Sword Art Online

[Yukimura]

It's nice to see an episode that feels like part of a larger continuity finally but it's not so nice to see people acting out of character and yet more little details that seemingly don't fit together but make the plot move. What bugged me this time was the notion that a) Asuna could know that she'd maxed out the cooking skill, which I took to mean she had achieved the highest possible level of cooking skill in the game and b) that she's managed to max out any skill only 3/4 through the game content. For a) it's possible the game tells you how far you can possibly go in a skill which is fine but isn't the impression I got about how skills worked. However the implications of b) are what I found really foreboding.

If they're only on floor 74 or whatever and two years in and she's completely maxed out a skill, especially one that she probably only uses a few times a day at most since she learned that butter tastes good in game what does that say about the level at which all skills cap compared to the maximum levels the content has. She wasn't likely the first to max cooking as there are likely non combatant chefs who cook all day every day who would have leveled the skill much faster. If she has indeed maxed it out, then that implies the front line fighters who must use their weapon skills dozens or hundreds of times per day should be nearing a similar limit. How much longer will it be before the people at the front lines can't get any better due to the restrictions of the game and what are they going to do if the creatures continue to get more powerful and hard to beat as they continue to climb. At the very least partying will become more and more of a requirement for anyone to move ahead in game. But if there are 25 more levels of difficulty and people are starting to run out of room to grow that's a rather large gap to cover.

On the other hand, given the history of the show I'm rather more willing to believe it was a line thrown in b/c it sounded good and gave Asuna an excuse to be involved with the rabbit meat and have a dayto with Kirito and that the author didn't really think about the implications of Asuna to have hit a level cap on any skill at this point in the game. It also occured to me that she could have meant she had achieved the highest possible cooking skill for her current level which I could attribute to a translation error/awkwardness but with all the other examples of shaky continuity I am more inclined to believe it was an accurate translation of a poorly thought out line in the source material.

I have little to add about Asuna's behavior with respect to her 'guard' beyond that it was rather informative about the true nature of her character. I found it telling that she eventually stood up to him and used the authority she had all along to dismiss him but initially acted like a scared little girl in his presence, especially once I thought about what happend before her personality shift. Kirito, who Asuna feels comfortable around, dueled her guard him and demonstrated in no uncertain terms that he was superior him, only then did Asuna have the confidence in her authority over her guard to actually use it. This came off to me as a glaring sign that for all her skill and levels and tsuntsun personality Asuna is cut from the the same highly refined moeblob cloth as any other 'strong' anime girl. No matter how tough she is she still needs someone to protect her from the big scary world for her to actually shine, which of course means she can never shine brighter than the patron who allows her to come out of her shell. I hope we get a chance to see her guild master as his character and the relationship she has with him should be telling as to whether I'm right or not but it already looks like she'll be teaming up with Kirito who provides her with exactly what she needs to continue keeping up the facade that she's a strong, confident, independent woman, a man to depend on.

[fireheart]

What bugged me this time was the notion that a) Asuna could know that she'd maxed out the cooking skill, which I took to mean she had achieved the highest possible level of cooking skill in the game and b) that she's managed to max out any skill only 3/4 through the game content. For a) it's possible the game tells you how far you can possibly go in a skill which is fine but isn't the impression I got about how skills worked. However the implications of b) are what I found really foreboding.

If they're only on floor 74 or whatever and two years in and she's completely maxed out a skill, especially one that she probably only uses a few times a day at most since she learned that butter tastes good in game what does that say about the level at which all skills cap compared to the maximum levels the content has.

I don't know, maybe it's just me but I've played plenty of games where I learned all the skills I could before I got to the end game part of it. For example I have a level 30 (max 70) character in an MMO that have high enough sword equipment level to equip max level swords, my character level is far from able to equip and use it but not my equipment level. Hitting max level in a particular skill/equipment doesn't equal no more room to grow just that it's about using the skills you've learned and getting better gear, if the skill damage is % damage based on your attack then every attack skill grows with your equipment. Then again we don't know enough about the system to really know.
Might be remembering wrong but most MMO you usually get a lot of experience when crafting, more than your character level. You also need to consider that when cooking it could involve several steps each going to leveling up the skill. And there's nothing saying she only does it a few times a day, since they're just virtual then they should be able to eat as much as they want so maybe she cooks an enormous amount of food since she can just keep eating.