History YMMV / SwordArtOnlineAbridged

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Suguha has a number of problems, stemming from a FreudianExcuse, as shown in Episode 17's ending. She originally took up kendo because Kirito was practicing it as well. But when he quit to take up programming, their grandfather, who never wanted to teach her in the first place, did everything he could to make Suguha quit, but [[{{Determinator}} she kept going]] due to wanting them to be closer again. Since Kirito never showed how much he truly cared for Suguha in the past, as compared to the extreme lengths he's going to to save Asuna in the present, Suguha grew up resenting Kirito's passions and her own femininity, angrily declaring that he "never gave a shit" about her. The problem is that most of Suguha's screen time thus far has repeatedly shown Suguha to be cruel to the people around her, especially Kirito. So Suguha resenting Kirito for not being a BigBrotherMentor when she's never given him any reason to act that way rings hollow. And the idea that Kirito doesn't care about Suguha is intentionally ignoring context, since Kirito is literally fighting for Asuna's life while Suguha merely wants his attention, making the comparison feel exceedingly selfish. Some of Suguha's actions -- mocking her brother's penis being ripped in half from a catheter, beating him to a pulp in Kendo shortly after he had gotten out of the hospital, and punting her crush Nagata for asking her out on a date -- make her MotiveRant feel more like MisplacedRetribution, especially since Kirito was never given such a degree of sympathy during his own redemption arc, despite having a similar FreudianExcuse[[note]]that is mostly PlayedForLaughs.[[/note]] and never reaching the levels of physical abuse Suguha was notorious for.

** Suguha takes the crown as the queen of these the moment she's introduced, in which she assumes that Kirito is lying about having a girlfriend and is just taking advantage of a coma patient... and then proceeds to [[VirgingShaming Virgin-shame]] him for it.

* AngstDissonance: Much like the source material, Kirito and Asuna's emotional breakdown when Yui almost gets deleted is a bit hard to swallow for some viewers considering the two have only known her for about a day. However, it's even worse in this version since abridged Kirito and Asuna are shown to be much more emotionally guarded, and only took Yui in as part of their game of relationship chicken.

*** In Episode 11, merrily skips over the line of good taste like a game of hopscotch as her character fades away, but turns something that should be utterly tragic into hilarity with five simple words:

** Sugou being creepy with Asuna in her coma stops being disturbing once he starts talking in falsetto and playing with Asuna's lips to say that she'll love him over Kirito and suck him off when they get married.
** The war that Alfheim players are having to see who can reach the top of the World Tree first? It's called [=#RaceWar=].

