History Characters / SwordArtOnlineAbridgedSeasonOneCharacters

-->'''Kayaba:''' That guy [[CallBack was in the mafia]], [[AssholeVictim that's, like, a freebie.]]

* VillainOfAnotherStory: This cat somehow went from a regular clearer, to forming a mafia, to fighting TheHero and faking his death, to joining the [=KoB=]'s senior council, to betraying them in favor of laying waste to Collina with "The King of Ashes". Despite this, he only appears onscreen for brief periods of time and barely affects Kirito's story arc.

* AdaptationalVillainy: He originally wasn't a member of the mafia, but a normal clearer.

* CompositeCharacter: The Abridged Series combines the leader of Laughing Coffin with one of the random nameless clearers seen in Episode 2.

[[center: [- [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAbridged Main Page]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAbridgedMajorCharacters Major Characters]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAbridgedKirito Kazuto Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAbridgedLeafa Suguha Kirigaya]]) | '''Introduced in Season 1''' ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAbridgedKayaba Kayaba Akihiko]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAbridgedSeasonTwoCharacters Introduced in Season 2]] -] ]]

* CannonFodder: How Kirito labels them at the end of Episode 2.

* UndyingLoyalty: According to Tiffany, they would gladly followed Kirito to hell itself after he kills the WarmupBoss. Kirito doesn't care and ditches them for their stupidity.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The group Klein fought against in Episode 3 was called "Divine Dragons Alliance", and were only interested in beating other players to a rare monster drop that they were eager to collect. Here, they're a full blown mob who kill Kirito because his guild leader didn't settle a debt with them.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: In Episode 11, he insults SAO's game design "a hot mess", not knowing that the man he was talking to was the game's creator, who unbeknownst to him had spent three consecutive weeks trying to perfect the game.

->'''Voiced By:''' Chase "Coffinjockey"\\\

* HazyFeelTurn: It's unclear whether he defected from the mafia or if he was TheMole. Kayaba couldn't care less.

The publisher and developer of ''Sword Art Online'', respectively. Creator/{{Bethesda}} contracted Argus to develop the game and allowed Argus to delay it twice, but were unwilling to extend the deadline any further, resulting in Kayaba Akihko having only three weeks to finish the game. This resulted in the game releasing in a disastrously broken state and being filled with bugs, including one that kills players.

* GoodCounterpart: To Heathcliff[[spoiler:/Kayaba]]; they both endeavor to [[TheLeader lead and organize the SAO players]] with the goal of guiding them to victory. However, they ultimately find themselves overwhelmed by frustration due to [[SurroundedByIdiots the obnoxious lack of intelligence displayed by said players]]. Furthermore, despite having to deal with Kirito's abrasive and insufferable demeanor, both of them come to develop an admiration for him as [[OnlySaneMan the sole bastion of sanity amidst the entire player population.]] However, Heathcliff is revealed to be a duplicitous despot (Kayaba) who is directly responsible for the predicament that all the players find themselves in. His purported leadership is but a façade to maintain his subjects as leverage to evade the authorities. Conversely, Diabel is portrayed as [[BeleagueredBoss an equally beleaguered victim]] of the circumstances, much like the rest of the players, and willingly puts himself in danger to stop everyone else from getting killed, in contrast to Kayaba, [[DirtyCoward who enabled his admin privileges during the raids to make him impervious to damage.]]

* ShadowArchetype: In the end, despite his initial refusal to do so, Kirito would end up unwittingly following in his footsteps and leading the players to victory, coming close to [[HeroicSacrifice dying while fighting for their freedom]] instead of [[spoiler:CynicismCatalyst giving up on them]] like Diabel did.

* BrokenBird: Subverted, but she plays the role rather convincingly. It's later PlaedStraight, but not due to Kains' "death", but Griselda's.

* ItsAllAboutMe: He tries to out the beta testers as traitors because he's bitter that ''they'' didn't teach ''him'' how to play the game, even though they did make a players' guide for him and the other newbies to read.

!Notable ''[=SAO=]'' Guilds

* KarmaHoudini: Unless [[TerrorHero Kirito]], [[EvenEvilHasStandards Heathcliff]] or [[TheChesssmaster Fluffles]] did something offscreen, they were logged out safely alongside every other player, with only one of them being confirmed deceased.

* NerdyGlasses: She has a pair of these.

* Mooks: For Don Fluffles.

* TheMole: Implied to be this for while clearing floors with the Knights of the Blood Oath.

** When Kayaba accuses them of bringing their own deaths upon themselves with their stupidity, a mafia member points out that he's just as responsible for trapping them in the game in the first place.
** Earlier, he was also not wrong to say that SAO's game design was incredibly messy. Even Kirito comes to agree with him on that.

