Supplemental Nexus Log I

Stupid things I forgot to mention.

Hey all, and welcome to the first of the Supplemental Logs! This is where I talk about anything I forgot to mention in a previous review, or when someone points something out to me that I think is worth calling attention to. Any future corrections to any posts will go here, and I'll be posting them in as short of blurbs as I can manage. So, without any further ado, let's get started, shall we?

Attack on Titan: Pilot

So, with all of the issues surrounding the Titans, with the walled city, and with there only being a few people left, there's a question I've been meaning to ask that I hadn't really gotten a chance to in the last review.

Why don't they just go underground?

For that matter, why is this bastion of humanity's survival just sitting there in the middle of a plain? That's about the least defensible position you could manage to pick. We learn way, way later on in AoT that the Titans are impacted by a lack of sunlight, not to mention the first thing I'd think of doing is finding a better way to hide from the Titans than behind a wall that could eventually be broken. Hell, building the walled city need not necessarily be incompatible with going underground– have the wall to keep the Titans distracted, then go underground. The only thing I can foresee going wrong is the Colossal Titan's lightning teleport bullshit.

Yet another question about the wall is, if it was constructed in response to the Titan threat, how exactly did they erect this thing in any reasonable amount of time? Which walls were made first? I dunno, and I get this feeling it's not going to be talked about.

Sword Art Online: Pilot

First, I've got to address the whole limited resources thing, because it's the first time I made a redaction on any of these reviews, because apparently, there was some accuracy in my previous statement... And yet there wasn't. I've been trying to talk to my friends about this, and none of them could really give me a straight answer on how the whole "Limited mobs, resources, quests and experience" thing worked. The best I could guess was that people were able to find the easiest sources of XP and resources and exploited the hell out of them too long for anyone to take advantage of them in any reasonable amount of time. I'm going to have to use Occam's Razor here– for those who don't know what it is, it's a logical tool that involves making the fewest assumptions possible. I'm making this assumption– if it's not explicitly stated to be the case in the canon, then there's no evidence saying that it is so. With the limited resources thing, I'm going to have to say something that's going to become my SAO mantra, though– it's never explored, and it's never explained. We're just sort of told and expected to take their word for it.

Someone who's read my review on Sword Art Online's pilot had engaged in a lengthy discussion about a few points concerning the goings-on of the universe. On a side note, I highly encourage you to make comments and point out any discrepancies.

The lack of a tutorial may not be all that weird and may have been something to bring the characters to cooperate more readily. Fair point. However, it's failed miserably, as becomes evident later in the series.

In regards to my comments about how a great deal of the game aspects in universe aren't actually fun, and that Beta Testers would've given the game horrid reviews, this individual has told me that this story takes place in the future, and that there's a possibility that attitudes about this, and about things like the VR system's possible invasions of privacy, have changed.  For all we know, it could be one of those neo-cities and this sort of stuff is perfectly acceptable. However, this particular aspect of the universe is never explored and never explained, so for all we know, the only thing that could have changed in 2022 is that there's VR technology that's been integrated in an MMO system, and nothing else.

In regard to the Lore, he mentions a flower later on in the story that had a name that could revive pets for some reason. Immediately in regard to that, however, I counter it with the fact that the flower being given the name does not necessarily mean there's a story behind it. You could name drop all you want, and it wouldn't actually mean anything to the greater story. The lore not really figuring into the game world when it's a death game, yeah, okay, that's something that might happen, but again, I bring up the fact that the lack of lore in this game world would be a serious mark against it with Beta Testers going in and playing it. They also bring up player-created lore, which may have been the possibility with this universe. Once again, though, it's never explored and it's never explained. Are we sensing a pattern here?

There's a lot of different things that could be the way things are done in this anime, but the big, gargantuan, hugely horrid problem with all of it is that it's never described in detail, nor is it really explored. The whole "Limited Resources" BS COULD have had a whole episode devoted to it, having Kirito catch sight of some noobs being forced to deal with much harder monsters because he and a bunch of other Beta Testers have been camping the easy spawn points. The attitudes of gamers of the time versus those of the past COULD have been made into an episode. Hell, a flashback episode COULD have covered the controversy that may have surrounded the NerveGear.

However, the point I can't emphasize enough is that this anime DID NOT TAKE THE TIME TO ACTUALLY EXPLORE THESE ISSUES WITH ITS STORY, WHICH CAN ONLY LEAD ME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE WRITERS DID NOT THINK OF THEM.

Attack on Titan: They're Not a Mystery Anymore (Ep. 2-8)

This was the point where I started liking some things going on in AoT, before being subsequently betrayed at episode 8, though there were some other things I feel like I didn't really discuss in detail.

During the training, we have this hand-to-hand combat training between Eren and a few other people who the show pretends matter but really don't. The hand-to-hand combat training by itself is kind of weird, but I think it's trying to build up to the whole "We were the monsters all along" BS that we know is coming later. Since the military police are an option in which you get to harass civilians, I suppose learning how to harass them is part of the skill set. 

Then there's this weird scene with this blonde chick whose name I completely forget who, because we needed another Edgirina McBadass that wasn't Mikasa, kicks Eren's ass and the ass of the other dude who was there. This pointless side character is barely explored, and honestly, I'm starting to recognize the purpose of these side characters, as much as I love Sasha the Potato Girl– they exist to pad the episodes. In the episodes I've seen up to this point, they serve basically no other purpose but to make the episodes longer, which is a real shame, because a few of them have far more interesting character arcs than Eren does, and as I've mentioned before, AoT suffers from abysmal pacing.

Also, I forgot how many of the slavers there were. Oops.

Sword Art Online: Ep. 2  

As much as I loved Diabel, there's something that I have failed to talk about, and that I think would be remiss if I did not address.

Why in the hell would he refuse treatment?

In any MMO, when you're in a raid, ideally, you don't want anyone to die on you. Ever. This is not even factoring in that this is a death game, this is just simple pragmatism. You want as many people up during a fight as possible, the more people there are, the more damage they can do. Diabel, by just letting himself die and refusing the use of a potion, just seems like an idiot here, rather than making a noble sacrifice.

Of course, this raises the question of the potions– where do they come from? Do you just buy them in towns? Are they expensive? Can players craft them? If they could, that'd be a really lucrative market. There's no magic in this universe, so I can only assume that items are the only way you can regenerate health, so shouldn't a raid be fully stocked with them before going into battle? Why didn't Diabel have one? Why was Kirito the only one who was carrying one with him? If he wasn't, why didn't anyone else rush to his aid? Were they fully stocked, but used them up in previous battles in the dungeon? Were the Kobold Lord and his flunkies the only monsters in the dungeon? What kind of dungeon only has 3 monsters?

Say it with me, folks.

IT'S NEVER EXPLORED, AND IT'S NEVER EXPLAINED.

Well, I guess that about does it for the Supplemental Log. I need a break from Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan.

Next time, I'm going to talk about Fairy Tail. Timere Defectum, everbody.

Attack on Titan belongs to Hajime Isayama. Sword Art Online belongs to Reki Kawahara. Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.