⭐Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 3-4: Read Along & Analysis
Added 2021-08-04 06:25:38 +0000 UTC
Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 3-4 (Part 1):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I4P6Y9bD0N4TNKm6LzZi1Sf9t0BqKrOx/view?usp=sharing
Sword Art Online Volume 1 Chapter 3-4 (Part 2):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13-sulFIFigNz4lRpwJUgt0qSnR3vSgE8/view?usp=sharing
Comments
I don't know Japanese, but English wasn't the one I've read SAO originally in either. And comparing the the only translation available in paper in my country (digital fan-made was better), with English one - English writing in SAO is actually great. At least for someone like me, who's not native with it :) I'm rereading it right now in English for the first time, in fact, and already covered 1-6 of sao and 1-5 of saop, plus 1-5 of Isolator (yep, that's Reki's writing, he killed me emotionally in there again a couple of times xD) and 1st of Accel World...
Саша Одинец
2021-08-04 19:31:15 +0000 UTCI have to admit - seeing new chapters here did worked better on me than any coffee I could've tried to wake me up :D Starting from the beginning - personally, I usually have no troubles with listening to music and etc while reading. I kind of trained myself since school to be able to work in the noise and eventually even listening to audiobooks while doing some work. But I think it would be better not to use music in an actual videos - it's very easy for people who like that kind of stuff to turn on their own music in the background, suited to their mood and etc, while silent background will help the others. To add to Cris's comment - the main reason (at least as I see it). for such a timeskip and later adding so many stories to fill it - is due to Reki's wish to participate in the writing contest with SAO. He had to cut and cut the size of the story to meet the requirements to the point when he gave up on participating and just published online - that is a fact. But what I'm guessing - it's not just "interesting way of writing", but the ideas that he had no time or space to write, the guilt of leaving so much of the story's potential just to have a definitive ending to it - that's what drove him through the years to again and again to come back to Aincrad. And it is even more prominent with the Progressive series in my opinion - why did it started? Because he was asked to make a small story for anime. And now imagine if he had the guilt and regret of not properly exploring the Aincrad, for more than a decade, and suddenly there's that last drop - asking him to add something from the very beginning. As Reki published the stuff he once wrote for the website, he had to go through the stories again and update them, thus he already experienced that process of updating the SAO, that he put full energy into in Progressive, expanding on all he "could've done from the beginning". Which of course not really is this way, since it's his experience that allows it all to work that well now. Even so, even with all that rush and timeskip and etc - the first volume of SAO is still the one I've reread the most. For me - the next chapter, 5, is where SAO begins. The stories that come afterwards could tell more how it all "begun", but they only expand on the basis of knowing what will happen in the further chapters of volume 1 and need it to enhance the experience. As for new Progressive movie touching exactly that - I do hope it will be a better adaptation of the book than original 2nd episode of season 1 was, but I also have a healthy skepticism about it from what I've seen in the trailer. Progressive as a book is very detailed in how it explores both the mechanics of SAO and the relationships of players in it. And now, all of a sudden, in that densely written story they bring a completely new character, that right in the trailer makes.. 1, 2, 3.. at least 5 hit skill? It's not a new thing for anime to add extra hits for flashiness, but that many isn't something that is possible at least 5+ floors higher, which makes me question it all. Would they handle the complexity of adding a new character in the story that was supposed to focus on exploring the ones we already new? To the story that already did made a couple of new characters to explore that were barely shown in the first anime adaptation? I don't know. Maybe Reki will help with that. Touching on SAO's hate again a bit (I didn't really wanted to talk about it much, but not long ago had a new person telling me SAO is the worst, so maybe that will help a bit with the video you're preparing) - I feel like many of these people just never, not once tried to relate to the feelings the character have in given moments. They just stare at the bare facts of what had happen here and there, and see similarities with some other shows and say it's all bad for doing so. One of my "favorites" is the "it's wrong to do this to the strong character" meaning the end of season 1. But have they ever considered just through how much all of the "strong" characters has survived (or not) in this