kunori - Episode 17 Commentary (SAO II)

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Þrymr Punch! And the 17th episode begins! From how their HPs are getting shaved off, he's not an《impossible-no-matter-what-you-do enemy》,
but it's still a tough fight. Well, it's possible that's not King Þrymr's strue body or something, though…

Yui's counting is useful! Freyja's lightning spell is strong! Everyone except for those in the party are working hard, huh, lol.

I totally thought the battle scene with Þrymr in the new OP would be reused in the main part!
Though it didn't seem to happen… how extravagant… Thank goodness…

Kirito and co. didn't evade despite seeing the motion for King Þrymr's breath as they can't move due to its pulling effect while charging.
Pulling attacks are fun when you're the one using them, but there's nothing more annoying than an enemy using one.

When the buffs went off, Klein must thought "Cold!" before thinking "We're screwed!".

Looks like the stress of getting hit with a frozen debuff in a fulldive game is no joke…
I would end up spamming the mouse and arrow keys with a "Kiee!" when my avatar couldn't move, even if it was just on the screen.

A crushing shockwave attack after freezing… that looks painful! But the scattering ice is beautiful!
The vanguards' bars went reddish-red in an instant. And I guess that's not a standard word conversion for this IME.

Asuna quickly used an area heal, but most heal spells in ALO are HoT (the "regen"-type), so it's bad if they're finished off right after.

Sinon's《Explode Arrow》blew up at King Þrymr's nostrils! She must be prepared for the retaliation from that before taking the aggro.
Cait Sith have the highest mobility on land among the nine races, so she would be able to dodge for a while, but still…

And downing the potions meanwhile. In a VRMMO, the one pulling the enemy must be thinking "What are you doing, drinking over there!", lol.
But well, at least when it's compared to devouring meat…

Freyja's turn! Still, the term, "voice of gold" fits Minaguchi's voice to a tee… If only I wrote 3 times the lines for Freyja! (Insane)

To hide gold, hide it among gold! If the inventory is mostly empty, hurling everything in sounds good, but each item's probably real heavy.
Þrymr said something fishy like "have as much gold from this room as you can take" too, lol.

At this point, Leafa already has some sort of idea about Freyja. Forming her immediate suggestion to "use a lightning skill".

What Kirito used was a sword skill called《Lightning Fall》that deals not only physical damage straight down but with an AoE stun effect.

By the way, in ALO, the lightning element is a subcategory of the wind element.
Leafa did say "it's like the wind magic spell, Thunder Web" when she saw the stun bullet Death Gun shot while watching BoB.

Freyja swelling up.

Freyja growing huge.

From Goddess Freyja to the Thunder God Thor, and from Minaguchi Yuuko to Genda Tesshou…

Naturally, even King Þrymr's petrified. With the two huge old men facing each other, the large space's (and the screen's) so cramped!

The smooth motions in this battle among giants are amazing… lol. Thor's mad since his hammer was stolen, but Þrymr's right to get mad too!

This sequence used a certain event from the Norse mythology the Cardinal System gathered as a base and since she realized that,
Leafa guessed Freyja was looking for Thunder God Thor's hammer, Mjölnir. Well, the Mjölnir of lore had no lightning attribute, though, lol.

Klein's "Freyja-saaaaaan!" is a true shout from the heart…

But it's like that, you know? It's not like Thor turned into Freyja and acted out like a goddess, it's sort of like
the real Freyja's possessing and controlling remotely from Ásgarðr, I guess… it ought to be like that… I hope from the bottom of my heart…

Liz's mace exploding at his little toe! That must have hurt even for Þrymr!

King Þrymr goes down at last with Thor's hammer. Guess not even Kirito can get the LA bonus at a time like this, lol.

Þrymr, warning Kirito and the rest, and Thor, stomping him before he could. I didn't think even NPCs could skip conversations, lol.

Klein (samurai) gets the legendary-grade weapon,《Lightning Hammer Mjölnir》! Rumors say he gave it to Liz since he had no hammer skills,
or that Liz immediately smelted it into a mountain of orichalcum ingots, but the true answer is yet…

Thor's HP bar vanishes just as the battle result screen appears.
I'm always thankful to the staff for these minute touches! And the items obtained seem amazing!

All's well that ends well… or so you think, but it's not over yet! The adventures of Kirito and co. continues on (to Part B)!

There are stairs behind thrones. Behind the throne in Ichigaya Memorial Hall's auditorium, where Mishima Yukio committed seppuku,
there are apparently《stairs exclusively for His Majesty The Emperor》. It seems it's free for everyone now, so I want to go and have a try!

The one giving the quest to the players on Jötunheimr is Þrymr's subordinate,
a frost giant named《Archduke Þjazi》(must be some huge, blue, old man with a moustache too), so the quest remains even with Þrymr's death.

It's finally here, the Holy Sword Excalibur! Despite having Norse mythology as a base, how did elements from Celtic mythology…
well, you might ask that, but it's all the doing of an AI, Cardiko-chan, so…

Kirito had always felt ashamed about generating the world's strongest sword through GM authorities during the confrontation with Oberon.
So when he gets Excalibur legitimately, it will be like he's finally repaying that debt.

Well, not that he's pulling it out that easily! A certain amount of force needs to be applied over a certain amount of time to pull it out.
If this was a Playstation game, it would be the part where "Tap the ○ button!" appears.

It's out! …causing the World Tree to revive and Þrymheimr to collapse and Kirito and the rest to fall…
As players can't fly in Jötunheimr, they can't escape with their wings either.

And here we have Kirito, embracing Leafa who is in tears while trying to store Excalibur in his inventory.

Kirito's feet are shown sinking into the ice too, but Excalibur is so heavy that Tonkii can't fly while carrying it.
He can only either fall with the sword or abandon it and survive; So Kirito's probably thinking "Damn you, Cardinal!" while pondering that.

In the end, he's abandoning the sword, but… here's where the archer, Sinon, comes in. The《Retrieve Arrow》spell pulls in a faraway object.

Sinon, cleanly recovering Excalibur upon gently succeeding in the super long range sniping (?). She's so darn cool!

Sinon's terrifying words and smile are on full display, but she's just teasing Kirito here, lol. That's still a lot of nerves, though!

With the roots of the World Tree revived upon Excalibur's extraction, Jötunheimr transforms into its former fields filled with greenery.
And while the management staff are on their end-of-year break. Who cares, right?

The Tonkii race is finally respawning! …that's rather coarse, so let's say they're reviving… or reincarnating…

The little sisters of Queen of the Lake Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld. Skuld's a valkyrie rather than of the giant race, so she's human-sized.

Was it just a shining efect that Klein got from Skuld, or some tangible object…? I'll have to write that story eventually!
Well, if I do, Klein might end up like Haruyuki from AW, getting lost with a NPC, but…

Mechatronics is essentially a technology to control machines with microcomputers, but there are nearly no machines not classified as that.

Or so I thought, but the bike I ride uses a carb, so it has no CPU! So it's non-mechatronical…

The Calibur chapter ends with Agil appearing (at the back) in a single shot! Please support the Mother's Rosario chapter next episode too!