the beginning, but the end

First and foremost it needs to be mentioned that this episode should, by all rights, be

considered the ending of Season 1 instead of the beginning of Season 2.

In the novels, everything here takes place at the ending to the third arc, i.e. volume 9 of the LN. Also, thematically it is tied to the latter half of the first season (i.e. Arc 3) with the Witch Cult featuring heavily in that part.

The loss of Rem is not the setup for Season 2, not a problem for Subaru to solve right now: rather it is the price to be paid for his success in the third death-loop. It is a long-term problem that serves as a backdrop for plotlines to come, but for which no obvious, immediate solution exists. Instead, Arc 4 is in some sense the first that delves deeper into the true main plot of the series, with the Witches featuring heavily and many major events of the past being revealed or hinted at.

As for the actual content of the episode, there are two main areas where the presentation should be amended.

The Witch Cult

It turns out Emilia knows very little about the Witch Cult or even the Witch of Envy at this point, aside from the most basic fact of her existence, the threat she posed to the world 400 years back, and the hatred directed at her (and by proxy, Emilia, who is said to look like her even beyond being a half-elf; this leads Emilia to loathe her appearance, which fact will be relevant later, but I digress). From this stems a discussion in which some interesting pieces of information are revealed:

• The Witch Cult is supposed to be unified in its worship of the Witch of Envy, with a singular goal of bringing her back — this is of course brought into question by later events. In any case, Petelgeuse is said to have been the most active and well-known member recently, but other incidents have occurred as well. Regulus is mentioned to have single-handedly destroyed a city some years back (due to a rumor that an artifact belonging to one of the Witches was held there, see Episode 02).

• The Witch of Envy is sealed away near the Great Waterfall. According to legend, this was done by

  the Sage, the Sword Saint, and the Dragon.

  (Note that the Sword Saint in question is in fact an ancestor of Reinhard, see Episode 03.) They are supposed to still be standing watch in the Pleiades Watchtower; the area is almost impossible to approach though due to multiple reasons (one of which will be elaborated on later, see Episode 05).

• The talk between Subaru and Puck occurs after that in the WN, and also after Emilia has mentioned that Puck won’t come out of his crystal. Subaru is visibly apprehensive, borderline hostile towards Puck, demanding to know why he didn’t tell Emilia anything about the Witch Cult despite the threat, and also remembering their last meeting (that was one of the times Puck froze him).

  Puck largely dodges the questions but does tell him about Gluttony as in the anime, and it is briefly discussed if it would be possible to get back names and memories that have been eaten from him — with the conclusion being that they just do not know.

Wilhelm’s reasons

The early parts taking place among Roswaal’s staff are mostly the same between the three different versions of the story, with some minor differences.

Upon arriving at the Sanctuary,

two rather large changes are made though from the WN to the LN;

ones that end up having far-reaching consequences in how the story is handled down the line, and significantly change up the order of events in the beginning. One has to do with how Subaru gets to the Tomb in the first place, and the other with the resulting encounter with Echidna (to be discussed in regards to the next episode).

The first alteration: getting to the Tomb

• In the LN and anime, Subaru gets transported via a magic crystal near the Tomb of Echidna right away upon entering the Sanctuary. This leads to him meeting Echidna earlier than anyone else there, and for false suspicion to fall onto Frederica about having some nefarious ulterior motives. Later, the crystal in question is going to serve as a temporary host for Puck. This is a plotline that is

  altogether absent in the original, WN version.

• In the WN, Subaru and the unconscious Emilia are simply greeted by Garfiel in a rather violent manner, but upon clearing up that they are not unwelcome guests, are led to meet the Ram and Roswaal properly.

Additional details about this version of events:

• In connection with the Witch of Greed does the incident come up where a city in the Empire of Vollachia was destroyed by Regulus Corneas due to an artifact of Echidna’s supposedly being there. Notably, Otto knows about it in detail because he too had lost some relatives there at that time.
• It is at this point that Subaru, Emilia, and Otto are given a rudimentary explanation of the situation at hand (roughly as we see in the next episode of the anime).
• The part of the discussion directly relevant here is that Ram deliberately warns Subaru off of entering the Tomb.
• Afterwards, Subaru and Emilia go together with Garfiel before the time the Trial can begin (at sunset) to scout the area near the Tomb.
• Garfiel demonstrates his atavism ability: he partially transforms his body when discussing the nature of the Sanctuary’s barrier and the Qualifications for the Trial, i.e. the requirement for the challenger to be partially demihuman. This lays the groundwork for his later, complete transformation in Episode 08 — serving a similar function as Frederica’s transformation in the LN / anime.
• Despite Ram’s warning and the fact that he should not, in theory, have the Qualifications, Subaru insists on going into the Tomb a bit to check it out (partially because of Ram’s warning, and hence worrying about Emilia; especially after seeing what happened to Roswaal), with the others watching over outside, which is when he gets pulled into Echidna’s so-called citadel for the first time (in a somewhat more dramatic way than in the anime: while in reality he just passes out, in his mind Subaru experiences the floor disappearing and him falling down into a dark, bottomless abyss).

The second change: Subaru’s meeting with Echidna

There are numerous changes to how events play out during the first time Subaru meets Echidna — changes that affect what happens during later such occasions as well, and how the overarching story is structured:

• Echidna and Subaru originally have a rather lengthier discussion in general with some amusing banter, but the main difference comes after the point where Echidna shatters the field of grass around them.

• With Subaru being rather shocked, Echidna decides to

  send him off to meet the other Witches

  — or rather, lets them swap places with her — with the intention of demonstrating how she is still much easier to deal with — which, to be fair, she kind of succeeds in.

• Subaru meets three of the other Witches here: Typhon, Sekhmet, and Minerva. Their encounter roughly mirrors what happens when Subaru meets Typhon and Minerva in Episode 09, with Sekhmet thrown in the middle (whom Subaru meets in the rather unfortunate state of being in pieces).

• Afterwards, Subaru has a more constructive and informative conversation with Echidna, in which he actually does ask her some questions, and many aspects of history are touched on; with some casual remarks foreshadowing later events and providing insight on Echidna’s connection with a number of characters.

  Here follows a selection of some of the more interesting details, together with a couple from the part before Subaru meets the other Witches:

  • Echidna’s Citadel:

    When Subaru arrives and Echidna explains that they are both in her dream, in her Citadel, she notes that Subaru seems to act like he is already familiar with such a place. Subaru affirms that indeed it feels that way, though he doesn’t know why.

    This may conceivably be due to Satella affecting Subaru via dragging him into a similar space, e.g. when he tries to tell someone about Return by Death; that idea is somewhat corroborated by a remark of Echidna’s made to the Witch of Envy at a later point (see Episode 05) about the latter being stuck in her own Citadel. Or it could also hint at something else entirely.

  • The purpose of the Tomb:

    Upon Subaru’s inquiry Echidna explains that her soul has been bound here by the dragon Volcanica to act as opposition against the Witch of Envy — should she ever break loose from the Sealing Stone Temple — in addition to the Sage, the Sword Saint, and Volcanica himself.

  • The first-generation Sword Saint:

    The Sword Saint in question is named for the first time here: Reid Astrea, the progenitor of the Astrea family — which includes Reinhard, his grandmother Theresia, and also Wilhelm by marriage. Incidentally, he is also casually mentioned to have slain multiple dragons, in line with one of Garfiel’s idioms, one he uses in Episode 23 when fighting Elsa.

  • The Great Demon Beasts:

    In connection with Subaru being responsible for the White Whale having been slain, the names of the Great Demon Beasts created by Daphne come up: the White Whale, the Great Rabbit, and the Black Serpent.

  • Roswaal:

    On Subaru mentioning him, Echidna shows an immediate interest and remarks that she did know a Roswaal. They briefly contemplate if it could possibly be the same person, but Subaru, for the time being, partly due to their different looks (in particular the color of their eyes), decides that they are not: rather that the name Roswaal is passed down, along with the purpose of the original Roswaal. (Of course, as we know, this evaluation does not age well…)

  • Puck:

    To the mention of the spirit, in particular him having said Echidna’s name before (this detail was exclusive to the WN in Arc 3), Echidna reacts in a rather shocked manner:

    Echidna: Puck…? You don’t mean, the cat spirit…?

    Subaru: ——!? Yeah, that’s right. The cat spirit. Do you know Puck?

    Echidna: It’s not whether I know him… did he come here? If that’s the case, just how much does he remember?

Meeting(s) with Roswaal

As for the talks with Roswaal — those here and in Episode 05 — they roughly correspond to two such occasions in the WN. However,

they originally take place before Subaru first sets foot in the Tomb, and then before he undergoes the Trial;

as such, their context and contents are slightly altered. Aside from the part of their content directly relevant to the progression of Subaru’s encounters in the Tomb, these will be described in the sections of their anime counterparts.

The first such conversation in the WN (before Subaru first enters the Tomb), somewhat matching the one in this episode of the anime:

• The basics of the circumstances are explained: the residents of the Sanctuary are keeping the villagers of Arlam, Roswaal, and Ram here; though clearly, Roswaal himself would easily be able to overcome any resistance if he wanted, and his injuries are not a result of this (the details of that are to be revealed the next time). However, Roswaal in fact intends for Emilia to take the Trials, he says, so Emilia can garner more supporters for herself in the form of the residents of both Arlam and the Sanctuary — not to mention letting herself out of the barrier. (We of course learn by the end of the arc that there are some major ulterior motives at play here too.)
• Roswaal seems genuinely surprised upon hearing about Puck having gone missing (or rather, not manifesting himself outside of his crystal).
• At Emilia’s observation that her connection with spirits in general also feels weaker, Roswaal affirms that the location is somewhat unpleasant for spirits. More on the nature of what is inside the Tomb itself will be said in the next such conversation.
• Subaru actually does manage to make up his mind and ask Roswaal and Ram about Rem — with the expected results.

• As mentioned earlier for Episode 02, Ram deliberately advises Subaru against stepping into the Tomb:

  Only Emilia-sama is to enter the Tomb. Barusu must never enter.

  Ram’s voice was lowered, and had told him in a volume that even Roswaal could not hear. Seeing Subaru’s furrowed brows, just in case, she said it once more.

  ——If you do not wish to be ensnared by the deranged will of a Witch, do not, under any circumstances, enter the Tomb.

There isn’t much to say for this episode other than offering praise: its contents — the First Trial of Subaru, overcoming his past — are, in essence, the same between the three versions of the story.

The First Trial: post-credits scene

After Echidna converses with Subaru about the Trial and he leaves, the scene doesn’t quite end in the WN:

• As the world is falling apart…

  Echidna: ——Already gone, I see. My my, he’s a lot more formidable than I thought. Just what I should expect from the man you fell for, I suppose.

  ???: ——My special someone my special someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone to my someone

  Echidna: Shut away in your own citadel, even though you meet him every so often you’re still afraid of being forgotten. In such pathetic circumstances, to have the audacity to make this kind of assertion. I, can’t understand you at all.

• As their conversation is going nowhere and the shadow advances, Echidna calls in Sekhmet, the Witch of Sloth — who, even as she is lying lazily on the ground, easily dispatches the meager imprint of the Witch of Envy.
• This foreshadows the later appearance of Satella in Episode 13 inside Echidna’s citadel — and even before, when the Witch of Envy manifests in the outside world in Episode 10.

Aftermath

After the Trial, Emilia is taken out of the Tomb by Subaru and brought to Ryuzu’s house. There is a different context to the following conversation between Ryuzu, Garfiel, Ram, Otto, and Subaru in the WN though, since this is not the first time these people have met. After Subaru went in the first time (before the Trial), fainted at the entrance, and got brought out (without remembering what happened exactly, since Echidna made him forget), he was taken to the same house.

The events following that are more or less something of a combination of the discussion with Ryuzu in this episode of the anime, and the later one with Roswaal, and will be elaborated on later in this section. Jumping back ahead instead to after the Trial (in the WN):

• Subaru still has a bit of a patchy memory as Echidna has not yet lifted the compulsion on him to forget her when outside.
• He admits basically right away to having passed the Trial though, and that the barrier is not yet lifted because there are two more — even as he cannot say where, or who he knows that from. He also doesn’t quite remember why he has the Qualifications now if he didn’t before. (Ram does in fact seem to understand though, as she is aware of Echidna.)
• Emilia wakes up and comes into the room, still a bit distraught. It is here that, while still thinking about the Trial, she unconsciously grabs Subaru’s hand. Later, she is understandably discouraged by hearing that Subaru passed the Trial; regardless, she and Subaru agree to go and continue with the Trials the next day.

