⭐Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapters 9-12: Read Along & Analysis
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Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapters 9-10:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Myt3L8jGQke2Dzt3C50dXvG3H8_wyNRH/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapters 11-12:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/112c_B1-4hGpIT5f9q_BubP37WVn9A2hW/view?usp=sharing
Comments
I'm so glad it's those chapters that happened to be the extra ones. They are so good, and reactions to them are amazing too "She is his light" - it took me so much, so much more time to realize that :D We usually mention the names of the books of the main SAO, but never the ones from the Progressive. If you don't want to know then skip the paragraph, but the first SAOP story is literally called "Aria on a starless night". And yes, exactly that :D Chapter 12: "Imagine if she killed him" - that your phrase during the SAO watchalong irreversibly changed how I see one of the Accel World episodes now - spoilers - *REKI DID IT, HE DID KILLED BY A HUG* Asuna giving him a potion to restore life isn't present in the anime, and as far as I remember - system’s harassment detection too. As for mentioned by Cris chapter 16.5 - in my opinion, it's much better to just imagine what happened based on the everything from end of 16, 16.6 and further. Or in our case - from ending of 16 that has a couple of changes in anime so it'll be a new experience anyway :D And then, one day, add 16.6+. The main reason I think this way - 16.5 was never updated, as all of the rest SAO did. And with SAOP we're receiving basically the second wave of updates to SAO (yes, it truly feels like a game :D) - thus if you know SAO well, you'll notice the rough edges in many places. At this point, it feels as a fanfiction, but if you don't mind that - you could try it yourself) Previously I said, how much cities Asuna and Kirito chosen are fitting for them. Now, lets see what kind of city welcomes us on the way to Heathcliff - "the countless minarets of Grandzam were gleaming steel" + "Grandzam was undeniably cold, and it wasn’t just the temperature." + "the building was somehow even colder than the rest of the town" - it's all is not just description of the city, it's all a description of the person we're about to meet. *Repeats Kat* - *how is this a bad writing!*. Also, Spoilers for people who didn't watched/read further in Volume 1 (skip the paragraph) - it's not just scholarly look, that hints, but even more so but less visible - "look less like a swordsman than the *magicians* that this game notably lacked". Now let's go back to chapter 3 "But at the time," (of beta) "the male GMs were depicted as elderly *magicians* with long white beards....".. If go further back, the GM appeared from the "drop of blood" and had "robe with a crimson hood" - now, let's go back to description of the leader of Knights of the *Blood*, same sentence but first half - "His tall and slender body was draped in a *crimson robe*". So, why do you, Kirito, have associations with magician, while looking at him? And I will repeat it, but Klein is the voice of a reader, at least for me, because I can't comment the ending of the chapter and readalong as a whole (and most of Kirito-Asuna interactions in all these chapters, really), without repeating after him - “It did my heart good. That’s all. Until next time!”
Саша Одинец
2021-08-24 01:35:14 +0000 UTCChapter 10: Ah, in anime they did not let Kirito to try and eat Asuna's finger :) I love the whole scene in the safe zone, it is one of those that I would reread whenever I open the 1st volume. "She leaned just enough that our shoulders brushed." - you can literally see how she step by step, from chapter to chapter, makes the distance between them smaller, until Kirito is comfortable being close to her... And they both are trying to open up to each other, even though Kirito is one step too slow each time for now, to materialize his thoughts) I guess, it's hard for people to realize the strength of the character, if that character doesn't make a long flashy combo move to kill things. Although it's almost impossible not to miss the fact, in anime, that Klein did managed to bring *all* of his friends through entirety of SAO. What's more - he's one of very few characters, who did not let the game to change himself. Of course, being around 22 in the beginning of the SAO, he's a lot more stable as a personality and doesn't need as many changes as younger people. But at the same time, it's still is an achievement in itself, that after two years in such a world, you meet him and he's exactly like when we left him on the first floor. I also feel like Klein here is also a projection of the reader into the book - he's not only sees him how he is, but also knows there's a good in him, and that he needs some love. That there are many many people who hate him, *but please be good to Kirito* - that does sounds familiar to our situation with haters and SAO, doesn't it?) There are so so so many things in SAO that you first accept as it is, but later start to wholeheartedly believe in once you see the behavior of SAO haters, that it's not even funny... Chapter 11: It's such a contrast, that barely chapter 9 ended with Kirito and Asuna running away from the doors, they are now running full speed towards to. Completely different fears that push them forward. Yes, the moment when Asuna went inside and the *screams* from Kirito that followed it, is such a beautiful moment, it shows so much of both of their characters pains, the connection Kirito felt for her. The anime managed to picture this precise moment only half right, in my opinion. Yes - they managed to capture Asuna's state of mind, but completely missed Kirito's "He's screaming for her!" and emotions that he had. You could say, that he's a bit more confident in what he's doing to deflect the hit toward Asuna, in anime, while here he just desperately put all he had into it, making himself a barrier between her and the demon. And then, they finally allowed us to hear his thoughts, only