So I'm a Spider, So What? - Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

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Originally Posted by Kraco

I do admit your other points about Potimas are quite solid. He has some flaws that make it hard to believe he's only interested in saving the world, for example, instead of saving the world by making others than his own people pay the price. It's still a bit weird the teacher has been so willingly going along with it. Do you think she's evil as well?

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I think Oka is just stupid and naïve. She wants to believe the best in people because she's a teacher. She may have punished Hugo because he was trying to kill the others, but maybe in her mind, stealing his skills was punishment enough, like standing in the hallway with buckets. In a sense, she forgave him for trying to outright murder others, and it was obviously her mistake that led to others being killed, including Shun's father, probably his brother, potentially his other brother, and her elf father.

We still don't really know why she reacted the way she did to Sophia. Did she not expect one of her former students to be on "the bad side"?

I think she's the one who told her father about the reincarnations. But I also think she had good intentions, not knowing the means he would employ to find them.

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Originally Posted by MFauli

Speaking of which: Has it been established as of yet whether this world is a REAL world or just a computer world? And whether D is supposed to be an actual god, or just an admin that's overseeing a video game? Yes, not that much difference for the characters inside the world, but a huge difference for us, the audience.

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D pretty much created the concept of this world, and when Kumoko got her worldly knowledge the architecture was animated as a virtual world of data - so thus far this appears to be a world made of code.

Not that liver cancer stuff really matters, but I'm still sticking to aflatoxin from moulds screwing up that kid.

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Originally Posted by Buffalobiian

D pretty much created the concept of this world, and when Kumoko got her worldly knowledge the architecture was animated as a virtual world of data - so thus far this appears to be a world made of code.

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I think the answer to MFauli is still no, it has not been established in either direction, just assumed to be one or the other by each individual.

The students are telling themselves the system/Word/Skills is like being in a game, but that's because they're kids from Japan.

Kumoko and Sofia both recognize the parallels to games, but Kumoko fully recognizes that dying would be a really bad idea.

Hugo definitely thinks it is a world made for him. Isekai or game, doesn't matter to him. It is HIS world and the rest are playthings.

Yurin went full immersion mode and firmly believes in the Word faith, so the world is pretty real to her, ignoring the obvious leveling system.

Shun hasn't said something one way or the other. But he did sense the system voice, who is in a humanoid form.

We're probably only going to know if Katia says something about the afterlife, since she's the only one who has actually died so far, but not permanently like the other students Oka has said are no longer in the world.

D has only confirmed that there is a system, that she is one of the Administrators, but that still doesn't mean anything one way or the other. She's a god, more or less, and obviously does whatever she pleases. Manifests as cell phones, talks like a gyaru, etc.

Basically, I'd like to know if D is a human being on real earth that put those characters inside an SAO-world, or if D is an otherworldly being that simply happened to create a world that's similar to the usual virtual isekai.

D said she was in the classroom... and Kumoko has been traped thinking she was another student, we've had that idea too... but a spider too ! And Kumoko does not seem to even remember her past name.
Is it possible that for a reason Kumoko is partly D and that tiny spider in the room was used by D to escape certain death but she had to sacrifice some parts of her transfered to Kumoko ?
So Kumoko is coming partly from that spider and another part from D ?

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Originally Posted by MFauli

Basically, I'd like to know if D is a human being on real earth that put those characters inside an SAO-world

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If she was a human being, like...how would she DO that?

She's either a magical being from another world, that was hanging out in their classroom for some reason, and she magically transported them into the world she made when they died...or she's some kinda of alien with future tech, that was hanging out in their classroom for some reason, and she digitized their consciousnesses and copied them into a virtual world she made.

D is an other-worldly being.

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Originally Posted by David75

D said she was in the classroom... and Kumoko has been traped thinking she was another student, we've had that idea too... but a spider too ! And Kumoko does not seem to even remember her past name.
Is it possible that for a reason Kumoko is partly D and that tiny spider in the room was used by D to escape certain death but she had to sacrifice some parts of her transfered to Kumoko ?
So Kumoko is coming partly from that spider and another part from D ?

