| 1 | !!Works with their own YMMV pages |
| 2 | |
| 3 | * ''YMMV/SwordArtOnlineTheMovieOrdinalScale'' |
| 4 | * ''YMMV/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'' |
| 5 | * [[YMMV/SwordArtOnlineVideoGame Video Game Continuity]] |
| 6 | !!Tropes with their own pages |
| 7 | * [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation/SwordArtOnline Alternative Character Interpretation]] |
| 8 | * [[AssPull/SwordArtOnline Ass Pull]] |
| 9 | * [[Monster/SwordArtOnline Complete Monster]] %%Complete Monster entries are only allowed if they are approved by the CM cleanup thread. If you want to add an entry, put your draft into the thread.%% |
| 10 | * [[EnsembleDarkhorse/SwordArtOnline Ensemble Darkhorse]] |
| 11 | * [[Memes/SwordArtOnline Memetic Mutation]] |
| 12 | * [[MoralEventHorizon/SwordArtOnline Moral Event Horizon]] |
| 13 | * [[Narm/SwordArtOnline Narm]] |
| 14 | * [[NeverLiveItDown/SwordArtOnline Never Live It Down]] |
| 15 | * [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter/SwordArtOnline They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character]] |
| 16 | * [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic/SwordArtOnline Unintentionally Unsympathetic]] |
| 17 | * [[Woobie/SwordArtOnline The Woobie]] |
| 18 | |
| 19 | ---- |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 22 | |
| 23 | [[folder:A]] |
| 24 | * AccidentalAesop: The Aesop of the ''Phantom Bullet'' arc is meant to be a commentary on the dangers of losing yourself in a fictional world, like Kyouji did in Gun Gale Online. It also could be interpreted as a message in favor of letting characters re-allocate their stats, since maybe Kyouji wouldn't have gone off the deep end if he'd been allowed to change his stats around and invest some points into Strength. |
| 25 | * AccidentalInnuendo: |
| 26 | ** In ''SAO II'' Episode 8, Kirito finds Sinon in the [=BoB=]. She tries to draw her pistol on him, but he immediately pins both her hands down and presses her back against the ledge. Without context, it could easily be misinterpreted as them making out or Kirito assaulting her. |
| 27 | ** In ''Alicization'' Episode 1, a kid Kirito and Eugeo have a tickle fight with each other, but the camera angle is pointed at their rear ends and the excited giggling can be interpreted a lot of ways for those who don't have context. |
| 28 | * AdaptationDisplacement: There is a very large portion of anime-only fans who are unaware Sword Art Online started as a light novel and may even be under the belief that it has a manga as the source material. |
| 29 | * {{Adorkable}}: |
| 30 | ** Kirito. Being a solo player with a FriendlessBackground, he is prone to OpenMouthInsertFoot moments as he trips over his own sentences trying not to offend the girls he is talking to. |
| 31 | ** Eugeo. His issues aside, he filled this bill more than Kirito. Not only he is very nice but he's also very shy and adorable, while also being kind of a geek as well. Oh, and he's also a gigantic BadassAdorable due to his character development as well. |
| 32 | ** Alice. She's an Integrity Knight with NoSocialSkills, making for lots of cute moments where she doesn't know how to properly respond in social circumstances. |
| 33 | ** In ''Progressive'', Asuna has moments of these due to her general inexperience with [=MMOs=]. Not only did she use her [[RealNameAsAnAlias Real Name as a Username]], even using her full name when introducing herself to Argo in the manga, but her curious nature about the game, her joyful reactions to things like baths or sweets, and her BigSisterWorship of Kizmel makes her very much BadassAdorable. |
| 34 | * AmericansHateTingle: After the Alicization arc was animated, its popularity noticeably plummeted in East Asia, especially China and Korea. Other ethnicities were largely portrayed as inferior to the Japanese characters; specifically, it depicts Koreans as being dependant on Japanese tech, with entire lines in the light novel lamenting of deliberately limited SEED Nexus access in Korea, while in real life Korean developers have been strongly competitive (to the point of kickstarting the MMO boom) against Japanese developers since the 2000s. It didn't help that the [[Creator/AiKayano voice actress of Alice Synthesis Thirty]] was, not a year after airing of the animated adaptation of the last part of Alicization arc, caught in a controversy over visiting the Yasukuni ShrineShrine[[labelnote:Explanation]]The shrine was made to comemmorate Japanese men, women and children who had fallen in battle, mainly during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. Japan was on the Nazi's side during the war, and also committed inhumane acts against Korea (Occupation of the Korean peninsula) and China (Nanjiang Massacre). At least [[http://www.bjreview.com/special/2014-01/28/content_658020.htm 14 confirmed Class-A War criminals]] (Hideki Tojo, Heitaro Kimura, Seishiro Itagaki, Kenji Doihara, Iwane Matsui, Akira Mutou, Koki Hirota, Shigenori Tougo, Yoshijiro Umezu, Kuniaki Koiso, Kiichiro Hiranuma, Osami Nagano, Yosuke Matsuoka and Toshio Shiratori) have been memorized there. On February 11, 2021, Ai Kayano made a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20210617040457/https://en.appledaily.com/article/MDDKUZ5PSRFRNIVHPID77RAJP4/ tweet]] about the shrine, mentioning that she visited it and the weather was nice, but nothing about mourning the dead.[[/labelnote]], and having her roles scrubbed from games made in China and Korea along with fewer roles for domestically published anime moving forward. |
| 35 | * AngstDissonance: During the ''Aincrad'' arc, a lot of players [[DespairEventHorizon struggled to cope]] with a truly desperate situation. Later stories feature normal, non-deadly [=MMOs=] where the players (mostly Aincrad veterans, but for good reason) are still acting like it's the Vietnam War. |
| 36 | * AngstWhatAngst: |
| 37 | ** Kirito's SurvivorsGuilt seems to disappear at times and he'll be back to his cheery NiceGuy self an episode later. This one is justified though. The ''Phantom Bullet'' arc reveals that it's not that Kirito no longer feels the pain and trauma, [[BrokenAce he's just good at hiding it]]. But scratch the surface and he's still haunted by the horrors he's seen with lapses that are akin to PTSD, such as his flashbacks of being forced to kill members of Laughing Coffin. |
| 38 | ** Asuna seems all too eager to head right back into ALO[[note]]technically the version she later plays is New ALO, which isn't the same one featured in the ''Fairy Dance'' arc, with lots of the features implemented by Nobuyuki Sugou being removed[[/note]] with her friends, given that she spent months trapped there as the [[GoGoEnslavement humiliating]] [[BadassInDistress prisoner]] of a sadist. Somewhat justified, since not only is it the game that her SAO friends have decided to gather in, she only truly feels alive and in-control of her life as a skilled swordswoman in the virtual world, rather than as the daughter of [[ControlFreak an overly-strict mother]]. |
| 39 | ** For Yuuki it's played straight and fully justified. Even though she's [[TragicAIDSStory terminally ill with AIDS]], she lives every day to the fullest, wary of how little time she has left. Rather than spending her days moping at her misfortune, she instead comes off as an eternally happy GenkiGirl. She does mention that she wasn't always this way though -- ''Sister's Prayer'' shows a somewhat less optimistic version of her who [[CharacterDevelopment gradually gets closer to how she was when she was first introduced]]. |
| 40 | * AntiClimaxBoss: Chudelkin. He was built up to be quite a threat with his mastery of the Sacred Arts summoning up a fire golem, but he gets defeated very quickly with Alice blocking his attack and Kirito killing him without breaking a sweat. |
| 41 | * ArcFatigue: |
| 42 | ** The ''Fairy Dance'' arc as a whole, which has the opposite problem of the ''Aincrad'' arc. While people thought the ''Aincrad'' arc was too rushed and could have been extended out longer, everyone just wanted the ''Fairy Dance'' arc to be over with and the tedious "rescue Asuna" plot to end. This is especially the case in Episode 21 where there's the perfect opportunity for Asuna to escape and she very nearly does. But nope, it has to continue to be dragged out so that Kirito can have the [[FinalBattle final showdown]] with the BigBad, complete with the {{squick}}-inducing AttemptedRape scene. |
| 43 | ** The ''Phantom Bullet'' and ''Alicization'' story arc would feature the same problems, especially the latter, whose length forced it to be adapted into anime in three different blocks (originally two before the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic). |
| 44 | * SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: Regardless of the many criticisms the plot and character development get, one thing that has consistently been praised for SAO is how spectacular the animation is: |
| 45 | ** The many games the series has featured all have very beautifully drawn landscapes, especially SAO. |
| 46 | ** Kirito vs. the Gleam Eyes. How could one not be awed by this spectacle when seeing Kirito unleash the Starburst Stream? The sheer amount of work put into the animation of the [[BladeSpam 16/20-hit combo]] is undeniably epic. |
| 47 | ** The climactic battle with Death Gun was praised even by haters. Particularly spectacular is when Kirito's SAO avatar gets superimposed over his GGO avatar, when he reaches for his gun to shoot Death Gun. |
| 48 | ** ''Alicization'' in general is full of detailed scenes due to the ArtShift. |
| 49 | * AudienceColoringAdaptation: The anime adaptation is this to the lightnovel, with anime-only viewers (fans and detractors alike) being far more used to Kirito's more stoic and brooding characterisation during the Aincrad arc, whereas the lightnovels provide his inner-monologues that give a lot more nuance to his character. There's also the anime's tendency to cut out a lot of scenes and exposition, leading to anime watchers more likely to label things as plotholes, whereas the lightnovels did give explanations for a lot of them. |
| 50 | [[/folder]] |
| 51 | |
| 52 | [[folder:B]] |
| 53 | * BadassDecay: |
| 54 | ** While Klein was never the equal of Kirito in SAO, he filled an important role in Aincrad as Kirito's loyal friend and foil, even when Kirito didn't believe that he deserved the friendship; by Excaliber he's degraded to comic relief and the butt of the jokes, and yet he's ''still'' crucial to its success. Alleviated somewhat in the ''Mother's Rosario'' arc, where he's seen swatting dozens of players out of the way with ease, and in ''[[BigDamnMovie Ordinal Scale]]'', where he and his guild are among some of the only players to hold their own against the first Event Boss while ''Kirito'' falls flat on his face and needs bailing out, [[spoiler:and may have actually won a fist fight with Eiji had the latter not had an additional AR device to read his opponent's movements]]. |
| 55 | ** Asuna got subjected to this post-Aincrad, with her first being reduced to BadassInDistress before becoming a SatelliteLoveInterest. The ''Mother's Rosario'' arc and ''Ordinal Scale'' heavily fix these issues, as Asuna shows how competent of a fighter she is on her own without Kirito backing her. Especially prevalent in the movie, where she actually outshines Kirito for a large part of the film, being crowned the MVP for the first two boss battles (when Kirito is struggling) and showing off her exceptional leadership skills in combat. She only takes a back seat after [[spoiler:TakingTheBullet for Silica and losing her memory, forcing Kirito to step in when the game ''stops being a game'', but even then she's still able to pull off a BigDamnHeroes against the FinalBoss who had been stomping Kirito's party, before showing off the Mother's Rosario OSS she got from Yuuki to finish the boss off.]] |
| 56 | ** While he hardly suffers this in the main series, many spin-offs have turned General Eugene from a WorthyOpponent for Kirito and one of the contenders for WorldsBestWarrior into something of a joke. In materials such as the events in ''Memory Defrag'', he's a frequent victim of the WorfEffect, being shown or stated to be defeated by the MonsterOfTheWeek to establish their threat, and in ''Lost Song'' he's not only defeated by Sumeragi to establish the latter's power, but Sumeragi also took his Demonic Sword Gram as a prize yet is never shown using it, as if to rub salt on the wound. He finally gets some CharacterRerailment in ''Rising Steel'', [[spoiler: where he duels Klein, one of SAO's top players, as part of a ploy to get the gathered players to join the War of Underworld, and was on the giving end of a CurbStompBattle before the latter performed a SuicideAttack against him.]] |
| 57 | ** Sinon gets hit with this for some in the ''Calibur'' arc. Despite being introduced as a badass ColdSniper who isn't weighed down by having a crush on Kirito, she ends up having a reduced role in the arc where many felt she was just another girl in the harem. Though to her credit, she still pulls off a few badass moments in the arc, such as her 200-meter shot to recover the falling Excalibur. |
| 58 | ** In spite of her importance to the Arc, [[spoiler: Alice ends up suffering from this over the course of the ''War of Underworld''. Despite Fanatio naming her "[[WorldsBestWarrior the Strongest Integrity Knight]]", and while the Sacred Art she used to vaporize the Dark Territory forces is a testament to her power, Alice since then never enters many encounters that would further prove the status Fanatio thrust upon her. While she certainly retains her skills, and being able to briefly go toe-to-toe with [[PhysicalGod Asuna]] is noteworthy, she is kidnapped by Vecta almost immediately after and is put to sleep by him for good measure. Even after she awakens up, she never gets into any fights thereafter, immediately rushing to the Worlds End Alter to escape Vecta and, even when he does catch up to her as Subtilizer, they're unable to have a proper confrontation because of Kirito arriving in time and dealing with him personally.]] |
| 59 | * BaseBreakingCharacter: |
| 60 | ** The OfficialCouple Kirito and Asuna. Two of the most polarizing heroes in TheNewTens anime history. On the broad strokes, some claim that both are a little bit too perfect, thus making them unrelatable, if not downright unlikable. Others find them as perfectly engaging protagonists, specially when they are together as a BattleCouple (See EscapistCharacter below). To be more specific: |
| 61 | *** For Kirito it mostly has to do with whether or not he is a bland self-insert WishFulfillment character as opposed to being a completely legitimate and believably badass lead with a well-formed character. There are a lot of arguments over whether his overpoweredness is justified or completely unreasonable, with detractors stating this simply does not happen in video games and only appeals to those [[PanderingToTheBase seeking a tasteless power fantasy]], while fans point out it's explained InUniverse why he's so strong, such as his tendency to fight solo as opposed to fighting in groups. Detractors also argue that, even leaving aside his "overpoweredness" arguably breaking both the character and the narrative, Kirito's badassery just doesn't work in this setting, as the original appeal of the premise comes from the imminent threat of death, which is negated by him being an InvincibleHero who never has a real risk of dying. His ChickMagnet status and the way the story tends to focus on him instead of on arguably more interesting characters are also huge points of contention. For some, these points make him almost unbearable to watch, to the point that detractors treat him like a HateSink character, while others don't mind them and argue [[NeverLiveItDown they're just blown out of proportion by the detractors]], seeing him as a legitimate EscapistCharacter. |
| 62 | *** As for Asuna, she is either one of the most moe, badass and likable, strong female leads in TheNewTens anime history or another typical and run-of-the-mill tsundere LoveInterest. Then there was another group who thought she started off brilliantly as a strong female lead with her own independent character, but her appeal decayed after she became all lovey-dovey towards Kirito and began revolving around him, specially after the ''Aincrad'' arc, albeit this last part was alleviated by the ''Mother's Rosario'' arc, and the ''Ordinal Scale'' movie to a lesser degree. It's not uncommon to find those who hate SAO but still find an appeal in Asuna on her own. The way Kawahara tends to put her in the background in arcs like ''Phantom Bullet'' despite being the female lead of the franchise also hurts her reputation among detractors. And of course, there's [[BadassInDistress her role]] in the ''Fairy Dance'' arc. For most detractors it utterly broke her beyond repair. Fans on the other hand, while conceding that Kawahara was just disrespectful to her in that arc in general, argue that there were mitigating factors, namely the fact that she almost gets to escape on her own with no help, and even then she manages to give Kirito the means to get to her, and [[NeverLiveItDown she never sees herself in that situation ever again]]. Her pampering background is another point of debate, albeit to a lesser degree (to some people, it gives her more depth; to others, it makes her even less relatable). |
| 63 | ** Yui is a saccharine variation. Fans think that she's adorable and contributed to Kirito and Asuna's relationship. Detractors on the other hand see her as a lolicon-[[PanderingToTheBase pandering]] bait and a dreaded moeblob who contributed to the show's SeasonalRot. There's also the fact that she often serves as a walking [[DeusExMachina plot device]], pulling out something from nowhere to further advance the story. |
