The Genius of Sword Art Online (Abridged): Fixing What's Broken [Part 1] 

After writing this whole, monstrous wall of text, I realized that it would be much more consumable if I went back and broke it into paragraphs, but it was still so long, I figured numbering them and adding titles, like they're chapters, would make it better. -(Better? Writing chapters to a RU-vid comment? What am I doing with my life...)- Ultimately, if you want the tl;dr version, you can just read the titles and ignore everything else! Alternatively, you can ignore the whole post! Have a great day! *1. I Hate It!* As someone who deeply enjoyed and was deeply emotionally moved by the original SAO, I quickly disliked this video once I started hearing the presenter speak so harshly of it and of anyone who liked it. *2. Wait, Okay Now I Don't!* However, I continued watching, and I was really pleased with pretty much everything else! The person making this video clearly put a lot of thought into all of these points, used effective edits and highlighted important pieces from the source material, and made excellent points about all of the ways that SAO Abridged improves upon the original, points with which I agree. *3. Agree to Disagree* Ultimately, I do not agree with every single point, nor is it important to me that I do, since ultimately, this is about "good" and "bad" writing, which, while partially based in a lot of objective patterns, is ultimately subjective, and my _personal_ definition of "good" writing is "writing that makes me feel like saying 'Oh, wow, that was a good experience!'". SAO did that for me in a way it obviously did not for a lot of people, and when I watch criticism of it, I realize that they are right, in a sense. There are things that, if done differently, would have made SAO more appealing to more people, regardless of how much I enjoyed it anyway. *4. Subjectivity* Though I may disagree with statements of the form "X is bad because of Y, therefore people who like X are bad," I can internally translate them into statements with which I have no argument: "I disliked X because of Y, therefore I fail to understand why others enjoyed X." *5. I Like It!* After watching the end of the video, I changed my "dislike" to a "like". *6. You're a Stand-Up Guy!* I was also really pleased to see that the pinned top comment was actually a criticism of several points made in this video, to which the creator of the video responded, which I found nice! *7. I Like Everything!* I still like SAO, and I still love SAO Abridged, and I respect this creator. *8. I Like Positivity!* I guess I have a different outlook when it comes to the media that I consume. In general, regardless of any objective measure of quality, consistency, or complexity, I am more pleased by positive messages and praise of a thing than I am by criticism of it. *9. Criticism is Okay* I think that I understand the purpose of criticism. We all want to enjoy our entertainment. Entertainment that is well-crafted is more enjoyable, and carefully thought-out criticism helps to motivate and inform content creators of how _not_ to do things. Reviews to people who have not seen a particular work may also help to inform them of what content best meets certain standards. *10. I Have No Standards!* My approach is different. I try to enjoy whatever I watch. I try to get into the mindset that the writer/director wanted me to be when they wrote something. I try to help them along when they stumble, and even invent head-canons to spackle over apparent plot-holes. I treat my fiction the way some religious people treat their sacred texts. "Oh, that part doesn't make sense? Hmmm, there must be an explanation that I haven't thought of, yet! Maybe _this_ could explain it! Maybe _this_ is what _really_ happened!" *11. Having No Standards Makes Me Happy!* Perhaps this means that I am exposed to a generally lower quality of content, and perhaps this means that I have a poorer ability to precisely discern what constitutes "good" writing in a more objective sense, but I have done the internal cost-benefit analysis, and compared to the amount of negativity through to recognize flaws and to strive for excellence, simply re-tuning my tastes to fit what is handed to me actually leaves me happier! :)

Dude, you pointing out the edits I made to make Yui glitchy made my day. Thank you so much for all the kind words, and we hope you like Alfheim just as much! -YamatoSFX

*W E M U S T S A V E M Y F A M I L Y*

“The most noteworthy change about SAO Abridged is that *People Aren't Stupid.* “ Counterpoint: “Do you know how many of you charged into certain death screaming “Leeroy Jenkins”? More than zero!” Also counterpoint: *_Shatter VFX_* “You’re dead.”

