This is pretty much why I found SAO a disappointment. I had better expectations from the synopses I had read before watching the actual anime. I actually liked the first few parts of the series before it quickly degenerated into the mess that was the first arc's finale and the absurd second arc.
It could've been exactly what it was supposed to be: players get stuck into the MMORPG, players attempt to clear it to save their lives and the story could end once they would defeat the final boss. The whole premise of "players being killed in-game meant being killed IRL" was a good drama factor and all that.
That whole premise falls apart once Kirito bull****s his way through the plot and, well, the second arc that had almost nothing to do with the series' namesake.
A pity, because it could have been the great series I imagined to be, given all the hype around it and all. That said, I actually liked the character designs and soundtrack (composed by Yuki Kajiura, after all). It's the kind of series that I felt that had a lot of potential but didn't live up for that. When you prepare yourself for a story, only to see it derailed, it really does leave a sour taste...
Fairy Tail and Attack on Titan, overrated or not, generic or not, actually follow their main premises and stay true to the stories' intent, with a more natural sense of progression in regards to the setting and characters. What I mean is that you can ask yourself "what is this about?" and you get exactly that.
I haven't watched the second season of SAO and I don't really intend to watch it, unless I find myself bored one day and decided to marathon it out of simple curiosity. The title doesn't even have anything to do with the story anymore. lol
