History YMMV / SwordArtOnlineAbridged

** 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.]]

* 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 Azuna, she grew up resenting him, 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.

** The scientists under Sugou's employ are slugs instead of humanoid because one of them has angered the wheelchair-bound model designer by stealing her medicated yoghurt. The culprit is so oblivious to the victim's that he's ComicallyMissingThePoint, much to the chagrin of his coworker.

** Yui, who had a case of RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap compared to her canon counterpart. While canon Yui received flack for being nothing but a {{moe}}blob, abridged Yui is cunning, [[ManipulativeBitch manipulative]], [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]], and her adoption by Kirito and Asuna made far more sense.

* HeReallyCanAct: LennonDrake as Suguha was almost instantly showered in praise by viewers after Episode 17 premiered thanks to [[spoiler:how fantastically they delivered Suguha's tearful breakdown towards Kirito over their falling out]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The first season draws quite a bit of humor from the [[ObviousBeta buggy-state]] of what should be a AAA-game. Eventually, it gets revealed that Sword Art Online was ChristmasRushed and the developers were overworked to make it happen, with [[BigBad Kayaba]] eventually suffering a nervous breakdown which led to him trapping the players in the game. This all came right before the dam started to burst in the real-life game industry due to the revelations of many big-name studios inflicting "Crunch" on their developers. So what started as just a parody of the SAO anime ended up turning into a satire of the Gaming Industry during TheNewTens.

!!The following have their own pages:
[[index]]
* [[BetterThanCanon/SwordArtOnlineAbridged Better Than Canon]]
[[/index]]

* CantUnHearIt: [=YamatoSFX=] as Kirito. Besides the usual BetterThanCanon and SubbingVersusDubbing arguments, his Kirito voice is very distinctive, and as a result many other videos in which he's voiced a character have a flood of comments talking about Abridged Kirito.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the early episodes are certainly funny, they stick rather close to the typical abridged series model with lots of comedic AlternativeCharacterInterpretation and referential humor. It's the later episodes, where the CharacterDevelopment starts getting more pronounced without sacrificing the comedy, that gets the series most of its BetterThanCanon comments.

* BetterThanCanon: [[BetterThanCanon/SwordArtOnlineAbridged See here]].

** Lisbeth and her smithing skills, which is played to ''VideoGame/{{Guilty Gear}} Xrd'''s "Big Blast Sonic," which makes the whole thing even more amazing.

** Another song from ''VideoGame/{{Guilty Gear}} Xrd'''s soundtrack, "Coming Home" plays over the credits, a fitting and thematic send-off for the season finale.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** You remember the [=PKer=] guild Laughing Coffin, right? Well, as Kuradeel helpfully informs us, they took Kirito's advice a teensy bit too far by, during their ad campaign, [[TooDumbToLive sending an e-mail revealing their location to every player in the game]]. Your mind can probably paint [[CurbStompBattle an accurate picture of what happened next]].
** By their own admission, Episode 10 has Kirito and Asuna accidentally agreeing to marry each other, which then snowballs out of control due to neither wishing to admit defeat. This then led to the adoption of Yui as their daughter and her death. They lampshade this at the end that it was really dumb of them to not be upfront about this from the beginning.
** Suguha choking on food while talking isn't particularly idiotic, but trying to eat more of the same food while choking to stop it, and then immediately choking again is not a good sign of one's survival.
** Thinker is, as Yui notes, something of a dullard. Did it not occur to him that a peace talk hosted by his violent rival in a ''dungeon'' might be a trap? He doesn't even bring weapons or items, either! ''And'' he believed him when he claimed that in-game messaging wouldn't work due to "bad reception!"

** Thinker is, as Yui notes, something of a dullard. Did it not occur to him that a peace talk hosted by his violent rival in a ''dungeon'' might be a trap. Doesn't even bring weapons or items, either! ''And'' he believed him when he claimed that in-game messaging wouldn't work due to "bad reception!"

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Ubisoft being the ones that made Alfheim Online and its administrator, Sugou, being a pervert [[DudeShesLikeInAComa more ways]] [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe than one]] becomes this with several reports in 2020 regarding widespread sexual harassment and abuse within Ubisoft.

** One defense of the difference of voice is that, since most (main) characters personalities are completely different from their source, having the [=VAs=] not try to replicate them strengthens the differences of the parody from the original. And where they're wildly different, it's simply to enhance the comedy aspect. Could also be considered an AssPull, regardless.
** Could also be a cause of working with what you got. Some voices changed over the course of the series (ex. Asuna, given the months/years between some eps or character usage). In Kirito's VA case, it might've been the been for the best, as whenever [=YamatoSFX=] voices a faceless background character, it is ''very'' obviously just Kirito's voice just pitched higher or lower.

** You remember the PKer guild Laughing Coffin, right? Well, as Kuradeel helpfully informs us, they took Kirito's advice a teensy bit too far by, during their ad campaign, [[TooDumbToLive sending an e-mail revealing their location to every player in the game]]. Your mind can probably paint [[CurbStompBattle an accurate picture of what happened next]].

** In Episode 11, when Asuna learns Kirito's true name is Kazuto, she acts as if it was a terrible name that's awkward to say, and the scenes totally rolls with it as a joke on Kirito. But the joke falls completely flat considering "Kazuto" is not an unusual male name in Japan at all, so it makes no sense for her to react to it that way. It'd be as if an English speaking girl reacted the same way when she learned her online boyfriend is actually named "Kevin" and she went "How am I supposed to call you? "Kev"?".

** In Episode 11, when Asuna learns Kirito's true name is Kazuto, she acts as if it was a terrible name that's awkward to say, and the scenes totally rolls with it as a joke on Kirito. But the joke falls completely flat considering "Kazuto" is not an unusual for a male name in Japan at all, so it makes no sense for her to react to it that way. It'd be as if an English speaking girl reacted the same way when she learned her online boyfriend is actually named "Kevin" and she went "How am I supposed to call you? "Kev"?".

* {{Narm}}: Episode 3, which was a Christmas special, took the liberty of adding Santa hats to all the characters in the opening. However they don't quite follow the characters perfectly, making it very amusing to watch. Whether or not this is intentional is unclear.

** Asuna's [[InnocentlyInsensitive racist tendencies]] and threats to "add [Sugou's] screams to her gosh-darned Spotify" both take a nasty turn in light of Spotify losing musicians and podcasts over Creator/{{Joe Rogan}}'s [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19 disinformation]], with losses in the billions and counting.

** Abridged Kirito's VA also did the voice of Abridged Shirou in ''WebVideo/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorksAbridged''. In the dub of the original shows, Kirito and Shirou were both portrayed by Creator/BrycePapenbrook.

** You remember the PKer guild Laughing Coffin, right? Well, as Kuradeel helpfully informs us, they took Kirito's advice ''Understatement a teensy bit too far'' by, during their ad campaign, sending an e-mail revealing their location to every player in the game. Your mind can probably paint [[CurbStompBattle an accurate picture of what happened next]].

** You remember the PKer guild Laughing Coffin, right? Well, as Kuradeel helpfully informs us, they took Kirito's advice [[Understatement a teensy bit too far]] by, during their ad campaign, sending an e-mail revealing their location to every player in the game. Your mind can probably paint [[CurbStompBattle an accurate picture of what happened next]].

** "Thoughts to a Friend" from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' plays when Kirito finally admits to Asuna that he loves her before he wakes up. It can, and probably should, kick your feels right in the dick.

* SignatureScene: Kirito going LaughingMad from Episode 04 and his AGodAmI rant.