While the comment Rosalia made in episode 4 was more an excuse for her to justify her killing other players, it does show the fact that the players themselves do not have definite proof that they being physically killed when they are killed in the game. First, let’s review the information that the players can use to convince them that they will die if they are killed in the game.
- In episode 1, Akihiko Kayaba directly told all the players this information, supported by news from real life showing the death of people related to the game.
- Anyone that were killed off in the game does not come back to the game.
- They cannot log off themselves, and no one (that we know of) had their NerveGear forcefully removed, even after more than 1 year (the anime started at November 6, 2022, while the most recent date that we know if is Feb 24,2024 as shown in episode 4)
First and foremost, the most crucial information they had was the news reports that were shown from Akihiko Kayaba. However, since they can’t log out (fact 3), they have no way to authenticate what Kayaba showed was actually real news reports or not. In episode 1, Kayaba basically showed pictures relating to news reports that talked of the people dying because of SAO, and people crying over the passing of those people. As real as it might seem, he could have just made up the whole report, hired and filmed some actors to fake crying, and showed both, and the players, without any way to authenticate it, cannot have solid proof to decide if it was true or not. You say that falsifing those reports would be hard? It wouldn’t be easy, but my guess is that it would still be way easier than having to implement the brain destroying function on the NerveGear and explain to the related parties of why such function is actually needed for the game. Obviously, even if he does not have the power to kill people, he still have quite a bit of power to mess the game up, seen by the removal of log off button and the forced teleportation of everyone in episode 1.
As mentioned in the paragraph above, the players can’t log off, and hence cannot find the physical conditions of the people that were killed in the game, so they can’t say for sure that a certain player died in real life or not. On top of that, new players should not be able to log on after the start of the incident to prevent them from bringing in any news to the game world. If the NerveGear does really kill, then no new players would want to enter into the game world (why would they kill themselves), and hence that would a non-issue, but if the NerveGear does not have such abilities, then any new players that comes in would just destroy the whole fear that is in the game by mentioning the lack of such news reports in real life, and hence must be prevented at all costs. Fortunately, for the administrators, preventing people from logging in is really simple, as something as simple as displaying an Error 37 when someone tries to log on can stop them entering into the game world. Hence, for the players that are stuck, them not seeing new players, or players that were once killed (which might only be kicked from the game instead of being killed), point either truths, and hence cannot be used to proof the existence or the non-existence of the killing function.
One issue that other people mentioned was the need for the players’ physical bodies to consume nutrients while they are stuck in the game. While humans can go on for weeks without food, they can’t survive without drinking for days. Well, all that time is minuscule compared to the time that have passed within the game already (Nov 2022 – Feb 2024). So how can they live for so long not having the ability to grab food and eat for themselves. This, along with the issue with why someone like Kirito still weren’t forcefully pull out if the NerveGear does not kill, are few questions that I will try to answer with the following hypothesis:
1. [Assuming that the NerveGear does kill and what I said in the previous post about SAO is also true]. The surviving players are fed by their family members, and they, like heart-beating, still have the ability to chew and digest food, and as ugly as it sounds, their family members are also helping them with the disposal of their excrement and urine, all without moving the body too much [so that it won't trigger the brain frying function and kill the player]. This takes way too much input from the family members outside, and would obviously cause some family members to decide to ‘pull the plug’ on the players, especially if the player’s situation is as messed up as the main lead in .hack//Sign. Also, this will also cause the death of any players with their parents not living with them, which is the case of Klein, who is still alive by the end of episode 3, which either means that this hypothesis is false or his family members came and started living with him after hearing the news.
2. [Assuming that the NerveGear does not kill] The time in Sword Art Online is not the same as the time in real life. Just like how in sport video games, the game usually speed up the time of the match, making the match end faster than it would in a real sports match. It might be the case in Sword Art Online also, where despite experiencing the passing of years, they players might only really have played for hours. I argue that this is possible, since the duration of our dreams are not bounded the time that we sleep (sources needed). If this is true, it shows why the players aren’t dying from malnutrition, or is forcefully log off because of family members forcefully taking their helmets off, yet. Also, since there are so many time skips in the anime, maybe they players themselves aren’t experiencing everyday, but maybe actually just have control of several days in a mouth (actually, that sounds bullcrap to me too). The main issue of this hypothesis is the actions of Kirito, a beta tester, does not support this. If the days does go really fast, he should have caught on to this back when he was a beta tester, but his action shows otherwise. This might mean that this hypothesis is also incorrect, or that the administrators only increased the speed after the beta, which also means that players like Kirito would suddenly have faster response rate, so I donno how possible that this is.
3. The whole thing is just a hoax and players like Kirito can actually log off, and the time lapse is because he logged off. Wow, that just ruins the whole show eh?
Obviously, I might be over analyzing the whole show and is already starting to question something that is already establised as facts in the show, something which I should not do if I in mystery genre (which this is’t).Like Battler in the beginning of Umineko, he refused to accept anything and started questioning anything, and only started playing the game after the establishment of red truth, maybe I should also just accept the fact that the NerveGear does kill, the player’s physical bodies are kept alive somehow, and just see how Kirito pimps his way out of the game.
