Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II

Episode 5

This episode is all about how each of the teams deals with the news that one member of each is being forced to join the betrayer team. While this is played for more than a bit of comedy, each team reacts differently. Only one plans to betray the betrayers and help his original team win. The rest grudgingly (or excitedly) accept the rule change. Pitohui wants to fight Llenn again and Eva looks at it as a way of testing herself against her old team. Meanwhile, the MMTM guy is happy he gets to shoot his machine gun.

But, of course, the most important thing to note is how Lllenn reacts to the news of a Pitohui being the traitor. More than anyone else, she is in shock—so much so that she falls to her knees and becomes unaware of what's happening in the world around her. While this is played largely for comedy, it makes sense that she's shut down so completely.

Llenn's likely traumatized. The last time she fought Pitohui, it was a life-or-death battle. If she had made even a single mistake, not only her friend Pitohui would be dead but her idol Elza Kanzaki as well. That's an insane amount of pressure for a normal college student to be under—and it'd be odder if there weren't lasting after-effects.

Llenn's almost certainly never bothered confronting what happened and how it affected her. She's been able to put all the stress and terror that came with it aside because she never thought she'd have to fight Pitohui again—and certainly not so soon or suddenly. Yet, now, here she is with Pitohui gunning for her again. Sure, the stakes are non-existent this time—and Llenn logically knows this—but it likely feels the same as the last time the two came to blows.

The rest of the episode is simply setting up the final arena (a cruise ship) and the immediate dilemma each of the non-betrayer teams faces. The ship is in the middle of an open area with no cover to speak of. The betrayers are already on the ship and ready to kill anyone who attempts to get aboard. Moreover, if any team makes a break for the ship, there's a chance that the other teams could shoot them in the back. So we're left with a situation where no team wants to be the first to move—as that team will take the vast majority of the risk. Of course, if no one goes first, the water will eventually rise and kill them all.

...Oh, and Pitohui's decided to start blocking the entrances to the ship because everyone's taking too damn long to act—so that's a fun cliffhanger to end on!

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• It's important to note that some of the lifeboats don't block the holes in the hull as much as make stairs to them—though those do become choke points where the traitor team can concentrate their fire. On the other hand, who says the teams need to get in the holes at all? I mean, the traitors just gave the remaining teams a bunch of boats they could potentially ride on as the water rises.

• Part of me wonders if Pitohui, or rather Elza Kanzaki, isn't behind this twist in the Squad Jam. It wouldn't surprise me if she sponsored this event on the down-low in exchange for this rule—along with the stipulation that either she or Llenn be forced to join the betrayer team.

• There is also another possibility. Maybe Pitohui isn't the traitor. After all, Pitohui shows no one else her screen and is genuinely surprised when she can make a party and have all the traitors join. Perhaps M is the traitor and is going along with Pito's whims. Or maybe Fukaziroh was slyly offering to let Pitohui be the traitor by trading terminals with her. Or perhaps the real traitor is Llenn and that plus her trauma (since she'd have to fight Pitohui either way) is why she shuts down so totally—and why she is so confused to see Pitohui fly away on the drone.

• As ReoNa is Elza Kanzaki's singing voice, I like to imagine the GGO theme songs she sings as actual songs in the SAO world that Llenn likes to listen to.

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Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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