Despite what its many detractors might have to say about the series, there's no mistaking the boom in popularity that Sword Art Online experienced after its release. Virtual reality was still fairly new at the time, so getting to see characters explore such a fully-realized VRMMO world was quite appealing. Many of the character designs are colorful and memorable, and come complete with skill sets and personalities that only heighten their enjoyability.

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Take Asuna Yuuki for example, the main female lead of the series who is also one of the fastest and most skilled swordsmen in SAO. Despite this, though, her role for a lot of the series is boiled down to little more than a dolled-up damsel in distress- and there are many more points about her character that don't make much sense upon further examination.

10 Why Use Her Real Name?

Asuna Yuuki in sword art online

One of the very first things that people learn whenever they're venturing onto the internet or into an online game is that it's an incredibly bad idea to use one's real name for their avatar. Even Kirito was smart enough to use an alias, his real name being Kazuto, but it seems as if that's a memo that Asuna missed. Sure, everyone's true appearances were revealed to one another anyway once the dark reveal actually dropped, but before that everyone should have been under the assumption that they were just playing a normal VRMMO.

9 Damsel In Distress

asuna captured creepy sword art online

Early on, Asuna is established to be one of the fastest and most skilled fighters in all of Aincrad. She was the sub-leader of the Knights Of The Blood Oath, which was commonly known to be the lead guild, and quick enough with her rapier to be dubbed "The Flash".

It's understandable why she couldn't escape herself, as she was captured and had both her appearance and arsenal altered so she couldn't fight back. What frustrates and puzzles many fans is that the writers allowed their strongest female character to become a helpless victim of more than one overly-creepy, objectifying scenes.

8 Why Be A Healer?

asuna healer form alfheim online sword art online

Once Asuna was freed and she transferred her avatar over to ALfheim online from SAO, she decides to be a healer class more focused on support. This is a move that doesn't make any sense, given her proficiency with the rapier throughout all of SAO.

If she actually had a preference for healing, it might make more sense. However, Asuna becomes dubbed the 'Berserk Healer' for simply charging in with her sword despite being a support, something that would get one flamed for eternity in an actual MMO.

7 Why Return To ALfheim To Begin With?

asuna stern expression alfheim avatar sword art online

When Asuna first experienced ALO, she was merely more than a helpless captive, trapped inside of a giant cage waiting for the day when she'd finally be saved. Not only that, but her only experience ever with an MMO happened to be SAO, the death game where her life was very much on the line.

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It's pretty puzzling, then, as to why she would want to continue playing in ALO, to begin with. If she and the others wanted to continue hanging out in an MMO, finding one completely removed from the trauma she went through would make much more sense.

6 How Her Relationship With Kirito Is Handled

Kirito And Asuna At The Wood Cabin Sword Art Online

There's no denying that Asuna and Kirito make quite the cute couple, but that isn't the part of their relationship up for debate. They get symbolically married during SAO, but despite this, the other girls continue flirting with Kirito. There are also still plenty of harem-esque scenes were Kirito gets flustered over one of the other girls, and while it's a form of comedy pretty prevalent in anime, the difference is that the protagonist typically isn't married. It really doesn't make sense why Asuna isn't seen being harsher on him for this.

5 How Did Her Skills Develop To Begin With?

Asuna Yuuki looking on angrily at her enemy

Asuna is established to be one of the most gifted rapier wielders in all of SAO, but what's confusing is that viewers are never really given a clear explanation as to how her skills developed in the first place. Before she met Kirito, she was an incredibly reckless fighter who allowed her personal disregard for her own life cloud her judgment and actions. She's never shown getting any real instruction on how to fight properly, and her and Kirito only party for one boss fight before they split ways for a while. It's possible that she's somehow self-taught, but it would have been nice to know how such an important character developed her skills.

4 How Her Fear Of Death Is Handled

asuna surprised flustered sword art online

After the grim reveal of what SAO truly was, Asuna essentially shuts down, fighting with reckless disregard for her own life as she feels she's doomed to die anyway. As she begins to receive encouragement from Kirito and see a more hopeful outlook on life, she starts to appreciate the little things more, her fear is practically instantly dropped. This is actually eventually touched on in a light novel that takes place between GGO and Alicization, where someone inspires her to live despite the fear of death. What doesn't make sense is that fear is never really ever shown outside of the very start of the series.

3 Her Nap With Kirito

asuna judging napping kirito sword art online

Asuna is a character who, once she is able to find a newfound drive to keep living, takes the main goal of clearing the game quite seriously. She's also a responsible person who wouldn't abandon her teammates simply to slack off. Both of these combined make her decision to doze off on a sunny hill beside Kirito quite a questionable choice.

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She was planning to work on clearing the floor with the other guild members, but sends them ahead to take a break. It just seems like an out-of-character moment that was only thrown in to give the main characters an extra fluffy scene.

2 Her Close Bond With Lisbeth

lisbeth teasing asuna sword art online

Asuna is shown to be incredibly close with Lisbeth, as the latter is seen teasing her over her blooming relationship with Kirito. However, it's never actually detailed how the two became friends- whether they met in real life at the all-girls school that Asuna attended or if they met in-game. Plus, their close nature makes the many scenes of Lisbeth falling for and getting flustered over Kirito even more uncomfortable since she'd be actively aware of their relationship pretty early on. One would think that Asuna wouldn't really be okay with her best friend hard-crushing on her in-game husband, but that's anime logic.

1 Her Arranged Marriage Plot

asuna coma hospital sword art online

Before the events of SAO began, Asuna was in an arranged marriage with a childhood family friend. He knew that there was no way she would ever agree to marry him which is part of why he kidnapped her and forced her into ALO after SAO was cleared. His plan was to convince her parents to allow him to marry Asuna while keeping her in a coma, but there's a lot about that right away that just... doesn't add up. Asuna's parents already seemed on-board with the idea even before SAO, and he already had all of the time she was trapped within the death game. It makes her imprisonment seem like it was only done for a few extra disgusting fetishization scenes.

NEXT: Sword Art Online: 5 Characters Asuna Can Beat (& 5 She Can't)