My Re:Zero theories

Beforehand, sorry fo   r my awful english. This theory is full of spoilers. This is mainly specullation, I'd be grateful if WN readers could correct the mistakes I'll, most surely, commit in matters concerning the plot.


Subaru's side:


The Archbishop of Pride; let's start there. In my opinion, this topic can be tackled in 3 fronts: the archbishop already exists, but he/she doesn´t know it; he/she is in standby, waiting for something; or there is no archbishop yet. My PoV on this is a sum of points 1 and 3. Yes, it's contradictory. How can the archbishop exist and not exist at the same time? Let's do a tiny detour.

In the Bible, Pride is known as the first and greatest of sins, it was for it Lucifer transorm into Satan and the cause Eve eats the forbidden fruit; so pride is the sin of sins and, probably, the leader -in command or spiritually- of the Archbisops of Sins. It has been repitedly claimed that Subaru is the Archbishop of Pride, and I am in that team, too. I will not refer to the psychological aspects of Subaru here, it has been broadly commented why his personality is fit to that sin, so I'll center in other points.

I quote from a random page: [The sin of pride is a preoccupation with self. It is thus very fitting that the middle letter in the word is "i." Pride is all about "me, myself, and I." So even as the word "pride" is centered upon an "i," the sin itself is also centered upon "I"]. If we take that to heart, the "I" in middle of Lucifer and Pleiades is not there for show. All the people reading this should already know Subaru, in Japan, is the name of the star cluster Pleiades also called the Seven Sisters (Pleiades is writen as ? = Subaru, its meaning is to unite/coming together). This give us a little insight of what is the purpose of Subaru's summoning to another world. If his objective is to gather the seven "sisters"/witches/Authorities/sins in his body, he will accomplish something, and that would let him kill Satella somehow (this is what Satella wants him to do to her). Also, they say he should do that to become the Wiseman/Sage. He needs to reunite all the part of a whole, then he'll become wise, complete or perfect. He'll be enlightened and I don't know what that mean; I believe Subaru will reach a truth or a power which leads him to a certain role. And this wise thing do remember Adam to me, a lot. So I think, in the end of Re:Zero timeline, Subaru will turn into a Lucifer-like or an Adam-like existence. What do those beings have in common? They are big fat betrayers; both of them betrayed God. I foretell a situation similar to what he did to Rem in episode 18 of the anime (From Zero), in which he has to make a really hard and cruel choise, something like: "Who do you choose all the others/the world or your dear ones/friends/Emilia?". His choise will probably betray God's expactations (that would be... the Dragon, maybe?), and put an colossal suffering on some people: he will place Emilia as a priority in her decicion, think in her happiness an wellbeing above all, but I am sure the most unhappy and miserable and betrayed will be her.

Well, as response to its own contradictory nature, my theory about Subaru is this: he is the Archbishop of Pride, but crrently he is in an incomplete form, so he is not the "real" Pride yet.

Ah, please be aware of this: when I say "in the end of Re:Zero timeline" I'm not talking about the end of the series, but it's something more like "the end of Lugunica's world", so to speak. If we compare this to Higurashi, the timelines are each arc/Fragment, excluding the Matsuribayashi-hen (arc 8, the end of the series). Therefore, yes, my theory as a whole is based in a endless time loop. I'll try to explain this next.

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Emilia/Satella's side:


In the Pleiades star cluster the brightest stars are the seven Pleiads, Atlas and Pleione (in greek mythology, those two are the parents of the pleiads). Among the seven Pleiads one pick my attention: Asterope. The reasons for that: 1) to the naked eye, in pretty ideal night sky conditions, Asterope can be seen as a faint spot of light in the sky, but in fact Asterope are two stars, not one; 2) Asterope is also a butterfly's genus. As for 1), this is the astronomical basis for the theory of Emilia and Satella being the same person. As for 2), Emilia has a butterfly hairpin, thus it might be a symbolic Asterope.

