- Location
- Washington
Probably for the best in my opinion.uh, i believe the complaint is that they retconned their own version, where she just died
Probably for the best in my opinion.uh, i believe the complaint is that they retconned their own version, where she just died
They didn't, they preserved her as an item even in the abridged seriseuh, i believe the complaint is that they retconned their own version, where she just died
(emphasis added) -- Why is it a particular problem that the scene has no jokes? I know that, as an Abridged Series, it's supposed to be a comedy, but comedies can have serious moments -- e.g., nobody complains that Quellek's death in Galaxy Quest didn't have any jokes. And I get that SAO Abridged leans more towards absurdist humor than Galaxy Quest did, but mixing drama with comedy is a time-honored technique to increase the punch of the jokes by giving them additional grounding.I don't know where anyone got the idea that the retcon was that she really died at first, I meant they retconned it from Kirito doing his Supah Hackeeng out of nowhere just like in the real show to "there was never a problem and all he did was fuck it up worse while Yui was briefly vulnerable" which still doesn't fix the fact that the original scene is dumb and has no jokes or that the payoff is really awkward and unfunny.
I don't know if you came up with this criticism independently of Mother's Basement's/Geoff Thew's criticism of the scene, but if you are relying on his analysis of it, I think you may have missed a small but important difference between the canon scene and the Abridged scene: canon!Kirito apparently hacked the game's source code in real time (somehow), whereas Abridged!Kirito simply took an active admin login and used that. Hacking the game's source code in real time -- (a) represents a superhuman level of hacking that breaks the suspension of disbelief and (b) would allow the hacker to do anything, including re-enable the log-out function. Being granted admin access, as in the Abridged series, (a) doesn't represent such a superhuman feat and (b) doesn't grant anywhere near the same level of control over the game.I pretty harshly criticise it every time it does a dramatic moment for exactly what you say - the dramatic moments are lifted wholesale from the show and thus cringy as fuck. Abridged definitely hit its utter nadir when they played 'Kirito pulls Supah Hackeeng ingame with code he's never even seen before under a time limit just so he can try to keep his ingame daughter-trophy' completely seriously with no jokes about how Kirito could've been doing something more productive with his time like enabling the log-out function or cheating viciously or etc etc.
Because if there are no jokes the scene is being serious and SAO Abridged can't handle being serious to save its life. The Abridged version of the Gleam-Eyes fight where Kirito does the "how dare you make me care about these people!" cliche completely unironically still makes my skin crawl when I remember it. Even they seemed to catch onto it because as I'm sure I also mentioned, there was that one other Dramatic scene from episode 12 where they pretty much played it all completely straight except for some very tacked-on dialogue from Klein obnoxiously blubbering over the top of it to the point that it almost seemed selfconscious.EDIT: As a side note, I haven't watched the new episode yet /EDIT
(emphasis added) -- Why is it a particular problem that the scene has no jokes?
I think you may have missed a small but important difference between the canon scene and the Abridged scene: canon!Kirito apparently hacked the game's source code in real time (somehow), whereas Abridged!Kirito simply took an active admin login and used that. Hacking the game's source code in real time -- (a) represents a superhuman level of hacking that breaks the suspension of disbelief and (b) would allow the hacker to do anything, including re-enable the log-out function. Being granted admin access, as in the Abridged series, (a) doesn't represent such a superhuman feat and (b) doesn't grant anywhere near the same level of control over the game.
Did you like, miss the part where 'cheating viciously' was just one bullet point in an etc etc etc list of the myriad different things Kirito could've been doing with his time rather than saving his fake computer daughter who doesn't matter?On a side note -- why would Abridged!Kirito want to break the game to make himself stronger? He derives an enormous amount of satisfaction from being The Best(TM), and you can't get that satisfaction if you know that you're cheating.
