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Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako
She was clearly teasing him to see his reaction to the idea that other guys are interested in her.
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After thinking on it more, I see your point.
Initially, I found it odd for Asuna to say what she did, because it's incredibly obvious that she'd be attracting the attention of other guys. So her being genuinely annoyed at marriage proposals strikes me as very possible, so my initial interpretation was to take it as a totally sincere complaint, coupled with not wanting Kirito to add on to her frustration.
But now that I think about it more, Asuna bringing it up likely is a tease
because it's self-evident. In other words, there's no other practical reason to bring it up. Kirito is hardly the sort of person to casually make marriage proposals, even given the circumstances.
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You don't think the discussion about people accepting SAO as a new reality would've been much weaker if we hadn't seen Scilica risking her life for her dragon, or Liz leading a comfortable life as a smith, or Kirito arguing against using NPCs as cannon fodder?
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No, not really. I think that simply getting to see Kirito and Asuna walking around towns, enjoying the sites, and putting so much emphasis on enjoying a S-Class ingredient in a meal together in a really nice home, makes it very clear how people can live a comfortable life in this game world.
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You don't Kirito immediately identifying Asuna as a great cook works better after seeing the sandwich scene from Episode 6?
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It works fine regardless. Accepting that Asuna is a great cook is hardly a big deal, with or without the sandwich scene backing it up.
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You don't think the Laughing Coffin scene would've been a total WTF moment if we hadn't been introduced to them already?
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No, I don't. I think it would have captured a nice air of mystery and intrigue.
You know, I find your line of argumentation (and similar ones on this thread) a bit strange. I mean, source material fans had to take in the events of this episode without the benefit of the side stories (when they were reading the actual light novels). Did source material fans have huge problems with the content of Episode 8 without having read the side story content first? If not, then why would anime-only viewers?
So partly for this reason, I disagree with the general consensus on this thread that the adaptation approach taken was the best one.
After seeing the first eight episodes, I honestly would have preferred it if we had went 1, 2, and 8 (i.e. this episode would have actually been the 3rd). I think that approach would have created a much greater sense of narrative cohesion. And it's closer to how this narrative was initially meant to be experienced.
Episode 2 was based on a side-story, but it still feels like an episode focused on the main plot, due to how the episode is all about clearing a boss. Episode 2 also introduces the concept of "beaters" - Without knowing this concept, many of the insults thrown at Kirito by Kuradeel wouldn't make any sense at all. So I see some value in Episode 2 coming before Episode 8.
But some of the in-game mechanics stuff explored in Episodes 3 through 7 could be explained without too much difficulty here in Episode 8, while other bits of it could have waited until later.
I think that the SAO anime would have been better off going 1, 2, and 8 for the first three episodes, and then handling side-arc stories in flashback episodes down the line.
Have a later episode begin with something like...
Asuna: I don't get why you're so insistent on being a solo player. It's like you had a bad experience with guilds or something...
That could easily segue into a flashback episode showing everything that was shown in Episode 3.
Another later episode could have begun with Silica and Kirito randomly running into each other in Agil's store, and the two acting friendly with one another, raising Agil's eyebrows.
Agil: That girl seems to really like you, but I've never heard you talk about her before!
Kirito: Well, I only met her once before.
Agil: Just what happened during that one meeting? This I gotta know!
That could also easily segue into a flashback episode showing everything that was shown in Episode 4.
And you could use this approach for other side-stories, scattering them about at good break points in the main plot.
Personally, I think that much of the fun of a time-skip is the mystery that it brings with it. It can be very fun to see the curtain slowly pulled back on just what happened during the time-skip. I think that the anime adaptation of SAO could have played that up really well if it hadn't went with the side-arcs first approach.
SAO is a very good anime, but I don't think it took the best possible adaptation approach. I really do think it would have been better to spread out the side stories more, rather than to front-load them all like this. And just to be clear, I write this as an anime-only viewer.
Author
. Though I did lol at the notion that Asuna did have to have maximum cooking, and she's a girl, and Kirito didn't even help out - he just stood there and watched so ... implied sexism there? 
