Sword Art Online
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- Deranged Baboon
- Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2013 12:01 pm
Re: Sword Art Online
Surprised no-one's posted anything about GGO here yet.
So, this show is still a awful, disgusting power fantasy. So far this season hasn't gotten anywhere close to reaching the crazy levels of misogyny that were abundant in the first season, but it's still clearly otaku wish fulfillment garbage...
BUT, it's a really, really fun show to hate-watch, and if you enjoy watching horrible, offensive shit for the purpose of making fun of it afterwards, then you WILL have a good time with this show. I just don't understand how anyone can sincerely claim to love this show...
So, this show is still a awful, disgusting power fantasy. So far this season hasn't gotten anywhere close to reaching the crazy levels of misogyny that were abundant in the first season, but it's still clearly otaku wish fulfillment garbage...
BUT, it's a really, really fun show to hate-watch, and if you enjoy watching horrible, offensive shit for the purpose of making fun of it afterwards, then you WILL have a good time with this show. I just don't understand how anyone can sincerely claim to love this show...
"Never fall for a tennis player. Love means nothing to them"
- Jasta85
- Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:33 am
Re: Sword Art Online
I don't really remember the first season being any more misogynistic than most other anime, unless you're talking about the crazy guy in the 2nd half of the first season who was trying to brain wash asuna. And since he was the bad guy and is sort of expected to be...bad, you can't really call the series misogynistic, at least any more than most other anime series. It keeps the fan-service relatively tame for the most part.
That said I never really liked the main character, and Asuna was delegated to a side roll for most of the 2nd half of the first season which was a downer. I also didn't like how Kirito was somehow able to break the game's rules just by the power of "feelings" or whatever (resurrecting himself, soloing a raid boss by himself etc). It ruins the whole point of them being in a game, where you expect them to have to work around the rules that have been established. When the main character is somehow able to break those rules it makes things a lot less interesting.
In that respect I liked log horizon a lot better as an MMO anime as the characters actually work within the rules of the game to succeed.
Haven't started this season yet, going to wait for some more eps to come out and then watch them all at once to get a feel for whether it's any good or not.
That said I never really liked the main character, and Asuna was delegated to a side roll for most of the 2nd half of the first season which was a downer. I also didn't like how Kirito was somehow able to break the game's rules just by the power of "feelings" or whatever (resurrecting himself, soloing a raid boss by himself etc). It ruins the whole point of them being in a game, where you expect them to have to work around the rules that have been established. When the main character is somehow able to break those rules it makes things a lot less interesting.
In that respect I liked log horizon a lot better as an MMO anime as the characters actually work within the rules of the game to succeed.
Haven't started this season yet, going to wait for some more eps to come out and then watch them all at once to get a feel for whether it's any good or not.
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- Deranged Baboon
- Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2013 12:01 pm
Re: Sword Art Online
I didn't really think it was when I first watched the series, either. Then, a while after finishing the series, I thought about it and realised what the show was actually about, which is how great it is to have a perfect waifu. By the end of the first half of the show, Asuna has had any individual characteristics taken away from her, and has been stripped right down an object with all the desirable features for an otaku's perfect waifu. It isn't subtle, either. Kirito is a nerd who spends all his time playing video games, who ends up with all these different women (including his fucking sister) fawning over him. It is blatantly wish fulfillment, saying "hey otaku, don't you nerds wish you were like this nerd, who gets all these girls?". That is the entire purpose of the show, to provide a role for the otaku to insert themselves into, because they want to be Kirito, with their own little harem going on and a perfect waifu on top of that. However, that isn't what's really misogynistic about the show (like you sort of implied, there's a lot of other anime that do this) . What makes it truly awful is how, as I mentioned earlier,the show treats Asuna. She is nothing more than an object, designed purely to pander to the otaku's specific needs, and give them something to furiously beat off to. If that's not a misogynistic way to treat a lead female character, I don't know what is.Jasta85 wrote:I don't really remember the first season being any more misogynistic than most other anime, unless you're talking about the crazy guy in the 2nd half of the first season who was trying to brain wash asuna. And since he was the bad guy and is sort of expected to be...bad, you can't really call the series misogynistic, at least any more than most other anime series. It keeps the fan-service relatively tame for the most part.
"Never fall for a tennis player. Love means nothing to them"
- Jasta85
- Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:33 am
Re: Sword Art Online
otaku/loser who has women fawning over him describes like almost every harem series out there, there's usually a couple that come out every season. It's a pretty common feature in many anime/anime (lots of examples http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:H ... _and_manga). The female characters' shallow personalities in SAO are more of an effect of lazy writing than misogyny IMO. Although if you consider any harem anime genre itself to be misogynistic then I would agree that SAO falls into that general category.
