Actually, I think ALO is going to piss a lot of people off. I'm sure most of them expect the whole series to be set in SAO -- if they know how long the book series is, they'll probably expect the characters to still be trapped in Aincrad at the end of the anime. And on top of that, a lot of comments here and on ANN have focused on how unique the death-game idea is and how it sets the show apart from .hack//. So for SAO to end halfway through the anime and Kirito to go on to a rescue-the-girl plot that's right out of .hack// -- there will be rage.

Definitely. I was planning to bring this up myself but forgot. I just hope it won't be too bad..

I know that it probably won't matter to most people, but SAO and the first entry in the .hack series both came into being in 2002; it's hard to tell which came first. x:

Harem haters are gonna hate suguha's entrance hoho. Oh gosh, i'm just waiting for a good cosplay of lyfa. I still out of the MC's her's is the toughest to pull off

*cough* That'd be me. *cough*

But they should love when..

But then there's also Lizbet, Lyfa, and Sinon. Though you can never hate Sinon

I'm kinda interested in how they handle Lizbet's short story. It takes place in volume 2 but time wise it's before volume 1. The problem with showing it earlier is it spoils an epic reveal during volume 1.

Well, it seems that we'd get Aria, or First Day in the Second Episode, or a combination of both.

But will they... ahem... re-jiggle the time-line so that Asuna and Kirito teams up earlier than in the novels?

Of course, there's always the flashback route....

I love when they all realized. Hohoho not really, her's was quite sad but she has recon!

I'm just sitting here biding my time for that one moment where I can finally say "cue FOREVER SUGUHA"

Yes, I'm effed up like that. :heh:

If they show ending of the ALO i'm definitely waiting for that parking lot scene :c (and what comes after that, was so emotional to even read it)

It is very fun to watch people speculate about the series. :heh:

They asked me about it yesterday ...

That was the best acene in v3/4 it deserves half and episode alog with chap 9

Yeah, I'll admit as much of an SAO fan I am, the novel being turned into a damsel in distress plot for the second arc did not score points for me. :( (especially how the author turned a combat character like Asuna into a damsel in distress)
It also comes from the fact that I'm not a big fan of the damsel in distress shtick in general. And don't even get me started on my hatred for it after what Kawamori did to Mikono in Aquarion EVOL. Best way to destroy a character in the eyes of both the plot and the viewers ever.
It's kind of why I'm hoping they stretch out SAO to fill the whole anime; that way I won't have to drag myself through the DiD-ness of the second novel arc.

TBH, I never get the point of disliking something purely because it's a certain type of story, instead judging it on its actual merits. In ALO's case, Asuna did as much "fighting" as she possibly could considering the circumstances, and ended up providing the integral key for her own rescue. Not sure what else you could expect from her, except for her to RESOLVE POWER UP!!1 11 herself straight out of her nervgear?

Well I guess I didn't elaborate enough; I hate damsel in distress shticks not because it's a certain type of story. (though I don't know why you're assume that a person hates something just because it is and for no real reason) I hate it because the heroine gets treated as little more than a trophy that exists merely to be won. In SAO, Asuna was a great fighter who actually did stuff. For most of the second arc, she was locked in a cage or otherwise bound. Especially after scenes like in the second anime preview and the OP, that's definitely not something I'm looking forward to her being devolved into. :( It would have been different if Kirito/Yui/Kabaya's "ghost" had pulled their hax-hackery to free her and "restore" her fighting abilities, with Kirito and Asuna teaming up to finish off Sugou in ALO, but alas she remained a (hanging) trophy 'til the end.

You also seem to be misunderstanding where my negative feelings are directed; it was the author who decided to make Asuna a trophy for the second arc instead of keeping her SAO awesomeness. It's not that I hate the author for it of course. But it's bad enough when a character is treated as a trophy from the start; watching a great combat getter get devolved into a trophy is just ugh.

Asuna was the MVP though for Volume 4. She was the one that ultimately succeeded in getting Kirito to her. If not for her earlier escape getting the access card, nothing anyone could do could have saved her. I take issue with calling her a damsel in distress when she came extremely close to escaping totally on her own.

I understand where Shinji is coming from, but I'm going to have to agree with Xacual on this one; she essentially freed herself with Kirito's help. That's how I prefer to see it; it may be wrong/some may disagree, but eh.. :>

She came close to escaping, but didn't. There's a huge difference there. As the old saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
And the author made sure to drive that point straight home; even after helping Kirito find her, for the finale she was strung up and nearly violated by Sugou in classic helpless damsel in distress tyle. :(

Meh, ghost Kayaba showing up at the end was enough of a DEM already, having him free Asuna out of nowhere would not only be a even worse DEM, it would also instantly invalidate the entire ALO arc, as he might as well have just done it from the beginning and saved everyone the trouble.

IMO, Asuna's character was not diminished one bit by her imprisonment, if anything else, it enhanced it.

How else was Kirito supposed to get his RESOLVE POWER to summon ghost Kayaba? :P

It's one thing to be a strong character, it's another to be the proverbial badass all the time, and if you have too many of those running around, it would just make the story seem trite. And in the end, the only thing that really matters is how well is the story put together and its level of execution, as all stories ultimately falls under one trope or another.

If you're going to say that, he clearly already had the power to stop Sugou anyway, so why didn't he in the first place? Freeing Asuna wouldn't have been any more hax than him completely overriding all of Sugou's commands. :heh:

How so?
And if anything was enhanced as you say, where did her awesome rapier skills go?

There a number of other ways the author could have pulled his "RESOLVE POWER" without that. :heh:

"Too many"? We only had Kirito since Asuna got the shaft. :heh:
There's a problem when a trope you pick undermines one of the positive factors of a character in order to pull itself off. Like I said, it would have been one thing if Asuna had just been that type of character from the beginning (I still wouldn't have liked it, but at least it would have been consistent), but even the SAO side stories depict her to be an awesome fighter, and then she's suddenly locked in a cage to essentially do nothing in ALO.