to hear the inner conflict about using or not using his unique skill in front of people... while in the book, he had shown exactly how he survived for so long alone - he quickly evaluated the situation, saw the only possible way to solve it, and went for it without hesitation. Such changes, once piled up through 3 seasons, is what makes anime Kirito slightly different, and opens up some of the points that people use to hate SAO on, even though these changes aren't nearly as bad as to produce such hate. The tactic Kirito used against the boss isn't uncommon in games too (although I use it on lower difficulties and while having the save button xD) - it's a typical glass-cannon style, when you skill up such a dps, that you neglect your protection to outdone the enemies with quick burst of damage. He went into such an extreme with it here, that you can see just how desperate the situation was. Now that I think about it more and more, Kirito's style does have the elements of glass-cannon too, which is possible precisely thanks to his quick reaction and judgment in combat - I felt similar in combat while playing Control, where I prioritized the damage dealing abilities to extra hp, so I had to compensate it with my reaction speed and understanding the battlefield situation. I guess, I haven't thought about it much before playing Control, since most of the glass-cannon characters I had where mages before... Although I did made a duel-blade character named "Kirito" in Dragon Age Origins during my last replaythrough, and had lot of fun trying exactly such a high dps class.. the only problem was that he did died whenever I let myself too excited, so that explains why Asuna was so suspected of Kirito - *who on Earth would come up with an idea to try to be a glass-cannon in the world of Aincrad* XD When you watch an anime, when Kirito thinks "Faster, I got to go faster" - it's so easy to forget that he's in a virtual world. And it's not that he moves faster, but he's *thinking* faster to move faster. Because of it, it's hard to understand the scene when he passed out - what happened? He only performed one skill (after some fight of course, but he wasn't that exhausted before using it). Yes, lost 99% of hp, but what, it was shock that he fell for? But when you read this part, all comes into much clearer picture. "my nerves sparked with every swing of the swords" + "My mind was accelerated to the breaking point" + "I swung faster and faster, attempting to outdo even the speed-assist of the game system" = I can clearly see, how he overdone his brain at this moment. How dangerous it was, and cannot be used all the time. After all, he's having a "kitchen microwave" on his head without any safeguards on it against damaging his brain. Although, it might be the quick shift from low frequency to super high one that caused such an effect by the end of it.
Саша Одинец
2021-08-24 00:24:43 +0000 UTCOhhh, extra chapters, and *these* chapters of all - that's a great way to start the day :D Thanks) Chapter 9: I feel like, on top of being worried about Asuna during the fight with the Demonic Servant (and it was a 4rd fight inside the labyrinth, but he still was "restless" seeing her fighting these monsters) and what you said about experiencing something he didn't yet understood - he's also one of a very few people who actually can appreciate the whole battle strength of Asuna, being so close in lvl and skill. Surviving alone for so long, he has to understand the swordsmanship very well, and understand what it takes to make each of Asuna's move, and in such a perfect rhythm and precision, to the point of seeing it as a dance - it's a separate type of beauty that he sees in her. And that creates a bond between them too. Also - *Demonic* Servant - *the game is hinting to what type of boss they are going to meet* heh. Speaking of audiobooks - so far, they are progressing in the same manner as we do - they only just begun :) There's only Volume 1 out so far, with approximate plans to release V2 in October and V3 in December, so there's another long long road ahead in our travel through SAO :D And it really is a very different experience, even comparing to usual audiobooks that I had listened to. On top of a couple of different takes at what emotions characters expressed in their words, comparing to anime version, you also get the Dub Kirito to voice it all, which is rather unusual and feels weird too :D Since I'm very used to that voice of Kirito, it fits even more to hear the book as if it was him telling us the story, as he remembered living through it. But at the same time, you hear his notes in voices of others if you don't shift your mindset properly while listening, and it's funny to hear at times :D And yes, that “Frrrurrrgh!" you voiced, reminded me a lot of how it was made in the audiobook, I practically heard it the second time from my memory of it :D "You already see it in videogames" - yeah, it reminds me of my first experience in WoW classic, when I had zero idea how to progress in that world, and was lonely fishing in the middle of the frosted lake, still very low lvl, when some much higher lvl player approached me, shared some bags with me (that were useful for a long time), wished a good day and continued journey ahead. Sometimes small moments like these are the ones you remember with warmth, and I made sure to share a couple of these things with low lvl players once I built up my economy too) One of the first things my friend said, once he started reading SAO not long ago - "Switch! I finally understand how that works!" - there's so much more depth to that move in the book than in Anime, which you only start to feel in animation, once you read about it. Because it isn't an act, not a command to rotation, but it is also a skill, that originally wasn't part of the system, but was developed by players to use system's patterns to their aid. It is a skill that represents the cooperation of players, making vulnerable for a brief moment not only the enemy, but yourself too, so you rely on your partner to back you up and continue your work. In that sense - watching anime version SAO not