Man, it’s been twenty-four long episodes. Sadly, this still isn’t the end of the series.
Plot summary: Kirito and Yui manage to reach Asuna’s birdcage, but their tearful reunion is short-lived. Sugou appears out of nowhere, removes Yui to God knows where, and disables both Kirito and Asuna with gravity magic. He then tries to rape Asuna in front of Kirito, but our hero is somehow empowered by the late Kayaba. Yes, the creator of SAO. With his newfound admin powers, Kirito cruelly eviscerates Sugou and all is well… UNTIL WE INEVITABLY RETURN TO SAO FOR NO REASON! But until then…
Notes:
• So why is Yui now lifeloli-sized? Why does her attire change but not Kirito’s? Why can she just disintegrate walls? Maybe she’s rewriting the world’s code or something, but why couldn’t she do it before?
• Kirito: “This is the top of the World Tree? There’s no Floating City up here… Some Grand Quest! Everything was a lie. I won’t let him get away with this!” Kirito sorta has other things to worry about… like, y’know, the villain is a scumbag who wants to mindrape Asuna. But grr, the Grand Quest was a lie! How could they deceive us with this sham of an endgame!!! By God, he’ll pay!
• Holy hell, Yui has to remind him to save Asuna. This guy, man.
This guy.
• Sure, we have time for a tearful embrace. Let’s not hurry or anything, guys. I’m sure the villain isn’t lurking around the corner or anything.
• Asuna’s voice is so high-pitched. “Kirito-kun~~~~~~~~~” So moe.
• No you’re not. Don’t lie, bro. Don’t lie:
You took your sweet-ass time getting here.
• So Yui can just melt through walls but Asuna’s locked down by “complicated codes.” ‘Kay.
• Oh hey, guess what? The villain showed up while our heroes were busy chatting. Now, you could say they would’ve been caught anyway, but maybe they’d look a lot less dumb had they actually tried to escape.
• Here’s the part where the villain dawdles and explains his master plan to the heroes for no particular reason. Just to brag, I guess. Y’see, Sugou’s experiments in ALO will allow him to control a person through their minds! He’ll become a God!… as long as you connect to his MMO. But hey, he tried.
• Christ, is the threat of rape all that they can come up with?
Stay classy, SAO.
• So not only will Sugou rape Asuna in the virtual world, but he’ll make a recording of his virtual rape to shame her in the real world… whereupon he’ll rape her some more. Rape, rape, rape! Someone’s been reading too many doujinshis.
• No one’s saying that you can’t have rape in fiction, but let’s be mindful of what we’re actually watching. Yes, rape sucks for anyone. Yes, rape is traumatic. If you want to portray a horrible villain, it’s so easy to cry rape! But there’s something very orchestrated by the way Sugou tortures Kirito, and this sort of premeditation on his part — or perhaps the author of this tale — that seems to imply that the worst crime of all is that our fair maiden garbed-in-white will have her purity besmirched — besmirched, I tells ya! — in front of her very own man. This is why Sugou goes to such lengths as to assault Asuna in front of Kirito. If he truly and simply lusted for her, he could’ve done so hundreds of times over before Kirito ever manged to reach the birdcage. But no, he doesn’t rape her until now. He doesn’t do anything but tease her until Kirito actually shows up. In his sick mind, therefore, the worst thing he can do is not necessarily to rape a woman, but to “steal” her in front of her own man. So we have to be very careful when we are horrified by such a scene. Are we horrified because a woman’s autonomy is about to be violated? Or are we more outraged because Kirito’s woman is about to be NTR’d? The latter is a very dangerous mindset to have. It is the sort of mindset that leads Titus Andronicus to murder his daughter Lavinia in cold blood.
