Sword Art Online

I have a lot but here goes:

Second episode where Kirito tried to be the Batman and draw all the hate from the assholes who think all the beta testers are assholes on to himself and failed at it when all he had to do is point out that Kayaba changed the boss monster's attack patterns and weapon from the beta, accuse Kibaou and his lackeys that they're just accusing everybody at random, trying to start shit and basically having a normal conversation like normal human being instead of being what Reki Kawahara thinks what a anti-social person is.

The Moonlit/light Black Cats episode. It's 'drama' is so forced it hurts. The Mauve Shirt characters suggesting that they go to a higher floor then what they usually can handle? The three Mauve Shirt characters dying at a really obvious trap? Check. Forced scene where Peter Par- I meant Kirito comforts Gwen Stac- I mean Sachi where one promises to protect the other? CHECK. Sachi dying in a way more dramatic way then the other Mauve Shirt characters? CHECK.

And the kicker is that all they had to do is play it safe and smart.

Honestly, it's still better than the shit that comes in later arcs.

Ya know this shit could have worked better if didnt write on the go & instead planned things ahead more.

Well, hey, Writing by the Seat of Your Pants worked for Akira Toriyama. Surely that wasn't just a fluke, right?

edited 15th Nov '15 12:27:17 AM by Zelenal

Guessing it all falls into the skill of the writer. If we go by critical reception then Toriyama is a better writer but these are different genres & years so its something to think about.

Nope, to me EVERYTHING is shit and one hell of Guilty Pleasure/Bile Fasination.

To be fair, Sword Art Online started off as a web novel. Kawahara was indeed an amateur writing by the seat of his pants when he conceived the series, and it's basically no worse than any of the dozens of Guilty Pleasure fanfics I normally consume. It's dumb fun with a handful of awesome and cute moments, and I enjoy those.

Then I tear down and gleefully criticize the really crappy bits. But SAO's hatedom is really quite overblown. It's very rarely actively malicious, and mostly appallingly mediocre if you really wanna go hard on it.

Yuuki Konno is probably one of the few characters that Kawahara got right in terms of avoiding stereotypes around victims of HIV.

Don't go on the Adult Swim forums then. It is universally accepted there that Yuuki's illness was horribly written.

edited 15th Nov '15 11:51:36 AM by kyun

I never saw the arc well never particularly focused on it, how was it badly written exactly?

Yeesh then that means Kawahara is one lucky bastard getting famous off of one decent novel made for a contest.

The sad thing is that this situation COULD have been alright. as in, it might have had the effect they wanted (or a fraction of it), had they known what they were doing.

my main issue when i saw it is that we barely knew anything about the characters Kirito was with. Sachi was pretty damn bland, her fear of dying was not enough to make a compelling character. We spent no time with those people, and hell, have spent barely any time with Kirito, so why is it that we should care when they die? it's trying to invoke pathos without earning it at all.

kirito's character in general is just very poorly executed. he could have actually been a decent lead since you have material to work with, but the story just goes timeskip after timeskip and seems to actively dodge any opportunity to be more than it is, which is mediocre.

he seems to be aware of that.

he admits the NERV Gear has plot holes, for example, it was just the best idea he had at the time.

given that i don't particularly dislike him, i could write a story i consider bad and regret it and have it blow up in popularity anyways.

edited 15th Nov '15 2:45:00 PM by wehrmacht

The end of the Fairy Dance arc is downright offensive for the not Asuna rape scene. The Phantom Bullet arc isn't as offensive as Fairy Dance but having the main bad guys get deadly drugs if they overdose it is implying that doctors in Japan are all incompentant.

edited 15th Nov '15 2:46:09 PM by heliosKAISER

At least Fairy Dance has the most satisfying villain death ever. Even if there are about five hundred ways you could make it so much better.

I'm going to take this time to link anyone new to SAO Abridged. It's way better than canon, I think. Episode 8 was taken down but can be found on their Facebook page.

x3 The books actually started from the endgame floors. The episodes set on the lowest floors were adapted from sidestories, not the main story.

edited 15th Nov '15 3:46:47 PM by HanabiraKage

Ok wow I just on whim checked out Amazon to see if Death Gun had any merchandise but I found absolutely shit on anything official. All I found is various cosplay costumes which are well made but not a single figurine or anything. What the hell hes was a cool villain (well the older bro not the pussy who tried to rape Asuna) but he gets shit, why?

Because Death Gun ripped of Darth Vader and has a stupid name.

x2 Because it's easier to sell merchandise of girls. Goods featuring the male protagonists are also usually easy to sell too.

Death Gun was easily one of the coolest things in this franchise, though, minus the name. Sure, he may be a combination of "cool villain" gimmicks, but I still dig it.

I'm rewatching all of the first series and I got to say, is it fair to call SAO basically Twilight but instead replace the vampire thing except with MMORPG's?

Because both author's seemed to not do ANY sort of research about their subjects. Because if Reki Kawahara actually put some effort into actually playing an MMORPG, any MMORPG then the Moonlit/Moonlight Black Cats episode would play out VERY differently.

What do you have in mind exactly, other than the team not acting like idiots and entering an obvious trap room?

Yes, but moreso in the sense that they are both popular by virtue of pandering to its target audience rather than any kind of literary merit or craftsmanship.

iirc kirito was very overleveled at that time, so the fact that he was getting low exp and dealing a lot more damage to monsters shouldn't have been hard to notice.

edited 29th Nov '15 7:33:18 AM by wehrmacht

You need to keep in mind that the series was first written in 2000, before even World of Warcraft. It's a reasonable portrayal of pre-Wow games, with minimal quests and lots of grinding.

i'm not terribly experienced with the pre-wow era but people have told me that kirito being a solo player isn't terribly accurate to the mmo experience either, since they told me a lot of older mmo's were about the community and doing things together that you can't do on your own.

this is something log horizon captures pretty well, but which is pretty lacking in SAO.

Kirito's solo career was repeatedly portrayed as dangerous, even borderline suicidal, and several guilds attempt to recruit him both for his benefit and theirs. This is actually an example of the difference—nowadays, no one would blink at a solo player running around an MMO.

The original light novels can be excused as they came before MMO's were so popular.

The 2013 anime has NO EXCUSE.

As for the question for the Moonlit Black Cats, I'd have the trap be less obvious and have said trap inflict status ailments that cripple the party besides Kirito.

edited 29th Nov '15 1:08:19 PM by heliosKAISER