Update #3

So, this isn't a real chapter, obviously. This is my third update, technically second, as I wouldn't really count the last update, it being a "teaser" and all. Anyway, I had some developments that I wanted to get off my chest. First off all, I hope everyone who read my adaptation of World of Guns enjoyed it.

Thank you to Naruto and to Rakateition for leaving reviews on Chapter One. Rakateition, I don't recall seeing you review for the first story, but nevertheless, glad to have you here. Naruto, your reviews have always been great to read, so I'm glad to have you back, as well. So, about these developments I mentioned.

About a year ago, I told everyone that I was done with SAO and at the time, I believed those words. And now, I'm not entirely sure that I still harbor those feelings. Recently, after finally getting back to watching SAO: Alicization with a friend of mine (which took way too damn long in retrospect) and picking up the light novels again (just began reading SAO Volume 18: Alicization Lasting, for anyone who's curious), I remembered how much I love SAO.

I pretty much fell in love with in all over again. I think at this point, I want to give this whole thing another try. My intention was to write my adaptation of Season Two and then maybe call it done. But I don't think I want to do just that now. I'm going to go ahead with the plan that I originally had. Not only am I going to adapt Phantom Bullet, Calibur and Mother's Rosario, but I'm going to find a way to adapt Ordinal Scale, Alicization and War of Underworld.

I have a couple of ideas for Alicization and War of Underworld, not a lot, but a couple. But just a couple is okay. That's kind of how ideas work. You have to give them time, they don't just come to you. You have to wait on them, you need inspiration. Every little idea for The Death Game and everything after it didn't come to me over night. I had to work for all those ideas. I had to be inspired.

For example, my adaptation of Fairy Dance. A lot of people claim that my version is worse than Kawahara's Fairy Dance (let's not go over this again, I've heard enough about this). The idea that I came up with was Kirito giving up in a moment of weakness, then being boosted back up by all of his friends. I think even that is better than a complete carbon copy of Fairy Dance, which if I'm being honest, that's probably what could have happened.

I came up with that idea very late in the development stage. Maybe not very late, but late, nonetheless. I admit that The Death Game isn't perfect, but I will also say that Kawahara's SAO isn't perfect, either. I believe that I've gone over my feelings on some of his decisions with SAO and I don't wish to repeat myself.

I've heard some say that Reki Kawahara sucks at world building and that the fictional games he's created for his two series, Sword Art Online and AccelWorld are terrible, but I'll be honest. I don't know a thing about that. Regardless of what others think, I like his work and I think I always will.

I want to say a couple things about Alicization. I love Alicization, I really do. I like War of Underworld a lot as well, but I think that Alicization is superior. Aincrad used to be my favorite arc, but after reading through the previously named arc, I can say that Alicization is now my favorite arc out of SAO. My favorite character also played a huge role in this arc, so that only goes further in increasing my admiration of it.

Look, I really could talk about Alicization all day long, hell, I could talk about SAO all day long, but I want to get to the end of this message and get to my last item. Anyway, before I got slaughtered by negative reviews last year, I had expressed great interest in writing a reboot for my version of SAO, where I would cover as much of the story as possible, Progressive included.

Do I still want to do that reboot? Eh, that's up for debate. I haven't read Progressive yet, but I plan to pick up anything with the SAO name on it (at least in terms of light novels and manga). If I were to write a reboot, there would likely be a lot of stuff that I would rip from my SAO canon. For example, Kirito writing a manga about the events of SAO, even if it were just to spread awareness about the event.

I might have thought that it was a good idea at the time, but now that I think back on it, I see it is a dumb idea, cringy, even. Anyway, I don't know if I'll ever do a reboot for my SAO canon. If I do, it probably won't be for a long time. Well, thanks for bearing with me through, well, whatever this was. I'm not kidding, I really do want to see this through. So, expect a lot more of SAO from me in the future!