#I really don't like Kirito as a character sometimes

[natesune]

the calibur arc in season 2 of SAO is so fucking bad. I literally stopped watching for like a whole month because of how ass it is. Now I pick the show back up and see it was only three episodes.

why was it there? why did they put three horrible episodes in between a really good arc, and a decent asuna arc?

I want to like SAO so bad because there are things i like in it, but then they just keep doing things that piss me off lol

[m34gs]

For the anime ask: 6, 9, 14, 25

Thank you for the ask, friend!! (from this post) There might be some spoilers ahead, but that kind of comes with the territory for questions like these. Beware!

6. popular anime you didn’t like

Are you trying to get me killed, friend. Do you want to see the Meags dead in the ditch. (I jest. Only god can kill me, and only when I'm ready.)

Alright, I have to admit: I don't actually tend to really know what's popular. Sometimes I know, sometimes I'm like 'oh this is so good I bet everyone watches it' and no one else I know has heard of it, or sometimes everyone is like 'oh this show is so popular!!!' and I'm over here like 'whomst?'. Comes from not being allowed a internet or personal ipods/computers when I was younger, and our TV channels were limited. So, bear that in mind while I list my answers and my reasons.

Sword Art Online: Hate. Hate hate hate. Loathe. Kirito? More like Kiri-NO. He's so...bland. And annoying. And I just despise him. Couldn't watch the full thing. Don't like. Don't like at ALL.

Yugioh: I used to watch episodes here and there on 4KidsTV. I didn't like it. I did not like the art style and character designs and I didn't get what the big deal was about them battling with cards. And even now that I'm older, I could probably go and rewatch it, but I don't really want to. Just. No desire.

Kuroko's Basketball: Let me just first start by clarifying. I was actually interested in this anime at the start. But then they started making the sports actions out to be super-powers...and I didn't know at the time that Sports Anime is just Like That. So then I became more neutral about it. And then. It dragged. It dragged so much. Like, the plot got so slowed and I got so bored I ended up not finishing it. So, there were parts I did enjoy, and I really liked a lot of the characters, but I can't say I liked this anime overall.

Chobits: Idk. It's cute and all, but also I just didn't enjoy the main dude. I found him annoying. Also stopped watching this one part way through. That's just something I do. If I find it does not Spark Joy, I stop watching the show. Because I don't like to waste my time on shows I don't like.

9. favorite anime child

This is a toss-up between Somali from Somali and the Forest Spirit and Anya from SpyxFamily.

Anya is cute and funny. She's so relatable in a humourous way, and she really does try her best. She fails a lot, but then sometimes her failures inadvertently save the day. Plus, she has some of The Greatest facial expressions.

Somali is an innocent human child discovered by a Golem in a forest; in a time and place where humans are nearly extinct and are hunted down by Beasts and magical being. The Golem is trying to get Somali back to her own kind. Somali is a sweetheart. She does her best to follow the Golem's direction and she genuinely cares about him, and she calls him papa. Similar to Anya, she is just trying Her Best. In contrast to Anya, she is much more quiet and timid.

Honestly, I can't choose. Both girls are very sweet.

14. saddest anime you have ever watched

Ok, Honestly, I've probably watched a lot of anime with sad things, and bittersweet endings...it's hard to really choose One. But, that being said, I do have one that comes to mind. Take it with a grain of salt, though, because this is my opinion, and my opinion is subject to change at any point and time lol.

Corpse Party.

Yes, I know it's based on a video game. Yes, I know it's in the horror genre. I don't care, it is still sad. It is sad more than anything. Why is it sad? I don't know where to start. I'm not going to recount all the deaths, onscreen or offscreen, because that would take too long. The situation itself is bleak; students trapped in a ghostly school with all sorts of spirits after them to hurt them and rip them apart? Maybe it's sad because they're children? They're supposed to represent hope and light and the future, and they get stuck in this school and (literally) torn to shreds. Also. The littlest one dies. Which, is like, that is a Big Thing, ok. LIke, even in regular horror movies; there was a time where You Did Not kill off the children (yes, I know there are plenty of child deaths in horror now, but it is still one of the more disturbing aspects of those movies). Kids end up being the unlikely heroes. The ones who persevere and survive despite their innocence and trust in others, or maybe even *because* of it. (or they end up being the demons, but that's not relevant here).

