Once upon a time, nestled in a magical forest, there stood a magnificent tree with a secret. This tree was not like any ordinary tree; it housed a mischievous and playful leprechaun. This leprechaun had made the tree his home, a tree house fit for a magical being. The tree house was a sight to behold. It was adorned with glittering emeralds and sparkling gold, catching the eye of anyone who stumbled upon it. The leprechaun had used his magical powers to create a cozy and enchanting abode.
Lifting Strength: Average Human | Average Human
Echidna told Beatrice to protect the library until that person showed up to bring her out of the library, she was also given a gospel, an imperfect version of the Book of Wisdom. This is especially true with Minerva - while it does appear that the others actions all had bad consequences in the end, I don t really see any in hers unless the striking people to heal them could be a euphemism for putting people out of their misery, I guess.
The leprechaun had used his magical powers to create a cozy and enchanting abode. Inside, the tree house was a delightful mix of vibrant colors and whimsical decorations. To enter the tree house, one had to solve a riddle.
[DISCUSSION] Beatrice and the Witches: An Analysis
After watching episode 8 today, I got to wondering about Beatrice's book and who she really is. I remember somebody saying in a discussion thread a while back that her "mother" might be the blonde girl we see near the start of the opening given the visual similarities, and so I decided to look into it.
Re-watching that bit, I was reminded of something during the first tea party and decided to check it out - lo and behold, the five unknown characters appearing between Echidna and Subaru match up nicely with Echidna's descriptions of the other witches.
Going in reverse order of appearance because the main subject of this is the first to show up in the actual OP, they are as follows:
Carmilla, the Witch of Lust who granted emotions to non-human beings in an attempt to fill the world with love (while the colour scheme doesn't match up perfectly, she's the closest option and the only one left after assigning the rest of the silhouettes - I initially thought the wavy things were hair but upon closer inspection realized that they were a scarf, which matches the OP)
Typhon, the Witch of Pride who, out of youthful innocence and cruelty, judged criminals one after another (the only witch we get a clear, full-body silhouette of, the hairstyle and green colours both match up and she also appears to be the youngest one and possibly wearing a dress in the OP)
Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony who created beasts that defied the will of God to save the world from starvation (again not a 1:1 colour match but she's the bluer of the two purple characters we see in the OP and the hairstyle matches up nicely)
Sekhmet, the Witch of Sloth who drove a dragon past the great waterfall just for a chance to rest (redder purple colour scheme, her hair is a bit hard to make out in the silhouette but looks like it could fit, the star we see on her face/head is likely representative of the metal emblem thing we see over the OP character's eye)
And, finally, Minerva, the Witch of Wrath who struck people to heal them as she lamented the state of her war-torn world (yellow colour matches blonde hair, same side ponytail, the silhouette seems to have a collar that would match the one in the OP).
Past this point is basically just going to be a bunch of random musing and speculation.
Carmilla doesn't immediately strike you on a visual level as somebody who would be the witch of lust, but I think her appearance matches up with Echidna's characterization of her - Carmilla seems more naive than anything else, wanting to fill the world with love, and her body language in the silhouette scene seems sort of morose or regretful. She's seen tearing up and pulling her scarf over part of her face while looking off to the side during the OP (possibly looking at one of the butterflies?), and I suppose it would make sense that the person who gave non-human creatures emotion would themselves be an emotional person (possibly also regretful of what she's done?) Typhon matches the description of youthful innocence, dancing as a silhouette and being the only one during the OP to look purely happy. Daphne is interesting because she's the only silhouette to be shown with eyes (unless you count Sekhmet's star thing) and is depicted in the OP with some sort of eye covering - perhaps she has powers relating to her eyes that are being sealed away? As a side note, do we know for certain that the mabeasts were created by Satella? If not, I think there is the possibility that Daphne was the one who made them in an attempt to cure starvation (hence defying the will of God by bringing something so malevolent and unnatural into existence). Sekhmet's silhouette is shown reclining, taking a position that I suppose would fit with slothfulness. She gives off sorta royal/noble vibes to me with her jewelry, makeup (reminds me of Roswaal a bit) and what appears to be fur trim, though I'm not sure how that would tie into her character as a whole. Minerva in the OP has a sort of defiant/angry expression, which works with her being the witch of wrath, and what little we see of her body language in the silhouette scene seems to be similar. As previously stated her blue/yellow/pink colour scheme matches Beatrice's, though her design seems to focus more on heart motifs compared to Beatrice's X/butterfly ones (although if you really squint I guess you could see them as doubled hearts). Minerva's clothes, posing, and to some extent face immediately reminded me of Theresia von Astrea, who would by virtue of being a warrior have some tangential connection to wrath, although on closer inspection Minerva's clothes appear to be some sort of sleeveless garment and not a cape like Theresia's (though she could still have been some sort of knight or similar given the fact that she lived in a war-torn world and struck people to heal them (maybe some sort of battlefield medic?)). Tangentially, while probably entirely unrelated, the striking people to heal them thing sorta reminds me of a tsundere which could fit in with her being Beatrice's mother.
