Sword Art Online II: Gun Gale Online

[Hiro Protagonest]

The actual thing that happened is ludicrous. It's use as a whole is some MOST TRAGIC BACKSTORY EVER levels of ridiculous, especially when the tone of the show does not remotely justify this kind of thing. Although that's not really a new problem for this series.

Spoiler: episode 3

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Not only does that guy had to have been on some crazy drugs to just keep getting up after getting shot twice, but the recoil on that gun is going to do way more than kind of make her swing it upwards, and she apparently has magical aiming powers to have managed that headshot at the end.

Like, he couldn't have just gotten shot in the struggle and died, because that wouldn't be EXTREME enough. I guess.

Yeah, the dark stuff is what it was supposed to be or was marketed as, honestly. It was like the first two episodes were promising to be this combination action and horror, kinda like Fullmetal Alchemist. Then it just went completely standard young adult fiction.

That scene you specifically call out does seem ridiculous... to be honest I switched to other tabs a lot when watching this episode.

[JadedDM]

It's funny, but if she had grown up in America, she'd have been lauded as a hero.

Spoiler: Episode 3

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Yeah, for a child who has never handled a gun before, she seemed really proficient with it. Then again, this is like 20 years in the future. Maybe it was a smart gun?

[HamHam]

It's funny, but if she had grown up in America, she'd have been lauded as a hero.

Spoiler: Episode 3

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Yeah, for a child who has never handled a gun before, she seemed really proficient with it. Then again, this is like 20 years in the future. Maybe it was a smart gun?

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I imagine having guaranteed life time employment speaking at NRA meetings and appearing on Fox News would be both a blessing, and a curse.

I honestly want SAO to continue to be earnestly silly, because it is way funnier this way.

[Halae]

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I imagine having guaranteed life time employment speaking at NRA meetings and appearing on Fox News would be both a blessing, and a curse.

I honestly want SAO to continue to be earnestly silly, because it is way funnier this way.

We just have to wait for the Aliciazation arc, even though it's rather far away. It gets kinda bonkers, but in a good way.

[JadedDM]

Four episodes in, and Kirito finally logs into GGO.

Being rather ignorant on guns myself, I'm curious how much of the gun jargon mentioned in this episode was accurate. Anyone know?

[HamHam]

AHAHAAH Kirito has a purple lightsaber.

[JadedDM]

For 150,000 credits, it better be purple!

[Halae]

The reason it cost so much was because it's a specialist weapon, by the way. it deals absolutely unreasonable levels of damage on the condition that you close the distance enough to actually stab someone with it. The only people that experiment with builds like that are the folks with really high amounts of free time, money, and similar. It's what solidified the "nobody uses" it thing.

Of course, this is never actually stated, but I've seen a couple things like it in existing MMOs.

[HamHam]

Nah, it's cause it's purple. Probably has a black edge color too. Have you seen how much those are on the Cartel Exchange?

(But it is seriously perfectly. Like, "purple lightsaber" is pretty much a Star Wars specific Mary Sue trait... I'm not sure if it's funnier to think this is deliberate at this point or not.)

Also, super disappointed GGOKirito is not actually a girl.

PS: The avatar thing, if I understand it correctly from random things I heard elsewhere, is super dumb.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Being rather ignorant on guns myself, I'm curious how much of the gun jargon mentioned in this episode was accurate. Anyone know?

Basically, the type is deceiving, it only measures width, not length. Shape is also important. While a proportionately larger bullet will have more penetrating power, it actually has to be designed for penetration.

The bullet on the right of this picture is a 9mm pistol bullet, while the other two are rifle bullets of 7.62 and 5.56mm.

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Also, I believe the amount of explosive propellant matters? I know there are coldfire rounds that have less propellant for ammo that normally goes at supersonic speeds (so silencers aren't rendered pointless).

Spoiler: Episode stuff

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I'm not sure if it's just Kirito with long hair, it made him more feminine, or his avatar is a flat-chested girl...

[Prime32]

Spoiler: Episode stuff

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I'm not sure if it's just Kirito with long hair, it made him more feminine, or his avatar is a flat-chested girl...

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It's a rare male avatar with a female appearance (and voice, apparently). You can't normally crossplay in GGO, so avs like that can fetch huge prices.

[Hiro Protagonest]

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It's a rare male avatar with a female appearance (and voice, apparently). You can't normally crossplay in GGO, so avs like that can fetch huge prices.

