blade of grass again

[eth0]

First, I don't intend this to be ANOTHER topic discussing the relationship between Macha and Mia. That much is already known and the dead horse has been beaten.

I want to instead throw out some ideas regarding the blade of grass specifically as it relates to the //SIGN story.

I posted this to another popular .hack board, but... let's just say the gears aren't exactly turning over there, if you know what I mean. I've since revised my post a bit. I see a lot of intelligent discussion here and I was looking for thoughts and comments about this..


So, what symbolism does the blade of grass have? My thoughts are below.

I have read around that Macha is in fact a data collection entity/program for one of the eight phases of the Cursed Wave. It was designed to collect data on the human emotion of love.

Now, from the .hack games, I know that Mia/Macha is constantly seeking "aromatic grass", which is the same as the "blade of grass" in question here.

So, during //SIGN, we first see the blade of grass in "Despair". It is lying on the ground near Aura's bed where Tsukasa was "data drained" or what have you. At the end of "Tempest", when Tsukasa is being drained, he says "No! Don't erase.. her" (jap) or "No! You can't! You can't erase her!" (eng). Clearly he is in love with Subaru at this point because they meet in the cave at the end of the previous episode and at the beginning of "Tempest" they are together in the field, etc.

Now, here's where my own thoughts come in- When Tsukasa is DD'd by Morgana at the end of "Tempest", I theorize that Tsukasa's love for Subaru is drained. Or at least part of it, anyway. This seems to be suggested by Tsukasa's cry out of "No! You can't! You can't erase her!"

When Tsukasa's love is drained, it is formed into the blade of grass and floats to the ground next to the bed. In the next episode when Tsukasa is propped up against the bed and Macha appears, Tsukasa lifts up the blade of grass and hands it to Macha.

Macha takes the grass, and handles it repeatedly over the next few episodes, even up to the point when she sacrifices herself for Tsukasa in "Catastrophe".

I'm guessing that Macha sacrifices herself for Tsukasa because she has collected Tsukasa's "love" and analyzed it, studied it, etc. The only emotion Macha feels at this point is love that she learned from Tsukasa/Subaru's relationship, so she sacrifices himself as a notion of love - the blade of grass is restored to full bloom right before she does this - but what does that signify? Perhaps it means that Tsukasa's love for Subaru is fully restored (Macha successfully restores the data back into Tsukasa's character). Or maybe it signifies a turning point in Macha's functionality (for lack of a better word - but if she were more than a program I would say her "life") - a turning point indicating that she knows her purpose.

The blade of grass falls to the floor, and a shimmering portal is created that Tsukasa, Subaru, and Mimiru go into. Is there a connection between the blade of grass and the existence of the portal, or are they unrelated? Is the portal created by the blade of grass, or is it perhaps created by a glitch in the game that comes about when Macha is drained by the three "Guardian" monsters?

Is a blade of grass created each time someone is DD'd? Is it the physical form of data for Love in The World? It would explain why Mia wants to collect them. Or is it just a random happening that Tsukasa picked up the blade of grass and handed it to Macha? I find this hard to believe, especially since the blade stood out so well amongst the other grass when he was feeling for it. It was as if Tsukasa had prior knowledge of it and was actually looking specifically for it, as if he knew it should be there. This might give way to some interesting concepts regarding DD itself or the nature of Tsukasa.

Does Tsukasa somehow know what Macha's purpose is? Does he intentionally give the blade of grass to Macha, knowing that she will take it and restore it into his data? If he does know - how? Is it somehow linked to him being in the coma. Does Tsukasa have some kind of greater knowledge about the inner workings of the World (ie: functionality of the actual code behind it, etc) since he has been DD'd and sucked into it?



Ah, just tossing some ideas out there.

[YashaOokami]

Well I cant exactly answer all of this,but I can answer a few things that seem to follow well:

Now, here's where my own thoughts come in- When Tsukasa is DD'd by Morgana at the end of "Tempest", I theorize that Tsukasa's love for Subaru is drained. Or at least part of it, anyway. This seems to be suggested by Tsukasa's cry out of "No! You can't! You can't erase her!"

When Tsukasa's love is drained, it is formed into the blade of grass and floats to the ground next to the bed. In the next episode when Tsukasa is propped up against the bed and Macha appears, Tsukasa lifts up the blade of grass and hands it to Macha.

