History YMMV / SwordArtOnline

* AmericansHateTingle: After the Alicization arc was animated, its popularity noticeably plummeted in East Asia, especially China and Korea. Other ethnicities were largely portrayed as inferior to the Japanese characters; specifically, it depicts Koreans as being dependant on Japanese tech, with entire lines in the light novel lamenting of deliberately limited SEED Nexus access in Korea, while in real life Korean developers have been strongly competitive (to the point of kickstarting the MMO boom) against Japanese developers since the 2000s. It didn't help that the [[Creator/AiKayano voice actress of Alice Synthesis Thirty]] was, not a year after airing of the animated adaptation of the last part of Alicization arc, caught in a controversy over visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.

** Another one for the English dub. [[Creator/CristinaVee Alicia Rue]] is a CatGirl who [[FlirtingAndCourtship tries to woo]] [[Creator/BrycePapenbrook Kirito]]. [[WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug A few years later]] Kirito is a CatBoy trying to win the heart of Alicia Rue.

** Nobuyuki Sugou[=/=]Oberon the Fairy King, who is in fact the most hated character both in-universe and out, is widely attributed to be the number one reason for the series' decline from decent/average to outright terrible for its hatedom, and even manages to be the only negative point about the series where both fans and haters ''agree unconditionally''. While it's obvious that [[HateSink hating him]] was the IntendedAudienceReaction, he can't even be hated in a LoveToHate way. His [[CardCarryingVillain over-the-top cartoon evilness]], [[DidntThinkThisThrough stupidity]], multiple attempts to manhandle Asuna, tendency to [[InelegantBlubbering bawl his eyes out]] [[DirtyCoward whenever he is beaten]], and [[FlatCharacter general lack of any sort of character]] other than being monstrously evil, resulted in most viewers wanting to see him get off the screen and never come back, instead of wanting to see him get what was coming to him.

** Nobuyuki Sugou[=/=]Oberon the Fairy King, who is in fact the most hated character both in-universe and out, is widely attributed to be the number one reason for the series' decline from decent/average to outright terrible for its hatedom, and even manages to be the only negative point about the series where both fans and haters ''agree unconditionally''. While it's obvious that [[HateSink hating him]] was the IntendedAudienceReaction, he can't even be hated in a LoveToHate way. His [[CardCarryingVillain over-the-top cartoon evilness]], [[DidntThinkThisThrough stupidity]], multiple attempts to manhandle Asuna and [[FlatCharacter general lack of any sort of character]] other than being monstrously evil, resulted in most viewers wanting to see him get off the screen and never come back, instead of wanting to see him get what was coming to him.

** Nobuyuki Sugou[=/=]Oberon the Fairy King, who is in fact the most hated character both in-universe and out, is widely attributed to be the number one reason for the series' decline from decent/average to outright terrible for its hatedom, and even manages to be the only negative point about the series where both fans and haters ''agree unconditionally''. While it's obvious that [[HateSink hating him]] was the IntendedAudienceReaction, his [[CardCarryingVillain over-the-top cartoon evilness]], [[DidntThinkThisThrough stupidity]], multiple attempts to manhandle Asuna and [[FlatCharacter general lack of any sort of character]] other than being monstrously evil, resulted in most viewers wanting to see him get off the screen and never come back, instead of wanting to see him get what was coming to him.

** Chudelkin, while [[HateSink intended to be hated]], ends up being despised for reasons likely unintended. While hyped as a powerful Sacred Arts user, he ended up being an AntiClimaxBoss that gets a major AssPull in the form of [[spoiler: somehow surviving and then activating his fire powers to burn, kill and borderline rape Quinella to be TogetherInDeath]]. While the intention was probably to give Quinella [[spoiler:a satisfying karma]], ironically this has the opposite effect as due to [[LoveToHate her popularity]] this made fans despise Chudelkin even further, since many of her fans [[spoiler: would have wanted her to escape and encounter Kirito in the real world.]]

** Quinella also gets this treatment to a much lesser extent. While the novels are ambiguous over whether or not her sociopathy is the result of merging her soul with Cardinal or if she always was one and can now express it completely, it doesn't change the fact that she's hugely selfish and seems to relish in the misery she causes others. Even the anime gets in on it by giving her a somewhat sympathetic sendoff where she dies content and with a smile on her face. Her status as a ShamelessFanserviceGirl [[EvilIsSexy may have something to do with it...]]

