Sword Art Online – 11

This episode made me realize something: there is this unwritten rule in Sword Art Online going on that everyone abides by: never talk about the life you had before you ended up trapped in the game. It’s like, everybody is too scared to remember those days and instead their lives turned to be just their lives in the world of Sword Art Online and nothing else. In .Hack//Sign in contrast, I actually loved how they dealt with this issue: most of the time the characters were characters in an mmorpg, and yet once in a while it would drop hints to their real identities. Now, I do wonder why Sword Art Online went with the route it took: to completely remove any life that the characters had before being trapped. I mean, nobody is reminiscing about those times. They only talk about getting out.

In any case, the new girl thankfully is different from the other girls in this series, in that she doesn’t immediately fall for Kirito. She definitely is the big mystery in this show and will likely be very important in solving everything. She’s got like “I AM MYSTERIOUS” written all over her, but with the right development she can bring a lot of good stuff to this series.

But come on, Sword Art Online. Stop using these overused cliches over and over. The scene in this episode that pissed me off was the one with the thugs. It’s something you see in a ton of different series, and I nearly always dislike how it’s done, and this episode was no different. It’s the standard type of scene that creators go for whenever they need some extra tension, but here it was completely pointless. The kids and the nun are likely never going to matter again after this and there would have been better points to show Asuna’s magic sword. I also always really dislike how stereotypically these thugs are portrayed. I mean, these guys are full grown men. I’d like to see a bit more detail on how they became that way, and who they are. Stop using them as excuses to make the main characters look cool.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

13 thoughts on “Sword Art Online – 11

  1. It’s a cute, helpless girl that calls Kirito ‘daddy’. That hits so many fetish points it’s not even funny – she doesn’t need to fall for him.

    And I don’t get how the thugs could even do anything to threaten those kids, considering that Asuna said that you can’t harm the HP gauge in cities. Or why they even got afraid of her, taking that into consideration.

    And what the hell were Asuna and Kirito doing walking around town in casual clothes. Wasn’t it some sort of unwritten rule to use ‘game’ clothes?

  2. Got to remember that SAO was written when the author was 15 and then later edited a bit by publishers after Accel World did well, so of course there is going to be a lot of cliches.

  3. I have to say that after star watching SAO I decided to read the books and well, by far are better than the series. The truth is that I have not read already this part of the book, because I didn’t read the volume 2, where it is, and I don’t know how well they animated the episode.

    In the book there is much more information about… everything. For example, I remember psgels saying something about the colour of the hair and that is something explained that tehy can change i’ts hair.

    In response to anca, even if they can’t harm them well in that place, that doesn’t mean they can’t make their lifes hard. A lot of people lives in the first floor, where the “army” has it’s operation center, they control that floor (they think that control aincrad in reality) and can make troubles such put taxes or even put someone into the prison, nearly everybody who lives there barely hast stepped out of the city, they just play enough to have food and live. Well, the truth is that they can even make them accept a duel, they are only kids after all.

  4. People don’t talk about their previous lives because that would just be depressing. They are cut off from their normal lives. SAO is like a horrible new home for it’s players where .hack is just a game.

  5. Out of all the SAO episodes I was very content on this one. At the time I couldn’t find a single thing to complain about and for once I just let myself be immersed in the world. It’s not like it was a deep pool or anything but it was nice.

    Concerning the child, lots of mysteries there. I like how they played with the new couple becoming adoptive of a child. It was kind of heart warming, albeit nothing new.

    I actually love the cliche thug. I find them hilariously amusing.
    Well characters mention there waking lives several times, but we never get any real detail.

    Ah, SAO is still SAO, but if the episodes don’t decline, or continue to slightly improve with each episode, it should be a fun ride.

    And regarding being trapped in SAO. Honestly, as long as you continue to become more powerful, and don’t loose anyone you care about I don’t see how it wouldn’t be enjoyable. Think of it as a 2 year plus vacation from the grim boring realities of everyday life. Your life is at stake so it’s exciting. Only issues come with your relationships and other players dying.

  6. I agree whit Ultimate, very good chapeter, I bit of intrigue to add the the show.

    Also, I dont belived Oda nobuna was this good, yeah it have a lot of moe but awesome finals chapeters. A lot of thing happened.

  7. Oh my God… seriously…? What mystery? It’s about as clear as freaking day what Yui actually IS. How are people not getting it?

    1. How is it remotely obvious? (No, don’t answer, you’ll spoil it, lol). It’s the farthest from obvious conclusion you could possibly arrive at.

      1. Oh come ON! Hasn’t anyone seen .hack? Hell, if you read the .hack prequel novel, you don’t even need to watch the next episode. It’s pretty much the exact same thing.

  8. Not trying to defend the cliche thug, but I would hate for them to spend time to develop a character just to show them getting their ass kicked in 1 minute and never see them again. That would be a waste of time.

  9. Okay, hearing that child say “mama! papa!” felt like aligator-pepper flavored sandpapers grinding my eardrums!. It also feels like she has only 20 Hit points and exerts a hitpoint when she does basic things like eating and sleeping!!

    Other than that I can’t really hold anything against this episode, although I did enjoy the context of how children behave in a marriage. they’re still children and act shy/nervous about many things. Except for that inferred scene at the end of ep 10, if you know what I mean 😉

    as for fodder-characters, with the pacing of this series I plead guilty of liking them if they can provide a little action here and there.

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