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** Due to the multiracial nature and the fact that PvP is encouraged this is sadly very prevalent in Alfheim Online, with even the nicest player you'd meet likely to be at least casually racist towards another race.
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** Due to the multiracial nature and the fact that PvP [=PvP=] is encouraged this is sadly very prevalent in Alfheim Online, with even the nicest player you'd meet likely to be at least casually racist towards another race.
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* ForWantOfANail: Caliber Failure Side explores one such outcome to the Caliber sidestory. [[spoiler: Kirito convinces the party to abandon Freya (without knowing she's actually a disguised Thor). As a result, they're unable to defeat the BigBad before time runs out. Not only do they fail the quest, Kirito loses his chance to get Excaliber, and the BigBad succeeds in deploying an army massive enough to destroy Alfheim and Aincrad]].
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SwordArtOnline/TropesAToB | SwordArtOnline/TropesCToD | '''Tropes E to H''' | SwordArtOnline/TropesIToM | SwordArtOnline/TropesNToR | SwordArtOnline/TropesSToT | SwordArtOnline/TropesUToZ | Back to the [[Literature/SwordArtOnline Main Page]]
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[[folder:E]]
* EarlyBirdCameo: From Episode 1 of the anime:
** Klein is seen from the "MMO Stream" news video covering the SAO release before meeting Kirito for the first time as described in the original novel.
** Suguha is briefly heard and seen running off to practice before Kirito enters SAO.
** Asuna, Lisbeth (before dyeing her hair pink), and Silica are seen among the players in the plaza.
* EarnYourHappyEnding:
** It takes four volumes (of the first two arcs), but after going through a lot of shit and never giving up, Kirito and Asuna are reunited in the real world.
** Repeated in some ways and turned up to eleven throughout the whole ''Alicization'' saga, as myriad things inside and outside of ''Underworld'' conspire against the heroes, and just keep piling on and on, giving seemingly hopeless situations, followed by hope and some victories, only for even more seemingly hopeless situations to pop up, over and over until the climax ([[spoiler:especially in ''War of Underworld'']].
** This is also a general theme with the various main story arcs as a whole.
* EldritchAbomination: Aincrad's 75th floor boss, The Skull Reaper. ''A terrifying skeletal centipede'' '''thing''' ''[[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever that's the size of a building]]'', ''[[LightningBruiser moves very fast]]'', ''[[OneHitKill hits very hard]]'', ''[[RedEyesTakeWarning and has four red eyes]]''.
* EstablishingShot: A pretty one from episode one, of the Tokyo skyline. It's also used quite often afterwards -- this series loves its scenery porn quite a bit.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: When Klein first meets Asuna, he catches on ''very'' quickly that she has feelings for Kirito, and asks Kirito if they're lovers. Kirito's fervent denial is greeted with knowing smiles from all of Furinkazan and Asuna.
* EvolvingCredits:
** In the opening for the ''Fairy Dance'' arc, there is a part where Sugou steps away from a window. After his identity in ALO is revealed you can see [[spoiler:Oberon]] in his reflection at this point.
** Happens again in the opening credits to season 2. After Death Gun [[spoiler:is revealed to have been a former member of Laughing Coffin in SAO]] the credits change from seeing the gun in his hand dissolving to [[spoiler:the just-barely visible Laughing Coffin tattoo hidden under the bandages on his arm]].
** The trend continues when the Caliber arc gives way to the ''Mother's Rosario'' (which is noted in the credits), where the second opening slightly changes to include a few shots of Yuuki and the rest of the Sleeping Knights. However, the next episode after ''that'', the credits change again, to feature only Yuuki, Asuna and the rest of the Sleeping Knights in place of Kirito's group during the Excalibur quest, with Yuuki taking Kirito's place in all of the opening scenes that had featured him.
** "Resister" by ASCA in the ''Alicization'' arc cycles through three versions, gradually making changes as Kirito & Eugeo make their way up the Central Cathedral of the Axiom Church. The first version shows them fighting the [[spoiler: three major Integrity Knights in the tower: Deusolbert, Fanatio, and Alice]], then the second version changes these scenes to show [[spoiler: Eugeo fighting Bercouli]]. The third version of the opening features the most significant changes, including [[spoiler: Kirito & Alice fighting the Sword Golem, as well as Kirito fighting Quinella]], while also adding more scenes of Alice and a number of major visual effects improvements in general.
** "Resolution" by Creator/HarukaTomatsu for ''War of Underworld'' also cycles through several versions, though only one has significant changes. The first two are very similar to each other with the only difference being that the subtitle changes from ''Alicization Invading'' to ''Alicization Exploding'' once it reaches that point in the story. The third version has the major changes, as it swaps out the scenes of Eldrie, Deusolbert, and Fanatio fighting with Renly, Sheyta, and Bercouli, and also changes the scene of Bercouli vs. Shasta with a scene of Alice & Asuna fighting Vector together ([[BaitAndSwitchCredits which never happens in the story]]). The fourth and final version changes the subtitle to ''Alicization Awakening.''
** "Anima" by [=ReoNa=] changes as of Episode 42: the subtitle changes from ''Alicization Awakening'' to ''Alicization Lasting'', Kirito's eyes when he awakens are now the golden "Incarnation eyes" he has throughout the series, a shot of Alice in Tokyo substitutes for the previous group shot of Alice, Kirito, and Asuna, and the last frame changes from a [=NerveGear=] on a table to an image of the Underworld's planet and a hand reaching out for it. Another smaller change happens in Episode 45 when this time, Kirito is surrounded by a fiery Incarnation aura in his scenes.
* ExcusePlot: An in-universe example: [[http://pastebin.com/8wiEj3Dz according to the author's own live commentary]], the backstory for GGO is that humanity settled other planets and eventually descended into an apocalyptic war, resulting in all the ruined cities. The monsters in-game are a product of genetic manipulation.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:F]]
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Kayaba a.k.a. Heathcliff had planned to do this on the 100th floor, but did not get the chance, thanks to Kirito's SequenceBreaking.]]
* {{Facepalm}}: Implied to be Kirito's reaction to Klein's HonorBeforeReason moment.
* FacePlant: Happens to Kirito to the point of becoming a RunningGag in the early episodes of the [=ALO=] arc, including a rather spectacular one where he falls from several hundred feet in the air and impacts the ground so hard that his head is stuck for several moments.
* FakeMemories: This franchise seems to like this, as well as LaserGuidedAmnesia, more than you would expect.
** Sugou performs experients that include manipulation of memories, and some of these are almost certainly implanting fake ones. He also wants to brainwash Asuna into loving him in this way.
** Though not exactly memories per se, [[spoiler:in "Alicization", Integrity Knights in ''Underworld'' have their real memories taken away and are told fake pasts, in order to help make them more obedient to Administrator. One could also consider the memories gained through the Soul Translator to be this, although it's a little different, in that people using it have a normal sensory experience of the things they come to remember; it's just that these things don't happen in the real world, but then the same can be said for any VR experience]].
* {{Fanservice}}: We get to see every major female character in their undergarments one way or the other.
** There's also quite a bit of "look at the detail of that butt" shots in the episode "Murder in the Safe Zone".
** Suguha is a favorite target of the camera here. Boob shot while she's sleeping? In the first episode she appears. Panty shot? Check. Shot of her undressing to underwear? Check. Shots of her bathing, with CensorSteam? Check. It's no surprise that her avatar gets the same treatment, either.
** Sinon is introduced setting up an ambush while sniping from a prone position. The camera [[MaleGaze gives us a very generous view of her derrière]].
** ''Ordinal Scale'' has a scene of Asuna taking a bath, with generous {{Sideboob}}. When she climbs out, her rear-end is in full view, and for the sharp-eyed, a nipple just briefly.
* FantasticMeasurementSystem: The Underworld society uses "millicels," "cels" and "mels" in place of millimeters, centimeters, and meters.
* FantasticRacism: A surprisingly large number of cases, considering it's a series about online gaming.
** In SAO, there were heavy levels of discrimination against Beta-Testers, largely due to the belief that they abandoned new players to die while they hogged all the good farming sports. However while this is true to an extent, this didn't apply to ''every'' Beta-Tester, with Argo and possibly a few others working together to create a guidebook to help all the new players survive, and in spite of that many players died anyway. While the revelation of who wrote the book causes it to die down somewhat, the circumstances of Diavel's death reignites the flames when Lind[[note]] [[CompositeCharacter Kibaou]] in the anime[[/note]] accuses Kirito of being a Beta-Tester who withheld information about the boss and was practically threatening to ignite a Beta-Tester Witch Hunt, forcing Kirito to act like a worse Beta-Tester, a "Beater"[[note]] End up forming from the shouts of Beta-Tester and Cheater getting muddled together[[/note]], in order to shoulder all the hatred and prevent Beta-Testers from being hunted and persecuted, at the expense of suffering a great deal of distrust throughout SAO's early floors. Even late in SAO where it's implied that a lot of this hatred has died down, there are certain players who will often use the "Beater" excuse to be be an ass to other players, such as Kuradeel in regards to Kirito.
** Due to the multiracial nature and the fact that PvP is encouraged this is sadly very prevalent in Alfheim Online, with even the nicest player you’d meet likely to be at least casually racist towards another race.
*** This often goes both ways with Salamanders, especially between them and the Slyphs who they are at war with in Fairy Dance, partially due to their territories being right next to each other and causing resource wars. In general, this is largely due to a majority of the Salamanders lording the fact that they’re considered the [[ArrogantKungFuGuy “strongest race” and taunting everyone else for not having that honor]], with other races understandably viewing them as [[JerkAss Jerkasses]] who like to flaunt their power. The fact that some of the ones shown on-screen act as bandits, attack others with little provocation, make a hobby of killing female players for some kind of sexual thrill, and [[spoiler: the biggest obstacle Liz faces when trying to recruit help to save the Underworld is a ''Salamander'' Commander]] doesn’t exactly help paint them in a good light.
