Discussion topic for the Terra arc of Rewrite. Feel free to discuss anything from Rewrite without tagging as spoilers, but please mark any references to Rewrite Harvest Festa with [spoiler].
(Note: The following replies were pulled from the Rewrite General Discussion Thread.)
What would you rate this route?
0 voters
I loved the middle east part of the VN, and the Midou origin story was well presented too. (I wonder if he remembers Kotarou?)
I liked the ending as well. Not only does it show the ultimate outcome of all of Kotarouās growth, but it links back to Sakuyaās interpretation of the āRewriteā ability.
In a super-natural story, it is a very human ending~
I don't really consider it out of left field, but the funny thing about that section that nobody really realizes is that Midou and his friends make an appearance in it.Wait, really? I think I mustāve let it slip by. When was it exactly?
I see this complaint a lot. Can you articulate why? Because I absolutely loved Terra's ending.Iām not so sure myself. Itās not a bad ending by itself and I thought it was actually a good move. I guess the events that immediatly lead up to it kind of downplayed the whole finale for me. I mean, I think Terra, much like Akaneās route, got pretty anti-climatic towards itās end.
In the final act, the story is moving at a good-enough pace and is hinting towards a big climax that I think never really came.
(I havenāt figured out how to use the spoiler thingy, so SPOILER ALERT)
Itās all going well and good when suddenly Kotarou defeats the Earth Dragon in less than a second, Kashima Sakura dies off-screen along with everybody that was singing the song of destruction (I guess that was because they were also summoning the Earth Dragon, though that makes the whole situationās rushness come to an abrubt end), Kotarou rewrites himself and jumps to Kagari where he suddenly needs to kill her and then the whole thing just ends.I dunno, I guess I felt the whole final portion fell kinda flat, and that damaged the impact of the actual ending.
Also, maybe I just didnāt get it, but there were a few things that bothered me at the end: Shouldnāt Kotori realize the club just summoned Kotarou (it felt like she didnāt). Why is Kotarou wearing their school uniform after he is summoned as a familiar from the tree? They didnāt even coment on that.
How come Lucia is called Lucia and not Haruka? I mean, when all the child versions of the heroines gather around Nishikujou, doesnāt that imply the whole experiment she was subjected to never happened in this ātimelineā?
Also, I got the idea was for the club to be reunited with far less emotional baggage, and I have no problem with that. But hey, wasnāt Akane already in that process of inheriting Sakuraās mind? Because Sakura died earlier, the whole thing didnāt complete?
I can swallow Shizuru not remembering Kotarou because she was too small and only saw him once, though.To try and summarize, by the end credits I was kinda like: āOā¦kayā¦guess itās over then?ā
I just replied my impressions about the ending to kaisoserranon below. I think I would effectivelly write the same thing to you, so if youĀ“re interested, my reply is there =).
Ahaha~ The spoiler code is [spoiler][spoiler]
Midou was seen with Tenjin and Jasmine in the Middle East. They were in a group of child summoners. Luis shot most of them accidentally. Midou is seen right at the end of Terra, looking up at the sky with three other peopleā¦ Tenma, Tenjin, and Jasmine.
I believe the reason for this is that the events of the Earth Dragon fight are hard to explain in words. If this was an anime or a manga itād be greatā¦ but VN-wise itās a strange plot point. No doubt, the battle was a long struggle, and involved a lot of stuff, mainly the crazy rewrite chainā¦ but itās hard to get it across without assuming the reader imagines everything playing out as if it was an anime~
The reason for the abrupt ending of the battle is that it is rushed. It has to be due to the plot. Unfortunately, Kotarou is STILL too slow. IIRC The Song of Destruction was too far in to be stopped, the only thing that could end the destruction was the removal of the Keyās existenceā¦ Hence, Kotarou had to kill her. He didnāt want to just destroy everything he worked for, so instead he used his rewrite ability to become a tree that surrounded and protected a blue light representing Kagari (as seen in the title screen!) Kagariās soul and the Kotarou tree stayed together until the day Kotarou was summonedā¦ Rewrite was written with the idea that Kagari is never going to be understoodā¦ That idea makes for awkward writing ^^;
It was briefly mentioned by Kotori, that the familiar was just an image of her selfishness. She wanted the familiar to look a certain way, so he did. Akane rolled with it and decided to ignore the resemblance to Kotarou. Ironically, it actually is Kotarou~ ^^ā This of course explains the question about the uniform too~
Not too sure about thisā¦ but when the Moon Kagari created the Terra timeline, she altered a few things in the history of other characters. One of these was that Lucia was never experimented on. I believe that due to the Terra timeline being based solely around Kotarou, the memories from all the other routes were used. At the end of Luciaās route, Kotarou decided to use the name Lucia instead of Haruka~ This might be why.