• Kirito: “Is this my punishment? For thinking that I was the game’s strongest hero? That I could save Asuna alone?” Yes. It ceased being a game once your true love was at stake. But on a more serious note, at least in SAO, Kirito could reasonably argue that the creator was obsessed with fairness. Remember how he kept going on and on about how SAO was inherently fair? That the creator would never allow people to cheat? Assuming those premises, Kirito can at least believe that he’d have a fair fight against Kayaba. I have no idea, however, why he assumed a fair fight would exist in ALO. Sugou has already made his intentions very clear from the very beginning of the arc: he was going to NTR Asuna. Why would Sugou be like, “Yo, you can duel me mano-y-mano! I won’t cheat!”
• Speaking of Kayaba, here he comes outta nowhere! This is some straight-up Dumbledore bullshit right here! Is it possible that some remnant of Kayaba’s existence was copied over to ALO? Maybe, maybe not. Who really knows? According to the anime, this is an “echo” or “an afterimage.” Whatever. In the same series, we’ve seen ghosts, so I guess this mumbo-jumbo fits right in.
From a psychological standpoint, it isn’t silly for Kirito to think back to his fight against Kayaba, and thus be inspired by how he managed to overcome such long odds. After all, Kirito was pretty much defeated, but he somehow came back and won, right? It’s just funny to see and hear inspirational words actually come out of Kayaba’s mouth. Y’know, the same guy who imprisoned ten thousand poor souls in his game against their wishes, allowing them to literally die should they venture outside the safe zones. These poor souls even included children and old people. Yes, I really want to receive your sage words, Kayaba. You sure seem like someone worth listening to!
• What? Why? If you have admin privileges, just fucking end this right now? Save your half-naked waifu and go home!
In the end, Kirito hasn’t learned anything. There is a time to play make-believe, and there’s a time to get serious. Now’s not the time to play make-believe and have a duel with the guy who was about to rape your true love! And don’t even say, “Oh, that would have been boring!” Pfft. If Kirito had done the right thing, all the fans would’ve written countless words about how he’s matured and become a better person.
• Actually, this part is pretty sick. Kirito pretty much tortures the Sugou in return. Basically, “eye for an eye” retribution shit. The reason why Kirito even duels Sugou in the first place isn’t to stop an evildoer from committing any more harm to either Asuna or others. If that was his main goal, he’d just delete Sugou out of existence. But no, he gives Sugou a weapon and forces the guy to fight and for what? To inflict as much pain as possible; it is no accident that Sugou exclaims at how painful it actually feels to be hacked apart. This isn’t justice; this is just childish vengeance. And look at how it’s glorified:
Digital blood and all.
• Kayaba is like a drug-dealer.
Heh, here’s another sampling of SAO! Trust me! This is pure, uncut shit, bro!
• Yui is conveniently okay. Oh goodie!
• What a long and Gary Stu journey this has been.
Moe Sucks 
This won’t be the last time you are seeing Sugou. Remember how the death in ALO means nothing to your real body? How will their final battle unfold? Fighting abilities while playing MMORPG got transferred to real life once again? Stay tuned in, guys, in Shit Farts Online.
Well, he knows kendo! Maybe his body is all recovered from the coma already!
To make all that you said worse, they can’t even be consistent: Kirito first gets so distracted by the fact that the quest was a lie that he needs to be rmeinded to save his waifu…but after everything ends he doesn’t immediately use his admin rights to send a notice or somethign to every player warning them about the lies.
And oh, what about the program that is changing people’s personalities? We have time to save busty ladies not lose their money, time to lose hugging your e-family and torturing the villain…but hell if he has time to go and shut down the program.
So now we have a DOUBLE Ex-Machina: Sugou somehow managed to leave a ghost of himself in the system that appears and gives admin rights…and Kiriro again stands up to the attack with the power of love.