*** Spriggans seem to be looked down upon by pretty much every other race due to the game’s combat heavy nature, with many viewing their [[MasterOfIllusion illusion magic]] as useless in a fight. Even when people party with a Spriggan, they seem to have no problems with insulting the race and their illusion magic despite them [[ImStandingRightHere standing right there.]]
*** Leprechauns aren’t innocent of this either. Girls' Ops Volume 6 reveal that due to being the Blacksmith Race, they are are the only race capable of making rare and powerful equipment and generally look down on other race’s blacksmiths since they are incapable of doing so. As shown by Adie, a Cait Sith member of the Elves and Shoemakers Leprechaun guild, non-Leprechaun players can find themselves getting picked on by Leprechaun members and are generally given less privileges than members who are actually Leprechauns.
** In the Underworld, Demi-humans get this a lot. Despite making up half of the Council of Ten and likely making up the majority of their army, the black iums(humans) of the Dark Territory look down on them for varying reasons and, when the war actually breaks out, they act as the first line of offense because they're seen as more disposable, something that the leader of Mountain Goblins suspects and is proven right when [[spoiler: 300 Orcs are heartlessly sacrificed by the Dark Mage guild to power a spell under Vecta's orders]]. While not largely touched upon, the briefly mentioned Kobolds appear to have this the worst, not having a tribe of their own and being regulated to manual labor such as cleaning. This is made all the more tragic when you consider that fact that, technically, they are all essentially humans who have just been put in different bodies as opposed to actually being seperate races.
** While many MMO players and gamers seem to face IRL discrimination, being seen as societal freeloaders and some people believing that military conscription should be brought back to force them into work, SAO Players have it particularly bad. Due to the [[NothingIsScarier unknown affect their two years may have had on them]], the government treats pretty much all of them as potential criminals, placing all the school age ones in a special school to monitor them, subjecting them to constant therapy even if it proves unnecessary, [[spoiler: and even forcing them to take therapeutic drugs even if they're not needed and could have negative affects on them]], on top of everything mentioned for regular MMO players. They also have it bad in-game, where [[spoiler: basically most other players view them as arrogant stuck-ups due to having more VR experience than them and usually sticking into closely-knit groups with other survivors, clearing having NoSympathy for the fact that they were forced to fight for their lives for up to two years and that their real lives were severely compromised as a result.]]
** [[spoiler: [[AIs Artificial Fluctlights]] seem to be shaping up to be victims of this. When RATH introduces Alice to the world a lot of reporters make some insensitive comments towards her, such as one asking her to prove she's an AI by opening her head. When the discussion moves onto the rights of Artificial Fluctlights, which Rinko wants to establish to [[HistoryRepeats prevent past issues that propped due to discrimination such as slavery or wars]], one reporter is vocal about them not getting any out of paranoia that [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters they'll eventually try and kill other humans]] unless they're put on a leash and claiming that, since they were made by humans, humans have a right to use them as servants. When Alice disappears from the Rath building, Kirito worries that if she's found she could be targeted by people who don't see her as human or extremists who disagree with the creation of AIs in general.]]
* TheFellowshipHasEnded: The Sleeping Knights plan on disbanding the guild in March 2026, and want to defeat a floor boss in Aincrad as just a party so that all their names will be inscribed on the Monument of Swordsmen as proof of their existence. [[spoiler:The real reason is because the members are all terminally ill patients, with two of their members not expected to survive past March. After they successfully defeat a floor boss and Yuuki passes away, the group disbands and its members part ways.]]
* FemaleGaze: As the franchise eventually expands to appeal to female audiences, equal loving attention is payed on the handsome and muscular masculine forms of Beurcoli the Integrity Knight, Klein, Aegil, and once in a while even Kirito and Eugeo.
* FictionalCurrency:
** Cor in SAO.[[note]]Which is an acronym for "Coin of Radius"[[/note]]
** Yrd in ALO.
** Credits in GGO.[[note]]One can actually exchange in-game credits for real world money and vice versa. In Japan, the exchange rate is 100 credits = 1 yen. A player can pay their monthly fee by earning credits in-game.[[/note]]
** Shia in Underworld.
* FinalBossPreview: [[spoiler:Technically, Kirito's duel with Heathcliff in the arena is this due to the latter being Akihiko Kayaba himself.]]
* FirstGirlWins: Asuna is the first girl introduced to readers of the light novels and viewers of the anime (though the situations are slightly different), and the first love interest Kirito meets.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing:
** When Kirito, Godfrey and Kuradeel stop to take a break and eat, Kirito notices that Kuradeel isn't drinking his water seconds before [[spoiler:the paralytic poison kicks in, immobilizing Kirito and Godfrey]].
** When Kirito and Eugeo meet Fizel and Linel, the anime briefly shows the daggers on their belts. The fact that they're armed is suspicious enough, but Kirito notices that the wood used in the scabbards is used for poisoned weapons. They also mention that all the monks and apprentices were ordered to stay in their rooms, and orders are literally almost impossible to disobey for artificial Fluctlights (Eugeo is the only one who did so, and he lost his right eye for it), which hints that they aren't subject to those rules.
* FlashStep: Too many times to count, usually by Kirito. Actually, the sword skill Sonic Leap may actually be invoking this trope. Asuna uses this to travel an impossible distance in five minutes, Kirito leaves behind a ''sonic boom'' from his first attack in ALO...
* {{Flight}}: A main feature in ALO. Under the control of RECTO, there is is a limit for flight such as: height limit, cool down time to charge with sun or moonlight, and inability to fly in dungeons with the exception of Imps. The main quest at the time has the races trying to reach the top of the world tree to have an audience with Oberon to be reborn as a higher-order fairy, the Alf. After Recto sells its rights to it, all races have no time limit in flight.
* {{Foil}}:
** Sinon to Kirito: A fellow PTSD sufferer traumatized by the memory of killing in self-defense.
** Suguha to Asuna: Gets into [=VRMMORPG=]s out of curiosity, becomes attracted to Kirito, and journeys through a game with him.
** Spiegal to Recon: Invites a classmate whom he has a crush on to join him in a [=VRMMORPG=] and confesses his love to said classmate after she has a messed-up encounter with Kirito.
** [[spoiler:Spiegal/Kyouji to Sugou after the climax of the Phantom Bullet Arc: Once it becomes clear that he'll never have his crush, he decides to just rape her instead.]]
** [[spoiler:Kikuoka to Sugou: Both worked on weaponizing Full Dive technology. The difference is that Kikuoka is doing this out of patriotism, whereas Sugou wants to sell it to the highest bidder.]]
** [[spoiler:Kayaba to Sugou: Both created virtual worlds, but whereas Kayaba created SAO to live out a fantasy of creating a living breathing virtual world, Sugou created ALO for illicit mind-control experiments and played himself up as a god.]]
** Kirito to Death Gun: Both are SAO survivors who migrated to GGO and use swords in a gun game, while refusing to let go of the past.
** [[spoiler:Yuuki to Red-Eyed [=XaXa=]: Both are sickly and feeble in the real world, but [=XaXa=] forsook the real world and its ethics to become powerful in VR, equating the lives he takes (both in SAO and as "Death Gun") as power. Yuuki, on the other hand, decided to live her life to the fullest in VR, becoming one of the most powerful swordswomen in ALO, but also one of its kindest and most beloved players.]]
** Asuna isn't truly a foil to anybody, but she serves as a foil to Sachi and Keita during the climax of the Aincrad Arc, when after they learn that the 75th Floor boss fight will be held inside an anti-crystal zone and tells Kirito that she would kill herself if she stayed out of the fight and Kirito didn't come back from it.
* FoodPorn: From Asuna's sandwiches to the incredibly rare (and coveted) ragout rabbit meat, the food in Aincrad always looks tasty.
* ForcedToWatch: During the climax of the ''Fairy Dance'' arc, [[spoiler:Sugou rips the clothes off Asuna's avatar, pins Kirito down by impaling him with a sword, and forces him to witness poor Asuna being sexually harassed in the Virtual World. He then threatens to repeat the "performance" with her '''real (comatose) body''' later and comes very close to successfully raping her in-game before Kirito manages to free himself.]]
* ForDoomTheBellTolls: The town bell of the Starting City of the 1st floor rings when the players of SAO are forcibly teleported to its central plaza.
* ForegoneConclusion: Sister's Prayer, a story about Yuuki and her sister meeting Merida for the first time. [[spoiler:The three found the Sleeping Knights together, but Ran, Merida and eventually Yuuki, all succumb to their illnesses]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** As Kirito himself put it in his battle with Heathcliff, he was fighting at his maximum ability, making it impossible for anyone to counter him at that particular moment, yet Heathcliff defeated him rather soundly. [[spoiler: It's because he's [[BigBad Akihiko Kayaba]] himself, and he designed the very settings of the battle and player movements]].
** The opening credits for season two at one point show Kirito trying to reach Death Gun while surrounded by a purple triangular void with three laughing silhouettes growing out of each of the three points [[spoiler: which foreshadows that "Death Gun" is actually three people, one whom controls the "Sterben" avatar in GGO itself and sets up the murders by shooting other avatars with a handgun and two others who operate in the real world, using a heart attack-inducing drug to actually kill people.]]
* ForTheEvulz: Kayaba entrapped the people playing SAO until they can finish the game by defeating the ultimate boss, [[spoiler:but in truth he wants to see a society in a different light and he's the ultimate boss.]]
* ForWantOfANail: Caliber Failure Side explores one such outcome to the Caliber sidestory. [[spoiler: Kirito convinces the party to abandon Freya (without knowing she's actually a disguised Thor). As a result, they're unable to defeat the BigBad before time runs out. Not only do they fail the quest, Kirito loses his chance to get Excaliber, and the BigBad succeeds in deploying an army massive enough to destroy Alfheim and Aincrad]].
