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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Pretty much this. It’s all about humanity’s place in the world.
I guess I don’t find this a very moving or interesting theme. The themes from previous VN’s were personal and relatable. Everyone has a family, we all had childhood friends, we all think back on our childhoods, and all those things add depth and meaning to our lives.
Saving humanity isn’t a personal theme, by any stretch.
Maybe, but what about things like environmentalism and the fate of humanity? The death of the earth by depletion of resources or whatever else in the not-too-distant-future is a VERY real threat, something most people would rather turn a blind eye to. Along with topics like natural disaster and the third world. Rewrite challenges the big questions about what it means to be human. You can take out all the fantasy elements and the core messages still hold ground. It’s not the kind of story meant to make you cry, but if you ponder it for a bit you’ll start thinking about your place in the world.
Might as well add in my personal take on the theme of rewrite. The other questions were answered pretty well enough by the others
I honestly think that the theme of Rewrite is neither “dissatisfaction with the world” nor “humanity’s place in the world” but rather, the theme is more self-centric than any other Key game. If I had to word it simply, it would be “changing yourself to find your place in the world”.
As mentioned, all previous Key games had distinct themes, but if you think about it, these themes only made themselves show in their respective conclusions. The family theme in Clannad only came out during After Story whereas the common routes were focused on romance and/or drama. The youth/friendship theme in LB only came out during Refrain, whereas the common routes were focused on fixing the girls’ regrets in life. So, if we really want to figure out the main theme of Rewrite, we need to pay attention to what happened during Terra.
One thing that I remember about Terra is that it was all about Kotarou. It was all about his struggles, and his self-discovery. All of the interactions with other characters were not very important (kagari included). Now, why did he do all this? On the surface, he did what he did because he believed that bringing peace between Gaia and Guardian would stop “salvation”. His intentions were later revealed to be that he didn’t really want to save the world, but he just loved Kagari and wanted to bring her happiness or something? I kind of forgot the details on this. But what was the true effect of what he did? Sure he saved the world and all but, more importantly, it gave Kotarou a place in the world.
Early on, he hated Gaia because of their ideals. Later on, he hated Guardian because of what they did to get their goals done. He realized that he had the opportunity two join two opposing ideals regarding the world and found out that he despised both of them. So he changed himself; he adapted to both ideals and controlled them to find his own way towards his ideal of no-conflict, supposedly done for the sake of Kagari. Eventually, he did find his place in the world. Unfortunately, it was as a tree that gave people hope by, instead of creating peace between two organizations, practically disbanding Gaia and Guardian.
Thus, I believe that is the central theme of Rewrite. It sort of shows in the individual routes as he does a lot of “rewriting” in all of them. But Terra gives it away more than anything. And, unlike the other routes, I find this theme to be more personal than any of Key’s other themes.
Ironically, I thought that Terra route totally scrapped those ideals After all, it was revealed that the prime example of “happy memories” that Kagari wanted to see was space exploration. Rewrite took these problems and basically told everyone that those problems are part of what makes us human. Even if we fix them, the world will end eventually, and what we should strive for is to bring humanity to a point where it can survive without relying solely on the earth. So yeah, global warming and third-world conflicts are cheap problems in the grand scale of things that are inevitable in the distant future, and we should remain hopeful to keep humanity alive for potentially eternity
Themes are different than narrative focus. I would argue that the themes in Clannad and Little Busters are more present than you give them credit for, and the focus on romance or helping the girls is just the backdrop on which those themes are played out.
It’s worth noting that a lot of the girls’ problems in Clannad are solved by their family, not by Tomoya. Kotomi’s loss of her parents affected her deeply and was ultimately solved by her receiving their final message. Kyou and Ryou basically fought over Tomoya as a sort of sibling rivalry gone too far, until Kyou was able to overcome her fear of hurting her sister to be honest with herself. Nagisa feels like her own weakness robbed her parents of their dreams, but was resolved when her father declared that their dreams weren’t abandoned but changed. Fuuko helped her sister to find happiness and to move on from her. Yukine’s story revolves around her brother’s death and his memory. Sunohara has changed, and it takes the efforts of his sister to help get him on the right track.
That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions. Tomoyo, Kappei, and Misae don’t have strong family themes in their stories. But the lion’s share of the routes seem to revolve around that idea.
