"I've taught you so much, but I want to teach you one last thing. The taste of the bullet that means defeat."
FULL EPISODE SPOILERS
Well, today we learned a great many things. Kirito is a guy. Sinon is sensitive. And Death Gun is terrifying.
Wait, didn't we already know that?
Well who cares because we've got the 3rd Bullet of Bullets to prepare for in this episode! Yet another good rendition for the show. It deals some more with the humor in Sinon and Kirito's friendship (if it can even be considered that) as well as finally showing off Kirito in battle. But, the best part of the episode is that MAJOR twist ending. It's by far my favorite reveal of the whole show. Kaiyaba as Heathcliff was cool but the signs were there for that. This one? Nope, complete out of the blue.
Not that there weren't any highlights throughout the episode. There was great material with Sinon and the fight reminded us of how skilled a player in combat Kirito is. It's just that you don't walk away from this episode as a fan and not think, "The world is ending."
Sinon continues to be the standout character of the season, and we get to see why here. Not that she has many more big moments, but her character is consistent to the point where you can't unlike her. You just have to embrace how cool she is.
So, how does our misadventure begin today? Well, the two make it in time to register, with Kirito opting out of the big bucks and instead just choosing to remain anonymous under his avatar name. Fair enough. Though I don't understand why one would need to enter their address and phone number for the online game? Are they going to mail them a magazine or call them up every night to say goodnight? For that matter: if Kirito is playing the game, then, is his bank account hooked up to it? And did he seriously earn 300,000 off of one game? DUDE.
Actually now that I think about it, Internal Affairs is probably the one funding him. So, he wouldn't really get anything out of it, maybe a small cut. So, yeah, spend away, Kirito.
After registering, we find out that Kirito and Sinon will only fight in the Finals of the qualifying. At that point, though, both the winner and runner-up from their block would advance to the main Bullet of Bullets event, so it doesn't really matter who wins, just for a one-seed or two-seed at that point.
The two go to the waiting room where Sinon laments the other players for showing off their main weapon early as a way of intimidation. She's correct in pointing out that a truly skilled player would hide their weapon and study the idiots showing off theirs, as they can come up with a proper strategy against it. She recommends they change, and, well, guess what?
Kirito outs himself as a guy because he's embarrassed Sinon is changing in front of him.
This is a pretty stupid moment on both of their parts? How do they go about helping each other and all of that without knowing the other's name? Especially in an online game? I find that to be pretty impossible. Sinon has a proper reaction in slapping Kirito and being mad at him for letting her almost change in front of him, and Kirito's an idiot for not saying sorry immediately after and explaining that he didn't know his avatar would look like this. It is randomized, though.
But, another question is raised. Kirito has to be a highly regarded name for not only saving 6,000 people from the grips of SAO as well as ending the mind-projects of ALO, but also for revamping VRMMOs with the World Seed. So how in the heck does Sinon not recognize the name Kirito?! I feel like he would be all over the online community as a pretty famous dude. Ugh. Things like these, man, things like these.
What follows is some pretty funny moments where Kirito follows Sinon around after she only blankly states, "Don't follow me" and the two continue to give each other funny looks. I mean, at least the show is making light of the situation. This is a new side to Sinon--by that I mean, she isn't being super cool nor is she being free-spirited. She's being a human being, she's feeling annoyed at Kirito for being an idiot.
Her friend from the tea cafe arrives in game to cheer on Sinon, and then, the qualifier begins after the quickest ten minutes of your life. Sinon explains just before that each round, the field and time are randomized, and that both opponents start 500 meters away from one another.
Kirito lands in the middle of an area that looks like it should be a part of the original Assassin's Creed (that game is almost ten years old, can you believe it?) game and finds himself quickly on the losing side of an automatic rifle and a camouflaged opponent. He tries to attack him using his gun but fails, instead deciding to put his photon sword to us.
Here, we're reminded what makes Kirito himself. He gets a feel for the environment and shuts off all senses but his hearing, trying to recognize the rustling of the bushes for where his opponent is. Figuring he'll be able to block the bullets with his sword, Kirito charges in. The sound effects for the photon sword are exactly the same as the light sabers from "Star Wars" so it does take you out of the scene for how similar the sounds are, but other than that it's cool to see Kirito slashing the bullets as they come. Eventually, he reaches his opponent and takes him down. One match down, four more to go.
When he returns, he looks on the screens and tries to find Sinon, but instead, Death Gun approaches from behind and asks if he is the real thing. Kirito gets confused, realizing through plot convenience he has to know this guy from somewhere. Of course, he doesn't recognize him as Death Gun (how could you not this is the spookiest looking guy around?) so this is more of a moment for the audience than for Kirito right now--to see our villain and hero meet before they fight. Kirito runs through a list of people he's pissed off between SAO and ALO (some of which are kinda dead) before coming to the conclusion that this guy is an SAO survivor!
:O
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!
Death Gun asks if Kirito is the real thing again, raising his hand to show Kirito something, before lowering it and revealing that Death Gun is a former member of the murder guild Laughing Coffin from Aincrad hooooolllllyyyy ccccrrraaaapppp.
This is an AMAZING twist to the story! Not only does it personalize the mission to stop Death Gun for Kirito, but is also brings back major ghosts into the story, ghosts that we thought were done with following Asuna's rescue? You think SAO is over?
HAHA no!
And, fittingly enough, that's how the episode ends. How else could it end? Not only are we told that our villain has survived SAO, meaning he's a pretty powerful player, but that this is the same exact avatar, potentially, that was used in the SAO servers, transferred over to GGO for reasons we don't quite know yet.
This also adds a question to the mix: since this avatar is the same one from SAO, is that the reason that he is able to kill people? Or is that completely unrelated?
This twist, this reveal, does everything it should in exciting/ frightening the audience and raising questions that will only be answered as the story progresses. Now, Death Gun is probably out for Kirito as well as Sinon, as we saw at the end of last episode. Oh freaking boy.
Like I already said, this is a very fun episode that continues the fun times Kirito and Sinon were having. You think they're going to have any fun with this guy in play? They won't. We will! That reveal put this episode over the top and remains my favorite of the show.
Tomorrow, we'll see just how much this affects Kirito! Will he become motivated to stop Death Gun, or haunted by the ghosts we once thought defeated? See you then!
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