Sword Art Online - Episode 9 Discussion / Poll

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Karakuri

I hope in the next episode they make it clear Kirito likes her.

The way he reacted when Klein was introducing himself to Asuna makes it clear he already does.

He probably hasn't realized it yet though.

[Karakuri]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

The way he reacted when Klein was introducing himself to Asuna makes it clear he already does.

He probably hasn't realized it yet though.

Yes, you are right, I used the wrong words. That's what I meant.
Thank you ^^

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Xaturas

Ohhh I wouldn't be so sure. At first joining kob may seem like not a major event.
However when we look at how they treat their guild members, especially those more important, you could easily see it would cause problems for him. First of all he would be restrained about what he do, when he do and with whom he do. No more random low lvls trolling around with cute girls, unless he would get permission.

Originally Posted by itoastmysocks

Also there might be the fact of, actually enjoying the fight, you know there is this weird thing in animes where people learn something about each other when they fight, and they might become friends, and he might get Kirito to join regardless if he wins or loses.

Yeah, I was thinking of this too. Let's say they have a good fight and they come to respect each other. Or let's say that somehow they manage to tie (I don't know if that's possible). In the end, he could still decide to join the guild, but with certain conditions -- like a certain degree of autonomy and that he gets to work with Asuna. So I don't think he would join the guild and then get treated like a pawn.

Besides, he's already shown that he's plenty powerful. He doesn't actually have any reason to blindly follow the Commander's orders even if he loses. So what if he goes back on his honour? It's not like he isn't used to be hated, and they still need him on the frontlines. I'm sure Asuna would support him anyway (just like with Kuradeel -- "you don't have to go through with this").

So yeah... I don't really see how this can end badly for him either way.

[Forever]

I am guessing the leader sure has a trick up his sleeve. Especailly when the rumors overhype kirito's true abilites.

A tank with thorns ability + evade and counter? If the leader has some armor that can activate an ability to reflect all damage for 1 min and he time it to activate just when kirito activates the starburst stream, then kirito will be screwed by his own skill....

I can still remember my old dota spectre hero. I wore the old version of blademail + hero already have reflect dmg. I laughed when my enemy criticaled on me and died as a result of reflected damage.

[Karakuri]

Originally Posted by Forever

I am guessing the leader sure has a trick up his sleeve. Especailly when the rumors overhype kirito's true abilites.

A tank with thorns ability + evade and counter? If the leader has some armor that can activate an ability to reflect all damage for 1 min and he time it to activate just when kirito activates the starburst stream, then kirito will be screwed by his own skill....

I can still remember my old dota spectre hero. I wore the old version of blademail + hero already have reflect dmg. I laughed when my enemy criticaled on me and died as a result of reflected damage.

That seems kinda OP...Lol..I hope not, I wouldn't like to see something so OP in this anime.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Well, regarding the guild leader (since I brought it up), it's obvious that he must have something up his sleeve, because otherwise why would he challenge Kirito to a duel using the dual-wield ability? He's allowing Kirito to use his unique advantage, which suggests that he believes he has a chance anyway. Plus I highly doubt that he wants to see Asuna go, and would love to see Kirito join the guild; we can assume that he's probably not stupid enough to make such a deal lightly. So yeah, I think we should assume that he's not going to be a pushover, and probably does have skill to backup his bold gamble. In a way, it would actually be better if Kirito got defeated, because it'd be a bit too boring if Kirito is totally invincible. And like I said, Kirito really doesn't have much to lose either way at this point; join the guild or not, he'll still be with Asuna, and can still focus on clearing the game.

Funny thing you mention an ace up his sleave, because I suwspect that kirtos dual wield ability is not as advantegous as it seems atm.
Kirito revieved a lot more hits than he did before dual-wielding so i suspect that it is similar to Skyrim where you can no longer block attacks when you dual-wield weapons.
The Guild leader is, according to the intro a shield user, with a shield and heavy armor, so he probably has a lot more Life points than Kirito has.
Kirito, Asuna and her guild leader are probably the strongest plaers in the entire game so a battle between them will certainly be very interesting.
Either way dual-wield is weak against shields, depending on how big his shield actually is it might even be enough to protect him from all incomming damage

Either way they won't do a dual to the death so he has nothing to loose. Asuna want to take a break not quit, so in the worst case she'll be away for a while while h could actually win a player with a unique ability if he wins this fight, so the gain is definitely higher than a possible loss.

@ Kirito didn't Solo the boss
Yes and no.
He would have if he had taken his dual swords out from the beginning.
You can assume that he had already lost between 25 and 50% of his life when he took them out will the Boss was probably down less than 20.

[Forever]

Originally Posted by Karakuri

That seems kinda OP...Lol..I hope not, I wouldn't like to see something so OP in this anime.

