⭐Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapters 13-14: Read Along & Analysis
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Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 13:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rYOnxxqV_VYszGyZjxaxJmd-ujsX04VG/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 14:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1atGZUGayotiu0z9EfX3_OJGTek3u5Mtp/view?usp=sharing
Comments
"Kirito the fashionista" - the further we progress, the more I am attached to this side of Kirito xD I love the duel of Kirito and Heathcliff. What is completely missed in the anime version and can be only understood from the book - the fact, that of all people, Heathcliff was *another* dual-wielder. The combat system in SAO has its own restrictions while providing a help to a player. To use it, you have to put yourself into prerecorded position and motion, to initiate the Sword Skill. Then your weapon will glow, as long as you learned appropriate skill, and you'll move it faster than you could on your own. As Kirito explained in the beginning - you still could try and move swords on your own, but the speed will be lower, thus the damage. The unique skill that Kirito received, allows the system to recognize the motion of two swords simultaneously and use prerecorded move sets of attacks for them. Anyone can take 2 swords, but system will not assist them without that skill. Same goes for shield users - their main weapon is still one handed. But Heathcliff's unique skill allows him to use system assist for shield attacks. This dual-wielding, in a way, makes Kirito closer to his equal. That is a great set up, in my opinion. In anime version, they did not add the light effect to the shield attack, and for some reason let out the line of Kirito's thoughts "His shield?!"... and that's all. They never let us know, what was wrong with him using a shield as a weapon, there was no Sword Skill animation and Kirito did not continue the thought. This duel is also a very rare moment, when no matter the outcome, it is a win-win situation for Kirito, as he admitted it to Asuna in the end of the last chapter. Yet, since he did not plan on loosing, he still went all-out, but in a different way than what has happened during the demon fight - it wasn't something mind-burning desperate, but something he found a joy in. Last chapter's "he still couldn’t cast off his gamer’s ego. Just like me." in full bloom - I think, if anything, in this moment Kirito felt truly free. He did not have high stakes from the outcome, he had no restrictions he had to cast on himself to not attract the attention, he was "facing a true rival, a worthy foe" - someone he doesn't have to worry about to overpower and accidentally kill. He was a gamer again, it wasn't a prison, but a game - "Follow me if you can, Heathcliff!". But Heathcliff wasn't as free in this moment! When they closed to 50%, everything went out of his expectations, he had to spend extra energy on reevaluating the situation - and who could've predicted, that the situation will lead to Kirito being in such a state of mind? :) Even though Reki's writing gets better and better over time, and thus, from novel to novel - the first volume of SAO, in my opinion, is a very its own thing in terms of quality. The best way I can describe it - over time you see more and more "full circles" in SAO. From direct foreshadowing to characters meeting similar situations. And these are moments where you can clearly see how characters act differently, or reflect on the previous such moment - *show progression, development* that people accuse they do not have in SAO... And, maybe, it's just how I remember it - still in the process of rereading the series - but I feel like these circles have bigger and bigger scale over time. While in volume one - they are happening sometimes in a matter of couple of pages, chapters, not novels. Just last week, we saw how Asuna entered the teleport gate being in the air, while Kuradeel was someone who "had the good sense to be standing upright.". Then, by the end of the duel, Kuradeel had such a reverse, that he didn't even make a step toward teleport gate, but used the expensive teleport crystal to move away. At the same time, Asuna left with Kirito, firmly stepping towards the labyrinth. Or the reverse from running away from the boss chamber, to running towards it to save people... And in these chapters, we have a couple of these "circles". The first death in SAO after new rules, laws of that world, were announced by Kayaba (since there were casualties before), was described in the chapter 3. It was a suicide - the very same way, as did Keita - threw himself off the outer edge. And describing the first suicide in SAO, since we see everything from Kirito's perspective - he made a point to say, that it took 2 whole minutes before the name of that player was crossed out on the wall in the Black Iron Palace. It is something that Kirito knows, something he doesn't want "to think about what he experienced on that fall" And now, describing Keita's death, he says "Probably cursed my name to the very…end…". Now if we combine it in one circle, one picture - we see Kirito, imagining what Keita thought throughout these 2 minutes - cursing him to the very end of such a long fall to death... Personally, knowing that, the moment hits me even more. One of the worst things about what happened to Keita, as I see it - his suicide left Kirito no one to forgive him. Just a chapter ago, we again heard Kirito's impulse to run away. But he did not run away from Keita. He came to him, and of course did not hope for any type of forgiveness from him. Not now, at least. Still, he faced Keita and explained what happened. And we saw what happened next. We came the full circle back to the departure from Klein - Kirito left him, because he knew that more people - and he will not be able to protect everyone. And he knew immediately here - "There were too many monsters for me to protect everyone.". It happened just like he once feared it will. It is still not his fault, I believe. I saw some people's comments, that the reason the monsters were at a higher level than they should've been, because with Kirito the average level of players was higher. But that is something that anime might've caused to conclude. Because in anime, they spawn into the room, and exits were blocked. In the book - the trap didn't spawned them, it *attracted* them. So, every entrance to the room became a source of coming in monsters, you couldn't get out without killing the horde, or teleport out for the room since it doesn't let you to use crystals. If anyone played MMO, they might know the feeling of attracting too many monsters for ones to handle - I know that feeling. Though here, real lives were at stakes. Still - if they were cooperating instead of panicking (well, can't blame them for that) - they might've had a chance. If they cooperated, they might've listened to Kirito and Sachi in the first place, or used his diversions during the start of the battle and at least some were to survive. Kirito wasn't alone in disagreeing about opening the chest, he can't be blamed completely for what happened. Even if he told them before, that he's a higher-level player - they might've pushed him out of the group and made same mistake. They could've listened to their IRL friend Sachi on the matter too. But Keita left Kirito believing it was his fault, and closed any way for forgiveness from him... Two more "circles" I found as I was writing of this comment. One - the first time we hear the word "Beater" in this book, is when Kuradeel calls Kirito as such. Which for him brings back the memories of Keita. Now, in this chapter, we go the other way around - from memories of Keita calling Kirito a Beater, to Kuradeel's return. The second is more interesting, yet I cannot guarantee it was designed as such, because I will have to put my believe in Translator of the book. Back in chapter 2, Kirito explained, that there was no need in using the honorifics in the virtual world - "Attaching -san to each other here would’ve just been weird." and that was one more way to separate the world of SAO from the one outside. Yes, we saw multiple times that after 2 years, the difference starts to blur between them. Still, I find it curious, that after Kirito opened up to Asuna, she referred to him as "Kirito-kun’s working with me…" when speaking to Godfrey. And couple more times in same conversation. I think it is a little extra step in expressing how they became closer, how their relationships are actually *real*, since the "taboo" words of the real world are used by her :)
Саша Одинец
2021-09-03 20:06:33 +0000 UTCThis episode was quite late, but it did come out during my day off so that’s a plus. Anyway, these chapters were kind of short but did pack a punch. The way that Reki fully describes the sword skills is something that is also taken into consideration when they made the anime. Instead of making something up on the spot on how the move should look like, the animators asked Reki the exact movements and he was able to tell them properly. The way that we are able to see into Kirito’s mind is something that makes SAO ten times better. Many of the best parts, in my opinion, comes from his internal monologue, which also happens to be the stuff that the anime cut out. And here is that skill again, Vorpal Strike. The skill that Kirito claims to be the signature sword skill of the black swordsman and that Kuroyukihime mysteriously knows how to use in Accel World. I wonder why that is… Anyway, the whole Sachi and the moonlit black cats’ story isn’t done yet. In volume two, the last short story of that collection is “The Red Nose Reindeer”, aka, the moonlit black cat’s story. It goes into more detail that this part of the novel didn’t go into. Also, volume 1 has 25 chapters. That means you are about halfway through the book already. Volume 2 is separated into sections and each section has four to five chapters, so heads up with that. With that also comes dates. Aincrad begins to jump around a lot after volume 1, but most of the short stories tell you the day they occur. It shouldn’t be too hard to keep track of when things happen, but I’ll be sure to mention it whenever you get to them. My comments are getting shorter and shorter, but I’ve been really busy recently. And now with college in the horizon, things will only get harder. There will definitely be a fun fact next week.
Gen
2021-09-03 07:09:38 +0000 UTC