The witches' names do seem to have some level of symbolism but they're a little hit or miss and I don't think they'll be particularly significant. Four out of five of these witches, as well as Echidna, are figures from mythology, though as far as I am aware Satella is an entirely made up name. Camilla is also a mythological figure but Carmilla is a lesbian vampire from a nineteenth-century gothic novella.
Camilla is a virgin huntress and warrior woman from Roman myth with an association with the Greek Amazons, but I'm not really sure how that would relate to either lust or the witch. Carmilla also doesn’t seem to have many connections, though I suppose the romantic attraction of a vampire to a human as takes place in the story could be seen as a parallel of the witch’s granting of emotion/love to non-humans.
Typhon is the name of a giant destructive monster from Greek mythology, and the only real connection I could find would be the fact that both he and the witch Typhon are described as cruel. Interestingly, Typhon is also the mate of the Greek mythological Echidna which could indicate a connection but is probably entirely coincidental.
Daphne was a Greek naiad (freshwater nymph) who Apollo was cursed to fall in love with and eventually turned into a laurel tree to escape him – again, not much of a connection there.
Sekhmet is a lion goddess from ancient Egyptian mythology who was mainly associated with destruction and war but was also to some extent a healer. While this seems like the complete opposite of sloth, there is a prominent legend of how after going overboard on the punishment Ra sent her down to exact she was pacified with alcohol back into maternal cow goddess Hathor.
Minerva has what is probably the clearest connection to her namesake, a Roman war goddess. Unlike the more violent Mars, however, Minerva was associated more with strategy and defensive warfare as well as medicine, which could reflect the witch Minerva's healing.
The only real connection I could find for Echidna was the fact that she had the upper body of a beautiful woman but the lower body of a hideous snake, which I suppose could be symbolic of the value/attractiveness of the witch's knowledge compared to the deeds she committed to acquire it.
Alright, now time for some rapid-fire idea vomiting:
While Echidna openly admits that she is a bad person and implies that the other witches are the same, none of their acts as described by her actually seem all that bad and were done with at worst selfish or misguided intentions rather than actual malice. This is especially true with Minerva - while it does appear that the others' actions all had bad consequences in the end, I don't really see any in hers unless the striking people to heal them (could be a euphemism for putting people out of their misery, I guess?) or lamentation count. Even if that were the case, they don't seem as severe as what the other witches did (well, we don't know exactly what Echidna did but she herself makes it seem bad) unless Echidna is downplaying it for some reason and yet she is still placed among the ranks of the other supposedly evil witches. If Echidna is covering up Minerva's or anyone else's malevolence, and really even if she isn't, I think it's also possible that she is exaggerating Satella's or otherwise leaving out important information out of personal bias (after all, she was the one who killed her). While it is, of course, entirely possible that Satella is purely evil, it seems unlikely to me given what we at least think we know about the other witches and the fact that (assuming I'm not entirely misreading things) Satella seems to demonstrate some level of actual affection/caring for Subaru despite her and her followers' actions thus far seeming to truly be evil or at least manipulative (and it is definitely possible for Satella to only be helping/caring about Subaru for her own personal gain). This is just wild speculation at this point seeing as we really don't know much about Satella at all but it also seems like all the other witches have generally been associated with their respective since in a more roundabout way (gluttony wanted to feed people, Carmilla wanted to fill the world with love, etc.) which makes me feel like Satella isn't just envious of the others' abilities.
Echidna having a soft spot for Minerva could also help explain/back up my next point - that Beatrice's "gospel" could have belonged to/been made by Echidna. Assuming that Beatrice is the daughter of Minerva, it would make sense for her abilities to have something to do with wrath or healing (she is demonstrated to be a more skilled healer than Emilia, at least).
