Key Takeaways
The Alicization arc of SAO introduced the central theme of creating AI based on human consciousness for military purposes. The arc takes place in The Underworld, a virtual reality where time moves faster, raising ethical questions about artificially created souls. Kirito's role in the story shifts from savior to someone needing saving, highlighting the importance of his friends in overcoming challenges.
The Alicization arc of the Sword Art Online series was the fourth and longest story arc, not to mention one of the most interesting, if not the best arc of the franchise. Featuring a compelling plotline that very nearly matched the stakes presented in the very first arc, and did a great deal to push the boundaries of not just the story, but also of its science fiction elements.
Presenting a new character named Alice, who is an artificial intelligence nurtured in a world populated by revolutionary tech that can create synthetic souls and house them in a digital format. So, what's the Alicization arc of Sword Art Online, and what makes it one of the series' best?
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The Context of the Alicization Story
Kirito Is Involved in a Very Special Project
Set in 2026 after the events of the Ordinal Scale film, the Alicization arc follows Kirito after being offered a job at a private company called Rath by Seijurou Kikuoka, the member of the VR cybercrimes division that Kirito came into contact with after the Sword Art Online incident. Kirito's job was to help them test a fourth-generation Full-Dive machine called the STL - the Soul Translator, which worked very differently to the machines before it, but was ultimately revealed to be tech created by Sword Art Online creator Akihiko Kayaba.
To use it, Kirito would be in continuous Full-Dive over weekends, and have his memories blocked for security reasons. Unbeknownst to Kirito; however, Rath is affiliated with JSDF, and what was actually being tested was an AI created by copying the soul of a newborn, using its soul as the baseline for the AI, nurturing it in a virtual reality called The Underworld; where time flows a thousand times faster than in reality.
Unfortunately for the military, the AIs in The Underworld were far too compliant with laws and social norms to be of any use, so Kirito was actually sent to figure out why the AI citizens were so obedient. Kirito would be born and live as a child of The Underworld, and spent eleven in-universe years before his "childhood friend", a young woman named Alice, broke one of the laws in the "Taboo Index" as a result of Kirito's influence. After the test concluded, Kirito was attacked by a straggling member of the Death Gun faction and injected with a lethal drug that caused his heart to stop. Doctors were able to restart his heart, but he suffered brain damage, rendering him comatose. The JSDF then secretly kidnap him and connect him to an STL device, after which he awakens in The Underworld with his real-life memories intact.
Major Themes of Sword Art Online: Alicization
Is a Life Lived in a Simulation Still a Life?
Basically, the military wanted to create a "bottom-up" AI to use in unmanned weaponry and reduce the number of human casualties on the battlefield. "Bottom-up" refers to the manner in which an AI "thinks", with the aim being to replicate the way humans think, which is capable of connecting seemingly unrelated concepts and learning through experience and adapting to its environment. The arc name comes from the acronym A.L.I.C.E (Artificial Labile Intelligent Cybernated Existence), which comes from the JSDF's goal of turning artificial "Fluctlights"; a quantum field that is effectively the human consciousness, into Alice - the first successful AI of its kind.
The Underworld was populated with a few of these artificial souls, which were initially nurtured by humans who taught them all manner of things; however, one of the Rath employees involved in the project deliberately passed on his corruption to a few of the children born to the two initial families. The Underworld was so detailed it even had a creation myth, but even though these Fluctlights were by all means proper human souls, those behind the experiment were shocked at how peaceful it was due to these artificially created souls having an inhuman level of reverence for the law.
The Alicization arc's centering in not just another video game, but a highly immersive simulated world with a technological breakthrough as groundbreaking as isolating the "physical" component that "contains" the soul, makes it the most ambitious story line in the franchise. While the dangers of unbridled technological development and the increased integration with tech are on full display over the course of the franchise, Alicization is one of the few times this isn't explored in a game, and the events of the arc are more concerned with the impact on reality.
The question of ethics naturally comes up, especially with how many times the JSDF does something untoward for the sake of furthering this technology, especially when doing so requires the stimulation of rule-violation as a concept so that a human soul that could have lived a peaceful life devoid of suffering and war is nurtured to learn about violence to further a militaristic agenda. There's also the fact that, for once, Kirito is actually the one who needs saving, instead of him being the only capable agent. Both of Kirito's childhood friends in The Underworld, Eugeo and Alice; not to mention Asuna, are very important to Kirito's eventual overcoming of not just his brain damage, but of the host of challenges faced in The Underworld.
Sword Art Online is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Sword Art Online
Sword Art Online is an anime series that follows protagonist Kirito as he and thousands of others become trapped in a virtual reality MMORPG where death in the game means death in real life. Kirito must navigate this perilous and immersive world to find a way to escape, facing numerous challenges and building alliances along the way. The series explores themes of survival, friendship, and the blurring line between reality and fantasy.