⭐Sword Art Online The Red-Nosed Reindeer Chapter 2 (Part 2), 3 & 4: Read Along & Analysis
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Sword Art Online The Red-Nosed Reindeer Chapter 2 (Part 2):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1we6MU1QVovrws-tWGBKMxaRf4avc-gJv/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online The Red-Nosed Reindeer Chapter 3 & 4:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zjeFo9RHZTED_Y4j9fi39FPaBRGY2W8W/view?usp=sharing
Comments
Chapter 3: Forest of Wandering – the same place, less than two month later, Kirito visited to find the orange guild and saved Silica. This story gives a different perspective on what could possibly be going on in his head during that time. I wonder, if saving Silica was at least of some comfort for him, even though his previous trip to this forest wasn’t as… helpful, let’s call it. And next time he visits this place, he immediately gave Silica both the equipment and information to help, as he said in the last chapter higher level players should’ve done if they had the mindset Keita imagined them to have. «Her name was still on my friends list, of course» – it’s so scary how real this is. It might be different for everyone, from a friend on social media to a contact on the phone, but this is a reality we either will meet one day or already met. One tv series hit me so much, when children made a selfie and sent it to the chat with their already dead father knowing full well that he will never see it…. You know the episode is *dark*, but then you go into the novel and it’s every second line *is dark*. I love how it was done. And no matter how dark it is, each time he repeats the word «meaningless», speaking of the game, death, his life – each time I see the light of Asuna he gained in the end to fill that void of meaning to his life. Though, of course, the harder it is to reread her death in volume 1, or the volumes 3-4 for obvious reasons. One of the scariest contrasts that this volume has created, is Kirito losing his rationality, to such extent he driven himself in that suicidal pursue. Not completely, as part of him realizes that he cannot attack Klein, but it’s not even a dominating thought at this point. And Kirito was always very rational up to this point, from the very first moments as Kayaba announced the rules of his world. That’s what makes this new thought process of his sleep deprived self-blaming self even more impactful to me in the novels. The other parallel, is that in the end of previous novel we saw Kirito dying, and not accepting it. But now, as we are getting closer to the end of volume 2, we see the opposite – Kirito trying to die, accepting his death, and yet the world of SAO did not take his offer. Some people say that Kirito only got character development in season 3 (and that’s if they see some development at all), but he’s literally the opposite of himself in just 10 episodes of the first season, how hard is that to notice? … ha, and Klein was near Kirito in both of these scenes. Crying as Kirito walked away from him. Nearby, just outside the edge of the visible part of the fights for us. Chapter 4: Though the scene of Kirito inspecting the revival stone, and his breakdown and screams, were omitted in the anime, we recently got that scene in the audiobook, voiced by his voice actor… I can picture the entire scene as if it was in there now, more vivid than ever before… And this moment, actually accentuate the weird fact from the end of the first volume – the fact, that *the first tears* Kirito ever shed in this world, in whole 2 years of SAO, was when he and Asuna were sitting on the edge of the world, and exchanged their real names. That was the moment when Kazuto and Kirito merged together, when the life he left behind continued its flow. He did not cry when he became a prisoner of SAO, he did not cry when every member of his guild died, not in weeks after that. And not even now – and it’s not that he doesn’t care, but there’s something that stops him from doing it, he himself sees that as another abnormality of his he cannot explain. Making these final tears with Asuna so much more meaningful, showing that he actually gained that connection to reality thanks to Asuna, that he’s a human too, that he *lives*. This is also why he looks at Klein, crying, as he meets him after the boss fights, and sees his tears as «though they were some rare and unfamiliar phenomenon». It also reminds us, that people can express their emotions differently – even if one doesn’t cry, it doesn’t mean that the emotions aren’t there. And last note on tear-topic – the anime actually ended up adding the tears into the last scene of the episode, a couple of droplets, though I don’t blame them – there’s not enough space to explain what the novel explained. And it does works great in the animation. Klein asked Kirito to promise him, to survive, to «live on until the end», and ended up witnessing Kirito making the last steps in this world, bringing it an end and living right to that final point. *Oof*. Though Kirito never promised it, he fulfilled that promise. Not the way Klein ever imagined though – not by following the end of the world by his own end. And here’s the real Christmas miracle. Though Kirito never achieved what he wished in that fight, his wish to bring back Sachi, to hear her last words – that part actually happened. Though she was not back in the way he can protect her, all he can do is to protect the memory of her and her wish... Yeah, they omitted the part about dad... but they made the beautiful, symbolic scene of combining Sachi’s last seconds of life with the last words she left to Kirito. Makes me conflicted at times, as to what to think about the anime adaptation : ) I guess, it’s