series? Or have they ever asked themselves if it really would be fine for a "not-so-strong" character to go through same and if they will remain at least partially themselves after? Or, have they asked themselves if a real person given same liberties as Oberon or other villains, would or not be tempted to loose part of their humanity exploring what they can do with this power? The last person to approach me on the internet about me being or not serious about liking SAO (lol), just barely a week ago, tried to immediately start with "it's the misogyny _ and the terrible writing _ and the horrible handling of sexual assault _ and the flat, one-dimensional characters".. we haven't talked much, but of the interesting lines of his were ".. when you depict horrible things happening in fiction, you're supposed to do that with exceeding care so you don't hurt people irl with the depiction ... It's sexual assault scenes have no nuance or grace for handling the topic, they exist soley to make the villains seem even more evil and further sexualize and rob the agency of the already sexualized and agency-robbed teenage girls". The whole conversation made me think that many of SAO haters just think in terms of certain stereotypes, given by some of the modern media and aspects of modern culture, and can't or don't want to look further than that. I feel like after modern media, it's easier for people to understand the physical pain that characters experience, this and clear win/loose results of the battle, than the emotions behind them. The death and wounds make less of an impact when it's shards and polygons flying around, for them, and that's exactly one of the aspects that Reki actually explored in SAO. In fact, even starting with these chapters we just read along - "I have no doubt that the mental distance from our supposed mortality was a major contributing factor to the decline in population". That is a great allegory to the problem of how people perceive stories and could decline to hating them. People see characters of SAO as one-dimensional mostly because they look at them from one dimension and move on. World needs a bit more empathy in it, and Reki explores it, while the situation around his stories only make it all more real. Back to the book itself - actually, I never felt like I need Kayaba’s story, made from his worldview. Because he is part of the mystery, the type of mystery that is good for the story. Not that I wouldn't enjoy it, of course :) But "That destructive, *unpredictable* genius was part of his allure" and "he’d always preferred to stay out of the spotlight, avoiding media attention wherever possible, and he’d certainly never stepped into an active GM role within a game like this" perfectly captures how I feel about it. When it's crucial, he would come into the spotlight, but otherwise he would work from behind the scene, would influence stuff in a way that is hard to trace or predict, be a presence here, but not someone who you could easily "read") About the privacy and how Kayaba copied the way characters look from irl - that's actually *is* real life thing and concern. Not long ago, I got myself Oculus Quest 2, and what you do to calibrate it for use - you explore your room, virtually touching points on the floor to set the space where you can move around and not hit irl object, using built in cameras :D And although it doesn't work properly every time, but it could remember the layout of your room and recognize it and provide you same shape in same place upon next launch. Since tech in SAO focuses on the user and not the environment around user, it does same thing but in opposite direction - captures not surroundings but what's inside the helmet, thus, user)
Саша Одинец
2021-08-04 19:22:43 +0000 UTCGlad the move is done and you can finally sit on a proper couch again Kat. Another one of the issues about "Reki's writing is bad" is...it was written in Japanese...and translated into English (not by Reki himself). And to people who are more used to English writing, translated Japanese can sound...odd. So i imagine there is more than a little of that in there as well. As far as i know there are no Kayaba centric writings, at least as of now. But I do believe the books do have a bit more of Asuna's perspective on him at least. Since i did not comment on the last post, i might as well mention it here, although someone else may have mentioned it last week. The fight with the Lizard man is the beginning of Episode 8, if you need a visual refresher of it. But yeah glad the move is done, hopefully you can get some rest and get settled in. And feel free to befriend the Lizard and make it a mascot.
MasterAries7
2021-08-04 18:52:22 +0000 UTCAbout that why Aincrad isn't written in chronological order. Reki initially wrote SAO for the Dengeki Shōsetsu Taishō 2002. While it was too long and therefore wasn't send in, it's the reason for the way Aincrad was written, he wrote a one-shot story that had to be a completed story. So the initial story started on Floor 74 and ended on Floor 75 with everything else being added in the years to come.
