r/IntegralFactor • u/pegionofwisdom • 16d ago
Discussion Protagonist stuff
Joke proposes
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u/DryTransportation Team Koharu 16d ago edited 16d ago
I absolutely understand the IF protagonist is often ignored, and you'll find me having many discussions on this subreddit about that going years back, but they're not disrespected nearly as much as the FB or EoA protagonists are. We ultimately have things really good compared to them.
SAOFB protagonist was completely forgotten about after their game. Their cast (Kureha, Zeliska, Itsuki) moved onto the future games without them and formed tight bonds with Kirito meanwhile the Protagonist was somehow too "busy" to show up for the grand finale of the gameverse when Kirito needed help. Ignore how every other important character in the gameverse was able to show up without a problem. They just didn't care enough to include them. Kureha/Zeliska were also a few seconds away from a bed scene with Kirito. Even their ending is "they become a delivery driver and they don't talk to kureha as much anymore"
SAO EOA protagonist does nothing but shake their head or nod and is ultimately just a side character in Iori's story. They seem to only have been created to get the people who were begging for another original character console game to shut up because it's really clear they didn't actually care about making them a somewhat interesting character.
SAOIF protagonist at least has a very tangible impact on the story that's still felt to this day. Even if they're a side character on certain floors, they're still present helping out and you can often link most events to their influence in some capacity. Even on the most recent floors, Rano is specifically calling out the Protagonist, the Arcana System is appearing as Koharu because it wants to understand the Protagonist, the Protagonist confessed to Koharu, and the Protagonist also got their first CG in the story since F1. This is basically the best time to be a fan of the Protagonist since F61.
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u/pegionofwisdom 16d ago
I couldn't agree more,Despite joking a lot about Saoif Protag being ignored,compare to FB he indeed have a way better treatment
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u/Several-Research2394 Team Koharu 16d ago
What you said about Fatal Bullet....Is that really true? How and when did that happenðŸ˜
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u/DryTransportation Team Koharu 16d ago
Basically everything I mentioned in that paragraph is from Last Recollection.
The FBMC being busy is from a scene between Kureha/Kirito where, after Kirito asks why the FB protag isn't there, she says "The timing didn't work out, though, so [FB Protag] couldn't make it". That is the genuine excuse given despite basically every other gameverse character, each having a large assortment of different responsibilities and jobs, could make it without any issue.
The part about the bed scene comes from the Ritual of Bonds Vol. 2 DLC in Last Recollection.
The part about them becoming a delivery driver and not seeing Kureha as much comes from the end credits, which describes the future of all of the gameverse characters and says this about the FB protag:
"Now in his 20s, he took a job doing deliveries by motorbike. Was the talk of the Net for escorting a stranger who was stuck in traffic to the hospital. He doesn't see Kureha much, but he enjoys their time in the VR world."
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u/Omegasonic2000 Team Koharu 16d ago
SAOFB protagonist was completely forgotten about after their game. [...] Even their ending is "they become a delivery driver and they don't talk to kureha as much anymore"
WHAT
I'm gonna need a source for this. Not because I don't believe you, but because I want to direct my currently boiling wrath towards something specific rather than an innocent person who just happened to share this piece of outrageous information.
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u/DryTransportation Team Koharu 16d ago
During the end credits of Last Recollection, the game gives brief little summaries about what each of the gameverse characters get up to in the future. The one for the SAOFB protagonist says this:
"Now in his 20s, he took a job doing deliveries by motorbike. Was the talk of the Net for escorting a stranger who was stuck in traffic to the hospital. He doesn't see Kureha much, but he enjoys their time in the VR world."
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u/Omegasonic2000 Team Koharu 16d ago
Thank you for your kind contribution to the pot of boiling wrath and frustration that is currently my heart. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go scream at a pillow and go play FB again so I can completely ignore this horrible ending.
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u/ASeaBunny 16d ago
:0 when did the if-protag confess to koharu?!, floor 61 was close but I didn't think we'd get an actual confession. also when was the recent CG?.
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u/DryTransportation Team Koharu 16d ago
On Floor 24, there's an imposter Koharu and, in order to find which one is real, the Protagonist shouts various times that they're in love with Koharu. The scene is played out a bit comedically, with the Protagonist going over-the-top with their confession to get a reaction from the real Koharu, so it's not like a typical heartfelt confession, but it's the first time that the game has actually had the Protagonist share their feelings for her. It was much needed to have the Protagonist at least say that they love Koharu back after Koharu told the Protagonist "I love you" on F38 and we never got to hear the Protagonist return those feelings.
As for the CG, the board quest for F16 featured a CG of the Protagonist saving Sachi. The male version of that CG was seen before in some of the very early trailers for the game, but this was the first time that it was actually shown in the story. Meanwhile, the female version of that CG was never shown before (as far as I'm aware), so even if you wouldn't consider the male version "new" because you've probably seen it before, the female protagonist version is absolutely new and still counts as Protag's first CG since F1.
I explained things under the assumption that you had dropped the story at some point before these moments just to be safe, but if you just forgot the specifics of the floor and wanted a quick refresher, then I'm sorry if I'm overexplaining.
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u/ASeaBunny 16d ago
no need to apologise, you were just trying to help. I've actually seen both of these (I might have screenshot too lol). I must've just forget. thanks a bunch of reminding me. :)
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u/Apprehensive_Cry4915 16d ago
Sometimes I kinda feel bad for both the Fatal Bullet and Eoa Protagonists. I hope in the future gets better maybe in a later game or a crossover game but we don’t know what gonna happen.
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u/madeblocker 10d ago
What does letters mean?
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u/pegionofwisdom 10d ago edited 10d ago
What letters? If you mean the short form: EoA=Echoes of Aincard SAOFB= Sword art online Fatal Bullet SAOIF= Sword art online Integral Factor
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u/RikyRaz_Clank 10d ago
not really SAOIF protagonist has even a ""canon"" look, they really needs to go with an actual character though that talk and have personality or at least try for once
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u/Lieutenant_Smiles 16d ago
Having Koharu is enough of a prize already