* FoundTheKillerLostTheMurderer: Inverted in "A Murder Case In The Area." Kirito uncovers who hired Laughing Coffin to murder Griselda, but the Laughing Coffin members withdraw from their confrontation with Kirito.
* FourIsDeath: After a familiar dies, there is a chance it will leave behind an item that will allow the player to resurrect it. However, if the player cannot meet the requirements within four days, the item will change and the pet will be dead for good.
* FreezeFrameBonus: Multiple times in the "Sleeping Knights" arc. Whenever the Monument of Swordsmen is given a close-up view, you can see the names of familiar characters having cleared previous floors. Kirito, Asuna, Leafa, Klein...
* FreudianSlip: Yuuki does this twice in episode 21 in season 2. She calls Asuna''nee-chan'', or "sister" in Japanese, when battling the floor 27 boss with Asuna and the Sleeping Knights. Asuna initially thought it was just a term of endearment. Later she mentions it again at the wall of names of players or guilds who first defeated each floor boss. When Asuna mentions it to her, Yuuki suddenly develops an OhCrap look in her face, and quickly logs off. Asuna is given no explanation as to why this was from Yuuki or her guildmates. [[spoiler:Episode 22 reveals that Yuuki had a twin sister who had succumbed to AIDS. Yuuki herself is also dying of it, and the other members of the Sleeping Knights also have terminal illnesses and didn't want Asuna to get too attached lest she be saddened by them dying.]]
* FutureSocietyPresentValues:
** In Volume 10, Kikuoka mentions that Japan is prohibited from exporting weapons abroad. The story arc takes place in July 2026, and the volume was originally published in 2012. However, in April 2014, the Abe administration removed the laws prohibiting weapons exports, and the [[UsefulNotes/KaijuDefenseForce JSDF]] has moved to become a major arms exporter as of 2015. When the ''Alicization'' anime came out in 2018, this entire conversation was AdaptedOut.
** The throwaway mention about how America bans VR games with violent dismemberment due to rampant terrorism screams the 2000-2008 era moral panic, where it wanes down in 2011, as video games are declared First Amendment and any direct links between video games and real violence are often dismissed.
** The subplot involving the Chinese & South Korean MMO players in ''Alicization Awakening'' raises a lot more eyebrows at the time of its anime adaptation in Summer 2020: the story that the GDS mercenaries feed to the Chinese and Korean players is that Japanese hackers are attacking a high-tech, next-generation VR project that was jointly designed by American, Korean, and Chinese developers. While U.S.-Korean and Chinese-Korean relations remain relatively stable, U.S.-China relations have almost completely collapsed as of the late [=2010s=] due to various factors such as the trade war, the status of Hong Kong, and the COVID-19 virus, which has resulted in a pseudo-Cold War between the two countries with actions such as tariffs, sanctions, consulate closures, and most importantly for the purposes of this story, bans on using each other's technology. Barring a diplomatic miracle that occurs before 2026, there is no way American and Chinese programmers would collaborate on a project of this scale, which would make GDS's cover story instantly discredited.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G]]
* GamerChick: Most of the girls Kirito knows. They ''are'' trapped in a video game, after all.
** Notably not Asuna, though, until after they escape SAO. Her brother was supposed to get trapped in SAO instead of her, and SAO is actually the first game she's ever played.
* GenreSavvy: Kirito tends to be quite genre savvy about common interpersonal anime cliches, such as the CrashIntoHello.
** In Volume 8, when meeting trapped female NPC Freya, and noticing she has an HP bar, Kirito is convinced that she'll transform into a powerful EliteMook once she's released, and that she's designed to appeal to male players; he's seen this before a few times. He's also not surprised at all when Klein falls for it. [[spoiler:At the same time though... see WrongGenreSavvy.]]
* GenreShift: While first and foremost a {{Cyberpunk}} series with a HeroicFantasy heart, ''Sword Art Online'' undergoes noticeable shifts in tone and genre between each Arc and corresponding Game/Digital World.
** The ''Aincrad'' and by extension ''Progressive'' arcs that sets the emotional core of the Saga is an arrow-straight HeroicFantasy tale about overcoming adversity and despair through sword and skill, courage and hope.
** ''Fairy Dance'' amps up the magic, scale of action and sense of majestic wonder and shifts the story into HighFantasy mode. The storming of Ygdrasil The World Tree, complete with storms of Spells and Heroic Dragon Riders battling swarms of winged mooks would be a moment not out of place in Literature/{{Dragonlance}}.
** ''Phantom Bullet'', as an open love letter to ''Franchise/StarWars'' is a SpaceOpera with occasional nods to AfterTheEnd sci-fi like Film/MadMax.
** ''Calibur'', the light hearted BreatherEpisode, is Norse Myth infused FantasticComedy with a dash of Arthurian Myth in the form of Excalibur itself for flavoring.
** ''Mother's Rosario'' is a heartwarming {{Wuxia}} Drama about an Once-In-An-Era [[MasterSwordsman Master Swordswoman]] Prodigy who strives to leave behind a Legacy of Hope, and to pass down her School of Swordsmaship onto a worthy successor and friend.
** The ''Ordinal Scale'' Motion Picture, with its emphasis once more on overcoming despair with courage and friendship, sword and hope, once again shifts the story back to a {{Cyberpunk}} HeroicFantasy.
** Almost coinciding with the more mature ArtShift since ''Ordinal Scale'', the ''Alicization'' arc throws the saga kicking and screaming into the savage violence and brutal sexuality of the SwordAndSorcery genre.
*** And while no less bloody and dark, the scale, graundeur and increased magical-pyrotechnics (and power level) in ''War Of The Underworld'' Arc that follows returns the series once more into the realms of HighFantasy.
* GildedCage: "Titania's" (Asuna's) prison in ALO. Quite literally.
* {{GIRL}}:
** With the exception of a one-off gag at the beginning of the anime, this trope is averted due to everyone's SAO avatars reverting to each player's true appearance. In later post-Aincrad volumes of the Light Novel, the author discusses and deconstructs parts of this trope, mentioning that wearing a [=VRMMO=] avatar of the opposite gender for extended periods of time could become very uncomfortable and psychologically distressing, as sensory input mappings for the opposite gender would be different. On the other hand, as the [=AMUsphere=] and [=NERVgear=] read your brainwaves to calibrate for gender, sometimes a person's thought patterns could be "close enough" to the opposite gender, such that they receive a "surprise" when they enter the [=VRMMO=], though this does quite handily solve the issue of transgender players and allows them to play by their true gender.
** Kirito's avatar in GGO appears female. Naturally, guys hit on him in the game, and Sinon also assumes he's a girl at first. He plays along with the latter since he is lost at the time and needs directions in the game.]
* TheGMIsACheatingBastard: [[spoiler:Heathcliff, a.k.a. Akihiko Kayaba]] abuses his admin powers in order to progress through the game disguised as a regular player.
* GodlikeGamer:
** Kirito is the perfect example, being depicted as a virtual reality MMORPG prodigy, who spent a large portion of his life gaming as a form of {{escapism}}. Upon being trapped in Sword Art Online, he quickly ascended the ranks to become the WorldsBestWarrior and the destined hero to take on the BigBad. This also applies to ''any'' game he tries, where even if he's a complete newbie, he'll be a top player within days and [[FamedInStory known by everyone there]].
** Yuuki, who is Kirito's DistaffCounterpart. To date, she's the only player able to best him in a fair fight. Yuuki's VR talents are unparalleled as she practically lives and breathes the virtual world. She arrives in Alfheim Online and immediately wins ''77'' consecutive duels. She also created her own 11-hit Original Sword Skill which is stated to be a very difficult task.
** Asuna is deemed to have TheGift when it comes to VR gaming, possessing impossibly high speed even back when she was a complete newbie, with Kirito feeling she was a natural despite the fact she lacked the most fundamental knowledge about the game interface. When she actually set her mind to it, she easily became the second strongest player in all of SAO after Kirito.
* GoodGuyBar: In the real world, Dicey Cafe, owned by Agil, which ends up becoming a hangout for the main cast. Agil also runs a cafe and item shop in ALO, which serves the same function.
* GoOutWithASmile: Despite the grim reality the players face, some of them do go out with a smile.
** [[spoiler: Yuuki logs into ALO as she's dying, giving Asuna her LimitBreak and saying one last farewell to her friends. The last image is of her and Asuna standing together, smiling.]]
** [[spoiler: Sachi does this in Episode 3 as well.]]
** [[spoiler: A light-hearted version. Sinon suggests to Kirito they end the Bullet of Bullets tournament in a draw. Sinon then takes a grenade, pulls the pin, and tosses it to Kirito before hugging him with a smile as it goes off. Kirito wasn't expecting her to do that, but nonetheless gives an awkward smile.]]
* GracefulLoser: [[spoiler: Kayaba/Heathcliff. Not only does he honor his word that everyone will be able to log out once the game is cleared, but he even smiles as he watches Kirito overcome his own in-game death to run him through.]]
** Also [[spoiler: General Eugene]], who does not hold a tiniest bit of grudge after Kirito defeats him.
* GratuitousEnglish:
** English seems to be the official language of Sword Art Online, given that all the game messages are in English. Episode 15 also has Kirito receiving an email from Agil written in Japanese, with the subject "Look at this!!" written in English.
** In spoken dialogue, "Beta tester" and "Sword Art Online" are always said in English; the former seems to be a loanword and the latter is probably because the game's official language is English. For a straighter example, after beating the first floor's boss, Kirito says "Good job" to Asuna and Agil says "Congratulations" to Kirito, both in English.
** Kirito and the girls will sometimes drop English words during conversation such as "Switch", "Okay", "Stop", or "Good job".
