Sword Art Online: Alicization Episode 8 Discussion

sunnykappa said:

What do you think that flower scene was for ?

bhaizett said:
Unpopular Opinion:The Sword Fight between Kirito and that baldie senior is terrible.
The entire scene is just servicable at best, it's at its worst when you look at it realistically. This is why the entire fight is bad. Why?
1. The telegraphing and over-swinging. I don't know why that Baldie has to go with one big swoop, normal people would've just dodge to the sides. And if baldie senior fights like a normal people, he would response by swinging the Sword to the position his opponent, in this case kirito, moves to. But I guess the staffs are just too lazy to animate them.
2. How kirito responses to the Baldie Senpai attack. This derives from the first points, instead of dodging to the side from the obvious front attack, what did Kirito do? He tries to parry it, his first two attempts doesn't work, the 3rd time he tries to parry the baldie hit, he exposes his back by spinning, and did it helps at all? Of course it didn't. IRL doing it so blalantly can get you killed, but since it's not real life, we can ignore how risky it would be to use it in an actual Sword fight. But if you're gonna animate a spin, don't make it so slow because it's gonna make the spin looks terrible. Ofc after that both Kiri2 and the Baldie senior swords ended up in a bind, which brings me to my next point.
3. The Sword Binding. This is not only the problem for SAO but in many Swords fight scene in media. If it's not a static image it's just gonna looks awkward, irl normal ppl wouldn't have stayed in the bind that long, they would tries to get out of that situation ASAP or uses it to their advantages but what did Kiri2 and the baldie senior do? They just looks at each other and stays in the bind, and it just looks awkward. Is this what ppl calls a great fight?
4. How Kirito gets out of that situation. Power of Friendship. Of course that rules would come into play, that "Willpower can overcome anythings" shenanigan, it's really just an excuse for Kirito to do his typical deus-ex machina moment.
In conclusion, instead of Portraying Kirito and the baldie senior as a competent Swordsman that they proclaimed themselves to be, we got this. How is this a great fight? I really don't get it at all.
The rest of the episode is just...meh, the flower scene are super melodramatic, the timeskip is still plaguing the series.
But at least liena fight against the baldie senior is decent I guess.
2/5

Kitsu-nee said:

Yeah, and crying over flowers does not seem like 2 years worth of despair or loneliness to me ¯\_(ツ)\_/¯

Kitsu-nee said:

Yeah, and crying over flowers does not seem like 2 years worth of despair or loneliness to me ¯\_(ツ)\_/¯

bhaizett said:


Supposely the flower was meant to symbolize how Kiri2 has been sharing his loneliness pain of being cut off from the real world, and we're supposed to sympathize with him...How are we supposed to when everything was rushed.

The flower scene is just terribly executed due to how over-the-top and how forced it was.
Just because we get to know 'bout it in the last episode, and Kiri2 explains why he feels bad bout it doesn't mean that the scene is instantly a very emotional scene now. And Kiri2 crying just looks like he's over-reacting. I just don't get all the sad reacts. I just don't.

sunnykappa said:

You do realise why he cried over the flowers right?
Or you want him to commit suicide due to the despair he is in.

bhaizett said:


Crying over a flower is fine as long as it's actually believeable or relatable.
You don't expect people to just relates to his feelings from just 1 episodes right? Fast pace is fine as long as you know how to do it(Sees bunny girl Senpai.)

Also, it's super over-the-top. Him crying felt like he's just over-reacting.

LaughingCoffinx said:


I haven't read the manga/Light Novel, but apparently there is a lot of info they didn't add in.
Though I think the point got across. Kirito is been there for 2 years in a world that feels realistic with no contact from the outside, then some cun*s come and destroy your flowers that you been growing & were meant for your mentor. That would push kiritos anxiety threshold that hes been holding up. That's how i saw it anyways.

immortaluchiha said:

Everything is wrong if it's SAO.

immortaluchiha said:
@shigatsuno87bira
You are wasting your time replying on that TodAboT degenerate.
You don't have free time to argue on the internet 24/7 like him.

immortaluchiha said:
@Windman
Replying to that TodAboT is a waste of time, you won't have 24/7 free time like him to argue on the internet.

immortaluchiha said:
What a fucking great episode it was.
As always as always as always SAO never fails to impress, as expected of a masterpiece, such a well written story.
I now see, why it's the best selling light novel in Japan.
Japan's ranked top 3 on list of countries with highest average IQ, no wonder they know what good writing and story is.
Truly a spectacular episode, damn that cliff hanger in the end though.
Well can't wait for next episode.

immortaluchiha said:
No wonder some low IQ westerners can't comprehend SAO.

