History NightmareFuel / SwordArtOnline

* Cardinal mentioned that one of the Rath staffs sabotaged the Alicization Project. Asuna even went past a male technician who seemed to give off an unpleasant vibe but dismissed it as mere imagination. It is revealed that person is Yanai, who was the origin of the dreadful Quinella and he threatened to shoot at Takeru Higa who was trying to revive Kirito. Code 871 on Eugeo and the residents of Underworld (both Humam Empire and Dark Territory) was a goroawase of his name and his doings to make them controlled puppets that have no kindness, just like Nobuyuki Sugou's attempts to control people memories and emotions. Guess what, Yanai was one of that bastard's henchmen, who barely escaped by pushing the blame on the other guy on the team, and now [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge he wants Kirito dead for killing Quinella]], [[{{Yandere}} the one whom he adored and went crazy for, more than Asuna in the past]]. He met [[KarmicDeath his death with his spine twisted in a unnatural way]] because of he fell off a rather high platform. While it seems unfair, it's justified because Kirito would have died early on, and Seijirou Kikuoka even claimed that Yanai [[HeKnowsTooMuch would only get silenced by the American military even if he succeeded in retrieving Alice]] for them.

* DirtyBusiness aside, Kirito himself is a heroic variation of TheDreaded due to his reputation of being a walking NightmareFuel who is not above [[KickTheSonOfABitch disposing of Player Killers]], effectively making him a [[SerialKillerKiller Player Killer Killer]]. It gets even worse in ''Alicization Lasting'': Want to know how screwed Gabriel and [=PoH=] are by the time Kirito wakes up from his AngstComa? They're '''''[[KarmicDeath royally screwed]]!''''' There's a reason why he isn't called "[[RedBaron The Black Swordsman]]" for nothing.

*** This is rather forgivable, compared to [=PoH=] [[IHaveYourWife bragging about torturing Asuna in front of Kirito]], and he would've done so if it weren't for the latter [[KickTheSonOfABitch making a quick work on him]].

** Then there is the logical implication that this isn't Alicia, but rather a demon or the grim Reaper itself taking the form of her to deliver karmic justice.

[[caption-width-right:250:'''[[ScrewThisImOuttaHere NOPENOPENOPENOPE]]''']]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sao_resize_1188.jpg]]

** The movie gives us a look at what would have been Aincrad's final boss. And she is NASTY. Gigantic, ridiculously fast and strong, almost sadistic in temperament, she very nearly slowly crushes Silica and Kirito to death. Oh, and she can HEAL. For that matter, SAO survivors begin to lose their memories whenever they lose to a boss, and why is that? Because Ordinal Scale's creator is trying to resurrect his dead daughter into an AI and is doing so by taking everyone's memories of encountering her in the game, and what will happen when she is remade into an AI? Everyone who's wearing the Augma devices will get their brains microwaved, just like in SAO if they die. It takes ParanoiaFuel to a whole new level as very little know about it.
** Speaking of HumanSacrifice, try having drones surrounding a stadium unleashing microwaves around a live concert audience. That's right. In ''Ordinal Scale'', the New National Stadium in Tokyo (which became the main venue for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics) is turned into a giant [=NerveGear=]. Thank goodness that ultimately doesn't happen.
** You also have the fact that the Augma, which is explicitly marketed as Augmented Reality-only, can actually perform a [=NerveGear=] quality Full-Dive. Not only is nothing about this functionality or the risks involving it highlighted anywhere as per Shigemura's plan, but that means that compared to the relatively-isolated 10,000 people of [=SAO=], these things are spread out ''everywhere'' across Japan. They're selling out faster than stores can stock them! And that means that countless people have a product that was intended to steal the memories of, and '''kill, whoever was wearing them''' if that got activated ''remotely''. The [=NerveGear=] bypassing safety regulations was bad enough as it is; the Augma was a microwave assassination bomb waiting to blow!