FATALITY. New idea for next Mortal Kombat. Or is it already there.

Yeah couldn't really think it as anything else than parody this time.

Wait, this fight is over really quick! Very surprising...

Don't tell me that this series is not yet over isn't it? I still think that Sugou would come back and storm Asuna's room!

Major awesome episode.

Take that you shitty Sugou!!! D:<

NTR IS STRONG IN THIS ONE. There was a fight? Didn't see one. All I saw was some Deus ex Machina and some TEARS LICKING.

Your senses are connected to the game itself. Remember there is the sense of touch, taste, the need to sleep etc. ALO is based off the same engine as SAO as all the same stuff is in there. The pain absorption thing is built in to the system from the start to limit the sensation of pain the players feel when they suffer damage from sources like monsters and each other.

After all the players could hardly have fun if a fireball spell actually feels like you're realistically being cooked alive right? Sure it's going to hurt but not at a crippling level due to the pain absorption protecting you, but if that protection is removed by reducing the level, getting a sword rammed through you suddenly feels way more realistic.....

So our little rapist villain when the pain absorption was set to 0 had nothing at all blocking out the pain of what it felt like to get dismembered by a sword and having one rammed through your eye and face. His real body didn't suffer the actual damage but all that pain input is getting fed directly to his brain with no filter.

So yeah. Big time ouch.

And your point? It was stupid back then too. Remember that I'm the guy who doesn't like the reality/virtual world contradictory crap in this show because of how it doesn't feel like a game at all. I've been against it since the start of the show.

I'm much more skeptical about game technology being this advanced in only a decade or so from now, which is supposedly when this series takes place.

So we got a rushed episode with a stupid ending to an even more stupid and laughable main villain. This is just the consequence on ignoring the main plot fo so long. I'm certain the next episode will be just as rushed.
This episode gets a 6 from me. This show has ben a big disappointment so far.

And yet you're still here at episode 24 when you didn't like the stuff from as early as episode 2. That exit door must be hard to find.

Alright... so, as someone who really enjoyed both Asuna and Kirito at the beginning of this show, I have to ask this:
Am I the only one who thinks that these two, Asuna in particular, have become incredibly annoying ever since they got together and were at this house in the woods- at latest the second Yui showed up? :/
She's particularly badly written in this episode again. What happened to the interesting, independent girl we were introduced to? Might have been the over-the-top-ness of it all..

If someone doesn't feel this way, please don't be offended, but to me, she seems like an entirely different person (personality-less, weak girl with a boyfriend)... :(

Took a while but this is by far the greatest episode since alfheim started :D

I think, for Asuna's part (outside of the present situation), she indulges both herself and Kazuto by choosing to depend on him, an option she had not had for the first two years in SAO. She is certainly capable of fending for herself, but she doesn't mind depending on Kazuto too, and she wants him to depend on her for strength as well. I guess that perhaps makes her a bit less interesting -- particularly in this arc where she isn't really given a lot of opportunities to decide things for her own -- but I honestly know a lot of couples in the real world who are like this: both strong and independent, but choosing to depend on each other as a sort of comfort/refuge from that independence.

I hope that we will see this play out a bit more in the continuation of the story, as it really didn't have a good opportunity here (in this case her dependence on him was forcefully one-sided, unlike most of what we saw in the SAO arc).

Whether you think it should work that way in real life or not, the mechanics here are internally consistent with what's been presented in the show.

Another example of armor being destroyed comes from episode 6, where it's used to fake a death by hiding the teleport effect beneath the destroyed item effect.

As for the health after being cut in half thing, SAO / ALO have always been shown to have rolling health bars. Had Kirito let him fall to the ground he probably would've died a few seconds later anyway... but where's the fun in that?

Mixed feelings about this episode:

Well one evil villain final boss dude is just lame as ever, and also quite gross "let me record us doing this stuff in VW, and then I'm going to come over to the hospital and do it to you again while watching me lick you in the VW - herp derp"

Few comments:
1) I'm glad my previous posts and hopes for "kayaba" returning in some form or matter to help Kirito actually turned out to be true! Albeit, it's a little confusing as to how it actually works...

2) Final seed given to Kirito --> Sounds like some device that will help him build a VW (kirito is into coding). However, he said it will bud in time if he chooses to let it...so not sure if it's some kind of automated program that will create a world he had already created on the side or something, who knows. "If you choose to not hate that world, blah blah" would imply this.

3) So...pain absorber was set to 0. Sugou says that if it's below 3, physical body would get hurt. Okay...? So, does that effectively mean Kirito just killed Sugou? Or like seriously brain-damaged Sugou into thinking his right arm, and lower body, = gone in the real world? He'll turn into a vegetable or just be dead is my assumption.

4) Okay Kirito, so you just logged out Asuna, and then yourself. What about the 300 SAO players being experimented on? (Was always a little confused about this --> Does this mean that 300 SAO players are like "Asuna" in the sense that they never got to logout? So...did Kirito just leave them in the VW still to go say hi to Asuna?

