⭐Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapters 19-22: Read Along & Analysis
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Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 19:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p89G-mB7-kZt1TcQItIXTV2fhH1ASvcn/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 20:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19kehu0gbxMQSty_Hbp5ecJepwXUCNMqn/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 21:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VinA-hKgmyBVoON61jES6-ERwEcwzrbJ/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 22:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xyhCyUdK-vPt1oeumq6rTucjnornDDGi/view?usp=sharing
Comments
Chapter 21: «I patted Agil on the arm. “Trust me, I know all about your self-sacrifice… “» - and just one chapter later we find out – he actually does. Kirito made a joke here, yet he managed to express his real thoughts in it. I wonder, if that’s just how situation dictated the joke to be, or if there was a thought behind it from Kirito. Even though I haven’t read SAO in original language, I’ve read it in 2 different languages, 2 versions of translation for one of them, so 3 versions in total. And in my opinion, this English translation is amazingly done, at least the way you feel everything you’re supposed to feel from the book. The pace is great too, since I have what to compare it to. That boss fight, moment of connection between Kirito and Asuna during it – probably my favorite moment of all that were left out by anime. And I don’t blame them – I understand, that it is practically impossible to *show*. The first time we ever see anything similar to it happens half way through the 3rd season, during the fight at the top of the tower. But here – it is such a beautiful moment. One of the closest, most intimate things any characters ever experienced, as I see it. And it’s not just the fact, that they understood each other this well. It is, how I understand it – second case of breaking the system at this point in the series. Maybe, not as much «breaking» this time, but absolutely using it in ways that weren’t ever designed. The way I can explain it to myself – I see them synchronizing their brainwaves to the point of communicating while bypassing the systems that were designed to read their thoughts and express them in digital sound and then translate it back to thoughts. It is, pretty much, a soul to soul communication, that they achieved here. But at the same time, it’s something related to what you said about Kirito switching back to the lonely fight mode, when every sound and others signals that aren’t relevant to fight are cut out from the picture that he sees, except his target. Here, it’s same yet different – here instead of closing everything out, they continuously let each other in. Which is one more case of Asuna going through his defenses – none of which are left between them anymore. And another side of this moment – is the way Kirito always described Asuna’s fighting. He is «battle-obsessed» as Klein said, he sees what Asuna does as «a true sword dance», her as «vision of an angel, dancing with her sword.». And now – he himself joined that dance. «it was an incredibly sensual experience» where he «felt a sense of unity»… As I was writing this, I was just following the trail of my thoughts, connecting dots that I had in my mind for a long time but never completely brought together. So, it was my first time seeing the scene symbolically as an actual their first dance, and I wonder if anyone sees it same way now. Chapter 22: «While everyone else slumped on the ground, one man clad in red stood straight and tall: Heathcliff» - I love how that mirrors the moment of Kayaba’s announcement in the beginning of the game, when he was above every player in a blood-red robe, with every word crushing down them and their lives. There was no face to see, but with Kirito’s almost obsession about Kayaba, he easily «conjured my mental image of Kayaba». Which makes me think, that sooner or later, he also imagined what he now saw in Heathcliff - «the expression of a merciful God, gazing down from a great height…». And again – the fact that Kirito was the one to figure it out, it was not only his deep knowledge of what was publicly known about Kayaba, but also the way he analyzes this information. It’s him always rationalizing the facts that he knows, finding the patterns. It shows his intelligence. And it also makes Kayaba and Kirito that much more similar to each other. Which only makes their relationships even more complicated. Yes, Kayaba always believed that the one to held the Dual Blades would be the one to fight him in the end – after all, this unique skill is very close to his own. But I don’t think he foresaw that Kirito would be so similar to him. The rational one, the one to avoid public whenever possible, someone with similar gamer’s pride, and one with a dream of living in such a world at times stronger than the wish to come back. Once he saw the owner of the Dual Blades, he valued him as a «wild-card». But, I think, he also saw the similarities, and projected himself too much on Kirito. The way Heathcliff held himself was almost theatrical, with big speeches and etc. And when Kayaba was revealed, he still was partially in this mindset. So, when Kirito accused him