This post finishes up the second season of Sword Art Online. After the Gun Gale Online arc with
essentially only Kirito and Sinon participating, the second half of the SAO II
season brings the rest of the original SAO cast back into the picture. There
is a short arc in which Kirito and Asuna and friends, plus Sinon, take on an
afternoon quest in Elfhame Online. It
involves the whole gang and retrieving a magic sword, as well as restoring a dead and mostly abandoned land to life. Leafa and Klein have
slightly more roles in this arc than in other arcs, and Liz and Silica are also
part of the questing team. Of course,
the gang wins the quest and Kirito gets another sword. This little quest is a filler quest and doesn’t
occur in the SAO light novels.
The last of the second season is the arc called Mother
Rosario. It begins with challenge
fights between a mysterious fighter in Elfhame who sets up and offers a chance to win a prize to anyone who can challenge the fighter and win. Most of the people in Elfhame Online give it
a try, but no one can beat the fighter.
Asuna gives it a try and they battle essentially to a draw, at which
point the fighter grabs Asuna and drags her away to talk. The fighter turns out to be a girl named
Yuuki who is a member of a guild called the Sleeping Knights.
The Sleeping Knights have a goal to beat a level boss and
win that level. If a single guild beats
a level boss, they get their individual names inscribed on a great memorial
wall in Elfhame’s primary city. If more
than one Guild beats the boss together, only the guild names are
inscribed. The Sleeping Knights are
going to have to stop playing Elfhame Online, so they want their names
inscribed on the wall before they go. The
problem is that there are only 6 of them, a number of players which normally cannot
beat a boss. They have decided to recruit one person who can beat their strongest
fighter, Yuuki – and that person is Asuna.
Asuna agrees to help Yuuki and the Sleeping Knights. They become friends while training and
discussing strategy. They try a boss
level for practice and fail, but they discover that they failed an earlier
attempt because a bigger Guild is spying on them and using their
experience to plan and defeat the boss before they can get back to it. When Asuna realizes this bit of information,
she encourages the Sleeping Knights to go immediately and try this boss again. They do, only to find their way blocked by
members of the bigger guild who are there to keep anyone from trying until the
big guild all gets there and takes the boss.
Asuna and Yuuki-tachi fight their way through the guild members, aided
in the nick of time by Kirito, who holds off the big guild while Asuna-tachi
tackle the boss.
Asuna, Yuuki and the Sleeping Knights succeed in defeating
the boss and get their names on the Wall.
During the celebration at Asuna’s Elfhame house, Asuna says she wants to
stay friends with the guild and learn more about them. Yuuki gets upset and logs out. Asuna begins searching for her in both virtual reality (VR) and real life (RL).
With Kirito’s help Asuna locates Yuuki, who is dying from a
virus she got at birth. In fact she’s been
dying since birth, and is the last of her family alive. It turns out all the Sleeping Knights have
terminal illnesses, which is why they wanted so much to win their quest and
have their names memorialized on the wall.
The last three episodes of this season are TRAGIC. Really TRAGIC, with Yuuki dying in Asuna's arms at the end,
and leaving Asuna her sword skill, Mother Rosario. Be prepared to cry. Despite the tragedy, I enjoyed this season of SAO
almost as much as the first season. The
characters are still fun to follow as they deal with both RL and VR and come to
terms with their hangups. Asuna’s mother
has been trying to get her to give up online gaming and switch to a better
school, so along the way in this arc Asuna and her mother manage to come to
terms, thanks to Yuuki.
Sword Art Online, both seasons, have been following the light novels fairly closely. This second season ends at the end pf the 7th volume of the light novels. Despite the ending of this season being pretty definitive, I'm kind of hoping they do another season of SAO, because the story and characters are interesting and fun to follow.
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