Sword Art Online: Alicization - Episode 5 Discussion / Poll

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Sword Art Online: Alicization, Episode 5.

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[belatkuro]

Low quality far shots aside, a decent episode. Lots of original scenes like the involvement of the ALO peeps in the search plus the addition of the Augma from Ordinal Scale. And some saucy flashback for Rinko and Kayaba to boot. For those with lots of questions will get their answers already next week. One episode is probably enough for that before we go back in UW.
Though I wonder why the 'Beginning' caption in the opening didn't change. That was the title of the volume covered by eps1 to 4 and we're in a new volume now. I expected that to change when they cover a new volume. Maybe when we do get back to Kirito will it change.

[Haak]

I could probably spend all day picking apart how absurd it is for a non-dictatorship country to be capable of such an elaborate conspiracy without scrutiny yet is infiltrated with ease by a Scooby-Do gang with some rather convenient connections (who just happen to be recruited at the same time).

On the other hand given the tech and effort involved in poisoning a guy into an induced coma and sending him into a dream world, I guess it does logically follow that there must be a conspiracy of some kind going on and it's rather applaudable that SAO is exploring this side of the equation.

But now what? Asuna just went up and threw her disguise away but does she have any leverage to take Kirito back? We're talking about a government that just kidnapped a citizen and held them for non-consensual human experimentation. I can't imagine Kirito and Asuna returning to a normal life after something like that. Unless the show doesn't give a shit about human rights or something and the government just gets a slap on the wrist for daring to get in the way of Asuna and Kirito.

[EroKing]

8/10 for keeping the pace still easy enough to follow everything going on.

NSFW

-2 for this tragedy

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[Lukes YGO & WS on YT]

Spoiler for Episode 5 Comments/Feedback:

Finally back in real life, the doctor told us some very worrying things that Kirito might suffer from but at least we know his life is no longer in danger.

We have quite the mystery on our hands here as to where Kirito is.

I'm confused but interested as to what's going on, either way Asuna is a clever girl and managed to infiltrate them.

Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Haak

I could probably spend all day picking apart how absurd it is for a non-dictatorship country to be capable of such an elaborate conspiracy without scrutiny yet is infiltrated with ease by a Scooby-Do gang with some rather convenient connections (who just happen to be recruited at the same time).

On the other hand given the tech and effort involved in poisoning a guy into an induced coma and sending him into a dream world, I guess it does logically follow that there must be a conspiracy of some kind going on and it's rather applaudable that SAO is exploring this side of the equation.

But now what? Asuna just went up and threw her disguise away but does she have any leverage to take Kirito back? We're talking about a government that just kidnapped a citizen and held them for non-consensual human experimentation. I can't imagine Kirito and Asuna returning to a normal life after something like that. Unless the show doesn't give a shit about human rights or something and the government just gets a slap on the wrist for daring to get in the way of Asuna and Kirito.

Rinko was complicit in the kidnapping and murder of thousands of SAO players, and she may not even have gotten that slap on the wrist, so you know...

Besides, I don't think the "conspiracy" went that deep. The poisoning wasn't planned. But once Kirito went into a coma, they decided to try some shit. After making his legal guardian sign some paperwork which may cover their ass in the fine print.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Rinko was complicit in the kidnapping and murder of thousands of SAO players, and she may not even have gotten that slap on the wrist, so you know...

Are you sure about that? I honestly don't remember seeing Rinko at all in the previous seasons and what we saw from her here (especially from her meeting with Kirito) seemed to suggest she had no involvement.

But you're not wrong in that the show has never been that grounded in the first place when it comes to these matters. I still can't get over how VRMMOs are even still a thing so soon after the SAO incident.

Besides, I don't think the "conspiracy" went that deep. The poisoning wasn't planned. But once Kirito went into a coma, they decided to try some shit. After making his legal guardian sign some paperwork which may cover their ass in the fine print.

Well I guess that would make more sense though it does raise the question on why this government just happens to have an offshore high security facility perfect to hide their victims. I mean...what were they doing with that beforehand?

Plus even with the paperwork, I still think it's way too big of a scandal for a government vulnerable to a voting public to risk it. Unless somebody's getting obscenely rich off of it. I mean if I were an evil mastermind behind a government conspiracy involving human experimentation (not that I am or anything), I'd expect something big out of it. Plus I'd kidnap people who wouldn't have family and friends to ask inconvenient questions. I mean that's just basic 101 stuff right there.

[Polarpew]

Originally Posted by Haak

Are you sure about that? I honestly don't remember seeing Rinko at all in the previous seasons and what we saw from her here (especially from her meeting with Kirito) seemed to suggest she had no involvement.

She was taking care of Kayaba's body as he wasted away by spending most of his time in full-dive monitoring the game during S1. She found him in a cabin in the woods where he was hiding out. While she contemplated many times on killing him in order to stop the crisis, she never could bring herself to do it due to their relationship. Still, she's partly responsible for the deaths of thousands but got away with it by apparently working out a deal with the government and supplying them with research

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Haak

Well I guess that would make more sense though it does raise the question on why this government just happens to have an offshore high security facility perfect to hide their victims. I mean...what were they doing with that beforehand?