** The robotic cowboy in the shooting game Kirito plays in Episode 4 of Season 2 is chock full of these lines, though it does speak English with an appropriate accent (it's dressed as a cowboy and talks in a Southern drawl). Justified, since GGO, the [=VRMMO=] that Kirito is playing at the time, was made in America.
** In Episode 19 of S2 during Asuna and Yuuki's duel, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE5DOd4CEJU&t=0m28s Lisbeth's Japanese voice actress says "What!?"]] in English.
* GreatOffscreenWar: We learn in ''Moon Cradle'' that shortly after [[spoiler: Alice is logged out of Underworld, Kirito and Asuna formed the Human Unification Council to try and reform the system of nobility and royalty to make the Human Empire a more equal society and cut down on abuse committed by the nobles. The four emperors did not take kindly to this and rose up in rebellion against the Council, causing a great civil war among the Human Empire only a year after the War of Underworld was concluded. We only see the final battle of this war in the beginning of Volume 20 when Ronye and Tiese cut down Emperor Cruiga of Norlangarth in his palace.]]
* GridPuzzle: The Irrational Cube is a giant Rubix-cube-like creature with a Sudoku puzzle on each of its sides whose particular nature causes almost every door in town to be locked by puzzles. This makes it a PuzzleBoss of challenging difficulty seeing that solving the sudokus of each side could undo one you already solved on another side if you mess up the colors.
* GrillingTheNewbie: Asuna assists [[spoiler: Yuuki, who is terminally ill]] attend school with the help of a live streaming camera/speaker. They get grilled immediately after being introduced to the classroom.
* TheGrimReaper: The Fatal Scythe boss is basically this. It lives up to its name, too[[spoiler:, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome until]] [[BadassAdorable Yui]] takes it down]].
* GuestFighter: The game ''Lost Song'' features Kuroyukihime from ''Literature/AccelWorld''.
* GuestStarPartyMember: In ''Caliber'', Freyja [[spoiler:is actually Thor in disguise]]. What happens when Kirito's party chooses not to free Freyja is covered in ''Caliber SS''.
* GuideDangIt: Deconstructed and PlayedForDrama. A large number of the players end up dying, not just from inexperience, but from a lack of information about things that aren't even mentioned in the game and would be known from an outside source (such as other players). For example, The Black Cats of the Full Moon (sans Kirito) get killed because they didn't know side areas in dungeons tend to block off teleportation and make the players suffer waves of monsters that usually surpass their levels.
* GunKata: In the ''Death Bullet'' arc, Kirito is shown a gambling game where the player tries to touch an NPC while dodging bullets fired from it. He watches someone play it and the way it's described sounds very similar to this if only for the defensive aspects.
* GunPorn: Somebody working on the anime [[ShownTheirWork must be doing their research]] on the loads of guns available in GGO. There are several full screens of many guns and, at one point, an entire selection of at least ''twenty'' individual handguns, scrolling across the marketplace all accurately designed and labeled. Even Sinon goes into long bouts of her favorite guns, one of them being the famous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Five-seven FN Five-seveN]].
* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: when [[spoiler: Death Gun]] prepares to shoot [[spoiler: Sinon]], he pulls back the slide and keeps his hand on it as it moves forward. Automatic pistols are designed around the tension of the spring, and this could cause it to jam. Though it did [[RuleOfCool add to the drama]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H]]
* HammyVillainSeriousHero: Kirito who is typically very serious in battle has gone up against a fair few hammy villains like Sugou, Death Gun, and Eiji.
* HateSink: [[HateSink/SwordArtOnline Has it's own page]].
* HappilyMarried:
** Kirito and Asuna in SAO, after their RelationshipUpgrade. This is also their real-world goal.
** Thinker and Yuriel, both in SAO and the real world.
** Agil and his wife; when he was trapped in SAO, she singlehandedly kept his cafe running and in the black while waiting for him to come back.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Averted. Kirito is able to more or less recreate his DualWielding skills through sheer hard work, and he's only able to chain one-handed sword skills after a ''lot'' of effort and failures.
** As a whole, there are no shortcuts in SAO; players who want to level up ''will'' need to put in the effort.
** Played straight during the ''Fairy Dance'' arc when Kirito first enters ALO and outside getting used to the controls, he himself knows he is a cheater in this case. ALO also puts less emphasis on stats and gear than player skill.
* HeelRealization: Seems to happen to Grimlock when Asuna [[spoiler: tells him that he didn't really love his wife Griselda, and killed her because he wanted to control her rather than let her be a strong, independent woman.]] As she tells him this, he seems to suffer from both MyGodWhatHaveIDone and a VillainousBreakdown.
* HealItWithWater: The Undines are water-based fairies who specialize in healing magic.
* HereWeGoAgain: In episode 13 of season 3, Cardinal tells Kirito and Eugeo that the Administrator's room is on the 100th floor of the tower. Kirito's response; [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe "ugh"]].
* HeroAcademy: Kirito ends up in one along with his partner, Eugeo, during the Alicization arc.
* HeroesPreferSwords: It's noted that most SAO players who migrated to ALO tend to dump all their points into sword skills and ignore magic, because they believe their weapons are proof of their existence.
** This actually leads to two different classifications among players in ALO: "Fairies," who use magic, and "Swordsmen," who only use weapons.
* HeroicBSOD:
** Kirito suffers one when [[spoiler:Asuna performs a HeroicSacrifice]]. It debilitates him so badly that he can't bring himself to do more than slowly and feebly swing his swords at [[spoiler:Heathcliff]] for a few seconds.
** Kirito has another one when he encounters [[spoiler:Death Gun and realizes that not only is he a survivor of SAO, but also a member of Laughing Coffin, the murder guild comprised of all red-cursored [=PKers=]. All of Kirito's repressed memories of the purge against that guild return and leave him in such a wrecked state that Sinon is worried by his nonresponsiveness.]]
** Sinon suffers one during the [=BoB=] tournament when she is confronted by Death Gun [[spoiler:who tries to kill her using the same model of gun that Sinon used in the real world five years ago to kill the robber, an event which caused her to become severely traumatized.]] After Kirito rescues her, and they are fleeing Death Gun on a buggy, Sinon suddenly finds she can't bring herself to pull the trigger on her rifle, even though Death Gun is baring down on them on a robot horse. [[spoiler:It takes Kirito offering to pull the trigger with her that allows her to fire and escape Death Gun, but even then, Sinon is still extremely shaken up by what she's gone through.]]
* HeroicFantasy: Though the narrative is driven by technology and is set in NextSundayAD, at its heart ''Sword Art Online'' is ''still'' fundamentally a fantasy of heroic warriors (and later, wizards) crusading across mythical lands, fighting for justice, honor and making the world a better place with swords and spells in their hands, courage and love in their hearts.
* HeroicResolve: Asuna and Kirito ''both'' [[RealityWarper break the ''laws of reality'']] at least once, in order [[ThePowerOfLove to rescue the other]]. Comes in as a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome every single time.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Yui]] invokes her GM powers to save Kirito and Asuna from a high-level boss. Unfortunately, since she disobeyed her programming, this results in her getting flagged for deletion. Thankfully, Kirito manages to preserve her heart before she's fully deleted.
** In Episode 14, [[spoiler:Asuna overcomes complete paralysis with ThePowerOfLove to get up and take a killing blow for Kirito, dropping her own health bar to zero to save him.]]
** During Kirito's second run on [=ALfheim Online=]'s Grand Quest, [[spoiler:Recon performs an extremely powerful dark magic spell that [[SuicideAttack instantly kills him while clearing a massive hole in the Guardian swarms]]. A [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] case, though, since death in ALO won't kill you in the real world like in SAO. However, Leafa does note that [[ContinuingIsPainful the Death Penalty for Self-Destruct is rather steep]].]]
* HiddenHeartOfGold: Kirito at the start doesn't interact with other players due to past trauma. Agil gives off the impression of being a stingy merchant, but it turns out much of the in-game currency he earns goes to support the lower-leveled players.
* HilariousOuttakes: The English dub's bloopers, which are largely valued by fans... and even a significant number of haters.
* HonorBeforeReason: Though the protagonists avoid this for the most part, this pops up from time to time:
** In Volume 2, Thinker walks into an obvious ambush ''unarmed'', because his [[TheStarscream treacherous 2nd-in-command]] said he wanted to talk privately without weapons. Yuriel and Asuna lampshade this.
** In Volume 8, Klein frees an imprisoned NPC that he and everyone agree is probably a trap and will likely turn on them, because that's his warrior code. The party can't decide if he's being an idiot or being cool. [[spoiler:Amusingly, the NPC ''is'' a trap... [[IncrediblyLamePun just not the expected kind]]. See AttractiveBentGender above.]]
** A unit of players from The Army are met by Kirito, Asuna, and Klein's guild, and their leader asks for the map for the level. Kirito agrees to it but tells him they should avoid fighting the boss, as they don't have enough players, and his troops look rather worn out. He decides to go straight towards the boss, [[spoiler:and promptly gets killed for it, forcing Asuna and Kirito to attack the boss in order to save the surviving players.]]
* HopelessSuitor: Liz, after having joined a party with Kirito to find a rare material to forge a sword with, is seemingly ready to declare her love for him since he risked his life to save hers and was a NiceGuy as well. [[spoiler:Then Asuna drops by, and Liz begins to read between the lines. You can almost see her heart get torn in two as she realizes this trope is being applied to her. She tries to brush it off with her usual GenkiGirl face, but wanders off to secretly cry.]]
** [[spoiler:Suguha/Leafa in Episode 22, when she hears Kirito mention trying to reach Asuna, and realizes that Kirito is her brother/cousin (to whom she was ''already'' a hopeless suitor, knowing that the rest of her family wouldn't approve of her being in love with him and that he had a girlfriend, making her this trope twice over). Like Liz, she doesn't take this information very well.]]
** Really applies to any girl not named Asuna who falls in love with [[ChickMagnet Kirito]]. Goes doubly for the additional girls in the games based on the anime, including Strea and Premiere.
