1 Index
A hyperlinked list of good or important posts. A convenient reference to strong ideas that I, the author, rely on.
1.1 Chapter Plans
1.1.1 Chapters 1 - 3
1.1.2 Chapters 3 - 5 (tentative) (below some discussion)
1.1.3 Chapters 5 - 8 (plus Grimlock's betrayal plan)
1.1.4 Chapters 7 (plus Arc Plan 2)
1.1.5 Chapters 8 - 10
1.1.6 Chapter 10 (revisited)
1.1.7 Chapters 11 - 18 (first pass)
1.1.8 Chapters 11 - 19 (second pass); also "Meanwhile, Outside" first pass
1.1.9 Chapters 11 - 19 (third pass) + Griselda's Guild Current!
1.2 Arc Plans
1.2.1 SAO: Arc Plan 1.0
1.2.2 SAO: Arc plan 1.1 Current!
1.3 Content Discussion
(Spoiler-tagged to compress because it's pretty long).
2 Original Post
Recently I said something on the Random Ideas Forum:
As you might also be aware, I've also inflicted my opinions on Chronodekar's thing, Tohsaka Online.
Basically, I have come up with a premise for a Sword Art Online cross with Fate/Stay Night, and I want to run it by you folks.
2.1 Ilya route
While terminally ill, and hanging out in Shirou's house bored while he does school, Ilya gets into the beta test of SAO. When the game comes out, she bugs Shirou into playing with her, and Shirou gives her what she wants in the time remaining. Plus he's interested in the game because it's got "Sword" in the title although he's not 100% willin to admit that to his friends.
Prosaically, this means that UBW route (both) is disqualified because Ilya already came down with a case of the Deads. I'm not a super-big fan of Heaven's Feel, so that's kind of pushing me towards just using post-Fate route.
Plus Fate is the route where Shirou gained the least from Archer so he's got the most space to grow his Tracing in-story without having to push the envelope too much.
Also, if Ilya's remaining life span is ~1 year and the game takes at least 2 years to escape....
2.2 Kayaba actually gets a motive
Because human common sense is that "magic is not real", that "mythological beasts are just fiction", and that "Mana doesn't exist", that means that Alaya contradicts Gaia. It's not modern technology, it's not the vast human population; the reason why Gaia is in opposition with Alaya is because the vast majority of humans believe in a false paradigm. Low "soul weight" is a side effect of humans opposing the idea of Gaia and being continuously ground away by "world correction", not huge numbers. The increased incidence of Counter Force incursions is just the result of human knowledge being out of synch with the planet's nature.
How do you fix this? By dragging 10,000 people into a closed magecraft simulator and pumping out as many magecraft practitioners as you can, specialized in combat, to completely overwhelm the Enforcers when the simulation ends. Kayaba intends to blow the doors off the Masquerade by simply dumping 5,000-odd mages into modern society.
Anyway that's the thrust of Kayaba's speech at the end of Episode 1, when he begins the death game, gives everyone their "real" face, and enables the Magic skill system.
(...Does this mean that Kayaba's goal is something Kiritsugu couldn't even imagine: "saving everyone"? I like that because it punches Shirou in his metaphorical face.)
Whether he's correct about that or not is debatable (and, indeed, feel free to debate it!). The point is, rather then whether he's definitely truly right or not, he's confident enough in his hypothesis to bet 10,000 lives on it, and now Shirou has to deal with that. Not just the threat, but the ambiguity.
2.3 Separately from that,
I'm leaning towards Kayaba learned contract-magecraft in backstory from Zouken just to cut Mike off at the pass and let the Matou family, ie Sakura, be important later on; and do a kinda parallel with Kirito's family situation. The plot-advancing reason for Kayaba to do this would be, to create a soul-magic-based safety switch to allow players to activate their "virtual magic circuits" without accidentally reaching into their soul and activating their "real magic circuits", thereby giving out hints Kayaba doesn't want to give out (yet). Then when they clear the game they can activate their circuits on their own time.
I dunno whether Kayaba's gonna betray and/or murder Big Z or not (probably yeah just to make Kayaba a comparative good guy) but I'm also kind of wondering who you'd root for, between the following two, if Zouken decided to snatch Oberon's IRL body and wear his face.
Anyway,
What do you think?
What would Shirou get up to, especially in the first month when the body count is highest?
(I kinda want to run the "Never once understood" thing by him dramatically driving down the death count by hundreds, but in the process he accumulates a super-horrible reputation as a notorious kill-stealer, running around throwing himself into other peoples' fights).
Would Kayaba still play "Heathcliff" or not?
(I think he'd use it to push "magecraft" rather than run a clearing guild... if he thought people weren't chasing magecraft hard enough).
(Ah, if it's you're thinking about something like squaring the circle of integrating Tron with Sleep Learning Thaumatergy, I'd prefer you hypothesize how it could be done, not say it can't be done, okay Avider?).
Thoughts?
A hyperlinked list of good or important posts. A convenient reference to strong ideas that I, the author, rely on.
