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Originally Posted by Rising Dragon
You know, given how she was turned into an item that can be stored locally outside of the game, Yui will probably return at a later date. You're all acting like she was only ever allowed these two episodes. Just wait and see instead of throwing around trainwreck accusations and the like.
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It's kind of a given that she's gonna come back (hinting at it in the episode...) but that's completely beside the point. Is the fact that she's gonna come back anyway excusable for the fact that they pulled some half-assed melodrama here? Can it justify that they pulled a terrible deus ex machina and plot twists out of nowhere (whether or not it was hinted or not it was still bad)? And it's not like I even hate SAO; it's just that this episode was down right mediocre.
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Originally Posted by Divini
The problem with what you said is that those sci-fi shows very rarely invested that much emotion in a particular 'guest of the week'. The overall stoic-ness of the main characters doesn't help things at all sure, but it's also written so that the viewers think pretty much the same as the main cast: "It's sad, but life goes on". SAO isn't really that kind of show so I didn't really think of relating this episode to a classic sci-fi series at all.
I will be the first to admit that most of those episodes made me wonder about 'shoddy writing'. In fact, for those rare instances in those shows where the cast and viewer becomes emotionally attached as much as Asuna and Kirito did towards Yui, those episodes were considered masterpieces!
For this episode, I actually look at it with a similar light as those 'masterpieces'. Yes, they were only together with Yui for a couple of days. But it's a fact that Asuna truly loved her like a daughter. Yui being virtual or non-blood related/adopted doesn't matter; I think people underestimate the bond between parent and child, and you don't need a whole childhood worth of memories to form that kind of bond.
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Definitely subjective I guess, just as relentlessflame pointed out. I guess whether or not this episode worked for you, whether or not this rushed character development was enough for you to feel something about, still depends on the watcher him/herself.