Sword Art Online II

Episode 10

This week's episode was a strange, frustrating, and possibly unavoidable mixture of Sword Art Online's best new improvements and worst old hangups. In attempting to push its characters forward emotionally, it took ten framing steps back.

The episode started off with Kirito saving Sinon from the clutches of Death Gun, leading into a chase sequence that leaned heavily on the horror-movie tropes the second season's been regularly engaging in. The framing of Sinon's inability to pull the trigger really worked for me here - this season's most tense moments have often been framed like some kind of bad dream, where you're at war with your own subconscious, and that helped Sinon's panic here feel real. Even if it was in service of a scene where Kirito rides a dune buggy away from Death Gun on a friggin' robo-horse (who I have decided is named Gun Horse, obviously). After Sinon comes to some kind of realization about how Kirito just powers through his own fear, all that ended in a flying dune buggy sniper shot van explosion setpiece that I have to admit was pretty sweet.

The real meat of this episode was its second half, when Sinon finally reaches her lowest emotional point. The separation she's been attempting to make between her real and digital selves is already shaken by her fear of Death Gun, and the final break happens when Kirito attempts to comfort her, an action she very understandably sees as pity. I definitely liked some of the interplay in their philosophies here - whereas Kirito fights because he feels “there are things he must protect” (a philosophy I'm still hoping the show eventually starts to depict as more selfish than honorable), Sinon fights simply to prove she can. And when it comes down to either living in fear or dying in a fight, she's ready to embrace death - only to be held back by Kirito, who rightly says that that's a selfish choice, because her death impacts more people than just herself.

That there is the key point, and the moment when Sinon breaks down. It's clear that Sinon does not really value herself - if she's not strong, she's “worthless” in her own mind. But Kirito saying he already values her forces her to directly confront her own self-hatred, which is a hard thing to do. She's defined herself the way she thinks others see her - as a murderer. And all along, she's been trying to escape that self, to invent a more acceptable version of herself in GGO. But Kirito forces her to accept that as who she is.

All that is fine character work in the abstract, and in another show, this would possibly have been an effective scene. Unfortunately, Sword Art Online's nature and framing does all this work a terrible disservice. I'd been hoping this season would offer Sinon and Kirito's philosophies as meaningful counterpoints to each other - instead, we simply see Sinon break down entirely in the face of Kirito's rightness and strength. This wasn't an even exchange of vulnerabilities - this was a classic tsundere breakdown, the “conquering” scene that highlights the shift from wild stallion tsun to tamed dere. The ineffectual pounding on his chest, the tearful “I hate you”s as she leans against him - it came across as cliche, not catharsis. And as Sinon collapsed against Kirito's chest and muttered “I hate you, but let me lean against you for a while,” I couldn't help my thoughts from drifting to Kirito's existing harem, which is surely still watching this while munching popcorn over in Alfheim. This could have been a powerful scene in a vacuum, but scenes don't exist in vacuums, and the actual reality of SAO is a world where every single women has been domesticated and “fixed” by our resolute Kirito. Any single story could possibly follow that structure, but when we're on the fifth repetition of it? It robs itself of any seriousness it could possess. If the first half of this episode was capstoned by Sinon shooting that exploding van, the second half ended with the show shooting itself in the foot.

That's kind of a negative point to go out on, so let's talk nice details again. I liked that even when Sinon closed her eyes, she was still measuring her health through the HUD. I liked Kirito's “if he points that gun at me, I might abandon you and run,” pointing to the various coping mechanisms he's developed for understanding his own actions. And regardless of my feelings on one more woman being saved by Kirito, this was a necessary step in Sinon's arc. It was handled poorly, but it had to happen one way or another - it's frustrating to have such a key character moment fall so flat, but hopefully this means we'll be seeing a more well-rounded Sinon from here on out.

Rating: C

Sword Art Online II is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.