Quote:
Originally Posted by Shinji103
Eh, I'd be happy with a straight SAO adaptation. Largely because I really dislike the damsel in distress shtick, and consequently how it killed Asuna as a character who actually does stuff instead of mostly sitting around looking pretty. It also dealt a big blow to all of Asuna's talk of being the one who'll protect Kirito in the SAO arc.
And strictly speaking, it wasn't so much "they" as "he." (damsel in distress plot  ) Asuna did a few things, but in the end (and especially the end) she was just the trophy hanging on the wall stuck waiting for somebody to grab her first. |
Your viewpoint is one that I understand and I agree to an extent, but from the context of an 'animated adaption of SAO', I'd have to respectfully disagree. (my opinion, naturally)
As a story on its own, I agree that a straight-SAO adaption works fine. But looking past the damsel-in-distress factor, I found FD to be an essential story piece, afterstory, epilogue if you will that is the 'real closure for SAO.'
FD is a story-piece that doesn't feel right to be disassociated from the 'Aincrad story', because different as they were, on an emotional context, Kirito and Asuna were still 'trapped in SAO' during FD.
Did I think it could've been better or told in a way that didn't have the damsel-in-distress plot? Absolutely. I won't pretend that I'm capable of writing it though, and for what its worth, I highly enjoyed FD. Despite Asuna being the driving plot factor behind FD, she wasn't the character developmental piece/heroine of that arc and it was meant to be different.
And you're taking the Asuna-protecting-Kirito thing a little too literally. While it was meant in a literal sense, the whole story of SAO was Kirito being 'saved' by Asuna the whole time. Asuna was the light the shined through the darkness that Kirito was feeling when he felt that he had almost nothing left.
And Kirito had changed from that. That was why FD was important, because it was as much about a Kirito who had changed from his meeting with Asuna, and how he was ultimately able to surpass his inner demons.