Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Sword Art Online: Alicization War of Underworld Part 2
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Kisuke525
Posts: 191 |
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Hopefully it's ok to link this, because I found a VERY good explanation of a lot of Alicization stuff for anyone interested. It's pretty long, but it should help clear up a lot of stuff that a lot of people are confused about. It even helped me remember some things I forgot and helped me understand a few other things.
https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/iekoy8/sword_art_online_alicization_explaining_the/ |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 364 |
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Frankly my problem with the show at this point is its total lack of rules. The number one defense by people who defend the show at this point is "But Incarnation!"*. And I get the idea, it basically boils down to "if you can believe it, you can achieve it", (or if we're being real, an excuse for characters to surpass their limits like we're straight outta DBZ/a typical battle shonen).
But here's my big problem: we haven't seen Incarnation nearly as much in the entirety of this season, or indeed in the entire franchise, as we have in these last few episodes. And I'm not saying we haven't seen it, but by and large, those instances have been few and far between, and have been small (which is not to say unimpressive, but just kinda normal by the standards of the genre) feats like keeping going after your HP hits 0, or maybe putting a mind-whammy on an opponent because your killing intent is so powerful. But now these abilities have evolved into straight up crazy town. Like, Kirito turning PoH into a tree is apparently releasing sword memories, which... okay? The only time we've heard about releasing sword memories before, it's whenever characters yelled "release recollection!" before releasing their not-bankais. But now Kirito can use his sword memories to give PoH the ol' Crazy Diamond treatment... I mean I guess we haven't seen his recollection yet but call it a hunch, I have a feeling we're gonna see a totally different recollection in this upcoming final battle. And supposedly he can fly now because he saw Administrator do it and he mimicked her, but she literally hacked the game to get all her powers whereas he just flies off like "I have to go, my planet needs me" (and for that matter he catches up to Gabe and Alice in no time when they'd been traveling for hours if not days (my grasp of the timeline is a little warped by the season break) prior) . We've seen other characters using healing arts and getting their eyes fixed but that required system calls, now Kirito can regrow his arm and repair Eugeo's sword without any calls because hell why not? Look, to sum all this up, here's my ultimate thesis: Incarnation used to be a way to subvert the rules, but now it seems to be the only rule. Underworld had a whole element system and there were system calls and armament enhances, etc, etc. Now wild things just happen because... I guess the characters themselves simply want wild things to happen. And a heavy part of the blame for this has to go on A-1/the people adapting this because it seems like all the people posting who have read the LNs understand everything going on and accept it all this as perfectly logical, but as someone who has only ever watched the anime, the plot really feels like its gone off the rails. (I seriously don't think the show itself has ever even brought up the term Incarnation, I'd never heard of it until reading it here). Thanks for attending my TED talk, sorry this post is so long. *Let me clarify that this isn't a call-out post or anything, I get the want to defend a franchise you love from an anime-only dork like me who doesn't get some mechanics. |
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CrypticPurpose
 Posts: 337 |
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My problem is that, after a legitimately great first cour, this second half had dropped in quality to that of poor fan fiction. So many things happen that are not internally consistent with how the universe was demonstrated to work up until now, solely to create rule-of-cool moments. Incarnation, as shown in Accel World, was a cool concept, but here it has degenerated to just another "a wizard did it" explanation. The writing went from decent to cringe-worthy chuunibyo middle-schooler level. Any attempt at maintaining suspension of disbelief went out the window. It just makes me want to scream "Why???" |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1621 |
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I don't know if I care anymore about internal consistency since the show obviously doesn't, so I'm not gonna give too much grief about Gabe's Stand, his infinite healing, incarnating Vecta's sword back into existence, his out of nowhere tentacle attacks (all this without really knowing all about the world's rules), or Kirito suddenly needing to incarnate himself some ALO wings.
