rscab

[aleenya]

trying to explain the plot of steins;gate zero makes me feel fucking insane bc im ngl what the actual fuck happens in that game. im convinced i look like this when i talk abt it

"so u see this is where russia uses the time machine to change the world line and literally prevent the dismantling of the ussr but bc of the nature of time travel they don't even realize they succeeded and everyone seemingly puts it together bc of this weird encephalitis case going around where ppl remember like an alternate reality when putin was president and the authorities are just like damn wtf it must be time travel and somehow simply by having amadeus the american government figures out how to undo all the changes that russia made EXCEPT for the fact that no one knows what was actually done and oh yeah there's this commonly held theory that russia, not knowing that they were the ones to change the world line, use a time machine to accidentally undo the changes they had made resulting in everything going back to normal and meanwhile okabe just witnesses all this happen in the span of a month like 🧍"

and thats only a minor part of the overall plot. like ... that could be a fucking movie

[randomsprinkles]

[hwatermelons-reacts]

there is no way her dad isn't okabe right??

[knightofsuperior]

The Choice of Steins' Gate

Fandom: Steins;Gate, Persona 5

Summary:

Okabe Rintaro is a broken man. His failures have made him a shell of his former self. However, a mysterious incident in a certain subway station will open his eyes to a world even he has never traveled to, and to allies in a fight he thought long lost. The world is on its way to ruin. It's time to make a better one. El Psy Kongroo. ---- Steins;Gate/Persona 5 crossover. Contains spoilers for the events of Steins;Gate up to episode 23b and episode 3 of Steins;Gate 0 with different elements of the story incorporated throughout. Contains spoilers for Persona 5 (timeline in flux, assume all of P5 is fair game). Plot can and will diverge heavily from that point on.

Read the fic here and check out an excerpt/my thoughts below!

Excerpt:

“You...think you know me? You think you know what I’ve been through?!” As soon as he found himself on some sort of stable footing, Okabe grabbed his doppleganger by the collar, pulling him in close. “You think you understand the pain I felt, going through every world line!? I-” “-know the limits of what a man can do, right?” The other Okabe replied, a frown on his face. “I know that’s what you told Suzuha. But do you truly believe that?” “What else can I believe?!” Okabe could feel the tears welling up, but he couldn’t stop himself from letting the words flow from his mouth. “I have done everything possible in this...in any world line!” He looked down, staring at the silver metal of the train tracks beneath the two. His reflection, blurred by the falling tears, showed him the truth. “I know exactly what I am. I’m a failure.” "Wrong,” the other Okabe replied. “You are the man who turned time itself to his will-beyond the powers of God himself. This worldline...it’s proof positive of that grand power you hold inside of you. And," he continued, his eyes glowing a brilliant gold, “it is not the only one.”

Author's Note: Steins;Gate is a beautifully-written story, whether in visual novel or anime format, and it lends itself to blending with the world of Persona pretty damn well. I wrote this initially during a rewatch of the series and starting S;G 0, and having just come off of a replay of the latter portion of vanilla P5. As one of my first forays into long-form, serialized fic writing, I found it a fun experiment!

Due to various reasons, I never got the opportunity to play P5 Royal (though I have at least two copies lurking around somewhere), and I also still need to fully finish S;G 0 to get the full scope of what I can work with. However, I am satisfied generally with the thematic note I ended off on for Rintaro, and I hope one day to get back to this and explore the possibilities even further.

I also made one of my best friends thanks to this fic--props to/shout out to @sakurabomb for being a supportive commenter and a great friend, and also my springboard for absurd fandom nonsense!

[chorsana]

so, Steins;Gate liveblog resuming right now, sadly with my annoying father pestering me about Doctor Strange sitting next to me all the time. I would like to begin this session by revising my theories.

to start off, John Titor being Daru from the future doesn't seem likely anymore. I just got really confused when Suzuha said something about Barrel Titor and I just randomly assumed that they're the same guy. I still think that Barrel is future Daru, I just don't know who John is. my best current guess is Suzuha, but it's really just a guess.

also, I don't think that all the fucky time stuff in ep 12 was just tension building anymore. I think something strange IS happening to time. what exactly... well, we'll see I suppose.

without further ado, let's begin.

[toastedpopsicle]

Imagine believing there's anything just about imprisoning someone over fucking video game clips. IP law is such flagrant violence and so fucking counterethical to the natural act of creation.

Remember that if you think ideas and images can be owned, you agree that violations of that ownership deserve the full violence of imperial carcecal systems.

[muninnhuginn]

So, going to link a couple of things before I start with this.

Firstly, the new MV for the Vortex/Overthink/Tides medley which is going to form the basis of my observations.

