Forum - View topicEpisode Review: Sword Art Online II
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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I removed the spoiler tags because that isn't a spoiler. Having written the same thing before, I rather think now that we are selling Asuna short. She knows what and who Kirito is ("probably protecting someone right now") and she seems quite capable of being friends with all the other girls mooning over him. So Asuna might take advantage and tease him about it for a bit but I doubt she will really begrudge Sinon the attention he is giving her. |
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TUSF
Posts: 191 |
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This was explained in the first episode: Both people were extremely malnourished, not having eaten for several days in a row, and they figured that both of their deaths were unrelated.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11349 |
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That may or may not be a silly concept in the real world, but I agree it's problematic to imagine that the programming for this game is so super-advanced that such a thing, if real, could translate into the virtual world. On the other hand, I suppose it's possible that even if it's not a real life thing, there could be game dynamics that allow subtle sensory proximity feedback among players to simulate the experience, though limiting it to "killer instinct" would be a stretch. |
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TUSF
Posts: 191 |
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Basically, the rational given in the book, is that the system references your avatar and account, and thus creating a bit of latency. So you’re not so much feeling literal killing intent, but feeling their gaze, and the system referencing you, and targeting you. There was a passing reference of it in the book, during the second arc, when Kirito “felt” someone looking at them, (the bat familiar) So I assume the "killer instinct" is a result of the player staring at you directly. |
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HaruhiToy
Posts: 4118 |
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It's good to be in sync with the episode reviewer (Ep 12). I almost but not quite hit the fast forward button.
Although I have never bothered with the source material so I can't say if the problem started there, I am wondering if someone in the SAO production staff ended up sick for a week. I can imagine someone groundhogging up from their workstation shouting "We need a rewrite!" and everyone else shouting "Deadline!" "Sato and Yuki are still out we need to stretch out another week!" and things like that. Anyway, I hope the boring part is over. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18186 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Fully agree with Nick that the front half of this episode dragged because of the rehashing, and on why that was probably happening. Also agree with his comments on what he sees going on with Sinon's character in this episode, as I pretty much saw it the same way.
I only disagree that the second half of last episode was also boring. |
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Kreion
Posts: 332 |
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Objectivity isn't a lie. Being 100% objective is extremely unlikely and the review would suffer for it - but the general premise of objectivity is certainly not a lie. Plus it's easy to prove: just saying "I like this because" or "This is good because" defines how you have to approach the thing you are writing. There are lots of things in a series which can be technically judged - art quality, sound quality, generally voice actor quality is pretty obvious beyond "I don't think X suited Y role". This also holds true for plots and how the story is delivered - though there are more ways to subjectively interpret a story. But all of the above is actually pretty irrelevant - as what a good reviewer should be doing is strive FOR objectivity, regardless of the fact they will always be bias one way or another. A good review is something which looks at the good and bad technical points of the series and weighs that against their own enjoyment - also taking into account the fact that other people may not have the same opinions as you. tl;dr - whilst someone who claims to have an objective review is likely wrong, that doesn't mean the concept is a lie or something which people should cease to try and embrace. |
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Pipoko
Posts: 165 |
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The rape thing was even worse in the novel - it was straight up thought by Sinon that she was going to be raped and there was a chunk of it describing her being abused by him. There was absolutely no need for that because in the end all that her friend wanted to do is use the syringe on her. It's just ugh because I actually like Sinon for her arc, as much as it's influenced by Kirito's character, she still has an arc (unlike any other female character in the series), and as we saw, she decided to fight back with her own resolution.
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Mr_42
 Posts: 87 |
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I think the niggling little problem I had with episode 12 was the conclusion to the BoB.....
I know it's minor and not really an issue, but really? The Bullet of Bullets is:
This is a tournament big enough to be aired on TV, a Pro-ESport. It even has real-world prizes:
And this high-octane competition that pits the best of the best against each other in a fight to the death.... ends with the two people that commit joint sucide winning!? 