The story go like this: in the end of Re:Zero timeline, Emilia loses Subaru forever; maybe he dies, or is turned into something, or is not the same anymore, or he leaves that world... the thing is, they are pulled apart and Emilia is left alone. The end. Obviousky, Emiia can't accept it. In her perspective, she wasn't choosen by Subaru, she wasn't important enough to him neither was his top priority, maybe she saw herself as expendable and worthless. She loved him so much, nonetheless, Subaru chooses someone else and left her alone. I don't know if it is was a plot related decision (an example would be the classic "doing this I will save _____") or a reward for her suffering and efforts, but Subaru will choose to save the Witch of Envy (not Satella; I'm more inclined to this, but him choosing Satella is also possible) in the end. Here Emilia breaks and go insane and, over all, she bear a deep hatred and envy... against the Witch of Envy, as she stole everything away from her and has everything she wants, after all. Later, Emilia somehow gets a power to change her destiny (the Witch' Gene, probably) and go back in time, ironically her new power do the job to break her down completely, and here is when Satella is born. We know a certain girl absorbed the Gene, she was "incompatible" and created a second personality. That girl is not Satella, is Emilia. The broken Emilia is very suited to be Envy but in the bottom she is also kind-hearted, and this contradiction is the origin of Satella. Satella would be a mature version of her old self. So the main personality is the Witch of Envy (broken Emilia) and the secondary is Satella (what is left of Emilia's sanity, the Emilia of the past), and not viceversa. Satella being the main personality make no sense. You first become a Witch (cause), then you could or couldn't create another personality (consequence), if you swap this, you only obtain a twisted logic (consequence before the cause).

Now let's think a bit in the objetives of the Witch of Envy (WoE from now on) and Satella. If my theory is correct, the broken Emilia (the future WoE) had a single aim from the very beginning, but it may have been lost or weakened in her 500 years or so of isolation and despair: the broken Emillia objectivr is to BE the WoE herself, that is, if she becomes the WoE, Subaru will choose her in the end of Re:Zero timeline. She even might be a copycat, just imitating the historical facts she know ("the WoE did this, she destroyed that city, she killed that guy, etc; I'll do the same", something like that) and mental image she has of her, as the more the broken Emilia is like her, the more plausible is for Subaru to choose her in the end. Her defeat and subsequent sealing may have been intentional; "she did lose, I too". The reason for the "lost or weakened" part are the hints given to us about the current mental state of the WoE; basically, she meeds to wait for Subaru to choose her, but in arc 4 she obviously can't wait anymore, chases after him (killing Garfiel in the process), because she can't control herself, is desperate, and wants him NOW. This show us how she isn't thinking straight anymore, and just let her instincts and emotions go rampage. I also think the WoE has a deep hatred and envy... against Emilia (ah, irony, there you are again, their feeling are mutual) and maybe Rem, as they are useless, powerless, ignorants, stupids and all talk, in her PoV; but they can stay at Subaru's side and be happy with him, and still she lost everything for being like them in the past. Satella's purpose, on the other side, must be in contrast with the WoE's: she undertand her existence is a cancer to the world and will cause suffering to countless people, so her aim should be the one already stated... she wants to die. Her body is inmortal, so she can't die by normal means so that she need external aid: the Sage. Flugel didn't kill her, so she needs another Sage amd the only one she knows is Subaru. For his summmoning she needs the skill an the energy. As for the summoning skill probably is a compound skill mixing Authorities of the other Witches (there the need to absorb them). As for the energy, the amount should be huge, so she drained the life/mana/spirits of the world to summon the necessary people for her schemes, destroying half of it. All the summoned people must have a purpose profitable for Satella (except Al), even Hoshin (Anastasia under the spotlights in future arcs, perhaps?).

To finish up our cycle, is imperative to answer the question about Emilia's birth. For starters, we know Emilia is a half-elf and Pandora called her the "Witch's daughter". I think it is wrong to take Pandora words literally because her understanding of the mother-daughter relationship may be distorted and she may perfectly see it as a creator-creation relationship. If Satella (a half-elf), and a normal human had a offspring, then the child would be a quarter-elf, not a half. So my theory is this: Emilia is a clone of herself (Satella/WoE), and that's why she and the Witch are identical. The creation of clones is possible in Lugunica because there is evidence of that in Lewes. My guess is for Hector being Satella's ally. He goes to the Sanctuary to kill Echidna (for Satella to absorb her) and/or to steal her knowledge/technology. As Emilia has high-spec magical capacities either they (Satella, Hector or a third party) needed a long time to make a suitable result or Echidna, thanks to the sacrifices of Roswaal and the original Lewes, could gain enough time to somehow hinder their plans (destroying essentianl files, facilities, or tools for clone's manufacture, for example), postponing Emilia's creation; anyhow, it took them 300 years to create her as a child, letting Fortuna to raise her. The Elior people saying they take care for her to repay a debt is a lie, due to her not having parents, but maybe they really have a debt with Satella or Hector. All this also explain why Echidna despises Satella, WoE and Emilia as they practically are the same person, so making distinctions is non-sense.