!!Diabel's Raid Party

[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_10_27_222107_4.png]]
[[caption-width-right:1000:WHAT?! 2000 PEOPLE ARE DEAD?! IT HASN’T EVEN BEEN A MONTH YET! OH MY GOD, WE REALLY ARE FUCKED!]]
A prototype guild formed by a ragtag force of straggler players which managed to clear Floor 1 before being disbanded due to the death of their leader, who then gave the reigns to beta tester Kirito, who then proceeded to ditch them all, effectively dissolving the guild.

[[folder:Assorted SAO Players]]

[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/24_2.png]][[caption-width-right:1000:So... you want us to beat an MMO?!]]
''SAO''[='s=] player base, forced to fight for their lives in a game they can no longer log out of. Or as Kirito puts it, "a bunch of mouth-breathing neckbeards who think 'LMAO' is how French people laugh."
----
* AxCrazy: While they're luckily a VocalMinority InUniverse, a worrying number of them take the side of psychopathic monsters such as The King of Ashes and take advantage of the game's lack of authority to partake in RapePillageAndBurn. It gets so bad that Kayaba has to spend most of his time as Heathcliff trying to quell these rebellions.
* BigWhat: Or, rather, an exaggerated FlatWhat said by one player in particular in the start of the series when Kayaba traps everyone in the game. Hilariously, he's credited as "Al, from ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot''" in the closed captions. [[spoiler:He returns as part of Heathcliff/Kayaba's raid party in Episode 11...with the exact same word to say.]]
-->'''Al:''' WHAT?!
* CowardlyLion: Despite their generally childish and cowardly demeanor, many still willingly participate in Floor raids instead of hiding in safe zones, something Kirito commends them for.
* DysfunctionJunction: Kayaba points out that they adamantly refuse to work together to survive the MMO, despite being in a life-or-death situation and having a common enemy in the 100 Floor Bosses. This gets worse as the years pass, with many of them losing their mind and joining PlayerKilling guilds such as Fluffles' mafia, Titan's Hand Laughing Coffin, and The King of Ashes' raiders.
* DrivenToSuicide: At least one jumped off the edge of Aincrad after giving in to despair, as Yui is ForcedToWatch.
* DumbassHasAPoint: Many didn't read the manual, but given how uncreative and stupid so many of them are, they probably would have uncritically followed its [[WhoWritesThisCrap bad advice]].
* {{GIRL}}: At least one of them donned a female avatar and tried to hook up with a guy who claimed to be 17. They continue their relationship even after their true identities are revealed.
* LeeroyJenkins: Their preferred strategy, and at least one player died screaming this exact phrase.
* OhCrap: A collective one when Kayaba informs them of their predicament in Episode 1.
* PrecisionFStrike: One of them lets out the first F-bomb of the series after Kayaba disables the profanity filter.
-->'''Player:''' We're ''fucked''!!
* RedshirtArmy: Many, many casualties stem from their LeeroyJenkins approach to things.
* SanitySlippage: Most of them were likely normal people eager to try out the newest MMO, only to find themselves trapped in a hellish DeadlyGame which is soon revealed to be riddled with glitches and terrible design choices that make their experience even harder and more up to luck than anything else. By Episode 11, there's hardly anyone left who hasn't lost their marbles. While this doesn't justify killing other players or joining TheMafia, the situation they're in would take a toll on anyone's sanity.
* SurroundedByIdiots: The idiots in question.
* TooDumbToLive: Many barely understand strategy beyond "Group up and hit it until it dies". Lampshaded by Heathcliff in Episode 11.
-->'''Heathcliff:''' I tried, you know. Lord knows I tried. But there's just no helping you people. It's like you crave death. But not just any death, nooooooo! You fuckers seem to have some kind of pool going to see who can end their existence in the dumbest, most avoidable way possible. And you just keep one-upping each other!
* ViewersAreGoldfish: InUniverse. In Episode 2, their attention span is so limited that they seem to have literally forgotten about everything Diabel had told them during the first meeting, even though their lives are on the line.
-->'''Heathcliff''': (after a TooDumbToLive player attacks him) Now, I trust that the rest of you good people have enough pattern recognition not to follow in this man's footsteps. Oh, wait, no, that's goldfish. I'm thinking of goldfish! Yeah, better play it safe. ''[paralyzes everyone]''
* ZergRush: And apparently the only strategy the players of SAO are capable of. Kayaba certainly wouldn't put it past them.
[[/folder]]

* CreatorCameo: Reki the night janitor is this for Reki Kawahara. the writer of the source material's light novels. Kayaba mistaking him for God due to his sleep deprivation is a reference to Reki actually being the God of the franchise.

* BringMyBrownPants: During the fight with Illfang in Floor 1.

** Asuna learnt how to open the menu and became second-in-command for the ''Knights of the Blood Oath'', the top guild in SAO. She got to the point of terrifying ''Kirito himself'' and game admininstrators Kayaba Akihiko and Nobuyuki Sugou.
** {{Downplayed}} with Tiffany who was already the OnlySaneMan of the guild, but at some point he joined Klein and survived many raids after that.

