(L) Sword Art Online - Light Novel Discussion

[l.kostas]

https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/28/...of-encryption/

"...but over the course of 15,000 attempts Alice (RL AI-neural network) worked out her own encryption strategy and Bob (another AI-neural network) simultaneously figured out how to decrypt it."

[Sheepthar]

Originally Posted by DragonOsman

Edit: One post late.
I can see him being a Gary Stu, but I don't see him actually becoming a Harem King. Even if all the female main characters are romantically interested in him. Like I said, he loves only Asuna - and maybe also Alice.

Alice may love Kirito or may not, it depends pretty much of the interpretation of each reader at this point (since Reki never made clear when or how Alice fell for Kirito), I think that at least she has a crush on him...I mean he is the only man alive that Alice knows xD. But I really think that Kirito doesnt love Alice, she may be really important to him but I would not call that love, besides Kirito describes his feelings for her like "hope" (all of that Kirito´s dream of VR and RL becoming one and she being the living proof of this) and there is also the fact that Alice took care of him while he was a potato. Also I dont think that Asuna would allow him to marry Alice too xD (or Alice sharing something or someone with Asuna xD). Alice is just pretty important to him and she may be one of his dearest friend but I guess some fans dont like the term of "friendship" between characters, they cant get the idea of two people of the opposite sex interacting without calling it love (like Kirito-Sinon).

About the harem king I think the same, Kirito is not that kind of guy and I dont really get why is important if the girls are or not in love with him, I mean is not like Kirito is going to marry them or leave Asuna just because of that, most of the people forget that Kirito also has opinion on the matter xd.

btw sorry for the late reply xD

[Sheepthar]

Just pointing, I wouldnt use the rivalry thing between Asuna and Alice as an argument to support all the "Alice is in love with Kirito", because even Alice herself doesnt know why she is so upset around Asuna and I dont think that is just for Kirito because after the first cat fight she understood that Asuna has the same right that she has to see and take care of Kirito. There is also the fact that Alice for the first time was outmatched in a surprise attack and for the first time she saw someone as or even more beauty than her ( I dont need to quote the last part of vol 16 before the second match between the girls, it was almost more like tsun-AlicexAsuna thing than girls fighting over Kirito xD). I would call all the rivalry thing just a kind of fanservice, I mean for the first time we have Asuna being openly jealousy and someone who doesnt care about what Asuna things (unlike the rest of the girls).

[Kazu-kun]

Alice is head over heels for Kirito. It's not up to interpretation; she outright said so. Also, she's the first girl who is willing to put up a fight for him against Asuna (all the other girls gave up). Asuna's jealous because she can tell Alice won't back down like the other girls.

[Sheepthar]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Alice is head over heels for Kirito. It's not up to interpretation; she outright said so. Also, she's the first girl who is willing to put up a fight for him against Asuna (all the other girls gave up). Asuna's jealous because she can tell Alice won't back down like the other girls.

After vol18 Im not really sure if she is the only one who want to fight Asuna, but that doesnt mean they have a chance on him (including Alice), Kirito is a good person so he wouldnt tell them straigh to stay back but they will probably end like "I wanna be with him forever even as a friend or if he doesnt notice me ever", so I dont really see the problem or if its relevant if the girls or Alice are/is heavily in love or not, its not like Kirito is going to turn to bigamy just for that. The interpretation part is because some people think that when Alice is talking about love is not romantic love but another kind of love, like mathernal or something like that.

About Asuna well she has always been jealous of most of the girls around Kirito (even Yuuki xD) so is pretty on her character to be like that with Alice the only difference is that for the first time she is yelling "get your hands off of my boyfriend" xD

[-Hikaru-]

Originally Posted by Sheepthar

There is also the fact that Alice for the first time was outmatched in a surprise attack and for the first time she saw someone as or even more beauty than her

Outmatched? Wasn't it a draw? And Alice actually had the upper hand in that fight. Beside, both girls thought the same things toward each other: "who is this beauty", "she's strong".

Alice may love Kirito or may not, it depends pretty much of the interpretation of each reader at this point (since Reki never made clear when or how Alice fell for Kirito)

http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...postcount=5500
Not when or how but she did state it outright.

About Asuna well she has always been jealous of most of the girls around Kirito (even Yuuki xD) so is pretty on her character to be like that with Alice the only difference is that for the first time she is yelling "get your hands off of my boyfriend" xD

I actually never saw Asuna got jealous with other girls to that extend. With Yuuki and perhaps Sinon at the end of Caliber arc, they are really mild. Well but Asuna getting riled up was an interesting read.

