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Sword Art Online (TV).

EmbraceMe wrote:

Chiibi wrote: *freaking loves loli (or shota) aspect couples.* I think you'll love My Pico.

Oh hell NO. I ain't falling for that one.

Sorry, doesn't work that way. "Apologist" has an inherently very negative connotation, whether in this case or in general use. Not so much for "detractor." And no, I'm not going to get into a debate about this. #2 was your peace offering if you absolutely have to have one.

My point is this: wish fulfillment is a matter of context. To me the latter part of SAO has been weak in offering much else besides trying to put Kirito in the most awesome light possible. We rarely get to see him struggle to do anything. He is supposed to be a loner, but he quickly makes friends with all the hottest females. And whenever any man dare threatens this relationship: he always jumps in to defend them. If the men in the worlds don't become friends of his, then they are almost always typecast into ridiculous villains or weaklings. Whenever he faces a difficult opponent, he magically pulls some skill/power out of his ass that had little-to-no foreshadowing. He dies but then he doesn't. He is put in a situation where he is going to rescue Asuna and then (presumably) he'll get to screw her brains out as a reward. He has a hot little sister who also wants to screw his brains out. He plays it straight, but leaves the incest door open a crack. In any event, the conflict is resolved within hours with no hard feelings. He gains a daughter but doesn't have to deal with the negatives of raising a real child. And his personality is such that if you don't like him, then there must be something wrong with you. It's all terribly, terribly convenient. Almost too convenient. Even the conflict and drama, with the laughably ridiculous villains (at least in the second half) is just too contrived. But above all else, there rarely ever seems to be any real consequences for him (though I will give credit to the author for throwing us a bone with the kuroneko guild side-story early on). But more than anything, the way many fans take this show and the characters so personally lends at least some credence to the notion that the wish fulfillment aspects are being played to great success.

And that's also the thing I just don't get. If they foresaw these problems beforehand, then why did they go along with it anyway? There's a ton of material they needed to cover, and massive portions of it are just ignored. What do they hope to achieve by not taking the necessary liberties to explain these things to us? It seems really silly to say, "well we're being faithful to the source material so..." because by dropping material, they've already deviated from the source material.

They had the power to create the situations, dialogue, and characters needed to explain everything we'd need to understand the anime but they decided not to anyway. Oh sure they don't need to spend like 20 episodes carefully dissecting how all of the characters feel and explaining every single facet of the SAO system, but they definitely needed to spend more time at least explaining the pieces relevant to what we're being shown. That scene where Kirito pulls up the ALO menu and you see kind of how everything is measured and you notice the question marks explains succinctly a huge bit of how the ALO world worked. Yui then even had an excuse to explain parts of the system and his current situation and it didn't feel like they were just doing the crappy intro narrative at all.

I think Chuunibyou is a great example of near-total deviation from the original material (from what I've been told) and being able to have a great story and characters at the same time. I don't have any question of the story consistency, character development, or anything. There was no reason for them to turn it into a drama, but they did anyway and thoroughly followed through on the idea with me really empathizing with all of the characters without feeling the need to nitpick anything. There was practically no reason for the SAO creators to sacrifice anything for the sake of plot progression, and yet they did anyway.

As far as I'm concerned, any plot hole that's been raised could be answered with "it's explained in the LN" because it probably is. What will happen next week may probably be answered with, "well in the LN it's much more understandable" because it probably is. Either the SAO anime creators are the best LN marketers of this decade, because I definitely want to explore the SAO world more, or they have no idea what they're doing. Anyway, I'd thought I'd share my thoughts so we can keep growing this thread bwahahaha.

And this is a great example of how fiendishly clever SAO's handling of its previews are. As irritating as it is to have to wait 4-5 days for it, it's nonetheless a brilliant tool for stirring up interest and enthusiasm for a series mid-week between episode.

Speaking of, what race would you guys choose? I think I'd go Silph because those are more my type of elves.

Speaking of, what race would you guys choose? I think I'd go Silph because those are more my type of elves.

None, I really dislike the ears. If I were in a game like that I'd rather choose my own appearance.

Well the Cait Sith have different ears to the others, but perhaps your are just an earsist?

And this is a great example of how fiendishly clever SAO's handling of its previews are. As irritating as it is to have to wait 4-5 days for it, it's nonetheless a brilliant tool for stirring up interest and enthusiasm for a series mid-week between episode.

This thread is almost at 200 pages?! Wow. I guess that I should check out the series!

And this is a great example of how fiendishly clever SAO's handling of its previews are. As irritating as it is to have to wait 4-5 days for it,

it's nonetheless a brilliant tool for stirring up interest and enthusiasm for a series mid-week between episode.

Don't let the length of the thread fool you. Sword Art Online is not amazing, just controversial.

Where's the controversy? It's bad, and it's not even worth the small fraction of my CR subscription that it gets. ^^ I wouldn't buy it even at Funi's SAVE prices, which it won't be getting from AoA. ;p

nbahn wrote:

This thread is almost at 200 pages?! Wow. I guess that I should check out the series!

Don't let the length of the thread fool you. Sword Art Online is not amazing, just controversial.

Yea, there is NO way this thread would be this long without the arguments for and against. Also, the backers of the show wouldn't be having nearly as much fun just preaching to each other about how good it is