Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-34160983-20180102034807

Beatrice is a bit of a tragic figure. Alone for four centuries in the Archive, waiting for a Certain Someone (or They). She was given a Gospel to give her guidance, but when we readers get to see its contents, it is a book of blank pages. This is not the fullness of the tragedy though.

Echidna, while not necessarily moral, never struck me as truly, willfully cruel. Not cruel enough to give someone who regards her as Mother with a book of guidance that never provides guidance. My theory is that, Beatrice’s Gospel was never hers to begin with. It was Subaru’s.

Consider that Subaru has been there for 400 years, and that his Memory and Name were consumed. If the Gospel were his, then its Writ, relating directly to him, would do just what the words Rem wrote on the letter did: the words vanished. Four centuries of writ, gone like that. Being told to “Wait in the Archive for Subaru” became “Wait in the Archive for Someone”. Having Subaru entrust the Gospel to her (because, as a Sage, he had to choose his path rather then have it be chosen for him), became having Echidna (the next most logical choice for Memory of World to fill in the gap) give her the Gospel. And four centuries of travelling the world with Subaru as he sought a way to free Satella from Envy became a memory of four centuries alone in the Archive, because without Someone to take her from the Archive, Memory of World filled the gap with the next most logical conclusion: 400 years alone with no memory of the outside.

Subaru’s uncanny ability to find the archive is also expained here. It’s his Archive. The Archive (a pocket dimension created by Beatrice) is outside Memory of World, and is still able to recognize Subaru. Subaru, bereft of his Existence, is not fully able to claim that ownership though, so the Archive still recognizes Beatrice’s authority as well. 