in not that great of a narrative to make a villain from the greatest player, Kayaba behaved himself in way, as if Kirito would surely understand him, he of all people. «But it’s a compelling scenario, is it not? » - and maybe he did. But then, Akihiko added «*We* had fun…». Which maybe was true for their first duel, when Kirito still had no idea. Maybe Kirito did had fun in this world. But unlike Kayaba, he lived through too much pain here, and more importantly – he found Asuna to anchor him to reality. He could no longer view it in the same way that Kayaba saw him, projecting himself on Kirito at the moment. Even the suggestion of a second duel, was way more of a game for him than for Kirito. And this is partially the reason that Kirito lost in the second battle. While Heathcliff was liberated from his restrains, Kirito had a much greater mental weight on him. I think, a little confusion might’ve been a case in the beginning of the switch between the days of recordings. They did feared Kayaba, but they weren’t paralyzed by it – it was him manipulating the system to forcefully paralyze them, so that no one would interfere in his exchange with Kirito. Well, about Akihiko, the novels show a bit more details, but to pretty much all same moments that we already saw in the anime. The way anime portrait the whole chapter is beautiful, but that duel.. For some reason, each time they really need to put in Kirito’s thoughts into the scene, let him think aloud for us – each time they let him begin but never finish. I have no idea how that works. So, they let us hear the idea, that Kirito cannot fight with the Sword Skills, because Kayaba designed them. But then there’s only silence in his mind. And for some reason, when Heathcliff cuts Kirito, he loses his cool and activates the Sword Skill that became fatal for him. In the book we see, that Kirito remained as rational as he always is. Yes, he felt the fear that eventually caused him to do it, but it wasn’t accidental. It was Kirito logically finding the way out of the situation, seeing Kayaba for who he is, and failing to see any solution. His confidence was crushed by the weight of what Heathcliff represented – someone who designed every system’s skill, who killed almost 4000 people already. So, Kirito gambled. It is normal for a fight, just a switch of tactics, although it was more of a desperation that led him to try it. And the moment he did it – he new the outcome right away. Which gives very different feel to the way it was adapted. The moment Asuna jumped in front of him though – this they showed as perfect as it could be. And she broke the system again, broke system’s paralysis, sent her thoughts to Kirito while again bypassing the system’s means for communication. And people still only see Kirito «always fighting the system», completely ignoring that Asuna broke it multiple times before him, showing him the very possibility. And the last thing - the way everything is written here is so beautiful, I could reread it again and again. Yes, painful, emotional, but that's exactly why it's very beautifully done in my opinion.
Саша Одинец
2021-09-27 21:14:33 +0000 UTCChapter 19: I think, aside from 16.5 (ok, now I’m scared that we’ll hear that one, even partially xD), it’s better to stick with the main series up to the volume 8, before starting the journey of the side stories and Progressive. Mostly, because the beginning is chaotic as it is in terms of the timeline. But also, because by that time we will be able to freely discuss a lot more stuff without bringing up the anime. Cris most likely has a better judgment on that part and a list to follow :D So far, I’ve only just played first 15 hours of the first SAO game, but from my initial thoughts – it’s a very fan-fiction-like story in the parallel universe, and with a lot of «slice of life». Some stuff in it doesn’t make much sense, some is fun to experience/explore, and it is much much closer to harem now :D So it’s a very specific type of media to explore, which I, personally, can only take without a serious attitude. That monologue from Asuna... If people did not understand it and never looked back at previous events knowing what she said – they missed the core of their relationships completely. Those are the people, who usually scream that everything went too fast and thus it’s «bad» and etc. Of course it went fast, but the details grow over time. And it doesn’t have to be a linear progression – future events could release a new light on the older ones, and then it’s your job as a viewer / reader to look at them again in your mind. See new details. I don’t think I ever saw any critique that brought up that monologue in any form, probably because it would break a lot of the critique, I guess. The other amazing side of this monologue – how much it speaks to the reader, how much it translates to our modern reality. When we experience new stories, new worlds, spend time with our friends virtually – it’s not necessary «loosing another day in the real world», but gaining something else from it. Yes – it’s not always like that, *just looking at SAO haters shows that people could lose time without gaining much*, but it’s still is something important to understand for people like us here. Maybe «understanding» isn’t the right word here – more like being able to put it into words. Because a lot of people do not