Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II

Episode 8

With this arc's final episode, one thing becomes strikingly clear: This arc was never Llenn's story, it was Pitohui's. Last season showed us the result of her obsession, and given the life-or-death nature of their fight, it's no surprise that's where the focus was put. However, with a much lower-stakes story, this season has allowed us to delve more into the “why” behind her obsession, both with thrill-seeking and with Llenn herself.

When it comes down to it, Pitohui is a victim of her own natural talent. Life is on easy-mode for her. She knows exactly what to do and how to act to achieve success. Not only is she a popular professional singer, she's basically the best at every game she plays. Because of this, her life is uniformly boring with no challenge.

However, there have been two moments in Pitohui's life where she has been beaten—moments when she has known fear. These are the most pivotal in her life and dictate all her future actions. The first was in the Sword Art Online beta test where she fought Kirito. Sure, he had a two-level advantage on her but she had always overcome the odds before with her inborn talent. The fact that she couldn't beat him—someone out there was better than her at what she was best at—struck fear deep into her core. With that emotion came excitement.

But then the Sword Art Online incident came, and she was denied facing Kirito again. Worse still, if she had been in the game, their fight would have been one of life and death, the highest stakes possible. The regret plagued her, insidiously working at her mind until she decided to make her own personal death game with Llenn standing in for Kirito. When the arm-less Llenn started to rip her throat out with her bare teeth, Pitohui was sure she was about to die. She felt that same fear—that emotional excitement—again. She had achieved her goal and made her life worth living for one brief moment.

But then Llenn gave her a way out, a loophole to keep living. So Pitohui was left alive, once again chasing the all-to-brief emotional high. However, that's not all there is to it. Pitohui, with her second life, doesn't just want to experience fear. She's determined to overcome it. As we see in this episode, it doesn't matter that the life-and-death stakes are gone—the fear remains anyway, connected as it is to both Llenn and Kirito.

The real issue plaguing Pitohui this time around is that her determination to achieve her goal has surpassed her common sense. In Squad Jam 2, we saw Pitohui at her best. She was calm, cool, and in control, seemingly a thousand steps ahead of everyone else. However, by the end of Squad Jam 3, she's at her worst. She's out of practice and mentally exhausted, long past when an AmuSphere would have logged her out. Heck, in her final moments, she's delirious, talking more to her inner image of Llenn than the real Llenn lying beside her.

In the end, it's not even really Llenn that beats Pitohui as much it is Pitohui herself. Llenn wasn't particularly clever. It was more that Pitohui was barely hanging on to consciousness by focusing on getting the battle she longed for to the exclusion of everything else—and was thus taken by surprise, again and again. Despite her second loss, Pitohui refuses to give up. Her determination is unwavering. The only dilemma she faces now is how to get her next shot at Llenn—and what drastic actions she is willing to take to get it.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• If you wondered why Pitohui was wet and naked in the final scene, you can see in the background two sensory deprivation pods, each apparently equipped with a NervGear.

• “Toxic,” the song we hear during the ending credits, is a message to Llenn: Pitohui telling her directly about her frustration and determination.

• If you've checked out The Complete Sword Art Online Anime Timeline that I wrote up, you may have noticed that the epilogue stealthily time skips the story to after the War of Underworld happened. (Squad Jam 3 takes place on July 5, War of Underworld on July 6, and the epilogue on July 26.) Are we supposed to think that Pitohui and Fukaziroh weren't involved because they were exhausted? Because I don't see that stopping either of them from participating—even if on the side of the bad guys.

• The epilogue ends on the intriguing note that despite being the winner of two Squad Jams—and wildly being considered one of, if not the strongest player in Gun Gale Online—Llenn still sees herself as a weak person.

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

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