* GoodCounterpart: To Heathcliff[[spoiler:/Kayaba]]; they both endeavor to [[TheLeader lead and organize the SAO players]] with the goal of guiding them to victory. However, they ultimately find themselves overwhelmed by frustration due to [[SurroundedByIdiots the obnoxious lack of intelligence displayed by said players]]. Furthermore, despite having to deal Kirito's abrasive and insuffrable demeanor, both of them come to develop an admiration for him as [[OnlySaneMan the sole bastion of sanity amidst the entire player population.]] However, Heathcliff is revealed to be a duplicitous despot (Kayaba) who is directly responsible for the predicament that all the players find themselves in. His purported leadership is but a façade to maintain his subjects as leverage to evade the authorities. Conversely, Diabel is portrayed as [[BeleagueredBoss an equally beleaguered victim]] of the circumstances, much like the rest of the players, and willingly puts himself in danger to stop everyone else from getting killed, in contrast to Kayaba, [[DirtyCoward who enabled his admin privileges during the raids to make him impervious to damage.]]

* MauveShirt: He serves as the third most prominent character of Episode 2 before he getting killed in the third act.

** His short-sightedness and cowardice. He sells a rare item belonging to the mafia believing he will be able to replicate it easily with a glitch, only to learn it got patched. So he coerces Kirito and Sachi into traveling with the AI companions into the dangerous 27th floor that has the item in his place while he stays in safety, resulting in the operating utterly failing and Kirito and Gary being the only survivors. Keita is promptly DrivenToSuicide.
** His overreliance on Kirito and his charisma hat is another one. Once he gets him to join his crew, he believes he's essentially immortal now, and gets himself in all sorts of troubles with sketchy people thinking that either he'll be able to manipulate his way out, or Kirito will be able to carry his crew using his superior abilities and knowledge of the game. He's so confident in his exploits and Kirito's abilities that he doesn't even bother to specify the details of his quest for the mafia item before sending him on his way, much to Kirito's annoyance. When the beta tester fails the 27th floor mission and everyone else (sans Gary) is dead, on top of some (if not all) of his glitches having been patched, Keita is left with nothing but a crippling debt to a dangerous mafia, leading to his suicide.

** Furthermore, both of them [[spoiler:unwillingly caused the deaths of thousands of players due to creating/misusing a specific glitch in the game (Kayaba created a glitch that killed players when their avatars die, Keita stole the tutorial NPC which left the other players unprepared for the game's hazards[[note]]though it probably wouldn't have mattered much considering how [[TutorialFailure useless]] said tutorial was[[/note]])]].

* SnakeOilSalesman: He gives off this vibe while trying to convince Kirito to join his low level guild, behaving like he's reading from a script and never once listening to Kirito's complaints.

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: The original Sachi's reasoning for running away were her confidence issues and her fear of death, and she at least had her guild and Kirito for support until her final moments. This incarnation of Sachi is the OnlySaneWoman of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits filled with jerks and [=NPCs=], and also happens to be TheMillstone for them due to her terrible lag that glitches her and those around her (which also killed four people in a fire at one point). Even if she didn't get killed in the dungeon, she was doomed from the start, as she has no control over it and it can kick in at any time regardless of how far she makes it into the game. [[MoralityChain No wonder Kirito couldn't bring himself to mock her.]]

** Sachi was TheRunaway who wanted the best for her group, while Asuna is a stalking ClingyJealousGirl who repeteadly manipulates and threatens Kirito because she's become too emotionally dependent on him.

* MoralityChain: To Kirito. She's the one who convinces him to try and act nicer, and be more helpful. [[spoiler:Her death, and final words "Not[[note]]gets cut out due to lag[[/note]] your fault" becomes Kirito's [[TraumaButton PTSD trigger]] into helping others out despite his attempts not to do so.]]

* ArchEnemy: To [[TheHero Kirito]], [[ItMakesSenseInContext oddly enough.]] He was responsible for the death of Kirito's entire guild, (including [[ILetGwenStacyDie Sachi]]) And apparently they've had many an offscreen battle ([[UnreliableNarrator assuming Kirito isn't just trolling everyone]]).

* MirrorCharacter: He's on par with Jeffrey as the leader of one of the main villainous player organizations in SAO. Both villains are also introduced in the same scene, and have similar antagonistic yet cordial relationships with Kirito.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After the negotiations with Kayaba, he's not heard of again outside of a minor comment that he "thankfully" wasn't present in Floor 75 at the time for the boss raid.

* AssholeVictim: Kayaba justifies his murder of a player [[DisproportionateRetribution for making a point against him]] by saying he was in TheMafia. Considering him and his guild had previously tried to kill Kirito for being associated with a debtor, it's hard to argue with him.

