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Summary
Although far too many critics believe thatSword Art Onlineshould have persist in Aincrad , the franchise ’s final war inSword Art Online : Alicization War of the Underworld , set inSAO ’s fourth MMO environment , Underworld , could never have been as grand or as far - reaching as it was if writer Reki Kawahara complied with these critiques . In fact , Kirito ’s final battle against Akihiko Kayaba in Aincrad can be easy interpreted as whatSword Art Online ’s coda could have been if the story did n’t dead move into ALfheim Online ( ALO ) midway through time of year one , which would have been underwhelming by comparison to the true end that Kawahara envision .
Aincrad ’s story was inherently exclusionary , which gravely limited its potential . Those in Aincrad were trapped there and no one dared lay aside them for obvious reason . Akihiko Kayaba had manipulated the programming of his own world so that players whose avatars died in the game would pass out in genuine life and no one could exit once they dived in .
Sword Art Online ’s Underworld was the exact opposition . Anyone could go forth , and dying in the game would n’t kill them . This setup admit multiple different parties in the substantial world to get involved .
Aincrad Could Have Never Supported So Many Different Factions As Underworld Did
Before things flummox incredibly complicated , the net war in Underworld was already shaping up to be much grander in scale than anything that pass off in Aincrad . The U.S. had essentially hired Nipponese mercenaries to steal some coveted engineering inside Underworld for their own use . Moreover , the in - Earth characters from the game were cloned humans who were basically raised inside Underworld as part of a rarified experiment . So , the three convoluted parties in Underworld ’s last world were Kirito , real - world Japanese mercenaries hired by the U.S. , and clone human race from Underworld . This alone was already much more nuanced and complex than Aincrad ’s apparatus .
thing got even more complicated in Underworld , and Aincrad would n’t have been able to emulate any of it . The Nipponese mercenaries hired by the U.S. soon tricked gamers in China and Korea to sign in as members of the Dark Territory to serve them domesticise the waiter from Nipponese players who they wrongfully claim hacked the game . None of these actor would have ever agreed to dive into Aincrad , since it was well - known that those who did could die there . On the aerofoil , these might seem like much lower bet than dying in Aincrad . However , it is much more complex than that , much like how the franchise ’s divisive move into ALO allowedSword Art Onlineto get much more personaland better as a result even though no one ’s life was on the line .
Rather than having to concern about become flat , Underworld explored the duality between gamers and non - gamers . Sword Art Onlineis about gaming after all . Kirito ’s gamer acquaintances were need to change over their own avatar to dive into Underworld , which could result in those avatar being delete entirely . Kirito ’s acquaintances initially rejected the pass since they were being wooed by Sword Art Online survivors , and they believed these SAO survivors looked down on them . However , they finally yield once they try how the SAO survivors were stigmatized as gamers by society just like them .
Underworld Still Had Life-or-Death Stakes And Real-World Implications
destruction and material - world stakes were still on the table in Underworld . Even though the histrion from the genuine world were n’t at risk of infection of dying , the human clones who were arouse in Underworld confront the destruction of their world and themselves . Even if Kirito and his friends would n’t die , this mattered to viewers since they had just watched more episodes of Kirito interact with these character than he ever did with those in Aincrad . Moreover , the reason why Underworld ’s program was created introduce massive genuine - world conditional relation and even convey about philosophical and moral question about whether human rights can be attributed to clones .
As revealed in the concluding season , Underworld was part of a much expectant experiment to make human clones to replace human soldier in struggle . If complete , Japan would therefore have been capable to force these clone to contend war for them so man would n’t have to sacrifice themselves .
Underworld not only introduced post that could change the course of human story in the real reality , but even greatly expound what Aincrad ’s net battle could have ever trust of reach by allowing more real - world factions to be involved . While many critics wish thatSword Art Onlineremained in Aincrad , the last war in Underworld testify that moving beyond that first world was in the best interest group of the integral dealership .
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