[kitten320]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

After Asuna and Kirito's initial encounter, you can see that they went their separate ways. He continued on the solo path, and she eventually went on to join a guild. They interacted at key battles where she took the role of battle strategist, but you can see there that their relationship wasn't too great due to a clash of personalities. Even if they had met once before and partied back in the early days, it doesn't necessarily mean that an opportunity came up to break the ice -- an opportunity that came up now.

What you are saying would be relevant if it was just few months gap. Sadly we are talking about almost 2 years gap now.
We are talking about a world where something constantly can go wrong. Where strong monsters/bosses can appear or where dark guilds come into play. I refuses to believe that after almost 2 years this episodes case was the biggest one they had till now. Ok it might be bigger than others but there is no way that nothing else has ever come up that needed some kind of teaming up, investigation and interaction.

Besides Asuna is the one who approached Kirito in this episode what shows that she has no real problems in talking to him. So they must have had this kind of small interactions before during almost those 2 years.

And I once again underline my words.... ALMOST 2 YEARS!

What you and many others are saying would be relevant if it was few months. 2 years is way too much time to ignore each other and never even speak properly.

I mean just look at your own life. Imagine you are doing school/Uni project and you were put in a team with someone you barely know. At first you will be awkward but after spending a while of working on the project you would end up talking.
You might not become friends but during 2 years you are meant to stumble onto each other and talk especially if that person has left a positive impression.

Asuna is a kind of person who would approach him, this episode was a confirmation of that. If she was like Kirito then okay, I agree. But she is not. She is the one who approached him.

So sorry, but no. Not buying this excuse. 2 years is more than enough of time to establish some kind of relation by now.

SAO is a game that combines physical skill/reflexes with RPG levelling mechanics (and system-assisted combos and special moves). As you saw in the previous episode, being of a high level can make you basically invulnerable to lower-level enemies without any skill involved. So her being a high-level player now is a sign of skill, but more of dedication.

Kirito is a high level player because he knows shortcuts. Asuna doesn't. Since she is not familiar with game, leveling up is not an easy thing to do. It would take time for her to come up with strategies and then actually realize them.

Also I doubt that she became guild member right away, don't think they accept every noob out there especially since their guild is knows as the best.

But ok whatever, maybe 2 years was enough. But in all honesty I would prefer to see her as lower ranked officer now who gradually comes to a top. Just like 2 episodes of her doing something worthy what gives her higher rank. Just so we could see what exactly did she do to earn the title.
Like this it just looks like typical MC factor. I'm MC so I'm cool. Deal with it.

(And incidentally, people living their lives within the world of SAO is actually one of the themes explored in this episode. To say that they're not acting the way they should be is rather presumptuous.)

Ummm... where exactly? The fact that they are afraid to sleep alone? Ok fine... but it is normal after 2 years. Though their behavior now is no different from episode 2. In episode 2 it was just one month yet characters already were collected for most part. No one went crazy or berserk.

We have 10 000 people in there. No way are all those kids strong minded, a crazy panic should have broken out by then.

Kirito only partnered with Asuna in this episode because she insists on helping him solve the crime. He's shown before that he's not so opposed to partying with people (see both Episodes 3, 4), but he doesn't tend to do it very often except when needed.

How do they even find him? Also in episode 3 Kirito went all emo yet in episode 4 he is already fine all of a sudden. His behavior is inconsistent. We never saw him coming to terms with girl's death.

The character that was introduced in this episode was in fact present and introduced back in Episode 2, if you'll recall. You can understand from the context shown that he and Kirito are friends who have interacted before. I'm not sure that we really need a whole arc to explain how they got to know each other in the meantime.

They didn't interact back then as far as I remember.
And no, we don't need it for every character but this dude seems to have more importance than all those girls we saw till now.

If connection is important then it should be explored at least a bit especially when Kirito is solo what means he doesn't really interact with anyone.

It is not talkative Asuna but Kirito.

That aside, while it's good that you're here to provide your thoughts, the anime is not "on trial", and you don't need to put everyone else on trial for not agreeing with your opinions. You are also free to rate the episode whatever you want, and you don't have to justify it to anyone (or get so upset/insistent about it). Of course, everyone else is free to rate it whatever they want, with or without justifying it. Personally, I understand some of your criticisms, but I don't think the things that are troubling you interfered with my understanding or appreciation of the anime story as presented. Particularly, the time skips didn't really bother me -- it was rather clear what was going on, and each episode plays a role in developing the story and game world. So, in the end, it's just an opinion.

Sorry but when did I ask for anyone to agree with my opinion?
I'm not nitpicking on anyone's posts here. I'm simply stating my opinion yet every time I do, there are bunch of people who are trying to prove me wrong.

It is not me who starts this debates. I'm simply stating what I feel. Not my fault that my opinion differs.

I appreciate that some people try to explain things to me, it does help. But some losers bash and neg rep just because my opinion is different and I didn't even say anything offending.
It is not me who neg reps but you SAO fans.

So sorry but that comment applies more to SAO fan base not me. They are the ones who should learn to respect others opinions.

Originally Posted by kyp275

Technically, if you want to talk about reflex as in actual medical terms (which you seem to be doing), then you're actually very wrong - reflex by definition does NOT pass through your "mind" - ie. brain. It is an involuntary and automatic response, there's no getting faster - it's an automated process by your nervous system, it happens without, and regardless of your brain, examples includes breathing and your heart beating.

Mental reflex is a bit of a misnomer, as it really has nothing to do with the actual physiological response. In SAO's case, it's more about how fast a person's mind can react to what's happening, as the game is controlled purely through a Brain-Machine Interface - the NervGear, your actual body, outside of the brain, does not come into the picture at all.

Ok I did get it wrong, my bad. But reflexes are still something that needs to be trained. They are automatic but if you train them they'll be faster and more accurate.

I'm not sure what you're expecting them to do, live in panic for a year? Humans generally adapts very quickly, those who don't will break down long before the one year mark. I get the feeling you don't actually have much experience with actual stressful situations, especially ones involving life-and-death scenarios.

Exactly, in a year time.
In episode 2 it was just 1 month yet they already were fine. We never experienced real horror of their situation and just right away skipped to the time of calm.

The initial horror of the situation was ignored and now this whole situation doesn't feel like anything special. Typical shounen where you fight monsters to survive.

SAO is no different from any other shounen out there now since it never delivered horror of this whole mess. It simply skipped it.

Poor writing.