better to experience both. Especially because of Ordinal Scale. Overall: For me, this volume served its purpose all 100% - expanding the first arc. Because it goes way over simple «extra stories» – what it did for me is an expansion of how I view the main characters both going forward and back to volume 1. It is, in many ways, foundation for both Kirito and Asuna. Something I always go back to in my mind, something that hits me by the smallest hints towards these stories. I also highly recommend looking into the Afterword, since Reki actually addresses there the fact that every story here had a new female character xD And I cannot actually rate the arcs into which I like more… The first novel always has a special place for me, but everything else and it included I love approximately the same. A lot, but the same. For me, as with many series – it’s simply one *whole*, I can’t easily separate the pieces from all of the connections I found and bound together as I read/watch it.
Саша Одинец
2021-12-14 05:45:15 +0000 UTCYou know, I look at all the novels of Reki’s that I’ve read so far – not just SAO… and I got a feeling, that the reason we never got Klein’s story, him as a protagonist – is because he is not nearly as broken from inside as all the others xD He and Agil together. Well, maybe *broken* is a bit too much, but still, Reki’s protagonists would have at least some inner conflicts to resolve, and Klein always appears to be the same, in a good way. It’s his strength that so many events haven’t noticeably changed him. So now that I think of it, maybe it’s for the best that there’s no story for him, because otherwise even image of this light character might gain the grim tones…) Chapter 2: As I reread this story, I gradually accumulated the feeling – Moonlit Black Cats were bound to find trouble sooner or later, with or without Kirito. Yes, partially, it’s due to words of Sachi in the end… But partially, because of how idealistic their leader – Keita, was. Their attitude is what drawn Kirito into the group, that’s what he wished the clearers of the game had on the frontline. But maybe there’s a reason, that the people on the front line are different? At least, each and every one of them chose that path in life, and as cold as they might appear, they are efficient, cautious where needed. In this guild, on the other hand – we can see, that Sachi is simply pushed by the group to move forward, whether they realize it or not. And because they did not consider the possibility that she might have a different opinion, that deep down inside she might not want to move forward with them because of how scared she is, doesn’t share their goal to reach the front line – that same attitude is what stopped them from giving a weight to her opinion when she agreed with Kirito not to touch the chest. At least, that’s how I see it, though there’s lots of stuff open for interpretation. It doesn’t mean, that Kirito did not made mistakes himself that added to that incident. Like him not knowing how to balance the increase of their levelling speed with the knowledge and actual experience they get in the process to survive in higher danger they were aiming for. Still, one cannot put all the blame on him, as he ended up doing. I still need to reread the Alicization to *know* the answer to this question, but if just my opinion – I don’t think it was «the same» enough for Kirito to associate Eugeo with Sachi during his training. Because, he never ended up properly training her – she remained the spear user until her last moment. This is partially what caused the whole tragedy in the end – Kirito spent more time giving his guild easy solutions to their problems than actually giving them lessons as to how to solve the situations themselves. He couldn’t be open enough with them to train them. So it ended up giving Kirito important lessons in life that he naturally used when teaching Eugeo, but there are not enough parallels with Sachi overall. Instead, I see the parallel to the beginning of Aincrad, actually, to Klein. Both Klein and Eugeo were first to welcome Kirito into the new world he ended up in without an ability to leave, both became his friends, but the Kirito in Alicization is now mature enough not to leave Eugeo like he did with Klein. Plus, their connection is way more complex, but that’s a story for a different novel discussion : ) The crazy thing about Sachi, is that many people actually believe her to be the first love interest of Kirito… I still believe, that no matter how little the anime showed of Kirito’s inner world, it actually can effectively counter most of the arguments people are screaming into the fanbase as examples of «bad writing». If they can’t see it in the anime – they simply would not read the novels. Though, novels would fix a problem in a way, because it’s nowhere near as easy to lose the important facts as you read in comparison to watching. «You won’t die» - words that he told Sachi, repeated night after night to help her fall asleep as she was near him on the bed… and wasn’t able to keep the promise – this moment brings me back to the scene in Volume 1, when Kirito and Asuna shared the bed for the first time. And Asuna told him she will be there to protect him… and he barely managed to tell the same in response – he even described his words this time as «It was so tiny, so doubtful, so unconvincing». For me, what happened in this story, is the reason it took him so much effort to tell it to Asuna. It adds a lot more pain to that scene whenever I reread the first volume. «I don’t remember how I survived» - this is an important line to note, because that is just how much of a trauma the moment was for Kirito. And this is a state he falls into when experiencing the PTSD in the future.
