Yeah, it’s definitely something of a deus ex machina gimmick. Tsukasa just plain lost and the logical ending is for him to be stoned or killed—but gosh darn it, they just wanted him around too much and to redeem him somehow, so hey! here’s this other thing which has not been foreshadowed or meaningfully written into his characterization or worldbuilding, like, at all. I rolled my eyes when I saw that twist coming. Even given the Dr Stone formula of wildly swerving between ‘shonen’ and ‘Robinsonade’, it was poorly done.
(Ryusui would’ve been a better negation of Tsukasa, but would have been tricky to to make that work. If you are at the point his naval skills really matter, the Tsukasa war has to be over already as the exponential cascade should’ve already long passed irreversibility by the time you have the manpower to build sailing ships rather than, say, a dugout canoe.)
Tsukasa just plain lost and the logical ending is for him to be stoned or killed
except that 1) there is sometimes too much of such hostility in the real world, 2) some people can legitimately be redeemed—that is, they change thinking strategies and approximations to their values when they see what has been created (re: Einstein’s reaction to atomic bomb creation), 3) I don’t think anyone depicted in the anime would have valued fairness/consistency/other base for punishing Tsukasa—and with death penalty, no less—over compassion.
Authors might have held the position (shout-out to @the gears to ascension!) “[we] want literally every human to get to go to space often and come back to a clean and cozy world. This currently seems unlikely. Let’s change that.” Even if they haven’t: there is such vibe, and I somewhat endorse it!
Senku definitely holds that position, and of the authors I wouldn’t be surprised if Boichi at least did—he is famously a big lover of classic science fiction. If you check out his Dr. Stone: Byakuya solo spinoff manga, it starts out as a simple side story, showing the life of Senku’s dad and his astronauts companions in space, and then spirals out in a completely insane direction involving essentially an AI singularity (understandably, it’s not canon).
There is a certain “Jump heroes shouldn’t kill wantonly” vibe I guess but truth be told Jump heroes have gotten significantly more willing to dirty their hands recently (now Kagurabachi seems set to become the next big thing, and Chihiro has a body count in the dozens at this point). So I don’t think editorial fiat explains this either.
It’s really part of the manga’s fantasy, as in, realistically, sure, Tsukasa would have been killed or kept in stone. But just like everyone is able to make up really complicated fully functioning devices with rudimentary means, everyone is able to reach Aumann Agreement within a relatively short time of being proven wrong. That’s just how the world rolls.
Yeah, it’s definitely something of a deus ex machina gimmick. Tsukasa just plain lost and the logical ending is for him to be stoned or killed—but gosh darn it, they just wanted him around too much and to redeem him somehow, so hey! here’s this other thing which has not been foreshadowed or meaningfully written into his characterization or worldbuilding, like, at all. I rolled my eyes when I saw that twist coming. Even given the Dr Stone formula of wildly swerving between ‘shonen’ and ‘Robinsonade’, it was poorly done.
(Ryusui would’ve been a better negation of Tsukasa, but would have been tricky to to make that work. If you are at the point his naval skills really matter, the Tsukasa war has to be over already as the exponential cascade should’ve already long passed irreversibility by the time you have the manpower to build sailing ships rather than, say, a dugout canoe.)
except that
1) there is sometimes too much of such hostility in the real world,
2) some people can legitimately be redeemed—that is, they change thinking strategies and approximations to their values when they see what has been created (re: Einstein’s reaction to atomic bomb creation),
3) I don’t think anyone depicted in the anime would have valued fairness/consistency/other base for punishing Tsukasa—and with death penalty, no less—over compassion.
Authors might have held the position (shout-out to @the gears to ascension!) “[we] want literally every human to get to go to space often and come back to a clean and cozy world. This currently seems unlikely. Let’s change that.” Even if they haven’t: there is such vibe, and I somewhat endorse it!
Senku definitely holds that position, and of the authors I wouldn’t be surprised if Boichi at least did—he is famously a big lover of classic science fiction. If you check out his Dr. Stone: Byakuya solo spinoff manga, it starts out as a simple side story, showing the life of Senku’s dad and his astronauts companions in space, and then spirals out in a completely insane direction involving essentially an AI singularity (understandably, it’s not canon).
There is a certain “Jump heroes shouldn’t kill wantonly” vibe I guess but truth be told Jump heroes have gotten significantly more willing to dirty their hands recently (now Kagurabachi seems set to become the next big thing, and Chihiro has a body count in the dozens at this point). So I don’t think editorial fiat explains this either.
It’s really part of the manga’s fantasy, as in, realistically, sure, Tsukasa would have been killed or kept in stone. But just like everyone is able to make up really complicated fully functioning devices with rudimentary means, everyone is able to reach Aumann Agreement within a relatively short time of being proven wrong. That’s just how the world rolls.