Kanata no Astra Chapter 49 Discussion

SilverDio said:
10/10

This author really knows how to make good stories and likeable characters.

I am looking forward to his future projects.

Flevalt said:
Astra was an adventure for sure.

But the ending was horrible.

Reason 1: The clones didn't have an ounce of sympathy for their original selves.

If I was in their shoes, I would at the very least have some sort of an identity crisis before questioning whether I, as a mere clone, even have the right to take the place of the original, whether I wouldn't have desired the same thing as my original self etc.

The story just made them the bad guys and that was that. No moral questioning of any kind from the protagonists. It was so inhuman that it was almost borderline creepy as hell, everyone enjoying their happy ending while it gets announced that their originals have been detained.

They even made Quitterie look the EXACT same as her original at the end and still as a viewer you're supposed to not feel for the originals one bit.
How awkward is that?

I felt like there was no good reason to hate the originals for their relatable desires and that the author just naively assumed that these actions of the originals would be viewed as despicable by every reader.

Reason 2: The protagonists got steadily detached from the reader

It wasn't even just that they were ice cold towards their originals, that was just the finishing touch.
They started disconnecting the characters from the reader by revealing that they aren't from Earth.
You of course still view them as human, but that reveal still detaches you from them because you're from Earth and you were lead to believe they are too. But they're from an entirely different civilization, not even anything alike to anything humans know. They may be the descendants of earthlings, but they're still aliens more than anything.
The same with the reveal that they are all clones. Just one reveal after another that just distances you from these characters more.

Reason 3: The characters' endings just made no sense.

They all returned from their space travels to overthrow a belief that was faked for generations. There would have been more than "some anti-government movements", the whole system governing the planet would have collapsed.
The Astra's return would have thrown the mostly peaceful life on the planet with their fake history back into the age where the earth had been basically.
The "heroes" of the story, in this kind of scenario, would have been the bad guys.

Charce, whose original had just been dethroned and imprisoned for treason and deceit of all of humanity, was appointed the next king, BECAUSE he had the dna of his father in him? What the hell? No, he would have been imprisoned too, if anything. The former king shaked everyone's trust to the core, and then they put someone that is his duplicate in his place to rule next?
Did everyone on Astra get manipulated to be a mindless obedient doll or something of the sort?

And to finish this whole nonsense off, Kanata gets married, then flies off into space leaving his woman behind. Okay.

They had a great message in there, that people are how they are because of how they were raised and to think for oneself, but the whole ending just dragged that whole message through the mud.

madarchod said:
Although their were few things which i wanted to see in the final chapter(like kanata and co confronting their biological parents) but still the ending was quite satisfying.

Now,i am eagerly waiting for the anime.

AngelicTotoro said:


Yeah, same. I wish that they had confronted them, especially since (despite what he said) I got the feeling that Kanata's dad really did care about him.

Flevalt said:
Astra was an adventure for sure.

But the ending was horrible.

Reason 1: The clones didn't have an ounce of sympathy for their original selves.

If I was in their shoes, I would at the very least have some sort of an identity crisis before questioning whether I, as a mere clone, even have the right to take the place of the original, whether I wouldn't have desired the same thing as my original self etc.

The story just made them the bad guys and that was that. No moral questioning of any kind from the protagonists. It was so inhuman that it was almost borderline creepy as hell, everyone enjoying their happy ending while it gets announced that their originals have been detained.

They even made Quitterie look the EXACT same as her original at the end and still as a viewer you're supposed to not feel for the originals one bit.
How awkward is that?

I felt like there was no good reason to hate the originals for their relatable desires and that the author just naively assumed that these actions of the originals would be viewed as despicable by every reader.

Reason 2: The protagonists got steadily detached from the reader

It wasn't even just that they were ice cold towards their originals, that was just the finishing touch.
They started disconnecting the characters from the reader by revealing that they aren't from Earth.
You of course still view them as human, but that reveal still detaches you from them because you're from Earth and you were lead to believe they are too. But they're from an entirely different civilization, not even anything alike to anything humans know. They may be the descendants of earthlings, but they're still aliens more than anything.
The same with the reveal that they are all clones. Just one reveal after another that just distances you from these characters more.

