#saoln

first of all my favourite part of this volume was kazuto and his fucking cake. he’s so petty about it for no reason i love him so much

i jest, i jest

my genuine favourite part of this chapter was kirito’s panic attack. it was really well written and more than anything i wanted to hug him and tell him he’d be okay. that’s my favourite thing about this arc, kirito and sinon’s ptsd and bonding through similar experiences with trauma.

i can’t put the whole scene in because of image limit, but this is a very small moment from it - i’ve been there buddy, it’s gonna get better

would you believe i used to hate this arc? it’s one of my favourites now, if not my favourite, and this volume definitely helped.

kirito and sinon’s relationship and emotions come through so much clearer in this volume vs the anime adaptation. i really appreciate that, it feels much more natural now.

kirito is a little shit xD

again, a disclaimer for oberon and his general oberon-ness, and sexual assault.

i’m going to skim over the whole assault scene because we’re all aware it fucking sucks, but oberon being aware of yui (or at least aware of a weird program) was a detail left out of the anime, and kirito’s conversation with kayaba is a bit different too. still sucks though.

now that’s out of the way……… EMOTIONS.

the kirisuna in the volume absolutely shattered me. they’re soulmates. actual legitimate soulmates. to see them both so desperately try to find eachother again and to finally see them succeed. ugh. my heart.

kirito and yui are also adorable, for some reason the line about yui’s small hand holding kirito’s got me and i nearly cried over it. i live for good dad kirito

SMALL!

ALSO SHE LOVES HER DAD! he hugs her and kisses her cheek and strokes her hair! he loves her too he just doesn’t say it verbally and that’s okay!

the hospital scene was also very good 10/10 cried also nurses exist. the nurse calling kazuto asuna’s family and him not correcting her was cute, they’re family.

and of course, here’s their first meeting:

AND THEY WERE SOULMATES

OH MY GOD THEY WERE SOULMATES

seriously the amount of kirisuna made me cry it’s 11:17pm at night and i’m just laying in my bed crying about these two fictional nerds.

as for non-kirisuna…

leafa is a character that exists and does things but regrettably it’s foreshadowed by her falling in love with her brother. i think the scene between the two of them was better in the anime only because cassandra lee morris (her english va) put her entire heart into that scene and she singlehandedly made it the most stunning performance of the series, in my head you can’t top that.

i do hope that they get their sibling bond back eventually, i can definitely see kazuto trying to mend the bond between him and suguha, i hope the novels do a good job of it. especially the scene after he wakes up from saving asuna, it’s a beautiful moment of realising his baby sister is growing up.

ALSO LEAFA HAS GREEN HAIR I WISH WE SAW IT.

oh and before i forget — tonky showed up in this arc!! that was a nice surprise, i wasn’t expecting him until around mothers rosario like in the anime, but i’m guessing he shows up again later for the excalibur arc.

to quickly mention the ending of the volume, WE SEE RIKA!!! and she’s a lightweight!!! good for her!!! that scene is actually very sweet and funny and it’s such a nice break from the rest of the chapter. to see everyone goofing off and relaxing and partying is so nice. especially when it gives us the potential for “klein and agil taking their dumb found family sao kids home to their parents and explaining why they’re hungover” fanfics… :)

and rinko gets mentioned! i’m glad she’s brought up sooner than she was in the anime, i’m really glad the novels actually foreshadow things properly

oh boy.

first of all, this post mentions sugou and asuna and their relationship, obviously, so trigger warning for that.

this is definitely my least favourite volume by far for obvious reasons. i’m gonna start with some positives…

i like the small glimpses into the kirigaya family! suguha seeing midori like an older sister was actually really sweet - i actually always assumed midori had suguha when she was younger, so to have that little headcanon confirmed was very validating lol

suguha saying she and kazuto were best friends broke my heart, my poor babies. i desperately wish their relationship would get better sooner lol. it’s nice to have a real commentary on their relationship, seeing sugu really miss their relationship comes across so much clearer in the ln.

once again, they actually act more like siblings here and they act like teenagers so it’s really refreshing to see.

asuna’s emotions are a little more clear in this volume than the anime, the scene with the bird honestly nearly made me cry. the moment where she does kirito’s hand thing and giggles was so cute! i think its a cute parallel for when he mimics her hand movements in the phantom bullet arc

oberon is oberon. still creepy. having him “confirmed” as being in his FUCKING THIRTIES?????????? gross. ew. bad. awful. terrible. horrible. disgusting.

i did like seeing kazuto originally think he seemed nice just based on appearance, that was definitely lost without kirito’s narration.