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- Deranged Baboon
- Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2013 12:01 pm
Re: Sword Art Online
There's a difference between a character being shallow and a character being turned into an object of desire. The reason SAO qualifies as more misogynistic in my eyes is because it steps over that line, and Asuna goes from a shallow, fuckable stereotype (as if in every other harem) into a thing to be lusted over. That's what separates them, in my books.
"Never fall for a tennis player. Love means nothing to them"
- mirkosp
- The Absolute Mudman
- Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2006 6:24 am
- Status: (」・ワ・)」(⊃・ワ・)⊃
- Location: Gallarate (VA), Italy
- Contact:
Re: Sword Art Online
MouseBollocks wrote:Surprised no-one's posted anything about GGO here yet.
So, this show is still a awful, disgusting power fantasy. So far this season hasn't gotten anywhere close to reaching the crazy levels of misogyny that were abundant in the first season, but it's still clearly otaku wish fulfillment garbage...
BUT, it's a really, really fun show to hate-watch, and if you enjoy watching horrible, offensive shit for the purpose of making fun of it afterwards, then you WILL have a good time with this show. I just don't understand how anyone can sincerely claim to love this show...
QFT on all of this. Sir, these posts are the perfect description of it all.MouseBollocks wrote: I didn't really think it was when I first watched the series, either. Then, a while after finishing the series, I thought about it and realised what the show was actually about, which is how great it is to have a perfect waifu. By the end of the first half of the show, Asuna has had any individual characteristics taken away from her, and has been stripped right down an object with all the desirable features for an otaku's perfect waifu. It isn't subtle, either. Kirito is a nerd who spends all his time playing video games, who ends up with all these different women (including his fucking sister) fawning over him. It is blatantly wish fulfillment, saying "hey otaku, don't you nerds wish you were like this nerd, who gets all these girls?". That is the entire purpose of the show, to provide a role for the otaku to insert themselves into, because they want to be Kirito, with their own little harem going on and a perfect waifu on top of that. However, that isn't what's really misogynistic about the show (like you sort of implied, there's a lot of other anime that do this) . What makes it truly awful is how, as I mentioned earlier,the show treats Asuna. She is nothing more than an object, designed purely to pander to the otaku's specific needs, and give them something to furiously beat off to. If that's not a misogynistic way to treat a lead female character, I don't know what is.
- FallenMarvel
- For Dreams I Stand
- Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:07 am
- Status: Back from 7-year hiatus
- Location: Indiana
- Contact:
Re: Sword Art Online
As far as concept goes, I thought it was a good series. As far as misogyny goes I can't say I picked on that until it came about in the second half of the first season with the guy that was supposed to "marry" Asuna to gain control of the gaming company. I wasn't feeling the thing with the step-sister. It made sense with the relationship between Kirito and Asuna being they had been stuck in SAO for a number of months without much guarantee that they would make it out alive. For what it was I thought it was good, but I usually avoid the harem stuff like the plague.
- Spaintakula
- Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 5:53 am
- Status: Paralyzed
- Location: Macedonia
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Re: Sword Art Online
But...but...but...all dem lightsabers *-*but it's still clearly otaku wish fulfillment garbage...
Literally the only reason i'm actually trying to watch GGO, because pink lightsabers get to me
Asuna gets even less screen time, and Kirito gets more scenes where he turns into that crybaby he was before...yes...perfect
And i'm really glad they atleast kept quality on OP/ED's
- Jasta85
- Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:33 am
Re: Sword Art Online
So, finally caught up on SAO II. The thing that frustrates me about this series is the ridiculous amount of inconsistencies and plot holes.
WARNING: rant + spoilers incoming.
Is there anything stopping them from quitting at any time (before they knew about death gun #2). For example when Death Gun was about to shoot Sinon and she's paralyzed on the ground, couldn't' she just pull the plug? (Shinon mentions that you can't log out during BoB but if there were any virtual game that didn't allow you to alt+f4 or just hit the power, especially after the initial SAO incident, that should set off a bunch of alarm bells across the country).
After they found out about death gun #2 why didn't kitiro just disconnect, call the police and tell them to rush over to Sinon's house, she could even give him her address before he logs out and then either continue hiding in the cave or dive under water or something. He also says that death gun #2 can't kill anyone unless his partner kills someone in game, so why not tell the authorities (who had hired him for that exact purpose) and then they could have done something like shut down the game's connection to the country (to prevent death gun from continuing to kill people in game) and then could put pressure on the game company to give up that user's info. And the excuse that they're based overseas is stupid, if people are getting murdered while playing your game no company is going to just say "we can't give you the user's info" if the government comes after them.