Her book seems much more in line with Echidna, what with it being the closest thing to the "Tome of Wisdom". Perhaps the Tome is Echidna's own copy (Echidna wants to learn all the knowledge in the world, perhaps the tome of wisdom contains all there is to know? If you were omniscient then you would probably also be able to predict the future as you'd be aware of every single factor involved and how they'd interact) and the "gospels" are WIP/inferior copies, or perhaps they were Echidna's attempts at making a Tome of Wisdom. If they did belong to Echidna and she and Minerva were close, then it would make sense for Minerva to have receieved one and subsequently given it to her daughter (thus explaining why Beatrice is doing this for her mother). The whereabouts of the other copy are another mystery, but this could also help to explain Beatrice's connection to the Mathers family, as they are the caretakers of Echidna's grave and as far as we know not Minerva's.
What I'm wondering now is how the book actually works. Roswaal says that it tells the "true future", and yet Beatrice still has to make an effort to act according to it - one would assume that if it tells the future, then whatever she does will comply with what is in the book. Perhaps the "true future" refers to Subaru's "true path" for Return by Death and Beatrice is acting in the way that will allow that cycle to happen? Iirc it was hinted that Roswaal was aware of Subaru's abilities in the previous episodes, which could have to do with that and the question he wants Subaru to ask Beatrice (maybe confirming that he is the person spoken about in her book).
One fact that is possibly related to that is that, when Betelgeuse possesses Subaru and Return by Death is invoked, Satella says that he is not the one before seemingly kicking him out of Subaru's body. Based on that, it could be assumed that the "person" Roswaal wants Subaru to confirm his being to Beatrice is the same person that Satella was looking for.
The fact that the Witch Cult's gospels are "defective" is also interesting. Initially I thought that maybe Satella was hiding Subaru's existence from the Witch Cult's gospels, but perhaps the future predicted in those gospels isn't the "true future" and thus doesn't include Subaru. If the gospels come from Satella and she stole the other witches' powers (not sure if this is something that's actually mentioned/confirmed in canon but it's at least a theory I've seen thrown around based on the fact that she's the witch of envy and thus might have killed them for their powers out of envy (though again I'm not sure that's the full story here)), that might indicate that her copies of those powers aren't perfect. If that is the case and the mabeasts were also created by her, then perhaps it is possible that the mabeasts are defective versions whatever beasts Daphne made. Echidna says that Satella used the other witches as "sustenance", which doesn't immediately imply that she took their powers but it could be in reference to those powers keeping her alive even as she alienated the rest of the world.
One thing that would support the idea that Satella is able to copy the other witches' powers is the archbishops' Authorities. Betelgeuse's Authority of Sloth, as its name implies, seems to be a power derived from the witch of sloth and yet is frequently shown as a representation of Satella. Puck also says that Satella had a significantly greater mastery over the power than Betelgeuse, being able to summon thousands of unseen hands at once. Though it is possible that this was a power originally belonging to Satella, I think it is more likely that it was first Sekhmet's. The colour of the unseen hands matches her silhouette in the Echidna scene exactly, and while Satella is usually only seen through the hands, her body in the scene where Betelgeuse possesses Subaru is paler than them. What I assume is Satella's unseen hand also dissipates in the OP as the glowing body of someone who is possibly Satella moves in to embrace him and, while it is not the exact same colour as Satella when she rejects Betelgeuse, they are both a pale shade of purple (the colour and eyes in the Betelgeuse seem more reminiscent of Daphne but that wouldn't really make any sense).
Assuming that the Witch Cult solely worships Satella (seeing as the Archbishop of Sloth seemed devoted only to her), then it would be reasonable to believe that Lye and Regulus both got their Authorities the same way (borrowing from or being gifted by Satella with powers taken from their associated witches). The Authority of Gluttony makes sense with the whole eating thing, and I guess the unseen hands are slothful in that they do stuff for you so you don't have to move, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see how Regulus' power relates to greed. If the archbishops were given their powers by Satella, though, it seems strange for her to then reject Betelgeuse and effectively sentence him to death.
If Satella is capable of giving other people the taken powers and is also the creator of the mabeasts, then it stands to reason that the white whale (referred to by Puck as Gluttony) was born of a combination of these processes. However, I'm not sure that every sin/power/witch has an associated mabeast, as Lye referred to the whale as "our" (his and Regulus') pet and Betelgeuse didn't seem to have one (though it is possible that Sloth and Greed mabeasts do exist and are simply not under the care/oversight/ownership of the Witch Cult).
I think there's a good possibility that the horned rabbits in episode eight are similar to the white whale due to their shared albinism and markings (could be that the others are all duplicates or that the power is distributed across all of them), although I am unsure which sin they would represent. My immediate ideas would be either wrath due to their brutal voraciousness or lust due to rabbits' and their ability to multiply, though it's also possible that they represent greed (their dismembering of Subaru sort of reminded me of how Regulus was able to cut off Crusch's arm from afar and they could also be seen as greedy in constantly wanting more).
