Rewrite - Terra Arc Discussion

Key Discussion
#9

Regarding Pochi’s appearance in the Terra Epilogue… I really don’t think he’s supposed to look like teenage Kotarou. It’s not suggested anywhere in the text, and Kotori and Akane don’t seem to recognize him…
Given, again, the myraid production issues Rewrite had, it’s possible that Itaru didn’t know the context of what she was told to draw.
Same reason why Chihaya is still in her old school uniform and why they’re not wearing the same shoes in the final CG.
In other words, don’t think about it too hard.

As for the Earth Dragon fight… yeah, if that had been written in full, I think it would have done a great deal for the pacing… I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the rest of Terra’s ending aside from the presentation, though (which is a problem everywhere but Lucia’s 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.

#10

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 war… 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~ :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s a nice little addition to the story~ Finding out the different outcomes for side-characters~

#11

Terra could really have gone into a lot more detail about certain things, but it’s 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.

#12

(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.

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#13

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 Kagari… And I waited the whole VN to know what were “good memories”, 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 could’ve been placed in the heroines’ routes with no problem.

And the quality of the story was even inferior to the heroines’ routes. It didn’t have much drama, and wasn’t as emotionally powerful.

The only objective of Terra is to explain how Kotarou saved the Earth. Simply, I felt Terra as a whole, unecessary.

#14

I thought good memories were more related to space travel because Kagari knows no matter how well they take care of the earth it’ll eventually die and humanity must continue living or something something.

But eeeeh I didn’t enjoy Terra so much either because I was expecting something more relationship-driven rather than story-driven.

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#15

This was basically my main complaint. It’s too story-driven…

#16

I guess a lot of people would like that kind of stuff and I would too it’s just that… It killed my expectations. I was expecting something very Key-esque but got something of the opposite. Maybe if I knew beforehand that it wouldn’t be like that I would have appreciated it more.

2 Likes
#17

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 don’t 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 don’t remember too much from what happened in Moon or Terra and might mix them up.

#18

Terra was enjoyable for me. The way it was presented and how it developed weren’t terrible. When I read Rewrite I hadn’t experienced as much of Key’s other works (Kanon, AIR, Little Busters!, Tomoyo After, Planetarian), so I didn’t have any expectations beyond (Terra and Moon) “I hope they resolve all the loose ends now.” 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 route… That Kagari (Moon) is the “true” heroine for Kotarou. Moon’s conclusion itself wasn’t satisfying to me, but (Moon) it brought a little bit of the other routes’ 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=“s0ewhat, post:140, topic:37”]
Its been a while since i read rewrite so i don’t remember too much from what happened in Moon or Terra and might mix them up.
[/quote]Same thing here… but I think it’s just some of the smaller details for me. (At least I hope I’m not missing any major plot-points from these routes, lol.)

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#19

It’s pretty much the opposite. “Good memories” refers to the survival of Aurora and that is achieved by humanity consuming the Earth and moving onto other planets.

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#20

Oh icic its been way too long since iv played Rewrite might have to go back and replay everything once Harvest Festa gets translated.

#21

So Facebook reminded me that it’s been 3 years since I finished Rewrite and making a post about it! I actually had a pretty good review of it, so I thought I’d come and share it over here:

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#22

Do you remember what scenes that’s referring to?

#23

I was rereading it, and I honestly wish I did, but it seems that I’ve mostly forgotten about it. I think it might be about how Kotarou had gained the choice to not attack Kagari specifically because he attacked Kagari on other timelines, but it doesn’t seem to fit too well

#24

I’m really in the mood to talk about the thing I like the most about Rewrite as a whole. It’s a bit hard to explain, but I guess I’d call it the mentality behind it. Like the stance on how emotions are handled. It’s weird mix between human empathy and pragmatic thinking. It’s represented very well in Moon when Kotarou is expanding his understanding, and he finds a small piece of love, but he never reaches the whole part of it. Another good one is what’s written in the memory about the garden:

“This isn’t something Kagari planned, but an inherent property of aurora. There’s no love or anything in it, but it’s still quite forgiving.”

That quote hits the spot. I really like the idea of this primal pragmatism that ends up being gentle and caring out of coincidence basically. It really throws things for a loop and makes things feel really unique.

This is what makes Kagari really cool to me. She’s an ascended existence with knowledge beyond human comprehension. But looking at what she does from a human’s perspective, she is a great, caring mother ready to let her children out into the world. There’s a similar conundrum with Moon Kagari specifically. Why would she use the garden to help her sister instead of keeping the aurora to herself? The empathetic view would say it’s because she’s a loving sister. The pragmatic view would say it’s because the Moon can only delay the inevitable while the Earth has a chance of creating more good memories.

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#25

Yeah, I really dig this as well, something Rewrite handles differently from all of Key’s other stuff. It’s why I really strongly recommend Rewrite to people battling depression and nihilism. It’s a refreshing look at the world.

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#26

I had just finished Terra route last night and I have to say that the ending was just as beautiful but I would agree that the ending did feel rushed after the fact that the Earth Dragon was defeated and Kashima and her summoners were already dead despite all that Kotarou had to accomplish in saving the planet. When I read about how Kotarou and Akane had left the city of stone and found out that the three people that had pushed them outside the gate, I could not hold my tears back knowing that they stayed behind and wanted them to survive outside that time. The ending sequence was amazingly breath-taking. I almost didn’t realize that Midou and Tenjin were in the Middle East back in the beginning with Jasmine, but now that I think about it, I think it had to have been them because I remembered in Chihaya’s route that Midou and Tenjin had suffered post-traumatic events in their pasts though this time it was already altered by Moon (Kagari). This route was very long but I don’t know how else it could have been wrapped up but I really loved this route.

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#27

You’re forgetting something with the idea of the “possibilities” though. The possibilities don’t look for an outcome in which the Earth survives. It’s all about creating a possibility that the life which exists on the Earth (Humanity) is given the chance to continue living beyond the end of the Earth.

The Earth is done for. The whole while Kagari is laboring away, the Earth doesn’t have enough Aurora left to successfully “reboot” life. If a reboot happens, all life dies. This is what Kagari is trying to prevent; this is what the possibility she strives for creates. A possibility for humanity to pursue another future, a new home, where they can continue to thrive and prosper. Somewhere that they can continue to live, love, create, destroy, and all of the other things that make life wonderful.

<15511> The ideal memory for Kagari...
<15512> Wouldn't that be the will and the power to carve out a new future?
<15513> Something humanity gave up on.
<15514> Something the people lost sight of when they started caring for the planet.
<15515> Even if it means devouring our Mother Earth...
<15516> We have to expand.
<15517> Because...
<15518> Kagari's expression is so kind.
<15519> Because...she looks like a mother watching her children go off into the world.
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#28

An overall disappointing end to a phenomenal VN.

This route had some small good bits; Esaka being Esaka is always a treat, I liked how Imamiya finally was moderately useful after being a background character for the entire game, it was interesting to see how characters had such different lives in this alternate timeline, and it has some Sakuya which helps, but these are islands in a sea of mediocrity.

We already knew that KotarouKazamatsuri Bond wasn’t always his goofy self but it was jarring and disillusioning to see him so confidant at the beginning of the route, and even after he developed he was still pessimistic. We already saw him behave logically yet cruelly in Akane’s route so that’s not a surprise but when you don’t like the narrator any story is tough to read, and I could not bring myself to like this KotarouPochi.

And it was long. This route really should have been a brief footnote at the end of moon.