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Haven't we seen pre-spider Kumoko's memories of some random stuff? I think someone mentioned it before, as well. A spider wouldn't really have that fancy memories, with its primitive brain. There surely wasn't a dragon lurking in the classroom, to create Fei with the fusion with another student. I'd say showing the spider in the classroom was nothing but an artistic decision to foreshadow Kumoko's fate.

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Originally Posted by Buffalobiian

Despite many "perspective views" from the 1st episode being that of the spider, this flashback from Kumoko directly contradicts that:

https://i.imgur.com/VeQSuXO.jpg

So unless this was actually wrong, and Kumoko in fact shouldn't be remembering herself going home to play video games, we can say that Kumoko was a person. She commented on things like wanting to eat rice etc before. A spider going into a backpack every day to school/home is possible, but a bit of a stretch unless the human somehow allowed it.

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Minimum word limit.

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Originally Posted by DarthEnderX

If she was a human being, like...how would she DO that?
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She's part of a group of developers who created a VRMMORPG and trapped the students and their teacher in this virtual world. That's how.

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Originally Posted by Kraco

Haven't we seen pre-spider Kumoko's memories of some random stuff? I think someone mentioned it before, as well. A spider wouldn't really have that fancy memories, with its primitive brain. There surely wasn't a dragon lurking in the classroom, to create Fei with the fusion with another student. I'd say showing the spider in the classroom was nothing but an artistic decision to foreshadow Kumoko's fate.

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Originally Posted by Buffalobiian

Minimum word limit.

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I was just having the idea that Kumoko and D are the result of a bad transfer D had to perform as the explosion occured.
D used that spider to keep some level of control in that world,,and the spider now Kumoko inherited some of D's memories and intellect/character.
I know, silly idea.

Episode 19

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Okay.. so the whole reason the parallel minds couldn't communicate with main body was because Mother blocked them. I guess we can say that she got so weak that the barrier broke down, but they should have said that. It's not entirely consistent since her attacks were still killer despite her stats being weak.

The outro blend was cool.

Looks like Kumoko also dropped the ball. Nothing seemed to be stopping Potimas from killing Vampire Baby there.

Man, I could just keep watching this little, fun spider forever. Even just her interacting with the villagers would be fun. I almost wished we'd get a couple "filler" episodes purely about her dealing with the village and stuff.

So mother has finally defeated, good progress. But I have no idea how we get from that point to many years in the future (7 years, was it?) without the spider demon overlord already starting her battle against mankind. But if that started 7 years ago, mankind would long be wiped out by present time, lol.

I really dislike Oka. Just SPILL the beans! Either be a full traiter and spare us your "ugh, im not sure ..."-looks. Or finally tell your former students about what's really going on. Annoying plot.

About the dragon at the end, is he supposed to be dead? Considering that spider demon overlord has gathered her elite group of super strong humanoid monsters in the present, I had assumed that dragon would turn into the humanoid dragon eventually.

Potimas, especially with him cheating death somehow, imply that the Church, the Elves, and Ariel are at a bit of a stalemate in Kumoko's time. The stalemate is only now breaking in Shun's timeline, with the reincarnations being used in some way by each of the sides.
- Potimas has most of them, but is keeping them as hostages so far.
- The church is using Hugo, and possibly Sophia in a mercenary fashion against the elves.
- Ariel likely has Kumoko, but may also be tied to Sophia, or the guy that none of the reincarnations knew about when Shun asked.

Kumoko seems to be the likely cause in the past timeline for a shift in the stalemate, which Sophia and her family are going to get caught up in, and Ariel and the Church are both acting in Shun's timeline.

It seems like the Class president and Sophia are both very well aware of how the elves are acquiring the other students. The lucky ones got away until very recently either due to their prominence, or that adventurer pair. The average ones were bought as slaves. The unlucky ones had their parents murdered like the elves have been trying to do to Sophia.

I suppose from now on we ought to get to the part that explains Kumoko's plan to preserve herself, including the vestiges. If Ariel the Washing Powder can now always locate Kumoko instantly, there would be very little peace available for Kumoko. Ariel would obviously want to kill Kumoko as soon as possible to save her own soul from excessive damage. Perhaps Kumoko can fake her own death (maybe even by really dying for all intents and purposes, having arranged her own resurrection first) and command the Body parallel mind to stop attacking Ariel. That might fool Ariel into thinking she killed Kumoko for good.

