The way I see it, Okabe and Kurisu's relationship is the heart of S;G. There are other important relationships in S;G (Okabe and Mayuri's relationship in particular), but no other relationship seems to be as intertwined with the entire structure of the story. Okabe and Kurisu meet in the prologue, they fall in love over the course of the story, the climax is Okabe saving Kurisu's life, and the very last scene is them reuniting.
I'm not trying to tell people they can only ship Okakuri in S;G. It goes without saying that you can ship whatever you want. You don't even have to like Okakuri. But maybe donât call the S;G movie âshipping fanserviceâ even though focusing on the relationship between Okabe and Kurisu actually makes a lot of sense.
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What are your general thoughts on Lukaâs gender? Iâm my opinion I canât view Luka as male; she expressed clear discomfort with being born male and it resonates with me as a trans person. I donât see many people acknowledging this though
This is kind of a delicate question, so I hope you donât mind that Iâve placed my answer under a cut. Iâve done my very best to give you a good response, though.
I used to believe pretty exclusivelythat Luka was a boy, but lately I've been more open to the idea ofhim being trans.
I think one of the main things thatthrew me off, and probably throws off others, is that there's acultural gap at work here. Now, I'm nowhere near being an expert oneither Japanese culture or gender identity in general, so thefollowing are just my really vague impressions, and I could becompletely off the mark.
But I get the feeling that there's not much of a concept of transgender people in Japan, at least among youraverage people on the street. According to the Japanese view, someonecan be really masculine or feminine in nature, but what they "really"are depends on what kind of genitals they have.
So naturally, this kind of thinking isgoing to be reflected in their fictional works. Luka is alwaysultimately treated as a boy within the S;G narrative, so naturally alot of fans are going to do the same.
But this cultural gap raises thequestion of, 'If transgender people were more well known (andaccepted) in Japan, would Luka be treated as trans instead?' It seemslike a pretty strong possibility in my mind, but there's no way toprove it one way or the other. Maybe he would still be treated as aboy. So that's why I think viewing Luka as a boy or a girl are bothequally valid approaches. Of course, this is only because Luka is afictional character. If she were a real person, perhaps the bestthing would be to let her know that there is such a thing astransgender people, and let her determine for herself what she is.
So I guess what I'm trying to say isthat I think everyone should try to be more accepting of the wayother people view Luka's gender identity, because it really is morecomplex of an issue than people simply being transphobic (althoughI'm sure there are people who view Luka as a boy because of that, too) or only believing he'strans out of wishful thinking.
Iâve heard people say that they didnât like the true ending of S;G. They say that the fact that Kurisu doesnâtâŚwell, stay dead lessens the emotional impact of the ending. I like the ending just the way it is, but I guess I can kind of understand the sentiment. However, there are some things that definitely donât work if you go with an ending where Kurisu stays dead.
-The whole John Titor aspect. For one thing, the only reason Okabe even got in touch with âTitorâ in the alpha worldlines was because he was bothered by how no one remembered the Titor that appeared in the year 2000. And him getting in touch with Suzuha in alpha is obviously a part of the story you canât really change.
Meaning, Suzuha had to have traveled back in time in the beta worldlines, too (so she could be the John Titor Okabe knew about). And if we go by what the ârealâ John Titor said, then that means WW3 happens in the future of the beta worldlines. SoâŚhow does that work with the ending where Kurisu stays dead? Or are we just supposed to accept that WW3 happens it the worldline Okabe tried so hard to return to, because, hey, thatâs life?
-Secondly, and this is much less important, but without the whole âSteins Gate worldlineâ thing, the reason for the series being called âSteins;Gateâ in the first place gets pretty weak. Itâs just a thing Okabe says sometimesâŚand I donât think he even uses it anymore at the end (in the ending where Kurisu stays dead, that is). Whatâs the point of naming the series after this chuunibyou name Okabe thought up when the whole story is about the death of Okabeâs chuunibyou identity? I guess you could say it would be ironic, but that would feel out-of-place to me.
-Last but not least, Steins;Gate is also a coming-of-age story. Okabe starts out as an innocent child (figuratively speaking, of course) and loses his innocence over the course of the story with all the terrible things he has to go through.
