Musician/Composer
Since the first eight volumes have been out for a while, I would like to make a proposal for all pages (not counting the recap pages) to include this note:
All spoilers regarding the Aincrad, Phantom Bullet, Fairy Dance and Mother's Rosario arcs are unmarked. Examples pertaining to the Alicization and Moon Cradle arcs can be spoiler tagged if deemed necessary.
Thoughts or objections?
Edited by gjjones He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself. Hide / Show Replies
A quick update. Since there are no further objections, I'll go ahead and unmark the spoilers.
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.
Gently wrap up this world like the night sky.
With Sword Art Online Alternative: Clover's Regret and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, as well as the spin-off manga Girls Ops should their be a separate folder for spin-offs?
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Is it okay now to add in tropes, characters and moments from the film?
In the Headscratchers, under the folder "Conflict setup for Phantom Bullet", there is a mountain of political drama and personal arguments. Should we leave it all there? Only some of it relates back to the original Headscratcher, (Seriously, at some point it devolves into an argument over the definition of terrorism and the Patriot Act.) and I'm not too familiar with the editing protocols in instances like this.
Anybody got any ideas? Should it be left alone, or cleaned up? A Nd if it should be cleaned up, what parts are still relevant?
First off, before I get into this, let me make one thing clear: I am not here to complain! I have watched the Anime, and I did, for the most part, enjoy the Aincrad story arc, the GGO story arc, and the Mother's Rosario story arc. The ALO story arc felt like a drop in quality, and was disappointing. The Excaliber story arc was okay, it just didn't live up to the tension of the other arcs. I am critical of the series, but part of that is because it had quite a bit going for it, and I really liked it up until the last episode of the first arc. That's when things started to bug me, and it was because one trope was in effect and, in my opinion, poorly executed: Deus ex Machina . Before you ask, that is whited out because it pertains to the endings of 3 major story arcs, and the same goes for all other spoilertags. If you haven't finished the GGO arc, then you ignore the spoilertags ahead at your own risk. If you have watched the Anime through GGO, or read the light novels through that arc, go ahead. I am about to go into detail about the endings of the Aincrad, ALO, and GGO arcs. Ready? O.K. Now, as I mentioned, my enjoyment of the series was lessened by the (in my opinion poor) application of a Deus ex Machina, and that trope isn't listed on the tropes example page. Now, what bugged me about the series was that Kirito was saved by a Deus ex Machina at the end of the Aincrad story arc. Twice in the same episode actually. Asuna broke the paralysis condition and blocked a blow for him. It is actively stated by Heathcliff that that shouldn have been impossible. He then runs Kirito through, Kirito's health hits zero, and then, he comes back, all ghostly, kills Heathcliff, and beats the game. Now, bear with me. On the Deus ex Machina page, it lists three criteria for something being a Deus ex Machina. First, it solves a problem. Kirito's coming back to life allows him to beat the game, resolving the major conflict. Second, it is sudden or unexpected. Check, everything we know about SAO says that shouldn't have happened. Third, it solves a problem depicted as unsolvable or hopeless. Kirito's coming back to life allowed him to, you know, not die, and further, beat the game. So all three criteria are met. Now, I understand that some people really like this series, so to avoid having the edits I might make promptly removed in defense of the series, I feel it is necessary to explain my logic first. Hence, the previous wall o' text. Now, I'm going to go into another wall o' text to explain the two other examples of this trope I would like to add to the examples list. In the second to last episode of next arc, the ALO arc, Kirito is impaled, unable to do anything as Asuna is about to be raped by Sugou, who is also planning on turning down the pain absorber on Kirito, to the point where it will actually start affecting his real body. Then Kayaba himself appears, gives Kirito a motivational speech, after which Kirito musters the will to get up, then logs in to Heathcliff's ID, strips Sugou of his administrative privaleges, gives him the most powerful sword in the game, sets the pain absorber to 0, and lays the beatdown on Sugou. Ok, let's get the checklist. Solves current problem? Yup, even though Kirito might've mustered the strength to stand on his own, he probably would've been put down again by Sugou since he was still an admin. So yeah, logging in as Heathcliff fulfils this requirement. Unexpected or sudden? Check, there was no prior indication this could or would happen. Problem in question unsolvable or hopeless? Definitely. I don't even need to elaborate there. There is also, in my opinion, one last example of this trope in the GGO arc. Kirito has been stabbed in the chest with a syringe full of deadly poison, and it turns out the syringe hit an EKG electrode that was still on his chest, saving him. So, it solves a problem that was seemingly hopeless (Kirito poisoned and probably going to die shortly) in an unexpected manner (that thing was so small that the syringe hitting it seems fairly unlikely, and while we know that he was hooked up to an EKG, we didn't know he'd forgotten to take an electrode off.) That makes 4 counts of Kirito being saved by a Deus ex Machina . In conclusion, I feel that this trope has been evoked, and should be added to the work's list of tropes. If there are no objections, I will make the edit. If you've read this far, thank you for sitting through my wall of text, and for not dismissing me out of hand as a "hater."