Quick note: The hat Kurt got when he defeated Smurf Santa was the charisma hat that guy in the guild had. The same hat Kurt said he wanted and was the entire reason he agreed to find Sachi under the moping bridge in the first place since charisma hat guy told him he could have the hat if he found Sachi. The fact that Kurt didn't give two shits about getting that hat now is yet another sign of how affected he was by her death.

And kirito's heart grew 3 sizes that day... and immediately shrank 6 imploding into a black hole from which no love could escape

I love Sword Art Online Because without it Sword Art Online Abridged wouldnt exist

This video was so ahead of its time, it's genius

The "people hate high level players" thing is explained better in LITERALLY EVERY PIECE OF SAO MEDIA THAT ISN'T THE ANIME WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE STUDIO DOING OH MY GOD! Basically on top of most high level players being egotistical dickbags, players with higher levels have a better chance of finding rare drops from mobs. Sounds good right? Well loot is distributed to the player/players that dealt the killing blow, with the highest level player having a much better chance of getting the rare drop. This caused a lot of fights between party members, so an unwritten rule of SAO is that parties should all be around the same level to avoid this issue. Why the anime didn't go into this is beyond me.

"WE MUST SAVE MY FAMILY" -npc dude and the chat whenever a SAO abridged episode is livestreamed

WE MUST SAVE MY FAMILY!

Chapter 17 just came out and I had to return to this. SAO took you complimenting its story and upped it so high that it turned the incest storyline into something as hard hitting as Puss in Boots 2, another line that would have made no sense 5 years ago when this came out.

I also love the fact how they made that whole 'killing player in a safe zone' plot way better explained with the old visual glitch. Especially after you saw the dude runaway on the roofs having a total different effect as he teleports away.

2:06 A recent example of characters not being stupid in Abridged is when Kurt tells Leafa he's Kirito and she immediately realises he's her brother/cousin.

I don't even consider SAOA an abridgement it feels like a real anime.

My absolute favorite part about SAOA is the fix for Kayaba. "Have you ever experienced 500 hours of UNINTERRUPTED CONSCIOUSNESS?!?! Half way through I thought I saw the face of God!" Anyone who's been struck with ridiculous deadlines, or worked through an entire weekend on a project can understand how delirious Kayaba was after staying up for 500 hours likely fueled by whatever caffeinated beverage he could find. And the fact he became leader of the Bloodoaths makes perfect sense as well when he asks Kirito and Ass "Remember when 2000 players died in the first month... yeah..." SAOA proves that even shitty storylines have potential to be incredible if you're willing to tweak the original design

One of the many things I love about SAO abridged is in the scene where Kuradeel kills Godfrey and poisons Kirito, they don’t drag it out, let Kuradeel trick Asuna and have Kirito save the day yet again. It just puts it in a much more logical way in line with Asuna’s(abridged) personality. She’s the one who attacks and successfully kills Kuradeel. She saves Kirito, not the other way round like SAO seems hell-bent on doing as far as I can see. The poison doesn’t magically wear off in the nick of time, and she cries at the end not because she almost died, but because Kirito, was the one who almost died and she’s working around realising that she cares about him.

"No need to look for your God I'm right here, And I'm fresh out of mercy! " That was by far one of my favorite scenes in the entire series.

Kurt and Ass' interaction with the old guy is frankly more memorable than the whole fishing arc in SAO proper

Kirito saying sachi to almost every other female character. Gives it a more real feel along with the glitches in the game

7:12 I'd like to point out that the reason they were on the 27th floor going for the item too, asides of for being in debt to the mob, was because Kirito was trying to be nice to Keita after talking to Sachi and agreed to going there as well

Asuna: K-k-k-Kirito, I'll always b-be with you. Ass: Why are your pants still on? We doing this or what? What I like about abridged Asuna is she's strong willed and independent without it having to be explained that she's strong willed and independent. She knows what she wants, she's willing to fight for her goals, and she imposes her will without falling into that odd trope where the girl wonders if she's not too macho or unlady like. Hell, she's even witty from time to time. She's not a love interest, she's a god damn woman. A little stalker-ish from time to time, but that adds more than it subtracts from her personality.