Second talk with Roswaal:
following the Trial (Anime) / after falling unconscious in the Tomb (WN):

• The beginning, with Emilia and Garfiel present:

  • As mentioned before, Subaru gets taken to Ryuzu’s house after collapsing right near the entrance of the Tomb, with Emilia bringing him outside.
  • Ram is rather angry with Subaru for having ignored her warning and knocking himself out.
  • It is here that we find out that Roswaal’s injuries and Subaru fainting are supposed to be the consequence of entering the Tomb without the Qualification.
  • As for the reason behind the difference in the consequences to each of them, Emilia correctly guesses that it is dependent on the Gate of the trespasser (since she felt some interference with her own Gate while going inside for Subaru). The larger the capacity for wielding magic, the greater the consequences.
  • The cause: the Tomb is filled with Miasma; it invades those it rejects through their gates, then ravages their body and mind from the inside. The surroundings of the Sealing Stone near the Great Waterfall, where the Witch of Envy is held, are also mentioned to be filled with an enormous amount of it, keeping everyone away, even the Witch Cultists (see Episode 01). It is especially devastating for spirits.

• Ryuzu Bilma / Lewes Meyer / ???

  In the middle of the conversation Ryuzu enters, and they basically go over that which is discussed in this episode of the anime. However, her own person, in particular her name, warrants some remarks since it can be the source of some confusion:

  • In the LN and anime, she is introduced as Ryuzu Bilma (with the other three: Arma, Shima, Delma). In translations of the WN, her name is traditionally romanized as Lewes.
  • The more significant difference is that while in the LN, the original girl is called Ryuzu Meyer, with the four copies with separate, complete personalities having separate last names, the WN story has both the original and the copies be called simply Lewes Meyer. As such, the difference is less obvious at first; and upon figuring out what is happening with them, Subaru himself assigns them the designations Alpha, Beta, Sigma, and Theta.

• A private discussion

  Afterwards, Subaru arranges to remain alone with Roswaal, sensing that the latter will not talk freely while Emilia is there:

  • The part from the anime where Roswaal confesses to having deliberately allowed the Witch Cult’s attack happens here.
  • But for his accomplishments, Roswaal also declares that he is going to anoint Subaru as a knight, should they leave the Sanctuary — which promise he does in fact fulfill in Episode 25.

• Roswaal and Ram, after Subaru has left:

  • Here we get to see for the first time in the WN as Roswaal takes out his Gospel; more or less satisfied with how the encounter went. (Note that this happens before Subaru takes the Trial, so it was indeed presumably as the Book said.)

The following day(s)

After the Trial, the WN takes a bit more time before Subaru leaves for Roswaal’s mansion:

• As they agreed, Subaru and Emilia go into the Tomb together the next day, but the Tomb won’t let Subaru challenge the Second Trial while Emilia is doing the First: the Second takes place in the next room, the door to which won’t open while a challenger inside has not yet cleared the first one.
• As Subaru wants to let Emilia win herself too, she tries again and again for three more days — with similar results each time. (This is in contrast to the LN where Subaru leaves just one day after his Trial.)

With three days (or in the LN’s case, one day) having passed do the WN and LN plotlines finally converge again. Subaru negotiates the release of the hostages with Garfiel and Ryuzu, and Garfiel convinces him to go ahead with the Trials himself once he comes back — at this point feeling really bad seeing Emilia just coming out crying each time. Subaru leaves with the villagers, then gets killed by Elsa in the mansion.

Investigations in the Sanctuary

Due to the absence of the teleporting necklace, Frederica is not under suspicion in the original, WN storyline. Also, because there is more time in between the Trial and the attack by Elsa, Subaru tries to use that as effectively as possible. He deduces based on certain details of what he has seen that the mansion must not have been attacked much earlier than he arrived, so he should have about 3 more days to spend in the Sanctuary, and as such doesn’t rush off immediately.

This again introduces some changes into the sequence of events before Subaru goes there, though the gist of it stays similar. Summarizing the most important points:

• Going off of Emilia’s failure and Garfiel’s attitude last time, Subaru tries to go straight away to setting himself up as the challenger instead of Emilia, passing all the Trials and lifting the Barrier, then getting Garfiel to leave with him afterwards to fend off Elsa. But due to how shady it all seems from the perspective of others this time, coupled with the Witch’s scent, Garfiel becomes a roadblock to that.
• Subaru thus sets about gathering information on Emilia’s past that she is not able to face, Garfiel, Frederica, Roswaal’s goals etc., from Roswaal and Ryuzu in particular.
• It turns out that Roswaal had gone into the Tomb and got injured deliberately to garner sympathy from the anxious villagers, to calm them down (and presumably because his Book of Wisdom told him to).
• Some of Emilia’s past is told to Subaru by Roswaal: namely that she was frozen for nigh on a century together with the entire elven community she lived in, and that she is tormented by the memory of freezing them, this being the past she has to face. Thus he is pushing Subaru further toward trying to take on the burden of the Trials himself — though that ends up not being possible in this iteration.
• From Ryuzu, aiming to learn more about Roswaal, the Sanctuary, and Garfiel — who is proving to be the cause of much headache, and has uncertain motivations — Subaru finds out some of the past of Frederica and Garfiel. Ryuzu also drops a hint that eventually lets Subaru figure out the secret of there being multiple versions of her: namely that she is bound by contract to not utter any lies.
• Subaru ends up going back to the mansion in order to learn more about Garfiel from Frederica (and to prevent the attack by Elsa).

The quarter-blooded siblings

Back at the mansion, the main difference between the WN and LN plotlines is that in the former, with Frederica not being suspect, the focus is on finding out more about the background of the Sanctuary, and the Frederica–Garfiel duo in particular:

• Frederica gives Subaru something of a brief history lesson on the Demihuman War and the persecution of half-bloods and demihumans.
• Subaru learns about the familial circumstances of the siblings here — including the fact that they are only one-quarter demihuman, hence the Barrier can’t hold them (something he doesn’t find out until much later in the anime and LN); that Garfiel is staying in the Sanctuary out of choice rather than necessity, because he won’t leave the others behind. This allows Subaru to actually count on Garfiel coming to fight Elsa when formulating his plans from Episode 14 onwards, instead of such a possibility being a lucky coincidence in Episode 21.
• It is implied that Frederica was conceived out of rape after her mother was captured by a group of demihuman bandits who were roaming around in large numbers after the war.

Attack on the mansion

In all versions of the story, Elsa attacks as Subaru is attempting to evacuate the personnel (in the WN, they do get as far as the secret exit — which is starting to become something of a focus for psychological trauma to Subaru at this point). Rather than the magic crystal earlier, it is Elsa’s knowledge of the secret exit in the WN that makes Subaru briefly contemplate Frederica being a traitor when they meet the next time, but that is quickly resolved (with her death).

As Subaru manages to get back to the mansion and opens the door to Rem’s room so that she can at least die by his hand rather than being slaughtered by Elsa, he gets brought into the Forbidden Library.

THE END once more… or is it?

Being angry at Beatrice for saving him, and discovering her Gospel, the encounter goes down about the same in all versions of the story, with the anime showing everything important.

The next major difference lies in the ending to this iteration. Instead of getting straight-up killed by Elsa in the Library, originally Beatrice uses Door Crossing to throw Subaru out — not into the mansion, but to the Sanctuary, the room with magic crystals.

• Subaru thus encounters this place earlier in the WN, and does not find it via the memories of people consumed by the Witch of Envy, as is the case for the anime, in Episode 10.
• Finding the Sanctuary completely empty, and then being killed by something going straight through him as he tries entering the Tomb to meet with Echidna, Subaru loses consciousness before he could identify what it is that killed him, even as he is being chewed.
• Hence, we (and Subaru) learn about the existence of the threat on the Sanctuary side as well before we get a chance to directly see what it is.

Subaru imprisoned

As for the next try, in both versions of the story, Subaru gets taken out and imprisoned by Garfiel very soon after he comes out of the Tomb. The context for this is rather different though:

• In the LN and anime, Subaru goes ahead and proposes to Shima and Garfiel, behind Emilia’s back, that he should challenge the Trial, which aggravates them.

• In the WN, Subaru already did something similar in his previous life (see Episode 06) which led to him antagonizing Garfiel. Instead, he now goes straight to Roswaal to ask him about Beatrice. The conversation initially proceeds similar to that in Episode 08 of the anime, about Beatrice’s Gospel, but with some additional elements:

  • Subaru learns that Roswaal too possesses a replica of the Book of Wisdom.

  • Roswaal does not yet reveal that he also sent the assassins to the mansion. However, Subaru, being already unstable after the previous harrowing experience with Petra killed in front of his eyes, gets very angry at the fact that Roswaal not only allowed the Witch Cult attack (which he already knew), but he (presumably) knowingly set things up in a way that resulted in the loss of Rem. Hence, Subaru attacks Roswaal in blind rage.

  • Garfiel, who was watching over Subaru in secret due to the smell of the Witch, sees this as his suspicions being confirmed and knocks him out.
  • We additionally learn that Garfiel is capable of some healing magic (something that also comes up later in Episode 11 when attempting to heal Ram), him having patched up Subaru after using a bit too much force.

Following that, Subaru spends his time bound up until Otto comes to rescue him.

The failed escape

After the discussion with Roswaal (which, in the WN, takes place before Subaru’s captivity instead, see the previous episode), Subaru attempts to escape with the help of Otto and Ram — only to be intercepted by Garfiel.

The circumstances are a bit different in the LN as compared to the WN, as in the latter, Subaru and the rest are trying to evacuate all the villagers — who have become restless after Subaru was captured and held at an unknown location; and who come back to try and help Subaru despite having been told to flee. The rest plays out in a similar manner though, with a few key differences:

• Subaru instantly makes the connection that he is seeing the transformed Garfiel because he has already been shown a partial transformation by him (see Episode 02); instead of having seen Frederica’s transformation in Episode 06 (which doesn’t happen in this version).
• In the midst of battle, as Subaru is attacked by Garfiel, he feels his rage unlock something inside him. Reflexively trying to defend himself, the huge tiger is suddenly thrown up and away. Subaru doesn’t realize what happened, but this acts as a tease for when his Authority of Sloth — Unseen Hand, or Invisible Providence as he names it — gets used once more (see Episode 16).
• Subaru is not teleported away by a necklace (since it doesn’t exist in the WN) after being thrown by Patrasche. Instead, he gets knocked out and finds himself badly injured, thrown inside a cave as he wakes up much later.
• It can be assumed that Garfiel doesn’t eventually pursue him because — aside from not being fully in control of himself in his bestial form — the snowstorm breaks out soon after Subaru falls unconscious (and then the ensuing swarm of Rabbits eats him, along with everyone else).

And then there were none

Finding the Sanctuary completely empty (in the WN, for the second time), Subaru encounters the Great Rabbit, which sends him back to his save point — in a horrifying manner, the description of which is rather notoriously graphic in the novels.

Thoroughly traumatized, he is once more invited into Echidna’s Citadel, and realizes that at long last, he can safely talk about his experience here… or can he?

Tea Party: Take 2

After Subaru confessing to Echidna about Return by Death, during their conversation:

• While not shown in the anime, Echidna reveals to Subaru something he had recently seen two more of than he would have wished to: a black book similar to the Witch Cult’s Gospel (which does make an appearance in Season 2, but much later, in Episode 24):

  information on the book

  • This is Echidna’s Authority: the original Book of Wisdom, or rather:

    the Memories of the World.

  • It allows access to nigh all knowledge in the world.
  • Rather than literally having watched what Subaru was doing throughout all the loops, she has read it (though the process is not quite literally reading text in the book either).
  • The Trials are indeed constructed using the memories of the challenger, as Echidna said before in Episode 05 — however, the access point to those memories is actually the Book of Wisdom. Neither are the Trials restricted to using only the challenger’s memories (though in the case of Subaru’s First Trial they probably are, with him being from a different world): we can see this both in Subaru’s Second Trial and Emilia’s Trials, in particular the Third Trial.
  • Echidna dislikes directly using the book if she can avoid it, as the sense of discovery is what she’s after rather than merely the knowledge itself.
• Echidna mentions that the reason for her unrivaled, irrevocable resentment toward Satella is something completely different than her own death.

The embodiment of Hunger eternal

After discussing the Great Witchbeasts, and the Great Rabbit in particular, Echidna allows Subaru to meet Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony — after giving a couple of warnings, notably never to touch her, release her, or look her in the eye; that much is the same between all versions of the story. There are some significant differences in what happens afterward though:

• In the LN and anime, Typhon and Minerva intrude on the Tea Party before Daphne gets her turn — with Typhon breaking Subaru up and Minerva punching him back together.
• In the WN, on the other hand, this encounter has already happened. As such, Subaru meets the Witch of Gluttony straight up.
• At Daphne’s request, Subaru actually keeps feeding her Echidna’s cookies — throwing them to her so as to prevent Subaru himself being eaten instead.

• When the conversation gets to the point of Daphne saying Subaru would understand the way she and the Rabbit feel, were he starved to his limits, in the WN version, Daphne

  removes the bandage over her left eye

  and looks at Subaru who — though remembering Echidna’s warning — is unable to avoid her gaze:

  what happens afterward

  • After a short while, Subaru starts feeling unbearable pain. Unbearable hunger. Collapsing on the ground, yelling, feeling death by starvation closing in, even as he keeps on eating.

