Sword Art Online II – 06
Haven’t we seen this reaction before?
Highway’s turn again!
Putting 2 and 2 Together and Freaking Out
Whoops, got ambushed
Kirito’s encounter with Darth Vader (as you guys called him last week) didn’t go too well, and I thought that the show lingered a bit too much on the encore presentation of their meeting from last week. We saw all this, guys, you don’t need to waste a minute and a half to show it to us again. That really started the episode off on the wrong foot, and it didn’t get better right away as Kirito overreacted a bit (well, a lot) to his encounter with Death Gun, leading to the flashback of a combined SAO raid on the Laughing Coffin stronghold.
Having nothing to lose can make one pretty powerful
The flashback to the raid did point out the different mindset between the PK’ers and the raid force: The PK’ers weren’t afraid of killing people, to the point that they were willing to go all out to not get caught. And that that forced people who weren’t prepared to kill others to do exactly that is what can cause a reaction, even if it’s suppressed at the time. But I (and everyone else, probably) was put off by his extended frightened reaction upon realizing that the big scary guy talking to him was Death Gun (I thought he would have figured that out right at the beginning) leading to his emotionless progression through the rest of the qualifying. But not before freaking out Sinon as he disappears for his next match. It was almost as if he was able to transfer his anxiety right to her.
Perspective Shift
This shot was as improbable as half the stuff Kirito has done…
I thought the show made the right choice switching to Sinon’s perspective for the semifinal and final matches. While Kirito was mindlessly buzzsawing his way through the opponents, she’s still overly focused on Kirito, making a mistake in her semi, but one that’s easily recoverable for her. If people complain about Kirito being too good at things, I think you have to turn your critical eye to Sinon as well, making a few hundred meter shot to take out a guy in a vehicle moving perpendicular to her. But she was able to recover her composure and make the shot.
Getting Rattled
That doesn’t help her much against Kirito, tho. With her seed of anxiety growing, combined with her general annoyance at him, she’s all ready to go after him, on a map that should be perfect for her: one road, one path, just a showdown. But she gets too rattled when he’s continued his “Screw you guys, I’m just gonna advance straight on” strategy, and can’t settle down enough to zero in the shot. For me, the way her growing anxiety worked with the targeting system (a system I like, really) actually made this a passable circumstance, and I know that I’ve gotten frustrated / annoyed / rattled in online and offline games enough to have my performance go to crap. So for that to happen to someone like Sinon, who has had the kind of experiences she has, was believable enough in the context of the show.
That’s how to impress a lady, Kirito
Sinon’s breakdown, which initially seemed like her just running to her doom, was not bad, since we’ve seen how much the tournament means to her before. And she doesn’t want to be given a win, especially after Kirito had promised to fight her all out. Kirito’s talk did resonate with the two of them, since they’ve both killed other people, even if they don’t know it about the other. And the reinvigorated fight was pretty good as a showdown (I know there are some people who are like “How could he have sliced a bullet!” but c’mon, this is anime. Ninjas, anyone?). I thought it got a little overly intimate at the end, though Kirito shakes off Sinon’s hand to his cheek. And I doubt there will be a “next time” even if she pledges to beat him.
As usual, I thought the episode was fine, and didn’t have too much of an issue with anything in it after Kirito’s breakdown. That was a little bit too much for me. But the fight with Sinon was not bad for me, since I found her reactions to be authentic enough and the effects plausible enough. I know we want to think that people shouldn’t let things get to them, but the truth is that people get rattled: pro atheletes, politicians, soldiers, and gamers. Her growing anxiety at her own inability to follow through was something that seemed to fit in, especially in the way that this show has shown emotions so far. I’m also still not really feeling the idea that Death Gun is Sinon’s friend, since he’s around too much too close to when Death Gun is. That would be some fancy fast character switching.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Kirito’s encounter with Darth Vader…
You mean Death Vader.;)
I sense further disturbances in the Bullet Force for our young Sword apprentice…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
They even have the same mechanical breathing!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahh SAO my weekly take on Jesus Kirito-sama kicking virtural ass one game at a time.
First off what is the deal with his sudden breakdown after remembering the Laughing Coffin members that he killed back in SAO! I mean why have those memories of his suddenly popped up now after surviving SAO and ALO? Yeah I am still going to count that even though there was no OH MY GOD death penalty, but it still counts as him playing in another game where he didn’t panic when he had to kill those players. I guess they are basically telling us since he saw the tattoo in GGO it has triggered him to suffer a panic attack? Sure why not and I suppose the novel fans will flock to this and simply say it was in SAO, but it never got animated?
