{"id":6928,"date":"2018-08-14T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T20:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6928"},"modified":"2018-07-17T12:39:59","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T19:39:59","slug":"mark-watches-steinsgate-episode-16-sacrificial-necrosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/08\/mark-watches-steinsgate-episode-16-sacrificial-necrosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Steins;Gate’: Episode 16 – Sacrificial Necrosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixteenth episode of Steins;Gate<\/i>, Okabe does his best to repair the world and change the future, but, unsurprisingly, things do not go as planned. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Steins;Gate<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For suicide, incest<\/b><\/p>\n

How does this show keep getting more fucked up HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING.<\/p>\n

Barrel Titor<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not until Suzuha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goodbye that her affect on Daru truly hit me, and I admit that this is because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still<\/i> weirded out by the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to have Daru lust after and hit on someone who could very well be his daughter. This episode remains ambiguous on the truth, as I could still see all of this explained away by Daru\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempt to be kind to someone who honestly meant a lot to him. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt that part at all<\/i>. We discover from Okabe’s\u00c2\u00a0time leap that Barrel Titor is DARU. After hearing how much Suzuha pined to meet her father, he decided to have the badge made himself, so as to give her hope. So, extrapolating from that, is it possible that he is not<\/i> Suzuha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father at all, but just left all these little breadcrumbs so that she would never lose hope? To me, that would make this story a little more palatable.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, I wonder if there are translation or cultural issues here I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve influenced my opinion. I had this sneaking sense that the show might be poking fun at the complicated nature of time travel, that the Daru reveal was meant to embarrass him for his comments toward his own daughter, but y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell. I was uncomfortable, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m voicing that discomfort, but I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather talk this one out? REGARDLESS: Oh, my god<\/i>, did I ever get sad once Suzuha stepped into that time machine and Daru realized she really was leaving. THAT PART WAS UNFAIR AND EXTREMELY SAD. Which is saying a lot, given how viscerally upsetting this entire episode is. A secondary character is revealed to be one of the most important figures in this whole journey, and just as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re truly getting to know her, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gone. Not only that, but her big monologue in the previous episode means so much more once you consider that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so happy to have made friends because SHE ALREADY KNOWS SHE CANNOT STAY. Oh my god, she was going to leave earlier in the series, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I JUST REMEMBERED THAT. But Okabe changed the world line, and she ended up staying. HELP ME, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M JUST NOW PUTTING THAT TOGETHER.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re welcome to laugh at that and also me recognizing what 42 CRT means while watching this episode. Oh god, IT WAS ALL THERE.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1975<\/b><\/p>\n

Ugh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so sad<\/i>. I figured that when Mr. Braun was at the door with a letter, something awful was about to about to unfold. There could not be a good reason why Suzuha was not there herself. I WAS STILL NOT PREPARED FOR WHAT WOULD UNFOLD.<\/p>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what makes me most sad about this. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tragic irony in the first iteration of her past, one that I am<\/i> glad is erased by Okabe later in the episode. One of the lines in her gut-wrenching letter says that she felt sorry for living an easy life (or something to that affect) instead of remembering earlier why she was in the past in the first place. First of all, no one could have predicted the amnesia caused by the time machine, so that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not her fault. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a terrible tragedy in all this that I only thought of just now. Suzuha was thankful for what Okabe and his friends granted her because she came from a world where casual friendship was probably not possible<\/i>. Again, we know little of 2036, but everything Suzuha told us made it clear it was a terrible, unending nightmare. When had she last ridden a bike freely? Had dinner parties? Seen cosplay? HAD STRESS-FREE DAYS?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, that<\/i> is the things she apologizes for before killing herself. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sorry she had things easy<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I get why she feels like a failure, but I also didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see her as one. I also get why Okabe had to grant her final wish, despite how incredibly dangerous it was. Well, not just dangerous, but Mayuri points out that all the wonderful experiences they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had since Suzuha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrival might be erased, too. Is that worth it? And what if this act undoes something else<\/i>?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet he does it anyway, all in the hope that he might grant Suzuha a chance at a life she feels happier with. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just this aspect of her story that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so touching and CRUSHING. I fully did not expect Mr. Braun to get his own backstory but GUESS WHAT LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S BREAK MY HEART WITH THAT, TOO. Oh my god, Okabe’s\u00c2\u00a0D-mail worked<\/i>. In the new world line, she went back to the same house, bought it, and then let Mr. Braun stay there when his burnt down. SHE BOUGHT THE BUILDING THAT WOULD BECOME THE LAB and Mr. Braun would LITERALLY not be where he needed to be without her. And he needs<\/i> to be there! Without him, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no lifter in that television set downstairs at CRT!!! So she still gets to take care of Mr. Braun, but in a different way. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weaved into the history of this story, too, and it makes me think that even if she never found the IBN 5100, she still got to contribute and help her friends.<\/p>\n

At the end of it all, Mayuri also survives. Somehow, her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pre-destined\u00e2\u20ac\u009d moment of death comes and goes, and she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t die. So, was Suzuha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time machine the thing that shoved the world lines into the reality where Mayuri always died? AH, I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T ACTUALLY KNOW. The episode is over before Okabe’s\u00c2\u00a0question is answered. But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not out of the clear yet, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m certain that they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop the SERN dystopia. So what now<\/i>?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sacrificial Necrosis\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":"