Sword Art Online - Episode 10 Discussion / Poll

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by EnOfEridu

What i mean is, they can populate a floor that fast? I should check the dates, but according to the calendar the boss was killed just a few days before the whole duel whatever. Maybe they can, but it still seems a little soon.

Anyone can teleport to any opened main city from some place in the main city of the floor they're in.

[don_Durandal]

Well I guess the main problem with the show is that it requires the viewer to pay good attention to the clues and register all information that has been given, AND remember them from week to week. A lot will be missed when just casually watching it.
(it’s easy to just ignore the dates and forget just how much time has passed for instance).

Kirito and Asuna’s relation buildup has been quite well developed so far, and this episode is just the logical conclusion. It's just that it was done too subtly for the average viewer.
And sorry for those who thought Kirito was a harem lead; he’s not. His choice is very clear.

Also about Kirito ignoring how he just killed someone, his first reaction does show that he’s in shock (just standing there without saying a word). It’s only when Asuna says she’ll leave him alone that he reacts, because that’s pretty much the last thing he ever wants her to do.

In short,
Kirito: “I need Asuna” > “I killed someone”
Asuna: “Kirito almost got killed twice in a few days because of me” > “two people died”

The later also explains the aftermath. It didn’t “all happened suddenly in a night”. The events of the last days were a trigger for them to come to terms with their relation. In other circumstances that would have taken time, but… this is not another circumstance! They both almost lost what has become the anchor in their life these past months.

First meeting between Kirito and Asuna: December 2022
Murder mystery arc: April 2024
Current arc: October 2024

What do you mean sudden?

Originally Posted by Green²

<...>
At best at the moment, Kirito should be orange status now, but not clear if they'll go anywhere with that.

No. Why would he?

It's shown quite clearly that Kuradeel became orange when he first hit Geodfrey with his sword (the diamond shaped thing above his head changed colour).
You only become orange if you attack a green player (whether you just slap or outright kill him, there is no difference game-wise).
Orange players a fair game and you can do anything to them: you will not loose your green status (once again the system does not differentiate between just poking or outright killing another player).

[Kafriel]

Originally Posted by Dengar

2 years? I mean, that's not hard to answer.

He started out as 1-hand swordsman, was always grinding it till dual blades appeared, which he probably trained at nighttime. He's just never been shown to use bare hands and if a few months were enough to master a class, then everyone would be a master of everything already.

[chaos_alfa]

Spoiler for Novel Comparsioson:

To bad they left the part out of the episode where it says this isn't the first time Kirito has killed someone and what has happened to the Laughing Coffin.

Spoiler for Light Novel Quote From Chapter 15:

When I saw what was there— my breath suddenly stopped. It was a tattoo. The image was a manga-like caricature of an ink-black coffin. A mouth and a pair of eyes formed a grin atop the coffin lid; the white bones of a skeletal arm reached out from inside.

“That... emblem is... «Laughing Coffin»?”

I asked in a dry voice. Kuradeel gave a smile and nodded in response.

«Laughing Coffin» used to be the biggest and worst PK guild in Aincrad. They were headed by a cold, sly leader and experimented endlessly with new methods of killing people; in the end, the number of players it had killed went into the triple digit figures.

The players once attempted to solve the issue through negotiations, but every messenger had been killed immediately. We couldn't even understand why they PKed, since it only lessened the chances of clearing the game, and because of this we couldn't talk with them properly. Not too long ago, the players who aimed to clear the game had formed a subjugation group that rivaled the boss-killing groups, and finally destroyed their guild after several long and bloody battles.

Asuna and I were in the group too. But the information had leaked somewhere, and the PKers were prepared and waiting for us. In my frenzy to protect my comrades, I ended up taking the lives of two Laughing Coffin members by accident.

“Is this... for revenge? You're a survivor from the Laughing Coffin?”

I asked with my cracking voice. Kuradeel virtually spat out his answer:

“Heh, no way. Why would I do something as stupid as that? I joined the Laughing Coffin only recently, and only in spirit anyways. I learned this paralysis technique from them... Ah, that's bothersome.”

