#this is the SAO parody

[animezinglife]

Trying to learn Dragon Age and having Skyrim controls embedded in your DNA by this point:

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

DAVE: listen i dont doubt your skills but maybe you and your goon squad should go home, take a nap, and leave all the fighting to the real asskickers around here

VRISKA: Nonsense! My Prospitian 8rigade does not know the meaning of the word “surrender”!

TAVROS: bUT WE’RE WILLING TO LEARN,,,

[teleportationmagic]

To SAOA:

What the fuck. what the everliving fuck. I am literally sobbing I cannot stop this - this was the funny series! You can't do this to me!

Like just ughhhhhhhh - Suguha and Kazuto becoming unaligned for just a moment, just a second of him going faster, farther than her - and her sticking in out! Trying so hard to reach out! And him not doing the same because he doesn't even notice, and that abandonment twisting under years and years and years, of feeling unwanted and unloved, and feeling safer when she's unbearable, because she cannot afford that vulnerability again. And then Kirito coming back, older and wiser and more willing to spend time on the people he loves because of SAO where he got so close to losing them, and her not being able to fix these two versions of him together because they aren't! They aren't the same person! But he can't tell her, can't show her how he's changed because she cannot let either one of them be soft around one another.

And from Kirito's side, all he sees is his relationship with his baby sister grow strained under the weight of years, of her slowly turning into something awful that he thinks hates him, because what else could there be? Literally what else?

And her still dragging him to the kendo mat years later, despite the fact that he hates it. That being literally the first scene of them together.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[jade-kyo]

Hey SAO abridged what the FUCK was THAT

[eerna]

“How can I hate you? I don’t even know you anymore!”

Is INSANEEEEE, UTTERLY INSANE, SIBLINGS WHOSE ROOMS ARE NEXT TO EACH OTHER WHO DON’T KNOW EACH OTHER ANYMORE,

WHO WOULD DIE FOR EACH OTHER BUT MAKE THEIR TIME TOGETHER HELL AAAUGGHHHH

IT IS CRAAAZYYYYY like the ENTIRE TIME Kazuto spends convinced Suguha hates him, and for a good reason! She is horrible to him and rejects any and all attempts of his to reach out!! But that's just because it's a gut reaction, in reality she is as sad over their dead siblinghood as he is. She is alarmed bc he disappeared for 2 years and returned emotionally available, his issues solved because of the people he met and loved during that journey, while she stayed the same bastard bitch she'd been. And even before that, they spent years at each other's throats, not talking about that one thing that forced them apart, him completely oblivious to her pain and her unwilling to reveal it to him. Their rooms are right next to each other, but even that can't bridge the years separating them

[xekutozoren]

Ignite - Aquaroth "OP" 🫐🪽

I used to do a lot of these "fake anime openings" back in the day and really enjoyed making them. ヾ(≧▽≦*)o

On the way home from work with my partner in the car, we were going through nostalgic anime OPs when I decided to play SAO II's opening and immediately got inspiration to do this. (o′┏▽┓｀o)

I don't know how to professionally mask in video editing so you'll have to put up with shoddy blending instead. :V

I tried to mirror the original OP wherever I could.

All credits are in the video - w -

[shsl-panic-at-the-everywhere]

I love that sao abridged is still a thing. I watched the most recent one and now i’ve just been going back and rewatching the whole thing over and over again. I have problems??

[projectcaramel]

Obey Me! Random Headcanon #7

The Brothers' Favorite Anime

Lucifer

Well-Known - SPY X FAMILY; he thinks it's cute and appreciates the sentiment of being able to live in a happy family despite the secrets hidden away. For obvious reasons, he relates to Loid the most.

More Obscure - THE CASE STUDY OF VANITAS; he likes the portrayal of vampires and likes to compare it to Bram Stoker's Dracula. His favorite character is Dominique de Sade, whom he refers to as "tragic and feisty."

Mammon

Well-Known - ONE PIECE; he's just one of those people that loves to scream "THE ONE PIECE IS REAAAALLLL" and likes the treasure-hunting aspect combined with the camaraderie.

More Obscure - BLUE EXORCIST; funny, right? He used to mock Satan every time his name popped up until the couch was destroyed. He thinks Rin is cool and argues with Lucifer all the time that he's better than Yukio.

Leviathan

Well-Known - SWORD ART ONLINE; Levi likes the concept more than the characters if he's honest, but he thinks Heathcliff is a total boss.

More Obscure - THE EMINENCE IN SHADOW; like many people who watch Isekai, Levi thinks the tropes start to get a little too copy-and-paste after a while, and he appreciates the parody. He loves Cid and goes into great detail to explain why the anime is genius.