| 64 | ** Suguha in the ''Fairy Dance'' anime adaptation can be either seen as a {{Deconstruction}} of KissingCousins and NotBloodSiblings or a toxic LittleSisterHeroine who repeatedly goes [[BrokenRecord "Kirito-kun"]] or "Onii-chan" in just about every scene she's in and "steals" the role of the heroine from Asuna. There's also the excessive fanservice that comes with her character, such as the repeated close-ups of her oversized bust. For some, that's an appeal to her character, while for others, it's incredibly annoying pandering to a certain demographic. |
| 65 | ** Silica. To some, she's one of the most interesting and endearing characters in the whole cast, seeing her as EveryonesBabySister. To others, she's a useless character who contributes nothing to the plot other than being a TokenMiniMoe, especially given how she's often TheLoad and needs to be rescued. |
| 66 | ** Alice Synthesis Thirty. While the young Alice Zuberg [[EnsembleDarkhorse was near universally loved]], Integrity Knight Alice has had a more divisive reception from the fanbase. Some love Alice for just how complex her story arc is, how incredibly badass she is being one of the few who can contend with Kirito, and the sheer amount of CharacterDevelopment she goes through from TheStoic LadyOfWar to a more kind-hearted and friendly girl. Then there's those who dislike her pre-development for her [[{{Tsundere}} rude and brash attitude]] and post-development for the fact out of all of Kirito's UnwantedHarem she is the only one who actively butts heads with Asuna over Kirito's affection and want her [[DieForOurShip out of the picture]] for Kirito and Asuna's relationship. |
| 67 | ** Gabriel, the BigBad of the ''War of Underworld'' half of ''Alicization''. For some he's a very complex and terrifying LoveToHate villain with a fleshed-out backstory, while for others he's an out-of-place villain who is undeservingly overpowered and so god-awfully atrocious that any EvilIsCool cred he would have had gets stomped out. [[spoiler:The anime only made this worse with him having [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape tendencies]] added to his character that weren't present in the light novel.]] |
| 68 | * BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The NaughtyTentacles scene in Episode 21 that Asuna is subjected to. It comes out of nowhere, adds nothing to the plot, is never mentioned again, and just seems to be done for the sake of invoking the AllAnimeIsNaughtyTentacles theme. Similarly, the fact that two ALO staff members go around in purple slug avatars for no real reason is discontinued and bizarre enough for it to count as another BLAM. |
| 69 | * BileFascination: There's a fair number of late-coming viewers that jumped in after it became a critic-favorite punching bag in the anime community. In fact, ''SAO'' became a "must watch" among the anime community so that viewers can see ''why'' it's terrible and allow them to be able to join in the bashing of it. |
| 70 | * BrokenBase: |
| 71 | ** The use of sexual assault in the series, especially the borderline graphic attempted rape in ''Alicization'', has split fans on whether or not seeing the rapists taken out is catharsis due to RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil, or just a cheap shot at it reducing the female characters to damsels for the males to rescue. Or possibly a valid creative choice that was overdone possibly to the point of fetishizing rape. |
| 72 | ** Also, the increased instance of gore and violence in ''Alicization'', which is divided between those that consider the creators increasing shock value for whatever reason and those who insist that it is necessary to depict the plight and pains of the protagonists (not to mention its depiction aren't too consistent as some characters DisappearsIntoLight as usual while some are bloodied and gored) |
| 73 | ** Whether the anime adaptation is a step down from the light novels, or just as good/bad as the source material. Many light novel fans who followed the series before the hype and [[ItsPopularNowItSucks its reputation got destroyed]] state the anime AdaptedOut a lot of elements that made the light novels more enjoyable, such as removing many stories that featured side characters like Lisbeth and Silica, [[EnsembleDarkhorse Argo]] being DemotedToExtra, and Kirito's personality being a lot blander with the aversion of his VR-geekery and existential philosophy. However, a lot of detractors state that the anime adaptation is overall very true to the source material and that even adding the AdaptedOut elements wouldn't improve on the overall quality, so any blame for its many flaws should all fall to Reki Kawahara. In addition, the pacing problem and large {{Time Skip}}s from the ''Aincrad'' arc are only present in the anime due to the light novels being collections of short stories that don't directly interconnect, but the anime took all of them and arranged them chronologically without trying to iron out inconsistencies or adding needed connective tissue, which makes the arc seem disjointed and rushed. |
| 74 | ** The ''Phantom Bullet'' arc as a whole. Did it successfully WinBackTheCrowd with its new premise and a likable new female lead, or did it further contribute to the show's decline with its awful pacing, silly plot, and a new girl who is yet another addition to Kirito's harem? The only thing that both sides can agree upon is that it's hands down better than the ''Fairy Dance'' arc. |
| 75 | ** There's a bit of discussion about at which point exactly the series pulls off WinBackTheCrowd after the ''Fairy Dance'' arc (for those who enjoyed the ''Aincrad'' arc) or GrowingTheBeard (for those who didn't like the show in the first place, but got on board later on). As mentioned in the previous point, there are people who consider ''Phantom Bullet'' to be this, but there are also those who champion ''Mother's Rosario'', ''Ordinal Scale'', or ''Alicization'' instead, each one for different reasons. And of course, there are those who think that the franchise ''never'' becomes good at any point, keeping their belligerence against those who think it does. |
| 76 | ** The WishFulfillment aspect of the series. For many detractors, it's the number one reason for the series being terrible and cringey, being so over the top that it becomes downright intellectually insulting, particularly in regards to the sexual fanservice of reducing female characters to sexual fantasies way too often. On the other hand, for fans WishFulfillment is ''exactly'' the main appeal of the series, and they see nothing wrong in enjoying the series ''because'' of it rather than ''despite'' of it. This is especially considering ''[=SAO=]'' is far from alone in this aspect and that there are other shows that are arguably even worse in this regard, even among popular ones. |
| 77 | ** Related to the previous point, there's Kirito and Asuna's romance. Detractors feel [[RomanticPlotTumor it completely ruins the story]] by taking away the focus from the DeadlyGame premise and/or for [[StrangledByTheRedString being poorly executed]] by being too rushed (although the ''Progressive'' mini-series alleviates this part), having [[{{Narm}} cringey dialogue]] in places, and/or being there just to [[PanderingToTheBase pander to shallow romance fantasies]]. Fans on the other hand, consider the story to be is at its strongest when their romance is involved, even if you concede the WishFulfillment, since their BattleCouple dynamics offer a mix of action and romance that is extremely rare to find ''anywhere'' else. Plus, the fact that they get together early on and stay together ever since, no matter how much ShipTease both parties may have with other characters, and without relying on WillTheyOrWontThey dynamics nor forced bickering between them, is considered even refreshing in a popular culture where romance stories and subplots almost always ''end'' with the couple getting together or are about the couple being in danger of breaking up (see EscapistCharacter below). Some go as far as to say that Kirito works much better as a character when he's with Asuna than when he isn't[[note]]These people used to say the same thing about Asuna, although the ''Mother's Rosario'' arc also toned that one down thanks to her relationship with Yuuki and the Sleeping Knights. Kirito's relationship with Eugeo in ''Alicization'', though, did not have the same effect. Kirito improved as a character only in the eyes of the fans he already had, but he wasn't RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap for his detractors like Asuna was with many of hers[[/note]]. |
| 78 | ** Asuna's lesser prominence in later arcs is another point of divisiveness. For those who consider Asuna generic and uninteresting, it's actually refreshing to see her step out of the picture to make way for other companions Kirito comes across. For those who do like Asuna as a character, having less of her is a reason to stop watching due to her being one of the main appeals for them. To a lesser extent, this also extends to all of the girls of the harem as a whole, with some wanting to see more of them and others feeling their presence ruins the series. |
| 79 | ** Related to the previous two points is the SupportingHarem itself. For a lot of detractors, precisely due to Kirito and Asuna being the OfficialCouple from very early on, the harem's mere existance is pretty much pointless, and impossible to justify outside of yet again just [[PanderingToTheBase cheap pandering]]. For this people it's specially frustrating to see pretty much every single female lead of each new arc to be relegated to Kirito's harem once their time in the spotlight is finished, with little to none further development (Sinon and Alice are the most affected by this). Supporters on the other hand see not much problem with it, since all the girls are in the harem on their own volition, none of them have any delusions of ending up wining Kirito over, conscious or otherwise, and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy all support his relationship with Asuna]]. Not to mention that they end up forming quite solid relationships with each other outside of Kirito, forming a small FamilyOfChoice of sorts. And even conceding the WishFulfillment aspect of it, they argue the fantasy of being the object of desire of a bunch of beautiful women, even if you have already given your heart to one of them, is quite alluring on its own and valid as long as you don't act maliciously about it, which they argue, Kirito never does. |
| 80 | ** For ''War of Underworld'', the decision for the anime to include ''Ordinal Scale'' characters Eiji and Yuna who were not present in the source material. Especially with Eiji taking the place of a scene featuring Wol-saeng / "Moonphase" fighting [=PoH=]. Anime-only fans or light novel readers who are fans of ''Ordinal Scale'' have no problem with this writing decision and enjoyed the development given to Eiji, but light novel purists despise this change, especially accusing the decision to include Yuna, an AI, in the Underworld as breaking canon lore. Not helped by Reki Kawahara giving his support to the decision and dismissing any angry light novel readers. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | [[/folder]] |
| 83 | |
| 84 | [[folder:C-E]] |
| 85 | * CantUnHearIt: |
| 86 | ** As per the norm with the usual SubbingVersusDubbing arguments, the majority of ''SAO'' fans consider Creator/YoshitsuguMatsuoka the true voice of Kirito, to the point that they can't help but think about Kirito when they hear Matsuoka voicing other characters in other shows. Although Creator/BrycePapenbrook is overall well liked among fans of the English dub, his involvement in other shows like ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' or the ''[[Franchise/FateSeries Fate]]'' [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight franchise]] makes him feel less associated with Kirito. |
| 87 | ** An odd case in the European Spanish dub with Darío Torrent for Kirito and Eva Bau for Asuna. Although Spaniard fans also vastly prefer the Japanese VO in this franchise, and despite the fact that both of them have dubbed other popular anime series before and after ''SAO'', Torrent and Bau are often nicknamed "Kirito and Asuna's voice actors" by Spaniard anime fans when they appear in other shows[[note]]Almost always as a derogatory. Not only because of ''SAO'''s infamy, but also because Torrent and Bau are considered cheap, lower-tier voice actors. So people aren't exactly thrilled when they are announced as main leads in any anime dubs, since it usually means the publisher is cutting corners in that department.[[/note]] |
| 88 | ** A similar case happens in the Latin American Spanish dub with the same characters and their voice actors, Luis Leonardo Suarez (Kirito) and Alejandra Delint (Asuna), except that, unlike Spain, both actors and their performance are wildly beloved, despite that both actors were basically unknowns before ''SAO''.[[note]]In the case of Suarez, he previously worked in minor or secondary roles, like King in ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'' or [[Anime/BeybladeBurst Valt Aoi]]. Alejandra Delint is a more extreme case, as she is a TV and commercial model, with some dubbing credits under her belt, mostly minor roles.[[/note]] |
| 89 | * CargoShip: Kirito and sandwich[[note]]one of the most popular joke ships in the fandom, stemming from how emotional Kirito becomes over the loss of his sandwich in Episode 6, and how Asuna seems to be able to control Kirito using sandwiches. It got to the point where people say that Kirito only married Asuna for the sandwich, or that he actually married the sandwich itself[[/note]]. |
| 90 | * CatharsisFactor: |
| 91 | ** Kirito [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bisecting Oberon]], then preceding to [[EyeScream impale him through the eye]], is '''very''' satisfying to watch. |
| 92 | ** Similarly, Kirito and Eugeo rescuing Ronye and Tiese from the filthy clutches of Humbert and Raios and turning them into red-fountains with their swords will have you clapping and cheering. Gets better in ''Rising Steel'', where you not only get to beat the crap out of them yourselves, but can fight them using [[TheDogBitesBack Ronye, Tiese, and Frenica]]. |
| 93 | ** In ''Alicization Awakening'', [[spoiler:Suguha [[AnArmAndALeg chopping off the arms]] of her assaulter Dee Eye Ell who had tied her up and attempted to life-drain her with leech tentacles, then one-shotting her with a single attack that turns her into a bloody paste on the field.]] |
| 94 | ** Also in the same volume, and episode 18 of ''War of Underworld'' in the anime, [[spoiler:Asuna facing [=PoH=] alone and unleashing Mother's Rosario on him with the help of Yuuki's spirit/memory. Asuna hadn't had such a badass moment since the ''Aincrad'' arc, if not this being her most badass moment, period. All after years of a significant amount of people feeling that "The Flash" had lost her spark since the first half of season 1. To top it all off, the anime treats it with one of the most spectacular pieces of animation in the entire franchise.]] |
| 95 | ** And of course, from the same volume in the novels and same episode in the anime, [[spoiler:Kirito waking up from his AngstComa. Fans cheered with sheer joy after waiting for so long, and even some people who aren't that fond of the character were surprised to find themselves being so glad of seeing him back.]] |
| 96 | ** After spending an entire season watching him be an InvincibleVillain who causes the deaths of several people, [[spoiler: [[HeroKiller even personally killing Bercouli]], it's extremely satisfying to not only watch Gabriel be defeated by Kirito in a truly epic fashion, but then watch as he's DraggedOffToHell by his previous victims, including [[TheDogBitesBack Alicia Klingerman, his first victim.]]]] |
| 97 | ** An interesting variant shows up in the ''Rising Steel'' mobile game. In the game, certain HateSink or {{Scrappy}} characters[[note]] [[AdaptationalJerkass Kibaou]], [[StalkerWithACrush Kuradeel]], [[TheBully Jink]], [[UpperClassTwit Raios, Humbert]], etc[[/note]] appear as playable characters, often as 2 and 3 stars who are incapable of matching the 4 star units you'll likely be getting and using. In the game mode ''Ordinal Battle'', you make up a team of up to four Units to beat the AI controlled team of another player, with your team being sent to fight other players while also controlled by AI. This means that, if feel like helping your fellow players score an easy win, you can put these units in your Ordinal Team, maybe even on their own, to be delivered a CurbStompBattle by another player's vastly superior team. |
| 98 | * CommonKnowledge: |
| 99 | ** A common misconception is for casual anime watchers to mistake the Fairy Dance Arc for "Season 2", due to the shift in story and opening/ending songs. |
| 100 | ** On a similar note, many people mistakingly believe ''War of the Underworld'' to be Season 4, unaware that Season 3 was released in two parts. This one is however more understandable due to the sheer size of the cours, along with the fact some sites do promote it as a separate season. |
| 101 | * CreepyAwesome: |
| 102 | ** Kayaba's debut in the pilot using the [[InTheHood hooded]] "Game Master" avatar. It's immensely creepy where the sky turns red from being filled with "System Announcement" messages, before what appears to be blood drips out from the edges of the popups and pools together into the giant red-hooded avatar Kayaba is using. |
| 103 | ** Most members of Laughing Coffin give off this vibe, being a whole guild of {{Serial Killer}}s, but [=PoH=] stands out the most, being garbed in a creepy [[InTheHood hood]] and wielding a meat cleaver as his weapon of choice. |