unpronounceable
I think that Shinkawa should also be placed under Idiot Ball for the issue surrounding the AGL-stat in GGO. I say this because: 1) Yamikaze was an AGL-type character and he was a runner up in the 2nd Bo B - even earning the nick "Run&Gun". Zexeed is not stated to have a nick. 2) Pale Rider is also shown to be an AGL-type character and he was shown to take down a player fairly easily.
Part of Idiot ball does not belong, as when ALO was made, Sugou had no idea if SAO would ever end, so no harm in keeping the system.
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Also, that entry doesn't make much sense to me.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
The "Anime" page is the same as the "Light Novel" page.
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Yep, because the Anime/ page is a redirect to the Light Novel one.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Regarding some of the mentions of seemingly later events in Alicization; was the 14th Volume released? It doesn't seem to be?
Seriously, Sword Art Online's YMMV needs to be rewritten. It has a bunch of natter here and it makes you stop watching the anime.
Alright, can someone please explain to me how the game's creator can get away with all of this? What he's doing is essentially taking hostages and committing murder. How has he not been arrested yet, and why aren't there dozens of scientist and computer experts working on saving the people who are still trapped?
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He doesn't "get away with it" in the end, though I won't say any more than that.
And there are tons of people trying to get the "players" out. The thing is, each player basically has a bomb attached to their brain. A bomb set to go off if it loses connection to the player or is tampered with. What government/family would risk trying to take off the helmet when it is relatively few people trapped and there is a chance of them getting out alive all by themselves?
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
Yeah, given that the Sword Art Online part of the plot is long over in the Light Novels, the answers to your questions are all in the 3rd and 4th light novels.
Short answer: It's too risky to tamper with the system, like Belian said, and as for Kayaba: of course there is a manhunt for him, but he had obviously been assuming that would happen, and went in to hiding.
If you want more detailed answers, read the L Ns, the link is in the main page here.
How would we even be able to tell if he was arrested or not? The series only shows things that happen inside the game and obviously they have no contact with the outside. He could've been arrested an hour after they were trapped and it would have made no difference.
@Clarste: Let's just say we can tell from later events like the reveal that a very high-ranking player (whose name you will probably have heard, but I'm leaving it out for spoiler reasons) is actually Kayaba. Also, we get the story from a friend of Kayaba's (if a friend is someone who almost decides to cut your throat) from after SAO and almost all of ALO.
Sometimes Good Is Not Nice. It Sucks to Be the Chosen One, yet You Are Not Alone. Every hardship is Level Grinding, cue Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
Has anyone read/finished the Aliciazation novel yet? I'm talking about the original, web version, since it's still being published in Japan now (at the current rate, it might well be 2014 before it's done). I'm just wondering how much of its tropes to put on the main, character, awesome & funny pages, since they're mega spoilers, even for people who've read all the published books, much less just the translations.
I guess you can say they're non-canonic, but the 1st 2 published Aliciazation books have been almost identical (as have been pretty much all the novels to date with a few minor edits here & there) so I see no reason why the rest wouldn't.
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I say go ahead and add them. Though I would put "Untranslated" (or something like that) visible so people know what is going on.
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
Voyeur
There are spoilers in the description. It should be rewritten.
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Remove them. No spoilers go in the intro.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I haven't read the novels yet, but from the description I haven't found anything different about SAO that I haven't heard of before. The concept itself looks okay. Is there anything I should be aware of that warrants describing the series as legendary?
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Nope. But go ahead and read it anyway. The characters are interesting people, and the setting for the first novel is pretty interesting.
Also, it sets up the setting then drops you right into the frey, skipping all the "OMG! What should we do? *DISPAIR*" that you would expect early on.