To abridge this: Emilia is trapped in a macro time loop of 500 years or so (an estimation). She is cloned from Satella, lives her life "normally" until the end of Re:Zero timeline, becomes the WoE (the previous WoE dies at the new Sage´s hands), travels 500 years back to the past, is sealed, and creates her own clone. In the other hand, Subaru is doing micro time loops with return by Death.

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Pandora's side


This is a misterious and importanr character. In greek mythology, Pandora is the equal to Eve of the catholicism. She was the first human woman, and the responsible of the decline of humanity (according to some versions of the myth). Just like I did before with the Subaru/Adam analogy, this Pandora/Eve reference show us how is possible she also has been somehow "enlightened", standing in heights where she can see the full picture of what's going on in Re:Zero. She knows the truth and she puts her efforts to attain a goal I don't undertand. If we use her myth as cue, then her objective might be to retrieve the evils (Witch' Genes, maybe) she set free with the opening of the Box; maybe she is trying to give back the evils she obtained from the Gods (this means the original owner of the Genes is Volcanica and Pandorais his pawn?). In regards to vainglory, I know it is a form of pride and the precursor of envy. If we put all this together then we can assemble all the pseudo-theories you want. Here's my try.

Let's assume Pandora's boss/God give her the mission to recover the Witch' Genes which, some way or another, were released in the world, and she, as the faithful lapdog, is doing just that. That by itself can explain why Pandora is acting like she does. But that only works in a doll without emotions. If she stores the Genes in a Box like in her myth or in other external way, she would need to take care of them all her life. If she stores them in her body, then it is surely a destiny worse than dead; we are witness of how much Subaru suffers with the Authorities he has absorbed, what happen when you have all the Genes? I imangine a goddamned hell in life. Anyways, she is enslaved to her duties, so I think she'd want a way to be free, she'd wish for someone to take the burden, a scapegoat, and that someone is Emilia. Therefore, her true goal is for Emilia not escaping from her tragedy, and her struggles are aimed to force Emilia repeat the errors the WoE commited, that way she can be free of responsabilities for a few centuries or maybe forever with a few lies in the end of Re:Zero timeline: "I'm really sorry ______-sama, I wasn't paying attention (as if) and Emilia absorbed Envy's Genes, the other Genes are lost in another dimension (fourth dimension/Euclidean space; my thoughts about Satella's Authority are in the miscellaneous section)or in a distant past, as they were dragged with her when she activated her Authority". So she is loyal the her boss are only appearences and she is doing her own schemes behind his back.

The things I wrote before are about Pandora's motives based on speculations over speculations, so it's no surprise if in the end all of that is wrong, but I won't stand back in two points you can figure out of that crazy theory, all my other theories, and the actions she did so far in the story: 1) she wants the birth of a new Sage... and I will explain this in detail In the section bellow dedicated to Al; 2) she wants Satella to die - because, what other function have a Sage? Otherwise, she doesn't bother either Satella lives or not, but she want the Witch' Genes Satella has and killing her is the most effective way.

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Al's side

(I highly recommend to read my thought on the Witch' Genes, Satella and Pride Authority and about the Witch Cult I wrote in the miscellaneous section below -the first four entries- to fully understand what I'm tryng to say in this section).

Compared to my orignal mental draft, I've easily written the double of the amount I expected. A bunch of the ideas of the miscellaneous section are things I sketched while writing/re-writing things not compatible with the ideas already written. If you think there are parts don't blend well with other parts, it can be due to them being written in different moments with a differnt mentality (It took me aprox. 2 weeks to write all this, and the Al section is the last one I wrote). One of the theories I've changed the most are my thoughts about Al. I was going to give the reasons I had for it and then claim Al was the Archbishop of Vainglory. But when I created my theory about the Witch' Genes and after thinking deepñy on it I reached another, and more convincing, conclussion.

Aldebaran... is that a DQN name? Subaru is equal to Pleaides, but Subaru still is a decent name, no sane person may name Alddebaran to his child (let´s remember he is from our world), so I guess that isn't his real name, Al could be a nickname of his real name, though. Al also show a bit of disgust when Priscilla called him Aldebaran. Aldebaran is a name he acquired in that other world and the only ones who could have given that name in Lugunica are the members of the Witch' Cult, as all the Archbishop names are astronomical-related (Aldebaran is the brightest star of Taurus constellation). What was that bizarre shadowy thing he saw in that side story? He was scared as heck of it. And the matter about Rem being Ram?

