.Hack//Roots – 17 – Building up

I’m wondering about Phyllo’s life in the real world, if he’s able to sit on that bridge for 24/7. The feeling that we’re dealing with an MMORPG here still misses.

But seriously, what’s up with Haseo? He’s been fighting monsters in emo-mode for entire episodes now. I could be wrong, but I think that the creators are building up to something. With a bit of luck, that something will be happening at the next episode. But then again, .Hack//Roots always has been deceiving when it comes to matters like this.

In any case, this episode definitely has been building up. A lot. Tabby is still feeling extremely down. This time, she meets another new character: Seisaku. The two then have an interesting discussion, and it seems like Seisaku will be helping Tabby a bit. Seisaku also introduced a nice issue. Not only newbies have problems in the world. Mid-range players probably have it worse. The newbies get beaten because of fun, though the mid-range players have rare items equipped at times. This makes them even more attractive to PK-ers. You wonder why the game doesn’t have the option to turn off the PK-ing, when it’s become this big of a problem.

In any case, you can also doubt Seisaku’s intentions. He’s probably a mid-level player as well, judging by his outfit. He could be wanting protection for himself as well. We’ll have to wait till more episodes to see whether this is true or not. Haseo, meanwhile, keeps walking through the forest of despair, looking to clear an event which might even not exist. He also gets a few flashbacks of Ovan and Shino whenever someone near him mentions something they said.

Saburou has been walking from one place to another during this episode. Even though she saw a lot, she didn’t exactly develop. She only got interested by Haseo for a second, though she abandoned him later. It’s interesting that she tries to talk some sense into both Haseo and Tabby, even though she works for Pai. Her mission is to make contact with the two of them, and discover something strange, but is that all she needs to do? Or is there more? In any case, she’s acting rather careless. Anology of the week: “I think I totally understand the meaning of ‘detour’ now”. This shows that Yata and Pai are moving into very difficult ways in order to get what they want.

Speaking of the devil, Yata and Pai also haven’t had much development either. Pai spent her time ordering Saburou around and on something mysterious which wasn’t shown. Yata spent his time watching Haseo on a screen, looking at some meaningless data and asking Phyllo a few questions. That last thing, however, revealed an interesting fact about the relationship between Ovan and Phyllo. In the past, Phyllo started to sit there on the bridge. Then there came a woman to him, attracted by him. She was the girl who brought Ovan and Phyllo together. It could’ve been Shino, though I thought that her clothing was different. Unless she likes to change clothing once in a while.

Ovan, meanwhile, continues to walk happily around in The World like nothing happened, without contacting Haseo or Tabby, and without looking sad because of the fact that Shinos’s gone. Why exactly did he say to Shino that he’d be gone for a while? I think it’s clear now that he knew that he had to endure Naobi’s treatment if he wanted to get closer to the Key of the Twilight, but why doesn’t he contact anyone? He also runs into Tri-Edge. At the entrance of the Forest of Despair, of all places. Ovan manages to fend him off as well, with a smile on his face. He managed to do this by unleashing the thing on his arm, which gave a couple of black bubbles free. In the end, these didn’t really work and he got beaten up, though Tri-Edge left.

It’s very interesting if you look at the list of people who have been attacked: Shino, Phyllo and Ovan. What is the connection between the three of them and Tri-Edge? Did something happen in the past which they kept silent about?

Then we also have the matter of the old-looking guy (did his name actually get revealed?) He seems quite important, and he seems to have no problem with the strong monsters, which makes him one of the three persons who managed so survive the Forest of Despair so far. Why are the three of them so special? Because they’re main characters? In any case, his purposes are still as foggy as a pile of dry ice. Why did he come to the Forest of Despair, and why is he so confident that he’ll reach the deepest part? And why did Ovan contact him in the previous episode?

Still, now that I think more about the episode while writing this post, I realize something. It’s entirely wrong to say that Haseo didn’t change. In fact, he developed a lot, it just went very subtle. He’s becoming more and more fragile. When, at the end of the episode, he runs into the big monster, the fact remains that he gets a hopeless look, before it changes back towards his battle-hungry self. His mental self is at the verge of breaking down. He tries to be strong right now, in order to save Shino. This has consumed his mind, preventing him from thinking normally. Eventually, his mind and body won’t be able to take this. Still, what’s up with the very high-pitched scream which echoed out of the forest? Was that Haseo actually getting an incredible amount of adrenaline (or however you call it in an MMORPG)? Or was it something else?

Overall, now that I’m thinking about it, I’m beginning to like Haseo’s emo-mode. It may be annoying when you see it at first, though it’s being built up perfectly. Still, the fact remains that a thing like this is never possible inside a MMORPG. No matter what. Haseo isn’t data-drained or anything, so he should still be sitting behind his computer. Ever since episode 13, more and more new characters have been introduced. They’re doing pretty well, so far. Nobody’s been able to replace Tawaraya or Sakisaka, but ah well, maybe someone will.