Your Alien Brother from Another Mother

Category: perspective

  • Modern Weapons in Isekai

    The modern weapons in isekai are a “cheat skill” and an imbalance. I remember one of the older isekai that I watched was Zero No Tsukaima. I remember that Saito would have access to different weapons and arsenals like a fighter plane. Now you could say that flying mythical beasts and magic could best modern weapons. However, in a fantasy setting, the accuracy and purposely built weapons would cause more damage than magic and incantations. Think of it as one would say “the pen is mightier than the sword,” true in some scenarios but in actual battles, the weapon would win. In the scenario of Saito, however, it was used as a weapon to protect or defend, which is okay, I guess, but in scenarios where it falls into the wrong hands, it becomes a destructive force that the more peaceful people can’t keep up with. All in all, it is an unfair fight; think of it like Boros from One Punch Man invading Earth, and we don’t have Saitama. Totally unfair, and it makes us feel very vulnerable and overwhelmed because we couldn’t defend against it. Now, if all people would have skin that fends off bullets then that would be a different scenario wouldn’t it? I am going beyond the topic now, but I think having these weapons is not bad, but I think limiting it in fantasy scenarios would be good for realistic perspectives.

  • Idealism and Moral Justice

    We all have an idealism of some sort. It might be too harsh or too soft. It all really boils down to our temperament and how we view the world. In an isekai, it is often achieved through vigilante justice because often times isekai villains are either too influential or are already above the law. Injustice is rampant, and there would be oppressed or belittled races. Morality kind of goes out the window. No longer is it about trying to do what’s right; rather, it is about power struggles and trying to access political or social status. Yuusha or heroes would often level up or gain absurd powers, then swoop in and defeat the enemies. This story setup sparks something inside of us that makes it so satisfying to watch or continue on with a series. It is in all of us to want to take control of a situation and do what we think is right, call it a compass of some sort. The usual trope of the weak character becoming strong, we like to identify ourselves with someone powerless, that works hard and achieves things through hard work and resilience, then stumbling upon a superpower or a “cheat skill” that somehow makes the hero journey more bearable.

    We yearn for that kind of world, a world where we somehow can make a difference, trying to defeat Demon Lords and gaining control over our situation and lives. This genre of anime is often an alternative escape, similar to what MMORPG once was, trying to play out a role wherein you have more control. What kind of role would you play if you have more control? Would you be the righteous judge who considers all things before making a decision? Would you prefer to be the vigilante, who instantly seeks us justice for those who can’t? We all have an ideal world. What kind of world is ideal for you? What kind of E-Sekai would you want to have?

  • What is Peace for You?

    Peace is a very sought-after thing. I think it is fair to say that everybody wants peace.
    Throughout history, there were different ways that “peace” was achieved. Take, for example, power struggles or cold wars. There are different factions that create a “stalemate” to avoid the risk of mass destruction or even complete annihilation.
    When presented with the option to go against an immovable force or a bigger opponent. What is it that you do? Do you instead create small skirmishes that try to destabilize or just conserve energy and try to negotiate your position? The issue comes when the intention is to dominate or overwhelm the other. Now, take for instance Subaru from Re:Zero. He has the option to just go back and redo all the mistakes that were done. Now, we do not consider the implications and future impacts of war. What matters is the immediate results of what we want. The problem is war of attrition. Now, wars last at most hundreds of years. With the rise of more modern warfare and powerful weapons, it usually just lasts a couple of years.

    Peace can be acquired once we know what exactly we are fighting for and are willing to give up and surrender that. When we ask ourselves, is it really worth it? Winning something now and losing in the long run? It could have been that an alliance is formed. It could even be that we lose a lifelong agreement over such trivial matters. What is it that we are fighting for? What is it that you want to achieve? Now, in this E-Sekai world, peace is commonplace because in that world, we can take out from a magic bag infinite amounts of whatever it is that we need. Technology and power can be achieved by divine blessing and opportunity, and everyone is living purposefully. What is peace for you? Aren’t we all after peace that surpasses all understanding? Well, I could at least offer you a peaceful retreat from all the seriousness of this world.

