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View Poll Results: Critique of Episode 06
10 out of 10: Near Perfect... 21 15.22%
9 out of 10 : Excellent... 28 20.29%
8 out of 10 : Very Good... 42 30.43%
7 out of 10 : Good... 24 17.39%
6 out of 10 : Average... 13 9.42%
5 out of 10 : Below Average... 4 2.90%
4 out of 10 : Poor... 3 2.17%
3 out of 10 : Bad... 0 0%
2 out of 10 : Very Bad... 0 0%
1 out of 10 : Torturous... 3 2.17%
Voters: 138. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 2012-08-16, 16:49   Link #281
Anh_Minh
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Originally Posted by MrPopo View Post
That's the benefit of having audience vision I guess. Ironically, if the LN passage you posted was true, then Kirito going off on his own may have been among the most dangerous thing he's done as his information wasn't as useful as he thought it was.
It was exactly as useful as he thought he was. He was just smart enough not to overplay that hand.
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Old 2012-08-16, 17:01   Link #282
erneiz_hyde
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Btw, change of topic please. The current topic is already done to death and I'm starting to feel further discussion would do more harm than good. So what if there's a hole here and there? What's important is we get to see Kirito being awesome, right? right? ;p


Say, about the jail-area thingy, is that really player administered? How does that work? It seems that very act of putting people in prison makes you an orange player, so are the admins of these jails a guild of some kind?
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Old 2012-08-16, 17:23   Link #283
Netto Azure
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Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde View Post
Say, about the jail-area thingy, is that really player administered? How does that work? It seems that very act of putting people in prison makes you an orange player, so are the admins of these jails a guild of some kind?
It's a spoiler so it's better to be asked in the appropriate thread sadly.

Edit: I answered it on the Q&A thread.
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Old 2012-08-16, 17:50   Link #284
Znail
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Originally Posted by Shimapan View Post
True, for supposedly being a solo player, he teams up quite often.



Yes, he's got a very bad reputation at the beginning, yet we see no consequences of it whatsoever. One would expect that there are indeed some people trying to PK him because of that.
Or, if they don't want to do the deed himself, they'll just hire a PK death squad like Laughing Coffin to murder the person. As we've seen a single person holding a grudge is enough already, regardless how ludicrous the reason for the grudge is. Grimlock had a grudge against Griselda just because she turned out to be a different person that what he wanted her to be, so he had her murdered by Laughing coffin.

Thus we see that PK guilds do take assassination requests, and that they're not picky when it comes to the reasons for it - they probably don't care.
Now LC didn't have the slightest problem to murder Griselda, a well-respected guild member. How much easier must it be for them to murder someone who is a solo player and not well liked by several people?
We've already seen that Kirito wouldn't be able to deal with LC, if he would be all by himself (hence the bluff about other front liners coming) - and he *would* be all by himself, all the time, as a solo player!

As such, if he really would be a solo player, he would be in constant danger of being assassinated, given his bad reputation at the beginning.



Treu, there are a lot of blanks for the audience to fill in. This whole thing reeks of a "make stuff up as I go"-storytelling by the author, in which nothing was planned out beforehand, but where he simply makes stuff up as he goes, just as his story requires it. Many of the stuff made up in situ is then promptly discarded again, once it has served its usefulness, to never be heard of again - like e.g. the pet revival flower. He just made up the ideas of pets in the spot, because the story required it for Silica to be even cuter. Then he decided he needed some more drama, so he had her pet die, and Kirito then conveniently knows where there's a pet revival flower, even though he'd never seend a pet before in the game. Super-Kirito saves the day again! I seriously doubt we'll hear of pets again, they have fulfilled their role of making Silica even cuter and can thus drop off the face of earth, err, Arcrad again.

At the beginning Kirito was portrayed as a solo player to make him look tougher. Look, Super-Kirito can take on anything by himself, he doesn't need a guild. As with many other things as well, this was done without any regards of the implications thereof.
His supposed solo player status was then simply ignored on several occassions, just so he could team up with others whenever the story required it. Having him a solo players isn't too practical, after all.