Plus even with the paperwork, I still think it's way too big of a scandal for a government vulnerable to a voting public to risk it. Unless somebody's getting obscenely rich off of it. I mean if I were an evil mastermind behind a government conspiracy involving human experimentation (not that I am or anything), I'd expect something big out of it. Plus I'd kidnap people who wouldn't have family and friends to ask inconvenient questions. I mean that's just basic 101 stuff right there.

Yeah, but Kirito was already a test subject. I guess they did all that to push forward instead of starting again from scratch with another guinea pig.

And the Soul Translator tech would be absolutely huge. It wouldn't work for manual labor, but all deskwork could be drastically accelerated. And then, there are the artificial Fluctlights. Ethical issues aside, imagine using them as AIs.

[4th Dimension]

Originally Posted by Haak

I could probably spend all day picking apart how absurd it is for a non-dictatorship country to be capable of such an elaborate conspiracy without scrutiny yet is infiltrated with ease by a Scooby-Do gang with some rather convenient connections (who just happen to be recruited at the same time).

The most ridiculous part for me was that they are relying on some sort of OMG!Ridiculous Facial Recognition software to authenticate people...and yet they are using pictures seemingly from an university site... a) thos things don't tend to be up to date b) that's trusiting a FOREIGN source to authenticate people for you. That security was a FUCKING JOKE. Hell, there wasn't really even a need for a wig.

Oh and the bit about how the super secret conspiracy are a bunch of chumps who don't know how to disable the silly heart monitor. But let's not get further.

Originally Posted by Haak

On the other hand given the tech and effort involved in poisoning a guy into an induced coma and sending him into a dream world, I guess it does logically follow that there must be a conspiracy of some kind going on and it's rather applaudable that SAO is exploring this side of the equation.

Except that I still have no idea why is Kirito so essential as to kidnap him, when they didn't even allow him to keep his memories. They aren't getting any feedback from him, so how is he then functionally different from some hobo they could grab from the street or something? Or hell someone they could actually and legally pay? Why this entire thing that IN ADDITION to the ETHICAL ABYSS involved in their tech would make them hilariously monstrous villains.

Originally Posted by Haak

But now what? Asuna just went up and threw her disguise away but does she have any leverage to take Kirito back? We're talking about a government that just kidnapped a citizen and held them for non-consensual human experimentation. I can't imagine Kirito and Asuna returning to a normal life after something like that. Unless the show doesn't give a shit about human rights or something and the government just gets a slap on the wrist for daring to get in the way of Asuna and Kirito.

Hell, I don't think she has any firm proof THEY SPECIFICALLY have him. They seem to just know he was moved and dissapeard after that port site. The rest is basically wild conjecture that he was kidnapped by his company FOR SOME REASON and taken to some top secret base FOR SOME REASON.
On the other hand, little miss there and her buddies are 100% GUILTY of some pretty hefty lawbreaking involved in DELIBERATELY fooling people to gain access to a TOP SECRET government installation they KNEW they had no access to.

Originally Posted by Haak

Besides, I don't think the "conspiracy" went that deep. The poisoning wasn't planned. But once Kirito went into a coma, they decided to try some shit. After making his legal guardian sign some paperwork which may cover their ass in the fine print.

I don't think that's possible, then again this is LN verse where edge rules. You can't sign over someone's basic human rights. And pretty much any contract that has clauses you ARE NOT aware off is pretty much void. That means you can't prevent someone's legal guardian from seeing someone. You can stonewall them for a day or so. But not longer than that.

Originally Posted by Haak

But you're not wrong in that the show has never been that grounded in the first place when it comes to these matters. I still can't get over how VRMMOs are even still a thing so soon after the SAO incident.

I guess like being able to fly trumps the dangers of wearing the potential brain cooker... which I might be fine with...
But this new tech is ehhhhh, since it actively allows rewritting of memories and personality it seems, while the other one just interfaced with your sensory input right?

Originally Posted by Haak

Well I guess that would make more sense though it does raise the question on why this government just happens to have an offshore high security facility perfect to hide their victims. I mean...what were they doing with that beforehand?

When you have that sinister a base, what is one to do but do something horrible there. You don't research cure for cancer in a BLACK PYRAMID in the middle of ocean.

Originally Posted by Haak

Plus even with the paperwork, I still think it's way too big of a scandal for a government vulnerable to a voting public to risk it. Unless somebody's getting obscenely rich off of it. I mean if I were an evil mastermind behind a government conspiracy involving human experimentation (not that I am or anything), I'd expect something big out of it. Plus I'd kidnap people who wouldn't have family and friends to ask inconvenient questions. I mean that's just basic 101 stuff right there.

And it would still be problematic since the technology itself is RIPE with possibility of HORRIBLE abuse of it.

[Side-streetdog]

Asuna is really scary in this episode
Use peoples, use her family authority, hacking, kind of blackmail
Even infiltrate secret government base

Just to find her boyfriend

Kirito is OP in game, but damn Asuna would take a cake in real world
He shouldn't dare to cheat Asuna, EVER!