Ryuuji Gremory
2021-08-04 16:42:37 +0000 UTCFinally…a couch. I haven’t seen one of those in a video for a while. I hope the moving wasn’t too painful and that everything went as smoothly as possible (Which based on my experiences, that doesn’t happen all too often). Since you asked, no, i can't really have anything playing on the background when I watch or read anything i'm trying to pay attention to. I already get distracted by every little thing as is, having any music just makes me focus on the music randomly and completely ignore everything else. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll notice, but everything after chapter three regarding Aincrad becomes a jumbled mess. Technically, the events that happen right after chapter three aren’t told until Volume 8, which then leads to progressive 1, 2, 3, and so on. I won’t go into details since that would take way too much time, but in total, the number of stories and/or novels in between chapters 3 and 4 of volume 1 is 24. So yeah…interesting way of writing it. It also happens to be that most of those stories have never been adapted into the anime, so that’s a whole lot of new content. And the whole beater stuff doesn’t happen until progressive 1. I feel like the reasoning why he did it and all the events leading up to that are so much better in the novels than the anime. I mean, that’s basically what the progressive movie is, the entirety of episode 2 of season 1 adapted how it was supposed to be (Hopefully at least). I do actually have a chart for the reading order for Aincrad related content. I’m pretty sure I also the PDF’s for most of the Aincrad content by this point (that has no official English version). I still don’t know how I’d send it, but if you ever need it, I’ll do that. I meant to mention this last time but when people say that Reki’s writing is bad they usually base that off of the anime (Not like that changes too much, at least to a certain point). The one’s saying that are also not saying that because they believe that but because, again, anime youtubers repeat that over and over again. And based on what I’ve seen, those anime youtubers haven’t read the novels either. I only remember one guy that is a hater who read progressive 1 and made a review video of it. Interestingly enough, that video didn’t have as much hate as he usually put into his videos. He also really like one of the characters that also happens to be one of my favorite ones from SAO. If you don’t read progressive any time soon, you will probably meet that character in volume 2 of SAO. They appeared in the anime, but I highly doubt you remember them since they appeared for less than a minute. Also, I can’t wait to see that video that you’re working on. All the videos that I’ve been trying to work on regarding SAO have never happened since I’ve been too busy doing other things and I also am trying to go all in on writing again (I’m even working on a project right now). I don’t know how long it’s, but I will sit through the entire thing. As long as I’m able to of course, my schedule has been pretty tight recently with my job and I might even be going back to college this semester if everything works out. Still, where there’s a will, there’s a way. I had never thought of Kayaba’s appearance at the beginning the way you explained it, and it’s an interesting way of looking at it. As for a story told from Kayaba’s perspective, I don’t think that has ever been made. There is more context to his reasoning behind everything later in the novels, but it’s still told through the eyes of others. I never really thought about the fact that there has never been anything through his eyes (And if there is then I have completely forgotten about it. I did read the novels quite a while back.) Kayaba’s character is one that I do think is very interesting. Although he started as a villain, he never really seemed that way (If you overlook the fact that he is responsible for the deaths of 4,000 people that is). He always acted neutral to everything and even by the end of Aincrad where he could have easily killed the people that now knew who he was, he didn’t. He could’ve also cheated to easily beat Kirito but didn’t. And even when he was killed, he basically allowed Kirito to kill him and smiled when he did. After all that, Kayaba was the reason he was able to defeat Sugo, and it was him who saved everyone on the Ocean Turtle. The novels do get more in detail to this character so I can’t wait till you get there (Although that is still a while away). I feel like I wanted to mention something else, but I’ve completely forgotten. Anyway, now for a fun fact. Recently, it was revealed that the Progressive movie will have an early screening soon (In Japan of course). There will 1,000 people selected from different cities who will be able to participate. If you haven’t noticed, those 1,000 people are supposed to represent the 1,000 players invited to the SAO Beta. It’s a pretty cool detail that they really didn’t have to do, but it’s nice that they did (Even if we won’t be able to watch it for months after it’s release)
Gen
2021-08-04 09:18:25 +0000 UTC
