⭐Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 25 & Sword Art Online 2: Aincrad Chapters 1-3 : Read Along & Analysis
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Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 25:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1coA-NJtAykGv5SbCGIRR5P_zRFFFtRLs/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online 2: Aincrad Chapter 1:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1543M3V46zOtqIV-8HJppV5IqCPkxyNZi/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online 2: Aincrad Chapter 2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n0aT65xEj5bv77-QHcVdzIGdeJlcEqh2/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online 2: Aincrad Chapter 3:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s4DQeRNMPXA6Z0iK4Pv_MrUtrSGMp4tT/view?usp=sharing
Comments
Chapter 3: You know, I’ve thought about the problem you mentioned, of stories not utilizing potions properly. I can’t say I have much info about it, so it would be purely my speculations, but if I am to guess – it could just be heavily influenced by whatever games authors play. Modern industry changed the potion utilization of players a lot, oftentimes even on a higher difficulty (like in Witcher 3) you just level up so fast that they become useless in your inventory. Partially because of SAO, partially because SAO got me into reading things like King’s Avatar – I ended up playing World of Warcraft at one point. I simultaneously tried the classical version, and the newest one. Modern WoW – you could probably play through most of it (which is hundreds of hours) solo and while never using food or potion to your aid. Classical one brought me a lot of feelings that reminded me of SAO – the feeling of surviving in the hostile world, where you have to eat all the time, grind mobs to level up, prepare the potions and inventory as a whole for dungeon runs and etc. Since SAO was written even before the first version of WoW, I wouldn’t be surprised if games made Reki use these mechanics rather than sell the tons of unused potions to NPCs, and that influenced his storytelling. But that’s just my speculations, of course. Detail focusing system – something that, in a way, you could see even in modern games :D Although, on a most basic level, it isn’t focused on the eyesight of player, but usually the distance from player to objects. The closer you are, the more detailed textures and objects would be loaded. And if the process is slow at times – you could even see some portrait on the wall to increase its resolution as you stop nearby and look at it (like in Control). On a higher level – lots of visual effects, lighting especially, are calculated only inside the field of view of the player, for efficiency reasons. One of the «miracles» that raytracing brought recently into gaming – it’s ability to track objects outside of your field of view to calculate the proper lighting. And it also depends on players viewpoint – it sends virtual rays from every pixel on your screen towards the direction you’re facing, and depending on the reflective abilities of the encountered objects, allows the rays to bounce off them and travel around the virtual space even if it means it’ll go where you don’t look. On its way, the information from rays is accumulating into the color that pixel will eventually have on screen. Well, in simplest case at least. So, what they have in SAO is somewhat average in approach of what we have in games, it seems. Tracking eyesight to add details. Which doesn’t mean that other techniques aren’t involved, of course, in addition to it. If I am to guess – players are probably rendered as detailed as possible as long as they are close enough. And so do monsters, since it is crucial in this game, to have a clear sight of your enemy during the combat. It’s the less meaningful object, like flowers that only result in beauty of the picture, that loose details quickly to save the resources. You can’t wait for Fairy dance, and it cannot wait for you :’) I feel like SAO haters just brought us way too much on the defensives about the feelings of characters towards Kirito. So what if girls like him – what’s the problem here? Is this some kind of jealousy, ignorance about human feelings, or simple use of it as another misconception to trash the series? What’s important, is that Reki wrote it all in such a way, that you easily believe that people (not just girls), like Kirito. And every character for different reasons at different times. Again, the choice between using the teleport crystal or moving back on your feet and gain more EXP – something that is familiar to me now that I’ve played WoW classic (of course, single player RPGs oftentimes have quick travel, but they are usually so easy you don’t need to grind mobs for EXP and resources, thus the choice is simple). Since I played as a mage, one who can learn the teleportation to other cities (which still costs money for the materials needed to use the spell) – I found myself making that choice often, until I gained enough of gold supply to justify the teleports whenever I finished the quest at who knows how far away from any civilization. Sometimes people even came to you to buy the teleportation from you to some town. One of the memorable moments for me, happened in the middle of some forest almost on the edge of the map. I slowly explored the forest, when suddenly another player noticed me and started happily screaming in the chat asking to help him teleport back to civilization as if he was lost and lived in that forest for who knows how long xD That player thanked me all the way to the portal I created for him :D That scene of all, the «fight» on the bridge, for some reason, is oftentimes brought up as «evidence» of Kirito being OP and used by people to generate the hate. How could these same people say that Reki knows nothing about games, while their comments here show just how little they themselves understand – hard for me to accept. Had they never come to lower-level locations in any game? No, more likely, they just never heard what Kirito said on that bridge, or understood what is going on. Thus – paid no attention to the story and blame the author for «bad writing». Even more ironic, they all say that SAO Abridged *fixed* the story for them, but in this situation – all they did is just oversimplified Kirito’s speech into pretty much one line – «my numbers – are bigger than yours! ». And *that* suddenly made sense to people? Sorry, I had to write it down, had it in my mind way longer than I should have. Because what Reki did here, goes way beyond simple «showing how cool Kirito is». He brings up so many deeper ideas to question yourself. The theme of importance of the numbers in how we perceive ourselves and others, the distance between us. To be more precise, not really the importance of numbers itself, but how we perceive it as something important, which is not always the case. Through Silica and Kirito, Reki questions the system itself and what we value in life. And it could be reflected on both the real and virtual world and how we see them. Ordinal Scale is, sadly, movie only. I *wish* there was something to put on the shelve for OS… But it is something that Reki created too, so eventually he made a number of short stories that tie OS into the universe, although the main series was written at least up until the end of Alicization/Season 3 without it in mind.