In the Terra route, Sakura gets slapped in the face by her own intelligence. Sakura realized the truth of the world (love- as seen in the Moon route.) This revelation screws up the Holy Woman curse, and so Akane (and probably Shimako) get to live normal lives~
Really? That actually makes a lot of sense! Huh, nicely played.
I have to say I strongly disagree. Thereās quite a few visual novels that feature epic fights of big proportions, and lots of those deliver it all in words spectacularly. Just look at Fate/Stay Night or Umineko. Just like a book, a lot of details are left to imagination along with the prose, so I donāt see a problem with that. I think Romeo for whatever reason simply decided to skip the whole thing. I did read an interview translated by Amaterasu that he didnāt really like writing action scenes.
Yes, all that you explained now I did get during my reading of the VN. My problem was not that I was not understanding what was going on, but rather the pacing felt wrong to me. Terra was a lengthy route and took itās time with even the smallest of the details, and suddenly itās like it starts to run full-force towards the end.
Itās hard to explain it writing, but Iāll give it a try: Until Kotarou is about to fight the Earth Dragon, everything is going on rather nicely. They have a brief chat and prepare for battle. Oh yeah, itās on. This is the climax, the final confrontation this story was leading up to. Heāll probably reach Sakura later and they will have at least a final conversation about her ideals against his. The instrumental version of āRewriteā from Psychic-Lover plays. Iām getting pumped up! Bring it on! And then EarthDragonbattleskippedKashimaāsalreadydeadKotarousomehowhasalastchatawithSakuyajumptoKagarionthehillhastokillher and BAM!! Kotarou becomes a tree, gets summoned by the girls and goes to the Moon with them, The End.
It suddenly goes speeding-bullet fast as if it just skipped a whole chunk of what would supposedly be itās climax and the credits roll. I suppose I donāt have an issue with the ending itself, but with the final events that led up to it.
I see, I didnāt remember that detail. Itās a bit hard to swallow that Akane simply ignored his resemblance to the guy that pretty much saved her life without even a slight āgasp!ā, but I guess Iām just being nitpicky now.
I dunnoā¦I have to say this sounds pretty far-fetched XD. Itās not a plothole that really destroys the story, but just something that came to mind when I read it.
I donāt particularly remember that detail either. Was it implied she realized that she understood about love being the truth of the world like the Moon route? Maybe I just didnāt get it when I was reading, like Midouās appearance and Kotoriās comment at the end, though.
I didnāt pick up on this either! I canāt wait to re-read Terra now!
Yes they doā¦ but they are FIGHT fights. When I said āhard to explain in words,ā I meant there was nooo physical action. It was all a thought process, an idea. Kotarou wasnāt running around slashing at stuff, he was trying to think of an outcome that didnāt end with a loss.
The battle will have ended in the blink of an eye, but a lot happened in Kotarouās head and body to make this happen.
Iām not trying to say the pacing is good. Using a plot point to excuse rushed writing isnāt okay at all. Iām just saying there is a valid reason for why it suddenly jumped ahead really quickly~
I donāt think there was any indication of Kotarou and Sakura talking thoughā¦ Sakura would go straight into violence or trickery, and itād end up stalling the story.
Akane is a very composed person 
Itās okay to assume she could shrug off the resemblance for a while. I think sheād be the first one to investigate āPochiā though~ Ahaha~
As for Sakura realizing the truth of the world, I donāt remember exactly where it was mentionedā¦ So much happened late moon/early Terra @.@ It was probably during the Moon route. She discovered it when she was sending Kotarou to the moon, but denied it because it was messing with all her Holy Woman memories. That impacted the Terra route. Similar to how Moon Sakuyaās death impacted all the other Sakuyaās.
Check Midouās utterances of his past during Chihayaās route too He describes an event very similar to the one Kotarou and Luis caused~
Regarding Pochiās appearance in the Terra Epilogueā¦ I really donāt think heās supposed to look like teenage Kotarou. Itās not suggested anywhere in the text, and Kotori and Akane donāt seem to recognize himā¦
Given, again, the myraid production issues Rewrite had, itās possible that Itaru didnāt know the context of what she was told to draw.
Same reason why Chihaya is still in her old school uniform and why theyāre not wearing the same shoes in the final CG.