That's why there should be a time limit on the reflect damage for balance. Maybe 1 min is too much? 20 seconds? Any a limited time reflect damage is useful but does not make u godlike, especially versus bosses

[Azure King]

then when the leader own Asuna?
"i won't let her go unless you beat me"?
it makes asuna sound like a piece of property or the guild "knight of the blood" is another name for shinsengumi, only death is the way out.. .. quite sad really

[Karakuri]

Originally Posted by Forever

That's why there should be a time limit on the reflect damage for balance. Maybe 1 min is too much? 20 seconds? Any a limited time reflect damage is useful but does not make u godlike, especially versus bosses

Well, even 20 seconds it seems too much to me, just like in League of Legends, there was a champion named Jax, who had runes to block auto attacks and such, which was extremely OP ( he could also stun...but they removed all that block, not the stun ), he was nearly invencible. I remember back then Jax could 1v5 easily if the player was good enough.
Maybe 10 seconds or 5 would be enough tho. You see, it might not seem much, but even 3 seconds is a lot, especially when you are the one trying to face those 3 seconds of reflection, just like you're stunned for like 2 seconds, and it seems like it takes 5 seconds or 10 and you're already dead lol.
It's not godlike agaisn't Bosses, but it is a great skill if you can actually use it to reflect the Boss' attacks, I mean, you can reflect, you don't take dmg, and the Boss takes it instead? It is a very strong skill xD
I still hope he doesn't have that skill tho.
Maybe he has a skill that gives him more Defence or Health? Normally tankers have those kind of skills, a tanker vs a DPS champ...If the tanker is good enough he can easily take the DPS down, if he has a skill which gives him even more Defence or Health...well...you know how it'll end lol.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Azure King

then when the leader own Asuna?
"i won't let her go unless you beat me"?
it makes asuna sound like a piece of property or the guild "knight of the blood" is another name for shinsengumi, only death is the way out.. .. quite sad really

Well, I don't think it's quite that bad. They seem to take their guild structure and positions rather seriously, so in their minds, players who commit to the guild and get promoted probably have some obligations. I've actually seen guilds in real life games that are like that as well, in fact. Having a major guild member quit (edit, to clarify: "take an extended leave of absence to party with an outsider") like that could be desettling to all the other guild members as well.

But most of all, I think the whole "you have to go through me" thing is just to give Kirito an excuse to fight, and part of hope that he'll agree to join the guild as well. It's not literally like she can't just do whatever she wants.

[j0x]

the action was very well done its very suspenseful, great episode

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by j0x

the action was very well done its very suspenseful, great episode

Yeah... Now, its not just for the game that Kirito is fighting... he's fighting for Asuna ...

...for her cooking to be exact... selfish indeed...

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

he's fighting for Asuna... for her cooking to be exact...

Isn't it the same thing? The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach after all...

Asune definitely knows the game... the love game that is...

[Archmagination2002]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Since a lot of people have corrected me... I do know that he didn't literally solo the boss. But he alone did substantial damage well above all the other contributors, likely combined. That's why his name was in the news at the end of the episode. But yes, he definitely did get help, so he did not really "solo" the boss literally speaking.

The thing with this battle is that it was really hard to damage the boss due to its strength, skills and weapons.. it took everything the other players had to even block the weapon and they still took damage from it.. the person that would be hit with that sword would end up KIA. Thats the reason why Kirito switched to Dual Wielding, because he realized that it was hopeless unless he went on the offensive.

I am surprised nobody mentioned Asuna and Kirito running screaming away from the boss room in fear..

[larethian]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

And while her long hug and "I was so scared" thing at the end was romantic... this, combined with last episode, suggests that she's much weaker than she appears.

Given that she said that after the fight and after Kirito regained consciousness, and her following line, "I don't know what I'd do if you die" or something like that, I think she meant she was scared of Kirito dying. Then again, who won't be scared (Kirito included) when they are fighting a nasty looking boss with that kind of group and when death means real death.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Archmagination2002

The thing with this battle is that it was really hard to damage the boss due to its strength, skills and weapons.. it took everything the other players had to even block the weapon and they still took damage from it.. the person that would be hit with that sword would end up KIA. Thats the reason why Kirito switched to Dual Wielding, because he realized that it was hopeless unless he went on the offensive.

But relentlessflame's point stands. Kirito basically soloed the boss, that much is true.

[Znail]

There are a few things that may be difficult to pick up if you haven't read the LN in this episode. So to get some spoiler details off my chest, note that none of the spoilers are actual plot spoilers, just technical details the anime have not taken the time to explain.

Spoiler for Why the Boss was still a difficult one despite how quickly he went down.:

The really scary bit about this Boss was that he didn't use a standard attack patern, but did improvised random attacks. That made it really difficult for them to use standard tactics as people would have to have fast enough reactions to dodge and parry correctly. That is why the Army guys was so scared as well, as it was totally unexpected. And why Kirito used his close to suicidal tactic. This is somewhat hinted at by how the Boss suddenly grabs Kirito's sword as that is obviously not a standardised attack patten.

