#where is that person who said she/they sinon they’re so right

[krisalyce]

off topic but we deserved sinon and kirito yuri so bad where was the t4t

headshot under the cut

[lost-in-yujikiri]

References of Classic Literatures in SAO

This post are thoughts I have on discord plus discussion with friends. I didn’t intend to publish this publicly but this was so well-received and a friend asked me to do so, so here it is.

Below are the classic works that I think SAO main arcs took many inspirations from:

1) Aincrad arc & Little Red Riding Hood

- Asuna is the Little Red Riding Hood, with Kirito as the brooding hunter who protected her and led her to a happy ending, and Kayaba is the wolf who disguised himself as Asuna's "Grandma" (aka her caretaker).

- Kayaba's nickname is the same name as the central character of Wuthering Heights (Heathcliff), both men created their world of their own obsessions (for OG Heathcliff is his love with Catherine, for Kayaba is his castle dream) and during that creation they ended up destroying a lot of lives, even innocent people involved.

2) Fairy Dance arc & A Midsummer Night’s Dream

- Fairy Dance might take references from A Midsummer Night's Dream with Fairy King & Queen Oberon & Titania, who are a married couple under quarrels (Asuna and Sugou). The Fairy Dance arc also presents the themes of falling in love with the wrong person (Suguha/Leafa’s feelings for her brother/cousin Kazuto/Kirito) and unrequited love (Recon to Leafa, Leafa to Kirito) albeit in a different way than the original story.

3) Phantom Bullet arc & Sonezaki Shinjuu 

- The classic kabuki play Sonezaki Shinjuu (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki) is a story about close acquaintances/families/lovers being tangled in conflicts of opposing sides, with the main couple performing a double suicide ending so they can be husband and wife in afterlife (just like Kyouji & Sinon). In SAO Kyouji tried to force the double suicide on Sinon but it failed.

3) Alicization arc volume 9-14, Eugeo’s story & The Little Prince

- When people see Alicization cast many might think of Alice in Wonderland first. However Eugeo's whole story in Alicization 1st half was most likely inspired from The Little Prince, with Eugeo as the Prince, Kirito as the Prince's wise old buddy and also the story's Narrator, and Zuberg as the Prince's Rose flower in his homeland which he loves so much but was separated from for so long. Only Alice S30 is the Alice in Wonderland, which is why she isn't the one Eugeo looked for.

- Friendship between the Narrator & the Prince is somewhat similar Kirito & Eugeo, in how the Prince is the only one who truly shares the world view of Narrator. In stories of his own journey, the Prince met a lot of adults, each of them showed their greed, selfishness, ugliness in their way, and the Prince's pure heart couldn't understand or withstand most of them. Just like Eugeo's naivety and pure heart can't accept even the littlest unfairness and evils of his world.

- The Prince thought he didn't love his rose in the correct way, and during his journey he knew his rose isn't so special because there are millions of beautiful roses on Earth. But later he learned that it's the time and space that he spent nurturing his rose that made the rose truly special and distinct. Isn't that similar to how Eugeo learned that love is giving, like nurturing flowers continuously?

- However, the Prince agonized then because he was in a place too far from his home and he left his rose for too long that it might have been eaten, like the distance and long pining towards the Alice in Eugeo's past that killed him inside, while his childhood has long gone.

- In The Little Prince's ending, the prince followed a poisonous snake's offer that if he lets it bite him, he would be able to return to his planet with his beloved rose (Quinella's deal, anyone?). The narrator realized what would really happen but couldn't stop the Prince. Before following that offer, the Prince told the Narrator please look at the stars to remember him, if it looks like he has died, it is only because his body is too heavy to take with him to his planet. The next day, the Prince's body couldn't be found and in his later journey, the Narrator ask the readers if any of them have seen the Prince. In Eugeo's story though, instead of creating an ambiguous ending, Reki presented both ends of the Prince's fate literally. Eugeo died in a sacrifice of his choice, and at the same time went into the light with the little Alice in his past (aka the Little Prince's rose).

- Kirito, just like how the Narrator who believed the Prince didn't die, continued to live in his own world of darkness like the time he spent with Eugeo hasn't gone.