How is Death Gun the only one with the invisible cloak, that also makes him invisible to radar. Even if it was a unique, one of a kind item (that screams OP) you would think it would be pretty damn famous and everyone would know about it and who currently had it (If there was ever a unique item in WoW that only one person had you would be damn sure that everyone would know who had it any any point in time, especially in a PvP game). And if it was not unique then why isn't anyone else using it?
Kirito's theory about there being two death gun's is completely out of left field. he sees a lizard with 2 tails and somehow decides that there are two people, one in the game and the other somehow giving people heart attacks, with zero evidence to support that theory other than the fact that he has no evidence to show that they were killed by the game. If there was like a pair of twins in laughing coffin who worked together to kill people then that would have made sense, since only one of them was in game, but there was nothing like that. it was a completely random guess. Then he guesses there might be even more Death Guns involved later which again, is just a complete guess based off of his original theory.
When Kirito and Sinon are talking about how death gun is killing people, there was a camera watching them the whole time? you have two players in a world wide tournament in the same location (who should be fighting) and are just talking and you think no one would be watching them? It would be like a league of legends or DOTA II tournament where two players from opposite teams walked into some bushes and just stood there for 10 minutes without fighting, EVERYONE would be watching them. Even if people couldn't hear what they were saying (and they should have, Sinon said it only records if you yell and she was yelling about dying just a bit earlier) thousands of viewers would be watching them including Death Gun #2 who should have figured out they were talking about him and Death Gun #1. And yet he does nothing but continue to stand over her body.
I haven't read the books so I don't know if any of this was further clarified. I know I'm nit picking but usually you try to relate to some of the characters in a series but it's impossible to relate to anyone when they're all making completely illogical decisions.
WARNING: rant + spoilers incoming.
Is there anything stopping them from quitting at any time (before they knew about death gun #2). For example when Death Gun was about to shoot Sinon and she's paralyzed on the ground, couldn't' she just pull the plug? (Shinon mentions that you can't log out during BoB but if there were any virtual game that didn't allow you to alt+f4 or just hit the power, especially after the initial SAO incident, that should set off a bunch of alarm bells across the country).
After they found out about death gun #2 why didn't kitiro just disconnect, call the police and tell them to rush over to Sinon's house, she could even give him her address before he logs out and then either continue hiding in the cave or dive under water or something. He also says that death gun #2 can't kill anyone unless his partner kills someone in game, so why not tell the authorities (who had hired him for that exact purpose) and then they could have done something like shut down the game's connection to the country (to prevent death gun from continuing to kill people in game) and then could put pressure on the game company to give up that user's info. And the excuse that they're based overseas is stupid, if people are getting murdered while playing your game no company is going to just say "we can't give you the user's info" if the government comes after them.
How is Death Gun the only one with the invisible cloak, that also makes him invisible to radar. Even if it was a unique, one of a kind item (that screams OP) you would think it would be pretty damn famous and everyone would know about it and who currently had it (If there was ever a unique item in WoW that only one person had you would be damn sure that everyone would know who had it any any point in time, especially in a PvP game). And if it was not unique then why isn't anyone else using it?
Kirito's theory about there being two death gun's is completely out of left field. he sees a lizard with 2 tails and somehow decides that there are two people, one in the game and the other somehow giving people heart attacks, with zero evidence to support that theory other than the fact that he has no evidence to show that they were killed by the game. If there was like a pair of twins in laughing coffin who worked together to kill people then that would have made sense, since only one of them was in game, but there was nothing like that. it was a completely random guess. Then he guesses there might be even more Death Guns involved later which again, is just a complete guess based off of his original theory.
When Kirito and Sinon are talking about how death gun is killing people, there was a camera watching them the whole time? you have two players in a world wide tournament in the same location (who should be fighting) and are just talking and you think no one would be watching them? It would be like a league of legends or DOTA II tournament where two players from opposite teams walked into some bushes and just stood there for 10 minutes without fighting, EVERYONE would be watching them. Even if people couldn't hear what they were saying (and they should have, Sinon said it only records if you yell and she was yelling about dying just a bit earlier) thousands of viewers would be watching them including Death Gun #2 who should have figured out they were talking about him and Death Gun #1. And yet he does nothing but continue to stand over her body.
I haven't read the books so I don't know if any of this was further clarified. I know I'm nit picking but usually you try to relate to some of the characters in a series but it's impossible to relate to anyone when they're all making completely illogical decisions.
- Shui
- Shuitcake
- Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 6:27 am
Re: Sword Art Online
I liked the 1st season better. The 2nd season even I was able to see the shitty plotholes. Also stupid Harem garbage.
This anime had such a great start/concept. Especially episode 4 was really nice. But then they wreck the train and still go full-retard-speed ahead.
This anime had such a great start/concept. Especially episode 4 was really nice. But then they wreck the train and still go full-retard-speed ahead.
Spoiler :