It reeks of a convenience dodge, and I'm no longer going to tiptoe around it: That's exactly what it was.
People were always asking "Yeah well if Battler's alive, why isn't he appearing?" And it turns out he didn't have any good answer, so he went with "He forgot." I could be a prick and say that amnesia doesn't even work that way but the reason I don't like it in fiction has nothing to do with it being unrealistic and everything to do with it being unfathomably stupid.
The "bittersweet older Battler" thing I have no problem with. It's that he had no good mechanic to set it up except amnesia, and he damn well knows it. It makes me question whether he put any thought into it before this point whatsoever, and I'll tell you right out, the answer is that he didn't.
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