So when that little girl gets tortured and murdered, After putting her trust in an older boy who said he would help her...it brings a huge wave of sadness. She was so helpless. She just wanted to find her big brother. She went from hopeful and trusting to Terrified, and then dead. (not to mention the ghost possessing the place to begin with is Also A Child)

25. anime you would recommend to someone who hates anime

I don't really know if I have one specific anime for people who hate anime. I don't think there's a catch-all that everyone would enjoy. And I don't really like pushing things on other people if they've indicated they don't like it.

If I were to recommend one, it would entirely depend on the person. If they're nice to me about it and they indicate they want to try anime, I would talk with them and find out their interests before recommending. Someone who loves romance might not wanna sit through One Punch Man, you know? So I'd take the time to figure out some actual suggestions that they might genuinely enjoy.

But.

If they're mean to me. Or talk down to me.

I'm gonna recommend they watch Boku no Pico with their Grandmother. 😀

[alexanderstarhero]

I would like to explain why for me, the best option it's AO3 (Archive of Our Own), and why authors should really crosspost in there, for the sake of more audience.

I'm saying this as a reader, rather than as an author, as there might be more nuance with that, so an author's point of view would be perfect.

But why I'm shaming the other sites boils down to the filter system.

As far as I have seen, there was not a better filter system in either wattpad or fanfiction, which was close, but the tags help more than just the genre or the characters in there.

Tumblr it's like it's own category, there are fanfics around I have seen them, @apomaro-mellow makes some fanfics here, but he also puts them in AO3, main reason why I'm following him in the first place, the Kirito (SAO)/Takashi Komuro(HOTD) ship that I didn't know I needed in my life lives rent-free in my head. Right now he is mostly unto Steddie, not my thing, but I do read them and I like them.

However my main problem here it's that as far as I know, you can only look for one tag, and that's not enough. Sure, now there's a system that allows you to exclude certain tags permanently from your search or even your dashboard, and you can decide if you watch those post or not if you come across them, but Tumblr it's a varied place, and you might not find much fanfics compared to the other three options.

Though, I do like the perma block on certain tags, would like that on AO3 to not see Major Character Dead, Gore or Vampire AU tags instead of putting them back in whenever I look into something.

Wattpad and Fanfiction are not that bad honestly, they have their pros and cons over one another.

Fanfiction, as the name implies, it's not a place where I would be finding myself reading original stories, so that's ac on over Wattpad, which might be more into OC stories in comparison.

When searching for something and you want to narrow the search through length, fanfiction has the advantage in my opinion. Wattpad narrows through parts, but how much is one part? how many words or chapters does that entail? Meanwhile, Fanfiction narrows the length through words, it does not allow you to personalize how many words. <1k it's the least then comes 5k+ which is 5000 words or more, then you have <5k which in itself also includes the <1k words.

I personally like over 1000 words fics, as I read a lot of one-shots, but I can't avoid <1k fics in the filter with <5k, nor can I get shorter fics with 5k+. It's the worst feeling.

Wattpad has a better tag system over Fanfiction, which doesn't even have a proper tag system. You narrow your search through which characters are there, and sometimes, if they're in a relationship, while also choosing a genre. But I think when choosing a tag, you also add the genre you're looking for. I think the horror tag it's self-explanatory. Or the AU tag with whatever you want, like D&D AU.

However, both lack a form to exclude tags or ratings (you can only pick one rating in fanfic and exclude mature in wattpad), or even characters. And that's where AO3 beats both as well as the length search.

In fact, AO3 even has in its filter "include words". This filter allows you to search for works that have certain words, but are not in their tags for whatever reason. Maybe I'm looking for a college AU, but the fanfic might not have the tag, so I just put "College" in there. But I don't want to look into a murder mystery or I don't enjoy blood or I don't like vampires in that setting, so I exclude the tags which I don't feel like. You can also exclude certain ships, like I'm a big Shance shipper, but I don't want to read about Klance when looking at Voltron fanfics, so I exclude it.

I think this is the main reason I read exclusively in AO3, but fanfiction will hold a special place in my bookmarks...because the authors have not moved anything into AO3, and there are still some stories I like to binge read form time to time.

