Sword Art Online Episode 6: From Beyond the Grave

Summary

Kirito fails to catch Yoruko’s “assailant”, and returns to the inn. Later on, while accidentally dropping a sandwich given to him by Asuna, he notices something about its durability and the way it disappeared. Meanwhile, Schmitt has gone to Floor 19 to apologize to Griselda’s grave and beg for mercy, encountering two “ghosts” who reveal themselves to be Kains and Yoruko, who never died at all, instead timing teleports with their armour’s lack of durability to make it seem like they died. The three nearly fall victim to members of red guild Laughing Coffin, barely surviving when Kirito turns up and threatens them. Asuna brings Grimlock to the scene, and he confesses to having been responsible for Griselda’s death, on very,very poor grounds.

Impression

In a death game like SAO, do ghosts exist? Within the limits of the system, of course not. But to the players, who have no idea what really become of the players who have died, the idea is definitely possible, which is what fuelled Schmitt’s actions to apologize to Griselda’s grave. With both Kains and Yoruko “dead”, Schmitt must have thought that he’d be next, and thus went to atone to try and get out of being killed as well. It’s pretty cowardly to only do that when your life is being threatened, ignoring what happened in the past and trying to bury it – but the only thing Schmitt did wrong was to not mention anything about the note he received, or the money he was awarded (which he then used to get into the Holy Dragon Alliance). Mentalities quickly change, and in SAO, where survival is crucial, suddenly people like Schmitt seem to care about number one – you – the most.

The plan that Kains and Yoruko hatched was clever, and went off without a hitch, fooling everyone until Kirito thought twice about what was going on. I’d have thought that teleport crystals gave off more of a blue flash, which shouldn’t have been hidden by the polygons shattering – does this mean that normal deaths only kill the player and leave an inventory behind if the armour’s durability is still high? It’s an interesting game mechanic that more MMOs should use commonly, since it does add a twist that would require different strategies compared to armour/weapons lasting forever. Anyway, if those meddling kids Kirito and Asuna hadn’t shown up when they did, all three of the ex-Golden Apple members would have been prey to the PK guild Laughing Coffin, which is exactly what Grimlock wanted.

Grimlock (who now uses the LN spelling of his name) is despicable. Asuna was exactly right – it wasn’t love he had for Griselda (or Yuuko) it was possessiveness. To justify killing your own wife in real life by saying that he wants to preserve his image of her is disgusting, and proves even more that he never did love her at all, or at least couldn’t accept the new person his wife had become. People change in SAO, and like in Accel World, they come out the other end with much more maturity than they initially had. Grimlock is not one of those people, and deserves whatever punishment Kains and Schimitt dealt to him.

Come on, even saying you wanted the money would have been better.

• Kirito x Asuna shippers rejoice, for an event has been completed that has brought them closer ^^ 
• You solved it, Kirito! Houtarou would have been proud.
• We’re carrying on with the onslaught of side stories next week. *reaches weakly for main plot*