Now for the Lightsaber vs Sinon’s rifle! Sure I can go with the “anime” excuse cause I think we all have seen enough anime to know swords > guns because the bullet ALWAYS gets cut in half I just don’t buy the fact it was his “skill” from SAO/ALO/IRL that helped him cut the bullet in half in GGO! I mean can you cut bullets in half in Call of Duty with the knife? Yeah I know Sumarii brought up Halo to me which also has a OP sword, but I have never cut bullets in half LOL I guess I can’t really think in “game mechanics” when I watch huh? Course Jesus Kirito-sama will always win xD
Now I can see Sinon taking a interest in Jesus Kirito-sama even though I know everyone will just say “its not romantic vibes though” I guess they are more like rivals then? Still she has him on her mind which means shes somewhat interested even if it never heads into romantic relationship.
LOL agreed HWY or maybe the other character was AFK while he switched accounts or he is two boxing two different accounts someway? Like he is using some advanced script command while Death Gun talks? I guess until we see the two of them in the same room talking at the same time we wont really know! Course GMs could easily track that if he was on two accounts lol…I know that is a massive shot in the dark.
If SAO gets a third season I want it to be a melee fighter with no weapons like a hand to hand fighting game LOL
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
The reason for his breakdown? See the pic link in the last SAO thread. 😛
Hunger Games Online. 😛
Game of Swords. 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Dammit, spammy chewed up the reply.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Second half of this season is supposed to go back to ALO. If there is a third season, it’s supposed to be an over-realistic “medieval game” with a twist on the “magic” system.
You’re right, there was a scene this episode that they were shown almost at the same time on the same place, so Shinkawa-kun isn’t Death Gun.
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 39 comments
Gosh everybody seems to really have some rage against kirito ridiculous power capacity, i don’t but I kinda have a crush on him so I can’t say too mutch.
Now… even tought i felt he was over reacting, if you think about a normal person going trough that you might as well understand.
SAO was a deeply traumatazing situation for all people involved and yet some of them still had the nerve to go bac and play again, so seeing by the perspective that he realized he could get killed in this world yet again, it’s only natural that his brain would go HELL NO! and he would panic, the only think is that It would be fairly more credible if he panicked AFTER discovering that guy was death gun, actually if they did it all kirito mind set in the reverse direction, finding out the guy was death gun- them seeing the laughing coffin tattoo witch of course wounds mean he is a SAO survivor, wouldn’t that be way too much better?
now the only two things that makes this dumb is: 1kirito mind overreacting in the wrong time
2 The fact that kirito don’t really bieleve that players in GGO can actually die in the real world
however he did sorta have a reason to freak out
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Yeah, the over reaction wasn’t just because he discovered the guy is from SAO, or from Laughing Coffin. There is the fear that you mentioned that he’s risking is life yet again. But above all else, the over reaction was due to the remorse of killing two people. He feels like a murderer deep inside and seeing the Laughing Coffin guy brought this feeling to the surface. And that’s exactly why Sinon could relate to him so easily.
I’m definitely on the team of those who gets why he freaked out, too.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’m on that same team. It was oversold, however, as they drug it on for to long with to much focus.
POWUH: iLurker with 13 comments
Its kind of funny how people also rage over the kind of feats Sinon does (People would be surprised at the kind of stunts people pull in FPS games in real life such as sniping without a scope or falling off buildings and barely surviving while scoring a pk)
I did have an issue with the trauma happening since even when I read the LN it felt kind of random (though to be fair, the SAO arc was sort of undeveloped and never fully explored Laughing Coffin, thus Kawahara Reki is writing the Progressive series to improve the arc), but Kirito does have a valid reason to have the trauma since he was trapped in there for two years while being aware that real people were dying from the deaths of their avatars.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
Actually Kirito wasn’t continuing his behavior from the previous matches, although the anime failed to explain several things in that scene. He was giving up. He was letting her kill him, because he didn’t need to win that match in order to continue to the rest of the tournament. And Sinon was infuriated by that. The glimpses of the aiming circle completely confuse the issue. She wasn’t unable to hit him: she missed on purpose to try to get him to react. She was so angry that he was insulting her that way, dismissing everything she had done and everything she was trying to do by competing, treating her as if she wasn’t worth the effort to fight against, that she shot all around him to try to get him to do something, and then abandoned her position to yell at him.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Nice to know that the almighty Kirito can still be shaken up. Makes him more human in the face of his god-like gaming abilities.
Right now, I’m wondering to what extent his avatar configured other than him unfairly keeping his previous high stats. When looking at how he was in SAO through the flashback and the way he looks in GGO, it’s not easy to say it’s the same person. The fact he looks more feminine is an obvious factor.
Seeing him and Sinon together in spite of some aggression from the latter is kind of nice to watch. If Asuna wasn’t already declared Kirito’s other half, I’d have eventually shipped him and Sinon.
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
1. He reset his own stats from SAO after all the events of ALO. His current stats are from his new grinding.
2. Your stats will carry over if you convert from one VR game to another. Only thing that won’t carry over are money and equipment, hence him being penniless when he entered GGO. This is a feature of all the new games that use The Seed program.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Nice. Thanks for the information. Then I guess this means with the Seed program, others can follow Kirito’s example. Then where would the line be drawn if everyone can use it like that?