I only read Wattpad a few times, but that was mostly because Hiro/Miguel was prominent there. And Tumblr it's my do-whatever place, my goblin paradise, my garbage pile that makes me smile... and where I can read Canon Characters or Real Life actors x Male reader because I'm thirsty.

rank the fanfic websites (part 1)

PLEASE REBLOG THIS, I WANT A LARGER AUDIENCE

[tarisilmarwen]

the prompt "Strapped to an operating table" with the SAO universe (I like the series, but not actively in the fandom), leaning more towards the hurt/comfort side?

@badthingshappenbingo

Title: “Barbed”

Prompt: Strapped To An Operating Table

Fandom: Sword Art Online

Character(s): Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya, Asuna Yuuki, Suguha “Leafa” Kirigaya

Warnings: Blood and major injury, head trauma, minor allusions to PTSD attack and symptoms

AO3, FFNet, Request a prompt/character

I struggled a bit with this one.  In the end the actual strapping down is a bit metaphorical and in an Imagine Spot?  You’ll see.

---

"I don't think the textures are rendering correctly," Asuna told him, squinting off into the digital horizon, past the scraggly gnarled trees that made up this area of the game map. She glanced towards him. "How long did you say this game has been in development?"

"A few months," Kirito told her, idly browsing through the in-menu guidebook. "It is an indie production, so they might not have the fastest servers or access to the best software or assets."

"Indie?" Asuna asked in confusion.

"Not released from a big, well-known studio," Kirito explained patiently. "Indie games are usually from smaller companies, or sometimes even only one person."

"I see." Asuna looked forward again. The tree-shapes were blocky, rough, more like an approximation of trees than the high-budgeted, richly textured and detailed foliage of Argus's Sword Art, or RECT's Alfheim. It made a certain amount of sense. Before Kirito had anonymously uploaded and released Kayaba Akihito's The Seed project, full-dive VR games had been prohibitively expensive. Now, it seemed like a new one was popping up every week. She and Kirito had tried to make a regular tradition out of meeting up in VR to try out new games. Some had been fun, some had been duds, but they had enjoyed each other's company all the same.

She wasn't sure what she thought of this one yet. The minimal description had claimed it was a "Fantasy/Survival" game, with an emphasis on exploration and crafting. Very few people seemed to have tried it out so far; only a couple reviews were listed for it. It didn't even have a name, unless Asuna had missed it when she loaded in.

Kirito scanned through the guidebook, scrolling slowly through his menu as he walked beside her on the path. So far they had yet to encounter any mobs or enemies, but the area they traversed seemed spooky and threatening nonetheless, with crunchy black sand and short-tipped brown grass that scraped under her thin boot soles, the twisting, deformed trees, and the minimalistic black sky with a single overhanging white circle for a moon.

"This should be... the Twilight Glade," Kirito told her, finally looking up from his menu and swiping it away. "The guidebook says there's Jasper and Juniper here."

Asuna perked. Both items were ingredients in a potion she had been trying to craft since they'd started playing, "Moonglow", which would give the consumer the ability to see through the dark and find hidden caches of loot and upgrade items. "Did the guidebook say anything about how they spawn?" she asked eagerly.

"Around redwoods, it said," he told her.

Asuna nodded, scanning the trees. Some of them had a reddish tint, she knew. She couldn't see any in the immediate area but she knew they had passed several, so it was really only a matter of time.

As she searched, she asked lightly, "So what do you think so far?"

Kirito's mouth flattened, the spot between his eyes pinching cutely in that way she adored. "I'm not really sold on this one yet," he confessed. "It seems like just a lot of wandering around and gathering resources in order to wander around and gather more resources." He trotted closer to her, matching her quick pace as she strode ahead, in search of the elusive redwoods. "I hope they have base or shelter-making mechanics or options soon."

Asuna hovered her hand in the air, ready to open her menu. "Do you want to log out, then?" she asked.

He beamed at her. "Nah," he said. "You're having fun. And I want to see what that rumored Camouflage Cloak you can apparently craft looks like, at least."

Asuna chuckled. "That's a bit down the line," she said. "I won't be able to craft that until I have..." She paused, squinting up to remember. "Three azaelia flowers, two sunbeam leaves, and five shadow dusts," she recited. "And the shadow dusts need talesin, which you can only spot with the Moonglow potion."

Kirito scratched his chin. "Well," he said, pointing off. "I think I see some redwoods over there."