If the story stops here, then the message is pretty much âWell, you were a child, but now you know how much the world sucks.â Which wouldâŚtechnically work, I guess, but I like how S;G goes a step beyond that, with Okabeâs 'Hououin Kyoumaâ identity at first being something born from innocence/ignorance, then the harshness of life strips it away, but in the end Okabe regains this identity despite what heâs been through and uses it as a source of strength. I think thatâs whatâs important, not the fact that Okabe gets an âidealâ ending.
If I do have any problems with the ending, itâs the fact that, as Iâve said elsewhere, Okabeâs character arc is technically incomplete in S;G. But even this I donât really have a problem with, because a) itâs not something they could really fix in S;G itself, and b) S;G0 takes care of it just fine.
Personally, I overall like the true end, but there is one thing about it I dislike, and itâs something that plays into a big issue I have with the VN in general - Okabe has almost no agency through the whole thing. Barring the fucking around at the beginning, he spends the second half of the game following Suzuhaâs plan, and any time he tries to diverge from it and find a way to not have to sacrifice a friend, heâs punished in some way by the world. Then, you get to the true ending, and⌠he does basically nothing to earn it? I mean, donât get me wrong, he totally earns the Steins;Gate worldline by deceiving the world the way he did, and any issues with that plan coming from a different Okabe are solved by Steins;Gate 0 (which in general handles Okabeâs activity/passivity a lot better imo), but even then I just feel like⌠while he earns his *victory* after having been given the chance, I really donât feel like Okabe ever really earns the *chance* to try and save Kurisu? Like, true end is basically indistinguishable from Kurisu end, it just has an extra chapter tacked on after Beta Suzuha calls Okabe in the middle of the credits. She tells him about the Steins Gate worldline without convergence (which, despite Convergence being the closest thing the VN has to a direct antagonist considering that M4 and FB are ultimately sympathetic characters to be rescued from their job, is discovered offscreen with no real fight against convergence to find it shown) and pushes him to get in the time machine. I feel like the true ending would feel better to me if Okabe was even just a little more active about it - if he resolved to keep searching for a way to save Kurisu before Suzuhaâs call came, or something like that - but as is, while the ending itself is amazing, and itâs existence was clearly necessary to complete the stable time loop at the beginning, the stuff that allows it to happen still just kind of feels like a deus ex machine to me.
In terms of agency, S;G doesn't bother me, but I guess I mainly prioritize the main character having to make difficult decisions, which Okabe does have to do in S;G. (Sure, the alternate endings of S;G aren't ideal, but they aren't horrible, either. It also helps that Okabe doesn't really care about the 'greater good.')
...Unless we're working under the assumption that everything had to happen from the beginning because there was "already" another Okabe at the Radio Kaikan in the prologue. In which case... yeah, I don't like that. I can accept causal loops that occur within individual worldlines, but I don't like worldline-crossing loops at all. So much so that I actually invented a way to make it not a loop. But I'd rather not get into that theory right this second.
But anyway, let's talk about the ending. I think you have a good point here. A lot of the ending does just involve stuff getting dumped on Okabe's lap, so to speak. And I think a lot of the reason I'm not bothered more by S;G's ending simply because SG0, well...exists. I never really had the opportunity to chew on S;G's ending by itself because I played SG0 like, less than a week after I finished the first S;G.
So basically, I agree with you that Okabe should have been more active during the ending, especially if we're considering S;G on its own and not taking SG0 into account. That's a criticism I can actually get behind, unlike, 'the ending of S;G is too happy.'
Does physical time travel shift the worldline? I canât seem to figure this out⌠In my layer theory, I assume that it doesnât (except in very rare cases), but S;G actually makes it sound like it it does⌠For example, Alpha Suzuha supposedly came from the 0.000000% worldline, and her coming back in time changed the worldline.
(As for how ALL the Alpha Suzuhas came from 0%, Iâm assuming that her arrival in each worldline is like the arrival of a D-Mail. D-Mails donât just arrive in the first worldline after they are sent; they arrive in ALL the worldlines after they are sent.)
Okay, Iâve returned to my original stance on this, which is that physical time travel doesnât shift the worldline except in very rare cases. I managed to get past my biggest hurdle in sticking to that view, which was not understanding what the 0% worldline was.