1.1 Chapter Plans
1.1.1 Chapters 1 - 3
1.1.2 Chapters 3 - 5 (tentative) (below some discussion)
1.1.3 Chapters 5 - 8 (plus Grimlock's betrayal plan)
1.1.4 Chapters 7 (plus Arc Plan 2)
1.1.5 Chapters 8 - 10
1.1.6 Chapter 10 (revisited)
1.1.7 Chapters 11 - 18 (first pass)
1.1.8 Chapters 11 - 19 (second pass); also "Meanwhile, Outside" first pass
1.1.9 Chapters 11 - 19 (third pass) + Griselda's Guild Current!
1.2 Arc Plans
1.2.1 SAO: Arc Plan 1.0
1.2.2 SAO: Arc plan 1.1 Current!
1.3 Content Discussion
(Spoiler-tagged to compress because it's pretty long).
1.3.1 Content Dump 1: Mundane Skills Only, Don't die even if killed, No Safe Zones, Magecraft Rules, Character's Magecraft Traits
1.3.2 Deathnotes: "What if SAO was Phase One?"
1.3.3 How Kayaba can give Circuits to Muggles IRL
1.3.4 Shadow Zeranion: On who Shirou should save in-game
1.3.5 Content Dump 2: Kayaba and Ilya, Kayaba's magecraft, in-game magecraft
1.3.6 Avider: Kayaba's offer to Ilya could be cooler
1.3.7 Shadow Zeranion: Game simplifications could be trouble? Answer: "Increased Realism"
1.3.8 Why I made Diabel more important
1.3.9 Player Factions: Bumps on a Log, The Army, Criminals, Clearers. Demographics. Disaster Arc proposed.
1.3.10 Happery: Crime doesn't pay (in the game), when will [Inventories] be removed?
1.3.11 Muramasa: who's gonna cure Yuuki?
1.3.12 Introducing the Minecraft Mod
1.3.13 Argo's story role. Runecraft, for Diabel.
1.3.14 "Mental Acceleration" isn't going to happen like in SAO canon.
1.3.15 On Shipping (relationships, not transportation infrastructure) (plus the origin of Sachi's Origin)
1.3.16 Vanigo: Could the Amusphere even be used for magitech? Deathwings: Sure why not
1.3.17 Hexadecimal, One Snow, Itagaki explained
1.3.18 Power Armor vs. Mystic Codes. Environmental Challenge Floors proposed
1.3.19 Gwonbush: Environmental Challenge Floors shouldn't be deadly
1.3.20 Mobile Bases like Charon suggested are a good idea. Posts following are Environmental Challenge Floor suggestions.
1.3.21 If you were Kayaba, how would you get people to learn magic?
1.3.22 Sunder the Gold: Magecraft Tutoring mechanic proposed
1.3.23 Lost Star: Ilya should become a Builder from Mission Creep
1.3.24 Argo, title, how to organize on ffnet
1.3.25 Where Lizbeth's guildmates came from
1.3.26 Content Dump: Possible equipment
1.3.27 Happery describes why "magecraft weakens as more people know it" doesn't make sense
1.3.28 Dead Players vs. Live Players
1.3.29 In-game magic systems
1.3.30 weapon crafting and steel
1.3.31 weapon crafting and way more about steel than you ever cared to know
1.3.32 Ravraxas: Hey there aren't any Arias.
1.3.33 Vanigo's popular Final Boss Fight idea
1.3.34 The Church and the Final Boss
1.3.35 Lost Star: "The Disaster" doesn't require "Remove Safe Zones"
1.3.36 loirit: "The Disaster" means players become responsible for safety instead of Safe Zones