* EvilIsSexy:
** Rosalia an EvilRedhead with bangs covering her right eye.
** Quinella. There's those who like her for being a brilliant villain, and then there's those who like her for being one the sexiest females period. She spends the majority of her appearances [[PosthumanNudism completely naked]] with nothing but GodivaHair to cover up. This applies even more so in universe, where she's seen as the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman. Even Eugeo and Kirito acknowledge that her appearance is "perfect," to the point of making Alice and Asuna look plain in comparison, despite seeing her as the CompleteMonster she is.
** [=PoH=] is considered this InUniverse, and certain parts of the fandom can't help but agree, especially when his younger self was shown in the flashback sequences.
** Some {{Chubby Chaser}}s find Ilfang the Kobold Lord to be a BigHandsomeMan.

** Likewise, quite a few people tuned into the ''Alicization'' arc solely for [[LoveToHate Quin]][[EvilIsSexy ella]].

** Quinella is one of the most loved {{Big Bad}}s in the series, due in no small part due to [[EvilIsSexy her attractive]] [[MsFanservice appearance]] and [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl lack of clothing]] thanks to [[PosthumanNudism her ascension]]. There's also the fact that she's easily the most complex villain to date with her entire backstory provided and her ascension to power described in detail.

** For that matter, ''Alicization'' is this trope as well, being the arc that took up ''over 50%'' of the original story's overall content and was the GrandFinale of the web novel[[note]]Seeing that ''Moon Cradle'' is also an extension of the arc[[/note]], alongside establishing well loved characters like Eugeo, Alice and [[EvilIsSexy Quinella]] and giving Kirito some much appreciated development. ''Unital Ring'' has a lot to live up to.

** Kikuoka. The entire ''Alicization'' arc can largely be blamed on him and his shortsight of not blocking out Kirito's memory, where the not proceeds to completely ruin the experiment by triggering a rebellion that overthrows Quinella. Plus he remained oblivious to his experiment being sabotaged from the start, with the Seal of the Right Eye being implanted into the Underworld right under his nose.

** [[ButtMonkey Klein]]. '''Everyone''' has more screentime than him, even [[MemeticMutation Sandwich-kun]].

** ''Anime/SwordArtOnlineExtraEdition'': [[BitchInSheepsClothing Kraken the Abyss Lord]] is a QuestGiver NPC for the "Deep Sea Plunderers" quest. Posing as a old human man named "Nerakk", he requests players for help in recovering a giant pearl intended to be a gift for a friend, which he claims was stolen by robbers and taken to the Undersea Temple. In reality, this is a ruse and the 'pearl' is in fact the Child's Egg, which was guarded by a magic barrier that prevents Kraken from entering. Most players are tricked into battling the temple guardians and stealing the egg for Kraken. Kirito's party realize his deception and refuse to hand over the egg, to which Kraken transforms into his true form to take the egg by force. Kraken [[CurbStompBattle very nearly kills the heroes]], where they are saved by the last second intervention of [[AlwaysABiggerFish Leviathan the Sea Lord]].

* CommonKnowledge: Plenty that there may as well be a page dedicated to it (on top being being pure FandomEnragingMisconception like the ones listed in the trope entry itself down below)... to list a few examples:
** [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking Also. There's a curiously sizeable amount of non-fans who mistakenly believe that the Aincrad Arc is the second season, while the Fairy Dance Arc is the "second season". In spite of the fact that the technical 2nd Season would be Sword Art Online II, which contains the Phantom Bullet Arc, Calibur Arc, and Mother's Rosario Arc.]]