Secondly, this post, which makes a strong argument that Link Click is deliberately drawing from other time travel media. In this case, the 2002 version of The Time Machine. Also, a fun fact not mentioned in the linked post, but that I recently discovered is that the name of the girlfriend the time traveller is constantly trying to save is *Emma*.

Now that I've linked these two, I just want to say that this rest of this post is me having fun and I would love for these to be deliberate references, but let's be real, a lot of time travel media understandably shares a lot of visual language. Hourglasses, butterflies, and clocks are all fairly recurrent themes.

Click the read more for a mix of potential references to other time travel media and screenshots of specific details of the new MV I found interesting:

Left: Link Click (note the photo reel design). Right: Doctor Who (specifically one of the intros for the Twelfth Doctor)

And to add to the photography aesthetic present throughout, the photo reel clock resolves itself into a camera lens:

Next, we have a main character centred within a clock. In both cases, the character casts multiple shadows that resemble clock hands.

Left: Link Click. Right: Steins;Gate

The shot where Qiao Ling is stood still amongst a moving crowd is neat for two reasons. First, the people she's surrounded by seem to be those related to the cases CXS/LG have taken on. You can see Emma just behind in the above screenshot. And the other thing is that the first time this sequence plays the moving characters are too blurry to easily make out. When the sequence reverses however, and the lyrics speak of "pausing" the scene actually freezes with all the characters clear for a tiny bit. (I didn't screenshot purely because it was a pain to get the exact moment but you can check this if you want)

Upper left: Link Click. Upper right: Higurashi Gou/Sotsu. Bottom: Steins;Gate 0.

Next up: fragments! This one is honestly a real stretch, but hey, there are at least two other time travel adjacent shows that use them as visuals in their openings. I would really like the use to be similar to in Higurashi (the example screenshot is from the anime sequel Gou/Sotsu but the sea of fragments is present in the og too). In Higurashi, each time "loop" is actually an alternate timeline (wherein events would differ slightly even without intervention) and so each fragment represents another timeline. For Steins;Gate, it's more a visual that exists purely in the opening sequence to play into the whole shattered clocks aesthetic.

Left: Link Click. Right: Steins;Gate.

This one is inspired by me watching the opening only to go "Okabe Rintaro????" when Qian Jin showed up. But also. We can clearly see some of Qian Jin's scars in this shot. There appears to be one on the back of his neck and two over his left shoulder. These have to be relevant and obviously his eye colour has me side-eyeing but I don't think we have all the pieces for this character yet. (Him being a former cop with a connection to both of our focus cop characters though makes me think)

And a final one with generic anime trope no 58382929:

Left: Link Click. Right: Steins;Gate

I know, I know. This is typical anime/donghua. But! It's deliberately a shot in Steins;Gate that returns again and again throughout the series. It's also very associated with the character of Mayuri so take that as you will.

Bonus whatever this is:

Multiple Cheng Xiaoshis in different states of doing badly. I wonder if the centremost one is the one Lu Guang appeared to be thinking of in episode 1? Possibly another "fragments" situation or if not then it may be various things Cheng Xiaoshi will go through in this season

Anyway, the Steins;Gate opening visually has a lot of similarities and of course a lot of it is natural overlap because they're both time travel series. And they both draw inspiration from The Time Machine (especially Steins;Gate's sequel, Steins;Gate 0). But I find it pretty neat how all these series from different times and places do have these recurring themes.

[fallregain]

I love it when the mc is oblivious to the thing they're trynna find but it's actually JUST RIGHT INFRONT OF THEM

[aspookybunny]

Wildly concerned for these Steins Gate bitches electrical bill

[one-hell-of-otaku-is-here]

Link Click or STEINS Gate? They are more similar than you think rn (spoilers for both + slight S;G 0)

Now that time travelling LG is basically confirmed (god this guy is gonna be 162826 years old I swear) imagine possibilities for future seasons - what if the only way to save CHX is for LG to die but like FR? THINK OF STEINS GATE - that's literally the same thing - the only way Okabe could save Mayuri was to undo some events, but by doing that, it meana coming to Kurisu's fate (death). There was no way around it, but they could fool fate by presenting fake death. Also, it involved like AU Okabe from SG 0 to even get there FR. SO WHAT IF THATS THE SAME THING LG HAS TO DO BUT HE STILL CAN'T GET THERE?? LG would never give up until he finds that one-time loop hole because I think the whole CHX dying no matter what he does is like inevitable no matter how events would play out (they wont be that much different only very slightly Ig). This is probably my theory, but he also knows he can't die... because that would devastate his bestie (we caught a glimpse of it at the beginning of s2 so we know) AND he wouldn't want for his bff to experience the same hardships of time traveling because he knows thats what CHX would do (but its very mentally draining idk how LG can still stay sane but we also don’t know HOW MANY times he time travelled or if it was more that once or twice. Heck, we dont even know if it's his bff is the only one in danger or if something else happened, which would make him travel back). Idk why this all makes sense to me, and I haven't even watched the last episode, just sawspoilers flying around, so maybe I return to this