  • But then Daphne draws his attention to something:

    What, was Subaru, eating, right now?

    Daphne: You noticed it? That’s Gluttony, you know.

    Hearing Daphne’s words, Subaru noticed it—— the pinky and ring fingers on his right hand were missing.

    Where did the missing fingers go? There was no need to look. He was chewing on the fragments of his pinky finger right this moment. Profuse blood seeped from the torn-off stumps, dyeing the green grass fields red.

    Watching the droplets fall, Subaru’s mind went blank. With the passing of the seconds, something slowly came to fill that blankness. An emotion, of,

    ——Ahh, spilling blood is such a waste.

    Simply a desire to quench his thirsting throat, and the disappointment of his unsated hunger.

  • Thankfully, Minerva comes crashing down and heals him — his hunger and his hand — before leaving again.
  • This scene isn’t present in the LN either, despite both Echidna’s warning and Daphne’s line leading up to it being there; a likely reason might be that with meeting Typhon having been put in the same Tea Party, Minerva coming to heal Subaru again after so short a time would feel repetitive.
  • It is mentioned that Daphne’s right eye has some other, unspecified power — compared to which, by Echidna’s later statement, the left eye is not as much of a threat.
• After returning to Echidna, a couple more topics are touched on, including a part about the death of the Witches: Echidna mentions Minerva having died first, but on further inquiry, she is unwilling to discuss the matter (some more information on that will be covered later).

Drowning in Love

For what happens after Subaru wakes up and finds the Sanctuary submerged in the shadows of the Witch of Envy, there are a few things that are worth clarifying about Subaru’s internal thoughts (not heard in the anime):

• Subaru realizes that the Witch of Envy has probably appeared because he was talking about Return by Death while inside Echidna’s citadel.
• As he couldn’t find Emilia in the Tomb, he concludes that the Witch of Envy must have possessed her body (this is later confirmed by Echidna), possibly to spite him. When, at the end, he sees her face and vows to save her, he is talking to Emilia, rather than Satella (unlike in Episode 13).
• After returning to the Tomb, what Subaru is afraid of is Emilia’s body still being possessed.

The purpose of the clones

After finding the crystal housing the original Ryuzu Meyer — either via memories seen while being consumed by the Witch of Envy (LN), or using the fact that he had been transported to the facility before by Beatrice (WN, see Episode 07) — Subaru is found there by the currently active main Ryuzu clone, and they leave for a house to converse:

• The WN version has Subaru meet a maintainer and guardian of the facility — a blank Ryuzu clone without a distinctive personality — in the room with the large crystal before the other one shows up. Subaru touching the crystal and it reacting to that prompts the girl to recognize Subaru as her master and kneel before him — before Subaru learns about the actual meaning behind it, that he is now a so-called Apostle of Greed.
• During the conversation about the purpose of the system creating clones — the experiments on soul transplantation — a particular incomplete copy of Echidna is mentioned: due to the limits of the vessel’s soul, the personality was left broken, but some of the Witch’s power was transferred and said clone ended up causing major issues. The Ryuzu clone in question was Sphinx, one of the leaders for the Demihuman Alliance in the war a couple decades ago (an event also mentioned in an earlier conversation with Frederica, see Episode 06).

Hell, in two parts

As Subaru gets ready to leave for the mansion early this time (remembering from the second iteration that Elsa had arrived earlier than he thought), the titular I know Hell encounter with Garfiel in the anime and LN is actually an amalgamation of two occasions in the WN:

• In the first one, taking place before Subaru talks with Ryuzu:

  • This happens shortly after Garfiel grudgingly revealed the existence of the multiple Ryuzu copies when trying to fight the Witch of Envy in the other timeline, so Subaru uses that to taunt and test him.
  • Basically, he makes an off-hand-seeming question about having seen two identical girls, in order to gauge his reaction.
  • Though angry and suspicious, Garfiel does let him go eventually. It is here that the I know Hell speech occurs, with Subaru leaving the shocked Garfiel behind, going off to the facility with the crystal.

• The second one happens after Subaru has managed to converse with Ryuzu — and asked for her help in getting out of the Sanctuary:

  • As he is leaving, Garfiel intercepts him — a lot more hostile this time, and bringing up the Witch’s scent, which he didn’t do in their previous exchange.

  • This makes Subaru guess that the shifts in Garfiel’s attitude between right after the Trial and somewhat later occur because he is talking with someone. That

    Garfiel does not sense the Witch’s scent,

    but someone else is telling him about it.

  • Mentioning that really ticks Garfiel off, but Subaru has prepared for that: using the control authority he now knows he obtained, he calls on the Ryuzu replicants he had secretly stand by — including one with a personality, whom Garfiel considers his grandma — to detain Garfiel, who is incapable of hurting them with his own hands.
  • As it turns out, Subaru being an Apostle of Greed made him suitable to control the copies, but touching the crystal is what made his authority actually override Garfiel’s (hence the copy with him at the time kneeling after that), who is unable to do anything about it at that moment.
  • With Garfiel pitifully wailing at Ryuzu’s betrayal, Subaru leaves for the mansion.

Frederica: Info gathering II

After meeting Frederica and Petra, in the novels, Subaru once again wishes to discuss certain things with the former about what he found out recently:

• From knowing the condition for controlling the Ryuzu replicants, Subaru guesses that Garfiel too had challenged the Trial some time back — which Frederica confirms.
• However, she knows nothing about the existence of the copies themselves or the purpose of the Sanctuary.

Beatrice’s wish

Following that conversation, Subaru goes to meet Beatrice as in the anime, confirms her connection to Echidna, and she asks for death by his hand, before being interrupted by Elsa. Owing to the changes to how Subaru and Beatrice’s encounter went before (see Episode 07) though, there are some notable differences in how events play out between the WN and the LN, both in the Library and after the fight:

• About Beatrice’s contract:

  • Since, in the WN, Subaru has already experienced Beatrice transporting him to the Sanctuary in her moment of distress, and additionally has seen both her and Roswaal possess Gospels, the latter of whom is devoted to Echidna, he puts two and two together: Beatrice has a deep connection to the Sanctuary, and the contract of hers that Roswaal mentioned before is with Echidna.
  • In comparison, the LN has Subaru do a bit more guesswork: the archive of books full of knowledge, Roswaal’s connection to Echidna, and Roswaal explicitly denying at one point that he personally would have a contract with Beatrice (this is not outright stated, but implied in Episode 08 of the anime) leads him to the conclusion.
• Originally, Beatrice asks about the Gospel from Petelgeuse: she suspects that Subaru can read it. He confirms that indeed lately he had become able to; further hinting at him having absorbed the Sloth Witch Factor and gained the Sin Archbishop’s Authority. Beatrice wants to know in particular if the owner’s death was written there — which is in fact not the case, reinforcing her evaluation that she should be dead.
• The WN has Frederica and Petra killed while still in the mansion, so Subaru doesn’t flee towards the village here, and neither does he meet Meili until later (see Episode 22).

• Beatrice’s death and the aftermath:

  • Instead of teleporting Subaru to the Sanctuary as has happened earlier, in the WN, she doesn’t get the chance to do so. However, Elsa, seeing Subaru resigned to his death, is rather disappointed and chooses to spare him after inflicting a grievous wound and knocking him unconscious.
  • Burying the bodies of Frederica and Petra first, Subaru then leaves for the Sanctuary on Patrasche, arriving during the snowstorm; here, the two storylines once more converge.

Meanwhile, Emilia…

On the topic of the snowfall and Emilia’s state of mind, some things need clarification:

• In the WN, this is the first time Subaru sees the actual snowfall. Previously, he always got there / woke up later, after the spell has dissipated and the snow melted — though the Rabbit of course remained.
• Since in that version, Roswaal had told him about Emilia freezing Elior Forest before, Emilia causing the drastic change in weather is an idea that does not seem altogether implausible. Regardless, after seeing Emilia not being aware of doing so, Subaru chooses to go with the other potential suspect: Roswaal.

• As Roswaal says, Emilia’s state of mind came about due to Puck seemingly abandoning him, Subaru leaving for who knows where, everyone blaming her, and that after facing the Trial on four consecutive days now. The Trial that she is fundamentally unable to pass not simply due to it being painful, but because

  she does not even have the true memories that she is supposed to process

  (for details, see Episode 14). She does not have a concrete past she can overcome per se, only a mass of guilt over a vague, disjointed series of events that don’t quite make sense. And even as she attempts the Trial time and again, she can not even properly recall what she has seen there exactly before.

• Notably, Emilia is not possessed by the Witch of Envy as she was in Episode 10 — as ironic as it is that that is exactly what Subaru feared at the start of this timeline, and now at its ending, it almost seems like that had come to pass.

Roswaal, you bastard

The confrontation with Roswaal, his killing of Garfiel and Ram, and revealing his knowledge of Subaru’s ability (or at least part of it) goes about the same as in the anime, but again some aspects are worth being made clear:

• Roswaal knows Subaru can redo but not that he does so by dying; hence the — purposefully non-lethal — violence he inflicts on Subaru in an effort to make him restart. Subaru realizes this himself, but chooses to keep his true ability a secret since he yet thinks Roswaal may also keep his memories upon every reset — until Roswaal explicitly refutes that at the end, that is.
• The time Garfiel starts (futilely) healing Ram is not the first time he is shown to know such magic, not in the WN at least: he heals Subaru before, after knocking him unconscious and taking him captive (see Episode 07).
• In the WN, Subaru brings along several Ryuzu replicants as a safety measure when confronting Roswaal, though he ends up easily taking care of them.

All for one taste of happiness

Upon the Great Rabbit’s arrival, its attention is almost exclusively focused on Roswaal due to the enormous amount of mana in his body. This allows Subaru to make a mad dash for the Tomb, though after Roswaal gets devoured, he too becomes a target. This is not shown in the anime, but Subaru actually brings along the Ryuzu clones and uses their self-destruct ability (as done by Garfiel against the Witch of Envy in Episode 10) in his last desperate attempt to get through and away from the pursuing horde.

Later on, he reflects on how callous and wholly unnecessary his orders were — merely to delay his ultimately necessary death — but at the moment he doesn’t care: he wants to at least end this timeline with Emilia, whom he has abandoned and left to despair so many times already.

He succeeds, as we know, though with some bits and pieces missing — not that this bothers Emilia much at this point:

The following one and a half episodes, i.e. the Second Trial and the tea party afterward is arguably one of the most plot-significant parts of this story arc — definitely so in the first half of Season 2 — full of lore revelations and intriguing clues for the future. There is much that was cut when adapting from the LN, and even more before that, when the WN version was condensed.

It is hardly worth even attempting to go through all the cut material; what follows is only the most significant parts, and the rest can be read in the WN in chapters 69 to 79, including the two interludes (as for where to do so, see the end of this document. If one only reads a single part of the web novel, this should probably be it due to its largely self-contained nature, and including a large amount of informative, additional material.

The Second Trial

The Trial itself contains all of Subaru’s deaths, with 7 of them written in detail in the WN, each unique in its own way. One of these is from a timeline that was cut from the LN and the anime, and further two are only implied in the LN through illustration — these in turn made it into the anime, though in a drastically cut down form as compared to the WN:

• After Subaru kills himself due to Rem’s name and memories being eaten:
  • In the WN, the scene continues beyond that which is shown in the episode.
  • the description of these events

    Suddenly, Subaru’s corpse starts moving and gets up in a jerky, mechanical motion. Sensing the threat, Wilhelm attacks it, but is stopped by shadows surging out of the body — shadows that consume part of his arm. As Ferris flees with the now unconscious Emilia, Puck comes out, his voice dripping with venom.

    ——You dare make Lia cry…
    As accomplice to the crimes of that body’s owner, you are deserving of ten thousand deaths—— Witch.

    Despite Wilhelm’s protests about fighting there, the scene ends as the world is drowned out by the clash of frost and shadow.

• Death by Julius, following being possessed by Petelgeuse
• Subaru jumps off a cliff, his suicide viewed by Beatrice and Ram
• Puck is freezing over the world presumably after the death from either Episode 14, 15, or 18 of the first season:

  • Puck is shown to be rather more spiteful and scathing toward Reinhard. He also implies his own memories being sealed, and only now coming back (to be elaborated on in the last timeline that is described in detail).

    What’s so funny? It’s funny, of course it’s funny. Reinhard, you… no, what would this upstart possibly know?

    I remember now. How it was meant to be. It took me long enough to understand it. And, having understood, when I saw how you still don’t know, it’s so funny I couldn’t help myself.

    You are a hero, Reinhard. ――A hero is all you will ever be.

    At the end of the end, he uttered the most spiteful remark of them all.

  • Reinhard in fact uses the Dragon Sword Reid here: the one that can only be pulled from its scabbard when needed. In the anime, this can be identified from the hilt and grip of the blade.

