When a fan of a cult anime series wanted to watch its episodes in every possible order, they asked a question that had perplexed combinatorial mathematicians for years
I wouldn’t, at all, be able to be in the mental space of “this episode is the third episode in the continuity of 1 2 3, the second episode in the continuity of 2 3 1, and the first episode in a new set”. It isn’t the same thing, practically. Between viewings, you can do a sort of “mental reset” but if theres no “between viewings” and the viewings are in fact simultaneous, I just don’t think its feasible to experience an episode as 3 different points in a chronology at the same time.
I guess personally I wouldn’t think of it in such concrete terms. It would be more like a rolling memory of what I viewed last. I.e. ‘ah I’ve just watched episodes 1, 2 and 3, and now I’ll watch episode 1 again’. The last two episodes will naturally be clearer in my recent memory, so in effect I’m watching them in the predetermined chunks.
But maybe that scenario would break down once you get onto the third viewing of episode 1 and your memories of when you viewed what become muddled xD
Why not? It’s the same thing, you just have to change your frame of reference as to which episode was ‘first’ for each permutation
I can’t speak for everyone, but datapoint of me:
I wouldn’t, at all, be able to be in the mental space of “this episode is the third episode in the continuity of 1 2 3, the second episode in the continuity of 2 3 1, and the first episode in a new set”. It isn’t the same thing, practically. Between viewings, you can do a sort of “mental reset” but if theres no “between viewings” and the viewings are in fact simultaneous, I just don’t think its feasible to experience an episode as 3 different points in a chronology at the same time.
I guess personally I wouldn’t think of it in such concrete terms. It would be more like a rolling memory of what I viewed last. I.e. ‘ah I’ve just watched episodes 1, 2 and 3, and now I’ll watch episode 1 again’. The last two episodes will naturally be clearer in my recent memory, so in effect I’m watching them in the predetermined chunks.
But maybe that scenario would break down once you get onto the third viewing of episode 1 and your memories of when you viewed what become muddled xD