As I pointed out above, being a solo player would also be very dangerous in hindsight, with the PK guilds which the author made up later on, and which still later also carry out assasinations for pretty much arbitrary reasons. Again, this was probably made up on the spot as well, as he felt he needed more powerful antagonists, without any regards for the implications.



Those three all don't fit at all, if he's supposed to be a solo player. He had a very bad reputation at the beginning. If he really had been a solo player and kept to himself all the time, no one would've got to know him, and his bad reputation would've remained. As a consequence, no one wopuld've wanted to have him around, especially not in critical situations where you need people you can trust 100%, like in boss clearings.
For his reputation to change, he can't have stayed a solo plyer, but must've played together with others frequently, for extended periods of time as well, so that they see that he isn't as bad as his reputation says, but actually a nice guy. He must've played together with others especially well even, for a long time, so that they trust him enough to rely on him in crital situations like the boss clearings.

No even remotely sane person would say: "Look, there's Super-Kirito. He's super strong, but has an awful reputation. As he always stays by himself as a solo player and never talks with anyone, no one knows anything about him. But hey, let's invite him to the boss clearings, just because, even if we need 100% dependable people for such critical operations. So what if he turns out to be a bad person and attacks our backs while we're fighting the boss?"

Kirito supposedly being a solo player probably seemed a good idea to the author at the beginning ("Look at Super-Kirito, handling all by himself!"), but becomes more and more impractical as the story proceeds, so he teams up several times regardless, and it also becomes more and more unlikely, if not even impossible, as more and more story elements are made up on the spot without previous planning, like strong PK guilds (LC) which also do assasinations for abitrary reasons.
Grimlock and Griselda was married in real life, quite a lot more personal connection there. Most people don't go around plotting to kill strangers, even if they have some minor disagrement with them. There is a reason why most murderers know the victim well.

So what if Kirito's fears didn't come true. He is just a 14 year old kid, he isn't omniscient. He stayed mostly by himself, it may not have been quite needed, but that doesn't make it a plot hole, just a mistake by him.

Why would people that already met him develop amnesia and forget him because of what he did? Even more so for the ones who were there and realised why he did it? Asuna and Egil are obvious, but even others who were there either realised it then or got wiser in time.


But I think that fiction series are not for you really. You seem to look for faults, even where there are none. That makes for a poor experience as series like these don't have time to explain every little detail. If you want to assume that everything that isn't explained is wrong somehow, then you will see flaws all over everytime.
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Old 2012-08-16, 18:07   Link #285
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Originally Posted by Znail View Post
But I think that fiction series are not for you really. You seem to look for faults, even where there are none [1]. That makes for a poor experience as series like these don't have time to explain every little detail [2]. If you want to assume that everything that isn't explained is wrong somehow, then you will see flaws all over everytime.
1. Come now, you don't really believe that do you?

There is nothing in existence that has no flaws. Believing otherwise mean you're a fool or a fanboy, or both. Sorry, doesn't imply you're any of those, but I sincerely hope you're being hyperbolic when you say "none".

2. Yet the friendly guys in the thread next over introduced me to this series with a strong point of how awesome it's attention to detail is. The small details really could make a whole world of difference in literature, so it's just natural for some people to be more critical when introduced to something allegedly attentive to details.


Argh dammit. Just as I thought I would give the arguing a rest...
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Old 2012-08-16, 18:25   Link #286
Znail
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Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde View Post
1. Come now, you don't really believe that do you?

There is nothing in existence that has no flaws. Believing otherwise mean you're a fool or a fanboy, or both. Sorry, doesn't imply you're any of those, but I sincerely hope you're being hyperbolic when you say "none".

2. Yet the friendly guys in the thread next over introduced me to this series with a strong point of how awesome it's attention to detail is. The small details really could make a whole world of difference in literature, so it's just natural for some people to be more critical when introduced to something allegedly attentive to details.


