Ya I have to agree with the wish fulfillment angle. Even as I watched the show I found myself thinking how awesome it would be to be in his place. Maybe I felt a closer connection to Kirito than I did Light, So that could be why I find SAO to be such a damn good show. For me personally, I find the character compelling. Maybe I'm blind to the generic tsundere, but even when she is trapped in the cage is still the strong willed foil to Kirito, due to her escape attempt and the almost "rape" scene.lucky_sharm said:I've a pretty good notion of why people like Sword Art Online, seeing how its basically the ultimate wish fulfillment power fantasy, as it features a faceless cardboard cutout who is badass by virtue of being really good at video games and all the gorgeous internet waifus will inexplicably fall for.forgo911 said:The second half of death note was bad by it's own standards. The only thing I can say is different tastes for different generation. I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I see a great story with some of the best characters while you see a piece of trash. I can see why you think its trash, but I can not understand it.lucky_sharm said:What are you bringing up Death Note for? These are two completely different properties, unless you're implying that they're both on the same level in terms of quality in which case you are dead wrong.forgo911 said:Yes lets agree that the second half was the worse of the two, just like death note. And while I disagree about the romance being bad, there is no way you just put Rosario Vampire in that list. While that show was super funny, it just doesn't have the power of SAO's romance, or the quality. As for no character development, We learn about their relationship with the "child" they adopt, learn about the "motivations" of the villians and learn more about his cousin (I think she was his cousin I forget). Karin was a decent show that was pretty damn funny but still lacks the class that SAO has.Zontar said:That's a joke, right? Even if it was about romance and character development (more on that in a sec), the opening arc started with the explicit implication that it was about them trying to escape the game. You don't spend your first three episodes going in one direction (the only genuinely good episodes I might add) and then shift the whole focus of your show. By then you've attracted your audience and cemented what the story is about.forgo911 said:No. The anime was not meant to be about everyone's struggle in the game, it is about character development and the romance between the two. In fact, this is the only anime that I've watched that has no fault. The animation is flawless, the story is one of the top 5 I have ever seen, the characters are unbelievably well written and the romance is the best written, better than even Clannad. The male lead is strong loner who develops his humanity through the game while the female lead is strong, free willed and a great role model. She even tries to save herself in act 2, which most heroines wouldn't even try to do.Zontar said:You've probably seen it, a book, a movie or a show that had great potential because of the setting, and it got pissed away for something entirely different. Just name them, what went wrong and what could have gone right.
Worst offender I can think of in recent years was Sword Art Online.
10 000 people trapped in an MMO where if you die you die in real life? And to escape they need to finish the game? That could be an epic story that lasts years. Wait, why is episode 4 filler? Why is episode 5 filler? Why was that Two Parter not relevant to anything? Why are those two characters married when they barley knew each other? Why where there 11 filler episodes out of 15 in the setting? So many questions, no logical answers.
And then there's the second arc.
Overall, SAO is the greatest anime I have ever seen, because as hard as I try, I can't seem to find fault in it. What you call filler I see as character development, allowing us to fall in love with the characters while discovering more about them.
P.s. I don't care how easy a captcha is, anything this annoying is never as "easy as cake"
Now on to the romance and the character development: it sucks. That's really all I can say about it. The romance is so forced it reminds me of the Star Wars Prequels. The characters had no chemistry, and they where put together just because the writer wanted them to be. Hell, half the first arc is the "protagonist" making some random girl we never see again fall in love with him because the writer said so. Chobits had a better romance. Actually, even Karin had a better romance. On third thought, even Rosario Vampire (the anime) had a better romance. At least in that one the reasons for the girls falling for the protagonist where at least plausible.
And character development? What character development? The only character who ever changes is Asuna, and that's because she regressed from a kick-ass fighter and poorly written tsundere to a damsel in distress and poorly written tsundere. Kirito didn't develop, by the end of the show he was still the same asshole he was at the start. The only thing that changed was he became an idiot in the second arc. Can't say anything about the other characters either, since we never see them long enough for them to even be characters.
And then there's the villain decay. No motivation for the first villain, and a second villain who was as threatening as a butterfly.
But to be honest let's just ignore the second arc exsists just for the sake of argument, because that shows that everyone, from the characters to the government, are all morons in the world of SAO.
You still haven't explained how their romance is so great. They don't even have a convincing relationship, let alone a romantic one. Their interactions are devoid of any kind of chemistry or dynamic, and that is because their personalities are so flat and barebones.
Furthermore, I don't think the term "character development" means what you think it means. It refers to how characters evolve based on what they've experienced throughout the story. Usually these characters have flaws that make them less likable and efficient, which they eventually overcome by the end of their character arc. To demonstrate how a character has changed, they'll be placed in a similar situation that they were previously incapable of handling because of their formerly held vices.
Take for example Eren Jaeger from Attack on Titan, who would constantly vent his anger on everyone, causing danger to himself and others. He attacked Hannes while escaping Shiganshina, blaming him for his mother's death. After having his attitude tempered by his friends and his military training, however, he meets with Hannes once again but with respect and gratitude. That is what character development is.
I was questioning your Death Note comparison because that show actually stuck to its intellectual, higher level concepts rather than turning into a harem hijinks fetish parade, then remembering its original death MMO premise, AND THEN back to its harem hijinks fetish parade after the first arc ended.
I'm flummoxed as to how you can praise its characters, too, when every character save for Kirito is sidelined in favor of, who else, Kirito to show off how awesome he is. What little we see of these side characters is them acting as barebones archetypes. Klein, for all the promise he showed as a main character, is reduced to a mere cameo that occasionally shows up to remind you he exists. Asuna, the supposed strong female lead and thematically opposite to Kirito, introduces herself as Kirito's equal but soon after is reduced to a generic tsundere without actually developing any further than that. And bear in mind, these are just the most prominent side characters that are in the story's woefully lacking cast.
You talk about lack of side characters and forgot to bring up Leafa, who in the second half, is the foil to Kirito. She becomes the strong willed badass to Kirito. And while she does start to develop a tsundere act, it is quickly shelved to help Kirito save his love interest. Then there is Sachi. Her main episode is ep 3 the Black Cat. She is scared, afraid of dying. The only reason she is out of beginners town is because her friends helped her along. She never develops a tsundere attitude and in fact leads to her getting killed off because of a trap. Kirito blames himself and goes to look for a way to bring her back, but finds the crystal is unable to do that for people that died in more that 30 seconds ago.
There are quite a few more characters in the story and while most of them are one trait characters, some of them are at the right level of complexity to be interesting, some of them not.