  • As the Dragon Sword rends the world, so does it heal it: the mana expended warms the air, from the frozen and shattered earth flowers spring forth all around as Reinhard watches on in sorrow.

    At the close of the torrential sword slash, the world that was covered in the white, encompassing cold was born anew.

    The parted world was mended, as the spiral of mana faded into a ring, returning to the atmosphere. From the shattered earth, flowers budded and bloomed. The pierced-through air was imbued with warmth, as sunlight peered from the severed sky.

    The Sword Saint’s strike simultaneously brought about the world’s end as well as its rebirth.

• Subaru’s first death, in the warehouse with Emilia (scene only implied in the LN):
  • Not much additional information is presented, but Puck is shown to appear to freeze Elsa and the world; though it can be assumed that Reinhard stops him eventually.
• Rem has killed Subaru after the curse on him was activated, in Episode 05 of the first season (scene only implied in the LN):
  • Emilia, Roswaal, Ram, and Rem are sitting across a table in the mansion.
  • Emilia, in shock and grief, calls Roswaal and Rem out for the latter having killed their guest, her benefactor — even if she knew him for but a short while.
  • Rem defends her actions by saying that Subaru was dying from the curse anyway. However, upon Emilia noting the cruel and painful way she killed him, Rem is unable to respond, having done so due to her distrust and hate towards Subaru.

  • When Roswaal tries to chide Emilia, calling her behaviour childish, she walks over and slaps him on the face.

    I was wrong to have been taken along by your beguiling words. My atonement… my penance will come in many other forms. It was because of my mistake… that Subaru died.

    I will bring his soul with me, and lay him to rest in the forest. ——For Subaru, and the others, for as long it takes, I will devote my time to tend to their souls. That is all I will say.

  • As Emilia leaves to take Subaru’s body, Roswaal calls out to Ram, saying that now that the present has strayed from the Gospel, their contract can be fulfilled; hinting at the nature of their relationship, to be properly revealed later (see Episode 21).

• A death that was cut from the LN, between Subaru’s first attempt to defeat Petelgeuse (see the second death) and the time he finally succeeds in doing so:

  details

  • This was an iteration in which Subaru had tried capturing Petelgeuse and bringing him to Roswaal’s mansion, though this attempt ended in failure.
  • Emilia arrives at the scene with many bodies strewn around, Subaru amongst them, and Petelgeuse (in a new body) rambling about his love.

  • As she gets there, Puck appears in a panic:

    Lia! Now, right now! Get away from here now! That thing… you mustn’t meet with the Sin Archbishop! The Trial will begin! If it gets imposed on you, it will be horrible!
  • It should be noted that the word Trial is, in the original Japanese, the same as what was translated as Ordeal in the first season’s subtitles, uttered repeatedly by Petelgeuse (and of course the same as the Trials in the Tomb). It is not the last time the word will come up in the story either.

  • We also get some insight into Puck’s past and the memories he had lost:

    I just remembered, I finally remembered! That bastard… meeting that bastard finally made me remember! Why did I forget… and there’re so many things I still can’t recall… unless, I can’t remember until things become like this… but if so, then!

    THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU SAID——ECHIDNA!!

  • Further on, it is heavily hinted at that not only did Puck have a physical body at one point, he may well be Emilia’s actual father, or at least related to her.

Meanwhile in the audience

The Witches in the Tomb (yes, all of them) are having a discussion about the difficulty Subaru is facing in the Trial, about what is expected of the one undertaking it, about parallel worlds:

• The challenger simply needs to affirm their reality as the true one and reject all others. However, in Subaru’s case, with him potentially having been in other realities, that is not so simple as it would be for most.
• Several bits of background information are casually thrown around on various topics, like:
  • Minerva stepping in to defend a group of elves. Together with information provided elsewhere, it is suggested that this ultimately leads to Minerva’s death in some sort of trap.
  • Flugel and Volcanica sealing a pact between the two of them, ensuring their cooperation with the Sword Saint Reid against the Witch of Envy.
  • Even before Satella makes an appearance, the contrast between Echidna’s and the other Witches’ attitudes towards her is briefly brought up, serving as a hint for what is to come later in the Tea Party.
• There is also a lot to be gained from simply being able to see the dynamic of the Witches’ relationship, how they interact among themselves, but that is not easily put into bullet points.

On tea and contracts

After Carmilla is sent by Echidna to break Subaru out of his state of desperation, does the Tea Party with Echidna begin (the other Witches having left for the moment):

• The essence of the discussion on whether or not the parallel worlds Subaru saw are real is largely as it was in the anime: the Trial constructs them using the knowledge in Echidna’s true Book of Wisdom, but whether or not Subaru is actually hopping between different worlds or rewinding time is something only the Witch of Envy might be able to answer.
• What we (and Subaru) could only suspect about what happened following their last encounter is explicitly confirmed by Echidna (or at least she agrees with Subaru’s assessment): the Witch of Envy was jealous of Subaru having revealed his secret in Echidna’s dream citadel, and as such reached out to possess Emilia’s body; though with her seals still being active, she could manifest but a minuscule fraction of her power.
• When Echidna offers the contract to Subaru, and the other Witches keep stepping in due to their own specific reasons, it is mentioned by Minerva that Echidna is the one of the Witches explicitly known for making numerous contracts with various people and constantly meddling in the world’s affairs — which Echidna fully admits to, and to the fact that indeed not all of these have ended well for the other party.

• In her monologue (which is notoriously long in its original form, the anime doesn’t even come close), Echidna’s point is basically that Subaru’s ability is

  the perfect tool for a researcher,

  being able to replicate the exact same starting conditions over and over. That she is not going to be dishonest with Subaru, will not hamper him in achieving his ideal future, and indeed will lead him to it eventually, but intends to make full use of the unprecedented opportunity Return by Death provides.

• information from a side story set in a world where Subaru had accepted the contract

  In the Kasaneru (Greed) IF side story, we see a version of the future where Subaru went along with Echidna’s proposition.

  He has become thoroughly desensitized toward death, having experienced it quite literally millions of times, going through each loop mechanically; returning for reasons as minor as telling Petra what the weather is going to be the day after, just so she can go outside without worry.

• The contract with Beatrice was made not purely as an experiment: the knowledge within did require someone to safeguard it, and Beatrice also needed to be protected, see Episode 24. Echidna simply decided to kill three birds with one stone by satisfying her own curiosity on the side.
• When finally Satella shows up, it is not entirely unexpected in the WN: we knew (though Subaru did not) that she could force her way inside the dream (see Episode 05), even if she can also be repelled. That this time she isn’t is because here she is Satella, as opposed to back then where she was the Witch of Envy (for details see the next section).

Satella (and not the Witch of Envy) finally makes an appearance. A number of significant pieces of information are missing from the anime — facts that were included in both the WN and the LN versions.

Satella & the Witches

One of the first curious aspects of the scene to notice is of course the sharp divide between how Satella acts here and what we have seen in earlier episodes. The other Witches are also evidently not as antagonistic towards her as one might expect — apprehensive, maybe, but not hostile.

Satella & Subaru

About the relation between these two, we get some enormously significant information:

• The reason Satella gives for loving Subaru is more extensive in the novel, and is very much worth looking at:

  I, love you. ——Because you gave me light. It was you who took me by the hand, and showed me the world outside. In the nights when I was lonely and afraid, you held my hand. And when I was all alone, you kissed me on the lips and told me that I wasn’t. You’ve given me so, so much. …That’s why, I love you. Because you… you gave me everything.

• Upon hearing that, Subaru’s reaction is that he has no clue what Satella is talking about… and yet,

  he feels a familiarity with all that she has said.

  He experiences a vague sense of recollection, even as he cannot identify any tangible memories. He feels a sense of warmth in her presence, though he doesn’t know why.

After all is said and done, as Satella asks Subaru to kill her, Subaru tells her what he has said once before, in Episode 10: that he is going to save her. This time, however, he is actually speaking to Satella, and not talking about Emilia.

After the guests have left

In the WN, the second interlude chapter follows as the Witches discuss the Tea Party, with almost all of it being extremely lore-relevant. Some of the most interesting parts:

Roswaal, you absolute bastard

When, upon being rejected by the Tomb, Subaru realizes that he no longer has the Qualifications, he at first tries to check if he can still take command of the Ryuzu clones by touching the crystal housing the original. However, the crystal fails to react: Subaru is no longer an Apostle of Greed.

Only after this does he go to Roswaal, looking for a way to resolve the current predicament without passing the Trials, seeing as neither Emilia nor himself seem able to do so now. On the whole, the content of their discussion is roughly the same in the WN as in the LN / Anime. However, there is a subtle change that alters the dynamics of the situation:

• In the WN, the order for the confessions of the respective parties — Subaru having lost the Qualifications, and Roswaal being responsible for the attack on the mansion —

  is reversed as compared to the LN.

• Up to the point that Subaru brings up leaving the liberation of the Sanctuary for later, prompting Roswaal to insist that it be done, that Subaru himself should do it since Emilia is far too weak and useless to do so, the conversation proceeds in a similar vein. Subaru then hesitates if he really should take it up on himself (putting aside whether or not he could), depriving Emilia of the chance, and Roswaal is disappointed by his lack of resolve.
• In the LN and Anime, Roswaal opts to reveal him being the one who ordered Elsa’s actions to drive home his point, to corner Subaru. This indeed causes Subaru to despair and beg, seeing as he is now actually unable to take the Trials, but from his superior position, Roswaal is mostly unfazed and undaunted.

• In the WN, however, Subaru, defiant at Roswaal’s disdain for Emilia, throws it in Roswaal’s face that he could not take the Trials if he wanted to, and goes on to note that he would not simply be able to return to a time before he lost the right to challenge them either — though he doesn’t really have a way of knowing if this is the case.

  (He is actually surprisingly open about discussing Return by Death this time, without intervention by Satella. Yes, Roswaal knows already, but so did Echidna, and talking to her did not end well the first time.)

  This causes Roswaal to despair at first, but then flips the table on Subaru by revealing himself as the mastermind behind every aspect of his current predicament. Not that Subaru didn’t consider it before, but the admission still shatters his defiance, and Roswaal, now newly confident, resolves to corner him further, to force him to regain his Qualifications and follow the true path to the future. Thus we get to roughly the same result as in the LN.

The bet / contract

First things first, an important point needs to be addressed about the bet Subaru made with Roswaal:

• In the LN and anime storylines, the latter ends up surprising Subaru at the arc’s conclusion with having set up a contract to enforce their verbal agreement. In the original plot, however, Roswaal straight-up demands that

  a binding magical contract be made

  if he is to agree to Subaru’s terms.

• Said contract would work because Subaru keeps his memories upon using Return by Death. Should he lose and return, he will still need to follow its terms. Roswaal would not remember it, nor would it have any effect on him, but it only needs to bind him for this single timeline; if Subaru resets the world, he has already lost, and Roswaal has no obligations.

• The LN / anime version of the story has Subaru simply wager on him being able to resolve the problems in both the mansion and the Sanctuary. In the WN, he instead specifies two conditions that Roswaal has previously specifically deemed impossible to satisfy:

  • get Garfiel outside the Sanctuary as an ally,
  • and have Emilia pass the Trials

  — two key elements on the path Subaru intends to forge toward saving everyone involved.

Preparations for what is to come

After the terms are settled, the sequence of events is somewhat altered between the WN and the LN / anime versions. In the WN, Subaru is shown spending some additional time doing the groundwork, setting things up with Garfiel, discussing matters with Ryuzu (primarily while Emilia is asleep after Puck breaks his contract with her).

Notably, the entire conversation during which the memories about the Sanctuary’s past are revealed — in the anime, spread out from Episode 18 to Episode 20 in multiple segments — occurs before the night where Subaru promises to stay by Emilia’s side but sneaks away to draw on the walls of the Tomb (see Episode 16). There is also the matter of convincing the Ryuzu clone opposed to the liberation of the Sanctuary (in the LN / anime continuity, that would be Shima) to support it.

Subaru taunts Garfiel using his knowledge of the latter’s past attempt at the Trial and Garfiel’s command authority of the clones, but does so without identifying himself as an immediate threat by lying and saying he failed the Trial (only triggering Garfiel to move against him later, at the appropriate time). This will only be understood as a lie by Garfiel during his own repeat run of the Trial (further details in the relevant section).

The breaking of Puck’s contract

Before all that, does the part take place where Puck breaks his contract with Emilia, and also the preceding discussion between him and Subaru. Since said discussion was almost completely omitted in the anime, many details might require clarification:

• Emilia’s memories are blocked off by two layers of seals: Pandora’s Authority and Puck’s contract.