* HopeSpot: After [[spoiler:Sachi]] dies, Kirito learns of an ultra-rare item that can resurrect a dead player. It doesn't quite work out, since the item has to be used within ten seconds of the player's death, but by the time Kirito gets it [[spoiler:Sachi]] has already been dead for six months. He gives the item to Klein instead, hoping that it'll be of some use to him.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Kuradeel, who has the gall to call Kirito a murderer after Kirito kills him when ''he'' is a member of Laughing Coffin.
[[/folder]]
----
----
[[folder:E]]
* EarlyBirdCameo: From Episode 1 of the anime:
** Klein is seen from the "MMO Stream" news video covering the SAO release before meeting Kirito for the first time as described in the original novel.
** Suguha is briefly heard and seen running off to practice before Kirito enters SAO.
** Asuna, Lisbeth (before dyeing her hair pink), and Silica are seen among the players in the plaza.
* EarnYourHappyEnding:
** It takes four volumes (of the first two arcs), but after going through a lot of shit and never giving up, Kirito and Asuna are reunited in the real world.
** Repeated in some ways and turned up to eleven throughout the whole ''Alicization'' saga, as myriad things inside and outside of ''Underworld'' conspire against the heroes, and just keep piling on and on, giving seemingly hopeless situations, followed by hope and some victories, only for even more seemingly hopeless situations to pop up, over and over until the climax ([[spoiler:especially in ''War of Underworld'']].
** This is also a general theme with the various main story arcs as a whole.
* EldritchAbomination: Aincrad's 75th floor boss, The Skull Reaper. ''A terrifying skeletal centipede'' '''thing''' ''[[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever that's the size of a building]]'', ''[[LightningBruiser moves very fast]]'', ''[[OneHitKill hits very hard]]'', ''[[RedEyesTakeWarning and has four red eyes]]''.
* EstablishingShot: A pretty one from episode one, of the Tokyo skyline. It's also used quite often afterwards -- this series loves its scenery porn quite a bit.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: When Klein first meets Asuna, he catches on ''very'' quickly that she has feelings for Kirito, and asks Kirito if they're lovers. Kirito's fervent denial is greeted with knowing smiles from all of Furinkazan and Asuna.
* EvolvingCredits:
** In the opening for the ''Fairy Dance'' arc, there is a part where Sugou steps away from a window. After his identity in ALO is revealed you can see [[spoiler:Oberon]] in his reflection at this point.
** Happens again in the opening credits to season 2. After Death Gun [[spoiler:is revealed to have been a former member of Laughing Coffin in SAO]] the credits change from seeing the gun in his hand dissolving to [[spoiler:the just-barely visible Laughing Coffin tattoo hidden under the bandages on his arm]].
** The trend continues when the Caliber arc gives way to the ''Mother's Rosario'' (which is noted in the credits), where the second opening slightly changes to include a few shots of Yuuki and the rest of the Sleeping Knights. However, the next episode after ''that'', the credits change again, to feature only Yuuki, Asuna and the rest of the Sleeping Knights in place of Kirito's group during the Excalibur quest, with Yuuki taking Kirito's place in all of the opening scenes that had featured him.
** "Resister" by ASCA in the ''Alicization'' arc cycles through three versions, gradually making changes as Kirito & Eugeo make their way up the Central Cathedral of the Axiom Church. The first version shows them fighting the [[spoiler: three major Integrity Knights in the tower: Deusolbert, Fanatio, and Alice]], then the second version changes these scenes to show [[spoiler: Eugeo fighting Bercouli]]. The third version of the opening features the most significant changes, including [[spoiler: Kirito & Alice fighting the Sword Golem, as well as Kirito fighting Quinella]], while also adding more scenes of Alice and a number of major visual effects improvements in general.
** "Resolution" by Creator/HarukaTomatsu for ''War of Underworld'' also cycles through several versions, though only one has significant changes. The first two are very similar to each other with the only difference being that the subtitle changes from ''Alicization Invading'' to ''Alicization Exploding'' once it reaches that point in the story. The third version has the major changes, as it swaps out the scenes of Eldrie, Deusolbert, and Fanatio fighting with Renly, Sheyta, and Bercouli, and also changes the scene of Bercouli vs. Shasta with a scene of Alice & Asuna fighting Vector together ([[BaitAndSwitchCredits which never happens in the story]]). The fourth and final version changes the subtitle to ''Alicization Awakening.''
** "Anima" by [=ReoNa=] changes as of Episode 42: the subtitle changes from ''Alicization Awakening'' to ''Alicization Lasting'', Kirito's eyes when he awakens are now the golden "Incarnation eyes" he has throughout the series, a shot of Alice in Tokyo substitutes for the previous group shot of Alice, Kirito, and Asuna, and the last frame changes from a [=NerveGear=] on a table to an image of the Underworld's planet and a hand reaching out for it. Another smaller change happens in Episode 45 when this time, Kirito is surrounded by a fiery Incarnation aura in his scenes.
* ExcusePlot: An in-universe example: [[http://pastebin.com/8wiEj3Dz according to the author's own live commentary]], the backstory for GGO is that humanity settled other planets and eventually descended into an apocalyptic war, resulting in all the ruined cities. The monsters in-game are a product of genetic manipulation.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:F]]
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Kayaba a.k.a. Heathcliff had planned to do this on the 100th floor, but did not get the chance, thanks to Kirito's SequenceBreaking.]]
* {{Facepalm}}: Implied to be Kirito's reaction to Klein's HonorBeforeReason moment.
* FacePlant: Happens to Kirito to the point of becoming a RunningGag in the early episodes of the [=ALO=] arc, including a rather spectacular one where he falls from several hundred feet in the air and impacts the ground so hard that his head is stuck for several moments.
* FakeMemories: This franchise seems to like this, as well as LaserGuidedAmnesia, more than you would expect.
** Sugou performs experients that include manipulation of memories, and some of these are almost certainly implanting fake ones. He also wants to brainwash Asuna into loving him in this way.
** Though not exactly memories per se, [[spoiler:in "Alicization", Integrity Knights in ''Underworld'' have their real memories taken away and are told fake pasts, in order to help make them more obedient to Administrator. One could also consider the memories gained through the Soul Translator to be this, although it's a little different, in that people using it have a normal sensory experience of the things they come to remember; it's just that these things don't happen in the real world, but then the same can be said for any VR experience]].
* {{Fanservice}}: We get to see every major female character in their undergarments one way or the other.
** There's also quite a bit of "look at the detail of that butt" shots in the episode "Murder in the Safe Zone".
** Suguha is a favorite target of the camera here. Boob shot while she's sleeping? In the first episode she appears. Panty shot? Check. Shot of her undressing to underwear? Check. Shots of her bathing, with CensorSteam? Check. It's no surprise that her avatar gets the same treatment, either.
** Sinon is introduced setting up an ambush while sniping from a prone position. The camera [[MaleGaze gives us a very generous view of her derrière]].
** ''Ordinal Scale'' has a scene of Asuna taking a bath, with generous {{Sideboob}}. When she climbs out, her rear-end is in full view, and for the sharp-eyed, a nipple just briefly.
* FantasticMeasurementSystem: The Underworld society uses "millicels," "cels" and "mels" in place of millimeters, centimeters, and meters.
* FantasticRacism: A surprisingly large number of cases, considering it's a series about online gaming.
** In SAO, there were heavy levels of discrimination against Beta-Testers, largely due to the belief that they abandoned new players to die while they hogged all the good farming sports. However while this is true to an extent, this didn't apply to ''every'' Beta-Tester, with Argo and possibly a few others working together to create a guidebook to help all the new players survive, and in spite of that many players died anyway. While the revelation of who wrote the book causes it to die down somewhat, the circumstances of Diavel's death reignites the flames when Lind[[note]] [[CompositeCharacter Kibaou]] in the anime[[/note]] accuses Kirito of being a Beta-Tester who withheld information about the boss and was practically threatening to ignite a Beta-Tester Witch Hunt, forcing Kirito to act like a worse Beta-Tester, a "Beater"[[note]] End up forming from the shouts of Beta-Tester and Cheater getting muddled together[[/note]], in order to shoulder all the hatred and prevent Beta-Testers from being hunted and persecuted, at the expense of suffering a great deal of distrust throughout SAO's early floors. Even late in SAO where it's implied that a lot of this hatred has died down, there are certain players who will often use the "Beater" excuse to be be an ass to other players, such as Kuradeel in regards to Kirito.
** Due to the multiracial nature and the fact that PvP is encouraged this is sadly very prevalent in Alfheim Online, with even the nicest player you’d meet likely to be at least casually racist towards another race.
*** This often goes both ways with Salamanders, especially between them and the Slyphs who they are at war with in Fairy Dance, partially due to their territories being right next to each other and causing resource wars. In general, this is largely due to a majority of the Salamanders lording the fact that they’re considered the [[ArrogantKungFuGuy “strongest race” and taunting everyone else for not having that honor]], with other races understandably viewing them as [[JerkAss Jerkasses]] who like to flaunt their power. The fact that some of the ones shown on-screen act as bandits, attack others with little provocation, make a hobby of killing female players for some kind of sexual thrill, and [[spoiler: the biggest obstacle Liz faces when trying to recruit help to save the Underworld is a ''Salamander'' Commander]] doesn’t exactly help paint them in a good light.
*** Spriggans seem to be looked down upon by pretty much every other race due to the game’s combat heavy nature, with many viewing their [[MasterOfIllusion illusion magic]] as useless in a fight. Even when people party with a Spriggan, they seem to have no problems with insulting the race and their illusion magic despite them [[ImStandingRightHere standing right there.]]