In other words, donāt think about it too hard.
As for the Earth Dragon fightā¦ yeah, if that had been written in full, I think it would have done a great deal for the pacingā¦ I donāt think thereās anything wrong with the rest of Terraās ending aside from the presentation, though (which is a problem everywhere but Luciaās route.)
Have you seen this MAD by any chance? It does a lot more justice to certain bits of Terra than the game itself does.
Yeah, but that exact event never happened originally since Kotarou was still in a coma then.
Correct.
In the non-Terra routes, Midou and his friends are shot at in the Middle East by unknowns. Midou and the surviving kids run away with nothing but the memories of warā¦ which messes them up.
In the Terra route, Kotarou took the position of a soldier in the Middle East. He helped Midou, Tenjin and Jasmine, and gave them money and meaning. This means Midou grew up to be a nice guy in the Terra route~
Itās a nice little addition to the story~ Finding out the different outcomes for side-characters~
Terra could really have gone into a lot more detail about certain things, but itās already pretty long as it is.
Something I notice, by the way, is that a lot of specific complaints about Terra have to do with the characters, in regards to their appearances, lack of involvement, resolutions, etc.
Nobody really complains about or discusses the storyline (esp. -what- Terra actually is), the moral conclusions it comes to, etc.
(Discussion continued from here)
She only found that happy ending because all those other endings had existed and they were able to learn from them. The Kotarou of moon, who essentially creates the ending of the main story, only exists because of the individual routes. While the individual routes might not link together very well, they still have a bearing on the main story purely through how the route system of the VN works.
I would be satisfied if Rewrite ended with Moon. The whole route is about Kotarou coming up with a plan to save the world.
The way they concluded it was too simple: just spread information about Gaia/Guardian and kill Kagariā¦ And I waited the whole VN to know what were āgood memoriesā, but it was really unsatisfying to know the meaning: just people together to save the world.
Sure, Terra gave more in-depth to some Rewrite aspects, but I think they couldāve been placed in the heroinesā routes with no problem.
And the quality of the story was even inferior to the heroinesā routes. It didnāt have much drama, and wasnāt as emotionally powerful.
The only objective of Terra is to explain how Kotarou saved the Earth. Simply, I felt Terra as a whole, unecessary.
I thought good memories were more related to space travel because Kagari knows no matter how well they take care of the earth itāll eventually die and humanity must continue living or something something.
But eeeeh I didnāt enjoy Terra so much either because I was expecting something more relationship-driven rather than story-driven.
This was basically my main complaint. Itās too story-drivenā¦
I guess a lot of people would like that kind of stuff and I would too itās just thatā¦ It killed my expectations. I was expecting something very Key-esque but got something of the opposite. Maybe if I knew beforehand that it wouldnāt be like that I would have appreciated it more.
Ah icic I enjoyed Terra since it gave some more background info on each char and I did enjoy the overal story of it so I donāt mind if it was story driven since the heroine routes already covered the relationship driven part of the game.For the good memories thing though, I thought it was just to find a way to coexist with nature. Though you are right about how easy it was to conclude the story. Its been a while since i read rewrite so i donāt remember too much from what happened in Moon or Terra and might mix them up.
Terra was enjoyable for me. The way it was presented and how it developed werenāt terrible. When I read Rewrite I hadnāt experienced as much of Keyās other works (Kanon, AIR, Little Busters!, Tomoyo After, Planetarian), so I didnāt have any expectations beyond (Terra and Moon) āI hope they resolve all the loose ends now.ā They managed a pretty good job of doing that. I think the ending was relationship-driven to a degree. I viewed it as a continuation of the Moon routeā¦ That Kagari (Moon) is the ātrueā heroine for Kotarou. Moonās conclusion itself wasnāt satisfying to me, but (Moon) it brought a little bit of the other routesā elements back. I still view the amicable number reference as the most romantic aspect of the whole VN. Perhaps my view is skewed though.
[quote=ās0ewhat, post:140, topic:37ā]
Its been a while since i read rewrite so i donāt remember too much from what happened in Moon or Terra and might mix them up.
[/quote]Same thing hereā¦ but I think itās just some of the smaller details for me. (At least I hope Iām not missing any major plot-points from these routes, lol.)
Itās pretty much the opposite. āGood memoriesā refers to the survival of Aurora and that is achieved by humanity consuming the Earth and moving onto other planets.
Oh icic its been way too long since iv played Rewrite might have to go back and replay everything once Harvest Festa gets translated.