Spoiler for Why Kirito was taking so much damage while dual wielding compared to when he was using only one sword.:

He launced a Sword Skill consisting of a very long series of attacks, meaning that the computer took over most of the control of his avatar. He could still help with aim and minor adjustments. But it totally prevented him from doing any parrying or dodging so the Boss was free to hit him as long as he accepted hits in return.

Spoiler for Sword Skills.:

The way the computer takes over may make it seem like the player doesn't really matter, but that isn't true. They can still help with aiming and even helping the move along some and this is what gives Asuna her nickname "The Flash" as she has incredible accuracy (wich translates to being able to aim at weak spots and get critical hits) and she helps her moves along so to be even faster then normal. Kirito comments on her speed several times in the anime, but it may not be obvious as to why he does that. You need to be really fast to be able to help the computer along with the already faster then normal human movement.

Then there is the fact that the player is very much the one who decides if he can defend himself at the correct time. This is Kirito's strongest side as despite only using leather armor so can he stand up to a floor Boos like this simply due to his fast reflexes.

Spoiler for The truth about Kirito's swords.:

The stats shown earlier for his swords are anime original. In the LN so are they considered sister swords and basically identical, down to the main advantage of both and that is that they could be enchanted an unprecidented number of times each. This also explains why he is still using the same sword he got several levels ago by now. They could each be attempted to be enchanted 50 times and thus ended up at something absurd like +47. Quite a lot of effort went into that and the end result are two weapons that are possibly as good as any weapons in the game of SOA.

Incidentally as Lizbeth said, she was actually told about his Dual Blades skill and she also did the enchanting work for both the swords.

[Shinji103]

Nope, I still don't get the end card. I guess it's a play on Heathcliff's "fight me if you want Asuna" stance?

Anyway, great episode, though I'm not sure what the point of putting in the anime original material of Asuna looking more capable last episode was if Kirito just soloed the boss fight anyway. While it was a nice fight, I question the wise-ness of having Kirito able to solo a boss, the same as I question it in the original novels. Isn't the whole point of bosses in MMORPGs to have to form big parties and work together? It feels like a cheap attempt to make Kirito look overly powerful to have him suddenly whip out a badass skill and take on the boss all by himself, like any one of hundreds of corny pose scenes in shounen anime like Bleach or Dragonball Z where the main character gains a powerful new ability for the fifth time.

Anyway, I was surprised-ish that they filled a whole episode with this one fight after they rushed through the sidestories so fast. It definitely shows how much better episodes 2 and 3 could have been had they not time-crunched the heck out of them.

Bah, accidently hit 10/10 instead of 9/10 on the poll. (knocked one point off for the cheapness of soloing a boss fight to look poweerful like a typical shounen hero)

[Wild Goose]

All in all, solid ep. No major complaints.

Spoiler for Comparison to the novels:

Regards Asuna, the impression I get of her is that her "weakness" in these two arcs is because she's being a normal girl, as opposed to the clearing-obsessed leveling monster she was prior to Murder Case, where she was only sleeping 3 hours a day, had nightmares, and was obsessively levelling every single bit of free time she had. That nap she had was the first time she'd slept for eight hours.

After Murder case, she learns to let go and relax - notice we hardly saw her smiling before and during Murder Case, but note how relaxed she is in the current arc. She's no
Onger tightly wound as she used to, which is a good thing, and she's coming to terms with living in Aincrad and being a girl in love, and deciding to act on her feelings.

The problem, however, is that when she was a tightly wound hardass, she was able to keep these emotional issues from affectng her, but now that she's not a hardass anymore, these things are hitting her harder than they used to.

Also, it would not be wrong to say that in this episode, Asuna is at the apex of her fear, at how Kirito nearly died.

To that holding and crying? Stress relief.

At the end of the day... Cut the poor girl some goddamned slack. She's seventeen. Shee's done well to keep things together for so long - an occasionall emotional stumble is to be expected, is proof that she's human, and once the emptional crisis is over she picks herself up and carries on.

Spoiler for Comparison to the novels:

Also, I really like Klein's little conversation with Asuna. In the LNs, it was played slightly for laughs, but here it carries across stronger tones of friendship/heartwarming.

Klein is bro tier.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

It feels like a cheap attempt to make Kirito look overly powerful to have him suddenly whip out a badass skill and take on the boss all by himself, like any one of hundreds of corny pose scenes in shounen anime like Bleach or Dragonball Z where the main character gains a powerful new ability for the fifth time.

What made you think this isn't a typical shounen show to begin with? I mean, it reeks of shounen tropes so it's kinda hard to see it in any other way IMO... not that that is necessarily a bad thing. It all depends on the execution.

I do agree with you that defeating the boss through team work (even if the team was only Kirito and Asuna) would have been better.