Also possible new hat villain?? That guy seems like he knows a lot and he's my new brain rot. When we saw him before he seemed to know a lot he reminded me of LG actually

MAYBE LG HAS WHITE HAIR BECAUSE HE TIME TRAVELLED SO MUCH BUT NOBODY FINDS IT WEIRD SO IDK ABOUT THIS

[lestcat-de-lioncourt]

ChäoS;HEAd is just like okay whatever happens, happens, at this point. It's so fuckkkeddd but interesting. Serial killers meet anime otaku with an undefined mental health disorder only described as hallucinations and delusions who basically opts to live in a storage container and play the MMORPG whilst talking to his fave anime girls he hallucinates.

I honestly had no idea which the real people were for some time or if he was experiencing false situations, nor could I tell what was his paranoia or if there actually was something undercover going on, or if ANY of this was fantasy or if it was simply slice of life and none of it was fantasy and circumstances were his experiences with his mental health. He doesn't really speak unless spoken to, and I'm also like, yeah, he gotta be this person who's responsible for the New Gen killings as he keeps finding evidence of him being at the alone when he thought he was finding someome else there when apparently accidentally at the scene of the crime, but.. he doesn't know that he is, and he's not doing, and he keeps mentioning this sussy pink haired girl, who also seems to now be real but was once invisible.. unless there's two, but now it's like.. random people have swords, and there are other people who can do what he does, so now it's like.. is this not mental health? But apparently, they can all experience Delusions? So sometimes it's hard to understand what is actually happening and not because it's a symptom of their powers, I think, and reality and Delusions happen alongside eachother so honestly anything might be actually happening or not one second to the next.

From the same universe as Steins;Gate, ChäoS;HEAd and then ChäoS;Child (the protagonist admires Takumi of this and strange killings begin to happen once again).

[hwatermelons-reacts]

OKABE NO YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO USE THE FRICKING DAD'S BLOOD

[elibean]

thoughts on madoka magic ?

It’s FINE, the spoiler about Homura’s…everything is good and fun and the first time I watched it I was :O

To be fair I watched Madoka years and years ago. I never watched any of the movies. But in terms of time travel shows you know what ELSE I watched years ago and actually remember and was good? Steins;gate. Which has a VERY similar character but it’s done SO much better

[chorsana]

so yeah, ep 13 ended up contained within only two posts. you can thank my dad for that, I'm never watching anything on our TV again.

Mayushii died right after I unpaused, which broke the impact a little by being almost funny in a way. also, this is the second time she dies onscreen, which has some effect, too. Okarin went back in time again and tried to save her again. it looked like everything was going well, when the small child showed up and accidentally pushed her in front of a train. like, is... is this just going to be a thing now? that Mayushii keeps on fucking dying no matter what Okarin does to save her? if so, then wow, I feel terrible for both of them: for her, because she's doomed, and for him, because he has to be beyond traumatized at this point (he sure looked broken at her third death) and it's only going to get worse.

also, right before she died, her watch apparently stopped again. this might be because she was about to die, or it might be because the clock hit 8 and something bizarre happens to time at that specific hour of that specific day. either way, I'm definitely shitting myself next time it happens.

also, two things happened earlier this episode that I forgot to mention because of my dad making me hurry up with my typing. first of all, Okarin noticed that going back in time doesn't actually cause you to shift worldlines, even though the future ends up altered. I did notice the lack of numbers, it threw me off a little. secondly, we got some backstory on Mayushii's thing with reaching for the sky and Okarin's chuunibyou behavior. I didn't take note of it because I was actually spoiled on that one, too. don't know why I forgot to mention it, sorry.

the episode ended with Okarin seemingly going back in time yet again. how is he going to try and save his team this time? will he finally succeed? we'll see soon enough.

[misstooni]

Playing Steins;Gate mostly blind and the end of Chapter 5 just hit me like a train. Chaos;Head should've prepared me for this but the tone of the game was so different I didn't see it coming.

[sinnohqueen]

on chapter 3 of chaos;head noah and 1) i dont think anything could have prepared me for anything in this game and 2) i genuinely have no fucking idea what's going on and it's fantastic