1.3.37 Ravraxas: "Magecraft Heritages" could be a thing
1.3.38 Counting up people's elements
1.3.39 Nasuren: why remove Safe Zones?
1.3.40 Why I would add Ayako or other Fuyuki Kids
1.3.41 Estrecca: There were ranged weapons in the Beta
1.3.42 Timeline compared to outside the game (through chapter seven)
1.3.43 How Ayako was hurt in the VN, and how she could be used in the game
1.3.44 Kirei and Shirou. My assessment of Emiya Style Heroism using the Trolley Problem.
1.3.45 Brainstorming the 3rd Floor Boss
1.3.46 Maybe I'll collapse the currency called [Col]
1.3.47 Patent Mechanic proposed
1.3.48 loirit: Public vs. Private magecraft summarized
1.3.49 Starting a discussion on Ilya's magecraft
1.3.50 More on wishcraft, and answering Puncak re: Ilya vs. Masquerade
1.3.51 Puncak: Ilya and a magecraft theme
1.3.52 Grimlock is desperate and trapped
1.3.53 Seven-color Slimes and the 4th Floor Field Boss
1.3.54 Prospective Ranged Weapon Skills
1.3.55 Puncak: Add Ranged Weapons in the next arc
1.3.56 Ranged Weapons in Beta vs. in Launch
1.3.57 Summarizing how stakeholders will react to the Game End
1.3.58 Numerology, esp. Isopsephy
1.3.59 Content Dump: After SAO ends (tentative)
1.3.60 Ryune: Armored Core is better than Gundam (for a model)
1.3.61 Some Design Parameters for the "sequel"
1.3.62 Leidolf: Ideas for vs. Slime King
1.3.63 Leidolf: Does Grimlock not know the Emiya and Eiznbern names?
1.3.64 Ryune: Iteration of Mecha ALO replacement design
1.3.65 What should I do with Chapter 9.3?
1.3.66 Familiars Patch: Let's talk about it
1.3.67 Familiars in FSN canon; ideas for here
1.3.68 Lost Star: Familiars as a Spore Minigame
1.3.69 Lost Star: Kayaba might run out of RAM?
1.3.70 loirit: Learn about Ploys 1 & 2
1.3.71 Wing101: I think I'm gonna write spin-off fanfiction
1.3.72 About Wing's thing, then [The Disaster]
1.3.73 Puncak: On Familiars. Also, what's the definition of a homonculus anyway?
1.3.74 loirit: Learn about Ploys 3 & 4
1.3.75 lethum: Familiars and the Disaster
1.3.76 Lost Star: Most games would Nerfbat OP players
1.3.77 Vanigo: Why not make Zolgen the Familiarcraft teacher?
1.3.78 Nasuren: Should Kayaba be toughening Bosses in response to just Shirou?
1.3.79 Touching the Nerfbat give Kayaba hives. [Hard Mode] is proposed.
1.3.80 Spectrum: What could hard mode be?
1.3.81 Leidolf: Char concepts for my spinoff fanfic
1.3.82 Azure: Hard Mode is a bad idea (narratively)
1.3.83 Leidolf: If Shirou is too strong the Front Line could get complacent
1.3.84 Hardcore Heathen: Hard Mode is clunky. Maybe Kayaba offers direct bribes instead?
1.3.85 killeregglord: What if [Bumps on a Log] were part of Kayaba's KEIKAKU?
1.3.86 I don't like Hard Mode either. Responding to killeregglord and Azunth about The Disaster.
1.3.87 Shirou and Sword Familiars... and what I really wanted Hard Mode to be! Also what if Kayaba stole CT magecraft?
1.3.88 lethum: [Titled Players] proposed.
1.3.89 Nasuren: what if [Titled Players] conferred benefits on their friends?
1.3.90 Hard Mode summarized. [Titled Players] benefits package drafted. Title Candidates. Achievements.
1.3.91 Like an entire essay about builds and what builds characters are running
1.3.92 Spectrum: PoH's backstory from the webnovels
1.3.93 You get to read my complaints against PoH
1.3.94 Why I think PoH was bad character design
1.3.95 Deathwings catches my gag about Lind and Shirou (romantically???)
1.3.96 The [Skill Creator] at the heart of the "sequel"
1.3.97 Ravraxas: Effort vs. Cleverness vs. Talent
1.3.98 Stitching up "The Complete List of Magecraft"
1.3.99 Spells vs. Systems
1.3.100 What if Kayaba twisted Diabel's arm into solving the [Bumps on a Log] for him?
1.3.101 Ravraxas: Will Shirou give Argo an Azoth dagger?
1.3.102 Magician vs. Magus. Azoth for Argo. What should I do to Kuradeel?
1.3.103 Ravraxis: Ways Kuradeel could be a Special Snowflake
1.3.104 killeregglord: ideas re: Argo, Kirito, and Shirou run a quest
1.3.105 Wandering Airhead: Dead Players and PvP, what about them?
1.3.106 Trying to quantify how much PKing there could be
1.3.107 Tonaris: Magecraft changes the body?
1.3.108 I think I'm just gonna drop the Argo-Shirou-Kirito quest in chapter 10
1.3.109 Leidolf: I'm more interested in the aftermath of chapter 10
1.3.110 Nephirin: Ilya and Transference of Conciousness
1.3.111 Ravraxas and Haperry: On how good the BSM would be, as a guild
1.3.112 Hardcore Heathen: Responses to first pass 11-18 chapter plan
1.3.113 Ravraxas: Would a Rare Element be a handicap in its own way?
1.3.114 Hardcore Heathen: Wishlist response: Bounded Fields and Character utilization
1.3.115 Valient: Why is Kirito even joining the Black Cats anyway?
1.3.116 My response to Valient, also some musing re: Kuradeel
1.3.117 Haperry: re: Chapter Plan 11-19 v2: Needs more Griselda
1.3.118 Drachasor: How to balance against Titled Players without the Nerf Bat
1.3.119 My big post re: Reader Q&A, Griselda, Black Cats, Chapter 11, Ilya's Pokemon
1.3.120 Griselda should pick a guild name that really bugs Grimlock
1.3.121 Waver's totally gonna be in the post-SAO arc
1.3.122 Q&A: Beach floor, power armor
1.3.123 Q&A: Ilya's Title, huge beach crabs, how Paladins get strong (meetings)
1.3.124 Q&A: Titles, Beach Episode + Creepy Boss, why kill Sacchi?
1.3.125 Drachasor and Leidolf: should Shirou teach people how to fight?
1.3.126 Mokofooja: people should use magecraft to repair items.
1.3.127 Ryune: how do you weaponize Projection?
1.3.128 Q&A: Repair magecraft; why even use Projection? Projection vs. Tracing; Gemcraft.
1.3.129 Origins: "Ignorant" to "Aware" spectrum.
1.3.130 loirit: sauce on werewolves.
