Sword Art Online: Alicization WoU - Episode 11 Discussion / Poll

[Router25]

Lisbeth got deban!

[RDNexus]

Originally Posted by zztop

IIRC in Kawahara's novel afterwords, he apologized and is aware this plot point has aged rather badly.

When he first wrote this Japan vs USA event in the original SAO WN in 2006, he says it was reflecting general sentiment of Japan's gamers that time, who were less accepting of foreign players in Japanese servers.

He considered rewriting this section, but decided to leave it as is since he felt it was like he was running away from his past mistakes.
https://defan752.wordpress.com/sword...-17-afterword/

I applaud his attitude of preferring to own up to his mishaps and deal with them rather than cover them up to save his hide. At least, in this case.
I may actually be seeing this case the wrong way, but for now it seems just right

[Metaneo]

Originally Posted by xrick

I applaud his attitude of preferring to own up to his mishaps and deal with them rather than cover them up to save his hide. At least, in this case.
I may actually be seeing this case the wrong way, but for now it seems just right

It could go both ways honestly. Him not changing it to not run from his mistakes shows great character. On the other hand, it would show as much character to recognize it as a mistake and still make a change. It all comes down to why you do it though.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Agil mentioned that the timing was more convenient on the American side, so I think there was a sense of desperation in doing it when they did, as early as it was on the Japanese side.

I get the timing issue. It just didn't quite resonate with me as well. More the type that I need to see the evil army arriving first and then seeing all the efforts to deal with it. Heck they are going to start fighting before reinforcements arrive to help Asuna anyways. So why not do that and then have a flashback explaining where the help came from? Either way, it isn't a big deal. I just didn't quite get into the harem+Klein plot for that reason.

The Japanese government's side of things is equally as shady, but I think the main thrust is just protecting Alice and the Underworld from the Americans. At least with the Japanese government they know Kikuoka, so there's leverage room for making sure they don't abuse the AI's or The Underworld that there wouldn't be if America got their hands on it. And Miller absolutely should not be near Alice.

In the grand scheme of things they're helping the Undeworld, not the Japanese government.

I just wish there was a clear endgame here. Even if they stop the American government and beat back the sociopath, they are still in a bad situation. No matter who wins this conflict the Underworld denizens are royally doomed. Both sides are effectively trying to create Skynet.

That they know Kikuoka would be nice...if the guy was remotely trustworthy. I'd only barely take him over the sociopath. He doesn't see any problem with his plan. Nor did he really seem to see a problem with kidnapping Kirito for the sake of his treatment. Or using him for an incredibly questionable purpose that he'd know 100% that Kirito would be against if he ever told him what was going on. I'm just stuck on the issue of both sides in this conflict being various degrees of evil. In that sense I still think the story didn't even need Miller or the American plot. The story already had enough villains .

Lisbeth at least mentioned Silica when she was talking. I think the whole team felt she was qualified to be able to speak for all of them, and in that speech I agree. I don't think they needed any other voices to interrupt that speech .

This was honestly just another minor complaint. I get that it breaks things up having more than one person give a speech. Leaving it to a single person is effective. It's a good moment for her and goodness knows that she is one of the side characters that desperately needs those. I just wish that somehow she wasn't the only one that got that.

I think the idea is just bolstering the numbers of the Dark Territory forces so as to overwhelm the Integrity Knights, but I also think Miller is expecting them to fight more viciously then the actual Dark Territory citizens since the Americans are expecting this to be a violent game and are willing to go all out.

It isn't exactly a bad strategy and kind of makes sense if we delve into the mind of a sociopath. I'm just not entirely sure the plan should work. Even if I was crazy enough to participate in a random beta test that doesn't scream "suspicious", I'd 100% be running in the opposite direction when I found out that getting hit really hurt. I still think this plan relies on American gamers being total lunatics. But what do I know? I'm not American anyways .

[Jan-Poo]

Timing may be favorable to the Americans, but distance is not. Are they taking lag in consideration? As much as good internet connections can be in the world of SAO, they shouldn't have the technology to surpass the speed of light. And even assuming the American players are all from the west coast they can't possibly have a ping lower than 50 ms. Realistically speaking there's no way they can perform better than the native of the underworld, even without considering the obvious inexperience and knowledge about how that world works.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

I get the timing issue. It just didn't quite resonate with me as well. More the type that I need to see the evil army arriving first and then seeing all the efforts to deal with it. Heck they are going to start fighting before reinforcements arrive to help Asuna anyways. So why not do that and then have a flashback explaining where the help came from? Either way, it isn't a big deal. I just didn't quite get into the harem+Klein plot for that reason.

I assume it was to not break up the non-stop action we are likely to get in the next episode (which will probably culminate in Leafa and Sinon finally showing up).

I just wish there was a clear endgame here. Even if they stop the American government and beat back the sociopath, they are still in a bad situation. No matter who wins this conflict the Underworld denizens are royally doomed. Both sides are effectively trying to create Skynet.

That they know Kikuoka would be nice...if the guy was remotely trustworthy. I'd only barely take him over the sociopath. He doesn't see any problem with his plan. Nor did he really seem to see a problem with kidnapping Kirito for the sake of his treatment. Or using him for an incredibly questionable purpose that he'd know 100% that Kirito would be against if he ever told him what was going on. I'm just stuck on the issue of both sides in this conflict being various degrees of evil. In that sense I still think the story didn't even need Miller or the American plot. The story already had enough villains .

I think the important thing is that more people are aware of the situation now, so there's more people invested on the side of the Undeworld and the Fluctlight's who are willing to fight for them and be on their side.

I think even Kikuoka is starting to realize he screwed up to some extent with how off the rails things have gone. But he's always struck me as a practical government man first and foremost, which at least in this instance feels far more preferable to Miller.

[Jaden]

This integration of all the side characters into the arc is kind of forced...I was groaning hard at the second half of the episode.

But none of that matters, because Lisbet's speech was epic. Yeah, I would probably convert after hearing that.

I actually thought that many people would convert without having to be persuaded. The SAO experience (though this isn't exactly that) is a ultimate gamer romance, that's why this show is so popular. If it happened in real life, people would be mad that they missed out on their chance to get in the game, even if they understood the objective horror of it.