Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Sword Art Online episode 4

Hello there my readers!!! Hopefully you are all enjoying the Olympics! I know I am. I took a bit of a break today (I can only see so many soccer/tennis matches) to clean my house. X__X I still don't know how things pile up when there are only two of us!! How do housewives with kids do this? I have no idea....but Kira needs to start pulling her weight around her. Momma had to take all that trash out alone!
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Oh also spoilers for a bitch face?
So now onto a show that I watched like...4 days ago...Sword Art Online episode 4! Spoilers for Kirito...being friendly again?
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Aw poor new character!
Episode Summary: A young girl named Silica is outraged that Rosalia, a member of her party, won’t give her a healing crystal. Rosalia says she doesn’t need one as she has a healing pet. Silica gets mad and quits the party. She stomps off into the woods but bites off more than she can chew. Her little dragon pet Pina does its best to protect and heal Silica but soon it is killed. Silica can only watch as she is about to be killed herself. Kirito comes out of nowhere and destroys the monsters that were about to squish her. Silica really doesn’t focus on thank yous as she is too busy crying. Kirito is quick to point out the feather on the ground is a Pina item and if she takes this item to the Hill of Memories within three days she can revive her pet. Silica looks disappointed again as she doesn’t think she can reach that place on her own. Kirito offers to help her and everything is rainbows! Silica asks why Kirito is going to this trouble for her and he shyly says she reminds him of his sister. They get back to town where people immediately want to party with her. Silica marches on with Kirito and explains she is only popular because of Pina and maybe she let that get to her head. They run into Rosalia who says some not nice things about the Pina situation. As they sit down for a bit to eat Kirito talks about how there are some players/guilds in the game that go out and attack (orange players) or kill (red players) others for their items. Silica decides this is a fine time to be scared. Later that night, after some underwear antics, Kirito shows Silica how they are going to get to the Hill of Memories and what to expect. Kirito cuts the conversation short as his hearing skill picks up on someone in the hallway. They get away but Kirito is on his guard now.
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More like Hill of Makeout Sessions.
The next day they head to the Hill of Memories. Silica is nervous at first as part of the area seems to be a popular spot for couples. They run into a few baddies, with Kirito doing most of the protecting. Eventually Kirito talks about his sister who is really their cousin. They were/are being raised by their strict grandfather and his cousin took over doing kendo when Kirito quit to protect him. Kirito says that helping Silica will somehow pay back this debt his owes his cousin. Silica smiles and says that his cousin must love him and kendo. They eventually reach the flower with no major incidents. After picking said flower they walk on back only to run into Rosalia. Kirito tells Silica to stand back, that he has this. He explains that he was hired by a former guild leader after his entire guild was killed by Rosalia’s guild. She uses herself as a green players to seek out other players for her guild to manhandle or kill. Kirito asks how she can do such a thing and Rosalia says assuming that people are really dying in real life is just dumb. Tons of people join Rosalia and start attacking Kirito. But as a level 78 player with high HP and self regeneration skill they do no damage to him. Kirito has been paid to take them to jail as that is what the guild leader wanted. But Kirito tells Rosalia he is a single player and would be fine with being red for a few days. Afterwards Kirito apologizes to Rosalia for using her as bait. Silica thinks it is okay since he was helping people out. Kirito sticks around long enough to see Pina be revived before returning to the lead group. THE END!
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10 days ago? Kirito works fast. X___X
This show X___X. The pacing is making my eyeballs explode. All over the place! I mean I really didn’t know what to expect when the synopsis said it was about a game with 100 floors. As much as I love anime I wouldn’t want to watch 100 episodes with 1 floor. Might get a bit boring. But this is just…X__X.
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Well...good thing he isn't crying in a corner still....
At the beginning of this episode I thought my blog post was going to go in a different direction. Like what the hell is Kirito doing helping people still?! Shouldn’t he be crying in the corner thinking about his fallen guild still? But then at the end of the episode things started to make sense although there were clues to what was going on throughout the episode.
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Can I has a Pina please?
Can I just say that Pina was just adorable? Of course I am sure Silica was cute to some people too. Actually the way people were talking I really thought she was an idol in real life. Of course it turns out I am silly and they meant the game. Pets in the game must be rare if people seek Silica out just because she has one. Perhaps that was good for Silica as otherwise she wouldn’t have been invited to parties. What was this paragraph about again? Oh yes cute Pina!
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But that's all I had in the world!!!
Now it might be in bad taste to cry over a dead pet given how REAL people are dying all around you. But it has been TWO YEARS since this game has started and maybe Pina has been with Silica from nearly the very start. I would be devastated if my little Kira died so maybe that is how Silica feels now. You need something to hold on to in this virtual world. Or maybe Silica really defined herself with being beast master and some of those tears were for herself? Nah she seemed pretty genuine.
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No healing crystals? Peace out bitches!