Al has an undesirable relantionship with the Witch' Cult, and specially with Pandora. Why with Pandora? Just like we've seen in Subaru, Al must have some degree of resistance to the Witch' powers and miasma. In the other side, Pandora's Authority has the ability to overwrite/alter reality with her words, including memories, like in Emilia's case. The thing Al mets in that foggy forest is the image he has of Pandora; I guess Al/Subaru resistance to Pandora' skill only works when she tries to change their environment or them directly, but in this case maybe Pandora altered her body, so Al resistence is useless. And the thing about Rem, to him, is the continuation of an endless nightmare, as that, I'm sure of it, is not the first time he lives a situation like this; in those 18 years on that other world, things he believed were common sense suddenly becomes the chit-chat of a madman and the most obvious of the facts becomes non-sense. Al said he was the only one who understand Subaru's suffering, and his lost arm, disfugured face and these strange occurrences are proof of that. Probably Pandora has been messing his life up since his arrival to that world, and he doesn't understand why; when Rem says she is not Ram, Al is furious thinking "not this crap again". If he understand why those bizarre happenings take place (he already said he doesn't has any clue to why he was summoned to that world, but...), then that is a hint of him being a member of the Witch' Cult in the past, adding up the fact the only interval of time when he could have met Rem and Ram for the first time was before or during the destruction of the Oni's village. I'm sure Al is the only one who remember a past forgotten for everyone else and, as he has resistnace to the Witch' powers, his version of the facts must be the truth (unless he misinterpret it): so Rem is not Rem and Ram should be dead. Rem alteration of memories is a bad sign and makes a indirect connection between Rem/Ram and Pandora.

I think Al is Pandora favorite toy. She was the one who summoned him by an unknown method, probably with the help of Volcanica (If my theory is right, as a pseudo-deity and as original owner of the Genes, it would be no surprise if he have a summoning skill, too). As I said before, in the beginning I believed all this lead to Al being the Archbishop of Vainglory (or envy), but my current ideas are against that for two reasons: 1) if the Witch is alive, no Archbishop of that sin can exist, and; 2) even if Pandora discovers a new way to give a segment of her Gene, she doesn't depend on Al to the point to weaken herself sharing her power with other people. Al's Authority also looks similar to Pandora's, but if your view of it changes a little, more than alteration of reality his power looks more like a time-related skill. His check point is created a few seconds before he dies and, when he does it, can send his body and the memories of one person back in time to that checkpoint. The memories he can send to the past can be his own memories (battle with Capella) or the memories of the person who killed him (battle with Leip).

Who is Al,then? What is his relevance in the story? Each constellation has many stars, but in Re:Zero only 1 star for constellation has been used for the names of the chracters, with the exception of Al and Subaru/Pleiades, both of them in the constellation of Taurus. If he also has a time-related Authority and maybe his star also is there to "gather/unite" the Pleiads, then the conclussion I arrive is this: he is a second Archbishop of Pride and a candidate to be the Sage. It is possible, as we know there is three Archbishops of Gluttony. It was strange when I pondered over it: in the end of Re:Zero timeline, why Subaru always reachs a bad end? Why the cycle don't break? Al is Pandora's plan B. When Subaru is strong enough to embrace an ending in which he can save Satella, that ending threaten Al to lost something he can't get rid of (Priscilla? Returning to his world?), so he turns into Subaru's enemy. If Subaru is killed by Al, Al can absorb Subaru's Authority so that is the end for Return by Death, and Subaru is dead for real, no more loops for him (that makes Al the nemesis of Subaru). Then Al kills Satella with the Sage's powers. Next, Pandora kills Al or send him back to his former world (in my craziest guesses he can even become Flugel, why not?) You know the story after that. In my opinion Al and Pandora are candidates to be the last boss (plus Priscilla and the Dragon). More than anything, Priscilla is strange. I've seen her list of skills/blessings but her "luck" is nowhere, but if this is Pandora's doing, messing the world in Priscilla's favor, it makes sense.

In a final note, let's return to Rem's topic. Because the link between Rem and Pandora, I think Rem was artificially inserted in Subaru's life. We don't understand the extent of Pandora's power, but she could have manipulated Roswaal's Gospel forcing him to save her without suspicion of Pnadora interference. Pandora's aim is for Subaru the create a dependance on Rem and to deplete even more Emilia's lack of confidence and self-esteem, forging an inferiority complex when she compare herself with Rem. The current Emilia doesn't understand what love is, but she knows Rem is a huge existence in Subaru's life and she doesn't believe she can be that important to anyone, so in her mind she must be in second place in Subaru's heart. If what happens in the end of arc 3 was plotted and not a simple coincidence or bad luck then: either Pandora takes Rem off the scenario in order to leave a Subaru full of guilt and yearning for her, now in a pedestal, or; Satella wants to take her off to protect Subaru from a greater damage if he had lost Rem in the future, when she becomes too precious to him (because, to weaken Subaru, Pandora was going to do something to Rem, no matter what), so moving the checkpoint to after Subaru's reunion with Rem was intentional. This speculation about Emilia is mostly for the future, after Rem waking up.