  • Pandora altered specific parts of them (in particular her own involvement), but the generally painful memory of the entire community of elves being frozen or otherwise killed and Emilia’s own sense of guilt over her role in it — even putting aside her directly freezing the forest, before that she already blamed herself for repeatedly sneaking out, and in particular going to the Seal in the forest — remained. And without remembering Pandora’s role, Emilia had only herself left to blame for the entire incident.
  • Puck’s contract included several trivial-sounding terms — like choosing Emilia’s outfit for the day and doing her hair — intended to protect her from her own unease regarding her adult body; but more than that, upon creating the contract, Puck became a seal on her bad memories and sense of guilt. This was a more subtle kind of barrier: Emilia didn’t necessarily feel a hole in her recollections, she knew there was a past she didn’t want to think about, but in her day-to-day life didn’t consciously realize that she couldn’t think about it.

• When Subaru calls Puck out on his absence in Emilia’s time of need, he reveals that

  it is Emilia herself who didn’t allow him outside:

  subconsciously she wanted to remember her past — this was in particular necessary to face the Trial — and had been trying to suppress the seal, her contract with Puck. But on another level, she also didn’t want to see her past, and Puck could reveal that. As such, he is incapable of manifesting himself as normal physically.

• In fact, in the WN version, Subaru can only communicate with Puck mentally, by directly touching the crystal he resides in — and even that is possible only due to Subaru’s affinity with spirits; though Puck already knew from before that such communication would be possible between them.
• They decide that for Emilia to finally see and overcome her real past — not the half-truths fabricated by her upon trying to remember — Puck will have to dissolve his contract with her. He thus, with heavy regrets, leaves her in Subaru’s care, for the latter to comfort her and support her.

• Breaking the contract and cutting himself off from Emilia’s (secretly enormous amounts of) mana leaves Puck unable to maintain his existence properly — that is, unless he assumes his true, Beast of the End form, in which he constantly drains mana from the atmosphere, and as such freezes over all by his very presence.

  It also shatters the crystal he currently resides in, and though he gets a new host crystal, that is not of sufficient quality to fully support him — basically consigning him to a sort of hibernation.

• In the LN, this new crystal is the magic stone given to Subaru by Frederica. In the WN, that necklace does not exist: Subaru instead uses one of the minor crystals from the facility housing the large one, the core of the Sanctuary’s magic.

Confronting Garfiel: Part 1

Here we get Otto’s backstory, his and Ram’s confrontation with Garfiel, and Subaru’s talk with Emilia. Otto’s backstory as presented contains most of the important points. The standoff with Garfiel is somewhat changed and overall significantly simplified as compared to its original version though:

• In the WN, Garfiel is explicitly provoked by Subaru after the Ryuzu clone in attendance disappears (as per the plan, though that isn’t admitted of course) by suggesting that Garfiel should just use his authority to order around the other clones to find her — thereby revealing his knowledge of matters Garfiel wanted to keep a secret.
• He finally springs into action when the refugees disappear, but is lead to a decoy by the smell of multiple sets of worn clothes stashed in some wagons on the road. It is here that he is greeted by Otto, who states that the villagers have already scattered in various directions, and it is futile to look for them.

• The ensuing confrontation and chase consist of multiple stages as Garfiel’s advantages are reduced step by step:

  • clogging his nose with a pungent smell so he can’t track Otto effectively,
  • luring him into a number of traps, some utilizing the animals of the forest,
  • and constantly taunting him in various ways to make him lose his composure (including an amusing moment where Garfiel finds a message along the lines of Fooled ya! in one of the decoy carriages primed to explode).
• As a final move before Ram steps in, Otto uses his ability to cast Earth magic, greatly magnified by borrowing mana from the forest creatures angered by Garfiel’s habitual destructive behaviour. Unfortunately, the latter’s Blessing of Earth Spirits renders the attack far less effective than it would have otherwise been.
• Even getting Garfiel to transform, enraging him enough that he loses his control was part of Otto and Ram’s plan, so that as someone sufficiently familiar with his fighting style, Ram could read and avoid him; though her body not being able to withstand the exertion leads to Garfiel eventually gaining the upper hand nonetheless.
• Incidentally, all of this effort was not asked for by Subaru, who merely wanted Garfiel held off for a bit — it may have ended up being necessary for his eventual success though.

Meanwhile, in the Tomb

Subaru finds Emilia there, as he suspected and hoped he would: having no desire to make contact with anyone after both Puck and Subaru broke their respective promises, but not wanting to quit her responsibilities either — or rather, she doesn’t want to resign to having given up, though neither does she have the will to truly face her past yet. They end up having a long and heated discussion there:

• This conversation, and in some ways the entire situation is both similar and not to the one in Episode 18 of Season 1, when Rem tells Subaru that she loves him in spite of all his flaws. An imperfect mirror image, so to speak.

• To begin with, Emilia feels weak and useless. She has — like Subaru in his past life — been faced with a slew of real and perceived expectations, by herself and others. The arbitrariness of qualifying for the Royal Selection (that is held in such a strange way according to instructions handed down on the Dragon Stone from 400 years ago, which is a whole topic unto itself), not having really done anything to earn that position, and now comprehensively failing to do the one thing expected of her… With her memories fading in and out, her very identity is in question now. Even as she tries to show determination, she views herself as beyond hope, and is convinced others do so too.

  Not that she is far off from the truth either: Roswaal, Ram, Garfiel — neither of them believe that she can pass the Trials, or really do anything meaningful at all (see Episode 13 for Roswaal, Episode 21 for Ram, or how Garfiel views her in Episode 05). Even Subaru most often saw her as someone to be protected rather than helped along.

• When Subaru did try to encourage Emilia, all he did was offer seemingly blind belief in her strength, her person — statements so out of sync with her own self-perception that they only fed into her self-deprecation: everybody has already given up on her, and as such are not even disappointed.

  In a sense, Subaru was what Roswaal expected and claimed him to be in Episodes 20 and 21: offering empty platitudes, refusing to see beyond his idealized version of her. He too needed to leave that behind, and that is part of the significance of these events.

• The answer Subaru gives to Emilia is in a way the opposite of that offered to him by Rem. To the respective assertions of I’m horrible, and then Rem’s answer being No, you’re not. You are my hero, and I love you, Subaru instead responds with

  Yes, you are. But I still love you.

  Emilia did not require someone to sing her praises: she had heard plenty of that, and was sick of it. There also wasn’t much that she could take pride in. What she needed was someone to convince her that she is still someone worth putting hopes in, not for anything she had done, but for herself — and Subaru does just that.

• To close things off, it is rather amusing to consider, in light of the final episode, what Emilia agreed to when letting Subaru kiss her.
• In any case, with Subaru having tasted Death before, this second kiss was of the burning taste of Life.

Subaru vs. Garfiel

• When Subaru once more uses Shamac with his already damaged gate,

  it finally shatters beyond repair.

  It is important to keep that in mind for later.

• What Puck did to Garfiel is basically the same thing Beatrice did to Subaru way back in Season 1, upon their very first encounter in the Library: a mana drain. Which, in this case, stripped him of most of his strength born from his demihuman blood, and reversed his transformation.
• Before that, Subaru taunts Garfiel into transforming, claiming that doing so is the only way he is able to kill anyone, being too soft otherwise.

• But the probably most important difference is not one in the sequence of events per se: rather in how they were built up to beforehand. In the WN,

  this is not the first time

  Subaru’s Unseen Hand — or as he calls it afterwards, Invisible Providence — makes an appearance. The Sloth Witch Factor (the assimilation of which was helped along by Echidna’s tea) has manifested its power once before, when Garfiel slaughtered the villagers in his bestial form.

  Subaru didn’t realize back then just what exactly he did in that last extremity, nor does the reader know for sure, but they can suspect. Likewise, here he also uses his Authority somewhat unconsciously, only feeling a power surging within him after exhausting all other options — including becoming completely unable to cast magic properly.

While the combatants are sleeping…

Afterwards, as Subaru and Garfiel are knocked out, in the WN version there is a discussion between Roswaal and Emilia — the former having stood by, hesitating whether to interfere, which Emilia confronts him about. This roughly corresponds to the conversation between Roswaal, Emilia, and Ram in Episode 21, and as such the details will be described there.

Garfiel’s Trial

• Though not present in the anime, originally, Echidna as the examiner is with Garfiel during his Trial; explaining some of how it works, commenting on Garfiel’s thoughts, not unlike how she did with Subaru’s Trial before, and will do in Emilia’s Trial in later episodes (she is decidedly not hateful towards Garfiel though, even if a bit surprised to see him again).
• Initially, Garfiel sees the scene as he remembers it: without sound, assuming his mother left him behind to search for her own happiness.
• In the WN, from Echidna does Garfiel learn that one person has already overcome their past, completing the First Trial: Subaru. Before that, Subaru has, in this timeline, mentioned having the Qualification and having challenged the Trial to Garfiel, but lied and said he failed to conquer it (see Episode 14). This Subaru has done to avoid the earlier situation of Garfiel perceiving him as a direct threat right away.
• After this revelation breaks down a mental barrier in him, Garfiel begins to hear sounds as well — only having experienced it muted before — thus hearing his mother’s true feelings and why she left: to search for Garfiel’s father; not for herself, but to bring him back to the Sanctuary, so Garfiel (and Frederica) wouldn’t have to grow up without him. (Her unfortunate accident of course prevented that.)

Subaru, graffiti artist

Finally, about the messages and drawings Subaru scribbled onto the Tomb’s walls, one should notice that not only is this the reason he needed to sneak off from Emilia’s side and break his promise — that which he wouldn’t talk about before Emilia could see it —

Subaru needed to draw all these while fighting off the intense nausea

caused by being in the Tomb without possessing the Qualifications. He doesn’t suffer actual injuries like Roswaal due to his low amount of mana, but it would have required tremendous willpower to do so regardless.

It should also be mentioned that while it may sound like that in the anime, originally it isn’t that Garfiel walked in on Subaru and Emilia’s kiss; he is simply apologizing over having seen Subaru’s love letter on the walls of the First Trial’s chamber.

Relatively minor nuances aside, this presentation of Emilia’s childhood here is fairly complete, with the major lore revelations coming in the next episodes.

A notable detail missing is Geuse (i.e. Bishop Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti; note the ‘P’ instead of ‘B’, and that he is not an archbishop yet) explicitly mentioning two factions within the Witch Cult: a so-called moderate and radical one, the cultists with him belonging to the former (including his Fingers). The exact nature of the divide, or what goals hold them together, is not specified though.

A crash course on astronomy

One interesting tidbit regarding the title itself is that the corresponding chapter in the novel had the title The Day Alpha Orionis Laughed, the author being very much conscious of the origin of the names of the Sin Archbishops: the ones we know so far are

• Betelgeuse, the brightest star in Orion, i.e. Alpha Orionis,
• Regulus being Alpha Leonis,
• and Baten Kaitos the brighter star in the binary system Zeta Ceti.

The anime likely changed this for the sake of clarity; still, it is a little bit of a shame as the original title does have the potential to get one thinking about the significance of these names.

While on the topic of names and no better time to discuss it, it is also notable that the names of all known Witches (including the one Warlock) except Satella possess the names of asteroids:

• 42355 Typhon I Echidna, a moon of the asteroid 42355 Typhon
• 42355 Typhon
• 5381 Sekhmet
• 93 Minerva
• 41 Daphne
• 107 Camilla (minor phonetic alteration here in the translation: the Witch’s name is written as Carmilla)
• 624 Hektor, one of the Jupiter trojan asteroids
• 55 Pandora

Satella, meanwhile, is clearly the Japanization of the Latin word stella, meaning star.

There are other characters as well whose names hold special meaning akin to these, like Al(debaran) — the star Alpha Tauri — or, in fact, Subaru himself: the Japanese name for the Pleiades, the open star cluster Messier 45 in the constellation Taurus.

Remarks on the plot of the episode will be split into three parts.

Beatrice’s past

• Petelgeuse is briefly mentioned in the novel to have known Echidna and Beatrice 400 years ago. To be exact, Echidna notes that she should have Geuse talk some sense into Beatrice in regards to how she acts towards others (the other being Ryuzu Meyer in this case); him being implied to tutor Beatrice on a regular basis, and having a good relationship with Echidna.

A new Witch appears

• Since the concept has been introduced in the novel before in regards to Satella (see the section for Episode 13), the reader is already aware that

  • there is such a thing as being incompatible with a Witch Factor,
  • if that is the case, consuming it has a destabilizing effect on one’s personality, essentially driving them insane in time.

  As such, they can immediately put in context Petelgeuse’s struggle to contain the Sloth Factor.

• Basically, he forcefully

  absorbs the Factor by sheer willpower,

  driven by his devotion towards Fortuna and Emilia. When that drive breaks in the next episode, and in the worst possible way no less, his mind is ripped apart by the Witch Factor, with Pandora guiding the state his mind settles in afterward.

• If one had only seen the anime, and of that Season 1 a long time before watching this episode, they might miss when Petelgeuse mentions the name of

  the sage Flugel

  (the one who supposedly planted the tree Subaru used to take down the White Whale). Seeing as Petelgeuse is apologizing to him upon deciding to take in the Sloth Factor, one can guess that he was possibly entrusted with it by Flugel; the significance of that is not clear at this point though.