CommonKnowledge: Plenty that there may as well be a page dedicated to it (on top being being pure FandomEnragingMisconception like the ones listed in the trope entry itself down below)... to list a few examples:
** A particular oft repeated complaint was that "Kirito had hacked the system" in order to save Yui during Aincrad Arc , and "could've hacked the game to instead re-add the logout button". In reality, he was only able to use the terminal to do so because Yui had opened access to it previously using her own credentials when explaining herself to Kirito and Asuna. That, and all Kirito did was essentially the equivalent to dragging and dropping a compressed file into a different one ([[https://twitter.com/kunori/status/249529363681382400 something of which Reki Kawahara himself further clarified]]) [[note]]And given that Yui's admin credentials and herself were being deleted, Kirito is technically on borrowed time when he hurried went to archive Yui's files into his Nerve Gear's storage. So it's likely he wouldn't have enough time to be able to figure out if Yui's credentials would even be of a high enough level for him to be able to re-implement the logout button in the first place until he loses access entirely[[/note]]
** Non-fans were under the assumption that Sword Art Online's story is supposed to have been based on the "death game" aspect (and video game in general), and as such brought up complaints about the series "losing its focus" past Aincrad Arc. The series from the start actually established its focus on the blurring lines between VR and RL, with the first episode having highlighted about SAO, formerly a virtual reality in the form of a sensational video gaming escapism allowing players full motor functions of their bodies, now becoming an actual "reality" (down to reverting every players to their real-life appearances to further nail down the intent) with consequences for mistakes and failures (i.e: death). Even within Aincrad Arc, the story later on leaves the implications of a decent amount of the player populace (eg. people like Nishida) having since gotten acquainted to their new "lives" in SAO, further highlighting on one of the main topics SAO was actually exploring.
** In the same vein, SAO has often been grouped under the "Isekai" subgenre by non-fans (although even a select few fans had made the same mistake themselves) when not only does it not follow either the "異世界転移" (transition into another world) concept [[note]]At least not traditionally especially[[/note]] nor the "異世界転生" (reincarnation into another world) concept, [[https://twitter.com/kunori/status/1117418009679683585 Reki Kawahara himself had also gone on record to state that SAO is not an isekai story]]
*** [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking Also. There's a curiously sizeable amount of non-fans who mistakenly believe that the Aincrad Arc is the second season, while the Fairy Dance Arc is the "second season". In spite of the fact that the technical 2nd Season would be Sword Art Online II, which contains the Phantom Bullet Arc, Calibur Arc, and Mother's Rosario Arc.]]
** A particular common complaint out of many others that detractors had was that Asuna spent her whole time in Fairy Dance Arc being a DamselinDistress who was waiting to be rescued by Kirito. Actually reading/watching the series on the other hand revealed that while she was indeed locked up for a while, she actually managed to sneak out of her cage (having managed to bypass the password censor for her confinement via use of a reflective surface) and could've escaped on her own had she not been discovered by the slug scientists. And even then, her efforts weren't in vain as the admin card she took from the Experiment Hangar's system console ended up proving VERY instrumental to Kirito and Yui being able to enter the World Tree (which was actually UnwinnablebyDesign in light of the top not opening to anyone without administration access) and eventually reach her.
** Kirito himself has somehow amassed a concerningly large amount of misinformation that non-fans had believed, to list some:
*** Aside from the first above mentioned point, Kirito's reputation as an InvincibleHero was rather exaggerated (ironically similar to the aftermath of his battle against the Gleam Eyes, whose defeat was only possible because of the Aincrad Liberation Force's earlier efforts, to say nothing of the fact that Kirito is one hit away from death by the end of it) by detractors of the series. As ironically detailed in under the titular trope entry in his character profile, while it seemed as if Kirito was every bit as overpowered as non-fans claimed and believed, he's actually struggled rather often with several of his major wins only being possible due to him having help from others.
*** Detractors also claimed that he had "come back to life" at the end of his second duel against Heathcliffe. In actuality, it was actually a mental imagination similar to what he had thought of his his potential final death by a Frenzy Boar in the first episode (the manner of which he dies in both scenes were even specifically animated to be very similar to each other outside of the location and clothing Kirito was wearing). Assuming Kirito "coming back to life" was even true in the first place, there would've been a scene of the players witnessing their fight noticing said revival in person, which there wasn't.
*** He's also unfortunately gotten the reputation of being a ladies' man who goes around kissing every girl he sees, contributing to the perception of him as a terrible boyfriend/husband and a terrible character. While he does have a few questionable moments (him biting Leafa/Suguha hand as a joke and not telling Sinon he was actually a man until she started undressing in front of him, rightfully earning him scorn from Leafa, Yui, and Sinon), non-fans fail to realize that him attracting them was very much [[UnwantedHarem unintentional and unwanted]]. And even then, the girls whom Kirito had befriended hardly harboured any romantic feelings for him. [[labelnote:To be more specific]]Silica at the end of her debut episode specifically likened Kirito to a caring big brother, Lisbeth originally fell for Kirito until she noticed his familiarity with Asuna and choose to back off, and Leafa never knew that Kirito was actually Kazuto until he mentioned about Asuna in front of her upon fetching him from the World Tree after his attempted 1-man venture. She too backed off after the discovery. Sinon's relationship with Kirito has also been shown to be strictly platonic.[[/labelnote]]. Kirito for his part remains faithful to Asuna, never attempting to seduce or even kiss another girl.
** Another oft repeated complaint by detractors was SAO's repeated usage of rape by its villains. In reality, there was only one (but nonetheless infamous) moment in the entire series that was as close to an attempt in Alicization, which was halted by Eugeo's intervention. The infamous two scenes from Fairy Dance Arc done by one of the slug scientist and then later on by Sugou were technically molestation (an especially uncomfortably extreme one in the latter's case), not "rape". Shinkawa Kyouji, while indeed visibly shown getting getting a little handsy with Shino, never went as far as molesting her and actually intended on killing Sinon before offing himself as well to [[TogetherInDeath be with her in death]], only being delayed by his crazed state of affection towards her. Dee Eye Ell (a case that even her character profile here also mistook as rape previously) was actually painfully [[LifeDraining draining Leafa's durability]] with her CombatTentacles. The above mentioned scenes, while definitely undeniably unbearable to sit through, are still very much NOT what detractors claim to be. Nor were they also as common as they put it.