And, yes, Al remembers Rem after arc 3.

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Miscellaneous thoughts


---The Witch' Gene is the phenomena which can grant to the one who possess it the "power of the sins" but, what makes you a Witch and what makes you an Archbishop? When Petelgeuse turned into an Archbishop, he took the Witch' Gene out of a box Flugel entrustred to him, but his power was far inferior to Sekhmet. Why? My theory: the Gene part is literal and it, indeed, works like one. Do you know what alternative splicing is? In biology, genic expression follow this (simplified) route: gene(DNA)>RNA>proteins. But the total quantity of proteins far surpases the quantity of genes in our genoma. Alternative splicing can explain this, as the inmature RNA transcribed from the DNA can be modified in several ways prior to become proteins, thus 1 gene can be expressed in various ways. What is the point? We´ll take Greed as example: let's assume Greed Genes can express 10 proteins [1 to 10]; Echidna can create an rntire dimensions with her power and she expresses 8 proteins for that [2-9]; Regulus also can manipulate dimensions but only on the thing he is on contact, for that he express 4 proteins [1-4], and he also can create a dimensional gate to link his body with the body of other people (his heart), for this he expresses 1 protein [10], a total of 5 proteins [1-4, 10]. Can you see it? In Re:Zero therminology the materialization of those "proteins" are called Authority. [1] allow you to manipulute dimensions around things you touch, [2-4] are dimensional-creation stuffs, [5-9] are range, durability, etc., and [10] can create dimensional links between bodies. [1] and [10], are "proteins" Echidna didn't express and are what give Regulus his absurd prowess in battle. So the expression of the Authority depends on the host and how his/her body can extract the skills from the Gene, and expresing more segments/skills of the Gene don't make you stronger. Flugel most probably extracted (for unknown reasons, maybe for Subaru or Satella's sake) fragments of the Witches' Genes from Satella. Why I think they were just fragments and not the whole gene? I think you become a Witch if you have a full Gene, and you become a Archbishop if you have only fragments of it (now in Echidna/Regulus example, Regulus just acquired and expressed 5 proteins from a total of 10 [1-4, 10]; Echidna has the 10 proteins but she express 8 [2-9]). As Satella is still alive, maybe that's why Flugel couldn't snatch a fragment of Envy's Genes and I believe that is the main reason there will never be an Archbishop of Envy or a new Witch of the Sins in the current era (she still has fragments of all the other sins, so creating a full Gene is impossible). If all this is true, then is a huge hint on what happens in the end of Re:Zero timeline, at least according to my theory: when Subaru choose the WoE, he dies with her (his death is circumstantial, hers is almost a fait accompli), the position of the WoE and all the other Witches are vacant, the full Envy's Genes are absorbed by Emilia and a new Witch is born. Happy ending (?).

---Each Witch' Gene has a theme to it: Greed can be seen as a dimension-related Gene (here i mean Greed can create dimensions) and Lust can be seen as a shape-shifting-related Gene. What about Envy? I think Envy is a translocation-related Gene, and Satella's Authority is a four-dimensional movement skill. First, we'll see the 4D from a physics perspective (physics fourth dimension is time): this give Satella/WoE the ability to move freely in time and she uses it to travel back to the past, to acomplish her goal. Next, we'll see the 4D from a mathemathical/geometrical way (fourth dimension Euclidean spaces): Satella/WoE body is sealed in the 3D world, but maybe her soul/thoughts can interact with the 3D world through the 4D world, and this could explain why a shadowy WoE could appear in front of Subaru in arc 4, and why Satella also can appear in front of him when he tries to talk about Return by Death (that space can be seen as a part of the 4th dimension or an alternative dimension created through Greed' Gene). I think the broken Emilia had a really bad luck as her body expressed Envy's Genes in a oustrageuos way, in the shape of a passive skill, that is, her inmortality. I believe this is the real form of the "incompatibility" of Emilia and Envy. Satella/WoE real body is in the fourth dimension, and the body of Satella in the 3D world is just a tiny projection of her body/existence in the 4D world and, obviuosly, this is something Satella can't change, that's why I said it was a "passive" skill; an annoying skill with no switch to turn it off. Thus, it is impossible to kill her, unless you have some way to attack her in the fourth dimension; but to me it seems useless in battle if you can´t use the skill on other people (and I think this is the case), so I guess Satella did need help to fight the other Witches, an that give force to my theory of Hector being her ally (maybe he's Emiiia true knight). This also can be seen in Minerva's death as she was killed in a trap laid for her in which many people were involved, according Minerva's talk with Echidna.