Another brilliant moment of characters not being dumb is in episode 4. "Um boss? A thought occured. This guy thought he was going up against Laughing Coffin but only brought himself and...and a small child. You sure we should be messing with this guy?" Kirito is laughing maniacally while approaching as he says this so you can see what he means. Even the choreography is better than the original show.

3:18 - Ah, actually the question of why Kirito hid his level is just poorly handled in the anime specifically. In the book it's made clear that he just doesn't want people to think he's a high-level player poaching resources from mid-level floors that mid-level players need and high-level players don't (he was actually there to collect some very specific upgrade ingredients). This makes a fair amount of sense given that SAO was written on a very old-school MMORPG wavelength (the games that existed at the time were, like, FF11 and EverQuest) and players actually did have to compete a lot for resources or monster spawn areas in those older games, and Aincrad is that but, like, way slower and with ten times as much travel time between actually doing things. One of the things to keep in mind about the original anime is that it's light on details that the books actually did fill in, and it also throws together a bunch of stories in chronological order that Kawahara wrote at very different points in his career (some of the episodes that stick out as "better" are actually BETTER because he wrote them way later, as a better writer than he was when he wrote the rest of it). Both versions of the story have their flaws, but the anime exacerbates a lot through some really ill-advised adaptational choices, actively making things worse. This was one such case. The structure of Aincrad doesn't really WORK in the anime because Aincrad was written as one short stand-alone story (the Floor 74-75 Knights of Blood arc with a flashback to the opening day of the game) and several disconnected side-stories written out of chronological order and collected later in Volume 2 (the Silica, Lisbeth, Yui, and Black Cats stories, in that order) and Volume 8 (the safe haven murder mystery), and SAO Progressive Volume 1 (the Illfang boss story, which the anime only uses about 20% of the material from while leaving out the interesting stuff). Trying to string all of this disconnected stuff together and pretend it functions as a cohesive linear story was a terrible decision, because it doesn't function as one, at all. Which isn't to say that SAO is super-duper-amazing in book form, it just... makes more sense, in general.

14:20 “Quoting Han Solo in Battle Star Galactica”. I can feel the sea of nerd rage rising within me.

"The Genius of Sword Art Online-" *Draws blade* "-Abridged" *sheathes blade back in*

Two years later, we find that Charisma Hat was an epic foreshadowing.

9:03 one thing that you forgot to mention is that the hat he specifically got from that event, is the very hat that forces him to bow to the leader of the black cats. It's the very hat that put him into that moping bridge situation and forced them all to go into that dungeon where sachi died in the first place. I'm not sure what the word is (I'll probably fix it if I'm incorrect) but it feels like the definition of irony that he goes to try and find something to save a friend that died because of that hat, and he got that very hat instead of said item to fix the damage that hat did. Which just compounds how he shouldn't open himself up to anyone ever again because everything in that world is just out to remind him why he shouldn't.

coming back to this vid after ep 17 and it hits so much harder seeing how sao abridged managed to change the whole sibling relationship from alabama to a genuine, realistic but dysfunctional sibling relationship

"The fact that the fact that it's terrible is a meme is a meme" *My non native english-speaking brain explodes*

Here's a funny story. I was told by a friend to check out SAO, and I looked it up on RU-vid, I watched the *ABRIDGED* first episode. And I told him I fucking loved it. Later I realized it was not the actual anime and watched the real one, I was disappointed the first episode wasn't as funny. But I thought it will get better. It kinda did and I forgot about the abridged. Not long ago I somehow got the abridged in my recommendations, and I realized there are way more abridged episodes now. Let me tell you I've been having the most fun I've ever had with a show. It was exactly what I wanted SAO to be.