* BrutalHonesty: He criticises both ''Sword Art'' as a game and Kayaba himself with no hairs on his tongue. He pays dearly for the latter.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: In Episode 11, he insults SAO's game design "a hot mess", not knowing that the man he was talking to was game's creator, who unbeknownst to him had spent three consecutive weeks trying to perfect the game.

* ShadowArchetype: To Laughing Coffin, another murderous guild who, while still inprefect, would prove to be far more effective in their crimes than them, even though they're still outsmarted by Kirito.

* AdaptationalBadass: When facing Kirito, [[DownplayedTrope she doesn't last a second longer than her canon counterpart]], but she dies throwing last jab at his character instead of letting him have the last word.

* BigBad: Of Episode 4. While she's not a threat to Kirito, she tries to steal the Pneuma flower, and kickstarts the events of the episode by driving Silica away from her guild, causing Pina's death.
* BigBadWannabe: She so desperately wants to be the leader of a respected player-killing guild like Laughing Coffin, but as Kirito puts it, she's little more than a [[SmugSnake psych-student on her first year]] who can only scare players who think ''[[CuteSlimeMook slimes]]'' are terrifying.

* DefiantToTheEnd: As she is killed by Kirito, she proceeds to make one final remark to spite him, which [[BreakThemByTalking evidentally really gets to him]]. See FacingTheBulletsOneLiner.

* DistaffCounterpart: She's as eloquent, overconfident, self-absorbed as Kirito, but they have a contrasting skill set: Rosalia is much more smooth, perceptive, and eloquent than him, and her speech is much more refined to boot, but completely relies on her men to fight her battles for her. Kirito, on the other hand, is a much better fighter ([[BadassOnPaper in SAO at least]]), and insists on accomplishing things by himself, but his insults are much more shallow and superficial, and much more akin to common bullying than Rosalia's psychological analyses. Fittingly, Kirito technically won the battle against her, but she ''obliterated him'' during their SnarkToSnarkCombat.

* EvilRedhead: She has blood-red head and she's the leader of a murderous guild.

* {{Hypocrite}}: She taunts Kirito by implying that ''The Hill of Memories'' is over his level. In the third act of the episode, she ambushes an overpowered Kirito alongside her men, even though his stats are ''far'' bigger than hers and her mens' combined. This lack of self-awareness gets her killed.

* LesserOfTwoEvils: At the end of episode 4, Silica calls Kirito "the worst person I've ever met", implying she views regards him as a ''worse'' person than Rosalia, since he killed her, since he had sadistically killed her despite her having no feasible way to defeat him.

* MuggingTheMonster: She grossly underestimated Kirito, thinking he was all talk and that her BreakingSpeech managed to take even that away. Then Kirito shrugged off all her minions attacks and casually killed her. She also underestimated Silica, who turned out to be powerful enough to make even ''Kirito'' terrified of her rampage.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: As much as Kirito doesn't want to admit it, her "First year Psyche-School bullshit" was an accurate assessment of Kirito pre-CharacterDevelopment.

* SmugSnake: She thought Kirito was all bark and no bite, when that definition only applied to her and her low-level guild.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: As she's getting ready to throw another barrage of insults to Kirito, the boy dashes forward like a flash and slices her throat. Despite the sudden shock, Rosalia still manages to throw in a DyingCurse.

* VirginShaming: Rosalia's dying words after Kirito stabs her is that "It's the deepest you'll ever be in a woman." This gets under Kirito's skin because he's unable to come up with a snappy comeback.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: She ''really'' shouldn't have entangled Kirito and Asuna into her and Kains' already faulty plan to scare Schmitt. She's beyond lucky it ended up saving her when Laughing coffin entered the picture.
* TheDitz: She constantly comes up with [[MissingStepsPlan unnecessary convoluted plans]] and also executes them horribly, involving unrelated third parties for no discernible reason and forgetting to cover her tracks [[HopelessWithTech due to having troubles with the game's mechanics]].

* FakingTheDead: Does this in Episode 6 with the help of Kains, exploiting the free fall glitch by taking a swan dive out a window then teleporting away after the latter throws her a knife.
* ForgetfulJones: She forgot to delete her friends list after she was done with Asuna and Kirito, which they later used to track her down. Kains is ''not'' impressed, since they had spent six months perfecting their scheme.

* HopelessWithTech: Has a Callback to Asuna's issues with menus, as apparently she didn't think about deleting her friends list to keep her cover of being supposedly "dead".

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: She gives a brutal one to Schmitt for killing Griselda. Kirito waits until she's finished to tell her that he was innocent.

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: Or fake-dying guy on display. He invokes this when him and Yolko choose to fake the former's death in the Town of Beginnings during the dinner rush, ensuring it reached the largest possible audience. Unfortunately, this ends up backfiring on them when two particular players decide to stick their noses in the matter.

* {{Foil}}: He's smart, deadpan, and brutally honest, contrasting Yolko's forgetful, airheaded, and deceitful (albeit well intentioned) personality.

