Kayaba Akihiko

* IRL
* SAO 1
* SAO 2

“
I bet this isn't exactly the way you pictured all this ending, but your fate was sealed the *second* you challenged me. It's time to face reality, son. I'm the god of this world.
”

—Kayaba, Episode 11

**Kayaba Akihiko** (晶彦 茅場, *Akihiko Kayaba*), also known as **Heathcliff** (ヒースクリフ, *Hīsukurifu*), was the inventor of the NerveGear and the head programmer of Sword Art Online. He is the Commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath.

## Appearance

Kayaba was a skinny man in his late twenties who wore a white shirt with a necktie underneath and a long, white lab coat on top. The contours of his face were fine and sharp, and he had metallic eyes and short hair.

At the start of Sword Art Online's death game, Kayaba appeared to the trapped players as a huge faceless, hooded person with a red cloak as his Game Master avatar.

Kayaba Akihiko was the only player in Sword Art Online whose avatar did not match his appearance in the real world. As a result, Heathcliff, Akihiko's avatar, bore no resemblance to his true skinny body at all. Significantly idealized, Heathcliff was muscular, tall, and physically strong, with sharp scholarly features and steel-gray hair that had a strand hanging over his forehead. He was almost always seen wearing the colors of the Knights of the Blood, though the background and foreground colors were reversed.

## Personality

Kayaba is initially made to seem like a threatening and ingenious person, but he later turns out to be pretty much just a normal person. Kayaba is also a huge movie nerd, knowing more about movie references than Kirito, and loves to constantly reference his favorites.

However, Kayaba has a bad temper, killing a player on a moment's notice when they were being sassy with him. He also seems something of a control freak and a perfectionist, as most of his temper stems from people not listening to his orders and wanting things to go a certain way. He also admittedly doesn't handle pressure very well, as most of his problems were caused by his poor decision making.

Much like Kirito, Kayaba also has some contempt for humanity, mostly as a resulted of witnessing the players fail in the most avoidable ways enough to think it justifies humanity's extermination. However, Kayaba is also very dedicated, as shown by his work on SAO, and does actually care for others in some capacity, if only to benefit himself in some way.

Despite this, however, Kayaba has a habit of refusing to take accountability for his actions, as while he does admit he let the death game go on for too long, he mostly blames its existence on the series of unfortunate events that predated it. When someone points out that certain things were his fault, he tends to snap back at them, like when he killed the one player, or blame external things, like the atmosphere, that led up to his actions.

As Heathcliff, Kayaba tried to portray himself as a stoic individual, one that evoked confidence and strength to inspire the other players. However, there were times when his truth personality leaked through his persona, like when Kirito ruined a truce that was vital to the assault team's progress in the game.

## Equipment

### Sword Art Online

#### Weapons

* **Liberator** (リベレイター, *Ribereitā*): A weapon set consisting of a one-handed straight sword and a Kite shield in Sword Art Online. The set was owned by the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, Heathcliff, and was used until the end of the game. The sword, when not in use, is attached to inner side of the shield and the shield can also be used to hit targets.

#### Clothing

* **Formal Wear**: Heathcliff had a formal outfit, which he wore during council meetings.
* **Unnamed Armor**: When in battle, Heathcliff wore an impressive looking suit of armor show that he was the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath.

## Skills & Abilities

### IRL

#### Skills

* **Intelligence:** Kayaba had a high enough intellect to be able to invent the NerveGear, a device that could read brain commands, and design a relatively impressive game like SAO.

### Sword Art Online

#### Skills

* **One-Handed Sword:** (片手用直剣 (ワンハンドソード) , *Wan Hando Sōdo*) Kayaba showed that he was a master at the combat system he created, although that may not be as impressive as it first sounds.
* **Divine Blade:** (神聖剣, *Shinseiken*, lit. Sacred Sword) A unique skill that allowed a player to switch freely between defense and offense, and also gave them nearly impenetrable defense.

## Differences from the Original

In the original series Kayaba is a calm soft-spoken man, but at the heart a psychopath with no regard for human life, including his own. He developed Sword Art Online so he could become a God of his own world. In SAO Abridged Kayaba is a lot more humane than his original counterpart, and his motives are made a lot clearer, being far more emotional. The abridged Kayaba is also presented as somewhat of an idiot (though compared to others in the series he seems like a genius), and less like a mastermind who controls everything. He acts as symbolic representation of what Kirito could end up as if he doesn't change his ways.

