Sword Art Online - Episode 10

<3

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but this is definitely much earlier than expected. The sweet Kirito x Asuna moments saved the episode from being rather sour overall. I mean, first off, I didn't really expect Kirito to lose to Heathcliff. Sure, the guy's the commander of the game's top guild, but Kirito has the advantage thanks to his status of being a main character. That moment where his surroundings suddenly turned red and Kirito lost his momentum had me wondering what just happened. Is one of Heathcliff's skills the ability to distort time, or was that a random bug in the game? And while the loss was bad enough, I really didn't expect it to get worse.

But unfortunately, it did. Upon seeing Kuradeel, I knew things were going to go downhill from there. I had hoped to never see that creepy stalker again, but I guess he was a necessary piece in what was to happen afterwards. Nonetheless, seeing him mercilessly kill the innocent Godfree was tough to watch. And although I knew Kirito wasn't going to die (this is like the second time in as many episodes where he his HP gets reduced to a sliver of red), my heart still raced when Kuradeel was sadistically stabbing him as I anxiously awaited the arrival of Asuna.

But in the end, all's well that ends well. It's amusing though, since in real life, I don't think there's a real life couple who went from kiss -> sex (Chapter 16.5?) -> marriage in one day, let alone a few hours. Just goes to show how games don't reflect reality well, no matter how realistic they may be. Moving forward, I'm guessing there's going to be one or two episodes focused on Kirito and Asuna's "honeymoon", which is totally fine with me. But afterwards, it'll be interesting to see how their new relationship will affect their motivation to clear the game. At this point, they might just have moments where they'll be content with their current situation and forget about returning to the real world.