u/ElonMuskForPrison

That's how the scene would play out if they weren't random bandits grouping together to pick on civilians in a town far away from the front line. That's the whole reason there's like 10 of them trying to fight him in the first place. They're normal people for the most part. Probably just slightly stronger than most the people in the town.

This doesn't break logic, and it makes sense. Literally sheep against a bear.

You haven't answered the question, you've just tried to defend the writing. If the author were to change the way that that scene plays out so that Kirito was able to effortlessly handle the bandits but still had to actively defend himself to do so, would that break the anime's logic? Would it make SAO not like a real game?

The game does in fact serve the writing, and it's doing it faithfully to what it's based off of. You know, a game.

Again, it is not based off of a game. The game is not real. The game does not exist outside of the story.

but you want it to play out like an anime that's not based on a virtual world.

This is you:

It doesn't have to work that way, but that's exactly how it works in SAO.

I'm not the one saying a game has to be a certain way, you are.

You are, again, saying that the scene has to be this way.

Did you ever play Ultima Online? I suspect not, because then you would remember at least one fantasy MMO where low level players could shank a single high level player if that high level player didn't pay attention to what was happening. What about EVE Online? Ever play that one?

You are saying that the writing is fine because the scene is based on what would happen in a subset of online games which have exponential leveling. You are literally saying that faithfulness to that subset of games matters more than making a compelling story.

just like SAO establishes as an MMO. Both make sense with how their gameplay works.

It doesn't have to work that way, but that's exactly how it works in SAO.

I'm not the one saying a game has to be a certain way, you are.

You are saying that the scene needs to be the way that it is because that's the way that SAO was worldcrafted. Again, SAO is not a real game. The purpose of the game within the story is to serve the writing, not the writing to serve SAO. If the author were to change the way that that scene plays out so that Kirito was able to effortlessly handle the bandits but still had to actively defend himself to do so, would that break the anime's logic? Would it make SAO not like a real game? Of course not.

Tanking low level enemies without trying? That's so fucking lame. One knife stab should fucking kill him!

Have you heard of Dark Souls?

You're acting like the game has to function in this way in order to be recognisably like a game, and that's clearly bullshit.

About a fictional video game which was invented for and does not exist outside of the story. The video game exists as a plot device for the story, nothing more. The story is not a documentary of the video game.

It's not a video game, it's a story.

"It's shit because it's realistic" is just "It's shit" with extra steps.

It's a death game where the protagonist is so strong that they are unkillable by a group of people without having to lift a finger in their own defence. If you can't do the math, that's not my problem.

In a way, yes.

How is an insurance policy socialism?

The first episode sets up the idea behind the game, it's rules, and the idea that Kirito is gonna be better than all the other players. The kid immediately skips town alone in a game where you can die in real life. That's the last thing most people would do in that situation. He's gonna easily be ahead of people who wouldn't dare risk their lives like that.

Sure. But there's still risk. And then there's clearly none. There is actually zero risk to anyone that vaguely matters to the show.

How exactly did you want that bandit scene to play out?

Are you pretending that there's literally zero ways for Kirito to easily win that fight that wouldn't make it clear that he's in zero damage of dying in the game?

Technically there's a couple of places.

That's the one. If you've enjoyed Kyoani's other Cute People Doing Cute Things then I think you'd enjoy it. :)

There aren't any actual threats. That's what the scene demonstrates. There's hypothetically the threat of the characters being unplugged, sure, but nothing that Kirito encounters in the game can possibly challenge him, and thus why should I care about the action?

You need to look at the context of the scene and how the first episode of the anime presented the world, not just how the scene would fit into other anime, in order to see why I think it broke the anime for me.

I was going for that Captain America meme at the end of Endgame where he talks to Falcon about not talking about his wife, but it legitimately works imo. Have you watched Free! ?

No. I don't think I will.

It's a popular trope in action anime honestly. Main character treats weak people like they're nothing. If you're expecting something else you're watching the wrong show. It's pretty much the same as watching Dragonball Z. You already know Goku is gonna win then become friends with the villain. He's done it so many times it's actually hilarious.

DBZ isn't premised on being a death game. SAO was.

There's no tension past that episode where Kirito tanks the bandits for a minute just by standing there. It's a death game where it's clear that nobody important is going to die. The one interesting feature of the show is written off completely.

The ending of Aincrad was beyond garbage, btw.

Advocating eugenics.

It's not a scam unless they're advertising it as including FSD. It's scummy behaviour, sure.

It's literally as close to an exoneration as anyone ever gets through the legal system.

It's not an exoneration

He was acquitted.

No, he has that power. What the court told Trump was that he has to go through the processes in place and not have the government behave arbitrarily.

Def achievable natty

Also any rerolls that you get from kickoff events.

You don't take claw?

I kinda wish we’d all collectively agree to ignore that BS ruling by the commission that the second Yoel fight was not a championship defense for Whittaker.

Silva's reign is one title fight shorter than it should be because Travis Lutter crapped out while cutting weight. There's precedent, buddeh.