The Sleeping Knights

Synopsis

Yuuki leads Asuna back to her guild, the Sleeping Knights and introduces her to the members Jun, Talken, Nori, Siune and Tecchi. Yuuki wants to defeat this floor’s boss with only her guild members and so needs Asuna’s help. This because they’re a group of friends who met online recently but only really having a short amount of time to play together. Before they have to separate, they want to make a nice memory. Beating a boss means your name will appear on the Swordsman’s Memorial on floor 1. However only the party leader’s name will appear on it if several groups defeat it. But if only 1 group defeats it, the names of everyone in the group will appear. There can be seven in a party and since they have 6, Yuuki’s been dueling everyone to find someone of either equal or better skill to herself to add as a 7th member. Asuna agrees to help them.

Knowing that Yuuki’s searching for strong candidates, Asuna asks about why she didn’t recruit Kirito, in a subtle way. Apparently she didn’t take Kirito because he had figured out her secret.

They arrange a time to meet up and everyone leaves. As Asuna walks around she is suddenly dizzy and is disconnected. Her mum had pulled the plug because she was late to dinner. Angered by this she storms out of the house and skips dinner.

Back in the game, the Sleeping Knights decide to attempt the boss and scout him out. They lose but Asuna noticed that a boss fighting guild had spied on them and so that guild will very likely move out to take the boss very soon. However Asuna believes that it’ll take them at least an hour to organise a group to take on the boss, so she decides to try the boss again in half an hour and get ahead of them.

But unfortunately, when they get there, people from the guild had already made it. There aren’t enough of 49 so Asuna wants in first but is refused entry. Yuuki decides to fight to make them move. As they begin enemy reinforcements arrive. Asuna gives up saying they’ll look to the next boss. However Kirito jumps out from the group of enemy reinforcements to cut them off.

Thoughts

And here I thought this would be a completely Asuna focused arc with minor appearances from Kirito. I look to be wrong with his slightly extravagant entrance at the end of the episode which by the looks of it will subsequently be followed by him coolly taking out, or holding off, a horde of other players. So some fun pking next episode. I’m looking forward to seeing if Kirito will bring out Excalibur.

And I’m still also wondering if anyone recognizes Kirito for the person that beat that strong fire guy back in ALO and also the person that’s friendly with the clan leaders. If they’re even still relevant at the moment. Surely someone would’ve seen him during the many boss fights he’s been a part of especially with his unique dress sense.

There was less from Asuna’s mum side this episode, but we do get some interaction. Though it’s more like they’re saying ‘hey don’t forget about Asuna’s mum’ as a reminder rather than actually focusing on it. There were a few things I wanted to touch on during the brief exchange.

The whole being late for dinner because of gaming thing is very reminiscent of my gaming days. When I returned home during uni, my parents would always say shut it down, and I’d say exactly the same as Asuna, I need to say goodbye to log out etc, so I know how she feels. I sort of also see it from her mum’s point of view, after having lost your child for 2 years to a game, it’s perfectly understandable to not want to see her using it again, though to me it seems like she’s given up. Seems she’s more concerned about punctuality which again sorta emphasizes their more formal relationship.

To the actual centre of the story at hand now, and I’m actually quite glad for once it’s a very light hearted and low stake goal. It’s also turned into a bit of a slice of life, or at least that’s how it feels without any tension. But it is a nice thought to leave behind your name before you leave the game. That’s actually what I did for an old MMO I used to play. There was a ranking for an element in the game. And I basically wanted to be ‘remembered’ and so I made an effort to get to the top of that ranking. Unfortunately, I only managed 4th, but to this day I know that my name is still there at rank 4 as it’s a static rank.

Also, I’m still trying to figure out what this has to do with a rosary. So far all the arc names have related to something in the arc. However here, I don’t see a connection yet. I trust there is a connection and so I’m wondering what that connection could be. Because of all the Asuna mum interactions I’m inclined to believe the mother here is in relation to Asuna’s mother.

A few little things about Yuuki. First I wonder what she meant by secret. It makes me think more towards that she’s a program in the game like Yui, that’s what I think ‘a product of the environment’ means, what else could she be hiding?

One last thing, ever since Asuna’s other account was mentioned, I’m wondering if she’d ever bring it out. Anyways, a fairly relaxed episode that sets up the story for this arc and looks to lead into some action next episode.