Crimson Killing Intent

Key events:

Heathcliff also has a unique skill that boosts attack and defence so much that no one’s ever seen his HP fall into yellow.

Kirito loses the duel to a weird movement and joins up with Knights of the Blood Oath.

On Kirito’s first guild training mission he is teamed up with Kuradeel who apologises.

During lunch they find that Kuradeel has poisoned the water and both Kirito and the guy leading the party, Godfrey, become paralysed. Godfrey is killed by Kuradeel first and he reveals to Kirito that he’s part of Laughing Coffin, the pk guild.

As Kirito’s hp comes near 0 under Kuradeel’s attacks, Asuna rushes in just in time. She attacks Kuradeel but can’t kill him resulting in a close call for her until Kirito sacrifices a hand to kill him. After that ordeal they promise to stay together that night. After that, they agree to move to a lower floor and get married.

Thoughts:

Now this was a good episode. Had it all, action, betrayal and romance. I think the majority, if not all of us enjoyed this episode. Plot moved and character development took place too. I don’t think I need to say more, this episode was enjoyable and I’m sure most of you agree.

The opening fight was pretty good, I think the animation dealt with the fast paced action nicely, my only disappointment is that it was so short. Was barely a few minutes unfortunately, but we did find out all that we need. That being Heathcliff has a special skill, is not the leader of the best guild for nothing and did something he wasn’t suppose to do. I think I mentioned that I had read spoilers and know Kirito was going to lose. What I read was a short synopsis and it said that Heathcliff did something that shouldn’t have happened. So, if the anime wasn’t clear enough, what Heathcliff did should not have been possible according to game mechanics.

Which begs the question why didn’t Kirito question him about an ‘illegal’ move? I think it’s because he’s a ‘beater’ and I don’t think people will believe him. I mean, who would they trust? The words of someone who’s accused of a cheater or the other guy who’s seen as a skilled warrior trying to get everyone out of this world. People will probably just say he’s a sore loser therefore there’d be no point in challenging him. But either way that Heathcliff is a dangerous man, he’s definitely hiding something.

I wonder if Kuradeel joined the laughing coffin guild at the time when he lost the duel to Kirito. That would explain why that shady looking guy was there, to steal members. I don’t think Kuradeel was part of them at that point, but the embarrassment was probably too much for him. So he turns to the dark side.

Yet again we see evidence of pain, and yet again I remind myself that they said there was no pain. Godfrey and Kirito definitely looked like they were in pain, not as much pain as if they were actually stabbed, but definitely pain. I guess they can explain that as they are expecting to feel pain and so acting in pain because of that expectation, but you’d think they’d get used to the no pain after being there for more than 2 years.  Whilst I’m not really that irritated by this as it adds realism, I don’t like contradictions to rules that were set.

As expected Asuna would come to the rescue, in the nick of time like all shounen. Losing a hand was interesting, didn’t expect that to happen. I’m assuming they can lose all limbs then. More realism, apart from where they grow back, but it’s a game so expected. Speaking of losing the hand, was it actually necessary for Kirito to come in? Sure Asuna lost her weapon but one attack from Kuradeel can’t possibly finish her off, so she should be able to get back up, pick up her weapon and attack. Unless the damage is realism based, i.e. head ‘shot’ does more damage.

Other places I wondered about the damage was the duel at the start. When what shouldn’t have happened, happened, Heathcliff looked as though he merely jabbed Kirito in the side and then walked away the victor. How does that work? I don’t expect Kirito to have lost that much health, realism or not, a jab in the side shouldn’t be able to do so much damage. What I was thinking is that disarming someone means you’ve won. Kirito was disarmed in his duel, Kuradeel was disarmed in his duel with Kirito, Asuna was disarmed in this episode. But then that wouldn’t explain why Kirito was able to finish Kuradeel off with his hands meaning that he could still continue fighting without his weapon.

I’m not ‘sure’ about the final part… you know which bit I’m talking about…  so not gonna comment on that. But anyway, they’re eloping now. Really hoping they don’t settle down like a lot of the other players who’ve lost interest in getting out of this virtual world. There’d be no story in that. Though I do wanna see this virtual marriage, as whilst I’ve played many MMORPGs that have a marriage system, I’ve never married in any game myself, so I wanna see what this one’s like.