Sword Art Online Discussion Thread

[Fencedude]

Originally Posted by Ingraman

"chuu2"? Eh? Chuu^2, perhaps? A reference to the mouse in Utena? ;p

Not watching Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai?

[pathos]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Well, there definitely are bugs -- like the "Sleep PK" mechanism that was the topic of episodes 5 & 6. Well, at least, I think it would be considered a bug if this were any other game...

Nitpicky here, but the sleep pk thing is actually known as an exploit.

Basically, the game worked as intended. But, the designers didn't think of every possible situation, and clever players find ways of exploiting in ways that are NOT meant. Happens alot in mmo's.

Bugs are when the game does not work as intended. Say, a quest mob fails to spawn properly when its supposed to. Or 8 bosses spawn instead of 1 wiping out a raid. Or a door not opening when its supposed to. Etc, etc.

[ookamigirl]

Looks like Commanders secret is out!
Those players sure felt extremely betrayed.
A deal with the devil is never a good option.
Kirito vs Commander! Awesome battle!
It was kinda ridicules seeing how much stronger Commander was.
Well, Kirito payed the price of his heroism.
Gained nothing and lost his precious Asuna.
At least he gave Kitiro a new strength to even overcome death.
The game finally ended, but it's just the beginning ^^

[mellowrg2]

perhaps the plot twist is that SAO is just like Total Recall

everyone Kirito has seen and everything he has done is part of a scripted scenario

[bear]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I think it makes more sense to assume that Kirito and Asuna's will was able to somehow exceed the limits of what was anticipated by the programmer. This could be why, for example, Kirito exceeded Heathcliff's expectation in the first dual requiring him to use the system-assist function, and why he was able to find enough strength to thrust a sword despite being in "death status". During all of Kirito's "crowning moments of glory", he's pushing himself to go faster, and faster (he had the fastest response time in the game), and he said here in this episode that his normal sword techniques relied on his own skill (as opposed to the sword skills, like combos, that are pre-programmed by the game). So anyway... with all this backstory, I think the suggestion is: even in a programmed world, the human mind is able to bend the rules that surround them.

I pretty much agree, but I think it's less a question of bending the rules than that the rules were flexible to begin with. Yui certainly was outside of the parameters of the game, for example. Asuna moving while paralyzed appeared to be a cheat, but then she was made an immortal object by Kayaba which was not in the standard rule book either. Unexpected interactions between functions is not uncommon in programming, so immortality allowing her to overcome her paralysis seems reasonable. As for Kirito moving while dead, consider the fact that he sees the message "you're dead". It's seems that Kayaba is one sadistic dude. He set the game so that people see that they're going to die by rubbing it in. Then, there is a short gap before he kills them so they get to absorb the fact. How many people in that situation are going to try to do something? Not many. That was the loophole that Kayaba didn't realize was available to Kirito. With his speed there was just enough time to kill Kayaba and end the game. Kayaba kept underestimating Kirito's abilities by assuming that only the game abilities which he programmed were usable by the players. He didn't realize that Kirito had also worked to improve his reaction times beyond the standard abilities. So at least from my POV the events were reasonable.

[Ingraman]

Originally Posted by Fencedude

Not watching Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai?

I am, but I didn't realize that was the show's abbreviated title, and I wasn't thinking about that series while reading this thread. ^^;

[Damius]

- Time for some fishing.
- The outfit Asuna is sleeping in is so sexy. Love it!
- I miss Yui so much… Asuna and Kirito are really cute together, but Yui was a so nice addition…
- All good things have an end… time to go back to work.
- I hope it will be a good fight.
- The scene where Kirito asks Asuna to stay behind was fantastic. We saw a weakness of Kirito, we saw him being scare. And Asuna gave a really good answer.
- Nice to see you again Klein.
- Well, we have a nice fight here. And finally, everyone participates.

That was a really good episode. Can next episode be as good?

[Fencedude]

Have I mentioned that I really hated this episode?

Because I did. Seriously.

[strangefour]

Originally Posted by Fencedude

Have I mentioned that I really hated this episode?

Because I did. Seriously.

Aww come on. It's not that bad. It's the best work of fiction ever written by a 12 year old. There is no way the author could have been much older than that when this was written. 16 tops.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by bear

I pretty much agree, but I think it's less a question of bending the rules than that the rules were flexible to begin with. Yui certainly was outside of the parameters of the game, for example. Asuna moving while paralyzed appeared to be a cheat, but then she was made an immortal object by Kayaba which was not in the standard rule book either. Unexpected interactions between functions is not uncommon in programming, so immortality allowing her to overcome her paralysis seems reasonable. As for Kirito moving while dead, consider the fact that he sees the message "you're dead". It's seems that Kayaba is one sadistic dude. He set the game so that people see that they're going to die by rubbing it in. Then, there is a short gap before he kills them so they get to absorb the fact. How many people in that situation are going to try to do something? Not many. That was the loophole that Kayaba didn't realize was available to Kirito. With his speed there was just enough time to kill Kayaba and end the game. Kayaba kept underestimating Kirito's abilities by assuming that only the game abilities which he programmed were usable by the players. He didn't realize that Kirito had also worked to improve his reaction times beyond the standard abilities. So at least from my POV the events were reasonable.

In general I think I agree with you, barring a few little details. Like, Yui was an AI, part of the SAO system, so that's within the parameters of the game, even if the normal rules didn't apply to her the way they applied to the rest of the players. Also, it's widely thought that the "Chaged into Immortal Object" [sic] icon is more of a typo/Engrish issue, and what it was supposed to represent was Heathcliff turning the immortality status off of himself for the dual (hence it turned red). So he likely didn't make Asuna immortal (because she subsequently did run out of HP and disappear).

We already know that there is a gap between when you "die" (your HP hits zero) and when you disappear, because we've seen many occasions where people put in last words, and even move their bodies around a bit. We also know that there was a resurrection item mentioned earlier in the anime that allowed you to revive someone for up to 10 seconds after they "died". So yeah, "death" isn't instantaneous. And even after you disappear in the SAO world, it doesn't necessarily mean you brain fries right that very second either (or that it's instantaneous). We can assume that, after Asuna disappeared from the boss room, she was sent to the sky platform, to await Kirito who followed. Perhaps this is because this was all part of the end-game sequence, and they were the designated end-game players... or perhaps it was simply what was set to happen to anyone who is killed by the GM.

In either case, I think the main objection people have is that it's just not clearly explained, so you're left having to either a) try to figure out for yourself how it could have been possible, or b) just having to accept that the rules can simply be exceeded/broken when it's convenient for the storytelling. Personally it all didn't bother me too much because I liked the way the episode worked from an emotional and poetic point of view (and I can accept the general premise that willpower can override the constraints a program tries to place on your mind's ability to control your body in a VR world), but I do understand why it bothered some people.