I see no reason as to why these two cant be one in the same. Kotarou’s Aurora could be seen as a mutation caused by both his Rewrite ability and The Key’s ribbon being combined.
I never really thought of The Key like that. It always seemed like a Hard Reset on everything.
The fact that it wipes out everyone kind of removes the ‘selection’ part.
Kotarou’s aurora being a mutation of the Key’s ribbon might be a valid point. However, Aurora is described as something like raw energy in the game. And in Kotarou’s case, he’s merely giving that same raw energy a shape when using it for combat.
On the other hand, it’s very mutation-like how Kotarou’s aurora takes on different shapes in different routes.
I doubt that the rewrite power was part of that ‘mutation’, though. There was only one route where Kotarou has consciously rewritten his aurora.
There’s no evidence for this, but I like to think that the Aurora ability stems from the rejection of the inserted ribbon. It tries to escape from Kotarou’s body, but the blood bending ability takes control of the ribbon’s Aurora.
Also, when Kotarou is “rewriting” his Aurora, I think he is actually rewriting his mind. The Aurora is a foreign object in Kotarou’s body, so it wouldn’t make sense for it to be rewritten. However if Kotarou rewrites the way he thinks about the Aurora, then he will produce different shaped weapons. Remember that the Aurora takes the shape of what you imagine 
Dude it’s literally just a gigantic mass usage of Kotarou’s Rewrite power.
The world is Rewritten with a minor change(like adding the Hercules Horseshoe Crab) to see if it doesn’t break that time.
It seems we never got to discuss one of Rewrite’s most basic questions here.
So then, people:
You have power, and you are dissatisfied with the world.
Would you want to change the world?
Or would you want to change yourself?
I kinda answered this on Skypu already, but whatever~
If I was asked that, I would point out how both of those answers are the same thing~!
It is the same principal as “Is the glass half empty, or half full?” The question is nothing but a test of judgement. The Martel Group test for Gaia members by judging their outlook on life: Are they focused on themselves, the world, or are they indecisive? Once you answer the question Martel will compare you to other people who answered the same, look for any discrepancies, and judge you accordingly.
The answer to the question will always mean the same thing. The only thing that changes is the way other people judge you.
Therefore, I would answer “both” as that is the only answer that Martel (ignoring Sakura) aren’t entirely prepared for. When given three answers to choose from, the fourth will disguise your actions the most.
I did not pose the question under the circumstances you’ve presented. It was not intended as the type of question you need to answer to get your driver’s license, such as
“You are questioned by a member of Gaia. Depending on your answer, they might recruit you or kill you. They ask you…”
Therefore, allow me to clarify one thing. Regardless of the intentions behind the question in the game, or your opinions on the intentions behind it (you’re always free to talk about that, too, in a separate part of your reply), I’d like you guys to answer according to what you really think and how you feel about this question. Don’t consider possible situations where you would be posed that questions and don’t bring in external knowledge like “if I answer ‘the world’, I’d be a gloomy summoner, if I answer ‘myself’, I’d be an arrogant superhuman”.
If it’s necessary, allow me to rephrase the question.
You have power, and you are dissatisfied with the world.
**Would you want to change the world in a way that suits you better?
Or would you want to change yourself by adapting to the world? **
It’s not an ‘either the one or the other’ kind of question. Answers such as ‘neither’, ‘both’ and ‘I don’t know’ are valid options, provided that’s really what you think.
Incidentally, if you’re referring to the saying “If you change yourself, the world will change”, I’ll count that as ‘changing yourself’, since you’d be merely changing your subjective perspective on the world rather than produce an objectively obervable change in the world itself.
I’ll keep count of the answers and update this post ^^
Change yourself - 1
Change the world - 0
Others:
Change both - 1
IIIII… don’t understand how that changes anything @.@
Two responses two this.
- That removes the Rewrite discussion from the question Ahaha~
- I only cited my beliefs on the question posed in Rewrite as an example of it being asked. I said my answer “both answers are the same thing,” showed examples, using Rewrite’s instance of the question as one of those examples, and then came to a conclusion. Mentions of Rewrite were only there to tie it in to the theme of this thread, and to further explain my answer: Comparing my own answer to the options Kotarou decides upon is an easy comparison to make~
Even if I removed all mentions of Martel and Gaia, my answer would be the same~ Rewrite doesn’t change my answer.
But it is generalizable to every circumstance that involves me answering that question
What I really think and feel about the question, is that the answer always means the same thing, and so answering the question is pointless. Not answering the question would lead to someone assuming you are indecisive, so the safest answer to give is “both.”
I have a bit of a long thought process with this, but I may as well share it.
First off, I am by no means dissatisfied with the world, so that might have had an influence on my decision. That said, if I was dissatisfied with the world, but did not have “power” as they call it, I would change myself. Changing the world is entirely possible, but requires much more energy and involves far too many risks. When you add in the fact that you have “power,” I would definitely change the world. Changing the world is much larger in scope, and would give much greater gains than changing yourself.
This topic came up in the chat. We’ve been talking about the difference between Rewrite and other traditional Key works. The main cause is the main writer being Romio Tanaka. But what exactly did he do differently?
Well for one, he didn’t drop huge dramabombs
I’ll be honest, when I first finished Terra, I was pretty disappointed. My problem with Terra was that it was very… individual. It lacked character interaction, and thus lacked the drama from interaction. The interactions with Kagari were, after all, barely interactions. Terra was all about Kotarou, and figuring out himself and his place in the world. Of course, after a while, I started to realize the heavy themes regarding Terra route, I still kind of wish it had more drama. That is, after all, what I look forward to in Key works
What makes Rewrite different is that it doesn’t focus on emotional payoff. I find most of the routes (especially Romeo’s ones) were emotionally draining more than fulfilling. But they stick with you. Rewrite has some really powerful messages, things you contemplate for months and years after finishing reading them. It’s a different kind of impact from Key’s classic nakige. It’s a shame it hasn’t gained more appreciation in Japan though.
