Sword Art Online

[Dark Dragon]

[HorribleSubs] Sword Art Online 12 [720p]
Words cannot quite describe how horrible this series is, but I'm going to try. "Overhyped" doesn't quite excuse SAO anymore. It's not a matter of expectation versus "a sub-par adaptation". I can sincerely no longer fathom what led the novel readers to believe Sword Art Online is good. Don't get me wrong, I believe the author can write, Accel World proves that.

The problem is this: I can no longer sustain suspension of disbelief. I'm not sure that has ever happened to me before with anime, since I give it even more leeway than movies. Maybe at the often-terrible abrupt endings to series, but never in the middle. That is how terrible Sword Art Online is.

I can't speak for anyone else, but i started reading SAO after the first episode, which i thought was pretty good. I read through volume 1, which consist of episodes 1,8,9,10 and probably 2-3 more episodes worth of content. I thought it was ok and continue onto volume 3 (skipped 2 when i found out it was all side stories). I got about half way through 3 and went back to read 2. I didn't mind it too much, but i did get annoy with Kirito's magical hack power too. I then went through 3 and 4, which i thought were better than volume 1. I didn't really start to like the series until i went through volume 5 and 6.

As far as adaptation goes, i still really don't like the way that they went with this series. You can blame the source material for being bad and what not, but that just means that they took materials that was already not good to begin with and made it worst.

I actually went through volume 1,3 and 4 again to see if i simply excused too many things my first time through.
I honestly feels that it's not terrible. It's definitely passable enough to where people could like it because of the additional mmo element.

Without suspension of disbelief, it will be close to impossible to continue to enjoy this series. But I'm going to keep watching it so I can continue to point out how terrible it is.

I'm curious as to why you want want to do that. It's one thing to hate certain elements of a show and continue to watch it for the things that you like. I don't see why you would want to waste half an hour every week and then more time posting just to watch something that you clearly hate.

[Ryllharu]

Yui was drawn to their happiness and joy, something nobody else in the game really has. After 2 years of fighting for their lives, are they really that insane to want to take a break and just enjoy each others' company and live life without being under stress for every second?

Nobody else has? What about Klein? He's pretty content with his guild buddies on the near-front lines. Or the other shopkeeper dude? Silica now that she's got her dragon back? What about Lisbeth, even if she's a bit down that she can't ride Kirito's bologna pony? I got one...the assassin guild. I bet they're super happy, they get to live out their fantasies of murdering people. Happiness and joy is really not the correct thing to be drawn to here.

The case for Kirito's lack of sanity is well documented in this thread. Refuting what has already been discussed requires spoiling with Kirito's thoughts, so it remains a valid interpretation. Furthermore, he's gotten worse. The two of them prefer this world to the real one. Kirito has always preferred it, as he told to Silica, confessing about his sister/cousin. He has a serious hero-complex, sympathizes with a madman (Kayaba), and the longer they spend here, the less he remains connected to reality. We've already seen him claim that NPCs are the same as people, when he refused to play along with Asuna's plan.

Asuna has started to admit much of the same, because rather than continue to develop the personality she had, they've decided to warp her into the perfect girlfriend for a sociopath like Kirito.

At least this series doesn't require as much suspension of disbelief as Accel World. The internet doesn't work that way. It has a lot less whining, too.

I never said it requires more suspension of disbelief, just that it decides to shatter its own. For Accel World, that is probably true, but there, you have the advantage of it being another 20 years down the road. A lot can change in two decades, and a story set that far in the future lowers the bar accordingly. The other advantage Accel World has is that they never tell you how the Neuro-Linkers work. That leaves the only thing that needs to be accepted is that brains can be accelerated to that rate. Augmented reality is nothing, we can do that (albeit badly) today, and full dives aren't any larger a leap since you already accepted that the Neuro-Linkers augment/stimulate brain activity somehow. I'm curious to see what else you think is needed with that series.

So does SAO really have a lower bar than Accel World? At first, all that was required was accepting that a device like NerveGear exists, that the brain could actually be controlled by microwaves, and a device as small as NerveGear could produce enough output to fry a brain with those same microwaves in a matter of seconds. It's not too bad.

The problem is they completely squandered it with downright terrible plot points, largely due to terrible forced drama, horrible inconsistencies, outright contradictions, and a complete and total lack of foreshadowing. Things the author got a great deal better at.

I'm curious as to why you want want to do that. It's one thing to hate certain elements of a show and continue to watch it for the things that you like. I don't see why you would want to waste half an hour every week and then more time posting just to watch something that you clearly hate.

The inherent value of a dissenting voice. There can never be any valuable discussion when everyone agrees. Nor was it the first time I finished a show I grew to hate. Guilty Crown anyone?

edit: What I do find intriguing is how defensive Sword Art novel readers are of this series. Not just here, everywhere.

[fireheart]

sympathizes with a madman (Kayaba), and the longer they spend here, the less he remains connected to reality.

Not really meant to argue against you since I agree with most of it but thought he respects/respected Kayaba, if anything this episode showed that Kirito at least have some levels of anger aimed at Kayaba. Though I could have missed it but wouldn't sympathizes mean that he agrees with what Kayaba is doing? As for the second one it feels kinda normal, most would probably get less connected to reality after spending 2 years completely immersed in something.

At first judging by the intro I figured Yui was something similar to Aura in .hack but apparently not which leads me to wonder again, what exactly is Kayabas reason/point in doing all this? If the only reason is to force people to play/clear the game then this is utterly stupid.