Саша Одинец
2021-10-21 18:55:17 +0000 UTCChapter 2: In this chapter, we finally see Kirito through the eyes of another player. And the appearance he created in combination with his natural rationality makes him look way older than he is, unless you know him better or look at him closer. At this point, he already lost his guild too, which would make him mentally even older too. And that could explain the portion of the attitude he receives from other players. Sometimes, even viewers. It is somewhat similar to people seeing Peter Parker behind Spider-Man, when characters get closer to Kirito. At least, it reminds me of such a scene, especially when Kirito is described asleep in next chapter. And I recently had seen an opinion that Kazuto could very well be a «Japanese Peter Parker» which makes me think: both have no parents, not many friends, are into tech, «Black Swordsman»/»Spider-man» mantle that they both oftentimes wish to get rid of and live a normal life… The amount of tragic moments with the close ones they couldn’t protect. They are far from being the same, but they have common traits… no – character development and values in life, which we like them for, while also being someone we can relate to outside the hero role. Another part of Kirito’s looks – the lack of visible armor, which gives him a feeling of someone poor and/or low level. It could be an outcome of the glass-cannon build he has, where he compensates the lack of armor by his instincts and mobility, to use the heavier swords and deal more damage. I don’t think it is explored much in books, but given that he secretly uses two swords simultaneously – it would force him to use even lighter equipment to compensate for all that mass. And this suits him – since by playing solo he has less opportunities for healing, and thus smaller error margin for taking damage overall. Plus, Hiding skill allows him to avoid a good portion of danger, which would be less effective in some metallic shining armor. He might look arrogant in such an outfit on the frontline, but most of it comes logically from his playstyle. I guess, if there really were objects that could directly give you XP – people might kill for it in SAO… thus it could be for the best, that they do not have it :D In anime, they changed the scene of the night in the inn a bit. While in the novel, Silica gave up on her attempts of falling asleep, dressed up and knocked on the Kirito’s door, in the anime – they reversed it. Instead, it was Kirito who came knocking on her door while she was trying to fall asleep, then she almost forgot to dress up before opening the door. Thus, they used that moment to explain her embarrassment, while originally this feeling was produced by her own actions of covering up the reason she came to him and the reason itself. And if anything – I feel it was much closer to a situation when the child knocks on parent’s door because is afraid to fall asleep alone, than something even remotely romantic, but I guess the anime creators thought to be safer and not show it as her initiative at all. She even ended up falling asleep because Kirito reminded her of her father writing the text. As for question about Silica having or not crush on Kirito… I just think it doesn’t really matter. So what if she had some sort of initial feelings here or there – given her age, total lack of normal attitude from people around for months and months, deprivation from the life and people she’s used to, forced to develop social skills in such environment – no wonder it feels new and strange around Kirito. At the age when you only start to pay attention to such things and your place in interaction with other people – it is natural to get reactions and emotions that are hard to understand. Some people do not understand empathy even at much older age. What’s important is that it never purposely developed in the story into anything romantic. And will never do. So, there’s little point in debating about her feelings towards Kirito only because people bring it in their hate speeches for harem-based «arguments». There’s an interesting parallel to that in this chapter, when Silica questions why people are saying awful things to each other, and first thing Kirito asks is whether or not she played MMOs before. Makes one think about how people feel themselves liberated to trash/hate others just because they are online.
