2012-08-08, 03:25 AM
Hanabira.Kage Wrote:They also cut out Kirito inviting Asuna and Heathcliff out for lunch.
Heathcliff isn't really significant without volume 1 though. They could easily fit it in the next episode if they really want to, but all he does is affirm that there's no way to PK someone in town. The only thing this could affect later in the story is if they want to do that soy sauce sidestory, and they could just give a flashback to Kirito inviting Asuna there for that if they really wanted to do that story (please, no).
Oh. I just remembered the part where Schmidt demanded the spear and wanted to investigate things himself. They could fit this in the next episode too. The order of event isn't really that important since it all happens within a couple of days and it doesn't interact with other events in the story. This is one of the longer side stories though in my opinion, and it felt more about developing Kirito and Asuna's relationship as well as background for the game and events in Phantom Bullet/Alicization, which is why I found it to be well done. It really focused more on how they worked together as well as the actual game's mechanics and why it's important, rather than episode 2's complete disregard for everything that made Aria in the Starless Night a good story.