Sword Art Online

Then simply having them do that would work, I suppose.

And just put the rest chronologically.

I just watched episode 1.

Man, I wonder if all that was in the EULA. I know I feel I should actually read those things sometimes.

But anyway, I'm sure I've seen this plot before, trapped in a virtual world, can't log out, beat the game to win.

The Game Master is kind of annoying so if the main character's a Stu, it's only fair.

But really I just want to see some interesting subplots on this generic plot. I could easily end up being disappointed though.

The main character is arguably not a Stu, at least in Aincrad. He has flaws, and they screw him over later in the story. In the later novels... well, I can't deny his Stu-ness there.

It would be hilarious if that was in the EULA.

As a law student, I'm actually curious as to what that would look like in legalese.

edited 7th Jul '12 8:13:27 PM by burnpsy

... I have no idea what you guys are talking about, but so far, the anime is sticking close to the source material, so I'm happy.

Yeah, In Aincrad Kirito is perfectly non-stu, but... we'll have to wait till alicization for him to return to that state. the arcs in between are just there probably to show him kicking ass.

EULA = End User License Agreement. A contract between the user and the author/copyright holder that allows you to use the software in exchange for agreeing with all the terms and conditions set by the licensor. It's that legalese crap you often have to agree to when you install a program and it is pretty important in establishing the extent of the licensor's liability.

I have a feeling that Kayaba doesn't actually give a damn about the legal consequences of his actions, though...

edited 7th Jul '12 9:37:24 PM by Thrombin

Ah.Now I understand. I think not many people actually bother to read them thoroughly(personally, I just go through the main key points in those, reading the full thing is a pain.)

I'd agree Kayaba probably doesn't give a damn.

I also like that they are sticking to the source material, though there are some minor changes but meh, nothing really important.

I was going to post a response to that but that would be spoilerific.

Speaking of spoilers, the ending has quite some spoilers if you know what to look.

That's the joke. Nobody reads them in full. If you go through the main points, you're several steps ahead of most people; the average response is to not read a single word.

So, in this case, he totally could've told them exactly what the game entailed, and nobody would've caught it.

That was about as good as the first episode could be. It looks like they're skipping over his adventure in the next town and going right to the first boss battle, which makes sense because it introduces a couple of very important characters.

It's up in the air really. Aria in the Starless Night introduced and expanded upon the concept of 'Beaters', which is what the second episode is likely to be about, but the ending of the first episode leads up nicely into adventuring into the first dungeon. Would be kind of odd if the narrative suddenly jumped to the former. I will be greatly disappointed if they don't animate First Day for delicious despair.

edited 7th Jul '12 11:20:44 PM by Thrombin

The first boss battle introduces Asuna and Egal and is entirely structured around beaters and their relationship with the playerbase (in fact, it's where Kirito coins the term to take the blame off the regular beta testers.), so it seems like the next logical step. Unless you're talking about the same side story, which is possible since I forgot the actual name and an too tired to bother looking at the moment.

First Day only had two important points (first, Kirito gets an important sword, and second, he realizes that he's given up moral integrity for strength) and no recurring characters, so it's not really worth a full episode.

edited 7th Jul '12 11:39:33 PM by Savoie

We're talking about the same thing. Aria in the Starless Night is the first boss battle. Though... yeah, I kinda think that First Day won't get animated. If it takes one half of an episode, the other half would only be enough airtime for Kirito saving Asuna, which doesn't touch on Beaters a whole lot.

I just noticed that Klein's VA did Kotetsu in T&B. How did I not notice this.

edited 8th Jul '12 1:03:59 AM by Thrombin

No wonder I was confused... never read Aria, the second volume of side stories, or "Alicization." There are a couple other side stories I need to look at as well.

Sorry about that. I was originally thinking it was going to Time Skip like it does in the first volume and work in the first volume of side stories.

Anyway, I'm not going to say anything else about the LN translation as we probably will have more anime-only folks coming in here soon.

First Day is probably the only side story that's safe to talk about at this point, but I'll wait until we're sure before giving an unspoilered summary.

can they die of starvation if they don't clear the 100th floor in time?

Presumably, now that everybody in the 'Real World' knows what's going on, those who have families and/or real life friends will get taken care off. It's also probable that SOMEBODY will take care of the other people who're Trapped In The Matrix, if only so they can present a nice bill for costs+time+profit to whoever is responsible.

They all get plugged into life support for the duration of their stay, so real-life issues are generally not a factor. Well, aside from that pesky brain-zapping thing.

As I explained in the season thread, the only important detail that was left out of the first episode was the explanation of just that. The creator not only contacted emergency crews/the authorities and told them where to find all the players but allowed the players to be disconnected from the server for the couple of hours it took to move them to hospitals/care facilities.

In real life they would have engineering squads cut the internal battery but they wont cause anime. They did Klein well. He is a big bro throughout the series

I think my biggest complaint towards the series in total is that they don't utilize Klein nearly enough.

edited 8th Jul '12 6:54:03 PM by Savoie

Yeah. they focus way too much on Kirito and Asuna. Klein and his guild become near kirito's level. I was really glad he beat the game. When I was reading the beginning I thought for sure he would die or do some heroic sacrifice crap. I'm a guy who likes utilization of secondary characters

If you're in Kirito's harem, you definitely won't die.

Lots of people complain about how unrealistic the sci-fi is in SAO. I'd take tampering the NervGear in any way being fatal to the user as a unalienable fact because Kayaba is a genius and leave it at that. It's not hard science fiction, people. The stuff in the later arcs are even more ridiculous.

edited 8th Jul '12 7:35:19 PM by Thrombin

Hey, there's no such thing as too much Kirito and Asuna! I'm only saying that they could have fit him in more somewhere.

edited 8th Jul '12 7:37:58 PM by Savoie

Klein isnt in Kirito's harem, he just eats death flags for breakfast... without any milk