understand it and are always ready to judge. Just like Asuna initially did, when she saw Kirito under that tree. And while Asuna understood it herself, others might act differently towards you if you can explain it to them, as long as they listen. This sometimes solves conflicts even with our families – the conflict of understanding between generations. By the time I’ve read SAO for the first time, I long since explained it to my mom so that she would accept the way I spend my free time, but it only makes these lines so much real and meaningful to me. And it’s not all there’s to this monologue, for me. Because I see there another conflict that I had to resolve, this time with myself. This time – something that SAO did help me with. Whenever I play any computer game, but especially some RPG one – I start it with the mindset of being deep into the lore and atmosphere of the game. But the more time I spend in there, the more I transition from playing with «magic» of that world, to playing with «numbers», prioritizing efficiency over everything else. And that is exactly the state of mind that Asuna had when she came to Kirito under the tree. I didn’t notice it at first. But ever since I started reading SAO – each time I put the book aside and load some game, I found myself transition back from «numbers» to «magic». Eventually I started to disable the UI in games, pay more attention to surroundings in their worlds, not always prioritizing best stats of the equipment but tailor them to my taste. I still can’t exactly describe, how reading this book shifts my mindset, but after a watchalong of SAO here, I looked back at it with more analytical approach, and saw that Kirito had similar transitions too, and so did Asuna here. And now I more or less understand it. And seeing the world through their eyes, the way Reki described it – it helped me to improve my gaming experience a lot, cut some of the rough edges of it. Rereading it now, I notice, just how much Kirito pays attention to the surroundings, beauty of it, and I connect with him even more on that. Chapter 20: Oh, and I was wondering – where this Twilight clip came from – should’ve known it would be SAO :D Actually, I did read it, and a couple of times because I liked it (and The Host from same author is probably even more), and I thought a number of times about it because of SAO. Glad to see another person who doesn’t judge you for reading it (was always glad to see that book in some episodes of SAO-anime watchalong) xD Which, in fact, one of the similarities between Twilight and SAO that helped me being more myself with people. Soon after I’ve read SAO, I began to meet more and more judgment from people for liking it, or people joking at me for that reason and etc. And naturally, the first feeling you get from such reactions – you want to stop sharing with people such a side of yourself. But, personally, I’m a bit too stubborn to follow the flow of people in such situations. And then it hit me – I’ve read Twilight. And I already broke that barrier with it before – «yep, I did read it, *imagine*, it’s not as bad as people say it is» is the attitude I already could channel from myself without much resistance. So I thought – «I’ve read Twilight, so what if I’ve read SAO and liked it too» - I can survive some judgment from some people who just do not understand any of it. And so I do. And over time, I notice that I am a lot more open with people about such things now – about stories that I like. As I listened to this Twilight analysis, I actually remembered another thing from it, that I intuitively understood as I read SAO, but haven’t put into words before. About exactly the same events that were mentioned. There was a line, and though I’ve read it not in English, I’m sure it is there in one form or another. Lines about people that heal you mentally, but by doing so – they leave a mark on you too. If someone closes the cut you have in your heart, your soul – if you try to pull that person away, you risk making the wound even bigger, for that person left the roots in there too. It was something that Bella lived through. And whenever I think of Asuna’s parents, especially her mom – I think of her not understanding, on fundamental level, that Kirito and Asuna did healed each other in this way. And that taking one from another might break them even more than they already were before. They filled each other’s soul-wounds, but people oftentimes do not understand it one bit. I will say it again, but people never see just how rational, logical Kirito is. Yes – he gave in to his emotions when he proposed to run away with Asuna. But the moment he received a different view on situation – he already knew there’s no other way for them but to continue fighting. Not a lot of people their age are that rational. But Kirito always was, since the first day in SAO. Even one of the last lines in the chapter, is his thought «I couldn’t let fear cloud my judgment». That trait of his is another reason why he survived solo for as long as he did. And I wouldn’t be surprised, if that separated him from others even more at times, before SAO too. Even his first friend, Klein, is way older than him. Then there’s Agil… and all the rest are girls. Oh, he was friendly with Nishida too… I think, there’s something to think about it in all this.
Саша Одинец
2021-09-27 18:06:34 +0000 UTC
