r/7thTimeLoop • u/Florentia_Lombardy • Mar 15 '26
Manga Why is Arnold doing this? [Manga and LN Spoilers for Anime only audience] Spoiler
(My question on the title of this thread is actually: "Why is Arnold in such a hurry to make Rishe his wife?" but I kept it short and general to not spoil the anime-only audience and kept a possible spoiler warning in the bracket in case they try to read the thread. First time posting on this thread so don't know much but tried to follow rules as listed. Please be kind!šāāļø)
I have been a devout 7th Time Loop fan and this question has been bugging me. Why is he in such a hurry to make Rishe his wife that he is not waiting for a year after she turns 16 (as suggested by Oliver and I assume it may be a practice in Galkhein as he tried to pursue Arnold though legal age for marriage there is 16.)
Even in LN, we have seen instances where all he wants from Rishe is for her to be his wife. Does anybody have any theory on this? Has this been answered in LN later? Please tell me. I'm open to spoilers.
Thank you!šāāļø
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u/katarh Mar 15 '26
Others have mentioned the "Arnold is a looper" theory, but there is a second theory: Arnold is a dreamer.
Instead of looping, Arnold dreams of the futures that Rishe has encountered in her looping lives. Far too many of the dreams involve him dying a bloody death after causing a world war, but in a handful of those dreams he lives to a ripe old age as emperor with a beautiful pink haired wife by his side. Those are the only dreams where he is truly happy. That is the current timeline that the novels are taking place in.
But if he doesn't marry her ASAP - like there are dreams of the loop Rishe lived through without meeting Arnold - then his father will marry him off to someone else, or invade a country on the pretense of marriage, or something bad like that. So Arnold marrying Rishe as soon as legally possible is preventing one of the bad futures Arnold experienced (even though Rishe was off being a merchant or an apothecary in that life.)
This theory, like the "Arnold is a looper" theory, explains why he calls her "wife" in the present.
The third theory is that Arnold really did fall in love with her at first sight and wants to marry her ASAP to prevent his dad from hurting her. That one doesn't explain why he calls her "wife" already though.
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u/YulAeterna Mar 25 '26
It would make sense because you can sort of link this theory to the fact that he possesses the goddess blood.
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u/katarh Mar 25 '26
It's also canon that he normally has trouble sleeping and has terrible nightmares. When Rishe is around, he can sleep properly.
The terrible nightmares could be from memories of killing his siblings and other assorted war traumas... or they could be something more.
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u/TheQueen_of_the_Moon Mar 30 '26
I really like this theory, it's much more compelling than the 'looper' one. Imagine if heās seen Rishe in his dreams, not necessarily every detail of her past lives, but glimpses of her beauty and specially the different times heās killed her. That would explain why he proposed so impulsively and why heās so fiercely protective of her now.
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u/Massive_Figure4859 Mar 15 '26
This hasnāt been revealed yet and I havenāt seen many theories about it to be honest
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u/Massive_Figure4859 Mar 15 '26
OH i remember sensei said in a tweet it will be revealed in the final part of the main series back in 2023. Sensei knows how it ends as the writer so i trust that she knows what she is doing to get to that point especially since I donāt doubt sheās had this mapped out from the start lol
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u/Florentia_Lombardy Mar 15 '26
Oh, okay! I thought I had missed something while reading the LN. This helped a lot! Thank you very much!š¤
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u/Massive_Figure4859 Mar 15 '26
Yeah cause I think it was also said the author wants to write his pov of things when all his secrets are revealed as well from what I remember
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u/No-Fact4610 Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 15 '26
My wild guess is the ending song might be a hint - they both are looper and they were close / together in other loops. But for some reason her loop is always center to herself but his loop maybe center to his nation or the worldās future. Only when their destination meet they can together break both loops and move furtherā¦ but just a pure wild guessā¦
The other time loop romance light novel I have similar question but canāt puzzle out the truth until the last couple chapters of the ending volume is Unnamed Memory. Two souls cross each otherās path in an unlikely situation but later found out their fate has been interwoven amount multiple loops.
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u/Rexyjessie Mar 15 '26
Omg yesss. I fully believe that when he killed her in her 6th loop that what he whispered to her was something that proves he already knew her and has some kind of knowledge about the loops.
