Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25908228-20141222101442/@comment-1200981-20160501031201

OneSingularity wrote: In Alicization, Kirito is much weaker than Alice in strength.Even if they both go all out,it would be difficult to decide who wins. Kirito has an advantage in the sense that he uses more tricks and moves,but when it comes to pure swordsmanship,Kirito loses.He is not too good at  too. We also have characters like Fanatio, Bercouli, Eugeo, Deusolbert who are on the same skill level as Kirito and higher. In fact, he's needed help fighting with almost all of the aforementioned with someone who was on equal footing to stand a chance (Eugeo). As for Asuna vs Kirito, yeah, it is worth addressing because in the narrative introspection of the characters, Kirito states as much as Asuna that he believes her to be stronger than he is and vice versa. The one time they fought, Kirito only won by using an Martial Arts Skill to take her off-guard after dueling for twenty minutes. So yeah, he mostly relies on Outside System Skills or other tricks to gain an advantage in a fight when fighting someone the same footing as him.

And his battle with Eugene is a horrible example as well. Kirito only managed to win that fight after he made an opening in Eugene's defense by deflecting Eugene's blade's Ethereal Shift with the second blade, then whaled on him without giving the latter a chance to react while he was still in shock.

And this whole notion that Reki wants Kirito to be the ultimate, unbeatable MC is ridiculous because all of his major victories have involved assists or saves from his friends. SAO: Progressive also highlights this even more. The few times he's gone at it on his own without outside help never works well for him, like with Heathcliff, Gleam Eyes, Nicolas the Renegade: all of which have nearly led to his death. Hell, Alicization has been all about him getting his ass handed to him by people explicitly stronger than he is if it weren't Eugeo being there to back him up as his combat partner. His final battle with Quinella, with everyone sacrificing themselves to help him while he could only stand by helplessly, hit for home how truly powerless he was. And if it weren't for Cardinal, Alice and Eugeo, she would've killed him.