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View Poll Results: Critique of Episode 05 | |||
10 out of 10: Near Perfect... | 35 | 22.88% | |
9 out of 10 : Excellent... | 41 | 26.80% | |
8 out of 10 : Very Good... | 29 | 18.95% | |
7 out of 10 : Good... | 30 | 19.61% | |
6 out of 10 : Average... | 8 | 5.23% | |
5 out of 10 : Below Average... | 2 | 1.31% | |
4 out of 10 : Poor... | 4 | 2.61% | |
3 out of 10 : Bad... | 1 | 0.65% | |
2 out of 10 : Very Bad... | 2 | 1.31% | |
1 out of 10 : Torturous... | 1 | 0.65% | |
Voters: 153. You may not vote on this poll |
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2012-10-27, 13:19 | Link #382 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Well that was probably the only interesting episode so far for me but considering that we had 4 episodes till now, there are a lot issues.
a) More than a year has passed yet Kirito and Asuna act like if they knew each other only for few days. I understand that they separated their ways but come on. We are not talking about several weeks but months! It's over a year now. There is no way they didn't meet during all this time. Game is not that massive. b) Asuna didn't even know that you could see the name in a corner but now she is a leader of major guild? She sure grew fast, but what about addict gamers? Shouldn't they be outdoing her? This might not have been so glaring if there was several episode gap, not just 2. It simply looks rushed. c) Kirito is a lonely wolf yet here he is playing together with others... why a sudden change? d) We are also introduced to a new character yet it looks like they've know him for ages... so many gaps! This freaking time skips are not giving anime any justice. As I said before it looks like author had no idea how to develop things so he just skipped through so he could get to juicy parts faster. Well I heard that novel is better and that anime skips from like chapter 1 to 10 in one episode so can't blame author but really? Well next episode seems to be a continuation of this one so I shouldn't have much problems with it... hopefully.
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2012-10-27, 15:11 | Link #385 | ||||
Meh
Join Date: Feb 2008
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SAO isn't a traditional game, skill and combat prowess has far more to do with mental reflex and fortitude, whatever l33t gam1ng sk1llz others have from normal games doesn't really carry into SAO's combat. Besides, Asuna is also among the "addicts" group as far as grinding and leveling goes in SAO. Quote:
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2012-10-27, 15:47 | Link #386 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
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a) Asuna is part of massive guild and Kirito travels around all the time. Game world is not that massive either. It's not like he is on level 90 and everyone else are stuck on level 10.
Since she is part of massive guild, she should be well known and must have had a lot of missions by now. Kirito is a loner but he always ends up near big happenings. Chances of them never stumbling onto each other are 0. Besides by the way they interacted this episode doesn't look like they hadn't seen each other for whole year. b) You got me wrong. And please, few threads ago people were telling me that it's a game and that is why they progress fast yet now you are telling me that it is about physical abilities after all. Will you fans make up your mind? No matter from which side you look at it she shouldn't be better than professional gamers at this stage. One year is a lot but skills wise it's not enough. I'm a sportist and I know how body and skills progress. There can be massive jumps but not from loser to hero in just one year. Game wise it is still impossible. She might be learning fast but there are gamers who at the time that she was loser have become strong. Catching up to them is not that easy. Right now she should have been a lower ranked officer who gradually over runs gamers and becomes leader. Not a straight away jump. And please do not mix up emotional and physical development, they progress differently. Putting your way, they are different types of cake. c) Then why not show it? Why not show what he thinks and does? Show him struggle or something because till now he was doing perfectly fine alone, there is no reason for him to team considering that he is one of the highest leveled players and barely anyone can touch him. That makes sense. Anime should have done things same way as novel and have those side stories as OVAs. Because right now it simply looks ridiculous. That way things would be fine. I would prefer tiny flashbacks instead of this jumping mess.
