Sword Art Online - Episode 17 Discussion / Poll

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by Witheirate

OK, Kayaba was on hiding this whole two years and nobody (even the government) was able to locate him. So it's impossible to follow default route.

But, If you were Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of the death game SAO that was trapped ten thousand people in that game. Declared that will release all of them once the game is cleared. Found out that there are 300 people still trapped although the game is already cleared. What will you do?

Find who do this. That's what I'll do. But It'll difficult to work alone, given that my status as the most wanted person in this country. So, I'll call someone that I can trust, someone that close to me, if any. So, the best bet for Kirito for finding Kayaba Akihiko is find someone that close to him. Or, maybe Kayaba will call Kirito himself since he know that Asuna is listed in the still-trapped-in-SAO list. They will work together to help the still-trapped-in-SAO peoples.

But, *ugh* that will happen if Kayaba isn't the person that behind Sugou's plan (is he?). Judging from this episode and the last arc of SAO alone, I though that Kayaba is not into this.

Or.... is Kayaba dead already? is Kayaba care all of this? Hell, we don't know. Hope he will come soon, as protagoinst, not the villain/Sugou supporter.

Meanwhile, Kirito must have try all possible routes to free Asuna. I noted it here:

1. Go to the top of the World Tree in ALO.
2. Find Kayaba Akihiko in his hiding (or find someone that close to him).
3. Investigate RECTO/RCT, company that took over Argus after it went bankrupt, that coincidentally (or not) also the creator of ALfheim Online.

OK, sorry for blabbering... As I concluded from the previous and this episodes, he maybe will just take option 1 above. We know that Kirito is hero outside, but a gamer inside. Let the other two options handled by the goverment.

and it all falls back to option 1.....

[Witheirate]

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

and it all falls back to option 1.....

yes, option 1 is the only choice since it's an anime with an MMORPG genre, not detective genre

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

You know, for an anime/story which supposed to set in (future) real life, SAO has some of the most outlandish main villains. First, Kayaba Akihiko which is Aizen incarnate (fancy plannings, WTF motives) and now, Sugou which is the classic Bond villain (blabbermouth, nuff said). How young was the writer when he wrote this again?

Btw, does ALO also provides sexual-intercourse sensation like SAO? If it does....wow, Asuna, you’re in GRAVE danger .

[Vmem]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

You know, for an anime/story which supposed to set in (future) real life, SAO has some of the most outlandish main villains. First, Kayaba Akihiko which is Aizen incarnate (fancy plannings, WTF motives) and now, Sugou which is the classic Bond villain (blabbermouth, nuff said). How young was the writer when he wrote this again?

Btw, does ALO also provides sexual-intercourse sensation like SAO? If it does....wow, Asuna, you’re in GRAVE danger .

For your first point, keep in mind the material for the anime comes from a light novel aimed at something like a young adult audience... classic protagonist and antagonist roles and personalities have been recycled again and again since the ancient Greeks and Romans lol. Only the adult novels get the uber complicated bad guy that you end up feeling sorry for (ok, that was a stretch, but still, they try to keep it simple)

Secondly, given how nearly EVERYTHING was ported directly from the SAO base-code, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that the sexual content (or what did they call it? ethics code off?) is available in ALO = Rape is possible However, while rape is most definitely a horrible crime and I would never make light of it, if I were Asuna I would honestly worry more about the memory/emotion re-write...

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Vmem

However, while rape is most definitely a horrible crime and I would never make light of it, if I were Asuna I would honestly worry more about the memory/emotion re-write...

Well of course. Your memory should be the main concern, but I assume VR online-rape is not a light matter too.

[Vmem]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Well of course. Your memory should be the main concern, but I assume VR online-rape is not a light matter too.

I sense some really complicated government overhead department being put together as VR technology is being researched in our real world as well

[Kimidori]

speaking about sex, now that they can chose their gender in ALO, I wonder if someone who is male can experience female sexual pleasure if he chose female gender for his avatar and have sex with someone.

[Vmem]

Originally Posted by Kimidori

speaking about sex, now that they can chose their gender in ALO, I wonder if someone who is male can experience female sexual pleasure if he chose female gender for his avatar and have sex with someone.

well, from a physiology point of view, the nervous system of the genitals are very similar. so I suppose it would be possible, though the type of sexual pleasure would surely be a bit twisted as there are fundamental brain developmental differences during puberty...

personally I'd like to stay away from trying to figure out how many guys became females in ALO just to try this out

[Kafriel]

personally I'd like to stay away from trying to figure out how many guys became females in ALO just to try this out

Alfheim suddenly became a scary, scary place...

[Skyfall]

One thing I'm wondering about - is there actually any point to Asuna escaping the cage she's being held in? The implication is that she's going to try, seeing she was trying to figure out the code on the lock despite it being blurred out, but I'm not sure if leaving the cage alone is going to accomplish much.

The glaring issue being that she still can't log out of the game - until said issue is somehow resolved, the whole of ALO is her cage. Not to mention that with admin privileges, Sugou should be able to teleport her right back anyway.

