Well, if it ends up being only Alice alongside Asuna, I can still forgive that.
Other than that, yep, OTP kept for 18 LN volumes shouldn't be changed just because.

-When Kirito and Asuna get True love, it's the end of SAO story.
-Reki said he will write Kirito and Asuna's wedding scene.
Is it still not confirmed that Kirito pick Asuna? facepalm

They were going out since the first volume and now there are 20 volumes and there were additions new girls which fall in love to Kirito in every arcs, but It's obvious in the story, Kirito always shows us that he has no attention to all of them, not at all and always be head over heels in love with Asuna.
That's because Kirito is monogamous guy, not polygamous

It's the same case as shoujo series that the ending is always OTP ending for mc x heroine, even if secondary mcs or supporting characters who are rival in love with mc, it doesn't go threesome or opening ending :)

However, it's time to let you think (imagine) whatever you want since no matter what I, people or Reki say, you would always deny it with you imagine.
-I have nothing to say with you who said Kirito loves virtual world more then everything more than Asuna. Virtual world is more important than Asuna. Their relationship is one-sided and Kirito's never looking at her.
- You said that you're not sure if Kirito does love Asuna.
- You said their relationship isn't true love, even it's from CREATOR
- Reki said that Kirito and Asuna loves each other and your reply was we all know Kirito loves Asuna, but doesn't mean he can't love other girls.
- Sometimes you said like Kirito doesn't love Asuna, but sometimes you said Kirito loves Asuna, ummmm...it's just a bit confuesd.
- Even if Reki confirms about Kirito and Asuna's happy ending, you surely would deny it with your imagine.

If the ending scene of SAO is Kirito and Asuna's wedding scene, I bet you will definitely say "that doesn't mean Kirito can't or wouldn't marry to Alice in the future", though it's after story which depends on people's imagine.
In the end Alice is another Kirito's wife or at least mistress, I guess it's what you wish.

There's always people around who simply aren't satisfied with what's given to them and want more of it or something different to feed their tastes.
That's why I tend to try to simply take what's given to me (and all of us) and reason with it.

I guess that's why there are people who like isekai harem crap but please, don't try to infect those stories which are not

ANN: Sword Art Online: Alicization Anime Reveals 2nd Promo Video, October 6 TV Premiere

Four Cours confirmed, as expected :D So obvious, but still great news.
As long as the production values manage to remain as good as the PVs make it seem to be, of course... :heh:

Harems=/=isekai. Those two genres have and still exist independently of each other.

Besides all harems are polygamous, but not polygamous relationships are harems.

The issue with SAO isn't possiblity of polygamy happening, but that Kirito has had an established girlfriend from almost practically the start of the series with no setup for it. So it just make the other romances even more shoehorned then they are. That said, Asuna's status hasn't really mattered in the series overall as the story has still played out like a typical harem with every new major female character being shipteased with Kirito with Asuna being written like she is competing with the other girls to the point the reader still needs to be reminded that she is Kirito's beu. Most LN authors don't know how to write a relationship passed the lovers stage so Reki Kawahara isn't alone here.

Lol. This is a harem, and it's not like Kirito doesn't like Alice. Even Kawahara said she has a chance.

Actually, Kirito's feelings don't seem nearly as strong as Asuna's feelings. Without Kirito, Asuna will kill herself. Kirito on the hand would just keep on living without Asuna just fine. He's more interested in his hobby and his research than in Asuna. That's why Yuuki warned Asuna that Kirito was too obsessed with the virtual world. That's his priority. Asuna comes second.

And that's why Alice is the only girl who has a chance other than Asuna. Alice is like a representation of the virtual world, being a AI and all. She's right up Kirito's alley. lol

People actually think Alice has a chance? :heh:

Kawahara thinks so too as well, so....

No he doesn't. That interview literally spells out that Alice is a stepping stone for Asuna in terms of her and Kirito's relationship. She's there as a foil, a "threat" so she doesn't stagnate.

Alice has as much chance with Kirito as Sausuke had to become Hokage.

That's some pretty biased interpretation but to each their own I guess. Just don't come crying when the next arc is nothing but love triangle shenanigans with a 3P end.

He says Kirito needs to come to a final conclusion to his relationships before explicitly referring to Alice as someone for Asuna to fight. She's an obstacle introduced to spur on the final step of their relationship because no one else up to that point was willing to fight Asuna for him. Alice has the "willingness to fight", not any chance at victory.

Also, you commenting on bias after trying to say Kirito cares more about his hobby than Asuna is kinda funny.

While all of that stuff is interesting to read about...
I'm curious about nobody commenting that SAO:Alicization is confirmed for 4 cours.

I know I'm bumping on the theme, but I was expecting some people to talk about it :upset:

^
Don't know why no one is talking about it here but its got 800 comments on r/anime. Its really good news for the series and anyone not writing off SAO due to elitism.

Is it necessary to watch the entirety of the second season for Alicization? Only watched the GGO arc back when it aired, not the part of Mother Rosario.

Not sure, but may be wiser to do it.
Besides, Mother's Rosario was a great arc, focusing majorly on Asuna.

Was discussing this elsewhere and was reminded by relentlessflame's post in the News & Anticipation thread, but now I wonder about how they plan to divide the story along cours.

It's a common thing nowadays to split seasons with multiple cours across the year. So it's possible that with 4 cours, they'll actually give us 2 cours from Fall to Winter, take Spring off, and then continue in Summer or Fall with the next 2 cours.
Thing is, if they do decide to split the anime in half like that, then the end of Volume 14 would definitely be the end of the second cour. That's roughly half-way through the story by page count, BUT, Volume 16-18 are really fast paced, with nearly constant fighting. If they were forced to fit Vols 15-18 into two near cours, I feel that the content would end up being really dragged out.

I'm curious to see how the new director handles this problem (if it's a problem at all, and I'm not just over-worrying)
But overall, I'm just excited to finally see this arc thru

The problem is Vol 9-14 are like 2,000 pages total while Vol 15-18 are like 1,500 pages total. Splitting it into 2+2 cours seems unlikely, unless some scenes such as the real world scenes in Vol 9-14 are moved into the second half. Maybe they will air it 4 cours straight.

Oh, that would make sense. So for the first two cours, we wouldn't know what Asuna and them are up to, and have all the RL stuff pushed to the next half.
I'm also not confident they'll do 4 cours straight, given that that'll probably strain production, but it's always a possibility.

According to SAO Wikia's reports from SAO:Alicization's screening, it seems participants heard Matsuoka mention that the 4 cours will be split 2x2 after all.
For now, it's still not fully confirmed, but there's been more than one person claiming the same.