Argh dammit. Just as I thought I would give the arguing a rest...
I said there were no flaws where he was looking. That is not quite the same thing as perfection. But I guess it also depends on what you consider a flaw. Personally I think a contradiction is needed for it to be a plot hole in a story.

The novels has a high attention to detail. But this was about the anime series and it doesn't have the same option to explain every little detail.
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Old 2012-08-16, 18:36   Link #287
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Can we please swap topics? Or maybe just promise to leave these tired old arguments behind in a few days when the new episode airs?

It's really been beaten to death quite a lot. Over multiple episode threads.

A lot of people are very happy with the pace / backstory / "show don't tell" aspects.

Other people are disgusted with the... err... pace / backstory / "tell don't show" aspects.

You'll never convince the other party, and we've been rehashing some of these topics for multiple episode threads. Heck, most of the stuff on the past few pages hasn't even been relevant to this episode.
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Old 2012-08-16, 22:26   Link #288
willx
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Originally Posted by Adigard View Post
Can we please swap topics? Or maybe just promise to leave these tired old arguments behind in a few days when the new episode airs?

It's really been beaten to death quite a lot. Over multiple episode threads.

A lot of people are very happy with the pace / backstory / "show don't tell" aspects.

Other people are disgusted with the... err... pace / backstory / "tell don't show" aspects.

You'll never convince the other party, and we've been rehashing some of these topics for multiple episode threads. Heck, most of the stuff on the past few pages hasn't even been relevant to this episode.
But SOMEONE has to be WRONG.. right!? <sarcasm>

Anyways, one thing I'm amused by is I'm not all that bothered by the lack of action in this anime, including this episode. I was a lot more bored of .hack//sign in comparison, yes, it's blasphemy, but I didn't enjoy it that much.

Off-topic: It came up a bit earlier, but if I recall I don't remember Tsukasa or BT ever casting a single spell in .hack//sign anime.. wonder what made the directors decide to do that?
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Old 2012-08-17, 01:38   Link #289
Dengar
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Originally Posted by Shimapan View Post
True, for supposedly being a solo player, he teams up quite often.
3 times in one or two years is often? (forgot how much time has passed by now)

Besides, since when does soloing in an MMO involve never being in a party?
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Old 2012-08-17, 01:54   Link #290
Anh_Minh
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Being a solo just means he isn't in a guild. He still parties when the situation calls for it and can find party members. (Though there's probably more of a "trading favors" element than in guilds where it's considered part of your dues to the guild itself.)
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Old 2012-08-17, 02:59   Link #291
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Inevitably, one must separate disagreements of writing and plot development, as compared to, personal feelings related to 1) views on how characters SHOULD act or be portrayed and (more delicately) 2) unconscious personal projections onto those characters.

I will say that from my opinion, although there were tweaks made, what I've seen thus far has been a good job of integrating what were "side-stories" back into the main story in a chronological order, and also reveals hints about the characters changing and developing.
Throughout this whole discussion I've been trying to figure out what the story format of this show is.
What I have concluded is that this show is neither character-driven nor action-driven. It is time-driven. Time skipping is the main driver of this show and that is what I now accept.

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I will say that from my opinion, although there were tweaks made, what I've seen thus far has been a good job of integrating what were "side-stories" back into the main story in a chronological order, and also reveals hints about the characters changing and developing.
Why the quotation marks on side-stories? If anime-only viewers can spot them as a side-story, and the novel readers confirm they are side-stories, then they are still side-stories.

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Originally Posted by MrPopo View Post
I suppose you can argue that helping Klein would have been more dangerous than going after the PK guild. However, a lack of information makes it difficult to contest whether or not the difference in danger is really all that important. For example, we're told that in the first month 2000 people died, but we don't know how many of those were due to carelessness, suicide, outside intervention, or PKing, the last point being the main source of danger. If a majority of those deaths were due to PKing, then there would be a cause for concern, but we don't know this. If otherwise, then the only real loss here is time, which is a sacrifice made in both scenarios we're comparing.
We infer the majority of player deaths due to carelessness because that one guy blaming the beta testers for ditching everyone since they had adequate knowledge on the game.
Considering Kirito's played the beta, he knew what he was capable of handling (ie. take in only 1 man, but no more), since he's done the beginning content already.