4) Alicization volume 13-18, Alice Synthesis 30′s story & Alice in Wonderland

- Alice Synthesis 30, from an empty knight who has no knowledge of the world with a forced Knight identity, was thrown to the unknown in War of Underworld and had to fight off everything and figure her self-identity out on her own, has parallels with Alice in Wonderland. Original Alice fell into a rabbit hole into Wonderland when she followed the White Rabbit, while Alice S30 fell from Floor 85 of the Cathedral when she fought after Kirito, both Alices learned about the mess that is happening in the world they're in after this.

- The original story is more about all kinds of creatures and humans in Wonderland rather than just about Alice herself, while War of Underworld is also more about people participating in the War rather than just about Alice S30.

- Kirito is the cheshire cat who guided her somewhere along the way but left her on her own device at some point. There are pig-lookalike creatures called "Rath" in the original Wonderland story, and in SAO we have RATH company who is monitoring project Alicization as well as the pig-lookalike Orcs in WoU. In many versions of Alice in Wonderland the stories involve a coup d'état towards a tyrant queen, in Alicization we have a Quinella as similar type of ruler whom Alice S30 and her friends fought against.

- At the end of both stories Alices left the mess in their "Wonderland" to get to real world. Though for OG Alice it's getting back to reality, while for Alice S30 she just got thrown to another "Wonderland" where she has even less attachment to as well as being shunned by most other humans without being able to go back to the UW she knows.

5) Kirito’s character arc in Alicization & Yu Boya and Zhong ziqi:

Kirito's character arc in Alicization was inspired by the story of Yu Boya & Zhong Ziqi, whose story has invented the words 知音知己 ("2 souls who understanding each other's tone & self the most") which usually get translated to English as "bosom friends", Chinese usually called them the epitome of friendship/ companionship. In Japan their names are translated as "Haku Ga" & "Shou Shiki".

Full story can be found here:

http://chineseaesop.blogspot.com/2012/09/yu-boya-and-zhong-ziqi-romance-of-guqin.html

Summary: Boya was an accomplished statesman from the Kingdom of Tsin and also an expert musician who played the "qin". One day as he played a musical piece on the river when he sailed to the Kingdom of Chu, he met a woodcutter named Zhong Ziqi, who might be poor but is very knowledgeable about music & what Boya's soul wanted to convey through his music. Being very happy that he could find a partner who can so quickly clicked with him, Boya & Ziqi stayed with each other talking for 3 days. Though Ziqi eventually had to go back to support his parents so they had to part with a promise of seeing each other again. The next year Boya went to find Ziqi, only to hear from Ziqi's father that he had died while trying to both work to support his family & study to catch up to a successful man like Boya. Boya played his last piece of music in front of Ziqi's grave and then destroyed his beloved musical instrument and swore to never play it again, because the life friend who could understand his heart & soul was no longer in this world. He then told Ziqi's father that he would adopt Ziqi's parents and support them like Ziqi did, saying "I was one with Ziqi and he with me. Do not think of me as an outsider."

So Kirito = Boya who are both accomplished in life (battles/social hierarchy), Eugeo = the woodcutter Ziqi who's inexperienced but wise and shared a love of something (swordmanship for Kirito & Eugep/ music for Boya & Zhong Ziqi) with the other man, both died young before they truly accomplished any of life goals. Their deaths devastated their friends, Boya destroyed his own musical instrument and his own musical ability, while for Kirito even though he was right at the chance to wake up from coma, due to the guilt of Eugeo’s death he intended to use his sword to stab himself, but having no sword so he tried to destroy his heart instead.

In the end though Kirito was stopped by a fragment of Eugeo’s soul, who give him the strength to stand back up again.

Personal thoughts:

- I find it interesting that Kirito is very apt for 2 different roles in the Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Prince, more than any roles with other heroines. In Aincrad/Progressive he is the hunter who managed to protect the Riding Hood Asuna from the wolves and in one way or another lead her to her own happy ending. In Alicization he is the best friend to the Prince Eugeo, he wanted to show the Prince the world and lead him to happiness too, but ended up having to watch his Prince walking to his own death.

- Mother's Rosario is treated as a side story in the original Web Novel and not a full-blown arc, so it doesn't have classic references. But Reki said in an interview along with the author of yuri manga/anime Bloom Into You that it's the most yuri-esque story he has ever written (despite not being technically yuri).

[cynthiaandsamus]

Maki Oze and Tamaki Kotatsu from Fire Force: Fire fighting cuties! Anyone who’s seen the show knows what a delight these two are, between the toned and beautiful big sister witch with a hair trigger Maki and the fire cat that literally can’t keep her clothes on Tamaki, these two would be sure to liven up Villa life!