FIRST OF ALL I NEED TO SCREAM ABOUT THE KIRISUNA BECAUSE I’M SO FUCKING EXCITED THEYRE PRECIOUS AND I ADORE THEM.

[morning dew girl]

kirito and asuna being a sweet little family with yui is always my favourite thing and the novels made it even sweeter. though i am just slightly sad so much of it was taken up by the army plot, i wish we got a little more of the three of them together lol

i loved seeing kirito and asuna’s feelings more in that chapter especially, asuna’s conflicting feelings about yui really touched my heart. seeing her expand on her own family life a little more and having such a maternal instinct towards yui…….. my heart

for the rest of the stories…

[the black swordsman]

for those who don’t know, i love rosalia (she’s my favourite villain, i thought she was really interesting) so to see her have some more dialogue was fun!! - to see her being immature was unexpected but i really liked it tbh.

this is what i mean when i say the anime cut the villains back so much - and this is only the second volume. the minimal information i have about kyouji and oberon from the novels i think the anime just skipped so so much, it makes the anime villains look just. awful. whereas the ln villains are still bad people but at least they’re a bit more fleshed out.

i think kirito and silica’s relationship was sweet! kirito mentioning suguha and silica talking about having a big brother of her own were some of my favourite moments in the anime and i liked them in the novels too, i think they’re so sweet. i’m a sucker for a found family, i will always see those two as a found brother and sister.

[warmth of the heart]

LISBETH MY BELOVED <3 i love her so much (i’ve cosplayed her a couple of times and i have pink hair because of her). i feel like this was actually pretty well adapted to the anime so i don’t have many comments

first of all, it’s a bit jarring skipping over so much to go right to the last floors. i got confused about it thinking i’d somehow missed a bunch of chapters lol.

kirito is a dork. i love him. he is an asshole to klein. why. i think klein and kirito’s interactions are quite funny and i’ve decided that, in aincrad, agil basically adopted the both of them. i love found family dad agil.

the cute kirisuna moments in their cabin!!!!!! my heart!!! i think it really shows what the anime skips, since this gave me much more of a domestic feeling reading it. speaking of kirisuna, the way kirito talks about asuna melts my heart. it’s so obvious that this girl is his everything, she could just breathe and he’d compare her to angels.

it’s really interesting to get to see kirito’s inner thoughts and monologue. i really wish we had more of this in the anime. it makes him feel so much more of a teenager while also highlighting how much he goes through. it’s something i’ve always wanted from the anime.

THE SCENE AFTER ASUNA DIES. BROKE. MY. HEART. the fact kirito just imagines them in a field together? and imagines her just asking if she can nap? because he fell in love under that tree in the field? I’M AN EMOTIONAL MESS. i wish it was animated but also i would not have survived watching it at all.

also, kirito admitting to being suicidal. finally explicitly having kirito say he wishes he’d killed himself, that he should’ve killed himself. it destroyed me. i genuinely started sobbing. only one volume in and there’s already serious repercussions for kirito’s trauma. this is something that, if i’m remembering right, is briefly mentioned in season 2 and then again in a few scenes in alicization. i’m so glad its being mentioned early.

kirito is trans. he is also sarcastic and idiotic and dorky and to actually see him act like a real person was amazing. he has stupid thoughts. he acts irrationally. he hates his face. he wants friends. he doesn’t want to hurt people. he has goals and motivations. he’s a real character with a real personality.

i feel like i’ve been re-introduced to sao. this is everything i’ve ever hoped for that i thought i’d only find in fanfics. to see it in canon in the light novels? i’m so overjoyed. i’m so happy. i’m reading volume 2 right now and i’m so excited! i can’t wait to share my thoughts on each volume.