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SebastianGray (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#4551: Mar 7th 2020 at 1:18:32 AM

Also, the Alicization novels were apparently longer than every previous arc put together. Talk about Arc Fatigue. Not sure how they'd fit that into one season either then.

The Alicization anime is being done in two 2-cour seasons with the second cour of the second season starting in April

mythbuster Since: Jan, 2010
#4552: Mar 7th 2020 at 9:40:44 AM

[up][up] No, it was their friend Merida, who was an SAO beta tester. Knowing that she was likely to die of her cancer anyway, she wanted to log in to SAO to help her guildmates. After Yuuki talked her out of it, the three of them founded the Sleeping Knights.

[up][up][up]As for Yuuki's last day and full dive, I'd say the whole exchange makes sense when you remember that Yuuki is Catholic (this wasn't explicitly mentioned in the anime, but a flashback with Yuuki's mother shows her at Eucharistic Adoration implies it, as does the fact that Yuuki named her 11-hit combo after the Rosary). She would want to log out to receive the Last Rites, but once she's prepared for death, she'd also want to say her last words and give a parting gift to Asuna.

Edited by mythbuster on Mar 7th 2020 at 9:48:40 AM

storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#4553: Mar 7th 2020 at 9:14:26 PM

s2e25:

Sinon? Well that was unexpected.

Hey, a new opening song. Or rather, one of the previous songs, but with a new opening animation, which consists of clips from the Phantom Bullet arc.

After the break, the recap continues with Sinon narrating the events of Phantom Bullet in case anyone missed the first half of the season for some reason.

Recap continues. Wait, is this entire thing going to be filler? *checks ahead* Apparently so. Guess there's no point in watching the rest then.

Well that was a disappointment. I really don't understand why this "episode" even exists. I suppose that explains why there was still an episode left in the season even after the main story very definitely concluded.

Anyway, I suppose I'll continue with Gun Gale Alternative soon.

Edit: After looking it up on the trope page, apparently the Debriefing "episode" is supposed to be the fifteenth episode, coming right after the conclusion of GGO. I have no idea why Netflix put it after Mother's Rosario instead.

Edited by storyyeller on Mar 7th 2020 at 12:16:47 PM

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storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#4554: Mar 8th 2020 at 9:06:55 PM

SAO: Alternative GGO time! I'm probably not going to take the time to type out my reactions in as much detail as with the main series, but I'll still try to record my thoughts and overall impressions.

The first episode was, well, very different, but it was still fun to watch. I spent most of the episode wondering why she was the team leader, or really even playing the game at all. I knew she had to have some sort of skill to be team leader, but she definitely came across as a useless naive kid who was just there to ask questions for the audience's benefit.

It's also interesting that Karen's avatar is actually much shorter than her. Kirito got an avatar that looks like a girl, so there seems to be some sort of randomness in the avatars, but it seemed like they still generally matched the appearance of their owners. Anyway, I was pretty surprised that she wasn't a kid in real life after all that.

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32ndfreeze Since: Mar, 2012
#4555: Mar 8th 2020 at 9:39:47 PM

Ooooh!

I'm really looking forward to seeing your reactions as someone who has very recently watched the main series GGO arc.

mythbuster Since: Jan, 2010
#4556: Mar 8th 2020 at 9:44:54 PM

Karen got that avatar after re-rolling the random avatar generator about 38 times. Anyway, it's only the SAO survivors whose avatars necessarily resemble their physical appearance, and even then only if they use their old account.

Edited by mythbuster on Mar 8th 2020 at 9:47:51 AM

Darthwyn leader of Inherit from The void Since: Feb, 2016 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
leader of Inherit
#4557: Mar 9th 2020 at 12:06:49 AM

Most of the players don't look like their in game Avatar other than the SAO survivors and that only applies to them because of an item back in SAO made them look like their real life selves.

"Shall I use you, or make you mine... I'm not so sure what I'll do." - Dorthy
KnightofLsama Since: Sep, 2010
#4558: Mar 9th 2020 at 1:53:11 AM

Team Leader positions in Squad Jam are purely arbitrary and don't have anything to do with who is actually in charge. Positions shown on the satellite scan map are based on the location of the team leader. It helps dedicated snipers stay hidden by keeping at a distance from the designated leader. (And that goes down a pre-decided list as squad members are killed)

storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#4559: Mar 9th 2020 at 5:40:09 AM

I assumed the leaders were chosen by each team competing.

Also, while there's no a-priori reason for avatars to look the same outside of SAO, they do seem to generally be similar, perhaps for the convenience of the show and audience. The scene where Asuna notes the resemblance of Shi-eun to her avatar comes to mind.

