{"id":6916,"date":"2018-07-31T13:00:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6916"},"modified":"2018-07-17T12:25:25","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T19:25:25","slug":"mark-watches-steinsgate-episode-6-butterfly-effects-divergence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-watches-steinsgate-episode-6-butterfly-effects-divergence\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Steins;Gate’: Episode 6 – Butterfly Effect’s Divergence"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixth episode Steins;Gate<\/i>, the team vows to improve the PhoneWave and comes up with some terminology; a new member is added to the lab. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Steins;Gate<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Oh god, I still have so many questions, LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DO THIS.<\/p>\n

Satellite<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s becoming clear to me that practically every<\/i> detail in this show is seeded there for a reason, and I realize I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t asked an important question. What does that satellite have to do with all of this? There was that shot in the first episode of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153machine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of some sorts that Okabe saw before the world line altered history and the satellite appeared. (I should also note at this point that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written all the reviews for this show before a single one has been posted, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m realizing that I am not sure what name I should be using for the main character. I figured after the first episode that Okabe was fine, but other characters use Okabe and Okarin frequently, and he himself uses Houhouin. I hope I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m using the right one, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also guessing y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all will have corrected me by now, so my apologies if I am fucking this up.) I assume that the satellite is relevant to this world line somehow, particularly since it hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gone<\/i> anywhere. No one seems like they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to clear it out.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that scene at the beginning with Moeka texting\/emailing with someone who I think<\/i> was FB, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure? It was such a brief flash, so again, pardon if I am either remembering this wrong or missing the clue, but given her appearance throughout \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Butterfly Effect\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Divergence,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deeply important.<\/p>\n

Okabe<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m am still<\/i> struggling with the tone of this show, though I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bad thing that Steins;Gate<\/i> is science fiction, slice-of-life, and a comedy all at once. It keeps me on my toes, and it makes the show feel unique. Based on the two scenes where Okabe makes his big declarations in his mad scientist voice, I felt like we were<\/i> supposed to laugh at him and how dramatic he is. Those contextual clues were obvious and quite funny, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of my favorite dynamics in the lab group. No one else wants to pretend along with him, and his imagination is increasingly becoming more annoying than amusing. Take his fake phone calls for example; whenever he feels attacked or stressed, he relies on obviously<\/i> fake conversations in order to escape culpability. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funny because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so absurd, but y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also such a jerk move. I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have much patience for people who skip out on bills and more or less force other people to pay for them. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done this twice now! He also tries to tell Dura that he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t treat himself with nice food in this episode, too, despite that Okabe isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the one paying for it. In fact, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not paying for anything at all<\/i>. The closest he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s come to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153paying\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is when he left a handful of change at the local restaurant that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually cover the bill.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his relationship with Mr. Braun. (Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t his preferred name either, but Okabe has said it so many times that I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually remember his actual<\/i> name.) I feel like Okabe’s\u00c2\u00a0landlord is forgiving and generous in letting them have an apartment for as cheaply as they do, and based on their few conversations, Mr. Braun knows that Okabe really doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have that much money. Yet Okabe still thinks he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being wronged by his landlord! Yo, that dude can absolutely raise your rent or kick you out, so maybe don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t destroy the place? I had to laugh at that piece of the ceiling falling into Mr. Braun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s food, though. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I thought that was going to be the last straw; Okabe is lucky he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get crushed at that very moment.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

D-Mail<\/b><\/p>\n

My favorite scene in the episode, though, was the one where the four lab members try to come up with a term for the mail that they can send to the past. In that, we can see their distinct personalities represented in the names they suggest. Mayuri and Kurisu are more poetic and savvy than Okabe is, and Daru prefers something more practical and easy to say. Mayuri\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Deloreon Mail suggestion was so clever, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that Kurisu just shortened it to D-Mail. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A GREAT NAME, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to say, it carries a bit of drama with it\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I LOVE IT.<\/p>\n

But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about the logistics of it. We discover why<\/i> mail was sent five days in the past once Kurisu does some tests, determining that each second on the PhoneWave is one hour traveled into the past, and that the messages are split up based on length. You can send either 36 English characters or 18 Japanese ones, and even then, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still<\/i> split up. I assumed that was due to the compression that occurred, but maybe not? However, I have a different concern. How exactly do these messages affect the past? I understand that we are seeing them send them in real-time, which is why, five days ago, they did not see them appear in their email inboxes. At that point, the messages had not been sent. But will any of these characters now have memories of having seen them? If they send messages to the past, can those messages truly alter history, or does that depend on who they send them to?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW YET.<\/p>\n

The Vision<\/b><\/p>\n

During Okabe’s\u00c2\u00a0disturbing glimpse of travel through a black hole, I had a memory of another show I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d watched for this site, but I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember the name of it during the video, so I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say anything. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m realizing now that there are some thematic parallels and similarities between this show and Serial Experiments Lain<\/i>, at least in the way technology is used as a means for communicating between different worlds or existences. The shows really are<\/i> completely different in practically every sense, though, so I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want this to come off as a critical comment. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a visceral element to this vision, one that spins into body horror during the jellyman conversion flash, that reminded me of the more body horror elements of Serial Experiments Lain<\/i>, and I thought it was really cool.<\/p>\n

Also, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT VISION. His dream, right? OH NO, SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS GOING TO HAPPEN.<\/p>\n

Moeka<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to make definitive guesses about a character and their motivations when they say so little, even through digital means. I knew that Moeka was interested in an IBN 5100, and her quest to find one continues here. She is obsessed with this, sending Okabe multiple emails a day, and then, finally, she just goes to his house and increasingly escalates how close she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting. On top of that, she mostly refuses to speak aloud, instead preferring to email Okabe even when she is standing right in front of him. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easier for her, though, and I am not really in need of an explanation beyond that. Social awkwardness IS THE WORST, and maybe Okabe could stand to learn a lesson about reluctance regarding his own awkwardness, rather than lashing out at everyone???<\/p>\n

But who is FB? Why is Moeka so invested in this machine? Does she know what it can do? And will her invitation to the lab mean that she won’t<\/i> want to borrow the IBN 5100? TOO MANY MYSTERIES, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Butterfly Effect\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Divergence\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"