Sword Art Online

[Kraco]

Asuna came across as being a little strange to me. She seems to be an absolute noob who does not even know about your name being on your life bar, Its like she has never played an MMO before. Yet she has some sick moves that even impresses Kirito. This makes her look like a verteran. So is she super talented? Or is she hiding something, like being a beta as well?

Being an MMO prodigy would be more sad than cool (unless she's Korean), so I'd rather hope she has lots of SP experience, has RL martial arts skills, or something else along those lines. Just being another beta tester would be a boring revelation. Even though I reckon having some female beta testers would be beneficial to a game, but for this game in particular it's not really of utmost importance since it's just a killing field envisioned by the madman creator.

[David75]

We're not 100% sure people really die IRL. After all, everything they get can be altered. But it is better to think it truly is the case.
But since so many players are still in game after a full month when their real bodies should've dehydrated already, it might be the outside world had to tend to their body needs without logging them off.

I'm not into mmo or the likes, so I'm a total noob regarding references or the likes.
The only thing I get is that they need to fight for survival up to level 100, that the best beta tester only managed to get to level 8 and the real game is more difficult.

[MasterOfMoogles]

I'm kind of sad they're skipping a lot of the side stories from the novels. They skipped the "First Day" story about what happens to Kirito after he abandons Klein in the starting city, and they only did about 1/4th of the content from Aria in the Starless Night. They also cut out one of my favorite side characters, and I doubt she'll be showing up later based on the next episode title.

I guess they just wanted to get to the boss battle, which kind of makes sense. You don't want the whole thing to be exposition.
I'll just leave these here for anyone who wants direct links to some novel content that won't have any spoilers. Obviously you won't want to go beyond these chapters.:
First Day - covers what happens to Kirito after he leaves Starting City on the first day of the game - http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/in...me_8_Chapter_3
Aria in the Starless Night - Covers up to the end of episode 2 (pretty much ends at exactly the same point), but is significantly longer and has more characters (Argo the Rat) - http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/in...Starless_Night

[Uchiha Barles]

We're only into episode 2 and already my expectations for the series took a severe blow. Why the hell would diabel refuse the potion? You die in real life if you die in the game dumb fuck. For something that silly to happen so early causes me to be unable to take the life/death thing seriously.

[KrayZ33]

Potions are probably very expensive i guess
and since he wanted to atone for his sin (greed) he told him to keep the potion

[Archangel]

There wasn't even a potion in the novel i think, that part was so weird.

I think i read somewhere that potions only heal per second though so it wouldn't have done any good anyway. Not sure though.

[Kraco]

I took that scene in a way that the dude was already dead in practical terms (zero hp), but the game engine allowed some last words in the best dramaturgic manner.

[Xelbair]

Your HP bar doesn't decrease immediately after a blow - he knew that he was going to die anyways because potions aren't instant - they just speed up the regeneration.

[Archangel]

I think i read somewhere that potions only heal per second though so it wouldn't have done any good anyway. Not sure though.

Your HP bar doesn't decrease immediately after a blow - he knew that he was going to die anyways because potions aren't instant - they just speed up the regeneration.

Muahahaha, kneel before my all knowing novelfaggotry!

[Munsu]

I'll let it slide here, but please stop giving information that hasn't been provided in the anime. I'm sure all these things will be explained further in the series.

That said, enjoying this series so far and liked the turn of events towards the end with Kirito, makes for a much better character.

[Archangel]

I'll let it slide here, but please stop giving information that hasn't been provided in the anime. I'm sure all these things will be explained further in the series.

That said, enjoying this series so far and liked the turn of events towards the end with Kirito, makes for a much better character.

No they won't, this is the type of shit that gets released on websites and forums. The anime doesn't have time to go into such tiny details.

[Munsu]

No they won't, this is the type of shit that gets released on websites and forums. The anime doesn't have time to go into such tiny details.

Guess you're probably right, regardless I'd like to give the opportunity for the anime to explain itself in some manner. And you know, speculate instead of someone jumping in to spoon feed the answer.

But we'll see.

[shinta|hikari]

While I am also irritated at a lot of things they are skipping, I think it would be better for novel readers not to explain too much as well. I do want to at least defend the source material though, so I think saying that it actually made sense or had an explanation in the novel should be allowed.

Needless to say, that episode was a pretty horrible adaptation.

[Archangel]

Guess you're probably right, regardless I'd like to give the opportunity for the anime to explain itself in some manner. And you know, speculate instead of someone jumping in to spoon feed the answer.

