Two months have passed since Kirito defeated Kayaba Akahiko and cleared the game of Sword Art Online. Of the 6,147 survivors, 5,847 of them successfully logged out and uplugged themselves from their NerverGear. However, the remaining 300 have yet to wake up, and no one knows why. Asuna is one of them.

Kirito visited Asuna’s hospital room where he learned the terrifying truth that Asuna is to be wedded off to a man with distasteful desires. He returns home feeling hopeless and helpless until his friend Agil sends him a photo that gives him a tidbit of information that will lead him in the right direction

The last episode introduced us to two major characters who will be very important in this arc: Kirigaya Sugu – the younger sister of Kirito, who is actually his cousin – and Sugou Nobuyuki – the man who Asuna’s father is giving her away to. What will this episode introduce to the story?

Alfheim Online

The episode begins with Kirito visiting Agil’s bar – the Dicey Cafe. The door to the cafe has a pair of dice with a 1 and a 6 face-up (and I can’t help but think of this every time I see it):

After greeting each other, Kirito asks Agil about the photo he sent him. Agil slides Kirito a hard copy of a game called Alfheim Online.

“It’s an MMO for the Amusphere, a successor to the NerveGear,” explains Agil, “It means ‘Land of the Fairies’. It’s really popular. I’ve heard it’s because you can fly.”

“So what does this popular game have to do with Asuna?” asks Kirito.

Agil pulls out the blurry photo of Asuna.

“Where is this?” asks Kirito.

“Inside the game, Alfheim Online. At what’s called the World Tree. A legendary castle sits atop this tree. Players are divided into nine races, all of them racing to reach the castle first.”

“Can’t they just fly there?”

“Supposedly, there’s a limit to how long you can fly, so you can’t do it forever.”

Agil continues to explain that a group of five fairies climbed on top of each other’s shoulders and launched themselves up next to the World Tree. They didn’t even make it to the lowest branch, but they got close enough to catch a glimpse of what was at the top. That’s when the picture was taken.

“But why would Asuna be there?” asks Kirito.

As soon as he asks that, he notices the logo of the company who developed the game: RCT progress.

I’m no expert in Japanese, but one thing I do know is that the “l” and “r” sounds are interchangeable. In the previous episode, Sugou Nobuyuki says he works for the Full-Dive Technology Research Division of the same company that Asuna’s father is the CEO of, only Sugou calls it “Lect”. It seems like there may be a misinterpretation of the language here, as the company logo is clearly “RCT”. The company is pronounced “rect”, but the translators interpreted it as “lect”.

As soon as Kirito sees the “RCT progress” logo on the Alfheim Online game, he immediately connects it with Sugou and puts two and two together.

Kirito asks Agil if he can borrow the game.

“I don’t mind, but are you going there?”

“I need to see for myself. A game where you can die is too easy.”

A New World…Or Is It?

Kirito returns home and boots up his NerveGear again, which Agil said is compatible with Alfheim Online. Praying that it will help him one more time, he logs-in to Alfheim Online and begins to create his character. He enters his usual username, Kirito, but he seems to be a little hesitant to confirm it. The show doesn’t explain why, but we see a flashback to when Sugou shook Kirito’s hand and said he was thrilled to meet the legendary hero. Perhaps Kirito is concerned that Sugou will immediately recognize that he has entered Alfheim Online if he uses the same username. Hesitation aside, Kirito uses it anyway.

The swordsman clad in black is then presented with an opportuntity to choose his race. Kirito chooses Spriggan (probably because it has a black color). Then, he gets teleported into the world of Alfheim, high in the sky. He crash lands in a place called the Ancient Forest.

“I’m back,” says Kirito, “After everything that happened.”

The first thing Kirito does is open the menu and make sure he can find the log out button. It’s there this time. The next thing Kirito does is check his status, but to his shock, he realizes he has the same parameters that he did in Sword Art Online.

“What’s going on?” asks Kirito, “Is this inside SAO?”

Kirito checks his inventory, but notices that all of his items are unidentified – except for one – Yui’s heart. Kirito activates the heart, and suddenly, the mysterious girl in the white dress appears before him.

“I got to see you again, Daddy!” cries Yui as she gives her ‘papa’ a big hug.

Kirito sits with Yui on the root of a large tree.

“So what’s going on here?” Kirito asks her, “We aren’t inside SAO. It’s another game, called Alfheim Online.”

“Hold on a second,” says Yui. She places her hands on either side of her head, over her ears, and gives an analysis of the world they are in.

“This world is a copy of the Sword Art Online servers,” explains Yui, “The entire programming, and graphics format are identical. But the version of the Cardinal system is a little outdated.”

“RCT took over operations after Argus, the company that originally made SAO,” analyzes Kirito. “In other words, RCT took Argus’s programs and is using them. But why is my personal data here?”

Yui closes her eyes and gives another analysis, this time on Kirito’s data.

“This is definitely your character data from SAO,” says Yui, “The save data format is nearly identical, so any skills common to both games had their levels overwritten.”

Yui recommends that Kirito deletes his items before the error detection program finds them. Kirito begins to, but hesitates. Again, the story doesn’t say why, but it seems that Kirito is worried he might accidentally delete Yui. But he doesn’t.

“How is the system treating you, Yui” asks Kirito.

Yui checks again and says, “I’m classified as a player-support artificial personality program, a Navigation Pixie.”

Yui proceeds to transform into a miniature version of herself, complete with tiny wings and a floral dress.