| 104 | ** Death Gun. A hitman with a gun that can OneHitKill players and give them heart attacks in the real world. He's also an ImplacableMan who never stops hunting his targets, and then it's revealed he's an SAO survivor [[EvilCounterpart like Kirito]] and a member of the Laughing Coffin. Sure, the reveal of who he is and how he pulled off the murders diminishes his creep factor, but his presence itself is still pretty unnerving. |
| 105 | * CriticalDissonance: The franchise was one of the biggest commercial hits of the early 2010s, and still has quite a big fan base. You wouldn't believe it from anime critics, though, who for the most part hate it to a degree comparable to how most film critics hate Creator/MichaelBay movies. |
| 106 | * CriticProof: ''Sword Art Online'' as a whole is easily the most controversial anime of the TheNewTens, being the most simultaneously loved and hated on. The mere mention of the name is bound to start fights between fans defending it and haters bashing it. Countless [=YouTube=] critics have made names for themselves tearing the anime apart to the point where it ended up becoming "cool to hate ''SAO''". Despite the overwhelming hatred it receives, it still performs well and continues creating new seasons, manga, video games, and films years after its debut. To say nothing of the light novel sales, which have hit over 30 million copies sold globally as of 2022 and are still going strong. |
| 107 | * CrossoverShip: Fans believe Kirito would likely find a kindred spirit in [[Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero Ren]], due to the similarities in their character and their lives, both were alone on Christmas, both slayed a dragon and both [[spoiler:know what it's like to [[TotalPartyKill lose their whole party]], [[ItsAllMyFault Which they blame themselves for]]]]. |
| 108 | * CryForTheDevil: |
| 109 | ** Despite being TheScrappy, as stated below, [[spoiler: there are fans who genuinely pity Kyouji, especially among Light Novel readers who are able to learn of his past of being bullied and his poor home life, which the anime largely AdaptedOut.]] |
| 110 | ** As far as SAO villains go, [[CompleteMonster [=PoH=] probably stands out as among the worst of them all]], losing out only to Gabriel by what's admittedly a very thin margin. However, many couldn't help but feel sorry for him upon of learning his DarkAndTroubledPast. |
| 111 | * DesignatedMonkey: Silica. She gets being put through humiliation hell usually by virtue of NaughtyTentacles or strong monsters. Except she's depicted as a {{moe}} LittleSisterHeroine whom everyone in-universe and out dotes on and is protective towards. |
| 112 | * DieForOurShip: |
| 113 | ** Alice gets this treatment among strong Kiriasu shippers, due to her being the only girl out of the main cast making a move on Kirito despite him being in a relationship when the others have backed down [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy for Kirito and Asuna's sake]]. See UnintentionallyUnsympathetic below for more details. |
| 114 | ** There are times when Asuna is a literal victim of this, with some fanfic writers writing stories that either kill her off before or during the story so that Kirito can get together with their character of choice. |
| 115 | * DracoInLeatherPants: |
| 116 | ** Despite having kidnapped and murdered thousands of gamers, Kayaba Akihiko's fans insist he is not evil because he isn't sadistic like Sugou Nobuyuki or Death Gun, despite the fact that Kayaba is directly responsible for the other antagonists being able to pursue their evil goals. Even more nonsensical is that he still has fans in-universe, such as Asuna and Kirito. |
| 117 | ** Quinella also gets this treatment to a much lesser extent. While the novels are ambiguous over whether or not her sociopathy is the result of merging her soul with Cardinal or if she always was one and can now express it completely, it doesn't change the fact that she's hugely selfish and seems to relish in the misery she causes others. Even the anime gets in on it by giving her a somewhat sympathetic sendoff where she dies content and with a smile on her face. Her status as a ShamelessFanserviceGirl may have something to do with it... |
| 118 | * DryDocking: The number of fans who are displeased at Kirito's guts and want him to stay away from ''any'' female character in the cast so they can have them for themselves is quite high. |
| 119 | * EpilepticTrees: A very popular fan theory is that Kuroyukihime from ''Literature/AccelWorld'' (also by Reki Kawahara, set in the same SharedUniverse two decades into the future) is Kirito and Asuna's daughter. Furthermore, her real name is theorized to be Sachi Kirigaya, due to her nickname being Sachan. [[spoiler:This was officially debunked in ''Unital Ring'' with the introduction of Kuroyukihime's mother, who is ''not'' Asuna.]] |
| 120 | * EscapistCharacter: Basically, the appeal of both Kirito and Asuna for their fans. Apart from the obvious escapist possibilities that they offer separately[[note]]which on the other hand are the ones that detractors find are taken way too far. See BaseBreakingCharacter above[[/note]], they are somewhat unique in that they also offer an escapist fantasy for couples. As in living a great adventure with your significant other with ''[[BattleCouple both of you]]'' [[BackToBackBadasses kicking ass together]] in pretty much equal measure. A type of fantasy that is actually quite uncommon, not only in anime, but in popular media in general. Especially to this degree and ''especially'' without being hindered by WillTheyOrWontThey dynamics, which SAO refreshingly ''never'' relies on[[note]]A common point of praise is that Kirito and Asuna get together early on, rather that having an all-too-common LastMinuteHookup, and most importantly, stay together through thick and thin. Despite all the ShipTease that Kirito may have with his SupportingHarem, the story always makes clear that he has eyes only for Asuna.[[/note]]. This applies mostly to the ''Aincrad'' arc, obviously, and it's a big part of the reason why it's still the most popular arc... and why the ''Fairy Dance'' arc is so hated, for that matter, since it pretty much throws this fantasy out of the window in the worst way possible. Also the reason why the film ''Ordinal Scale'', which focuses on their relationship, not only was very well received by fans, but also managed to [[WinBackTheCrowd recover some fans that had dropped the series]] (signaling that the creators are fully aware of this situation). Couples cosplaying together as Kirito and Asuna in tandem is a pretty common view in anime conventions because of all of this. |
| 121 | * EvilIsCool: |
| 122 | ** Death Gun seems to run on this. Being a chilling, ColdHam serial killer with a cool mask and being a man who can OneHitKill players and give them heart attacks in the real world. He's also an ImplacableMan who never stops hunting his targets, and then it's revealed he's an SAO survivor like Kirito and a member of the Laughing Coffin. |
| 123 | ** Quinella is this as well, being the closest thing SAO has [[SatanicArchetype to the Devil]]. |
| 124 | ** [=PoH=], along with his Guild, got this treatment due to being CreepyAwesome, but his screentime during the ''War of Underworld'' made him extremely popular due to how threatening and effective he was. |
| 125 | ** While he's not [[BaseBreakingCharacter universally loved]] like the other examples, many did enjoy Gabriel Miller for his complexity and his sheer power. |
| 126 | [[/folder]] |
| 127 | |
| 128 | [[folder:F-G]] |
| 129 | * FandomEnragingMisconception: |
| 130 | ** Calling the ''Fairy Dance'' arc (Season 1 Episode 15-25) "Season 2". Fans get very irritated when people get it mixed up with the actual Season 2 titled "Sword Art Online II". |
| 131 | ** Saying Kayaba was never given a reason behind trapping thousands of players in SAO, due to his line saying that he forgot the true reason. Fans will adamantly point out it was literally explained right after that he wanted to create a real virtual world and that he had fulfilled that dream. |
| 132 | ** Calling Underworld a "game" despite the story making it very clear it is a top-secret virtual simulated environment populated by AI, being used for a government experiment funded with a black budget. Yet the misconception continues to persist. |
| 133 | ** Due to Alicization being split into two halves, there's the tendency of people referring to ''War of Underworld'' as Season 4. Though this one does have some justification as the production does tend to bill them as separate seasons and get listed individually rather than together. One could even get away with saying that the anime ''turned'' them into separate seasons even if they weren't in the light novels. |
| 134 | ** It is very common for anime-only watchers to make comments like "I haven't read the manga" or "where does the anime leave off in the manga?" Due to this franchise's status as a GatewaySeries, a lot of newcomers to the anime scene are not familiar with LightNovels and how they have become so prominent as source material for so many anime starting in the [=2010s=], and think the show is based off a manga like other popular [=2010s=] anime gateway series such as ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' and ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''. |
| 135 | * FandomRivalry: |
| 136 | ** There has been one with ''Literature/LogHorizon'', due to the similar premise. Interestingly enough, many ''Literature/LogHorizon'' supporters seem to be former [=SAO=] fans that dropped the series at some point (normally when the focus of the ''Aincrad'' arc shifted to romance, or when the ''Fairy Dance'' arc started). |
| 137 | *** Hilariously, ''Hollow Realization'' has you in a massive single floor area, instead of a tower, with the player characters the only ones who can't die, while {{Non Player Character}}s who go into battle die for real... EXACTLY like Log Horizon. |
| 138 | ** To a lesser extent, there's also one with ''Literature/AccelWorld'', which is written by the same author. |
| 139 | *** ...which has got several crossover elements with Sword Art Online in the video games. |
| 140 | ** ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' fans have also not taken well to the fact that "The Black Swordsman" is now more commonly associated with a 16 year old gamer instead of an adult who actually wields a sword. It doesn't help that Kirito's sword in Alfheim is nigh-identical to the Dragonslayer or that both series author's use rape a lot (partially justified in Berserk's case for being a CrapsackWorld filled with adult battle-hardened characters as well as inhuman antagonists whereas SAO is NOT.) |
| 141 | *** ''Hollow Realization'' introduces a character, Genesis, with that moniker as a nickname, who bears a much closer resemblance to the original Black Swordsman. Ironically, HE is seen as the pretender in-universe, in exactly the same way that the ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' fanbase saw Kirito as the pretender to that name. |
| 142 | ** Many ''Franchise/DotHack'' fans are also resentful of the fact that SAO is considered to have an original set up. Both works were created the same year, but SAO didn't become mainstream until it was formally published 7 years later. |
| 143 | ** It also has ''six'' in the form of ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'', ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'', ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'', ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'', ''Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRise'', and ''Series/GAROVersusRoad'', as many people call them "SAO with Kamen Riders" (while the latter show calls them "''Alicization'' and ''Literature/AccelWorld'' with Kamen Riders"), "SAO with card games", the other two being "SAO with Gunplas/Mobile Suits", and the last one being "SAO with [[Series/{{GARO}} Makai Knights]]" respectively. |
| 144 | ** With two of the ''Anime/IsekaiQuartet'' series ''Literature/KonoSuba'' and ''Literature/{{Overlord|2012}}'', due to the similar premises as well as being the most commonly cited series that haters champion as being superior. With ''[=KonoSuba=]'' it helps that it did not FollowTheLeader after SAO like most isekais did and completely deconstructed the cliches, along with the fact that ''[=KonoSuba=]'' has a memetically good reputation while SAO has a memetically bad reputation. While with ''Overlord'' the claims are that it took the same core concepts and ideas, such as an overpowered main character [[InsideAComputerSystem trapped in a video game]] but executed them correctly. |
| 145 | ** With ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', with said fandom constantly picking fights with the SAO fanbase, whenever SAO performs better in popularity polls. It's a reoccurring trend for [=JoJo=] fans to raid areas occupied by SAO fans and champion their show as the superior series. |
| 146 | * FandomSpecificPlot: Kayaba's famous MotiveRant led to ''many'' in the fandom wishing for something different. Virtually any sufficiently long fic that deals with the SAO arc will change his motive. In ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' [[spoiler:it was all a mistake that he kept doubling-down on]], in ''Fanfic/MonstrousCompendiumOnline'' it's because Kayaba is a dragon recruiting soldiers, and in ''Fanfic/FateRevelationOnline'' Kayaba [[HiddenAgendaVillain openly invites everyone to discover his true motives]]. |
| 147 | * FanNickname: With several being detractor nicknames. |
| 148 | ** A very popular nickname for [[{{GIRL}} GGO Kirito]] is "Kiriko", of course because he looks like a girl. In fact Kiriko became AscendedFanon and got used by the franchise. |
| 149 | *** In the Sword Art Offline DVD extras for ''SAO II'', GGO Kirito initially introduced himself as Kiriko. |
| 150 | *** In ''Fatal Bullet'' Kirito uses his anime GGO avatar as an alternate account which is literally named Kiriko. |
| 151 | ** "Waifu Art Online", specially the ''Aincrad'' arc (curiously, this is the one of the few nicknames that is not necessarily derogatory). |
| 152 | ** "Imoto Art Online" for the ''Fairy Dance'' arc. Also in the mix are "Harem Art Online", and "Incest Art Online". |
| 153 | ** The GGO arc (''Sword Art Online II'' for the anime) has been jokingly referred to as "[[MaleGaze Sinon Ass]] Online" for the many unnecessary butt shots of Sinon during the anime, ''especially'' in episode 10. |
| 154 | ** "Sword Fart Online" and "Sword Ass Online" have also been thrown around. |
| 155 | ** Kirito has several of these ("Jesus-kun", "Our Lord and Savior", "GOD Kirito" / "KAMI Kirito") |
| 156 | *** "GodMode" for the state Kirito takes on in ''Anime/SwordArtOnlineOrdinalScale'' where he uses his SAO avatar to [[OneHitKill decimate]] all the bosses. |
| 157 | *** "Manga/{{Naruto}}" or "Naruto-kun" for Kirito after his birth name is revealed to be "Kazu'''to''' '''Naru'''saka" in the prologue of the final arc. |
| 158 | ** The GGO arc has also been nicknamed "Franchise/StarWars Online" or "Star Wars the Anime", on account of Kirito practically being a Jedi and Death Gun being a Darth Vader {{Expy}}. |
| 159 | ** "[[Literature/{{Oreimo}} Kirino]]" for Leafa, due to both sharing the same [[Creator/AyanaTaketatsu voice actress]], as well as being the main character's little sister (bonus points for being one letter away from ''Kirito''). |
| 160 | ** Some fans like to call Klein "[[EmbarrassingNickname [=BallsDeep69=]]]" after the unfortunate yet hilarious handle he uses in ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged''. |
| 161 | ** [[spoiler: "Trollcliff" for Kayaba, as Sword Art Online (the game) is just him trapping 10,000 people in cyberspace for crits and giggles. There's also [=AKA=] Kayaba (or [=AKAyaba=] for short) after the reveal of his identity.]] |
| 162 | ** "[=SoB=] (Son of a Bitch)" for Vassago AKA [=PoH=] (Prince of Hell), [[spoiler:simply due to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown whatever cruel]] [[ColdBloodedTorture acts he tries to]] [[SlashedThroat inflict upon]] our heroes.]] |
| 163 | ** "Team Deban" for Lisbeth and Silica, the girls of ''Girls Op'' which was made possible after a RunningGag of artwork where the girls hold up signs saying "MORE DEBAN"[[labelnote:Explanation]]deban means [[DemotedToExtra "screentime"]][[/labelnote]]l. |
| 164 | ** The PlayerCharacter of ''Fatal Bullet'' tends to get referred to as "Protag-Kun" on subreddit. |
| 165 | ** "Blond Kirito" or "[[VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} Shiny Kirito]]" for Eugeo, due to their [[OnlySixFaces very similar character designs]]. |
| 166 | ** "Team Kirito" is used to refer to the SAO gang/Kirito's harem, especially in ''Alicization'' when Kirito is absent due to being trapped in the Underworld. |
| 167 | ** "[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain Punished]] [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Saber]]," or more directly, [[https://i.imgur.com/1L9THzc.png Punished "Synthesis" Alice]] for the eye-patched wearing Alice at the beginning of ''War of Underworld.'' She even has [[https://i.imgur.com/99fqWHl.png a monologue]] that wouldn't be that out of place in ''The Phantom Pain.'' |
| 168 | ** "Murder Lolis" for Linel and Fizel, due to being CuteAndPsycho little girls. |
| 169 | * FanonDiscontinuity: |
| 170 | ** A portion of fans of the anime see Aincrad as the only arc due to the many problems Alfheim had. There's also another portion which would do so too were it not for the arcs after it. Even the series itself doesn't really ever bring up Asuna as Titania afterwards despite Aincrad being referenced plenty of times. |
| 171 | ** The last episode of Season 2 and the ending of Volume 7 is this for those who were fans of Yuuki and didn't like the fact she died, to the point that many prefer the video games for sparing her from this fate. |
| 172 | * FanPreferredCouple: |
