Forum - View topicEpisode Review: Sword Art Online II
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gel309
 Posts: 25 |
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Overall, Sword Art Online isn't such a bad series, but it's also not the best. It has its peak episodes, and its lowest ones. Here's to hopingspoiler[alicization arc will get animated!]
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18222 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Um, that was the scene fading out, not her avatar. We weren't actually shown what happened to her avatar, but it's safe to presume that the character just went immobile, as if the game was lagging, because there was no longer any input. Still a pretty sad effect. And people are making entirely too much of the wrong kind of deal out of Kayaba being brought up. As I watched that part of the scene, I felt certain that the point there was to show that Kayaba's actions weren't all deviltry, that something good could actually have been borne from his work. I don't think that is in any way meant to redeem Kayaba (and clearly Kirito didn't think so), just point out that there were alternate, more wholesome ways to use the technology he developed. I don't see Yuuki ever being brought back, and I think it would be a travesty if she was. |
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Muphrid
 Posts: 35 |
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I dunno, I saw that little bit about Kayaba as, among other things, continuing a tradition of the show judging Kayaba as amoral--neither good nor evil, simply dedicated wholly to advancing virtual reality and exploring its consequences. The show wants us to believe that Kayaba didn't trap 10,000 people out of malice but mere indifference to their lives because it served his purposes to do so.
I don't entirely disagree with the show's outlook on Kayaba, but I feel it uses it a bit too easily to excuse or diminish the heinousness of his crimes. This right here almost makes it look like we should feel Kayaba did a good thing. He didn't. Kayaba was never interested in doing good or evil. That his work helps someone like Yuuki and others is not a reflection of his generosity or compassion. It's simply an avenue through which his VR work can see use. It was a very tone-deaf twist, as the rest of the arc had nothing to do with Kayaba's morality. |
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Barbobot
 Posts: 460 |
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Why would she frag into splinters? She died in real life, not in the game. It would be more like suddenly pulling the ethernet cord from your computer in the middle of a game. |
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SquadmemberRitsu
 Posts: 1391 |
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While there are some pretty glaring problems throughout all of SAO the one thing I applaud the series for is its willingness to see the good in a bad situation. Which I think is generally a much better approach than constantly shoving down the viewer's throat how horrible and pointless everything is. Kawahara seems like a very optimistic person and it shows in his work.
Yes, it's an absolute tragedy what happened in SAO and the series never denies that fact. However, Kirito learned to trust in others and many other people grew stronger in similar ways as a direct result of their experiences with the Nerve Gear and Amusphere. Yuuki and The Sleeping Knights were at death's door, but they all still wanted to make the most of what time they had left. Yuuki passing away was tragic, but the data she gave will inevitably help a lot of people and even save lives. SAO is FAR from perfect but I really do admire Kawahara's optimism. Urobuchi's pessimism certainly has its charms (Actually, I think out of the two he's a much better writer) but I don't want to watch stuff like that all the time. It might be a little convenient that just about every horrible thing that happens leads to something good happening later down the line, but it's a good message and its expressed clearly (Even if not always subtly) so I can forgive a few minor flaws. Caliber wasn't all that great but I liked GGO and especially Mother's Rosario. So SAO II is well and truly in my good books. I'd be perfectly satisfied even if they ended it right here and didn't adapt the rest, but at the same time I welcome future installments. Even moreso than I had before. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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My immediate thought on the mention was "what if the two (SAO & Mediboid) WERE related? I don't think the timeline works or that it is in any way what "happened" (I also think it doesn't make the SAO incident any less heinous), but what if Kayaba enacted the SAO incident explicitly for the purpose of "testing" some aspects of the mediboid. It's one of those things that would possibly remove the possibility of a "human test" without the information gained in the SAO incident. (where you had people essentially strapped into the gear and "playing" for 2 years straight, something that would be INCREDIBLY risky and likely no way that gets legal clearance through standard means. Obviously he had other avenues of study as well (wanting to see Kirito "exceed" the technology for example), but it's interesting to see if the one was intended (at least in part) to "prove out" the other. |
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maxlance
Posts: 50 |
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I suspect that a death is registered as a death in the system regardedless which side you are and triggers the same in-game death effect. In the on-line novel I recall that it's hinted that in very early SAO days gamers would suddenly spontaneously explode ("into splinters") because family and docs were attempting to remove the NerveGear. |
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maxlance
Posts: 50 |
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Kayaba was pure and simple a mad Mengele. It was totally unnecessary to imprison thousands for an experiment when he would've probably could've reaped just as many legal and hassleless guinea pigs by asking for volunteers (If only the SyFy writers of "Ascension" used that logic!). But I've no doubt all his actions from the NerveGear to the Mediboid were stepping stones to assuage his ego with the ultimate vanity of immortality, but I think Kirito forced his hand too early to go the premature VR soul transplant route to escape justice. I think the later games hint that Kayaba senses that he's "missing" parts of his original soul that didn't make the VR transfer because his interrupted technique were undeveloped and ineffective. Here's hoping Yuuki's soul made it in under the wire. |
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TUSF
Posts: 191 |
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Erm. Why are we asking "Why didn't Yuuki break into splinters?"??
I mean, we didn't see what happened to her avatar, considering the scene faded out. Even so her death in real life would have just counted as a disconnect anyways. Source: Episode 1 of this Season. |
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