#accel world

it's one of those situations where you can't unsee it once you're aware of it

the puzzle pieces aren't all there yet, but if you were paying attention you can't help but see the emerging picture

and once you finish reading volume 23 of accel world, the only thought that remains is confusion at how people are still unclear on kuroyukihime's identity

yeah the main problem with this entire situation is that everything about sao/aw being a single interconnected setting with continuous themes requires such an obscene amount of commitment to figure out that most people just. don't bother

it's very clear in the novels! all 60+ of them! of 200 to 300 pages each!

also it's so funny to me how many "theories"/"criticisms" anime-onlies have are just about stuff that's answered in the novels,

"oh i wonder who kuroyukihime really is"<read volume 23 of aw and be enlightened

"kayaba didn't even know what he did everything for"<you have not understood the Castle and until you do you all of your analysis on this series will be worthless

"oh kirito is a bland protagonist"<the anime cuts out her entire internal monologue and in general does a great disservice to an otherwiss genuinely fascinating character. i promise she's interesting, you just don't know her yet. once you do you will recognise the kiritoisms *immediately* (<see first point about kuroyukihime)

Kuroyukihime has the buried instincts of an SAO survivor. Haruyuki even questions the specificity of having exactly 6 people to a party here because of course that number feels arbitrary to him. Brain Burst doesn't have a party system like that, and most RPGs have around 4 characters to an active party. I'm not sure if I even know any MMOs that cap parties at exactly 6 either? But that might just be a knowledge gap on my part.

Alternatively, Graphite Edge suggested this set-up, but Kuroyukihime definitely took it without question. Like, "yep, this is totally natural."

the Castle seeped into the bones of her soul an entire life ago, and it keeps rearing its head, wether it's in ways of thinking or things she says, or, in this case, assumptions on How Things are Done Optimally

she still fights like she's in aincrad, despite not consciously remembering the place, but her instincts think it's the same place so, logically, this comes with consequences for how, say, a boss is fought

it's not a conclusion, it's an instinct. and it comes with the assumption everyone else has the same instincts

she doesn't know why she thinks 6 is optimal! she's not even wondering why she thinks it!

she just knows

and we know why

oh my gog kingdom hearts has kuroyukihime in it

like straight-up

Like, who else would consider a plan that bold and reckless and kinda stupid? /affectionate

yeah she is in fact still Like That; loves plans that are objectively smart and logical but also kind risky(/reckless) and idiotic and weird if you think about them for like 2 minutes, which she doesn't because that's just what her particular type of autism is like

reki insists he's never written yuri but also everything he's ever written has so much ambient yuri radiation

because yeah hime/fuuko is absolutely there

like genuinely if you try to thematically match accel world characters with sao characters, then the closest match for raker is *asuna*, which yknow, that feels relevant!