Reason 3: The characters' endings just made no sense.

They all returned from their space travels to overthrow a belief that was faked for generations. There would have been more than "some anti-government movements", the whole system governing the planet would have collapsed.
The Astra's return would have thrown the mostly peaceful life on the planet with their fake history back into the age where the earth had been basically.
The "heroes" of the story, in this kind of scenario, would have been the bad guys.

Charce, whose original had just been dethroned and imprisoned for treason and deceit of all of humanity, was appointed the next king, BECAUSE he had the dna of his father in him? What the hell? No, he would have been imprisoned too, if anything. The former king shaked everyone's trust to the core, and then they put someone that is his duplicate in his place to rule next?
Did everyone on Astra get manipulated to be a mindless obedient doll or something of the sort?

And to finish this whole nonsense off, Kanata gets married, then flies off into space leaving his woman behind. Okay.

They had a great message in there, that people are how they are because of how they were raised and to think for oneself, but the whole ending just dragged that whole message through the mud.

Flevalt said:


Yeah the readability suffers a lot in long posts. The flipside is that you can't really pack good, meaningful exchanges in just a few lines.

To 1. I am not putting myself on the side of the parents, but it was extremely unnatural how quickly these characters managed to emotionally detach themselves from their parents to go from "i love my parents" to "let's imprison these criminals". And the reason they gave for this change was something that - to a fan of space exploration or science - should be at least somewhat understandable for these people. Things like curiosity and to explore the unknown, even if these things are considered immoral or taboo by current standards.

To 2. It's not that absurd if you think about it on a more basic level.
The more you have in common with something, the more you can sympathize with it.
You can easily sympathize with other mammals.
Can you sympathize with plants or insects? Less people can sympathize with those.
What about a virus or other microorganisms? How much sympathy are we willing to give those? The further away you step from similarities, the more distanced you naturally become. If a stranger dies, you're not as bothered as if a person dies, whom you know shares something with you.

You can say you didn't become detached. And I didn't become fully detached from them either. And it's not what I meant. But the more you take away in similarities, the more you put a distance between the characters and the readers. At least that is the effect that it can (or would typically) have.

To 3. Not the son creates the trust issues in that situation. His father was apprehended because he abused everyone's trust.
A sound mind can't blame the son for this and to us, the readers, who have followed him and know his story, it's a no-brainer that he is not to blame.
The people of astra do not have this context information and if they received it, e.g. from the news, it wouldn't be nearly as clear whether to trust that information source.
All the people know for certain is that the son is a clone of the father and that he was raised (and therefore probably indoctrinated to adapt his father's beliefs) by his father.
If I watch the news, I never know how much of the information is the truth and how much is just portrayed maybe wrong by how much they are willing to show and to talk about. There is always an agenda behind every news outlet and very few (if any) unbiased sources exist.
And when something negative takes the headlines, e.g. bombings by some terrorist, then people make a huge topic out of it and start searching for someone that is responsible regardless of how the reality looks like or if there even is someone responsible. Typically this thirst for justice from people is quenched by authorities by taking a scapegoat (usually any believable one will do) and punish them publicly.
If you ever followed news on criminals, they always catch someone potentially responsible for a crime, but rarely is there evidence that would be sufficient to say that they are really the perpetrator. Most of the police work is just guessing work with the goal to uphold the image that the public safety in the country is doing well. Investigations are stopped even if a perpetrator might still be on the loose, basically.

I know a fictional story doesn't always have a goal of being authentic, but I felt like in this case it was showing how few of the world the author understands.
Granted, the people of Astra were brought up way different from us from what I understood, so since they are more rational people (like Spock from Star Trek) maybe in that context the reaction of the population WOULD make sense.
I would still say most likely not but that would be a good point that speaks for the author's decision.