| 173 | ** Eugeo/Alice. Rather than the ShipTease between Eugeo and various other girls or Alice as another member of Kirito's harem, nearly all fans support this couple. Even merchandising and Reki seems to get in on this, with a lot of official or promotional art depicting them together, sometimes with Kirito and Asuna in what looks like a double date, and the ''If You Were Here'' and ''If You Wish It'' side-stories giving them some ShipTease with Kirito appearing to be a ShipperOnDeck. |
| 174 | ** Arguably more popular than that is the FoeYayShipping of Eugeo/Quinella, which got a huge boost after the anime. It helps that in the anime, she is not already nude when he enters her chambers, and takes the time to [[DressHitsFloor unlace her dress]] right in front of him. |
| 175 | ** Alice/Eydis. Thanks to ''Rising Steel'' featuring heavy LesYay moments between them, these two have now become heavily shipped. |
| 176 | * FanWorkOnlyFans: Many haters as well as those who are unimpressed by the source material have legitimate love and excitement for ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' which they consider to be both a great parody and a loving reconstruction of everything they liked about Sword Art Online while trimming or cutting the aspects they didn't like. |
| 177 | * FashionVictimVillain: Sugou's Oberon avatar gets hit hard with this, with all of its fairytale king imagery making him terribly hard to take seriously. Even worse, while Asuna wearing barefoot sandals in her Titania avatar makes sense from an aesthetic point of view, as fairies are often portrayed in art as [[EarthyBarefootCharacter unshod]] or even [[MsFanservice entirely unclothed]] (not to mention she is technically a [[BarefootCaptives captive]]), Oberon wearing sandals is another thing, given that he has to fight and look dominant due to his role in the arc, and instead he just looks like a [[HawaiianShirtedTourist goofy tourist]]. |
| 178 | * FirstInstallmentWins: Despite the story spanning at least four different [=MMOs=], with the [[ArtifactTitle titular Sword Art Online only appearing]] in a single novel and 14 episodes, the Aincrad arc is widely considered the best arc and the one the series is most associated with. A lot of fans felt the series should have ended there and [[FanonDiscontinuity disregard anything that comes after]]. The majority of merchandise and promotional material use the characters' Aincrad appearance. |
| 179 | * FountainOfMemes: Kirito himself. Polarizing as he may be, he has spawned countless memes in the anime community, both affectionate and derogatory. |
| 180 | * GatewaySeries: For many western viewers, ''Sword Art Online'' is not only the gateway series for the ''isekai'' genre but for anime in general, being TheNewTens equivalent of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. As much as many people hate to admit it, SAO was what got them into anime to begin with. |
| 181 | * GeniusBonus: System Call and Code 871[[note]]Seal of the Right Eye[[/note]] are actual computer terms which programmers may recognize. A System Call is when a program tries to interact with the operating system, while Code 871 is when a program tries to modify something it does not have access to. |
| 182 | * GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The franchise is surprisingly popular in Mexico. This is especially worth mentioning here for a myriad of reasons since ''no one'', not even their fans, expected SAO to be popular there, partly because, unlike other very popular anime franchises popular in both Mexico and other Latin American countries, like ''Manga/SaintSeiya'', ''Franchise/SailorMoon'', ''Franchise/DragonBall'' and even cult stuff (in Latin America) like ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' or ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', SAO is not based on a manga (despite having one later on), but on a light novel, a genre which is even more niche in Mexico than {{Manga}} or {{Anime}}, due to its ties with regular literature, considering Mexicans aren't known for reading books at all.[[note]]Mexicans have one of the lowest levels of reading in Latin America, as reading books is normally reserved for academic or professional reasons, most of the time mandated by the requirements of those jobs. Reading for pleasure is considered a nerdy hobby, and sometimes, in the worst cases, it could be grounds for bullying or teasing. Most Mexicans prefer to read newspapers, magazines, comic books, the Internet, or other kinds of visual media that have something besides lots of text.[[/note]] |
| 183 | * GottaShipEmAll: One solution fans have to the HaremGenre in the series, is to pair the many members of the harem up with each other, with Lisbeth/Silica and Leafa/Sinon being popular pairings. |
| 184 | * GrowingTheBeard: |
| 185 | ** In regards to the anime, while the series starts off pretty strong, it's the two-parter in episodes 5 and 6 where they really get the comedic timing down and solidified Asuna's characterization. The light novels are a different story due to the anachronistic nature of the first two volumes. Episode 8 is also considered as such, due to dropping the independent episodic story format in favor of a continuous flowing narrative. |
| 186 | ** After the extremely controversial ''Fairy Dance'' Arc, the ''Phantom Bullet'' Arc is widely considered to have redeemed the show with its increased focus on storyline and CharacterDevelopment, while keeping the continuous flowing narrative as opposed to the episodic stories in the first half of the Aincrad arc. ''Mother's Rosario'' also follows suit by giving Asuna some much needed depth after many had considered to be undeveloped. |
| 187 | ** The ''Alicization'' arc is extremely highly regarded among fans and praised as Kawahara's best work for SAO. It features a very compelling story line that avoids the rushed pacing issues of its predecessors, giving focus to many characters other than Kirito (with Asuna eventually taking up the role of {{Deuteragonist}} once again), and delving very deeply into existential philosophy of human nature. It also introduces Alice and Eugeo, possibly the two most popular SAO protagonists (aside from Sinon and Yuuki). |
| 188 | [[/folder]] |
| 189 | |
| 190 | [[folder:H-J]] |
| 191 | * HarsherInHindsight: |
| 192 | ** Klein struggling against the boar is played for laughs, but at the time, he and Kirito didn't know that dying in the game kills them in real life. If Kirito wasn't there to teach Klein, the latter would have died at the start of the game. Worse yet, Klein isn't the only one new to the game and not everyone had the good fortune of meeting a beta tester. |
| 193 | ** It's really hard to laugh when Kirito accidentally grabs Asuna's right breast after [[spoiler: seeing Asuna nearly getting raped much later]]. |
| 194 | ** Shinichi's occasional creepiness trying to win Suguha's heart is funny because he's harmless. On the other hand, [[spoiler:Kyouji turns creepy right before he tries to rape and murder Sinon. Before this, the two were very similar.]] |
| 195 | ** One of Sugou's many vile acts was being a [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil sexual sadist]]. An already dark moment gets depressing after his voice actor in the English dub, Creator/ToddHaberkorn, got hit with a rape allegation in January of 2019 by Jessie Pridemore [[note]]She kept him anonymous when talking about her rape in relation to an incident with Creator/VicMignogna, but Todd chimed in not long after saying that he was the one Pridemore saw and claimed it was consensual.[[/note]]. |
| 196 | ** The subplot about Koreans being left off from The Seed Nexus (which is the basis of the VRMMO after Aincrad) and how it incensed at least several players including one particular POV character during one chapter of ''Alicization Awakening'' becomes quite relevant after increasing tensions between Korea and Japan due to trade restrictions for high-tech materials in July 2019. |
| 197 | ** The fact that Alice Synthesis Thirty's [[Creator/AiKayano voice actress]] being blacklisted by Korean and Chinese production as well as domestic productions with Korean and Chinese involvements over visiting Yasukuni Shrine eerily sounding like a HappyEndingOverride for Alice's plea for acceptance at the end of Alicization arc. |
| 198 | ** Yuna is essentially a PosthumousCharacter, being an AI recreation of someone who died in SAO. Her Japanese voice actress Sayaka Kanda died in December 2021. |
| 199 | * SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: For anyone with complaints about Creator/YoshitsuguMatsuoka using nearly the same voice for all his characters, he really makes up for it in ''Alicization''. Not only is he voicing Kirito as a kid, but he's also [[VocalEvolution evolved the]] now older Kirito's voice making it noticeably deeper than the Kirito introduced in Season 1. And for the really sceptical about his range, at the end of the arc you have [[spoiler:his Star King Kirito voice, which he uses briefly for the real Kirito as he returns to the real world after his 200 year reign in the Underworld, but most impressively, for his copy. Matsuoka manages to really sell a much more experienced and worn out Kirito, with a slightly off touch that borderlines on UnintentionalUncannyValley to give the impression that those 200 years really made a number on his state of mind, but without being able to put your finger on it]]. |
| 200 | * HilariousInHindsight: |
| 201 | ** Kirito's statement at the end of the ''Aincrad'' arc that "there's nothing more boring than watching someone else playing an MMO." Back in 2002, when the webnovel was written, most people would have agreed with him. Fast forward a bit over a decade later, when the success of LetsPlay videos and gaming streaming platforms such as Twitch has made that statement age quite poorly. |
| 202 | ** The fact that there is an arc called, "Mother's Rosario." Kirito's birthday is the Feast of the Rosary. |
| 203 | ** The titular Sword Arts, as described in the novel, are special attacks where the system briefly takes over limb control, activated by specific arm movements. In other words, motion controls five years before the Platform/NintendoWii popularized them. |
| 204 | ** One on the dark humor side for ''Manga/FairyTail'' fans who enjoy the English dub. Asuna and Oberon are voiced by Creator/CheramiLeigh and Creator/ToddHaberkorn, respectively. In other words, Lucy and Natsu. Let us say, [[PortManteauCoupleName NaLu]] fans [[BrainBleach may not be able to unsee it]] when they see [[AttemptedRape Asuna and Oberon's interactions]] in [=SAO=]. |
| 205 | *** The European Spanish dub has the exact same situation with Eva Bau (Lucy[=/=]Asuna) and Enric Puig (Natsu[=/=]Oberon). |
| 206 | ** Creator/ChristineMarieCabanos voicing Silica (the number one victim of NaughtyTentacles) becomes pretty funny when considering she's the voice of Manga/SquidGirl. |
| 207 | ** Another one for the English dub. [[Creator/CristinaVee Alicia Rue]] is a CatGirl who [[FlirtingAndCourtship tries to woo]] [[Creator/BrycePapenbrook Kirito]]. A few years later, both would be cast as the leads of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'', where Kirito is now a CatBoy trying to win the heart of Alicia Rue. |
| 208 | ** The ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' fandom [[FandomRivalry has been known to treat Kirito as the pretender "Black Swordsman" to Guts]]. In ''Hollow Realization'', the BigBad is Genesis who physically resembles Guts more than Kirito does, but is treated InUniverse as the pretender to Kirito. |
| 209 | *** The ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' parallels run even further as Creator/MarcDiraison (Kayaba's English VA) was the original voice of Guts (AKA the OG Black Swordsman). The man even got to [[RoleReprise reprise the role]] in ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', which came out around the same time ''Sword Art Online'' was airing. |
| 210 | ** After Episode 3 of ''Alicization'' aired, this makes it the third 2018 fall anime to feature goblins, joining the ranks of ''Literature/GoblinSlayer'' and ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime''. |
| 211 | ** Episode 10 of ''Alicization'' and the above-mentioned ''Goblin Slayer'' aired on the same day, and in a truly [[{{Irony}} ironic]] coincidence, [[spoiler: ''Alicization'' was the serious, intense episode that featured (attempted) rape and buckets of blood, while ''Goblin Slayer'' was a calm and slow-paced episode devoted to character development and relaxation.]] Jokes abounded about how the two shows must have gotten their scripts mixed up. |
| 212 | ** Kirito amasses quite a harem throughout the series, being a NiceGuy ChickMagnet (though he is an OfficialCouple with Asuna.) Come 2019, some of the more well-known female English cast members(Including Creator/CheramiLeigh, Creator/ChristineMarieCabanos, and Creator/SarahAnneWilliams) would lend their voices to the UpdatedReRelease of the RolePlayingGame AffectionateParody of the harem genre: ''Conception PLUS: Maidens of the Twelve Stars.'' |
| 213 | ** During ''The Girl of Morning Dew'' Kirito tells Asuna a ghost story. Coincidentally, they find a ghost in the forest, who turned out to be a girl named Yui. It was later revealed that Yui was an ArtificialIntelligence. Hmm... A ghost that turned out to be an AI. [[WebAnimation/RedVsBlue Sounds familiar, doesn't it?]] |
| 214 | ** Gabriel Miller (AKA Subtilizer, the BigBad of the second half of the ''Alicization'' arc) is voiced by Creator/AkiraIshida. ''Gabriel'' is also the name of an angel in Judeo-Christian religions (famously, he's the one who told Mary about the advent of Christ). [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Now why does Akira Ishida voicing an angel ring so many bells?]][[labelnote:note]]It should be noted that while Kaworu ''is'' an antagonist, personality-wise he could not be further from [[{{Jerkass}} Gabriel]] [[HateSink Miller]].[[/labelnote]] |
| 215 | *** Also, in a bit of irony, Gabriel's whole schtick is [[YourSoulIsMine stealing people's souls.]] What was the name of the organization that sent Kaworu to NERV? SEELE (which is German for soul.) |
| 216 | ** In the English dub, Kirito is portrayed by Creator/BrycePapenbrook who would later do the same for Emiya Shirou. Their [[WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged respective]] [[WebVideo/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorksAbridged abridged]] series wound up having the same voice actor portray Kirito and Shirou as well. |
| 217 | * HoYay: |
| 218 | ** Oodles between Kirito and Klein. Many fans even include Klein as part of Kirito's SupportingHarem. |
| 219 | *** Starting in the very first episode. In the Japanese version of the first episode... |
| 220 | ---->'''Klein:''' Kirito! ...Ah... Hey, Kirito. You were actually pretty cute. That's my type.\ |
| 221 | '''Kirito:''' And that unkempt face of yours suits you ten times better. |
| 222 | ** Kirito and Eugeo. Kirito describes Eugeo, his "partner" throughout his adventures in the Underworld, as one of the few very close male friends he's had, and hopes to introduce Eugeo to his friends. [[spoiler:Eugeo's death hits Kirito ''very'' hard, leaving him broken in spirit for quite some time. In fact, he takes Eugeo's death in some ways worse than he took ''Sachi's'' back in Aincrad]]. |
| 223 | ** A strange example happens early on in ''Phantom Bullet'', when Sinon is significantly friendlier to Kirito when she thinks he's a fellow female player. |
| 224 | ** Asuna and Sinon. In the light novels, it's said that shortly after meeting Asuna, Sinon decided to try to overcome her trust issues and give friendship a chance. The two are on a FirstNameBasis by the end of their first meeting; compare that Shino being on a LastNameBasis with Kyouji, whom she's known for some time. By the start of ''Alicization'', not only has Asuna started using the AffectionateNickname of "Sinonon" on Sinon, but she also invited Shino over to her house. |
| 225 | ** [[PseudoRomanticFriendship Asuna and Yuuki]] during the ''Mother's Rosario'' arc. When Asuna suggested Yuuki marry someone, Yuuki jokingly considered marrying Asuna. [[spoiler:In her dying moments,]] Yuuki also said Asuna was the person she loved. |
| 226 | ** Asuna and Alice when they first meet in the ''Alicization'' arc. Each one has a lengthy inner monologue in the light novel (which were AdaptedOut in the anime) with a [[PurpleProse fawning description]] of just how beautiful the other girl is (for Alice's part, she's trying to figure out why [[SitcomArchnemesis Asuna's simple presence instinctively irritates her]]): |
| 227 | --->'''(Asuna's perspective)''': ''She gasped in shock. An astonishingly beautiful knight with snow-white skin, roughly the same age as her, was glaring at Asuna. Her sapphire eyes emanated an animosity that seemed to crackle like electricity. [[HairOfGoldHeartOfGold Her golden hair, seemingly fashioned from the element itself]], billowed in the air. Her hefty armor and smooth longsword both gleamed a flaxen yellow.''\ |
| 228 | '''(Alice's perspective, a little later)''': ''Or was it because [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman Asuna was so extraordinarily beautiful that just looking at her made you sigh?]] An exotic face without even the slightest tinge of austerity, as though it were the embodiment of the word “exquisite” itself. The bonfire brightly illuminated her white skin and her soft, billowing chestnut hair, which looked to be top-quality strands of silk braided together. The Guard Leaders' eyes all revealed intoxicated gazes of admiration. If Asuna had called herself Goddess Stacia, they would have believed her without question.'' |
| 229 | ** There's even more in the gameverse, see [[YMMV/SwordArtOnlineVideoGame this page]] for more details. |
| 230 | * HypeBacklash: |