Macha takes the grass, and handles it repeatedly over the next few episodes, even up to the point when she sacrifices herself for Tsukasa in "Catastrophe".
I'm guessing that Macha sacrifices herself for Tsukasa because she has collected Tsukasa's "love" and analyzed it, studied it, etc. The only emotion Macha feels at this point is love that she learned from Tsukasa/Subaru's relationship, so she sacrifices himself as a notion of love

I wouldnt Exactly say,that Tsukasa's love for Subaru was implanted into that blade of grass,I mean..can A.I.s really feel love or even understand it fully,just from a sample shown? To Maha,it seems more of a mystery to her,and not even Mia quite understand it either.She holds on to that blade of grass,because it is a reminder of Tsukasa,on how she misses him.
Remember how Morganna said,she no longer needed Tsukasa? This made Maha sad,and she would cling on to that blade of grass as a momento of him.If you notice,Morganna does erase that blade of grass,but Maha has a new one later on.

- the blade of grass is restored to full bloom right before she does this - but what does that signify? Perhaps it means that Tsukasa's love for Subaru is fully restored (Macha successfully restores the data back into Tsukasa's character). Or maybe it signifies a turning point in Macha's functionality (for lack of a better word - but if she were more than a program I would say her "life") - a turning point indicating that she knows her purpose.

That it does,when she sacrifices herself,it is a rebellious act that Maha did,that she had never done before. From her previous expressions before she gets Data Drained,she started to get fed up with taking Morganna's orders,and decided to disobey Morganna.All Morganna wanted to do was ruin Tsukasa's happiness,which was Subaru,Maha did not want that. Maha is happy when she sees Tsukasa happy.

Is a blade of grass created each time someone is DD'd? Is it the physical form of data for Love in The World? It would explain why Mia wants to collect them. Or is it just a random happening that Tsukasa picked up the blade of grass and handed it to Macha? I find this hard to believe, especially since the blade stood out so well amongst the other grass when he was feeling for it. It was as if Tsukasa had prior knowledge of it and was actually looking specifically for it, as if he knew it should be there. This might give way to some interesting concepts regarding DD itself or the nature of Tsukasa.

A blade of grass created each time someone is Data Drained...I really dont see that as possible,I mean Tsukasa was Data Drained before,there was no grass there at the upside down castle. The reason why Mia wants the grass,is because it contains Maha's memories.Mia has no memories,she only remembers things inside of The World and nothing else.Each time she gets an aromatic grass item,she feels happy,because it helps remember who she is.She even questions Elk in Quarantine before she goes into the phase form,asking Elk who she is.

Does Tsukasa somehow know what Macha's purpose is? Does he intentionally give the blade of grass to Macha, knowing that she will take it and restore it into his data? If he does know - how? Is it somehow linked to him being in the coma. Does Tsukasa have some kind of greater knowledge about the inner workings of the World (ie: functionality of the actual code behind it, etc) since he has been DD'd and sucked into it?

Maybe..he knows that Maha's purpose was to keep him in The World,because Maha helped him and presuade him to stay.
The blade of grass did not restore Tsukasa's data,or rather "Wake him up" from his out of mind state.Remember when he heard Subaru's voice? Oh wait,that was the dubs..my mistake >>; Ok,remember when Subaru says Tsukasa's name,he finally wakes up,asking who is calling him?
The only data Maha put into that grass before she sacrifices her life,is the data of her own,not Tsukasa's.
Not to sure that Tsukasa knos the inner workings of The World,just to awaken Aura..that's all he knows,how the rest work,he isnt sure himself.
But later on in the .hack games,Kite and the rest learn more of it than Tsukasa does.

Hope that helps some.. if I misspelled anything...eh get off it,I'm dead tired right now and I dont feel like going back to retype it >>;

[Kutsurabi]

i dont think it is possible but i heard that maha is actually......Tsukasa's Mom!?

[YashaOokami]

NO -_-;
Maha is not Tsukasa's mom,I know in the subs he calls her mom.
Not exactly sure who he was directing that to,or that it reminded him of his mom.
He did refer to Morganna as his mother,because she tricked him to believing that and wanting him to stay in The World longer.

[Kutsurabi]

ok thanks i never new and hey i was told without proof

[En der]

When Tsukasa's love is drained, it is formed into the blade of grass and floats to the ground next to the bed.

Ok, what's you're saying here is that when someone gets data drained, their love forms into a blade of grass. Now, after Macha gets data drained,

The blade of grass falls to the floor

Why is there only one blade of grass? Shouldn't there be two, since

The only emotion Macha feels at this point is love that she learned from Tsukasa/Subaru's relationship, so she sacrifices himself as a notion of love

[eth0]

A blade of grass created each time someone is Data Drained...I really
dont see that as possible,I mean Tsukasa was Data Drained before,there was no grass there at
the upside down castle.

Indeed. I am just going off the deep end with this.