Then, Kirito tells Yui that Asuna is here in Alfheim.

“Even after SAO was cleared, Asuna never woke up in reality,” explains Kirito, “I heard about someone who saw her in Alfheim. I have a good idea of where to look. It’s called the World Tree.”

Kirito points to the large conduit in the middle of the world.

“I think that’s it,” he says.

Kirito stands up, and suddenly, his wings appear on his back. Yui gives him a brief tutorial on how to use his hand controller to fly.

“For now, where’s the closest town?” Kirito asks Yui.

“There’s a town in Sylph territory called Sylvein to the west,” says Yui.

Suddenly, she senses something out in the distance.

“There are players nearby,” she says.

The Damsel in Distress

Meanwhile, off in the distance, a boy and a girl are flying past the moon when suddenly they get attacked by a group of red-armored players.

The girl draws her sword and says, “I’ll draw as much of their attention as I can, so try and knock one down.”

“I’ll do my best,” says the boy.

(It looks like we know who wears the pants in this relationship.)

One of the red-armored players comes at the girl with his spear. The girl dodges and swings her sword at the aggressor’s back, knocking him out. She then engages an unmasked player by stabbing him in the chest, and then dealing another slash across the same place, knocking him out as well.

The boy is engaging another one of the red-armored players by himself when suddenly, a fire blast comes for them both. The girl dodges. The boy also dodges, but while he has his guard down, the enemy player stabs him in the gut.

“Sorry,” cries the boy, as he disappears into a fluffy green cloud.

A horde or fireballs come hurdling towards the girl, but she dodges every one of them. A group of red-armored players come charging at the girl again, but while she is distracted by them, she gets hit with another fireball and falls into the trees.

When the girl finally gets back up, she finds herself cornered by three enemy players. She draws her sword, with only a tree behind her, and is now panting with fear.

“Sorry, but we’re on a mission,” says one of the red players, “Leave your money and items, and we’ll let you go.”

“Why are you being a gentleman, Kagemune?” asks one of the players, “It’s been ages since we fought a woman. Let’s kill her.”

“I’ll take at least one of you with me,” taunts the girl, “Anyone who doesn’t fear the death penalty can come and get me!”

The three red-armored players prepare to attack, but suddenly, someone comes crashing through the trees and lands on his head. The girl gives a confused look as she watches a mysterious player clad in black rise to his feet.

“I’m going to have to practice my landings,” says Kirito, as he rubs his head.

“What are you doing? Run!” calls the girl.

“Three heavy fighters attacking a single girl? That’s kind of lame,” declares Kirito.

“Stay out of this newbie,” says one of the enemies.

Another one of the enemies charges at Kirito with his spear, but Kirito stops it with his bare hand and pushes him away. (So…does Kirito have Looney Tunes powers?)

“Can I kill them?” Kirito asks the girl.

“I guess so,” she responds, “They plan to kill you.”

Kirito steps towards the enemy players and suddenly disappears. The enemies don’t notice until too late that he is right behind them, with his sword drawn, and has already slain one of them. (So…does he also have instant transmutation abilities?)

“Who’s next?” taunts Kirito.

Thoughts: Norse Mythology

Up until this point, Sword Art Online has contained themes from a mix of different religions including Taoism and Christianity. For example, Kirito wears black and Asuna wears white, so together they represent Yin and Yang. Also, Commander Heathcliff uses Asuna to lure Kirito into joining the Knights of the Blood Oath much like the serpent uses Eve to lure Adam into partaking of the fruit in the book of Genesis. However, this arc is adding one new religion to the mix: Norse Mythology (or Nordic Mythology…they seem to be interchangable).

These days, most people are probably familiar with Norse Mythology through the Thor movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I won’t pretend that I know much more about Norse Mythology (because I don’t), but if you go back and watch the first Thor movie, when the said god of thunder names the nine realms to Jane Foster, he lists Alfheim as one of them.

Wikipedia says that “Alfheim” or “Álfheimr” translates to “Land of the Elves”. Granted, that doesn’t tell me why SAO’s Alfheim Online has fairies in it, so making my way over to camphalf-bloodfanon.fandom.com shows me that Alfheim is also known as the land of the light elves and the fairies. Another Wikipedia page says “Fairyland” is a place in English and Scottish folklore inspired by “Álfheimr” from Norse Mythology.

Before the Thor movies came out, I remember watching Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s when Team Ragnarok summons their three Nordic god monsters, namely Thor, Loki, and Odin. I knew about Thor long before then, but this might have been where I first learned about Loki and Odin.

There’s also a Yu-Gi-Oh! card called “The World Tree”, which also comes from Norse Mythology, but it doesn’t work with the Nordic god monsters. This card works with Plant-Type monsters by raising and lowering their attack and defense points, as well as bringing them back from the graveyard.

Going back to the MCU, in the first Captain America movie, Red Skull finds the tesseract at the base of a carving depicting the World Tree.

Wikipedia says that The World Tree is known as Yggdrasil in Norse Mythology, and it exists in the center of the Nine Worlds.

Anyway, reviewing this episode has sparked my interest in Norse Mythology. Maybe I will write more research articles about this subject in the future. As for now, the main purpose of this episode was to introduce us to the world of Alfheim Online, and to initially introduce us to that boy and girl and the end who will be formally introduced in the next episode. Will Kirito manage to save the love of his life, or will she be subjected to the whims of Sugou Nobuyuki? Find out in the next review of Sword Art Online!