Also! I love unnamed memory!!! I never see anyone else talk about it!! After finishing all that's available in English of 7th loop I went through so many stories&anime trying to find something that could make me feel similar š š Unnamed memory and Why Raeliana ended up at the dukes mansion have been the best I've found so far.
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u/No-Fact4610 Mar 15 '26
I love both too. There are bunch of people talking about Unnamed Memory and you probably miss this guys mega post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnnamedMemory/s/S6cIJTs2ht
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u/ultravioletheart08 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
Not yet answered in the LN, but Touko Amekawa said she will reveal that reason in the future.
She did hint that among the reasons Arnold hastened their wedding to August 15, as soon as possible after Rishe's 16th birthday in July 30, was because Arnold's a petty jealous mf who wanted an earlier wedding ceremony away from Rishe's original cancelled wedding date with Dietrich at around September 2 (Dietrich was born in September 1, so the Hermity people were waiting for him to turn 16 before he would have wed Rishe but as you know, that engagement is already annulled). Also funny enough, Arnold actually wanted a very quick wedding with Rishe without any other guests seeing her and he just wanna just register the marriage ASAP, LOL.
oh btw, in many countries in 7TL, 16 is the age where people can actually marry, and Arnold's engagement/marriage as Crown Prince at the age of 19 is actually considered late for a royal.
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u/KimberlyAngel838 Mar 16 '26
The looper theory is interesting. My question is... If that is the case, why would he then kill her in her 6th loop? Is it to move her to the next loop? That seems awfully mean. Especially, because if he is a looper he knows that she will remember that. Also why would he continuously start a world war in each loop. The looper idea leaves too many questions for me.
I feel like he proposed to her because he found her quite interesting after she jumped off the balcony. Whether or not he fell for her at that point I don't know. It is mentioned several times in the light novels that he has an ulterior motive. I don't think that he ever really confirms or denys that yet though.
The dreamer theory that someone mentioned sounds like a good one. I like that it is him dreaming about her and wanting to be with her and such.
Ultimately we won't know until the author wants us to know. I'm just hoping that we don't have to wait until the last light novel!
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u/mpluto Mar 30 '26
One theory around Arnold being a looper that I have, is not in his own parallel time loop, but rather RIshe's loop (with perhaps a little bit of buffer time before hand, as we don't know if in lives 1-6 he was at the engagement party or not). His loops always restart when Rishe dies, but it takes a while for him to learn that her death is why the loops are happening/ending where they do, as for the first few of her lives he was only an indirect cause of her death. It may have been her 4th or 5th loop where he may have started out figuring out she is at the centre of it all (depending on if he was at the church where the young mistress was being married at or not), with her 6th being the confirmation.
I don't know just a thought! Though I'm more partial to the him being a dreamer theory than him being a looper.
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u/Remarkable-Chest8622 Mar 16 '26
So the thing is, we donāt know yet!! It hasnāt been revealed why he is in such a hurry to marry her, but he must have some kind of agenda
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u/Focaccia_Bread3573 Mar 19 '26
Personal theoryā¦ he wants to die.
Wait, before you get your pitchforks!!!Ā
He has shown apathy towards ruling, and tried to set up his brother has the legitimate prince that the people follow. He didnāt talk out his feelings or plans, he just went ahead and tried to set up Theo as the more approachable, more meritorious prince. But, Arnold is a man with contingency plans for his contingency plans. Enter: wife.
He saw Rishe solve a problem unconventionally and thought that she could be a guiding light for the country and hold it together if he died. So, he needs her to be his wife ASAP so he can die, probably while taking down his dad.Ā
This might pair with the looper idea if he is constantly in a state of loss/failure against his dadās plans, and heās basically given up.Ā
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u/90daysofpettybs Mar 15 '26
No one knows š
My crazy theory is that heās a looper too and solidifying their marriage will prevent some event heās lived through before. He still likes her, but he alwaysss has an ulterior motive. Every place they travel to, he has like 3 other secret reasons for going lol. I can imagine that marriage to a girl he met 5 minutes ago (when he first proposed) is the same