| 231 | ** SAO is one of the biggest examples in the entirety of fiction. It garnered excessive attention and for a while became the most hyped anime of its time. However many came out of the experience with negative opinions, especially the ''Fairy Dance'' arc. In fact one of the main reasons people started rigorously hating on it was because of its popularity and the belief that it was undeserved. And then the critics got their hands on it and thoroughly destroyed its reputation, where SAO went from the darling of the anime community, to its favorite punching bag. |
| 232 | ** The ''Alicization'' arc, which was heavily hyped as the best [=SAO=] story before its anime adaptation began, also got hit by this to an extent. The opinions from fans were overall positive, but a significant amount of them don't consider it ''the'' best arc, due to a relatively slow beginning, the sidelining of the supporting cast (although they think Eugeo and Alice makes up for it) and the story moving away from the video game setting being a somewhat divisive move. And of course, at the end of the day, it didn't manage to sway the opinions of detractors, some of them ''being former fans'', who think that ''Alicization'' does nothing to fix the flaws of the franchise, as they found instances of illogical plots and plotlines, underdeveloped characters (and this time not even Alice and Eugeo escape this criticism, the latter not being helped by detractors pointing out his design is just a Kirito palette swap), [[RuleOfThree yet]] another use of AttemptedRape as a plot point, and the use of sexual fanservice, particularly with Quinella. |
| 233 | * ItsPopularNowItSucks: ''Sword Art Online'' was one of the first GatewaySeries of TheNewTens, being one the most hyped series at the time of its release. However its surge in popularity and introduction to a wider audience was what contributed to it becoming a critic-favorite punching bag. The wider audience allowed its flaws to become more pronounced, which then escalated as more and more people jumped on the hate bandwagon leading it to became trendy to hate SAO. In fact its the popularity of the series itself which is in part what leads to the extremely vocal hate, with the detractors stating the series does not deserve such popularity. |
| 234 | * JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Many of the HateSink characters end up falling under this and end up more reviled than the proper villains (except Sugou, who earned his haters and is much worse than the jerks mentioned below). |
| 235 | ** Kibaou in the anime, garnered a lot of disdain due to his extremely callous and prejudice behavior towards Kirito and beta players. |
| 236 | ** Endou from the ''Phantom Bullet'' arc, an AlphaBitch who delights in bullying Sinon over her PTSD. She is ''far far'' more reviled than the arc's actual villain, [[SerialKiller Death Gun]], despite her crimes being much tamer in comparison. |
| 237 | ** Raios and Humbert from ''Alicization'', two arrogant noble disciples and Kirito and Eugeo's personal bullies at the Swordcraft Academy. While they do end up slipping firmly into evil territory, they are still far more tamer than the BigBad Quinella, yet it is these two who are far more despised by the fandom for their AttemptedRape on Ronye and Tiese. |
| 238 | * JustHereForGodzilla: |
| 239 | ** You'd be surprised how many people say they don't like the series and only watch it to see [[BreakoutCharacter Sinon]]. |
| 240 | ** Likewise, quite a few people tuned into the ''Alicization'' arc solely for [[LoveToHate Quinella]]. |
| 241 | [[/folder]] |
| 242 | |
| 243 | [[folder:K-O]] |
| 244 | * LauncherOfAThousandShips: |
| 245 | ** Kirito. Most of the girls from his SupportingHarem are shipped with him to some degree along with a few others. Aside from Asuna, popular choices include: [[TheGadfly Lisbeth]], [[BirdsOfAFeather Sinon]], [[TokenMiniMoe Silica]], [[{{Bromance}} Klein]], [[TheLostLenore Sachi]], [[HoYay Eugeo]], [[FireForgedFriendship Alice]], and believe it or not [[AttractiveBentGender him]][[ScrewYourself self]]. |
| 246 | ** Asuna. Outside of her OfficialCouple status with Kirito, she's been shipped with Lisbeth, Yuuki, Yuna, and Alice to name a few. |
| 247 | * LGBTFanbase: |
| 248 | ** The series has a surprisingly large fanbase in the transgender community due to [[{{GIRL}} Kirito's GGO avatar]], in how [[DudeLooksLikeALady he's a boy who looks like a convincing girl]]. |
| 249 | ** Yuuki has huge admiration from the LGBT community due to her being AmbiguouslyGay, with the gameverse going the extra mile and outright confirming she's into girls. |
| 250 | * LoveToHate: |
| 251 | |
| 252 | ** Among the villains, Kayaba is the most charming of the bunch. It also helps that he's an AffablyEvil BadassBookworm VR junkie with [[EvenEvilHasStandards high moral standards]]. |
| 253 | ** Death Gun is a depraved SerialKiller with [[HateSink no redeeming qualities]] whatsoever, but given he's the closest SAO gets to EvilIsCool with his theatrical and [[CreepyAwesome intimidating]] portrayal, with many fans wanting to see more of him before his eventual defeat. |
| 254 | ** Quinella is one of the most loved {{Big Bad}}s in the series, due in no small part due to her attractive [[MsFanservice appearance]] and [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl lack of clothing]] thanks to [[PosthumanNudism her ascension]]. There's also the fact that she's easily the most complex villain to date with her entire backstory provided and her ascension to power described in detail. |
| 255 | ** While [=PoH=] didn't get this treatment in the first arc due to his lack of screen-time, his re-appearance in ''War of Underworld'' gave him a great raise in popularity due to the legitimate threat he poses, [[spoiler: especially when he logs back in with an army of foreign players]], his rather [[EvilIsHammy hammy mannerisms]] [[note]] [[GratuitousEnglish "Good]] [[MemeticMutation Morning!"]][[/note]], his [[DarkAndTroubledPast actually rather tragic backstory]], and just how cool and intimidating his abilities and weapon are. [[{{Irony}} Ironically]] enough, this how he feels about Kirito InUniverse, stating that he loves him for how much of a pain of the ass he is to him and how impossible he is to corrupt. |
| 256 | * MagnificentBastard: |
| 257 | ** [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAkihikoKayaba Akihiko Kayaba]] is a brilliant programmer desiring a fully-immersive virtual reality world, which led him to create ''Sword Art Online'', the world's first VRMMORPG. Upon launch, he would trap 10,000 players within and setting it so they die in real life if they do in the game while preventing authorities from stopping his game. Disguised as Heathcliff, a charming leader of a group of players within Aincrad, Kayaba reveals himself when [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineKazutoKirigaya Kirito]] deduces his identity and duels him on the condition he releases the players if victorious. Honoring his word, Kayaba logs all the players out, while seemingly killing himself when beaten, but in reality sending his [[BrainUploading consciousness]] to continue existing on the internet. Reappearing out of disgust for the next season's ArcVillain, Kayaba assists Kirito in defeating the antagonist and entrusts Kirito with his final invention: made to allow others to create their own virtual reality games and have it shared with the world. Returning once more in the ''Alicization'' arc, Kayaba helps save the virtual reality world the heroes are within by taking control of a robot in the setting. Brilliant yet honorable, he remains the most influential of Kirito's foes. |
| 258 | ** ''[[Anime/SwordArtOnlineExtraEdition Extra Edition]]'': [[BitchInSheepsClothing Kraken the Abyss Lord]] is a QuestGiver NPC for the "Deep Sea Plunderers" quest. Posing as a old human man named "Nerakk", he requests players for help in recovering a giant pearl intended to be a gift for a friend, which he claims was stolen by robbers and taken to the Undersea Temple. In reality, this is a ruse and the 'pearl' is in fact the Child's Egg, which was guarded by a magic barrier that prevents Kraken from entering. Most players are tricked into battling the temple guardians and stealing the egg for Kraken. Kirito's party realize his deception and refuse to hand over the egg, to which Kraken transforms into his true form to take the egg by force. Kraken [[CurbStompBattle very nearly kills the heroes]], where they are saved by the last second intervention of [[AlwaysABiggerFish Leviathan the Sea Lord]]. |
| 259 | ** [[Recap/SwordArtOnlineAlicizationArc "Alicization arc"]]: |
| 260 | *** [[BigGood Cardinal]] is the [[GodInHumanForm physical manifestation of the Cardinal sub-processor]], that managed to [[EnemyWithout split off from]] [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineQuinella Quinella]] after she assimilated the Cardinal system that ran the Underworld. Cardinal carries out her duty to error-check Quinella by attempting to assassinate her, but is overwhelmed in battle by her child body, so retreats into the Great Library and severs its link to the Central Cathedral. Spending 200 years scouting for potential rebels to recruit, she notices Kirito and Eugeo, and sends her spider familiar, Charlotte to watch over them. After the boys get arrested, Cardinal helps them escape by opening a portal into the Great Library. Cardinal trains the boys in utilizing the "[[SuperMode Armament Full Control Art]]" ability within their swords, to prepare them for raiding Central Cathedral and fighting evenly against the Integrity Knights. When the boys and Alice face off against Quinella and her Sword Golem, Cardinal arrives to save them and heals their injuries. Upon discovering that she cannot fight the Sword Golem herself, Cardinal [[HeroicSacrifice offers her own life to Quinella to spare the kids]]. Before passing away, Cardinal helps Eugeo fuse with his sword to destroy the Sword Golem and weaken Quinella. Cardinal's purpose would be fulfilled after her death, where Kirito defeats Quinella. |
| 261 | *** [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Iskahn]] is the Tenth Champion of the [[BareFistedMonk Pugilists]] and their leader, as well as a member of the Dark Territory's Council of Ten. Iskahn's GoalInLife was to find a WorthyOpponent, making him very enthusiastic of going to war with the Human Empire. He is angered by Scheta Synthesis Twelve butchering the Pugilists with non-lethal wounds, so challenges Scheta himself and finds the Integrity Knight to be his equal. [[GodEmperor Gabriel/Emperor Vecta]] orders him to supervise the pugilists crossing a fissure via ropes, with Iskahn himself forbidden to cross via the ropes, where Iskahn is devastated at witnessing his people fall to their deaths in vain. Overcoming the Seal of the Right Eye by tearing his eye out, Iskahn takes advantage of Vecta's ExactWords to pull a LoopholeAbuse by jumping over the fissure, then forming an alliance with the Human Empire against the invading Foreign Players, due to a lack of orders regarding both. At the conclusion of the War, Iskahn is left as one of the few surviving Lords, becoming the new Supreme Commander of the Dark Territory and forges a peace treaty with the Human Realm. |
| 262 | * MemeticBadass: Kirito in a rare derogatory example of this trope. His PlotArmor is said to be unparalleled and he can never die no matter how unlikely survival is. |
| 263 | * MemeticLoser: |
| 264 | ** [[ButtMonkey Klein]]. Guy can never catch a break, with him being the only guy who is forever alone and without a romantic partner, while all of his attempts at winning a girl over are doomed to fail. Plus, despite being a main cast member, it's joked that '''everyone''' has more screentime than him. |
| 265 | ** Kirito himself tends to get this from the periphery hatedom, who will [[NeverLiveItDown endlessly bring up]] the fact he's a loner gamer with no social life and is only so strong because he endlessly grinds like a loser, rather than the badass swordsman the show makes him out[[note]]even though in the real world [[BroughtDownToBadass he's able to fight off Sugou and spar evenly with his kendo champion sister Suguha]][[/note]]. Furthermore, pretty much every versus topic that features Kirito will have the majority of people rooting for the opposition and coming up with ''every'' possible way to make Kirito seem weak and lose, regardless of whether or not it makes sense in the fight. |
| 266 | ** Kikuoka. The entire ''Alicization'' arc can largely be blamed on him and his shortsight of not blocking out Kirito's memory, where the boy proceeds to completely ruin the experiment by triggering a rebellion that overthrows Quinella. Plus he remained oblivious to his experiment being sabotaged from the start, with the Seal of the Right Eye being implanted into the Underworld right under his nose. |
| 267 | * MemeticTroll: |
| 268 | ** '''Argo'''. Kirito and Asuna are pretty much her play things. She will go to great lengths to embarrass Kirito and it's absolutely hilarious. The fact she's an KnowledgeBroker who's OnlyInItForTheMoney has led her to exploit the most sensitive and personal of information and sell it off for cash, or the lows she will stoop to getting said information in the first place. Then there's the fact she keeps insinuating Kirito has a thing for her, mockingly treating every one of his attempts at being friendly to be flirting. |
| 269 | ** Lisbeth is known to [[TheGadfly notoriously troll]] Kirito and Asuna. She loves putting the lovey-dovey couple in awkward situations, while she's most likely the one to [[MomentKiller kill the mood]] by telling them to GetARoom. She's also not afraid to [[SkinshipGrope get physical]] with other girls, or snuggling up to Kirito despite the fact he's in a relationship. |
| 270 | * {{Moe}} |
| 271 | ** Silica, TheBabyOfTheBunch who everybody treats like a fragile little sister. |
| 272 | ** Yui, Kirito and Asuna's sweet, [[ChildrenAreInnocent innocent]], little daughter who they treasure more than anything in the world. |
| 273 | ** Leafa/Suguha, Kirito's real life sister/cousin who he's extremely protective over. |
| 274 | ** Asuna herself during the ''Fairy Dance'' arc when [[BadassInDistress she was held captive]]. |
| 275 | ** Sinon in real life, a BrokenBird who's constantly dealing with PTSD and the social stigmas that come with it. |
| 276 | ** Eugeo, who endears many for being an {{adorkable}} shy boy who overcomes his cowardice to become greater. |
| 277 | ** Tiese and Ronye, the valets of Eugeo and Kirito, who look up to and are eager to please their senpais. |
| 278 | ** Cardinal, a LittleMissBadass who is WiseBeyondHerYears but just wants a hug. |
| 279 | * MorePopularReplacement: Sinon serves as the ArcHero of the ''Phantom Bullet'' arc, where she takes over from Asuna as the female lead much like Leafa did. However unlike Leafa who ended up being a ReplacementScrappy, Sinon ended up being a welcome change and would go on to become a BreakoutCharacter. Fans praised her for her [[TheStoic compelling]] [[DeadpanSnarker personality]], her [[DarkAndTroubledPast much deeper backstory]], having a more realistic motivation for taking up gaming, as well as being the first female protagonist who is ''not'' defined by having an interest in Kirito. There's a large group who wish Sinon was the solo protagonist of the GGO arc without having to share the limelight with Kirito. |
| 280 | * SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: |
| 281 | ** The VR starting sound effect after someone says "Link Start!" |
| 282 | ** Kirito's photon sword in ''Phantom Bullet'' hums just like a [[Franchise/StarWars lightsaber]]. |
| 283 | * NightmareRetardant: Sugou/Oberon. He's ticked every box to be [[HateSink as awful a person as possible]], but he's so ridiculously cartoonishly evil that he comes off as annoying rather than intimidating. |
| 284 | * NoYay: Anything from Sugou/Oberon. |
| 285 | * ObviousJudas: |
| 286 | ** Sigurd from the Alfheim arc. He quickly establishes himself as a {{Jerkass}} when he tries to boss Leafa around outside of the scope of their original agreement, and when Kirito calls him out on it, Sigurd [[DisproportionateRetribution threatens to kill him when he can't fight back]]. As such, it's not especially surprising that he's the traitor in the Sylph faction, even if the twist is more about there being one than who it is. |
| 287 | ** From the ''Progressive'' Series, we have [[spoiler: Joe, who's all but confirmed to be a member of the [[TheConspiracy PKer Conspiracy]] led by [=PoH=] that dedicate themselves to hindering the frontlines. Even before the implications were brought forth, Joe never helped his case with his constant rantings that the ALS should take a mistrustful stance against Beta Testers and the DKB, even at times where it serves to benefit no one and could potentially get someone killed, and tried to get Nezha and the Legend Braves executed by the Clearing Force with unreliable info that their scam killed another player.]] The Manga is especially gratuitous with this by [[spoiler: depicting him as [[InTheHood wearing a hood similar to Morte's]] right before the arc where Morte himself is revealed as a member of the TheConspiracy.]] |
| 288 | * OlderThanTheyThink: While the light novels began publication in 2009 (with the anime not starting until 2012), Reki Kawahara actually started writing ''SAO'' related stories as early as 2001 with the intention of competing for the 2002 ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Game Novel Prize. After being rejected for surpassing the contest page limit, he published it on the internet immediately after and kept adding new stories in that format until 2008 (with ''Alicization'' specifically written from January 2005 to July 2008), going as far as completing the ''Alicization'' arc and writing the beginning of the ''Moon Cradle'' arc. The light novels are edited versions of those original stories, with certain moments (i.e. Kirito and Asuna's [[TheirFirstTime first time]]) AdaptedOut while also toning down some other elements (such as Asuna originally being the one to kill Kuradeel in Aincrad, or [[spoiler: Eugeo being too late to save Ronye and Tiese from being raped for real in ''Alicization'']]). Many fans, especially those who got interested in the series because of ''Alicization'', are surprised to find out the source material for the anime was already over a decade older than its debut in October 2018. |