[Dengar]

I don't think he mastered unarmed combat.

[Senshigeia]

Did they have sex??

Loved this episode!

[Dengar]

Speaking of that, I find it interesting that everyone is like "Kirito you go dawg!" and no one is like "Nice going, Asuna!". Yet these same people have been tossing around the sexist ball for several threads.

[sudolicious]

Originally Posted by Senshigeia

Did they have sex??

I was wondering this too, going by Kiritos initial reaction I didn't think so, but the scene kinda implied it.

[mod edit: removed novel references]

[Vladrave]

To be honest, i never really expected that the fight against the general of White knights(Or whatever it is) will be sooner and it ended fast. I expected the battle will last the whole episode lol
It seems they wasted godfray as a character. I thought he is cool, for me at least. Oh and another thing. Dammit kirito! Why you didn't take the chance?

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

Yes, they did it....

lol they did?

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

He started out as 1-hand swordsman, was always grinding it till dual blades appeared, which he probably trained at nighttime. He's just never been shown to use bare hands and if a few months were enough to master a class, then everyone would be a master of everything already.

Kirito is often portrayed as often going out of his way to actually train skills in the story. Though, honestly, if it's a level up by using said skills, then I think most gamers would actually do go out of their ways to train skills (especially considering they have little else to do). Think jumping around like an idiot in Oblivion, summoning demons and proceeding to get beaten to near death by it, kill it with fire and then heal yourself, and you do this from lvl 1. You don't even need to be a game expert to come out with exploit like this I guess.

So yeah, maybe everyone is a master of everything, but not important enough to be mentioned simply because the story is focusing mostly on Kirito.

[Kafriel]

Kirito is a playa, what did you expect?

I don't think he mastered unarmed combat.

Fair point, that makes things easier...although he did pierce through armor lol.

[Sumeragi]

I refuse to believe they did anything except cuddle! Otherwise it is a disgrace to the story given the poor execution of the episode!

- Sumeragi, Militant Romanticist

[Solafighter]

Missing the dialog from the novel..

Spoiler for novel content:

As soon as I understood that, I also fell into an endlessly deep panic. As a result, I committed the worst mistake in my whole life up until now.

“Err... No, you see, I just thought...that it would be good, if we stayed to— together in a room tonight...”

“Eh...?”

As I responded stupidly with my honest thoughts, it was Asuna who froze with her mouth wide open this time. Then, an expression of intense anger and embarrassment spread across her face.

“You... You...”

Her clenched right fist revealed an almost visible killing intent.

“Idiot—!!”

Asuna's fist, which had accelerated to a speed that utilized all of her dexterity stats, was stopped just barely before striking my face by the Crime Prevention Code and released a loud noise and a spray of purple sparks instead.

“A-Ahh—! Wait!! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Forget what I said!”

I tried to explain while frantically waving my hands about to Asuna, who was about to throw her second punch without paying any attention to me.

“I'm sorry, I was wrong!! Bu...But, anyway, can you... like... actually d-do it...? In SAO...?”

Asuna dropped her attacking stance and was a bit taken aback, although still furious. Then she asked:

“You, you mean you don't know...?”

“No, I don't...”

Then, Asuna's expression changed suddenly from one of anger to one of embarrassment, before she explained in a small voice:

“...That is... In the options menu, all the way on the bottom... there's an option called «Ethic Code Off».”

It was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. I'm sure this wasn't available during the beta test, nor was it mentioned in the manual. To think that this was another price that I had to pay for playing as a solo player and not having any interest except fighting.

But this information raised a new question that I couldn't help but think about. Since I still hadn't fully recovered my ability to think straight, I unintentionally said it out loud:

“...Have... Have you ever done it before...?”

Once again, Asuna's iron fist erupted in sparks right before my face.

"O-Of course not, you idiot—!! I just heard about it from the other girls in the guild!!"