I know that the game's don't really support this theory, but what if an item is indeed created each time someone is DD'd? You have to look at who or what is doing the Drain. In the one case when we see the blade of grass, it was after Morganna drained Tsukasa. The other times it was either Macha or a Guardian. I would like to just throw out the Guardian here, because they have a weak form of DD, but when one of the manifestations of the eight waves drains someone, or Morganna herself, it might create a new item., I think that the data has to be stored somewhere else in some other form. It can't just be deleted, right? The Phases are collecting data on human emotion, so that data must be stored somewhere in order to reference it or analyze it. It's probably stored in some form invisible to normal users.

However, Morganna is different. She is not a phase, and, if my memory serves me right, she actually stole Data Drain from Aura, which means Morganna's DD on Tsukasa during //SIGN was a different type of DD that could possibly take the data and create real-World items (aromatic grass) instead of to some special place or hidden form.

Ah well. This is WAY off the deep end. It boggles me to think about it, and I really doubt that the writers had anything this deep in mind when writing the story, but it's fun to think about it anyway. The only plot hole I can think of to this is the fact that there are multiple "aromatic grass" items throughout the games, but I could go out on a limb and say that the one created during //SIGN was a template or prototype for the rest of them. Like, after it is created, copies of them start showing up randomly throughout the world.

Why is there only one blade of grass? Shouldn't there be two, since
eth0 wrote:

The only emotion Macha feels at this point is love that she learned from Tsukasa/Subaru's relationship, so she sacrifices herself as a notion of love

Not necessarily. Tsukasa was the only one DD'd in that episode, thus creating a single blade of grass.

[Brad_Evans]

Now, here's where my own thoughts come in- When Tsukasa is DD'd by Morgana at the end of "Tempest", I theorize that Tsukasa's love for Subaru is drained. Or at least part of it, anyway. This seems to be suggested by Tsukasa's cry out of "No! You can't! You can't erase her!"

Morganna mentioned about him breaking the "just us three" promise, and After that Tsukasa said something about her being mad because he brought Subaru. In a condition like that, it's most likely that he feared Morganna will do something to Subaru, too, but not because his love is drained.

I'm guessing that Macha sacrifices herself for Tsukasa because she has collected Tsukasa's "love" and analyzed it, studied it, etc. The only emotion Macha feels at this point is love that she learned from Tsukasa/Subaru's relationship, so she sacrifices himself as a notion of love -

As for why Maha becomes rebellious against Morganna, this looks like a logical explanation, that Maha actually gets something from that grass. And that theory also explains why Maha regards Tsukasa more than he does Morganna, not just simply because he is fed up with Morganna. Maha is part of Morganna, anyway.

The blade of grass falls to the floor, and a shimmering portal is created that Tsukasa, Subaru, and Mimiru go into. Is there a connection between the blade of grass and the existence of the portal, or are they unrelated? Is the portal created by the blade of grass, or is it perhaps created by a glitch in the game that comes about when Macha is drained by the three "Guardian" monsters?

As for that portal, there's a possibility that Maha is the one who made that portal for Tsukasa, because he wants Tsukasa to meet Morganna and settle things. Personally, I like the theory of Morganna opening that portal to finish them off more, tho. For the Aromatic grass bloomed when restoring Tsukasa's data, there seems not to be any sign of it, since Tsukasa didn't really show any difference when talking with Subaru after that.

Is a blade of grass created each time someone is DD'd? Is it the physical form of data for Love in The World? It would explain why Mia wants to collect them. Or is it just a random happening that Tsukasa picked up the blade of grass and handed it to Macha? I find this hard to believe, especially since the blade stood out so well amongst the other grass when he was feeling for it. It was as if Tsukasa had prior knowledge of it and was actually looking specifically for it, as if he knew it should be there. This might give way to some interesting concepts regarding DD itself or the nature of Tsukasa.

For me, it looks more like Tsukasa's picking up a random item. Harald was technically the creator of aromatic grass, if he really wants to make a ultimate AI, he would make every item for every feeling the phases are collecting, not just Aromatic grass. For the DD -> Aromatic grass theory, there seems to be nothing to back it up ^^; When Sora was DDed, nothing comes out of it.

As for why Mia wants to collect them, it is officially answered already, right?

[thedudewhosadude]

Yup, it was her Macha-side instincts calling her, basically.

[Gold_Slayer_Slasher]

problem is though how did Maha get motherly instincts?

[mvrckbass]

probably from when she was gathering data on love.

the "inconditional love" of a mother to a child might have been in there sumwhere. (or sum romeo juliet, i will follow u to the depths of hel....ck just to be with u love) or sumthing like that

[Gold_Slayer_Slasher]

actually she go the motherly love after Tsukasa gave her the Aromatic Grass

[mvrckbass]

and the aromatic grass contains data of her "phase" which is supposed to collect data on LOVE

[Gold_Slayer_Slasher]

exactly so she must've gathered some of the data from it

[mvrckbass]

but then made a transition because morganna deleted it.