5) Yeah bike your way to the hospital Kirigaya...sighhhh. --> K-Drama version: *Asuna wakes up, looks outside her window, sees Kirito biking furiously towards hospital, she smiles, and then *SCREEEEEECHHHHHHH HONKKKKKK* --> Kirito on bike gets hit by truck* [The End]

6) ^just joking, wouldn't want my favorite couple to get shafted like that. Looking forward to the next episode to see how they wrap things up in the Real World, and how many things will actually get covered/discussed.

LOL Turned to level 1 and then given a legendary weapon :heh: .

PEW PEW PEW.

Sogou was so annoying and low.

I can't wait for the next episode :D.

With this episode i am guessing everything opened up for a second season right? That thingy kayaba gave Kirito.

To be honest although i liked the episode, i wanted one last epic battle *_*. Like you know, nothing from Sogou, well because he sucks. But maybe he like goes monster form or like summons a monster or whatever and that gets beaten by Kirito and heathcliff ( he was a badass imo) and then we could have the ending.

Well, though it would be cool to have that, i think the way it was done was the better way. Plot wise at least. I didn't expect that. It was a really cool non-battle(ish) ending.

One more episode to go :D. And hopefully more seasons afterward.

There's a difference between a comforting relationship and throwing your individuality down the drain though.

I felt like this dependence ruined her character not only now but already in the SAO arc, slowly weakening both characters likeablility, but maybe was more pronounced here.
Suddenly everything was about Asuna this, Asuna that, we're playing happy family now with constant dialogue among the lines of "sob- I wuvv you so much, we're MARRIED, we'll always be together forever and ever and always, what an epic love story... and this is our kid <3" The latter possibly the nail in the coffin of absurdity.

Maybe the problem was expectation- I didn't expect a sappy love story with generic love-struck whiny girl and equally whiny, lovesick guy (not my genre whatsoever), but focus on the very interesting plot and cast.
It's like being in a relationship sucked the personality right out of the pair of them, especially when they interact with each other.
During SAO, I hoped it was temporary, now it seems that's just how they are in a relationship...

I've seen these relationships in real life, particularly among immature teens, and I don't think they are particularly healthy, and they're not fun to watch either. It's like watching Twilight- Online :s

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm complaining too much... started out loving this show, so I'm a bit sad at how things- in my opinion- went downhill.
Had I known, I would've preferred to stop after the first arc, with most of the very positive impression of the first eight or so episodes still somewhat intact.
If there is a second season, I hope they would be given their individuality back, and their romance would play much less of a prominent role (you can be a couple without wailing and holding on to each other all the time, reminding everyone of your couple-status at every turn. Otherwise, I can't believe they have real feelings beyond immature infatuation :/ It started out so well too...)

Don't hate me :heh:

I think it's a product of their circumstance more than anything. Everything is over-dramatized to them because they've kind of been living over-dramatized lives: first in a death game where they thought every battle could be their last, and now in this bizarre situation with Sugou. Once this is all over, they can start to live normal balanced lives again and come to terms with what it'll be like to be a regular couple. I cut them some slack because they basically haven't had a chance to rest yet.

So yeah, I see what you're saying... but I also understand why it makes sense for it to be this way for now.

Anyone else hoping SAO will go on even after Episode 25? (which supposedly is the last one)

I mean the Seed thing....... offers us possibilities!
And Sugou's body was.. I mean in the real world he's dead, no?
Since Kirito set his Pain Meter to 0 and it was said that when its below 3 it will start to affect your body RL.

Also, anyone else got fucking mad when that sick perverted a-hole started to molest Asuna? -.-

SAO 24 was pretty fun.
Wasn't sure how everything was going to play out, or how the animation was going to be like, since the previous episode's zergfest looked like they were out of budget.

As expected, Kayaba's ghost came to lend a hand.

Was going "HOLY ****" when Kirito basically massacred Sugou. With pain absorber set to 0, you think that might actually kill his nerves or turn his brain into mush. It is possible for people to die from pain/going in shock alone.

Sugou creeper level was set to 100% this episode as well. Looking forward to future SAO doujins where Sugou wins.

Also felt the end was nicely done. The transition from Sugu seeing Kirito off to the ending showing her just hanging out in her room reflecting on their past and bonds fit together really well.

I'm not obligated to stop watching a show when there's only one major aspect of it I dislike. Besides, the SAO arc in general compared to this was much better anyway. I still think the show should have ended permanently at episode 14.

Even if it is consistent, it doesn't mean I like it. .hack did a virtual reality game world in a much more sensible and believable way for it's setting's time period than this show ever has. It was a virtual reality world, but at the same time it had the limitations and environments that actually made it still feel like a game. Get too real like this show and it isn't a game anymore. That's not what I want to see.

It's still awfully realistic. I know the upper half of a body can live for several minutes in reality after the torso is severed in half, but again this is a game. It should have been over by the time Kirito laid that blow.

In the end this all just my personal problem I have with the show. I know that's not what the series is trying to do, but I just don't like it.