Sword Art Online - Character Discussion - Kirigaya Suguha
 

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Y'know, looking back into previous episodes, it started to become apparent to me why Kirito saw a bit of Suguha in Silica. Like that time Suguha walked out of her room without pants on, which is a lot like how Silica nearly answered the door for Kirito clad in only her underwear.

^ Also if you look at Sugu from episode 1, her physical figure was similar to Silica's as well.

She grew A LOT in 2 years.

She's one proof that a maidens's heart is fragile....

Character Analysis go!

I didn't care for Suguha much when I first read the novels, but watching the anime has really changed my perspective, especially when I realized something about her, that at least I find interesting.

Namely, the idea that she basically thinks she's the protagonist of a different story. Not consciously genre savvy mind you, just subconsciously through her actions.

As she's coming to terms with the fact that her forbidden love for her brother will never be requited, she stumbles into such a typical love story. She meets a mysterious, badass stranger with a good heart but a dark secret hidden in his past.

As a more typical story would go, they fight together, and grow close, but something is holding the strange boy back, driving him forward but keeping a wall between them. Until finally when he's at his lowest point, she's there to comfort him and keep him going, and he finally feels safe again and can open up his heart and share whats bothering him.

Or something like that. Suguha even follows this basic idea, trying to confess to Kirito and get him to rely on her instead. He notices though, and shoots her down, which brings everything to a horrible crashing halt, and it turns out Suguha is just a side character in someone else's story.

The other thing I find interesting about her is that her love for Kazuto (And later by proxy Kirito) was really all just based on a fantasy. At some point during the two years of SAO after she found out the cousin thing, the stray thought of "Maybe I'm in love with him", and that idea took root, slowly growing as daydreams and ideas often do when left unchecked.

But when Kazuto returned, she never really tried to get close to him or to understand him. His time in SAO had changed him immensely as a person, but Suguha, perhaps somewhat selfishly, didn't try to see this at all, and was too busy wrapped up in her idea of "forbidden romance" to consider how he might actually feel.

(Incidentally, Kazuto does the same thing, his heart still being stuck in SAO. While he's kind to Suguha, he never really gives her much consideration. This is the realization both of them reach during their Fairy Dance, I believe, and they promise to do better. )

So ultimately, when her romance fantasy was broken, she turned to her other romance fantasy, and that was broken too. Kirito never did a thing to break her heart. Suguha broke it all on her own. It's a heartbreak born of raising ones expectations too high, and the embarrassment at letting yourself be so stupid when it all comes crashing down.


.... Man I should really just got to bed. >_<

I'm really not fond of her, I found it difficult to sympathize with her because Asuna's situation was ten times worse. I don't like her design (hate it, actually). I don't like how she has so much screentime in ALO. I don't like how she was a fanservice object. And with the way the series portrays her is ridiculous:

"Let's spend 14 episodes setting up how much Kirito and Asuna bond and fall in love, and then bring in this new 'little sister' girl who likes Kirito too while Asuna in a coma while her avatar gets sexual abuse threats from a douche. Poor new girl! Her love is unrequited, isn't that sad?"

......you're kidding, right!?

NO, I don't freaking CARE about her stupid crush, dammit!! :mad:
I couldn't care less! Asuna's being tortured daily and you expect me to care about Suguha's feelings?

NO, anime.
That doesn't work. It doesn't.

That being said, I DO love her seiyuu. And I like Lyfa. She acted more mature and level-headed as Lyfa. Lyfa's design is also much more interesting.

I just loved the fact that the anime's opening displayed a somewhat parallel similarities in the adventures of Lyfa to Asuna's adventures w/ Kirito.

I don’t understand the japanese anime fascination with being blood relatives and if you discover you aren’t then incest is ok

.....because it's not incest anymore? :heh: The whole reason incest is taboo is because the couple would have genetically-unhealthy children because their blood is too similar.

But take that out and you are left with just a boy and a girl who are not siblings but two members of the opposite sex. I can understand this part....but the character was believed to be a sibling, thus treated as one for several years and then to suddenly switch to a romantic interest....yeah, that is a bit jarring...and quite unrealistic.
I don't think that mindset would be so easily switched. In the real world, the girl would be like "....okay....so he's still like my brother." Which is why I've never been that sold on the childhood friend romance thing either. I would KILL for an anime that features a little boy and girl starting off as best friends and STAYING that way without one of them going "omg I'm just realized I want to marry you!" . :rolleyes:

In this particular case, I think there are definitely factors related to Kazuto's being trapped in SAO that made the whole situation a bit more believable than the stereotypical trope. I'm not so sure that her feelings for him would be the same if not for the fact that he was basically unreachable for two years, she took refuge in ALO as a sort of attempt to get closer to him, and then his return coupled by with his "sudden" (from her perspective) change in attitude towards her... and this all at a pretty critical part of her teenaged years. So I can sort of understand how all this might come together in that form.

http://i.imgur.com/Ou6Xt9g.png

Sumimasen, I couldn't help it.


(Or should it be C.I.L.F.?)

Man those thighs....
I felt sorry for her. From the moment we see her in ALO we knew there was no way she would win Kirito's heart. Like everyone said, Asuna's plight was much worse. After getting over her feelings she still helped her brother out and didn't really get anything in return. If you compare her to Liz or that dragon girl, she helped him the most. Seeing her sit alone in Agil's bar showed just how much of a raw deal she got.
I generally don't get brother-sister complexes, but I guess the fact that they used to be close, then suddenly distant, then comatose, sibling then coisins and then close again can be confusing and easily interpreted as love. Kirito also did some things that were very unbrotherly that certeinly had me thinking he was interested. Poor girl, I hope she gets some kind of love interest that can even come close to competing with her heroic brother.

I think that she is pretty hot in a way.
Glad to see the ending of episode 25 about her and Kirito.

It felt weird at first, having her essentially swap places with Asuna as the female lead in the series. Her voice actress did a great job and I liked her character designs - both "offline" and in ALO (although I agree with Chiibi about the fanservice - I didn't really like how there was so much fanservice around her, nor how the amount of fanservice in the series skyrocketed around that point either). You can see what's coming her way from practically the first episode where she features prominently, but it was still enjoyable to watch in that heart-wrenching sort of way. I felt terrible for her, even more so because there was nothing that could be done to ease her pain.

All around a good character. I was hoping for a happier ending for her, but was still pleased with how she turned out.

I thought of her affections towards Kirito/Kirigaya Kazuto similar toward a Florence Nightingale syndrome/effect. Though to be honest, I ship both girls with him.

I felt bad about Suguha from the moment we met her. You knew it wasn't going to go well for her and it was just a question of how painful things were going to get.

Still wish they had found a different way to use her character than a hopeless love interest. Still think even being alone for a while is better than what they could have done in setting her up with that sidekick of hers.

Hopefully if she plays a role in the coming season that things go a bit better for her.

I mean, i dont know if its cool in japan, but cousins here don't bump uglies. Well, except for this kid in my school that we called cousinfu**** because he actually screwed his cousin, found out it was his cousin, and then did it again, but anyways,

But i mean i feel like she shouldnt have become a main character. But thats just me.

My understanding is that there are people in Japan who are opposed to first cousin marriages because of health concerns, but that in general first cousin marriages are far more socially acceptable in Japan then they are in North America though they are no longer commonplace like they were in the first half of the 20th Century (in fact they are quite rare nowadays).