Al is maybe subaru's younger brother(not yet born when subaru left), which is kinda messedup cuz his named as aldebran(which he hates when being called his name) which is the "follower star" (can be interpreted as the following child after subaru), he despise the fact that his parent's still can't get over subaru being gone and that he is compared/replacement for him, he probably got isekaid way later from the real world maybe as a grown adult unlike subaru, but got transfered way in the past, he probably also have connection or relevance to the story of the past heroes and traveled with them (flugerl,reid,shaula,satella,farsale), which is why also which of greed refer them as having the same origin cuz they are bloodrelated and grewup on the same place, and makes all the design being similar make sense without them being the same person
It comes up more than once in Subaru's internal monologues that he thinks his parents got along so well that he was suprised they didn't have another child. Al being similar looking to Subaru and Kenichi would be explained by this, as well as his resentment towards Subaru. Born to fulfill a role he could never play, the following star.
I'm anime only, so I have limited knowledge, but doesn't Al call Subaru 'aniki' (bro) in the anime? I know it's just a 'nickname' that's used often, even in real life, but still would be a fun hint
The long-awaited video has finally arrived. Good work as always. Thanks for the brief little shoutout during the Clind section, and let's hope you won't have to slam the delete button after all when Al = Subaru is revealed (Kidding, hopefully)! As for the rest of this comment... It's going to be about my own theory to explain Aldebaran/=/Subaru. Since Asa has already explained some bloody good lore and exegetical reasons why they shouldn't be the same person, this theory will mostly operate through lore/diegetic analysis, with a couple of ideas of parallels and such sprinkled throughout, mainly because I still need to practice with sharpening my skills on exegetic analysis, haha. Due to the nature of this theory acting supplementary to a couple of the points mentioned in the video, I recommend you watch first before continuing to read this. Anywho... here goes. Theory: Aldebaran acquired Subaru's "likeness" by seeing his future memories via Echidna's Authority. This operates under the framework that, when Echidna said that Aldebaran "inherited his systemized likeness" in No Stella No Life, the "he" being referenced is Subaru. -Echidna can selectively show people memories, as per Minerva in Volume 15. Molding whatever Al's previous identity was into that of "Aldebaran", in the image of "Greed", could carry more weight had she achieved this with her Authority of Greed. -Taking on Subaru's likeness through his memories explains all of the occurrences where Al seems to express awareness of the future, has intimate knowledge of Subaru and the people around him, using similar catchphrases and the nickname Beako, the similar body mannerisms that people have tried pointing out and such, currently having a similar way of thinking according to Echidna despite potentially having different childhoods as per Asa's point in the video, etc. >-The gaps in Al's knowledge, like Rem's existence and Priscilla's lineage, or Echidna saying that Subaru was out of schedule, could signify that the memories he inherited were not of the current future? -The thing of Al and Subaru having similar scents could potentially be explained by this, as memories make up a part of the soul, and at the end of Arc 8, scent was used to locate the "whereabouts of the soul". -Additionally, Al using a Book of the Dead to create "Aldebaran" through Volcanica would be a neat contrast to the idea of Echidna using her Authority to create "Aldebaran". Additional points against Aldebaran = Subaru: -Echidna, who "created" Aldebaran, is troubled by the "difference in results" with Al despite him coming from the same origin as something else. -To further go into detail about vessels and cloning, there are two types of vessels: physical bodies and mana bodies. Every single character who's *confirmed* to be an artificial creation that wasn't born how a physical lifeform would be, that is to say they were created from mana, has a mana body. Al's body is undoubtedly a physical body, which completely diminishes the likelihood of him being some form of artificial lifeform with an "unnatural birth". -The soul informs the appearance of the vessel. Should that early illustration of Al's face end up an accurate depiction of him, he looks nothing like either of the adult Subarus we've seen in Aganau IF and Rem IF. It'd also disprove any and all Kenichi=Aldebaran theories because they look nothing alike. -As we learned with Volcanica, or rather, "Aldebaran" in Arc 9, Chapter 13, different personality traits appear to manifest from someone whose likeness is in a vessel different from the original, with the Dragon Al's optimistic point of view diverging from the human Al's. And don't we see Al and Subaru with different personalities and beliefs when they're put under pressure and forced to undergo Infantilization? Therefore, their vessels, which both notably exhibit the traits of physical bodies, should not be 1:1 replicas of each other. All of this vessel/soul/body stuff serves to highlight one important point: Al and Subaru's individual vessels are not exactly the same. Whatever their shared "origin" is, be it Japan, be it Naoko and Kenichi if he's somehow Subaru's brother, be they the memories of "Natsuki Subaru" themselves, Aldebaran's body/vessel is a product distinct from Subaru's despite the obvious physical and mental similarities the two share. Their many subtle mental dissimilarities show that, no matter how Aldebaran "inherited his systemized likeness", that's all it is. Something he inherited, not his original likeness. And this is why I don't believe Aldebaran is Subaru from an alternate timeline, that Aldebaran is not some clone of Subaru, or even that Aldebaran has the same mind as Subaru, because no matter how large the sheer number of their surface-level similarities gets, the more striking, glaring dissimilarities in their looks, their attitudes, and their pasts (Referring to stuff like Infantilization and TMNT) can't be ignored. This is a long and confusing read, so to anyone who stuck to the end to try and wrap their brain around this convoluted lore dump trying to make sense of everything, thank you.
I really like your theory!!! One thing that can also be mentioned (if the Re:zero game can be considered canon based on the certain informations given) that there was an instance where Al thought that Rem with her blue hair is supposed to be Ram…Which supports the fact, that the memories given to Al from Echidna isn’t from the current timeline or something else went wrong.
Goated video. Something to note at 13:11, I don’t think Al has a taboo because in one of the failed loops against Reinhard Al showed him his book and the DP of Nightmares kept him sane, and no taboo seemingly occurred.
Also in ex Novel 5 he said that he died like a thousand times to his opponent and nothing happened there as well. Well, Hornet didn't seem to believe him but I don't think that's necessary.
I want Al to be saved and learn to value his life Throughout the story Al is projecting his own failures on Subaru, so when Subaru made his heroic speech Al took it personally Kinda like roswaal
"y'all are ignoring the difference in the hair" My brother in Christ he has far longer hair, we have never seen Subaru's hair that long and that uncared for
If it was just so long and unkempt, then wouldn't he have Subaru's bulb things but longer? It doesn't look like Al has a longer version of those, his hair pattern is completely different no matter how you spin it. Of course, the design/illustration of the _hair_ specifically is less important and can be more easily subject to artistic liberties than that of the face, which is still obscured.
Well, to me it was always clear al wasn't subaru mainly becausr of their different personalities and how the magic organs work in their world. Subaru has only aptitude with the shadow element whike Al only has aptitude with earth element. He also doesn't have spirit affinity like subaru does. But Al is surely related to subaru somehow. My current guess is that he is a failed clone of subaru, he is someone with the body of natsuki subaru but the soul of someone else.