For the characters, they follow the Limp and an Eyepatch principle If you have a random janitor on screen for 50 seconds, it'll be an overall better experience if he has a limp and an eyepatch than if he had no odd characteristics, it's a way to make unimportant characters feel like they have stuff going on outside the story and less like the device they are

SWE is a genius. They didn't have to give the characters personalities, or a different plot, or work on editing unnecessary scenes out. But they did it anyway. That's why I have a deep sense of respect for SWE's efforts into the abridged series. I tried other abridged series, but most of them didn't match up to SWE. So we should keep giving SWE and any other potential, smart Abridged makers love and support for their efforts, cause they won't be around forever...

After 2 years, I can finally fulfill the legacy of the WHAT guy "People aren't stupid" "WHAT?"

"Don't remember? Neither does he!" Talent.

Coming back this 5 year old video to note what they have done (so far) with the horrendous Alfheim Arc is even more impressive, that also deserves its own video essay lol.

I think a predictable but good motivation for Kayaba would be he wanted to create a real breathing world. No matter how realistic you make it if people can just leave it's a game. No one sees it as reality. The real world has consequences, work, death, unity and so on. So in his quest to create a world just as real as ours he decided to make it so people would die and to make people live in the world. He wanted to become a god would be a good motivation he may not word it like that but that's what would happen.

If you ask me... SAO Abridged is the Real one, and SAO is the parody. They have been switched at birth

“Han Solo in Battlestar Galactica” *ACTUALLY SPITS DRINK HEAVILY* DAMMIT.

Still love listening to this every now and again, only sad that he doesn’t acknowledge that the hat is the exact garbage item they got in trouble with the mob for in the first place. So he could have solo’d that boss and got them out of trouble instead of losing them and immediately finding the answer they needed once it was over and done with.

By now its even better. The way they turned the incest plotline into something so emotional instead is incredible.

"The most noteworthy and impactful change that SAOA did is that People aren't stupid" Yeah right.

Thanks for pointing out the fidget spinner in Kirito's character design. I needed that.

You should totally do another video on the abridged version once they finish the Fairy Dance arc, it's been absolutely amazing so far and I love your analysis

I think you forgot the fact that the hat Kirito won was the EXACT HAT the guild leader of the MBC used to force him to do things, reminding him of the ONE PERSON who was responsible for the group entering the dungeon to begin with.

"the fact that the fact it's terrible is a meme is a meme" Yes, basically

Do you know how many of you have died screaming Leroy Jenkins?! More than zero!!

I think "A sleep deprived cabbage." Is my new favourite insult.

5:06 when he said "characters like this" iy immediatelly came to mind "U WANNA TAKE THIS OUTSIDE?"

SAO Abridged's Aincrad arc started a parody, ended a remaster.

"Han Solo from Battlestar Galactica." *Stares at screen*

This whole time I thought sachi said her LEG is gonna get her friends killed, now it makes so much more sense that it was her lag- the kirito is always right foundation would definitely mock her leg.

SAOA ran so many circles around SOA that they replaced 2 characters with NPCs… and they added way more to the character dynamics than actual living people, giving life to things that were literally just code and not dropping them as characters in 3 seconds. They were able to use these characters even after their deaths, with the “We must save my family!” line being used in a bit later on. It’s so god damn genius. The whole show just comes across like Something Witty Entertainment cared more SAO than it’s actual creators.

"Quoting Han Solo from Battlestar Galactica" Well… he's a character… in a movie… where battles take place into stars… against galactic empire… What do you think Fluffles? -Meeeoow!!! -I thought too… BRING THE BOILING OIL!!!!

When Kurt was talking to Balls and thanked him for pointing out the part of him that still cared so he could kill it, it was an excellent little refference to Portal 2 and Karen within Glados. The refference was subtle, efficient, and thanks to the way the abridged series handled it, genuinely emotional.

After a couple years of watching anime and seeing what makes anime good, I see that sao isn’t really that good. However, I still like it and am happy to watch it because it was the first one I watched. When my brother told me about it I thought it was so cool and watched it in 2 days. Even though it isn’t the best it has a special place in my heart because it showed me the world of anime

SAO Abridged had me hooked in the first 3 minutes. A perfect game design joke just instantly set the tone and then the whole thing was absolutely beautifully building it from there.

