I’m one of those people who never did see Sword Art Online when it came out, and years later it didn’t seem interesting enough to be worth a watch. The thing is, thanks to some horrible person @kayx I ended up watching it recently, and after finishing season 2 I definitely have some things to say about BOTH seasons so, spoilers ahead, not that it really matters though.

Now stay with me for a sec and i’ll say my hot take, but first let me say what I've been hearing all these years from people I know about SAO. I’ve always been told Aincrad was great, but then in Alfheim it all went to shit; and then SAO2 came and took a big dump on what little was good about the first season.
And here’s my hot take, Aincrad is a mess with a couple of decent episodes, Alfheim is a mess with some funny moments. And in my honest to god opinion, SAO2 is way better than the first season by quite a wide margin. Gun Gale is okay, maybe a little bit dumb at times; Excalibur is… what was that again? But Sleeping Knights was pretty good honestly despite the memes.
If you want some further elaboration, well, stick with me, otherwise that’s my hot take and you can make with that what you will.
By the way, haven’t watched Alicization yet so I’m not going to comment on it.

Before I begin I have to say, music is great, Yuki Kajiura always comes through for me, and animation is nice and pretty fluid where it matters, so no problems there for me.

So let’s jump right into it and see why I think Aincrad is possibly the worst arc of them all, and let me say, it’s still got a couple of great moments. For example the first episode is alright, sets up the world and the stakes pretty okay, but after that, half the arc is pure episodic filler which adds literally nothing to the main plot, introducing random characters that end up having nothing relevant to do for the rest of the whole series.

The episode about that random guild that they all end up dying just to remind you of the stakes and set Kirito up to be one of those edgy MCs is just really boring and uninteresting, I can’t care about some random people i’ve just met for less than 5 minutes.
Then there’s dragon loli girl, just an episode for Kirito to flex that he can tank 5 randos at the same time without his health even dropping, okay.
Then there’s Rem, I mean blacksmith girl, I guess she crafts the second sword for the “reveal” later in the arc, but she’s just so dull that I don’t know what else to say.
Then there’s a couple of random episodes to introduce that guild where they like to kill people or whatever, at least this is kinda relevant later in the second season.
My favourite episode gotta be the one where that creepy dude tries to rape Asuna or something and then Kirito comes and literally kills him, I thought that was neat, and added if only a little of character depth to Kirito, who just killed a person in order to defend one he really cared about.
Whatever, in short Aincrad could have lasted for half its length and it only would have been better. I don’t know if people speak purely out of nostalgia when they say Aincrad is great, or maybe they only remember the two good episodes it had, but having it watched kinda recently, it’s nonsensical, it’s way too long, and really just kinda dumb.
Now let me say i was still entertained and honestly, I think Aincrad has the gameworld and aesthetic i like the most out of them all, but above all, it’s pretty funny, the same way a series like Valvrave or Cross Ange is funny. When the bonkers shit starts to happen it’s great, I mean Kirito entering the admin console and extracting all data from an AI that is indistinguishable from a human in a matter of seconds, i mean, get hacked; or the ending where they ask the main baddie why he did all that he did and he says “I don’t remember”, that was really funny. 5/10

Anyway, Alfheim. It’s still way too long, just like Aincrad. I feel they could have taken a couple of episodes and characters out and it would have literally not mattered at all. I don’t care about the tribes, I don’t care about their wars, and above all, I don’t care about fucking Recon, god i want to punch him, that annoying reddit nice guy. Luckily he gets his ass beat by Leafa near the ending, and then he explodes himself, to which I cried tears of joy.
So yeah, Kirito wants to rescue Asuna, which is about to get kinda raped again smh, by one of the creepiest and dumbest villains ever, voiced by Dio. Then Kirito meets Leafa in Alfheim and they set out on rescuing Asuna or something, then Kirito kills one dude in a duel so hard he explodes and meanwhile Leafa starts falling in love with Kirito. Because he’s just that much of a Sigma, Kirito doesn’t care but then Leafa discovers she’s Kirito’s sister; you dumb bitch, you fell in love with your brother! and he loves Asuna! damn girl you fucked up. Anyway they get to the bad guy, and Kirito literally hacks him dead, gg clapped.
The stakes are also kept decently high, with the risk that Asuna might get brainwashed into liking creepy Dio, but as I said it would be better if the arc was shorter, as it would seem more urgent.
Alfheim is still funny in the same ridiculous way Aincrad was, but in my opinion is a little bit less nonsensical, yeah, let that sink in. But much to all of humanity’s despair, fucking Recon is in it, god how much I hate him. He even kinda gets the girl despite being a little bitch for 10 episodes straight, fucking Recon. 5/10