As per No Stella No Life, Al has a natural talent for the yin affinity, just like Subaru, and he trained in using the earth affinity under Echidna. Also, what would be the point of Al "having" Subaru's body if it just means the qualities of his soul are just going to change it back to his original body? A vessel mutates to fit a soul, like it has with Petelgeuse, Sphinx, and a couple of other characters. Al's soul would force him to have his own body, so having Subaru's body is impossible.
@@ShadowKoto Everyone has affinity to all elements, the point i was triying to make was that subaru had more afinity with shadows, but if Al also shares the same compatibility then the fact he doesn't have any spirit compatibility like subaru does looks pretty important. I heard it from reddit, so i could be wrong, but spirit arts depend solely on the soul of the user ( if your soul have the qualities to be an spirit art user or not). This should be already enought to confirm they are different people with different souls to me. Edit: As to the point of having tbe same body as natsuki subaru. My best guess is that Al was a failed clone of natsuki subaru, when echidna tried to make a being with the soul of someone and insert into the cloned body. Maybe it was for satella, maybe echidna wanted to use the clone to distract the wich of envy, at the end its just a guess of mine
Aldebaran is exactly like a synth from Fallout 4. Just made with magic instead of tech. Implanted memories that he can't remember living through. A copy of someone else intended to replace them. And a crap load of identity crisis and a search for one. He isn't Subaru. He *cant* be Subaru. Thats the problem.
good video and puts everything in a really comprehensive way though i would like to give my personall take on "is al pride" discussion you briefly mentioned and say that i feel like unless al has some connection to pride there is just no reason on writing level to have al reference stride as the sin archbishop of pride right after the release of ex 6. that said i also do agree that al probablly does have some connection to envy my current theory on that is that prior to al failing/abadoning his purpose he did in fact posess the envy witch factor (and perhaps even straight up had rbd) and was stripped of it as a result of his failure and is now using the pride factor as a sort of substitute power.
In my opinion, a lot of us Al=Envy theorists will agree that although we're inclined towards believing his Authority with his Domain/Matrix comes from the aforementioned sin, Arc 9 is still shaping up to be the "Pride arc" due to details such as Stride Vollachia having a confirmed Authority of Pride, the addition of Melinda's Evil Eye of Pride, Aldebaran mentioning Stride in A9C14, and also something else that, for right now, is currently locked behind side story content.
@ Ex 6 came out a month ago, so it's only available in Japanese for the time being. Couldn't tell you how long the translation will take. It took Yen Press 14 months to release Ex 5.
@@ShadowKoto Judging from previous EX novels, they usually get mentioned or brought up in subsequent LN volumes right? When I think back on all the EX novels, the info they have is usually relevant to whats gonna happen in the story. Pride has to be brought up in some way for sure.
If the AL = Flugel clone theory is true, it might explain why Subaru is affected by Gluttony & Al isn't. If Al is a clone, then Od Lagna has Al's information stored within it because he was created in the world. This is not the case for Subaru since he was created outside of this world and was isekai'd in. So, when Od Lagna wipes memories from the world as a result of the Gluttony Authority, it doesn't factor Subaru into the wipe, but it does affect Al.
@@reigliss good point, I'd like to add that if there's some sort of time travel going on, it might explain his reaction when meeting Rem (I forget what that meeting is from). He's angry because he realizes he forgot her and gluttony ate her (in the future, presumably).
@@pre-violetmelain2984 did a quick search to look for the scene I'm thinking of (I think it's a game, possibly taken from the novel) but couldn't find it. It is also possible I'm misremembering/misinterpreting it. From what I can recall, Al meets Rem and says something along the lines of "your name is Ram right?" then it becomes clear Ram's sister. Al becomes angry and says something cryptic like "I see... So it's alive". As I said, I don't recall it well. I think it's also some evidence towards a theory I heard about: Rem should not exist, Ram should've been an only child with two horns. Something or someone intervened (Pandora maybe) to make it so that twins were born.
Amazing vid with great points all around. I like how you did acknowledge both similarities and differences unlike most theorists do and just focus on one aspect cus it’s convenient to their argument.
I believe that Al is way too different in mindset from Subaru to be him, hell, he doesn't even resemble any of the alternative Subarus from the IFs, even Greedbaru, the one that is the closest to him, differs greatly in his mindset.
Great video! I was surprised how much I had already agreed with and knew in this video and felt more surprised that so many people argue against these reasons. It feels clear as time goes on we're supposed to believe that Al is someone completely different and he has always worked much better as one of the many parallels to Subaru instead of a literal Subaru.
I think either theory, done correctly, could lead to interesting story outcomes, but I do think it would be more thematically relevant for Subaru and Al to both just be separate ordinary people who were drafted into this fantastical scenario. And regards to the Gluttony question for Al, I just assumed he could be lying and actually remembers Julius. Al has lied in the story, or obscured the truth, he is not a reliable source of information. That could be why it was cut from the LN. And we never got his POV showing his experience with Gluttony to my knowledge, only his word. Arc 8 epilogue Spoilers: My personal tin hat theory is that both Subaru and Al were drafted into this by people from 400 years ago in the age of witches to carry on the legacy of Flugel the Sage and to do *something* to Satella, but that they were brought by different people. Subaru's authority seems to be endowed by/boosted by Satella, and when Satella cant 'see' him his authority goes on the fritz. After the Al and Echidna chapter, i theorized that Al was summoned by Echidna as her agent in the big game of chess that's happening, or maybe that he was co-opted by her? -We know that the authority of Greed is related to the Tome of Wisdom that can to an extent predict the future, from arc 4 webnovel and maybe the greed chapter in arc 6? and that she doesn't have access to it outside the castle of dreams. -We also know that Al refers to his ability as a "thought experiment" at times, which is suspiciously in line with how Echidna would see an authority. I've posited that Echidna is somehow powering Al's authority, and he has the version that lives outside the dreamscape, and that when he was infantalized he lost that ability because *Echidna* couldn't 'see' him. And that his loops seem loveless so to speak because Echidna's love faded, as she often says. I don't know if that means there are two Greed factors running around like Gluttony, or if Echidna is influencing a Pride factor the way Satella does the Envy factor, or if even there are two *Envy* factors and Echidna has messed with one of them or Al lost Satella's love or something. But I do think that Al is supposed to be Subaru's foil more explicitly than any other character, and that he is Echidna's direct pawn in response to Satella's knight on the chessboard. A lot of this pends on the pair being in opposition somehow but we don't know enough other than Echidna really Really hates Satella to say if they would be or why.
I like to think that the IF where subaru looks like Al is because he also Failed to do his task that the TITLE SUBARU(as in the star) is meant to be. So by failing, he takes a similar look to Al
That was never confirmed, all that's said is that Echidna "created" him, which could also be taken to have a figurative meaning. In fact, from Echidna's narration in Beatrice's Visual Complete section, she says that there are only three artificial spirits in the world. Meaning, Aldebaran can't be an artificial spirit; it makes sense that he isn't one anyways because he has a physical body and every artificially-created lifeform in the series except Moguro (Originally an object) was fashioned with a mana body, regardless of whether or not they're a clone. The state of Al's body greatly reduces the chances of him being any type of artificially-created Echidna clone/being.
@@ShadowKoto Interesting. I definitely had the wrong impression then. But, I still think Echidna "created" him in some fashion to have her own version of Subaru to mirror Satella. To what end, i guess we don't know yet.
