#neverdandere

@ItsKurtZen, brother. 

first of all i just wanted to say omggg thank you so so much for sending me this!!!! the fact that you like my blog so much makes me very happy aaa!!! and ofc im always willing to talk about sao, especially with the release of ordinal scale hehe~ i also rlly like this question - i think it opens up a lot of ideas for discussion!! my answer became unexpectedly long, so im gonna put it under a cut!!~ (like most of the ordinal scale things im posting ahaha)

okay so in terms of eiji, although his strength is not explicitly answered or explained in the movie, in terms of the events that unfold within ordinal scale, it all makes sense to me. ill go into some detail as to why:

eiji is someone who has a lot of regrets. throughout his time within sao, he was very physically and mentally/emotionally weak. he did not have the will to fight for his life or the life of others, instead watching from the safety of a guild as those in the frontlines (including the infamous black swordsman and lambent light) put everything on the line for the ones they loved and for themselves. eiji truly looked up to these players, but knew in that situation, at that time, that he lacked the motivation to stand next to them and fight.

therefore, once he was able to escape the horrors of sao, eiji must have felt powerless. it was not him, but others did the hard work to conquer the game, and they were the ones who were ultimately recognised, whereas he was soon forgotten - a mere phantom in the minds of many - and this angered him. such anger was especially highlighted after the release of the sword art online archives. nowhere was his name mentioned, and instead only the ones who contributed towards the end product of setting everyone free were commemorated. the lack of recognition towards him, yuna, and everyone else who simply lived in sao, instead of fighting, sparked an obvious need for change within himself. yet this was something that had been active since he awoke from the clutches of the nervegear, only rekindled to a stronger extent after the book was published.

and so eiji strived to become someone worthy of praise and reverence, in order to surpass his old self, and to surpass the ‘black swordsman’ who haunted his memory. the only way he knew how to do this was to become physically stronger, because of his knowledge from sao that power is status. he needed to become strong enough to surpass those for who strength meant everything. between the time of sao ending and ordinal scale beginning, 2 years had passed. thats quite a long time, and definitely long enough for eiji to work his body to breaking point - to become stronger than those he used to looked up to.

to validate his perception of power as status, i will state how eiji could have simply overcome his past by becoming stronger than how he used to be, but instead, he sought revenge towards those who stripped the legitimacy of the common sao player’s struggles away. only the major battles of life and death were highlighted. he instead had to exhibit his strength, even though this was through seemingly excessive means such as breaking klein’s arm, and becoming no.2 in ordinal scale only to yuna. this physical power that he possessed made the former frontliners in sao tremble, boosting his ego so much that it fed his hunger for status and recognition from the public even more. his previous self would have never done such things, and so he thought he was becoming stronger, a more desirable player, when in reality he was feared.

eiji is a character for who the past is difficult to face. his best friend, yuna, was taken from him forever, and his struggles were buried under the heroic endeavours of the frontliners. obviously he would feel injustice. this is where his physical strength comes from - to make up for his previous mental weakness.

as to how he became so fit, im going to put it down to a combination of martial arts and gymnastics. being able to jump over laser beams with an agility that surpasses average capacities, and the fact that he threw kirito over his shoulder with ease are the reasons why i think this way. studying these two practices religiously would have given him a solid base for strength and mobility, especially after 2 years. that i am certain of!

this being said tho, there is definitely some sort of superhuman element to him that is supplied by the suit given to him by shigemura. i reckon that the blue sparks that shoot out of the neck of that suit supply some extra action potentials to his neutrons, helping to surpass his normal strength. when he lifted klein by the neck with one hand, you can tell that no person would be able to that to someone who is that much bigger to him. and you can see when kirito breaks that device on the suit, eiji’s physical prowess wavers just enough to give kirito the advantage. after all, kirito has had the experience of fighting every single day in sao, compared to eiji who only sought power after realising his incompetence. i definitely have reason to suspect shigemura for developing some robotic technology to assist with human potential in this way, and this ties in with his ability to work with artificial intelligences such as yuna. his robotic inventions may very well play a big part in future developments of human technology used for scientific purposes!

dis guy

man your anons are 10/10

nutting short of amashing

would not mind a season two

louder

3gb?

The new tumblr gif size max is 3 gigs right?