Originally Posted by Vmem
I think to put everything into perspective, let's take a look at the WW II era. essentially, everyone's trapped in a death game in the real world. many countries cowered in fear, including the US until pearl harbor. It's a natural instinct when the power of the enemy seems overwhelming and you're not sure if you can win even if you did put your life on the line and fought. I believe these's a similar sentiment here.
Do you fight for that slim chance of getting your old life back? or do you sit there and learn to deal and be content with what your life has transformed into? I believe the whole point of this LN series is to show us that there is a third way to look at things, the way Kirito, and probably many heroes of former wars have seen things.
That is, it's not a simple question of fighting your way to get back to the real world "or restoring the world to the way it was". It's about living in your time, the time of the war-zone, and do what you can to enjoy the little good things in life, and making sure the people around you aren't dying like flies. Many war heroes in the past thought this way as well. if you read any of their autobiographies, in the mist of battle, often it's not about honor or valor or saving your country, it's about getting you, and your bunk buddy lying next you, the fuck out of the trench alive to live another day. Asuna never lost sight of her goal of going back to the real world, Kirito? sometimes I'm not sure if he cared... he did say that he wouldn't mind running away with Asuna and just hide in a forest and life out their life that way. It was only when she pointed out that the life-span of their real bodies in the real world maybe limited that the need to clear the game became urgent. At the end of the day, given the choice between the real world and the virtual world, I think Kirito would be perfectly fine with the virtual one as long as all his friends are all there.
I don't think SAO is a show about the struggle to get back to the real world. One has to consider why Kyaba did this? and at some point one realizes that Kyaba's madness lies in that he wanted to be god, he wanted to create a new universe where real people lived real lives. and by trapping the players in SAO, in a way, he accomplished his goals. to an extent, the two years of Aincrad has become a permanent part of human history, at least for the 10,000 people involved
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