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Nov 7, 10:26 PM
#1
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Dec 2021
208
Who's your favorite villain in the sword art online series?

Also congratulations on Kirito for clearing the game in the Sao universe yesterday
Nov 7, 10:28 PM
#2

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Sep 2018
11666
Oberon is my fav for being goofy and knowing what his prize is.
Nov 7, 10:33 PM
#3

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Jul 2015
12393
SAO has probably one of the worst villains in all anime. But I guess PoH stands out, because he desperately tried to force character development on Kirito, but sadly failed at that.

Nov 7, 10:37 PM
#4

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Sep 2018
11666
Reply to Piromysl
SAO has probably one of the worst villains in all anime. But I guess PoH stands out, because he desperately tried to force character development on Kirito, but sadly failed at that.
@Pieromysl
I disagree completely. Most villains lack any balls, and sao villains all have theirs. It is strange most villains in other media have 0 sex drive.
Nice seeing villains go on to a goal that is not rule the world like it even matters.
rohan121Nov 7, 10:41 PM
Nov 7, 10:54 PM
#5

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Jul 2015
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rohan121 said:
@Pieromysl
I disagree completely. Most villains lack any balls, and sao villains all have theirs. It is strange most villains in other media have 0 sex drive.
Nice seeing villains go on to a goal that is not rule the world like it even matters.

Nah, I just can't take seriously some character archetypes such as mad scientist going through midlife crisis from 1st season, pedo creep from 2nd, quiet kid edgelord from GGO or naked chick for some reason from Alicization. The mercenary guy from 2nd half of Alicization was probably the lamest because it was just a one dimensional, generic mercenary guy doing his job and we as interesting as last year's snow. It's overall bottom tier level, but character writing is infamously bad in SAO, so it does not stand out too much when compared to other characters.

Nov 7, 10:56 PM
#6

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Sep 2018
11666
Reply to Piromysl
rohan121 said:
@Pieromysl
I disagree completely. Most villains lack any balls, and sao villains all have theirs. It is strange most villains in other media have 0 sex drive.
Nice seeing villains go on to a goal that is not rule the world like it even matters.

Nah, I just can't take seriously some character archetypes such as mad scientist going through midlife crisis from 1st season, pedo creep from 2nd, quiet kid edgelord from GGO or naked chick for some reason from Alicization. The mercenary guy from 2nd half of Alicization was probably the lamest because it was just a one dimensional, generic mercenary guy doing his job and we as interesting as last year's snow. It's overall bottom tier level, but character writing is infamously bad in SAO, so it does not stand out too much when compared to other characters.
@Pieromysl
What villains are so great and original?
Nov 7, 11:12 PM
#7
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Sep 2021
1097
the thread is already filled with clowns
Nov 8, 1:34 AM
#8
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Apr 2022
277
Can I vote for star king even though he hadn't done anything yet.
Nov 8, 2:08 AM
#9

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Apr 2021
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Pieromysl said:
rohan121 said:
@Pieromysl
I disagree completely. Most villains lack any balls, and sao villains all have theirs. It is strange most villains in other media have 0 sex drive.
Nice seeing villains go on to a goal that is not rule the world like it even matters.

Nah, I just can't take seriously some character archetypes such as mad scientist going through midlife crisis from 1st season, pedo creep from 2nd, quiet kid edgelord from GGO or naked chick for some reason from Alicization. The mercenary guy from 2nd half of Alicization was probably the lamest because it was just a one dimensional, generic mercenary guy doing his job and we as interesting as last year's snow. It's overall bottom tier level, but character writing is infamously bad in SAO, so it does not stand out too much when compared to other characters.

With all due respect, are we watching the same anime?

The “villains” I saw were different levels of “evil”, but nonetheless evil villains.

Also, SAO is not the worst anime I have seen, for what it was trying to do and the age group it aimed for, it did pretty well in that context to accomplish their goal.
Note: I don’t lazily watch 3-5 episodes, biasedly compare to other anime, or unfairly judge by surface level similarities. With every anime I start, I watch the entire series, both Japanese Sub & English Dub, then judge each anime based on what they present, to give an honest and fair rating.

