Mother's Rosario

I have been thinking about this word "Rosario" and wondering what it is truly supposed to mean in this particular context. For those who are not aware of the context of this word, here's a little backstory on it before I go on to it's interpretation.

In a story about a virtual reality game, there was this girl, Yuuki, who was able to make the most powerful sword skill in the game, a sort of a combo attack. She was dying in the real world. She used to spend most of her time in the virtual world because her body was already too weak to go on in the real world. She even died inside this virtual world. Before she died, she passed on this sword skill to her dearest friend, Asuna, who was sort of a sister figure to her. She named this skill "Mother's Rosario".

“The name...of the skill...is "Mother’s Rosario"...I suppose...it can help me...protect Asuna...”

It was meant to keep her safe.

Rosario is not an English word and it took me a while to truly understand why she named this skill so. There are various interpretations but this seems to really make sense. The word is found to be pretty common in Italian and Spanish cultures. Oxford English Dictionary records Rosario as an obsolete alternative to the English word, Rosary. According to Wikipedia,

The Rosary (Latin: rosarium, in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses") usually in the form of the Dominican Rosary, is a form of prayer used especially in the Catholic Church named for the string of prayer beads used to count the component prayers.

I am not a Christian myself but I have read a bit about it. It seems like there the name of the skill very strongly symbolizes a "Rosary". A Rosary is set of prayers in the name of Mary. There are these set of beads bound together in a string which are used for counting these prayers. This little object is also called a Rosary. This specific set of prayers is recited in sets of ten called decades. So the string contains 10 beads with a special sort of bead called a crucifix at the end of the decade.

Yuuki's "Mother's Rosario" was an 11-hit chain attack. It symbolizes the Rosary with 10 hits representing a decade and then a finishing blow representing a crucifix.

Passing down the ability to Asuna was a bit misleading regarding it's interpretation. It got me thinking that the name had something to do with Asuna and was meant for her from Yuuki herself. But I eventually realized that was not the case. 

There were a series of questions answered by Kawahara Reki himself about SAO1 characters. Here's the one that answers everything.

Q. Please tell me the reason behind the naming of the OSS2, “Mother’s Rosario”.

A. It’s a technique based on the memento from my mother, a rosary.

There is another answer that I came across and I feel like I won't be doing justice not quoting it here.

Yuuki was a Christian herself, so was her family. Yuuki was infected and suffering from AIDS almost since she was born because of some surgery. The rest of her family got infected too by the time her disease was diagnosed. Even her elder twin sister died. When all hope was lost, her mother had nothing else to turn to, so she would pray. Although Yuuki was probably the first one to get infect, she still outlived the rest of her family. Even her parents died but she lived. It is not clear what kept her going. But Yuuki did realize what her mother had gone through.

There is nothing more powerful than a mother's love and prayer for her child. A mother who in her desperation prayed for her child to be safe. That was probably what kept her going. Yuuki didn't give up. She fought long and in the end, she was left with nothing more than memories of a mother who would have thrown her own life away if she could just so that Yuuki could live longer.

Such is the love of a mother.
Such is the power of a mother's prayer.
Such is the logic of personality that can probably not be comprehended.
Such is the meaning behind the most powerful skill in ALO3.

Such is a Mother's Rosario.

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1. Sword Art Online (SAO) - The name of the series in question.
2. Original Sword Skill (OSS)
3. ALfheim Online (ALO) - The name of the virtual reality game.