Well, there’s one huge detail in the LN missed out in the first episode, where Kayaba in his opening speech assured players that the authorities have been informed, and the players have been moved to medical facilities. I do not know why the anime cut that bit out, and hence we get the frequent presupposition that these players are all at their homes, and those living alone are in danger of the various issues highlighted in forms and anime blogs again, and again.
First to Andmeuths: I might be wrong, but I am quite sure Kabaya didn`t inform in the openning speech about the transfer to medical facilities. This was done until the next day, and only in those 2 days 1000 died from ingame suicide and people unplugging the helmets.
Now to the topic, let me make a simple question: If we die in real life, do we go to heaven to praise eternally to God? to hell and burn forever? to Paradise filled with 10 virgins for everyone? or we come back to Earth as a descendant or a as cockroach? We don’t know, and the only way to find out is to die and find a way to come back or talk with a ghost/spirit. That`s what the players in SAO think, and the only piece of information (real or not) that they have is that they will be release when the game is cleared. In fact, 10% of the population died of ingame and offgame suicide in the first 2 days, and 30% for the population decided to wait for government to solve SAO accident, stuck in lvl 1 for 2 years .
Now, this is a big spoiler, but it won`t affect the story overall. The government and later private industries actually took the SAO incident as a great opportunity to make human experimentation about VR effects and long time invernation since they could actually monitor the game statistics but couldn`t interfere. While most of the players were taken to improvised hospitals, Asuna and players with rich families were taken to private hospitals for special treatment, and Kirito and the frontline players were taken to state-of-the-art hospital for their care.
About the time-skips and the time speed, the author actually did a huge time skip in the first volume, and started to fill it in in the next volumes. The anime actually rushes the episodes more, so time flow isn`t well shown, but the game actually runs parallel to real life time including weather and seasons.
To both Andmeuths and Maverick05, thank you for the input and additional information, it really helps to answer some question that I have personally.
Well, I guess my first hypothesis is totally refuted by the fact that the players are hospitalized soon after the start of the issue. I also guess other hypothesis are also way weaker since the issue of nutrients is gone also. This leaves the issue with whether the NerveGear actually kills or not. I really liked Maverick05 connection of the whole question to the question of afterlife, it never crosses my mind that I can see it like that. And ya, you are right, the player themselves cannot fully determine NerveGear’s ability, and must depending on the ‘information’ given (they can’t authenticate it) and their own conclusions (hence some decided to stay and wait for government intervention, as I would also based on my conclusion from last SAO post).
What interest me then, is the method that they used to transport the players from their houses to the hospitals. Since, as I recall, their NerveGear is connected to the player’s computer and hence should always be near their computer. Additionally, since SAO is a MMORPG, it needs internet connection. While having internet connection within the hospital is easy, how will the medics make sure that there is internet while they are carrying the players…. On top of that, how will the computers that the NerveGear is connected to be kept on the whole time (especially if the computer is a desktop, ie Kirito’s computer)….
One simple solution is that the NerveGear was disconnected for the transport (the NerveGear it was still on to prevent illegal removal), and that the data was stored in the helmet so that it would auto reconnect when it is plugged in again inside the hospital. Instead, if it is done in any way that render the NerveGear’s ability useless even for a short period of time (ie Kabaya manually turning off the ability so that players won’t be killed during transport), then the medics could have just taken that opportunity and took off the NerveGear, making the whole scheme wasted within days. [Since from the sound of it, the people transporting the players weren't employees under Kabaya, but normal medics working under the government/private hospitals].
What I see ironic is that since the players are now under the care of hospitals (some public hospitals), it would be even easier for police to experiment (as per my previous post) on the players and find a method to get them out, and might have already found a way and got all of them out in less than a year [which didn't happen].
Or that the government is corrupted and is working with Kabaya etc… inb4 Japan government is corrupted etc etc etc
You are welcome. I will reply some of the questions.
Kabaya is the only person in SAO that can actually log off, and keep track of events in both worlds. If you check the first episode VERY CLOSELY, you will see that the helmet (NerveGear) actually has a 2 hours battery and a internal HDD. In fact, the author added this in side stories to explain that he allowed a massive desconnection for 2 hours for everyone still alive to be moved to the hospital.
Now, the game wasn`t that hardware-heavy game in which you needed strong requirements, but more like “you only need a big HDD and a good connection, the server and the NerveGear do the rest”.
About the NerveGear, it can fry the brain with microwaves in 10 seconds. Yet, when they discovered that time, they also learnt that with NerveGear some players were gaining higher battle awareness, faster mental reflex, and better strategic management, so the Army got interested on this. Also, they discovered that they could modify the brain limiters about pain, pleasure and other emotions that could affect the body to the point that they could actually program a human being with it, and many private companies got interested on this. So basically, it was better to keep them as an experiment than to save them.
Kabaya did notice this, didn`t like it, and took actions. But most likely we won`t see this until season 3 or 4. =D
Thanks for the additional information. Ya, I guess that would be case, having them be disconnected for 2 hours for transportation is way easier, and the internal batteries does it make is possible without having to disable the brain frying function.
And lol whatever happened to government actually helping their citizens, “lets use them for experiments instead of saving them”, clearly they are for the citizens >_>.
Also, I guess I really need to read the LN to really know the full picture of the incident, the anime just continue to have too many holes in it. (not that I will read the LN, >_> too lazy)