1.3.131 Origin and characterization.
1.3.132 Leidolf: How do guilds handle secret magic? Also story events: 25th Floor Boss decided.
1.3.133 lask: Kayaba should kill Grimlock ASAP.
1.3.134 Maybe Kuradeel will be the hero of the Sugou arc.
1.3.135 lask: Proposing Floor Boss Kerry.
1.3.136 Soliciting concepts for 11.3, Griselda's first quest
1.3.137 Ravraxis: What will Ilya be doing in the endgame?
1.3.138 loirit: sauce on Avalon's DRM settings.
1.3.139 alguAlpaca: motivation for [Dead Players]
1.3.140 Responding to aA. Going back to Griselda and Friends.
1.3.141 Charon: NPC options, Players questioning Shirou & Ilya's abilities
1.3.142 MasalaQuaker: What ever happened to Sella and Leys anyway?
1.3.143 zerohour: Rin in SAO
1.3.144 Q&A: Rin vs Internet; Servant-stuff in-game
1.3.145 ice2215 and zerohour: moar Rin vs. Internet
1.3.146 8FB and 9F design
1.3.147 MasalaQuaker: 8FB = Orc Leader; 9F = Ice Floor
1.3.148 Leidolf: on Schmitt's debut
1.3.149 Q&A; then 8FB design (Orc King) and refugees on 9th Floor?, 9th Floor as cracked Ice sheets
1.3.150 Synthesizing feedback: 9th Floor design, Ilya's vassals; demihumans
1.3.151 TSB: give Ilya an abandoned castle
1.3.152 NPC minions, abandoned castle quest
1.3.153 Revlid: what about FF-style Blue Magic?
1.3.154 Revlid: musings on the MA's backstory
1.3.155 Q&A: hirelings, MA history, why even keep magecraft secret?
1.3..156 linkyhyrule5: Kirito is a special snowflake because of reaction speed, right?
1.3.157 fast rxn speed doesn't impress me much; also, on Origin determination
1.3.158 Nasuren: why didn't Kayaba just kidnap some priests to use?
1.3.159 Chapter plan addendum: omakes, 11-19
/up to page 81
1.3.160 Revlid: Traits, Feedback on Gorm
1.3.161 Abendroth: dungeon idea: Magus' Workshop
1.3.162 What should anti-cold magic even be?
1.3.163 Vanigo: Anti-Cold: Better Insulation, Heating, Cold Tolerance Trait
1.3.164 Revlid: SAO as a game vs SAO as Kayaba's Experiment
1.3.165 I think the Floating Castle was probably just the start
1.3.166 Design of the Black Cats
1.3.167 How Sugu could meet Taiga
1.3.168 linkhyrule: Should Sacchi be good at archery?