So he thought he was the game’s strongest hero? Damn, I knew he was stupid, but that self centered? Ugh
You basically said “the rape was bad because it was being done in front of her boyfriend” and I have something to add to that: Kirito tortures the guy first, instead of only doing that before taking Asuna from that humiliating position. This only strengthens what you said becaus eit shows how Kirito sees teaching Oberon a lesson is more important than taking care of Asuna. It doesn’t matter that she’s naked, scared and helplessly chained, she isn’t being sexually assaulted anymore so she’s perfectly fine and should just happily wait like that while her boyfriend does everything for her. If Kirito had been a good huspandu, he’d have freed her and given her the sword so that she could have her revenge.
Oberon’s craziness and plot explaining rmeinded me of another villain that did just that: Dio. the difference, of course, was that Jojo was all about being over the top, so acting like that over there was perfectly ok.
…sorry about the long post/rant.
Eh, they’ve been imprisoned for two years in SAO and however long in ALO. What’s another day more!
Well, he probably was. It was just silly to think the strongest hero could actually beat an admin of the game without judiciously cheating, which is exactly what he did.
I just can’t help but imagine people actually fistpumped at a scene where Kirito goes to such lengths to show off when his waifu is still in chains.
There’s so much rape in this show that it puts Pewdiepie’s awful commentary to shame. Sorry, someone had to say it.
What on earth is a pewdiepie?
He’s a famous YouTube user who specializes in video game commentary. Basically, he uses misogynistic and homophobic humor (and toilet humor as well) to score literally millions of hits on each of his videos. I’m serious. I watched like a couple of his most-watched videos (some of them have like 10-15 million views) and all it was was him doing silly video game stunts with a lot of rape and homophobia jokes.
Anyway, I was totally waiting for your review here. And believe it or not, I knew that you were going to call the episode review “Rape Art Online” the minute I finished watching the episode. I’m glad you did!
I’m still in a state of disbelief over how a non-hentai show like this can actually top BTOOOM in terms of its creepy obsession with rape and “purity”. The feminist in me (and, more generally, the compassionate human being in me) just cringes at how people can consider this entertainment.
What I wonder about is what the voice actors/actresses working on this show (or on shows like BTOOOM!) think about when they voice scenes like this. Obviously, a lot of voice actors can’t voice their moral opposition to perverse scenes like this are forced to just shut up and go along with the program due to the need for a paycheck in this precarious capitalist world of ours. (And as a wage slave myself, I’m in no position to judge.)
But at the same time, I’m sure the recording booth was mighty uncomfortable with Haruka Tomatsu (who voices Asuna) coming out with those pained moans of her character in the process of getting molested and raped.
That being said, I’m sure that the voice actors/actresses and the script writer for this show have to do live interviews together for promotional purposes. I can imagine how awkward those interviews must get.
ONE MORE EPISODE TO GO, E MINOR, AND IT’S ALL OVER!
…Unless, goodness forbid, there’s a season two.
I think it’s pretty easy. The show pretty much caters to a very particular mindset.
At this rate, I can’t see why there wouldn’t be one. The show is reportedly popular and there’s plenty of material for them to adapt. Not exactly a hard thing to adapt either.
“Actually, this part is pretty sick. Kirito pretty much tortures the Sugou in return. Basically, “eye for an eye” retribution shit. …This isn’t justice; this is just childish vengeance. ”
My favorite part of your review. I watched this alongside reading it, and I have to say, I didn’t expect the rape tones to get BTOOOM! level. I also didn’t expect to end up pissed off over this episode.
This revenge scene is made all the more horrible by that fact that “Once it goes down to 3 (pain buffering or whatever) it will effect your real body.”
I though Kirito was just going to fuck with him to show him he wasn’t a god, then lock him out like you mentioned. NOPE! He cuts off his arm (which, considering what was just established and the fact that it’s down to ZERO, means that guy can never use that arm again in the real world), cuts off his lower half (which just made him a paraplegic) and then kills him (which either made him brain dead…or killed him). …OUR HERO!