Саша Одинец
2021-10-18 18:59:14 +0000 UTCThe Black Swordsman Chapter 1: The whole concept of books that are just short stories to fill up the blanks of some arc – I found it to be very interesting in itself. Somehow, it fits very well with SAO being a game – because, personally – I’m very used to games doing exactly that. It is basically a DLC pack, very much like Mass Effect, for example, did at the time – introduced new characters and companions after you already finished the main game, and further arcs/games had them as part of the main story. And here’s our first extra companion – Silica. What’s different about it than what games would usually do these days though, is that for the time of her story we switch to a different point of view and it’s our previously main character that is a companion for now. This approach brings back the memories of the much older Half-Life game, and its expansions – there, creators went through same timeline as original story but gave us 2 different characters to explore it, occasionally meeting the protagonist of the series. And I loved it, remember wishing for more stories to do that. And I also remember, how as a child playing them, I had a dream of writing it down as a book, since the protagonist is silent – there’s a lot of room to add his thoughts about everything that is going on. I never pursued that dream, but when I discovered SAO, I found Reki to be someone who did. This made me appreciate his work even more. … I may have went directly into Half-Life Alyx after writing this XD Even though we do not have a full-dive technology, VR these days evolved into the best approximation we might have for decades and decades in advance. And it brings a new light to SAO too. Introduction of new «class» (as often dlcs do) of beast-tamers not only expands the lore and mechanics of Aincrad, but also greatly expands the ways we can relate to Silica. On the layer of game itself – it reminds me of trying out the classic WoW, taking care of the pet that helps you in battle. Just reading it I want to go back to it. But also, on a different layer – there’s that feeling of loneliness the virtual world could represent when you’re young, that makes the process of exploring scarier. Especially in older games when the huge empty spaces weren’t uncommon. In my childhood it was the reason I preferred the smaller deathmatch maps with more enemies, or played Diablo 2 as necromancer – even a friendly skeleton is still a company that makes the expedition into darker worlds much more comfortable :) In that sense, SAO, of course, is a more extreme version of it, but on the most basic level ties into it too. If I am to find myself in SAO – I don’t think I would go far up from the start. Unexplored dungeons – a definite no-no place to enter, which limits the possible income and growth of strength. Would probably try to find groups here and there to level up in safer environment and might try myself as a blacksmith or someone craft-related. I always liked such systems in games, although wasn’t great at them in MMOs. The moment when Silica snapped wasn’t present in the anime. In that version Kirito killed all 3 apes. This chapter is also the first time we see in the books an AI doing an equivalent of what only Kirito and Asuna – humans – did before – go against the system. Very much like Asuna in future, but a couple of chapters ago for us, Pina protected her partner. And it is an interesting seed that Reki explores a lot in the future as we know.
Саша Одинец
2021-10-17 13:54:56 +0000 UTCChapter 25: For me, little moments like Kirito remembering the news about new tech achievement, or the way he addresses his NerveGear as he separates with it – it «were good to me»… It’s something that combines for me into the already provided picture of Kazuto, boy who liked the tech, was into computers and read all sorts of tech related articles and etc. That is something I can relate to, reminds me of my childhood, when I occasionally went to library just to read the journals about the tech evolution. I can feel from Kazuto, that he’s the type to see/attach the personality in objects – not sure how to properly describe it in English. It also reminds me of feelings I had toward my old PC, or phone, when the time came to switch to new ones. They were windows to many worlds to me, and it’s sad to part ways with them no matter how many troubles or limitations they caused along the way. In the book it just goes in extremes of sustaining very direct connection to another world, thus bigger overall influence, but has a similar meaning for a reader like myself anyway. The limitations of my first PC shaped a lot of my taste towards games, and thus shaped myself too. For Kirito, the limitation of his NerveGear in a form of its similarity to kitchen microwave reshaped his whole personality in these 2 years. Even in this chapter, Asuna is an anchor for Kirito to reality, reason to continue living – as he said, he was ready to move on with the Aincrad. It says a lot about his mental state. But the moment he remembered of her – he found the purpose to move forward. And he did – step by step, toward her. Very beautiful ending for a story. Was the story we just experienced a