Steins;Gate 0 Episode 19: Okabe the Hypocrite

It’s all well and good for Okabe to suddenly gain a sense of urgency and a desire to right wrongs and ‘fix’ things; however as Daru correctly points out, it is Okabe who has been ignoring them and stalling progress on the very machine that he’ll now rely on to ‘save’ everyone. Even then, the consequences of his choices are unknown so he can’t really assure anyone that he will in fact succeed.

Steins;Gate 0’s Okabe has really kind of bothered me. Admittedly seeing him at the beginning as a slightly broken shell of the mad scientist persona he used to lug around was intriguing, however the moping went on far too long. More importantly, after Okabe’s repeated rants to pretty much every character who sat still too long and didn’t run away about the importance of not messing with time because of the grave potential consequences, it is really hypocritical of him to now declare he doesn’t like the outcome of his choices and that he now wants to undo it all.

Passing the motive onto Kurisu doesn’t make it any better; in fact it makes me feel even more distanced from Okabe because he isn’t even willing to admit that he is the one once again making the choice. Claiming Kurisu didn’t sacrifice herself for Mayuri to die anyway is all well and good (probably true too), but eventually Mayuri would die so if it happened in twenty years time would that still be good cause for Okabe to suddenly decide to jump world lines again?

Despite my overall feeling of disdain toward Rintarou Okabe (a character I previously quite liked and enjoyed watching), this actually was a pretty packed and fun episode. Still, I’m thinking I’d have been happier leaving these characters after the first season. The only thing this season has added for me is a general feeling of disappointment in a protagonist who was amazing. Well, that’s a lie. I actually have a far greater respect for Daru than I did after the first season, but I’m not sure if that’s enough to justify 19 episodes of a series.

Linked Reviews:

• Episode 18: Even Knowing The Future Won’t Help You Make a Better Choice
• Episode 17: Choices and Consequences
• Episode 16: The World Or Mayuri?
• Episode 15: I Just Wanted To…
• Episode 14: What Happens If Okabe Isn’t The Protagonist?
• Episode 13: Ignore the Paradox
• Episode 12: I Wonder How They’ll Deal With This Paradox?
• Episode 11: As If Things Are Finished
• Episode 10: And This Is Why Characters Should Speak
• Episode 9: Putting It Together
• Episode 8: Reliving The Tragedy
• Episode 7: Leaping To Conclusions is Fun
• Episode 6: And Round and Round We Go
• Episodes 4 + 5: It’s Never Over
• Episode 3: Kurisu and Okabe Still Have It
• Episode 2: Okabe Reacts
• Steins;Gate 0 First Impressions

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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