…Wait, why would a VR game even have a scalable buffer for real pain? Why would anyone play a VR to experience real pain? Why have that? What kind of try-hard would play the game on a level that would fucking kill them? I don’t even…
-Why did this piss me off? Because it felt like one big bloody, steroid-abusing masturbation trip for Kirito. Plus the whole thing reminded me way too much of Berserk, which might be why this ended like this. The author(s) read that shit manga, said “MY Gary Stu wouldn’t stand for this shit!” and went on to write out this climax for their story.
Don’t ever jerk off in my face again, SAO. I have enough “Kirito is a badass! DID YA HEAR?! A BADASS!!” from you every episode. I don’t need a sequence where he tortures a prick because he touched what was his.
-Speaking of, is it normal to see a touching reunion and just cuss out the characters involved? I did. Cussed out Kirito for being a lolly gagging self-serving jackass and Asuna for, well…
Asuna: “I knew you were my hero and that you’d save me.”
…
…Fuck you, Asuna. Just…fuck you.
I don’t know. I had fun this episode, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth. Hopefully any future SAOs planned will be rife with idiocy, pandering, failed opportunities and more idiocy to laugh at.
“Wait, why would a VR game even have a scalable buffer for real pain? ”
Funny thing is in the next volume they explain the new secure VR headset used by everyone since SAO is so secure it can even disconnect someone if he start to panic. And that it can’t really transmit pain.
Animations quality was so bad this week even I saw it while I almost always never notice it. :|
So next ep will be Armed Sugou vs unarmed Kirito (who just got out of a 2year ‘coma’) in an hospital, I wonder if they can keep doing worse each time.
Yeah, the animation quality was pretty crap, too. They did a good job to really glisten up all the tears and saliva, though, so… Good job?
“Funny thing is in the next volume they explain the new secure VR headset used by everyone since SAO is so secure it can even disconnect someone if he start to panic. And that it can’t really transmit pain.”
Wait, WHAT? What?? What the fu-?!
Funny thing is in the next volume they explain the new secure VR headset used by everyone since SAO is so secure it can even disconnect someone if he start to panic. And that it can’t really transmit pain.
it just keeps getting more and more stupid.
And to think, the light novels actually have defenders.
So next ep will be Armed Sugou vs unarmed Kirito (who just got out of a 2year ‘coma’) in an hospital, I wonder if they can keep doing worse each time.
*facepalm*
I’d say it’s even worse here.
I’m not too hung up on this, to be honest. I mean, this is a story about simulation, after all. The virtual world is even more of a joke if none of them actually feel any pain. The entire premise of taking a virtual world seriously flies out the window if human feelings don’t carry over. So we’ve seen love, we’ve seen regret, etc. Pain is just natural.
I have more of a problem with our hero going hogwild in his cruelty. Yeah yeah, I’ve heard how the light novels show a more vicious, brutal side to Kirito. I don’t care. This is a post about the anime, and the anime has portrayed a pretty clean-cut Kirito thus far. I’m not directing this at you per se, just covering my tracks.
Uh…
You want more?
The existence of scalable pain makes sense. If you were to make a battlefield where real humans can fight forever for fun and to hone their ability, it makes sense to have optional pain, since it would come with more realism – staggering, wounds decreasing concentration and stunning, and in general it would prevent people from reaching out to grab your sword and hold it in place as they lop off your head with the other hand.
Now why would they give any access to the headset’s pain function to an outside agent is a complete mystery – that is obviously something which should always be only subject to the control of the wearer, and even then, it probably wouldn’t be allowed to have levels that are actually harmful. This kinda thing made sense in SAO, since Akihiko was the designer of all of it and there wasn’t much control. In ALO, after 2k have been killed and control is supposed to be through the roof (it should be a wonder those headsets are even legal after only two years), people still being held prisoner and the admin’s ability to torture everyone is ridiculous.
I think I should’ve stopped thinking about the setting long ago, but whatever, I enjoy it. Just hoped the show would actually do something with it.
“Mind Control! The power of GOD!!! And now it’s all mine!!!” *crazed cackling*
so bad.