PART 1: Great video. I have some rebuttals for some of the arguments you've brought up (which I will address at the end) but first: My claim is “Al’s mind = Subaru’s mind” A broad claim that only says “Their base mental framework is the exact same thing. Any explanation that accounts this is valid - It’s not just limited to time travel, cloning or BOTD. Any explanation by Tappei is valid as long as it accounts for this.” My reasoning: Usage of the exact same lines in inconsequential scenarios as if it was second nature (without one party trying to imitate the other): "No matter what, I will save you" - Al in Arc 8, Subaru throughout every arc "Bring it on, oh inevitable fate" - Al in Pride and Prejudice, declaration of war and Subaru throughout the story. There are many more lines like this. Usage of similar color scheme in their fashion sense (without one party trying to imitate the other): Green shirt and yellow scarf (Al in Arc 3, Subaru in Arc 6)
PART 2: 1x2 and 3x3 scene with Subaru and Al’s poses respectively: Subaru: “Sorry I am broke beyond compare” Al: “Incidentally, I did want you to thank me” This is not even coincidence because there is so much nuance in what is happening here: A) They both pointed at themselves, while saying something that they know is stupid, but in a way that they put on a show as if they are being cool. B) The energy in both of their respective speeches. C) The way they both increase the pitch during the beginning of the sentence and reduce it towards the end. There are a LOT of these kind of similarities the more you pay attention.
PART 3: There have been multiple instances of people saying Al reminds them of Subaru considering the fact that they base this comparison as a "feeling" based on interactions with him rather than macroscopic differences. There doesn't seem to be huge macroscopic differences that have been noticed by other people considering that Subaru is considered a hero by people and Al is nowhere close in that regard. The different people who have compared Al to Subaru have only done so after they interact with Al and notice the microscopic similarities intuitively or directly. The context is very, very important: These similarities have been noticed by people throughout different time periods (with a lot of gap in between) - This means that these similarities are not a one time thing but a persistent and continuous occurrence that don't change. Al never stops exhibiting these similarities. So far, the people who have compared these two characters are: Cecilus, Garf, Emilia and maybe others too.
PART 4: So, not only did she notice similarities between two people. She noticed similarities between "people's actions" even though a direct comparison of these people's situation is not even possible. Not just her but other people who noticed these similarities as well. Therefore, this similarity is not a superficial comparison (based on a specific situation) but instead a much deeper and fundamental similarity (that transcends the requirement of specific situations). This "identical feeling" that people have is towards the characters themselves and not tied to the situation. Basically, if Al was in a completely different place doing something Subaru had never done before, Emilia would still identify something that reminds her of Subaru. (That's what happens in the story multiple times with multiple people). No stella no life side story:
PART 5: Echidna says to Al that there are some similarities that she has gotten by "imitation" and teases Al by saying "Whether you want to or not, you have inherited the systemized likeness of Him" making Al pissed off indicating that Al wasn't trying to imitate him or whoever Echidna was referring to. But instead it manifested naturally as if it was an extension of his personality. Not only do these individual similarities are strong, each instance of microscopic similarity massively adds weight and credibility to the other similarities and strengthening the argument. It is a combined weight of all these similarities (not an individual similarity) that makes me say that it is just not possible for these people to be different.
PART 6: SOME CHARACTER TRAITS THEY SHARE: They both tend to go on tangents to avoid uncomfortable topics. They tend to be physically expressive towards others while talking to them. (putting hands on Julius’ shoulders etc…) They both use humor to downplay situations Both of them usually pause before saying the last word of a sentence, and then emphasize/elongate the last word (especially if the last word is a noun or pronoun). Like Al saying "Brother" and Subaru saying "Beako". Their elongation sounds phonetically similar. They both initiate "physical contact" while conversing with people. Like putting their hand on the shoulder of the one they are speaking to. They both tend to go on tangents to something unrelated, when they are speaking.
Oh well its 50/50 to be honest so if either You are wrong or You actually fight hope they don't destroy You in the coments i am fina either or al have done so many dope things to this point that is hard to fuck up his character
It's not a retcon. The other commenter points out that Petra is only seeing a single loop, and also, in A9C11, Subaru had Beatrice seal another Book of the Dead of his away. Which means it's a BotD separate from the one Al hid for Petra to read.
I love al as a character and I see him as subaru if he given up on his greed and trying to be a hero. I think the point of the observers is like you said to reference how events in rezero are following some script and everyone has a role, some characters embrace their assigned roles while some actively defy that. A reoccurring theme in rezero is characters limiting themselves to their supposed role and having others help them challenge who they CAN BE. Al hating is full name could be a sign he doesn't want to fulfill a role/fate someone else gives him UNLESS he himself chose it. Subaru and al are both heroes but go about things like different people, I see them as foils to each other instead of clones
My theory is that Al is a clone of Flugel created by Echidna, with Flugel being Subaru it makes more sense like that especially when Echidna has experience with Cloning. It would also explain why he remembers things about Subaru like the term Beako before we ever see him hear it, but at the same time Al doesn't remember everything like realizing Subaru was accompanied by the sin archbishop of gluttony. He's an imperfect clone that's aged abit older or that's my theory at least, he probably also thought he was the original Subaru or just somehow time traveled with his memories not being properly intact because he always thought himself as someone who got isekai'd and even stated he was going a little insane till he saw Subaru again.
Pretty solid arguments. I think either answer would be exciting. The main thing for me is the fact that Aldebaran's face is a clear Chekhov's gun. A writer doesn't just refuse to reveal someone's face unless it's going to be relevant. Generally, this narrative tool is used when seeing the person's face would uncover something for the reader or characters. Same reason we don't see Sirus's face and Emilia never sees petelguese. Because of this, we as readers cannot help but wonder what looking at Al's face (and Flugel's for that matter) would reveal to us. It all depends on whether this is information hidden for the reader, the character's or both. If it's something that is hidden for us, then we KNOW Al's face, what other face would be a major revelation to us if not Subaru's? Who knows, maybe there's a better answer. All I know is that I'm going to be extremely disappointed if hiding Al's face ends up being a red herring. To me the more interesting mysteries have to do with "a dog of Flanders", Patrasche, and being a star nerd. Flugel-Subaru stuff that might or might not splash into Al. Lastly, I'm a big believer that there's a whole story missing in between Subaru blinking outside the convenience store and opening his eyes in Lugunica. Whatever that is going to be the lynchpin to this whole thing.
Yeah I completely agree with the helmet argument there, what’s the point in being so secretive about his face if he is just some random dude we’ve never see before. Although I do also think Asa has a lot of valid points like the fact that characters have similar roles, ultimely we just got to wait for the reveal and see! So in summary I personally think Al=Subaru is true but I also respect Asa and everyone else who don’t support it! Great vid, Asa your re:zero content is my favorite!
For Priscilla not saying she saw something similar between the two. during her last chapter when they’re drinking she only brings two glasses and makes Al and Subaru share maybe hinting at her believing they are similar. Idk though definitely more so believe in the cloning story line. Satella no life just kinda seems to confirm it.
