6.8 KiB
Spoilers: rationality in Re:Zero
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Author: u/Iwasahipsterbefore *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/9k2fwz/spoilers_rationality_in_rezero/
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Score: 15
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Created: 2018-09-30T01:46:05
Post:
For those that haven't read/watched it, Re:zero is a fairly standard reincarnated-in-another-world with several twists on the premise.
The main character is a bog standard human who the big bad is obsessed with, and so she gave him the power of return by death. Basically, he's a walking groundhogs day, with checkpoints changing as he passes difficult scenario one after another.
While he uses this power fairly rationally, the character I'd like to point out is >!Marquis Roswal!<, who uses the power of precommitment in order to force a time traveller to do his bidding.
!Roswal!< precommitted to essentially calling a nuke in on his own position, with the only way to stop him being the main character taking significant losses himself.
It's a neat combination of precommitment and the knowledge that as long as he's not the version of himself that stays in the main characters timeline, he's not truly 'real', and is thus an expendable asset.
Comments:
u/fassina2 [+15] Progressive Overload (9 hours later)
It's realistic in a way, that's what you'd expect of a stupid MC.
He has an OP ability but he can't make good use of it because of his own stupidity.
It's a somewhat unique story.
u/i6i [+2] (a day later)
Stupid how? There are no better exploits for this ability. In fact using it at all isn't smart since there are vastly better ways to gain information about the world and it's magic system available like say reading a book about it. The side-effects are unknown in the beginning and turn out to be more horrific than any potential good it could plausibly be used for aside from perventing the end of humanity as a whole (if you're invested in humanity over the continuation of all life on earth that is). The protagonist uses it to bring people he cares about back from death but this is explicitly a sentimental weakness of his and not anything ethically justifiable.
u/ShiranaiWakaranai [+40] (4 hours later)
While he uses this power fairly rationally,
No he doesn't. Any rational use of a time loop would involve thousands of loops doing research and training rather than frivolously allowing time to progress into drastic situations where you no longer have the luxury of researching in peace.
The only reason you wouldn't do that is if you were worried about some kind of limitation on the number of loops you can do, but the MC has clearly thrown away such worries since he kills himself several times. Or if you were worried about what happens to the world when you loop, but again the MC seems to give no thought to that either.
A less rational explanation would be that death hurts a ton so the MC doesn't want to do it too often, but seeing as he is basically a regular untrained human in a world full of ridiculously powerful superhumans, and he insists on sticking next to an extreme danger magnet because she is "seriously an angel", he is going to die a ton of times anyway. So using several early loops to research and train would probably greatly reduce the total number of deaths in the long run.
The part that ticked me off the most was when>! he discovered he could use magic, then got his magic ability crippled by combat and carried on with the timeline rather than looping to get it back. I mean, seriously? It's magic. It's his one shot at being anywhere decent in combat (not to mention the countless other applications), and he just throws it away? At least loop more to try and keep it.!<
u/Dragonheart91 [+29] (4 hours later)
Yeah, it frequently seemed like the main character continued looping until he got the worst possible outcome that could barely count as beating the current obstacle. If he just killed himself and looped one more time he could have an actual good outcome to proceed but he doesn't. It's incredibly infuriating.
u/Iwasahipsterbefore [+30] (4 hours later)
Any rational use of a time loop would involve thousands of loops doing research and training
The novel (and anime, to a lesser extent) actually addresses this. Every time he loops in a short amount of meta-time the witches scent grows, which has consequences. At around 5 loops it begins influencing people's decisions regarding him. After several thousand he'd be kill on sight by both people and animals. Bad end.
Edit: An example of this is when he is killed by manor staff, which was after only three or so restarts.
u/SkyTroupe [+6] (13 hours later)
Where do you read the novel?
u/Iwasahipsterbefore [+3] (20 hours later)
I read it on translationchicken, but the RE_zero subreddit also links to the new chapters.
u/i6i [+5] (a day later)
Also the number of loops is actually limited. Witch powers are large enough to significantly reduce the total amount of magic in the world. Magic is a resource used by living things to continue to live and time travel is the most expensive magic there is.
u/i6i [+4] (a day later)
The only reason you wouldn't do that is if you were worried about some kind of limitation on the number of loops you can do, but the MC has clearly thrown away such worries since he kills himself several times. Or if you were worried about what happens to the world when you loop, but again the MC seems to give no thought to that either.
Both are reasons he brings up specifically in regards to why he doesn't and both reasons are throughtly justified.
u/natron88 [+8] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (5 hours later)
I don't remember Rosewal learning about Return from Death in the anime, is this from the web novel? You might want to spoiler tag that information if that is the case.
On a related note, if your looking for more rationalist commentary on Re: Zero, check out this thread from two years ago to see discussion of antimemetics and frustrating protagonists.
u/Iwasahipsterbefore [+4] (5 hours later)
Yeah, I tagged it in the title, but I probably should have tagged the exact information as well.
u/libertarian_reddit [+4] (4 hours later)
Are they ever going to release another season of that show?!
u/None [+4] (5 hours later)
yeah, the next season showed up on myanimelist
u/Iwasahipsterbefore [+3] (4 hours later)
I really hope so. I think they're waiting for there to be enough material, probably the end of the Rem arc. (Not saying what the Rem arc is, because huge spoilers). I'm reading it on translationchicken.