#27.1.19

Ahem.

If you’re a coward

You will spend your life wondering if the dynamic can change

Instead of changing it

And then where will we be?

Nowhere, forever, or inbetween nowhere and somewhere,

So while the last episode ended without letting us see just what Kirito’s Perfect Weapon Control Art was, this episode reveals that it’s basically a black kamehameha made out of sword, so at long last SAO can finally have beam struggles. It’s kinda cool I guess but I prefer Eugeo’s.

Anyway, Eugeo saves Kirito after he nearly dies taking out Fanatio, and then a couple of interesting things happen. First of all, Kirito tells Eugeo to go save the lolis real quick and make sure they’ve not got any sneaky shit to kill people with. While we don’t actually see Eugeo do this, it can be assumed that he did, and based on their somewhat important looking shot in the OP as well as here, I think we can assume that they’ll recur in some fashion. Which is fine by me because they’re both hella cute. The other thing is that Kirito tries real hard to make sure Fanatio doesn’t die, even wasting the magic dagger Cardinal gave him in order to ensure her survival. It’s pretty interesting seeing Kirito fight so hard to save these “artificial” lives because of how unjust the Integrity Knight System and Administrator are to said lives, especially since as far back as the Aincrad Arc Kirito was willing to kill actual, irrefutable, no-moral-debate-about-it human lives when the time called for it. And while he didn’t do it, he totally seemed ready to kill Sugo following the Fairy Dance arc. Heroes that don’t kill are nothing new but Kirito’s history of killing makes for a pretty interesting angle here, especially since, again, the value of these artificial lives is in itself a thematic question posed by the work.

We also get to talk to some minor character on an elevator who’s been operating said elevator for 107 years and when asked about what she would do if the whole Axiom Church is disestablished as is Kirito and Eugeo’s intention, she says she’d take the elevator and fly it through the sky. It’s not as dumb in context as it sounds because the actual elevator is magic yadda yadda etc. Anyway, while I don’t think we’ll see this elevator girl ever again, I think her addition is a nice touch. It’s a bit more context into just what the Axiom Church is and what it does to the people it “immortalises”. And in the same way Tonio from Diamond is Unbreakable shows that some Stand users aren’t evil dicks and just use their abilities to like, cook or something, this little elevator girl accomplishes that tinge of worldbuilding without needing to be an Integrity Knight herself. Kawahara’s definitely come a long way with his worldbuilding. 

Also, Alice is here and we fight her for a bit! Her sword is scary but tbh Fanatio’s sword was a bit scarier, but the fight scene here is cool, if a little weird to follow because of some camera movements. Alice herself is still intimidating though and just when it seems like the whole thing would anticlimactically end much earlier than the fated battle with Alice should end, it doesn’t actually end because she’s so cool, but then the wall explodes and Alice and Kirito fall out of the building maybe?

Fuck knows what happened in the end, but the episode ended and the next episode is called “Truce”. I suspect Kirito and Eugeo may somehow find a way to team up with Alice without Eugeo needing to use his dagger to send her to Cardinal first. I don’t know though - we’ll see how it all plays out.