I hurried to kneel down on the ground before her and apologized endlessly. It took several minutes before I finally managed to calm her down.


A single candle atop the table stayed burning; its thin rays of light made Asuna's skin glow faintly as she slept in my arms. I ran a finger gently down her white back; the warm and smooth feeling that traveled up from my fingertips was absolutely intoxicating.


Asuna slowly opened her eyes and looked towards me. She blinked twice and then smiled.

“Sorry. Did I wake you?”

Thanks to baka-tsuki.org

I dont think they did it.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

I refuse to believe they did anything except cuddle! Otherwise it is a disgrace to the story given the poor execution of the episode!

- Sumeragi, Militant Romanticist

Yeh... Cuddling whilst Asuna strips to her undergarments. It's all pure and innocent with rainbows and sunshine .

Bollocks to all that... they had coitus

Good thing to note about Virtual Reality Sex is that it comes with natural contraceptive!

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

Yeh... Cuddling whilst Asuna strips to her undergarments. It's all pure and innocent with rainbows and sunshine .

Bollocks to all that... they had coitus

Good thing to note about Virtual Reality Sex is that it comes with natural contraceptive!

Yeah... intoxicating tooo

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

BTW, why didn't Kirito use Dark Repulser? Or did he paint it green or something?

It was always green to begin with.


The production value keep getting stale without any reason. Whereas Heathcliff/Kirito fight started okay-ish, I can't say it doesn't look too good to use the very same stock animation that came from the very previous episode (the simultaneous front double slash, right after he activated Starburst Stream against the gleam eyes).
Adding conveniently long flashbacks left and right, and this episode sure has a lazy presentation.

Plot wise, the episode felt definitely rushed (not like the romance lacked building, but the lack of transitions between the different scenes in this episode made it completely disjointed).
Meanwhile, Godfree was indeed quite an idiot for that whole training session, especially if you consider the context between Kuradeel and Kirito. That and his request to take care of all crystals, completely irresponsible should a real abnormal situation arise (aside of this one, you could have laughing coffin ambushing them, or irregular mob etc).
Speaking of which, I was also surprised big time that Kuradeel and especially Kirito had so few crystals: even if it is only the 55th floor, that's a little careless to have only 1 heal and teleport crystal.
Another detail that still doesn't make sense to me: do they really -not- feel pain in SAO? It is beyond being "just startled" by having something sticking in you, that's definitely pain both Godfree and Kirito went through so...
On the other hand, it seems they really forgot about Battle Regeneration skill like last week huh? Dramatic low hp nonetheless, at least make it visible it isn't moot to introduce it (I don't think Kirito would be confident enough to unequip this skill in both events anyway).
Finally, past the fact Kirito's hand could regen quickly like this, I was more surprised that the amount of hp he lost was rathe small considering how crippling this injury is.

This episode was more or less fine with its conclusion, but it had a lot of things brushed over that is quite similar to the side stories episodes. Delivering what fans expected is one thing, but presenting it in this fashion doesn't really cut it.

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Finally, past the fact Kirito's hand could regen quickly like this, I was more surprised that the amount of hp he lost was rathe small considering how crippling this injury is.

My guess it's the status effect "crippled". Though usually it's a magical debilitation curable with potions instead of actually having a severed limb...that regrows. I don't know how to extract realism out of that

[~Yami~]

Originally Posted by Vladrave

lol they did?

I hate to spoil it but it's obviously that they did it...
if not, then Kirito must be a gay...

Spoiler for spoil further:

yea yea... so I accidentally read something called Chapter 16.5 (now it's erased from baka-tsuki but you still can find translation if you search hard in internet)
they even make manga doujin about the chapter

[Conan-san]

They did (and I kinda wish I never read the specifics, dood's a good SF author but he can't write sex for shit) the novel just blanked out a little later than the Anime's comedy approach.

[Vladrave]

If they really did it then cool.
I guess i need to read the chapter 16.5 so i can confirm it.
Or maybe i shouldn't being asuna naked at the bed and all....