Wade Owen Watts a.k.a. Parzival Quotes

The OASIS is Wade's reality, so it makes sense that Art3mis's digital body would turn him on. Plus, he can always fantasize that she looks exactly like her avatar. But can it be love if you don't know the other person's physical presence? We're dubious.

People in OASIS can transform their bodies into even non-human forms. Why? Maybe the more appropriate question is why not?

This becomes Wade's impetus to work out. Not that he is self-conscious or cares about his physical appearance, but that he simply cannot fit into his chair anymore. His improved physique is simply a side effect. Pardon us if we find that a little depressing.

Wade is unconsciously transforming his physical appearance to more closely match that of Parzival, his avatar, further illustrating the blurring lines between reality and virtual reality. Except we think Parzival actually has hair…

See? Avatars play dress up, too! Even though Wade is playing a character who is playing a character who looks like a Conan the Barbarian rip-off, it makes Wade feel more masculine and heroic, too.

Wade is in awe of seeing IOI headquarters in real life. When something is constructed by human hands with physical material, it's a lot more impressive than computer code and polygons if we may say so.

The Hunt for Halliday's egg pretty much has the same cultural impact that John F. Kennedy's assassination did in the 1960s. The infamous Zapruder film is even referenced in the book (0.9).

This is another incentive to hunt for Halliday's egg. Even if you don't win the grand prize, the odds are good that you'll find a rare artifact, which can be sold for real dough. Well that's handy.

The competition aspect of their friendship is most likely what holds these two together. Here's hoping it continues to do so when they're back in the real world and there are no Easter eggs to be hunted.

Wade competes not only with Aech, but with himself, driving himself to do things on his own. There's a subtle hint in this sentence that asking Aech for help would mean Wade would have to reveal information that only he's privileged to, something he isn't willing to do at this early, highly competitive stage of the game.

Wade's showdown with Acererak demonstrates his competitive drive to triumph over a computer program. It also acts as a microcosm for the entire Hunt, which is basically a computer program that can't improvise either.

For Wade, love trumps competition. Who needs a billion dollars when you can have an online romance with someone you've never met and might even be a different gender than you want them to be? Swoon.

Competition is a double-edged sword. Early on, Aech and Wade's love of competition brings them together. In the middle of the book, it starts to tear them apart. Don't worry, though—their combined competitive drive to beat IOI will bring them back together in the end.

There are multiple competitions within the main competition for Halliday's Easter egg, and it shows just how competitive Wade is when he goes for the perfect game of Pac-Man as a bonus quest. It's not directly related to the egg hunt, and it could take anywhere from four to six hours. But he just can't help himself.

People across the world take this competition very, very seriously, even to the point of making a war out of it. It's a digital war, sure, but it's still a war.

In real life, Wade and Aech are isolated individuals, so it makes sense that the two of them would behave in a similar fashion online. Making friends is tough for the both of them, and forming a team takes a level of commitment that neither is prepared for right off the bat. But don't worry—it'll come.

Boy, by the time Art3mis comes along, Wade seems to have forgotten the "immediate" connection he said he felt with Aech back in chapter 3. What happened to the bro code?

It's nice here that Wade/Parzival has made two new friends in Daito and Shoto, but the fact that he seems to have been shooting for an alliance in the Hunt shows that he is still placing the competition ahead of friendship.

This is one of the few un-selfish acts Wade does during the course of the book, showing us that his friendship with Aech really does mean something. That comes as a bit of a relief, because his one-track mind was starting to become a bit worrisome.

We guess even someone as lonely as Wade draws the line at making friends with an Artificial Intelligence. Fair enough, Wade. Fair enough.