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Originally Posted by MrPopo View Post
In addition, Kirito wasn't labelled as a beater back then so there was less danger of being PKed. In episode four however, that danger is ever looming so time taken away from grinding may be even more precious than it was back then.
Competing against some 90-100% of the player population on the same resources at the beginning vs a few high level player killers PKing other high level players? The odds on the former is worst.

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Originally Posted by MrPopo View Post
Their situations aren't all that different, both are the sole survivors of their guilds. The only difference was that one guild was wiped by mobs and another by PKers. His sense of justice was spurred by his desire to get closure, any closure on his failure involving the Black Cats. Given the parallels between their situations, it's not unreasonable to assume that that was the primary motive for Kirito's undertaking.
I have to partially retract my original argreement with you on this. My original argument was how these side-stories weren't really connected (I'm talking about the overall story in them, not the little tibits like explaining PK mechanics etc).
Thinking about it more, the Black Cats episode wasn't really connected to the Silica story, because if you cut the Black Cats story out, the Silica story still made sense, because that episode didn't introduce any new elements from ep 3 that wasn't in ep 1+2.
What motivated Kirito to help? Because Kirito is a nice guy (Silica's own words). This is originally established in ep 1 (helping Klein), and further cemented by taking responsibility of being a beater.
Why'd he give items and item to Silica? To repay the debt with his sister.
Why reveal Kirito's a high level player? In his own words, he didn't want to scare Silica so he'd had a stable bait.

If anything, the Black Cats story almost contradicts the Silica story because he should've been unfit to protect people, or at least shown some hesitation.

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Originally Posted by Shimapan View Post
Those three all don't fit at all, if he's supposed to be a solo player. He had a very bad reputation at the beginning. If he really had been a solo player and kept to himself all the time, no one would've got to know him, and his bad reputation would've remained. As a consequence, no one wopuld've wanted to have him around, especially not in critical situations where you need people you can trust 100%, like in boss clearings.
For his reputation to change, he can't have stayed a solo plyer, but must've played together with others frequently, for extended periods of time as well, so that they see that he isn't as bad as his reputation says, but actually a nice guy. He must've played together with others especially well even, for a long time, so that they trust him enough to rely on him in crital situations like the boss clearings.
So...off-screen development? (Please don't hurt me, guys)

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Originally Posted by Dengar View Post
3 times in one or two years is often? (forgot how much time has passed by now)

Besides, since when does soloing in an MMO involve never being in a party?
As Shimapan reasoned, it had to be way more than that. Boss clearing, the unexplained lack of attempts on his life (or fill in the blanks if it did happen), how he kept up his level to par with the other players.
Unfortunately, that whole solo player argument was taken out of context by multiple people and is now getting out of hand (sorry about that). The argument was we were shown the trials of a solo player, which I argued wasn't true (hence I summarized it down to 'what Kirito said -> what we saw')
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Old 2012-08-17, 03:39   Link #292
Dengar
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I don't think there have been "trials of a solo player". As for the lack of attempts on his life, the only ones who would actually care about that wouldn't be near Kirito's level anyways. Aside from that, from a narrative perspective, I don't think there are any points that need to be driven home by "assassination attempts". Bottomline is, he is a solo player. That doesn't mean he never parties up. For one, trying to clear floor bosses solo seems like suicide (not to mention unnecessary). What makes him a solo player is that he's not part of a guild and does whatever he feels is necessary at the moment, without having to run it by anyone. Grinding for exp, materials/items, gathering information, he does that stuff by himself. His network is probably limited to information guys and notable frontline guilds, rather than "people he parties up with often". None of this means he can't party up with people who at that moment share the same goal he does. Nor does it mean he can't help out people he comes across on a whim. Doesn't make him any less of a solo player, because after all has been said and done, he'll bugger off and go do his own thing again.
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Old 2012-08-17, 03:46   Link #293
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Those three all don't fit at all, if he's supposed to be a solo player. He had a very bad reputation at the beginning. If he really had been a solo player and kept to himself all the time, no one would've got to know him, and his bad reputation would've remained. As a consequence, no one wopuld've wanted to have him around, especially not in critical situations where you need people you can trust 100%, like in boss clearings.
You're making the assumption that frontline players are idiots and hold childish views on people.