** Most fans of the show ship Kirito and Asuna but are willing to admit they are an unhealthy train wreck which only works because [[BirdsOfAFeather they're both equally broken and insane]] and would never want anyone sane in real life to be in a relationship like that. However, during the show's 10 anniversary stream, SWE voiced their concerns over the amount of fans who genuinely consider them to be a perfectly healthy couple. If said stream is anything to go by, Asuna gets this the most out of the two, with several people saying that she was "a very patient woman" in regards to dating Kirito, ignoring the fact that she's arguably more deranged as him, but [[BitchInSheepsClothing is better at hiding it]], and she isn't called out for her flaws as often as Kirito is, making her come across as the saner of the two during conversations, when they're both meant to be equally troubled.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: see [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation/SwordArtOnlineAbridged here]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Due to how much of a massive {{Troll}} Kirito is in this version, sometimes it's unclear how genuine some of his claims are.
*** In Episode 3, was his HeelFaceDoorSlam after talking with Sachi just an act to get a rise out of her for thinking she could change him, or was he genuine in his apology and only backpedaled because old habits die hard? To his credit, he ''did'' seem to be trying to act kinder around her after their discussion.
*** In Episode 5, did he not take advantage of [[DudeShesLikeInAComa a sleeping Asuna]] (instead drawing cat whiskers on her face) because [[EveryoneHasStandards even he has standards]]? Or did he not do it because he [[ChasteHero genuinely did not think of it]]? When Asuna wakes up and demands to know what Kirito did to her, his reply sounds vaguely innocent-like.
---->'''Asuna:''' Is that all?\\
'''Kirito:''' Um, yeah? You were asleep, what else would I have done?
*** Discussed in Episode 9 when Heathcliff questions if his backstory with Fluffles is real or if he's just trolling everyone.
---->'''Asuna:''' Knowing him, [[TakeAThirdOption it may very well be both.]]
** While Asuna was implied to have always been somewhat troubled, it's unclear if she was always wearing her MaskOfSanity while trapped in SAO or if she started the game as a relatively normal person whose terrible life conditions wile trapped in the [[DeadlyGame death game]] for two years (which evidently took a toll on many other players' sanity) simply [[SanitySlippage accelerated her mental decline.]] It's worth noting that outside of her InnocentBigot streak, she doesn't really do anything morally deplorable until Episode 7 (596 days into the game). The fact that she seems to have completely lost her marbles by the time we reach [=ALfheim=] supports this.
*** In Episode 17, WordOfGod is that it's up to the viewer to decide whether her constant targeting of her jailer Shoji during her escape attempts were due to [[PayEvilUntoEvil knowing about how much of an asshole he is to his co-workers]], or simply being annoyed by his grating voice and wanting to shut him up.
** Regarding Yui; just how [[LackOfEmpathy devoid of empathy]] is she? The revelation that she was lying about the system wanting to delete her might imply that her DarkAndTroubledPast at Kayaba's hands was a fallacy to "humanize herself" as well, meaning she ''could've'' helped all the mentally challenged players in the game (such as Jeffrey, Kuradeel, The King of Ashes and many others) but chose not to until encountering Asuna and Kirito.
** Is Klein really the OnlySaneMan of the series, or is he wearing a MaskOfSanity like Asuna? His inappropriate joke regarding Kirito's friends dying again implies he's got a dark sense of humor somewhere in his subconscious, like Kirito.
** [[SelfAppliedNickname Tiffany]]: Was he a {{GIRL}} who got his real identity exposed by Kayaba but chose to run with it? Was he using his wife's account to play the game? [[RealMenWearPink or does he simply like going by "Tiffany"]]? For what's worth, Kirito still uses the nickname when talking to him IRL, but that might be because he's [[TheGadfly Kirito]].
** Is Fluffles really TheDon or just a common housecat and all players are projecting their charged desires unto him? For all the talk surrounding him, he's never shown actually doing anything beyond meowing, purring, and standing around, and the one time when Kirito talks about his history with him, he may as well have been messing with the council. The StraightMan Heathcliff clearly can't understand the cat, and the only ones who apparently can (outside of possibly Kirito as mentoned before) are mafia enforcers, and the King of Ashes, the formers we know little of, and the latter was already an AxCrazy maniac.
** Here, the reasoning for Keita's [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] in Episode 3 isn't made clear: [[DespairEventHorizon Was he grief-stricken]] by his friends dying due to his own cowardice and carelessness? Did he prefer to die [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled rather than allow Fluffles' mafia to capture and torture him]]? [[TakeAThirdOption Or]] did he find out about the disastrous consequences of [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom his handling of [=NPCs=]]] and jumped out of remorse or to avoid facing scrutiny?
** Briefly discussed InUniverse with Schmitt. Would he really have gone on to crucify children and scalp innocent people had the "ghosts" told him to or was he just bluffing due to being terrified for his life? He's clearly not stable by the time he's introduced, but is still loyal to his friends. The fact that his canon guild (which he likely still belongs to here given they share the same armor) was adapted into TheMafia in this series also muddies the waters.
--->'''Kains:''' Seriously, Schmitt? How many people would you have killed if we’d asked you to?\\
'''Schmitt:''' That’s not important.\\
'''Kains:''' I disagree!
** Nobuyuki Sugou is enough of a CardCarryingVillain to create an entire Machiavellian scheme just to brainwash Asuna, but is this only because he lusts after her, or also to stick it to his BadBoss Shouzou (Asuna's father)? Though he did make a deal with him to marry her, Shouzou most likely has no idea of his plan to use the charisma hat to make everyone do as he pleases, which considering how Sugou acts like an ExtremeDoormat around Shouzou, might imply there's some resentment for his position involved.
** Asuna's father Shouzou is undeniably a greedy asshole, but does his resentment of his daughter stem from [[AntagonisticOffspring her sociopathic behavior]], or is his poor parenting [[FreudianExcuse the reason for said behavior]]? Episode 10 implies Asuna follows the AntiAdvice of her mother, whom Shouzou divorced, but that's all we know about her background.
*** Likewise, are Kirito and Suguha's parents' negligence one of the reasons behind their {{Jerkass}} tendencies (as they turned a blind eye to their children being abused), or is their negligence a response to [[TeensAreMonsters their behavior]]? Or is it a combination of both? Kirito's mother at least seems to care about his well being to an extent, though he clearly harbors some resentment for the both of them.
** Are the ''RECT Progress'' workers that work for Sugou content with working on mind-control tech while turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed by their boss, or have they been threatened into working on [=ALfheim=], or do they have NoSympathy for Asuna in particular because she's [[AxCrazy batshit insane]] or because she's the daughter of [[BadBoss Shouzou]]? None of the workers shown seem to have any desire to be there, with Sugou's pastry chef being driven to tears at his demands, and the game box's artist even calling ALO "the biggest soul-sucking shitshow of [his] career". To add to this, Kyle (one of the brain technicians) [[AffablyEvil seems to be a relatively nice and even moral person from what we see of him]], making his career choice all the more bizarre.
** Shoji is clearly an idiotic bully, but is his bullying of the disabled Trisha completely motivated by ableism or do they have a conflict beyond that? She's petty enough to turn Kyle into a slug as well just for being Shoji's friend, and Kyle tells him at one point that he didn't want any part in their "beef".