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You forget that she doesn’t just wield the Shimako corps but is one of the most powerful regular summoners as she controls an army of the strongest hounds. Which was basically 8 kills to every Akane!Kotarou one.
As for this, I finally found one thing.
Ghandi quoted “Be the change you wish to see in this world” If this isn’t enough of a clue, naturally my answer is to change myself.
Hello Guardian 
Finally finished Rewrite. I’m going to sit and absorb the albums for a while before doing my Rewrite Music review, but I wanted to jump in on some of my thoughts overall.
I have to admit that Rewrite didn’t grab me as much as other Key stories I’ve read. There are two niggling problems that I can’t quite get past: there’s no cohesive theme and the magic of the world follows inconsistent rules.
The distinct themes of Key games are really what make them shine to me. Kanon was about childhood friendships, Clannad was about family, Little Busters was about nostalgia and youth. Rewrite is about…dissatisfaction with the world, I guess? Based on where the power for summoners and super people comes from, I assume that’s supposed to be the focus. Shizuru was originally dissatisfied with the problems that being poor caused her family, Kotori was lonely and suffered the loss of her parents, Akane was born disabled, Lucia’s power isolated her from the world, Chihaya’s parents died to save her.
While all of those are tragic, I feel like they don’t all fit with the idea of dissatisfaction. Chihaya doesn’t seem to curse the world for her parent’s death…she seems to have come to terms with her loss. Akane seems frustrated with her responsibilities, but I don’t feel like she has a strong resentment for them. Lucia’s case is rather confusing…if your powers come from being dissatisfied, and your power is what makes you unhappy, where did the power come from in the first place?
That brings me to my other problem, the magic in the world is inconsistent. The most obvious example is the discrepancy between salvations in the timelines, but even the way Rewrite itself works seems to vary between the stories. This isn’t such a big deal in a VN like Clannad, where the magic is meant to be vague and mysterious, but it makes a big difference in Rewrite, because the magic is a central to the plot and it supposedly operates according to some specific rules.
I feel like Rewrite could have been stronger by just hewing a little closer to its core. Establishing better theming and more consistent rules from the get-go would have helped a lot.
Also, to what extent is self-sacrifice a core theme? It shows up in Moon/Terra, and in the backstory for a few of the girls, but I’m not sure where else.
Overall, Rewrite was very enjoyable, and I feel like it was time well spent. But I don’t think it’s quite the masterpiece that I’ve come to expect from Key. It’s something a little more middling.
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I’m afraid you’ve got a few things wrong there ^^’
First off, only summoners derive their power from despair and dissatisfaction with the world. They’re basically “emos” and living itself is painful to them (mostly because their lives are a mess). It’s so painful that their despair reaches levels where they acquire the power to CHANGE the world to ease their suffering. This is manifested as the ability of familiar creation and manipulation - they create something that wasn’t part of this world. However, that is the “traditional” way of acquiring a summoner’s powers.
Technically, both the techniques of a summoner and a superhuman can be LEARNED by anybody according to Terra route.
I don’t know if a superhuman’s skills require a trigger or if people are just born with it (since their powers are basically an extreme case of heredity in a certain field), but superhumans are arrogant and overconfident by nature, so they don’t feel dissatisfaction with the world (since it ain’t nothing on them when they have this power). They had a problem with the world, then they (or their ancestors) did something about it and now they’re super proud of themselves for accomplishing that.
In any way, how good you are as a summoner or superhuman doesn’t depend on how emo or arrogant you are. It doesn’t have much to do with how dissatisfied you are with the world. How powerfull you’ll get mostly depends on talent. Takasago was full of anguish and envy but he wasn’t really skilled as a summoner. On the other hand, people like Chihaya and Shimako were very talented from birth, before bad things happened.
None of the heroines were really dissatisfied with the world. Kotori had everything under controll before the accident (and the mistletoe recruited her literally a minute after it happened), Shizuru was never dissatisfied with being poor - she was totally happy with her loving family. Akane’s power is inherited etc.
Most discrepancies between the routes are due to three different authors writing them individually with little coordination, but the timing of the salvations mostly depended on the events of said route. And Kotarou played a large role in them.
Whether or not salvation happens depends on whether or not the Key can see “happy memories”.
For example, Salvation happened faster, and was most complete in Shizuru’s route where Kotarou did NOTHING - he didn’t participate in the conflict over the key until salvation activated. So bad memories just kept piling on and there were zero good ones.
On the other hand, during Chihaya’s route, where he constantly fought for what he believed in, the Key DID NOT initiate salvation AT ALL.
That’s because Kotarou made good things happen
The thing about Rewrite is, it has so many aspects that you can’t understand it completely by merely reading it once. You have to think and contemplate about it, and try to explain things (like old events) with the new info you’ve acquired.
Typically both. Kotarou has no known origin for why he has Rewrite capabilities, but his and Sakuya’s are assumed from birth. Shizuru got hers from the one accident, and Lucia got hers from experiments. Others could be born with or other triggers like these ones.
As for this:
Humanity. Saving Humanity. If you look at it, you see two manners of beings, genocide and people ruled by corrupt leaders. People being forced into roles they might not even want, and the people who ignore their fate and fight a fight beyond all hope. What you can kind of see is many aspects of what our world is like today. Governments that have hidden desires that we do not realize happen.
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