He started off in that direction, and Asuna followed. The grass continued to crunch beneath their feet, and pale flowers now spotted the ground, glowing iridescently in a multitude of faint colors. Squat-tube plants with sharp barbs clustered around the redwood tree bases. The trees themselves were taller than the others in the forest, stretching up five to six feet above their heads.

"The Jasper and Juniper spawn from pods in the roots," Kirito told her, reciting from the guidebook. He stood back, taking in one of the trees, searching the area around it, scanning with hands on his hips. "So they should be right..." He trailed off as he leaned down, towards a protruding blocky root a little in front of them.

One of the barbed plants stirred at his motion and Asuna started to call out a warning.

"Kiri—"

It happened so quickly; Asuna had barely even blinked. The tube of the plant snapped, curling like a whip, and a sharp tiny blur shot through the air.

Kirito yelped and clapped a hand to his neck. The barb was already dissolving into pixels. He stayed locked in place, hissing through his teeth.

Asuna checked his status at the top left of her vision.

The teammember health bar just under hers was flashing with a yellow outline. A yellow-colored icon with a tiny black skull and crossbones flashed next to the bar.

Poisoned.

Asuna's body tightened for just a moment, just a split-second, her mind flashing back to Aincrad and Kuradeel's cruel trap, terror sharding briefly through her head before she reminded herself they weren't there, New Aincrad had a logout button, as did this game, it was just a game, just a normal game, it was just a status effect, it didn't mean he was in danger.

Her hand still wavered uncertainly above his shoulder as she drew closer. "Are you... okay?" she asked.

He turned his head and looked at her, a bit sheepishly, hand still clamped to his neck. "I guess I should have been more careful," he quipped, giving her a smile.

Asuna shuddered, giving a little exhale of relief. She straightened, swiping down for her menu and bringing up the guidebook, tapping through it to get to the section on native fauna. She searched for a couple moments, then scanned the entry when she found it.

"Okay," she said, "there is an antidote I can craft. You might be uncomfortable for a bit, the poison has two stages. The first stage lasts one minute." She sent the guidebook away and began rifling through her inventory. "I think I have all the ingredients already." She glanced around the display towards him, in concern. "Can you move?" she asked, anxiously.

Kirito slowly tested his limbs. He winced, hissing again as his legs twinged, his body sore in odd places, but slowly got to his feet and stumbled closer to her.

She had him sit on a nearby log as she brought out the antidote ingredients. The crafting process in this game was arduous; even the same ingredients could yield different results if it wasn't timed correctly. Asuna appreciated the level of skill and reflex it required, but had found herself frustrated with the mechanic several times before, missing the ideal window for what she wanted to make by just a hair's fraction. The anti-poison potion was almost intuitive now, but still required several items and a lengthy period to craft.

Asuna felt like she would definitely be complaining about this in the Seed Archives forums later.

She carefully added one glowing blue liquid to her flask, watching Kirito out of the side of her eye. He seemed okay, a little uncomfortable under the poison's effects, staring straight ahead and rubbing the spot where the barb had hit him. He looked a little feverish, his avatar paling slightly, tiny digital beads of sweat glistening on his pixelated skin.

Asuna counted in her head the five seconds before she tossed a long green stem into her flask. It flashed, bubbling for a potent thirty seconds before cooling to a tranquil violet. She let out a breath. So far so good, she had hit all the... what was it Kirito had called them? Quick time events? She had hit all the points she was supposed to within the game's designated time period. Now she just had to add two more ingredients to complete the crafting and finish the potion.

Kirito was being so patient, even though the poison couldn't have been pleasant. Asuna watched him as she looked through her inventory. She knew she had raslez clusters somewhere...

Her boyfriend gasped suddenly, hand on his neck clutching with tight fingers.

"A—ahh!" he cried.

Alarmed, Asuna's eyes shot up from her menu. "Kirito?" she called. "What is it?"

His eyes were wide with shock, disbelief etched on his features. His fingers were still pressed on the invisible wound from the barb, even thought the red damage pixels from the intial prick were no longer floating up.

"It..." he said slowly. "It hurts."

Asuna's alarm grew. By now Kirito would be in the second stage of the poison, effects described as "an unyielding burning" in the guidebook. But Kirito shouldn't be feeling any actual pain, just a sharp tingle, if the normal VR industry standards were being followed.