1.3.169 I probably won't be using Tsukihime characters
1.3.170 I'm against Sacchi being good at Archery
1.3.171 Rare Element candidates & their place in the Chapter Plan
1.3.172 Why 137 was special; Superior Composite Numbers
1.3.173 Revlid: On Rosalia's character; roll her into Captain Eyeballs
1.3.174 Some boss concepts
1.3.175 Wavelet: It's too early for more Titled Characters
1.3.176 Amodelsino: Shirou Probably doesn't know Ilya is sick
1.3.177 wakshazi: “Solo a boss†= “Get a Titleâ€
1.3.178 Vanigo: It makes sense Argo is using Fake Circuits more than Real Magusses
1.3.179 Nepherin: In the game, it wasn't really creating a Fake Circuit
1.3.180 Q&A re: Black Cats, my view on Fake Circuits
1.3.181 Ravraxas: What does it mean to be a good magus?
1.3.182 Mage Assocation vs. SAO survivors
1.3.183 Revlid: What would the Mage Associations even be like, anyway?
1.3.184 Wavelet: MA is for Secret-Keeping, and Second Owning spiritual lands
1.3.185 Shirou v Bazette; Statute of Secrecy; Enforcer workload; igloo in 12.3
1.3.186 Sakura Route concept
1.3.187 My position on Conservation of Mystery
1.3.188 Pucak: “Super Elephants†was a prank by food; Mystery
1.3.189 Chapter 13 planning
1.3.190 happery: use 13.1 to show off Black Cat's ether chops
1.3.191 wakshazi: mithril is a thing in the nasuverse
1.3.192 Jorlem: make the 13.3 boss a roc
1.3.193 SlvrCrystalC: terrorbirds
1.3.194 Ancienter animals on higher floors
1.3.195 Wandering Airhead: Theories on what Grimlock thinks Kayaba is doing
1.3.196 linkhyrule: Here's some typos from rereading the story
1.3.197 Hostages; Slime King; Rare Elements; Final Boss
1.3.198 Revlid: Behemoth = “Heavyâ€
1.3.199 TSB: could you imprison Red Players?
1.3.200 What I want Behemoth to be
1.3.201 Revlid: What are Sorcery Traits?; Rare Element Ideas; SAO side-material characters
1.3.202 Lind vs canon timeline; my response to Revlid re: Rare Elements, Sorcery Traits
1.3.203 Revlid: Maybe use Monji Gatou?
1.3.204 Shadow Zeranion: Backstory of Tohsaka and Edelfelts
1.3.205 I don't want to use Fate/Extra characters
/up to 100
1.3.2 Deathnotes: "What if SAO was Phase One?"
1.3.3 How Kayaba can give Circuits to Muggles IRL
1.3.4 Shadow Zeranion: On who Shirou should save in-game
1.3.5 Content Dump 2: Kayaba and Ilya, Kayaba's magecraft, in-game magecraft
1.3.6 Avider: Kayaba's offer to Ilya could be cooler
1.3.7 Shadow Zeranion: Game simplifications could be trouble? Answer: "Increased Realism"
1.3.8 Why I made Diabel more important
1.3.9 Player Factions: Bumps on a Log, The Army, Criminals, Clearers. Demographics. Disaster Arc proposed.
1.3.10 Happery: Crime doesn't pay (in the game), when will [Inventories] be removed?
1.3.11 Muramasa: who's gonna cure Yuuki?
1.3.12 Introducing the Minecraft Mod
1.3.13 Argo's story role. Runecraft, for Diabel.
1.3.14 "Mental Acceleration" isn't going to happen like in SAO canon.
1.3.15 On Shipping (relationships, not transportation infrastructure) (plus the origin of Sachi's Origin)
1.3.16 Vanigo: Could the Amusphere even be used for magitech? Deathwings: Sure why not
1.3.17 Hexadecimal, One Snow, Itagaki explained
1.3.18 Power Armor vs. Mystic Codes. Environmental Challenge Floors proposed
1.3.19 Gwonbush: Environmental Challenge Floors shouldn't be deadly
1.3.20 Mobile Bases like Charon suggested are a good idea. Posts following are Environmental Challenge Floor suggestions.
1.3.21 If you were Kayaba, how would you get people to learn magic?
1.3.22 Sunder the Gold: Magecraft Tutoring mechanic proposed
1.3.23 Lost Star: Ilya should become a Builder from Mission Creep
1.3.24 Argo, title, how to organize on ffnet
1.3.25 Where Lizbeth's guildmates came from
1.3.26 Content Dump: Possible equipment
1.3.27 Happery describes why "magecraft weakens as more people know it" doesn't make sense
1.3.28 Dead Players vs. Live Players
1.3.29 In-game magic systems
1.3.30 weapon crafting and steel
1.3.31 weapon crafting and way more about steel than you ever cared to know
1.3.32 Ravraxas: Hey there aren't any Arias.
1.3.33 Vanigo's popular Final Boss Fight idea
1.3.34 The Church and the Final Boss
1.3.35 Lost Star: "The Disaster" doesn't require "Remove Safe Zones"
1.3.36 loirit: "The Disaster" means players become responsible for safety instead of Safe Zones
