The End of the World
Key Events
They clear the boss with 14 deaths and they still have 25 floors to go.
Kirito remembers the illegal move by Heathcliff during their duel and launches a sneak attack on him only to be stopped by the ‘immortal object’ sign. Kirito explains that the game won’t allow Heathcliff’s HP to drop to yellow. He’s wondered how the creator can watch them and not want to join in, and this explains it as Heathcliff is Kayaba Akihiko.
Kayaba admits it and tells them that he would have been the final boss. A Story that the strongest player betrays everyone. He gave Kirito dual wielding as he has the fastest reaction time and wanted him to be the ‘hero’ to challenge him. But he’s been found out, so he paralyses everyone and gives Kirito the chance to duel him to beat the game. Kirito accepts.
They fight but Kayaba, having programmed the dual wielding system himself, predicts all of Kirito’s moves and defeats him. However Asuna somehow found a way to move and jumps in to take the finishing blow and dies. Kayaba then kills Kirito. But he somehow manages to stay in game with 0hp to stab Kayaba to death. And finally, the game is cleared.
Kirito and Asuna appear above the clouds, with Kayaba. He tells them that the world will be completed deleted and the 6147 survivors have been logged out.
He also tells them his dream of having a castle in the sky. He then congratulates them on clearing the game and disappears.
Kirito wakes up in a hospital room and ‘charges’ out of his ward in search of Asuna.
Thoughts:
Wow… this episode had more holes than a massive slab of Swiss cheese. Before I get to that, I want to say how disappointed I am in that the fight with the big skeletal boss was barely a minute. I wanted a well animated extended fight, but no, cut it off before the episode even began, so it felt quite rushed. Then again the entire episode was rushed. And also a lot of things need explaining otherwise I can’t accept any of it because it makes no sense…
So let’s start, I was originally planning on a massive rant, but that wouldn’t get anywhere so I’m gonna rant in smaller sections. Oh and just so you know I quite liked Heathcliff being Kayaba, thought that was a nice twist, but that doesn’t make up for the rest of the episode.
The first hole was Asuna breaking through the paralysis and saving Kirito. Breaking through real life paralysis with sheer will power, sure, ‘believable’, typical shounen. But this isn’t real life… it’s a game, you’re paralysed you can’t move, full stop, no ifs or buts that’s how a program works. If player A is paralysed, s/he can’t move. Might be how an explanation of how paralysis looks like. Simply put, breaking through a program is not possible. If Yui was back with Cardinal then perhaps she loosened the bounds, but that didn’t happen. That paralysis was set by Kayaba himself, the creator, he doesn’t make mistakes. It’s not a glitch, in a world like this, I doubt Kayaba would’ve let such a glitch slip.
Next, again to do with the game being a program is Kirito’s death. His HP reached 0, he died. Similar to the paralysis, hp=0, nerve gear activates, dead guy on the bed. A simple sequence of events that should’ve happened. But he became a ghost and stayed in the game, neither should have happened. I’m looking forward to their explanation and again, no ‘glitch’ nonsense. Would sound like a poor excuse someone made up as they ran out of ideas.
The last game related thing is how Kirito’s sword stabbed through Kayaba’s shield so easily. Remember that this is the shield that’s blocked all of Kirito’s attacks thus far not letting one through. But it’s magically able to stab through it when Kirito becomes a ghost. Kayaba probably personally programmed his shield not to let anything through, so yeah, explain that.
The only explanation I can think of is that Kayaba wanted Kirito to win so he gave Kirito some leeway and allowed him to stay alive, allowed his sword to pierce his shield etc.
The final thing was in real life i.e. how Kirito marches out of the hospital using legs that hasn’t been used for over 2 years and no one around in the hospital in broad daylight to stop him. So yeah, firstly he shouldn’t be able to walk, secondly where is everyone? If it was night time then sure maybe there’s only one or two people around, but it’s daytime…
I’ll stop there. Ignoring all the holes and inconsistencies, I did enjoy the episode. It still brought a nice heart-warming mood to the end of the game, even if it was heavily rushed. And I am now looking forward to seeing Asuna and Kirito reunite in real life and wonder what their next adventure is. Another thing I was disappointed with was that there was no PK guild fight. Would’ve enjoyed witnessing a VRMMORPG guild war.
Ah well, good thing it wasn’t the end of the series, gives them time to reconcile, and give some good explanations. Oh and one last thing, Kayaba’s obviously been watching too much Studio Ghibli.
6 comments
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October 10, 2012 at 7:44 am
Son Gohan
Sadly, there is no explanation for this deus-ex-machina. It’s just the cliche “A strong will defeated the programming”. Yeah, right…
I heard that Reki Kawahara is a big fan of The Matrix, so he often puts these Neo-like powers into his stories. It’s the same thing with the Incarnation System in Accel World but at least in AW it’s explained as part of the game.
Concerning Kayaba, they made a mistake with the Engrish, it was supposed to say “Changed into mortal object”. He allowed Kirito to have a fair duel.
October 10, 2012 at 10:22 am
Lucretia
Ah yeah, I saw that change into immortal object thing, I laughed, but compared to the rest, it was just a small inconsistency that I didn’t think was worth mentioning seeing as I already wrote a lot.
Oh well then… guess I may just have to ignore the holes if there’s the explanation. Nothing at all? I know that they enter other games from now, nothing from there? I haven’t read ahead or anything so I got no idea and trying to stay hopeful…
And ha, I did make jokes about the matrix, but it looks like parts of it could’ve been based on the matrix then.
October 10, 2012 at 8:45 am
Marina2
Hmm, not sure if you’ll read my post (or even see it)
I will answer some of your doubts.
How can Kirito still alive?
– Kayaba probably intentionally allowed Kirito and Asuna to stay alive as the reward for clearing SAO. He even said “congratulation for clearing the game” to both of them.
Where is everyone else in the hospital?
– Kirito and other players are likely to be kept in the area that they keep coma patients. In this area, it’s normal that no one will be around. Other thing is : All SAO players are in the sleep stage for over 2 years, no one will keep watching them for all days and night.
October 10, 2012 at 10:24 am
Lucretia
I read all comments to my blogs no worries ^^. And for the Kirito staying alive part I meant how he managed to stay as a ghost, I did understand he allowed them to live as a reward for clearing the game part.
And yes I suppose if they’ve been out for 2 years no one will keep an eye on them, but I still think it’s a little unrealistic that there’s absolutely no one around. You’d think there’d be at least 1 person who needed to be alert around there. Not that I know anything about hospitals of course.
October 10, 2012 at 6:37 pm
Sarra
Well, I don’t know a lot about hospitals either, but I’d think that if a long-term coma patient like Kirito woke up, and then, because the nurse wasn’t paying attention, started walking around in a daze and then fell and broke his neck, someone would probably be sued…
October 10, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Kirayoshi
FOR MEGAMI’S SAKE!!! CAN’T ANYONE JUST ENJOY THE ANIME AND OVERLOOK THE PLOTHOLES!!!
Seriously there are a few issues in this episode, but why do have to compare this to RL. Ok so Kirito got up and went off down the corridor. I could rant that he didn’t have a catheter inserted and then yanked it when he got up (Picture that! Punishment #1).
Also it is the future and medical technology would have advanced a bit; if they can hook up you Matrix-style to an online game, then medical knowledge would advance as well; Muscle wastage is reduced even today. So people, put the moans and groans back in your pants and grow a set!
Oh, – Sword Art Online = SAO > ALO…….??? (Punishment #2)