Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25908228-20141222101442/@comment-185.122.59.102-20180305221605

As this is still going, I'll throw my 2-cents worth in. As regards Death Gun, I think Kirito was actually stronger than Death Gun, but the entire fight was basically a PTSD flashback for Kirito and I'm told it's pretty hard to fight in the midst of a panic attack/ptsd flashback whereas Death Gun was in his element the whole time. Add to that the fact that Kirito had only been in the game 2 days and I don't think it's unreasonable that he struggled.

As regards Asuna and Kirito, Kirito is the stronger player. No doubt. Asuna is better with a sword but that's not all there is to being a player, if that were the case then Leafa would be stronger than both of them as Suguha has already demonstrated she's a better swordswoman than both the deuteragonists. The people saying that Kirito has to use "tricks" and "out of system" abilities to win. No, that's part of the game. He used an unorthodox strategy but that's part of the game. There was no cheating, Cardinal wouldn't allow it. That's part of why he's stronger, he finds a way to win no matter the odds.

His innate knowledge of how the system works allows him to find strategies and abilities within the rules that other players simply can't do (Such as Skill-Connect Dual Wielding in ALO, Dual Wielding against General Eugene, cutting bullets out of the air in GGO, dodging a sniper shot from death gun that there's no way he should have been able to sense, cutting magic out of the air that even Yuuki was utterly baffled by). Add to that his second-fastest reaction time of any human player we've seen so far and he's clearly the strongest player from ALO. Asuna is faster with a sword and faster on foot, but they are both incredibly fast and in a normal sword fight minus armour a single hit will kill you so asuna would have the edge. But a game isn't fully real life sword skills. Add to that Kirito has taken down 2 full bosses solo, and Gleam Eyes incapacitated her in one punch, she'd have died there and then had Kirito not deflected the sword. With all of the above I think Kirito is definitely the stronger player (note I said player, not swordsman), but Asuna is not that far off.

I've never been fond of the second fight with Heathcliffe. Having beating him soundly in the first Duel to force Kayaba to use the system and cheat, it felt anachronistic for him to lose in the second. In the novel series I know he accidentally activates a sword skill without meaning to which allows Kayaba an opening while the avatar finishes the animation, but in the Animé, he just flat loses and it made no sense. The novel explanation was a solid reason why he'd lose and I wish they'd kept it in the Animé.

As much as the ALO game says it's based on real-world skill, they brought sword skills in etc. and it clearly isn't entirely based on real-world skill or Yuuki would have been utterly creamed by Kirito. When did she ever leave the hospital with AIDS in order to pick up any ability with a sword? If she left the hospital at all she'd have contracted a life-threatening infection.

I'm not sure about Yuuki, part of it may well be the medicuboid as it's a much stronger interface with the human nervous system and that's a reasonable explanation of her massive reaction speed but I think Yuuki knows deep down that Kirito wasn't going all-out, whereas Asuna threw everything she had at her and was prepared to go down fighting. Yuuki acknowledges this in the Animé.

About Alice and the others in Aliciztion, correct me if I'm wrong but was the Alicization Arc not therapy for Kirito after he suffered some pretty severe brain damage from being injected with Succinyl Choline by Johnny Black (The last Death Gun accomplice?)? The last two paragraphs are fairly speculative on my part, but I don't think they're unreasonable.

The issue of course is the same as all protagonists, how do you keep your challenges credible whilst your protagonist overcomes it without it beginning to seem far-fetched. The same problem is faced in many series, most notably comics, though there are others. I think the bottom line is it comes to Dramatic Narrative, fights have the be "close" in order for the audience to be really excited by them, but most of the explanations above make dramatic sense to me