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2012-10-27, 16:13 | Link #387 | ||||
Meh
Join Date: Feb 2008
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More importantly, Asuna wasn't a loser to begin with, she was actually pretty good (though the anime skipped the part where it showcased her skill), it's just that she wasn't familiar with MMO GUIs. Fundamentally however, I disagree with your whole argument, even for real-world games. Gaming skill (or any skill really) is not a linear progression, not everyone follows the same curve, some will get better faster than others, and some will start better than others will ever get, especially when your own life is on the line. Go ahead, get those "professional gamers", see how good they'll be when you hold a gun to their head and tell them you'll blow their head off if they die. Quote:
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2012-10-27, 16:30 | Link #388 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
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a) But they already know each other what means they would interact with each other more than others. I think friend status should already be there after 1 year. She is not someone random, they actually traveled together at one point.
b) Reflexes are not only mental abilities, it is mostly body response. Body tends to react faster then your mind can figure out what happened. If body is not trained, mental reflexes won't do you much good. It still doesn't change the fact that her promotion is too high at this point of story. Story wise there isn't much place for her to develop now. Oh please, no matter how good you are you won't go from loser to hero in just one year. Unless you are a genius and Asuna clearly isn't. Someone who just began doing martial arts will never beat master in just one year. They might catch up faster than usual people but not in one year time, sorry. That gun logic is out of place. People of this world are way too calm for their situation. It doesn't look like they are bothered. Whole panic from episode 1 was gone in an instant. Right now it looks like they are living their normal daily live in medieval setting. What is actually another minus of the show. Characters actions don't match up with what should be happening. c) We are talking about anime here, not novel. Don't mix two together. You and many others constantly keep saying "Novel this and novel that" and totally ignore anime as a stand alone material. I'm talking about anime adaption on it's own. If they don't show or explain something, it is a minus what means anime can't have perfect score just because novel showed it. Novel might be great and maybe even perfect but anime clearly isn't especially if you novel readers yourself keep saying that. So stop protecting anime every time it messes up.
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2012-10-27, 17:45 | Link #389 | |
Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 41
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After Asuna and Kirito's initial encounter, you can see that they went their separate ways. He continued on the solo path, and she eventually went on to join a guild. They interacted at key battles where she took the role of battle strategist, but you can see there that their relationship wasn't too great due to a clash of personalities. Even if they had met once before and partied back in the early days, it doesn't necessarily mean that an opportunity came up to break the ice -- an opportunity that came up now. SAO is a game that combines physical skill/reflexes with RPG levelling mechanics (and system-assisted combos and special moves). As you saw in the previous episode, being of a high level can make you basically invulnerable to lower-level enemies without any skill involved. So her being a high-level player now is a sign of skill, but more of dedication. Given the circumstances, not all players -- even the hardcore gamers -- are going to follow the same path in terms of levelling up and fighting on the front lines, given the ever-present risk of death. (In fact, you don't know how many hardcore gamers may have died due to their over-confidence.) (And incidentally, people living their lives within the world of SAO is actually one of the themes explored in this episode. To say that they're not acting the way they should be is rather presumptuous.) Kirito only partnered with Asuna in this episode because she insists on helping him solve the crime. He's shown before that he's not so opposed to partying with people (see both Episodes 3, 4), but he doesn't tend to do it very often except when needed. So there's nothing contradictory about this -- the anime has clearly established both his normal pattern of behaviour and the exceptions. Of course, they're not going to spend a whole lot of time focusing on all the times that Kirito is by himself killing random mobs to level up because that would be pretty darn boring... The character that was introduced in this episode was in fact present and introduced back in Episode 2, if you'll recall. You can understand from the context shown that he and Kirito are friends who have interacted before. I'm not sure that we really need a whole arc to explain how they got to know each other in the meantime. None of this has anything to do with the novels or anything. In the end, this is a story that is told in fragments, and each fragment reveals more details about the world and the gameplay mechanics, and progresses both the characters and the plot. There are things that are alluded to but not shown, but everything that is needed to follow the on-going story is there. That aside, while it's good that you're here to provide your thoughts, the anime is not "on trial", and you don't need to put everyone else on trial for not agreeing with your opinions. You are also free to rate the episode whatever you want, and you don't have to justify it to anyone (or get so upset/insistent about it). Of course, everyone else is free to rate it whatever they want, with or without justifying it. Personally, I understand some of your criticisms, but I don't think the things that are troubling you interfered with my understanding or appreciation of the anime story as presented. Particularly, the time skips didn't really bother me -- it was rather clear what was going on, and each episode plays a role in developing the story and game world. So, in the end, it's just an opinion.