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I have a new theory. Namely, that the 0% worldline isn't a worldline that ever actually existed. Or at least, it was never the "active" worldline. I think Okabe just chose it to use it to measure where the other worldlines were because it was convenient. In Beta, he calculated the divergence number of the Steins Gate worldline before he ever actually went there, so it makes sense that he'd be able to measure where other worldlines were.
So the next question is, why would Okabe do that? Why not just base the divergence meter on the worldline he's in right now? Well, the first Alpha worldline we see is 0.571024, so let's use that as an example. Suzuha explains that you'll know you've reached the Beta attractor field if divergence goes over 1%. So how much more does 0.571024 need to reach 1%? It needs  0.428976. So if Okabe had based the divergence meter on 0.571024, then Suzuha would instead explain that you'd know you reached Beta if the meter went over.....0.428976. Pretty unwieldy, isn't it? So my theory is that Okabe calculated where Beta was in relation to his current worldline, and chose a worldline to be 0% based on whichever one would end up putting Beta above 1%, to make things simpler.
And I know Suzuha says she was originally from the 0% worldline, but she also says Okabe is the only one who can notice when the divergence meter changes, so that kind of contradicts that...
Does physical time travel shift the worldline? I can't seem to figure this out... In my layer theory, I assume that it doesn't (except in very rare cases), but S;G actually makes it sound like it it does... For example, Alpha Suzuha supposedly came from the 0.000000% worldline, and her coming back in time changed the worldline.
(As for how ALL the Alpha Suzuhas came from 0%, I'm assuming that her arrival in each worldline is like the arrival of a D-Mail. D-Mails don't just arrive in the first worldline after they are sent; they arrive in ALL the worldlines after they are sent.)
(Minor Steins;Gate 0 spoilers under the cut)
Problems with physical time travel shifting the worldline:
-Sometimes physical time travel clearly does not shift the worldline. For example, Okabe's Reading Steiner doesn't activate after Suzuha goes from 2010 to 1975 in Alpha. So why does it sometimes shift the worldline, and sometimes not?
-Alpha Suzuha's labmem badge. If time travel shifts the worldline, Suzuha must have originally been from a worldline where there was no Suzuha in 2010. Therefore, she shouldn't have a labmem badge with her initial on it.
-In the "first" Alpha worldline, why didn't the labmems send any D-Mails that changed the worldline? In my layer theory, they don't send any significant D-Mails on the first layer because... well, they can't. But in order for Suzuha's time travel to change the worldline, she has to depart from the second layer. So this creates a situation where the labmems could have sent as many D-Mails as they wanted, but they didn't for some reason.
-There would also have to be a "first" Beta worldline with no Suzuha in 2010. But in S;G 0, future Mayuri seems to have knowledge of what happened when Suzuha arrived in 2010
-In S;G 0, there's a part where Okabe knows the future didn't change because Suzuha is still there in 2011. If Suzuha travelling from 2036 is like a D-Mail arriving, then she'll arrive no matter what. Hell, she doesn't even have to be born in that worldline.
Problems with physical time travel NOT shifting the worldline:
-It makes physical time travel kind of meaningless, because you might provide the solution to the problem (the IBN5100), but you probably also caused the problem in the first place (crashing the time machine into the Radio Kaikan).
-In S;G 0, Daru telling Suzuha in his D-Video that he's from a different worldline than the one she left.
-Alpha Suzuha was supposedly originally from the 0.00000% worldline, and her travelling back to 2010 changed the worldline
-Okabe and Suzuha don't meet themselves when they go back to Jul 28 the second time because time travel supposedly shifts the worldline slightly. So if time travel doesn't shift the worldline, why didn't they meet themselves? (Or the two time machines would crash into one another and Suzuha and Okabe would probably die, more like.)
How many times has Okabe time-leaped? Specifically, I want to know how many times he tried to save Mayuri after his conversation with Kurisu in the Radio Kaikan (the one where she mends his lab coat).
In the anime this is an easy question, because itâs exactly 0 times. (Kurisu stops him from time leaping at this part.)