1.3.37 Ravraxas: "Magecraft Heritages" could be a thing
1.3.38 Counting up people's elements
1.3.39 Nasuren: why remove Safe Zones?
1.3.40 Why I would add Ayako or other Fuyuki Kids
1.3.41 Estrecca: There were ranged weapons in the Beta
1.3.42 Timeline compared to outside the game (through chapter seven)
1.3.43 How Ayako was hurt in the VN, and how she could be used in the game
1.3.44 Kirei and Shirou. My assessment of Emiya Style Heroism using the Trolley Problem.
1.3.45 Brainstorming the 3rd Floor Boss
1.3.46 Maybe I'll collapse the currency called [Col]
1.3.47 Patent Mechanic proposed
1.3.48 loirit: Public vs. Private magecraft summarized
1.3.49 Starting a discussion on Ilya's magecraft
1.3.50 More on wishcraft, and answering Puncak re: Ilya vs. Masquerade
1.3.51 Puncak: Ilya and a magecraft theme
1.3.52 Grimlock is desperate and trapped
1.3.53 Seven-color Slimes and the 4th Floor Field Boss
1.3.54 Prospective Ranged Weapon Skills
1.3.55 Puncak: Add Ranged Weapons in the next arc
1.3.56 Ranged Weapons in Beta vs. in Launch
1.3.57 Summarizing how stakeholders will react to the Game End
1.3.58 Numerology, esp. Isopsephy
1.3.59 Content Dump: After SAO ends (tentative)
1.3.60 Ryune: Armored Core is better than Gundam (for a model)
1.3.61 Some Design Parameters for the "sequel"
1.3.62 Leidolf: Ideas for vs. Slime King
1.3.63 Leidolf: Does Grimlock not know the Emiya and Eiznbern names?
1.3.64 Ryune: Iteration of Mecha ALO replacement design
1.3.65 What should I do with Chapter 9.3?
1.3.66 Familiars Patch: Let's talk about it
1.3.67 Familiars in FSN canon; ideas for here
1.3.68 Lost Star: Familiars as a Spore Minigame
1.3.69 Lost Star: Kayaba might run out of RAM?
1.3.70 loirit: Learn about Ploys 1 & 2
1.3.71 Wing101: I think I'm gonna write spin-off fanfiction
1.3.72 About Wing's thing, then [The Disaster]
1.3.73 Puncak: On Familiars. Also, what's the definition of a homonculus anyway?
1.3.74 loirit: Learn about Ploys 3 & 4
1.3.75 lethum: Familiars and the Disaster
1.3.76 Lost Star: Most games would Nerfbat OP players
1.3.77 Vanigo: Why not make Zolgen the Familiarcraft teacher?
1.3.78 Nasuren: Should Kayaba be toughening Bosses in response to just Shirou?
1.3.79 Touching the Nerfbat give Kayaba hives. [Hard Mode] is proposed.
1.3.80 Spectrum: What could hard mode be?
1.3.81 Leidolf: Char concepts for my spinoff fanfic
1.3.82 Azure: Hard Mode is a bad idea (narratively)
1.3.83 Leidolf: If Shirou is too strong the Front Line could get complacent
1.3.84 Hardcore Heathen: Hard Mode is clunky. Maybe Kayaba offers direct bribes instead?
1.3.85 killeregglord: What if [Bumps on a Log] were part of Kayaba's KEIKAKU?
1.3.86 I don't like Hard Mode either. Responding to killeregglord and Azunth about The Disaster.
1.3.87 Shirou and Sword Familiars... and what I really wanted Hard Mode to be! Also what if Kayaba stole CT magecraft?
1.3.88 lethum: [Titled Players] proposed.
1.3.89 Nasuren: what if [Titled Players] conferred benefits on their friends?
1.3.90 Hard Mode summarized. [Titled Players] benefits package drafted. Title Candidates. Achievements.
1.3.91 Like an entire essay about builds and what builds characters are running
1.3.92 Spectrum: PoH's backstory from the webnovels
1.3.93 You get to read my complaints against PoH
1.3.94 Why I think PoH was bad character design
1.3.95 Deathwings catches my gag about Lind and Shirou (romantically???)
1.3.96 The [Skill Creator] at the heart of the "sequel"
1.3.97 Ravraxas: Effort vs. Cleverness vs. Talent
1.3.98 Stitching up "The Complete List of Magecraft"
1.3.99 Spells vs. Systems
1.3.100 What if Kayaba twisted Diabel's arm into solving the [Bumps on a Log] for him?
1.3.101 Ravraxas: Will Shirou give Argo an Azoth dagger?
1.3.102 Magician vs. Magus. Azoth for Argo. What should I do to Kuradeel?
1.3.103 Ravraxis: Ways Kuradeel could be a Special Snowflake
1.3.104 killeregglord: ideas re: Argo, Kirito, and Shirou run a quest
1.3.105 Wandering Airhead: Dead Players and PvP, what about them?
1.3.106 Trying to quantify how much PKing there could be
1.3.107 Tonaris: Magecraft changes the body?
1.3.108 I think I'm just gonna drop the Argo-Shirou-Kirito quest in chapter 10
1.3.109 Leidolf: I'm more interested in the aftermath of chapter 10
1.3.110 Nephirin: Ilya and Transference of Conciousness
1.3.111 Ravraxas and Haperry: On how good the BSM would be, as a guild
1.3.112 Hardcore Heathen: Responses to first pass 11-18 chapter plan
1.3.113 Ravraxas: Would a Rare Element be a handicap in its own way?
1.3.114 Hardcore Heathen: Wishlist response: Bounded Fields and Character utilization
1.3.115 Valient: Why is Kirito even joining the Black Cats anyway?
1.3.116 My response to Valient, also some musing re: Kuradeel
1.3.117 Haperry: re: Chapter Plan 11-19 v2: Needs more Griselda
1.3.118 Drachasor: How to balance against Titled Players without the Nerf Bat
1.3.119 My big post re: Reader Q&A, Griselda, Black Cats, Chapter 11, Ilya's Pokemon
1.3.120 Griselda should pick a guild name that really bugs Grimlock
1.3.121 Waver's totally gonna be in the post-SAO arc
1.3.122 Q&A: Beach floor, power armor
1.3.123 Q&A: Ilya's Title, huge beach crabs, how Paladins get strong (meetings)
1.3.124 Q&A: Titles, Beach Episode + Creepy Boss, why kill Sacchi?
1.3.125 Drachasor and Leidolf: should Shirou teach people how to fight?
1.3.126 Mokofooja: people should use magecraft to repair items.
1.3.127 Ryune: how do you weaponize Projection?
1.3.128 Q&A: Repair magecraft; why even use Projection? Projection vs. Tracing; Gemcraft.
1.3.129 Origins: "Ignorant" to "Aware" spectrum.
1.3.130 loirit: sauce on werewolves.
