Episode 23 plot hole

Aquamirror said:
There is only one active world line at a time, there are no copies, they all the same people, just their memories get replaced.

That far in the past, there is no difference in the world lines. No memories of that place persist, no action in that place causes any effect to the future, and there is no other event further in the past that can change Okabe's current perception.

Aquamirror said:
Okabe can't experience reading Steiner about an event that happens in the future from his point of view, the idea was that he would disappear from the world in 2025 to use that chance to help Mayuri and Suzuha, because he would die anyway. The actual plan begins in 2036 when "loli" Suzuha travels to the past, but that world line where she travels from is also the world line where Mayuri and Suzuha would return after Okabe had given them the new battery. Remember, even travelling with a time machine still changes the world line even if slightly.

Aquamirror said:
Reading Steiner only activates if Okabe experiences a drastic change in his memories/perception. Sure, there might be some really really slight difference in divergence, but he wouldn't feel anything.

There is no real change in the past, only the video mail isn't enough. He received it in episode 1 with static, he didn't know what it was and never bothered to watch it, then completely forgot it. Suzuha is the one that tells him to do it, but she needs to come from 2036 after the first failed attempt first. There are more than 2 world lines in between these time travel actions, but they all result in him failing without all the needed pieces.

katsucats said:

However, the latest episode of S;G 0 shows an alternate world line continuing even after the recording was sent back to Okabe at the end of the original show.

katsucats said:

This would mean that every time after Mayushi died and Okabe jumped back in time, the other characters before the jump continued to live for some time, with a dead Mayushi and a missing Okabe. This makes Okabe self-serving and even heartless.

katsucats said:
The original show, and comments by the author, have indicated that there is only one 'active' world line, such that when Okabe jumps between world lines with Reading Steiner, the other world lines merge into the new one. Sometimes people are able to keep some of the memories from prior world lines. This is to prevent the problem of other world lines continuing, thereby creating copies of characters that just live on when Okabe disappears (although Okabe could not possibly know this). This is a problem because for every world that Okabe 'saves', he would have 'ruined' countless others.

However, the latest episode of S;G 0 shows an alternate world line continuing even after the recording was sent back to Okabe at the end of the original show. Future Okabe even had time to take a time machine to nowhere, where a Suzuha and Mayushi were able to survive without atmosphere or food for some unknown period of time. One way to explain this is that time in between different world lines are not synchronized. We could imagine this to mean that, for example, 2000AD in one version of the world actually occurs at the same meta "time" as 1980AD. So if Okabe jumped between these two worlds, then the timeline Okabe jumped from would continuing existing for another 20 years before it merges in with the 'active' timeline.

While this would explain S;G 0, it would also almost invalidate the entire show. Because what this would mean is that versions of the side cast would have continued to live on for an indefinite period of time -- could be 3 hours, or 5 days, or 20 years, or their lifetimes -- after Okabe left, before their time merges into the 'active' time. This would mean that every time after Mayushi died and Okabe jumped back in time, the other characters before the jump continued to live for some time, with a dead Mayushi and a missing Okabe. This makes Okabe self-serving and even heartless.

The other possibility would be that the 'time' that it took Future Okabe to talk for a bit, then travel to Mayushi, and walk over a mountain, is less than the time it took for original Okabe to reach Steins;Gate. This means that all of the future characters would be merged into 'active' time as soon as original Okabe jumps back to his time, so if Future Okabe really believed in Steins;Gate, his actions at the end were only symbolic, since he knows they would be short lived. However, this is suspicious, since no matter how you look at it, what he did should take longer than what original Okabe did at the radio tower.

Although this would give Orihime and Hikoboshi a nice touch, in that Future Okabe will end up with Mayushi for a few minutes, before they get merged back into Steins;Gate, and Makisu revives. Their love was... fleeting.

ElPsy_ said:
Why Okabe has not any memores of 0's world line after achieve Steins Gate?

ElPsy_ said:
Why Okabe has not any memores of 0's world line after achieve Steins Gate?

Aquamirror said:

He "dies" before the switch would happen from his perspective in 2036, but he might still have some dream-like vague memories like the intro of episode 12.