Well that's just great, what am I supposed to do now?

There's always something special about the way a story is told, whether you notice it or not. Think about all the stories that are alike, and while you might want to keep telling yourself how they're the same and nothing's different, there can always be something different and special about each one. It's like if you were to compare each final fantasy game. They all are alike in many ways, but each one has something different and unique about it. You might not want to see it, but I sure can, and that's why I can appreciate most of them...some of them do have a black spot though.

Besides, with how many different stories and genres there are in today's world, I'd find it hard to believe that there wasn't something like this done before. I consider it good because I could get with each of the characters and understand where they were coming from, as well as understand why they are who they are. And I'm sure Pacific Rim will probably be remembered, but don't forget Ender's Game came out as a book how long ago? They just made an adaptation of a famous book, just like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

 

I don't expect Shakespeare (especially with anime lol.) I don't care that there's worse out there if I'm already investing time to watch something. Why I dislike Kirito is that he basically does nothing that literally anyone else would do in his place. He seems like he could have been pulled from any anime where he would have been a one-off character.

 

Doubtful.

By the way, is Ender's Game any good? I have yet to see it and I'm on the ball about it. :\

 

NOT BY ME

 

Trust me, I understand that every story is special. While just about every story told has the same formula (look up the monomyth for reference). There needs to be something to make it stand out from the rest though that makes it special. One show that I like is "Say I Love You". That could have been a very generic rom-com anime and it wouldn't have stood out to me. However, they went for the unconventional, took some risks, and I thought it was really great (although it's not one of the popular anime of 2012).

The reason I dislike SAO is because it did not take any risks. It was very generic otaku fodder that took itself a bit too seriously. SAO is based off a light novel as well, but that shouldn't matter. It takes someone who understands what makes the source material work, what the deep underlying theme is to pull off a successful film adaptation. Ender's Game could have been generic of a movie as Pacific Rim was, but the director/writer/everyone else involved knew what made it work and drew from that.

Let me dive into one other thing I don't like: The Hunger Games. I read all the books, and I thought that it was just "okay" but I wouldn't call myself a fan. My main problem is Katniss, who really doesn't get any developments in the books. I saw the first movie and I thought it was better than the book, but I didn't love it. Jennifer Lawrence brought a lot to the role that was missing from the books. While I'm not a fan of the books or the first movie, I can appreciate the work and effort that was put into the movie into making something different and meaningful.

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Have you seen Romeo x Juliet?[DOUBLEPOST=1384824646][/DOUBLEPOST]

I really loved it; one of the best movies of the year in my opinion (and I"m not that much into science fiction). I have not read the book, but the kid who plays Ender is a real talent. He captures what it really means to be that character.

Fair enough; everything is going to have its fans. And that's okay. I like things that other people will think lesser of, but there is something that draws me to it. I was talking about more of a mass than individual; I mean, I'll probably forget all about it in time.

All of this has been a discussion of taste, which is subjective from person to person.

 

I've seen Romeo x Juliet. It was pretty good. The dubbing was good, especially seeing how they threw in some Shakespeare quotes.

Don't know if I'll see it, all the trailers I've seen haven't really made me interested in it. So I'll probably wait 'til it comes out and watch it at home. Maybe. We'll see.

 

Yes, I really liked the dub for it; iambic pentameter (most of the time) along with great references. And William himself as a character.

Well, I've learned to not believe trailers. They're set up by people who have absolutely nothing to do with the production of the film (most of the time). They're job is to sell the film to the masses, so they will tend to lie. I only saw the Ender's Game trailer once when me and my dad went to go see the Metalica movie. I wasn't drawn in by it, it looked very generic to me, but my dad was captivated by it. He's what I would call the "target audience that the trailer wants" while I could care less for it.

My opinion of the film changed after I watched it, and seeing it was nothing like the trailer. There is rarely ever truth in advertising, and that's just my philosophy on trailers. I would personally say to go watch it in theaters because the visuals are that good, but there is so much more things in store that make the movie great.

 

Sadly Willaim wasn't a magician. If you get the reference you get a cookie.

It really boils down to what mood I am next time I want to go to the movies. Currently the movie highest on my priorities is the new Hunger Games movie.