** Most fans of the show ship Kirito and Asuna but are willing to admit they are an unhealthy train wreck which only works because [[BirdsOfAFeather they're both equally broken and insane]] and would never want anyone sane in real life to be in a relationship like that. However, during the show's 10 anniversary stream, SWE voiced their concerns over the amount of fans who genuinely consider them to be a perfectly healthy couple.

* BrokenBase: While the series is immensely popular and heavily hyped by many who dislike or are indifferent to the original series, it's very divisive among the SAO fans, which is inevitable due to how polarizing the anime is in itself. Some love it for turning SAO into something comedic in typical AbridgedSeries fashion, giving a different interpretation to some of the series' widely contested plot points, giving the more obscured or polarizing characters their own distinguished personalities and development, as well as expanding on the widely controversial [=ALfheim=] arc, while others feel the abridged series is overrated and ruining the original series through its complete alternate interpretations of the characters to the point where they are InNameOnly versions of the originals (which in itself may or may not be a bad thing depending on [[BaseBreakingCharacter whether or not you like the original SAO cast]]), for its many TakeThat jokes against the source material (down to insulting SAO' and ALO's game design and portraying their developers as incompetent), and for all the claims of it fixing SAO, many of the problems are still there only with the characters approaching them with a more {{Jerkass}} personality or justifying it as poor game design InUniverse.

** The result of the teleport crystals glitching is severe BodyHorror. Fanmade original footage in Episode 11 shows one unfortunate victim with his limbs distorted, with his hand coming out from where his mouth should be, while his eyes and mouth have been disembodied and floating beside him.

** Due to his AdaptationalSympathy in this version, Kayaba has a lot of fans that see him as an overworked victim whose evil actions were due to [[ExhaustionInducedIdiocy sleep deprivation]] despite the fact that he had two years to catch up on his sleep and put an end to his mistake to prevent any more deaths, but chose not to out of stuborness, cowardice and his newly found hatred of [[SurroundedByIdiots the SAO player base.]] By the end, Kirito notes that he was nothing but a DirtyCoward who only cared about saving his own ass.

!!Other examples:

* RealitySubtext: Kayaba's unwillingness to just own up to his (admittedly colossal) mistake with the glitch, shut down the servers, and let all of the survivng players out of the game makes a bit more sense when one remembers that he works for a Japanese company; workplace culture in Japan is a lot more stringent than in most western companies and operates off of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_Z_of_Ouchi Theory Z]] management that prioritizes loyalty to the company and one's co-workers above all other concerns. Admitting the he had programmed a glitch that was ''literally fatal'' to the customers wouldn't have just put his ass on the line, it would've likely resulted in the entire company being shamed and run into the dirt, a FateWorseThanDeath in Japan's corporate world. [[AllForNothing It didn't stop it from happening anyways.]]

* RealitySubtext: Kayaba's unwillingness to just own up to his (admittedly colossal) mistake with the glitch, shut down the servers, and let all of the survivng players out of the game makes a bit more sense when one remembers that he works for a Japanese company; workplace culture in Japan is a lot more stringent than in most western companies and operates off of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_Z_of_Ouchi Theory Z]] management that prioritizes loyalty to the company and one's co-workers above all other concerns. Admitting the he had programmed a glitch that was ''literally fatal'' to the customers wouldn't have just put his ass on the line, it would've likely resulted in the entire company being shamed and run into the dirt, a FateWorseThanDeath in Japan's corporate world.

* BrokenBase: While the series is immensely popular and heavily hyped by those who hate the original series, it's very divisive among the SAO fans. Some love it for turning SAO into something comedic in typical AbridgedSeries fashion, while others feel the abridged series is overrated and ruining the original series through its complete alternate interpretations of the characters to the point where they are InNameOnly versions of the originals, and for all the claims of it fixing SAO, many of the problems are still there only with the characters approaching them with a more {{jerkass}} personality.