And pointless(except for the sequel) since it means nothing IRL…although Asuna DID get to see his giant sword <===3 (screencap-complete with digital "blood")
Ever seen a cat torturing it's food, a pissed off shrew is worse than two cats in heat. So yea, next time Kirito and Sugou fight fo' realz! Pissed off rapist shrew vs. penis-stu. Shit Farts Online, HA! (so funny, etery)
I bet it’ll be anti-climactic. Like, Asuna will tell her parents and Sugou will just be arrested. It’s the only option left for SAO: to go out with a whimper.
Urgh, no. You forgot that some of us have read the light novels.
They are going to fight for realz!
And Gary Stu’s going to use his video game ability in the real wurldz!
Reki clearly stated that it’s from his kendo training as a child, instead it’s from playing SAO!
Ha. Hahaha. (dry laugh)
but what about the people who are still trapped? why couldn’t he locked sugou out and saved asuna as well as the people who are still trapped? sugou JUST mentioned them in his monologue!
i was really pissed about scene before kirito tortured sugou. only because asuna’s there, hanging in chains, topless, and she’s still topless till the very end. then kirito cried because he thought he didn’t have any power? uh?!!!! what about asuna?!!! she literally had no power, at all, for the second half (and arguably during the first half) of this shit series. kirito had no power for 10 minutes and he’s crying?!!! yeah, no.
usually i laugh at SAO for being stupid, convulted, and just badly written – but this was just awful.
Multitasking. Come back for Kirito ver. 2.0.
Funny thing is he has admin powers. He could snap a finger to free and cloth her… oh wait, admin powers are just for tremendous displays of badassery. Not actually protecting and helping a near rape victim.
gotta work on those bugs, i guess.
his ego was on the line! priorities!
but what about the people who are still trapped? why couldn’t he locked sugou out and saved asuna as well as the people who are still trapped? sugou JUST mentioned them in his monologue!
We don’t get any other examples of people who are trapped in the MMO in this method besides Asuna. Instead, we see those hostages as holographic brains.
Also, Kirito doesn’t really care about that and only wants to save his prize to look cool and boost his pride. Yeah, don’t help your traumatized waifu when you went admin mode or anything, Kirito. Just torture the guy who traumatized her because doing that will make Asuna forever loyal to you while you string along your other harem or something.
Iunno. Just reading this episode’s review makes me feel like punching Kirito in the throat.
complete agreement here.
and somehow, i like asuna and consider her a strong character. i guess that’s my attempt to salvage any hope from this show.
Iunno, to me, Asuna’s “strength” feels more like a waifu stat feature than a personality trait. Sorta like something the fans to say to back up their idea that Asuna is a wonderful waifu. But she really doesn’t do anything else much but cling to Kirito and rely on Kirito as her reason of living instead of relying on herself.
This is all I did in when we got to the “Asuna and Kirito get trapped somewhere” part:
“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
It couldn’t be helped. Other episodes in SAO I admit I struggled to laugh, but this episode was the laugh track. This was a climax like no other. I think.
The question is… will we get a sequel?!
Sugou’s death is kind of gruesome for this series. I cringed more than when I watched Another. Why is SAO so popular? The light novel isn’t any better; I dropped it chapter nine. By the way, are you ever going to write your thoughts on Natsuyuki Rendezvous?
I dunno. If the feeling strikes. But at this point, there isn’t exactly much of an audience left for that sort of thing.
Man, and people praise this anime as the best and smartest anime of 2012? Wow.
This episode was as emotionally thrilling as two kids fighting over a shiny toy simply because its shiny. Then the kid who owns the shiny thing pokes the other kids eye because he scratched the toy. And yet, that’s what the summary of the anime is in my eyes. Buncha kids fighting over a shiny toy.
But it makes me wonder… What if SAO was actually about Kirito’s ascension to villainy with what he is going though? He thinks he knows justice out of possession, relies on his skills and power more than his compassion with others and becomes brutal once someone insults his pride (Episode 14 and this Episode, especially).
