Sword Art Online

Well, they apparently have the ability to create a perfectly indistinguishable virtual world. How the designers felt about sex was irrelevant—that's a massive market that they'd be insane to leave untouched. I mean, The Rule of First Adopters is a trope for a reason.

Not to mention that the designer was planning from the start to trap everyone. I assume that's the same reason he included taste for food and a marriage system.

It's not perfectly indistinguishable. The anime looks like anime, but the novels point out that the graphics are noticeably imperfect in a number of ways. It's basically a next-gen game with better graphics than anything today, but still recognizable as video game graphics. It only renders the fine details of things after you stare at them for a bit, it has problems with realistically simulating "wetness" (the property of water that makes it stick to things), and it can't handle the fine details of food like texture and granularity. For example, food has a uniform taste throughout the entire object, so if you put butter on your bread the entire object becomes "buttered bread" that has the same taste on all parts.

It's actually all these little details that make the book interesting, in my opinion. Kirito notes that he'd probably be confused if he saw a real person at this point, since it would trigger his uncanny valley reaction.

...but none of that would stop the company from trying to make lots of money in the adult entertainment market.

Pretty good episode. Does this mark the end of Kirito's lone wolf antics?

Heh, I just read what the original sex scene was written like. I though thought the Nasuverse used really poor descriptions.

Does the Guild Master have a unique ability too, making him the other one who has one?

If not, then that's a very lame Gameplay and Story Segregation right there.

I could have sworn they made it clear that the Guild master does have a unique ability.

While I'm here, I'll just mention that Asuna was still in the city when the commander guy was killed. Speaking game-stat wise, there was no way she should have been able to make it. Also of note is that Kirito did manage to move even though he should have been completely paralyzed.

These events are plot relevant... in Accel World.

When did they "made it clear" that the Guild Master has a unique ability, barring the end of the fight itself?

Right before the fight, Asuna was talking about the Commander's unique ability "Holy Sword" which maximizes defense while still allowing a strong offense. It's the small talk, just before the fight, right after she says "baka" several times to Kirito, in case anybody missed it.

@ Entropy: The end of the fight is NOT the unique skill

Anyone here reads rondo?

When did they "made it clear" that the Guild Master has a unique ability, barring the end of the fight itself?

"But the commander has a unique skill too."

It was before the opening credits, in case you skipped the intro. I guess it's sort of reasonable to assume it was a recap since it starts as one.

Pretty funny, albeit biting, post on the episode.

That article's pretty asinine. He goes about how poor a story SAO is when the subject of the entire rant is apparently just being upset that Kirito doesn't permantly lose his hand.

I have to say that the "Klein comes to save him with that one item" thing in the comments is fairly interesting though (though it would make even less sense for the specific situation)

Really? Cause I mean, think of all the fiction porn that exists already...

More for the sake of giggling at the badness than anything else.

If that revival item was going to be a Chekhov's Gun, Kirito would have kept it himself, and would have probably ended up using it to save Asuna. As it is, we can assume Klein used it offscreen a long time ago.

I hear that people are projecting anime sales at over 30K ^Translation F***ing ridiculous.. The novels also sold 1 million copies in the past month.

I just got caught up on the series. That was pretty intense, I didn't realize it was going to be a romance, nor did I realize I wanted a romance until I found myself begging them to marry sometime around episode 8-9. :3

I came into the series without knowing it would be a harem. Then Kirito started picking up girls left and right...

Well, the original book only has Asuna. There were time skips in the story that ended up being filled in by the side-stories in the 2nd book. It just that each of the side stories has a different, new sidekick who "happens" to be female...

Oh, and the next arc/3rd book uses those characters, so it is impossible to skip them.

No, you can skip them. The characters exist but they're hardly important. Lisbeth and Silica could drop off the face of the Earth without changing the story one bit.

Kirito doesn't have a harem.

Asuna has a softball team.

edited 12th Sep '12 12:13:25 PM by GearheadX

Good point. Thinking about it again, there is only 1 of the side stories that really makes a permanent and continuing impact on the series. The other ones are just flavor and the characters maintain their "support" roles (occasionally being bodies for the main characters to talk to or party with).

It is the characters introduced in the other books that keep popping up in important rolls.

Can someone please point out how Kirito is a Gary Stu in the first Vol. of SAO, because I'm not seeing it.

That will open up a can of worms.

You can't have a main character who's (fairly) confident and competent person in a light novel these days without someone calling them a Gary Stu. A lot of people are hooking into the meme that Kirito is a Stu without even bothering to read.

And, of course, there's also the trolling.

edited 13th Sep '12 3:51:50 AM by GearheadX

Who told you he was one in the first volume?

@ Belian: I always had the impression that the silica and liz arcs were there to fill out the book with side stories... the sachi one was to give kirito some backstory as to why he became who he was, and the yui one was because the third volume placed a lot of story on yui, so introducing her was important. In fact, I'm under the impression that the side stories are all there to prepare you for the next story. Case in point, the excaliber ss and murder case ss, to introduce laughing coffin (at least, some of its members)and caliber(Sinon's tool for "negotiation") for the next arc(alicization)

Don't see it based only on the first volume. In subsequent ones he might become a Gary Stu, but not the 1st.

I was focusing on the four volume 2 side stories. As you said, they do fill in some holes while providing some set-up for the next volume, but what I was saying is that only one of the major characters in them plays an important role in the subsequent volumes.

That is not to say I don't like the side stories or that their un-important (expansion on the Pv P aspects of the game, how Kirito got his other sword, and the Black Cats were a Noodle Incident till that story came out... *tears up*), just that there is basically no reason for the girls/specific characters from most of them to appear in subsequent events.

Various other side stories are exactly what you said (mainly for setting up the next published arc).

edited 13th Sep '12 6:09:35 AM by Belian