Sword Art Online Abridged

Those videos were nice. Some nice subtle things the abridge series did I had not picked up on.

Nice to know I'm not the only fan of SAO Abridged on TV Tropes. I've been introduced to this series a few months ago via my brother, and I've been hooked on it... even though I haven't actually read/watched the canon SAO yet.

One question: Does Abridged!Asuna's hilariously bad imitation of stereotypical "nigger talk" in a misguided effort at friendliness towards Agil Tiffany count as an example of Pretty Fly for a White Guy?

I'd say so.

I'd pick a different word to describe it.

What, "nigger talk"? It's a nod to how white people trying to emulate "black culture" (you know, the very subject of Pretty Fly for a White Guy) often end up using "nigger" to non-derisively refer to black people, forgetting or being ignorant about its origins as a racial slur and how today only black people can use the word that way without offending other black people. That's why I put it in quotation marks: I could easily see Asuna (and other people like her) calling it that non-racistly while being honestly unaware that it is too charged a word for such usage by a white-looking person (I'm honestly wondering if Asuna may end up being portrayed as half-American, half-Japanese).

edited 18th Aug '17 6:55:11 AM by MarqFJA

It's an approach to doing that which is better tackled through other terms, like ghetto talk. I say this as a black guy who just hates seeing that thrown around at all, even with other black people. I likewise know there's more options on how to describe it, so it's just a poor choice of words.

Wait, so what did this symbolize exactly?

As Exclamation Point puts it, how different Kirito is from the villain now. How they could say something similar but be meaning different things.

Wasn't expecting this today.

edited 14th Dec '17 5:27:57 AM by Soble

Well, it 'is' the 14th...

edited 14th Dec '17 5:25:32 AM by randomness4

I don't know what that means, but I will assume it's significant.

Well, I love Suguha already.

Wow, I know that guy was supposed to be creepy in the actual anime, but damn. Also, what's Suguha like in the anime? Because I don't think she's like that.

Her only character trait is liking Kirito, and getting conflicted on it being technically incest. Outside of that, think of a background character in an anime.

edited 14th Dec '17 5:44:20 AM by Ikedatakeshi

I would assume hard working is a trait considering she seems to be pretty good a kendo for her age. That and if Tonky from the calibur is anything to go by she does not have a traditional definition of the idea of what is cute.

Suguha makes me understand a lot about why Kirito is the way he is.

It was a decent episode, not as amazing as the last few, but still the setup is needed.

I also hope Suguha gets varied up a bit once she shows up as Leafa. She's a pretty big character screen-time wise, and just from this episode she feels a bit flat. Of course I fully expect that to change.

edited 14th Dec '17 5:55:57 AM by 32ndfreeze

Suguha is similar to Kirito in that they're both great at playing video games. Since this is Abridged and she's related to Kirito, she shares his sharp wit and patronizing tone. She's Season 1 Abridged Kirito, without the character development. It's a pretty fun thing to see, it makes Kirito's personality and background a bit more understandable and it gives us a fun dynamic that replaces Kirito and Asuna's bickering.

And given how they reimagined Asuna and Kayaba, I think this is rather clever.

Suguha's like Tifa from TFS's FF 7 Abridged. She's hiding her feelings behind a wall of smarm. As stated, her primary canon trait is liking Kirito. What's that old boyish saying? When girls pick on you constantly it means they "like-like" you? (I wonder if that holds up nowadays...) Suguha's doing exactly that. Her attacking Kirito's virginity/introvertedness makes it hilarious and a little more complex than the constant moping around that canon!Suguha was doing.

I think it's telling when Kirito's about to leave to "visit his imaginary wife," and the camera focuses on the back of Suguha's head before she turns around, like she's hesitating. They could have had her turn really fast to deliver the joke, or they could have just had her retort and not shown her face - the same way she hears Kirito through the wall at the end of the episode. I think that's supposed to indicate that she's genuinely hurt by Kirito giving some other girl he met online more attention than her - but then she hides it and resorts to a masturbation joke to throw him off.

edited 14th Dec '17 6:14:52 AM by Soble

I hope they give it some form of conclusion considering the original one went nowhere and wasted a lot of time.

Oh, I don't doubt it. They filled in Klein and Kirito's friendship, gave Kayaba an actual reason for doing what he did, had Asuna go from sheepish supporting character to Bad Ass instead of the other way around, even had her kill Joffrey, and gave an origin to Death Gun prior to the GGO arc.

Whoever writes this abridged parody is really good at Arc Welding and (whatever the trope is for when you make additions to the canon plot that make it more interesting).

edited 14th Dec '17 6:53:41 AM by Soble

God, I wish we could just skip all the way to the end where Kirito wipes the floor with Sugou in both ALO and the real world. I just want to see Abridged!Kirito doing what I really wanted canon!Kirito to do: put the Smug Snake through Cold-Blooded Torture for daring to molest and attempt to rape Kirito's wife after putting her through the humiliation of being a Damsel in Distress for so long.

I mean, he kind of did. He amplified the game's pain settings and then ran him through with a sword, even pointed out that Kayaba - the man who just killed thousands of people including men, women, and children - was morally superior to him.

And then he beat him up in real life too.

edited 14th Dec '17 7:19:47 AM by Soble

”What's that old boyish saying? When girls pick on you constantly it means they "like-like" you? (I wonder if that holds up nowadays...)”

It’s full of shit.

I love how we've gone from Takahata being the villain to Kaiser Neko being the villain. Next season, Death Gun needs to be voiced by Lanipator.

Though Death Gun being voiced by Masako would be more amusing.

I liked the reveal of Suguya being a bully. Kind of matches her in-canon treatment of her one friend at least. In this interpretation I can kind of see it to as her acting out over concern of her feelings for Kirito.

Considering a specific detail regarding death gun having both of them voice death gun would be cool.