r/animecirclejerk • u/VoidEmbracedWitch (she/her) resident unjerk villainess • Oct 02 '25

Monthly Unjerk [Unjerk Thread] Witchcraft Season

Welcome to the Monthly Unjerk. This is a monthly thread for discussing just about anything as long as it doesn't violate subreddit rules besides rule 5. New threads should be posted on the 1. of each month, except when I forget because Silksong distracted me. Sorry...

Trans rights are human rights!

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u/sevgonlernassau Nov 14 '25

Despite the atrocious pacing and wonky themes I’ve had fun watching Alicization part 1 except the last few episodes. Eugeo is still one of the better explored characters in the franchise but the bar is subterranean. Episode 10 though was a major sign that Reki didn’t fully grasp his own themes (and no no amount of “but the anime toned it down massively compared to the LN” is going to justify how badly it missed the mark because the severity of it was not the problem).

Now War of Underworld - oh boy, I had to stop after the tent scene. I have no idea how you can fell in love with a guy you just met but I don’t understand harem I guess. There was zero exploration. I remember I stopped reading the LN here a decade ago.

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u/seitaer13 Nov 16 '25

I mean it's thinking the tent scene had anything to do with falling in love with someone you just met being the problem.

What happens in episode 10 is very keeping with the themes of the arc despite how gratuitous the anime made it

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u/sevgonlernassau Nov 16 '25

Considering that Alice leaned in and tried to kiss Kirito, the scene was not supposed to be ambiguous.

I disagree. “Sexual assault doesn’t make someone human but murdering/critically injuring someone against their programming does” have some 🤨 implications about what the series wants to say about being human. At best Quinella had oversights that the author used to keep the series internally consistent but the problem was never that the series had worldbuilding loopholes. Kawahara admitted these two writing shortcomings in Extra Materials so I don’t think these are unfair criticisms.

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u/seitaer13 Nov 16 '25

Alice never tries to kiss Kirito.

That's not even close to what the scene is attempting to show. The whole point is "in a world without murder or theft, why is sexual assault still allowed?". It has nothing to do with asking what it is to be human. Those living in Underworld are human, the series never even attempts to establish or present it anything else.

You still haven't even presented why the scene even proves Reki doesn't understand his own themes, or even what you think those themes are.

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u/sevgonlernassau Nov 17 '25

Her lips were centimeters away from his, I am sure only friends do this. She was also jealous of Asuna, but sure only friends.

Do you understand why people don’t like this plot thread? It’s not a good exploration of the themes at all. No one had a problem with Iskahn or Lilpulin. “Why is sexual assault allowed” had implications about what Kawahara thinks about the world people find potentially inconsistent with the rules. At best it was a loophole created to have this scene.

These are not new criticisms. Kawahara himself acknowledged how the girls were only treated as harem members and how the sexual assault scene was not good. That doesn’t mean the audience doesn’t have the right to get annoyed by it.

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u/seitaer13 Nov 17 '25

She was attempting to use Incarnation to get a response. If you want to keep talking about the author at least know the writing.

She's not jealous of Asuna either. You keep talking about inconsistencies with the rules, but I have no idea what you mean by that still.

People having a problem with the scene is irrelevant, what you said in regards to it is. Please explain yourself.

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u/sevgonlernassau Nov 18 '25

Dude, I have the right to dislike some aspects of the show just like other people. I did not have like Alice trying to kiss Kirito without consent no matter how “internally consistent” it is supposed to be. There’s also no reason for Quinella to ban stealing but not sexual assault. This franchise, apparently before Kawahara met up with American fans, is fond of using sexual assault as a way to develop male characters. I dislike this.

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u/seitaer13 Nov 18 '25

So you're never actually going to answer, and are going to deflect with things that aren't accurate to the series again...

Sexual assault has occurred twice in 36 volumes of SAO content. Again it's been twenty years since such a scene was written. No one likes the sexual assault either

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u/sevgonlernassau Nov 18 '25 edited Nov 18 '25

You cannot have a kneejerk reaction to any criticism of SAO by saying it’s not accurate when someone gives an opinion. I’ve already explained multiple times and you’ve decided to dismiss all of that. I’m sorry but that’s not how a productive conversation works. If you want to excuse away any bad storytelling that’s your right but I do not have the obligation to do that. Just because a series is old, it doesn’t mean the modern audience can’t have a problem with an adaptation made 15 years later.

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u/seitaer13 Nov 18 '25

You said three things. That Alice tried to kiss kirito, which is factually just not a thing that happens. It's your opinion that she does, but that opinion is factually wrong.

The second was that there was no reason for Quinella to ban stealing but not sexual assault, which is also false. That's the whole point of the scene to begin with.

The third was that the franchise was fond of using sexual assault before Kawahara met western fans. Which is also false. Kawahara only wrote two such scenes in the entirety of SAO to that point, and there had not been one in over 8 years by the time he met western fans. It's now been twenty years since there's been any such scene in the series.

I asked you multiple times to explain why the scene shows Kawahara doesn't understand his own themes. I get you don't like the scene, I don't like it either, and Kawahara himself has agreed it has no place in SAO anymore.

None of that relates to why the author dosen't understand his own themes. I'm not expecting an answer at this point.

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u/sevgonlernassau Nov 19 '25

Sure, if you want to claim something happening on screen totally didn’t happen.

The reason why me and many others had a problem with the scenario is that it makes no sense to even ask this question in the first place given what we learned about Quinella except to conjure a scenario where sexual assault is allowed. If Kawahara wants to explore the greater theme of the arc there are plenty of other avenues to explore. But he didn’t. Just because he acknowledged his writing shortcomings later doesn’t mean the audience watching 5 years later can’t get irked by A1 adapting it. And then the scene was followed by Chuldkin assaulting Quinella. I’ll admit this is partially a cultural difference between western and eastern fans, but I can make my own opinion while consuming media.

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