| 289 | * OneSceneWonder: |
| 290 | ** Argo in the anime, who only has one brief scene in episode 3 despite the fact that she's far more prominent in the novels. |
| 291 | ** Pale Rider. He gets to show off his [[LeParkour impressive acrobatics]] and takes down Dyne in an epic battle. [[WeHardlyKnewYe Pity he gets killed by Death Gun immediately afterwards]]. |
| 292 | ** Episode 1 of ''Alicization'' has a lot of these in the form of characters from other SAO media having cameos. |
| 293 | *** [[spoiler:Kureha and Zeliska from ''Fatal Bullet'' can be seen at the bar playing pool. While both Kureha and Itsuki's names can be seen on the 5th [=BoB=] rankings.]] |
| 294 | * OvershadowedByControversy: The rape scenes in ''Sword Art Online'' are considered to be the ''most'' controversial aspect of the light novels. [[spoiler:Episode 10 in the ''Alicization'' arc had a rape scene was so graphic and disturbing that the episode was censored by Creator/AniplexUSA and the light novel's author [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2018-12-11/reki-kawahara-apologizes-to-voice-actors-for-latest-sword-art-online-episode/.140635 even personally apologized]] to the voice actresses of the two characters who were raped in that scene and gave a full explanation as to why he wrote the rape scenes in his work.]] |
| 295 | [[/folder]] |
| 296 | |
| 297 | [[folder:P-R]] |
| 298 | * ParanoiaFuel: The thought of [[AndIMustScream being trapped in the new video game]] you just purchased and dying because you died in said video game. You'll be playing [=MMOs=] gingerly for awhile. |
| 299 | ** And there is always the possibility that when DeepImmersionGaming is invented in a decade or two that it won't be as safe as it was intended to be. There are a bunch of ways to die with a Nerve Gear that DON'T involve product tampering. The fact that you're completely paralyzed means that if there was some emergency, such as a fire, you would be completely helpless because you'd have no way of knowing that you were in danger. |
| 300 | ** The concept of Death Gun, a SerialKiller who can somehow kill people in a video game despite that being seemingly impossible without [=NerveGears=], is already plenty disturbing but TheReveal of exactly how Death Gun kills people is equally disturbing. [[spoiler:After stalking players in GGO and finding out their personal information, including where they live, Death Gun's accomplice breaks into the real life house and waits for the Death Gun in the game to shot the target before injecting the victim with a lethal drug overdose. Sinon herself almost has a complete FreakOut when she realises that there is a deranged SerialKiller quietly watching her unresponsive real life body waiting for the moment he can kill her.]] |
| 301 | ** [[spoiler: The disappearance of [=PoH=]'s body from the Ocean Turtle [[NothingIsScarier with no explanation.]] Despite the fact that Kirito turned him into a [[AndIMustScream tree in the Underworld to ensure he can never leave]], his body mysteriously disappears from the STL room between Critter discovering him and Gabriel's corpse and the other GDS soldiers going there to recover Gabriel, with none of them ever finding his body.]] |
| 302 | * PlatonicWritingRomanticReading: |
| 303 | ** Episode 38 of ''Alicization'' ends with [[spoiler: the souls of Bercouli and Quinella flying off into the sunset on his dragon right after they exchanged a rather heartfelt conversation about their long lives before she softly takes his hand and sits in his lap to ride off with him.]] The last bit was a change from how the light novel portrayed it, as in the novel, [[spoiler: Bercouli flew off on his own without Quinella]]. The anime's version of the scene apparently got enough people to start mistaking it as a shipping moment that Reki Kawahara himself had to [[https://twitter.com/kunori/status/1284715412676997123 debunk it on his Twitter]] by denying there was any romantic feeling to it and comparing it to more of an awkward boss and subordinate relationship. |
| 304 | ** Debate has raged since the ''Phantom Bullet'' arc on whether or not Sinon has romantic feelings for Kirito, not helped by how frustratingly ambiguous she acts in a lot of scenes when she's around him. Episode 39 of ''Alicization'' brought this to a head when Sinon reveals to Alice exactly what Kirito is to her. Viewers noted that Sinon uses language that could be interpreted in a pretty romantically-charged manner when she says "I like (好き ''suki'') Kirito... I like (大好き ''daisuki'') him so very much. That's the same for Asuna and the others. And we're all worried about Kirito." Again, more insight had to be gained from [[https://twitter.com/kunori/status/1287245434935803904 Kawahara's Twitter commentary on the episode]] which explained that 好き ''suki'' in this case isn't supposed to mean feelings of "like" or "love" (and he ''specifically'' used English for those two words in his tweet) and that even an interpretation of it as [[TrueCompanions "partner" or "comrade"]] still isn't quite accurate. In his mind, it's more of a case of a bond between souls [[ASharedSuffering that have overcome heavy burdens together.]] |
| 305 | * PortmanteauCoupleName: |
| 306 | ** [=KiriAsu=] or [=Kirisuna=] (Kirito x Asuna). |
| 307 | ** Kirinon (Kirito x Sinon) |
| 308 | * ReplacementScrappy: |
| 309 | ** Leafa was initially hit by this, due to taking over Asuna's role as the female lead during the ''Fairy Dance'' arc, where there were {{Squick}} elements due to the fact she is in love with Kirito while being his [[KissingCousins real life biological cousin]] and adopted sister. It doesn't last in later arcs, however, once the romance aspect is dropped and she goes back to being Kirito's supportive LittleSisterHeroine. |
| 310 | ** Sugou is this to Kayaba, who is basically the [[ContrastingSequelAntagonist polar opposite]] of his predecessor, taking away ''anything'' likable about Kayaba (read: HateSink), such as being a SmugSnake and DirtyCoward. |
| 311 | ** Gabriel is this to Quinella. While Quinella is beloved as a LoveToHate villain and had a huge fan following, Gabriel became a very polarizing BaseBreakingCharacter with some considering him to be a worthy replacement to Quinella, while others thoroughly despise him and wish Quinella stayed around. |
| 312 | * RealismInducedHorror: Part of what makes the villains so horrifying is because of how plausible they are in real life. |
| 313 | ** Nobuyuki Sugou is a CorruptCorporateExecutive who uses his position to sexually abuse Asuna because he feels he's entitled to her due to a supposed ArrangedMarriage set up by the latter's parents. Even though all of this happens in a VR game and not in the real world, it doesn't detract from his predatory behavior. Such people do exist in real life. The fact that Sugou was trying to kill Kirito when the latter intervened to stop him from doing what he did in the virtual world in real life shows how some abusers in real life are willing to murder anyone who tries intervening. |
| 314 | ** The Laughing Coffin guild's modus oprandi is causing as much death and carnage ForTheEvulz. While this seems like over-the-top villainy, what the Laughing Coffin does ''has'' actually happened in real life, such as the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} killers, who wanted to outdo the Oklahoma City bombing in bodycount and carnage. The fact that the Death Gun murder plot was created by two former Laughing Coffin members so they can continue the death game that is SAO is chillingly reminiscent of the copycat attacks and subsequent "high score" culture that Columbine spawned that has animated mass shootings like Christchurch, Poway, El Paso and Buffalo. |
| 315 | ** Shoichi Shinkawa's backstory is eerily reminiscent of a disaffected person getting radicalized by a dangerous cult simply because he had nowhere else to belong to. To put it in perspective, he was once a sickly boy who, by the time of middle school, had alternated constantly between the house and the hospital. Rather than give him the help and support that he needs, his family had basically given up on him and let him do whatever he wants. He turned to the internet and video games as an escape from the disappointment of his real-life. And then he ended up in SAO, where he met the Laughing Coffin and was corrupted by [[TheCorrupter PoH]] into a murderer as he tool advantage of his desperate situation and made him give in to his darker impulses. By the time he had gone out of SAO, his mind was too far gone as he now only cared about murdering people. The fact that said radicalization took place online is very much reminiscent to how extremists like neo-Nazis and Islamic jidahists use online spaces to lure in and radicalize impressionable and disaffected people like teenagers. |
| 316 | ** At its core, Vassago Casals isn't too different from cult leaders like Charles Manson and Marshall Applewhite, who take advantage of impressionable and disaffected young people and brainwash them into adopting their insane ideologies. Additionally, during the ''War of the Underworld'' sub-arc of ''Alicization'', Vassago taking advantage of the Chinese and Korean players' prejudice towards the Japanese and whipping them up into a murderous frenzy is remiscent of demagogues and rabble-rousers who take advantage of susceptible masses for their own benefit and deliberately inflame societal tensions to instigate violence, which has happened numerous times across history, such as the Tulsa race massacre and the Rwandan genocide. It also invokes real-life tensions that China and Korea have towards Japan due to the latter's actions during the first half of the 20th century, such as the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Japanese occupation of Korea. The fact that Vassago also spurs those Chinese and Korean players into killing those who had seen through his trick by branding them as traitors is also similar to moderate Hutus getting murdered by Hutu extremists during the Rwandan genocide because of their perceived sympathy towards the targets. |
| 317 | ** Gabriel Miller's backstory shows him becoming obsessed with death and mortality after being shown a video of a male praying mantis living after being decapitated post-coital by his mate, which leads to him experimenting on animals before doing the same on people [[spoiler:(such as with Alicia Klingerman)]], all in the name of studying the nature of the soul. Such behavior is typically one of the first big red flags of someone developing a psychological disorder, like psychopathy or antisocial personality disorder, and at worst the signs of a budding SerialKiller, similar to real-life murderers like Jeffrey Dahmer who have done similar things as kids. |
| 318 | * RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: |
| 319 | ** The ''Mother's Rosario'' arc saved Asuna in the eyes of many of her detractors. She ends up getting a fair amount of CharacterDevelopment in gaining the same confidence she had in SAO in real life, and at one point, even passes up an opportunity to call up Kirito so that she can deal with her own problems. |
| 320 | ** Leafa/Suguha fights off her detractors after the ''Fairy Dance'' arc where her KissingCousins aspect gets dropped and she goes from love interest to LittleSisterHeroine. She has it even better in the gameverse, as the romance plot is avoided altogether as she knows straight from the beginning that Kirito is her brother. |
| 321 | ** Kirito gets this treatment for quite a few in the ''Phantom Bullet'' arc, due to his [[DudeLooksLikeALady effeminate avatar]] in GGO. This version of Kirito [[AscendedFanon dubbed Kiriko]], is [[EnsembleDarkhorse incredibly popular]] both for design and adding an interesting twist to Kirito’s personality and character. It's not uncommon for people to declare that [[MemeticMutation Kirito is best girl]]. And then Kirito further gets this in the ''Alicization'' arc with some of his past detractors deeming him much greatly improved as a character due to his {{Bromance}} with Eugeo, which fleshed Kirito out as a character. |
| 322 | * RonTheDeathEater: |
| 323 | ** Kirito is heavily subjected to this by critics and reviewers who try hard to [[{{jerkass}} make him look like an awful person]] that is selfish, narcissist, manipulative, and hurts people close to him like the girls that are part of his harem. For instance one meme has Lisbeth telling Kirito she loves him and he replies on how he loves himself too. |
| 324 | ** Asuna's mother, Kyouko Yuuki, also gets this treatment. Despite being, at worst, a [[MyBelovedSmother concerned but ignorant and overbearing mother]] [[JerkassHasAPoint who has a point on Asuna's limited education prospects]] and resents VR and her daughter's fascination in it for good reason, most fanfictions tend to depict her as being more antagonistic and controlling of Asuna, as well as [[AbusiveParents more abusive.]] And while a lot of them keep her HeelFaceTurn, some outright make her the BigBad who resorts to shady means of getting what she wants. She's also sometimes depicted as a ManipulativeBitch who uses ExactWords in regards to the deal she made with Asuna at the end of ''Mother's Rosario'', saying she only agreed to let Asuna keep attending the Survivor's School and that she's still forcing her to meet suitors, despite ''Ordinal Scale'' showing that she's at least willing to give Kirito a chance. |
| 325 | ** An likely unintended and non-malicious variant often occurs with Sinon. In canon, Shino was willing to [[spoiler: [[TurnTheOtherCheek forgive Kyouji for his role in Death Gun and trying to kill her]], and was determined to try and save him as person by visiting him and giving her support to his rehabilitation, with the first volume of ''Alicization'' revealing that [[LoveRedeems she's succeeding in this regard]]. Most fanworks however tend to depict her as outright fearing or hating Kyouji and not willing to give him a chance, likely due to the writer's own feelings on the character or feeling that there's no chance they could ever be friends. This is especially prevalent stories that pair Shino with Kirito or an OC where he appears as an antagonist for Kirito/the OC to save her from, wherein she often treats him like garbage and makes no attempts to reason with him despite her canon actions in regards to him implying that she would be more sympathetic and plead for him to make a HeelFaceTurn, and many fics adapting ''Phantom Bullet'' tend to leave out her asking to visit him to help in his rehabilitation.]] |
| 326 | ** Due to how the Illfang boss was adapted from the ''Progressive'' Vol 1 to the anime, Kiboau is heavily subjected to this. In the Light Novel/Manga canon, Kiboau was something of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who was often comparatively more reasonable than his rival Lind, who was the the actual person who drove Kirito to becoming Beater by accusing him of causing Diavel's death. The anime making him a CompositeCharacter for Lind, making him the one to accuse Kirito of letting Diavel die instead of the AdaptedOut Lind, turned him into an outright JerkAss who lacked the HiddenDepths he originally possessed. As a result, whenever he's written into any stories taking place in Aincrad he's presented as outright antagonistic, even ones that closely follow ''Progressive''. It doesn't help that many official materials, such as the ''Rising Steel'' mobile game, tend to follow the anime's canon and keep in him in his CompositeCharacter role. |
| 327 | ** The other girls are sometimes depicted negatively by fans depending on who they pair Kirito with, with the girl they choose being presented as the best option for him while the others(especially Asuna if it's not her) are often [[ClingyJealousGirl Clingy Jealous Girls]] or outright [[{{Yandere}} Yanderes]], despite the fact that a lot of them, with the exception of Alice, are shown in canon as trying to move on from him and let him and Asuna be happy together. Not helping matters is that the game's canon tends to depict them as exactly that, actively having them ignore the fact that Kirito's already in a [[HappilyMarried happy relationship]] to pursue him personally while treating [[WomanScorned Asuna's understandable aggravation]] with this as [[PlayedForLaughs part of the humor]]. |
| 328 | ** The game's CharacterExaggeration of Klein's CasanovaWannabe tendencies can be seen as this, and often leads to similar depictions in fan works, making him appear a lot creepier than he does in canon, where he at least has some semblance on maturity and gentlemanly behavior. An example of this is an event in ''Hollow Fragment'' where he, upon hearing that Leafa has trouble waking up in the morning, makes her an alarm clock with a recording crystal, with the "alarm" being him whispering compliments into her ear, something most people would see as StalkerWithACrush behavior. |
| 329 | [[/folder]] |
| 330 | |
| 331 | [[folder:S]] |
| 332 | * TheScrappy: |
