History YMMV / SwordArtOnline

** 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 molest 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.]]

** At its core, Vassago Casals isn't too different from cult leaders like Charles Manson and Marshall Applewhite, who take advantage of impressionable and disaffected young people and brainwash them into adopting their insane ideologies. Additionally, during the ''War of the Underworld'' sub-arc of ''Alicization'', Vassago taking advantage of the Chinese and Korean players' prejudice towards the Japanese and whipping them up into a murderous frenzy is remiscent of demagogues and rabble-rousers who take advantage of existing societal tensions and deliberately inflame them to instigate violence, which has happened numerous times, such as the Tulsa race massacre and the Rwandan genocide. The fact that Vassago also spurs those Chinese and Korean players into killing those who had seen through his trick by branding them as traitors is also similar to moderate Hutus getting murdered by Hutu extremists during the Rwandan genocide because of their perceived sympathy towards the Tutsis.

** The titular Sword Arts, as described in the novel, are special attacks where the system briefly takes over limb control, activated by specific arm movements. In other words, motion controls five years before the UsefulNotes/NintendoWii popularized them.