Finally, I want to see the episode being about instead of Asuna getting bad touched, she ibecomes brainwashed by the afformentioned personality change program and becomes Titania and fights Kirito herself.
Who what now?
That’s a little too complicated for a story like SAO.
Would’ve been a nice homage to RPG cliches! I think in the end, SAO fails in a lot of ways. It doesn’t deliver much of a story. It isn’t particularly thought provoking. It isn’t even that MMO-y. We follow one person and one person only.
Who what now?
A guy in Kotaku wrote that SAO is the Smartest Anime he saw in years. Yeah.
SAO fails in a lot of ways. It doesn’t deliver much of a story. It isn’t particularly thought provoking. It isn’t even that MMO-y. We follow one person and one person only.
Then why can’t they call it KIRITO Online then if it’s simply all about Kirito hopping into MMOS and being godmode?
Kotaku is pretty dumb so…
I was expecting Asuka to be brainwashed to passionately kiss
Diothe rapist for ultimate NTR. Since he seems to get stabbed alot, and his signature final move is getting up and doing a hack while impaled Kirito should figure out how to disconect the pain circuit with a soldering iron… I’m sure someone on the internet already has done it.Iunno, they can just make Kirito hug the brainwashed Asuna, Asuna pushing back and be all “SECURITY! Take the pathetic intruder and child away.” And since it’s based on Titania, she starts acting more like a boss, ESPECIALLY to Oberon/Sugou. :D Also, Final fight scene between Asuna now as Titania and Kirito.
“Why can she just disintegrate walls? Maybe she’s rewriting the world’s code or something, but why couldn’t she do it before?”
She didn’t have have the system console at the beginning of the arc. Once she activated it during the previous episode, she gained some priviledges.
I wonder if Sugou is still alive. Supposedly, when the pain absorber is below 3, you feel real pain when you take damage in ALO. He actually felt the pain of losing an arm, being cut in half, and stabbed through the head… Kirito is such a great guy.
I think Reki started writing and realized that “wait, how will Kirito solve this?!”. But instead of rewriting it, he made this mess.
Are you hurting because Kirito King Bobo cut into several pieces, and classifying the child as revenge. As if it were ripe SAO
What?
Hey, I know you blog and I nominated you for the Liebster Award. Sorry if I did wrong :)
http://pyoruru.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/the-liebster-award/
Uh, these are fashion questions.
Beware, this show is certified on transforming low intelligent life forms into anime zombies removing their perception of to judge what’s shit to not. Making them rabid fanboys to that rejects any facts
To be honest I do enjoy this show, I like the ideas behind the game, the questing styles and the combat (when they don’t actually feel it); the animation isn’t even too bad. But this episode made me squirm, I hate rape but I still expected it from the first scene with the Oberon dude and Asuna in the hospital. This show glorifies it, and the petty revenge, in a way that I doubt any other tv show would (excluding porn and whatnot), this is a television program designed for youth, and some kids even watch it, yet they will have a character raped ON SCREEN (rape isn’t just through intercourse), they will have torture after explicitly stating it will have effects on their real bodies, and they will have a glorified blood shower at the end of a mismatched battle. I admit that I felt some satisfaction in the “Fairy King”s death, but after looking back at it I realised how stupid it was, leaving Asuna in chains and half naked, probably scared for her life and scarred forever, to fight someone who could just as easily be held in game (remove his logout privileges as in SAO) to await court ruling. Leaving the minds of people bound to the system to exact revenge is also ridiculous, you can’t have a “hero” think only for himself. Even Spiderman coped with this kind of scenario better, saving the majority before focussing on the love. To be fair it is the fault of the anime producers more than the original writers, the novels were done much better.
I didn’t think the anime was top-quality either, it’s bases on a light novel after all. But I still don’t agree with you in this point.