Absolutely *nothing* in No Stella No Life definitively confirms that Al is a clone. What Echidna said is that Al "inherited the systemized likeness of him", and he was also allegedly "created" by her. Inheriting someone's likeness can mean all sorts of interpretations, and her "creation" of him doesn't have to be in the clone sense; another interpretation could be that she molded Al and his identity from whoever he was originally into that of "Aldebaran, the Following Star". As the video points out, cloning is exceedingly difficult in Re:Zero's world. All clones or artificially-created lifeforms (The artificial spirits, the Ryuzu clones) except Moguro (An item that gained a "spirit" after amassing a large quantity of mana) are created with mana-based bodies. At no point in the story has a clone ever been shown to be possible to create with a physical body. It would be strange for Al, someone who in all likelihood has a physical body, to be an exception to the rules of cloning that the Ryuzu copies are subject to as the possessors of mana bodies.
Thank you!! How come nobody mentioned the important hint in Arc 5 where Garfiel said that Al and Subaru have the same smell? He was trying to track Subaru by scent, but it turned out to be Al instead. That seems like a big clue. Also, in Arc 7, Al mentioned his parents: “This ain’t the time to sit around… Won’t be able to look my parents in the face if I do that, will I…!” So that rules out the theory that he’s a clone created by Echidna or that he’s Subaru’s father, since he also mentioned having a complicated relationship with his father. This makes it more likely that he could be Subaru’s younger brother. There’s an interesting theory that Flugel is possessing Subaru in Arc 6, according to the Reddit post (An Arc 6 Theory), If you’re interested, you can check it out.
Yeah, I found this one unlikely to begin with. Al’s personality is so different from Subaru’s. And, like you said, cloning is pretty difficult. Idk wtf his deal is though. I think the idea of “flugle=subaru” probably has more merit than this one, though I’m not really a believer in that one either. It would just explain Satella’s love. And there is definitely a means to do it -> something gluttony related + Infantilization. I think the flugle theory only feels more believable to me because we know so little about him 🤣
Am I crazy for thinking that the two people in the thumbnail look similar? The woke mind virus says yes. Do not be afraid to stand up against these people chat. SUBADEBARAN IS REALLLOLLO
I agree with almost everything in this video except for the eyes because I think Aldebaran and Subaru’s eyes are very similar to one another beyond just a regular commonality.
I think Al might be a Spirit in who's creation Echidna was involved in. Well we atleast know she trained him for the purpose of removing Subaru from the playing field.
Al is not an artificial spirit. Beatrice's section in Visual Complete (Untranslated) has Echidna confirm that only three artificial spirits were created, plus they can't be created with physical bodies, only mana bodies. Nearly every single manner Al has died in points to him having a physical body, so unless you think Al possesses human bodies like Petelgeuse.....
Still theres many things about Al that I dont understand 1. He keeps wearing a mask, even when hes turned into kid 2. He was shocked when he saw Satella in Chaoflame arc 7 and realized Satella was connected with Subaru 3. In arc 7 when he and kid subaru meet Olbart before the game, he got killed and said things like sorry, i will try again 4. He said he met 1 witch before but Satella/Echidna?
I don't think he was shocked when he saw Satella in Chaosflame, he was horrified. With Al's later line of "I know Subaru isn't dead because the world isn't over", the implication is that when Subaru dies, the world ends. Al probably thought it was GG
I mean, I would say he’s symbolically compared to “Subaru” as both are (probably) clones of the original Subaru, except that Al never got the soul transfer and Subaru did. Al probably sees himself in Subaru, but also their creator who’s done so much evil for the sake of love. That has to be a complicated relationship in his mind.
I really dislike the subaru is Al theory more than any other theory iv heard, its just ridiculous and even with time shenanigans, it makes little to no sense, and will just ruin the story completely
Yeah they’re definitely not the same guy, they just have a lot of weird similarities but it might be just the parallels of being isekai’d to play similar roles and not some type of alternates of eachother
The best piece of evidence for the Al = Flugel clone theory is this: “――After all, ever since his birth, before they had formed this sort of relationship, not once had he managed to beat her in an argument.” I interpreted this line like this: the time before his birth was the only time when he didn’t have a relationship with Echidna. This information along with the fact that Al was alive 400 years ago makes me think that Al was given life by Echidna.
Couldn't it also mean "birth" as in the birth of the "Aldebaran" identity? It's not as if figurative language implying a meaning different from the literal one isn't commonly employed in the text, it's all over the place in Re:Zero.
@@ShadowKotoThat’s a great point. It’s definitely possible. Tappei does love to troll too so this would check both boxes. However, I personally still want to believe that it’s meant to be literal haha.
@@reigliss Oh, okay. That's a pretty sensible viewpoint. Misdirection and red herrings are a staple of RZ's larger mysteries, it's only natural that he'd employ them _somewhere_ along the way. Where they are, however, is up to us to interpret until the truth is revealed to us.
Idk if this is said yet, but someone has to say it. You sound like Moist Critikal. That is all, love your videos
Aldebaran is Aldebaran and that's all the story really needs to push any arc he's in to peak instantly
Al is maybe subaru's younger brother(not yet born when subaru left), which is kinda messedup cuz his named as aldebran(which he hates when being called his name) which is the "follower star" (can be interpreted as the following child after subaru), he despise the fact that his parent's still can't get over subaru being gone and that he is compared/replacement for him, he probably got isekaid way later from the real world maybe as a grown adult unlike subaru, but got transfered way in the past, he probably also have connection or relevance to the story of the past heroes and traveled with them (flugerl,reid,shaula,satella,farsale), which is why also which of greed refer them as having the same origin cuz they are bloodrelated and grewup on the same place, and makes all the design being similar make sense without them being the same person
It comes up more than once in Subaru's internal monologues that he thinks his parents got along so well that he was suprised they didn't have another child.
Al being similar looking to Subaru and Kenichi would be explained by this, as well as his resentment towards Subaru.
Born to fulfill a role he could never play, the following star.
I'm anime only, so I have limited knowledge, but doesn't Al call Subaru 'aniki' (bro) in the anime?
I know it's just a 'nickname' that's used often, even in real life, but still would be a fun hint
The long-awaited video has finally arrived. Good work as always. Thanks for the brief little shoutout during the Clind section, and let's hope you won't have to slam the delete button after all when Al = Subaru is revealed (Kidding, hopefully)! As for the rest of this comment...
It's going to be about my own theory to explain Aldebaran/=/Subaru. Since Asa has already explained some bloody good lore and exegetical reasons why they shouldn't be the same person, this theory will mostly operate through lore/diegetic analysis, with a couple of ideas of parallels and such sprinkled throughout, mainly because I still need to practice with sharpening my skills on exegetic analysis, haha. Due to the nature of this theory acting supplementary to a couple of the points mentioned in the video, I recommend you watch first before continuing to read this. Anywho... here goes.
Theory: Aldebaran acquired Subaru's "likeness" by seeing his future memories via Echidna's Authority. This operates under the framework that, when Echidna said that Aldebaran "inherited his systemized likeness" in No Stella No Life, the "he" being referenced is Subaru.