| 333 | ** Nobuyuki Sugou[=/=]Oberon the Fairy King, who is in fact the most hated character both in-universe and out, is widely attributed to be the number one reason for the series' decline from decent/average to outright terrible for its hatedom, and even manages to be the only negative point about the series where both fans and haters ''agree unconditionally''. While it's obvious that [[HateSink hating him]] was the IntendedAudienceReaction, he can't even be hated in a LoveToHate way. His [[CardCarryingVillain over-the-top cartoon evilness]], [[DidntThinkThisThrough stupidity]], multiple attempts to manhandle Asuna, annoying tendency to [[InelegantBlubbering bawl his eyes out]] [[DirtyCoward whenever he's beaten]], and [[FlatCharacter general lack of any sort of character]] other than being monstrously evil, resulted in most viewers wanting to see him get off the screen and never come back, instead of wanting to see him get what was coming to him. |
| 334 | ** [[spoiler: Kyouji Shinkawa]] is an interesting example. While originally liked by people who genuinely enjoyed his relationship with [[spoiler: Shino]], sometimes to the point of shipping them, he lost most of his support due to his role as a member of [[spoiler:[[BigBadDuumvirate Death Gun]]. Unlike his brother [=XaXa=] who embodies CreepyAwesome and EvilIsCool, Kyouji's contribution was a major point of detraction receiving very heavy negativity. Opinions range from those being saddened by him being revealed to be a villain and wished for him to make a HeelFaceTurn, and sympathizing to his DarkAndTroubledPast somewhat]]. While others outright despise him for one of two reasons. One is due to [[spoiler:viewing [[EvilIsPetty his motives as petty]][[note]] which could be a result of certain important tidbits being AdaptedOut[[/note]] and the fact that he's a StalkerWithACrush who [[EntitledToHaveYou believed Sinon was rightfully his]] and tries to kill her so they could be TogetherInDeath, whereby the anime adaptation makes this worse due to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil also throwing in]] AttemptedRape]]. The other, which applies mainly to anime-only viewers, [[spoiler: felt that he's ineffective as a twist villain due to how obvious the fact that he's Death Gun was to some fans due to lacking the subtlety of the Light Novel[[note]] namely a part in the opening [[SpoiledByTheFormat where an image of him holding his hand out to Shino burns away to reveal Death Gun]][[/note]]]]. |
| 335 | ** Chudelkin, while [[HateSink intended to be hated]], ends up being despised for reasons likely unintended. While hyped as a powerful Sacred Arts user, he ended up being an AntiClimaxBoss that gets a major AssPull in the form of [[spoiler: somehow surviving and then activating his fire powers to burn, kill and molest Quinella to be TogetherInDeath]]. While the intention was probably to give Quinella [[spoiler:a satisfying karma]], ironically this has the opposite effect as due to [[LoveToHate her popularity]] this made fans despise Chudelkin even further, since many of her fans [[spoiler:would have wanted her to escape and encounter Kirito in the real world.]] |
| 336 | * SeasonalRot: |
| 337 | ** The ''Fairy Dance'' Arc is widely deemed to be the low point of the series by fans and haters alike, with reasons ranging from the [[BadassInDistress treatment]] of Asuna, the series changing the [[TheGameComeToLife Death Game]] premise to "save Asuna", the series becoming more like a [[HaremGenre harem]], Yui's role change from mysterious adopted daughter to being a {{moe}} MsExposition, the KissingCousins element brought by Leafa crushing on Kirito, and Sugou as the most ridiculous and hateable villain, among others. Some fans even [[FanonDiscontinuity refuse to acknowledge the entire arc]] and go straight from Kirito waking up from SAO to meeting Asuna (freed from ALO) in real life for the first time. |
| 338 | ** To a lesser extent all of the post-Aincrad arcs get subjected to this to some degree because ''Sword Art Online'' [[ArtifactTitle stopped being about the titular game]] and instead kept bringing in new games. It's a very common view among fans that Aincrad should have been the ''only'' arc in the series, and instead expanding that out to the whole 100 floors. This ended up getting done in the video game continuity, although it still continues past Aincrad. |
| 339 | * ShipMates: As noted in ShipToShipCombat below, those who ship Asuna/Yuuki and Kirito/Sinon tend to support the other for effectively getting the other in the canon pairing of Asuna/Kirito out of the way without issue. |
| 340 | * ShipToShipCombat: Although Kirito and Asuna are the franchise's OfficialCouple, and they are extremely popular together (See BrokenBase and EscapistCharacter above for details), there are other possible pairings with their fair share of followers who prefer them over the canon pairing. |
| 341 | ** [[PseudoRomanticFriendship Asuna/Yuuki]] is extremely popular, with Yuuki being a [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favorite]] and Asuna being deemed at her best when she's with Yuuki, with lots of people preferring this over Kirito/Asuna. It's not hard to see the ship fuel from the sisterly bond the two share and the scattering of LesYay moments between them including Yuuki jokingly considering marrying Asuna. |
| 342 | ** [[FireForgedFriendship Kirito/Sinon]]. Sinon is frequently considered to be more interesting than Asuna and with shippers wishing she ended up with Kirito instead, there's also the fact she and Kirito are more alike than Asuna, with both of them being [[TheStoic stoic]] and burdened by SurvivorsGuilt. |
| 343 | ** [[HeterosexualLifePartners Kirito/Eugeo]]. The {{Bromance}} these two share at times appears to reach far more than merely being {{Best Friend}}s and more akin to significant others. In an official poll, Eugeo ended up scoring as the second most popular member of the "Kirito Harem" right behind Asuna. |
| 344 | *** Eugeo now finds himself caught between three major shipping factions. Those are [[HeterosexualLifePartners Kirito/Eugeo]], [[FoeYayShipping Eugeo/Quinella]] and [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Eugeo/Alice.]] Even [[spoiler: after his death]] there are plenty of fics involving him getting with one of the three, with varying degrees of spite towards rival ships. |
| 345 | ** [[TheLostLenore Kirito/Sachi]]. Despite it being obvious Sachi was never meant to be the female lead, a '''lot''' of people wanted this relationship to happen. Unlike Kirito's relationship with Asuna, which many felt was rushed and came abruptly, Kirito and Sachi were given proper reasons for developing feelings for each other. |
| 346 | ** Due to the ShipTease they get in the War of Underworld, [[spoiler: and with him later proposing to her in ''Moon Cradle'', the pairing of [[SecondLove Tiese/Renly]]]] has been involved in these. While it has a good deal of supporters, believing the two make a good match and feeling that [[spoiler: Tiese deserves to move on and be happy, there are certain fans who are vehement in their support of Eugeo/Tiese, in spite of [[TheLoseLenore Eugeo's death]] and the implications that, while he cared for her, [[AllLoveIsUnrequited he didn't feel the same way she did.]]]] |
| 347 | * ShockingMoments: |
| 348 | ** ''Aincrad'' arc: |
| 349 | *** TheReveal that Heathcliff is Kayaba. |
| 350 | %%*** '''STARBURST STREAM!''' |
| 351 | ** ''Fairy Dance'' arc: |
| 352 | *** Kirito turns into a Gleam-Eyes using an Illusion Spell. |
| 353 | *** How Kirito deals with General Eugene. Creating a giant smokescreen allowing him to grab Leafa's sword, asking himself with sun as he dives at Eugene, then using this second blade to block Eugene's InfinityPlusOneSword where Kirito then goes DualWielding on him ''without'' system assist. |
| 354 | ** ''Phantom Bullet'' arc: |
| 355 | *** Sinon diving off a building, getting her leg shot off and still landing a BoomHeadShot on Behemoth. |
| 356 | *** Kirito's final battle with Death Gun, where his SAO avatar gets superimposed over his GGO avatar, with his two iconic swords taking the place of his photon sword and pistol. |
| 357 | ** ''Mother's Rosario'' arc: |
| 358 | *** Asuna and Yuuki's duel. |
| 359 | ** ''Alicization'' arc: |
| 360 | *** [[spoiler:All of the SAO gang playing Gun Gale Online, with different looking avatars to the ones they had in ''Fatal Bullet'', Asuna even has a Photon Sword!]] |
| 361 | *** [[spoiler:[[UnexpectedCharacter Kureha and Zeliska]] [[CanonForeigner appearing in canon]], being seen in a bar playing pool.]] |
| 362 | *** Kirito DualWielding [[spoiler:his and Eugeo's Swords against Quinella, while using Incarnation to manifest his Black Swordsman outfit.]] |
| 363 | %%*** [[spoiler: The entirety of Episode 10, to put it lightly.]] |
| 364 | %%*** [[spoiler:Episode 21-23 is chock full of instances.]] |
| 365 | * SlowPacedBeginning: To some, the beginning of ''Alicization'' in the light novels. The series begins with a young Kirito in a virtual world with Eugeo and Alice, with no explanation of what he's doing there. After a scene at the Dicey Café that includes some exposition, there's the WhamEpisode-worthy twist of [[spoiler:Kirito being attacked by Johnny Black, resulting in him suffering brain damage and having to be put into Underworld again]], but it takes a few episodes[=/=]until the next volume for readers to learn what exactly happened. |
| 366 | * {{Squick}}: |
| 367 | ** The Fairy Dance light novel reveals that during Leafa's confrontation with the Salamanders before Kirito saves her, there are certain types of players called "Woman Hunters" who take advantage of how the Anti-Harassment Code doesn't apply in PvP in order to grope female players and, in some cases, derive some kind of sexual thrill from killing them. |
| 368 | ** The infamous tentacles scene Asuna is subjected too, which was the point where a lot of people gave up on SAO. It invokes AllAnimeIsNaughtyTentacles that's a better fit for a hentai genre. |
| 369 | ** [[spoiler:The attempted rape on Asuna.]] The act itself was already bad enough to {{Squick}} a lot of fans, even to the point of making them drop the show. But it's even worse in how it's portrayed: [[spoiler:The way Kirito saves her is seen by many as an ''empowerment fantasy''. Even people who don't mind the WishFulfillment aspects of the show think that Kawahara went way too far in that scene.]] |
| 370 | ** Unsurprisingly, Sugou (the perpetrator of the act) was squicking the audience ''since his very first appearance''. Just the way that he sniffed Asuna's hair in the hospital with that sick smirk on his face is enough proof that his CompleteMonster label was never meant to be a surprise reveal. |
| 371 | * StrangledByTheRedString: |
| 372 | ** As noted in BrokenBase above, Kirito and Asuna's relationship was considered way too rushed and unrealistic by many detractors in the ''Aincrad'' arc. Although later material, particularly ''Mother's Rosario'' (which shows their relationship being quite healthy, all things considered) and ''Progressive'' (which adds futher context to how they became to know each other), was able to tone this criticism down considerably, the series has never been able to shed it off completely. |
| 373 | ** In the ''Alicization'' anime, Iskahn and Sheyta go from sharing a FoeRomanceSubtext to being soulmates in the space of the battle's time, which doesn't amount to more than a couple days maximum - and most of it offscreen. Not helping matters is how the anime cut out some {{Ship Tease}}y inner dialogue, such as after their duel where Iskahn contemplated capturing Alice so he could request Vecta to spare Scheta. |
| 374 | * SuspiciouslySimilarSong: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byFkvbz2Za0 Swordland]]" is by far the most iconic theme from the series, but many detractors immediately point out the similarities to another theme previously composed by Music/YukiKajiura: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxZov8-DBHo Rule The Battlefield]]", from ''Literature/FateZero''. To be precise, the first few notes of the main riff are pretty much the same. This can be better heard with "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRFZu-IPhUs In You Past]]", one of the variations of "Swordland", which has a closer tempo and tone to "Rule the Battlefield", and thus the similarities become much more obvious. While this only applies to the first few notes and then both themes diverge from one another, a lot of people consider this more than enough to call "lazy" on Kajiura, and to consider the theme yet another reason to mock the anime.[[note]]To be fair, Kajiura has a bit of a reputation among her detractors of repeating herself too much in many of her other soundtracks too, both before and after her work on SAO.[[/note]] |
| 375 | [[/folder]] |
| 376 | |
| 377 | [[folder:T]] |
| 378 | * ThatOneBoss: As a series based on video games, there are lots of InUniverse examples of this trope. |
| 379 | ** [[spoiler: Fuscus the Vacant Colossus. When it starts out, players can't even hit the damn thing without putting themselves at risk, since they need to step on what are essentially landmines that will force Fuscus to try grabbing or stomping on them. When when it's head appears, it will apply a DamageIncreasingDebuff on all players, which can put even dedicated Tanks at risk. It's later revealed that, since it's hiding within the {{Boss Room}}'s surfaces, it can pop up from anywhere to attack, something Shivata learns the hard way when he's almost eaten by it when the group is trying to retreat, and the group can't immediately save him since he's able to move his weakpoint. Not helping matters is, as Kirito points out after the fact, it probably wasn't designed but more than two parties in mind, meaning that if it wasn't for Kirito and his improvised raid party, a bunch of players may have lost their lives.]] |
| 380 | ** [[spoiler: The Irrational Cube was already hinted to be a torturous fight in the Beta as the Irritating Cube, due to it being a Rubix Cube of all things, it ends up becoming ''worse'' in the main game. While it operates just like a rubix cube, it's sides are changed from colors to match to ''[[GridPuzzle Sudoku puzzles]]'', meaning that you not only need to solve the puzzles on each side, but you also need to move them in place like you would a rubix cubes' colors, meaning you could solve a puzzle on one side only to undo it because another side's puzzle isn't solved. Oh, and the door out is locked by it's own series of Sudoku puzzles, that are hard and numerous enough to take a pair of advanced [=NPCs=] ''an hour'' to solve.]] |
| 381 | ** The Gleam Eyes. It lays waste to an entire party in mere seconds. It also gets the honor of being the first boss to force Kirito to unleash his [[HiddenBadass secret unique skill]] DualWielding, and even then it reduced Kirito's health to critical. |
| 382 | ** The Fatal Scythe, which borderlines on being a HopelessBossFight. It took off half the HP of both Kirito and Asuna in one hit. Kirito estimates that it could be of an equivalent level to the 90th Floor Bosses. It was only defeated by [[StoryBreakerPower Yui using admin privileges]] to [[OneHitKill delete it]]. |
| 383 | ** The Skull Reaper, which could OneHitKill players and causing 24 casualties before being defeated. It took Kirito and Asuna's combined efforts to merely block its scythes alongside every other player flanking it to bring it down. |
| 384 | ** Technically speaking, [[spoiler: Kayaba as Heathcliff is this and likely would have become this if the game went on longer. Not only does he possess a Unique Skill which gives him major Defense boost and allows him to use his [[ShieldBash shield as a weapon]], something other shield users apparently can't do, but as the game's creator he has knowledge of every single Sword Skill in the game, meaning that most techniques, even those of other Unique Skills like DualWielding, are things he can counter easily and, as shown by Kirito, can easily bite his opponents in the ass [[DamnYouMuscleMemory if they activate one by instinct]].]] |
| 385 | ** Ordinal Scale's FinalBoss, "An Incarnation of the Radius" required the [[GondorCallsForAid combined efforts of EVERY ally to ever appear in the series]], along with all the major characters using their SAO avatars at peak power to unleash all of their ultimate attacks to kill it. |
| 386 | * ThatOneLevel: Like the above, being trapped in a video game means certain levels can become quite the nightmare. |
| 387 | ** The FIRST floor was arguably this as it had by far the highest individual body count, more than all the other levels put together. Do to a combination of some players not knowing it was a death game until it was too late, most of the playerbase being at best inexperienced with the game (or outright new to gaming like Asuna at the worst), and players dying due to their NerveGear being removed, some 2,000 players died in the span of a month. |
| 388 | ** Floor 25 was apparently this as the Aincrad Liberation Squad (then one of the foremost guilds), suffered casualties so severe that they wouldn't have any members be active participants in clearing the Game until Floor 74. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness And this decision to withdraw was made by infamously stubborn leader Kibaou.]] |
| 389 | * TheyChangedItNowItSucks: |
| 390 | ** The infamous episode 10 of the Alicization saga. Creator/AniplexUSA decided to censor a rape scene zooming and cutting those parts altogether. No matters worse is that Aniplex put a warning message before the episode. Fans in America, Nordics and France are not happy about that. |
| 391 | ** Many Light Novel readers have complained about how [[spoiler: [=PoH=]'s backstory was altered in the anime, the main complaint being about how his time as a hitman for the Korean Mafia sent into SAO to kill a target was AdaptedOut, and that he instead stole a [=NerveGear=] and logged in when he was bored one day.]] |
| 392 | ** The final stretch of ''Alicization'' in general got plenty of criticism from source material readers of changing and omitting details and scenes from the light novels for no apparent reason, particularly a significant amount of intimate moments between Kirito and Asuna and altering scenes with Alice in the real world that make her look closer to Kirito. |