Everyone I've ever known who actually liked SAO I have forced to watch SOAA and they afterward agree that it's 100% better and points out all the flaws perfectly.

finally someone says something about kiritos fidget spinner on his coat

The best part is that they made an adventure/drama anime into a comedy and it’s better than most anime made with studios of hundreds of people

I remember when SAO was first coming out. I really LOVED the concept. As a gamer, the thought of full-body VR was super exciting to me. Then there was the danger aspect. Now THAT made for a good anime. Then I started to notice the pacing issues and some of the weirder plot points. (No big deal, I suppose... I can handle it.) Then came the added love interests for no goddamn reason. (Whatever, I'll live.) Then came the most RANDOM FUCKING REVEAL??? (So boss guy is bad guy... why?) Then came episode 15. WORST FUCKING TRANSITION. The entire second half of SAO was god-fuckin-awful. It brought Yui back (for no reason), it added MORE love interests (for no reason), it included INCESTUAL CRUSHES?? Don't get me started on the second fucking season. SAO will *forever* be the biggest disappointment to my younger self. SAO is on par with Diabolik Lovers on how shitty it is as a story and an anime.

There's no need to wonder where your god is, because he is right here. And he's fresh out of mercy.

Why is a bartender objectively better than Kirito? Bartenders give people a shot pretty often, unlike Kirito.

Some people with rant videos just put random gameplay footage in the screen while they talk, but this man just puts what he's talking about on the screen as blatantly as possible. Respect.

5:40 and now I feel bad for forgetting him but not actually really

"The genius of sword art online" -what the fu.. "...(abridged) -oohhh..

When it comes to their beautifully genius animation tweaks, the addition of Roselia's HP bar and name peaking over the tree she was hiding behind is one of the best. It's how and why Kurt knew she was there, and it was a subtle change I never even noticed in my first watch through It's a brilliant little detail that adds so much to the source material

"The fact that the fact that its terrible is a meme is a meme." ... I love that sentence!

I honestly think, that SAO Abridged comes out like 2 episodes a year, cause they have to fix everything on regular SAO. They took months for just a episode. That's how broken it is.

Trivia question: Why does Kayaba Akihiko make the Sword Art Online kill people? Don't remember? Neither does he!! Ain't that some shit. this part had me dying. had to pause for a few secs to appreciate this and sub

"F*ckin Bethesda "kayaba, 2017

Sleep deprived cabbage is the best description.

16:15 in godeater it was so cool when the theme song came on in episode 12 at the boss.

If you think the Abridged was good up till the end of the Eincrad arc, wait till you see what they did to Elfheim. There’s only one episode showing it so far but they’ve already made this arc more interesting than it was in the original. Go watch it.

"It's so terrible that the fact that the fact that it's terrible is a meme is a meme". Yes, I did have to type this sentence out to wrap my head around it

I wish SAO never ends so that the abridged series continues

we need an updated video, its been 5 years and we in a whole new arc

When I was watching the abridged series I actually couldn't remember (in the real show) if those other guide members were NPCs or not. It just goes to show, they might as well have been.

BallsDeep69 isn't the hero we deserve, but is definitely the hero we need.