*** Leprechauns aren’t innocent of this either. Girls' Ops Volume 6 reveal that due to being the Blacksmith Race, they are are the only race capable of making rare and powerful equipment and generally look down on other race’s blacksmiths since they are incapable of doing so. As shown by Adie, a Cait Sith member of the Elves and Shoemakers Leprechaun guild, non-Leprechaun players can find themselves getting picked on by Leprechaun members and are generally given less privileges than members who are actually Leprechauns.
** In the Underworld, Demi-humans get this a lot. Despite making up half of the Council of Ten and likely making up the majority of their army, the black iums(humans) of the Dark Territory look down on them for varying reasons and, when the war actually breaks out, they act as the first line of offense because they're seen as more disposable, something that the leader of Mountain Goblins suspects and is proven right when [[spoiler: 300 Orcs are heartlessly sacrificed by the Dark Mage guild to power a spell under Vecta's orders]]. While not largely touched upon, the briefly mentioned Kobolds appear to have this the worst, not having a tribe of their own and being regulated to manual labor such as cleaning. This is made all the more tragic when you consider that fact that, technically, they are all essentially humans who have just been put in different bodies as opposed to actually being seperate races.
** While many MMO players and gamers seem to face IRL discrimination, being seen as societal freeloaders and some people believing that military conscription should be brought back to force them into work, SAO Players have it particularly bad. Due to the [[NothingIsScarier unknown affect their two years may have had on them]], the government treats pretty much all of them as potential criminals, placing all the school age ones in a special school to monitor them, subjecting them to constant therapy even if it proves unnecessary, [[spoiler: and even forcing them to take therapeutic drugs even if they're not needed and could have negative affects on them]], on top of everything mentioned for regular MMO players. They also have it bad in-game, where [[spoiler: basically most other players view them as arrogant stuck-ups due to having more VR experience than them and usually sticking into closely-knit groups with other survivors, clearing having NoSympathy for the fact that they were forced to fight for their lives for up to two years and that their real lives were severely compromised as a result.]]
** [[spoiler: [[AIs Artificial Fluctlights]] seem to be shaping up to be victims of this. When RATH introduces Alice to the world a lot of reporters make some insensitive comments towards her, such as one asking her to prove she's an AI by opening her head. When the discussion moves onto the rights of Artificial Fluctlights, which Rinko wants to establish to [[HistoryRepeats prevent past issues that propped due to discrimination such as slavery or wars]], one reporter is vocal about them not getting any out of paranoia that [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters they'll eventually try and kill other humans]] unless they're put on a leash and claiming that, since they were made by humans, humans have a right to use them as servants. When Alice disappears from the Rath building, Kirito worries that if she's found she could be targeted by people who don't see her as human or extremists who disagree with the creation of AIs in general.]]
* TheFellowshipHasEnded: The Sleeping Knights plan on disbanding the guild in March 2026, and want to defeat a floor boss in Aincrad as just a party so that all their names will be inscribed on the Monument of Swordsmen as proof of their existence. [[spoiler:The real reason is because the members are all terminally ill patients, with two of their members not expected to survive past March. After they successfully defeat a floor boss and Yuuki passes away, the group disbands and its members part ways.]]
* FemaleGaze: As the franchise eventually expands to appeal to female audiences, equal loving attention is payed on the handsome and muscular masculine forms of Beurcoli the Integrity Knight, Klein, Aegil, and once in a while even Kirito and Eugeo.
* FictionalCurrency:
** Cor in SAO.[[note]]Which is an acronym for "Coin of Radius"[[/note]]
** Yrd in ALO.
** Credits in GGO.[[note]]One can actually exchange in-game credits for real world money and vice versa. In Japan, the exchange rate is 100 credits = 1 yen. A player can pay their monthly fee by earning credits in-game.[[/note]]
** Shia in Underworld.
* FinalBossPreview: [[spoiler:Technically, Kirito's duel with Heathcliff in the arena is this due to the latter being Akihiko Kayaba himself.]]
* FirstGirlWins: Asuna is the first girl introduced to readers of the light novels and viewers of the anime (though the situations are slightly different), and the first love interest Kirito meets.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing:
** When Kirito, Godfrey and Kuradeel stop to take a break and eat, Kirito notices that Kuradeel isn't drinking his water seconds before [[spoiler:the paralytic poison kicks in, immobilizing Kirito and Godfrey]].
** When Kirito and Eugeo meet Fizel and Linel, the anime briefly shows the daggers on their belts. The fact that they're armed is suspicious enough, but Kirito notices that the wood used in the scabbards is used for poisoned weapons. They also mention that all the monks and apprentices were ordered to stay in their rooms, and orders are literally almost impossible to disobey for artificial Fluctlights (Eugeo is the only one who did so, and he lost his right eye for it), which hints that they aren't subject to those rules.
* FlashStep: Too many times to count, usually by Kirito. Actually, the sword skill Sonic Leap may actually be invoking this trope. Asuna uses this to travel an impossible distance in five minutes, Kirito leaves behind a ''sonic boom'' from his first attack in ALO...
* {{Flight}}: A main feature in ALO. Under the control of RECTO, there is is a limit for flight such as: height limit, cool down time to charge with sun or moonlight, and inability to fly in dungeons with the exception of Imps. The main quest at the time has the races trying to reach the top of the world tree to have an audience with Oberon to be reborn as a higher-order fairy, the Alf. After Recto sells its rights to it, all races have no time limit in flight.
* {{Foil}}:
** Sinon to Kirito: A fellow PTSD sufferer traumatized by the memory of killing in self-defense.
** Suguha to Asuna: Gets into [=VRMMORPG=]s out of curiosity, becomes attracted to Kirito, and journeys through a game with him.
** Spiegal to Recon: Invites a classmate whom he has a crush on to join him in a [=VRMMORPG=] and confesses his love to said classmate after she has a messed-up encounter with Kirito.
** [[spoiler:Spiegal/Kyouji to Sugou after the climax of the Phantom Bullet Arc: Once it becomes clear that he'll never have his crush, he decides to just rape her instead.]]
** [[spoiler:Kikuoka to Sugou: Both worked on weaponizing Full Dive technology. The difference is that Kikuoka is doing this out of patriotism, whereas Sugou wants to sell it to the highest bidder.]]
** [[spoiler:Kayaba to Sugou: Both created virtual worlds, but whereas Kayaba created SAO to live out a fantasy of creating a living breathing virtual world, Sugou created ALO for illicit mind-control experiments and played himself up as a god.]]
** Kirito to Death Gun: Both are SAO survivors who migrated to GGO and use swords in a gun game, while refusing to let go of the past.
** [[spoiler:Yuuki to Red-Eyed [=XaXa=]: Both are sickly and feeble in the real world, but [=XaXa=] forsook the real world and its ethics to become powerful in VR, equating the lives he takes (both in SAO and as "Death Gun") as power. Yuuki, on the other hand, decided to live her life to the fullest in VR, becoming one of the most powerful swordswomen in ALO, but also one of its kindest and most beloved players.]]
** Asuna isn't truly a foil to anybody, but she serves as a foil to Sachi and Keita during the climax of the Aincrad Arc, when after they learn that the 75th Floor boss fight will be held inside an anti-crystal zone and tells Kirito that she would kill herself if she stayed out of the fight and Kirito didn't come back from it.
* FoodPorn: From Asuna's sandwiches to the incredibly rare (and coveted) ragout rabbit meat, the food in Aincrad always looks tasty.
* ForcedToWatch: During the climax of the ''Fairy Dance'' arc, [[spoiler:Sugou rips the clothes off Asuna's avatar, pins Kirito down by impaling him with a sword, and forces him to witness poor Asuna being sexually harassed in the Virtual World. He then threatens to repeat the "performance" with her '''real (comatose) body''' later and comes very close to successfully raping her in-game before Kirito manages to free himself.]]
* ForDoomTheBellTolls: The town bell of the Starting City of the 1st floor rings when the players of SAO are forcibly teleported to its central plaza.
* ForegoneConclusion: Sister's Prayer, a story about Yuuki and her sister meeting Merida for the first time. [[spoiler:The three found the Sleeping Knights together, but Ran, Merida and eventually Yuuki, all succumb to their illnesses]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** As Kirito himself put it in his battle with Heathcliff, he was fighting at his maximum ability, making it impossible for anyone to counter him at that particular moment, yet Heathcliff defeated him rather soundly. [[spoiler: It's because he's [[BigBad Akihiko Kayaba]] himself, and he designed the very settings of the battle and player movements]].
** The opening credits for season two at one point show Kirito trying to reach Death Gun while surrounded by a purple triangular void with three laughing silhouettes growing out of each of the three points [[spoiler: which foreshadows that "Death Gun" is actually three people, one whom controls the "Sterben" avatar in GGO itself and sets up the murders by shooting other avatars with a handgun and two others who operate in the real world, using a heart attack-inducing drug to actually kill people.]]
* ForTheEvulz: Kayaba entrapped the people playing SAO until they can finish the game by defeating the ultimate boss, [[spoiler:but in truth he wants to see a society in a different light and he's the ultimate boss.]]
* ForWantOfANail: Caliber Failure Side explores one such outcome to the Caliber sidestory. [[spoiler: Kirito convinces the party to abandon Freya (without knowing she's actually a disguised Thor). As a result, they're unable to defeat the BigBad before time runs out. Not only do they fail the quest, Kirito loses his chance to get Excaliber, and the BigBad succeeds in deploying an army massive enough to destroy Alfheim and Aincrad]].
* FoundTheKillerLostTheMurderer: Inverted in "A Murder Case In The Area." Kirito uncovers who hired Laughing Coffin to murder Griselda, but the Laughing Coffin members withdraw from their confrontation with Kirito.
* FourIsDeath: After a familiar dies, there is a chance it will leave behind an item that will allow the player to resurrect it. However, if the player cannot meet the requirements within four days, the item will change and the pet will be dead for good.