But what about in the original VN? Well, in the S;G VN itself, it isnât clear. However, in S;G 0, Okabe says that he tried to save Mayuri âhundreds of times.â Also, in Annularly-Chained Ouroboros (which is basically a novelization of the original VN), he leaps four-hundred-something times during this part. So letâs just say it was â450â times. We know that Okabe is repeating a span of time about 26 hours long, so that would be 487.5 days total.
In other words, Okabe would have watched Mayuri die almost every day for about 1.3 years.
Why S;G - The Committee of Antimatter could have been good
 Now, Iâm not saying it definitely would have been good. It was never released, so obviously, I wouldnât know whether it was good or not. Maybe it would have sucked. But I think the idea itself had potential. Hereâs why:
-Normally when a story ends with two characters in love, you can just sort of assume that they ended up together afterwards. But things are a bit more complicated with Okabe and Kurisu because they live in completely different countries (different continents, even), and neither of them is really in a position where they can just pack up and move to the otherâs country. So it would be nice to see this be resolved somehow.
-Iâve always been curious about Okabeâs relationship with his Hououin Kyouma persona in the SG worldline. He still seems to use the persona, but we donât really know how he feels about it. For example, is it easy or hard for him to keep up the act? We have the OVA and movie but a) in those we donât get inside his head the same way we do in the VN, and b) weâre not even certain that theyâre canon.
-When you think about it, it seems kind of odd that Okabe would want to form/join a resistance against the Committee of 300. For example, with Tennouji and Moeka, he seems to just want to let the sleeping dogs lie. He was finally able to save both Mayuri and Kurisu, so itâs hard for me to imagine him getting involved unless there was some concrete threat to someone he cared about. So maybe Antimatter could have showed us how he became involved.
-It could show us where the characters were at between S;G and Robotics;Notes. As it is now, weâre just going to suddenly see (or hear about) where they are ten years later in R;N DaSH, with nothing in between. In that situation, itâs easy to fall into the trap of either changing the characters too much, or not changing them enough (I would say that the latter is more common, though).
-It could potentially tie up loose ends from S;G and S;G 0. Of course, 0 wasnât out at the time, but the Epigraph trilogy, which 0 was based on, was out, so the loose ends still could have been tied up. I wonât go into detail about what the loose ends are, since they involve S;G 0 spoilers, but there definitely are a few.
-The author, Choushirou Miwa, also wrote the S;G novelization âAnnularly-Chained Ouroboros,â which was really good. In some respects, it was even better than the VN, in my opinion.
Everyone knows that Okabe went through hell during his three weeks in Alpha. But, I get the feeling that not everyone understands that despite his suffering, those three weeks were also extremely important to him. In Ep. 24 of the anime, Okabe even says to his past self, 'You're about to begin the longest and most important three weeks of your life.'
But part of it might be that something is lost in translation in this quote. The word translated as 'important' (大ĺ taisetsu) has connotations of being precious/dear/valued. For example, in S;G 0 Kurisu is repeatedly described as being Okabe's 'taisetsu na hito (special person)' (by both Okabe and other people).
So really, I think you could just as easily translate the line as 'You're about to begin the longest and dearest three weeks of your life.'
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(Iâm calling it that because Iâm not very creative)
One of my biggest questions about S;G was about why each worldline seemed to "know" (take into account) everything that would happen in it except for changes in the worldline. For example, the Alpha future technically shouldn't exist, because Okabe never experienced it (because he shifted the world back to Beta before it happened). But in that case, Suzuha could never come back in time and get him an IBN5100, so he couldn't escape Alpha in the first place, thus creating a paradox.
But there might be a way to resolve this. My theory is that every time the worldline shifts, there's a "first time" going through that worldline where no one is able to use D-Mails or anything else that would shift the worldline. (Physical time travel is generally okay, because that doesn't usually shift the worldline on its own.) Then on the "second time around", people can use D-Mails.
So what's the point of all this? Well, instead of "times around", you could think of it as two "layers". The second layer is identical to the first layer, except that the worldline can be shifted on the second layer. So for example, Suzuha can show up in the second layer because she was in the first layer, even though the future "doesn't exist" in the second layer (because Okabe switches the worldline before the future can be reached). This way, the paradox can be resolved.
Also, to minimize confusion, keep in mind that the "second layer" is almost always where the story as we see it takes place (with a few exceptions).
