Echidna has a terrible personality! She has awful plans for Subaru[Re:Zero]

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Echidna is sweet and beautiful! I'm in love with her.

You don't know who she is.

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She has tea parties with Subaru and tries to help him out.

Echidna has her reasons to help Subaru. After all, she is the Witch of Greed.

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Echidna is the Witch of Greed who was destroyed by the Witch of Envy 400 years ago. She kept only her spirit in the world. Echidna invited Subaru several times to her tea party in his dream to consult about Subaru’s struggles with "return by death". Finally, Subaru was able to talk to someone else about his return by death for the first time and cried, unable to stop the feelings he had been holding back.

Echidna has a personality that should not be easily trusted. 
In this article, I will introduce what Echidna is thinking and what kind of character she is by taking into account the original light novel.

What kind of witch is Echidna?

Echidna consulted and had conversations with Subaru at her tea party in a friendly way. Echidna was very passionate when talking to Subaru, and what she said was always reasonable. But it is a sweet witch's trap. Echidna, despite her beautiful appearance, does not have a good personality.

What I find most heartless about Echidna's actions was her way of treating Beatrice.

In the Gospel, she gave Beatrice, Echidna wrote that Beatrice has to guard the Forbidden Library until 'the one’ comes. Indeed, for four hundred years Beatrice was the faithful librarian of the forbidden Library, but Echidna did not specify who the "one" was. 

Echidna probably wanted to know how Beatrice would dissolve a promise she could not fulfill forever, no matter how long she waited. Would Beatrice force herself to think that someone was 'the one' and pretend that she had kept her promise?

Or Will Beatrice agonize and choose to kill herself in order to fulfill her promise?

Or will Beatrice be free to abandon her promise and live freely?

For Beatrice, who has kept her promise for 400 years, Echidna's contract was too cruel. However, Echidna is the Witch of Greed with a voracious appetite for knowledge, and she tends to have no regard for the feelings of others in order to know what she wants to know.

You can read more about Beatrice in the following article. Please take a look at it.

When Subaru was at Echidna's tea party, he asked Echidna.

Who is the person Beatrice is waiting for?

Echidna:

By making her promise to wait for 'that person' I wanted to know who she will choose.Of course, her staying there for 400 years without choosing anyone is one result. Her inability to choose anyone so easily all this time and wanting to die to end the contract is also result.I think it’s wonderful.

Will Subaru make a contract with Echidna?

Subaru was forced to sign a contract with Echidna.

In this scene, you might have thought that Subaru would be better off signing a contract with Echidna. Subaru was in a desperate situation both in the Sanctuary and in the village of Irlam, and Echidna was the first person who understands Subaru's return by death. Subaru had fought many battles alone against his enemies, unable to talk to anyone about the agony of his return by death. The only person who could share Subaru's agony, as Echidna herself has said, would be her. There was no doubt that Echidna, with her vast knowledge, would be a strong ally if she were on his side.

Then, other witches came out to tell the true intentions of Echidna. 

Subaru and Echidna had conversations.

Subaru: You said you will guide me to the best possible future didn’t you? And with your help will I arrive at the best possible future by following the best route?

Echidna didn't answer, Subaru asked for answers again.

Echidna: For the purpose of attaining the future you desire, you must accept any sacrifices made along the way.

Echidna: Return by Death is useful. You don’t fully understand how truly useful it is.
It allows you to restart the world until reaching your desired future. I expect all the results that come in the process to contribute vastly to the satisfaction of my curiosity.

Echidna: My affection for you and my desire to help you are real. You can save all the people trapped inside the sanctuary.

Subaru: It’s not as I have never considered that your intentions might not be a hundred percent good. But It is just way beyond. Everything about your attitude is so infantile and shallow, all superficial

Subaru did not take Echidna's hand because he realized the true intentions of Echidna. Echidna's true purpose was to use Subaru's ability to return by death to learn about every possible pattern of events. Normally if you make a choice, you can't know what happened after the other choice. But with Subaru, you can see the consequences of both choices. Not caring if Subaru's death was repeated, Echidna will prioritize her own desire for knowledge. I think Subaru didn't sign the contract because he realized that Echidna was only trying to satisfy her own thirst for knowledge, not for Subaru's sake.

If Subaru made a contract with Echidna what would happen?

In this storyline, Subaru repeatedly returned from death and worked with Echidna to save the lives of all the people in the sanctuary. However, in this world, he ended up hurting his friends more deeply than in the original story. In "Zero Kara Kasaneru Isekai Seikatsu", the world was depicted a few years after Subaru and his friends had overcome the sanctuary arc. However, none of the people in that world seem to be happy. Furthermore, Subaru had become a crazy person who goes out of his way to die to tell Petra about the weather in the afternoon.

What are the 4 foreshadowing lines hidden in Echidna's lines?

Echidna the Witch of Greed died four hundred years ago, and only her spirit remained in the world. Naturally, she must know what happened 400 years ago and who the Witch of Envy is. There was a lot of foreshadowing in the lines regarding Satella at the witches' tea party.

What happened to Satella 400 years ago?

We can infer from the lines of the witches at the tea party that what Satella did was unforgivable. Satella is known as the Witch of envy, but the witches seem to see Satella as different from the Witch of Envy. What happened to Satella 400 years ago?

Who is Hector?

Also, Echidna was attacked by the Hector, the warlock of Melancholy, 400 years ago. However, the existence of Hector seems to be largely untold today. Where did that monstrously strong Hector go? The presence of Hector is an important foreshadowing of the future.

Is Subaru a candidate for Sage?

Furthermore, in Chapter 4, the witches said that Subaru is a candidate for “Sage” in a conversation scene where the witches were having a tea party. In Re:Zero, it was Flugel who was talked about the most as ‘Sage’. From the witches' conversations, we know that Flugel made a pact with Volcanica, a divine dragon, and joined forces with the Swordsman Reid to seal the Envy Witch.

Why Puck is angry toward Echidna?

What intrigued me the most was that Puck who was out of control and gotten big said,

It is different from what you to me, Echidna!

This was the scene where he yells at her. I don’t think that Emilia would make a deal that Puck would destroy the world if Emilia died. Maybe the person made that contract was Echidna.

Echidna will be an important figure in future stories

At the end of the original four chapters, there was a one concerning a scene related to Echidna. A duplicate of Ryuze, who was in charge of protecting the system that Subaru named Omega, goes away, leaving behind the meaningful words, "Oh, why does love diminish?". Her tone was very much like that of an Echidna, not the tone of Ryuze. And in the concluding sentence of the novel, it was written,

The witch has unleashed on the world again.

Isn't this Ryuze is Echidna who had transferred to a duplicate of Ryuze? Echidna is still going to be a big part of the future of the anime. One of the ways to enjoy Re:Zero is to read through all of her thoughts and lines and consider the connections between the foreshadowing.

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