Meet Kayaba Akihiko, the game creator, the final boss.
One final thrust to end the game.
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
The grand secret. Heathcliff is Kayaba Akihiko, the game creator. He is supposed to be the final boss waiting at the final floor. And he offered Kirito one chance to fight him, one on one, as a “reward” for for realizing his identity.
Asuna dies to save Kirito. And Kirito dies too. Only, a moment before his “death”, Kirito manages to thrust Asuna’s sword to Heathcliff, kills the final boss, and ends the game.
I like the way they conclude the SAO arc. I like how Heathcliff is killed by Asuna’s rapier instead of Kirito’s sword, symbolically states that he’s defeated by the couple, not just individual Kirito.
Still kinda confused how Kirito can still wake up in the real world even he was dead in the game? So what about the other players who died in the game? Will they wake up too? But Kayaba Akihiko already explained that other than the remaining players, those who died will remain dead, both in game world and real world. So how come there’s an exception for Kirito?
I googled and read lots of discussions about this. Then I realized that in earlier episode (I forgot which one), when a player is dead in game world, his/her avatar will be put into a temporary place for short time (allowing for that magic item to revive player within short moments after dying) before the Nerve Gear device will kill the real-world body. That temporary place must be that orange-looking sky Kirito and Asuna find themselves after killing Heathcliff. And because the game ends before the end of that “waiting period”, Kirito’s real body does not die.