That group that Silica was with was scummy even before the big reveal. When Silica was fighting by herself her little Pina did heal her but not all the way. Personally I would give everyone in my party healing items so there is a better chance of them living thus me living. Rosalia however was extra dumb. I am just speculating here since it wasn’t explained (or wasn’t explained well to me) but if you win a player verses player match you get their items right? So if Silica was killed by a monster before Rosalia could steal her items….that would be stupid right? But yeah Silica was right to leave the group. Oh and Rosalia was obvious up to no good since she had that small smirk, evil smile thing going on.
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How very interesting....
So the initial oh I will help Silica moment from Kirito made little sense to me. I mean yes save her but then to go out of his way to go to a “hard dungeon” with her to save a pet? I was like Kirito have you already done your mourning and aren’t living life as a solo player? You are giving me mixed messages here son. But I guess humans aren’t one dimensional creatures and neither are the anime characters based on humans. Just because Kirito acts all big and bad, that he is going it alone doesn’t mean he hasn’t gotten lonely in these past two years and needs human companionship.
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Oh so shiny!
I am going to ignore the random underwear scene in favor of talking about things that mean something. Why would Kirito waste skill points on hearing? Yes it is good to hear someone sneaking up on you but does that really happen that often? Maybe if this was a real game where Player verses player stuff was more common…But I guess since Kirito is part of the lead group he has seen people turn on each other and is trying to watch his back. After all he is the famous Beater!
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I am sure if she was mad...she doesn't care anymore.
The back story of Kirito wanting to help Silica because he looked like his cousin sister was…I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t expecting. Not sure why I expect things or am surprised when I can’t predict everything but maybe because it felt slightly forced. Just slightly! Like Kirito feels bad because his cousin had to kendo because he dropped out? Um no maybe you should feel angry because your grandfather was a jerk. Don’t put the blame on yourself! But…since he does I guess….well no. Helping someone who looks like his sister cousin won’t really make things better. Right Katniss? Kirito seems to have a lot of guilt in his little heart and I am happy that Silica was there to try and make him feel better. XD Maybe after Kirito escapes the game he will wake up to his sister crying over him? That he will vow to make every day count and spend time with his sister cousin.
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A bit of fun in a never ending game X___X
Of course this is all depends on when Kirito wakes up. I am just assuming that real time is the same as game time. This is based on episode one where Kline was logging off after a few hours because his pizza was on the way. The hours match up minute for minute. So if he has been trapped in the game for two years he and the other players are probably in a huge building being monitored and suchies so they have the best chance of surviving. If the threat of death is real. So I am guessing that sister might not be waiting for Kirito when he wakes up. That at this rate she might be off raising a family or something. :( Kirito can visit his niece/second cousin that is the exact same age as him?
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Can we just hide out there instead?
The walk through the Hill of Memories was a nice and pleasant one wasn’t it? Kirito kept saying that Silica was going to be okay, that the first monster was weak. And each monster after the first looked pretty weak. So did Silica pick up on that? That she could have gone to this area herself without Kirito’s help? XD I remember in my Maple Story days the pet revival area was relatively easy to get to so newbies wouldn’t have such a hard time getting there. I figured this was the case in Art Sword Online but maybe I am wrong…
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Or else I will smirk some more!
I say maybe because why would Rosalia go to the trouble of following Silica to steal the flower? I mean…it did look pretty easy to get correct? Perhaps she needed a dead Pina and the flower. Kill Silica and she would be the owner of both? Now it all makes sense as I make it up in my head. Okay the quest was easy my bad.
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Wait I was bait?
Rosalia and her crew were pretty over the top though yes? Very cunning. Have a likeable (well to boys) player to lure one in and BAM bring in the player killers that lurk in the background. I think I would have liked it better had they been trying to steal items and kill people to ensure their own survival. Instead they are being what Kirito explained…bullies. Like whatever maybe this whole you die in the game you die in real life thing isn’t real. And instead of being overly cautious they were just going around killing people. Like meh probably won’t matter. And those people are the worst of all. No reasoning with them. How can they be so flippant with human life?
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Err...time to run away now guys?
Kirito’s real season for partying with Silica is to catch these player killers and put them in jail. Poor little Silica was bait. At least she was okay with it. In the end it did help a great number of people. Kirito and his 7X level self. Personally if all my guild mates were killed in horrible way I would want revenge on them and not put them in jail. But there has to be rules in this new society or all hell would break loose yes? Also that would make the person the avenger hired a killer. So maybe people would only accept the job if the terms were imprisonment. Not that Kirito couldn’t or wouldn’t kill them.
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Kirito once again saves the day. WOOHOO!
In the end Kirito revealed who he was again to someone…and they accepted it. Silica got her pet back. Kirito got a huge payday and saved a lot of potential people in the game. Oh and Kirito is like level 2439875. This game is chugging along at a break neck speed is it not? However I am liking how they are showing many ways people are dealing with this situation. Some people are giving up, some are trying hard for themselves and others, and some are being douchebags like they were in real life. Interesting to watch if for that fact only. Until next time!