* FreezeFrameBonus: Multiple times in the "Sleeping Knights" arc. Whenever the Monument of Swordsmen is given a close-up view, you can see the names of familiar characters having cleared previous floors. Kirito, Asuna, Leafa, Klein...
* FreudianSlip: Yuuki does this twice in episode 21 in season 2. She calls Asuna''nee-chan'', or "sister" in Japanese, when battling the floor 27 boss with Asuna and the Sleeping Knights. Asuna initially thought it was just a term of endearment. Later she mentions it again at the wall of names of players or guilds who first defeated each floor boss. When Asuna mentions it to her, Yuuki suddenly develops an OhCrap look in her face, and quickly logs off. Asuna is given no explanation as to why this was from Yuuki or her guildmates. [[spoiler:Episode 22 reveals that Yuuki had a twin sister who had succumbed to AIDS. Yuuki herself is also dying of it, and the other members of the Sleeping Knights also have terminal illnesses and didn't want Asuna to get too attached lest she be saddened by them dying.]]
* FutureSocietyPresentValues:
** In Volume 10, Kikuoka mentions that Japan is prohibited from exporting weapons abroad. The story arc takes place in July 2026, and the volume was originally published in 2012. However, in April 2014, the Abe administration removed the laws prohibiting weapons exports, and the [[UsefulNotes/KaijuDefenseForce JSDF]] has moved to become a major arms exporter as of 2015. When the ''Alicization'' anime came out in 2018, this entire conversation was AdaptedOut.
** The throwaway mention about how America bans VR games with violent dismemberment due to rampant terrorism screams the 2000-2008 era moral panic, where it wanes down in 2011, as video games are declared First Amendment and any direct links between video games and real violence are often dismissed.
** The subplot involving the Chinese & South Korean MMO players in ''Alicization Awakening'' raises a lot more eyebrows at the time of its anime adaptation in Summer 2020: the story that the GDS mercenaries feed to the Chinese and Korean players is that Japanese hackers are attacking a high-tech, next-generation VR project that was jointly designed by American, Korean, and Chinese developers. While U.S.-Korean and Chinese-Korean relations remain relatively stable, U.S.-China relations have almost completely collapsed as of the late [=2010s=] due to various factors such as the trade war, the status of Hong Kong, and the COVID-19 virus, which has resulted in a pseudo-Cold War between the two countries with actions such as tariffs, sanctions, consulate closures, and most importantly for the purposes of this story, bans on using each other's technology. Barring a diplomatic miracle that occurs before 2026, there is no way American and Chinese programmers would collaborate on a project of this scale, which would make GDS's cover story instantly discredited.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G]]
* GamerChick: Most of the girls Kirito knows. They ''are'' trapped in a video game, after all.
** Notably not Asuna, though, until after they escape SAO. Her brother was supposed to get trapped in SAO instead of her, and SAO is actually the first game she's ever played.
* GenreSavvy: Kirito tends to be quite genre savvy about common interpersonal anime cliches, such as the CrashIntoHello.
** In Volume 8, when meeting trapped female NPC Freya, and noticing she has an HP bar, Kirito is convinced that she'll transform into a powerful EliteMook once she's released, and that she's designed to appeal to male players; he's seen this before a few times. He's also not surprised at all when Klein falls for it. [[spoiler:At the same time though... see WrongGenreSavvy.]]
* GenreShift: While first and foremost a {{Cyberpunk}} series with a HeroicFantasy heart, ''Sword Art Online'' undergoes noticeable shifts in tone and genre between each Arc and corresponding Game/Digital World.
** The ''Aincrad'' and by extension ''Progressive'' arcs that sets the emotional core of the Saga is an arrow-straight HeroicFantasy tale about overcoming adversity and despair through sword and skill, courage and hope.
** ''Fairy Dance'' amps up the magic, scale of action and sense of majestic wonder and shifts the story into HighFantasy mode. The storming of Ygdrasil The World Tree, complete with storms of Spells and Heroic Dragon Riders battling swarms of winged mooks would be a moment not out of place in Literature/{{Dragonlance}}.
** ''Phantom Bullet'', as an open love letter to ''Franchise/StarWars'' is a SpaceOpera with occasional nods to AfterTheEnd sci-fi like Film/MadMax.
** ''Calibur'', the light hearted BreatherEpisode, is Norse Myth infused FantasticComedy with a dash of Arthurian Myth in the form of Excalibur itself for flavoring.
** ''Mother's Rosario'' is a heartwarming {{Wuxia}} Drama about an Once-In-An-Era [[MasterSwordsman Master Swordswoman]] Prodigy who strives to leave behind a Legacy of Hope, and to pass down her School of Swordsmaship onto a worthy successor and friend.
** The ''Ordinal Scale'' Motion Picture, with its emphasis once more on overcoming despair with courage and friendship, sword and hope, once again shifts the story back to a {{Cyberpunk}} HeroicFantasy.
** Almost coinciding with the more mature ArtShift since ''Ordinal Scale'', the ''Alicization'' arc throws the saga kicking and screaming into the savage violence and brutal sexuality of the SwordAndSorcery genre.
*** And while no less bloody and dark, the scale, graundeur and increased magical-pyrotechnics (and power level) in ''War Of The Underworld'' Arc that follows returns the series once more into the realms of HighFantasy.
* GildedCage: "Titania's" (Asuna's) prison in ALO. Quite literally.
* {{GIRL}}:
** With the exception of a one-off gag at the beginning of the anime, this trope is averted due to everyone's SAO avatars reverting to each player's true appearance. In later post-Aincrad volumes of the Light Novel, the author discusses and deconstructs parts of this trope, mentioning that wearing a [=VRMMO=] avatar of the opposite gender for extended periods of time could become very uncomfortable and psychologically distressing, as sensory input mappings for the opposite gender would be different. On the other hand, as the [=AMUsphere=] and [=NERVgear=] read your brainwaves to calibrate for gender, sometimes a person's thought patterns could be "close enough" to the opposite gender, such that they receive a "surprise" when they enter the [=VRMMO=], though this does quite handily solve the issue of transgender players and allows them to play by their true gender.
** Kirito's avatar in GGO appears female. Naturally, guys hit on him in the game, and Sinon also assumes he's a girl at first. He plays along with the latter since he is lost at the time and needs directions in the game.]
* TheGMIsACheatingBastard: [[spoiler:Heathcliff, a.k.a. Akihiko Kayaba]] abuses his admin powers in order to progress through the game disguised as a regular player.
* GodlikeGamer:
** Kirito is the perfect example, being depicted as a virtual reality MMORPG prodigy, who spent a large portion of his life gaming as a form of {{escapism}}. Upon being trapped in Sword Art Online, he quickly ascended the ranks to become the WorldsBestWarrior and the destined hero to take on the BigBad. This also applies to ''any'' game he tries, where even if he's a complete newbie, he'll be a top player within days and [[FamedInStory known by everyone there]].
** Yuuki, who is Kirito's DistaffCounterpart. To date, she's the only player able to best him in a fair fight. Yuuki's VR talents are unparalleled as she practically lives and breathes the virtual world. She arrives in Alfheim Online and immediately wins ''77'' consecutive duels. She also created her own 11-hit Original Sword Skill which is stated to be a very difficult task.
** Asuna is deemed to have TheGift when it comes to VR gaming, possessing impossibly high speed even back when she was a complete newbie, with Kirito feeling she was a natural despite the fact she lacked the most fundamental knowledge about the game interface. When she actually set her mind to it, she easily became the second strongest player in all of SAO after Kirito.
* GoodGuyBar: In the real world, Dicey Cafe, owned by Agil, which ends up becoming a hangout for the main cast. Agil also runs a cafe and item shop in ALO, which serves the same function.
* GoOutWithASmile: Despite the grim reality the players face, some of them do go out with a smile.
** [[spoiler: Yuuki logs into ALO as she's dying, giving Asuna her LimitBreak and saying one last farewell to her friends. The last image is of her and Asuna standing together, smiling.]]
** [[spoiler: Sachi does this in Episode 3 as well.]]
** [[spoiler: A light-hearted version. Sinon suggests to Kirito they end the Bullet of Bullets tournament in a draw. Sinon then takes a grenade, pulls the pin, and tosses it to Kirito before hugging him with a smile as it goes off. Kirito wasn't expecting her to do that, but nonetheless gives an awkward smile.]]
* GracefulLoser: [[spoiler: Kayaba/Heathcliff. Not only does he honor his word that everyone will be able to log out once the game is cleared, but he even smiles as he watches Kirito overcome his own in-game death to run him through.]]
** Also [[spoiler: General Eugene]], who does not hold a tiniest bit of grudge after Kirito defeats him.
* GratuitousEnglish:
** English seems to be the official language of Sword Art Online, given that all the game messages are in English. Episode 15 also has Kirito receiving an email from Agil written in Japanese, with the subject "Look at this!!" written in English.
** In spoken dialogue, "Beta tester" and "Sword Art Online" are always said in English; the former seems to be a loanword and the latter is probably because the game's official language is English. For a straighter example, after beating the first floor's boss, Kirito says "Good job" to Asuna and Agil says "Congratulations" to Kirito, both in English.
** Kirito and the girls will sometimes drop English words during conversation such as "Switch", "Okay", "Stop", or "Good job".
** The robotic cowboy in the shooting game Kirito plays in Episode 4 of Season 2 is chock full of these lines, though it does speak English with an appropriate accent (it's dressed as a cowboy and talks in a Southern drawl). Justified, since GGO, the [=VRMMO=] that Kirito is playing at the time, was made in America.
** In Episode 19 of S2 during Asuna and Yuuki's duel, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE5DOd4CEJU&t=0m28s Lisbeth's Japanese voice actress says "What!?"]] in English.