Nov 8, 2:18 AM

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Jul 2021
625
rohan121 said:
@Pieromysl
I disagree completely. Most villains lack any balls, and sao villains all have theirs. It is strange most villains in other media have 0 sex drive.
Nice seeing villains go on to a goal that is not rule the world like it even matters.

So according to you, a villain is lame unless he's a rapist/his goal is to rape? I don't think so. The best villain is one who does what he thinks is correct in observance of what he thinks is moral and virtuous, such that the viewer understands and relates to why he's doing it.

Sexual degeneracy is so incontrovertibly evil that whenever it's the sole or primary feature of a villain, such that nobody can relate to him, it becomes lame. It's also so easy and cheap to write in that it's boring.

Roswaal Mathers is a good antagonist. But Elsa not so much, because the extent of her character and motivation is the fact that she's a hired assassin who became one because she was abused as a child.

I think kayaba and quinella are the only acceptable villains in this franchise. The former is still too bland and simple, and as for the latter, she could have been so much better and less weird/illogical.
Nov 8, 2:59 AM
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Jul 2023
28
SAO has the most poorly written villains I've ever seen in any anime, there aren't any that I particularly find interesting.
Nov 8, 3:04 AM

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Sep 2016
11215
Quinella of course, don't know any other show with a naked villainess fighting.

DesuMaiden said:
Nobody resembles me physically because I don't even physically exist.
Nov 8, 3:13 AM

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Jan 2021
1828
They're mostly parodies of actual villains, but I'll pick the guy from Ordinal Scale. Eiji. He was kinda cool.
Nov 8, 6:32 AM

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Jan 2023
93
ill go with Kayaba, mostly because I kinda like the selfishness with him wanting to create his dream world and trap other people in it. Just to see how people act in it and see their different ways to interact with it. The fact that his selfish choice made a grousome situation with about 4,000 deaths, and still made a significant amount of people end up with a love hate relationship to the whole incident, is something I find intriguing.

Then even after all that is he still not done, he uploads his own conscience to somewhere online, and started playing the long game. With his final ploy still not being over.

Though I might be a bit biased since I have read most of the light novels, and can't remember what details came from them, compared to the anime.
Nov 8, 9:40 AM
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May 2022
44
Pieromysl said:
SAO has probably one of the worst villains in all anime. But I guess PoH stands out, because he desperately tried to force character development on Kirito, but sadly failed at that.

He technically wasn't trying to get Kirito to develop, he just took pleasure in his suffering as we heard in war of underworld when Asuna said that after the raid of laughing coffin and during 2nd season when he was having ptsd from it and PoH laughed and smiled. Even then it's not the best villain but I do love his cunning when he wants people to suffer.
Nov 8, 10:49 AM
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Dec 2021
208
Zarutaku said:
Quinella of course, don't know any other show with a naked villainess fighting.


(character limit)
Nov 8, 11:00 AM

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Sep 2016
11215
Well said, Denji.
DesuMaiden said:
Nobody resembles me physically because I don't even physically exist.
Nov 9, 2:24 AM

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Jul 2015
12393
Reply to Eckl3
Pieromysl said:
SAO has probably one of the worst villains in all anime. But I guess PoH stands out, because he desperately tried to force character development on Kirito, but sadly failed at that.

He technically wasn't trying to get Kirito to develop, he just took pleasure in his suffering as we heard in war of underworld when Asuna said that after the raid of laughing coffin and during 2nd season when he was having ptsd from it and PoH laughed and smiled. Even then it's not the best villain but I do love his cunning when he wants people to suffer.
Eckl3 said:
He technically wasn't trying to get Kirito to develop, he just took pleasure in his suffering as we heard in war of underworld when Asuna said that after the raid of laughing coffin and during 2nd season when he was having ptsd from it and PoH laughed and smiled. Even then it's not the best villain but I do love his cunning when he wants people to suffer.


I think it's pretty obvious it wasn't his intention, but it would result in his well needed development, even as a side effect. Kirito might have evolved into an actual edgelord instead of just posing as one.

IhnalakoKaina said:
I think kayaba and quinella are the only acceptable villains in this franchise.


