Sword Art Online – 23
We grind together, we die together. Fo real.
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Welcome to more Sword Art Online! With only two episodes to go how will things wrap up? Last week Sugu discovered that Kirito was in fact her older cousin that she fell in love with, but will she summon the courage to get over him and continue playing the game or is she done with ALfhiem Online forever? Something tells me she will push herself to continue! Well enough chatter from me it is time to join Overcooled. |
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The suspense is killing me! …Okay, no, I can only feign so much excitement. That’s all the exclamation marks you get for now. Aside from sarcastic ones. Yay! At this point I’m just waiting for this ALO arc to end since it’s been dragging on far longer than it should. Episode 23 brings us one, sweet step closer. |
Recon’s Unlucky Break
Overcooled // Poor Recon remains the butt of everyone’s jokes, because God forbid there is another male character even remotely as strong and cool as Kirito in this series. After being absent for almost the entire ALO arc, he rears his bowlcut head once again to conveniently confess to Leafa. Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing that his timing couldn’t have been any worse. The good news is that Leafa doesn’t leap into his arms like a desperate nympho as a rebound relationship. Her feelings for Kirito are unresolved, but she’s not going to sink so far that she’ll drown her misery in the arms of some other man. Especially a man as meek as Recon. It’s actually kind of sad how easily he takes the rejection and how much more of a dweeb it makes him seem.
To rub salt in his wound, he sacrifices his life to use a self-destruct spell to help Kirito and protect Leafa. He makes a great, heroic sacrifice…that does nothing. He literally did nothing but stall until the Sylph and Cait Siths came to the rescue. Of course, Kirito parts the water with his holiness by using his dual-wielding sword skills. I don’t know why he hasn’t invested in buying another sword if he’s been able to use game-breaking techniques this entire time. Anyways, in comparison to Kirito, Recon is chopped liver. Gum on your shoe. That cheap, dollar store knock-off beyblade that all the kids laugh at you for buying. What is the point of him again? All he did was annoy me and make me terrified that Leafa might be insane enough to go out with him. He seems to be yet another prop to make all of Kirito’s actions appear glorious, much like every other character in the entire show.
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ALfhiem Raid Adventures
Foshizzel // Last week the awesome Kirito-kun tried his best to basically solo his way through the first part of the giant world tree, but it proved to be a difficult task for our hero because he got owned before reaching the end. Most of my experience in trying to solo same level raid content usually meant I had to wait for either an expansion to release or an increase in character levels, meaning if my character was say around level sixty it was not possible to run into a raid area and solo any level sixty plus bosses by myself because it required help from more players which what happened this week. I remember saying something about the two factions that Kirito helped previously coming back to help him with the world tree and I was right! That said I would have preferred if he originally asked them for help, but for the sake of making a “cool character” I think the creators are just creating some Ichigo-ish clone from Bleach aka “he is such a badass fighter he never has to ask for help” of course if those characters went around asking for help from others does that make them appear weaker? I suppose that could be an interesting debate if shounen leads were weak fighters and were required to team up with another person every week. Before I take heat I know there are lots of moments when someone helped Kirito like at the start of SAO with Asuna and the same can be said of Ichigo from Bleach, there are lots of side characters that lend him a hand in certain arcs.
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Violence Solves Everything
Overcooled // I was actually pretty content with how Suguha’s confession was handled, and the more serious way her feelings were shown. It wasn’t brushed aside as just a passing fancy, but as something has been eating at her constantly since her brother’s awakening. All that is thrown away, lit on fire, stomped on multiple times, and then covered in acid. Suguha’s unrequited love for Kirito is resolved in a way that actually doesn’t resolve it at all. In ALO, she challenges her brother to a duel to work out her emotions physically. It would have worked – maybe – if after they both tried to give the other a free hit that they properly explained their feelings.
Kirito apologizes for making her like him, because…well..he feels bad and wants to show his sister that he still wants them to be close. So far so good. Then he just has to say that he is still deciding his feelings for her because he can’t possibly devote any cognitive resources to anything other than rescuing Asuna until she is safe. Reality outside of Asuna just doesn’t exist for him. It sounds like the most leading statement ever since he says “well maybe I’ll love you after” when we all know that his entire world will STILL revolve around Asuna when she’s back. Suguha then apologizes for her own feelings and is suddenly happy. Nothing was resolved, and yet she is satisfied. The whole dialogue exchange is incredibly clunky and somehow ends the sibling love subplot without actually solving anything. The whole focus of the ALO arc (aside from Asuna) has built up to nothing more than a big mess.
