The doctor's office called about my heart ultrasound (I think it's called an echo doppler scan?). Said everything looks fine- other than a mild case of mitral valve regurgitation. Evidently one of my heart valves doesn't seal closed and I have a little blood leaking backward back into my heart. That doesn't sound very mild to me, and I knew I shouldn't have googled the condition... Stupid panic disorder. It probably really is nothing, but my brain can't shake the feeling that it is SOMETHING. jeeze...
ANYWAY- Sword Art Online. Let's talk about this a little (spoilers under cut)
So the first half of the series was great. There was a clear plot and a clear love story and everything was peaches and cream. After Kirito beats SAO and Asuna becomes trapped, it lost a lot of momentum. They were at epsidoe 12 or so when that happened, and they had half a series to go to fill it up. The ALO (fairy) game was stupid. Having Asuna trapped in a second game that she could also not log out of was stupid. Having Kirito's cousin/sister fall in love with him both in real life and in the game was BEYOND STUPID! Here's what should have happened:
SAO ends, but it takes a long time to get back to normal in the real world. Kirito's muscles would be atrophied and he'd be underweight I think when he wakes up in the hospital. There's no way he could have gotten straight out of bed to go find a girl who only has her name (though to be fair, she could have told him more about herself when they were staying at the cabin). He would have had a feeding tube, a catheter, an IV, multiple monitor lines to his body, atrophied muscles and like Asuna, he probably would have had some sensory numbness, like not being able to hear or see very well. There's no way he would've been able to just get up and leave like they showed him doing. There would have been a long recovery process, some physical rehab, and even after all that, he would be trying to click his food to eat it, any sound that startled him he would have reflexively been reaching for his sword. Listen, I was a hardcore MMO player before I started writing, and I played Star Wars Galaxies to the point I saw 'way points' in real life sometimes. Certain elevators in the building I worked in made a sound I associated with droids, some ambient sounds in the game could be found in real life and I would instantly relate my situation to my game persona. Imagine being in a game world for over 2 years and then suddenly being immersed in a new one. Or to put it in a better perspective- imagine playing a new game for a long time and then going back to an old one (like from Guild Wars 2 back to WoW). You forget how stuff works, what things are called, how to bring up menus or how to even chat. Soemtimes it can take you a few weeks to get back in the groove. What I woudl have liked to have seen was the mental strain of Kirito rejoining the real world and not quite being able to break those ties to his virtual world.
They did that jsut a little with the kendo scene with Sugo. That was a great scene! But they could have expanded on that so much. I would have liked to have seen special therapists come in to work with mentally rehabilitating survivors of SAO. I mean, we watch Kirito and Asuna BUILD A LIFE TOGETHER, accepting that they're probably not going to make it back to the real world, and they freaking get married and adopt a baby and omg it was beautiful! And then they beat the game and Kirito is CRUSHED that she's not awake and that asshole is going to for a marriage on her, even knowing how they were married in the other world... I don't know, the second half needs a rewrite. Looks liek I'm about to pick up another writing 'verse (maybe). Overall, I enjoyed the characters, all of them, but that second half was a little too far fetched and unrealistic to me. I could buy all the rest of it, but not the incest (which I totally love usually), not the second game,not the soul.brain experiments, and not the way Kirito came back.
Did I mention I have a job interview soon? Wish me luck, I need it!
ANYWAY- Sword Art Online. Let's talk about this a little (spoilers under cut)
So the first half of the series was great. There was a clear plot and a clear love story and everything was peaches and cream. After Kirito beats SAO and Asuna becomes trapped, it lost a lot of momentum. They were at epsidoe 12 or so when that happened, and they had half a series to go to fill it up. The ALO (fairy) game was stupid. Having Asuna trapped in a second game that she could also not log out of was stupid. Having Kirito's cousin/sister fall in love with him both in real life and in the game was BEYOND STUPID! Here's what should have happened:
SAO ends, but it takes a long time to get back to normal in the real world. Kirito's muscles would be atrophied and he'd be underweight I think when he wakes up in the hospital. There's no way he could have gotten straight out of bed to go find a girl who only has her name (though to be fair, she could have told him more about herself when they were staying at the cabin). He would have had a feeding tube, a catheter, an IV, multiple monitor lines to his body, atrophied muscles and like Asuna, he probably would have had some sensory numbness, like not being able to hear or see very well. There's no way he would've been able to just get up and leave like they showed him doing. There would have been a long recovery process, some physical rehab, and even after all that, he would be trying to click his food to eat it, any sound that startled him he would have reflexively been reaching for his sword. Listen, I was a hardcore MMO player before I started writing, and I played Star Wars Galaxies to the point I saw 'way points' in real life sometimes. Certain elevators in the building I worked in made a sound I associated with droids, some ambient sounds in the game could be found in real life and I would instantly relate my situation to my game persona. Imagine being in a game world for over 2 years and then suddenly being immersed in a new one. Or to put it in a better perspective- imagine playing a new game for a long time and then going back to an old one (like from Guild Wars 2 back to WoW). You forget how stuff works, what things are called, how to bring up menus or how to even chat. Soemtimes it can take you a few weeks to get back in the groove. What I woudl have liked to have seen was the mental strain of Kirito rejoining the real world and not quite being able to break those ties to his virtual world.
They did that jsut a little with the kendo scene with Sugo. That was a great scene! But they could have expanded on that so much. I would have liked to have seen special therapists come in to work with mentally rehabilitating survivors of SAO. I mean, we watch Kirito and Asuna BUILD A LIFE TOGETHER, accepting that they're probably not going to make it back to the real world, and they freaking get married and adopt a baby and omg it was beautiful! And then they beat the game and Kirito is CRUSHED that she's not awake and that asshole is going to for a marriage on her, even knowing how they were married in the other world... I don't know, the second half needs a rewrite. Looks liek I'm about to pick up another writing 'verse (maybe). Overall, I enjoyed the characters, all of them, but that second half was a little too far fetched and unrealistic to me. I could buy all the rest of it, but not the incest (which I totally love usually), not the second game,not the soul.brain experiments, and not the way Kirito came back.
Did I mention I have a job interview soon? Wish me luck, I need it!