* GreatOffscreenWar: We learn in ''Moon Cradle'' that shortly after [[spoiler: Alice is logged out of Underworld, Kirito and Asuna formed the Human Unification Council to try and reform the system of nobility and royalty to make the Human Empire a more equal society and cut down on abuse committed by the nobles. The four emperors did not take kindly to this and rose up in rebellion against the Council, causing a great civil war among the Human Empire only a year after the War of Underworld was concluded. We only see the final battle of this war in the beginning of Volume 20 when Ronye and Tiese cut down Emperor Cruiga of Norlangarth in his palace.]]
* GridPuzzle: The Irrational Cube is a giant Rubix-cube-like creature with a Sudoku puzzle on each of its sides whose particular nature causes almost every door in town to be locked by puzzles. This makes it a PuzzleBoss of challenging difficulty seeing that solving the sudokus of each side could undo one you already solved on another side if you mess up the colors.
* GrillingTheNewbie: Asuna assists [[spoiler: Yuuki, who is terminally ill]] attend school with the help of a live streaming camera/speaker. They get grilled immediately after being introduced to the classroom.
* TheGrimReaper: The Fatal Scythe boss is basically this. It lives up to its name, too[[spoiler:, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome until]] [[BadassAdorable Yui]] takes it down]].
* GuestFighter: The game ''Lost Song'' features Kuroyukihime from ''Literature/AccelWorld''.
* GuestStarPartyMember: In ''Caliber'', Freyja [[spoiler:is actually Thor in disguise]]. What happens when Kirito's party chooses not to free Freyja is covered in ''Caliber SS''.
* GuideDangIt: Deconstructed and PlayedForDrama. A large number of the players end up dying, not just from inexperience, but from a lack of information about things that aren't even mentioned in the game and would be known from an outside source (such as other players). For example, The Black Cats of the Full Moon (sans Kirito) get killed because they didn't know side areas in dungeons tend to block off teleportation and make the players suffer waves of monsters that usually surpass their levels.
* GunKata: In the ''Death Bullet'' arc, Kirito is shown a gambling game where the player tries to touch an NPC while dodging bullets fired from it. He watches someone play it and the way it's described sounds very similar to this if only for the defensive aspects.
* GunPorn: Somebody working on the anime [[ShownTheirWork must be doing their research]] on the loads of guns available in GGO. There are several full screens of many guns and, at one point, an entire selection of at least ''twenty'' individual handguns, scrolling across the marketplace all accurately designed and labeled. Even Sinon goes into long bouts of her favorite guns, one of them being the famous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Five-seven FN Five-seveN]].
* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: when [[spoiler: Death Gun]] prepares to shoot [[spoiler: Sinon]], he pulls back the slide and keeps his hand on it as it moves forward. Automatic pistols are designed around the tension of the spring, and this could cause it to jam. Though it did [[RuleOfCool add to the drama]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H]]
* HammyVillainSeriousHero: Kirito who is typically very serious in battle has gone up against a fair few hammy villains like Sugou, Death Gun, and Eiji.
* HateSink: [[HateSink/SwordArtOnline Has it's own page]].
* HappilyMarried:
** Kirito and Asuna in SAO, after their RelationshipUpgrade. This is also their real-world goal.
** Thinker and Yuriel, both in SAO and the real world.
** Agil and his wife; when he was trapped in SAO, she singlehandedly kept his cafe running and in the black while waiting for him to come back.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Averted. Kirito is able to more or less recreate his DualWielding skills through sheer hard work, and he's only able to chain one-handed sword skills after a ''lot'' of effort and failures.
** As a whole, there are no shortcuts in SAO; players who want to level up ''will'' need to put in the effort.
** Played straight during the ''Fairy Dance'' arc when Kirito first enters ALO and outside getting used to the controls, he himself knows he is a cheater in this case. ALO also puts less emphasis on stats and gear than player skill.
* HeelRealization: Seems to happen to Grimlock when Asuna [[spoiler: tells him that he didn't really love his wife Griselda, and killed her because he wanted to control her rather than let her be a strong, independent woman.]] As she tells him this, he seems to suffer from both MyGodWhatHaveIDone and a VillainousBreakdown.
* HealItWithWater: The Undines are water-based fairies who specialize in healing magic.
* HereWeGoAgain: In episode 13 of season 3, Cardinal tells Kirito and Eugeo that the Administrator's room is on the 100th floor of the tower. Kirito's response; [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe "ugh"]].
* HeroAcademy: Kirito ends up in one along with his partner, Eugeo, during the Alicization arc.
* HeroesPreferSwords: It's noted that most SAO players who migrated to ALO tend to dump all their points into sword skills and ignore magic, because they believe their weapons are proof of their existence.
** This actually leads to two different classifications among players in ALO: "Fairies," who use magic, and "Swordsmen," who only use weapons.
* HeroicBSOD:
** Kirito suffers one when [[spoiler:Asuna performs a HeroicSacrifice]]. It debilitates him so badly that he can't bring himself to do more than slowly and feebly swing his swords at [[spoiler:Heathcliff]] for a few seconds.
** Kirito has another one when he encounters [[spoiler:Death Gun and realizes that not only is he a survivor of SAO, but also a member of Laughing Coffin, the murder guild comprised of all red-cursored [=PKers=]. All of Kirito's repressed memories of the purge against that guild return and leave him in such a wrecked state that Sinon is worried by his nonresponsiveness.]]
** Sinon suffers one during the [=BoB=] tournament when she is confronted by Death Gun [[spoiler:who tries to kill her using the same model of gun that Sinon used in the real world five years ago to kill the robber, an event which caused her to become severely traumatized.]] After Kirito rescues her, and they are fleeing Death Gun on a buggy, Sinon suddenly finds she can't bring herself to pull the trigger on her rifle, even though Death Gun is baring down on them on a robot horse. [[spoiler:It takes Kirito offering to pull the trigger with her that allows her to fire and escape Death Gun, but even then, Sinon is still extremely shaken up by what she's gone through.]]
* HeroicFantasy: Though the narrative is driven by technology and is set in NextSundayAD, at its heart ''Sword Art Online'' is ''still'' fundamentally a fantasy of heroic warriors (and later, wizards) crusading across mythical lands, fighting for justice, honor and making the world a better place with swords and spells in their hands, courage and love in their hearts.
* HeroicResolve: Asuna and Kirito ''both'' [[RealityWarper break the ''laws of reality'']] at least once, in order [[ThePowerOfLove to rescue the other]]. Comes in as a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome every single time.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Yui]] invokes her GM powers to save Kirito and Asuna from a high-level boss. Unfortunately, since she disobeyed her programming, this results in her getting flagged for deletion. Thankfully, Kirito manages to preserve her heart before she's fully deleted.
** In Episode 14, [[spoiler:Asuna overcomes complete paralysis with ThePowerOfLove to get up and take a killing blow for Kirito, dropping her own health bar to zero to save him.]]
** During Kirito's second run on [=ALfheim Online=]'s Grand Quest, [[spoiler:Recon performs an extremely powerful dark magic spell that [[SuicideAttack instantly kills him while clearing a massive hole in the Guardian swarms]]. A [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] case, though, since death in ALO won't kill you in the real world like in SAO. However, Leafa does note that [[ContinuingIsPainful the Death Penalty for Self-Destruct is rather steep]].]]
* HiddenHeartOfGold: Kirito at the start doesn't interact with other players due to past trauma. Agil gives off the impression of being a stingy merchant, but it turns out much of the in-game currency he earns goes to support the lower-leveled players.
* HilariousOuttakes: The English dub's bloopers, which are largely valued by fans... and even a significant number of haters.
* HonorBeforeReason: Though the protagonists avoid this for the most part, this pops up from time to time:
** In Volume 2, Thinker walks into an obvious ambush ''unarmed'', because his [[TheStarscream treacherous 2nd-in-command]] said he wanted to talk privately without weapons. Yuriel and Asuna lampshade this.
** In Volume 8, Klein frees an imprisoned NPC that he and everyone agree is probably a trap and will likely turn on them, because that's his warrior code. The party can't decide if he's being an idiot or being cool. [[spoiler:Amusingly, the NPC ''is'' a trap... [[IncrediblyLamePun just not the expected kind]]. See AttractiveBentGender above.]]
** A unit of players from The Army are met by Kirito, Asuna, and Klein's guild, and their leader asks for the map for the level. Kirito agrees to it but tells him they should avoid fighting the boss, as they don't have enough players, and his troops look rather worn out. He decides to go straight towards the boss, [[spoiler:and promptly gets killed for it, forcing Asuna and Kirito to attack the boss in order to save the surviving players.]]
* HopelessSuitor: Liz, after having joined a party with Kirito to find a rare material to forge a sword with, is seemingly ready to declare her love for him since he risked his life to save hers and was a NiceGuy as well. [[spoiler:Then Asuna drops by, and Liz begins to read between the lines. You can almost see her heart get torn in two as she realizes this trope is being applied to her. She tries to brush it off with her usual GenkiGirl face, but wanders off to secretly cry.]]
** [[spoiler:Suguha/Leafa in Episode 22, when she hears Kirito mention trying to reach Asuna, and realizes that Kirito is her brother/cousin (to whom she was ''already'' a hopeless suitor, knowing that the rest of her family wouldn't approve of her being in love with him and that he had a girlfriend, making her this trope twice over). Like Liz, she doesn't take this information very well.]]
** Really applies to any girl not named Asuna who falls in love with [[ChickMagnet Kirito]]. Goes doubly for the additional girls in the games based on the anime, including Strea and Premiere.
* HopeSpot: After [[spoiler:Sachi]] dies, Kirito learns of an ultra-rare item that can resurrect a dead player. It doesn't quite work out, since the item has to be used within ten seconds of the player's death, but by the time Kirito gets it [[spoiler:Sachi]] has already been dead for six months. He gives the item to Klein instead, hoping that it'll be of some use to him.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Kuradeel, who has the gall to call Kirito a murderer after Kirito kills him when ''he'' is a member of Laughing Coffin.
[[/folder]]
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