Caulfila and Cheelai from Dragon Ball Super: Spunky girls with a thing for Super Saiyan Berserkers. Both are used to rolling with bad crowds whether it’s Caulfila’s gang of Saiyan ruffians or Cheelai’s street gang before she joined the Frieza Force, both don’t take any guff from anyone. Caulifla tends to be more brash and loud and Cheelai is more kind yet sneaky, these muscle loving girls of destruction will sure bring some energy to Cynthia’s place.

Ayla from Chrono Trigger and Kohaku from Dr. Stone: The cavegirl duo, Ayla tends to be more of what you’d expect from a cavegirl, brash, blunt and comes with a horde of trained dinosaurs, but this prehistoric beauty also has a flirty side as well, coming from a time before shame was invented she makes no bones about what or who she likes and will take what she wants. Kohaku is more eloquent and thoughtful but no less skilled and dangerous. Living in a stone world where people are out for her hide has taught her how to defend herself from all kinds of nasty surprises, though she too is puzzled by the modern conveniences of Cynthia’s villa and will likely have a few fun surprises during her stay.

Shino Ashido “Sinon” and Suguha Kirigaya “Leafa” from Sword Art Online: A long-time tenant of these polls, these girls may have teenage tastes but they are no doubt young women of class. Gifted with special holographic collars by Cynthia that lets them take the form of any of their game avatars while at the villa, these two are looking for more escapist fun than a normal game world can provide. Sinon has grown a taste only for women after her previous experiences with men and though she’s a bit prickly she’s still the badass gunslinger we all know and love. The busty gamer Suguha tends to prefer hanging out in her normal appearance while she’s away from prying eyes but the elf girl Leafa is also down for some vacationing as well. After her experiences in several game worlds she’s looking to try new things and see what the real world has to offer.

Lusamine and Dawn from Pokemon: Two girls that need no introduction, both these ladies have a pre-established relationship with Cynthia and have been waiting for a chance to stay long-term at the villa. The Aether Corporation head is a strong and determined if slightly out there mother that like Cynthia knows what she wants and takes it. The two have long held meetings about who the cutest trainers are and what to do with their mounting fortunes. Meanwhile, topping said list for Cynthia most of the time, Dawn is an up and coming Sinnoh trainer with her eyes not only on the Championship but also on the Champion~ She and Cynthia have quite a playful relationship and on the outside she’s as cute as a button, but seeing Samus getting so cozy with Cynthia may bring out some jealous thoughts in her.

Skyla and Elesa from Pokemon: Another long time visiting muse option, essentially Cynthia and Samus 2.0, a busty determined airhead and her slender blonde companion that has to put up with her, truly these two were made for the villa. The experienced pilot and lovely bubbly Skyla has more enthusiasm than sense sometimes but the pun-loving fashion model Elesa will be sure to keep her straight… figuratively speaking of course.

Ayaka Sunohara from Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-Sou and Mamako Oosuki from Do You Love Your Mother and Her Two-Hit Multi Target Attacks? (shortened for brevity (and mercy) in the poll): What would a visiting muse poll be without Milfs? Shorter, that’s what! The busty caretaker of Sunohara boarding house Ayaka Sunohara has been left to care for the place after her grandmother retired and is now looking for a place to stay and relax for herself. A beacon of motherly kindness and dependability, Ayaka is everything you could ask for in a soft lover but also a determined and stern parental figure that is seemingly good at all domestic skills and gets extremely handsy when she drinks. Mamako Oosuki is a doting yet flighty mother who doesn’t know the first thing about video games and yet commands RPG powers that would make Kirito blush. This mother seems to more often than not find herself in lecherous compromising positions despite her ability to take out almost anything in one hit. Deep down her kind and gentle soul will (literally) light up your heart.

Kagome Higurashi and Sango from Inuyasha: Well there’s a sequel coming, so why not? A normal (if by normal you mean the reincarnation of literally the only person that can purify an ancient jewel with phenomenal mystic power) schoolgirl, Kagome Higurashi found herself in a world of demons, warlords and gravity-defying miniskirts. Despite being a fish out of water Kagome proved herself to be someone of upstanding character who always helps those in need. Wanting nothing more than a feudal fairy tail, this beautiful girl has become somewhat disillusioned with her old world and needs a break, once again heading for another world: Cynthia’s villa, hijinks ensue. Meanwhile the prodigy of the demon slaying clan, Sango and her pet demon Kilala also join Kagome on her trip. Sango’s a kind but no-nonsense kind of girl and it can take a while for her to open up, but it’s worth it to find out because you’ll have a beautiful partner… or a giant boomerang to the head, place your bets.

Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin form Kill la Kill: (Admittedly this one is partially fueled by the mun’s recent Kill la Kill rewatch and random crack test posts) The scantily clad sisterly duo, a tough as nails fighter who doesn’t take shit and a dramatic champion flanked by her elite four guardians... something about this seems familiar. Naturally Ryuko gets along famously with Samus and Satsuki seems to do well with Cynthia, though will these regularly nude beauties take the invitation to the villa?

Kyoko and Misako from River City Girls: Another familiar pairing of a tough girl and her equally tough airhead friend. These River City Residensts are Ready to Rampage through the villa. Though they have absolute devotion to their boyfriends, they do have some ways of cheating the system and still ‘saving’ themselves for them and play fast and loose with the rules of their relationships. Can the villa withstand these girls’ particular brand of rough and tumble love?

Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann and Misato Katsuragi from Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Gainax girls are here to party! The skimpy sharpshooter Yoko and the smart, slovenly, sexy and sometimes melancholy Misato fit right in with the villa’s casual laid back attitude of constant parties. Neither girl is particularly shy about showing some skin or kicking some ass, being use to casually standing up to giant monsters both of these hard-working women are ready for a vacation and maybe even for a deconstruction of some of their deeper troubles along with the fun.

Note: Tifa, Yuffie and Riza will be around a bit longer, since the list is so long this time I’ll probably have a second poll for the most popular finalists in a few days so be sure to have some fun with them while they’re here!

[recentanimenews]

Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld – 15 – Everything Will Go Our Way

The good vibes of the previous episode’s SAO OG reunions were thoroughly, mercilessly washed away this week, starting with Sinon arriving too late to save Bercouli. In a rare-for-SAO demonstration of restraint, there is no music in the opening scene between Sinon and Alice, just the marvelous talent of Sawashiro Miyuki and Kayano Ai, which is all that is needed.

Sinon has to be the bearer of bad news—Vecta may be dead, but the real-world person isn’t, and could be back any moment in a new form. This makes Alice despair that neither her efforts nor her uncle’s sacrifice had any meaning, and this is all a farce. Sinon begs to differ: her and her friends’ love of Kirito is real, and so is his desire to save Alice. Everyone is buying time so she can get to that altar and end the war.

That said, the war is very much still going on, and victory is not yet certain for the good guys. As we see, there isn’t a real-world power-user account helping out Sheyta and Iskahn, so they’re eventually on their own against a legion of American foot soldiers as all of their comrades have fallen around them. Sheyta takes what little time she has left to tell Iskahn she finally realized why she had to slash so much.

It was in order to find what she didn’t want to slash—i.e. whom she wanted to protect. And that’s Iskahn. While showing the impending doom of two characters whose names I know is an effective way to show the battle is growing desperate, the couple’s joint confession doesn’t quite resonate, as I barely know these guys besides the fact they’re both tremendous badasses.

Meanwhile, Seeing Asuna and Klein simply having a breather in between cutting down columns of baddies carried more emotional weight for me, since these two peeps have been fighting side by side since the beginning. I’m reminded why Klein and the others came: not just friendship, but a desire to repay Kirito and Asuna for saving them all back in SAO.

Unfortunately the pleasant moments are quickly blotted out by new dark developments. Vassago is back in the form of Laughing Coffin leader PoH…and he’s brought a ridiculously large number of reinforcements down the digital well. They’re not all from America, either.

In a very neat shift of POV, we’re introduced to the real-world gamer Moonphase and his teammate  Xiang Mei Mei. Both get the same notice from Miller and Vassago’s men as thousands of others throughout Korea and China: Evil Japanese hackers are besieging the Underworld and a coalition is being formed to stop them.

Both Moon and Mei volunteer for the mission, but they immediately feel like something is not quite right about this. Moon’s clearly seen his fair share of fighting, and can tell the Japanese “villains” are fighting far too desperately to be the antagonists in this conflict. Here’s hoping these two can offer the “helping hand from a stranger” roles our heroes are apparently going to need as the odds are further stacked against them.