CommonKnowledge: Plenty that there may as well be a page dedicated to it (on top being being pure FandomEnragingMisconception as well)... to list a few examples:

*** Aside from the first above mentioned point, Kirito's reputation as an InvincibleHero was rather exaggerated (ironically similar to the aftermath of his battle against the Gleam Eyes, whose defeat was only possible because of the Aincrad Liberation Force's earlier efforts, to say nothing of the fact that Kirito is one hit away from death by the end of it) by detractors of the series. As detailed in under the titular entry in his character profile, while it seemed as if Kirito was every bit as overpowered as non-fans claimed and believed, he's actually struggled rather often with several of his major wins only being possible due to him having help from others.

** SAO nowadays

CommonKnowledge: Kirito has unfortunately gotten the reputation of being a ladies' man who goes around kissing every girl he sees, contributing to the perception of him as a terrible boyfriend/husband and a terrible character. While he does have a few questionable moments (him biting Leafa/Suguha hand as a joke and not telling Sinon he was actually a man until she started undressing in front of him rightfully earned him scorn from Leafa, Yui, and Sinon), people seem to forget that large number of girls he attracts is [[UnwantedHarem unintentional and unwanted]]. All the girls who fell for him did so by falling for his charms or being impressed by what he does while not knowing he is in a committed relationship. Kirito for his part remains faithful to Asuna, never attempting to seduce or even kiss another girl.

** Shoichi Shinkawa's backstory is eerily reminiscent of a disaffected person getting radicalized by a dangerous cult simply because he had nowhere else to belong to. To put it in perspective, he was once a sickly boy who, by the time of middle school, had alternated constantly between the house and the hospital. Rather than give him the help and support that he needs, his family had basically given up on him and let him do whatever he wants. He turned to the internet and video games as an escape from the disappointment of his real-life. And then he ended up in SAO, where he met the Laughing Coffin and was corrupted by [[TheCorrupter PoH]] into a murderer as he tool advantage of his desperate situation and made him give in to his darker impulses. By the time he had gone out of SAO, his mind was too far gone as he now only cared about murdering people. The fact that said radicalization took place online is very much reminiscent to how extremists like neo-Nazis and Islamic jidahists use online spaces to lure in and radicalize impressionable and disaffected people.

** The Laughing Coffin guild's modus oprandi is causing as much death and carnage ForTheEvulz. While this seems like over-the-top villainy, what the Laughing Coffin does ''has'' actually happened in real life, such as the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} killers, who wanted to outdo the Oklahoma City bombing in bodycount and carnage. The fact that the Death Gun murder plot was created by two of the former Laughing Coffin members so they can continue the death game that is SAO is chillingly reminiscent of the copycat attacks and subsequent "high score" culture that Columbine spawned that has animated mass shootings like Christchurch, Poway, El Paso and Buffalo.
** Shoichi Shinkawa's backstory is eerily reminiscent of a down-and-out person getting radicalized by a dangerous cult simply because he had nowhere else to belong to. To put it in perspective, he was once a sickly boy who, by the time of middle school, had alternated constantly between the house and the hospital. Rather than give him the help and support that he needs, his family had basically given up on him and let him do whatever he wants. He turned to the internet and video games as an escape from the disappointment of his real-life. And then he ended up in SAO, where he met the Laughing Coffin and was corrupted by [[TheCorrupter PoH]] into a murderer. By the time he had gone out of SAO, his mind was too far gone as he now only cared about murdering people. The fact that said radicalization took place online is very much reminiscent to how extremists like neo-Nazis and Islamic jidahists use online spaces to lure in and radicalize impressionable and down-and-out people.