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2012-10-27, 18:38 | Link #390 | |||||
Meh
Join Date: Feb 2008
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To add on top of relentless's points,
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Technically, if you want to talk about reflex as in actual medical terms (which you seem to be doing), then you're actually very wrong - reflex by definition does NOT pass through your "mind" - ie. brain. It is an involuntary and automatic response, there's no getting faster - it's an automated process by your nervous system, it happens without, and regardless of your brain, examples includes breathing and your heart beating. Mental reflex is a bit of a misnomer, as it really has nothing to do with the actual physiological response. In SAO's case, it's more about how fast a person's mind can react to what's happening, as the game is controlled purely through a Brain-Machine Interface - the NervGear, your actual body, outside of the brain, does not come into the picture at all. Quote:
I also fail to see how Asuna's standing within KoB has anything to do with her character development, I think it's pretty obvious even at this point of the story that SAO isn't about MMO guild loldrama. Quote:
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TBH, I have no interest in "defending" the anime anyway, the SAO anime is far from perfect, esp. the first half, but I'm merely pointing how the holes in your arguments |
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2012-10-28, 09:00 | Link #391 | ||||||||
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
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We are talking about a world where something constantly can go wrong. Where strong monsters/bosses can appear or where dark guilds come into play. I refuses to believe that after almost 2 years this episodes case was the biggest one they had till now. Ok it might be bigger than others but there is no way that nothing else has ever come up that needed some kind of teaming up, investigation and interaction. Besides Asuna is the one who approached Kirito in this episode what shows that she has no real problems in talking to him. So they must have had this kind of small interactions before during almost those 2 years. And I once again underline my words.... ALMOST 2 YEARS! What you and many others are saying would be relevant if it was few months. 2 years is way too much time to ignore each other and never even speak properly. I mean just look at your own life. Imagine you are doing school/Uni project and you were put in a team with someone you barely know. At first you will be awkward but after spending a while of working on the project you would end up talking. You might not become friends but during 2 years you are meant to stumble onto each other and talk especially if that person has left a positive impression. Asuna is a kind of person who would approach him, this episode was a confirmation of that. If she was like Kirito then okay, I agree. But she is not. She is the one who approached him. So sorry, but no. Not buying this excuse. 2 years is more than enough of time to establish some kind of relation by now. Quote:
Also I doubt that she became guild member right away, don't think they accept every noob out there especially since their guild is knows as the best. But ok whatever, maybe 2 years was enough. But in all honesty I would prefer to see her as lower ranked officer now who gradually comes to a top. Just like 2 episodes of her doing something worthy what gives her higher rank. Just so we could see what exactly did she do to earn the title. Like this it just looks like typical MC factor. I'm MC so I'm cool. Deal with it. Quote:
We have 10 000 people in there. No way are all those kids strong minded, a crazy panic should have broken out by then. Quote:
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And no, we don't need it for every character but this dude seems to have more importance than all those girls we saw till now. If connection is important then it should be explored at least a bit especially when Kirito is solo what means he doesn't really interact with anyone. It is not talkative Asuna but Kirito. Quote:
I'm not nitpicking on anyone's posts here. I'm simply stating my opinion yet every time I do, there are bunch of people who are trying to prove me wrong. It is not me who starts this debates. I'm simply stating what I feel. Not my fault that my opinion differs. I appreciate that some people try to explain things to me, it does help. But some losers bash and neg rep just because my opinion is different and I didn't even say anything offending. It is not me who neg reps but you SAO fans. So sorry but that comment applies more to SAO fan base not me. They are the ones who should learn to respect others opinions. Quote:
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In episode 2 it was just 1 month yet they already were fine. We never experienced real horror of their situation and just right away skipped to the time of calm. The initial horror of the situation was ignored and now this whole situation doesn't feel like anything special. Typical shounen where you fight monsters to survive. SAO is no different from any other shounen out there now since it never delivered horror of this whole mess. It simply skipped it. Poor writing.