-Echidna can selectively show people memories, as per Minerva in Volume 15. Molding whatever Al's previous identity was into that of "Aldebaran", in the image of "Greed", could carry more weight had she achieved this with her Authority of Greed.
-Taking on Subaru's likeness through his memories explains all of the occurrences where Al seems to express awareness of the future, has intimate knowledge of Subaru and the people around him, using similar catchphrases and the nickname Beako, the similar body mannerisms that people have tried pointing out and such, currently having a similar way of thinking according to Echidna despite potentially having different childhoods as per Asa's point in the video, etc.
>-The gaps in Al's knowledge, like Rem's existence and Priscilla's lineage, or Echidna saying that Subaru was out of schedule, could signify that the memories he inherited were not of the current future?
-The thing of Al and Subaru having similar scents could potentially be explained by this, as memories make up a part of the soul, and at the end of Arc 8, scent was used to locate the "whereabouts of the soul".
-Additionally, Al using a Book of the Dead to create "Aldebaran" through Volcanica would be a neat contrast to the idea of Echidna using her Authority to create "Aldebaran".
Additional points against Aldebaran = Subaru:
-Echidna, who "created" Aldebaran, is troubled by the "difference in results" with Al despite him coming from the same origin as something else.
-To further go into detail about vessels and cloning, there are two types of vessels: physical bodies and mana bodies. Every single character who's *confirmed* to be an artificial creation that wasn't born how a physical lifeform would be, that is to say they were created from mana, has a mana body. Al's body is undoubtedly a physical body, which completely diminishes the likelihood of him being some form of artificial lifeform with an "unnatural birth".
-The soul informs the appearance of the vessel. Should that early illustration of Al's face end up an accurate depiction of him, he looks nothing like either of the adult Subarus we've seen in Aganau IF and Rem IF. It'd also disprove any and all Kenichi=Aldebaran theories because they look nothing alike.
-As we learned with Volcanica, or rather, "Aldebaran" in Arc 9, Chapter 13, different personality traits appear to manifest from someone whose likeness is in a vessel different from the original, with the Dragon Al's optimistic point of view diverging from the human Al's. And don't we see Al and Subaru with different personalities and beliefs when they're put under pressure and forced to undergo Infantilization? Therefore, their vessels, which both notably exhibit the traits of physical bodies, should not be 1:1 replicas of each other.
All of this vessel/soul/body stuff serves to highlight one important point: Al and Subaru's individual vessels are not exactly the same. Whatever their shared "origin" is, be it Japan, be it Naoko and Kenichi if he's somehow Subaru's brother, be they the memories of "Natsuki Subaru" themselves, Aldebaran's body/vessel is a product distinct from Subaru's despite the obvious physical and mental similarities the two share.
Their many subtle mental dissimilarities show that, no matter how Aldebaran "inherited his systemized likeness", that's all it is. Something he inherited, not his original likeness. And this is why I don't believe Aldebaran is Subaru from an alternate timeline, that Aldebaran is not some clone of Subaru, or even that Aldebaran has the same mind as Subaru, because no matter how large the sheer number of their surface-level similarities gets, the more striking, glaring dissimilarities in their looks, their attitudes, and their pasts (Referring to stuff like Infantilization and TMNT) can't be ignored.
This is a long and confusing read, so to anyone who stuck to the end to try and wrap their brain around this convoluted lore dump trying to make sense of everything, thank you.
I really like your theory!!!
One thing that can also be mentioned (if the Re:zero game can be considered canon based on the certain informations given) that there was an instance where Al thought that Rem with her blue hair is supposed to be Ram…Which supports the fact, that the memories given to Al from Echidna isn’t from the current timeline or something else went wrong.
Goated video. Something to note at 13:11, I don’t think Al has a taboo because in one of the failed loops against Reinhard Al showed him his book and the DP of Nightmares kept him sane, and no taboo seemingly occurred.
Also in ex Novel 5 he said that he died like a thousand times to his opponent and nothing happened there as well. Well, Hornet didn't seem to believe him but I don't think that's necessary.
Saying Al = Subaru is like saying Amelia Earhart wasn’t dismembered and eaten alive by coconut crabs 🙄
Amelia Earhart = Emilia + Sylphie + Shadowheart confirmed
☹
Elias my goat always cooking
@@RKingdom05 HI OOMF!!!!
Eilas, what’s your obsession with coconut crabs. I’ve seen so many post about them from you 😭
I want Al to be saved and learn to value his life
Throughout the story Al is projecting his own failures on Subaru, so when Subaru made his heroic speech Al took it personally
Kinda like roswaal
"y'all are ignoring the difference in the hair"
My brother in Christ he has far longer hair, we have never seen Subaru's hair that long and that uncared for
If it was just so long and unkempt, then wouldn't he have Subaru's bulb things but longer? It doesn't look like Al has a longer version of those, his hair pattern is completely different no matter how you spin it. Of course, the design/illustration of the _hair_ specifically is less important and can be more easily subject to artistic liberties than that of the face, which is still obscured.
Well, to me it was always clear al wasn't subaru mainly becausr of their different personalities and how the magic organs work in their world. Subaru has only aptitude with the shadow element whike Al only has aptitude with earth element. He also doesn't have spirit affinity like subaru does. But Al is surely related to subaru somehow. My current guess is that he is a failed clone of subaru, he is someone with the body of natsuki subaru but the soul of someone else.
As per No Stella No Life, Al has a natural talent for the yin affinity, just like Subaru, and he trained in using the earth affinity under Echidna.
Also, what would be the point of Al "having" Subaru's body if it just means the qualities of his soul are just going to change it back to his original body? A vessel mutates to fit a soul, like it has with Petelgeuse, Sphinx, and a couple of other characters. Al's soul would force him to have his own body, so having Subaru's body is impossible.
@@ShadowKoto Everyone has affinity to all elements, the point i was triying to make was that subaru had more afinity with shadows, but if Al also shares the same compatibility then the fact he doesn't have any spirit compatibility like subaru does looks pretty important. I heard it from reddit, so i could be wrong, but spirit arts depend solely on the soul of the user ( if your soul have the qualities to be an spirit art user or not). This should be already enought to confirm they are different people with different souls to me.
Edit: As to the point of having tbe same body as natsuki subaru. My best guess is that Al was a failed clone of natsuki subaru, when echidna tried to make a being with the soul of someone and insert into the cloned body. Maybe it was for satella, maybe echidna wanted to use the clone to distract the wich of envy, at the end its just a guess of mine
Tappei has said if Subaru put all his life into it he could use el level spells from other elements in Q&A's.
Aldebaran is exactly like a synth from Fallout 4. Just made with magic instead of tech. Implanted memories that he can't remember living through. A copy of someone else intended to replace them. And a crap load of identity crisis and a search for one. He isn't Subaru. He *cant* be Subaru. Thats the problem.
good video and puts everything in a really comprehensive way
though i would like to give my personall take on "is al pride" discussion you briefly mentioned and say that i feel like unless al has some connection to pride there is just no reason on writing level to have al reference stride as the sin archbishop of pride right after the release of ex 6. that said i also do agree that al probablly does have some connection to envy my current theory on that is that prior to al failing/abadoning his purpose he did in fact posess the envy witch factor (and perhaps even straight up had rbd) and was stripped of it as a result of his failure and is now using the pride factor as a sort of substitute power.