*** Likewise, are Kirito and Suguha's parents negligence one of the reasons behind their {{Jerkass}} tendencies (as they turned a blind eye to their children being abused), or is their negligence a response to [[TeensAreMonsters their behavior]]? Or is it a combination of both? Kirito's mother at least seems to care about his well being to an extent, though he clearly harbors some resentment for the both of them.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Suguha has a number of problems, stemming from a FreudianExcuse, as shown in Episode 17's ending. She originally took up kendo because Kirito was practicing it as well. But when he quit to take up programming, their grandfather, who never wanted to teach her in the first place, did everything he could to make Suguha quit, but [[{{Determinator}} she kept going]] due to wanting them to be closer again. Since Kirito never showed how much he truly cared for Suguha in the past, as compared to the extreme lengths he's going to to save Asuna in the present, Suguha grew up resenting Kirito's passions and her own femininity, angrily declaring that he "never gave a shit" about her. The problem is that most of Suguha's screen time thus far has repeatedly shown Suguha to be cruel to the people around her, especially Kirito. So Suguha resenting Kirito for not being a BigBrotherMentor when she's never given him any reason to act that way rings hollow. And the idea that Kirito doesn't care about Suguha is intentionally ignoring context, since Kirito is literally fighting for Asuna's life while Suguha merely wants his attention, making the comparison feel exceedingly selfish. Some of Suguha's actions -- mocking her brother's penis being ripped in half from a catheter, beating him to a pulp in Kendo shortly after he had gotten out of the hospital, and punting her crush Nagata for asking her out on a date -- make her FreudianExcuse feel more like MisplacedRetribution, especially since Kirito was never given such a degree of sympathy during his own redemption arc, despite never reaching the levels of physical abuse Suguha was known for.

** During Episode 17's "Post-Mortem" stream, SWE talked about how surprised they were at how many viewers felt sympathy for [[EvilIsPetty Shoji]] after Asuna was done with him, as the fact that he cared for his dog (whom Asuna threatened to eat as blackmail) apparently redeemed him in a lot of people's eyes, despite being a pathetic, cowardly bully who [[BullyingTheDisabled picked on a disabled co-worker]] for most of his screentime. It's probably ''because'' he's so pathetic that people find him sympathetic. Besides, petty jerk or not, he was stupid enough to say he [[EmbarrassingCoverUp was molesting her.]] As one commenter from the stream put it, the coworker he was bullying was complicit in the same evil scheme. The dog was innocent.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Suguha has a number of problems, stemming from a DarkAndTroubledPast; she originally took up kendo because Kazuto was practicing it as well, but when he quit to take up programming their grandfather, who never wanted to teach her in the first place, did everything he could to make her quit. Since Kazuto never showed how much he truly cared for her, as compared to the extreme lengths he's going to to save Asuna, she grew up resenting him (even though Asuna's life is on the line now, while Suguha's wasn't back then, making the comparison feel quite hollow), his passions and her own femininity and angrily declares that he never gave a shit about her. The problem is that most of her screen time thus far has repeatedly shown her to be pointlessly rude and sometimes outright cruel to the people around her, ESPECIALLY Kazuto, so it's a mystery as to why she seems mystified that he could be anything other than a BigBrotherMentor that she expects him to be and resents him for not being. Some of her actions, such as mocking her brother's penis being ripped in half from a catheter, beating him to a pulp in Kendo shortly after he had gotten out of the hospital, and punting her crush Nagata for asking her out on a date, make her FreudianExcuse feel more like MisplacedRetribution, especially since Kirito himself was never given such a degree of sympathy during his own redemption arc, despite never reaching the levels of physical abuse Suguha was known for.

** Asuna's father Shouzou is undeniably a greedy asshole, but does his resentment of his daughter stem from [[AntagonisticOffspting her sociopathic behavior]], or is his poor parenting [[FreudianExcuse the reason for said behavior]]? Episode 10 implies Asuna follows the AntiAdvice of her mother, whom Shouzou divorced, but that's all we know about her background.

** It's not for nothing that Kirito refers to his own life as a multi-headed dick hydra. [[spoiler:Sachi's death really messed him up, and he's in an absolutely miserable situation in the real world.]]

** Episode 17 adds Suguha to the list: for the whole season, she's been an unrepentant {{Jerkass}} and BigSisterBully to Kirito, but Episode 17 reveals her rather sympathetic FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler: she used to [[BigBrotherWorship really look up to Kirito]], and started learning kendo with their grandfather to emulate him, but he quit to work on computers instead. This left Suguha to endure TrainingFromHell from their grandfather, who had only been interested in training Kirito and wanted her to quit, causing her to resent Kirito for abandoning her. However, She's still more of a jerkass and less of a woobie because her treatment of Kirito is still too extreme to fully make her sympathetic enough]]

* TheWoobie: While everyone who is trapped in [[DeadlyGame SAO]] could count due to how glitchy and unfair the game system is, Sachi takes the cake as the one that goes through the most grief. Her poor internet connection causes frequent glitches and unpredictable lags that make her experience notably harsher. These issues often arise at the worst possible moments, leaving her stuck in place, interrupting her speech, and in the worst possible scenarios, spreading to other players and catching fires. When Kirito learns of the seriousness of the situation, even ''he'' can't bring himself to mock her situation. To make matters worse, she gets killed just as it seemed her companion was going to cut her some slack.