Okay, Okabe obviously isnât a literal orphan. His parents may not play that big a role in the story, but they both seem to be alive and well, and Okabe doesnât even seem to be particularly estranged from them.
However, I think one might be able to argue that because of his Reading Steiner, Okabe is a sort of âcausality orphan.â You canât âaccount forâ who he is by looking at a single worldline. True, thereâs other people who have traces of RS, but they also have all their memories of the current worldline, meaning that theyâre always going to âbelongâ to that worldline to an extent Okabe never will.
I think this is one of the reasons Okabe always goes to Kurisu for help. Obviously, he values her advice, but she also seems to act as a sort of anchor for him, giving him a sense of stability. Itâs like that part when Kurisu says, âNever forget. Whatever worldline youâre on, you arenât alone. Iâm there for you!â (In the anime, anyway, I canât remember whether she says it in the VN or not.)
So I donât think he regrets going to her even when her advice turns out to be not-so-helpful (a rare occurrence, but the advice she gave regarding Okabeâs date with Luka, for instance).
Come to think of it, the S;G movie also seems to emphasize these two points (that is, that Okabe is an âoutsiderâ to each worldline (except the first one before he traveled to any other worldline, I suppose), and that Kurisu is always the one who helps orient him.)
I dunno if it uses that exact line, but at the end of the first time Okabe confides in Kurisu she says to remember that âIâm always on your side.â In dramatic slow text, which basically delivers the same message.
Yeah, I noticed that on a recent playthrough. Although I didnât know about the dramatic slow text, since I donât play with the voices and text synchronized, haha.
Hi, everyone. For various reasons, I've decided to merge this blog with my main S;G blog @skycladobserver (of course, there's no real "merge" function, so this really just means I'll be the posting the stuff I used to post here there instead). It looks like most of you already follow me there anyway, so this shouldn't be too big of a problem.
But even if you don't follow me on my other blog and don't intend to, I just want to let you know that I'm really grateful to everyone who followed me here.
Okay, Okabe obviously isn't a literal orphan. His parents may not play that big a role in the story, but they both seem to be alive and well, and Okabe doesn't even seem to be particularly estranged from them.
However, I think one might be able to argue that because of his Reading Steiner, Okabe is a sort of "causality orphan." You can't "account for" who he is by looking at a single worldline. True, there's other people who have traces of RS, but they also have all their memories of the current worldline, meaning that they're always going to "belong" to that worldline to an extent Okabe never will.
I think this is one of the reasons Okabe always goes to Kurisu for help. Obviously, he values her advice, but she also seems to act as a sort of anchor for him, giving him a sense of stability. It's like that part when Kurisu says, "Never forget. Whatever worldline you're on, you aren't alone. I'm there for you!" (In the anime, anyway, I can't remember whether she says it in the VN or not.)
So I don't think he regrets going to her even when her advice turns out to be not-so-helpful (a rare occurrence, but the advice she gave regarding Okabe's date with Luka, for instance).
Come to think of it, the S;G movie also seems to emphasize these two points (that is, that Okabe is an "outsider" to each worldline (except the first one before he traveled to any other worldline, I suppose), and that Kurisu is always the one who helps orient him.)
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I always thought it was interesting that, unlike say, Kurisu, Maho isn't a atheist. Maho doesn't get into much detail about what exactly she believes, but she obviously has a lot of respect for the gods. She just doesn't believe what Okabe tries to say about convergence being the "will of God."
On a more meta level, I think it's easier for Japanese people to either write characters that aren't really religious (because Japan is a very secular nation in general) or characters that are super-religious, so I appreciate a character like Maho who is subtly religious (and a scientist, at that).
Ever since Kurisu pointed it out to me, I had figured it would probably come to this. I would run out of energy. Because I wasn't as big a deal as I made myself out to be. I wasn't diabolical, nor did I have any grand ambitions, nor was I particularly talented. It was doubtful whether I was even actually chuunibyou. I was nothing more than a pathetic college student. I wasn't a strong person. I would definitely run out of energy and keep time leaping from force of habit. Like now, I would lose my way and just start living through this one day in a kind of stupor. Having had the same result shoved in my face over and over, I would become powerless. I would stop trying. I would become unable to feel anything. I would become a stone.