Over time...stories change. Especially ones remembered on digital media. As the years go by, original hardware becomes legacy tech. Legacy tech becomes incompatible with modern hardware and the drives are forced to be ported over to something modern.
This is no different for our beloved story of Sword Art Online. As the records of the story drifted apart across different devices of various states of obsolescence and disrepair, an attempt was made by the state in cooperation with the descendants of the Kirigaya-Yuuki family to reassemble the story as an act of remembrance and respect to the heroes of now countless families spawned from the thousands freed from the death game: Kazuto and Asuna Kirigaya-Yuuki the "Champions of Sword Art Online" and blah blah blah...all the titles and praise and such. The problem with trying to pull it all together wasn't that it was difficult no, of course not. The art of navigating technology and code was an anchor of pride in the households birthed from the Black Swordsman and Lightning Flash. The problem arose when the story was shaved down, streamlined and assembled in a readable form. The story told was much less...heroic...much more desperate and reeked of decisions formed by youth strained to its limit. Stories of mental trauma, unhealthy relationships and reliance. Of suicide raids and bloodied hands.
This story...was much more expressive, emotional...raw...Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya seemed much less like the barely emotive, stone faced hero portrayed in the historical (and rather controversial) Light Novel and more like a shattered and broken teen, trying his best to maintain a leader persona within his safe haven turned madhouse. Desperately clinging to the questionable affections of an originally suicidal Asuna "Lightning Flash" Yuuki. And Asuna seemed less like the shining beacon of collected and calculated, tactical finesse she was portrayed as with the "KOB" guild she was with. She seemed more like a broken rich mans daughter, holding on to Kazuto with a death grip because he's the first man she's run into that's not a business partner or a pervert. Haplessly showering him with affection while sacrificing her own mental health in hopes that he'll stay. But maybe...Juuuust maybe...these changes are for the better...