Honorable mention - SAO ABRIDGED because Levi also loves it 10x more than the original even if it's fan-made.

Satan

Well-known - BLACK BUTLER; A revenge plot mixed up with detective stories and a cruel demon butler that loves cats? He vibes with Sebastian and would like him *just a little more* if Levi hadn't pointed out that he looks like Lucifer.

More Obscure - MORIARTY THE PATRIOT; it's Sherlock but anime; what more could he ask for? When asked who his favorite character is, he usually can't decide between the Moriarty's because he likes all of them for different reasons and usually says William by default.

Asmodeus

Well-Known - INUYASHA; Loves it for the romance and thinks Inuyasha and Kagome make a great couple. He even likes the "Inuyasha... Kagome... Inuyasha! ... Kagome!" moments.

More Obscure - KAGUYA-SAMA LOVE IS WAR; Wants to kiss half of the cast because they're beautiful and will sometimes yell at the screen when Shinomiya and Shirogane misunderstand each other (he ships it hard).

Beelzebub

Well-Known - VIOLET EVERGARDEN; he cries every single time, but he loves it because Violet reminds him of Lilith, and he likes how it has a hopeful ending.

More Obscure - FOOD WARS!; It's literally a cooking show, and he couldn't be happier. The fanservice often goes over his head until one of his brothers mumbles something about it, at which point he might feel embarrassed.

Belphegor

Well-Known - JUJUTSU KAISEN; he likes it because it's more on the dark side; his favorite character is Mahito and has remarked at least once that he thinks it would be fun to carry humans in his pocket like that (he said this specifically to scare you).

More Obscure - MAOU-JOU DE OYASUMI; he loves this series because it's all about his favorite past-time. He often writes down what Princess Suyaris says, muttering "wow, I never thought about doing that..."

-- Caramel: I have watched a lot of anime. It was difficult to narrow down a list of more than 80 to 14, but I hope you enjoyed! --

[khruschevshoe]

OFMD Critique: Bad Faith, Fandom, and Respect

All right. You know what? Screw it. I saw one post I just cannot ignore anymore that encapsulated all of my problems with the fandom right now. Personal rant incoming.

I understand that there's a nuance to the discussion of season 2 of Our Flag Means Death, and that there are people going a little too far with both their critiques and their support of the show. But oh my God, I'm tired of being straw-manned and made fun of for legitimate critiques of the show.

I just used the block button on someone in this fandom for the first time. Some of you might think I'm overreacting for this, but I saw a post that I could not on any level stand. This person, who I will not name names of, because I'd rather just block them and never deal with their level of bad faith again, took their one legitimate criticism of those of us who critique the show, the back and forth on whether or not Izzy's death was homophobic or not, and used it as the first in a literal list of straw man critiques that no one I've read in the OFMD Critical tag has made (and I check it like once a day bc I like reading meta, sorry), proceeding to absolutely make fun of the legitimate critiques that people have of the show, parodying them in the worst possible ways. They took our legitimate critiques about everything from the sexist handling Zheng Yi Sao's character, the absolute ableism of the finale, the questionable optics of the handling of trauma, etc. and stretched them into things that they very much were not (two examples were that we were crying ableism bc of something to do with seagulls and that we thought the problem in the Stede&Zheng dynamic was the "emotional labor" involved).

Now I'm pretty sure this post was a joke. I *think* it was a joke. But how in the world am I supposed to feel comfortable in the main section of a fandom like this when the comments and replies to this post were full of people agreeing sincerely that this is what the critical section of the fandom is like? How am I supposed to feel when I just see people making fun of me for my analysis of the show? I love this show. I adore season 1 and I'm clearly still making fan related content (moodboards) for season 2 along with my critiques.

Sure, I vibe way more with fanfiction than the actual canon at this point, but I still genuinely engage with the show. And to have the critiques that I made in good faith, regarding issues that I sincerely care about such as ableism, sexism, homophobia, and the handling of trauma, made fun of and taken out of context and straw-manned to their extreme, makes me feel so absolutely unwelcome in this fandom.

Other than keeping up with the couple of fan series that I'm currently still reading, I don't know if I can stay in this fandom any longer. I can't say that I'm excited for the new season if this is the kind of response that any good faith critique of the show is going to get. I can't say that I feel safe or comfortable when there are this many people ready to dog pile on me for a critique I made with ACTUAL TEXTUAL EVIDENCE to back it up.

I would like to thank all the people who have been making excellent critiques of the show. Their meta-analysis is what got me into making my own critiques, which I was nervous about making in any other fandom. I don't think I've in any way tagged them all, but just a few I can remember off the top of my head. Go read their critiques/meta- it's really good!