The horrified thought hit her.

What if they weren't?

Kirito had said this was an indie game, meaning a small, unregulated studio, or maybe even a small team or single person. What if they had forgotten to code the game properly? What if the pain absorber was glitching or poorly calibrated?

"What..." The words stuck in her throat a moment, as she tried to tell herself to calm down. "What do you mean?"

He didn't respond for a moment, another wave hitting him and making him close his eyes tight, doubling over, practically falling off the log. "It hurts, Asuna, it—" He gave a hiccuping gasp. "—it actually—"

He spasmed suddenly, slipping off the log and hitting the ground with a thud! and then he screamed.

His shriek rang out like a horrible bell across the map and Asuna panicked, her hands shaking so hard they messed up the next quick time event, spilling the red glowing firewater onto her hands rather than in her flask.

She fumbled to recover, pouring the firewater in and getting a long agonizing period of bubbling before her potion flashed orange, not the color she needed.

"Shit!" she whispered, frantically trying to fix the crafting but the potion stayed orange, useless, an armor buff that wouldn't help Kirito now.

His back was arching against the black ground, fingers digging into his neck around the wound like a claw, and the horrible sounds of pain that came from him made Asuna's digital stomach queasy. He screamed and screamed and twitched in unnatural motions and Asuna tossed her failed potion away and grabbed for him, hands clutching around his face.

"Kirito! Kirito!" she cried, panic shrilling her voice. What could she do, what could she do? She thought frantically, enduring the hits as Kirito flailed up at her, senseless with burning pain, his eyes permanently sealed and his mouth open and sounding the agony he was in with terrifying volume. It rang in her ears, his scream.

She grabbed his wrist in desperation and forcefully manipulated his fingers, making him swipe down.

His menu appeared in front of him, visible to her as his teammate, and she quickly maneuvered his hand in the pattern that would lead to his freedom, finding the logout button and holding his finger to it.

She held her breath as Kirito's shrieks died off, his avatar freezing a moment before dissolving away, like a black mist.

The echo of his pained cries lingered in her ears a long minute.

Asuna pressed both hands over her mouth, the horror catching up to her. A tight winching sensation was closing around her temples and her chest shuddered, memories crawling up the insides of her head.

She finally pried her hands away, jabbing with sharp motions as she swiped through the menu.

Swipe, swipe, scroll down, log out.

The game map pixelated into blurred colors and melted into the Amusphere ready screen, which waited for a moment before blipping off.

Asuna opened her eyes, reaching up and practically throwing off her Amusphere. Her feet slipped straight to the floor and she was frantically shuffling through her backpack, searching the pockets and crevasses for her phone.

She dialed with agitated tapping. Her fingers shook as she pressed the phone to her ear, listening to it ring anxiously.

"C'mon, c'mon..." she begged, her other hand fisting and fidgeting on her thigh. "Pick up."

The phone clicked and her heart leapt in relief for a brief split-second before plunging back down as a female voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Sugu?" Asuna felt her chest wrench, her mind flashing through all the reasons Kazuto's sister might be answering his phone instead of him. Her eyes burned at the edges as she struggled to stay composed. "Is..." Her voice hitched. "Is he okay?"

"Asuna?" The voice on the other end was concerned and anxious, which did nothing to calm her down. "What happened?"

"We were playing a game..." Asuna said miserably, her free hand coming up to clutch at her hair. "There was a barbed plant that... Oh Sugu, please tell me he's okay!" she cried.

Suguha gave a shaky exhale over the line. "He had a pretty bad startle reaction when he logged out, slipped off the bed and cracked his head on the nightstand. Mom's on the phone with emergency services now. He's responsive but... he's bleeding a lot."

Asuna choked back a sob, the burning under her eyes welling into tears.

"I'll come right over," she determined, rising to her feet with her phone still pressed against her ear.

Suguha responded to voices in the background of the call, her voice muted like her palm was pressed over the speaker. Asuna strained to see if she could hear Kazuto but if he was speaking it was too soft for her to pick up. She just yanked on her sandals and grabbed her bag, already in a rush towards the front door. Suguha came back on.

"Paramedics are coming." Her voice took on a bright, optimistic tone. "Don't worry, Asuna. I'm sure he's fine."

Asuna wasn't reassured, disconnecting and shutting off the phone to slide into her side pocket.

