Duel in the Wastelands

Key Events

Kirito feigns ignorance to Death Gun about the ‘real’ Kirito, who then says whatever the case, he’ll kill him anyway.

Kirito remembers back to SAO when a large group of them sought out Laughing Coffin’s base but were ambushed and still won the fight overall. Kirito remembers killing two with his own hands. He fears who Death Gun may be and is shocked into a mess. Sinon finds him after her victory and realises that his background must be similar to hers.

He’s sent into the second round before he can recover resulting in much more aggressive berserk like tactics from him. He still manages to win and advances to the final to face Sinon. During the battle Kirito stands in the middle of the battlefield having given up. Sinon’s angered by this and her concentration is destroyed causing her to miss every shot.

Sinon confronts him and Kirito remembers that he’d promised to fight properly. He apologises and challenges Sinon to a duel. They will be 10 meters apart, Kirito will have his sword and Sinon will have her Hecate. Kirito will throw a bullet into the air and when it lands the duel begins.

Kirito predicts Sinon’s shot and cuts the bullet in half mid-flight. With that, he wins and Sinon resigns. He also gives some vague comments about his past of murdering others that Sinon relates to.

Meanwhile, Death Gun watches the proceedings.

Thoughts

Thinking back, Kirito did kill some people in SAO. It was all in self defense, but murder will traumatize you if you’re not psychotic already, especially at a young age. There’re also probably many other things in SAO that I’m sure he’d rather forget, like friends dying. Certainly not the highlight of his life, at least not a good highlight. Luckily the shock probably wasn’t as bad as if it was in real life, i.e. no blood and body. Which is probably why Kirito’s not in as bad shape as Sinon. Although you still know you killed someone so your mind would be affected. Seems to be why Sinon’s drawn to him. Their backgrounds are similar, but so very different at the same time. They also treat games differently as well. Which is very likely why Kirito couldn’t kill Sinon at the end.

One episode and they’re onto the qualifier finals, I found that a bit too fast. I guess with how the qualifiers are timed and spaced, it’d be hard to fit anything in between apart from a short meet up between Kirito and other people, who happens to be Death Gun. I don’t know how the main event will be laid out, but I’m assuming it’ll be either a huge battle royale, or 1v1 battles. If the latter, then I’m expecting longer time between matches to allow the plot to move. Unless ‘most of it’ happens in the space between the end of the qualifiers and start of the tournament. If the former, then I expect Death Gun to be partaking in the tournament which will hopefully flesh out the story and motives then.

Must’ve been a weird match for anyone who was watching Kirito vs Sinon, especially at the end. I’d be facepalming at that and also be wondering if I’m watching some sort of weird romance drama…

I found the episode actually quite intense. Especially with the serious atmosphere that seemed to have been the remnants of Death Gun’s presence. It was so good that the time flew by and the episode was over before I knew it. Which is a sign of a good episode, you’d of course prefer the episode not to drag. The only thing I would say is that I would’ve preferred the Kirito vs Sinon to have been a more ‘proper’ battle, was a bit too much leaning towards a ‘battle of words’. But whilst it may not happen now, I’m sure the proper battle will happen eventually. When they meet to decide the winner of BoB, I expect.