• The Witch of Vanity has previously been translated in the WN as Witch of Vainglory. Both mean the same thing though, vanity being the less archaic term for vainglory. It is also crucial to note that while this seems a departure from the Witches of Sin motif, it isn’t really, rather it fits nicely into that pattern. That is so because historically,

  vanity / vainglory used to be considered one of the cardinal sins

  before being merged with pride. More on that will be discussed later, see Episode 20.

• Not necessarily plot-related, but one must notice the fact that Petelgeuse literally opened a box while being urged on by Pandora. (Though it may or may not have been hers per se.)

Emilia and Arche’s flight

• In the novel, one of the Fingers of Petelgeuse assists the — ultimately unsuccessful — escape of Arche and Emilia.

• Through him is it revealed first that the Black Serpent has come, or rather been brought to Elior Forest. Even though it is commonly known to be utterly impossible to affect in any way, with it just going wherever it chooses to hunt, it is mentioned that while falling short of being able to actually control it,

  Pandora is capable of guiding the Serpent

  to a place of her choosing.

  Said Finger is the first to fall to the snake’s attack, leading to a rather horrifying death for him (the anime spared us of the details) witnessed by Emilia and Arche before Arche himself gets touched by the tongue of the Serpent — said to infect anything it comes into contact with a hundred diseases and permanently cursing any land it dwells on, making the area deadly for all but witchbeasts.

• It is also directly stated that Pandora’s very existence is a core secret of the Witch Cult that very few would know about — Arche himself has no idea who she is upon hearing her name.

The purpose of the Witch Cult?

Possibly most importantly: even though opening it is referred to as the Witch Cult’s long-cherished desire,

the Seal here is not the place the Witch of Envy is located.

The fact that the anime left out the part in Episode 01 where her location (past the Pleiades Watchtower, near the Great Waterfall) is mentioned may lead to some confusion in that regard.

Pandora’s ability

Continuing on from Episode 18, it is here that the one thing Petelgeuse clung to in order to keep his sanity comes undone when he kills Fortuna due to Pandora’s authority. On that note, let’s engage in some speculation about what that Authority might entail exactly.

Emilia’s powers

Her using power beyond her own body’s ability to withstand it undamaged is mentioned by Pandora to be

tied to her lineage in some manner.

Echidna later also comments on the fact that Emilia has extraordinary amounts of mana — more than almost anyone in the world, even Roswaal for instance.

It is her contract with Puck — a being with the ability to drain mana at an incredible rate — that allowed her to suppress the magical power that she was not able to control at the time. (By the end of this season, having grown mentally and especially physically compared to back then, she is better and slowly improving at using it — which she makes full use of when aiming to contain the Great Rabbit, see Episode 25.)

Devil of what now?

Here we finally encounter the other no-longer-in-use Sin: melancholy, or acedia. There may be some confusion as to the title of Hector and its significance though. Notably, in most translations of the WN he has been translated as Warlock of Melancholy, whereas in the LN and anime Roswaal scathingly calls him Devil of Melancholy instead.

In the original text, both the words 悪魔 (akuma) and 魔人 (majin) are used at different points: the former indeed meaning something like a demon or devil, a fiend, while the latter is a more general term about a magic user, a sorcerer, a warlock — notably, it is the counterpart to the exclusively female term 魔女 (majo) that is used for the Witches.

The conclusion to be drawn here is that

Hector is the same as the other Witches, but male;

he should thereby also possess what we know as a Witch Factor (of Melancholy). Since the term witch, in modern English, usually implies being female, calling him a Warlock would be the more accurate title. Note however that Roswaal calls him Devil of Melancholy as an insult, and Hector’s reaction reflects that.

Regardless, this completes the set of the nine historical Cardinal Sins — with the two additional, almost forgotten ones being entirely absent from memory for reasons unspecified, in spite of one of them even (presumably) being active to this day. Clearly, it is unknown at this point if the parallel has any direct significance in the story; but the number of ties to our world, like the names of Witches and Archbishops suggests that there might actually be more to it than just drawing inspiration from the real world.

The conclusion of the battle is neither shown in the anime nor told in the books since this is as much as Ryuzu saw. As for what is known or can be conjectured about what happened afterwards, see Episode 24.

Ryuzu clones: the one who was left out

Finally, regarding what happens before Subaru and Garfiel leave to talk with Roswaal, a significant difference between the WN and the LN has to be mentioned:

• In the WN, the Ryuzu clone who told Subaru about Ryuzu Meyer’s memories and the one who was pushing Garfiel against Subaru a number of times are not the same. They have been blended together in the LN in an effort to simplify the plot; along with giving the clones distinctive names from the start, instead of Subaru naming them later. For the purposes of this explanation, the naming scheme from the WN will be used to distinguish those characters from their LN counterparts.
• The WN has Lewes Theta tell Subaru about the memories seen in the Tomb, the purpose of the Sanctuary’s creation.

• However, neither one from among the clones Alpha, Beta, Sigma, and Theta seems truly, adamantly opposed to freeing the Sanctuary. So, in accordance with Subaru’s earlier deduction that someone has been setting Garfiel up to move against him,

  he concludes that a fifth one must exist;

  and before going to Roswaal, he manages to locate her.

• This one — the secret overseer of the Sanctuary, whom Subaru names Omega — is a special clone, outside the cycle of the other four.
• Lewes Omega has been the one who was subtly pushing Garfiel against the liberation of the Sanctuary; the one who had told him multiple times about the Witch’s scent on Subaru. In that, he is analogous to Ryuzu Shima in the LN.
• The existence of Omega was a secret to all but Roswaal (even Garfiel didn’t realize she was a different person). She was working to preserve the Sanctuary in accordance with the past Lewes Meyer’s will, who intended for its establishment as a safe place for the persecuted half-bloods — and had been cooperating with Roswaal as long as he seemed to support that. Roswaal’s plans starting to fall apart and Subaru finding out about her existence made her give up and let the latter do as he pleases though.
• This is not the only role of hers that Shima takes over in the LN: see the epilogue to Arc 4.

The episode starts off with Subaru learning that he can actually have Garfiel come along with him to the mansion to fight Elsa. In the WN, this was something he knew for a while instead, and which he very much counted on when making the bet with Roswaal — it was part of the reason he tried so hard to get Garfiel on his side.

Aside from this short setup for events in the mansion, there are two main focal points of this episode: Roswaal’s attitude towards Subaru and Emilia, and Ram’s relationship with Roswaal; as such, remarks will be grouped accordingly.

Roswaal vs. Emilia

Regarding their conversation, though details may differ, most of the exchange is pretty much on point in the anime when compared to the novels, as far as the essence of it goes. It is, however, much more extensive and contains some additional intriguing details originally.

• In the WN, the discussion happens without Ram’s presence; in fact, it takes place before Emilia passes the First Trial, while Subaru and Garfiel are unconscious. Emilia is newly confident — or maybe hopeful would be the better word — but has not yet faced (nor remembered) her past there.
• Roswaal can be said to be in general a bit more rude, or maybe spiteful towards Emilia. There is some semblance of similarity between that and Echidna’s behaviour, but it’s not quite the same, and certainly less intense. One could say that while Echidna hates Emilia, Roswaal just considers her (at that point) to be worthless — except as a tool for his goals, for which she must win the Royal Selection.

• Emilia’s initial hostility towards Roswaal is given a satisfactory explanation: while Garfiel and Subaru were fighting, Emilia sensed that Roswaal was observing it. She first thought he had come to help Subaru, but then also managed to detect that

  Roswaal was aiming a spell at the latter, ready to fire at any moment

  — though he did not do so in the end. Upon Emilia questioning her about that, Roswaal blatantly refuses to answer, almost provoking a fight with Emilia — before she is calmed down by Patrasche.

• On that note, Roswaal seems to have some dislike for ground dragons in particular. Also, interestingly, he mentions a time when there were no ground dragons. Whether this is to be taken literally is anyone’s guess, but this prompts an exchange in which Emilia points out how Roswaal treats her as young for being only barely a hundred years old, even though she is the older one among the two — physically at least. Understandably, this statement amuses Roswaal a great deal.

• Roswaal actually

  reveals the existence of his Book of Wisdom

  (or rather, his replica of the original), and that it is the guide which he follows, with the current events being supposedly a mistake. Obviously, he does not say anything about Subaru’s ability, so Emilia is not able to fully put into perspective his considering this world to be ending.

  Roswaal also mentions the book sharing its origin in some way with the Dragon Stone — the tablet left to Lugnica with instructions for the nation to be followed at various points in history; the method to be used for the current Royal Selection was also written on the Dragon Stone for instance.

• When Roswaal realizes that Subaru has managed to overstep idolizing Emilia and talk to her honestly, with Emilia also recovering as a result, he is extremely distraught about how his image of Subaru following down the same path as him is shattered. Talking to himself for the most part, he once refers to Subaru as a sage — a callback to what we heard the Witches discuss back in the Tea Party.

Ram’s intentions

The meaning behind Ram’s words, both to Emilia and to Roswaal, is mostly accurately conveyed, but due to it being severely condensed, it isn’t necessarily easy to get some of the finer points if one does not already know what to look for:

• Ram clearly knows about the Book of Wisdom and that Roswaal is following its instructions. She herself is not able to read it (nor would Roswaal allow her to try), but she does know from Roswaal some of what was supposed to have happened — and that events are very off course now, Subaru having turned Garfiel to his side with the latter facing up to his part, and Emilia also passing the Trial. She thus views Roswaal’s attempts to still uphold particular aspects of his stated future, like making it snow, to be meaningless, to be

  clinging to words written purely for aesthetics.

  Since the deviations from the gospel’s writ have already made it so that he lost the path toward a clean conclusion, she wants to make him embrace the new path set out by Subaru and Emilia.

• Her contract with Roswaal states that his life is in her hands if the world should deviate from the gospel’s guidance — and as such Roswaal’s drive to live is extinguished. She is not aware of the true meaning behind Subaru and Roswaal’s agreement; going by her knowledge, the contract no longer binds her and she is able to take action.

• Roswaal, on the other hand, views his current actions as necessary to force Subaru’s hand in the next loop. True, this is a world moving towards its end, but his actions yet have meaning in setting Subaru on the correct path after the next reset. As such, his contract does not compel him to surrender himself to Ram,

  her coming to fulfill it now is premature: he is not yet done with this world.

  He doesn’t disclose Subaru’s ability, of course, but makes his stance clear that the world has not yet reached a point where he should freely allow Ram to kill him.

• This disagreement born from their difference in knowledge is

  the root cause of them fighting at all,

  even though, by Ram’s words, Roswaal had long agreed to give up his life to her when the time came.

• One other matter needing clarification is that the English subtitles have made Roswaal’s stated role in the destruction of the oni village seem more active than it originally sounded like. Rather than one of the men who destroyed your homeland, it was more accurately like someone responsible for the destruction of your homeland.

  One can conclude that it was written in his Book of Wisdom that the oni village be destroyed by the Witch Cult. That he probably just let them do so, at most leading them there, swooping in afterward to save / take Ram and Rem in accordance with the book’s guidance. This would legitimately

  make the Tome to be at fault in Ram’s mind instead of Roswaal

  — being bound to the book as he was, in the pursuit of his goal (of resurrecting Echidna). And as such her actions in Episode 23 serve not only to free Roswaal, but to take her vengeance in a way.

One final remark: Ram’s Clairvoyance ability works by synchronizing with the mind of the target. By and large, in the case of other humans, it requires a close connection and intimate understanding of them; thus her using it on Roswaal demonstrates the depth of Ram’s ties to him.

Events in the mansion will be addressed with the next two episodes; for now, the focus is on Emilia’s Second Trial. In particular, two key points need talking about. One being Emilia’s relationship with mirrors, the other Echidna’s attitude towards her. In general, the contents of the Trial itself were given the time they needed and were handled very well in the anime.

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

• It is unavoidable that it be a bit unclear what the deal with mirrors is when one can not hear Emilia’s internal thoughts. That being said, one can in fact deduce most of it when putting themselves in Emilia’s place and piecing together what they know.

• Basically, Emilia has not seen her reflection at all for a long time: ever since waking up. Her body did grow while she was frozen and is what a roughly hundred-year-old half-elf would be like ordinarily, but her mind was unchanged (this is part of what Roswaal told Subaru earlier in the WN, see Episode 06). After awakening,

  • Emilia had difficulty even controlling her body, unfamiliar as it was, she felt like it was hardly even hers;
  • most everyone in the vicinity of the forest that she interacted with was afraid of her or hated her, possibly both, due to her looks resembling that of the Witch of Envy (even after seeing she intended no harm to any of them).

  As a result of all that,

  she herself had come to detest her appearance,

  and was not willing to look at anything reflective straight on, never mind mirrors.