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Darthwyn leader of Inherit from The void Since: Feb, 2016 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
leader of Inherit
#4560: Mar 9th 2020 at 7:54:40 AM

They are chosen by the team it is just not picked based on who is a good leader. One factor was who do you want to the person picked up by the satellite scan.

For the main cast they look the same because they just transferred their accounts over. Leafa doesn't look much like her self in the real world.

Edited by Darthwyn on Mar 9th 2020 at 10:56:41 AM

"Shall I use you, or make you mine... I'm not so sure what I'll do." - Dorthy
storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#4561: Mar 10th 2020 at 8:08:29 AM

One thing I forgot to mention about the last episode:

I initially thought it was odd when M noticed that one of the opposing teams seemed to have military training and immediately jumped to them being Japanese Self Defense Forces, since it's an online game and an American game at that. But then it occurred to me that they probably have different servers for different regions and they're probably playing on a Japan-only server. That would also explain why all the text in the game is in Japanese, which I never really thought about before.

Edited by storyyeller on Mar 10th 2020 at 11:08:57 AM

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shanejayell Since: Jun, 2011
#4562: Mar 10th 2020 at 5:51:36 PM

Yup, Japanese server. It's a plot point later too.

storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#4563: Mar 11th 2020 at 9:44:40 PM

Alternative GGO e2:

This one was basically LLENN's origin story. It answered a lot of questions. I was wondering why she was wearing all pink in the previous episode despite camo obviously being preferable. As well as why her avatar was so short and where the super speed came from. Incidentally, that's the only question the episode didn't really answer. Apparently, she just pumped her AGI stat really high or something. Though in that case, you'd expect say, Shinkawa from last season to be able to do the same thing.

I was also confused about why she seemingly kept referring to her partner as both "M" and "P-chan" in the previous episode. Apparently, P-chan was actually her gun, not her teammate. This does raise the question of how she met M though. Presumably, that's next episode.

Presumably Pihu was able to deduce that LLENN is from Hokkaido thanks to her dialect. Obviously, that's not something that comes across in the subtitles.

Karen's introduction to ALO was very different than Kirito's, but there was enough time between them that it's excusable. Presumably they revamped the character creation screen and race selection screen in the intervening time. (Kirito only went through the later for obvious reasons, but it was still different)

One thought I had is that perhaps rare avatars in GGO can only be generated when you convert a character. That would explain a lot, like how Kirito and Karen both got them when they're so super rare. Presumably, most players never convert since it means losing money, so the avatars being conversion-only would make it a lot more plausible. Though even then, you might expect people to just repeatedly convert new accounts back and forth in hopes of getting one, since Kirito's at least was worth serious money.

Edited by storyyeller on Mar 11th 2020 at 12:50:36 PM

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storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#4564: Mar 14th 2020 at 10:37:00 PM

Alternative GGO ep3:

The flashback continues up to the start of the Squad Jam. This explains a lot about the first episode. There isn't much to say, but two things stuck out at me. One was when LLENN and Pita were using live ammo guns against the monster instead of light guns. Seems inefficient, but maybe they were just doing it for fun. The second is the knife advice at the end. I highly doubt all that anatomy stuff is actually simulated in the game. I guess it's there to show that M has real life combat experience and is kind of creepy about it.

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mythbuster Since: Jan, 2010
#4565: Mar 14th 2020 at 11:33:55 PM

Collector Guy was offering a little under $500 for Kirito's account, and about $300 for Karen's. Endlessly re-rolling for rare avatars isn't worth most players' time, and it's chump change to most of GGO's player base, who are mostly rich kids and professional gamers.

RussellStar5641 Gently wrap up this world like the night sky. from a view of a starry night sky. Since: Dec, 2012 Relationship Status: In love with love
KnightofLsama Since: Sep, 2010
#4567: Mar 15th 2020 at 2:03:20 AM

One was when LLENN and Pita

Pito or Pitohui. She took her name from a group of fairly closely related birds native to New Guinea.

Edited by KnightofLsama on Mar 15th 2020 at 7:06:12 PM

mythbuster Since: Jan, 2010
#4568: Mar 15th 2020 at 10:46:44 AM

I could see Philia being an SAO survivor that Kirito simply never met in the main canon. How to work Strea into the main canon, I have no idea.

mythbuster Since: Jan, 2010
#4569: Mar 15th 2020 at 7:50:01 PM

The most recent event in Integral Factor has gone beyond the absurd. The entire time travel premise is ridiculous to begin with, but Vs. Accel World already introduced that. An actual ghost appearing and possessing monsters, however, is the most ludicrous thing in any version of this series.

storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#4570: Mar 15th 2020 at 8:40:30 PM

Thanks to the coronavirus coverage, I read that Japan has almost five times as many hospital beds per capita as the US. So I guess the fact that they were able to house 10,000 coma patients on short notice during the SAO incident doesn't seem quite so unreasonable.