In my opinion, a lot of us Al=Envy theorists will agree that although we're inclined towards believing his Authority with his Domain/Matrix comes from the aforementioned sin, Arc 9 is still shaping up to be the "Pride arc" due to details such as Stride Vollachia having a confirmed Authority of Pride, the addition of Melinda's Evil Eye of Pride, Aldebaran mentioning Stride in A9C14, and also something else that, for right now, is currently locked behind side story content.
Where did you read EX6?
@ Ex 6 came out a month ago, so it's only available in Japanese for the time being. Couldn't tell you how long the translation will take. It took Yen Press 14 months to release Ex 5.
@@ShadowKoto Is there any Japanese on the Internet?
@@ShadowKoto Judging from previous EX novels, they usually get mentioned or brought up in subsequent LN volumes right? When I think back on all the EX novels, the info they have is usually relevant to whats gonna happen in the story. Pride has to be brought up in some way for sure.
If the AL = Flugel clone theory is true, it might explain why Subaru is affected by Gluttony & Al isn't. If Al is a clone, then Od Lagna has Al's information stored within it because he was created in the world. This is not the case for Subaru since he was created outside of this world and was isekai'd in. So, when Od Lagna wipes memories from the world as a result of the Gluttony Authority, it doesn't factor Subaru into the wipe, but it does affect Al.
@@reigliss good point, I'd like to add that if there's some sort of time travel going on, it might explain his reaction when meeting Rem (I forget what that meeting is from). He's angry because he realizes he forgot her and gluttony ate her (in the future, presumably).
@@ocram3333 where did u get that? He just got surprised that both sisters were alive
@@pre-violetmelain2984 did a quick search to look for the scene I'm thinking of (I think it's a game, possibly taken from the novel) but couldn't find it. It is also possible I'm misremembering/misinterpreting it.
From what I can recall, Al meets Rem and says something along the lines of "your name is Ram right?" then it becomes clear Ram's sister. Al becomes angry and says something cryptic like "I see... So it's alive". As I said, I don't recall it well.
I think it's also some evidence towards a theory I heard about: Rem should not exist, Ram should've been an only child with two horns. Something or someone intervened (Pandora maybe) to make it so that twins were born.
Amazing vid with great points all around. I like how you did acknowledge both similarities and differences unlike most theorists do and just focus on one aspect cus it’s convenient to their argument.
Ever since I started arc 3 back in 2012 this question has haunted me. I'm glad there's finally a youtube video that can think for me instead
Al
Is Al.
Al is a coconut crab.
I believe that Al is way too different in mindset from Subaru to be him, hell, he doesn't even resemble any of the alternative Subarus from the IFs, even Greedbaru, the one that is the closest to him, differs greatly in his mindset.
Great video! I was surprised how much I had already agreed with and knew in this video and felt more surprised that so many people argue against these reasons. It feels clear as time goes on we're supposed to believe that Al is someone completely different and he has always worked much better as one of the many parallels to Subaru instead of a literal Subaru.
Finally! I've never been able to articulate why I disagree with this theory very well, and this will help to that end. Thank you
i love you for working this hard on ur vids bro
I think either theory, done correctly, could lead to interesting story outcomes, but I do think it would be more thematically relevant for Subaru and Al to both just be separate ordinary people who were drafted into this fantastical scenario. And regards to the Gluttony question for Al, I just assumed he could be lying and actually remembers Julius. Al has lied in the story, or obscured the truth, he is not a reliable source of information. That could be why it was cut from the LN. And we never got his POV showing his experience with Gluttony to my knowledge, only his word.
Arc 8 epilogue Spoilers:
My personal tin hat theory is that both Subaru and Al were drafted into this by people from 400 years ago in the age of witches to carry on the legacy of Flugel the Sage and to do *something* to Satella, but that they were brought by different people. Subaru's authority seems to be endowed by/boosted by Satella, and when Satella cant 'see' him his authority goes on the fritz.
After the Al and Echidna chapter, i theorized that Al was summoned by Echidna as her agent in the big game of chess that's happening, or maybe that he was co-opted by her?
-We know that the authority of Greed is related to the Tome of Wisdom that can to an extent predict the future, from arc 4 webnovel and maybe the greed chapter in arc 6? and that she doesn't have access to it outside the castle of dreams.
-We also know that Al refers to his ability as a "thought experiment" at times, which is suspiciously in line with how Echidna would see an authority.
I've posited that Echidna is somehow powering Al's authority, and he has the version that lives outside the dreamscape, and that when he was infantalized he lost that ability because *Echidna* couldn't 'see' him. And that his loops seem loveless so to speak because Echidna's love faded, as she often says.
I don't know if that means there are two Greed factors running around like Gluttony, or if Echidna is influencing a Pride factor the way Satella does the Envy factor, or if even there are two *Envy* factors and Echidna has messed with one of them or Al lost Satella's love or something. But I do think that Al is supposed to be Subaru's foil more explicitly than any other character, and that he is Echidna's direct pawn in response to Satella's knight on the chessboard.
A lot of this pends on the pair being in opposition somehow but we don't know enough other than Echidna really Really hates Satella to say if they would be or why.
of course al isn't subaru
he's ferris without the estrogen 😤
9:01 plz no he is my goat😭😭😭
I like to think that the IF where subaru looks like Al is because he also Failed to do his task that the TITLE SUBARU(as in the star) is meant to be. So by failing, he takes a similar look to Al
Al being himself is the best thing honestly
Great video. But (spoiler)
wasn't it already confirmed that he's a spirit created by Echidna? Or did I miss something there?
That was never confirmed, all that's said is that Echidna "created" him, which could also be taken to have a figurative meaning. In fact, from Echidna's narration in Beatrice's Visual Complete section, she says that there are only three artificial spirits in the world. Meaning, Aldebaran can't be an artificial spirit; it makes sense that he isn't one anyways because he has a physical body and every artificially-created lifeform in the series except Moguro (Originally an object) was fashioned with a mana body, regardless of whether or not they're a clone. The state of Al's body greatly reduces the chances of him being any type of artificially-created Echidna clone/being.
@@ShadowKoto Interesting. I definitely had the wrong impression then. But, I still think Echidna "created" him in some fashion to have her own version of Subaru to mirror Satella. To what end, i guess we don't know yet.
Carrying Re:Zero content on your back once again
PART 1:
Great video. I have some rebuttals for some of the arguments you've brought up (which I will address at the end) but first:
My claim is “Al’s mind = Subaru’s mind”
A broad claim that only says “Their base mental framework is the exact same thing. Any explanation that accounts this is valid - It’s not just limited to time travel, cloning or BOTD. Any explanation by Tappei is valid as long as it accounts for this.”
My reasoning:
Usage of the exact same lines in inconsequential scenarios as if it was second nature (without one party trying to imitate the other):
"No matter what, I will save you" - Al in Arc 8, Subaru throughout every arc
"Bring it on, oh inevitable fate" - Al in Pride and Prejudice, declaration of war and Subaru throughout the story.
