[Zolda]

It seems like Minato Neuralyzes all Muggles and erases himself out of their memories. The only people who remember his tenure (and thus, existence) as a teacher in Houtarou's school are Houtarou and the other expelled AA students (Rinne, Sabimaru, Renge) who were supposed to be Neuralyzed in episode 17. Minato behaves strangely cordial around Glion. Has he been Glion's spy/double agent/conspirator all this time? But in episode 17 he didn't seem to recognize Glion.

Glion addresses The Sisters as his beloved dolls, probably derisively, which makes Lachesis visibly irritated, and tells them that their jobs are strictly collecting Chemies. It seems like he views The Sisters and his other homunculi as merely his toys (hence why the blank slates that he created them from do look like dolls), tools, or even slaves. He views them as mere objects for his experiments.

Renge and Sabimaru decide that their dreams as alchemists are over. Why are they kidnapped too, along with Rinne later, like the 4 people in episode 17?

GD casually gives his Gotchar Igniter to Houtarou, but his offer's declined by Houtarou who decides that he will grasp his future with his own hands. Houtarou decides that he's gonna create his own Gotchar Igniter. GD states that it can be created by accessing the past with Timelord's ability and transmuting some kind of a treasured artifact that Houtarou created in the past using alchemy. Soooo... Houtarou was already familiar with alchemy in the past. This statement also implies that GD knows that Houtarou's memories has been tampered and he knows everything that actually happened in Houtarou's past. And if Houtarou can access the past with Timelord's ability, then does it mean that it's also what gave GD the ability to travel from the future to the present time?

GD states @ 08:10 that Houtarou must never come into contact with his past self at all cost, probably because that will result in him being annihilated from existence. This statement also implies that the reason why GD has never been shown untransformed onscreen is exactly because he is Houtarou from the future, probably an alternate future like I elaborated here. This self-annihilation that's caused by physical contact between a person and his past self is a common trope in stories featuring time travel like Tenet (2020) or Timecop (1994). The reasoning is very probably because two identical atoms can exist at the same time, but not at the same time and at the same space. If this hypothesis is true, then GD is probably not a Houtarou from an alternate future, but the future Houtarou from the same timeline as the present Houtarou. If this is true, then Houtarou's world is a single timeline reality, not a multiversal reality with infinite branches. But as Robert Pattinson's character (Neil) stated in Tenet, "In a parallel worlds theory, we can't know the relationship between consciousness and multiple realities", this single timeline trope may have a very high chance of creating a multitude of interpretations, haha.

Timelord takes Houtarou back 10 years to the past, but they end up in the strange, surreal world of Ouroboros. There he sees himself as a kid (kid Houtarou/KH) playing with Hopper1, Steamliner, and 24 other Chemies in RCC forms. This scene is basically a plug ad for DX Action Chemie toys, haha. As I hypothesized here and here, Houtarou was already very familiar with Chemies (and probably also alchemy) in the past. This reveal makes Houtarou wonder how he forgot his friendship with Chemies. In this scene, KH mentions his father and draws in the sand an object he always wore: A pair of goggles, that looks like aviator goggles, very probably signifying his passion as an adventurer, like mentioned by KH several moments later. The goggle drawing in the sand that KH drew then transforms into an actual goggle, which shows that Houtarou had had some alchemical skills in the past. How is KH able to do alchemical tricks if he doesn't wear a Ring? Or is it just because KH is in the Ouroboros world? How the heck did KH get stranded in the Ouroboros world in the first place? Houtarou realizes that the treasured artifact mentioned by GD is actually the goggles that was just created by KH.

I hypothesized last week here that the past accessed by Timelord's ability was just a passive, non-interactive "recordings" of the past, but as this episode shows it turns out that I was wrong. Timelord's ability can take someone to the actual past. GD warns Houtarou to never physically contact KH, but they touch @ 10:05, and it only causes Timelord to be strained/injured and makes him and Houtarou unable to stay in the past for too long. I thought that it would cause a self-annihilation or some kind of negative effect. Come on Mr. Kamen Writers, I've prepared for something gruesome like in Timecop, haha. Or probably the negative effect will show up in later episodes?

In the scene @ 10:41 Houtarou and KH encounter the past version of Glion and The Sisters. As I hypothesized here, the colors of Glion's Ring is the same as Fuga's (red gem with golden shank), so they're very probably equal in skills. Glion mentions that the Ouroboros is Fuga's chosen place of research. Does this mean that Fuga was the one who discovered the Ouroboros world, and Glion attempted to conquer it as well? Glion then (conveniently, haha) finds the schematics of the Gotchardriver (or probably its predecessor), and concludes that it's the key to open the door of darkness. Glion claims that the door of darkness can bring true chemistry to the world, which very probably means the ability to control and manipulate all aspects of reality.

Fuga then appears and fights Glion who reveals that it was him who tampered with AU's top brasses' memories, thus framing Fuga as a traitor. What exactly was Glion's position in the AU that he was able to tamper with AU's top brasses' memories? What exactly was Fuga's position in the AU that he was unable to defend himself when Glion defamed him in front of the whole AU? And what's the connection between Glion framing Fuga and the fated event a decade ago? It seems like Glion still needs an object/tool to channel his alchemy power, while Fuga could channel his power with only his bare hands. Glion's golden Rubik cube is his new tool to replace his old one which was destroyed by Fuga. So, Glion's skill was slightly lower than Fuga's. It's also shown that it was actually Fuga who erased Houtarou's memories of Chemies. But was it also him who manipulated all of Houtarou's memories of the past? After all, the truth about Houtarou's dad is still a big mystery.

GD reveals that in his timeline, in 5 years Glion will control and ruin half of the world. His world does look like a post-apocalyptic world, like the world where Future Trunks from DBZ came from. GD is surprised when he sees that the form (Fire Gotchard) that's granted when Houtarou uses the Gotchar Igniter is different from his, and concludes that Houtarou has created a new future. Soooo, this scene (and the ones @ 20:33 and @ 21:01) pretty much confirms that GD is indeed a Houtarou that came from an alternate future. Dang, this makes me keep revising my hypothesis, haha. This smells like a potential material for side stories that focuses on GD's back story. It seems like Fire Gotchard has the ability to destroy Glion's custom/golden Malgam's blank slate/core body, similar to KR Drive that can destroy Viral Cores and KR OOO Putotyra Combo that can destroy Core Medals. And, if Fire Gotchard uses fire, will there be other forms that use 4 other classical elements of alchemy (water, air, earth, and aether/the fifth element)? Oh, and a very nice insert song from Rider Chips. Still not a fan of Fire Gotchard's design, haha.

Spanner (and Kyouka) are absent in this episode, probably to build up momentum for his big debut as KR Valvarad. I'm curious as to how he or Kyouka will obtain another Gotchar Igniter.

Next week:

It looks like Spanner and Kyouka are still absent in episode 19. Minato will finally begin his maneuvers. Who exactly is he? Rinne's back story will also be expanded. It seems like she was quite a loner girl until recently. This episode will also be her proper debut as KR Majade. Atropos will resume her business as usual: Mentally torturing Rinne, haha.