TodAboT said:

>*friends get killed*
>"I'm a little sad"
>*flowers are killed*
>*cries a lot*

LaughingCoffinx said:


I'm not sure what friends your talking about 🤔
Are you talking about Sachi from season 1? If so, He kept bringing it up during the entire season. It effected him more than just a 'little sad. Though again, the point of kirito & the flower is fairly simple to understand...

LaughingCoffinx said:


I haven't read the manga/Light Novel, but apparently there is a lot of info they didn't add in.
Though I think the point got across. Kirito is been there for 2 years in a world that feels realistic with no contact from the outside, then some cun*s come and destroy your flowers that you been growing & were meant for your mentor. That would push kiritos anxiety threshold that hes been holding up. That's how i saw it anyways.

sunnykappa said:

@LaughingCoffinx
think of todabot as a plastic wrapper that's lying down on the streets and ignore him like how you would ignore that thing.
you replying to him is a waste of time for you.

LaughingCoffinx said:


I'm not sure what friends your talking about 🤔
Are you talking about Sachi from season 1? If so, He kept bringing it up during the entire season. It effected him more than just a 'little sad. Though again, the point of kirito & the flower is fairly simple to understand...

Splizzex said:
When Kirito cries more from the death of the flowers than from the death of that girl from Season 1 you know they did something wrong back then.

Windman said:


Not really, back in season1 he was a loner that didnt have any real connection to the real world, so being in SAO didnt bother him all that much. The death of Sachi and the guild hit him a bit but it was still just some random people he had known for days.

Right now he has friends, family and and lover to think of in the real world. Being trapped in Underworld for 1.5 year(not knowing how much time has passed really or even if Asuna and his friends are fine) by that time has put incredibly emotional strain on himself and seeing something he had worked hard for, for the last 6 months, just get destroyed, wrecked him because of all that pent-up emotional stress.

The anime did a really great job of portraying that.

Windman said:


Not really, back in season1 he was a loner that didnt have any real connection to the real world, so being in SAO didnt bother him all that much. The death of Sachi and the guild hit him a bit but it was still just some random people he had known for days.

Right now he has friends, family and and lover to think of in the real world. Being trapped in Underworld for 1.5 year(not knowing how much time has passed really or even if Asuna and his friends are fine) by that time has put incredibly emotional strain on himself and seeing something he had worked hard for, for the last 6 months, just get destroyed, wrecked him because of all that pent-up emotional stress.

The anime did a really great job of portraying that.

Windman said:


Not really, back in season1 he was a loner that didnt have any real connection to the real world, so being in SAO didnt bother him all that much. The death of Sachi and the guild hit him a bit but it was still just some random people he had known for days.

Right now he has friends, family and and lover to think of in the real world. Being trapped in Underworld for 1.5 year(not knowing how much time has passed really or even if Asuna and his friends are fine) by that time has put incredibly emotional strain on himself and seeing something he had worked hard for, for the last 6 months, just get destroyed, wrecked him because of all that pent-up emotional stress.

The anime did a really great job of portraying that.

sunnykappa said:
indeed it is, well it was not meant to be that emotional anyways..

Windman said:


Not really, back in season1 he was a loner that didnt have any real connection to the real world, so being in SAO didnt bother him all that much. The death of Sachi and the guild hit him a bit but it was still just some random people he had known for days.

Right now he has friends, family and and lover to think of in the real world. Being trapped in Underworld for 1.5 year(not knowing how much time has passed really or even if Asuna and his friends are fine) by that time has put incredibly emotional strain on himself and seeing something he had worked hard for, for the last 6 months, just get destroyed, wrecked him because of all that pent-up emotional stress.

The anime did a really great job of portraying that.

Splizzex said:
When Kirito cries more from the death of the flowers than from the death of that girl from Season 1 you know they did something wrong back then.

Kitsu-nee said:
The best part of this ep was when Kirito's sword grew longer after he thought about Asuna xD You can't make this shit up.