| 393 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: This is one of, if not the most recurrent criticism the series receives from its detractors. Most people agree the premise is extremely powerful and full of possibilities, but Kawahara never cames close to realize that potential. On the broad strokes, they see the execution underwhelming due to crucial plot contrivances, questionable story choices and underdeveloped characters (See TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter above). Another huge point of contention is that, rather than exploring his otherwise good concepts, Kawahara seems to unabashedly focus on PanderingToTheBase and WishFulfillment to a degree that detractors find alienating at best, and intellectually offensive at worst. |
| 394 | ** Kirito's ZeroApprovalGambit as a Beater in Episode 2 had a lot of plot potential and one of the more interesting directions his character was taken in, but it promptly gets dropped by the next episode where a TimeSkip shows he's gotten sick of being a solo player and joins a guild, abandoning the characterization that had established in the previous episode. This gets resolved in ''Progressive'' which shows what happened during the TimeSkip and Kirito keeps up the Beater act for far longer and leads him to be ostracized by nearly all players, who consider him a powerful asset to the Assault Team but almost no one trusts him on a personal level. |
| 395 | ** Another case due to Kirito. One of the main appeals of the series was the fact it was a death game set in virtual reality, where characters could supposedly die at any time. However this is mitigated by the fact that the story focuses on Kirito, who is an InvincibleHero where it's made apparent there is no true chance of him dying in SAO. Fans agree that had the spotlight been one of the other characters of SAO, the story would have been more interesting. |
| 396 | ** The biggest example would be not exploring all 100 Floors of Aincrad, instead stopping at Floor 75 with the arc only spanning 14 episodes/ a few books rather than a whole season. The video game continuity amends this by featuring all 100 Floors, while ''Ordinal Scale'' has the characters being able to see what ''would'' have been on the 100th Floor which they face as a FinalBoss. ''Progressive'' also makes amends by actually showing Kirito and Asuna's adventures during the venture up. |
| 397 | ** The ''Phantom Bullet'' arc featured Gun Gale Online, a sci-fi themed shooter, which was vastly different from the fantasy settings of the previous two games introduced. However the game's full premise remains largely unexplored, focusing almost entirely on the [=BoB=] tournament and Kirito facing the BigBad. ''Fatal Bullet'' and ''Literature/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'' [[AuthorsSavingthrow alleviate this to a degree]] by fleshing GGO out and giving full exploration of what the game is like away from Kirito. |
| 398 | ** The end of Alicization sets up a ''Videogame/Fallout4'' or [[Anime/TheAnimatrix The Second Renaissance]] esque conflict between flesh-and-blood humans that disagree how the public "must" accept the existence of synthetic-bodied Artificial Fluctlights, which The Star King plans to unleash to the world as he considers them the same as humans. With the direction of Unital Ring, it seems unlikely this subplot being carried over anytime soon. |
| 399 | * TooCoolToLive: |
| 400 | ** Yuuki Konno. So powerful that she completely dominated even Kirito, the WorldsBestWarrior of SAO. She was pretty much invincible in virtual world, but sadly [[spoiler:not so much in the real world.]] |
| 401 | ** Eugeo is a skilled swordsman in his own right, with Kirito suspecting that he may one day surpass him. [[spoiler: [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter Despite this]], he's tragically killed when he makes an attempt on Quinella's life after destroying her Sword Golem. Even the author himself agrees with this, and stated he was tempted to change Eugeo's fate for the anime.]] |
| 402 | ** Bercouli, the leader of the Integrity Knights and the [[WorldsBestWarrior Underworld's Best Warrior]], [[spoiler: dies [[TakingYouWithMe killing Vecta]] in a SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfAwesome]]. |
| 403 | * ToughActToFollow: |
| 404 | ** The ''Mother's Rosario'' arc is widely considered the best arc of the series, due to its heavy usage of CharacterDevelopment, especially for Asuna, and extremely emotional story line. As a result, the feature film ''Ordinal Scale'' had a lot to live up to, as well as any subsequent arcs that follow. |
| 405 | ** ''Ordinal Scale'' itself was one of the most acclaimed anime films of 2017, which put a lot of expectations on the third season of ''Sword Art Online'' featuring the ''Alicization'' Arc. |
| 406 | ** For that matter, ''Alicization'' is this trope as well, being the arc that took up ''over 50%'' of the original story's overall content and was the GrandFinale of the web novel[[note]]Seeing that ''Moon Cradle'' is also an extension of the arc[[/note]], alongside establishing well loved characters like Eugeo, Alice and Quinella and giving Kirito some much appreciated development. ''Unital Ring'' has a lot to live up to. |
| 407 | [[/folder]] |
| 408 | |
| 409 | [[folder:U-V]] |
| 410 | * UnexpectedCharacter: |
| 411 | ** [[spoiler:Argo makes a surprise appearance in Volume 21 of the ''Unital Ring'' arc, marking her first appearance since the Aincrad arc and finally giving a canonical confirmation she survived SAO.]] |
| 412 | ** [[spoiler:Kureha and Zeliska surprised everyone by showing up in Episode 1 of ''Alicization'', albeit as background cameos, being the first instance of [[CanonImmigrant video game characters showing in the main continuity]] where it was previously believed that the game characters were ExiledFromContinuity. As proof that it's Kureha and not an IdenticalStranger, her name is seen in the list of the 5th [=BoB=] rankings.]] |
| 413 | ** [[spoiler: In Episode 11 of ''Alicization: War of Underworld'' during the gathering ALO players, two characters who appear to be Eiji as a Spriggan or Imp and YUNA as a Navigation Pixie appear just as Lisbeth gives a speech to the gathered players to convince them to help.]] |
| 414 | * UnpopularPopularCharacter: |
| 415 | ** While he's not exactly disliked by those around him, Klein is often shown to be the NoRespectGuy among the main cast that the others like poking fun of because his bouts of immaturity and for being a CasanovaWannabe. However, he's also an EnsembleDarkHorse who everyone believes deserves more screentime and attention than he gets as is, with frequent demands that he gets some kind of spin-off for himself. |
| 416 | ** Sinon/Shino. Prior to meeting Kirito she had a FriendlessBackground and was ostracized and bullied by everyone around her for years. It isn't until after the Death Gun incident that she gets introduced into Kirito's social circle and finally finds true friends that make her happy. However among the fandom, Sinon is an undisputed fan-favorite and BreakoutCharacter who has consistently smashed polls. |
| 417 | * ValuesDissonance: |
| 418 | ** One of the main reasons why Kirito receives the RonTheDeathEater treatment by his detractors is the fact that he never tells any of the girls that he already has a girlfriend, so they shouldn't even try to get together with him. Thus, they read this as Kirito deliberately "leading them in" so they fall for him and then "friend-zone them", or even "emotionally cheating on Asuna". However, this misses the crucial detail that, in Japanese society, being direct about negative topics is ''extremely'' frowned upon. You only are supposed to be direct as a (very) last resort, less you risk to be considered a rude person[[note]]A lot of Westerners have an extremely hard time forming meaningful relationships with Japanese people, both personal and professional, because of this social norm[[/note]]. When you take this into account, Kirito is as direct as you can reasonably hope for, especially considering his age and social skills, thus why the narrative always makes clear that Kirito only has interest in Asuna using other means. Special mention to the scene in ''Alicization'', where [[spoiler:close to the ending, Kirito asks Alice if Asuna can join them to go back to the Underworld. By Japanese standards, that's as subtle as a brick to the nose, which partly explains why he's a bit flustered while saying it, and why Alice is clearly holding back her anger when she replies]]. |
| 419 | ** Sinon's treatment in the second series. The backstory goes that when she was eleven, she and her mother were caught up in the middle of a bank robbery and Sinon managed to kill the robber [[GunStruggle with his own gun]]. This would be traumatic enough on its own, but it's also shown that she's been stigmatized and ostracized by just about everyone for this, including ''her own mother'', who mentally regressed due to the intensity of the incident. This even extends to the [[ThereAreNoTherapists therapists]] who learned of the event, so she has a case of untreated PTSD so intense that a schoolyard bully can set off a panic attack simply by ''pointing a finger at her and saying "bang".'' American viewers on the whole, regardless of their own individual views on guns and gun control, found this treatment utterly nonsensical and downright ''cruel'', with many pointing out that if something like this were to happen in the USA, Sinon would be considered a hero across the board. Even in several countries in Europe, many of which are far more in line with Japan than America in their attitudes about guns, she would almost universally have been seen as a victim who was just acting in self-defense and did nothing wrong, possibly even as a brave person whose actions are actually commendable.\ |
| 420 | This mostly touches on child-adult relations in Japan, rather than what Americans typically assume is some sort of gun issue (which are admittedly intense in Japan - gun laws are so strict that a firearm costs more than a luxury ''car''). In Japanese society, children are viewed as relatively innocent and dependent upon adults (which makes the events of SAO seem even harsher by Japanese standards). What is ''really'' at issue, is that to Japanese society, a child is thought to be incapable of killing - that Sinon is able seems to create the presumption that she has the mindset of a cold-blooded killer, and the fact that her actions were done in self-defense is irrelevant. Which does not excuse what happened to her, merely better explain it. |
| 421 | * VanillaProtagonist: Leaving his abilities and controversial WishFulfillment aspect aside, character-wise Kirito is largely considered to be this in the anime. All of the VR-geekery and existential philosophy that he has in the light novels is adapted out. This is also a big part of his lack of appeal for his detractors, specially since the story still focuses on him instead of giving more dedication to the more colorful supporting characters that normally would stand out next to him. Many fans agree that ''Sword Art Online'' would be a lot better if Kirito either wasn't in the story or wasn't TheProtagonist. |
| 422 | [[/folder]] |
| 423 | |
| 424 | [[folder:W-Z]] |
| 425 | * WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The original light novel, manga, and anime caters to the seinen demographic, and despite the massive merchandising making it easily recognizable also likeable, pretty, and adorable main cast and supporting characters, most of the villains are [[AGodAmI really,]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil really]] nasty. Also, the ''Alicization'' arc is BloodierAndGorier (although if light novels are any indication, ''Unital Ring'' seems to be LighterAndSofter). The video game storyline is considerably tamer since it lacks the aforementioned nasty villains (and those who exist had their worst aspects toned down), but they have a lot of pillow talk scene (which is basically the T-rated counterpart of ''Videogame/MassEffect1'' romance scenes) in every single game (except Memory Defrag and Integral Factor). |
| 426 | * WinBackTheCrowd: |
| 427 | ** The ''Phantom Bullet'' arc breathed new life back into the series coming off the tail of the heavily despised ''Fairy Dance'' arc, with a new female lead who had a very appealing personality and a [[DarkAndTroubledPast tragic backstory]], while the premise of a shooter game was very refreshing from the fantasy elements that the series had been known for. |
| 428 | ** For those not won over by the ''Phantom Bullet'' arc, the ''Mother's Rosario'' arc certainly did this. It received acclaim due to the intense emotional journey it takes viewers on and [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap improving Asuna as a character]]. |
| 429 | ** ''Sword Art Online: Progressive'', which is a re-imaging of the ''Aincrad'' arc, easily the most iconic arc of the series. It greatly fleshes it out by showing what happened on each floor (without any major {{Time Skip}}s) and slowly developing Kirito and Asuna's relationship so their eventual getting together makes more sense. It also features more ongoing plots rather than collections of short stories like the original light novels. Even many haters and critics of the series are interested in an anime adaptation of ''Progressive''. |
| 430 | ** ''Ordinal Scale'' did this for a lot of fans by [[AuthorsSavingThrow addressing several issues]] that had been brought up over the years, an original story which had not been explored before by the light novels, and overall better handling of characters than the anime had done. |
| 431 | ** The ''Alicization'' arc is held highly among light novel fans and often considered the best written arc Kawahara has done for this series. Featuring the most creative storyline the series has explored, it touches upon philosophical implications of [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman what it means to be human]], raising the stakes back to being TrappedInAnotherWorld and fighting for ones life, genuinely terrifying villains, and the introductions of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Eugeo and Alice]]. The anime adaptation followed suit and is by far the most praised arc of the entire series. Even the fiercest of SAO critics have begrudingly admitted it's a huge improvement and can even pass for being good (which, considering how viscerally these people hate the series and everything it stands for, it's one hell of a statement). |
| 432 | *** Though ironically despite being well received among those who only watched the anime, it ended up becoming a case of HypeBacklash among light novel readers due to the anime cutting content, notably the Zakkaria Tournament which only received a five minute flashback in Episode 7. |
| 433 | * {{Woolseyism}}: |
| 434 | ** In the ''Calibur'' arc, as Kirito proudly tells the other members of the group to be thankful for the long set of stairs providing them a shortcut to Jotunheim, Sinon snarks at him for acting like he built those stairs. In the original, he says "Thanks for the tsukkomi" before pulling her tail, a reference to [[BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine a primarily Japanese comedy routine]]. In the dub, Sinon calls him "a pain in the ass," whereupon he says "I've got your pain in the ass right here," and grabs her tail. |
| 435 | ** After Suguha becomes a main character in the cast, in the Japanese version, she will typically refer to Kirito as "onii-chan", a common affectionate term for "brother". All other characters call him Kirito. There isn't really a direct translation of the term that doesn't come across as an obvious translation, so in the English dub, she instead is the only character who exclusively calls him by his real name, Kazuto, instead of his in-game nickname, which serves the purpose of conveying a familial familiarity. |
| 436 | ** In the ''Alicization'' arc, Alice is surprised to hear Fanatio, who'd used a helmet to hide her gender, talking in a feminine tone. The localization of the light novel instead has Fanatio making a friendly greeting to Alice, even though they don't exactly get along. |
| 437 | ** One of the major twists in the ''Phantom Bullet'' arc is that the player named Sterben is actually Death Gun with only a medical professional realising that their name is the German word for dying. This works well enough in most languages but in the German dub it would not only make the characters look stupid for not realising a guy called Dying might be killing people, it's also incredibly uncommon to use a verb as a name in German. The translators have instead opted to use Mortis as a reference to rigor mortis which not only works thematically but also makes it more understandable why the characters didn't immediately suspect him of being Death Gun since it can reasonably pass as a normal name. |
| 438 | ** In the movie ''Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night'', Argo's nickname for Kirito, "Kii-bou", is translated as "Kii-boy" in the sub and dub. |
| 439 | * WTHCostumingDepartment: Among his designs, Kirito's initial ALO Avatar from ''Fairy Dance'' is arguably his least popular, likely in part due to his sudden case of AnimeHair and [[{{BFS}} the ridiculous size of his new sword]]. Some even derisively compare it to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud Strife.]] It's hinted that Reki acknowledges this, changing his design by the time of the ''Calibur'' Arc to closer to resemble his SAO design, and poking fun at his hairstyle in ''The Day After'' by having Yui demand he get haircut due to it being uncomfortable to sit on. |
| 440 | [[/folder]] |
| 441 |
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