Sword Art Online Episode 3--People Die When They Are Killed

I'm pretty amazed that the whole "you lose, you die" thing doesn't seem to have sunk in with some people playing SAO.




The shine is starting to wear off a bit. I'm not going to spend this post talking about the anger that's been widely and loudly expressed throughout the community about how the show differs from the source material--simply put, if you were expecting a 1-to-1 adaptation, you're going to be disappointed simply because anime is a different medium. However, even from the perspective of someone whose only experience with SAO is with the anime, I'm starting to see the cracks.

Which isn't to say that SAO has suddenly stopped being entertaining, because it hasn't; the big emotional moments still packed a punch. However, there were enough odd little moments throughout this episode to make me pause and wonder what this show is trying to do. To start, there isn't a sense of how much time has passed in the game. Has it been a few more months? A year? Clearly a significant amount of time has passed, since groups are making it to level 28, but the show doesn't care to inform us. There were time stamps throughout the episode to show that this episode takes place over the course of roughly eight months, but I want to know how much time has passed since the game began. Did I miss it? There has to be a better way of conveying time passing.

And then there's the big dramatic moment of the episode, which revolved around the premise of the entire show: you lose, you die. Last week, I talked about two different methods of coping that I saw within the episode, one of which was to continue treating the game like a game, and that's clearly present with the guild. The sole exception is Sachi, who is terrified of dying in the game since she doesn't know what she's doing. The other guild members apparently forced a "class change" on her (despite it being stated in the last episode that there are no classes) which has only made her fear worse.




This is where a sense of time would've been really helpful, since my impression of the guild was that they were friends just playing a game. Additional character development would've also been helpful, since this episode felt like it was packed a little too full. Anyway, depending on how much time has passed in the game, I could believe that they have come to terms with their situation and are just gradually making their way up... except for the action that gets them killed. They should've gone with the usual hunting grounds, and they should not have opened the chest in the secret room. As soon as I saw that, I knew what would happen. Have these guys ever played a game...ever? It was incredibly obvious, and once again, not worth dying for.

I'm also getting a bit bored with Kirito's martyr routine. He warned them and he tried to save them, which was the best he could do. People throughout the episode keep telling him to "live on" and "see the end of this world" like they're worried that he's going to take a suicide dive as well. And while I'm being nitpicky, I felt like we were cheated out of a boss battle at the end of the episode. The fighting animation is still amazing, and I was curious about how the special boss would attack. But nope, fade out to more emo Kirito.

Sachi was the main thing this episode got right. Her fear was completely rational, as was her continued trust in Kirito even after finding out that he'd lied to the guild. The hatred against "beaters" doesn't make complete sense to me, especially in this episode since Kirito had proved himself to the group. He obviously cared. What possible benefit would he get out of watching his guild die? Despite what I said above about the show playing his guilt too much, it did feel real. The moment when Sachi's fears came true was heartwrenching. I just wish that the show had used the same kind of pacing and character development that I'd greatly admired in the last two episodes. Then the negatives probably wouldn't outweigh the positives.

We're still extremely early in SAO's run, so I'm optimistic that all of this will be fixed. If nothing else, I hope that from here on out characters other than Kirito show some awareness towards their mortality. The premise shouldn't be used to throw in tragedy whenever the writers feel like it, but be presented as a constant for this world. At least, that's the impression that I got from the last two episodes. Was I wrong?

Images from Crunchyroll.com.