Marwile watches SAO Part 2 "High and low"

Before I begin a small advice: Do not buy a TV online. It can only lead to stress and misery.

It's time for the next episodes of Sword Art Online. I spent the whole week watching Little Witch Academia and Gurren Lagann (two infinitely better animes) as preperation. And to be honest... I don't have much to say.

Episode 3 starts after Kirito saved a small guild, who as thanks want to make him a member. (He hides the fact he's more than double their level for no reason) He starts to spend time with them and slowly becomes closer with the group, especially the girl, Sachi, who's plagued by self doubts, because she's rather weak. Then they get overconfident and enter a high level dungeon, activate one of the monster rooms from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and everyone (except Kirito of course) dies.

Kirito mourns their deaths. Then he hears of a gem stone owned by an event boss, which can revive dead people and sets out to find it. On the way Cline appears with his group to collect bro-points by helping him figtht the boss and promising to let him have the gem. But he's also an idiot for also luring in actual bad guys. But his group fights the bad guys, so Kirito can fight the boss alone, so it equals it out. The fight itself is skipped. I'd usually complain, but in this case it actually fits with the theme of the episode, so I'll let it slide.

But of course edgy protagonists can't have anything nice, as it turns out the gem only works for ten seconds after death. Kirito goes home and gets a present from Sachi. She prerecorded a message for him, because she she knew she wouldn't last long, and tells him not to mourn her death.

I have to admit, this is an actually good episode. We have good drama, actually emotional moments and everyone behaves like a normal human being. (didn't expect I actually have to point this out) Sadly, from what I know, this is the high point of the series.

In episode 4 we meet Silica, a young beast tamer whose dragon just died protecting her. Why aren't there more beast tamers? They can heal you, protect you and are basically the closest thing this game has to magic. Kirito decides to help her revive her dragon, because she reminds him of his sister (it's not as cute as it sounds, believe me).

We also get explained what the symbols over the players mean. It would be interesting if the show wouldn't only bother showing those when in first person mode. We also get our first shot of a young girl in only her underwear for no reason.

They get to the only place where you can get the item to revive her dragon, level 47. So that's why there aren't more beast tamers... Bad design. And of course the way there is filled with tentacle monsters that only attack Silica...
Anyways, for what it's worth, Kirito is a good team player weakening the monsters so weaker Silica can get the final blow bonus. (Because this game discourages team play) On the way we also find out that Kirito's sister is actually his cousin. Keep that in mind! This is an important difference every bad anime loves to exploit!

They get the flower and on the way back are attacked by bandits. We get this wonderful infamous scene of everyone bashing Kirito while he just stands around and doesn't take damage. And because he's level 78 and OP they give up. Then they get back and Kirito gets the first member of his harem.

Another thing I've noticed is that so far we haven't seen Kirito do much of actual fighting. He just one shots normal enemies (even then not always) and they tell us he's this supposed big badass, but we never see him being one. He's just this one guy that spent too much time grinding in the first world.

Also, I kinda doubt Sachi will ever be mentioned again.