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Originally Posted by Shimapan View Post
For his reputation to change, he can't have stayed a solo plyer, but must've played together with others frequently, for extended periods of time as well, so that they see that he isn't as bad as his reputation says, but actually a nice guy. He must've played together with others especially well even, for a long time, so that they trust him enough to rely on him in crital situations like the boss clearings.
Kirito has contact with some people, e.g. the kid dealing with information in ep. 3, and after clearing the first boss he obviously got more involved in passing on information. This does however not prerequisite him joining parties.

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No even remotely sane person would say: "Look, there's Super-Kirito. He's super strong, but has an awful reputation. As he always stays by himself as a solo player and never talks with anyone, no one knows anything about him. But hey, let's invite him to the boss clearings, just because, even if we need 100% dependable people for such critical operations. So what if he turns out to be a bad person and attacks our backs while we're fighting the boss?"
They would have seen him on the front lines, and would have been involved in every boss clearing since floor 1. So who's going to say he shouldn't be invited?

At this point you need to think about the clearing group more as professional soldiers, not kids doing WOW raids.
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Old 2012-08-17, 04:45   Link #294
Quadratic
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So who's going to say he shouldn't be invited?

At this point you need to think about the clearing group more as professional soldiers, not kids doing WOW raids.
I know some people don't like bringing up the topic of the "beater", but I think it was trivialized a bit.
The people who wouldn't invite him are all the people who branded Kirito as the "beater" (ie. some of the frontliners).
The whole point of being branded a "beater" was to prevent a mass witch-hunt against all other beta tester by redirecting all hatred towards him.
He got the rare item from the boss (and showed it off), so they should also see that he's ninja-ing rare/boss items from their point of view. Would you party with a item ninja player?
Also, the fact that low level players know about the "beater" implies that those people were spiteful enough spread the word.

So either two things happened, there was a hunt (or multiple hunts) against Kirito, or everyone's ok with him.
From what we've seen at this in time, people are ok with his presence, so if there was a hunt, how did he survive? Or how did he convince people he's not a threat?
Or did every frontliner smarten up, and just say "whoops, we now know why you did that, sorry for ruining your reputation Kirito".

But this is irrelevant now since we've time skipped.
All we know is something happened which stopped Kirito's reputation from being a wanted man. Something.
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Old 2012-08-17, 06:31   Link #295
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He got the rare item from the boss (and showed it off), so they should also see that he's ninja-ing rare/boss items from their point of view. Would you party with a item ninja player?
Welcome to content from Ep2, that was 'shown not told' in Ep2, and explained in the Black Cats episode, and further touched on this episode.

The loot from a boss, and any other monster/mob (from what we've been shown) in this MMO goes directly into the loot pool of a random party participant. A special 'rare' item in the loot pool of the floor bosses goes to whoever gets the final kill. We saw this when the tank guy (Diabel?) tried to get the final kill hit on the boss and failed, and Kirito later succeeded and got the cloak. There was no ninja'ing involved, as no one else had the option to obtain the item.

It likely caused loot drama down the road, but it's not like he's still wearing the same cloak, and if you're concerned you give the 'beater' a roll that doesn't allow him access to the boss. A la episode 2 again, where you have Kirito on the trash.

He still participates / helps / can save your bacon / is a high level player in a tough life and death battle, but is less likely to be able to get the rare item at the end.