I don't know about you, but truthfully I don't really care about the romance of SAO at this point. Because it's already established that Kirito x Asuna is the end game pair from the start. There's no whatsoever danger to their relationship. Still, Alice's going to stick to Kirito for a while. She is, after all, someone he cannot ignore. Rather, I'm looking forward to see how will Kawahara develop and lead Alice. After vol 18, the state of the world post-Alicization are really hectic. Alice has no doubt become the focal point of the story right now. There are also some Easter Eggs remain unexplained that might be addressed in the next arc.

[Kazu-kun]

Even if Alice is the focal point of the world, she can't be the focal point of the next story arc. Kawahara follows the Bond formula, with a new girl taking the heroine role in every new story arc/movie. The only SAO girl who got to lead a second time was Asuna, and that's only because she's the main heroine and Kawahara felt bad she was a damsel in distress in Fairy Dance. Alice won't get a second time as lead, no matter how important she is in-universe.

[EvI]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Even if Alice is the focal point of the world, she can't be the focal point of the next story arc. Kawahara follows the Bond formula, with a new girl taking the heroine role in every new story arc/movie. The only SAO girl who got to lead a second time was Asuna, and that's only because she's the main heroine and Kawahara felt bad she was a damsel in distress in Fairy Dance. Alice won't get a second time as lead, no matter how important she is in-universe.

So did you came from the future to tell us that? Are you the author?

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by EvI

So did you came from the future to tell us that? Are you the author?

Why would a LN author drop a formula he had going for 18 volumes and had been extremely successful with?

[KnightShade]

no one knows what will happen but yeah 18 novels in with the same "dangle the carrot" harem antics should tell people something....

[beast 666]

well, I never have taken to SAO as a series of the harem type, since it would be the maximum that could be a love triangle, let's be honest since your only love will be Asuna, for Kirito is not possible to have a harem, after all SAO is set in the real world, and as we know there are countries that have a harem will be taken up with crime in this case Kirito who lives in Japan, it is not possible to a harem.

Perhaps he could have a harem in ALO or another video game VRMMORPG and marry every girl within that particular video game, but in real life just might love to Asuna (for my SAO is one of those series not harem).

[KnightShade]

whether or not it will go full harem (it wont, just constant teasing that will go nowhere thus wasting pagetime) is entirely irrelevant to point. the bond girl formula exists and we have no reason to believe it will go away in the next arc after 18 volumes.

[Sheepthar]

Originally Posted by -Hikaru-

Outmatched? Wasn't it a draw? And Alice actually had the upper hand in that fight. Beside, both girls thought the same things toward each other: "who is this beauty", "she's strong".

Alice had the upper hand at the beginning because she caugth Asuna by surprise with a strong attack, after that Asuna started to overwhelm Alice with her speed and GM rapier.

About beign jealous Asuna has even been jealous of Silica, but yes like I say its the first time that she goes this far but I believe that is just a kind fanservice to have female leads fighting over the mc, I dont like it though.

and lastly in the ME21 (?) Reki said something about vol 19, he said that he would write about Alice adapting to the real world because she is the first robot and something like Calibur arc and that stuff, at the begining he was planning to write CotM as vol 19 or what Kirito and Asuna did in UW but he later decided to left it like a SS, so we are going to keep having Alice like main plot of the story.
In all honestly Im a kind of tired of Alice being the main focus (I mean pretty much the entire Alicization arc was focused in Alice in one way or another), I was spectating to learn more about SK Kirito and UW and what is going to happen with Kayaba and SK working together, well I guess Alice is going to get tired of being a robot, SK is going to lock her and Kirito is going to have to spend like 20 years trying to rescue her again on Accel World xD....damn Reki a good ending for SAO on vol 18 or vol19 was enough....but now they are going to milk money from SAO until its death, I just hope that Reki´s editor or however is in charge of him dont interfere much with the story, otherwise its going to become in something full of fanservice...thats what I think u.u


Edit*; about the love thing now I think about all the girls had said at the end of their arcs something about being in love (Liz (yelled)/Sugu) or have a crush on Kirito (Sinon/Silica (?)), I just hope that Alice doesnt start to do stupid things to get Kirito´s attention, Its not her character but at the end in SAO story all the girls end being pretty similar when it comes to Kirito xDDD and I dont want to see Alice like another "waifu" of the gang.