HOW!? If anything Sinon should win as it was her grenade that ended the game, or maybe as they died simultaneously, the player that got the most kills won? Hell! Maybe say neither of them won and they were disqualified for committing suicide in an official competition where the aim is to play seriously? Having both of them win really just feels like a Deus Ex Machina "Here you go, have a happy ending, everyone's a winner, good triumphs over evil  " and makes it clear that though SAO wants to be taken seriously it's still just a medicore story at it's core.
(In my opinion.) |
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EmberJune
Posts: 13 |
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"the way it constantly framed Asuna with the threat of rape would have been funny if it weren't so tasteless and thoughtlessly abused."
Nah man, the threat of rape is never funny. SAO 1st arc was always my favorite, 2nd was the worst (I like SAO II better). Just something about SAO I (1st arc) was actually emotionally triggering and exciting to watch, which I have failed to find in the episodes that follow it. Ignoring the harem aspect of SAO, Asuna and Kirito are a completely legitimate couple with an interesting back story and relationship development. I feel like that has been kicked aside a bit so that Kirito can independently fix his problems (which I am totally fine with). I just don't want any "implied" relationships to happen with him. I relied on the other dude's crush on Sinon to prevent that... But not anymore I guess... ugh...... |
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konqueror
Posts: 129 |
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For stuff like this I can't take SAO seriously anymore. You have a nice concept with nice action scenes, but the drama, narration and everything else is just plain bad.
This is when you can notice how SAO was never planned to get past the first arc, because from there onwards everything is a big mess. I watched the first season, the first 13 episodes were ok, maybe a bit of forced drama, but ok. From ep14 onwards everything was, how to say it, bad, and now we have this season. I feel underestimated by this series, so if this was the last episode of this arc, I think I'm done with SAO. Last edited by konqueror on Sat Sep 27, 2014 8:02 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Levitz9
 Posts: 1022 Location: Puerto Rico |
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How's that little pretend-world workin' for ya? No joke, studying Journalism does wonders for your definition of "objectivity". Even something as simple as your choice of words can betray some sense of bias. A review, what's more, is where one should be as subjective as possible, or else what's the point? You can be honest, and Nick was as honest as he could get: he found the episode lacking. We wouldn't be having this argument about objectivity if he had given the episode a higher score. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2245 |
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Can I get some elaboration on this? I don't know if it was a poor choice of words or what, but considering how you feel about the rape aspect of this episode, it just seems like an odd sentence. Unless you're using "funny" less in the "ha ha" way and more like "laughably pathetic"--as in, "if the team were smarter about that arc, the implied rape threat would be laughably pathetic because Asuna would ground the guy into meat paste before letting anything close to that happen." Or someone would call the cops. Or something. |
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Bobduh
 Posts: 24 |
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To clarify the "would have been funny" line, which commenters have rightly called me out on - no, I agree, rape is never funny. My intent was to imply that repeated use of an equally hackneyed but less awful and legitimately charged device would have been funny, but since it is what it is, it's just tasteless and awful. I didn't mean to imply that different execution would have made the show's actual choices funny. Poor phrasing on my part.
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2402 |
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I agree that the rape aspect was entirely unnecessary. His primary objective was a lover's suicide, Kawahara didn't need to throw rape in there along with it.
I also think that knocking the epsiode down to D despite everything else seeming to be positive is pretty extreme knee jerk reaction. We have a teen guy who sees no value in other peoples lives and who takes what he wants. The idea that he might sexually assault her before he kills her, while not tasteful, doesn't seem that out there to me, and I don't think it entirely diverted the focus away from the fact he was going to kill her either. Now if he say strung her up with a chain, ripped off her clothes, and started feeling her up with the intent to rape her in front of her boyfriend to see them both suffer... thats pretty sick and steals the entire focus of the scene. I would absolutely understand this kind of extreme knee jerk reaction from that. Seems like a lot of the hate for this scene is actually coming from the fact that what I just said happened in the previous arc and not on the merits of this arc or this episode. |
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