First Impressions / Sword Art Online

「禁忌目録」 (Kinki Mokuroku)
“Taboo Index”

Well then — that escalated quickly.

General Impressions

Boy, where do I even start with this one? I guess to tackle the elephant in the room, let’s all get it out of our system that a genuine bon a fide rape almost occurred. Amongst it all, I think the part that really grinded my gears was how those two pieces of noble scum were using various in-game laws and protocols to literally force Eugeo to his knees. Thinking back to the moment where he was trying to get off his knees to draw his sword, I remember almost seeing red from just how frustrated I was with how the whole thing was going. Thankfully Eugeo was able to break past the programming that was inhibiting his ability to ignore the rules of the Underworld and was able to save both apprentices from having their “honor” stripped from them. That and I hope I wasn’t the only one who was cheering a bit when Kirito showed up in just the nick of time to really send the message to the remaining scumbag noble about what can happen if you think you’re above common morality.

That all said, what I think I might have enjoyed more than watching the two asshats get their comeuppance was seeing the programming of the Underworld breaking down with Kirito there to witness it. Seeing how he hasn’t learned about what happens to a fluctlight when their psyche experiences too much trauma, I really hope that the story will get an opportunity to really flesh out some of the specifics of the way the Underworld truly works.

Overall, I think you could say this was more of a “feel good, pay things off” episode. In terms of actual content there wasn’t all that much there, but what we did get was absolutely amazing. With little hints being dropped here and there and characters outside of the main cast revealing that they also know of some system preventing them from doing things, I was loving how the façade of the Underworld was slowly starting to break down when push came to shove. That and who would have thought that after all of this we’d get to see Alice of all people?! Hopefully we’ll get some more answers next week but until then, be safe and I’ll see you guys when then next episode airs!

 

Preview

52 Comments

  1. Those nobles were just goblins in disguise. Must kill all the goblins!

    Jokes aside, one thing which was weird this episode was how long it took Kirito to get there. He presumably saw the confrontation escalating so he want back to get his sword, but I would of thought he would of confronted the nobles before Eugeo got there.

    Yojimbo
    Reply

    2. Pretty sure Kirito went to the Page dorms, whereas Eugeo went directly to the Nobles room.

      Though it’s not exactly clear how far away the dorms and diciples rooms are.. They didn’t wait long after the bell to assume that something was up.. then again the only one who’s usually late for the reports was Kirito himself… and the weather had gone all stormy with a chance of rapey-danger…

      but the moment of his arrival was no less pinpoint than the plot required.. more cool points for K-dog

      defunkt_bots
      Reply

  2. What I think what happened at the end was the will to survive and the need to obey the Taboo Index conflicting with each other.

    They were programmed to obey the Taboo Index at all costs, but they are also programmed to be actual living beings and thus have a will to survive. In this case, to survive means breaking the Taboo Index and that’s a no-no. But not breaking it meant dying and that’s not an option either and so it went on.

    In short, he literally crashed due to a infinite looping error.

    Seph
    Reply

    1. It reminded me of what happens with Azimov’s robots when there is too much of a conflict between the Three Laws. For instance, if there was too much opposing pressure from the law of self-preservation (law 3), and a weekly stated command from a human (law 2). If the pressures were perfectly balanced, the robot would go into lock-up and the positronic brain would be ruined.

      Nasost
      Reply

  5. Oh god this is NTR material right here (upcoming NTR doujins are gonna be strong)…SAO isn’t SAO without some rape-y content isn’t it? That makes me wonder if what I heard about the author excusing himself for putting that in Alfheim (not only there…) was really true. Because I don’t see any reflection here, on the opposite it does seem like he made the rape even more intense in almost every sense of the meaning.

    Teletube
    Reply

  7. I guess to tackle the elephant in the room, let’s all get it out of our system that a genuine bon a fide rape almost occurred.
    I think SAO is one of the few times where I’d buy the argument against rape as a narrative element – mostly because the writer just keeps repeatedly hitting that as his benchmark for: “see how evil this dude is! He’s really bad, right!”.

