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REVIEW: Sword Art Online episodes 15-25

I wouldn't call it subtle. SAO has a very straight-forward plot. My gripe with Kirito as an anti-social loner is that I wanted to see a stronger before and after shot. Perhaps a bit closer to what was shown in Btoom.

Kirito's reason for abandoning Klein in the first episode was that Klein would not abandon his friends. Kirito decides that more people would be simply cause problems and they would probably get less EXP as a larger group. So they went their separate ways.

I can see how you would interpret Kirito's actions as anti-social but I don't think that's what was intended. I thought that being anti-social would be a little more blatant and I was apparently wrong about that. My apologies.

While SAO's writing is pretty straightforward and downright heavy handed in a lot of places (See: Sugou), there are a few areas where things are handled subtlety, characterization being one of them.

Indeed, SAO is so subtle in its characterization that it often seems as if there's no characterization at all.

Oh wait, there isn't any characterization at all.

Mechanical Horror wrote:

pointlessly omitted

So him being so concerned about Asuna's welfare that he asks her to stay behind on the Level 75 floor raid - something he clearly did for love, and not because he thought Asuna had skills that weren't up to snuff - isn't a change, even though he hadn't done that (or at least with that motivation) in any previous case counts for nothing on the character development front, eh? Riiight.

[Yui is] Not a plot device. Once her personality gets established, though, there's no need to do anything with it.

...there's a simple and very good reason why we don't know about these characters' stories beyond the game: because the unwritten rules established early on in the setting state that you don't bring outside matters (or even identities!) up and talk about them in-game. Thus any discussion about what any of these characters were like IRL would have been a violation of accepted standards...

I've seen other people asking for what you're asking for in the character development sense, but again, character development is not the focus of this series, and forcing it in when it isn't needed can throw off pacing and waste time.

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My point is that those 300 players are an afterthought to the characters and to the audience. They're barely touched upon. When Kirito finally rescues Asuna, she doesn't even bother to mention them. . .

Because Suguo had already told Kirito about them earlier in that same scene, and she was present and fully aware of that. Actually double-check your details first if you're going to lob these kind of complaints. Now, if you had just left it at, "the 300 are an afterthought to the audience" then I might not have protested.

I still don't recall any actions by Kirito to log them out. The focus was on Asuna, not anybody else. Am I overlooking an important detail yet again? Probably. I was rather irritated with SAO at this point which didn't help. I also have no desire to immediately return to a series that I've had this many issues with. Maybe later, but not now.

No, you are not.

Kirito did not even seem interested in cutting down Asuna and covering her before he beat up Sugou.

Honestly, that would have been even better. At that point, Sugou was so unthreatening to Kirito that he could take the time to get Asuna down and console up a shirt for her before finally delivering the finishing blow to Sugou.

(also the entire sequence of Kirito beating Sugou was completely gratuitous and unnecessary)

It doesn't add anything new to Kirito's character. His primary concern is Asuna and that's it.

Yui exists to save Kirito and Asuna from a certain enemy in the first arc and to act as a guide and to help Kirito in the battle with the Salamanders in the second arc. Yui's primary purpose is to advance the plot. To make sure Kirito can get out of a tight spot. Yui lacks what I look for in a character: goals and concerns. She blindly does what is in her, "parents," best interests or what is requested of her so she is more of an in-game item than a character.

All stories are character driven.

I completely disagree with the very idea that additional character development (as long as it's properly executed) is a waste of time.

Also, why couldn't a character have an emotional break-down and start crying for their mother (especially the kids at the orphanage)?

I still don't recall any actions by Kirito to log them out. The focus was on Asuna, not anybody else. Am I overlooking an important detail yet again?

I actually just re-watched episode 10, and what Kirito says to her there is pretty much a direct callback to what she says to him after rescuing him from Kuradeel.

"Just hold on a bit, okay? This won't take long."

Indeed, SAO is so subtle in its characterization that it often seems as if there's no characterization at all.

Oh wait, there isn't any characterization at all.

To tell the truth, I didn't get along with people in real life; in games, perhaps even less so. During beta testing, I got to know a couple of people, but I didn't get close enough to anyone to actually call them a friend.

Honestly, I have to wonder if some anime fans aren't getting so wrapped up in details like character development and such that they aren't paying attention to things like dramatic timing anymore.

Mechanical Horror wrote:

It doesn't add anything new to Kirito's character. His primary concern is Asuna and that's it.

He's showing behaviors that he didn't show before, feelings that he hadn't shown before, and "it doesn't add to his character?" Good god, what do you expect? What do you define as "character development?" I'm really starting to suspect a certain degree of prejudice here. Granted, Kirito isn't the best-developed character we've ever seen, but you won't even acknowledge the developments that he does have.

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Also, why couldn't a character have an emotional break-down and start crying for their mother (especially the kids at the orphanage)?

Because then people who are complaining now would instead be complaining about it being trite and/or ham-fisted.

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I still don't recall any actions by Kirito to log them out. The focus was on Asuna, not anybody else. Am I overlooking an important detail yet again?

What you're overlooking is Kirito's state of mind at the time. The woman he regards as his wife has just been freed, so his first priority is - naturally - to put Yui at ease and then go out and meet her in the real world, make sure she really did get out this time. Is it really so inconsistent or incomprehensible that he wouldn't be giving the 300 a second thought at that point? Besides, that got dealt with in good time anyway.

Oh yeah, and in that case, remind me again who got to land the finishing blow on Kuradeel?

Fencedude5609 wrote:

Oh yeah, and in that case, remind me again who got to land the finishing blow on Kuradeel?

Well, that does recall something he'd said earlier in the story - he's a solo player so losing his green icon for a while doesn't make much difference to him.