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Fairy-powered Fighting
Foshizzel // One thing that continues to surprise me is the combat and magic spells in Alfhiem online! While Kirito goes for his 2nd attempt at raiding the world tree Leafa, Recon, Alicia and Sakuya rush into help him with either magic power, but Leafa and Recon were sort of pushed to the background to play healer only roles! Well minus the fact that Recon pulled a Vegeta and decided to play hero by blowing himself up which did NOTHING to the swarm of bosses, maybe he should have tried using a different spell? Speaking of crazy magic and stuff where in the world did Kirito learn such a devastating attack which I called the rushing rainbow super charge…seriously all he did was “combine” two swords and then he practically transformed into a rainbow bullet. After all of that super special stuff Kirito still could not open the final door, but of course he had Yui around who used her moe moe hacker skills to finally open the damn door.
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Final Thoughts
The battle wasn’t as cool when Kirito wasn’t in complete rampage mode. It was more like a montage of dragons burning stuff and cuts to already-sliced monsters dying. There were more than a fair share of stupid moments too, such as Recon’s unjustified sacrifice, the disappearance of the archer enemies, and Kirito’s dual-sword turbo super special awesome deluxe attack. It’s a dumb fight, but forgetting all that and just laughing makes it more bearable. I will commend the challenge to get to Asuna for actually seeming difficult to accomplish (even for Kirito) as swarms of enemies completely blanketed the ceiling. He got through it in the end, but only by the skin of his teeth. With 2 episode left to go, I imagine he’ll be meeting up with Asuna and everyone’s favourite creepy villain very, very soon. Will the ending be an epic battle or a more emotional ending with fluffy romance? It could go any way with a show like this.
Not a bad episode this week even though the drama parts at the beginning turned me off because Kirito kind of fed a lie to Sugu saying something like I don’t know what to think about you yet? That kind of screams “Hey! We might be able to get together one day! So don’t give up hope Sugu.” Yeaaaah sure why not get her hopes up EVEN MORE! Then again maybe Sugu will find someone else to fall in love with? That said I will not be holding my breath for that. So yeah the random drama moments were not for me, but I enjoyed all the fighting and magic flying everywhere! I just hope next week has enough action to keep me going; however Kirito has to eventually have a random make out session with Asuna after he defeats the final boss of Alfhiem online…
Let’s all just make out when Sword Art Online ends to celebrate ;D
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
i feel kinda sorry for recon…not even a depressed girl wants him…
and
who knew giving money at random to girls could bring an army to help you
and
sooooo many posts to coment… i don’t even know how to start >.<
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The guy has a lot of odds against him. Hopefully for him, he’ll find someone for him… that probably won’t be Leafa.
LOL. They were simply there to return a favor and now the debt has been paid.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahahahha yeah poor Recon that dude can’t even catch a break with Sugu or Leafa! True giving money to random players makes them help you later on! Woooo! I should try that sometime.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
This episode was decent. I’m glad Sugu didn’t dwell on her self-pity now that she knows the truth about Kirito. The girl is stronger than she looks.
I can’t fully explain it but Recon is just annoying to me despite the efforts he puts into his confession to Leafa. It was hardly surprising that she didn’t fall for him right there. Her standards aren’t that low. My guess is a serious lack of character on his part but he did show a little improvement with his self sacrifice in the World Tree. Too bad it ended in vain and yeah, I was thinking Vegeta when he blew himself up.
The fight was good and the three were lucky reinforcements came just in time. What I want among other things is finding out Kirito’s inexplicable dual wielding ability which isn’t even listed in his stats along with that jaw dropping finishing attack he pulled using both swords.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Thank god! I would have been so bored if the entire focus was spent on Sugu hiding in her bedroom crying the entire time! So yeah good for her for getting up and moving on…kind…of….
LOL if she said yes to him I would just laughed my ass off so yeah at least she decided to turn down Recon’s offer, but then again she might be holding out for Kirito? I would hope not! As for blowing himself up…wow…really? You don’t have any other spells that you could have used dude?! Ahahaha
Kirito’s super powerful charge attack of rainbows made me laugh~
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
That last attack of Kirito was beyond stupid. What really and should have happened was that he was suppose to hack and slash at the enemies using the two swords. He was suppose to show some lightning fast attacks which makes it possible for them to break through. Yet what we got was a rainbow Giga Drill Breaker-like attack that doesn’t make sense whatsoever.