I think this summarizes my ideas on this episode: http://otakusphere.com/2012/12/21/sao24-and-maybe-we-should-just-stop-saying-rape-culture-so-much/
One of the main characters, a strong one at that, was molested and near-raped, a serious problem that can happen to anyone in real life. At least the show brought people’s attention to this issue.
Another thing that intrigues me is how calmly people do claim that under the same situation, they would just hold this villain, free the people in danger FIRST and AFTER THAT free the girl in danger. Then take care of the villain, all in perfect order. And make sure you keep the guy safe and secure and don’t touch the poor evil guy who is nor powerless. Sure, some heroic characters can do that but that’s not the norm in the real world. Doing things perfectly only make sense from an outsider’s point of view. Even the best people have reacted in very violent ways when facing the potential rape or rape of a beloved one, such as a wife, daugher or son. In real life things aren’t as easy and idealistic as many people think, and there are moments when a bastard has to be stopped and get what he deserves.
Also, to me it really did feel like Kirito was protecting her, not seeing her as an “object” or “prize” as described here. Maybe people were forgetting that this was just how Kirito acted and expressed himself, as seen through the whole series. He’s no the kind of classical and selfless hero that we tend to see in many other works, but he’d give away his own life for Asuna.
And well that’s it. Other than that there are many better animes to watch in my opinion, but if you want profoundity in anime you should probably stick with Studio Ghibli and/or similar.
“Yes, rape does happen in the real world. It’s an unfortunate fact that human beings rape each other. But the excuse “I’m just trying to show real life” is disingenuous. Why? Because art isn’t about just taking a snap shot of real life and going, “Look! Art!” The process of art is also the process of selection. Even a documentary involves the process of selection. Even photography isn’t merely “just a snapshot.” There are things which belong within the frame, and there are things that do not. And whatever you put into the frame, you’re necessarily making a statement about the world whether you want to or not. It’s not necessarily bad to depict rape, but you have to be prepared for the audience to ask “Why? Why rape?” And if you don’t want to come off as sexist or gratuitous, you better have a good answer that amounts to more than “I’m just trying to show real life.””
So watch good anime if you want to see good anime. Gotcha.
So, if I get you right, you demand that artists must absolve themselves before You Almighty’s willingness to project her insecurities into their supposed statements, lest be branded as the enemy of the people/proletariat/women/etc.
I bet you fantasize a lot about publicly burning such degenerate art with your brownshirt friends.
Haha, talk about fucking dramatic. It’s called people judging you for the work you produce, something mankind has done since the beginning of its existence. If you don’t want people to get the wrong idea of you, you have to explain yourself. Otherwise, accept the criticism. Wow, what a concept. And what are you, sixteen? Just because someone criticizes rape in an anime, they’re fascist now? You’re literally calling someone a Nazi because they said something negative about Sword Art Online. This blog post is oppressing you hard, huh? Christ, get off the internet and reflect on your life, dude. Get some fucking perspective.
Even if you explain something/someone, people will still give different opinions about it (just like what’s happening in this blog post), criticize it, …or call the other guy who had a different opinion a Nazi in some cases.
What can I say …Alex really summed it up and the people bitching about it….won’t even bother.
now as to what was stated he actually had a point. Tell me if you’re significant other was about to raped in front of you and before then you couldn’t do anything but suddenly had the opportunity would you honestly try the “noble” way? No you’d be a human and attack him as brutally as possible. It’s human nature. You want tgat person who did wrong to you and harmed the one you love to suffer…and it’s normal. Kirito’s actions make him human not some savage beast.
Asuna wasn’t raped more or less groped and sure they could’ve handled it better maybe get her down but after wjat just happened I wouldn’t be far off to say she wanted him to pay aswell….part of being human.
Kayaba was messed up yes. But he’s somewhat as a person to look to. He wad crazy by making the game real but he did have some honor and was really the only person appropriate for the moment to give Kirito that boost he needed.
