Sword Art Online

[MasterOfMoogles]

Let's imagine a scenario with a real life MMO. To make it more realistic, let's say there are all guys and 1 girl.
The people in this MMO play together in the same guild because they're friends and have fun. Then the girl hooks up with one of the guys. Are all of the other guys just going to quit the guild even though they're having a good time? Most likely not. They'll still hang out, and probably continue to talk to and flirt with the girl a little even.
Heck, when I played WoW, our 40 man raiding group had a couple women. One was even married with her husband also in the guild, yet she still talked to everyone a lot and made jokes and stuff with everybody.

I don't think this situation is really that far from what is presented in SAO. The unnatural part, of course, is that the male to female ratio is reversed.

As for your endgame thoughts, some of them are questionable.
The only reason Shino played GGO specifically was to get over her gun issue. If she can have just as much fun with any other game while also playing with friends, why wouldn't she do that? Although she got over her gun trauma, she probably has new male/relationship trauma that she needs to get over.

Suguha is way too young for Klein. Like, seriously. Maybe if they hung out and 4-5 years passed and they were still interested, maybe...
If anyone, I think Liz gets along best with Klein. Still pretty young, though. Klein's like 8 years older than them (and Sugu is younger than Kirito).

Which brings us to your last point. Poor Liz... What's wrong with Liz? I don't think she deserves to be forever alone. She needs to get over Kirito, though.

Sugu actually already has a potential pairing in that random kid from her school who she doesn't really hate or anything. She just has major oniichan problems.

I think the most awkward part of the whole SAO harem situation is that Kirito and Asuna got married in-game, but not in real life. Kirito also has no idea how to handle all of these women coming onto him when he really has already decided.

[lelouch]

Suguha is way too young for Klein. Like, seriously.

Dude, this is a show where Suguha tried to bang her brother and where Kirisuna are raising a virtual baby. I don't think an age gap can be seen as a significant obstacle for something like this.

[MasterOfMoogles]

Sugu was actually doing a pretty good job keeping it to herself until Kirito totally messed it up by popping up in ALO. Even then, you're exaggerating.

I don't really see how Yui is relevant to this discussion.

[Buffalobiian]

The only problem with all of the girls is that they won't see much in Klein after being used to Kirito. That NPC is perfect for Klein.

[DarthEnderX]

Not to mention, the NPC is probably programmed to be predisposed to the player that rescued her.

[shinta|hikari]

People fall in and out of love all the time. These harem girls will find another dude or Asuna will learn to share.

[MFauli]

8 years is a huge age gap? Coe on, thats mean. There are currently two girls irl Im fawning over that are 10 years younger than me :Y

As for the reversed gender ratio: I dont think thats the only difference to your example. These girls arent just having fun and flirting a bit, they really WANT Kirito. That´s what makes it awkward.

[Buffalobiian]

As for the reversed gender ratio: I dont think thats the only difference to your example. These girls arent just having fun and flirting a bit, they really WANT Kirito. That´s what makes it awkward.

"I wish she'd touch my tail too... "

[Kraco]

Aren't those girls still high school students? They are merely having fun at the moment. Things will change once they graduate and move forward in life. I'd imagine Kirito & Asuna would get married pretty soon after graduation. Dunno about Klein, since he doesn't have any particular forced reason to move forward, but on the other hand when all the others do, he's forced to seek new company.

[DarthEnderX]

8 years is a huge age gap?

Depends on the ages involved.

48 and 40 isn't a big deal. 20 and 12 is cause for concern.

[shinta|hikari]

@Kraco - Aren't Kirito and Asuna high school students as well? Even if they do get married, it doesn't mean that they will stay together forever. Kuroyukihime has divorced parents, after all.

[Buffalobiian]

Kuroyukihime has divorced parents, after all.

You're ruining my fantasy here.

[Kraco]

@Kraco - Aren't Kirito and Asuna high school students as well? Even if they do get married, it doesn't mean that they will stay together forever. Kuroyukihime has divorced parents, after all.

I don't know about Kuroyukihime's parents, but Kirito and Asuna have survived battles of life and death together. I'd say with a background like that they are more likely to stay together than average modern Johns and Janes who only care about their personal comfort.

[Buffalobiian]

Some couples can live through hard times together but not the good times. I'd like to think they'd stay together though, especially since they've already been virtually married and have a kid. You can say the online version's been a "good time" too, since they never had to toilet train Yui.

[Kraco]

Episode 17 - Horrible




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Why exactly did Kirito so dramatically throw the sword away and then moments later accept it all gleefully from Sinon? I can't help but think something was vastly different between the VN and this anime adaption, and the director couldn't make it work.

Too bad for Klein her lady turned into a bearded Norse god. But good for him he got a valkyrie's phone number. He can call her when he's about to die in battle the next time.

[MFauli]

god forbid klein could get a girl. and im not sure how he´ll be able to contact her, kraco.

also super weird that sword throwing scene. "it´s too heavy, away!", sinon gives it to him, "Thx!". okay.

[Kraco]

god forbid klein could get a girl. and im not sure how he´ll be able to contact her, kraco.

Skuld is a valkyrie, so he only needs to get himself killed in battle, bravely enough to be judged worthy. Though he would soon respawn, so it would be a very short reunion.

[MasterOfMoogles]

Why exactly did Kirito so dramatically throw the sword away and then moments later accept it all gleefully from Sinon? I can't help but think something was vastly different between the VN and this anime adaption, and the director couldn't make it work.

For whatever reason, they didn't mention that it was so heavy Kirito couldn't make the jump to get off the crumbling fortress.
Seems like a weird thing to leave out of the adaptation.

I'm not sure why everybody wants Klein to hook up with some AI...

[Kraco]

For whatever reason, they didn't mention that it was so heavy Kirito couldn't make the jump to get off the crumbling fortress.
Seems like a weird thing to leave out of the adaptation.

It was implicated it was too heavy... for him to use like a sword? However, if he could throw it like that, he could have jumped with it as well. It's not like his arms would have more strength than his legs. He could have also tossed it to the folks already waiting on the back of the flying tentacle monster. Not to mention if it was so super heavy, there's no way Sinon could have hauled it back up so easily.

Which is why I thought, when he threw it away, that he got rid of it because he wouldn't be able to use it like a sword in a fight. So, he wanted to level up considerably before claiming it again. But then Sinon retrieved it, and everything stopped making any sense whatsoever.

[Ryllharu]

For whatever reason, they didn't mention that it was so heavy Kirito couldn't make the jump to get off the crumbling fortress.
Seems like a weird thing to leave out of the adaptation.

They didn't need to mention it. It was straightforward. His hands were shaking from fatigue stating it was heavy, and he tosses it away with a sigh of regret immediately before making the jump. Not everything needs to be explicitly stated.

The surprise is that Sinon appears to have higher Strength than Kirito. I suppose it makes sense, he also puts stats heavily in Agility, while Sinon needed higher Strength stats to lug around her enormous rifle in GGO. Her skills in ALO convert over, and she likely needs very high Strength to draw her specific bow.

I honestly expected Liz to just take it and then make the jump. Blacksmith probably need very high Strength as well. Same with Mjölnir, Klein should have just given it to her. Poor Liz, always 3rd choice...

It's really dumb that Asuna doesn't fight anymore. Definitely a, "Let's make her even more of the perfect wife archetype by making her a pure healing type." Blegh. Take the second or third strongest fighter in all of SAO and make her nearly a pure caster in ALO. Ridiculous. Asuna doesn't strike me as the type who would just stand by, she never had before. If anything Silica should be the support/healer.