Look let's just be real here. This is not "Team Four Star commission a full English cover of Unmei no Hi and then play Gohan ascending to Super Saiyan 2 completely straight by editing Android 16's speech to be darkly comedic but also way more relevant to the situation at hand". DBZ's garbo anyway but it's iconic and it means a lot to people and that was a scene I'm sure they simply felt they couldn't possibly meme on so they built on the base the show granted them instead. This is Something Witty taking certain major scenes that are brief spikes of mediocrity in the ocean of shit that is SAO and then... basically not doing much with them. They didn't put the work in to make it funny but they didn't put the work in to make it work dramatically either.In any case, I'm curious about your view that "the dramatic moments . . . from the show . . . [are] cringy as fuck." All of the show's most vocal critics -- even Digibro, who originally got the ball rolling on the whole "SAO is awful" bandwagon -- have been quite clear that the show did manage to get quite a few things right, but the negatives vastly outweighed the positives.
Ironically, the one bit of the new episode that I have seen is the promo that they posted a few months back and, at least for me, the attempts at humor completely ruined the scene. I didn't find the jokes funny, so all they did was sap out any sincerity that the scene might have held. Maybe the scene works better in the context of the episode, but I don't think it worked well standing on its own.Because if there are no jokes the scene is being serious and SAO Abridged can't handle being serious to save its life.
. . . so far as I understand things, in both canon and the Abridged series, Yui is a legitimately self-aware intelligence. She isn't a scripted NPC (unlike, say, Gary), but rather a learning intelligence capable of learning, curiosity, and something analogous to human emotion.A distinction without a difference. My point is that the scene still has Kirito with access to a dev console and, rather than doing literally anything else more productive, trying to save his fake computer daughter he met like yesterday.
The odd thing here, and the point where I think we're maybe talking past one another, is that it seems to me that, aside from Sachi's death, all of the dramatic scenes in the Abridged series hinge on traits of Abridge!Kirito that he doesn't share with his canon counterpart.This is Something Witty taking certain major scenes that are brief spikes of mediocrity in the ocean of shit that is SAO and then... basically not doing much with them. They didn't put the work in to make it funny but they didn't put the work in to make it work dramatically either.
As someone who regularly gets into RP scenes, I thought it was hilarious because I've run into people exactly like Leafa, who have no idea how to play their character. I've even done the whole "stop the scene to try and to help them out" thing.The loreplay is an interesting idea, and the reimagined ALO is well, cringy but I can see it happen. Hopefully they'll tone that part down.
Warning: Area is under direct control of game admin
New Objective Added: Kill game admin by any means necessary
Yes.
Only 8k players when it's apparently really popular? Wow, daed gaem.
I think that's 'online right now'. Also, SAO only had 10,000 and it was supposed to be like the biggest game ever.Only 8k players when it's apparently really popular? Wow, daed gaem.
It was?I think that's 'online right now'. Also, SAO only had 10,000 and it was supposed to be like the biggest game ever.
The SAO wiki lists the kanji for her name, both in reality and ingame, but I dunno whether it has any special meanings or not:Anyone with Japanese knowledge know what the text for her name is? I doubt it'll reveal much, but might as well ask.
I assume a typo?And then a review that doesn't seem relevant.. I think it says it's from November 22, 2017. Which is just kinda weird considering it's 2025 here... I have no clue what's going on there.
I watched the episode and . . . there were some parts I liked.
They retconned it into Yui being trapped in a gem for however many months screaming for help and begging and sobbing for her parents to let her out by promising to be good.
The execution rocketed straight past black comedy and into flat out uncomfortable for me.
As for the LARPing bit -- I, too, felt that that part was a bit of a slog (my reaction: "Mayo? Seriously?").hoooo that was... that was a rough one. Between the retcon of the Yui thing that somehow made it even less funny than Played Completely Straight and what felt like 20 minutes of cringe-comedy with the shitty LARPing I like... I only laughed once, when Kirito said "oh no Mommy's fair game" all matter-of-factly.
That sounds amazingly frustrating and I really, really, really hope they go with that.Also, another five on him trying to explain that he's trying to actually save his wife, only for whoever he's talking to to try to advise him that while his acting and roleplaying is impressive, he really shouldn't try to put setting important details into his backstory, as that can ruin the experience of the other players who want to tell their own stories.
Regulate bodily functions? What? The NerveGear/Amusphere doesn't muck about with the brain beyond feeding false sensory data to it, everything else works as if you've got the helmet off and are experiencing stuff normally. Your heart keeps beating, lungs inhaling air, etc.the system has to regulate the bodily functions for who knows how many hours at a time! That shit has got to be expensive!