Okay so just as I was finishing this and getting ready to submit I realized that all the witches are shown in the poster on the sidebar and I now feel like an idiot for freeze-framing for who knows how long trying to get clear screenshots of each witch.
Looking at the poster, I don’t think it really changes much but there are a few interesting things to note. Most of the characters are shown with similar emotions to the opening – Carmilla looks dejected rather than crying and Typhon looks even more excited, but rather than angry Minerva is tearing up. While this may very well be nothing more than a coincidence, Beatrice is shown close by within the crystal looking similarly distraught and facing almost the same direction in what could be an intentional visual parallel. Sekhmet looks like she might be wearing less makeup, though that may just be a result of the angle and lighting. Echidna appears physically to be the oldest of the witches, though this is anime so who knows.
Perhaps more importantly, though most of her face is obscured by shadows, someone who, based on appearance and the fact that the other six characters at the top of the poster are the other witches, is likely Satella can be seen. From what little we can see, Satella resembles Emilia almost exactly besides a change in clothing (though this is unlikely to actually be a depiction of Emilia as she is already further down on the poster). There is very little information we can obtain from this, but as I was ruminating over this I realized that Satella might be the only non-human witch out of the seven. While we can’t see Sekhmet, Typhon, or Carmilla’s ears, Minerva, Echidna, and Daphne do not have pointed ears and none of them (except maybe Daphne if she does have special eyes) appear to have any obvious indicators of being another species.
In addition to further setting apart Satella as potentially the only half-elf or otherwise non-human witch, it puts the identity/nature of Beatrice’s “mother” into question as she is a spirit rather than a human. While we don’t yet know enough about spirits or witches to properly judge, it might also be possible that Minerva isn’t her biological mother but rather some other close individual (perhaps similarly to Puck and Emilia’s “father-daughter” relationship? If Minerva was a spirit arts user of some sort, perhaps she helped Beatrice become a greater spirit from a lesser one.
I am now realizing that I have spent several hours writing this and that I should really get going – sorry for the giant wall of text if anybody actually read through all of that, just wanted to get some ideas out there.
Her book seems much more in line with Echidna, what with it being the closest thing to the "Tome of Wisdom". Perhaps the Tome is Echidna's own copy (Echidna wants to learn all the knowledge in the world, perhaps the tome of wisdom contains all there is to know? If you were omniscient then you would probably also be able to predict the future as you'd be aware of every single factor involved and how they'd interact) and the "gospels" are WIP/inferior copies, or perhaps they were Echidna's attempts at making a Tome of Wisdom. If they did belong to Echidna and she and Minerva were close, then it would make sense for Minerva to have receieved one and subsequently given it to her daughter (thus explaining why Beatrice is doing this for her mother). The whereabouts of the other copy are another mystery, but this could also help to explain Beatrice's connection to the Mathers family, as they are the caretakers of Echidna's grave and as far as we know not Minerva's.
The leprechaun loved challenging the visitors, tempting them with the promise of a pot of gold hidden within the tree house. Many had tried and failed, but a lucky few had managed to crack the riddle and witness the wonders inside. Once inside, visitors would find themselves immersed in a world of magic. The walls sparkled with a mesmerizing glow, the shelves were lined with ancient spellbooks, and the furniture seemed to come to life with every step. The leprechaun had spent years collecting these magical artifacts, ensuring that each corner of the tree house carried an air of mystique. The leprechaun, known as Seamus, loved to play tricks on visitors, often disappearing and reappearing in different corners of the tree house. He would leave behind trails of glitter and golden dust, adding to the sense of wonder and magic. Seamus had an infectious laugh that filled the tree house, spreading joy to all who encountered him. Apart from his mischievous nature, Seamus also had a gentle heart. He would offer visitors a cup of his special leprechaun tea, brewed from the leaves of the surrounding forest. This tea had a magical healing property, soothing any ailments or sorrows the visitors carried with them. The tree house was not just a home to Seamus; it served as a sanctuary for those seeking solace and wonder. It was a place where dreams came alive and imagination ran wild. Visitors would leave with a renewed sense of magic and a twinkle in their eye. In the end, the magical tree house leprechaun was a symbol of joy, enchantment, and the endless possibilities that lie within the realms of imagination. It reminded those who entered that sometimes, all it takes is a bit of magic to transform the ordinary into something extraordinary..
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