daniel_gudman said:
Right now I've got Chapter Nine titled "Reunion" because that's when Klein and his Guild join the Front Lines.
In short, if I'm going to add someone, they have to have a different perspective on the Reveal than these people; otherwise they're redundant. There are more characters I've involved than are touched on here, but they all serve a similar purpose: that I'm building towards them all having different opinions about The Reveal.
The others have faced Magecraft as "the reason for my imprisonment and threat of death", but Yona is now experiencing Magecraft as "my imprisonment, and deeper level of Hell". The others at least get some feeling of empowerment from learning Magecraft they can actually use, but Yona is reduced to a rat in someone's maze experiment.
But there's someone with an even more distinct viewpoint that isn't on the list, and a suitable replacement for your Ayako concept: The girl out of whom Kayaba ripped an Element.
Just like your Ayako concept, she's unique among them all in being "a normal personal directly and painfully victimized by Magecraft, who has very personal reasons to oppose Kayaba".
Kirito is a "curious person" who will instinctively want to reveal everything and be held back only by fear of repercussions.
Argo is someone who compulsively digs things up just because she hates being ignorant. Similar to Kirito, but she might not necessarily feel obligated to share what she learns. She might be repulsed by the excesses of MA, but she's someone who might even join???
Argo is someone who compulsively digs things up just because she hates being ignorant. Similar to Kirito, but she might not necessarily feel obligated to share what she learns. She might be repulsed by the excesses of MA, but she's someone who might even join???
This reminds me of how Fate/Stay Night itself (or perhaps Rin herself; or was it just me, based on two throw-away lines?) once compared Shirou and Rin: Rin likes to win, and Shirou hates to lose.
That is, Rin prefers to pursue courses of action in which she will succeed. She's pragmatic, economical and just a bit egotistical and lazy like that. If she has no reasonable chance of achieving one goal and no pressing reason to keep going (or even begin to try), she tends to abandon it and choose something else to invest her time and energy into.
Shirou, by contrast, is dedicated to the point of pigheaded stubbornness. He appreciates people thanking or paying him for his actions, but he never does anything so that other people will reward him. He never chooses a goal based on whether he will succeed or fail, and he hates to abandon a course of action even when he's certain he will fail. Because if nothing else, trying and failing can make him wiser and stronger than before, so that next time he might succeed.
As a genius, Rin is just used to success being easy or at least assured, and she's not comfortable when it isn't. But Shirou is long accustomed to the idea that anything worth doing is likely to require gallons of blood, sweat and tears with almost nothing to show for it.
Since Argo is the Shirou in this contrast (against Kirito as Rin), and since she and Shirou are both weak against praise, I wonder if their relationship might grow into a deeply sympathetic friendship.
If Argo has lived by fighting for everything she can grasp, Shirou could at least understand what it's like to constantly struggle for something you want.
Diabel is someone who's first reaction to everything is "how can I use this". Maybe he thinks he's a good person and wants to be a good guy, but that's not the foundation of how I'm using him. Of everyone, he's ideologically closest to Shirou, but instead of minimizing harm he wants to maximize benefit (to himself).
Kibaou is a straightforward guy who hates deception and is clumsy with feelings. He'll distrust MA on principle and basically every objection and complaint he could imagine will be at least a little valid. So he'll be advocating for the dissolution of MA, and he won't be a straw man about it, even if he's a little inarticulate.
Kibaou is a straightforward guy who hates deception and is clumsy with feelings. He'll distrust MA on principle and basically every objection and complaint he could imagine will be at least a little valid. So he'll be advocating for the dissolution of MA, and he won't be a straw man about it, even if he's a little inarticulate.
Klein... is the kind of person that can understand the truth of human hearts
Well, thinking about this does seem to agree with how maturely Klein approached his friendship with Kirito. Klein's words to Asuna about Kirito on the 74th floor, and how Klein always tried reaching out to Kirito, because he never took each previous rejection personally. When Kirito abandoned him at the start, Klein graciously let him go with a smile.
Yes. If Ilya thinks she understands grace, she should see Klein put to the test. Though seeing true grace, she'd probably dismiss it as weakness.
Anyway, what about Sachi?
What about after SAO?
If I was going to use her, I've thought about promoting Ayako into the [Sleeping Knights], as someone that was severely injured during the Blood Fort Andromeda mysterious gas leak in the school; that would nicely explain how someone from the [sports faction] switched to the [videogame faction].
If I was going to use her, I've thought about promoting Ayako into the [Sleeping Knights], as someone that was severely injured during the Blood Fort Andromeda mysterious gas leak in the school; that would nicely explain how someone from the [sports faction] switched to the [videogame faction].
Ayako's condition is never specified and never comes up again in the Fate route, so what exact kind of damage Rider did to her is unknown. It might have only rendered her temporarily weak and unconscious, or it might have left her effectively brain-dead. It depends on whether Rider only sucked out a lot of her blood or life-energy, or drained her soul (and then it depends on whether souls recover from that kind of thing).
Either way, all we know is that Rider didn't outright kill Ayako, and put her out of commision for at least a few days.