  • Dying To Get To Another World

    Would you be okay to die here if you have an option to go to an isekai? Weird comes to mind when thinking about life and purpose. It might be that you are already content here in this world and would rather have a peaceful rest in the afterlife. Maybe you have some unfinished business that you want to achieve here that you want to fulfill in the next world. Either way, dying in this world is hard to think about, especially if you have things that keep you occupied here. Oddly enough, most of the isekai trope is the result of a selfless act of sacrifice of oneself to save another. The good old, jumping in front of a truck to save a crossing child scene. Classic and oddly enough it can still be differentiated in another way. Take for example Rudeus from Mushoku Tensei, while you can say that he willingly sacrificed his life to save another. I think that the action stems out from the meaninglessness of his own life. Contrasting this to a “heroic” act of saving, you could say that the prior is more selfish. Selfish in the sense that it tries to end its own suffering. Much less heroic if perceived that way, though not discounting the life that was saved at the time. It is a perspective of someone that looks with pity for his current situation. I am by no means saying that living that life is not hard, truly if you are someone that is having that kind of struggles please ask for help. There are a lot of places that would gladly help and speak with you without any judgement, please be kind to yourself and seek them out.
    Back to the topic, I think that there is a certain sacrifice that is more aware/proactive. Much like a soldier that takes a bullet for a civilian, an act of service that seeks the wellbeing of others. I think that there are a lot of people looking for an escape from this world, there is a reason why the isekai genre is popular nowadays. You could wake up one morning and just see everything wrong that is happening in this world, from simple traffic, to gun violence, to global warming. All this could weigh you down and just make you see all the things that are wrong with this world, and yet there is a view that never loses that hope in this broken world.
    I guess this is sort of an invitation. Before you start thinking about dying to get to an isekai. Why not try to find something that could add a little bit more good in this broken world? That way, you could heal it a bit and truly add purpose to your life.

  • What Power Would You Want In an E-Sekai

    The God has spoken, you can have any power in this new world. What would you want?
    A magic pocket that you can pull anything at any time? A library of knowledge that you can learn anything and everything from?
    The power to control elements? The power to foresee the future?
    Interestingly, this question is something that I got myself asking. I mean, I could ask for anything, right?
    You could provide a full description of your capabilities, like a DnD character lore.
    Honestly, I have never played DnD, but I assume that if you created a character without downsides, that it wouldn’t be fun, right?
    A perfect character that has a counter for everything, then that wouldn’t make a balance game, right?
    When is it apt to be content and wanting to strive for more?
    I think adaptability is one of the best powers we can have. As time passes, we want to be able to mold our environment to adjust to levels and create a process of redistribution. This can create a balance that would make the experience fun and fresh.
    I think that the striving for more can only happen if the environment encourages and creates space for improvement. Contentment only happens when struggling does not create fruit, which makes the entire endeavor meaningless.
    When coming into an isekai, the general trope is for the main character to be overpowered. This essentially makes side characters almost irrelevant apart from adding flavor and color to the main character’s story. While the MC can essentially run the show himself, we often find him/her encountering characters either by choice or by chance. Generally, evolving or growing characters make the story more colorful and create a more balanced world. So while being overpowered seems the ideal choice at first, having other people join in creates a more unique and bright story line.

  • Trusting People In A Different Environment

    Who do we trust in times of untruths and unknown unknowns? In a world of E-Sekai, we would come across different ways of interpreting things. When conversations are straightforward, then it is easy to get an answer, but if we want unhindered truth, we often find ourselves walking on eggshells? Why is that? Experiences are truths; no one could ever dispute what you have experienced in your life. However, there are certain things that go beyond our experiences. Discovering truths of the world is like discovering magic in another world; it’s like discovering gravity or the knowledge of how the world operates. Much like when we find a new discovery, we celebrate, we promote, and rejoice in the thing that we uncovered. Trust is like that; when we get to know something about someone, we rejoice and feel special, and the same is true with that person. What if that discovery or special game is now shared with another? Is it still yours? Would the value of the relationship collapse? Not really… because the value of anything is based on the appraiser. Relationships that are built on trust rather than power dynamics are stronger, since there really aren’t any expectations from a trust relationship, which is similar to a pact. Think of it like a child’s relationship with a parent; if it is just output or outcome-based, then surely the child has little to no benefit for the parent. We take care of the other anyway, just because the value of the child isn’t solely based on its output, and that is ultimately subjective.
    The topic of trust is based on a lot of aspects; we create a space where trust is safe for mutual parties, where even though we say or do something, they won’t take offense; rather, it would be taken as a collaborative ideal, which helps create something positive. Trust is very sensitive, especially for things that are outside our control; it acts like a bank of some sorts; when something is overdrawn, then we demand that trust is reciprocated. The topic in itself is getting out of hand, but let me leave you with a good thought: trusting people in a different environment can be hard, but so long as we can get a common ground on things, I believe that there are always ways to talk things through and gain mutual respect and perspective.

  • Another World Within This World

    An E Sekai doesn’t need to be out of this world; rather, it can be created within. The easiest way to shift things around is usually by creating something new, to start from scratch and create it in such a way that it aligns with our ideals. Of course, if that is true, then it would mean that future you won’t have a future, so instead of thinking outside the box, we create a box within the box. Within that box, we can build upon things that are meaningful and important to us and our purpose; we make sure that the contents of that box are not easily accessed. Taking responsibility for the security of the box and how it is accessed from within the bigger box. We carefully choose the right people, the right connections, so that it could fulfill its role and purpose. How do we do that? We use core principles to find what matches it. That way, we could live in that small box in the hopes that someday, we could work our way towards a bigger box. Before you know it, we now have a bigger box; it would get messy for sure, some would outgrow the box, some would find familiarity with the box so that maybe in the future we could have a fair share of space within the bigger box and hopefully not lose core things that built that box in the first place.

