Theory: Hermann versus the Basilisk
Hello everyone, I wanted to share here a small theory of mine about Hermann's motivations. I don't expect it to necessarily be true, but I have never seen any discussion of it before, so I might as well do it myself.
Why does Hermann want to destroy all mirror worlds ?
First, I need to start by exposing the assumptions this theory is based on:
1) There is nothing special about our main world. It isn't a specially "True" world, it's just a mirror world like any other, that we happen to be living in.
2) Mirrors worlds can affect each other.
If any of these facts are ever revealed to be false, then you can throw away the rest of my discussion.
So here is the theory:
I believe that Hermann might be caught in some sort of dilemma that makes it so she has to destroy all mirror worlds, because she could.
It gets quite obvious if you start to think about what all the mirror Hermanns are doing. Do they have the same goal ? Not all of them surely, but some probably do. What happens if they succeed first ? Literally, it's the end of the world. So our Hermann has to destroy them, and do it fast, otherwise it's the end of everything. She can't chose to not do it, or she will lose everything to the first version of herself who made the other choice.
This is why I call this Hermann's basilisk. Like Roko's basilisk, it's a thought that dooms you simply by thinking it.
If you live in some sort of multiverse where any world could potentially have the ability to destroy others, then if you do so little as have the *idea* that you could destroy all others, then you have to. Because even if you chose not to do it, some other version of you (or anyone else) will make the other choice. And you have to prevent them from destroying you first.
Because this reasoning applies to all worlds the same, most version of you who had the idea will probably also make that choice. And then, your entire life becomes a weapons race, because at that point, only the fastest will survive. Just because you had that one bad idea. Just because any number of people in any number of worlds might have had the same. You have to spend your entire life searching desperately for a way to end them all, all the while praying that it's not possible, because out of all the many many worlds out there, what are the chances that you would be the first one to figure it out ?
Do i really think that's the motivation behind Hermann's actions ? I'm not sure. The mirror world system is extremely blurry and unclear in its behavior, or the ways different worlds can or cannot interact (Canto 6 spoilers:How the fuck did the erlking travel from world to world ? Did some version of N corp summon him in every world he visited ? How could he possibly think, then, that he has visited anything close to "every world" ???). It could easily be that this worldbuilding does not support this basilisk. Also it doesn't feel yet like this would be thematic to the character arcs we're on. But I wanted to at least get the idea out there.
TL;DR: Maybe Hermann wants to destroy all other mirror worlds so that some mirror Hermann doesn't destroy ours first.