Small rant about a plothole of isekais

For the avid readers of isekais, you should have fallen once on the situation where "there is a bunch of people in the wild and they take turns to guard" right ?

Don't you think it's strange that the characters somehow looks like they know the time by the fact they wake up the next person right when it's his/her turn ?
Really often, there is no hourglass nor watches. Did they count every second until X hours is gone or they use the position of the moon and/or the stars ? Somehow i find that not practical.
It's never often not said what/how they did.
Also we should think that the characters beside MC doesn't have a rpg system that sometimes have a watch function.

 

If there's no watches and clocks there is also no one to tell them they are wrong, so not sure why they would care about exact timing?

 

They don't really need a precise measurement of time, so people can use the moon for a general time. Or maybe an hourglass? Those were first created quite some time ago.

 

for me, it depends on the detail in 'bunch of people'
- veteran adventures : should have a fairly accurate time measure, manually or by tools
- bunch of people isekai'd: too nervous to sleep probably, or, the thing that always invade your pocket

also, if you have campfire, you should have quite an accurate time measure by how many times you have been adding wood...

you don't need even need accuracy up to minutes in this case...

in any case, these details are, for me, better not explained in detail (unless as side material). Too much detail robs the readers' focus, unless, the time is your plot point

 

actually, I haven't encountered those. night watch switching I mean. the only one I remember is from binary soul.
I think they use their own biological clock. there will be some error, but that's acceptable.
that's my guess anyway.

 

For most veteran adventures, the biological clock makes sense.

I mean I've conditioned myself to wake up at 3am. I've always had my alarm go off at that time. So there are time were I don't need to set my alarm, my body just wakes up either a few minutes before 3am or about 5-10 minutes after.

Unless Im super exhausted, my biological clock works just fine.
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But this purely in relation of actual practice vs fantasy.

For all we know, we could use the ambiguous, they know time because its "magic" that's why.

 

Do it the Dr. Stone way, count every second to keep track of time and use mathematics to figure out how many hours have gone by since you were isekai'd. Start time is the most recent time from right before you isekai'd, or at least noon if it was day, midnight for night.

 

Hourglasses aren't novelty but, assuming they were too expensive...

Either biological clock or for example(I always assumed it would be such thing)

Toss one forearm-like piece of wood into the fire, when you can't spot it anymore, your turn is over.
It's obviously inaccurate but prolly would work for people who shit on streets.

 

Not sure if you are serious or bullshitting a little.

I heard about biological clock allowing people to always wake up at the same time during the morning, or that it's time to eat because you are hungry but NEVER about how much time passed ! How can you guess with biological clock that for ex: 2 hours is gone and it's the turn of someone else ? Do you mean something like a gut feeling that X time passed ? or intuition ? or just: "Ah i was gone to the toilet X times now so it's been Y min/hours since my turn started" ? it's not useful if you try to guess a small by how hungry you are.

 

Not really, they just say take turns. Nobody said exactly 2 hours take for every turn. It's more like guarding until the one guarding next turn wake up.

But seriously, if you have enough intention you could wake up in the middle of night. I can wake up at 3 am (or earlier then my alarm set) even though i usually wake at 9 am.

 

Well trying to ground fantasy with reality, I figured people's natural instincts along with repetition could be plausible.

The biological clock thing is dependent on a re-occurring action/ practice. Like what you've mentioned where the body knows when to eat or stuff like that. If you practice certain patterns in life, it just becomes ingrained within the psyche or subconsious. Its very similar to picking up habits or routines.

But this isn't effective initially, you'd need a way to keep track of things in the first place. The biological clock (routine) needs an outside stimulus, in order maintain its function. [Kind of like winding the spring on an old clock]

So now we are back to square one. How do adventurer's tell time?

-The moon, stars, celestial bodies & the night sky.
This is only plausible for individuals who can actual read the night sky. And if the "Isekai" world follows a rotational day & night cycle. Real world wise, usually scholars, veteran travelers & seafarers had the skill to tell time and place. There are books on seafaring without a compass and use of the night sky.

>Caveat though, this method doesn't work if the adventurers are in a dungeon, cave, enclosed space.

 

Sometimes, when I read till deep into the night, I can estimate pretty precisely what time it is... even while avoiding to look at the clock, since I know I should already be sleeping. Humans worked pretty fine before clocks were invented.

And stars/moons on a clear night are pretty good indicators, too. At least with a bit of training. If you aren't in a city or a place with a lot of light pollution, you may even differentiate between "almost black", "completely black" and "black with a bit of blue, just before the sun goes anywhere near the horizon".

And most humans are capable to know wheather they were keeping watch for closer to 1 hour or 4 hours. (if the concept of hours even exists... this is a bigger logic flaw for some million kilometer xianxia planets/worlds... which still have north, east, south and west)

Edit: And different animaly make different sounds around different times... for example the birds infront of my bedroom window start to "sing" around 4:30. Fuck them.

Edit2: Light pollution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pollution

 

It's possible. Think of the afternoon nap. Ever wonder why when you fall asleep at night you sleep 6+ hours, but when you nap in the afternoon it is for like an hour or 2? Our bodies biological clocks can work differently based on our environment, so someone indoors can sleep a full sleep and when outdoors sleep only a few hours.

As for how to tell time at night, the stars is most definitely a practical way to tell time, find the north star and the position of the big dipper, and that is pretty much a clock.

But how about a more simple solution that even someone from a different world can use without any equipment, fire. Kind of like a candle can be used to tell time, but you use the wooden sticks or how often you need to refresh the camp fire. Obviously the time would not bee very accurate, but good enough.

 

Yeah i also really hate to hear birds singing in the morning, sleeping or not, it's the same.

 

Pets would also work to keep time. Anyone who owns a dog knows they have a ridiculously accurate sense of time & will wake you up like clockwork if they're accustomed to doing so.

 

Plot holes in isekai are common, if i complaint for each plot holes i will already left this world because of the amount of headaches.

 

Yep, i know.

 

I haven't read those because usually the mc:

• Is OP & no monster come near
• Is OP & wakes up if there's danger
• Can use barrier or something similiar
• Is OP & teleport back to base for the night
• Have great teammates or subordinates who keep watch for mc, mc sleep peacefully

 

there are many ways to tell time besides looking at the dark sky. not to mention that its impossible to tell the time by reading the stars.

webnovels are not meant to fill in the blanks of things you dont know so theres no need for the authors to tell you about how the medieval life works

 

I once go to the military training camp and needed to stand guard for 2 hours on 2am-4am. I somehow woke myself around 15 mins before the shift without anyone to wake me up. Bioclock worked wonder I guessed.

Also that two hours made me rethink much of my life that I almost created an entire trilogy plot.