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Originally Posted by Quadratic View Post
From what we've seen at this in time, people are ok with his presence, so if there was a hunt, how did he survive? Or how did he convince people he's not a threat?
Or did every frontliner smarten up, and just say "whoops, we now know why you did that, sorry for ruining your reputation Kirito".
There are mechanics to prevent it, so we can assume the front-liners used those mechanics for enough battles (there have been what, 58 between floor 1 and floor 59?) and now trust him. But for all we know, he's still on trash mobs during boss fights, because we've only seen a single strategy meeting where he argues with the strategy.
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Old 2012-08-17, 07:37   Link #296
Quadratic
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Welcome to content from Ep2, that was 'shown not told' in Ep2, and explained in the Black Cats episode, and further touched on this episode.

The loot from a boss, and any other monster/mob (from what we've been shown) in this MMO goes directly into the loot pool of a random party participant. A special 'rare' item in the loot pool of the floor bosses goes to whoever gets the final kill. We saw this when the tank guy (Diabel?) tried to get the final kill hit on the boss and failed, and Kirito later succeeded and got the cloak. There was no ninja'ing involved, as no one else had the option to obtain the item.

It likely caused loot drama down the road, but it's not like he's still wearing the same cloak, and if you're concerned you give the 'beater' a roll that doesn't allow him access to the boss. A la episode 2 again, where you have Kirito on the trash.

He still participates / helps / can save your bacon / is a high level player in a tough life and death battle, but is less likely to be able to get the rare item at the end.

There are mechanics to prevent it, so we can assume the front-liners used those mechanics for enough battles (there have been what, 58 between floor 1 and floor 59?) and now trust him. But for all we know, he's still on trash mobs during boss fights, because we've only seen a single strategy meeting where he argues with the strategy.
If you want to fish through my posting history, I said it kinda turned to a mess after episode 2, because ep 1+2 progressed nicely. After that, the connection from 2->3, 3->4, 4->5 were very loose in terms of the overarching story (in my case, I mean the premise, since people insist the premise isn't the overarching story, but let's not argue on that).
What we see is 2-> fill in blank -> 3 -> fill in blank -> 4 -> fill in blank -> 5&6
Ep 2 already explains the loot rules, or sufficient enough to understand the potential implications.
Instead of exploring the implication based on the item he received in that boss fight, which would strongly tie a sense of progression, a time skip and a new, different item is used to deal with the implications (hence, loose connection).
Ninja'ing might not have been the exact word I'm looking for (near enough, though), but the idea that he/other beta testers knew certain mechanics involving how to get rare items, which in their view, he used to his advantage to guarantee he obtained it.
What's stopping others to think he'd wouldn't do it again?
To be honest, if I didn't trust Kirito in the frontline, I'd argue he could potentially let people die against the boss so he'd take the rare item. Wait, isn't that how they think they saw what happened with the tank guy...?

He's been in multiple meetings since that weaponsmith guy asks why he keeps arguing with Asuna, but you're correct we don't know whether he's actually part of fighting the actual bosses.
But with my argument above, I wouldn't want him anywhere near the boss area, since he might sneak in the last hit via letting players die.
How he gained their trust is beyond what we've been shown (ie. not important).

We learn there are PK prevention mechanics, but we also learn there are exploits as well. Why no one attempted an exploit on him is a mystery (though, we guess he's smart enough to have figured out all the possible ways so we don't get any episodes exploring on how he dealt with it)
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Old 2012-08-17, 07:43   Link #297
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I have to partially retract my original argreement with you on this. My original argument was how these side-stories weren't really connected (I'm talking about the overall story in them, not the little tibits like explaining PK mechanics etc).
Thinking about it more, the Black Cats episode wasn't really connected to the Silica story, because if you cut the Black Cats story out, the Silica story still made sense, because that episode didn't introduce any new elements from ep 3 that wasn't in ep 1+2.
What motivated Kirito to help? Because Kirito is a nice guy (Silica's own words). This is originally established in ep 1 (helping Klein), and further cemented by taking responsibility of being a beater.
Why'd he give items and item to Silica? To repay the debt with his sister.
Why reveal Kirito's a high level player? In his own words, he didn't want to scare Silica so he'd had a stable bait.

