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Greetings Everyone,

Sword Art Online over the last few years has become a very popular Anime series. The idea of getting stuck in a Video Game got my interest. Another thing that really got my interest is that I found a lot of Asuna & Kirito cosplayers at cons to take photos of. smile This thread will be the place for fans of the series to share their thoughts about the series and talk about their favorite characters. My favorite character is the "Warrior" Fairy Leefa. I had the privilege to do a photoshoot with a Leefa (Lyfa) cosplayer. One the best photos from the shoot is at the bottom of this post. Just below I have included info about the series for those of you that are not familiar with it. The info comes from Wikepedia.


History:
Sword Art Online is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the near-future and focuses on various virtual reality MMORPG worlds. The light novels began publication on ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko label from April 10, 2009, with a spin-off series launching in October 2012, and are licensed in North America by Yen Press. The series has spawned five manga adaptations. A television anime series produced by A-1 Pictures aired in Japan between July and December 2012. The anime has been licensed in North America by Aniplex of America and an English-language version began airing on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block from July 27, 2013. A video game based on the series was released on PlayStation Portable in March 2013. The novels and two of the manga adpatations have been licensed for release by Yen Press.

Plot:
In the year 2022, the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Sword Art Online (SAO), is released. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.

On November 6, 2022, all the players log in for the first time, and subsequently discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world. The story follows Kirito, a skilled player who is determined to beat the game. As the game progresses for two years, Kirito eventually befriends a female player named Asuna with whom he ultimately falls in love. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba's avatar in SAO, they confront and defeat him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.

Upon returning to the real world, Kirito learns that Asuna and 300 other SAO players have still not awakened yet. Following a clue about Asuna's whereabouts in another VRMMORPG called Alfheim Online (ALO), Kirito also logs in there. Helped by his sister Suguha, known as Leafa in the game, he learns that the trapped players in ALO are part of a plan devised by Nobuyuki Sugo to perform illegal experiments on their minds to put them under his control, including Asuna, whom he intends to marry in the real world in order to take over her family's company. After Kirito stops Nobuyuki's plans, he finally reunites with Asuna in the real world.

Soon after, Kirito plays another game called Gun Gale Online (GGO) to investigate the mysterious connection between it and deaths occurring in the real world. Assisted by a female player he meets in the game called Sinon, he identifies and exposes the culprits, who include some former members of a murderous guild he had previously encountered in SAO.

Kirito is later recruited to assist in the development of a state-of-the-art game, UnderWorld (UW), which has an interface that is far more realistic and complex than the previous games he had played. In UW, the flow of time proceeds a thousand times faster than in the real world. However, he ends up falling into a trap set by one of the murderers from GGO and wakes up inside the game, unable to log out, with his real self left in a comatose state. Eventually he starts to question if he is the real Kirito or an artificial intelligence modeled after him.

Characters:
Kirito / Kazuto Kirigaya
Kazuto, who uses the portmanteau (Avatar) "Kirito" as his character name, is a "solo" player who has been branded a beater (a portmanteau of beta tester and cheater) by the players in Sword Art Online. When it is announced that the players of Sword Art Online can no longer log-out, he is distraught like everyone else, but quickly overcomes the shock. He power levels to improve his odds of survival in the game, and emerges as a frontline clearer of floors known as the Black Swordsman. In SAO, he is the sole possessor of a unique skill, Dual Blades. During his time in SAO, he falls in love with a female player, Asuna, and even marries her in-game.

Asuna / Asuna Yuki
Asuna is a friend of Kirito, and a sub-leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, a medium-sized guild acknowledged as the strongest guild in Aincrad. Being one of the few girls that play SAO and extremely attractive, she receives many invitations and proposals. Asuna is a strong-willed, accomplished player known in-game as the "Flash" for her extraordinary sword skill.

Later, she falls in love with Kirito and they marry in-game. Towards the end of the SAO arc, she sacrifices herself to save Kirito from a killing blow by Heathcliff. However, her death was only in-game and she is shortly reunited with Kirito shortly after he dies defeating Heathcliff.

Despite the completion of SAO, Asuna does not wake up and is instead imprisoned in another VRMMORPG called Alfheim Online. She is forced to play the role of Titania the Queen of Fairies, with Nobuyuki Sugo, the man responsible for imprisoning her, playing as Oberon the Fairy King. This was done so that Nobuyuki Sugo could marry Asuna in the real world, while she was unconscious, and thus take over RCT Progress Inc. She constantly tries to get out of the World Tree where she is imprisoned and escape going so far as to steal a GM card which she throws out of the window when she hears Yui's voice. Upon being freed she created two avatars for Alfleim, Asuna (being the healer of the team) and Erika (a battle type avatar) and went on living with Kirito.

Leafa / Suguha Kirigaya
Suguha, alias Leafa, is Kirito's younger cousin in the real world. She is a diligent worker and has been practicing Kendo for 8 years. Kirito/Kazuto calls her "Sugu". After Kazuto gets trapped in Sword Art Online, she begins playing Alfheim Online in an attempt to understand him better. She develops feelings for Kazuto after she learns that he is not really her brother, but understands that his feelings for Asuna are too strong. Coincidentally, she meets Kazuto's avatar, Kirito, in Alfheim and aids him in his search for Asuna, unaware of Kirito's true identity. After understanding the depth of Kazuto's love for Asuna, she resolves to give up on him and instead becomes attached to Kirito in ALO, but later is heartbroken when she finds out that Kazuto and Kirito are one and the same. Nevertheless, she pulls herself together and aids Kirito in rescuing Asuna.