* {{Hypocrite}}: He endlessly criticises Yolko for her many mistakes in her already flawed plan, despite his IdiotBall moment below being as pivotal to their failure as any mistake Yolko made.
* IdiotBall: Had he not used a teleport crystal to escape while pretending to be a ghost, Kirito would've had no concrete evidence of Yolko's ghost story being a farce. It's especially notable in this version compared to the original anime, as Kirito [[AdaptationalWimp fell through a window while trying to chase him down]], so he could've just ran away with no one to pursue him.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: To make his faked death look more realistic, he ''stabs'' himself in the mid section with Grimlock's sword. Since the town was a safe zone, he doesn't die, though according to Kirito, it still would've hurt him like hell.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite his snarky and sarcastic demeanor towards Yolko, especially in regards to her MissingStepsPlan, he genuinely wants to solve Griselda's murder. He even attempts to depart on good terms with Kirito, despite their rocky start. Furthermore, he's shown comforting Yolko when she cries.

* OnlySaneMan: Yolko's constant screw ups in the plan, and the fact that all their efforts turned out to be wrong in blaming Schmitt annoys him to no end. He does thank Kirito for his help in solving the case, as well as saving all of them. Kains even apologizes for not getting along with Kirito. Unfortunately, given the deal that was made with Laughing Coffin to spare them, and [[HeroicComedicSociopath Kirito]] being [[{{Troll}} Kirito]].....

* TooCleverByHalf: His plan to fake his death by exploiting a glitch in the game shows some knowledge in the game's mechanisms, [[FailedASpotCheck but his use of the teleport crystal while fleeing from Kirito]] ends up exposing the entire "ghost" façade he and Yolko had planned. His and Yolko's misguided (if based on sound evidence) targeting of Schmitt also had some holes in its reasoning, as Kirito smugly points out while calling them out on their idiocy.

** When Grimlock tries to appeal to his and Schmitt's masculinity to justfify his StayInTheKitchen motivated murder.

* AntiHero: He's not a murderer (or at least, he hasn't managed to kill anyone yet), and he wants to clear the game as much as anybody else, but he's ''not'' someone you can rely on when in a high stress situation.

* {{Greed}}: Subverted. [[spoiler:Kirito initially suspected that Grimlock killed his wife to keep that rare item for himself, since married players share inventory space and no one would know he stole it. [[MotiveMisidentification However, his true motive is far]] [[EvilIsPetty pettier]]]].

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Apart from the playful banter they have during their EstablishingCharacterMoment, this adaptation of Laughing Coffin willingly hand their preys over to Kirito as payment for his [[ItMakesSenseInContext business advice]] instead of [[DirtyCoward leaving out of cowardice]] like in SAO proper.

* CallingCard: The "Bible quoting serial killer" theme. But because of Jeffery's CloudCuckoolander tendencies, people don't seem to take them as seriously as they should because of it.
* TheDreaded: A gang of high level player killers who terrify pretty much anyone who isn't Kirito.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: While they fail to kill the Golden Apple members, they get off scott-free in Episode 6 after their encounter with Kirito. That is until Episode 9 where we hear they had been jailed / KilledOffscreen by the Knights of the Blood Oath.

** Same applies to his imaginary Jesus, who tells him to kill people with a gleeful tone and two finger guns.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Likes to quote scripture as part of his persona. [[EpicFail Unfortunately]] he likes to pick verses completely randomly, regardless if the context actually fits, and apparently doesn't even know what is ''in'' the Bible in the first place, given his reaction to Johnny Black.
* AxCrazy: He doesn't think so, but his constant visions of a genocidal Jesus says otherwise. The fact that he ''obeys'' said vision's every command doesn't help matters.

* FreudianExcuse: He's schizophrenic and trapped in a glitch infested DeadlyGame where the only medical help available is an equally insane psychiatrist AI (who either was locked away during his SanitySlippage or simply refused to help him). A month in, and he's already seeing visions of a genocidal Jesus that command him to kill everyone in his path.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Was an ordinary player with an imaginary Jesus in Episode 2, but quickly formed the most feared player killing guild that even Kirito admits were really dangerous, and even looks far more imposing in Episode 6.

* HiddenDepths: To Johnny's delight, his last quote (Ephesians 2:8) was actually quite effective and fitting for the situation, showing he's not that hopeless as a HolyHitman after all.

* TheLeader: He founded Laughing Coffin, and calmly asserts his authority as guild leader over Johnny Black in regards to who's religious verse is better, and Johnny Black refers to him as "Boss" at first.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: For a little bit he was convinced that he was crazy, because one of the other players appeared to be a cat. He's very relieved to tell his giant homicidal hallucination of Jesus that the cat player was real, so he's not crazy.

* BladeEnthusiast : His poisoned daggers are his weapons of choice. He likes them enough that it's possible he may have been conned by Tiffany into spending half his col on a bullshit dagger that broke almost immediately.
* BloodKnight: He kills people for for fun and profit.

* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Of all the people to be this, it's the cloth sack over their head wearing player [[spoiler:who is most definitely not sane in any sense of the word in the original material]]. He's this to Jeffrey.

* EvilIsHammy: He acts like an excitable child when he paralyses Schmitt. This is all part of his persona though; the real Johnny is actually much more self-conscious.

* LackOfEmpathy: He's very casual when talking about his job as a PsychoForHire, and instructs his leader on the correct way to instil fear on his victims.

* NumberTwo: To Jeffery, he has a fair bit of autonomy with the Laughing Coffin ad campaign, always trying promote their guild, and is relatively rational compared to Jeffrey.
* PetTheDog: He takes the time to congratulate Jeffrey on the verses he finds appropriate, such as when he quotes Ephesians 2:8 as a send off to Kirito. He also allows Schmitt to go unharmed after his boss hands him out to Kirito as a slave, despite his hatred for him.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Doesn't verbally say it, but it is his usual reaction towards Jeffery's verses, and even Kirito's intrusion.

One of Laughing Coffin's highest ranking members.

* ExtremeDoormat: Unlike Johnny, he doesn't question Jeffrey's amateurish HolyHitman act, and leaves Schmitt alone with no fanfare once Kirito changes the others' mind.

* TheQuietOne: Out of the three highest ranked members of Laughing Coffin, he's the only one who doesn't speak at all, and doesn't even voice his opinion on Jeffrey's choice of verse during the latter's argument with Johnny.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: His first and only onscreen appearance is in Episode 2 and is spent trash talking SAO's beta testers and blaming them for getting everyone trapped in the game. Then in a classic display of OffstageVillainy, he joins the ALF and stages a violent coup that throws the entire guild into chaos.

* KarmaHoudini: Unless Yulier and Thinker did something about his AssassinationAttempt, he essentially got away scott-free when Kirito logged every surviving SAO player out of the game.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Since the beta testers' guide turns out to be a bust, he's eventually proven correct about the beta testers (or at least ''one'' of them) intentionally hindering them. However, it doesn't make his argumentation any less stupid as he didn't even know the book existed, and it's clear he was speaking out of ignorance.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: His men are very open about their hatred for their incompetent GeneralFailure, with one of them giving him an exhausted PrecisionFStrike. Unsurprisingly, none of them care to mourn him after his death.

* BoisterousWeakling: He presents himself as a skilled, brave, noble and experienced leader and brilliant strategist, but in actuality he's an extremely boastful, arrogant and egotistical noob with poor leadership skills, as he shows during his first fight.

* GratuitousSpanish: He sounds Spanish, anyway, which surprises Asuna since she didn't know SAO has international servers. Another ALF member points out it ''doesn't''; Corvatz is from Nagano and found an ingame item that makes Spanish guitar music play every time he talks. [[TheRoleplayer He's just really committed to the bit.]]

* LeeroyJenkins: What he really is at heart. What else can you expect from a guy who's main strategy when fighting a big goat demon is to "hit it 'till it dies"? He doesn't even stop when the strategy fails the first time.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: She's introduced as a polite and well-spoken lady who is worried for the safety of her guild, but after being pressed by Yui, she's revealed to be an ill-tempered {{Womanchild}} who lusts after her boss and who frantically defends his incompetent actions with no self awareness whatsoever.

* TheLancer: To Thinker. She aids him in his fight against Kibaou's tyrany.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Her infatuation with Thinker leaves her a bit, shall we say, ''biased'' when it comes to evaluating his qualities. In the one instance where Thinker isn't immediately on her mind she's shown to be surprisingly insightful.

* InformedAttractiveness: It's all but stated the ''actual'' reason Yulier is infatuated with him is "his beautiful ass", to the point where she gets horny just thinking about him. However, from what little we see of him, he seems like a rather average looking guy.
* IronicName: As Yui points out, for a guy named Thinker he's [[{{Understatement}} "something of a dullard."]] He is fully willing to attend a "peace talk" in a dungeon while brining no weapons or items, and promptly falls into a blatantly obvious trap.

* OhCrap: The collective reaction when ''The Skull Reaper'' makes its entrance, folowed by AndThereWasMuchRejoicing when it glitches out and dies seconds afterwards.

* ParentalAbandonment: During the final boss raid, one of the tanks mentions having crippling abandonmemt issues with his father.

* TheStoner: In Episode 11, it's implied the other tank had taken some of Kirito's weird plants from Episode 5 to prep for the boss fight, as he had bloodshot eyes and acted spaced-out for most of the scene.

* BullyingADragon: When Asuna comes in to Kirito's aid, he foolishly taunts her, only to end up in the receiving end of a vicious CurbStompBattle which ends with a sword through his skull.