Quinella is actually probably the worst offender, because author made her butt naked for a reason. Fanservice is sometimes a distraction from blatant lack of substance and quality, which is why SAO sometimes relies on sexual assault scenes and fanservice. Put some clothes on Quinella and it becomes obvious that she is just a one dimensional, boring and generic antagonist that becomes forgotten and irrelevant as soon as she is defeated.

Nov 9, 2:51 AM

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Jul 2021
625
Pieromysl said:
Quinella is actually probably the worst offender, because author made her butt naked for a reason. Fanservice is sometimes a distraction from blatant lack of substance and quality, which is why SAO sometimes relies on sexual assault scenes and fanservice. Put some clothes on Quinella and it becomes obvious that she is just a one dimensional, boring and generic antagonist that becomes forgotten and irrelevant as soon as she is defeated.

The reason was to demonstrate her elevated pride and security, not saying that it was a good schtick, but it wasn't solely for fanservice. Her lack of relevancy afterwards is a flaw of the author's writing, not a feature. Like every other part of the series, the potential was there but it fell flat.

It's true that she ended up being trash, but I'd like to imagine that if there ever were a remake she'd be the one villain who needs the least amount of change out of the bunch to become interesting and memorable.
Nov 9, 3:05 AM

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Jul 2015
12393
IhnalakoKaina said:
Pieromysl said:
Quinella is actually probably the worst offender, because author made her butt naked for a reason. Fanservice is sometimes a distraction from blatant lack of substance and quality, which is why SAO sometimes relies on sexual assault scenes and fanservice. Put some clothes on Quinella and it becomes obvious that she is just a one dimensional, boring and generic antagonist that becomes forgotten and irrelevant as soon as she is defeated.

The reason was to demonstrate her elevated pride and security, not saying that it was a good schtick, but it wasn't solely for fanservice. Her lack of relevancy afterwards is a flaw of the author's writing, not a feature. Like every other part of the series, the potential was there but it fell flat.

It's true that she ended up being trash, but I'd like to imagine that if there ever were a remake she'd be the one villain who needs the least amount of change out of the bunch to become interesting and memorable.

Character design is a part of storytelling.
I can write an entire book listing how you can depict a character having an "elevated pride" and stripping butt naked is not one of them.
You may take a perfect example of Freya from currently airing Danmachi. She is beautiful, prideful and arrogant and takes what she wants by her charm, but she knows perfectly well to cover herself up when walking around.

SAO author did not knew how to make compelling villaines, so obviously if she seduces dudes she must be butt naked. That's the narrow and shallow writing SAO is known for.

Nov 9, 2:59 PM
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Jun 2022
170
mine is poh bro is crazy and brought drama to the show and just showed that his unstopped until kirito comes but still Sao villens are great if I had to rank my top 5 it would be:
1. poh
2. Gabriel
3. kayaba
4. quinella
5. death gun
Nov 10, 8:13 AM
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Apr 2023
26
The American guy (PoH right?) is the only redeeming part of Alicization to me. I HATED sitting through this arc but the last seven or so episodes were so fun.
Nov 10, 8:14 AM

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Jan 2009
101790
quinella since she is sexy hot
Nov 10, 11:11 AM
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Dec 2020
617
Issue with SAO villain is that they are(mostly) evil just for the sake of being evil

While purely evil works,they need to provoke fear to their name to work. Meanwhile SAO villains are(mostly) evil in a cartoonish way,like if the worst thing you can do is just killing people,it aint gonna score high

Like yea SAO villain are "terrifying" bc they "rape" others,but that just for shock value and not actual fear to the viewers. Like yea,someone life is ruined but it barely had an effect on those same character 3 episodes later

Which is why Eiji(that i hardly would call a villain) is like the best one cuz he had actual motives and depths to his character(even though its quite cliché i can accept that)
Nov 10, 12:03 PM

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Sep 2016
11215
Quinella haters probably never understood the philosophical value of what she said in the mid part of episode 22
DesuMaiden said:
Nobody resembles me physically because I don't even physically exist.
Nov 11, 10:47 PM
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Jan 2016
89
the viewers, or maybe suguha from the abridged
Nov 16, 8:00 AM
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Mar 2024
3
i dont remember half of em💀🙏
Artfxl

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