Shouldn’t Future Okabe remain the active observer?
I just finished the original Steins;Gate + the OVA (haven’t watched Steins;Gate 0 yet), and I think I found a possible inconsistency in the ending logic.
As I understand it, Steins;Gate only has one active world line at a time. When the past changes, reality rewrites itself completely, and Okabe’s Reading Steiner preserves his consciousness across those changes.
So shouldn’t Future Okabe — the older one from the Beta world line who records the final message — remain the active observer after the shift to the Steins Gate world line?
If Reading Steiner works consistently, shouldn’t he wake up as a 30-something-year-old Okabe in the Steins Gate world line, keeping his Beta memories but not remembering the Steins Gate life he never subjectively lived?
Instead, the ending seems to treat him as a sacrifice whose actions allow a younger Okabe to reach Steins Gate.
Am I missing something, or does the ending bend its own rules a bit here?