In Sword Art Online, Kirito & Asuna Married In October '24

Marriages are common in role-playing games (RPGs) and MMORPGs aren’t an exception. It gets more interesting if partners “marry” in virtual reality (VR) MMORPG. The titular MMORPG in Dengeki Bunko’s Sword Art Online is no exception.

Marriage in SAO is one of those things that can encourage players to bond while maintaining their sanity, especially since they’re trapped in the game until they can conquer the top floor. That is the case for players Kazuto Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki, respectively known as “Kirito” and “Asuna.”

Here’s a recap, 10,000 players log onto the titular VRMMORPG on launch day.

Players are instructed to gather at the town center where they find themselves unable to leave, a feature installed by the creator Hayato Kayaba. The players learn that the only way to exit the game is to reach and conquer the 100th floor of Aincrad. If players die in-game, they die in real life (IRL). If anybody outside the game forcefully removes the NerveGear (the VP peripheral used in the game), the players will die.

Kirito has invaluable insider knowledge and experience because of his time as a beta tester. He and other beta testers are dubbed “beaters” because the other players consider them “cheaters.”

That holds MOSTLY true, though the game went through changes between the end of the beta test phase and the official launch phase.

The players are trapped for 2 years and not everybody makes it.

Kirito's “beater” experience saves Asuna multiple ties, though they don’t immediately team up and bond. The two players part ways to forge separate paths with Kirito being a solo player and Asuna eventually joining & leading a guild.

After their unique adventures and helping each other, Kirito and Asuna bond.

Kirito is challenged by Heathcliff, the leader of Asuna’s guild (Knights of the Blood Oath). He loses to Heathcliff and must join the guild as a stipulation for losing. Kirito initially doesn’t like the idea because of his bad experiences with guilds but continues bonding with Asuna, especially when they are betrayed by a double agent named Kuradeel.

Kuradeel reveals his true alliance with the player-killing guild Laughing Coffin and attempts to kill the two. This establishes the bond between them, a combination of romance and camaraderie. Their love is cemented in the episode “Girl of the Morning Dew,” chronologically on 10/23/2024, which aired in September 2012.

They tied the knot in-game and went on a honeymoon staying at a log cabin on one of the peaceful floors. They meet an NPC named Yui who becomes their daughter which is important throughout the story, even when they reach and conquer the 100th floor.

It leads to the fated battle against Heathcliff, revealed as Kayaba’s avatar, the game’s true final boss.

Before the game automatically logs them out, Kirito and Asuna tell each other their real names.

Allegedly all surviving players are logged out of the game. The in-game marriage between Kirito and Asuna turned into true love. Kirito searches for Asuna and learns she didn’t wake up from her coma which leads to the second half of season one where her mind is trapped within another MMORPG called Alfheim Online (ALO) where players resemble “fae.”

In ALO, Kirito befriends other players (including his cousin).

This leads to the ultimate showdown that Kirito faces against the game’s final boss Oberon, the avatar of Asuna’s arranged fiance Sogou, who is obsessed with Asuna. Asuna is freed from captivity and is logged out, where she joins the other SAO survivors at a special school.

They begin dating IRL while regularly playing together in ALO.

After Kirito solves the case of mysterious deaths in another MMORPG called Gun Gale Online (GGO), he and Asuna regularly play together in the game. They act as inseparable comrades who are the two main sword users.

Their love remains strong when Kirito is poisoned IRL by another surviving Laughing Coffin member which leads to his mind being hooked to a program called “Alicization.” When the “Ocean Turtle” facility gets attacked, Asuna remains behind and enters the program to save Kirito.

It leads to a comical confrontation with Alice Zuberg, the pivotal character of Alicization, who is shocked that Asuna is Kirito’s lover.

After dealing with real-life threats, the lovers are undeterred and their romance grows stronger.

If they hadn’t married in SAO, things would’ve gone differently.

The marriage is also one of the most organic romantic relationships.

The original light novel is currently in the middle of the “Unital Ring Arc” which is supposed to have an anime adaptation called the “Inter-Intelligence War” where the “Underworld” has evolved to space combat.

The animated adaptation of the spinoff Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is currently in its second season. The story takes place after the events of SAO where the incident spelled the end of NerveGear (recalled and destroyed) and the decline of VR games.

A new VR peripheral called AmuSphere was introduced leading to VR games becoming popular again.

The story centers on university student Karen Kohiruimaki who’s self-conscious of her tall height. She uses GGO as an escape under the avatar LLENN who is short. LLENN joins forces with players Pitohui (an SAO beater who got lucky because she was on tour), M (Pitohui’s real-life manager), and Fukaziroh (Karen’s best friend, Miyu).

You can read my original version on Medium.