Miller wasn’t even out of the Underworld for a whole episode before returning in his Subtilizer avatar, just in time to meet Sinon, whom he defeated in GGO. Honestly my memory’s a little fuzzy on the details of their fight but the fact Subby has a creepy focused look in his eyes and seems to be restraining Sinon with some kind of telekinesis doesn’t bode well for her.

That said, I for one am hoping Sinon can break whatever hold he has and make this a good rematch without needing to be rescued. And if she has to be bailed out, I’d like it to be Alice, even though she really should be using the time Sinon is giving her to head to the Altar.

Asuna is really getting worn down by the unyielding masses of enemy troops, so it’s nice to see Klein, Agil, Lisbeth and Silica help plow the road for her a bit; she’ll need to stay fresh and relatively intact for what I imagine to be a duel with PoH.

As for why I’m not in a hurry for Alice to reach the Altar? Because I knew Higa was going to run into trouble once he reached the terminal or whatever where he can interface with the STLs of Kirito and his three friends. That’s because Yanai was and is an obvious mole, and pulls a gun on him in a panic.

Since Yanai doesn’t pull the trigger, maybe Higa can still find a way to have him stand down, or maybe Rinko or someone can intervene. The bad guys made the lion’s share of the moves this week and may have inadvertently brought in a group of wild cards who don’t quite buy what they’re selling. As Asuna says, eventually things should go the good guys’ way…but I wouldn’t bank on that happening just yet.

By: braverade

[lost-in-yujikiri]

Asuna or Sinon for the Ask Meme?

I feel like I should be a bit more careful with these two since they're dudebros favorites but I have tons of LN evidences that I can provide if anyone asks specifically, so who cares?

1) Asuna:

Sexuality headcanon: Bi

Favorite ship(s): Kirito, Yuuki, Sinon, Alice, Argo, Kizmel

Brotp: Lisbeth

Notp: Sugou (again fandom, for real?)

These are CANON LN info:

- In the vol 7 LN version in 2011 after Yuuki asked if she can marry Asuna, instead of outrightly rejecting Yuuki due to her relationship with Kirito like the anime, Asuna actually thought of the Japanese government's current planning & discussion for partnership certificate for same-sex couples, which actually became true in our real life in Shibuya in central Tokyo in 2015! So yes, ASUNA SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED MARRYING YUUKI IN ORIGINAL LN! But Yuuki backed out right away saying it was a joke, but given her personality, I don't think it was all joke, she forfeited mostly because she didn't want to burden Asuna due to how short-lived Yuuki would be.

- In LN vol 9, it's said that the first person Asuna brought home for a sleepover is Sinon, even before Kirito! Also, unlike Kirito, Asuna is actively the one who becomes close & learns of all the girls' feelings & fear this way.

- In LN vol 16, Asuna met Alice and both of them have monologues that talked about how in awe they are of each other's beauty. Asuna also thought just like how Kirito and her bickered & fought each other in Aincrad, she has a feeling she will become just as close with Alice since they are also bickering & fighting. You guys can totally see it when Unital Ring is fully translated where there are many moments Alice supports & comforts Asuna or when they exchange mutual hugs.

- I can't wait for Progressive to get there so I can rave about how much attached Asuna is to Kizmel! Those lily flower background in the manga version of Asuna's image of Kizmel is so 😍

A random headcanon:

- Asuna would love to do more study on botany (she's very knowledgeable about plants in UR) and it branched off to become her desire to learn in university.

General opinion: 

I feel like she is a good character that Reki still couldn't use to her fullest potential. Instead of focusing on how great her love for Kirito is, we don't see often as much about her tactical intelligence or what she does separately from Kirito, or her specific dreams other than Kirito *sigh*. Given that it comes to V25 already and the author isn't that much interested in it, it should be the fans who take matters to their own hands, I guess.

2) Sinon:

Sexuality headcanon: Bi, with more preference for girls

Favorite ship(s): Asuna, Leafa

Brotp: Kirito

Notp: Kirito xD

A random headcanon:

- Given how much she got along with GGO Kiriko when she thought he was female and her apparent disappointment when she learned it's not, I like to think she'd love to have a gunner girlfriend in fantasy, it never came true, sad for her.

- She used to have a complicated feeling for Kyouji, but after everything Sinon wished to be able to help him, since he was the first to reach out his hands for her. She also often goes to Kirigaya residence and becomes Kirito's PTSD confidant after Alicization arc besides Suguha.

General opinion: She's a well developed character with the most potential to be an independant lead of a spinoff series. I'd love to see more of her like this.