    Anyway, this idea came from the Schrödinger cat experiment, but instead of a cat, we replace the content with a man. The life of the man is in the hands of the one conducting the experiment, unlike the cat, which could not really care for itself. The man could create a safe space for himself within the box and maybe take care of the cat as well. TADA! A small E-Sekai for those within your box. It might be a little bit cramped, but at the very least, there is peace there.

  • Fulfillment In Life and Why We Want Another World

    I’ve been chatting with my brother about a few things, and one question he asked really stuck with me. Why would we even want to live in another world if we’re already happy and fulfilled with this one?
    We all have this desire to have more, right? Our goals in life are like moving targets. When we’re young, we set our sights on finishing school, finding a partner, finding stability, getting married, having kids, having grandkids, and then finally retiring. After all that, we should be feeling fulfilled, right?
    Oh how great it would if nothing stops us to achieve our goals right? However in life we encounter setbacks that stops us from getting to our goals, what do we do? It is easy to compare ourselves with others around us, friends, family etc. When we do that, it’s easier to feel bitter, it magnifies the things that are missing in our lives. This is especially true if and when those goals are not our own, rather goals that are imposed onto us creates resentment towards those who pushed their goals onto us. We long for something beyond our control and hope to have those things happen in another place, some place that is better, where all those dreams can be realized.
    It reminded me of something someone told me: a God-size hole can only be filled by God. Maybe when we encounter setbacks, it gives us a chance to encounter something that creates space in our lives. To collect broken pieces, to build upon the rubble, to say that hope is never lost. Maybe not in this world, maybe in a better one, maybe in a place where we meet people that yearn for the same things.
    We cannot control everything for sure, our world can be quite illogical in a lot of ways. But we should always remain hopeful and strive for things that would truly make us happy in this one and our e sekai.

  • The Utopian View in a Dystopian World

    Why do we dream of a new world? Can’t we just be satisfied with this one? If we can’t be satisfied with what we have, can’t we just try and fix this one? When our horizons get broadened, we often see how things can be and should be. Often times we already have an idea of what is the ideal and what we are settling with. Being content is not bad, however we might fail to see what is “tolerated”. Utopian world views are dreams, a perfect design that fits the vision of its creator and everything is in harmony on the other hand a dystopia is the contradiction to that view and there is dissonance instead.

    Acceptance and tolerance are two different things, on one hand acceptance is embracing the differences while striving for ideals; on the other hand tolerance allow for the decline of ideals. Often times that is the challenge, especially if there are different ideals. So how do we see the world in a better light if we can only see the decline in to dystopia. That thought lingered through my head as I banged my face against the wall, is it all futile? Honestly, until I was given a new life, I only saw the world through rose colored glasses. I guess its not any different now, its just that I acknowledging that there was a view that I did not really consider. Truly, I cannot change all things nor bend things towards what is ideal, but I can start somewhere, the best place to start is at home and with myself to set in order things within my grasp. Is it possible? Yes! but that requires cooperation from all those around us, we can only do so much and we are often limited in time, so we must build upon things that would last beyond our life time, to be able to say that we have done the right things in pursuit of the ideals that was entrusted onto us.

  • Making Sense of the Pareto Principle

    The Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule, where 20% owns 80% of the wealth. The idea in itself was supposedly applicable in other areas like efficiency, where 80% of the output comes from 20% of the workers.

    While this is applicable to certain scenarios, using it as a catch all can be detrimental. My though about this is, in this world we were meant to serve each other and the higher up we are in the chain, then we have a bigger role to play. To be called “vital” should not be self serving rather it should serve the interest of the people. The world really isn’t in an ideal place right now, arguably people shift things towards their advantage. In this world, certain things are needed in order to move things properly and accordingly, this hurts because often times the interest of one view does not justify the interest of other another’s view. This is similar to what I wrote about earlier in the “Trolley Problem“. The “vital few” often times need to take care of the own tribe first which can be contradicting to the bigger picture. Power and control also play a part, because often we can be persuaded by different things depending on the situation that we are in.

    What happens if we are on the other side of the Pareto principle. Do we just stay still and wait until the 20% dictates what should be done? Maybe yes, if we believe in them even if it complicates all the things in our lives. Maybe no, if we want to move on our own way. In life there are certain boundaries, and we don’t necessarily have the means to cross those boundaries, I mean chance happens to all of us after-all. I think what matters is what we do with what we have, it doesn’t mean we don’t try to broaden our horizons, rather it just means that we hold on to the 20% so that we could better serve the 80%.