There are many more lines like this.
Usage of similar color scheme in their fashion sense (without one party trying to imitate the other):
Green shirt and yellow scarf (Al in Arc 3, Subaru in Arc 6)
PART 2:
1x2 and 3x3 scene with Subaru and Al’s poses respectively:
Subaru: “Sorry I am broke beyond compare”
Al: “Incidentally, I did want you to thank me”
This is not even coincidence because there is so much nuance in what is happening here:
A) They both pointed at themselves, while saying something that they know is stupid, but in a way that they put on a show as if they are being cool.
B) The energy in both of their respective speeches.
C) The way they both increase the pitch during the beginning of the sentence and reduce it towards the end.
There are a LOT of these kind of similarities the more you pay attention.
PART 3:
There have been multiple instances of people saying Al reminds them of Subaru considering the fact that they base this comparison as a "feeling" based on interactions with him rather than macroscopic differences.
There doesn't seem to be huge macroscopic differences that have been noticed by other people considering that Subaru is considered a hero by people and Al is nowhere close in that regard.
The different people who have compared Al to Subaru have only done so after they interact with Al and notice the microscopic similarities intuitively or directly.
The context is very, very important: These similarities have been noticed by people throughout different time periods (with a lot of gap in between) - This means that these similarities are not a one time thing but a persistent and continuous occurrence that don't change. Al never stops exhibiting these similarities. So far, the people who have compared these two characters are: Cecilus, Garf, Emilia and maybe others too.
PART 4:
So, not only did she notice similarities between two people. She noticed similarities between "people's actions" even though a direct comparison of these people's situation is not even possible. Not just her but other people who noticed these similarities as well. Therefore, this similarity is not a superficial comparison (based on a specific situation) but instead a much deeper and fundamental similarity (that transcends the requirement of specific situations). This "identical feeling" that people have is towards the characters themselves and not tied to the situation.
Basically, if Al was in a completely different place doing something Subaru had never done before, Emilia would still identify something that reminds her of Subaru. (That's what happens in the story multiple times with multiple people).
No stella no life side story:
PART 5:
Echidna says to Al that there are some similarities that she has gotten by "imitation" and teases Al by saying "Whether you want to or not, you have inherited the systemized likeness of Him" making Al pissed off indicating that Al wasn't trying to imitate him or whoever Echidna was referring to.
But instead it manifested naturally as if it was an extension of his personality.
Not only do these individual similarities are strong, each instance of microscopic similarity massively adds weight and credibility to the other similarities and strengthening the argument. It is a combined weight of all these similarities (not an individual similarity) that makes me say that it is just not possible for these people to be different.
PART 6:
SOME CHARACTER TRAITS THEY SHARE:
They both tend to go on tangents to avoid uncomfortable topics.
They tend to be physically expressive towards others while talking to them. (putting hands on Julius’ shoulders etc…)
They both use humor to downplay situations
Both of them usually pause before saying the last word of a sentence, and then emphasize/elongate the last word (especially if the last word is a noun or pronoun). Like Al saying "Brother" and Subaru saying "Beako". Their elongation sounds phonetically similar.
They both initiate "physical contact" while conversing with people. Like putting their hand on the shoulder of the one they are speaking to.
They both tend to go on tangents to something unrelated, when they are speaking.
Oh well its 50/50 to be honest so if either You are wrong or You actually fight hope they don't destroy You in the coments i am fina either or al have done so many dope things to this point that is hard to fuck up his character
13:00 The number of books is likely a retcon. Subaru in arc 6 has many books, one for each death. Subaru in arc 9 has one book, with every death.
No he doesn't. Petra reads one book, and only seems to experiences the loop where Subaru confesses to Echidna that he has RBD
It's not a retcon. The other commenter points out that Petra is only seeing a single loop, and also, in A9C11, Subaru had Beatrice seal another Book of the Dead of his away. Which means it's a BotD separate from the one Al hid for Petra to read.
@ Okay I read that wrong then. Of course the one Al happens to find to use is the one connected with Echidna lmao.
Sweet!
THANK YOU!!!!
I too am with you on this one where Al isn't Subaru and i also believe author is tricking the fans with them being the same person😂
I don’t follow rz so i have no knowledge of the theory, but you had me at
“Hey im a dumbass btw” 😂😂😂 that got a good laugh
I love al as a character and I see him as subaru if he given up on his greed and trying to be a hero. I think the point of the observers is like you said to reference how events in rezero are following some script and everyone has a role, some characters embrace their assigned roles while some actively defy that. A reoccurring theme in rezero is characters limiting themselves to their supposed role and having others help them challenge who they CAN BE. Al hating is full name could be a sign he doesn't want to fulfill a role/fate someone else gives him UNLESS he himself chose it. Subaru and al are both heroes but go about things like different people, I see them as foils to each other instead of clones
If Al is future Subaru, it’ll almost be like EMIYA Archer and Shirou Emiya.
My theory is that Al is a clone of Flugel created by Echidna, with Flugel being Subaru it makes more sense like that especially when Echidna has experience with Cloning. It would also explain why he remembers things about Subaru like the term Beako before we ever see him hear it, but at the same time Al doesn't remember everything like realizing Subaru was accompanied by the sin archbishop of gluttony. He's an imperfect clone that's aged abit older or that's my theory at least, he probably also thought he was the original Subaru or just somehow time traveled with his memories not being properly intact because he always thought himself as someone who got isekai'd and even stated he was going a little insane till he saw Subaru again.
You: i’m willing to take the L if it’s revealed that this theory is true
The author : oh boy
tappei about to beat me, man
@@AsarathaHSYT not if the coconut crabs get you first
"how could yu be me? IM ME"
Pretty solid arguments. I think either answer would be exciting.
The main thing for me is the fact that Aldebaran's face is a clear Chekhov's gun. A writer doesn't just refuse to reveal someone's face unless it's going to be relevant. Generally, this narrative tool is used when seeing the person's face would uncover something for the reader or characters. Same reason we don't see Sirus's face and Emilia never sees petelguese.
Because of this, we as readers cannot help but wonder what looking at Al's face (and Flugel's for that matter) would reveal to us. It all depends on whether this is information hidden for the reader, the character's or both. If it's something that is hidden for us, then we KNOW Al's face, what other face would be a major revelation to us if not Subaru's? Who knows, maybe there's a better answer.
All I know is that I'm going to be extremely disappointed if hiding Al's face ends up being a red herring.
To me the more interesting mysteries have to do with "a dog of Flanders", Patrasche, and being a star nerd. Flugel-Subaru stuff that might or might not splash into Al.
Lastly, I'm a big believer that there's a whole story missing in between Subaru blinking outside the convenience store and opening his eyes in Lugunica. Whatever that is going to be the lynchpin to this whole thing.
Yeah I completely agree with the helmet argument there, what’s the point in being so secretive about his face if he is just some random dude we’ve never see before. Although I do also think Asa has a lot of valid points like the fact that characters have similar roles, ultimely we just got to wait for the reveal and see! So in summary I personally think Al=Subaru is true but I also respect Asa and everyone else who don’t support it! Great vid, Asa your re:zero content is my favorite!
