Steins;Gate 0 is one of very few shows presenting time travel in a logically coherent way. At one point, two characters travel back one year to slap some sense into the main character, Okabe Rintaro.
Unfortunately, their time machine is running out of fuel, so they can only keep going further into the past with no control over where they’ll end up. Eventually, they land in 18,000 BC, and their prospects look rather dim. Thankfully, on a different “world line,” as the many parallel versions of reality are called in the show, another Okabe has spent the next 15 years after their departure working hard to build a different time machine so he can go search for them.
It makes for a beautiful moment. A dark, barren planet with no food or hope of escape. But then, a glowing light, sparks raining from the sky. And out of the glimmer walks Okabe Rintaro, the mad scientist, with only five words for his long-lost companions: “Kept ya waiting, didn’t I?”
You, too, can travel back in time. If there’s a version of you that feels lost, that doesn’t mean it’s gone. Your time machine is always on, always working. It sits right between your ears.
Sometimes, it takes a lot of fiddling. You have to bring all the tools, align all the wires, and fix any short circuits in the system. But in the end, there it is: a past self, liberated. Free from pain, anger, or sorrow. Free to travel back to the future and contribute to your best life.
The clock is just a nuisance. It’s never too late to travel back in time and start from the beginning.
