Steins;Gate is one of the most unique time travel stories that I have seen in any medium
and there’s no simple way to explain why. Having rewatched the series in preparation
for its sequel Steins;Gate 0, I found myself deeply interested in the way time travel elements
are interwoven within its narrative. While there are many videos analysing the many strengths
the series has, whether it be the thematic depth or strong personable characters, there
aren’t many on the shows structure itself. In this, I hope to give a better appreciation
of what makes the stories structure so unique and how it effects the overarching message
that Steins;Gate is trying to convey. [0:13] In popular media, we have to understand that
there are 2 types of time travel in fiction, one where the shows timeline is mutable and
the second being where the shows timeline is immutable. In the first instance, you can
travel back in time and change past events thus altering the future. This is achieved
because a mutable timeline adhere’s to the multiverse theory, where once an event is
changed the time line diverges, a prime example of this being the film Back to The Future.
However, in an immutable timeline when you go back to change the past, the time line
is fixed meaning that no matter what you do, certain events are pre-determined to happen,
you can see this in Harry Potter.But what does this relate to in the context of Steins;Gate?
Well, for the most part, stories that contain time travel always abide by one of these rules.
However, if I were to ask which category Steins;Gate falls in to, I would think most people would
say the first one. It’s pretty clear that when Okabe sends a D-mail into the past the
timeline or in this case worldline, changes with it. What makes Steins;Gate unique when
compared to conventional time travel stories is that the show contains elements of both
types. To help illustrate this, I made a time travel diagram following Okabe throughout
the anime. [1:52]
From this diagram, you can see that every time a D-mail is sent, the worldline diverges.
But what exactly is a D-mail? Kurisu vaguely explains in the series that Okabe had accidentally
found a method to send text messages through microwaves via Kerr blackholes, thus receiving
the message in the past. D-mail’s are what you would call a “Tachyon Communication
Device” essentially information traveling faster than the speed of light, making communication
to the past possible. D-mails can only exist if the universes timeline is mutable, because
if it were to exist in an immutable one, it would cause a logical paradox. Therefore,
we can group D-mails into the first category. Following the events of the series, Kurisu
completes the time-leap machine and Okabe has the agonising task of reliving the same
2 days trying to stop the inevitability of Mayuri’s death. What we can notice here
is that no matter how many times Okabe loops back or makes different decisions, it seems
as if Mayuri’s death is destined to happen, a fixed point in time. I’ll get into the
implications of what this means later on, but for now we can safely group the time-leap
into the second category, being immutable. Now the last method in which the series uses
to change the past is physical time travel using a time machine. As you can see from
the diagram, when Suzuha and Okabe use the time machine to travel back and prevent Kurisu’s
death, they go back within the same worldline. However, the very act of Okabe trying to prevent
Kurisu’s death is the event which causes it in the first place. This is what you would
call the “Bootstrap Paradox”, where the act of preventing an event from occurring
is the one which causes it. This must mean that when using a time machine, the timeline
is immutable.What we can understand from all this information is that, in the universe
of Steins;Gate a lot of the evidence points to their reality being deterministic. Characters
will behave in a predictable way and some fixed events in time that can’t be changed,
no matter what you do. This raises the question, if everything has already been predetermined,
can anything actually be changed? The logical answer to this dilemma would be ‘no’,
that since the universe is deterministic, free will is just an illusion. While that
maybe true for our universe, that’s not the case for Steins;Gate as we haven’t accounted
for one thing, Okabe’s ‘Reading Steiner’. With his ability, it grants Okabe the power
to retain his memories after a divergence in worldlines. This allows Okabe, the only
character in the series, to essentially have free will.
“In our timeline we are prisoners of the present, forever transitioning through our
past into our future, so we don’t know of access to other points in our own timeline.
Suppose you could move around in your timeline with the same flexibility as moving left and
right, up and down, forward and backward. If that’s the case you can revisit your
own timeline. Under tho se conditions you do not die. You are always dying. You are
not born. You are always being born.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson
On the outside, Steins;Gate may paint a dark and even dreary future about the laws of the
universe. However, even if that’s the case the series never advocates for our characters
to give up. As Okabe and Kurisu discuss the causation of Mayuri’s death, they quickly
rule out fatalism as if to suggest that the universe doesn’t adhere in that way. Though,
no matter what worldline Okabe tries to enter it seems as if a person close to him always
ends up dying. Be it the laws of the universe or some out-worldly force, some events just
seem written to happen. But even so, our characters press forward, never giving up, determined
to find a solution.
Now, the reason why I concluded Okabe to have free will in the series is because in a deterministic
universe, your actions are a result of the events that came before it. The future isn’t
already written down, but determined by the law of causality. If that’s the case, then
theoretically if humanity had the power to accurately predict the speed and placement
of an electron, then by extrapolation it would be possible to know future events before it
even happened, thus proving that free will is in fact a lie. However, because of the
uncertainty principle we will never truly know.
While it’s true that Okabe’s actions in the series are a result of his own prowess,
Okabe has free will in the sense that he’s the only one who isn’t tied down to a singular
worldline. He has access to multiple worldlines. When he diverges into a different one, Okabe’s
actions aren’t a result of just one worldline, but all of them. This might be a bit difficult
to get your head around, but extensively the Okabe we follow doesn’t exist as just one
person. He collectively exists everywhere and in every worldline. Kurisu even alludes
to this at the end of the series. In the midst of consoling Okabe, Kurisu says something
really interesting. She states that even if she were to die in the Beta timeline, she
would still continue to exist in others.
What I love about this scene isn’t just Kurisu and Okabe’s uncompromising love for
one another, but the fact that she alludes to something even bigger than herself. Through
the way in which the world is defined and shaped in Steins;Gate, Kurisu implies that
her love would be so strong as to transcend time and space itself. If their world is truly
in fact deterministic, then etched into the very fabric of their universe, Kurisu is destined
to be with Okabe no matter what worldline they’re in. It’s a powerful sentiment
that adds an extra layer of depth within their characters as it ties in thematically with
the nature of their universe. How in the face of overwhelming odds and tasked with the impossible,
our characters will persevere in the pursuit of hoping to find that one worldline that
can save them. That is the will of Steins;Gate.
People theorise that humans don’t have free will, but yet there’s an overabundant feeling
that we do. What Steins;Gate ultimately tells us is that it isn’t important whether or
not free will does or doesn’t exist, but that you should live life to the fullest,
not caring what the world has to say. That even if you’re caught in an impossible situation,
you should never give up, because if you continue to keep going and persevere against all odds
you can pass that 1% barrier and achieve that path you’ve always wanted.
Steins;Gate is beloved for many reasons, it has a compelling cast of characters who’s
relationships are essential in getting the audience invested, but I think how the series
is structured and interwoven directly, goes unnoticed when discussing the messages and
ideas it explores. It’s a complex web of connections with each worldline influencing
the next, so hopefully I’ve made you appreciate the show, just that little bit more.