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Re:Zero: Is Emilia The Witch Of Envy Satella?

After her surprise appearance at the third witches tea party, a lot of details were revealed about Satella, also known as the Witch of Envy.

Though she was responsible for the deaths of the witches, they did not seem to hate her, with the exception of Echidna of course.

Furthermore, her obsession and totally unexpected behaviour with Subaru have raised questions about Satella’s real identity.

 The following part of the article has major spoilers from Season 2 of Re:Zero anime and Vol. 12 and 13 of the light novels. Read ahead at your own discretion!

Who is Satella?

Satella is commonly known to the world as the Witch of Envy. According to the records she was the one responsible for the Great Calamity 400 years ago.

However, in reality Satella and the Witch of Envy are two different personalities. This was caused because she absorbed a witch factor that was not compatible with her.

Absorbing the Witch Factor made Satella suffer from a mental abnormality, eventually creating The Witch of Envy personality in her.

However, this information about Satella’s split personality could be found nowhere in the legends. This part was revealed in the Light Novels during the third witches tea party but was comfortably ignored in the anime.

During his second meeting with Satella, Subaru comes to realise that Satella cares deeply for him. She bore him no ill will.  In fact she visited the second tea party to thank him for saving her and to tell him to value his life and wellbeing. 

However, her behaviour towards Subaru has only raised more doubts about Satella’s relation to Emilia.

Satella loves Subaru

Is Emilia Satella?

Weird question huh!

Well, from what we have seen so far, there is enough stuff that atleast lets us speculate that Emilia is the Witch of Envy Satella.

In one of our previous posts, we mentioned that Satella thanked Subaru for “giving her light, showing her the outside world, holding her hand when she was lonely, and kissing her when she was all alone.” (this dialogue was again ignored from the anime)

Wait!! When did this happen? Wasn’t this the first time Subaru had met the Satella personality (the one he met outside Echidna’s tomb was clearly the Witch of Envy, but we do believe Satella’s personality took over the Witch of Envy towards the end, when Subaru stabbed himself with Petra’s handkerchief)?

Unless Subaru lost part of his memories related to Satella, this statement did not make sense. Subaru himself comes to the conclusion that Satella has something going wrong in her head. 

But then, what if these things indeed did happen in Satella’s timeline, but is yet to happen in Subaru’s current timeline at the time of the third witches tea party. Confusing? Yes?

Now that season 2 of Re:Zero has completed airing, this particular incident has happened in Subaru’s timeline too. Yes, we are talking about Emilia and Subaru’s kiss in the tomb in Season 2 Part 2 of Re:Zero.

This moment happens when Emilia was at her lowest. She had lost all hope and this moment reignites her fighting spirit. Now, let’s take a look at what Satella told Subaru in the third tea party.

“…holding her hand when she was lonely, and kissing her when she was all alone.”

No brownies for guessing what moment this refers to.

Well, let’s clear this stuff. There is a major theory gaining popularity among fans of Re:Zero that Satella is indeed Emilia who has travelled back in time to save Subaru.

Here’s how the theory goes. Put on your tinfoil hats just in case!

Also, while reading this theory, also consider that there is a possibility of alternate timelines existing out there. This is hinted in Subaru’s second trial, which shows Emilia, Rem, Beatrice and other people grieving over his dead body.

If the world indeed was being reset, then these incidents should not have happened. It is true that most of these scenes are only a part of the world recreated from Subaru’s memories and not the real thing.

However, what points to the possibility of an alternate timeline is the incident involving Puck and Reinhardt Van Astrea. There’s no way Echidna’s trials randomly made it up from Subaru’s memories. But we can’t be sure about this.

We can hear you folks laughing, but hear us out for once!

Emilia travelled back in time to be Satella?

In the future, some terrible things happen that cause Subaru, the person Emilia has come to love the most (or second after Puck) to die.

The assumption is that he kills the Witch of Envy, or he fails to prevent the death of Witch of Envy, which makes him lose his Return by Death Ability. 

Now Emilia does not have the power to revive him. Being desperate, she consumes a witch factor that lets her control time. Emilia must have intended to go back in time to the point where she could save Subaru.

However, the half-elf, not having any idea of controlling the witch factor, could have gone berserk. This could have sent her back almost 400 years (or to an alternate timeline?). 

Re:Zero Arc 4 Chapter 76 [≠Satella] (Part 1/2) – TranslationChicken

Emilia might have consumed one or more witch factors in her desperation which made her go berserk and lose mental stability.

We could assume that by the time she made an appearance 400 years ago, she was already suffering from her split personality disorder. This would also explain how the historical records said The Witch of Envy appeared out of nowhere. 