    Some research would run off a significant list of historical ways nobility were far more disturbing when it came to punishing those who crossed them that could’ve been used there. Hell, if that’s too time consuming then go watch some Saw films if you need new ways to be disgustingly cruel to others. In this series, rape’s just lazily repetitive as a plot point now.

    dave_k
    Reply

  8. Listen, I believe when someone is miss treated you should speak out, especially when a couple of bad seeds are abusing laws to suit their needs and the nobles got what’s coming to them. However both Tiese and Ronie didn’t really speak out correctly did they? Ronie and Tiese confronted the Nobles thinking they won’t get attacked. (common mistake with the young) What’s worse is Tiese’s and Ronie’s action involved both Eugeo and Kirito and the cost was high.

    https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20-%2010%20-%2005.jpg

    RenaSayers
    Reply

  9. I don’t have a problem with rape in fiction. If you want to use it in a story by all means go ahead. If I recall correctly the reason Kawahara seems so fond of it is because it was a common element in stories he read in high school, but why do these people need to be so comically over-the-top evil?
    It’s a serious situation, portray it as such. You don’t have to go full Wolf Guy but it would make it more chilling and maybe even create some tension for once.

    Access
    Reply

  10. That was a difficult episdoe to watch but also a quite a good one in regards to the character growth for all of them. I am curious as to what will be the punishment for both our protagonists but all in due time i guess.

    Kurik
    Reply

  11. Many people in the comments were worried about what happen in this episode, then I started the episode, and that warning was what set me straight. Man, this was hard to watch. I mean, who’s to say the girls haven’t been traumatized, even if the rape was averted? That much blood pouring all over them must’ve done something to their psyche. And then that death scene. Woah, SAO has gone a bit of Goblin Slayer this episode.

    yoloalchemist
    Reply

      1. Well…

        You guys know “Robocop”? Where an Police Officer get killed and “reborn” within an Robot Body?

        He also had the “3 Absolute Laws” programmed inside him…

        So this Taboo Index is not new in the Movies world, but “new” for SAO

        Worldwidedepp
        Reply

  13. You should had seen pardon read the uproar in reddit about this rape scene..

    But in the end, it triggered the emotions that the producer wanted.. well nothing beats “instincts”

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

    1. The whole problem was that the two a$$holes were high-ranking nobles, so the Taboo Index first followed the law that nobles have the right to “discipline” anyone of lesser rank. “Discipline” has a very broad definition, so the only thing they probably couldn’t do was try to kill the girls.

      Some serious lack of foresight in this index…

      Aex
      Reply

    2. IMHO the situation with the taboo index is the logical conclusion of a system where high level characters outweigh dozens of lower level characters. The abuse of the system is exactly what happens if the high level characters are no good guys.

      I wonder if you can change or create the taboo index if you system authority is high enough. Somewhere that thing must come from.

      Enan84
      Reply

    1. It’s not like he really needed to do that either. There’s plenty of other ways you can make a bad guy a complete unredeemable ass. If you replay that rapey scene, you could replace the danger with something else easily enough and get the same reaction from Eugeo.

      Lyfe
      Reply

    2. And.. is SAO not an Virtual Online Game just with better Interface? So an Forcing rule on some Player?.. or is our Hero here an NPC?

      Or is the Real World VR something alike “the Matrix”?

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

    1. Which in this case is understandable. Using rape as a plot device is just terrible writing. It’s often so out of place from what proceeded. The same could be said for the Fairy Dance arc scene too.

      Lyfe
      Reply

      1. Apparently the writer grew up reading it and likes it. Honestly they took the job probably knowing the scene was there so I don’t see the issue, “sorry for making you adapt the material I wrote”? It is what it is, it’s obviously something he uses as plot points in his stories whether people agree with it or not.

        Ameri
        Reply

      2. The scene is entirely irrelevant to why A-1 took the job lol. Sword Art Online is one of the biggest anime franchises of the decade and a sure thing to bring in the $$$ for the studio.

        Lyfe
        Reply

      3. Oh and as for the Voice actors, I’d imagine they felt they had little choice but to voice the scene because it may harm their career prospects to pull out of a huge project like SAO. They may not have been light novel readers before being cast and didn’t know until the script was there that they would be involved in a rapey scene.

        Lyfe
        Reply

      4. I’m sure they’ll survive the trauma of being part of one of the most successful franchises in the world.

        Seriously, I find it annoying that people try to limit an author’s writing based on their own morality/taste. Either watch it or don’t, don’t complain about it though.

        Ameri
        Reply

      5. > Either watch it or don’t, don’t complain about it though.

        The author shouldn’t be immune from criticism. To suggest otherwise is absurd, people have a right to criticize bad writing.

        Lyfe
        Reply

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