My opinion has finally arrived
For Priscilla not saying she saw something similar between the two. during her last chapter when they’re drinking she only brings two glasses and makes Al and Subaru share maybe hinting at her believing they are similar. Idk though definitely more so believe in the cloning story line. Satella no life just kinda seems to confirm it.
Absolutely *nothing* in No Stella No Life definitively confirms that Al is a clone. What Echidna said is that Al "inherited the systemized likeness of him", and he was also allegedly "created" by her. Inheriting someone's likeness can mean all sorts of interpretations, and her "creation" of him doesn't have to be in the clone sense; another interpretation could be that she molded Al and his identity from whoever he was originally into that of "Aldebaran, the Following Star".
As the video points out, cloning is exceedingly difficult in Re:Zero's world. All clones or artificially-created lifeforms (The artificial spirits, the Ryuzu clones) except Moguro (An item that gained a "spirit" after amassing a large quantity of mana) are created with mana-based bodies. At no point in the story has a clone ever been shown to be possible to create with a physical body. It would be strange for Al, someone who in all likelihood has a physical body, to be an exception to the rules of cloning that the Ryuzu copies are subject to as the possessors of mana bodies.
Oh this video has Aldebaran in it!
Hear me out AL is Subarus dad from an alternate timeline of Subarus pre isekai world who was isekai before he met Subarus mother(or a relative)
Thank you!! How come nobody mentioned the important hint in Arc 5 where Garfiel said that Al and Subaru have the same smell? He was trying to track Subaru by scent, but it turned out to be Al instead. That seems like a big clue.
Also, in Arc 7, Al mentioned his parents:
“This ain’t the time to sit around… Won’t be able to look my parents in the face if I do that, will I…!”
So that rules out the theory that he’s a clone created by Echidna or that he’s Subaru’s father, since he also mentioned having a complicated relationship with his father. This makes it more likely that he could be Subaru’s younger brother.
There’s an interesting theory that Flugel is possessing Subaru in Arc 6, according to the Reddit post (An Arc 6 Theory), If you’re interested, you can check it out.
GBF Luminiera Omega Theme in the back yoooo
Great vid
Goated video brother 🗿🗿🗿 but I don't want al to be subaru 😭😭 al is al and subaru is subaru
Can you talk about how Priscilla is as a character?
Yeah, I found this one unlikely to begin with.
Al’s personality is so different from Subaru’s. And, like you said, cloning is pretty difficult. Idk wtf his deal is though.
I think the idea of “flugle=subaru” probably has more merit than this one, though I’m not really a believer in that one either.
It would just explain Satella’s love. And there is definitely a means to do it -> something gluttony related + Infantilization.
I think the flugle theory only feels more believable to me because we know so little about him 🤣
Asara, what's your opinion arc 9 so far?
Am I crazy for thinking that the two people in the thumbnail look similar?
The woke mind virus says yes.
Do not be afraid to stand up against these people chat.
SUBADEBARAN IS REALLLOLLO
looking into this
I agree with almost everything in this video except for the eyes because I think Aldebaran and Subaru’s eyes are very similar to one another beyond just a regular commonality.
I think Al might be a Spirit in who's creation Echidna was involved in.
Well we atleast know she trained him for the purpose of removing Subaru from the playing field.
Al is not an artificial spirit. Beatrice's section in Visual Complete (Untranslated) has Echidna confirm that only three artificial spirits were created, plus they can't be created with physical bodies, only mana bodies. Nearly every single manner Al has died in points to him having a physical body, so unless you think Al possesses human bodies like Petelgeuse.....
@@ShadowKoto fair point
I am now an Albaru disbeliever
Damn king spit
Still theres many things about Al that I dont understand
1. He keeps wearing a mask, even when hes turned into kid
2. He was shocked when he saw Satella in Chaoflame arc 7 and realized Satella was connected with Subaru
3. In arc 7 when he and kid subaru meet Olbart before the game, he got killed and said things like sorry, i will try again
4. He said he met 1 witch before but Satella/Echidna?
I don't think he was shocked when he saw Satella in Chaosflame, he was horrified. With Al's later line of "I know Subaru isn't dead because the world isn't over", the implication is that when Subaru dies, the world ends. Al probably thought it was GG
I mean, I would say he’s symbolically compared to “Subaru” as both are (probably) clones of the original Subaru, except that Al never got the soul transfer and Subaru did.
Al probably sees himself in Subaru, but also their creator who’s done so much evil for the sake of love. That has to be a complicated relationship in his mind.
The promised land hath arrived as fortold by the Heavenly Observers
ive never heard that theory but now that i have i think i would actively dislike that plotline if it happened in the show so i hope its wrong
I think subaru is the reincarnation of flugal, and al is different
al is deepseek of the subarugpt
I personally don't think AL is Subaru... but it's more like, I don't know?
Though, there's no denying he has a similar power to Return by Death.
I really dislike the subaru is Al theory more than any other theory iv heard, its just ridiculous and even with time shenanigans, it makes little to no sense, and will just ruin the story completely
Is the spoiler from the manga or anime?
Neither, it's the light novel/web novel.
@ShadowKoto oops, I meant light novel. I don't even know if there's a manga.
I was so ready to watch this until all the spoiler warnings
Probably al Is like a 2nd generation Subaru.
I was here to leave a like
The latest webnovel chaptee proved al is al not suburu
I always thought al was a Subaru variant from a different japan
What if Al is a Subaru but from a third world and having an multiverse will make it more different from other big isekai
If Al is flugel Clone then why is satella not glazing him like she glazes subaru
❤
Yeah they’re definitely not the same guy, they just have a lot of weird similarities but it might be just the parallels of being isekai’d to play similar roles and not some type of alternates of eachother
The best piece of evidence for the Al = Flugel clone theory is this: “――After all, ever since his birth, before they had formed this sort of relationship, not once had he managed to beat her in an argument.” I interpreted this line like this: the time before his birth was the only time when he didn’t have a relationship with Echidna. This information along with the fact that Al was alive 400 years ago makes me think that Al was given life by Echidna.
Couldn't it also mean "birth" as in the birth of the "Aldebaran" identity? It's not as if figurative language implying a meaning different from the literal one isn't commonly employed in the text, it's all over the place in Re:Zero.
@@ShadowKotoThat’s a great point. It’s definitely possible. Tappei does love to troll too so this would check both boxes. However, I personally still want to believe that it’s meant to be literal haha.
@@reigliss Oh, okay. That's a pretty sensible viewpoint. Misdirection and red herrings are a staple of RZ's larger mysteries, it's only natural that he'd employ them _somewhere_ along the way. Where they are, however, is up to us to interpret until the truth is revealed to us.
actually subaru could have al's authority, maybe al created a domain as a way to cope with loveless rbd.
Ok
should you read lord of the mysteries 🧐
AL KINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
PEAK
Asaratha is RIGHT about WAIFUS (and Aldebaran)
Subaru can be my wife instead of being Al
YEAHHHHHHH
Algo pushing
Yea because Me = Al duh
hummm, more like a clone i think, oh if you are wrong prepare yourself.
I think they only look similar bc they are both from Japan
Subaru does not equal al, subaru equals flugel.
Peak