The example of people going berserk or not being able to control the witch factor was also seen in the case of Peteleguese Romanee Conti. His personality drastically changed when he consumed a Witch Factor in the incidents that led to the freezing of Elior forest.

So it is safe to assume that something similar might have happened to Emilia.

About the parts that were omitted in the anime:

Re:Zero Season 2 Episode 13 omits two very crucial things that was included in the anime. First one is that Satella and Witch of Envy are two different personalities.

The second one is the dialogue that Satella says about how Subaru saved her.

Both these instances are cornerstones in the theories that assume Emilia is Satella. The reason they are omitted only points to one thing in our mind, the creators don’t want fans to catch up to the fact about their identities.

C’mon the dialogue is a dead giveaway that Emilia is Satella!

So basically Emilia and Satella are the same person?

The Emilia from the current timeline would go on to become the Satella in some alternate timeline. Or, if alternate timelines don’t exist, it would be a Causal loop or a Predestination paradox.

Now, going back in time, Emilia realised that she overdid it. Not being able to find Subaru in her desperate state would ultimately cause her “Witch personality” to go out of control resulting in the Great Calamity.

Understanding that she now had a split personality, Emilia could have come to the dreary realisation that she herself is the witch of Envy. She would then go on to name herself Satella and let herself be sealed by the dragon Volcanica.

The whole Emilia naming herself Satella has been brilliantly foreshadowed in the very first episode of Re:Zero, when she introduces herself as Satella to Subaru.

The things y'all didn't know about Satella | Re: Zero Community Amino

This theory would also explain most of Satella’s actions during the third witch party. Before the dream palace collapses, she knowingly tells Subaru that he would kill her in the end.

This is because Satella (who is Emilia) could already have seen it happen in her timeline.

This explains Satella’s affection for Subaru and also why she thanked him for having saved her. These are probably the things that Subaru did to Emilia, but they just haven’t taken place in the current timeline yet.

This also explains why the Sin Archbishops obsess over the Witch of Envy’s love.

Subaru’s Return by Death could be a perfected version of Satella’s powers

Remember that Emilia is not aware of Return by Death or how it works.

So everytime she goes back in time and becomes Satella, she perfects her powers, summons Subaru into this world and grants him the Return by Death thinking this would save him from dying and would allow him to reach a better future than the last time. 

Now, here’s another observation, before Subaru gets isekai’d, he has a brief moment outside the store, where he experiences memories of Emilia lying in a pool of blood and Subaru promising to save her.

Now, you should find this weird because Subaru has not yet experienced this scene. The only way he could be experiencing this was if Satella’s memories were getting transferred into him due to their connection or the whole process of being summoned.

Since Satella would be an Emilia who has travelled to the past (or to an alternate timeline) she has already experienced that scene before Subaru.

But if Satella is Emilia herself, why hide the powers of Return by Death from Emilia in the current timeline.

The reason could be because Satella, who is mentally unstable, wants Subaru all for herself. She does not want Emilia to know about this nor does she intend to lose him to her.

If you want a hint of this unstable behaviour look no further Re:Zero Season 2 Episode 11.

In this episode we see a broken Emilia towards the end, whose eerie behaviour towards is oddly similar to that of the Witch of Envy we encountered at the Sanctuary. 

Also, this could also be her reason behind Satella, who is currently defeated and sealed away, wanting to resurrect in Emilia’s body. Because she knows that Subaru would end up falling in love with her anyhow.

The downside is, Emilia’s actions have either created a causal time loop or an alternate timeline paradox that would never end. It begins with Subaru’s death while defeating the Witch of Envy and Emilia travelling back in time (or an alternate universe).

Consider this to be a larger version of Subaru’s return by death, where everyone’s will and action does affect the outcome. But somehow the end result has not changed. Subaru still dies and Emilia in her desperation consumes Witch Factor/s going back in time.

In fact the time loop or the divergent timelines could be even more messed up than that of Dark or Steins;gate, because Subaru is not the only one affecting the outcome (read Aldebaran)

Dark Trilogy Tick Tock GIF - DarkTrilogy TickTock Frown - Discover & Share  GIFs

Now, there is one slight chance that this whole loop might stop, and that is if Subaru manages to save Satella and also himself.

And hence his promise to her at the end of the third witches tea party is of utmost importance!!

Bonus point:

In the webnovels, when Emilia meets Echidna during the trials of the Sanctuary (just like Subaru did), she shows an unexplained visible hatred towards the half-elf.

Echidna was in possession of the book of knowledge which knows all the truth of the world. This would explain that she is in part aware of Emilia’s connection with Satella, thus justifying her hatred.

While this is very plausible theory, it is only an assumption and the outcome could be something very different.