* {{Foil}}: To Rosalia, the antagonist of Episode 4: They both stand out as rather sadistic SAO players whose behavior drove away a former guildmate (Rosalia tried to kill Silica's pet, while Kuradeel stalked Asuna while she slept), and who're killed by their respective [[GoodCounterpart Good Counterparts]], but they're polar opposites:

** Though both of them try to kill Kirito at different points in his journey, Kuradeel came ''much'' closer to actually ending Kirito's life thanks to his [[CombatPragmatist careful planning]], but was continuously humiliated by Kirito's insults, and by the end of Episode 9, Kirito had all but forgotten about him. Rosalia, on the other hand, couldn't leave so much as a scratch on Kirito's body, but left a ''massive'' scar on Kirito's mental state through her [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech brutal deconstruction of his character]], which haunted him up until his full redemption in Episode 11.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Even though Kirito was one of the best members of his guild, and a very valuable asset for those who wanted to clear the game, Kuradeel still tries to kill him over some petty squabble.

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Your protegee doesn't appreciate you stalking her? Your guild mate just won't stop ruining the Shakespeare prose with his hideous roleplaying? Did that scumbag Kirito get your favorite serial killer guild disbanded with his stupid business advice, on top of constantly degrading and humiliating you for your ugly face? Have you considered… murder?

* TattooedCrook: As beffiting for a {{Fanboy}}, he has the Laughing Coffin logo tattooed on his forearm.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: The original version of the scrippts for Episodes 9 and 10 had Asuna learn of [[spoiler:his death]] and Heathcliff inquire about it respectively, but said scenes were cut, making him this trope.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: He attempts to defend Kuradeel by claiming that his old and haggard appearance is result of his age, only for Kuradeel to meekly state that he's [[YoungerThanTheyLook only 26]].

* {{Manchild}}: He seems to be in his mid 30s, but he quotes Shakespeare during missions like an excitable child playing a role. It's implied to be either a coping mechanism or a [[TheFriendNobodyLikes failed]] attempt at cheering his friends up.

* TheRoleplayer: Speaks like a [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe Shakespearean actor]] who walked right off the stage? Check. Kirito and Kuradeel both find it annoying, and if Asuna's tone when she introduces him is anything to go on, [[TheFriendNobodyLikes so does everybody else.]] [[spoiler:He instantly drops it when he realizes Kuradeel is about to kill him for it. [[DoomedByCanon Not that it helps.]]]]

* OnlySaneMan: She's easily the sanest person, constantly pointing out common sense that has slipped Kirito, Asuna, and Yulier.

* DisproportionateRetribution: He leads a riot in Floor 75 because the gladiatorial combat he was so eager to see ended anticlimatically. The worst part? He had been offered a full refund.

* {{Greed}}: Subverted. The Knights of the Blood Oath offer him and the rest of the crowd a full refund after the fight they were watching ends anticlimatically, but he throws a fit anyway, [[BloodKnight since he only cared about seeing two high-ranking players maim each other and he was left down]].

* InternetJerk: What he seems to have become after leaving Aincrad, sending Kirito death threats on Twitter after tracking down his page. He was already a fan of doing this in SAO, if Kirito's messages in Episode 11 are any indication.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After Kirito pisses him off, he breaks the truce with Heathcliff and has Kirito hunted down. He's still searching for him during Season 2, though his biggest action are just a few twitter threats.

''SAO''[='s=] playerbase, forced to fight for their lives in a game they can no longer log out of. Or as Kirito puts it, "a bunch of mouth-breathing neckbeards who think 'LMAO' is how French people laugh."

* DysfunctionJunction: Kayaba points out that they adamantly refuse to work together to survive the MMO, despite being in a life or death situation and having a common enemy in the 100 Floor Bosses. This gets worse as the years pass, with many of them losing their mind and joining PlayerKilling guilds such as Fluffles' mafia, Titan's Hand Laughing Coffin, and The King of Ashes' raiders.

* ColdBloodedTorture: After joining "the King of Ashes", he apparently suggested boiling several intruders in boiling oil.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Fluffles is a cat. A literal house cat. And yet he is able to go toe-to-toe with Kirito and ran the in-game Mafia, before eventually throwing in with The King of Ashes.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Fluffles is a cat. A cat who is playing ''SAO''. He also happens to be one of the most dangerous players out there.

* WorthyOpponent: Unless he was trolling everyone, Kirito sees him as this, which isn't uncalled for considering he's
a GodlikeGamer.

* CruelAndUnusualPunishment: After joining "the King of Ashes", he apparently suggested boiling several intruders in boiling oil.

* MeanBoss: After three of his mobsters returns having failed to retrieve his rare item, Fluffles hisses at him.

* OrcusOnTheirThrone: When in the mafia, he sends his fellow mobsters to deal with other players for him while he schemes from a distance. It's downplayed since he's implied to have done his own dirty work, but those instances are never shown onscreen.

