Talk:Reading Steiner/@comment-27183706-20190611150327/@comment-27183706-20190611210923

Confused.

In many ways, actually.

-So Okabe 3 is the one who saves Kurisu. He basically appears when Okabe 2 changes the past in SG0 and makes himself go and save Kurisu. He doesn't exist as a separate entity before this happens - he is "forked" from Okabe 2. Okabe 2 appears when SERN changes the past. He has no relation to Okabe 1, the world forked before he was born. In the anime we see Okabe 1's fate before the mail, then Okabe 2 and after time of the fork Okabe 3 (but we get to see how Okabe 2 causes that fork himself in SG0.), we don't see Okabe 3 right from the start. Okabe 3 didn't exist in the first place until Okabe 2 sent the mail to the past. Either way Okabe 2 can't possibly have memories from Okabe 1 through Reading Steiner : they are different people born after the worldlines split.

-When Okabe 2 deletes the mail from SERN, why does that cause Kurisu to disappear? That should lead to a new worldline where SERN doesn't develop time machines in the future, and both girls are alive. Even if we say the worldline is similar to the original where SERN didn't develop the time machine and turn the two converge, that only means Kurisu is fated to die in the future, not that she retroactively disappears.

-Okabe 3 does make his self in the past, let's call him Okabe 4, see the dead Kurisu who was actually alive then returns to present with the time machine. That's good but then Okabe 4 sends the mail that started the whole story and becomes the new "Okabe 1". A loop forms, resulting in the world alternating back and fort between worldlines, never ever reaching past the furtest time in the future where the first time travel invalidates that world line and makes another one the "one that actually happens". Basically, it causes time to END in 2036 the latest, on all existing worldlines. Furthermore, the moment Okabe 4 sends the mail, that worldline no longer has a future past that point. So the Time Machine carrying Okabe 3 should fail to go any further.

Here I'm assuming there can be only one "really happened" worldline and changing the past causes the current worldline to disappear and get replaced by the changed one. (this is implied by the Reading Steiner ability, if the worldline existed individually, there would be no memories to retain, as they wouldn't get overwritten by the time travel in the first place). If that isn't the case the worldline where SERN dominates could still send agents further back into the past and retain control, as it still "exists" to do so. So I believe assuming only one world line is real is correct.

The only way to break the loop is for Okabe 3 to prevent Okabe 4 sending a mail but we know he doesn't, and even if he did, that means we end up with a world that has both Okabe 3 and 4 in it.