SAO thread

>>1835375
its a white neckbearded autistic weaboo's wet dream, thats why

>>1835375
Because the anime is very bad. But starts off very promisingly.

In episode one, the omnipresent shadow of death is invoked as a powerful vehicle to drive the story, and helps define the world (with a terribly unimaginative name) of Sword Art Online.

Midway through, author-fantasy starts kicking in.
The series gets weirdly domestic. All of the "strong female characters" are simultaneously demoted to spineless housewives.
The author's juvenile adoration of online games and creepy veneration of the villain (who has murdered thousands by this point) start manifesting fantasy escapism as the focal theme of the story rather than surviving in an unforgiving world.

Cut to the end of the first half, and you have a pretty "meh" ending that still idolizes the villain. But nevertheless, is the ending the series deserved.

Shortly thereafter. Fairies.
The thematic identity of the anime shifts even more profoundly than before. Death is no longer the Heroes' silent companion. The aesthetic changes to brightly coloured fairy warriors.
Worst of all, author-fantasy starts driving the story entirely. The "not-actually blood-related-sister" complex starts to become central to the plot, and Asuna is demoted from Housewife to Damsel in Distress.

Sword Art Online is bad because it is unpolished. Because the target demographic was shounen rather than seinen. Because the Author used the story as a vehicle to explore his personal fantasies. And mostly, because it was so very good for a very short period of time.

For the shorter version, see >>1835449.

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>>1834222
>implying I want to catch AIDS

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>>1835375
Honestly, things have gone the opposite direction at this point.

SAO is not as terrible as it's made out to be, but it has become so trendy to dislike it that it's difficult to offer any other opinion.

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>>1835896
Give me one good reason why it's good that isn't the hot girls or the first half of the first arc.

>>1835485

So in summary:

I'm going to spout a bunch of meaningless bullshit, and pretend that these are valid and objective complaints.

Your opinion is shit. Hell, it isn't even your own opinion, the people who spout this bullshit is almost exclusively tools who formed this opinion after seeing other people bitch about it.

>>1836163
how come you didn't actually counter any of his complaints

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>>1836163

Thank you for your concern, but my toolbag opinion is of my own design.

My primary gripe with SaO is that as it goes on, it just becomes a more and more egregious author-self-insert fantasy.

Watching a story and world that I was once invested in slip further and further into childish-daydream territory was a frustrating experience. It's a shame to watch potential go to waste.

And I think that is why so many also feel betrayed by this infamous anime. If it was bad from episode one, no one would give two shits that it turned out the way it did. It's easier to hate something you used to care about than it is to hate something you never cared about.

It doesn't bother me that you find my arguments meaningless, or believe my opinion (because that's all this is is my opinion) secondhand.
I simply offered my objective take on why myself and others may not like the show.
You are more than welcome to continue enjoying Sword Art Online despite my opinion and the opinions of other and I applaud you for doing so.

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Less trolling, more sexy beaches.

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>>1835796
better version

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>>1836716
You're goddamn right you're the best.

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>>1836723

>>1835485
I agree with most of this. However, I'm not willing to completely give up on it, despite it being a dim shadow of its original self.

The degredation from interesting show to gary stu harem anime is pretty annoying though. I really, REALLY liked the show right up until the point where Yui showed up, and it became apparent where the show was headed. But it was still at least pretty good until the end of the SAO arc, if not as good as it was at the beginning.

After that, the show only becomes good when it isn't about Kirito anymore. Mother's Rosario may have been gratuitous tragedy porn, but it was at least moving (if cheesy) and had a few great character moments for Asuna.

Oh, and Lisbeth is totally best girl.

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>>1837048
>Oh, and Lisbeth is totally best girl.
I really like Lisbeth, it's a shame she mostly gets pushed aside after her arc.

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Come on, everyone knows Kirito is best girl.

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Nevermind, it's still Lisbeth

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By the way, has anyone else here watched the SWEabridged SAO Abridged show on YouTube? Most Abridged shows out there are pretty terrible, but SWE's is one of maybe one of about five (and of about two if you take away the ones TFS or its members were involved in) that are actually pretty good and that I enjoy watching.

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>>1837052
>her arc
Her episode, you mean. Sadly, after that all she's good for is occasionally being amusingly jealous of Asuna for one or two lines before fading into the background again.

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Still probably my favorite Asuna pic.

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>>1837085
(お)shi(り)non

I just spent the last 30 minutes trying to find an image I wanted to post for this, but all the *boorus and GIS failed me, so I guess I'll ask here: I'm looking for a specific image of Shinon. It was made sometime relatively short after her TV debut. It's an image of her from behind, with relatively more realistic proportions. The shading is fairly flat, possibly even a vector. It shows her from about mid-thighs upward, and she's not wearing her jacket or shorts/leggings, just the black and white undersuit.

Despite being able to remember it so clearly, I can't find it anywhere online. And though I used to have it saved, I think it was in my unsorted images folder which got erased a few months ago (because I'm stupid).

If anyone has it, I'd appreciate it.

Here's a different image instead.

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>>1837095
Looking through my stuff now, not sure if I have that one though

I really need to sort my pics some day

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Seems I have a few shots from behind at least

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>>1837099
If it helps, I believe in the image she was standing up straight and looking back over her left shoulder. I'm a little less confident about that last detail, though.

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>>1837102
Sorry, I searched pretty well and didn't find anything that matched.

Although, just to be certain, did the image happen to have lighting like this?

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>>1837106
After searching for another hour, I found it in a long forgotten, deeply buried backup folder from my phone. I greatly appreciate the help, though!

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>>1837108
No problem, glad you found it. I've never seen that one before

>>1837109
Judging from the filename, I probably got it directly off Pixiv. But iqdb returns no matches on it, and GRIS finds a handful of lower-resolution versions. No wonder I had such a hard time finding it.

Googling "pixiv 44588455" returns this as the source, though:

http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=44588455

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Bump. Been lurking

>>1842588
>Feels
Trying to fap here
;_;

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this thread needs more Silica

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(Something I colored a while ago)

I have to say I do agree that the direction the Anime went in was stupid, but overall the series was not terrible. I could think of worse things.

fucking hell that's the best one iv seen so far ^^^^^^ I can't reply because I'm on stupid mobile and it says error so yeah gonna fap now byeee

It's been three years and you people still judge SAO by the shitty anime as if it's the only thing to go by. Read the light novels. They tell the story better and give you so much more information that the awful anime adaptation cut out and glossed over. Honestly, you're only getting about 60% of the series if you look at it as ust an anime.

tldr: read the fucking book