---As for Pride' Gene I think it is a time-related one. Typhon probably can send the things she touch to a remote future or past, and because of that she can rip off body parts like nothing; in the case of Subaru or Minerva arms, you can send the shoulder joint or the entire arm to the future/past and that is it. In Subaru' case. I guess he can send his memories to the past when he dies, rewriting the menories of the himself at a checkpoint, so the only thing doing the time travel are his memories. Another theory is the rewind of all the planet, except his memories, when he dies but, as a believer of Occam's razor, I think the first explanation is better. My toughts about Al's Authority are in the section dedicated to him.

---About the Witch' Cult: I think the original and current Witch' Cult are worlds apart. The original Cult's purpose might have been a way to ease to Woe/Satella suffering, to console her for loneliness, or at least that is what I believe after seeing Petelgeuse was such a good guy in the past. Then, when did this turn into the synagogue of crazy and psychotic people? The reponse fall on two people: Satella and/or Pandora. Prior to describe them individually it is important to mention something which may be relevant to both: the Gospel. When Hector invaded the Sanctuary he also stole copies of incomplete/flawed Gospels Echidna had or the method to create them, and Satella blended it in the Cult; If Pandora was the one who gave the Gospel to the Cult, maybe she got it through an unknown way or maybe she is just takind advantage of Hector's work. The future seen in the Gospel are only convenient lies or ambiguous fallacies. Why would Satella need a new vessel/body? She wants to die and, furthermore, she wants Subaru to be happy; her relief in exchange of Subaru happiness (losing Emilia) is not an option. I think the Ordeals are events with the purpose of making Emilia and Subaru psychologycally stronger: in the future, when the true challenge comes, both of them need to be stronger enough to accept things as they are and go forward, even if they lose someone dear to them; in the end of Re:Zero timeline, maybe Subaru choose the WoE because he was running away or because he thinks lowly of himself, maybe Emilia become the Witch because she can't accept reality or becuase is drowned in loneliness...they are weak. Satella biggest aim might be to make them stronger so that they don't repeat the tragedy endlessly and she gives them trials through the Witch' Cult for that goal. Pandora's objective is the opposite end, she wants the story to repeat; the weaker they are, the better, as they can be easily manipulated in that state. She can manipulate the Archbishop (using the Gospel too, perhaps, or by force) like they are nothing, so it isn't unthinkable to see her as some kind of mastermind. I'm ignorant about who the real leader of the Witch' Cult is, but you can see the Cult as a double-edged sword: If you believe Satella is te leader, then it can be an ideal weapon to protect Subaru´s future, but if you think Pandora is pulling the strings, it turns into a weapon to destroy him mentally. Both, Pandora and Satella, see the Witch' Cult as a tool. I can't discard the hypothesis of Satella being the mastermind but I think the probability of Pandora being the one twisting everything is greater, at least, Satella's original plan was distorted by Pandora and Satella's meddling is a way to rectify it.

--- Why Petelgeuse is not Betelgeuse? The latter is the name of the star, Petelgeuse means nothing. My answer: for Petelgeuse (maybe for the whole Witch' Cult), "Betelgeuse" is a taboo word. Why? Betelgeuse is a star in the Orion constellation (Off topic: Rigel too). In greek mythology, Orion is the main enemy of the Pleiads (Merope, in particular). So Orion name and everything related to him must be unpleasant for Witch's fanatics. Result: "Betelgeuse? I'm not that bastard. I'm Petelgeuse, desu".