@sky-fire-forever @carrymelikeimcute @blue-b-bro @bougiebutchbinch @treesofgreen @sixstepsaway @alex51324

And from the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has engaged with my mood boards or my critiques or anything else that I've made, as well as the amazing writers and artists in this fandom (such as @ruecrown, @aletterinthenameofsanity, @fool-for-luv, and @possumsmushroom). You guys have kept me going with my love for the show and engaging with it for a while now. Despite the stuff that is making me take a step back now, I really did love this while it lasted! I'm still planning on making a few more mood boards, but other than that, I'm going to take a step back from engaging.

Hope this post can spread enough support/joy your way to counteract the ache I'm currently feeling!

Sincerely,

Ashley (aka @khruschevshoe)

[transboykirito]

god i could write a whole essay about sao abridged and why it became such a cultural phenomenon and why it’s held its relevancy compared to other abridged parodies from the same time and also why the shift in internet culture has completely warped what sao abridged originally was and

[princess-of-the-corner]

Just realized how to sum up the problem with Kirito being so strong: SAO is a shonen that doesn't show why the hero is so strong, and it's completely serious.

As far I know the only ones that don't at least hint to it at the start are One-Punch Man and Helck, and they're parodies (at least at the start) where the main gag is how impossibly strong the hero is, and TSUYOSHI, another parody where the source of the title character's impossible strenght is the driving MYSTERY of the first two arcs.

It's one of the basics of the genre, show why the hero is strong or have a good explanation... And SAO failed on both fronts by just telling us Kirito used to do Kendo and then dedicated himself to video games.

Yeah I haven't seen the other two but I at least know One Punch Man in passing and yeah that's essentially a parody where you don't need to know why he's Like That™, though they do give a flimsy explanation.

But yeah while I think something like Kendo may give an advantage against total noobs, even if he was like Olympic-Level Champion or something it'd only do so much against different forms of combat.

[susie-dreemurr]

By the way “Enjoy this while you can, it’s the deepest you’ll ever be in a woman” being your final words after you got stabbed in the throat is honestly the best way to go. SAO Abridged Parody Rosalia, my beloved.

[luminouslumity]

Watch "SAO Abridged Parody: Episode 17" on YouTube

[heyyallitsbeth]

Because i've been posting SAO gameplay videos, Ive been getting a lot of recommended videos for reactions to the anime and oh my gosh its so nice to see people online unashamedly enjoying it. like, people arent cringing and hating on it the entire time, theyre just like "damn this is peak, the internet was lying".

AND ITS TRUE! IT IS PEAK! THE INTERNET IS LYING!

STOP LISTENING TO PEOPLE NAMED JIMMYANIMEBOY478 ON YOUTUBE SAYING "well acthually ive studied japanese on rosetta stone and visited japan last year and i think every anime that people like sucks"

STOP LISTENING TO THE BANDWAGON

MAKE YOUR OWN OPINIONS

people hated on Spider-Man 3 and the Amazing Spider-Man movies for years and years because people told them to hate them, and now that there's a potential for them to come back in some form, everyone goes back to those movies and goes "hey what the heck these are super fun!".

STOP LISTENING TO THE MOB-

IT LIES TO YOU, THE MOB IS FULL OF CONTRARIANS THAT JUST DONT LIKE POPULAR THINGS!

and since im ranting dont fuckin take abridged series versions of characters as the canon- they exist for parody and comedic purposes, theyre intentionally flanderized, thats the joke. so many people's perspectives of Kirito and Goku are permanently damaged by people just trying to be funny with a webseries...

(obv no shade to DBZA and SAO:A- they existed to be funny humorous parodies of the source material. it is not their fault that people took those parodies and decided "yup this is a completely true and actual interpretation of this character. i hate them")

[eerna]

SAO abridged sibling duo! U will always be famous to me

Genuinely can't believe they did that to me. Why did they write Kirito and Suguha like that. That level of misunderstanding and misinterpretation between siblings who used to be best friends. They absofrigginlutely hate each other and are so damn horrible to each other every minute they share onscreen. But then they meet under anonymous identities and it turns out that they CAN still have fun and work together once they are no longer burdened with the weight of their history. So now she is split between "Wow, my brother actually IS capable of love, it must mean that I'm simply unloveable!" and "Wow, my brother actually IS capable of love, it must mean he is a horrible person who chose to leave me alone to get traumatized back when we were kids!" and the line between herself and the persona she puts on gets thinner and thinner until she accidentally reveals her identity and breaks the spell AND HIS FIRST REACTION???? "Hey did you do this to mess with me? Is this just a joke to you?" In a stupid 2000s gamer humor anime parody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!