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Rebuild of Sword Art Online

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But remember if you go solo you get all the xp. That adds up pretty quick, and if you are grinding +-8 hours or more a day you can get really powerful and take the same risks. That said in cannon kirito did not take party quests very often and hardly ever solo.
Just look at the stat gain he got from avoiding everyone. If he decided to stay out in front he will level really fast.
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
All very pertinent criticisms. Excuse me while I sob in a bucket. Why a bucket? It catches the tears better.

Anyway I made a few minor edits. Hoooooopefully they assuage some of the problems with the update.
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The edit to Sachi's last stand definitely makes this scene more powerful. It makes the Reaper even more terrifying while also banishing once and for all any lingering notion that Sachi is just another moe girl. Sachi's death also becomes a noble sacrifice instead of just a meaningless end at the hands of an impossible boss.
 
For those who are thinking it's a waste to throw Caliburn, remember this: Even the final Excalibur wasn't the true treasure.

Unless this sword has a very special scabbard, it's not worth it. To clear the game, Kirito will need that... distant utopia that ensures he will never take damage. And if Kayaba is a truly massive jerk (which seems to be the case,) it won't be in the game unless some player-generated quest creates it as a reward.
 
After reading the edit, poor Sachi...

I think Keita is stewing with survivor's guilt right now. Or just plain "It was my fault!" guilt, given how his borrowing of money ultimately led to this. Unfortunately, karma does not seem to be operating here, or else Sachi would still be alive.
 
Ah, like someone posted sometime ago (can't remember if it is here or somewhere else), karma is supposed to work on your next life. :p
 
So, Caliburn was thrown into the lake, right?

Kirito: (throws Caliburn into lake)
Fairy of the Lake: "Did you drop this golden Caliburn, silver Caliburn, or this ordinary Caliburn?"

Man, I love old legends.
 
Hmm, I think a line of him remembering the wall of light that Sachi summoned and how it separated them from him might be appropriate as he tossed the sword.

Mizu said:
Karma...for who? Kirito? The black cats member who survived?
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I think we're speaking of Sachi's good karma for trying to straining herself to keep the Black Cats alive so far.
And Keita's bad karma for indirectly causing their deaths.
 
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You know what? I read through the whole of the thread there's one prevalent impression I'm getting. It's also why I'm saying goodbye to it.

AND NOTHING OF CONSEQUENCE WAS CHANGED.

Thanks for playing.
 
You seem to have missed the point of the exercise, sir. This is a Rebuild, not an AU. This is showing how the same story could have been done, with almost the same points hit, but been a much richer and deeper story.The point is not to be hugely different, but to demonstrate how much potential the original could have produced if done better.

Sachi's death is no longer a one-episode exercise in 'how many obvious death-flags can we throw up?', she's a three-dimensional character we thought had a chance to make it out. The Moonlight Black Cats are now more than a handful of names who are little more than talking scenery, they're now characters we knew and felt the loss of.
 
Rieverre said:
You know what? I read through the whole of the thread there's one prevalent impression I'm getting. It's also why I'm saying goodbye to it.

AND NOTHING OF CONSEQUENCE WAS CHANGED.

Thanks for playing.
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Bit early to be saying that. Kirito's time with the Black Cats was only the second episode. If the author intends to take this through the end of Aincrad, then this is just one arc out several. A reasonable divergence takes time to develop if you don't want SoD-breaking handwaviness.

Besides, we already have had changes. As far as we know, Keita's still alive and hates Kirito. A legendary sword was set up for later shennanigans. And Kirito himself probably has a raging revenge-boner going.

And even then, maybe the author's intention is to give the cast and the world reasonable motivations for canon instead of "anime conventions and cliches because REASONS".

Did you miss all of this, or are you just being pissy because the story wasn't crowbarred off canon rails at the very start?
 
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Strypgia said:
You seem to have missed the point of the exercise, sir. This is a Rebuild, not an AU. This is showing how the same story could have been done, with almost the same points hit, but been a much richer and deeper story.The point is not to be hugely different, but to demonstrate how much potential the original could have produced if done better.
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It doesn't do so. Also, it's an AU. Aside from the simple fact that GGO is a thing and ages have been adjusted.

I had genuine hope when it started off. Then we got the 'oh, races? Nope, sorry.' red herring. And terrain modification which is mentioned and never really brought up in any relevant manner again. This would have, realistically, been a _huge_ thing. As much as the dynamic quests. But the overall flow of events stays the same, shoehorns and arcs and all, and rather than focusing on the new and interesting stuff? It goes right back to the canon arc trough. _That_ disappoints me, given the groundwork that's been laid.

Dementist said:
Bit early to be saying that. Kirito's time with the Black Cats was only the second episode. If the author intends to take this through the end of Aincrad, then this is just one arc out several. A reasonable divergence takes time to develop if you don't want SoD-breaking handwaviness.

Besides, we already have had changes. As far as we know, Keita's still alive and hates Kirito. A legendary sword was set up for later shennanigans. And Kirito himself probably has a raging revenge-boner going.

And even then, maybe the author's intention is to give the cast and the world reasonable motivations for canon instead of "anime conventions and cliches because REASONS".

Did you miss all of this, or are you just being pissy because the story wasn't crowbarred off canon rails at the very start?
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It _was_ crowbarred off canon rails at the very start. Then it was neatly leveraged right back onto them. Considering his interactions with Klein the Black Cats would more than likely have never been a thing in the first place.

I have an opinion. I'm not going to apologize for having one.
 
