To all Sword Art Online fans, get ready for major changes for the story of SAO. From the source of ANN, Sword Art Online creator Reki Kawahara is planning to “correct” the roles of the characters in Sword Art Online. During a interview with Dengeki Online with some other creators, he made a comment that the girls he created in the series should have an active role. In his interview, he says he wants to make Sword Art Online “political correct” by making the girls more than just side characters and making them part of the story. He also agrees that gender neutral words should be more used. For example, instead of saying hero or heroine, he wants thinks protagonist and antagonist is better. Also according ComicBook.com, Kawahara mentioned that will most likely won’t be using women as “trophies” in the story. Meaning, he won’t be using explicit moments like attempted rape or other sexual assaults for the story in the future. So moments like Asuna’s attempted rape in the first season of SAO (second to last episode) and SAO: Alicization episode 10 won’t be acceptable for plot device. In regards to the protagonist topic, he noticed how yuri manga has both girls as protagonists and helping each other; in a way, he wants the idea of motivation for SAO. He also added that this means it won’t downgrade Kirito.
What do you think about this?
Interivew: Anime News Network
Other source: ComicBook.com