imo the issue with the cats is less that the characterization (of Kirito) is absent than that it's poorly set up beforehand. While the whole 'beater' thing is inane, it plays into Kirito's self-imposed isolation. By the time he meets the cats, he's desperately lonely and terrified of jeapardizing this newfound social link. He figures that if he showed his real level, the cats would assume he was out of their league and leave him alone OR that they'd clock him as a beater and hate him. Then of course, as in the abridged, he opens himself up just a little, only to get his heart kicked in the dick. The problem here is that the pacing and the thin-on-the-ground characterization of Kirito in the previous two episodes really undercut this point. The pacing fucks it over because we don't get to see Kirito's increasing loneliness and isolation in the time since clearing floor 1, and it's not evident in the opening moments of episode 3. The characterization is just faint and inconsistent. The implication is that Kirito is fine-ish when dealing with individuals (Klein and Asuna), but overcome by social anxiety with groups (not even meeting Klein's friends, not interfacing with any of the teams at the boss raid). The problem being that Kirito doesn't come across as awkward at all (the closest is when he looks panicked at the idea of grouping up in ep. 2), him wanting the Cats to like him undercuts this point, and in the Aincrad arc we don't really get to know anything about ANYONE as people besides their not-wanting-to-die-in-a-game-ness, so it's tough to call anything 'characterization.' The closest we get to irl insight is when Kirito tells Silica about how he isolated himself from Suguha out of guilt, but now regrets that (plus, that's AFTER the cats, and do not get me started on how Kirito doesn't really show any signs of guilt or self-loathing, despite that being the explicit subject of the damn convo). tl;dr there are...atempts in the original to make Kirito a real character, they're just woefully inept.

I come back to these two videos once every few months; they’re ridiculously rewatchable. I will never grow tired of your take on SAO Abridged. Thank you for creating this incredible analysis of one of my favorite anime of all time (yes, I consider it it’s own anime).

“... what allows Something Witty Entertainment to take sword art online from a barely coherent mess of broken dreams and lost potential and turn it into a series that isn’t downright insulting to anybody that has a better critical eye than a trained eggplant.” This is beautiful

"Quoting Han Solo from B A T T L E S T A R G A L A C T I C A"

I want you to know that its basically become a tradition for me to come back to this video every time a new episode is added

The production value of this video is insane. I've rewatched it about 20 times over the past couple years.

SAO Abridged is the new golden standard for abridged series.

What irony is it that I get an ad for SAO mobile in an SAO satire analysis video?

I absolutely love how he works in small quotes from Sao abridged into the script.

I've watched this video too many times and I genuinely could not care because this little series is immpecable. Lovely. A masterpiece. Chefs kiss. I love rewatching this video every once and a while and just renoticing every little detail, it's such a treat and god DAMN it feels so good every time. Thank you for creating this amazing video and its counterpart. So crazy to think it's been 5 years- (50/50 chance this gets updated randomly a couple months from now) The Gary/Bakugo comparison didn't age well LOL

SAO abridged: Tilting the lamp so hard you knock the source material straight to hell.

They also did a great job of making Asuna seem a lot more competent. In SAO proper, she's a faux action girl who gets very, very few scenes of badassness before being completely reduced to a damsel in distress who is completely reliant on Kirito. Ass feels like she's on his level not only because of him specifically saying so, but also because she is a fair match for him intellectually, too, and they changed a few of the scenes where she would have been helpless to her manipulating Kurt for gits and shiggles and getting shit done herself. She doesn't actually do all that much more than Asuna, but Ass seems to be a lot more competent as a result of a few minor changes.

Sword Art Online Abridged is so good it made me question why I stopped watching the actual anime Sword Art Online, only to then realize I only thought for a moment that SAO was good because of the abridged series

Honestly, I've watched this so many times that I know what jokes are coming up, but you were so good at what you do that you still make me laugh my ass off... Good on you

You know another thing that SAOA did better than the original SOA with Kayaba was that Kirito realized who Kaiubya is not just the movie reference, but because he spent too much time defending the game. Especially after a game-breaking bug at the end of the whole thing.

"Because Hunger Games online with sword-lasers is probably the best idea to come out of Japan since ritually cannibalising their enemies as an intimidation tactic during WW2." ...wut?

Given the quality of this breakdown and how thrilled you are with the first part of SAOA I would adore to see how you reacted to the end of episode 17

I have watched this video 12 times this week and I still love your humor. It's the video that introduced me to your channel and I will be binging your videos once again.

"I know."- Hanzolo, Battelstar Gallactia

Ten-year-old me had a worse critical eye than a trained eggplant tbh

you mentioned yugioh in the good at the death game and i respect you for it, yugioh abridged is also good, even if some of the jokes are hit or miss