#three entire weeks. because if you think about it the alternative Shiki who didn't die

[purplelea]

HELLO i'm not sleeping so I might as well ramble about this.

When a player die, they die. That's as simple as that. Reality keeps going as usual, they get memorials (as we see for Beat and Rhyme) and they even have the time to make funerals (see Eri saying she's visiting Shiki daily and bringing her flowers in the anime), so that means that the Players died, and then there was some time between the day of their death and the start of the Reaper's Game. I also believe that there is a selection between the people who can play the Game again, not in a "you've already played before so you can't" way—that was Kitaniji playing with rules again, just like when he said "only one can come back to life" I believe it's not true either—but more in a "who's worthy to come back to life/who has the highest Imagination and potential and would be the most useful to the city if they won.

To come back to the initial question: what happens when a Player wins the Game and comes back to life? It's explained in the secret reports. The Composer takes data from an alternative universe where the Player in question never died, and then puts that data into the "main" universe, which recreates memories of everyone who is 'ot aware of the existence of the Game. So no one except the Player and other ex-players remembers about the Player dying in the first place (which is indeed Something to bear for the Player).

Now for the memory thing—you talked about it on your third point. It's a similar thing that happened with Shinjuku, Neku and the Twisters. For Shinjuku, everyone who wasn't aware of the UG's existence forgot. Which explains why Beat understands when Uzuki mentions it, while Rindo, Fret and Nagi don't (since they weren't aware of the UG's existence at that time). For Neku, it's a little different: it's said in the Social Network that only his Partners remember him, but clearly any Reaper do remember him as well since Kariya was building him as a legend already. The Game also tends to make us think through the dialogue that Rhyme does remember Neku as well, even though the definition given in the social network does not include her. And for the Twisters, that's indeed a thing concerning how they came to the UG without dying! Uzuki says it as soona s she learns that they're alive. If one comes to the UG without dying, then it's as if they never existed in the first place, which means that Rindo, Fret, Nagi and Beat's existences were erased for the time that the Reaper's Game took place (Rhyme and Shiki only remembered Beat thanks to their statuts as ex-Players, again). Which if you think about it makes Rindo's choice at the end of neo a lot deeper, because not only his friends were dead dead, but their entire existences had been erased as well! Which means no tombstone to go to, no one to share your grief with, nothing. (Yep, twewy is a little fucked up game about friendship)

Anyway please ask if you've got more questions, I've got nothing else to do lmao

How does death work in the TWEWY universe, from the perspective of the living?

Thinking logically, I might believe that the Players are merely in a coma, stubbornly refusing to die until they either get erased or win.

But it's also so amusing to have the idea of a Player winning the game and crawling out of their own grave because they were, in fact, Actually Deceased.

REAL this is bonkers to me

•the coma idea is neat but i doubt there’s any doubt in the minds of living people that these guys are dead. we know eri referred to shiki as having died.

•i believe it was established in the reports in the first game that by the composer’s power they are reformed with a new body (iirc). which begs the question of what happens to their old body that’s been buried or cremated or w/e. wouldn’t that be wild if it just remained so when the person died again now they had two bodies in the same grave or w/e lol*

•i think it was implied in neo at some point that once someone comes back to life the living sort of just. forget??? that the person ever died??? which is insane. like their memories of reality are overwritten by the lie that the composer feeds them. only the reborn person knows the truth which. ouch. that has to be a horrible burden to carry. but it makes sense

•but i also think. if i remember correctly shoka has a line (i think she was talking to beat?) that’s like ‘geez how does she even remember you’ when he’s talking about how he’s communicating with rhyme. which. girl what do you MEAN. is she implying that the living forget the dead ever existed at all even if the dead have not been erased yet??? that can’t be right. we know eri remembered shiki. or is it specifically because of the weird thing that happened to the people who got pulled into the game without dying. where like their entire presence online got erased (why exactly did that happen? idk)

•i think they say something about how rhyme and shiki, as former ug residents, can see beat, rindo, fret, and nagi even across ground lines because those guys are not truly dead. ordinary rg residents can’t see them at all and no rg residents can see neku and shoka are truly dead. idk. but still i would like to know what the situation was like for, say, nagi. someone alive in the ug. did the people who knew her temporarily forget her. dude

*another set of questions has been raised. sorry <3

•first question: do all of the recent dead in an area automatically join the game? most are probably erased, and probably immediately. twewy week one has dialogue that implies the size of that week’s game was a mere 12 people. idk what average number of people in a given population die per week in real life so idk what conclusion to draw there. but probably more than 12 in all of shibuya lol.

•anyway, if it’s not everyone, if where do the other dead go??? instant erasure?? i think it might be that as a test to see who’s worthy of rebirth, only certain people even get a ticket into said test. like the reapers use their prejudice to determine if you’re even worth inviting. or if that’s not the case, the people who get in could simply be the people who WANT to live again. a lot of people probably just accept oblivion. the reason we only see plucky young kids (or like. nerds and influencers in neo lol) is because they still had entire lives ahead of them and were not at all prepared for death. so the reapers might’ve just like read their souls and determined their desire. of course we see like the twewy main 5 all being like ahhhh idk if i have anything to come back to am i even worth it… but that’s just them lamenting the state of their lives. that’s not the same as openly welcoming death.

•second question: could you die and play the reaper’s game multiple times? cheating death infinitely because you’re just that good at solving puzzles beating noise? imagine a player on their fifth life and death the reapers are like ‘c’mon man just join us already it’s the only path to angelhood aka the ideal highest state of being. every game is a gamble and you’re only getting older and less capable. don’t you want to chill out and live in peace?’ and the player’s like ‘no shut up i don’t want your crummy job. i still have so many books to read and my cats need me. i’ll see you in like a month when i inevitably fall down the stairs again’

tldr: ‘oh simple ask i’ll respond right away with just a few words and a normal amount of thoughts about the twewyverse’