Groundhog Day, Savescumming, and Our Endless Numbered Days

One of my favourite tropes (or maybe it's a genre at this point) in media is the Groundhog Day time loop. Most people know this well—the classic 1993 film starring Bill Murray where he finds himself waking up to the exact same day, frozen in a repeating 24-hours. In each loop he becomes more knowledgeable, more aware of the machinations of every person at every hour. Only by following the hero's journey, and by undergoing a profound moral transformation, does Murray's character break the cycle. He abandons his selfish, cynical ways, and his final loop is a perfect, selfless day dedicated to helping others. This film wasn't the first story to have a timeloop, that would arguably be the 1905 Russian novel the Strange Life of Ivan Osokin by P.D. Ouspensky. It features the protagonist, Osokin, who is granted the ability to live his life over again but struggles to change his fate the second time. What might surprise you though, is how many pieces of media actually follow the Groundhog Day…