But why did Kirito suddenly go through a bout of self-flagelation? It didn't seem to follow from... anything; neither scene cues nor an overarching theme. There's one thing I gotta give to SAO though, something where they've outdone themselves: their villains used to be uncompelling and unengaging, but just as characters with a story and a personality. Now they've gotten rid of that pesky "coherence" and have become so also as inhabitants of a story's world, as they randomly can do whatever ignoring any and all pre-established rules and common sense. Now they're complete, whole. Hearing "Starburst Stream" is always somewhat exciting but I expected some more flair. I'm also glad that Gabe didn't overstay his welcome: his characterization and evolution as a villain was godawful, but at least his final bout lasted for ONE episode instead of half a season. Now let's see how they manage to defeat the mighty gunshot-lever and if there are any consequences for the raiders and their government (but I bet it won't be as good as that time some mecha-magical girls had to defeat some nuclear missiles). I hope the next arc is much better spoiler[ALO>War of the Underworld] |
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Hiroki not Takuya
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I think the burning question I have now is how you (Key and others too) would characterize how fans can respond so positively to the last few episodes given that the material I would say was eye-rolling and laughably melodramatic without enough leadup or plot building to make people (like me) care? Seeing the response in CR comments, there are literally hundreds of viewers who are just "eating it up". Could they have gotten so invested by S1 that literally anything can happen in S2 (covered under "because incarnation" and the power of love) and it's accepted as the greatest story ever? |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18389 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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^
It's really pretty simple: fanboys will be fanboys, and the last two episodes cater harder to the fanboys than at any other point in the series' second half. The next two episodes? Not so much. There are consequences to what's happened and they will be dealt with |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11552 |
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I should probably wait for the review, but I'm not sure it would normally cover this: if Asuna had to manifest the World's End Altar, what would Alice and Kirito have done if things had gone more according to plan, i.e., the tech crew sez, "Hie thee to the Altar and do all the things!" and they could've just gone there (if the invasion and all hadn't happened to monkeywrench it). Well, I'm sure Kirito could've done it himself. But what would Alice have done once she got there, if Kirito and Asuna hadn't shown up at the same time? Would she have been casting around going, "So...here I am, where's the Altar? Am I in the right place?"
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Kisuke525
Posts: 191 |
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First off I wanna say thank you very much! Seeing someone appreciate my efforts makes it feel like it's worth doing. As for your question... I have a different answer for each type of viewer. Now keep in mind I could be wrong since every person is different after all. The reason LN reading viewers have been enjoying it "myself included" is because we've learned to accept it for what it is. Pretty much all of us know by now that the adaptation is going to cut and/or change stuff, so we just look forward to seeing the stuff that does make it in brought to life while filling in the blank spots with LN knowledge. As for anime only viewers... I'm guessing that those that enjoy it are just more accepting of the adaptation's faults. Even though things about the characters for instance have been cut you can still find them likeable. Kirito for example "key kinda disagrees with this if I remember correctly" is very different imo. The anime makes Kirito out to be much more baddass and perfect and VERY rarely does it show his uncool side. The novels are almost always narrated by Kirito so you almost always have a look inside his head and that lets you see another side of him. He's not always calm he's oftentimes very scared and/or worried and he also thinks pretty poorly of himself. However, an anime only viewer can end up liking Kirito because he comes off as almost like a superhero and lots of people like those. As for people liking it when a lot of stuff in the adaptation doesn't make much sense... I'm guessing they just don't really think about it or don't really care. The anime can still be fun even if it doesn't make much sense at times. The music and visuals are great so maybe a lot of people enjoy it for the spectacle? And some people get attached very easily, so maybe that's why they care about the characters a lot even though parts of them are missing? Honestly I can't really give a super good answer because I'm not an anime only, but I will say that if all I knew of the series was the anime I probably wouldn't care for it too much. I can't seem to figure out how to quote multiple people in one post "help would be appreciated" and I don't wanna clog this place up with multiple posts, so hopefully the people who I want to quote will see this. Yuvelir. It may not always seem like it in the anime, but everything has been consistent. Nobody has done anything that hasn't been shown and/or stated to be possible. No rules have been broken at any point. And Gabriel does know how Incarnation works, but him figuring it out was cut from the anime, so that's no fault on your part. Also a big reason his Incarnation works so well is because he is absolutely insane. An absolute madman "thanks to how Incarnation works" is the most powerful type of person in the Underworld. As for Kirito acting the way he did... It is very much in character and thoughts like those are something he has had throughout the entire series, but the anime has removed stuff like that almost entirely. Gina Szanboti. Asuna didn't manifest the World's End Altar she just created a path over to it. The original plan have been to fly up to it with dragons. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18389 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The way I usually do this is to quote any posts beyond the first that I want to respond to in separate tabs, then quote the first post in the main tab. Then it's just an exercise in copy-and-paste. |
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Kisuke525
Posts: 191 |
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Thanks! I'll give it a try next time. |
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1621 |
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I hope that not all of that random shit Gabriel pulls off falls under "Incarnate system", because it is already shouldering a lot of weight to the point that it's just an in-universe Deus Ex Button. There's a huge difference between Kirito making his sword a bit longer by remembering the tree or aesthetically transforming his clothes in the climax battle against that world's demigod, and everything all the (male) characters have been pulling off this season. A plot point reduced to the absurd, from "you can boost your skills if you imagine it hard enough" to "you can do literally anything and everything if you can imagine it". His soul-devouring/soul-violation thing seems more like an external superpower than anything in the realm of the "game" rules (why does this world have so many gamey rules when it's supposed to be a simulation of a real world, not a literal game?). And he seemed to have done something similar to his childhood's Alice as he murdered her? And since we haven't spent enough time in the real world to know if superpowers do exist or not, I guess I can't complain that much.
Honestly it has always bothered me why there isn't a multireply function in this forum. It's a basic function that has been around for the better part of two decades (although it's usually accompanied by a quick reply box, which is missing in ANN). |
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Hiroki not Takuya
Posts: 2620 |
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Now I get an excuse to mention something I wanted to say in earlier posts that has been bothersome to me about SAOA (and I think to you too), namely that the whole SAO series has worked to convince viewers that everything that happens is due to the mechanistic functioning of a game computer program and they start out SAOA in keeping with that but then introduce "incarnation", it's logical extension "perfect weapon control arts (recollection among them)" and "spatial energy resources" and the whole "things operate at the whim of individual will, imagination and love". These latter are the equivalent of "magic" because they presumably operate outside the functioning of computers and expressly violate the original premise of the series. Despite that, some fans accept all that as a "given" so there is no BS and everything is explained in detail and is perfectly consistent. |
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Birriaman
Posts: 94 |
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Asuna is just too goddamn good for Kirito. Granted, I don’t know what the repercussions of her deciding to stay with him will mean, but I imagine they could have a good 200yr old life together with children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great GREAT granchildren, and then when they finally log out, will run to find each other, hug and cry (because losing everything they had in the virtual world WOULD be incredibly painful). That would be such a nice bittersweet ending.
That being said, and this being SAO, after all they went through in those 200yr, we will probably be back to “Oh, I am so flustered at Asuna wanting to hold my hand!” or “No, it’s not like you think, it’s not like we were on a date or something!” or some other trite anime relationship crap. Or maybe this is the point when they really subvert my expectations... |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18389 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Aincrad didn't have magic, per se. (It did have teleport crystals and potions, which are certainly magic.) However, Alfheim Online explicitly does. Hence magic is not outside the premise of the whole series, just Aincrad. Unless you meant something different there? Last edited by Key on Mon Aug 31, 2020 1:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11552 |
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Ok, thanks. Looking at it again, I can see that what I took to be a random cloud (as it was the same color and tucked among actual clouds) in the 1 second it was on screen is the floating-for-some-reason island. It would've helped if they'd added some green, as it appears when Kirito finally arrives. 
But now that they've made me actually look at it, is there a reason why the sky looks like a shoddy wallpaper job, with the seams between the strips showing and bleeding ink? |
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. I'm really sorry about that. 
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