#Asuna and Lisbeth side story for the win

[sadioradio]

Explaining Asuna's and Lisbeth's relationship

(Spoilers (maybe))

In the anime, Sword Art Online, Kirito was able to gain a second sword from a renown blacksmith in the VRMMO. She had a hearty personality, which abled her to get many friends and regulars for her shop, including Kirito and Asuna for any services or maintenance done to their armor or weapons. In the beginning of Lisbeth's character arc episode, we get to see that Asuna seems to be on good terms with Lisbeth as Asuna shares some personal information towards her and Lisbeth teasing her. I did not pay any mind to Asuna's and Lisbeth's relationship when I first watched the anime, but I when I read "Temperture of the Heart", it kinda pique my interest in their relationship a bit more as there was a bit more context to it. When I read more of the books, I could not help but think how weirdly offset the anime could be to the books. Asuna and Lisbeth fall under this and it can be upsetting because Asuna and Lisbeth can be good friends to each other. I was looking more and more into it for the past three weeks and it make me think: wow, was their relationship strained?

When I say "strained", I don't think it can be considered toxic in the sorts. In Lisbeth's book, she said to Asuna, "When I first met you, I thought you were kind of stiff." She goes on about how much Asuna had changed, explaining that she is doing stuff that she would have never would have done in the past. After what Lisbeth said to Asuna, it would seem that the two did not start off well. Now, Lisbeth does say that the two are best friends, but I don't know whether if they started to become closer when Asuna's mood changed or when they first met. Considering how the two can have great personalities and I do see them trying to get close to each other especially when Asuna is a regular to her business. However, I do not think the relationship was really that healthy like that they would like it to be.

After Asuna departed after her telling Lisbeth that she has to meet a "someone", Lisbeth recognizes that she had found a boyfriend and it seems like it bothers her since she hadn't found a "special someone" yet. She did say that there were guys that wanted to get more close with her but she declined them, gotta make Kirito look special, ya know. During this time Kirito and Lisbeth go on a quest to search for a piece of metal to get Kirito a new sword. Lisbeth starts to notice about Kirito's demeanor as he worries about her safety and as a man who fights everyday and in the most dangerous places. It made me wonder if what Kirito and Lisbeth went through was some sort of parallel to when Lisbeth met Asuna. I mean, she worries about EVERYONE"S safety and plans out every boss to make sure no one dies and she for sure shares the hardship that Kirito went through too, except it seems that the relationship between Asuna and Lisbeth took more time. At the end of Kirito's and Lisbeth's expedition, it seems like Asuna does care about Lisbeth's safety and her emotions. I guess that's where the strained part comes from.

There was a scene between Asuna and Lisbeth that was taken out from the anime where Lisbeth asks "Is that the person you like." What statement she said what kind of got me was when she said, "I made a smile like I always have during our gossips." even when she was tearing up inside. When she said that, it made it look like her and Asuna's friendship was not all that special and a man that she met within a day was more special to her than Asuna. The fact that she cried over a man even after she said she'll never cry again and showed more emotion to him than to her friend for about like a half a year or a year really shows something. Was it Asuna's personality? Was it because Asuna wasn't around long enough? What was it? Reki pls tell me omg. Did she feel like she had to be strong around Asuna because she was the vice-commander? Was Asuna the same way to Lisbeth?

In Mother's Rosario, Lisbeth recognized that Asuna looked off and said "Did your parents try to hitch you up with another man?" which she was pretty much spot on and Asuna denies it. As much as I want to use this as an example of Asuna not showing vulnerability to Lisbeth, she does this to her friend group (ngl, I find it funny how Lisbeth recognizes Asuna's emotions more than Asuna does with her own).

Asuna's outlook on Lisbeth is just her being overbearing as she is overbearing on Kirito aswell. There are a couple of scenes where Lisbeth told Asuna that she went to a dungeon and Asuna yells, "YOU WENT ALONE?" This tells me that Asuna does not really trust Lisbeth going alone to a dungeon, probably even just to get materials just like she was doing with Kirito. The fact that Asuna went to come back to get her armor fixed and was pretty much horrified that Lisbeth was not there. Saying she went to the Black Iron Place and asked around to know where she had went even though she was only gone for a day. She also does this in Unital Ring, I really think that Asuna should realize that Lisbeth does not always need to her to be protected and can uphold her own. During Untial Ring, you can tell Asuna is reverting back to how protective she was during Aincrad.

Before people get the wrong idea, I do not think I am complaining that all of it can be just be due to bad writing, however, all of the books from season is pretty much outdated as the Progressive Series takes place often in the newer books. Right now, I just want to look at it as character flaws and the flaws of Asuna's and Lisbeth's relationship. I think it can be called bad writing if the flaws aren't addressed, but sadly, I don't think Reki cares enough about them to actually give them something special. This is too bad because I think it would be an interesting storyline of how up and down their relationship is.