Anyway, on to GGO Alternative ep4:

So, we've finally caught up. Man, I could watch the adventures of M and LLENN all day. They have such an amusing dynamic. M is basically Batman, the Comically Serious hypercompetent veteran, while LLENN is constantly super excited and also gets to ask all the naive questions for the audience's benefit.

When LLENN got sniped and survived, I thought it was a good thing the opposing team wasn't armed with Hecates or whatever Sinon had that let her actually kill people when sniping. But apparently, it's just a matter of aiming more precisely. Kind of surprised the game bothers to simulate that level of detail.

Speaking of which, the explanation of bullet circles in this episode seemed to contradict the previous explanation. Previously we were told that the shot would hit randomly within the circle, and thus you need to focus to make the circle as small as possible. But here we're told that the circle just has to overlap the target. I'm sure there's some reconciliation of this in the books and one or both explanations were inaccurate, but it is confusing as a show viewer.

The spaceship armor was a nice callback. I think it was the same thing Death Gun's sword was made of that could even cut through lightsabers.

As for the ending, I'm kind of curious how it will continue. Obviously M didn't actually kill LLENN, but I'm dying to know what the latest secret plan was that necessitated this. At first I thought it might be to switch who the team leader was as part of some sort of plan, but I think that requires the leader to die, and Pito made it clear that M's victory conditions involve LLENN surviving. Plus, she's the main character so she obviously can't die anyway.

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shanejayell Since: Jun, 2011
#4571: Mar 15th 2020 at 8:44:34 PM

"M is Batman."

BWA HA HA HA HA.

Wait until next episode. Hah.

storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#4572: Mar 15th 2020 at 9:27:25 PM

wild mass guess Crack theory time: M is actually Karen's friend in real life (the one who tried to buy the concert tickets). [lol]

By the way, I went back and read my reactions to s2e4, and this comment seems oddly prescient.

It's interesting that the gun accuracy thing is simulated with a circle within which the shot fires randomly. So I guess that limits how much you can try to overcome your in game stats with IRL stats (or aimbots if those are still a thing).

P.S. One thing that bothered me ever since the "bullet lines appear when you put your finger on the trigger" explanation at the end of the GGO arc was that it seemed weird to me that the bullet lines lasted so long. I figured people would just pull the trigger immediately, giving almost no warning. Especially when firing semi-automatic. I guess that confusion got confirmed by this episode one way or another.

P.P.S While reading my past reactions, I accidentally read someone's spoiler comment that seemed to imply Death Gun would also be involved in GGO Alternative, which LLENN refuses to believe even though the Bo B was just two months ago. Though I suppose LLENN might not have watched the Bo B. She doesn't seem the type anyway.

Edited by storyyeller on Mar 15th 2020 at 12:52:59 PM

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storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#4573: Mar 16th 2020 at 8:21:04 PM

GGO Alternative ep5: Well that was something. M had been so stoic and Comically Serious up to that point that it was jarring to see him crying like a baby and begging for his life. For a moment, I wondered if he had somehow logged out and had a different player playing the avatar. Then I wondered whether he was an AI or somehow put in a Sonnie's Edge situation.

Pita did talk about killing people a lot, but I assumed it was just figurative. It made me wonder if she was ex laughing coffin or the remaining Death Gun or something, but that doesn't seem likely.

P-Chan talking to LLENN was kind of weird. I'm not sure if we're supposed to think that was a hallucination or whether Pita somehow is talking through the gun or what. But with the gun being destroyed later in the episode, it seems unlikely that this will be relevant or explained in the future.

Also, LLENN did say she felt lucky in the first episode, but wow does this take the cake. At this point, luck is basically an actual superpower for her, along with her superspeed.

That was a surprising amount of lines and detail given for Eva/Boss. I wonder if she'll be relevant to the story at some point.

They did get me at the end. For a moment, I thought that M had actually died. I was wondering why he would expose himself like that when he had the armor he could hide behind, but I thought that was just him being stupid for no reason, rather than a ploy.

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mythbuster Since: Jan, 2010
#4574: Mar 16th 2020 at 8:35:08 PM

Pito's connection to SAO will be explained shortly.

Darthwyn leader of Inherit from The void Since: Feb, 2016 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
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#4575: Mar 17th 2020 at 8:48:36 AM

It will make sense regarding M in the next few episodes especially in regards to what M actually stands for.

"Shall I use you, or make you mine... I'm not so sure what I'll do." - Dorthy

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