It was pretty funny how Potimas deduced Ariel must have sent Kumoko to protect Sophia. I guess being too smart can sometimes backfire due to overanalysing. Not that I'd blame him for making such a guess.

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Originally Posted by MFauli

About the dragon at the end, is he supposed to be dead? Considering that spider demon overlord has gathered her elite group of super strong humanoid monsters in the present, I had assumed that dragon would turn into the humanoid dragon eventually.

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If that much was enough to kill it, it must have had three legs already in a grave. No wonder it was talking about the necessity of the old making room for the young. That being said, I find it hard to believe it would be dead just like that.

I mean, Kumoko "dying" is already an option, isn't it? It's established that the mind can travel freely without body, like Kumoko's 3 bonus minds. It wouldn't be a reach for her to be able to send her main mind without body, too. Plus, if we consider the vestiges, it's entirely possible that Kumoko basically can freely jump from spider body to spider body, and when Ariel realizes that, she gives up on immediately trying to kill Kumoko. As for Kumoko's appearance, it's a non-issue, because she could basically transform any vestige into her original body by "healing" it.

If Kumoko had to lose a mind long-term, I wish it had been one of her redundant Magic minds.

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Originally Posted by MFauli

I mean, Kumoko "dying" is already an option, isn't it? It's established that the mind can travel freely without body, like Kumoko's 3 bonus minds.

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They can travel freely across mind connections. Mother and Kumoko were connected via birth, and Mother/Ariel were also connected. Kumoko's Body Mind can't leave Ariel for all we know now because there's no active connection between the two.

Healing is also not the same as transforming. You can only heal something that is damaged. If I had vestiges with that were unevolved healthy apes, healing them wouldn't do shit.

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Originally Posted by Ryll

- Ariel likely has Kumoko, but may also be tied to Sophia, or the guy that none of the reincarnations knew about when Shun asked.

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Sophia directly reported back to "Ariel" after she killed Potimas, so they're definitely a party. If we go back and listen to their conversation, the Demon Lord says a few interesting things.

Firstly, "Poor Yamada-Kun". I refuse to believe that the true Ancient Divine Beast would address any reincarnations as that. Future Demon Lord is definitely a Reincarnator from their class, and prime candidate is Kumoko since she's eating her mind right now.

Then you have the weak "Wow, okay, just don't jeopardize the plan." Look at the real Ariel - she doesn't take shit from anyone. No way she'd allow Sophia to talk like that.

I'm sticking with Kumoko having taken over the Demon Lord.

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Originally Posted by Buffalobiian

Firstly, "Poor Yamada-Kun". I refuse to believe that the true Ancient Divine Beast would address any reincarnations as that. Future Demon Lord is definitely a Reincarnator from their class, and prime candidate is Kumoko since she's eating her mind right now.

Then you have the weak "Wow, okay, just don't jeopardize the plan." Look at the real Ariel - she doesn't take shit from anyone. No way she'd allow Sophia to talk like that.

I'm sticking with Kumoko having taken over the Demon Lord.

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At this point, I agree.

I'm just curious if Kumoko is controlling her, or if it's Body Mind having become autonomous.

And re: MFauli's "Is this world real or digital" thing..

At the beginning of episode 11, Kumoko gained world wisdom and the following was flashed on screen:

Humans discover MA Energy
Earth Lifespan Decreases
Dragons attack Humanity due to loss.
Goddess Sariel
Countdown to oblivion
(Sariel) Sacrificed to revive the world
Administrator Guiliedistodiez
System implemented.
Sariel's wish and The Goddess's Life Support.

My interpretation of that limited information is that:
-Humans are destroying the earth after using this MA energy thing. MA... as in F=MA?
-Dragons get pissed and attack.
-This goddess called Sariel decides to try to save the world by sacrificing herself, but then somehow our Dragon Administrator friend Guiliedistodiez intervenes (or knows someone who intervenes)..
-and the current "game world / system" is put in place in order to somehow both save the Goddess and stop the end of the world from happening or something.

It's giving me Matrix gibes at this point.

And it'd be some twist if the "noble goddess" had a sick sense of humour/entertainment whist calling herself "D".