But we'll see.

See, the thing is that if nobody explains these little tidbits everyone simply remains annoyed on particular scenes that didn't seem to make sense.

Barles was already going on about blown expectations when the reason was quite simple. I think we leave the matter alone and allow novel readers to reveal these little tidbits if and only if someone asks or refers to them directly in their posts.

Nobody will reveal any major or important plot details, we're all grown ass men who can tell the difference between clarifying and spoling >_>

[Munsu]

See, the thing is that if nobody explains these little tidbits everyone simply remains annoyed on particular scenes that didn't seem to make sense.

Barles was already going on about blown expectations when the reason was quite simple. I think we leave the matter alone and allow novel readers to reveal these little tidbits if and only if someone asks or refers to them directly in their posts.

Nobody will reveal any major or important plot details, we're all grown ass men who can tell the difference between clarifying and spoling >_>

There's PM, you can create a Light Novel thread in the appropriate section, you can allude to something vague without going into details to keep the interest up, etc. There's a myriad of ways to go about discussing this without spoiling details to those of us who don't want to be spoiled.

This is not the re-invention of the wheel. The anime section is a no-spoiler zone for a reason. For any other concern, please refresh our policy on spoilers:
http://forums.gotwoot.net/showthread...cy-on-Spoilers

And that's the end of the matter, so please don't derail the thread further than it already has.

Thanks.

[deathnightwc3]

First thing that came to mind was Lelouch when he basically made himself the focus of all the beta-tester hating.

[Archangel]

First thing that came to mind was Lelouch when he basically made himself the focus of all the beta-tester hating.

...really? Lelouch?

A dude dressed in black made himself out to be the villain for the greater good... and your mind went to Lelouch?

[Uchiha Barles]

After hearing some of the details, I guess it does make sense why he avoided taking the potion. Honestly, had I thought about it a bit, even without knowing the details, I could've surmised that he refused the potion because he knew it wouldn't work. The problem is that the scene was so poorly done (imho), I was blinded and I didn't even want to try to see. From the moment Diabel charged in, to the moment he died, I went into disbelief mode. If they're going to leave out details from the source material that make things clear, they need to do something in the adaptation to compensate. In this case, I was not immediately convinced as I was watching the scene that the wound was too grave for the potion to be effective. That disbelief intensified when Kirito got struck in a very similar fashion later in the fight. I guess I'll just get over how it was done and go with the spirit of things on this one.

A less crippling, but potentially longer lasting peeve, was how Kirito decided to handle the hatred towards beta testers by trying to concentrate the game population's hatred on himself. I mean...it's noble and all, but it hardly seemed like the only choice he had. It hardly seemed like the best choice he had. First off, he was yelling at the top of his lungs that the boss' weapon was different than what was shown in the beta. I'm sure a number of them heard. All he had to do was mention that and see if anyone who might've heard would back him up. Furthermore, I think there were at least a couple of people there who didn't jump to conclusions about his character. Egil comes to mind in this. These people would've quieted the group long enough for him to make some speech or another to set them straight. The group that killed the first boss would then hold status, and Kirito and his assassin lovely would hold status within that group, even if he decided to go at it solo afterwards. That status could then be used to open the lines of communication with the rest of the player base and disseminate proper information about the beta testers and their actions.

God help him if the server is PvP enabled. With your life on the line, you have to be cocksure or (and?) stupid as hell to purposely make yourself the focal point everyone in the game, assuming you have better options. But beyond the dangers he faces going this route, I fail to see what personal benefit he can get out of this. It's all risk and no apparent reward. That being said, a lone wolf, widely hated character is usually more fun to watch, particularly if the issues I mentioned are addressed.

[fireheart]

That disbelief intensified when Kirito got struck in a very similar fashion later in the fight.

Well no idea really but since it's suppose to be an MMO I just chalked it up to either level difference or better equipment.

Edit: Also Diabel got hit twice while Kirito got hit once.

[Buffalobiian]

Whether he called out the weapon or not didn't matter, since most of them were dead set on him cheating anyway. Explanations woiuld have been palmed off. The only thing to do was to ride with their emotions and become the biggest bad guy they were making him out to be. It wasn't just that either, he managed to add to his speech that the entire group here is now better than any beta tester so they'll no longer suspect each other when someone performs well. He new that the group had to stay together if they were to survive. As for himself.. well he's been soloing since the start anyway. He can always join a mob whenever he needs to anyway. No one's going to refuse help from supposedly the strongest Beta tester in SAO (if they believe the story in the first place).