• It is known that Puck’s contract with Emilia includes a clause saying he will be doing her hair every day. This was actually requested by Puck himself as he saw Emilia’s fear of her appearance and wished to spare her the pain of having to look at herself; he even meticulously removed any and all reflective objects from where she lived. This is part of what Emilia refers to when asking herself just how much she has been protected by others.

Test results

In the WN, Emilia goes back to her place and it is in the mirror that she sees herself at the end. This was changed in the LN, and probably for the best since jumping in the water to see her reflection (mirroring the setting of the scene with Subaru and the cliff from Episode 07 of Season 1) is actually a beautiful way of presenting that moment. The exchange with Arche is also a good addition in the LN; he does make an appearance in the WN too, but in different context. What we have seen very little of though is her conversation with Echidna:

• In the WN, instead of her simply appearing behind Emilia, what happens is that after finally gathering the resolve to look in the mirror back at home, instead of herself reflected, Emilia sees Echidna, and they have another discussion. Regardless of the setting though, the contents contain some important information.

• During part of it, they tread similar ground as in their exchange after the First Trial, but this time in regards to Emilia’s hopes for the world at large; with Echidna calling her out for naïve idealism, presenting the difficulties in establishing the world she desires, and Emilia instead

  being focused on the problem at hand, the Trial, taking it one step at a time, and holding out hope for the future.

  While Echidna does have a point, her spite clearly shows, which brings up another topic.

• When asked about the reason for her attitude, she asserts that there are only 3 people in the world towards whom she bears such hatred. That unlike the hate Emilia is used to experiencing, Echidna’s is focused on her person rather than her race or appearance:

  There’s no need to look so worried. My hatred for you has nothing to do with you being a half-elf. It isn’t a question of your pedigree. With no connection to blood or nature, I just hate you. …Or no, that may not be strictly correct.

  She refuses to say anything more on the matter though.

Three main theatres of action this episode: the mansion, the tomb, and the forest — for the assassins, the Trial, and Ram’s fight respectively. Let’s go through them in order.

The battle of the Roswaal Mansion

The assassin sisters

• The bit about Garfiel calling Elsa and Meili sisters has been somewhat changed from how it was originally. It is clear enough in the anime that Elsa and Meili aren’t literally sisters — sisters in spirit maybe, but not in blood — though in the LN this fact is more pronounced in Garfiel’s internal thoughts.
• However, in the scene’s original version in the WN, in response to Garfiel’s remark, Elsa first reacts with surprise and asks back why he would think so. Garfiel points out that while they may not share blood, they certainly seem like family, and are even referring to the same person as Mother (their boss) — which considerably amuses Elsa.

Vampires, witches, other things…

• When Garfiel calls Elsa a vampire, she affirms his statement, but also remarks

  Not that I drink blood or anything.

  What this little exchange shows us is that

  • vampires here are not quite what they are ordinarily understood as in our world’s stories,
  • even as a similar image is associated with them among the population.

  Their nature is not exactly clarified at this point yet, but there is more to it than was shown in the anime.

• This also implies that Garfiel and Elsa biting each other should not necessarily be attributed any special meaning — it is not like drinking Elsa’s blood would likely have any particular effect on Garfiel. It was simply that after purposefully impaling his hand on the weapon Elsa was holding and then using both his hands to restrain her, no other option remained for Garfiel and Elsa to fight each other.
• While there are precious little clues to go on at this point to determine which one of Witches would have been a vampire, by Garfiel’s remark, it is worth remembering the fact for later.

• In the novels, Garfiel crushing Elsa with the corpse of the Wagpig

  does not immediately result in her demise.

  Her body broken and no longer properly regenerating, her mind shattered and barely present, she yet lives, driven basically by pure instinct.

  When Subaru is teleported out of the Library by Beatrice for the last time before he finally succeeds in convincing her, and Subaru tries to get back to her through the burning mansion, she encounters Elsa — basically a broken corpse, but obsessively driven by the goal of killing her targets and very capable of doing so, even if clearly greatly hampered by her condition. He manages to escape into the secret exit that he once died in, frozen, and where he was attacked by Elsa another time (WN-only, see Episode 06); to the one door that is yet to be opened. Opening the door — ironically, the doorknob that froze his hand before now burning it — he gets into the Library same as in the anime; however, what remains of Elsa is destroyed by the explosion resulting from the backdraft.

• information from a side story

  A vampire is really a so-called Curse Doll. In its standard form a curse is cast on someone, who gains quasi-immortality (i.e. they can regenerate from any damage, with some limits on how much this can be used), but in turn loses their mind and is driven solely by their purpose to hunt down a marked target.

  Under circumstances not yet specified, or using an altered version of the spell, the cursed person is able to maintain their self-awareness and personality though, and they also do not die upon killing their target as they otherwise would. Elsa is like this too, though upon being damaged enough, she deteriorates to the simple curse doll state (until finally that too is ended).

  Also, curse dolls of whichever type do not generally drink blood. That perception is born from a single notable case and got mistakenly generalized.

The Third Trial

• In the actual Trial part, most of the lines from the novel are present in the anime too, the major missing part being Emilia’s own thoughts as she watches these flashes of the future. It should also be noted that Emilia does in fact see the various scenes of the future to a degree rather than just hearing a jumble of speech — some of which are vaguely described in the novel. However, in this case, the anime actually provided a ton of new clues too by letting us hear the voice actors speaking each line, in place of the — often rather unclear — visual information:

  dialogue lines (extended with parts from the novel where appropriate)

  • Emilia Hate, hate, I hate you. I really hate you. Really. All of it is true. Always, since the moment I met you… I have hated you. I cannot stand the sight of you. I’ve thought this many times, and I’ve denied it many times…but the nightmare truly has come, so I will say it. Perhaps it is true — we should never have met.

  • Reinhard It’s just like you said. That kid’s our enemy, and our wounds run deep. I can’t use healing magic, so even if we back out now, I might not be able to save you.

    Subaru Then…

    Reinhard But that kid’s still a kid — Isn’t this enough?

    Subaru You’re…you’re a hero. A hero is all you can be…!!

    Reinhard I…

    Subaru Thank you…for your help, damn it!!

    (Note that one of Subaru’s lines is almost exactly the same as what Puck says to Reinhard in the Second Trial.)

  • Wilhelm —without that, have you not even a sword to swing, you damn thief?!
  • Petra Subaru and Emilia are both tired, right? Sorry. And yet, even I’ve become a burden on you. I always, always wanted to say I’m sorry for never measuring up…
  • Rom My precious granddaughter has grown into such a fine young lady, no?
  • Otto What, you feel like this is fulfilling your promise? If so…then you should have left me to die wrapped in a mat in that cave! If… If you were going to show me a dawn like this, it should all have ended there! Damn it! Damn it all!
  • Crusch Under no circumstances shall I be killed by something as nonsensical as curse!
  • Priscilla There, you see? I win again.
  • Ram To think someone I wanted to kill this much turned out to be such a kind person…what a nightmare.
  • Julius If I bend my knee and lose my sword, what is left for me?
  • Anastasia Am I really that greedy? Do I really ask so much? I just don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to become alone… Is that so hard to understand?
  • Garfiel I’m gonna kill you just like I promised, Natsuki Subaru!
  • Roswaal I merely realized something… The days I’ve spent until now were by no means days I walked aloooone.
  • Frederica In the end, ’twould seem we must atone with every last drop of our blood, does it not?
  • Felt You can just stand there running in place! Witches, dragons, whatever stands in my way, I’ll destroy it!
  • Ferris Why won’t the soul take hold?!
  • Rem I believe praying to ask for a favor is arrogant. Prayer should be for seeking forgiveness.

  Some of these have since gained more context in future arcs — at least insofar as one can make a guess as to what they are about — many more have not.

• In the WN, Emilia is greeted by Sekhmet instead of Minerva. The gist of their conversation in regards to the trial is the same.
• In this version, Sekhmet came out to meet her because Echidna didn’t want to (same as in the LN / anime), and Minerva couldn’t show her face to Emilia, while the other Witches would supposedly not be able to properly handle a conversation with her. Basically, the difference is that in the LN, Minerva did come out, instructing Emilia not to look instead of staying away altogether.

• Sekhmet is the one who thus admits to knowing Emilia’s mother and not saying anything more. Nonetheless, the implication that Minerva too may not simply know her mother is there, maybe even stronger: Emilia’s thoughts being articulated directly, we know

  she is hit by a powerful sense of nostalgia upon just hearing Minerva’s name,

  even as she can’t recall having ever done so before.

Ram vs. Roswaal

In Roswaal and Ram’s fight, there is a rather significant change from the WN to the LN — the anime is largely faithful to the latter:

• For remarks on the participants’ respective motives, why the fight even happens at all, and Roswaal’s probable role in the destruction of the oni village, see the section on Episode 21.
• Puck was completely absent from this fight in the WN, and was only added in the LN.
• In the former version, Roswaal already admits to being in the process of casting the weather manipulation spell, and as such is slightly disadvantaged — slightly: he easily and completely overpowers Ram at first. The revelation of her true motivation manages to throw Roswaal off enough that, coupled with a smokescreen created by her using wind magic and managing to momentarily activate her oni transformation by directing her mana to the place of her horn — just for a moment, and at the cost of almost fatally damaging her body — Ram manages to snatch away the Book of Wisdom (from which point events play out as in the anime).

• It is interesting to note that, while Ram was seen to be devoted to Roswaal before as well,

  the depth of her current feelings may at least partially be due to Rem’s name being eaten.

  Previously there were two most important persons to her — Rem and Roswaal — but now only the latter remains and all her feelings are thus focused on him.

A melancholic Roswaal

Roswaal’s reaction to losing his copy of the Book of Wisdom and almost killing Ram in a fit of rage is fairly on point, and not much to add there. However, there is an intriguing moment after Puck compares him to Hector, and Roswaal’s eye is explicitly shown twitching. In the novel:

This can lead to some interesting ideas about what the connection between Roswaal and Hector is, why the former has adopted the latter’s appearance, and just what happened to Hector anyway, which we will get to later in this part.

Emilia: All is not yet well…

• The subtle, hinted bombshell in here is of course at the beginning, when Ryuzu Shima, exasperated, speaks in Echidna’s voice:

  Unbelievable. You see this, and that’s the first thing you think of?

  The significance of this will be discussed in the next section.

• It is worth noting that, as the Ryuzus inform Emilia of this, her having taken the Trials and met with Echidna grants her the authority to control the clones, same as Garfiel and Subaru.
• It is because of this that all the clones obediently follow her, and do as they are told when ordered to secure Roswaal and Ram and bring them to the Tomb. Meanwhile, Emilia herself keeps using magic to cut away swathes of the rabbits, clearing a path forward and halting the pursuers.

Beatrice’s recollections

• In the anime, this is the first time Echidna is mentioned to have

  the true Book of Wisdom, part of her Authority

  — imperfect copies of which she hands out to Roswaal and Beatrice. Originally, Subaru has already been told by her about the existence of this book.

• The discussion takes place after the previously seen battle with Hector and the establishment of the Sanctuary’s barrier.
• Hector has not yet been decisively defeated, only fended off: Echidna orders Beatrice to guard the Forbidden Library to protect her and the knowledge within upon Hector eventually finding a way to get to Echidna.

• Roswaal himself (or his original body anyway)

  has become permanently crippled

  after the encounter with Hector. His gate basically broken, he could barely cast magic, while also being physically disabled (this can be seen from his general demeanor and posture, relying on a cane to walk), and ended up dying early — though, as we know, not before managing to use some of Echidna’s investigations to store his soul in another, suitably compatible body: his child, and further descendants after that.

• It is not told — and Beatrice is presumably unaware of the details too — what exactly ended up happening with Echidna, Hector, and Roswaal. We do know that the entire incident with the Witch of Envy would have most likely needed to take place after the scene in Episode 20; likewise Volcanica sealing Echidna’s soul in the Sanctuary as a counterforce to her (see Episode 03).
• The (outwardly) changing heads of the Mathers family have all adopted the name Roswaal: starting with Roswaal A. Mathers, Roswaal B. Mathers etc., down to the current Roswaal L. Mathers. This even included him being in the body of a woman in some cases; a notable instance being during the time of the Demihuman War, engaged in conflict with Sphinx, a Ryuzu clone used to try and house Echidna (see Episode 10).

What happened to Hector?

Putting together all this information, one can attempt to guess some of what occurred after the events shown:

Rehabilitating a hikikomori

Subaru’s successive attempts to convince Beatrice to abandon her contract and go outside with him are, on the whole, portrayed rather accurately. A few minor remarks:

• In the middle, after Subaru gets thrown out of the mansion and needs to find Beatrice again, he encounters the broken, almost mindless form of Elsa, who actually chases him down the hallway to the final door. For details, see the previous section.

