No Game No Life - Episode 10 Discussion / Poll

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

The fact that he could do that in spite of him not being a very likable person just proves even further that he possess good social skills in my opinion.

That's not actually being sociable: Sora just has enough of a grasp of human psychology to be able to manipulate people to the ends he wants. Being actually sociable, i.e. going out and, well, socializing with people with the intent of having their company is not something Sora does regularly. In fact, as we see most of the time he's just content reading or playing games with Shiro.

I can talk to people older than me about subjects they want, throw compliments, agreements and some laughs here and there, give them at least a not unpleasant time for the couple of minutes or so of small talk and such. That doesn't make me a sociable person though, on the contrary I am firmly diagnosed to be in the anti-social camp.

Being good with people, and being sociable are two different things.

[Ickarium]

I think the issue is, people tend to make various abilities unilateral. If you're smart, you're smart and good at nearly everything (granted, this one fits the main characters to a degree). If you're social, you have a high Charisma and are good at all social skills. If you're physically apt, you're great at all physical disciplines.

Sora is good at manipulation. There's no real sign that he's good at other sorts of social skills such as persuasion, diplomacy, and so on. You'll notice when he social-fus people, it's always with the hammer.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

That's not actually being sociable:

Being good with people, and being sociable are two different things.

All right, then we can agree that Sora has good social skills but nothing shows that he is very sociable.
However I could argue that there's very little that has been shown to make me think that he is particularly anti-social.

An agoraphobic person avoids and fears crowded places as much as Sora does, but agoraphobic doesn't necessarily mean that one isn't sociable.

Originally Posted by Ickarium

Sora is good at manipulation. There's no real sign that he's good at other sorts of social skills such as persuasion, diplomacy, and so on.

Hmmm persuasion and manipulation aren't mutually exclusive, you can manipulate someone through persuasion or other means.

When Sora made the Queen switch side he both manipulated her and persuaded her.

As for when he made his speech as a king, that was neither manipulation nor persuasion (he didn't actually convince them to do anything, not particularly so), what he did, and what he aimed to do, was bolstering their morale, which is yet another social skill.

[eiyuuou]

Didn't Sora claimed humanity are lowly stupid creatures (including himself) and before meeting shiro, his actions were but a pretense. eg he smiled because other people were doing so. And that life is a crappy game.
I strongly doubt Sora is a sociable person (to the general population in game or real life), since there is no evidence to prove such.