Sword Art Online 2 – 10
Kirito, don’t you know cool guys don’t look at explosions?
If you’ve been paying attention, then you’d already know it’s my turn for SAO II again this week! If you haven’t been paying attention, then NOW you know it’s my turn for SAO II again this week!
Kirito to the Rescue
Great character look, terrible GGO player
I think we all knew that Kirito was going to rescue Sinon. That’s what he does. That’s what this show does. And Sinon can’t die, because she’s gonna be a harem member. The surprising thing wasn’t Kirito saving Sinon. The surprising thing about Kirito saving Sinon was that he actually went and mopped up Musketeer X and then had time to come back and save Sinon! Yes, Musketeer X was so bad that he was able to leave Sinon, kill Musketeer X, realize that Sinon was in trouble, grab X’s rifle, and then shoot Death Gun, all in the time of the ‘less than 30 seconds’ before Sinon went to attack with Kirito + Death Gun’s monologuing. But aren’t we used to Kirito’s heroics by now? None of that was particularly off the rails. By the book, within expected parameters.
Really? Really?
But I found the subsequent chase to be annoyingly dumb. The horse that’s faster than the motor trike, enough faster that the distance closed down enough to use a stupid pistol with any accuracy. Kirito driving while turned around backwards to help Sinon shoot. The flying through the air shot. All of that was really stupid. And while I didn’t mind Sinon’s breakdown, because they’d done plenty of character development to make that part of the story plausible, the timing of it – during this ludicrous chase – reduced the impact of her emotional episode to just another factor of annoyance. Action just for the sake of action, and stupid because they couldn’t be bothered to come up with anything better than a crummy chase.
Yeeeeha!
The Better Part of an Episode
Sinon breaks down again
So when they finally got out of that dumb chase, and got to talking, I thought the episode got a lot better. One can disagree with the content of their discussion: Kirito talking about why everyone’s life is valuable, and how everyone is interconnected, ruining Sinon’s idea of dying alone. But I thought it was impactful and at least truish. I like that Kirito has rallied to realizing what things are important to him, and is making at least a conscious calculation to try to put his ability out there to help other people. This is where I think the show did pretty well earlier, with the point of showing Death Gun’s RL kill of Pale Rider indicating that Death Gun is just killing whoever he comes across in the tournament. There was definitely a question in my head earlier if he was going to be just going down his list of ‘strong’ players, or whether he was going to just take out everyone he can, and that incident answered that question.
Finally calming down
I think the both of them getting these things off their chest will be good, since it seems that Kirito’s confession has calmed Sinon down. She was already a bit wiped out, and while she thinks she hates Kirito, it’s obvious she doesn’t. And I have to give a lot of credit to Miyuki Sawashiro for her performance here, because while usually crying in anime seems almost completely out of place, this actually fit in very well, and met the overall level of emotion in the scene.
So what do you think of Kirito’s admission to Sinon that he was also a killer? We’ll see what her reaction is next week. Do you think it was the thing she needed to hear? Because this show is the way it is, it will be, but I wonder what all you readers think about it. At least we’re past that stupid chase. Yes, I can go with slicing a bullet. I can go with defending against machine gun fire by deflecting them with a sword. But this chase scene was just inane and idiotic and poorly thought out. This was my limit.
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: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
The first rule of SAO Survivor Club is that you don’t talk about SAO Survivor Club. The second rule…yadda yadda yadda.
Yeah. Mecha horse? We’re gonna need you to go faster. If you could that would be sweeeeeel.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
the horse should’ve jumped
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
It isn’t Bad Horse
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It was defective.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Gunner X was such a minor character in the LN, she had no design there.
Why’d she get such a nice anime design?!
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
Spinoff when?
Doujins when?POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
All we need is an announcement and we’re golden.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
To make viewers weep that she couldn’t stay longer. She was hot and makes it a waste that she was taken out prematurely.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Also because they only had to do one drawing of her, so might as well make it a good one.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
One that everyone won’t easily forget.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
She was actually the hottest in SAO until, well…for the 30 seconds she appeared
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Every second was put to good use. She was good eye candy.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
In my opinion, Death Gun’s reasoning for killing is breaking down. Going from what I first believed to be targeting strong players to simply murdering indiscriminately. And kills for the sake of killing because he probably gets a thrill out of it.
Hopefully Kirito’s talking session will help rebuild Sinon’s shattered psyche. To be honest, seeing her that distraught kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Natural for a person to have a relapse after a psychological trauma, so accepting that, I did what I could to push that particular display away.
I think she did need to hear that because now that the truth is out in the open, she has someone to relate and therefore can ease her sense of guilt. Like one person can’t fully understand another unless they’ve been more or less in that person’s shoes.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
You do realize that’s what Laughing Coffin was, a group of sick psychopaths who got off on murdering people? It’s not like Death Gun’s motivation has ever changed.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I do know where he originated from. It’s just after learning that, I thought he’d evolve a bit, actually have a pattern to his killings and be selective of his targets. Turns out nothing’s changed.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
He’s a jackass, and a troll, and a griefer. Those guys don’t ever get better. Even worse, the guy is a murderer and knows it. This isn’t SAO where there was the fiction they ginned up to make themselves feel better of “We don’t really know if they’re dying.” This time, they’ve intentionally developed a way to kill people in the game. It’s straight up murder, and that’s his intention.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
You seem exceptionally pissed at him here, Highway. Much like how the Martians in Aldnoah.Zero were getting carried away with their human extermination. 😉
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
…That is perhaps the single most inaccurate and ridiculous comparison I have ever heard.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Well, I tried.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, we don’t know if that dude is actually Dead IRL. Kirito seems to think so…but is that an indication of the truth?
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
Logging out is impossible during the tournament. That means something happened that caused a forced disconnect, and one of the few things that can do that is a serious health issue on the part of the player. Amusphere has safeties installed taht will detect things like serious heart or breathing irregularities (or unconsciousness), and will force a logout.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Then wouldn’t those safeties be able to be altered like what happened to the NerveGear in SAO to threaten the player’s life. I think that’s tied to how Death Gun is actually killing people and shooting a player’s avatar sends a signal.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
No, they’re all part of each Amusphere’s firmware, and they’re strictly sensors. They can’t be accessed remotely: they don’t even interface with the games. They also aren’t capable of causing any feedback that can harm the user: the device would never have been relased on the market if such a thing were possible again, after the Nerve Gear debacle.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Given Pale Rider’s reaction with the convulsing and linkdead, I think it’s a safe bet to know that he’s dead.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…his Avatar is dead..but is the actually flesh and blood person behind Pale Rider dead? Death Gun has killed on player while on-line with verification that it happened IRL at the same time. I know we want to see a pattern, but I don’t see the second point as fully formed yet.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
Don’t be a stubborn mule, Skylion, it doesn’t suit your name. 😛 Death Gun’s victims die. Just because no one’s tracked down the body of Pale Rider and splashed it onscreen in gory detail, that doesn’t make him any different from the others. He’s dead.
I am telling you that as an LN reader. And no, it’s not a spoiler, because you’re not supposed to be sufficiently stubborn as to require someone to club your skull open with a brick in order to let obvious truths about the story get into your head.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…dude…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I feel the same way. I mean, what reason could there possibly be for him to be an exception compared to Death Gun’s other victims?