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2012-10-28, 09:59 | Link #392 | ||||||||||
Meh
Join Date: Feb 2008
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You're projecting what you'd do yourself if you were in their shoes, but realize that not everyone will do as you would. Quote:
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When you watch Saving Private Ryan, did you complain that they didn't show how Tom Hank's character managed to get his captain promotion? Quote:
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What you're effectively saying is that you can train to control how fast or whether if your heart will beat, it's not possible. Quote:
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2012-10-28, 10:16 | Link #393 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
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Come on, if you don't really want to interact with others than you can keep it to a minimum, hell, I didn't even know much more than the names of my classmates while going to school and that was over years with being in the same room daily.
Kirito only has to put up with others when a Boss is the target. Also, Kirito doesn't know anymore shortcuts than Asuna with maybe the exception of farmspots he finds himself and also keeps to himself, for anything else there are information brokers and whatnot And WTF is with Asuna's supposed problem leveling up, she may not be the most efficient and don't know the mmo jargon, but Kirito also mentioned that she is incredibly in ep2. Maybe, just maybe, all the crazy panic guys did either die or did STAY IN THE STARTING CITY. Those who go out seem, more or less, "contend" with the status. The message at the end of the episode is where he comes to term with it. |
2012-10-28, 15:08 | Link #394 | ||||||||||
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
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That's minus. Quote:
I didn't put myself as example, I used Asuna and her character traits. If Kirito met himself, then yeh they would never interact. Yet we are talking about Asuna who clearly wanted to interact with him otherwise she would not approach him. Quote:
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They are trapped in a world where you can die. They should be freaked out to leave towns. Some should be more crazy and go head on an enemy, most likely fail too because of panic. Just simple small things like that in first few episodes would do. Even in just episode 2 it would be enough yet everyone acting fine. Unbelievable for beginning. Quote:
Author: I want him to be moody today, let's give him a reason. Ok I'm already tired of his moody mood need him to be happy. But he can't recover so fast so let's just skip several months! Seriously WTF? Author/creators simply have no idea how to logically change moods so they just jump around the timeline. Cheap writing! Quote:
Did you read the comment above. It said that I AM the one who is peaking on people and trying to change their mind when in reality it is other way around. I don't quote anyone, you people quote me so don't try to make a villain out of me. Quote:
My reactions were different while I was intensively training. Quote:
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And once again it is pacing problem. Author skipped again. Quote:
It is just typical shounen where they fight just to fight and live.
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2012-10-28, 15:31 | Link #395 | |
Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 41
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It has nothing to do with your opinion. It has to do with you. You're the only one who can change the way you come across. You can't and shouldn't change your opinion, but you can change the way you express it, and that's what you'll need to do going forward. Perhaps you should just keep watching the show and allow it to reveal the point to you. Then, having seen how the whole thing develops, you can go back and see why previous things were done the way they were (including time skips, side-stories, main themes vs. secondary themes, the underlying message, etc.). Whether you enjoy it or not, who knows.
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2012-10-28, 16:37 | Link #396 | |||
Meh
Join Date: Feb 2008
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This is getting nowhere, relentless pretty much said the most important points.
That said, there are a couple points I do want to address. Quote:
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A person's reaction comes from their prior experience, and is something processed by the brain - ie. a pitcher trying to dodge a incoming line-drive to their head. A reflex however, is an automatic physiological reaction to a stimuli or autonomous function of your nervous system. Remember those physicals where the doctor hits right below your kneecap to see if your leg jerks? that's a reflex. Quote:
What you time is not your heartbeat, but your breathing, as you want to pull the trigger after you finish exhaling, as that's when you have your most natural point of aim. Even then, real operating condition often means you will have to operate under aerobic stress, your target often decides for you when you have to take your shot, not the other way around. While I'm no scout sniper, I do like to think that my 10 years in the USMC and the corresponding multiple rifle expert badges means I know at least a little something about sharp shooting. |
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2012-10-29, 07:56 | Link #397 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
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^I'm sure that some monks can do it... I know I've read it somewhere, hmmm.
And yes, looks like I have confused reflex with reaction, my bad. Also I'm not trying to be nasty, I'm just saying what irritates me in the show. Listing things is dumb, it gives no explanation to thoughts. I'm simply describing what I don't like and what I think about it and so far the main issues is timing of the show. It simply looks like a massive cheat and troll. Anyway episode 6 seemed to finally have some stability so will see how things go in episode 8 and 9 later. Was nice talking to you guys, hopefully next time our opinion will match better
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