dream, or real? A bit of both for us. It might be only in our heads as we read it, but it doesn’t make it less important to us and especially not for characters within – that’s the kind of thoughts the ending brings to me. And speaking of ending – «oh F.. that hit me» – just this summer, Reki «hit» me with Isolator enough for me to spend about an hour out of the book collecting myself xD Outside of any «big» moment, just casually approached and did it xD So it’s very understandable) Reki knows how to channel the impact needed for situation in a very simple to picture way. And it feels very real, you feel it yourself too. The more of a joke becomes every comment that contains «bad writing» in it about Reki. I think, the reason people call Kirito a «Power Fantasy character» (aside from copying opinions of others – which is a big portion of haters) might be that they watched a ton of PF, and now they frame it all under same assumptions. Lots of things in SAO looks like stereotype on the surface, but people do not look any deeper as soon as they see the reflections to what they already saw in other shows. If Asuna knows how to cook, for them it’s a «typical waifu» because she’s the protagonist’s «main girl» - the reason thus is not her being from rich family without ever having a choice in most of things in her life. No, for haters, there’s no «reason» it happens at all – just a follow to a pattern they are familiar with. If Kirito is all that wonderful in combat – he’s OP. Why? *Because it’s anime, and oftentimes it is the attribute of OP character*, and etc. - at least that’s how I see their logic. This and many other problems thus come from a shifted focus during the watch. Also … I doubt same people who hate on SAO would see Twilight and etc. as something serious. I’ve seen a ton of same prejudice about liking Twilight as about liking SAO. It still surprises people when they find out I like Twilight, or SAO, in similar fashion (as long as they have heard of SAO). Somehow, someone says that Twilight and similar are «for teenage girls» – is a totally valid reason for people to treat it as such and not to touch it if they aren’t «teenage girls». For SAO it’s all is even more twisted, with a whole list of «who you are if you like SAO». But I get the same feeling from people for both. The way viewers treat love in stories these days, makes the concept of «love at first sight» not something to explore or romantic, but something of a long forgotten past, because even «pure» love itself is categorized into «for teenage girls», and everyone need some sexualization, toxicity, violence and etc. in it to say it’s «normal», I guess. Young characters thus become «stupid» for liking someone at such an age. Love has to be difficult in obtaining (probably in the number of seasons), in the eyes of modern viewers, while they are neglecting that it might be as difficult to save one «easily» obtained, or as interesting to explore. But I can’t even say that it was all that easy for Kirito and Asuna. It might feel relatively quick for us as viewers – to see them together after half a book/season. But it still took them a long time in their timeline to close the distance. So, I can’t see what’s the crime here either. Maybe people hate on things because they don’t understand the love that much. What’s even better about SAO than the usual way to «escape from reality» - on top of that, it provides a lot of ideas to think about the very process of «escaping». Because a lot of it *is* about escape from reality, and we, in the process of doing exactly that, can relate to it even more, to Kirito and others. We can question ourselves – what virtual worlds represent to us. How we see ourselves in them. Even how our parents see us spending time in it, and how to respond to it. All this and many other ideas are explored in SAO. Which makes it that much more valuable to modern audience. Trashing people for liking SAO just shows a total ignorance and how immature haters are. I guess, most of my thoughts on Volume 1 I already expressed in the comments to the previous posts. As with many of my favorite story series, no matter the media type – it’s hard for me to separate individual stories past the first one. I mean – I love SAO as a whole, and cannot even directly pick my favorite arc in it. And yet, I would say, that first novel has its own place in my heart. It is the one I’ve reread the most in the series, without any comparable volume to take the second place in such criteria. It is a strong foundation for everything that comes later in the series. And the way it is written – the density of emotion and ways it is conducted is one of the best I ever experienced. It is also a very independent story. I can easily picture *this* Kirito finding his Asuna, and them living happily together, without any of the future events troubling them. At the same time, I can reread it while picturing everything I know from future books, Progressive, imagining the Kirito and Asuna I know now from that same era of Aincrad, and extrapolate their thoughts in every moment here, and see something even bigger. One book that I could read in different mindsets and love the process in both ways. It is special in itself.
