Now, almost everyone here has seen the secret ending at the end of Trilogy, yes? Where these lines are uttered by a woman we presume as Pi, and a man who's voice creidts go to the same man who voiced Bith the Black.
"The threat has passed."
"It happened just as we thought it would."
"Could be that fate is inevitable"
"Schicksal; what are they doing?"
"They have moved onto the next phase."
"Pass the paddle to the boatsman"
"Yes sir"
"Gather in Acheron"
"O captives of Charon."
Well, I have a few clues that might help shed some light on this.
Firs of all, Schicksal's first appearance to us all is in .hack//LINK, which is set in The World R:X, two years after the events of G.U. At the beginning of the manga, it has already been stated that R:2 was shut down 2 years ago. Um, why? Haseo and friends defeated Cubia, freed Ovan, restored order *yay happiness insert here* and blah blah blah lived happily ever after.
Well, apparently someone already knew EVERYTHING that was going to happen, becuase they said:
"The threat has passed."
"It happened just as we thought it would."
Okay. Now, when I think of people who could've possibly predicted that, only two people come to mind. Aura, and Helba. Has anyone disclosed the theory that the woman at the end is Helba, and the man she's speaking to is Zelkova? :0
However, they ALSO know about Schicksal! Meaning that they are around at the time of G.U. in the game, or they exist as a group OUTSIDE the game. The two indiviuals are also aware of Schicksal's activities and their plans.
"Schicksal; what are they doing?"
"They have moved onto the next phase."
"Pass the paddle to the boatsman"
Now. They are guessing what they're doing, meaning that they either 1) do NOT know whats Schicksal is planning at this time (suggesting they have just formulated as a group) or 2) have changed their direction as a group. If 2 is the correct assumption, then they could have been working as another group. the Twilight Brigade.
Now, if you took Sahino with you to Floor 50 and met up with Tabby, you'll now they talked about restarting the Brigade. Ovan revived as well, and Sakisaka and Saburo were seen in the G.U. returner short.
So what if the Twilight Brigade turned into Schicksal? If Fluegel was Ovan? And Shino, Sakisaka, Tabby and others were just new characters in Schicksal?
This would certainly explain how Zelkova and Helba were monitoring them.
But we're gettin crazy here! ^^' Let's slow down to something more believable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NRWtYw0lK0
See that desert? The one "outside the game specs"? Well, as Tartarga floats down to scoop up Haseo, you'll notice on the horizon a city. Could that be the ORIGINAL netslum? This leads me to believe that R:1 and R:2's data is all accessable via Harold Hoerwick's blackbox, which was used as the base for all versions of The World.
Now, it's a desert, yes? We can all agree on that. It's not the game, but somehow related ot The World.
"Gather in Acheron"
"O captives of Charon."
Charon, the ferry of the boat which brought dead souls to the underworld via the river styx according to greek mythology. So, he delivers souls to death. So who could be considered as a ferry for souls to death in the .hack games? Think on that to find the role.
Next, Acheron. Read this wiki article on Acheron.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheron
Here's a quote from the article:
"Underneath desert places". What if Acheron was just a river of data of sorts, perhaps a central CORE of data, that flowed underneath the desert of scattered data? Perhaps that very same desert "outside the game specs" which Haseo woke up on?Plato in his Phaedo identified Acheron as the second greatest river in the world, excelled only by Oceanus. He claimed that Acheron flowed in the opposite direction from Oceanus beneath the earth under desert places.
It could be that Acheron is the secret data stream, or, Harold Hoerwick's blackbox, which is accessed somehow by an entry point in that desert outside the game specs, which Haseo himself woke up on as his data body nearly dissintegrated just by being there.
So what do you think? Am I onto something? =O