 

That's fair. I only went to go see EG because my dad really wanted to see it. And while my modified post above talks about my views towards Hunger Games, I will say that the second book was the best in the series, so that's going to be somewhere on my radar. The one I'm looking forward to is The Delivery Man mostly because I really liked Starbuck (the movie its based on) and the same director is doing that.

 

Of course. I really like Korra and Naruto, so obviously I'm not always looking for some "Shakespeare quality" stuff lmao (although I think that's giving him too much credit, but that's probably my dislike of Romeo & Juliet coming through :v).

There are worse characters out there, and while that's something to consider, that doesn't necessarily negate the shortcomings of other characters. I liked the first season of SAO, it was nice. I think the overarching plot was tabled for a few episodes and suddenly brought back in full which led to some weird pacing and made the plot point of "getting to the top" abandoned. And then the second season I just felt so uninterested by. Shugo was a creep and the love "triangle" was something I just wanted to be rid of the moment it came up.

 

I actually liked the whole bit they took that wasn't fully about the getting to the top of the tower in the first half, because it let us see what happened during the normal days, or in some cases the not normal days, that occurred in the story. I remember reading the book and was completely lost because it was so short and it seemed to skip to the last bit right away. Granted, I wasn't a fan of the Yui episodes, but when am I ever a fan of drama? And I've seen worse, so maybe that's why I like it so much. I honestly couldn't see much wrong, because maybe I could just get what the guy was trying to do. There wasn't anything special about the characters, they were just normal people that ended up in a scenario that they had to cope with to get out of. Some might have acted the way Kirito did, some might not, but it all depends on who the person is. What some might consider a bland character might just be them wanting way more out of him just because they want something that isn't generic. But when you think about it, if you were to get trapped in that game for 2 years, how would you react? I'd probably take the same way Kirito did, and just fight my way through, but enjoy it for what it's worth.

 

It also bugged me that there was no urgency in beating the game, or it didn't feel that way. I mean, some people I've talked to about SAO say they would love to be in that situation, which makes me think back toward pandering to the crowd. I understand it be a person's fantasy, but the situation is supposed to have a lot more gravity, or a lot more than they imply. They don't really seem to care if they get out, do why should I as the audience care?

A test my script writing teacher does is that for any scene, if one of the characters just stops and give up on the main dilemma, does it change anything? If Kirito just decided to give in, would that have any affect on the show; I would have to say no. Obviously, there is no drive to return back home, so why should I care if they don't succeed?

And it doesn't matter what anyone else would do in that situation, we're dealing with Kirito. We're not following the crap happy adventures of tummer or Plums. Kirito is supposed to be the hero, it's supposed to be his journey to grow as a person. But there can't be transformation of someone who is complete cardboard. He is not a hero at all. You may say that's the point, and I like the reluctant hero as much as the next guy, but you have to write him the right way, and all the writing for SAO just felt lazy.

 

Normal people characters don't work with every sort of story, especially with the story we're given in Sword Art. It worked in Silent Hill 2, and The Walking Dead game series, and Last of Us, and Ano Hana. What kept those characters from being bland was how they reacted to their situations, developing to make up for their flaws (well, in Silent Hill 2, what ending you get really decides how James develops.) And we still got little moments to see the characters' personalities come out. They all seemed clearly motivated by something. Motivation is what drives a plot, and plot is where events unfold that make us hope that a character will succeed, and we also learn what qualities that character has. When Sword Art meandered from getting the game finished, what was used to fill in the gaps didn't show more of the character that affected the plot. The beginning episodes of Sword Art honestly were the anime's best, because we were seeing Kirito motivated and learning about his personality, but we don't ever see more of that kind of writing until (I feel like) the last 2 episodes, when I had already been giving up on the series and didn't give a damn about the characters.

 

THIS. EFFING THIS.

WHY ARE THEY EVEN HAVING NORMAL DAYS? IT'S A VIDEO GAME. IF THE POWER GOES OUT YOU DIE, WHY U RELAXIN?

 

Have you tried watching Log Horizon?

 

Dive Gear have internal batteries. And it is likely that by the time the battery would die players have already been brought to a hospital and that they would have been plugged into some machine or something so the battery would probably never die. They are more at risk of wasting away in their beds at the hospital to the point that they'll probably just drop dead in the real world. They were stuck in their for over two years, I think after the first month (which they hadn't even beaten the first floor in that time) they would have assumed that their batteries were not in danger.