User blog comment:Hidden Scorpius XI/Kneejerk reaction to "Raven Branwen"/@comment-10380701-20150825003158/@comment-26018514-20150827034420

@Chishio SAO did have some good points

As to the Beta testers being hated: they were generally despised because most chose to power level rather than waste time teaching noobs how not to die, they had legitimate reason to do so because like MMO's there was no reliable way to support everyone power-leveling at once... at a certain point it becomes like trying to all walk through a door at the same time, you teach people where the door is but no-one can get through it. This was further complicated by PKer's and wanting only the best to help out in early boss fights

The PKers being unable to harm him was a bit much of a stretch, but the point was that he was overleveled and they were noob hunters... he only was able to do it because that entire group was barely better than the noobs they hunted, he was not "god" he was just one of the best players in a game where most high level players have achieved that kind of power... in fact they kind of had that kind of "evil god" player represented by the army guild.

In the light Novels it was actually streamlined like you want, Volume 1 was only Kirito and Asuna beating SAO, while Volume 2 was Lisbeth and the others side story's within SAO Aincrad(Death game) they were integrated to form Season 1 of the Anime

Volume 3(which is Where SAO Season 2 starts) is where I agree the story was definitely screwed up, the incest arc was just stupid and redundant(as Silica was already essentially a PG/incest-like ship, he had already shown he was not a sis-con and just made the Leafa ship a painful waste of space) as well as the damsel Asuna part of that arc being annoying. I'm not so concerned with Kirito as a marty-stu in that arc because the game itself was a cheat at that point, in the first Arc the LN is a little better at explaining how he becomes as powerful as he is than the anime was... though "dual blades" was really a horribly implemented unlock situation in the series as a whole.

SAO 2 Season 1 was the third volume, and the entire "Simon Trauma" arc was handled much worse in the anime than in the LN, the "Quest for Excalibur" and "Mothers Rosario" Arc's were really the only excellent points for that entry in the series, and both came at the second half of the second season.

on the whole, it was somewhat sub-par, but I still don't consider it quite that bad.