So um yeah I respect your opinion and hope the same
I’d do everything I can to save my SO, then stop there. ‘Cause guess what? I wouldn’t want to stoop to the rapist’s level. Imagine that.
His actions ended up killing thousands of people. Kids ended up being trapped in the game, stranded from their parents in the real world. You don’t respect that sort of person the way Kirito respected him. Are you serious? Nevermind, I don’t even want to know.
One of the main characters, a strong one at that, was molested and near-raped, a serious problem that can happen to anyone in real life. At least the show brought people’s attention to this issue.
Here’s the thing. Asuna saw EVERYTHING from the bad touch to the brutal slaying. Never mind that this was so a game and blahblahblah. I can understand if they wanna go in this direction, but KIRITO KILLED SOMEONE. THROUGH A VIDEO GAME. Never mind that the guy was alive after… he was kind of a murderer in that aspect. After Asuna is rescued? Her only reaction was “No no no, Kirito. YOU A HERO. YOU SAVE EVERYONE. YOU SHOULD BE DICKSTROKED WITH WHAT YOU DID.” There was no emotional stress or a form of traumatic stigma that came AFTER the entire show she sees before her eyes.
Rape, yes, is a terrible as shit thing. The show however only used the molestation of a perfectly innocent waifu as a cheap means to hate an already pointless villain and to justify Kayaba and Kirito’s murderous actions. And SAO is no enemy to pointless over-the-top, stupid villains. It’s not the fact that they showed rape that bothered me. It’s that they actually cheapened or use the “rape the waifu” card as a means to make me give a fuck about the villain.
Also, to me it really did feel like Kirito was protecting her, not seeing her as an “object” or “prize” as described here. Maybe people were forgetting that this was just how Kirito acted and expressed himself, as seen through the whole series. He’s no the kind of classical and selfless hero that we tend to see in many other works, but he’d give away his own life for Asuna.
Kirito’s main priority of saving Asuna is technically stalled by pointless fights to save a pointless race clan over in-game currency money, drama between him and his imoto-cousin having an incest crush over him (and telling her that he’s gonna keep her in a list of people he’ll date when he and Asuna won’t work out). And the “Help” from the Caih siths and Sylphs to race to the World tree WAS NOT NECESSARY because all he needed WAS ANOTHER GODDAMN SWORD and maybe use his OP ILLUSION MAGIC.
And the fun part is? He already has the Win button all along to do it. He’s already powerful. He’s already got the epic skillz. So why waste episodes stalling to get MMOE-peen when he can just GODDAMN SAVE ASUNA. I’m not saying he has to
be nice and save everyone and all the shit, but if he claims to truly love Asuna, he wouldn’t have wasted shit on pointless episodes where all the girls wanna bang him and he is super powerful because he defeated a dude WITH TWO SWORDS..
I swear half the people in this argument just sound upset because Kirito didn’t do what they claim they’d have done in real life (because they’ve all experienced similar situations). While he may not have necessarily acted perfectly, that just makes it more realistic. People don’t act perfectly, they act in response to human emotions, which do not follow internet critic emotions.
I happily admit the show wasn’t perfect, but arguing that Kirito wasn’t the perfect hero is the same as crying that all heroes aren’t Disney’s Prince Charming, However, if it makes you happy to argue that you would have done better in those situations, I’m happy to know that there are unrealistic humans without experience in such situations to protect us.
Lol freaking pansy SJWS……I don’t even like this show, but I’m glad that somewhere deep down it upset you that it was so popular.
If the woman i love has such a treatment i will do the same to that person also if i have the power like Kirito and i can do worst than that, dun give me a shit about justice when justice you speaking of is so wrong in many ways in real life.if some said what Kirito does is childish revenger yeah so be it who give a fuck about a man who mind so twisted and did such horrible thing to a woman,this kind of man need to be disposed in a painfull way thats all.so fuck with your so called justice!!!
Man, this is SAO post is a post that just keeps on giving.
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