This is a story for those who want to read the very same story as SAO, but one that doesn't have the same problems. Like a different version of progressive.

The exact point is to hit every station of canon. From the right angles, perhaps, but definitely not missing a beat.
 
Sunder the Gold said:
This is a story for those who want to read the very same story as SAO, but one that doesn't have the same problems. Like a different version of progressive.

The exact point is to hit every station of canon. From the right angles, perhaps, but definitely not missing a beat.
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Precisely. The whole thing about Kayaba's speech at the beginning (culminating with him killing himself) removes several plot holes that are present in the original concept for Sword Art Online. The time dilation means the players can take subjectively longer to complete the game, while the part where they get stuck alone in a room if they get killed in the game (and not killed IRL) takes away most of the momentum behind the public pressure to solve the problem (after all, it's not like he's killing them, right?). Also, by killing himself Kayaba denies his expertise, freely volunteered or forced, to the taskforce trying to rescue the trapped players.

It's SAO, but with more realistic motivations.

In addition, I'm going to chime in with some speculation. Heathcliff may not be Kayaba per say, but he's an AI fork that Kayaba created before launch day. If he gets defeated, he'll escape into the internet.

Edit: To put it another way, Event 1 happens in the original SAO and the Rebuild. Explanation A introduces plot holes when later information is taken into account, but Explanation B is a far more realistic explanation that takes later information into account already. Original SAO will go with Explanation A, while Rebuild will go for Explanation B.
 
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I get the feeling that the people complaining about the stations of canon haven't watched the other thing that has "Rebuild of" in front of it, the thing which spawned the naming convention. And if they have already seen them, then the naming convention should have been a large hint at what they were in for.

Now, understanding what's going on here sort of requires you to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion, and then go watch the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, which is a rather large task in and of itself.

Long story short:

Rebuild 1 follows canon pretty much frame for frame
Rebuild 2 has some divergence but is still largely recognizable.
Rebuild 3 is where the old plot goes flying off the tracks at 200 miles per hour while on fire.

Now there's no guarantee that this will ever reach stage 3. Whether major divergence happens at all is up to the author, and I'll personally be happy with either scenario.

I eagerly await the next installment of Rebuild of Sword Art Online.
 
Given the lack of material in Progressive, I am afraid that divergence from canon is guaranteed.

There are still a huge number of blanks as to what happened in Aincrad. It is very likely that Zerban and Kawahara Reki will add different events to fill in the blanks. In fact, we have already diverged with the wide open sandbox world format, rather than the tower of death approach in the original Aincrad. A few named characters are surviving where they would have originally died, and Kirito has already gotten distant from Asuna (based on the Progressive storyline, Asuna chose to continue teaming up with him after the whole Beater saga.)

EDIT: There is also one huge one - Asuna is the leader of her very own guild in the Rebuild. No need to fight for leave now!
 
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I think he knows the legend as well, and he won't answer honestly if he does not want to earn those rewards, right?

. . .
And then Cardinal goes out of its way to get that particularly bothersome player that keeps dodging its reward scheme.
You will get a sword and like it! Two swords! No, no! Three! Not enough?!
Kirito: "Why is this game keep giving me epic loot?!!"

. . .
I need to sleep.


PS: Brainfreeze.

Kirito will keep the Guild. And take no members. The Black Cat Guild will remain at the edges of the top ranked guilds, even after other Guilds start to pop in, by dint of sheer epic loot, quests completed, and member's rank.

The Black Cat Guild is like the bad luck charm/magnet among the clearers. Frontlines become 'fun' when he visits. When joining coop missions, he will be often relegated to the worst jobs, and monsters somehow will swarm him, netting his area the most loot and XP, but very bad survivability/casualty ratio.

Emo Kirito is emo.
 
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That is a good ides grosstoad, the fact that kirito solos means that the giuld has a high level for the area, so when he joins cardinal will compensate by making life......... interesting. He will literally be the black cat that crosses your path and makes bad things happen.
 
Grosstoad said:
PS: Brainfreeze.

Kirito will keep the Guild. And take no members. The Black Cat Guild will remain at the edges of the top ranked guilds, even after other Guilds start to pop in, by dint of sheer epic loot, quests completed, and member's rank.

The Black Cat Guild is like the bad luck charm/magnet among the clearers. Frontlines become 'fun' when he visits. When joining coop missions, he will be often relegated to the worst jobs, and monsters somehow will swarm him, netting his area the most loot and XP, but very bad survivability/casualty ratio.

Emo Kirito is emo.
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I so want to see this happen. Well, not as the main story, but it would definitely be fun for a snip or two and something that just kinda happens sometimes in the background.
 
Grosstoad said:
PS: Brainfreeze.

Kirito will keep the Guild. And take no members. The Black Cat Guild will remain at the edges of the top ranked guilds, even after other Guilds start to pop in, by dint of sheer epic loot, quests completed, and member's rank.

The Black Cat Guild is like the bad luck charm/magnet among the clearers. Frontlines become 'fun' when he visits. When joining coop missions, he will be often relegated to the worst jobs, and monsters somehow will swarm him, netting his area the most loot and XP, but very bad survivability/casualty ratio.

Emo Kirito is emo.
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Now this idea have merit. I would like to see this happen, though then he would be called The Black Cat instead of The Black Swordman.
 
I just realized this could act as a motivation for Kirito to always wear black, and stays solo.

Kirito would stay solo, because Joining another guild would mean leaving the MBC. which he wouldn't be able to go back to.

If for some reason he was forced/chose to join another guild. He would wear always wear black as remembrance. And mourning.
 
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