Trying to alert someone of her situation might be worth a shot, but I don't see this working much. Even if she got out (and Sugou allowed her to roam around) and started trying to convince people she is somehow trapped inside the game, she is likely to be dismissed and/or ridiculed as an attention-seeker who is making light of what people had to suffer through with SAO.

I'm actually quite interested in how they are going to solve this, because unlike SAO, the current problem doesn't seem to have an in-game solution. And I highly doubt Sugou is going to offer Kirito to release Asuna if he beat him in a duel

Indeed, I'm having somewhat of a hard time seeing what Kirito can actually accomplish while playing ALO. He would need to somehow nail Sugou in real life in order to get the 300 players released, because there isn't a whole lot he can do against the system admin in-game.

[Green²]

Originally Posted by Kimidori

speaking about sex, now that they can chose their gender in ALO, I wonder if someone who is male can experience female sexual pleasure if he chose female gender for his avatar and have sex with someone.

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Eh, who knows. But with the mind alteration thing we hear of this episode, that could always be a possibility one way or the other. That later had me toying more along that line on how my Quantum SAO AMV went, as that for all I know we could be on to something.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

One thing I'm wondering about - is there actually any point to Asuna escaping the cage she's being held in? The implication is that she's going to try, seeing she was trying to figure out the code on the lock despite it being blurred out, but I'm not sure if leaving the cage alone is going to accomplish much.

The glaring issue being that she still can't log out of the game - until said issue is somehow resolved, the whole of ALO is her cage. Not to mention that with admin privileges, Sugou should be able to teleport her right back anyway.

Trying to alert someone of her situation might be worth a shot, but I don't see this working much. Even if she got out (and Sugou allowed her to roam around) and started trying to convince people she is somehow trapped inside the game, she is likely to be dismissed and/or ridiculed as an attention-seeker who is making light of what people had to suffer through with SAO.

I'm actually quite interested in how they are going to solve this, because unlike SAO, the current problem doesn't seem to have an in-game solution. And I highly doubt Sugou is going to offer Kirito to release Asuna if he beat him in a duel

Indeed, I'm having somewhat of a hard time seeing what Kirito can actually accomplish while playing ALO. He would need to somehow nail Sugou in real life in order to get the 300 players released, because there isn't a whole lot he can do against the system admin in-game.

If he can make contact with Asuna, he can capture the data and share it with Asuna's father, for example.

But really, for now he's just trying to find Asuna. He doesn't have much of a plan beyond that.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by chaos_alfa

Actually you can't change you gender in any VRMMORPG (for a long period of time).

Well, perhaps they're still guys "anatomically", but you can still play as opposite gender characters. In Episode 16, Kazuto selected his gender when he selected his name. Plus, in Episode 1 of the anime (in SAO), they had characters of the opposite gender (and thus the surprise when everyone used "Mirror"). So... guys playing as female characters are just cross-dressing (with system assistance)...?

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by chaos_alfa

Actually you can't change you gender in any VRMMORPG (for a long period of time).

Spoiler for Left Out Novel Details:

I remember having read something about it, but I can't find it currently. So here is a quote from TVTropes.

That sounds apocryphal.

[Krono]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

That sounds apocryphal.

Um, not quite.

Spoiler for Light Novel Comparison:

The part about pre-alpha testing, and the level of detail in the reasoning is from 16.5 and as such isn't canon. But the subject did come up briefly in volume 5:

Spoiler for Short Volume 5, Chapter 6 quote:

The recent VR games, for almost all of the titles, forbid changing the sex of the player and avatar. The reason is because the long-term use of an avatar of the opposite sex results in adverse effects for the spirit and body that cannot be ignored.

[Mairsile]

LOL I called this a few episodes ago - remaining people stuck to SAO being diverted to Alfheim. Sugou is using the game to try and solicit Asuna's confession as well as his financial benefit. I'm thinking Kirito's sister will play a role in helping incriminate Suguo somehow before the day of the wedding.

[jpwong]

Originally Posted by Witheirate

After watching episode 16 and 17 again:

• I though that was a white bear in Suguha bed in the ED, but from the scene in the episode it seems that the doll is brown (is it a bear? OK, I wish I could be that doll )

I do believe it's a Capybaras which is actually a rodent (I remember seeing these in Memochu)

[Vmem]

Originally Posted by jpwong

I do believe it's a Capybaras which is actually a rodent (I remember seeing these in Memochu)

the downgrade from a bear to a rodent only diminishes my desire to become that doll by maybe 1%

Thanks for the info tho

[Divini]

I noticed something I was curious about for a while in a blink and you'll miss it moment.

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So that's the official romanization spelling?

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Well, perhaps they're still guys "anatomically", but you can still play as opposite gender characters. In Episode 16, Kazuto selected his gender when he selected his name. Plus, in Episode 1 of the anime (in SAO), they had characters of the opposite gender (and thus the surprise when everyone used "Mirror"). So... guys playing as female characters are just cross-dressing (with system assistance)...?

Oh.. I remember those days... using a female character.. Watching your character moving her hips while running is stress reducing ... hahaha