--- About Puck: his behavior is odd. He forgot a lot of things after his contract with Echidna: he forgot his relationship between him and Echidna and between Emilia and Satella/Witch' Cult (to amnesic Puck, Witch' Cult are just mindless fanatics; to full-memory Puck they have a concrete purpose), and I assume he even forgot how strong he is. The real form Puck only appears when the contract with Emilia is broken, in the circumstances with a intact contract even with Emilia in real danger that powerful being does nothing and let Emilia to die. Is he too lazy or incompetent? He isn't aware or his full powers and I think that was necessary. Altough Emilia is way over the average as spirit user, is that all what is needed to control a existence capable to destroy the world if left alone? It isn't. Puck wished to make a contract with Emilia but with his real aspect an powers it was impossible, so he went to Echidna's place requesting for help, she accepts (maybe for interest or for self-profit) transforming him in that kitty form with diminished powers suited to make a contract with Emilia; he sealed his memories himself to interact with Emilia sincerelly without premeditation or because Echidna's entertainment. Puck is Beako's brother because Echidna created his new/current aspect, not because Echidna created his very existence. Why he wished to make a contract with Emilia? 2 theories: He's an ancestral spirit who grew fond to Satella or was indebted with her and understood he couldn'd do anything to save her but could remedy it saving the root of the problem, Emilia, becoming her ally and family, and stoping her to turn into the WoE, or; Puck was created by Satella (ice spirit user creating an ice spirit) only for Emilia due the same reasons stated before (to protect Emilia and give her a family if Fortuna dies), so he was a spirit created for Emilia's sake.

--- Ever since i made the link between Asterope=butterfly i was intrigued by Beako's pupils. Echidna should have known beforehand, with her Book of Wisdom, she was going to die. Altough soon realizing she was doomed, she tried to save the next/another her (the Echidna of other parallel world), for that she put efforts to create a being who can become special enough to Subaru to the point to disregard/cast aside Emilia (an attempt to destroy the macro loop). With the arrival of Hector to the Sanctuary Echidna understood they would create Emilia for sure, but she couldn't give birth to that special being on time. Beako is the "failure" Echidna created in the pursuit of that special being. Echidna said Beako had an original purpose but when it became invalid, she gave her the task to watch over the Forbidden Archive. Beako will never be number 1 for Subaru (original purpose), so in Echidna PoV she is a flawed product, a flawed butterfly (Asterope).

--- Supposedly, Subaru can become a Sage absorbing fragments of the Witch' Genes. When Reid, Flugel and Volcanica fought the WoE, Flugel was the Sage even though the WoE had abosrbed the other Genes. How can Flugel be a Sage when the WoE has all the Genes? 3 theories: 1) Satella just absorbed the segment of the Genes needed for the summoning skill (as I said in Pandora's section, maybe having all the full Genes inside your body is suicidal), Flugel absorbed the remnants; 2) he is a time-traveller, Flugel had the Genes in his body before his jump in time or; 3) there is another way to be the Sage, Flugel was a normal person before the fight with the WoE, my best guess in this case is his contract with Volcanica... Flugel's Sage powers were granted by Volcanica. According the theory you choose, the implications you get change, but you have to take 2 points in consideration: Satella killed the Witches to absorb their Genes for, first, the summoning skill and, second, to give Subaru the Gene's fragments needed for the skill to kill her. Satella is absolutely positive Subaru can kill her, so the Gene's fragments the Archbishop of Sins have in their possesion aren't random, they were selected with the ultimate purpose to kill Satella when Subaru absorb them all. Next is the explanation for each theory:
   -1) This theory has 2 variants but it was difficult to write the two above whitout making it really confusing. Variant 1: is exactly the same I wrote above. Why only the Genes for the summoning skill? What's with the Genes for the skill to kill Satella? This implies Flugel and Satella are working together way before she was sealed. The thing I did write in my Witch' Gene theory aren't verificable facts, just guesses, maybe isn't possible to snatch Gene's fragments away from Satella, including the Genes which are not Envy. So Satella and Flugel had a deal: she gives those fragments to Flugel, his new Sage powers are used to seal the rampaging WoE, in exchange, he must ensure those fragments to end up in Subaru's hands when Flugel dies. That is the legacy of Satella entrusted toFlugel and Petelgeuse and the origin of the Witch' Cult; to keep guarding them until the arrival of Subaru. Why Flugel didn't kill her, and just seal her, even tough he has the skill to do so? He must have strong personal reasons. Variant 2: The same as variant 1, but here Satella also absorb the fragments for the skill to kill her. This implies they made the deal after her sealing, and maybe then was the moment they met for first time. Here Flugel snatch skill is essential to select the specific fragments for the skill to kill Satella (it's also possible that snatch skill doesn't exist, and just the willingness of Satella to give the fragments to Flugel is enough). Everything else is the same as variant 1, but what Flugel gets from the deal is different.
   -2)Flugel is Al, Subaru or someone else with Sage powers from the future. This implies the powers to seal and kill Satella are the same with different application. Here Satella only do the summoning; Flugel reached a bad end in the future, so he entrust everything to the next Sage, hoping the himself of the future can make it to a better future.
   -3)The contract between Flugel and Volcanica is probably similar in the 3 theories, but in this one Volcanica give him personally his powers. I believe Volcanica wants to recover the Genes Satella has and oblige Flugel to do it. The WoE is too strong, they can't kill her, barelly seal her and is the duty of Flugel to give back the Genes to Volcanica when a better Sage appears. This theory works well if you join it with theory 1) variant 2. Theory 2 can also be fused with certain parts of theory 1).