.

ronelm2000 said:


Kayaba is someone who never did his research on MMO psychology; devs got their mechanics wrong. Is it really the fault of the series? Or is it actually the fault of the ones who developed the game? As far as I know, Underworld itself wasn't even designed to be a game, let alone a fun game. It was designed to be a simulation for civilization. And what lazy way to do it than to copy The Seed's world generation, which just happens to copy out the bad design choices of SAO. And let's not even get into the mechanics of "being locked with a combo", since some people actually like the fact that you can't cancel your combo because it leaves an opening in PvP.

bhaizett said:


Is this true? If Kayaba didn't do any researches on MMO then why in the living world is he creating an MMO? And yes, I personally think it's the fault of the series. It shows that author also didn't do enough researches on a game, if you're gonna create a game based on this particular genre, do some reserach on it.
Also, by ppl do you mean RL ppl in a RL MMO, or players in SAO?

As for the defense against the Overhead Cut. The shockwaves would be released when the atk is landed, right? I see. Then why is this such a slow skills to land a hit? If Kiri2 can do this big over-swing attack to hit Volo's Blade, not 2 but 3 times. It doesn't make any sense. In the LN it's probably better depicted than this. But damn, is the anime just did a terrible job adapting the fight. Even if the strike is a faster in slow mo, for Kiri2 to be able to parry the Sword still shows how slow the skills is.

Chrome_Falcon said:

Avalanche was not slow, but vertical square was much faster. It was possible to move that fast only by system assist that makes body move on its own. The whole thing was shown in slow motion though, probably to allow for monologues. It doesn't matter in LN where author can insert as much monologue as he wants in the middle of a fight, but it becomes hard to animate.

bhaizett said:


I disagree. Even without the slow motion, it's still slow. Remember the Spinning move kiri2 does in his 3rd cut? The time went back to normal yet it's still not landed on Kiri2 despite both of them are at a close distance to each other. I tried speeding up the fight but it's still slower compares to Kiri2 spin attack.

As for the monologue, I don't recall Kiri2 saying anything in-between the fight. So what's the point of doing it in slow motion?

A question though, is the system assist also the one that caused the players to be able to cancel skills once used?

Chrome_Falcon said:

The time never went back to normal speed till the swords got locked with each other. It would have been more convincing if the studio included both of them in one frame together in that scene.
The monologue occurs after they lock swords. So I think they slowed the fight down just to make the animation easier to do.
Yes, system assist takes over the player's body and forcefully executes moves. Once initiated, they cannot be stopped till their execution is completed or the stance is disrupted. It is possible to cancel it after its initiation by the efforts of the player, by forcing his hand movements away from the path the sword would take, against the external force, so that the stance is disrupted.

Mattinator95 said:





i thought the system assist doesn't occur in the underworld or did i miss something

Chrome_Falcon said:

System assist is present in underworld. The thing is, anime never explained about system assist. It was previously only present in SAO and was absent in ALO and GGO. So Kirito concludes that it is not included in the seed. So why it is present in underworld is a mystery for now.

Chrome_Falcon said:


The time never went back to normal speed till the swords got locked with each other. It would have been more convincing if the studio included both of them in one frame together in that scene.

The monologue occurs after they lock swords. So I think they slowed the fight down just to make the animation easier to do.

Yes, system assist takes over the player's body and forcefully executes moves. Once initiated, they cannot be stopped till their execution is completed or the stance is disrupted. It is possible to cancel it after its initiation by the efforts of the player, by forcing his hand movements away from the path the sword would take, against the external force, so that the stance is disrupted.

Katsu-kun said:
An emotional flashback scene and tears for dead flowers? Oh okay, sure, whatever.

The_Pathogen said:
*thinks about Asuna*
Kirito: MAH WOOD IS GETTING BIGGER!

bittersweetlove said:
So now the imagination interferes in the power...

Pedram said:


tbh the correct translation should be "Incarnation" not imagination, but they subbed it like this lol


becouse it' more of a Will power and the power of belief ! and not just imagination.

you got to completely believe it in yourself to do something and that won't work just by "imagining it hard enough" coz even if u lie to yourself to believe in yourself, deep down you know you lying to yourself lol.

if u are doubtful for a moment or your will is unstable. not only it will not help u but you lose your power and become weaker.