If anything, the Black Cats story almost contradicts the Silica story because he should've been unfit to protect people, or at least shown some hesitation.
No offense, but you kinda are looking at the tidbits rather than the overall story. Sure you don't need the elements of episode 3 to watch episode 4, however they are all essential in developing Kirito into what he is in this recent murder arc.

His failure involving the Black Cats explains why he's never tried to join another guild, the guilt was undoubtedly eating away at him. Why does he hunt down that PK guild? Because it was a means to redeem himself for what happened earlier. Sure Kirito's a nice guy, but it's simplistic to believe that that was his only motive.

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Originally Posted by Quadratic View Post
If anything, the Black Cats story almost contradicts the Silica story because he should've been unfit to protect people, or at least shown some hesitation.
The fact that he was successful in protecting someone this time around contributes to episode 4 being a redemption arc. His hesitation is shown through his extra preparations (no, I don't think giving virtual items to a look-alike is a means of repaying his sister).

These two episodes contribute to the Kirito we see in this recent mystery arc, someone who can find peace in his current situation and who's still a solo player despite all this time. If either episode were cut, we'd get an incomplete picture of Kirito as he is now.
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Old 2012-08-17, 08:26   Link #298
Quadratic
SIBYL salesman
 
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrPopo View Post
No offense, but you kinda are looking at the tidbits rather than the overall story. Sure you don't need the elements of episode 3 to watch episode 4, however they are all essential in developing Kirito into what he is in this recent murder arc.

His failure involving the Black Cats explains why he's never tried to join another guild, the guilt was undoubtedly eating away at him. Why does he hunt down that PK guild? Because it was a means to redeem himself for what happened earlier. Sure Kirito's a nice guy, but it's simplistic to believe that that was his only motive.
He's a beater. That alone should already establish why he's shouldn't be able join a guild.

Being nice may be a simplistic reason, but judging from his past action (and "future" if you count ep 5+6), he shows he is willing to help others (within reason).

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrPopo View Post
The fact that he was successful in protecting someone this time around contributes to episode 4 being a redemption arc. His hesitation is shown through his extra preparations (no, I don't think giving virtual items to a look-alike is a means of repaying his sister).

These two episodes contribute to the Kirito we see in this recent mystery arc, someone who can find peace in his current situation and who's still a solo player despite all this time. If either episode were cut, we'd get an incomplete picture of Kirito as he is now.
Considering he tells Silica she's a substitute sister, explains the debt he owed, wanted to make her feel secure as a bait easily explains the actions he took with her. No need to try and add the bits from ep 3 to make it work at all.
I don't consider it a redemption story, it's about a good guy doing a good deed.
If he needs motive to do something, what's his reason for solving the mystery murder in this story? I'd say good guy doing good deed (well, he was also intrigued on how players were bypassing the PK prevention mechanics).

As for finding restful moments, considering the whole beater issue is effectively ignored, ignoring the whole Black Cats guilt isn't any different at all.
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Old 2012-08-17, 08:50   Link #299
Clarste
Human
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Age: 37
The reason for solving the murder mystery is to discover what kind of exploit allowed someone to die in town. If such an exploit exists, it would affect everyone, including himself. It's not just a matter of protecting others, it's also self-preservation. When it turned out not to be an exploit, he immediately decided it wasn't his problem anymore.

The fact that he went and saved them from Laughing Coffin was because he's a nice guy though.
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Old 2012-08-17, 09:00   Link #300
Dengar
Kamen Rider Muppeteer
 
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Unknown
Age: 39
Re: "BEATER BEATER BEATER BEATER BEATER"

Why, oh WHY do people think that after like FIFTY floors, which is WAY beyond how far the beta testers got, that the whole "Beater" thing is even relevant to anyone seriously trying to beat this game?
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