---It's also interesting how two really important topics in the series are barelly known. First, the religion: we known about nothing of it, but the Dragon seems to be some kind of deity and that's all; in my mind at least, the words "archbishop" and "seven deadly sins" are synonymous to Witch's Cult, even futher, to Lugunica people the image of those crazy men could be the picture of a "Church" in their minds, so is highly possible all this therminology comes from our world, and this as well is backed up by the astronomical knowledge of our world, which they shouldn't know. Well, Flugel probably had a lot to do in the creation of the Witch's Cult, as he is related to Petelgeuse in some way and for the things about the Witch'Genes I mentioned before. In fact, I was going to drop all the there-is-an-"I"-in-Pride-and-those-other-names-too thing out (Subaru's section), as this only has meaning in english, and means nothing to japanese speakers (this is a jananese novel, duh), but as Flugel has a thing for english... who knows? (I'm talking about the names of Shaula's attacks) The second is Flugel himself: I won't go depper into this, this character is crucial and he's in the shadows so far; maybe he can see the future in some way, maybe his past or future is related to reincarnation, maybe he is in his own micro/macro loop, we can stretch this out all we want, but there is no solid proofs on anything. In the extent we discover more about the religion/Dragon and Flugel (Pandora in third place) the closest we are to the truth, in my opinion.

--- When I was rummaging in the Pleaides mythology searching for hints of the Re:Zero plot, I found some parts which maybe were used for the building of the Witches. This is absolutely useless, but I'll try to give each Witch a Pleiad name.
   - Asterope: In indo-european it means "star" or "stellar". She is also known as Sterope. If you remove the "a" from Satella (like in Asterope/Sterope), you obtain Stella, "star" in latin. Maybe Satella's name is a tribute for the good times she spent with Subaru talking about stars. Asterope 1 is Emilia and Asterope 2 is Satella (remember there are 2 Asterope stars).
   - Maia: Her name has motherly connotations, also can mean "the great one" in latin. The eldest and most beautiful (can be replaced with "strongest"?) of the sisters, foster-mother of Arcas (Typhon?)... this is Sekhmet, without a doubt.
   - Merope: It means eloquent, was the wife of Sisyphus (se-sophos, "very wise"). Echidna.
   - Electra: It means "amber", "shining", "bright". I found nothing to make a relation with a Witch, my best guess is amber=blonde and bright=personality. Maybe Minerva.
   - Taygeta: Another Taygeta, not the Pleiad, was the mother of Tantalus, who was tortured in the Hades with thirst and hunger for his offenses to the gods. Daphne.
   - Celaeno and Alcyone: Not sure about this one. Typhon and Alcyone (not the Pleiad, another Alcyone) died by drowning; Alcyone is the brightest star of the Pleiades star cluster, so is suited for Pride (Typhon) to be Alcyone, but Camilla emits a mysterious light (according to the Wikia) and that is explained if it is an analogy to Alcyone brightness. Celaeno means "swarthy", Typhon has a tanned skin; Celaeno has a son called Chimaerus, so maybe the Chimera is the origin of Camilla shape-shifting/multiple-shapes skill. Based only on the looks my vote is Camilla=Alcyone and Typhon=Celaeno, but I might be wrong.

--- In a random cultural note the babylonian star catalogue called Pleaides "star of stars". Is that an analogy to the "sin of sins"?

--- i remember that side story where Subaru mets Liliana. Liliana said, as thanks for Sabaru's help, she someday will tell the world about his heroic deeds and, after that, in the narration text something like "at this moment Subaru was only Subaru, and Emilia was only Emilia" is written. So even if all my theory is wrong, Tappei for sure will do something to Subaru and Emilia in the end of Re:Zero timeline.
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That's it. Sorry again for the typhos and my bad english. If you liked my theories, share them with other people. I'm hoping to read your comments.

Saludos desde Chile.