[Applehell]

Honestly, that was a pretty unbelievably poorly done government background check for something that was supposed to be this highly sensitive. Then again I should have expected this when I saw that over the top base.

[Krono]

Originally Posted by Haak

Are you sure about that? I honestly don't remember seeing Rinko at all in the previous seasons and what we saw from her here (especially from her meeting with Kirito) seemed to suggest she had no involvement.

She was mentioned at the end of season 2 while they were discussing the medicuboid, as was her complicity with Kayaba. The scene of her discussing the World Seed with Kirito is something that should have taken place at the end of season 1, but was among the material cut by the adaption.

[4th Dimension]

Originally Posted by Applehell

Honestly, that was a pretty unbelievably poorly done government background check for something that was supposed to be this highly sensitive. Then again I should have expected this when I saw that over the top base.

Oh god, that base. That thing SCREAMS, we are doing something INCREDIBLY EEEEEEEVIL here (note, that looong E is necessary). NOONE makes a BLACK PYRAMID in the middle of the ocean and NOT contemplate something atrocious and SCIENCE! like.

Addendum, this is also making it REAAAAALY obvious to EVERYONE that something is happening here and it's a lot easier to notice it on the sea than on land.

Addendum 2: Turtles aren't PYRAMID SHAPED FFS! And there are other stories other than Alice.

[blakstealth]

Originally Posted by Applehell

Honestly, that was a pretty unbelievably poorly done government background check for something that was supposed to be this highly sensitive.

Yui beats all.

I'm actually surprised that disguise fooled me.

[MetaKite]

I wish they had kept the ambulance scene. Asuna really saved Kirito's life.

[Side-streetdog]

Originally Posted by Applehell

Honestly, that was a pretty unbelievably poorly done government background check for something that was supposed to be this highly sensitive. Then again I should have expected this when I saw that over the top base.

To be fair, most of present world information use digital database
They may have very high security, but all of them also use digital database
And Asuna has cheat fairy that can bypass all digital securities
She even hacked "REAL-TIME" to fool them when they check her, regardless of devices used

Well, they just simply get REKTED by small digital cheat fairy

[4th Dimension]

It's not a problem that they used LOL!HACKING, that is pretty much staple of all media.

Problem is that rather than doing their own FUCKING RESEARCH on this OH SO WANTED scientist and her inner circle because she might decide to bring them over, they did the LEAST amount of work possible and just downloaded the image from her university CV page or something.
And no Yui didn't mess with their database, she explicitly switched the photo on the Uni side of things. Which basically means this high security place trusts some university database probably administered by some underpaid undergrad or something. Not to mention that a photo of an assistant professor probably isn't a highly guarded thing.

They allowed to rely exclusively on data from a database that is MUCH less secure by design for authentication for access to their MUCH more secure place. That's FUCKING DUMB.

Basically whoever running that site's security half assed the shit out of this, and it isn't thanks to AMAZING HACKING that they got in, but downright atrociously bad procedures which IMO means the Chief of Security should have been tossed to the sharks after this.

[bakato]

This is just the tip of a huge, bumbling iceberg of incompetence.

[Frontier]

It was nice to return to the regular main cast again and see how they processed what happened to Kirito and his subsequent disappearance. Watching the Harem work together and Asuna taking the lead to save Kirito this time around was pretty nice. I especially liked Yui inspiring Asuna by reminding her of Kirito's effort to save her in ALO .

So...was Johnny Black arrested? They didn't mention what happened to him after he poisoned Kirito .

I was thinking watching Ordinal Scale that Yui might have a future as a hacker or something, but I didn't know how true that would end up being .

Kayaba having a lover was surprising. He always stuck me as someone so stuck in his own fantasies and obsessions that he wouldn't have time for relationships or intimacy, but I guess even those types can find love. That bed scene with him and Rinko actually reminded me of Kirito and Asuna's way back in season 1. Why couldn't you just let it be a dream, Kayaba ?

I wonder what the meaning behind Kayaba not knowing what was going to be at the top of Aincraid was. That he never wanted there to be a true end so people would constantly try and reach for the top in a never-ending cycle? Or because he could never figure out what was there is why he made himself into the final boss of SAO ?

I guess the gang being wary of Kikuoka turned out to be founded since he apparently took a comatose Kirito to use him as part of their virtual world experiment. Maybe a cure for Kirito comes out of it, but it is still kind of underhanded, especially not letting any of his family or friends know what's going on .

I found Asuna in a blonde wig and pretending to be an American more amusing then I think they were going for. She did look pretty great in that outfit and heels though .

Originally Posted by Side-streetdog

Asuna is really scary in this episode
Use peoples, use her family authority, hacking, kind of blackmail
Even infiltrate secret government base

Just to find her boyfriend

Kirito is OP in game, but damn Asuna would take a cake in real world
He shouldn't dare to cheat Asuna, EVER!

It's rare that we see Asuna really mad but boy was she staring daggers at Kikuoka once she revealed herself .