5 comments:

eternia said...

It's... hard to explain things when the main character is Gary Stu and support characters are one dimensional.
Having that large group of people, this evil guild should be able to get the flower themselves, and, rather than stalking a loli for days just to rob her items, which don't worth much, they could easily farm a lot more items by doing quests and ganging up on strong monster. I guess you are right, they just being douchebags, nothing more, nothing less. As I said, they are the "Do you need reason to do bad thing?" type.
Also, Gary Stu is treating the loli way too kind, even though she's just a bait, and he's a unsociable person. "Oh, because you resemble my sister!" Wait a sec bro, your sister is not really a loli, and she has boobs.
:-)

Anonymous said...

Kirito doesn't have points in hearing. The thief that ran away has points in hearing. Kirito has points in tracking which you also saw him use in episode 3 to find Sachi. So he probably has like a minimap in the corner of his vision that shows him dots where people are, or something like that. That kind of thing would be pretty useful when fighting monsters alone, so you don't get ambushed and whatnot.

Anonymous said...

As a LN reader, I found the pacing on this episode to be better than last weeks. Silica got her skimpy dress as a gift from Kirito, and I have to say he’s got good taste. ^_^

According to Rinsako, and quote too, in the Novels. Silica is shown going bezerk on the monkies that killed Pina (which she named because it reminded her of her pet in the real world due to softness). She charges at them with reckless abandon and kills most of them without regard to her life. It’s Kirito that steps in to ensure she isn’t killed and it’s then when she breaks down. In other words, she is NOT weak, and she can hold against others by herself mostly. The anime just shown she is a crying loli who needs protections, a lot.

Also, there’s a pet system in this game, sometimes, on very rare occasions, a monster, instead of aggro-ing you, will approach you as a friendly. During this time if you can give it the food it likes then it is tamed. This has numerous problems though. For one, the more you kill “monster A” the less likely one will approach you in a friendly manner; Two, knowing the food to give. The moment you give the wrong food item to “monster A”, it’s back to the drawing board.

(continue....)

Anonymous said...

SAO have an anti-crime code that prevents sexual harassment. You can manually disable it to do echi things, but Kirito doesn’t know how or even that you can do that. That is also why Kirito thought nothing of sleeping in the same bed as Sachi or being alone with Silica in her bedroom this episode.

One thing I felt was particularly well done: Kirito recognizes that levels are just numbers, numbers with an arbitrary worth determined by the game system. The fact that Kirito is far overleveled relative to the content being cleared is rather telling – but instead of abusing his high level for prestige or status, he prefers to act out of his independent sense of justice – in this particular case, taking up the pleas of the surviving guild leader and sparing Silica from the grief of loss. In MMORPGs, where people often take advantage of their high levels to grief others and trash-talk.

Some interesting notes:

Asuna is actually 1 year older then Kirito, who is ~ 2 years older than Silica. He was 14 when SAO started.

Pina’s AI seems to have evolved some too, as Familiar monsters aren’t programmed to take the hit for their Tamer.

Also, if you look closely at the male and female ration in ep 1, then you will notice that there are lots more female than male in the SAO. Now, you can understand Kirito’s harem sys. as the story goes…….

Christina said...

Eternia- Sometimes there is no reason why people do what they do. It is almost like they are working HARDER at being evil than gathering items themselves. Because Kirito can't be the only high level player keeping a low profile. They might be putting themselves in more danger fighting people instead of monsters. At least monsters can be predictable and have to follow the rules.

But Kirito flip floppin in his I am not with people and oh let me help people out...can become a little jarring at times. But huge time gaps can explain that I suppose.

Anonymous- Oh that makes more sense. I guess sneaky people would need hearing more and solo players would need tracking the most. X__X Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense now. So many different kinds of skills in this game.

Anonymous 2- I think I would have liked to see Silica going insane and throw her life away rather than coward and give up. That seems more likely given how upset she was at Pina's death.

I am glad you explained the pet system. It answers my questions on where there aren't more running around. So it is a constant battle of keeping the monster happy and trying to find one that will approach you without squishing you. Makes way more sense why there aren't more pets walking around.

I thought that was Kirito just being an oblivious boy. Good to know he is an oblivious boy AND gamer. Silica has probably got her share of unwanted attention and it was good of her to have her guard up. Or be embarrassed. Either way.

I think if anything this show has really focused on Kirito not caring about the numbers. That part of his character makes the most sense and has been the most stable thus far. And yes while most games seem to have more boys than girls this game did have quite a few ladies in the main square episode one. So the harem won't be quite so OH I SEE. XD