1.3.131 Origin and characterization.
1.3.132 Leidolf: How do guilds handle secret magic? Also story events: 25th Floor Boss decided.
1.3.133 lask: Kayaba should kill Grimlock ASAP.
1.3.134 Maybe Kuradeel will be the hero of the Sugou arc.
1.3.135 lask: Proposing Floor Boss Kerry.
1.3.136 Soliciting concepts for 11.3, Griselda's first quest
1.3.137 Ravraxis: What will Ilya be doing in the endgame?
1.3.138 loirit: sauce on Avalon's DRM settings.
1.3.139 alguAlpaca: motivation for [Dead Players]
1.3.140 Responding to aA. Going back to Griselda and Friends.
1.3.141 Charon: NPC options, Players questioning Shirou & Ilya's abilities
1.3.142 MasalaQuaker: What ever happened to Sella and Leys anyway?
1.3.143 zerohour: Rin in SAO
1.3.144 Q&A: Rin vs Internet; Servant-stuff in-game
1.3.145 ice2215 and zerohour: moar Rin vs. Internet
1.3.146 8FB and 9F design
1.3.147 MasalaQuaker: 8FB = Orc Leader; 9F = Ice Floor
1.3.148 Leidolf: on Schmitt's debut
1.3.149 Q&A; then 8FB design (Orc King) and refugees on 9th Floor?, 9th Floor as cracked Ice sheets
1.3.150 Synthesizing feedback: 9th Floor design, Ilya's vassals; demihumans
1.3.151 TSB: give Ilya an abandoned castle
1.3.152 NPC minions, abandoned castle quest
1.3.153 Revlid: what about FF-style Blue Magic?
1.3.154 Revlid: musings on the MA's backstory
1.3.155 Q&A: hirelings, MA history, why even keep magecraft secret?
1.3..156 linkyhyrule5: Kirito is a special snowflake because of reaction speed, right?
1.3.157 fast rxn speed doesn't impress me much; also, on Origin determination
1.3.158 Nasuren: why didn't Kayaba just kidnap some priests to use?
1.3.159 Chapter plan addendum: omakes, 11-19
/up to page 81
1.3.160 Revlid: Traits, Feedback on Gorm
1.3.161 Abendroth: dungeon idea: Magus' Workshop
1.3.162 What should anti-cold magic even be?
1.3.163 Vanigo: Anti-Cold: Better Insulation, Heating, Cold Tolerance Trait
1.3.164 Revlid: SAO as a game vs SAO as Kayaba's Experiment
1.3.165 I think the Floating Castle was probably just the start
1.3.166 Design of the Black Cats
1.3.167 How Sugu could meet Taiga
1.3.168 linkhyrule: Should Sacchi be good at archery?