as its own thing, but as a work of trying to picture the book in animation, feels very different. And yes, I love how Reki shows, that working together you can achieve more. And how Kirito slowly, by thoughts like "our two styles were actually quite complementary", "It seemed as though our levels were close as well", slowly shrinks the imaginary distance between himself and Asuna, distance he covered with walls from people to not be hurt again. I actually don't remember, which lvl Kirito was at this point - as far as this Volume goes, we only know, that it is high enough to fight "a level-82 monster called the “lizardman lord”". I guess we'll find out once we advance far enough in books :D I felt like Kirito's reminds about the world around being digital, serves a couple of purposes, aside from reminding us as readers about it - for example, in front of the boss lair, it was his (unsuccessful, and he knows it) attempts to calm down his fear of what he sees, but sometimes, it's him being a gamer his whole life, admiring how far it all went. That's what I do regularly, and not just in terms of technology of graphics, so I can connect to these thoughts of Kirito, looking at a sunset in the game and etc. The picture for the chapter 9 is so gorgeous, but it also took me not one read through to realize, that the cut to their faces in it, actually complements the overall picture - Asuna's hair continues Kirito's arm, her hair down the picture continues into Kirito's scabbard, the connection of their hair and the space between their heads overall forms Kirito's body, and last, his hair and nose continue Asuna's long hair... as they just complemented each other in a battle, they complement each other on this picture... Maybe I'm overthinking it, but that is ingenious for the artist to do that... and there's a cool giant demon on top of everything too :D Oh, just while writing it, I saw another one - if you look at the shadow on Kirito's chin, you can see it continuing into the Asuna's body at the very bottom of the picture. If you look at it as I just did - as if it was really a part of his costume, the half of his coat would became white in your imagination, in Asuna's colors. I hope you'll get the same image from the anime as I just did, the shadow of what to come :D Never actually thought about them running from the page this way, thanks for explaining the idea, sounds great
Саша Одинец
2021-08-23 21:03:30 +0000 UTCOh look at that, an episode released on my day off. I can finally be early at commenting. I’m glad that we got four chapters this week. The road to the end of the novels is long, but with this, things can speed up quite a bit. I will soon join a higher tier so we can have some more, but that will have to wait until like the first week of September. Anyway, I had forgotten that the martial arts skill was mentioned this early on. That skill is pretty important for many things, but I don’t think it is explored that much in these novels. It is a bit in progressive though (including how he got it in the first place). Speaking of progressive, the way that Kirito and Asuna met is completely different there than it is in both the anime, and probably how Reki intended it to go originally (Which is why there are a few retcons). As for how long they’ve known each other, I’m pretty sure that by that point they’d already known each other for around 10-ish months. They’d spent around half of it during the beginning of SAO and the rest it was from the story “The Safe Haven Incident” onwards (As a reminder, that’s the one were those players faked their deaths). They spend floors 1-25 together and separated after that (Asuna joined the KoB then). As for that scene you mentioned, you know, the one where Kirito and Asuna are alone at her house a little later, that part wasn’t included in the published version and followed what the anime showed (So nothing). There’s a very good reason why it wasn’t. I doubt that the age rating would stay the same with how detailed he goes into that scene. It’s reads like some fan fiction you’d read on Wattpad. If you want to read it you can search up “Sword Art Online: Chapter 16.5”. I think I have that story as a pdf as part of me collecting pdf’s of all unpublished Aincrad stuff, but I might be wrong on that. I don’t know how canon it is now, (I think Reki said it wasn’t canon anymore) but Reki made a few sequels titled “16.6, 16.7, 16.8, and 16.9” which were later renamed “Sugary Days”. Those stories are canon and were published in a special book that was never released in English. I can’t say that you should make a reaction or review of 16.5, but you can read in your own time it if you want. You definitely should check out Sugary Days though. They’re pretty short and give some interesting scenes between Kirito and Asuna. Also, if you want detail regarding the Aincrad arc, then progressive is exactly what you need. For example, what you’ve read up until now of volume 1, which is quite a bit of content, is the same amount that progressive has just for the first floor. Progressive 1 is 354 pages long and covers the first 2 floors. Aincrad 1, the one you’re reading, is 245 pages and covers the entire main section of the Aincrad arc. Every volume after that adapts 1 floor and sometimes Reki uses 2 volumes for 1 floor. Right now, progressive has around the same amount of content as there was from the Aincrad to the end of the Phantom Bullet arc, (And maybe a little more) and it’s only reached around floor 6 (In English at least). Believe me, the people that say Reki can’t write don’t know the first thing about writing. They just parrot whatever their favorite anime youtuber says and claims it as fact (Not that they’ve read it either). Almost everyone that’s read the novels has said that they’re much better than the anime, even one of the biggest SAO haters couldn’t say much after reading Progressive 1. I don’t have a fun fact for today, but if the next ones will be 2 chapters a week, then I should have one the week after the next. A lot of the chapters moving forward are pretty short so just a heads up on that.
Gen
2021-08-23 08:54:28 +0000 UTC
