[Wild Goose]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

Spoiler for Response to spoiler:

Except, as far as the anime-only viewers are concerned, none of that ever happened. Because that was all cut out of the Aria arc. You can't just suddenly bring up stuff from the novels that never happened as far as the anime is concerened. That super-crunching of the Aria arc is finally coming back to bite, I guess. The anime-only viewers wouldn't know any of this to see the true comparison.

I'd forgotten that the Aria bits weren't animated, save for her hiding in her room in the OP. derp. -_- Still, even by following animated Murder Case, you can see that Asuna is a clearing monster, and she even tells kirito after the duel with Kuradeel that she's been too strict with the KoB members.

But yeah,goddamnit Aria shoulda been two eps. Then again, looks like the next arc is gonna be 12 eps or so...

[mod edit: removed confirmation that hints at novel spoilers]

Originally Posted by Krono

In addition you have to remember, they've all been going out, and fighting life or death battles on a daily basis for the last two years. That sort of thing takes it's toll even on trained soldiers, much less untrained people in their mid teens that never expected to be fighting life or death battles.

Exactly. Now, while I wouldn't say that everyone has PTSD - a term that gets bandied about too much, IMO - they've been gping through life or death struggles in a daily basis. Being in Aincrad, while still a place where you can find fun, happiness and even love, is still fraught with danger. Every combat session is a tarumatic experience, and it's not as if there are counselors to help the players deal with all this stress.