Sword Art Online II - Episode 12 Discussion / Poll

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Sword Art Online II, Episode 12.

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[konart]

Okay, I wasn't that hyped about GGO to begin with, but this adaptation is just a nightmare.

[Dr. Casey]

Originally Posted by konart

Okay, I wasn't that hyped about GGO to begin with, but this adaptation is just a nightmare.

What was wrong with this episode? Haven't seen it yet.

[GreyZone]

I don't know which translation I saw, but "Sterben" can not be translated as "death". As a verb it means "to die", as a noun it means "the action/event of dying", but under no circumstances can you translate it as "death" (the actual German word for death is "Tod").

To summarize:

Sterben = the action/event of dying
sterben = to die
Tod = death
tot = dead

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Dr. Casey

What was wrong with this episode? Haven't seen it yet.

First half is basically more of Kirito and Sinon sitting around the cave talking random strategy, basically voiding most of the previous strategy discussions. Second half has Kirito pull a Matrix style crap of apparently being able to sense killing intent within a game from quite a distance, as well as being able to hear someone's footsteps from quite a distance away as well.

[konart]

Originally Posted by GDB

First half is basically more of Kirito and Sinon sitting around the cave talking random strategy, basically voiding most of the previous strategy discussions. Second half has Kirito pull a Matrix style crap of apparently being able to sense killing intent within a game from quite a distance, as well as being able to hear someone's footsteps from quite a distance away as well.

Not to mention they just look at each other and talk (almost).

Seriously, right now - even ALO seems like a better part out of three. Hopefully we are getting Mother's Rosario next and soon.

[germanturkey]

there was too much talking again this episode. the action towards the end was just starting to light my fire, then they make it a cliffhanger. oh well. next week.

[ookamigirl]

Discussing the remaining players.
Also, their possible locations.
Strategizing about the game and Sinon situation in RL.
It's nice they switched from talking to some action.
Their trap was good, but was it good enough?
Well, it almost worked..
Sterben (Death) vs Kirito!
A battle of words, but very interesting ones.
The real battle will be shown next time.

[HandofFate]

Kirito charging @ deathgun doing his jedi thing was fun as usual.
It was bs how he dodged the sniper shot from hearing it while closing his eyes though, whatever Kirito.

lol @ Dark Wind.

lol @ Kirito not knowing deathgun's name cause he didn't want to hear it.

Screentime at the end wasted by Asuna. She has good looking clothes on though.
And man, Yui.

Couldn't Yui solve everything? She's the original with admin. powers of SAO, the seed of every vrmmo right now.
She could just hack into the servers and find out deathgun's info, but they probably just wave it off as "strange US server" even though it shouldn't really make a difference.

But Yui is apprentenly able to hack into a TV just from Asuna's MP3 player?! what? Is this Kagerou Project?

[Gravitas Free Zone]

Originally Posted by HandofFate

But Yui is apprentenly able to hack into a TV just from Asuna's MP3 player?! what? Is this Kagerou Project?

If the feed is going to the Internet (And hey, why not get players to watch the stream even if they don't have AmuSpheres? Eyeballs are ad money!), then all Yui would have to do would be to find the URL and switch the TV's browser to the link. My phone and TV can do that now, if I wanted to.

[l.kostas]

Originally Posted by konart

Not to mention they just look at each other and talk (almost).

Seriously, right now - eveyn ALO seems like a better part out of three. Hopefully we are getting Mother's Rosario next and soon.

Because it looks like they intended to make it 14 episodes long like SAO in the first season had 14 episodes and leave 10 episodes for Mother's Rosario and maybe Caliber.

[konart]

Originally Posted by l.kostas

Because it looks like they intended to make it 14 episodes long like SAO in the first season had 14 episodes and leave 10 episodes for Mother's Rosario and maybe Caliber.

14 episodes are a-okay. Just spend first and biggest part on character development, their story etc and spend less time on god damn VRMMOFPS. Almost everything they've put into last 4 episodes and at least the next one - should have lasted for 2 episodes at most

In other words - they did pretty poor job by rushing through the important development parts and not stretching the action parts - this is as stupid as it can get.

[Esclair]

I can't believe they programmed killing intent into the game. It was pretty fun to see Kirito get BTFO by Death Gun though.

[ChampDream]

It end when it was getting good, I guess Death Gun will managed to escape after Kirito beat him, since he doesn't know his name.

[Wandering Soul]

Only really started to pick up at the end. Did they really just use killing intent as an excuse why Kirito can sense the attack?

[S.Freedom]

Bleh after the blatant sexualism of the last few episodes this was crude. At least then you could make butt jokes about Sinon, this was a complete let down of an episode.

[l.kostas]

Kirito's theory concerning the killing intent:

Earlier this year, I mentioned this once to my «daughter» Yui. Yui was once the affiliated AI to the «Cardinal System» that operated SAO, and she definitely indicated that in SAO and «The Seed» program that was derived from it, there weren’t any other methods of knowing the existences of monsters other than the five senses.
Thus, I shouldn’t be able to notice the enemy if he hid silently in a place I couldn’t see. Thus, I explained the thoughts I had for a long time to Yui.
Players who dived into VRMMO would use the game server signal that’s constantly far away from them, to check «their» own status. When moving alone in a wilderness or dungeon, they could only check their own data. However, if someone tried to ambush the player, access of the status signals would become twice or more. At this moment, the system process would become slower, and finally causing a slight delay in transmission, and this could possibly be the «killing intent» I felt.
After hearing my guess, Yui showed a doubtful look and then said that if the server became slower due to this level of processing, it would be eliminated. However, she later added that to put it bluntly, she couldn’t dare to deny this possibility completely.

[Gravitas Free Zone]

In other words, his sixth sense is based on a bit of extra lag? This could be possible depending on the nature of the game's clientside/serverside interaction, but that seems relatively minor compared to the amount of data that the system must be shunting around just to function.

[elior]

it seems the final battle between kirito and death gun will be next week i hope it will be epic enough to make up on all this talking

[FlareKnight]

The killing intent was a bit silly, but as a whole I enjoyed the episode. Maybe they should have just had Death Gun not have a silencer and say Kirito's hearing is really good because of stats .

I honestly never expected Kirito to personally know this guy anyways. I mean he met how many people during the time he spent in SAO? Plus in a situation where people are trying to kill you I can't say I would particularly be concerned about their names. Just like how people generally don't introduce themselves during a robbery .

As to the tactics it made sense. Having a plan before sending out the "I'm here" signal is a good idea so you don't have to come up with something under pressure. But once the situation changed then yeah you need to change the plan.

The episode as a whole was pretty enjoyable I felt. A good chance for Sinon to take out a top player while still facing her fears. Even got to take a crack at Death Gun at the same time. The start of the fight against Death Gun was pretty solid because this guy is that good. A good old physical blade vs light saber matchup.

In the end even if Kirito doesn't know this guy's name it's entirely possible one of Asuna or Klein might. I presume him having that kind of particular weapon will be his downfall since it only makes it easier to identify him. You just have to drag in the Laughing Coffin members you do know the names for and drag the info out of them in the worst case scenario.