It’s always interesting to find references in places where you wouldn’t expect.
With regard to anime especially, the medium tends to be pretty insular, so imagine my
surprise when Steins;Gate 0 ends up referencing the 1984 Academy Award winning movie Amadeus,
and of course the relationship it’s based on.
Many people know who Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is, but fewer know of Antonio Salieri, competing
composer and close rival.
The dynamic between the two ends up being analogous to Hiyajo Maho and Makise Kurisu
in Steins;Gate 0, and much of Maho’s characterization involves her interpretation of this dynamic.
She names the A.I. based on Kurisu “Amadeus,” which in addition to being Mozart’s middle
name, translates to “beloved of God.”
Like Mozart, she considers Kurisu’s intellect so great that it must be God-given.
Throughout the series she struggles with feelings of inferiority, worsened by the fact that
the object of her envy has passed.
She often compares herself with Salieri, identifying with his mad jealousy that drove him as far
as the use of poison, and the idea that she herself is the Salieri to Kurisu’s Mozart
brings her a lot of pain.
But, the thing is, Salieri never poisoned Mozart.
The idea is but a simple rumor that Amadeus took hold of and ran with, making for a great
story about obsession and envy, but not a very accurate one.
And what makes Steins;Gate 0 kind of interesting to me is that it plays with this misconception.
In the Beta worldline, Kurisu is gone, leaving a massive hole in both our hearts, and the
story itself.
Maho is the one that must take Kurisu’s place, something that she would say is impossible.
Yes, impossible… which is why she’s successful in creating a highly sophisticated A.I. based
on a deceased person’s memory.
Nope, completely impossible, just ignore the fact that she was not only able to recreate
Kurisu’s time-leap machine, she improved it from 2 days… to 2 weeks, surpassing what
even Kurisu was able to do.
I titled this video “Maho is Mozart,” but the truth of the matter is, it doesn’t
matter who’s Mozart.
Both him and Salieri were respected composers of their time, and while they did butt heads
now and then, they also respected one another.
After all, it takes a certain amount of talent to be able to recognize genius in the first
place.
Maho is the Salieri to Kurisu’s Mozart just as much as Kurisu is the Salieri to Maho’s
Mozart.
The fact that Steins;Gate 0 operated under the initial dynamic of the movie, only to
turn it on its head and mimic the actual history, is quite gratifying.
Just to show that this was not by mistake but by design, this misconception is also
acknowledged by Maho’s ending “Twin Automata” in the SG0 visual novel.
Maho says,
“I guess I really am Salieri.
All I could ever do was be jealous of Amadeus…” to which Moeka replies with,
“No, Salieri wasn’t jealous.
It’s possible for someone with talent to recognize someone with even greater talent.
That goes for you too.
Salieri poisoning Mozart was just a rumor at the time.
The movie took that rumor and added to it.
That’s what Kurushima said.”
There are a lot of things wrong with Steins;Gate 0.
But at the very least, I loved Maho, and I think her struggle with insecurity is something
we can all learn from.
Sometimes it can seem like other people just naturally take to things you’ve had a hard
time with.
They can be really good, or maybe they’re even better than you.
That’s fine, they’re them, you’re you.
You can be really good too.
Thanks for watching, and be sure to like and subscribe for more content.
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Special thanks to GallonBG, Ir dot com, Animestustustuck, TsunamiGamer632, and Mushed Peas 294 for their
support.
And of course, if anything I said was wrong, I’m sorry.
I must’ve stuttered.