Wow, great way to throw away a perfectly good debate point surrounding the rules and the game and the idea that things aren't quite as they seem while still sticking to the murder mystery archetype complete with a seen from a mile away twist. What have we gained from these two episodes other than a few scenes of Asuna demonstrating that she's a mild tsundere and that some people are crazy or assholes or both?
So, the lesson of this whole escapade is that Asuna wants to marry Kirito in game?
I wish it had been a lesson on the loopholes, whether intended or bugs, in the game engine, instead. I won't be calling the plot totally worthless as it did have the crazy murder gang and the unbelievably weak husband, but all in all the resolution doomed these episodes more or less meaningless in the bigger picture (unless Kirito really marries Asuna...).
This is a pretty bad show six episodes in. The first episode is the only one where the script doesn't totally sink the whole proceedings. Episode six was, as usual, dumb as shit. So, they were just teleporting away instead of dying? Ok, so where is the teleport graphic? We've seen it, and it's completely visually distinctive from the death animation, and is not present at all during either of the "deaths". This is like the most elementary fuckup in telling a mystery story - making the mystery impossible to solve because the writer cheated to hide information from you, in this case, the fact that they were escaping with teleports.
Wow, those three badass PKers just wussed out when he showed up. Did the leader actually have a blue colored scar on his cheek?Originally Posted by KrayZ33
It seems unlikely that murderers could easily hang out on the front lines, so even if they're super strong, they probably aren't as high level as Kirito. Also, if they knew who he was and also believed his bluff about the front-liners showing up, it makes sense they would book it.
I was pretty disappointed with the death animations, too. I went back and compared them to the other ones (Diabel, Black Cats), and they all look the same - no way to tell that there is actually a trick to these. It is possible to arrive at the "Nobody could have killed them, so it must be fake" conclusion anyways, but since they don't go into the systems very much that is a pretty hard conclusion to reach.
I also don't like Griselda's ghost showing up. Just way too cheesy.
looked like a tatoo for me
The fact that everyone skilled at the game apparently looks just like an anime character in real life is one of the best jokes of the series.
say - whaaaaaat?
you mean, just like all the actors in movies look like actors in RL? oh digidi-damn
The show in the first episode goes out of its way to show you that most of the players are actually nerdy, overweight, men pretending to be women, etc when the game designer turns off their avatars and makes the characters look like their real selves. Thereafter this is entirely ignored and everyone's design is obviously fantastical. This is actually like the inverse of the Ocean's 12 joke where people suddenly realize that Julia Roberts' character looks like Julia Roberts. The show goes out of its way to explain that in this world, people won't look like anime characters but instead like real people, and then subverts that over and over again. It's pretty funny regardless of whether it's intentional because I laugh every time I see another highly skilled MMORPG player with the body of a supermodel.
thats anime
I consider most characters shown in this show rather ugly in terms of the shounen "anime-character-beautifulness-level"
fat, stubbly beards, extremely thin bodies, long male hair - from time to time... some characters in ep 1 showed up later from what I could make out, like the dragon-pet girl and the cross dressing dude and the fat-man.
(guess what, not all good gamers are fat n ugly btw..)
Last edited by KrayZ33; Fri, 08-17-2012 at 03:30 PM.
Which I find very interesting, considering that the protagonist of the pseudo-sequel set in the same universe (yet started a season earlier), Accel World, is short, fat, and out of shape.
It's like the author realized how wasted the potential of that incongruity was, and utilized it properly the next time. Their avatars are even created by facets of their insecurities and mental trauma.
Makes Sword Art Online seem even more like a beta version of the story the author wanted to tell.
I'd say it's more accurate to say that the system decided that it didn't want players to look like MMORPG characters and instead want them to look like anime characters (since this is anime, after all), but whatever..
I took that move as having 2 reasons:
1) The creator wanted the players to act more like themselves (whether or not their "real" selves are more like real people or anime people.
2) For the (fake couple) lulz.
edit: I guess as a third point, it just goes to show how far the creator's hacked their NervGear to convince players that he's got enough control to fry their brains IRL.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
That's really interesting. As far as I can tell from the Wikipedia publication history, SAO was very literally a trial run for his later work.
The answer is that the writers forgot, or don't care, that people are supposed to look like real people (I've played a lot of online games. Women like the leader of the PK guild not only don't play those games, they don't exist). I think the show could actually make a funny gag of it by having one of the characters comment on the absurdity, but it appears entirely unintentional.
I don't see the point of expecting the central characters to represent reality. The scene in the first episode was clearly for a momentary sense of realism (like making the players really feel that's their life for now) and for the lulz like Bill said. Afterwards it was gradually dropped because this is purely fictional drama, not even fake reality TV. The whole background idea of these guys' bodies being on life support for months while they play would be unbelievable in reality. As if officials would allow that instead of safely removing the Nerv Gear helmets. Also, I don't know how product safety supervision goes in Japan, but I'd imagine a device directly affecting the central nervous system, potentially lethally, would require something more than the assurance of the manufacturer that it's okay. So, when things like these are ignored, I think it's perfectly reasonable they make the bigger characters more pleasant to the eyes and interest of the audience.
This show is slowly but steadily becoming a goddamn waste of my time.
If all goes well, maybe we'll get an S2 where shit gets serious or something. Queen's Blade was a nice surprise. That show had tits going for the first season though, but maybe the fanbase for SAO would be enough to match that.
I looked at the stats of the two swords that were featured here. From that alone, the Dark Repulsor doesn't seem to be as strong as the Elucidator, unless "Strength" and "Running" are responsible for that difference. It sounds weird that someone would request Kirito for a sword (since he said it was a "request") when they should just ask a blacksmith themselves.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
This show is getting mushier and mushier with each episode. Seriously, they should have got another director for this one clearly doesn't have what it takes.
What's it with all the girls falling for Kirito? Shouldn't the game have loads of guys and few girls? It feels more than unlikely so many of those scarce girls would then fall for the antisocial loner (although he's clearly not as antisocial anymore as he was in the beginning). Or are all the other potential guys too busy fighting the game to socialize at all? Maybe that's the crucial factor, after all, since normal people would probably prioritize surviving the game as fast as possible much higher than Kirito, who's right at home stuck there.
I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that we're skipping all the levelling stuff and just getting little "Kirito's side adventure" stories.
Druaga was mostly linear, and I can't say that was a huge success.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Druaga didn't take itself seriously. Arguably, Druaga never took itself seriously. That's why it worked in all the places SAO doesn't. Druaga didn't wait until episode 4 for a tentacle scene, and the main character wasn't a Mary Sue.
Well from what Asuna said didn't Kirito want the sword for himself? There's durability on all the equipments so it's probably a good idea to have some spares and having one that's as good as the one he usually uses is probably preferred. And he did say he wanted a sword that's as good or better than the one he had and it's pretty close to the same stats. Also it said Dark Repulsor + 0 so I'm guessing you can enchant/enhance it while you can't do it with Elucidator since there weren't any + number on it.
You are here alone again
In your sweet insanity
All too calm, you hide yourself from reality
Do you call it solitude? Do you call it liberty?
When all the world turns away to leave you lonely
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