Саша Одинец
2021-10-16 15:44:47 +0000 UTCAgreed with Cris – up to the end of Volume 8 there’s not much to worry about in terms of side-stories. But the Afterwords are important for understanding the history of SAO creation, of Reki, and it’s better to read them at least for yourself out of the recordings. SAO Progressive ties into the series somewhere around volume 9 too, if go along with the publishing order, and it’ll be the easiest path for us to follow, I believe. As for a box set – I guess, given that English versions of SAO *do not* match in heights at all, the only way to make a box was to redesign the whole thing. And that’s precisely what they did with collecting first 20 volumes into two, ~3.5kg each, books for «Platinum Collector's» edition. I have it myself too, in fact, reading through it at the moment. And the quality of it is so amazing it’s hard to believe the same publisher made the paperback ones that do not match on the shelves :D Costs almost twice less than collecting them 1 by 1, too. But if you’ll choose it for a readalong, be prepared – it’ll dictate the place to read it, not you, for the sheer mass and size of it – so you’ll might need some kind of stand for the book to have it in comfortable angle and distance during recording. Otherwise, the couch will no longer save your back…) And again, I agree with Cris – in majority of cases, haters do not need to read the novels. But simply *watch* what they are watching. Simply writing down the moments they point out as problems, writing what’s happening in the scene without personal opinion on the matter – would be contradicting to their words. Or at times they are trashing what is a normal human behavior that characters show. It might just be a cultural problem with a layer of modern generation who grew up on who knows what, which ended up affecting their values, worldview and moral compasses. It makes me pity them rather than being angry about them. Proving them wrong is easy, so it is something that could be done for people who haven’t tried the series purely because of such comments, not for haters themselves – there’s little point in trying to persuade them. They just have to learn the empathy one day, by themselves or with help of others.
Саша Одинец
2021-10-16 15:42:14 +0000 UTCHating Reki really just comes down to people following what Youtubers say like sheep. Like I’ve said many times before, none of these people, including most Youtubers, have read the novels at all. I know this because most of those haters haven’t even watched the anime. Arguing with people online about SAO will always boil down to the same arguments. Power fantasy, Harem, “rape” scenes, bad writing, two dimensional characters, and a whole plethora of reasons to hate on Kirito. I haven’t seen a single person who brings up a proper argument, even though an argument could definitely be possible. It always end up with the other person saying you have bad taste, you haven’t watched enough anime, calling you a kid for liking it, and many other insults that I’m sure you’ve seen before. I used to argue with people, especially on twitter, just for fun. I don’t do that nowadays since it really just became frustrating having to deal with the way many of these people behave. Anyway, yeah, I can’t wait to see those things you are working on for SAO. If you ever need any help with any of that I should be able to be of some assistance. Believe it or not, I know quite a lot about SAO. Some might say a little too much. (I was the one who sent you 16.5 on discord in case you didn’t know) About the SAO box set, there is one that released last year. It’s a single box containing two large books that resemble those large math textbooks you’ve probably seen/used, 20 small posters, and one large poster. The first book contains volumes 1-9 and the other one had volumes 10-20. That would be from the Aincrad arc to the Moon Cradle arc. Its base price is $200, but you can probably get it in some places, like amazon, for $150. I of course have one myself, but I mostly have it there just to look nice. The books are too heavy (They’re about 8 pounds each which isn’t too bad, but still) and the text too small for me to prefer them over the regular copies. As for what I’d be if I was in SAO, I’d probably the same thing Kirito is, but just not as good and not as motivated. With my terrible memory and willingness to just brute force my way through fights, I doubt I’d survive too long that way. I’d probably forget the enemies’ attack patterns and mess up a bunch of times. Or forget that I have potions, or even to buy potions before starting a fight. The last thing I’d want to do is stay behind in a safe town so I’d just be there in the middle where enemies aren’t too strong or too weak. And then the whole party system. If there is one thing I’m bad at, an there is a lot, it’s talking to people. Just thinking about having to start a party with a bunch of people I don’t know sound painful. All of this does assume that I don’t know anyone else in the game though, if I had some friends with me I’m sure things would be different. Anyway, there are a lot of things that you could read between novels, but nothing too important just yet. It isn’t until around Alicization where I would recommend reading some other stuff that wasn’t released in English (But there are fan translations of it). Most things after this are pretty linear, until you get to volume 8 and 22 that is, so you shouldn’t need to worry until then. I will also be sending you a timeline for the Aincrad events (By this point I would have already sent it), hopefully that helps out with knowing when things happen. Last thing, will you also be reading the Afterwards for the novels? Those are just Reki talking about stuff, but they are intriguing.
Gen
2021-10-14 06:31:56 +0000 UTC
