Holding their breath for hours on end

[Shorty]

It's ridiculous and science-defying, is what it is xD

[Sephiroth]

I am more worried about Blitzball players being unconscious in the stadium like Wakka. Some staff people could use telekinesis to create force fields that are their size around them which isolate oxygen for them. Vegeto from Dragon Ball had such a force field and it resulted in not getting absorbed and inhale demonic gas as he could breathe and talk normally.

[Psychotic]

Gillyweed.

[DMKA]

It's ridiculous and science-defying, is what it is xD

Unlike casting spells, summoning gigantic supernatural beasts, dreams coming to life and inter-dimensional time travel.

[Kalevala]

It's easy to hold your breath when you have no brain! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

[Jinx]

Or maybe all of the breath holding is what lead to Tidus being...well, Tidus.

[Shorty]

It's ridiculous and science-defying, is what it is xD

Unlike casting spells, summoning gigantic supernatural beasts, dreams coming to life and inter-dimensional time travel.

Yes. What is the problem?

[Mirage]

There's no time travel in ffx

[Jiro]

It's not, though. It's plausible, perhaps the most plausible thing to be found in Final Fantasy X.

[Skyblade]

It's not, though. It's plausible, perhaps the most plausible thing to be found in Final Fantasy X.

Experiment: Relax (hyperventilate with an oxygen supply if you have one), and then hold your breath, and time your duration.

Repeat, only this time, sprint around your house while timing yourself.

Calculate out how much shorter the duration is. Compare the ratio to the record, and see how short it falls.

Then realize that Blitzball players are engaged in full body activity, not simply running, and you'll realize that their bodies would consume oxygen even faster, so if the ratio had to be skewed in any way, it would not be in their favor.



Then realize that you're in a fantasy world with magic, monsters, sentient nonhumans, crystals that can power things, crystals that can burn indefinitely, cute little green monsters with a knife that are somehow more deadly than ninety percent of the giant beasts in the world, flying whales, airships apparently powered by flywheels, platforms that can float on holograms, dolls that can be controlled by one's mind, and thousands of other strange phenomena, and ask yourself "why are we questioning this again?".

Also, they can't be immersed in water, because there is nowhere near enough water resistance. A Blitzball would barely move five feet, regardless of how you threw it.

[Jiro]

I'm not saying that humanity could do this today. I've been (was?) an athlete for 17 years so I know about oxygen supplies under duress. But saying "this is only possible because fiction" discounts the fact that people can do ridiculous things underwater and perhaps if it were shorter durations, or if they were able to surface, or whatever, would make Blitzball viable in our universe. It is, of course, possible in Spira because ~magic~ but that does not mean it is entirely impossible here.

Why do we question anything, Skyblade? Because we want to. Because it helps us learn. Because it interests us. Because we have things we want to know and understand. Simply saying "it's fiction" is the same as saying "God did it" and science hasn't gotten us this far by saying God did it.

[Skyblade]

I'm not saying that humanity could do this today. I've been (was?) an athlete for 17 years so I know about oxygen supplies under duress. But saying "this is only possible because fiction" discounts the fact that people can do ridiculous things underwater and perhaps if it were shorter durations, or if they were able to surface, or whatever, would make Blitzball viable in our universe. It is, of course, possible in Spira because ~magic~ but that does not mean it is entirely impossible here.

Why do we question anything, Skyblade? Because we want to. Because it helps us learn. Because it interests us. Because we have things we want to know and understand. Simply saying "it's fiction" is the same as saying "God did it" and science hasn't gotten us this far by saying God did it.

Actually, you might be surprised just how much scientific advance has come from the idea that "God did it". It was an attempt to understand God through his works that drove much of the development of western philosophy and academics. "God did it" was the starting point. "Why God made it the way he did, and how does that change our view of the universe" progressed from there.

Also, your statement was essentially the same as my original one (from my first post). They evolved on a different world, in different circumstances, and adapted the ability.

While that does explain it, it's also kind of boring. There are so many clear differences in the world and even the basic laws of physics in Spira that to just wave it away as "they adapted" is no more interesting than "God did it". Yes, the world is made a particular way, and life evolves to fit on that world. But how does life change to adapt to that?

Besides, let's not forget the opening cutscene. We see players get launched out of the sphere pool, and Tidus leaps out of it to make a shot, so there is clearly some opportunity to breathe, regardless of the abstraction of the mini game. Or is that a difference between Spira's and Zanarkand's Blitzball? For that matter, if it is a natural adaptation to the ability to hold one's breathe, how does that explain not just holding breath while sleeping, but even when knocked unconscious into the water (which happens to Tidus)?

[Jiro]

I don't understand what you're trying to say. A comment was made that holding your breath underwater was science-defying; I provided an example of it happening in our world that, while not entirely the same, shows that it is plausible if not possible. You retorted with "it's all fictional nobody should give it any thought" and I am struggling to understand why you need to press the point if you don't care?

With a five minute half with potentially pauses for penalties or whatever, it's plausible that a human being from Earth could swim around. Not underwater, of course, because water resistance makes the entire concept of Blitzball impossible. But if you put that aside for the sake of an interesting discussion, then you only need to figure out what technology is required to make water act like that and you can probably have (shortened) versions of Blitzball on earth. Is that not smurfing interesting enough to discuss?

You're the one who just said hand-waving it was boring. So stop hand-waving everything and use your imagination.

[Skyblade]

I don't understand what you're trying to say. A comment was made that holding your breath underwater was science-defying; I provided an example of it happening in our world that, while not entirely the same, shows that it is plausible if not possible. You retorted with "it's all fictional nobody should give it any thought" and I am struggling to understand why you need to press the point if you don't care?

I do care, I just care about the world as a whole, and I think isolating one aspect of it out while ignoring others is pointless. What makes the breathing so special that it deserves analysis over the hundreds of other things that are different about Spira?

With a five minute half with potentially pauses for penalties or whatever, it's plausible that a human being from Earth could swim around. Not underwater, of course, because water resistance makes the entire concept of Blitzball impossible. But if you put that aside for the sake of an interesting discussion, then you only need to figure out what technology is required to make water act like that and you can probably have (shortened) versions of Blitzball on earth. Is that not smurfing interesting enough to discuss?

No, not really. You're discounting a ton of things to focus solely on the breathing. For example, if you do cut water resistance, you also cut propulsion, since that water resistance helps us swim. You also need to consider buoyancy, how the nets are suspended, how the starting marks provide a solid point to push off from in an empty sphere of water without preventing players from moving through it, how the sphere is contained (since, again, it must be constrained without restricting players to it), and a ton of other problems before we will get anything like Blitzball here.

And you need to figure out how to vastly improve human ability to hold their breathe during long durations of heavy exertion.

Otherwise you're just going to be like those people who form Quidditch leagues (although, admittedly, Blitzball is at least a better designed sport).

You're the one who just said hand-waving it was boring. So stop hand-waving everything and use your imagination.

I am using my imagination. "How do they breathe" is an easily answered question among tons of more interesting ones, and it's not exactly a new question for the fan base either.

[Jiro]

We are isolating one thing because we don't just want to create a single FFX thread where everybody posts everything they think of. I already have one of those threads. Blitzball can't be considered in a complete vacuum but comparing it with what is possible in the real world is a great way to figure out what fictional requirements had to be included in order for it to be possible and then we can see if they hold true throughout or if a lack of consistency shows sloppy writing.

You're identifying further things that I hadn't thought about which interests me. If I had simply took "it's a magic world" then I wouldn't have thought about any of them and would be less learned as a result. This is why we're discussing this, as we do with plenty of stupid things on this Final Fantasy fan site.