She rushed for the front hall, already calling out to their driver.

***

She wrung her hands in her skirt the whole way there, biting her lip until it was white. She tried to control her breathing, tried to control the thoughts running in circles through her brain.

Responsive but bleeding.

Suguha's words repeated like a skipping record in her head.

Responsive but bleeding.

Fingers mashed in fabric. She trembled.

Responsive but... for how long? How bad was the injury? Would the paramedics be able to treat it? Would he need an ambulance? Surgery?

Her mind provided an image to go with that last idea. Kazuto, pale and unconscious, on a medical gurney being wheeled away from her. Unmoving. Unbreathing. An IV stuck in his arm. Stuck there. Held down. Trapped in the darkness of his head, never to wake, never to wake. Just like the death game. Just like—

Her fragmenting thoughts were jolted as the car began to slow. Fresh panic spiked up inside her, heart crawling up her throat as the flashing blue and red lights from the ambulance parked outside hit her eyes.

The car hadn't even stopped before her seatbelt was loose and she was stumbling out the open door, sandals rapping on the sidewalk, pushing past a paramedic in the doorway who called ineffectually after her.

"Miss!"

Down the familiar hall, up the stairs, her heart was thumping in time with her footfalls on the steps as she climbed, fully expecting the first sight to meet her eyes to be her beloved being secured to a transport gurney.

But as she rounded the doorframe, there he was, sitting up, sheepish-looking as a paramedic pressed a gauze to the back of his head.

For a second she was rooted there, paralyzed, mind unable to reconcile the scene before her with the horrible fantasies that had played out over and over inside her head.

Wasn't... wasn't he supposed to be lying prone? Immobile on a table?

His eyes flicked over to her and brightened, and his sheepish expression deepened.

"Hey Asuna," he called, lightly, softly. "Sorry I didn't answer the phone when you called."

For a moment more she stood there, hands up by her chest, wrestling against the storm of emotions that warred inside her.

With a helpless sound she broke, coming into the room and flinging herself into him.

"I'm sorry!" she gasped. "I'm so sorry! You wanted to stop playing and I—"

His arms tightened around her immediately. "Stop it," he cut her off. "Don't you dare blame yourself."

She could only heave in response, her breath shuddering, sputtering, choking around the tears that were streaming from her eyes.

Kazuto held her close, one hand rubbing soothingly down her back. He felt solid, and steadying, against her, staying calm as she sobbed and the tightly coiled anxiety and fears inside her unraveled.

He was okay. He was okay, and she was making this a bigger deal than she needed to. She needed to stop crying. She was being embarrassing.

But she was just so relieved that her elaborate and specific fantasies were simply that—fantasies—that it kept spilling and spilling out until she felt drained, until she felt her tears run dry and her sobs resolve into quiet hitching.

The paramedic had finished up with Kazuto's head, taping a gauze wad down after disinfecting the gash, and was now talking to Mrs. Kirigaya about the signs of concussion to watch out for, just in case.

Asuna leaned against him now, ear to his collar, blinking slowly. He stared off past her head soberly.

"I'm sorry I worried you," he mumbled. His arms pinched her tighter. "I should've made Suguha hand me the phone."

"No..." Asuna disagreed. She lifted her head, to look him in the face softly. "I panicked. I... let my thoughts get away from me."

"In fairness," Suguha piped up, drawing both their heads her way. She was busy picking up reddened tissues and bath towels littered on the floor. "There was a lot of blood," she finished. "I was a bit worried too," she confessed.

Kazuto's face twinged in embarrassment again. "Sorry, Sugu."

Asuna caught something darker flickering across his expression. She glanced towards the paramedic and Mrs. Kirigaya, finished discussing Kazuto's medical treatment and now exchanging pleasantries.

She wrapped both hands under Kazuto's chin, cupping his face and tilting his eyes to look at her.

"Are you still in pain?" she whispered.

His eyes slipped closed and he shook his head mutely. Keeping his voice down as well, for fear of his aunt and Suguha overhearing, he told her, "Not from the poison barb, no. That stopped almost as soon as you logged me off. But... I..." She saw him swallow heavily. "For a moment I wasn't... wasn't back. Here. I was..."

He gave a small shudder, the space between his brows pinching.

"...under Oberon's boot with my sword lodged in my back."

