What even is SAO anymore?

Jason-Skyrunner said:
@Eckl3
Again, that quote only reflects what the show tells us. I was very clear in that quote. I'm not saying that an actual answer was given. I'm saying the show was acting as though the answer was provided and that there was no need to press on because we reached the finish line. Whether or not I agree with that and/or why is not the point. The show has to be consistent. If it invents a reason via retcons to explain why we didn't get an answer, that's just cheating.

This kind of feels tiring (no offense) because no matter how many times I point out how we need to stay on season 1 in order to establish future facts, you can’t stop imposing the later seasons onto it. The only thing Kirito said was that he spoke with someone from the Ministry and told them all about SAO. He says nothing about sending detectives out to investigate other stuff, he says nothing about some secret government project, and he says nothing about Kikuoka.

And again, on the World SEED, this only shows that Reki eventually used prior mechanics to explain future stories. This isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about setting up prior things for storytelling, and not retroactively telling past stories in the future. Just because the Underworld couldn’t exist without the SEED, doesn’t mean the SEED set up the Underworld. Those are two separate topics. When writers foreshadow properly, this becomes an “Aha! I remember that! Now it’s all coming together.” moment. When a writer retcons instead, it becomes “Huh…? Really?”

The anime is not “representing death”, it’s just giving it a different consequence and tying it to a video game, or just not commenting on it at all because it’s obvious.

LOL, what?! In what way did you interpret that as me being angry? I’m actually shocked now. I asked “Uh... really? Sword skills? Cardinal? That's what you're appealing to?” but I wasn’t angry or even aggressive. I was just genuinely surprised.

Yes, Ordinal Scale was about the loss of a loved one. Honestly, I don’t think it necessarily needed to be a death game. It could have just been a personal, emotional journey, but the movie wasn’t satisfied with that, so the stakes amped up for the third act… perhaps to be like Aincrad…?

Again, I’m not upset, and you sure as hell didn’t offend me. You’ve been kind this whole time.