Sword Art Online Abridged

It's really impressive how they've written Suguha over the last few years, as is Lennon's portrayal of the character. She's consistently been my favorite character since her introduction.

Needless to say, they definitely killed that ending scene. Kudos to everyone involved.

Yeah I have to say that was a great episode. Hit me harder than I thought it would.

I can't remember ever being this emotionally affected by an abridged series. DBZA had a few serious moments in its third season, and Team Four Star famously played stuff like Trunks discovering his dead mentor in his movie completely straight. But SAOA hits different because it feels earned, if that's the right word. Especially the stuff in Season Two, which shows how SWE has developed as writers since the first season, and how well they planned the arc out.

Like, when we first meet Suguha, she's funny because she's awful, a 180 flip from her canon "nice girl with an unhealthy interest in a family member" characterization. Then we're introduced to her Leafa persona, and she's still funny because she's another 180 flip, this time from how Kirito behaves online, yet she still shares similarities with him. But the more we see of her, the more hints there are that something's driving this awful behavior, and also that she might become a better person - and more than that, despite the bitterness between them, she wants a better relationship with her brother.

And then the end of Episode 17 hits like a gutpunch with the reveal of why Suguha is the way she is, how her behavior makes sense, and how she has a legitimate grievance with her brother that she's taking to the point of abuse. It's a reveal that adds new context to her other moments and makes them even more tragic - her breakdown in Alfheim after visiting Asuna with Kirito is a mixture of her realizing she's being cruel to someone who is already suffering, and that her brother is capable of caring about others, but there's also anger from that because he still isn't showing that he cares about her.

Other abridged series might try a similar scene, with earnest voice acting, but it won't hit as hard because the rest of the episode and series as a whole has been gag comedy, and there's been nary a hint that the characters have actual depths to them. I'm reminded of DBZA and Kami's serious moment explaining why he doesn't want to fuse to Piccolo - well-delivered in an earnest performance, but Kami was a comic relief character before the scene and becomes part of a running gag afterward. But in Suguha/Leafa's case, it's obvious that the entire Fairy Dance arc was designed to be her character arc, through both comedic and serious scenes, so that what could have been a one-note "dumb jerk jock sibling" character becomes a tragic figure who viewers want to see become better. The YouTube chat for Episode 17 actually has some viewers pleading "Tell him!" during Leafa and Kirito's talk after his failed assault on the World Tree.

The cherry on top is that the kendo angle is straight from canon! It just didn't really matter in canon, and if I remember it right, it's actually discussed more in Kirito and Silica's episode in Aincrad than it is with Kirito and Suguha in the next season. And in Suguha's case, that part of her backstory was sidelined in favor of the "fell in love with my cousin under two different personas" angle. But SWE looked at that bit of background information and decided it had potential, and could be more interesting than the drama of a sister-cousin crushing on her brother-cousin.

It makes me look forward to what SWE might do with the GGO arc and especially "Mother's Rosario" (which I have still not seen), since it focuses on Asuna, and Abridged!Asuna really needs a couple of episodes to deal with her issues.

Okay, enough gushing. Back to waiting for the next episode, which if we're really lucky might come out before the end of the year.

Edited by Tacitus on May 7th 2023 at 9:31:41 AM

I'm going to have a massive Hype Backlash because of you peolle and I actually like this abridged series

Okay, to balance it out: the "Alfheim's largest freestanding pinwheel" bit at the start of the episode was pointless, a waste of editing work, and could be cut without affecting the episode. Having Asuna threaten an innocent animal makes the viewer side against her, even if it means siding with someone like Shoji - I think the scene would have worked as well or better with Asuna threatening to visit Shoji in person. And having the fairy army talk like battle droids broke my immersion, because there's no way Disney would let that bit of copyright infringement slide.

My biggest beef with Season Two is that Yui's "joke" explanation in Episode 13 is weak. While you could tie it into her characterization as a flawed AI program who's a perfect fit for her flawed parents, we haven't seen any examples of such "humor" before or after. The creators have explained that the revelation was a rewrite caused by watching Explanation Point's positive critique of SAOA's first season and feeling like they'd created a plot hole by changing the specifics of the hacking scene in Episode 10, but I'm not convinced there was a problem with it, and the retcon undermines one of the best scenes of the series.

While i feel empathy for her, it doesn't really absolve her of how she treated Kirito.

But that's partly because of how she has been treating him over the years. I can't really fault him for not waiting to spend time with someone that picks on him.

Edited by Cortez on May 7th 2023 at 5:09:35 AM

You're right, her actions can't be excused, but we can at least understand that she didn't start hating him for no reason. Just like it's understandable why her brother would avoid her from that point on, even if it would have been better to engage with her and try to work out what went wrong between them. It's a sad case of one person accidentally hurting the other, who lashes out against someone who doesn't understand why, so both end up assuming the other turned on them out of nowhere.

In an abridged series. Of a pretty derided anime.

I'm curious if anyone will ever work out what the full "patch notes" are at the start of the episode, when the leads are talking over the server announcement. I'm also curious about what Asuna did with the admin console that was more important than immediately trying to log out, but if there's any hint reflected in the close-ups of her eyes, I can't make it out.

I mainly say it because i hope the fault isn't put all on him after this revelation. Which was a very well acted scene.

I don't think a duel will be enough to settle those deep-seated subscriptions between the two cousins/siblings. Easier to get over an accidental crush than multiple years of resentment and disdain.

Mother's Rosario might be a challenge since I am not sure I can see abridged Asuna helping The Sleeping Knights or at the very least if she does it has little reason to have her keep helping past the "thanks for helping us beat the boss bye" part.

Saw it. Definitely great performances.

I forget, has Kirito's aunt/adoptive mother shown up in the abridge yet?