• At the end of it all, the ability for Beatrice to teleport them to the Sanctuary has already been established since she did so to Subaru in one of the earlier timelines — either in the fourth iteration for the LN and the anime (see Episode 11) or the second in the WN (see Episode 07). This is

  essentially the same as Door Crossing,

  in this case applied to the entrance of the Tomb. Beatrice’s ability basically includes places she has a deep personal connection to (as was already deduced by Subaru in the WN) — which is very much the case here.

• As Beatrice and Subaru leave the Library behind, we see the mansion’s main tower collapse in the fire — the very same one that was destroyed by Puck in a snowstorm back in Episode 15 of Season 1 — capping off the interplay of fire and ice, and of contrasting the two seasons of the anime — a theme in these last two or three episodes.

It’s rabbit season!

• Before Subaru’s arrival, yet lacking full control over her newly unlocked quantity of mana, Emilia has partially frozen herself as well while holding the Rabbit at bay (this can be seen on her clothes at the end of Episode 24).
• Even though Subaru’s gate is broken — due to overexerting it before (in Season 1), and finally irreversibly damaging it in the fight with Garfiel — he is nonetheless able to use magic by channeling the mana of his contracted spirit, Beatrice.

• While Beatrice was explaining to Subaru what to do, they did not originally just stand there while the Rabbit politely waited for its turn, as was shown: rather, Beatrice used Murak to reduce the effect of gravity on them, and they

  repeatedly jumped up high, soaring above the Rabbit

  which was thus unable to reach them.

• In the WN, Emilia actually joined Subaru and Beatrice, hand-in-hand, thus

  forming a single immense target of mana for the Rabbit to aim for;

  not unlike how Roswaal basically monopolized its attention in Episode 11 (for as long as there was anything left of him, that is).

• Rather than just lift up the block of snow containing their enemy, Emilia additionally folds it in on itself, decisively preventing the Rabbit from getting off.

• Once the target has been isolated and Beatrice has had time to prepare, she unleashes her trump card, Al Shamac:

  an extraordinarily powerful spell that is mostly unknown

  to the public in the present day (rather shocking Emilia in fact) — one that will not be repeated any time soon though (see later). This sends the target into an isolated space not unlike the Forbidden Library.

• In that pocket of space, the rabbits are set to forever continue devouring each other and multiplying in an endless cycle, their endless hunger never to be sated.

Beatrice’s new contract

• This wasn’t completely clear in the anime, but Beatrice is now properly the contracted spirit of Subaru (supplanting Echidna as her contractor).

• Being an artificial spirit, Beatrice has a couple unusual characteristics:

  • Her contractor is unable to contract with other spirits.
  • She produces no mana, and must therefore drain mana from people to even sustain herself (and, obviously, to use magic), which she has been doing to the residents of the mansion for 400 years — presumably generally in a less forceful way than what we have seen her do with Subaru in Season 1.
  • Her magic, though powerful, is rather mana-inefficient.

• The battle, and in particular the final Al Shamac almost completely exhausted her mana stockpiles built up over 400 years, while Subaru himself is barely able to supply enough to keep her form. Thus, while she is far from useless (as will be seen later),

  such a display of magical power is not something Subaru will be able to rely on

  going forward.

On Emilia and kisses

It must be said that as strange as her ignorance may seem in that moment, it is not altogether surprising: Fortuna not having talked to a 6-year-old about the birds & bees yet is entirely believable, and afterwards Emilia basically only spent awake a handful of extra years, and that mostly in isolation, with Puck as her only contact.

Suffice it to say, though, this is a one-off gag: she won’t keep believing she is about to have a baby much longer.

Private discussions with Roswaal

In the WN, both Beatrice and Subaru have separate conversations with Roswaal in the tomb, over Echidna’s body, instead of Subaru only doing so during his accolade in the Miload domain.

Roswaal’s goals

• It is here that Roswaal makes it clear, both to Beatrice and Subaru, that his goal is

  the complete resurrection of Echidna.

• As an aside, it should be mentioned that from among the number of stated long-term goals for Roswaal (ensure Emilia takes the throne, kill the Dragon, resurrect Echidna), this is the one that makes the most sense for him personally as an end goal. It also enables us to place the others in a possible, hypothetical context where, for instance, Emilia taking the throne of the Dragon Kingdom of Lugnica would somehow enable her and Roswaal to reach Volcanica, and given that the latter sealed Echidna’s soul in the Tomb, his death may be necessary for Roswaal’s plans to bring her back.
• Subaru takes note of the Echidna in the tomb looking slightly different than the Echidna in the dream. Neither he, nor Roswaal can give a satisfying explanation to this — though presumably rather than being completely different entities, one can speculate that either the act of sealing her soul in the Tomb, or the time spent there have altered her in some unspecified way, or that for some reason she has chosen a younger appearance. A bit more on that later in this part.

The core of the world

Subaru is surprised at Roswaal’s aim of reviving Echidna, in particular that it would be possible. Roswaal clarifies that only due to certain special circumstances would it be achievable in this case, and goes on to elaborate on the reasons for that.

Roswaal’s ultimatum

• In the anime, it wasn’t spelled out exactly, but Roswaal basically says that since Subaru has chosen to save everyone and everything, making Roswaal himself abandon his guide in the Book of Wisdom, he will hold Subaru to his word. He will assist Subaru to the best of his abilities, but should the latter ever come to accept a world where something has irrevocably gone awry and in conflict with Roswaal’s personal goals,

  he will personally ruin that timeline and force Subaru to reset.

• He additionally reveals that while he did order the assassination of Beatrice, he did not specify Frederica and Petra as targets. He knew about the timing of the attack from his Gospel, but all he did was order Beatrice killed by Elsa even before the Royal Selection got underway. Therefore, Meili’s participation and the selection of additional targets had to be due to the orders of an unknown third party.

Meili’s future

• She becomes a captive of Roswaal going forward — with her full consent, since, by her own words, Mother would be mad at her for failing anyway.
• She does, however, adamantly refuse to disclose anything about Mother at this point.

Natsuki Subaru, Emilia’s one and only knight

The ending part of the episode, Subaru’s accolade in the grand hall of the Miload residence — delivering on Roswaal’s earlier promise of knighthood, see Episode 05 — is something that originally took place in a post-Arc 4 side story called One Day II, then was included in the Volume 15 proper for the LN.

The characters and setting feature in a larger collection of side stories taking place before the Arc 5 proper, but being important to its story in various ways. We may thus well get to see more of that if / when Season 3 airs.

Leaving (out) the best for last

Lastly, there is an important plot point that was not included in the anime, but serves as an epilogue in both the WN and the LN. It may be included in a potential Season 3 like it was done with Episode 01 of Season 2 — though it would likely be more difficult in this case, since the majority of Arc 5 takes place some time later.

Here follows a collection of hypotheses, and arguments for / against them about various aspects of the series’ plot; either in the form of links to earlier sections of the document, or if not corresponding to any episode in particular, written here in full:

• Pandora’s authority
• Hector’s fate
• Satella’s relation to Subaru and Emilia

  Obviously, the most significant clue is provided by Episode 13 (in particular the version in the novels), and in general events surrounding the Second Trial of Subaru. A number of additional hints are provided by later arcs, but these will be ignored for the purposes of this document, and the ideas presented will largely reflect my own after reading Arc 4 (with some refinements that were made later, but are not based on events further into the plot).

  Some of the most important clues that should be addressed:

  • Subaru seems to subconsciously remember Satella, and what she told him about in Episode 13.
  • Satella explicitly remembers Subaru, and some of what she has said roughly corresponds to what we have seen happen with Emilia.
  • The Witches don’t generally hate Satella, but the unstable Witch of Envy personality — formed due to incompatibility with one or more Witch Factors. Echidna, in contrast, sees no point in making the distinction, and is likewise the only one of them to despise Emilia; but this hatred for Satella is stated to not be because of her own death (see Episode 09).
  • All Witches seem to have a cause of death that is either mentioned by Echidna or is otherwise plausible — one that is not consistent with Satella simply devouring them. On the other hand, Satella is indeed said to have consumed them — and in the WN, they affirm that Satella is the one who did so, not the Witch of Envy.
  • Upon being summoned to this world, in the first episode of Season 1, Subaru has seen brief flashes of what was to be his first death.
  • He felt an instant connection to Emilia — which he explained as her having saved him (and generally being pretty), but there may be more to it than that.
  • Subaru has been repeatedly referred to by characters (with way more background knowledge than we possess) as a / the sage candidate or simply as a / the sage.
  • We have heard about two people addressed with the title of Sage: Flugel and Shaula. The former has come up in various places, notably in the name of Flugel’s tree, supposedly planted by him (and cut down on Subaru’s suggestion to defeat the White Whale), and mentioned by Petelgeuse as presumably the one who left him the Witch Factor of Sloth. We also know that the Witch of Envy is said to have been sealed away by the Dragon, the Sword Saint, and the Sage; and Echidna, in Interlude I of Arc 4, is talking with Minerva about the pact that Flugel and Volcanica made, leading to their cooperation against the Witch.
  • Near the site of the Witch of Envy’s seal rises the Pleiades Watchtower, where the Divine Dragon Volcanica, the Sword Saint Reid, and the Sage Shaula are said to still keep watch. It would seem rather remarkable to be a mere coincidence that Subaru’s name is in fact the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster.
  • The fate of the Sage Flugel is unknown.

  Now to present a hypothetical chain of events that ties these up into a coherent whole — though clearly, some puzzle pieces are still missing:

  • Flugel is the past Subaru, Satella is future Emilia in the past.
  • Subaru stepped into this world not once, but twice.
  • The first time around, he arrived at a point about 400 years prior, where he eventually became known as Flugel.
  • It is in that general era that Satella arrived there from the future as Emilia, already remembering Subaru and all that he has done for her, with her — thus far, and in the story to come. In an ironic twist of fate, their roles are reversed this time: it is Emilia who has come to love Subaru in the future, but this Subaru does not yet know her at all.
  • Flugel gets to know about his future self from Satella / Emilia, possibly including some of his own memories of alternate timelines, though the knowledge may be limited in various ways.
  • After some unspecified events, due to unknown reasons, Satella ends up consuming Witch Factor(s) she has no compatibility with. This may either be the Envy Factor itself, or those of the other Witches, possibly after their death. It seems to fit however that an entity possessing all Factors would wield enormous power; and that should they lose control, they would become a major calamity to the world.
  • During or after these events, Flugel / Subaru ends up returning to his universe, to the point in time where he left, with all his memories spent in the Re:Zero-verse sealed off. Before that, he sets certain events in motion, puts in place several pieces for his future self to use (the tree being one of these), and possibly arranges for his own future summoning.
  • The following 400 years, Satella spends being sealed away. (Sometime during that, her earlier self, Emilia is born.) She knows some of what is to happen, and makes it happen so that the threat she presents can be ended by killing her.
  • When Subaru is re-summoned, fragments of his memories — including fragments of his future carried over into the past via Emilia — resurface: that is what he sees right before and during the summoning. And that is what subconsciously makes him gravitate towards Emilia right away.
  • Near the end of the story, some events occur that send Emilia to the past. These events would happen in the middle of some crisis involving Satella, when it seems inevitable that she needs to be killed, but when that has not yet happened (so that the knowledge Satella and Flugel can have in the past remains limited; Satella / Emilia believes she is to be killed, that she has to be killed, but that is not necessarily how the story ends).
  • At this point, two main outcomes would seem possible: either Satella indeed dies, or she lives.
  • Going with the latter option, how would she live in a world, after all that she has done? One option may be something like the Authority of Gluttony: eating her name so everyone forgets about the disaster she brought about, whether entirely by her own fault or not. But based just on the information presented up to this point, any speculation on this could only be mostly baseless guesswork.

  Basically, in this supposed plotline, Subaru and Emilia both live through the two main theaters of action for the story — the present, and 400 years ago — but they experience them in reversed order. They both meet each other, in different time periods, while having a history with and feelings for the other, who on the other hand does not know them yet. They both would have an initially unreciprocated love for the other, that they work to communicate towards them, trying to get them to feel the same — in which they succeed, even if they are torn apart in both cases.

  At this point, the story could either end in tragedy, with Satella needing to be killed, and Subaru possibly dying (this time for real) to do it. A bittersweet ending might seem more likely though: now having regained his old memories as Flugel, Subaru manages to free Satella, but at a cost, like having the world forget about her (possibly, though not necessarily with himself being an exception).

  After having endured through 400 years of hardship, each meeting and growing to love the other in different times, to finally be reunited in the end: either in death or in life.

  Additional remark: In this proposed storyline, the title Re:Zero — Starting Life in Another World from Zero would acquire double meaning. Not only would Subaru start his life from zero after being summoned into another world; he would restart his life from zero in this particular another world after having already lived there once.

• Web novel (Japanese)
• Web novel (English):
  • TranslationChicken (best quality in my opinion, but only done up to Chapter 110 of Arc 4)
  • Witch Cult Translations (up to date with the latest chapters and side stories)
• Light novel (Japanese)
• Light novel (English)