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
Alternatively, you can wait for the anime adaptation, which is unfortunately only coming out in July. (I'm raging at having to wait that long, but what else can I do?)No Idea how it compares to the light novels though. Or even which order they are going to go in.
There is also the Accel World Anime coming up. Same author.
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
I recently read the first few novels, and while the idea is definitely similar, I would say it's far and away the best of the various series with this sort of plot.
The author does a very good job of looking at, mentally and philosophically, what would happen to people in a situation like this. Far better than I've seen done in other similar plots. I loved .hack, but I always felt it required A LOT of suspension of disbelief.
That said, after the fourth book (where the initial conflict is finally, totally resolved) it becomes quite a bit more random and adventury. I would say take it or leave it at that point, though it's still good.
I would say the initial conflict is totally resolved after the first book, but the 3rd book retcons it to make it a new conflict. Frankly, I think books 3-4 have by far the worst plot of any of them. Charitably, it deals with the aftermath of the event, but the way it handles it is just kind of lazy. Books 5-6 go for a similar approach but aren't afraid to make the story move on rather than repeat itself, so it feels a bit more natural.
That said, it's quite telling that the author is constantly writing stories that take place earlier in the series.
I agree with Clarste about the Fairy Dance arc. I just felt irritated by it, and I actually ended up skipping to the last couple of chapters of book 4. For me the series picks back up afterwards. That said, the ending to Fairy Dance is immensely satisfying, and its villain is one of the most despicable characters I have ever seen, so I have to give it kudos for that.
Edited by physxman
In honor of my 50lb pup
Speaking of the anime... I am wondering how they are going to do it. Depending on a number of factors (mostly length), they have three basic options: Do the first book just about as-is (with the possibility of the short stories as OV As), combine the first book and short stories into one season, or keep a fast pace and do a 2-season anime with the second season covering the next story line (the short stories would have to be included at some point for that to work).
Lots of perfectly reasonable posibilities.
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie! Hide / Show Replies
Good point... I hope they fit in the ss and make it chronological as well, alternatively we can always go for the non-chronological route, like Suzumiya's 1st season, and do everything similar to the books. Where do you think the anime will stop? Just at SAO?Fairy tail? GGO? I highly doubt it'll go further than that, but the studio might decide to go for more seasons.
Yeah, I am expecting/hoping for adding in the side stories (with the possiblity of a bit of expantion in the main plot line) as well. If you think about the first book, an anime could go through it quite quickly if they wanted it to. Also, the ss would bring in the harem aspect that is so popular (though a couple of them would probably have to be flashbacks).
About what it will eventually cover... I expect that it will cover up through ALO (A Lfheim Online, Fairy Dance), especially if the first season is popular enough. As the producer, I would then take a break and come back to GGO at some latter point because of how satifying the end of Fairy Dance is.
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
Opened a forum to discuss easier. I am an SAO fan, as you can see from the entry pimping.
Edited by Pryun
the cast presented its going to be volumes 1-4 so more or less its a double season thing season 1 covering SAO's main arc as well as the side stories considering the existence of Scilica and Lizbeth in the anime and then season 2 will cover 3-4 depending on length... after hearing the AW and SAO drama CD they will consider probably covering phantom bullet arc as well considering Shino is in the drama CD
Algester, that's good to hear. I almost hope they stop there since the first four volumes form a very good cohesive story. After that it becomes a bit more random (still cool though).
I have to say though, I'm a little worried about doing the SAO arc chronologically. The side stories all make Kirito look like a god, but when they were seperate from the main plot, you already knew him and it didn't make him a marty stu. But when you put it all in order, I'm worried he'll come off as too perfect and powerful.
Eye See You.
A lot of this needs to be rewritten clearer. And Kayaba wasn't doing it for the EVULZ, though the trope is still in affect for the books 3 and 4. If I was a better troper, I could help. That, and I need to do my own writing at the moment.
In case of emergency, please press F4 and break glass.
In the hopes that someone might read the L Ns because im not too much of a tvtrope lurker im not sure about the right tropes to add LN translations can be seen in baka0tsuki should anyone be interested to find out
Sword Art Online is listed in The Epic index page, and can be found reached in The Epic sub-index on the bottom of the Shakugan No Shana page (which it is in alphabetical order after)
However, The Epic sub index is conspicuously missing from the bottom of the Sword Art Online Page. Is this a bug?
Edited by AbsoluteSword