I’ve always felt a bit weird about the ending to .hack//SIGN (counting UNISON as the ending). This is because of the the fact that none of the players get involved (beyond cameos) in the following events (//INFECTION etc.), and how it affected my favourite character from that series.
Yeah, it was a happy ending for everyone - except Sora. You know, the child who was put in a coma for A YEAR (according to the series timeline - from 2009-2010).
[LONG, 17-YEAR LATE RANT AHEAD]
[JESUS, 17 YEARS?]
The Problems
Tsukasa and co. had to have heard about it. The infamous PKer who was always around suddenly isn’t not around anymore. The infamous PKer who bought them time to escape Morganna, who told Tsukasa he was going to be ‘right behind’ them, never appeared.
The last place anyone saw him was in the domain of a crazed, homicidal God A.I bent on murdering them all.
Nobody put two and two together?! Nobody looked at one another and asked, “Hey, where’s Sora?”
Did nobody give a shit? They moved the world for Tsukasa, another child they barely knew and who gave them more than enough trouble, but not Sora? They managed to find out the state of Tsukasa’s player, but not Sora?
Sora might have annoyed and inconvenienced people, but he was a stupid kid. A ten-year-old kid in an online game where you can do anything you want. He didn’t deserve a fate worse than death. Not even Silver Knight, who despised him, would hold such a grudge to say that Sora’s player deserved to lay comatose for a year, his consciousness sealed into a monster’s weapon, and a fragment of himself condemned to wander The World as a A.I.
But who saves Sora? A total stranger, who reacts to his thanks with confusion (basically ”Uh, you’re welcome? Who are you??”). Kid didn't even know Sora existed or what happened.
I love the show and the series to pieces, but it would’ve been nice for the games to have the SIGN players return and help Kite in the name of helping Sora, someone they know who is still affected by the shit that went down back then.
Really, with all that considered, Sora should really be angry with Tsukasa and the rest. As far as he’s concerned, they left him to suffer alone for a full year before some rando kid saved him by accident. Nobody bothered to make sure he survived the face-off with Morganna - the crazed, homicidal God A.I. Not even Tsukasa, who had promised to be his friend.
Never mind dancing with them - the first words out of Sora’s mouth at the Unison party should have been: “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS?”
In all seriousness, there’s a definitive lack of development and investment in Sora’s character that makes his inclusion in Unison seem... wrong. He should be angry with Tsukasa and the others for forgetting him. He should be sad because the one friend Sora thought he had made never reciprocated the help he had given - nobody he knew did.
No, they weren’t bosom buddies, by any means, but the entire SIGN series showed us that these people - Bear, Mimiru, etc. - were not people who would sit idle while knowing someone was suffering and in danger, especially someone they knew.
The problem lies with the games, I think, and how the characters and events of SIGN were treated as cameo fare rather than something to weave into the main plot.
THE FIX
The first game, INFECTION, could have easily done away with this problem. The Wandering Sora A.I and the SIGN cast’s hunt for Skeith could have been incorporated easily into Kite’s mission, without taking over Kite’s story. They could have been cameos/NPCs in the following games after Skeith was defeated and Sora returned. Useful allies in the fight against evil, all that.
ENDGAME
This would have made UNISON so much more powerful, because we, the audience who have seen SIGN and played the games, know that these people are friends and have fought together, and that Sora is alive and well here because of their efforts.
Sora would know that too. Always found it weird how some people return from comas with their memories intact and pop right back into the game for more (looking at you, G.U!), and others, like Silver Knight and Sora, get their memories completely wiped. Convenience, probably, Haseo had to be a blank slate, so no SIGN baggage for him.
Anyway, Sora, with his memories intact (because ow the feelings) would be a (slightly) older boy who has went through so much suffering and seen people come to his aid, even though he pissed them off 99% of the time. That shit would stick. No more PKing - he has friends now! Yeah, he’s still a kid, but he’s not nearly as reckless or immature.
I’m just dreaming now, lol, but even when I first watched UNISON, having watched SIGN and played the games (well... two of them, gah), it felt weird to see Sora just... doing his regular thing, like nothing happened, and then suddenly all pally with everyone at the end because Tsukasa happened to notice him crying (as touching as that scene was, not going to lie I wanted to hug him).
It all felt a bit... hollow? Strange?
This is the end of everyone’s story here - and the end of Sora’s story too (unless G.U was in the works by this point). Its purpose was to show how far everyone has come, how the turmoil and support has brought them all together.
UNISON should have demonstrated Sora’s change from a reckless, lonely, stupid kid to a kid with friends, who values those friends, and doesn’t need to shift his own suffering onto others to make himself feel good for five seconds.
He’s gone through so much shit, we as viewers/players know that - yet UNISON wraps it up without there being much to wrap up because the games didn’t bother.
Instead, Sora is the same as before. Sora owes Mistral and everyone at that party his life - or he should - yet he continues his regular PK schtick and challenges Silver Knight to a fight. Everyone around him reacts as if that is the case. What was the point of all the hell he went through?
Really everything except that scene with Tsukasa should be different. Perhaps, despite everything, despite growing as a person, Sora still fears rejection, fears - like a little boy would - that the people who saved him only did so out of obligation and don’t really like him. So he hides. Tsukasa notices that Sora is missing from the gathering, so he goes to find him. Tsukasa finds Sora hiding and upset, assures him his fears are unfounded, and brings him out to dance.
Poor kid, he deserves it!
(LOOK AT HIS SMILING FACE DAMNIT. WOULDN’T YOU PROTECT THAT SMILE? PROTECT THAT SMILE AT ALL COSTS.)
I was talking about my nostalgic fave anime, .hack//SIGN, earlier and thought about how Patches is a lot like my problamatic fave, Sora, from that show. Patches just slides nicely into the world. I mean, he he is literally a video game character lol.
I can imagine Patches as a mischevious Long Arm (or Lord Paritsan, in R:2) with an insiatiable love for tricking naive newcomers, CC Corp employees, Crimson Knight members and especially Rare Hunters. He does not belong to any guild, prefers to play solo (except when he is 'helping' others), and generally shirks the rules as he sees fit.
While his antics often gets players killed, he is not define himself as a PKer, although many refer to him as one. His tricks towards newcomers in particular are typically a lesson on greediness.
Patches periodically acts as a trader to players in the game, often 'giving away' bugged or hacked items that get them into trouble with the System Admins. Because of his hacking skill, he is knowledgable about secrets of The World that average players have no way of discovering, and able to make a getaway if needed, earning him the nickname 'Lucky Patches'.
He often seeks refuge in Net Slum to escape the authorities, setting up shop for the AI and fellow hackers that congregate there. Because of this, he is an acquaintence of Helba.
Patches's tricking and hacking antics, as well as his rougish charm, have earned him a certain level of infamy in The World. He often sends cryptic posts to the Message Board, usually involving a rare item, designed to dupe Rare Hunters, whom he despises primarily due to an incident which occured when he was a new player.
Offline, Patches is a youngish man of few means whose primary hobby is playing The World, as well as drinking and karaoke.