In the abridged version, Kayaba ended up in a sleep-deprived delirium and caused the faulty NerveGear to kill players when they die in the game. Due to his increased paranoia, Kayaba locked everyone inside the game. Despite later getting sleep and realizing what he did, he did not release his victims in order to hold them hostage while he thought of a way to get out of the situation. All of this was made up for the abridged series, as in the original we never learned what Kayaba's motivation was, as he had forgotten it by the end of his arc.

## Quotes

"*Ladies and gentlemen. I am Kayaba Akihiko, head programmer. Welcome to the unparalleled online experience that is... Sword Art Onli-*"
—Kayaba greeting the player.

"*How many of you have seen Tron? Ah? Ah? W-What? Seriously?! None of you have seen Tron?! Sh\*t, I was really banking that. Okay. Okay, no prob. I can wing this.*"
—Kayaba trying to explain the situation.

"*Much like the World of Warcraft, none of you are here by choice anymore. Unlike WoW, however, you are being held here by me, not by your need to escape your empty f\*cking lives.*"
—Kayaba's judgy explanation.

"*As you can see, I have peeled away your petty facades and revealed you for what you truly are... fairly attractive twenty-somethings, apparently. Good for you. Kinda undermines the whole "cold light of day" thing I had planned, but still. Way to break down stereotypes.*"
—Kayaba surprised that the players don't look like nerdy stereotypes.

"*"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" [...] Really? No one? I'm the only one...?*"
—Heathcliff quoting Dr. Strangelove, and disappointed no one got it.

"*But, I'd be remiss to underestimate someone with your reputation. So, if you really think you've got what it takes, then "go ahead, make my day".*"
—Heathcliff quoting Sudden Impact.

"*No! God no! I need to hide you under the biggest rock I can find! [...] Hmm, how do I put this delicately? [...] Ah. I'm afraid you'll piss someone off and kill thousands.*"
—Heathcliff on Kirito coming to a peace talk.

"*OH, SO* NOW *YOU'VE SEEN TRON?!*"
—Heathcliff pissed off about Kirito finally acknowledging Tron.

"*Y-You see? This right here is just a perfect little microcosm of the last two years. This...* fucking *mastermind here, not two minutes ago, saw you try the exact same thing to no effect. Yet, by some* Herculean *leap in logic that we mere mortals can never hope to comprehend, he figured it'd totally work out if* he did it*.*"
—Kayaba on a person attacking him, after seeing how useless it is.

"*Alright, now that I have your ears as well as your spines, allow me to indulge myself but for a moment and tell you all what every content creator has always wanted to say to their audience. [...] FUCK... ALL... Y'ALL!!!*"
—Kayaba to all of the players after paralyzing them.

"*You know, it's funny. I don't even remember anymore. [...] **\*Laughs\*** Oh my god,* no*! Could you imagine? Two years and that's what I give you?* Man*, that'd be unsatisfying. **\*Sighs\*** Uh, but no, I did this because of Metacritic.*"
—Kayaba on why he started the death game.

## Voice Actor

* In the Japanese dub, Kayaba is voiced by Kōichi Yamadera while his Heathcliff avatar is voiced by Tōru Ōkawa.
* In the English dub, Kayaba is voiced by Marc Diraison while his Heathcliff avatar is voiced by Kevin M. Connolly.
* In the abridged series, Kayaba is voiced solely by Takahata101.

## Trivia

* Kayaba is a huge fan of pop culture and makes multiple references throughout the series. These include:
	+ Tron.
	+ World of Warcraft
	+ Scanners.

*Click "expand" for full list*

* + Gallagher.
	+ Doctor Strangelove.
	+ Sudden Impact.
	+ Road House.
	+ Highlander.
	+ Duck Soup.
	+ Waterworld, via a deliberate misquote.
	+ The Dungeonmaster.

* In the abridged version, Kayaba's first and last names have been swapped. This is because, when they were making the first episode, Something Witty Entertainment were watching the subtitled version of the series, as the dub hadn't been released yet, and didn't know that Japanese people order their names like that. When they realized their mistake, they decided to stick with it, rather than fixing it, because it felt weird to change it.
* Even though he was the main villain of his arc, Kayaba has technically only killed one person, and he was a member of the Mafia.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Episode 1
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Episode 9
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Episode 11
4. ↑ Kayaba's name error