Now, Gun Gale is alright. The episode where they introduce Sinon could have been cut in half, but honestly the rest gets to the point pretty quickly and doesn’t really make any detours.
Sinon is alright, probably the first character in the whole series that is an actual character. She’s got some problems, and works towards solving them; she’s fine.
Kirito also shows some kind of depth, and deals with having actually killed people when he was in Aincrad, because now he’s seeing it happen all over again in GGO or something. Hell i’ll take what little I can get, finding character development for Kirito is like fucking finding Atlantis.
That said, Kirito is also at his flexiest this arc, dude literally slices sniper bullets in half no problem, so that’s great fun. Hiroshi Kamiya, my man, makes a cameo as Zexceed, who gets killed in a matter of seconds, that was pretty funny too.
Death Gun’s appearance is campy edgy shit, so that’s great; unfortunately his methods and motivations are kinda really dumb, still like him better than “don’t remember” and “rapey Dio”. 6/10

Excali-who?

In my opinion the best arc yet is Sleeping Knights, and honestly I did not expect it with all the memes surrounding it; it’s short, it’s kinda sweet, and it honestly feels like an actual series, not one you laugh at.
So, AIDS-chan and her terminally-ill friends want to leave their mark on the world before they pass away, and I think that’s great, but they are struggling; they are not enough people to confidently beat bosses on their own, and the turbo-tryhard guilds keep stealing the world-first kills. So they recruit Asuna to help them, because she did kinda well in a duel or something. Anyway, Asuna helps them no prob, she flips her turbo-gamer switch on, and rushes them through the dungeon and boss mechanics. Unfortunately they are only 7 members in a boss battle designed for 49 people, so they die. The tryhard guild was stream sniping them so they know the pro strats now and they start to gather their guild members to take on the boss and steal the first kill. But our main guys decide to rush back to the boss room and since the other guild won’t let them pass, they slaughter them all with the help of our overlord Kirito who randomly appears for just that scene to flex on all of them. Obviously the raiders fall like flies, i mean pve players doing pvp am i right; and our main party gets the kill because they discover a weak point or something and they get their names immortalised in the hall of fame. Mission accomplished.
Meanwhile Asuna has to deal with the stereotypical japanese parents that decide everything for her, like which school to go or who to marry and so on. But with encouragement from Yuuki she ends up confronting her mother because she wants to spend the rest of her life supporting someone… okay. At least she shows determination and growth, and I guess if that someone is our lord and saviour Kirito…
Anyway, Yuuki dies and everyone is sad, but she got what she wanted, she left a legacy, she was validated for fighting for so long, it’s pretty sweet; Asuna and Yuuki help and complement each other pretty well during this arc and I like it. 7/10 maybe even 8/10 call me crazy.

Now let’s talk about the Klein in the room. Is he a good character? Erm… No. Is he a character? Also no. They could have done something with him yeah, he had potential. If instead of those random girls they introduced in Aincrad they spent some time developing Klein or his relationship with Kirito or something, I think I would have liked it way more. But unfortunately he’s just kinda there and does nothing, to be honest seeing him after Aincrad is a little weird. Seeing a fully grown adult, a literal salaryman hanging out with teenage girls aged like 15 or 16 is a tiiiny bit weird.
The black dude is a different story, first off, he’s an absolute chad, he’s the best. And second off, he just owns a bar where the rest of the gang hangs out, he interacts with them like a normal person would, and helps them if necessary.

Overall, sao is great fun and pretty entertaining, even when it’s a walking disaster like the first season, except fucking Recon, I hate him with all my heart and soul dude.
Sao is alright, not as bad as some people like to paint it, not a masterpiece either, god no; but it’s a fun ride, I wouldn’t watch it alone though, I’d say it’s a couple of times better when watched with friends, so you all laugh together at the insane shit present on screen.
I understand that for some people it may be hard to watch, since its plot is pretty garbage and doesn’t really make sense most of the time, but if you get into that brain-off Unga Bunga mindset it’s quite enjoyable.
Feel free to disagree with me of course, but know that if you do, you’re wrong and have no taste, this rating is only for season 2.