Yulier,
second in command of the Liberation army, has approached Kirito and
Asuna for help saving her friend and the guild. (Source:
Crunchyroll)
Spoiler
warning: Review
contains spoilers for the twelth episode of Sword Art Online.
We
are now halfway through Sword Art Online, and spoiler alert: no one
has cleared the game or reached the top level yet. Naturally, on the
road to the final boss, many obstacles got in the way of our main
protagonists, Kirito and Asuna. These obstacles have included a
murder mystery, romance, betrayal, marriage and now a child in the
form of Yui. But Yui so far has been more of a question mark than a
character, a surrogate child for the newlywed warriors as well as
another riddle to be solved in the world of Aincrad.
The
Aincrad Liberation Army returns this episode, although thankfully not
the cowards from episode eleven. Yulier, the army's second in
command, is actually glad that Asuna handed all of those men their
asses. Also, we learn the story of this glorified guild and how it
became so splintered and troubled. I really feel for Yulier, who has
had to deal with her less than savory compatriots in arms as well as
having her ALA leader and friend Thinker be stranded in a dangerous
dungeon and having to ask for assistance to save him.
We
are also seeing the fallout over the Gleam Eyes incident that killed
a major ALA leader and nearly killed all the soldiers under his
stead, which leads to abandoning Thinker in a dungeon with crazy
high-level creatures. I wonder how many people are actually left
inside the ranks of the Army, considering the high levels of dissent
and treachery within. And I thought the Knights of Blood were bad...
This
is the episode that draws Asuna and Kirito back into the battle. When
one of the top brass of the Aincrad Liberation Army comes calling on
you, you don't say no. It's also a reminder that there are players
still fighting out there to clear the game, putting the purpose of
their fight into a greater focus. As much as they may want to
stay out of the chaos and stay secluded in their cozy little house by
the water, there are too many things and people to fight for to
ignore what's going on.
And
that's when we come back to Yui. I described her in my previous post
as a plot device to bring Asuna and Kirito together, someone who was
boring and flat and clearly not who she appeared to be. After
watching "Yui's Heart", I feel like I need to apologize to
her character, because I pegged her so, so wrong. Which is not to say
she isn't a plot device, because she is, but she's one that works and
is successful at pulling at the heart strings of viewers across the
board.
I
feel like the twist regarding Yui's identity is so well-crafted, so
emotionally charged that I'd feel bad if I spoiled it for anyone who
hasn't seen it yet. I will say that yes, we do see Yui's memories
return and yes, it is important for the overall SAO series, not just
this singular story arc. It makes sense in the context of the series
that Yui would cross paths with Asuna and Kirito. One could even call
it fate (or even hitsuzen).
I
hereby formally issue an apology to Sword Art Online's Yui. I'm sorry
I implied you were a middle-aged homely fat man in a virtual reality
headset pretending to be a lacy-dressed lolita girl. You are so very,
wonderfully real or as real as your character can be, and I'm sorry
life sucks for you so much. If something goes wrong and you don't get
the life you actually wanted, Yui, I hope years down the road you get
discovered by Kuroyukihime and Haruyuki of Accel World and they adopt
you instead.
The
character affected most by Yui and her revelation is easily Asuna.
She was the one to first connect with Yui on a deeper level, crawling
into bed with her and keeping her safe the first night they were
together, keeping her safe in all sorts of danger, et cetera. With
Yui, Asuna's inner fierce mom side comes out and it comes out
swinging, epee and all. The revelation of Yui's true self takes its
hardest toll on Asuna, who had just gotten used to being someone's
mother, and it's painfully evident from her reaction to everything.
I
will also say, without spoiling the how, that we are shown how
the Sword Art Online MMORPG system is regulated and performs without
a hundred IT folks running around with the other players, rather like
how The World is regulated and worked upon in the Dot Hack franchise.
In short, it is a self-regulated behemoth with a mind of its own and
the ability to control what happens in the game without outright
interfering. In short, it's like Aincard is being run by classic-era
Time Lords stuck in a metal computer shell.
Thank
God there are some genuinely funny moments in this episode of Sword
Art Online. I adored the scene with Kirito and the frog leg meat, and
Asuna's explicit disgust at the frog legs. It started out pretty
funny and then Kirito pulled out that armful of legs from his
inventory - and it went from pretty funny to hilarious. Moments like
those tempered a drama-heavy episode with some much needed lightness.
Everything
came together in this episode - the Aincrad Liberation Army, Asuna
and Kirito's marriage, the mystery of Yui's memories, the SAO system
itself - and it worked so well, I'm afraid the next episode won't be
able to live up to the expectations this one has built. There are
things that happened in "Yui's Heart" that are with great
consequence and cannot be ignored in later events, if Sword Art
Online cares at all about emotional and event-based continuity. I'll
definitely be keeping my eye on Asuna to see how she deals with
everything so far.
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