>>280440925
Ah I see, its been a while since Ive seen OS. I used to hate the "retconning" about how 'achshually Kirito and Asuna were super close at one point so its not a forced romance in vol 1', but Ive come to now see these pieces as easter eggs or supplementary content instead now that I actually understand the nature of how the LNs writing and its structure influencing the various Aincrad stories
>>280441348
To be fair at least in the first episode its more of a "you (colloquially the playerbase in the town of beginnings, and loosely by extension the viewer) cant/wouldnt understand the reason I [Kayaba] forced you here until the game is beat, and until you can look back at all the memories and happiness and suffering and realize you did infact enjoy yourself and your time in Aincrad despite it all"
Because how would anyone understand why Kayaba would do it until they fully experience everything he created in game, at gunpoint (or swordpoint teehee) or not.
At face value its easy to disregard episode 1s explanation as a non important catchall for the in universe reason to the players, and for the viewer as just 'generic evil anime antagonist does thing because plot requires it"
That being said it does tie in with his final last comments to Kirito and Asuna, so the viewer who does not make the connection ends being an NPC who didnt actually pay attention
>turn their brains off
funny you say this because SAO is extremely enjoyable at face value especially when you turn your brain off
its mostly anime fans who tried to turn their brain on to critique the series and end up parroting whatever the anime youtuber of the week told them to think who hate it the most