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Originally Posted by Oroboro
Most people, including likely Kirito and the others, don't take overarching moral stances on things. Most of us use products in our day to day lives with more blood and suffering baked into them than anything Kayaba did. Kirito and CO. aren't saints. Just people.
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Most poeple don't have a first hand experience with such tragedy; most don't consider where the things they use come from and those that do often find little alternative since so many things are needed in day to day life. Heck, Kirito actually DOES call himself a hero, but then he ignores the horors that kayaba is responsible for? some hero. The true heroes are those that oppose these systems and norms and fights to change them, not simply ignore them. In a way by calling himself a "hero" he in a sense kind undermines your defese that he's just an adverage kid who does not have overarching moral stances; to call yourself a hero without such morals is a mockery of the hero name. Furthamore none of this excuses anything that Kayaba did which is far worse than what many others have done because Kayaba did everything for nothing more than pure selfishness... 4000 dead for his personal entertainment
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Kayaba forced many people into his world against their will. Many suffered, many died. But many also, over the course of two years, fell in love with the world they were given. Their love doesn't justify Kayaba's actions. But at the same time, Kayaba's crimes don't negate their love.
Yeah. Kayaba pretty much won in the end. And well, that's okay. Not in a moral, or justice sense. In the sense that it's okay to have a story where the villain gets what he wants. Not every story has to end where the villain gets his righteous, karma(And author) induced justice.
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Yes sometimes villains do win in the end, but unless we are dealing with a sympathetic villain or a villain that was ultimately trying to do good, their victory is never treated as GOOD thing and their evil actions are not just hand waved and ignored. The fact that such a monster would come out of this with near complete victory normally leaves a bitter feeling. Evil won, Justice lost and all those who suffered from his actions will have to live the rest of their lives knowing this. At best, you can hope for a bitter sweet ending, but overall still bitter.
But no SAO does not do this. What Kayaba did is not presented as wrong because no one seems to begrudge him for it. What kind of message does this send? That you can kill thousands for your personal entertainment, suffer no repercussions and even have a grand legacy? And that this is a GOOD thing? I mean imagine if this series ended with Sugou loosing Asuna, but still keeping his 300 captives and successfully completed his inhuman experiments and got rich selling off the tech. It would feel pretty despicable. Kayaba and Sugou are both selfish monsters, the only way Sugou really differs from Kayaba is that he was more sadistic which made him appear more evil; even though Kayaba has a far higher kill count.
Basically, by just handwaving all the terrible things that Kayaba has done and then taking advantage and enjoying his work in a sense does seem to justify his actions. Afterall what do we have that says his actions were not justified? no one hates him; no one seems to resent anything he had done; so why should we consider what he did as wrong? Its kinda like they are painting him as a "for the greater good" kind of villain, when he is clearly not; He was a selfish monster. Honestly what did Sachi die for? The true monster responsible for her death got away and no one begrudges him for it... what if someone wanted to repeat what Kayaba did; would that be ok? I don't see why not seeing as Kayaba gets to come out on top. That's the kind of negative message this series sends by not presenting Kayaba negatively.