{"id":6912,"date":"2018-07-25T13:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T20:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6912"},"modified":"2018-07-17T12:18:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T19:18:50","slug":"mark-watches-steinsgate-episode-2-time-travel-paranoia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-watches-steinsgate-episode-2-time-travel-paranoia\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Steins;Gate’: Episode 2 – Time Travel Paranoia"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second episode of Steins;Gate<\/i>, Okabe embarrasses himself again, only to discover that maybe there IS something terrible going on. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Steins;Gate<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For brief discussion of cissexism\/possible misgendering<\/b><\/p>\n

What the fuck<\/i> is this show? WHAT WAS THIS????<\/p>\n

Kurisu<\/b><\/p>\n

So she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s alive, and what Okabe witnessed didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 in this world line? I feel like that moment in the midst of this episode that gave us the story of John Titor was more than a story. What is they were right<\/i>? What if this is<\/i> a show about someone who can either jump or erase world lines? Of course, that leaves a huge unanswered question: Why is Okabe the only person who can observe the changes between world lines?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I went into this thinking that Kurisu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dialogue with Okabe in the past episode was evidence that she knew something else was going on, but the opening of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Time Travel Paranoia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not only dispels that, it features Kurisu dunking on the very concept that time travel or time machines are possible. SO THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S FUN. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also hilarious? We are only two episodes in and Okabe has interrupted two<\/i> lectures and been immediately shamed for it. Not only that, but he was so convinced that she was part of all this, and this is like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the most extreme counter to it imaginable.<\/p>\n

AND THEN SHE FUCKS ME UP BY SHOWING UP AT THE END OF THE EPISODE. How the fuck did she find out about the Future Gadget Laboratory? (Actually, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of me that is certain that Okabe talks about it online all the time and has actually said where it is. Another part of me thinks that this is<\/i> genuinely creepy because he is so paranoid, so perhaps he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been secretive about it the whole time.) What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her goal here? Does<\/i> she have a sense of what is going on?<\/p>\n

Ruka<\/b><\/p>\n

So, trying to learn from my recent misbehaving over on Mark Reads. I am just going to pose a question rather than make any definitive statements here. I was a little shocked by Okabe’s\u00c2\u00a0repeated statement that Ruka is a guy, so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what is actually going on here? If that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a spoiler, then ignore me and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll figure it out, but I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure how Ruka identifies or what the intent of their character was. Were they misgendered or did I completely misinterpret this?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond that, I am confused for an entirely separate reason: what the hell was that exorcism bit??? Are these characters role-playing some sort of epic fantasy\/sci-fi struggle or something? Because we see it later with Mayuri at her work with one of her friends, and I honestly don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand what all that was.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Suzuha<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a lot of new characters to keep track of due to this episode, and one of them is Suzuha, who now works for Okabe’s\u00c2\u00a0landlord. Okabe is frequently an asshole to the people around him, including his landlord, and his reaction to Suzuha is right in line with how he seems to see everyone around him. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re either lesser than him or part of some grand conspiracy to take him down, which is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 not a very great way to interact with others. Plus, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that Suzuha is important to this story given the weird subplot with the IBN 5100. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a coincidence, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. If she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great with electronics, perhaps that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll contribute?<\/p>\n

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

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fascinated by the contrast between Okabe’s\u00c2\u00a0perceived conspiracies and the actual<\/i> conspiracy that is unfolding around him. He is an irrational person who overreacts and is prone to paranoia, and most of the people in his life\u00e2\u20ac\u201despecially Daru\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmake fun of him for this. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s off-base frequently; both this episode and the first one reveal that he is wrong about something he is absolutely certain of. However, he isn’t<\/i> wrong about John Titor. He remembered someone posing as a time traveler online in 2000, an event so important that books<\/i> were written about this person.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Books that no longer exist on Okabe’s\u00c2\u00a0shelves. And there is no history online of John Titor ever existing beyond the posts Okabe finds in the present<\/i> day. WHICH FEELS INCREDIBLY CREEPY, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Again, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get how Okabe is the only one who is aware that history has changed!<\/p>\n

IBN 5100<\/b><\/p>\n

Except I think that the introduction of Moeka is confirmation that SOMEONE ELSE KNOWS HISTORY HAS CHANGED, TOO. Moeka took a photo of Okabe on the street, which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 was a very weird moment? Did she know<\/i> that he was paranoid about that? Did she exploit that so that she could get information from him? That computer that she showed Okabe, according to Daru, is more myth than reality, and that makes me think that Moeka knows that this strange time manipulation is happening. Why an IBN 5100? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. But Moeka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intensity has<\/i> to mean something, right?<\/p>\n

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

YOOOOOOOO I AM STILL REELING FROM THE FINAL SCENE IN THIS EPISODE. Again, Okabe is trying<\/i> to be a mad scientist, and he wants to disrupt world powers, but he mostly fails at\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, everything? His Phonewave device (whose name might change at a later date) is the only thing he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s constructed that does anything, but even that<\/i> is a bizarre mess. It can turn bananas into a green gel. Which is not helpful in any situation ever. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s precisely way I was just as shocked as everyone else when the single banana disappeared from the Phonewave, only to reappear back on the bunch<\/i> in gel form. HOW. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? I suppose I was also excited because Daru witnessed this as well, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been such a constant form of skepticism that I wonder if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll change his outlook on all of this. He saw something! He knows that Okabe didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine it! WHAT THE FUCK.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Time Travel Paranoia\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":"