[KnightShade]

^reki might not have wanted to continue past v18 according to trans kun. in the AF he says he has no idea where he wants to go next which smells like kadokawa milking.

if that is to be believed, that pretty much shuts the door on the AW being connected theory (as if reki saying so wasn't enough... ) unless reki says eff it and goes full retcon.

[Sheepthar]

Originally Posted by kidstandout

^reki might not have wanted to continue past v18 according to trans kun. in the AF he says he has no idea where he wants to go next which smells like kadokawa milking.

if that is to be believed, that pretty much shuts the door on the AW being connected theory (as if reki saying so wasn't enough... ) unless reki says eff it and goes full retcon.

There has been over 3 months since vol 18 release and I dont know how many years since the end of the web novel and he still doesnt know about what is going to be vol 19 xP.

[KnightShade]

Originally Posted by Sheepthar

There has been over 3 months since vol 18 release and I dont know how many years since the end of the web novel and he still doesnt know about what is going to be vol 19 xP.

that says a lot now that i think about it

[l.kostas]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/revi...ovel-4/.109022

A review on the Progressive light novel volume 4. The official English translated volume was released on October 25.

“Kawahara also finally gives us more detail about Argo, firmly cements the groundwork for development in the eventual relationship of Kirito and Asuna, and keeps giving little tidbits about characters who will more prominently come into play later on, such as additional references to who I assume must be Lisbeth.”

[-Hikaru-]

Originally Posted by Sheepthar

Alice had the upper hand at the beginning because she caugth Asuna by surprise with a strong attack, after that Asuna started to overwhelm Alice with her speed and GM rapier.

Nah it's a draw alright. I never saw anything that indicates either of them overwhelmed each other. Bercouli stopped both of them with each of his hand though. If anything, Asuna is only able to match up because of her GM rapier.

Spoiler for ME21:

ME21 says that Kawahara wants to write about the life of Alice in the real world in 1-2 volumes. Alice, being the first robot girl of SAO, how she adapts to the environment of the real world, how she spends her time in ALO. He will also write about Underworld after 200 years.

BUT. Just recently I saw this. Supposedly leaked from DBM53.
「ソードアート・オンライン19　ムーン・クレイドル」
黒の剣士の活躍によって、アンダーワールドは平定された。
はずが、不穏な出来事が起こる。キリトはその事件の謎を解くため、
ロニエと共に「暗黒界」へと向かう。

It seems that vol 19 is likely to be Cradle of the Moon. Was ME21 a lie?

[Sheepthar]

Originally Posted by -Hikaru-

Nah it's a draw alright. I never saw anything that indicates either of them overwhelmed each other. Bercouli stopped both of them with each of his hand though. If anything, Asuna is only able to match up because of her GM rapier.

Spoiler for ME21:

ME21 says that Kawahara wants to write about the life of Alice in the real world in 1-2 volumes. Alice, being the first robot girl of SAO, how she adapts to the environment of the real world, how she spends her time in ALO. He will also write about Underworld after 200 years.

BUT. Just recently I saw this. Supposedly leaked from DBM53.
「ソードアート・オンライン19　ムーン・クレイドル」
黒の剣士の活躍によって、アンダーワールドは平定された。
はずが、不穏な出来事が起こる。キリトはその事件の謎を解くため、
ロニエと共に「暗黒界」へと向かう。

It seems that vol 19 is likely to be Cradle of the Moon. Was ME21 a lie?

I thought the GM rapier part was just because only a weapon like that would be able to parry a strike like the suprise attack that Alice used on her, btw Fragrant Olive was able to hold Radiant Light attacks uh.....how strongh is Alice sword?


About Reki...like I said before he tends to contradict himself when he doesnt know what to do (this is why I said it wasnt his idea to keep the main SAO going on), btw I read that info on discord too and this would not be the first time that he contradicts himself anyway, but I was checking CotM and there are only 26 parts and I think that they are not even a 1/4 of a normal book and the story doesnt have a clear direction either (We are having the same structure than the other LNs, Kirito + girl, girl struggling with her feelings about Kirito and while the plot seems interesting there are some things that I cant understand, like why they cant just go to talk with the first fighter guy and show him the god dammit plane xD). I think that he still doesnt know about the main plot for the next vol and we may have something like vol 2 with CotM, Alice IRL and some kind of SK subarc or a kind of Calibur arc.

[KnightShade]

all the more reason he should have just ended the series and kept writing progressive. guess this is my cue to just stick with progressive and call it a day.