You have to read my theory.

!A theory about the true nature of the Re:Zero world and the huge secret behind Reinhard's POV from the moon.

Hey everyone, I want to share an original theory I came up with after watching the Re:Zero anime. This theory is based on a logical contradiction that I think is really interesting between the official world map and one of Tappei Nagatsuki's Q&A answers.

The first fact: officially, the Re:Zero world map really is shown as flat, complete with the Great Waterfall at its border. That's common knowledge for all of us.

The second fact, and the contradiction: in a Q&A session, when a fan asked, "What did Reinhard see when Regulus sent him flying to the moon in Season 3?", Tappei refused to answer and made it clear that it was a huge spoiler for the ending of the story.

A. What did Reinhard see from the moon?

Let's use simple logic. When someone gets thrown to the moon and then looks back down toward where he came from, what's the biggest object and the one that would obviously take up most of his view? The answer would obviously be the shape of the world itself.

Because this was locked behind a huge spoiler, what Reinhard saw from outer space probably wasn't just an ordinary flat world, but the hidden reality.

My theory is this: the true form of the Re:Zero world is still a round planet, the **Original World**, but its surface was completely destroyed by Satella's rampage 400 years ago. Meanwhile, the flat-shaped land that Subaru lives on right now, the **Flat World**, is actually just a massive floating island that was deliberately isolated and left hovering above the ruined surface of the **Original World**.

B. How has the isolation system stayed active for 400 years?

Hearing a theory about a massive floating island, you're probably immediately gonna ask: how could there possibly be a force that keeps an island that huge floating, stable, and covered in illusion for hundreds of years so the surface of the **Original World** below can't be seen?

I think there are two connected possibilities.

1. A system of magic, illusion, and a catalyst.

To answer that, we have to go back to an important lesson from Season 2, the Sanctuary arc. There, we were shown how Sanctuary's protective barrier could stay active for hundreds of years because it had a catalyst, Ryuzu Meyer's body.

Okay, so from that, we know we'd need a catalyst. But who was used as the catalyst for the magic holding up this **Flat World**? My answer is Typhon, the Witch of Pride. In the Season 3 anime, a Priestella official named Kiritaka straight up says that the witch's corpse at the bottom of Priestella's lake can't be moved, because if it is, Priestella will collapse.

Now, my line of thinking goes like this: if the power of Typhon's corpse is enough to keep Priestella from falling apart, then isn't it possible that its real effect is much bigger and actually extends to the stability of the entire **Flat World**?

There are a few supporting oddities: a. Visually, Typhon's corpse looks wedged into a strange ancient structure at the bottom of the lake, almost like she was literally planted there as part of the core magic system. b. If we look at Priestella's shape from above, the city's architecture forms a perfectly symmetrical circle, kind of like a giant circuit or magic circle. c. Imagine if this world's isolation or barrier is a giant sphere surrounding that floating island. Geometrically, the most efficient place for a catalyst supporting a sphere-shaped barrier would be right at its center so the energy can be distributed evenly in every direction. And if you look at the map, Priestella really does sit in the central region, or middle area, of the **Flat World**.

This system probably also includes illusion magic on a global scale so the ruined surface of the **Original World** below can't be seen when someone looks out from the edge of the **Flat World**. Illusion magic itself is already a very normal thing in Re:Zero.

This also connects to the anime scene where the Priestella official gets killed under mysterious circumstances. Capella even suspects Aldebaran, Al, of being the one who did it. From Capella's suspicion, I started thinking that Al really was the killer and that he has his own agenda that isn't part of the Witch Cult's. Al seems to know the huge secret about Typhon's corpse as the core support of the **Flat World**. He killed the official because he saw him as a risk, someone who might leak the information, since he knows that if this core is damaged, the **Flat World** could collapse and fall onto the planet, the **Original World**, below.

2. The Pride Witch Factor.

Again, the only Witch Factor whose location is still unknown right now is the Pride Witch Factor, and Typhon was its original holder. That makes the first and second points connect even more strongly.

It's possible that back then, Flugel's group, together with the other witches including Typhon, had some huge plan to save what was left of civilization. The reason the Pride Witch Factor seems to have disappeared may be that it's still active inside Typhon's corpse at the bottom of Priestella's lake as the main power source supporting this Flat World.

C. The mystery of the water cycle at the Great Waterfall.

Once we understand that this **Flat World** is a floating island powered by a core magic system, we can answer the biggest geographical mystery: where does the water that pours into the abyss at the edge of the world go?

Logically, if this **Flat World** is floating above a planet, the **Original World**, that water would never make it all the way down. It'd get pulled back by the ancient magic system before falling too far, then drawn in and pumped back up to the surface of the **Flat World**. One possible route might be through the Grand Mogolade Geyser, which blasts the water back out like rain. The result is a closed, artificial cycle where the water keeps moving around.

D. Final conclusion: the true meaning of "Starting Life from Zero."

So when Reinhard got sent to the moon, he left the isolated zone of the **Flat World** and saw the truth: their original round world had already been devastated 400 years ago.

And that's where the title, "Re:Zero - Starting Life from Zero," might find its deepest meaning. By the end, this **Flat World** might collapse, fall, and merge back with the ruined surface of the **Original World**. Everyone who survives would have to come together and rebuild a new civilization truly from zero on the ruins of their original planet.

Just a quick note at the end: I mostly follow the anime myself. I do know a few things about the side stories and the WN/LN, but I'm not some expert who remembers every tiny detail. So if there's any point here that turns out different from the original source, please go easy on me. And by the way, this is my first post on Reddit, so nice to meet all of you.

What do you guys think? Does the logic hold up, or is it too wild? Let's talk about it!!<