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...I'm still confused. From what I've read on the wiki, I know that if you look at his info it will still say "gender: male", but is his avatar actually genderswapped?

[Halae]

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...I'm still confused. From what I've read on the wiki, I know that if you look at his info it will still say "gender: male", but is his avatar actually genderswapped?

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No, he's currently just an extremely effeminate looking man.

[JadedDM]

Spoiler: Episode 5

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Apparently Death Gun was once (or still is?) a member of the Laughing Coffin from the first game. Dun, dun, DUNNNNN!

[HamHam]

Spoiler: Episode 5

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Apparently Death Gun was once (or still is?) a member of the Laughing Coffin from the first game. Dun, dun, DUNNNNN!

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I'll be honest, that just made this way more interesting. Especially if he's not just one of those random mooks from that one episode, but is an actual named character from SAO that we already know.

[Halae]

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I'll be honest, that just made this way more interesting. Especially if he's not just one of those random mooks from that one episode, but is an actual named character from SAO that we already know.

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Since I've read the source material, do you want me to spoil it? I don't necessarily need to say who he is, I can just say "Yes, we've met him before" or no to that same instance.

[Yuki Akuma]

In regards to wanting an arc just about a fun game people play with their friends with no intense real-world consequences...

That's the next arc, after this one.

[HamHam]

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Since I've read the source material, do you want me to spoil it? I don't necessarily need to say who he is, I can just say "Yes, we've met him before" or no to that same instance.

Nah I want to preserve the inevitable disappointment.

[JadedDM]

In regards to wanting an arc just about a fun game people play with their friends with no intense real-world consequences...

That's the next arc, after this one.

Something to look forward to then!

[Halae]

Nah I want to preserve the inevitable disappointment.

No worries. I will say that it's interesting, though, and showed the author's writing style maturing.

[JadedDM]

Spoiler: Episode 6

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A bit of a retcon here; apparently while in SAO, Kirito and the others attacked the Laughing Coffin and he personally killed two of them.

I guess it's nice to see that surviving SAO did leave some mental scars on Kirito, but previously he's been--for the most part--just fine, so this does kind of feel like it came out of nowhere.

[Yuki Akuma]

Spoiler: Episode 6

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That's not a retcon. It just wasn't shown in the anime version until now.

It's possible to suffer from PTSD and seem mostly fine most of the time, until something reminds you of the traumatic experience and you have an attack.

[Forrestfire]

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Less of a retcon and more of a "there was a lot of stuff that wasn't shown during all that time", I guess.

[Madfellow]

I like the contrast they're setting up between Kirito and Sinon.

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They've both been forced to kill at some point in their past (Kirito more recently than Sinon), and they're both working to recover from that. The difference is, Kirito is trying to forget it ever happened, while Sinon is trying to attack her past head-on and "become stronger" so she can overcome it and move on. And then Death Gun gets thrown into the mix. Episode 6 seems to be hinting that in order to stop Death Gun, they're going to have to kill him. That raises the question, then: who is going to do it? Kirito or Sinon?

[Prime32]

Spoiler: Episode 6

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That's not a retcon. It just wasn't shown in the anime version until now.

Spoiler: Episode 6(?)

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No, in the LNs we hadn't seen anything of Laughing Coffin before this point, unless you count Kuradeel mentioning them briefly (the murder mystery arc was written later).

[HamHam]

Is Kirito forgetting the dude he knife fought in a parking lot? Did that dude somehow not die?

[JadedDM]

Is Kirito forgetting the dude he knife fought in a parking lot? Did that dude somehow not die?

Nope, he was sent to jail, at least according to Kirito himself.

[GloatingSwine]

Also, I believe the amount of explosive propellant matters? I know there are coldfire rounds that have less propellant for ammo that normally goes at supersonic speeds (so silencers aren't rendered pointless).

Not only that, but the length of the barrel matters as well. The longer the barrel the more of the propellant will burn, increasing the pressure behind the bullet and hence its muzzle velocity (but too long and friction on the rifling will slow the bullet down)

[JadedDM]

I'm puzzled, regarding Yui.

I thought Yui's data was stored in Kirito's VR headgear. That being so, how can she exist in ALO without him being logged in? Was that explained and I missed it?

Anyway, saw episode 7. Is it me, or is the pace kind of dragging so far? Maybe I'm just not used to watching the show once a week (I binged the first season on Netflix).

[Yuki Akuma]

I think Yui is capable of inhabiting several computers at once. After all, she was designed as an all-seeing psychological health program for an MMO that probably didn't run on just one server.