* EvilCounterpart: To his supposed ArchEnemy Kirito; both were nobodies in the real world (Kirito being a lonely computer geek and Fluffles being a common housecat), who nevertheless managed rise up the ranks and become highly respected and feared public figures while being trapped in SAO, as well as causing the game's head programmer Kayaba a large amount of grief. The key difference between the two is that Kirito eventually grew to bond with his fellow players (especially Asuna), and ended his journey as TheHero of Aincrad; while Fluffles became TheDon of the Aincrad mafia, and thrived on exploiting, backstabbing, and killing other players to achieve his goals.

* FairWeatheredFriend: He seems to align with whatever guild he finds more suitable, before betraying them and joining someone else.

* HazyFaceTurn: In Episode 9, he seems to have left the mafia in favor of joining the Knights of the Blood Oath. Not only is that decision questionable especially after it's revealed that there are many sketchy people in their ranks, (including ''their own guildleader'' and a mafia member) but he betrays them anyway in favor of their enemy in the next chapter.

* AdaptationalVillainy: He originally wasn't a member of the mafia.

* VillainHasAPoint: When Kayaba accuses them of bringing their own deaths upon themselves with their stupidity, a mafia member points out that he's just as responsible for trapping them in the game in the first place.

** {{Downplayed}} with Corvatz managed to become one of the greatest tactical minds of the Aincrad Liberation Front, [[DamnedByFaintPraise though that's not saying much]].

[[caption-width-right:1000: I'm sorry, Don. We finally tracked down the one known as Kirito, but... we were beaten back by the legendary warrior BallsDeep69 and his men. The boy escaped us yet again. I have no excuse. But I promise you, we will get back what was stolen. What are your orders... Don Fluffles?]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: All things considered, he ''does'' give Keita a chance to replace his rare item after he failed to duplicate it, even after he had sold it. He stops being so reasonable after Keita's death though, [[GuiltByAssociation targeting Kirito instead]].
* SmallRoleBigImpact: He has less than a minute of screentime, but he's responsible for the deaths of The Moonlit Black Cats, and his underlings occupied Floor 75 for most of Episode 10.

[[folder:[=Red-Eyed XaXa=]]]

[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/11_14.png]]
One of Laughing Coffin's highest ranking members.

* AmbiguousSituation: Whether he's delusional like Jeffrey or OnlyInItForTheMoney like Johnny is unclear, though he seems to take some enjoyment in his work.
* CoDragons: To Jeffrey alongside Johnny Black. He's much more obedient than the latter, though.
* ExtremeDoormat: Unlike Johnny, he doesn't question Jeffrey's amateurish HolyHitman act, and leaves Schmitt alone with no fanfare once Kirito changes the others' mind.
* TheFaceless: His skeletal mask hides most of his face.
* MalevolentMaskedMan: His skull mask and hood only highlight his creepiness.
* MasterSwordsman: Talented with a sword. He uses it to threaten Yolko and Kains while his partners deal with Schmitt, but is unable to do anything else with it before Kirito pops up and ruins the party. After being led away, he makes a show out of folding it seemingly to compensate.
* NoNameGiven: Unlike Johnny and Jeffrey, [=XaXa=] only has his canon name to go by.
* TheQuietOne: Out of the three highest ranked members of Laughing Coffin, he's the only one who doesn't speak at all, and doesn't even voice his opinion on Jeffrey's choice of verse during the latter's argument with Johnny.
* RedBaron: "Red-Eyed" [=XaXa=].
* RedEyesTakeWarning: As befitting his username; His mask is adorned with glowing red eyepieces.
* {{Sadist}}: His evil smile as Jeffrey is looming towards Schmitt with nefarious intent suggests this.
* SkullForAHead: Well, "skull for a mask".
* SlasherSmile: One of the few expressions he has, shown when Jeffrey makes his dramatic entrance.
* TheVoiceless: Doesn't make a single sound and seems to let Jeffrey and Johnny do all the threatening.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Johnny Black]]

[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/10_96.png]]
[[caption-width-right:1000:''"Aw, this is great! I’m a huge fan! Tell me, do you remember a user by the name of... '''Johnny Black'''?"'']]
->'''Voiced by:''' Cole "[=Sonicring123Dubs=]" Petty\\\

Jeffrey's long-suffering lieutenant, and not at all a fan of ''Piece of Schmitt Games.''
----

!!Aincrad Liberation Front

[[folder:General]]

[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/15_86.png]][[caption-width-right:1000:Corvatz: ''"Nonsense! We’re too close to give up now! My men do not even know the meaning of the word “surrender”"''![[note]]But we're willing to learn![[/note]]]]
One of the guilds trying to clear ''Sword Art Online'', and for the most part, failing at it.

* TookALevelInBadass: Many of them start off as a group of complete buffoons who only serve as "meat shields". Many of those who survived Episode 2 would then go on to form their own guilds or become high-ranking members of other well-respected groups.

[[caption-width-right:1000:Well, to be fair, sir, you're responsible for at least a few of 'em.]]