It was her turn to wrap arms around him now, softly comforting, cradling the back of his head.

"I'm sorry," she whispered yet again. "That must have been terrifying."

"Yeah, well," he said, pulling back, a cheeky smirk spreading across his face, "it's okay. Cracking my head open snapped me out of it."

She curled fingers into a fist and slugged him in the side.

"Ngh!"

"That's not funny," Asuna said, glowering.

"Sorry," he grimaced, rubbing his side.

The paramedic stepped over then, both teens flicking up their attention at him. "How are you feeling?" the man asked kindly.

"Much better," Kazuto replied honestly. "Thanks."

"Keep that gauze on for at least four hours," the paramedic instructed. "If you have any lingering pain, or sudden vision or hearing changes, please do not hesitate to contact your primary physician."

Kazuto nodded, and let the man step back and begin wrapping up. Asuna caught his eye, and a silent agreement passed between them.

They would have to bring attention to the game's uncomfortable flaw—if it was a flaw and not some kind of sick feature—on the Seed Archives forum as soon as possible.

Her hand snaked its way into his as the paramedics left, the flashing lights leaving the room still and dark as they drove away.

[askkirito]

So, how about that Variant Showdown?

I'm having fun with it! c: It has a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

The battling aspect is very reminiscent of Memory Defrag ? The two things I don't like about it is that we can't freely control the camera and that the character sometimes takes a little too long to recover from an enemy attack. I'm invested in the story too. ;vvv;

I haven't done much in the team building aspect so I really don't have an opinion there (literally just used the automatic team formation;;). I did reroll until I got the SSR Kirito though. :')

Anyway, the fact that they used the Rulid Trio on the Formation tab is going to make me sob for the next eight years.

It's only been what... three days?? since it released so my thoughts on it might change later down the line, but as of right now its fun. c:

[gurggggleburgle]

ok so like i woke up at 4am and this post was screaming in my brain and you can feel free to tell me to kindly go away but I have a theory for where this comes from and it's probably the same reason Lan Wangji drawn with overly gold eyes and the various other color combos we've gotten over the years.

The easiest and simplest answer would be the official art promoters for the donghuas and the book covers/official merch. When I first got into svsss the donghua was in fact just coming out at that point there wasn't nearly any official art pieces to go off on for fanart but the ones that existed were in fact things like this.

Now this piece is simple and has the black eyes so like hey it can't be them but ah wait sports fans! there's more

This image is official art that follows the cannonized design used in the show. Please note the extremely light green eyes that are probably meant to be read more grey. The translation according to google denotes it as a promotional image and the earliest post I found with reverse google image search was back in may 2020 on a facebook group post prior to the show's release.

Even within the show the model has grayish eyes. This was all probably done to help visually distinct SQQ in marketing because fun fact the human brain is bad at distinguishing animated/cartoon characters apart.

While humans are great for pattern recognition animation by it's own nature smooths out so many of the irl distinctions we use to tell apart one another. This why everyone makes the haha all the disney women look alike joke and I acknowledge it is a problem but it's also what you do to get people to read faces because shape language is nigh universal. Anime styled shows and in particular are really bad at this but for another reason. Same face syndrome in anime is because anime was designed to be copy paste virtually from conception. The joke of SAO characters all being kirito in a wig is not a bug but a feature. This is a similar reason to why WWX wears black the entire time he's on screen. It's to help make sure the audience can track him no matter what and I have experienced this happen irl. I had some animator friends watch the show with me and acknowledge that if the show didn't color code the characters they would have trouble distinguishing the designs and yeah that's how that works. I would also like to point out merch and book covers. With SVSSS's show in particular the models are all clearly made from the same base mold and sometimes characters don't seem to be rendered all at the same fidelity so anything distinct helps. Models that are meant to look realistic in 3D really struggle to look compelling especially because the faces in the show have really minimal movement.

While I have not gone through every single piece of scum merch ever and it's hard to what entirely is all official the nendriod itself is already telling. While the eyes are grey they scale a lot towards green depending on the lighting in the photos. This is official merch for a cannonized design and it forgoes dark eyes.

Then there are a few interesting cases in particular with the plushes for minidoll

these two seem to use the green eyed designs. From what I could gather they also went into preorder september 2020

Meanwhile from another company around the same time we go these.