** [[Recap/SwordArtOnlineUnitalRingArc "Alicization arc"]]:

** Shoichi Shinkawa's backstory is eerily reminiscent of a down-and-out person getting radicalized by a dangerous cult simply because he had nowhere else to belong to. To put it in perspective, he was once a sickly boy who, by the time of middle school, had alternated constantly between the house and the hospital. Rather than give him the help and support that he needs, his family had basically given up on him and let him do whatever he wants. He turned to the internet and video games as an escape from the disappointment of his real-life. And then he ended up in SAO, where he met the Laughing Coffin and was corrupted by [[TheCorrupter PoH]] into a murderer. By the time he had gone out of SAO, his mind was too far gone as he now only cared about murdering people. The fact that said radicalization took plane online is very much reminiscent to how extremists like neo-Nazis and Islamic jidahists use online spaces to lure in and radicalize impressionable and down-and-out people.

** Shoichi Shinkawa's backstory is eerily reminiscent of a down-and-out person getting radicalized by a dangerous cult simply because he had nowhere else to belong to. To put it in perspective, he was once a sickly boy who, by the time of middle school, had alternated constantly between the house and the hospital. Rather than give him the help and support that he needs, his family had basically given up on him and let him do whatever he wants. He turned to the internet and MMORPGs as an escape from the disappointment of his real-life. And then he ended up in SAO, where he met the Laughing Coffin and was corrupted by [[TheCorrupter PoH]] into a murderer. By the time he had gone out of SAO, his mind was too far gone as he now only cared about murdering people. The fact that said radicalization took plane online is very much reminiscent to how extremists like neo-Nazis and Islamic jidahists use online spaces to lure in and radicalize impressionable and down-and-out peopel.

** Shoichi Shinkawa's backstory is eerily reminiscent of a down-and-out person getting radicalized by a dangerous cult simply because he had nowhere else to belong to. To put it in perspective, he was once a sickly boy who, by the time of middle school, had alternated constantly between the house and the hospital. Rather than give him the help and support that he needs, his family had basically given up on him and let him do whatever he wants. He turned to the internet and MMORPGs as an escape from the disappointment of his real-life. Then he ended up in SAO, where he met PoH and was molded with the mindset of a serial killer. By the time he had gone out of SAO, he was too far gone as he was. The fact that said radicalized took plane online is very much reminiscent on how extremists like neo-Nazis and Jidahists use online spaces to radicalize impressionable and down-and-out peopel.

** Nobuyuki Sugou is a CorruptCorporateExecutive who uses his position to sexually abuse Asuna because he feels he's entitled to her. Even though all of this happens in a VR game and not in the real world, it doesn't detract from his predatory behavior. Such people do exist in real life. The fact that Sugou was trying to kill Kirito when the latter intervened to stop him from doing what he did in the virtual world in real life shows how some abusers in real life are willing to murder anyone who tries intervening.

* AmericansHateTingle: After the Alicization arc was animated, its popularity noticeably plummeted in East Asia, especially China and Korea. Other ethnicities were largely portrayed as inferior to the Japanese characters; specifically, it depicts Koreans as being dependent on Japanese tech, while in real life Korean developers have been strongly competetive against Japanese developers since the 2000s. It didn't help that the [[Creator/AiKayano voice actress of Alice Synthesis Thirty]] was, not a year after airing of the animated adaptation of the last part of Alicization arc, caught in a controversy over visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.

* AmericansHateTingle: After the Alicization arc was animated, its popularity noticeably plummeted in East Asia, especially China and Korea. Other ethnicities were largely portrayed as inferior to the Japanese characters; pecifically, it depicts Koreans as being dependent on Japanese tech, while in real life Korean developers have been strongly competetive against Japanese developers since the 2000s. It didn't help that the [[Creator/AiKayano voice actress of Alice Synthesis Thirty]] was, not a year after airing of the animated adaptation of the last part of Alicization arc, caught in a controversy over visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.

** Gabriel, the BigBad of the ''War of Underworld'' half of ''Alicization''. For some he's a very complex and terrifying LoveToHate villain with a fleshed-out backstory, while for others he's an out-of-place villain who is undeservingly overpowered and so god-awfully atrocious that any EvilIsCool cred he would have had gets stamped out. [[spoiler:The anime only made this worse with him having [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape tendencies]] added to his character that weren't present in the light novel.]]

** Gabriel, the BigBad of the ''War of Underworld'' half of ''Alicization''. For some he's a very complex and terrifying LoveToHate villain with a fleshed-out backstory, while for others he's just god-awful scum who needs to hurry up and die. [[spoiler:The anime only made this worse with him having [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape tendencies]] added to his character that weren't present in the light novel.]]