They were probably aiming for razzle dazzle or something but sadly they were mistaken.
And yeah, that’s what we’re getting for Sugu’s part of the story. Some small clashes, a bit of reconciliation and talk plus a lot of spinning. It worked for me though in the novels. While it may be true that Kirito only has his eyes for Asuna, it’s now better because Kirito isn’t blindly leading Leafa around. She’ll settle for only a piece instead of hoping to get the whole package of him. So yeah.
And being Recon is suffering.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Totally! That final attack was really dumb and yeah it really did feel like a Rainbow-Giga-Drill-Breaker-like attack which left me laughing more than anything, but of course Kirito does have a lot of flashy attacks~
True at least Sugu/Leafa is somewhat over the whole drama with her cousin, but part of me just can’t shake the fact that she probably will never give up hope that she can get with him one day…that said I was happy he didn’t completely ignore Sugu.
Yep! Recon needs to find a new game to play.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 154 comments
I couldn’t agree more.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
@belatkuro @Fosh Another derp on the anime ==; In the LN Kirito suppose to hack and slash his way through not a rainbow drill sword beam…..
Running out of budget?? 😛
At least Sugu can is kinda ready to move on if Mr Right appears!
I think Recon needs to play Brain Burst lol. He have a higher chances to find his own KYH and a harem over there XD
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
LOLOLOL Yep! The girls in that world seem to fall over anyone with gamer “skill”
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
As much as SAO tried to distract us early in the series by having the girls somewhat ‘exit’ the picture, except for Asuna, ultimately I think we have to remember that this is a high school harem anime, same as Accel World, or OreImo, or Who is Imouto? or OniAi. Or maybe I should take OreImo and OniAi out of there because the quality of those shows is better, and put in Boku H instead. Regardless, it’s a harem anime. And so unfortunately, the main characters will end up being doofuses about it. So like Belatkuro says, Sugu will be happy to just have a piece of her love, and see him be happy (aside: I love the puncturing of this idea that they did in Bakemonogatari with the second verse of Sugar Sweet Nightmare – “Such a simple thing to do, such an impossible thing to do”).
I think I’m about like Fosh and OC at this point. I’m not as tired of this show as I was of Accel World (and I’ve never come close to dropping it, like I did with AW), but with 2 episodes left, I’m gonna be pretty happy to see it end. A lot of SAO fatigue, there’s only so much stuff you can keep making excuses for. Interestingly, I find the emotional romance harem stuff the most compelling in this show, with the action sequences being the things that drag it all down. And unlike AW, it’s not because they’re horribly tedious yakety-yak battles of self-reflection and crying, but more because they’re just too over the top gaudy.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
I srsly don’t think SAO is a harem series…. It has some harem element but its not enough points to go full on harem. And harem usually don’t have a establish couple unless they are near the ending XD Also, I disagree abt Kirito being a complete doofus.
Well… they say GGO/Mother Rosario/Alicization is better than Fairy Dance arc….. (Acc to the comment it is generally agreed the FD is the worst arc and Alicization/Aincrad is the best arc..) I have yet to seen/read the later LN though.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
i think CGO is the best out of them…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I sure hope you are right about CGO…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
In my book, anything that sets up a harem around a main character is a harem anime. And so far we’ve got at least 3 girls who are smitten with Kirito / Kazuto: Asuna, Sugu, and Lizbeth. I’ll give Sachi and Silica a benefit of the doubt that they were just being friendly (Note, I’m also a little spoiled on the end of the book series as it is, even though I haven’t read the LN’s either).
It’s definitely not Trouble: Darkness, or an overt harem, but the interactions of the characters are definitely more informed by romance / harem style shows than a straight action show. And it’s not just Kirito being a doofus about it, it’s Sugu and the others.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I think of it as 95% action and storyline with 5% harem. The undertones of what we saw in the first half of the series indicated as much with all the girls Kirito was attracting.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I think you are right Highway! Personally I think SAO fits harem genre quite well because there is a huge backlog of girls that like him! Even before he officially met Asuna and hell they even threw in Kirito’s cousin into the mix.
I KNOW! WHAT THE HELL?! I swear it feels like SAO is like moving in slow motion because I can see the ending we just have to GET to that point…so in short this series needs to hurry up >.<