Note the eyes are grey and also color and wise is closer to light green in show and that top promo art.

If you also go through all the publication covers for other countries for scum villain while Shen Qingqiu's eyes are not always green they are distinctly lighter than Binghe's and tend to lean on a grayish green side either by just how they were shaded or by color contrast and lighting. And that's just on my monitors. We often forget that certain screen calibrations could shift the color more green and give the illusion and my tinfoil hat says that's probably part of why this happened.

Now I'm not tech savvy enough to go digging through the Chinese side of the fandom for finding when and how it happened but I can say I dug through blogs and twitter and deviantart posts looking to see if anyone pre 2020 in particular was doing this and other examples. I did in fact find a few and some with blueish leaning eyes

https://x.com/mochiplanet/status/1055713456874151936?s=20

https://www.tumblr.com/nairuru/180597509491/i-wanted-to-try-a-different-painting-style-and?source=share

https://agexp.tumblr.com/post/187771284935/did-you-think-i-hadnt-noticed-your-incessant

Shen Qingqiu by Kanda3egle on DeviantArt

What this tells me is this was at least a thing prior to release. That said a lot of examples still heavily featured grey eyes. In sketches where a one accent color was used sometimes these would appear green because shading ya know.

https://www.tumblr.com/reblog/scumvillain/179870001922/Z5cfHcIf

https://www.tumblr.com/reblog/scumvillain/182707171010/JJwL6TQ2

So why? So why green eyes? My ultimate conclusion after digging around for hours is it probably started early on with simply design synergy and coloring the black/grey eyes in a green tint. Most artist don't use black directly in digital because it's too strong so you use heavy tinted notes of dark grey probably often in a greenish or blueish tone and slowly it shifted bit by bit into what we have today of just green. It's visually distinct on merch and creates contrast pair color scheme between the boys in everyday fanart. This also by virtue of ending up in official merch not necessarily expected to ever reach a western market shows that this was at least conceivable on that side of the fandom.

one of these days i'm gonna be swallowed up by my own salt

[kiri-tired]

I don't have problem with the ship itself, but despite shipping Yujikiri side more I think Kiriyuji has better fanworks. Yujikiri side has a problem of making Kirito too submissive, or putting him through extremely uncomfortable situations, woobifying Kirito, even though Eugeo in canon treats him very tenderly. It was already a problem in fanworks of any bottom!Kirito ships even before Alicization anime, it almost feels like because many people hate Kirito so it's sadistically fun for them to see him mistreated. It's not that Kiriyuji side doesn't have OOC works, but Kiriyuji artists seem to respect both Kirito & Eugeo better

OK BUT THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I´VE BEEN THINKING THOUGH!!!

High-key agree with everything here. I really didn´t want to start any top/bottom discourse cuz it is just so cliche and it reaaaally shouldn´t matter BUT!!! The portrayal of top Eugeo in the fandom is absolutely appalling we really need to talk about it. This is mostly coming from the JP fandom side---but the Western side can be guilty of it too.

I´ve seen some absolutely triggering Yujikiri shit---Actually its more like really triggering Kirito shit tbh--- And I'm not even sure if I can go into the specifics because its SO fucking scary--but trust me when I say they include some really controversial things....And yes! I am definitely noting that bottom Kirito gets absolutely stripped from any personality and gets put in absolute messed-up situations but I don't think it's out of hate though...No no. It's more out of like this sick twisted kink. They just think it's fun to see him getting played with--getting ruined. And speaking of ruin, Eugeo!!!...gets portrayed as disingenuous as possible to the point that it's literally criminal. Ngl, this shit has offended and/or triggered me so hard that I'm even kinda wanting to avoid content creators who prefer top Eu LMAO

I think this is just kind of the problem with yaoi but EH I'm not sure if that excuses everything and besides--I just said the Western fandom is guilty of this too, happening mostly in fanfics. It is just...so fucking weird. It's like yall don't even know the characters smh

And yes while Kiriyuji is not perfect--it CAN be kinda bastardized sometimes, but it has never really been straight up traumatizing like some of the Yujikiri content...

Oh god I am probably sounding really vague right now but it is just THAT bad.

You know what we need? We need more !Verse Yujikiri content.

...and if yall ever want any tips on how to make a good top Eugeo, I'll write it another post sometime cuz this is already getting way too long LOL