What do you think about Satella’s real identity. Could she be Emilia? Let us know your opinion in the comments section!

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10 thoughts on “Re:Zero: Is Emilia The Witch Of Envy Satella?”

    • If any other were told about RBD, Sabaru would just die and the alternate timeline would go on. However, if Emilia was told about RBD, the timeline would be altered even if Sabaru were to just die. This only happens on the assumption Emilia was to be the WoE.

      TL;DR
      The future self don’t want the past self to be aware else it would create many more time travel complications.

      Reply
  1. It kinda reminds me of future Diary. I’ve been considering that Emilia was Satella for a long time way before S2. In S2 we get to see kinda a dark and somewhat evil Emilia. Throw that version in and timey wime wibbly wobbly and poof you got Satella’s witch of envy mode. Also Emilia did say she was Satella when she first met Subaru. Epic case of foreshadowing?

    Reply
  2. Well written and probably the best written and most detailed piece I came across. I would just like to add since there is still no expanded article on this website, that Echidna is pissed with Satella because Satella messed with her plans in the third tea party, by telling Sabaru to live and treasure his own life. Recall that Echidna does not want Sabaru to treasure his life and instead wants him to die as in as many loops as possible to satisfy her own curiosity.

    Satella is thus subconsciously undermining her. In addition, Emilia kissed Subaru in her graveyard. Echidna is thus angry that Satella has undermined her and Emilia (who is just Satella in another/current timeline) has also undermined her contract with Subaru, thus undermining her again and again.

    When Echidna tried to get back at Emilia/Satella with venomous words, Emilia/Satella did not seem to care at all. This nonchalant reaction, maybe disguised as kindness to some viewers, was what made Echidna feel like being bullied in multiple (all?) timelines and cried in the second trial.

    This is of course, disgusting, as Echidna logically puts it.

    Reply
  3. I’m super late to the party here, but I love this theory, and I’d like to jump into the conversation.

    It’s pretty well-rounded, but a couple of elements fly in the face of it, IMO. For instance, for this to loop to occur, there had to be a first time. That means there was previously no witch of envy or Satella, or at least no calamity. So Emilia would have no reference to it. If that’s the case, why would she change her name to Satella when she rewound time?

    Another issue assumes that Subaru is the Sage Flugel. Why would Subaru, or a version of him, exist in the past with Emilia/Satella?

    The last issue is the issue itself; it presents a time paradox that really can’t be solved based on this explanation. I know the article referenced it, but I don’t think there is a satisfying answer yet.

    Anyway, still the most complete theory I’ve read so far. Love it, and love Re:Zero!

    Reply
    • Ohk let’s tackle this one. So your problem or question with this whole theory is that there had to be a first timeline in which Satella actually existed (a different one), and that gave Emilia to imitate and be her in all the other timelines, Right?

      Well, the thing is buddy, there doesn’t have to be one, Cuz that’s exactly what the Ouroboros paradox is… Okay let me explain.
      So have you heard about the Snake eating its own tail image, if you haven’t its basically what I said, but what it represents is the never ending cycle of death and rebirth, start and end, 0 and 1, and when you look at that you can’t even decipher, where it begins or finishes, cuz they are literally connected at the same place, there is no gap. It’s just a loop in essence.

      Now to give more clarity let me give you an example:
      So in Loki season 2 there is a character named OB who basically writes an all knowing guidebook on which everything works basically.
      But as it turns out this guidebook is not the accumulation of his knowledge and ideas but is actually a more perfect version of the diary of a man who founded TVA.
      Now stuff happens, but this man is killed in the present, and the villains who want to revive the guy travels back in time to his childhood, and gives him the TVA handbook without disclosing their identity.
      This guy who is named Victor Timely by the way, now learns all about TVA and it’s knowledge through that handbook, and for his own convenience writes that exact same diary on which the TVA handbook was based on.

      Now answer me this; after reading all that who do you think is the original author, is it (a) OB or (b) Victor Timely or (c) Both/No-one

      If you have the answer to this, I’ll answer your Satella question with the upmost certainty, so yeah give it a go ; )

      Also fun fact: they even meet each other in a later episode and has the exact same dilemma over who wrote the book lol XD

      Reply
  4. You know I didn’t even need to read all this to think that (but it certainly does help the case) Satella is future Emilia becoz it was clear to me from the scene in season 1 when Satella talks for the first time and Emilia dies in that timeline, I mean the voice was the same, the exact same, and due to my prior suspicions on the matter (how she even falsely called herself Satella in the first ep), the deal was done right there.

    And then Season 2 rolled around, and all it did was just confirm it many times over, so yeah thank you for dat ; )

    Reply

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