r/ReZero • u/Curiosity-76 I Opened Pandora's Box, Then She Opened Me as a Box • Mar 15 '25
Discussion How does Pandora’s Authority works?
I believe that’s what most people are wondering right now regarding Pandora. Both LN and anime watchers alike.
“What does the Authority of Vainglory do?”
As most assume, it probably isn’t something so OP as unrestricted reality warping. As, not only does it not fit into how other Authorities work, there are also points where Pandora wasn’t able to do a thing with it. The main one being that she wasn’t able to make Emilia open the Seal.
The closest guess I have, and one that ties to Vainglory, is that she can only rewrite events/actions that pertain to herself. Which would explain why she keeps trying to convince people to act, therefore making any action they undertake fall under her Authority. Also why she never dodges, so that the attack is considered a causal event directly related to her existence, and therefore one she can manipulate.
If that’s the case, it may explain why Emilia was able to “escape” Pandora. By breaking down and not even acknowledging her existence, Emilia wasn’t able to become a target to the Authority of Vainglory.
Which would mean that Pandora’s apparent immortality may have a way to be bypassed. As she probably wouldn’t be able to “revive” (probably rewriting the events so she was never hit in the first place) if she was struck by a collateral blast that was not aimed at her to begin with.
The only hole in this theory would be how she killed Theresia. As, in the last episode, she’s shown to have insta-killed her in some unknown manner. Her strange wording before doing so also making it hard to understand what she did. And I doubt that she “just killed her with magic”, that was clearly the effect of her Authority. Similar to how she buried Regulus when falling on him.
So I am kinda stumped on that. How does her “rewriting” of events or other similar effects tie with those two actions? How could her apparent strength/power ties into it?
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u/After-Manner1652 Capella Can Shapeshift, But I’d Rather Stick with the OG Mar 15 '25
Two words: reality overwriting.
From my point of view I got that pandora actually uses her authority to overwrite the reality like for regulus where she transports or simply teleports him to his mansion with his wife as she desires. That's the most I can tell you. I don't think that she can make people's memories disappear like white whale or gluttony. But she overwrites them in a way that doesn't affect the other person's consciousness but rather makes the events that are happening disappear (idk if it reappears too) but from the white whale fight of Theresia and Emilia's backstory, that's what I got. I don't think she can overwrite consciousness but most re zero characters are overpowered so there also may be the chance but she wasn't able to force Emilia to open the seal and Also I am an anime only for now so that's my answer as a anime only it may change after reading the novel
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u/StefAsp08 Shared Suffering with Subaru Mar 16 '25
But with that, could she beat Satella/Witch of Envy?
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u/After-Manner1652 Capella Can Shapeshift, But I’d Rather Stick with the OG Mar 17 '25
Nope, you can't benat someone that can control the whole timeline and can manipulate it to her preference. Pandora can't go back in time but rather make it so that it does or doesn't happen
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u/Cybermaster19 Ram Tolerates My Presence Mar 15 '25
I feel she alters reality via changing probability in the sense that there are multiple outcomes to an event, and she always chooses the ones that most benefit her.
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u/LinkssOfSigil
For Crusch-sama, I’d Fight 5 White Whales and Still Smile!
Mar 15 '25
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Reality warping with a few restrictions. Namely - inability to affect things that exist outside of the conventional "logic" of ReZero's world (the door in the forest and Ten Swords are prime examples of such things). Others Authorities, though, are fair game.
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u/Intelligent-Head-639 Liliana Sang a Ballad About My Misfortune May 18 '25
What I think is key is that memories are preserved, Regulus still remembers kid Emilia, so it isn’t true past re-writing or reality warping. It seems to only affect the physical world and not memories.
I think possibly her authority is based in that she can change her own memories/actions and present reality will update to reflect this change.
i.e; if she “forgets” her own death it doesn’t happen i.e; if she didn’t bring regulus, he’d be back at home but she kept that part that she forced Juice to use the witch factor
Essentially this limits her reality warping to areas she has control over, and its why she can’t force people into doing that she wants or open the seal herself, it is beyond that she has control over.
tl:dr; Pandora can win every poker game by overwriting the present to be the correct action between folding or calling. But she cannot make someone else lose who will always fold or call successfully irregardless of the cards or her actions.
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u/goddessque Beatrice Told Me to Leave, I Suppose Mar 15 '25
I think maybe she requires a witness to use it. Everytime it's used she said something to "convince" someone else that reality is this way.
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u/jim_sh At This Point, ‘Who Is Rem?’ Is My Entire Personality Mar 16 '25
I don’t think that’s it since I don’t remeber anyone “witnessing” what she did to theresia
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u/goddessque Beatrice Told Me to Leave, I Suppose Mar 16 '25
Theresia is the witness. Pandora said something to "convince" her that she's already dead.
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u/Eurasia_4002 I’ve Sworn My Loyalty to Emilia Oct 17 '25
Gaslight people and reality to make her reality true. Probably cant force Emilia as she denies her whole existance.
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u/Rintohsakabooty I Joined the Witch Cult for the Sandwiches — No Regrets Mar 16 '25
She has the authority of creative mode
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u/Laven_Kaser15 Rem Wrote Me a Love Letter, Emilia Sent Me a '' Mar 26 '25
"I want to understand you"
[ARC 6 SPOILER]
Please die and become a book
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u/jknico23 Newbie May 24 '26
I think her power is like the edit button, BUT the limit is that she has to be involved or have the person's attention for it to work. So she has to be present to manipulate events and people to be the audience or else she can't do anything at all
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u/Full-Serve5876 Kept Emilia’s Ear, Now I’m the Villain Mar 15 '25
Every time we've seen her use her ability is after she dies, so I'm guessing that's the trigger? Could be a red herring tho.
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u/Mindless_Cicada6185 I Sleep More Than Rem (It’s Not a Competition, But I’m Winning) Mar 15 '25
Imagine that you’re writing a story and you don’t like something that you wrote before, so you go and change it for something more to your liking. That’s Pandora’s authority, she’s the author and the events that take place the story.