Саша Одинец
2021-12-14 05:39:37 +0000 UTCJust one correction, and I know I am being nit-picky, but Kirito was never a full on shut-in. He left his room, he went to school every day, kept up the bare minimum of interaction with his family and for a short time, just before the start of the series, he even had something that might have developed into a friendship in the future if he himself didn't destroy it thanks to his issues. He was just a step away from being a shut-in but it never got to the point where he would actually be a shut-in.
Ryuuji Gremory
2021-12-08 13:30:34 +0000 UTCLike you mentioned, a lot of people really don’t know how to recognize platonic relationships. They see any relationship between a guy and a girl as romantic by default if they show any sign of closeness. That’s perfectly displayed by the whole thing with Sachi sleeping in his bed, or that one time in Alicization where Sinon kissed Kirito on the cheek after seeing how he ended up (Which a I’ve seen haters complain about the fact that Asuna said nothing about that, but I’m pretty sure she knew Sinon’s intention). One thing that I think not a lot of people talk about is the suicidal aspect to Kirito. During this short-story those suicidal tendencies are amplified, but all throughout the series he’s shown that he doesn’t give his life the same value he gives everyone else’s. I mean, he does try to kill himself near the end of Alicization (During the nightmare sequence). The anime never gets into it fully, but Kirito did try reaching for his sword with the intent to cut his throat. A big part of this I believe is for the guilt he carries all the way up to Alicization (Which isn’t too well explored in the anime). The guilt of not being to save everyone during Aincrad. The dual wield skill was one of the ten unique skills given to players for meeting a criteria. The criteria for the dual wield skill is to have the fastest reflexes, which came not only from his time as a beta tester and being a shut-in, but also because of how much he was training in game. I might’ve mentioned this before, but the original plan for the SAO game was to have all ten of these players with unique skills be the “heroes” to defeat the floor 100 boss. But of course, the game ended early and only two unique skills were ever acquired (As far as we know). If I had rank the arcs, for me it would be: 1. Alicization 2. Mother’s Rosario 3. Phantom Bullet 4. Aincrad 5. Fairy Dance 6. Calibur I don’t blame you for forgetting the Calibur arc, since it was basically another short story that was put in to give context for Kirito having Excalibur in Mother’s Rosario and to pad out the season in general. Oddly enough, the novel for Mother’s Rosario (Volume 7) is not called Mother’s Rosario in English, even though the Japanese is and even has the English translation on it as well. Instead, the novel is called Mother’s Rosary. I can’t say I know why, but it’s not like they changed the name for Yuuki’s skill either. It was still called Mother’s Rosario in the novel. Once again, you are seeing how much they skipped from the anime. That whole mental breakdown and Sachi talking about her father seem pretty important details you’d want to keep, but the anime had to fit the entire short-story in one episode so they skipped whatever thy thought wasn’t as important. This is still small compared to later in Alicization, but it still something. To this day Mother’s Rosario is still the most well adapted arc in all of SAO.
Gen
2021-12-08 12:26:14 +0000 UTC
