User blog:LaviBookman/Thoughts on Sword Art Online Ep. 10-13 (spoilers!)

It has been a while since my previous thoughts (thank you school), but I had to put aside time for this week's episode. Because it is absolutely phenomenal.

But first, I need to put in some thoughts for the episodes that led up to this week's episode. First up, Kuradeel. He's actually more insane in the light novels. Too much dramatics in the anime, imo. Not much else to be said, except the anime skimped out on explaining that limb decapitation is temporary.

Next... Yes, it happened in the light novels. Do I like this event? No, not really. Kirito and Asuna get married in-game. They're about 16 and 17 years old respectively. Reals? Did they go through puberty while stuck in SAO? Since Kirito's voice didn't drop five octaves, he still comes off as a pre-pubescent guy.

One episode later, they... have a kid. To be exact, a virtual reality, self-aware artificial intelligence program that acts like a little girl. What a family, guys! Yui, the AI, will have a role to play later on in the story: I'm guessing, based on story progression, she will reappear two episodes later (three at max). Didn't expect the Army guild leader and sub-leader to look the way they did, but they look like a happy couple.

For this week's episode (#13). We see the fishing thing, which chronologically was supposed to occur before Kirito and Asuna meet Yui, which is a big surprise for me. After that, we see the floor 75 boss, the Skull Reaper. Oh. Em. Gee. The fighting animation is AMAZING.

Like, I can't describe the detail in this scene. At first, I was bugged by the lack of description of why this Skull Reaper one-hit killing the party members is such a big deal. Hint: players train in the fields so that they can be levels above the floor boss. Higher level = more defense. More defense = more surviveability. More surviveability = at least the player can survive one blow (obviously not in the Skull Reaper's case).

Stay tuned for episode 14, entitled "End of the World."