1.3.169 I probably won't be using Tsukihime characters
1.3.170 I'm against Sacchi being good at Archery
1.3.171 Rare Element candidates & their place in the Chapter Plan
1.3.172 Why 137 was special; Superior Composite Numbers
1.3.173 Revlid: On Rosalia's character; roll her into Captain Eyeballs
1.3.174 Some boss concepts
1.3.175 Wavelet: It's too early for more Titled Characters
1.3.176 Amodelsino: Shirou Probably doesn't know Ilya is sick
1.3.177 wakshazi: “Solo a boss†= “Get a Titleâ€
1.3.178 Vanigo: It makes sense Argo is using Fake Circuits more than Real Magusses
1.3.179 Nepherin: In the game, it wasn't really creating a Fake Circuit
1.3.180 Q&A re: Black Cats, my view on Fake Circuits
1.3.181 Ravraxas: What does it mean to be a good magus?
1.3.182 Mage Assocation vs. SAO survivors
1.3.183 Revlid: What would the Mage Associations even be like, anyway?
1.3.184 Wavelet: MA is for Secret-Keeping, and Second Owning spiritual lands
1.3.185 Shirou v Bazette; Statute of Secrecy; Enforcer workload; igloo in 12.3
1.3.186 Sakura Route concept
1.3.187 My position on Conservation of Mystery
1.3.188 Pucak: “Super Elephants†was a prank by food; Mystery
1.3.189 Chapter 13 planning
1.3.190 happery: use 13.1 to show off Black Cat's ether chops
1.3.191 wakshazi: mithril is a thing in the nasuverse
1.3.192 Jorlem: make the 13.3 boss a roc
1.3.193 SlvrCrystalC: terrorbirds
1.3.194 Ancienter animals on higher floors
1.3.195 Wandering Airhead: Theories on what Grimlock thinks Kayaba is doing
1.3.196 linkhyrule: Here's some typos from rereading the story
1.3.197 Hostages; Slime King; Rare Elements; Final Boss
1.3.198 Revlid: Behemoth = “Heavyâ€
1.3.199 TSB: could you imprison Red Players?
1.3.200 What I want Behemoth to be
1.3.201 Revlid: What are Sorcery Traits?; Rare Element Ideas; SAO side-material characters
1.3.202 Lind vs canon timeline; my response to Revlid re: Rare Elements, Sorcery Traits
1.3.203 Revlid: Maybe use Monji Gatou?
1.3.204 Shadow Zeranion: Backstory of Tohsaka and Edelfelts
1.3.205 I don't want to use Fate/Extra characters
/up to 100
2 Original Post
Recently I said something on the Random Ideas Forum:
daniel_gudman said:
I got to wondering "why would the F/SN crew seriously get involved in SAO anyway", and here's the answer I came up with:
Ilya likes to play video games, and since she's dying anyway, Shirou was more than willing to play that new VR game with her.
Ilya likes to play video games, and since she's dying anyway, Shirou was more than willing to play that new VR game with her.
Basically, I have come up with a premise for a Sword Art Online cross with Fate/Stay Night, and I want to run it by you folks.
2.1 Ilya route
While terminally ill, and hanging out in Shirou's house bored while he does school, Ilya gets into the beta test of SAO. When the game comes out, she bugs Shirou into playing with her, and Shirou gives her what she wants in the time remaining. Plus he's interested in the game because it's got "Sword" in the title although he's not 100% willin to admit that to his friends.
Prosaically, this means that UBW route (both) is disqualified because Ilya already came down with a case of the Deads. I'm not a super-big fan of Heaven's Feel, so that's kind of pushing me towards just using post-Fate route.
Plus Fate is the route where Shirou gained the least from Archer so he's got the most space to grow his Tracing in-story without having to push the envelope too much.
Also, if Ilya's remaining life span is ~1 year and the game takes at least 2 years to escape....
2.2 Kayaba actually gets a motive
Because human common sense is that "magic is not real", that "mythological beasts are just fiction", and that "Mana doesn't exist", that means that Alaya contradicts Gaia. It's not modern technology, it's not the vast human population; the reason why Gaia is in opposition with Alaya is because the vast majority of humans believe in a false paradigm. Low "soul weight" is a side effect of humans opposing the idea of Gaia and being continuously ground away by "world correction", not huge numbers. The increased incidence of Counter Force incursions is just the result of human knowledge being out of synch with the planet's nature.
How do you fix this? By dragging 10,000 people into a closed magecraft simulator and pumping out as many magecraft practitioners as you can, specialized in combat, to completely overwhelm the Enforcers when the simulation ends. Kayaba intends to blow the doors off the Masquerade by simply dumping 5,000-odd mages into modern society.
Anyway that's the thrust of Kayaba's speech at the end of Episode 1, when he begins the death game, gives everyone their "real" face, and enables the Magic skill system.
(...Does this mean that Kayaba's goal is something Kiritsugu couldn't even imagine: "saving everyone"? I like that because it punches Shirou in his metaphorical face.)
Whether he's correct about that or not is debatable (and, indeed, feel free to debate it!). The point is, rather then whether he's definitely truly right or not, he's confident enough in his hypothesis to bet 10,000 lives on it, and now Shirou has to deal with that. Not just the threat, but the ambiguity.
2.3 Separately from that,
I'm leaning towards Kayaba learned contract-magecraft in backstory from Zouken just to cut Mike off at the pass and let the Matou family, ie Sakura, be important later on; and do a kinda parallel with Kirito's family situation. The plot-advancing reason for Kayaba to do this would be, to create a soul-magic-based safety switch to allow players to activate their "virtual magic circuits" without accidentally reaching into their soul and activating their "real magic circuits", thereby giving out hints Kayaba doesn't want to give out (yet). Then when they clear the game they can activate their circuits on their own time.
I dunno whether Kayaba's gonna betray and/or murder Big Z or not (probably yeah just to make Kayaba a comparative good guy) but I'm also kind of wondering who you'd root for, between the following two, if Zouken decided to snatch Oberon's IRL body and wear his face.
Anyway,
What do you think?
What would Shirou get up to, especially in the first month when the body count is highest?
(I kinda want to run the "Never once understood" thing by him dramatically driving down the death count by hundreds, but in the process he accumulates a super-horrible reputation as a notorious kill-stealer, running around throwing himself into other peoples' fights).
Would Kayaba still play "Heathcliff" or not?
(I think he'd use it to push "magecraft" rather than run a clearing guild... if he thought people weren't chasing magecraft hard enough).
(Ah, if it's you're thinking about something like squaring the circle of integrating Tron with Sleep Learning Thaumatergy, I'd prefer you hypothesize how it could be done, not say it can't be done, okay Avider?).
Thoughts?