Outstanding beginning - they keep on building up on the world they have carefully established before.
1. No truth for the public - the chaos that could ensue would completely decimate the "good" kingdom and leave them unprepared for the invasion of the Dark Territory. So they have to keep quiet about two boys saving the whole "fake"-world, which in turn leaves a lot of simple people... ungrateful without them even knowing how ungrateful they are.
2. Kirito, even though supposedly erased, still retains his affection towards Eugio and their swords, which symbolize their will and struggle for justice. It might be a direct implication of a trauma Kirito suffered when Eugio sacrificed himself, but I believe there is no way to determine that yet, and I think it does not need to be clarified. But he holds Aobara no Ken (The Blue Rose) extremely dearly, as you can see his immediate reaction when the peasants take it from him, and how Alice goes to take Kirito's sword to cut the tree, instead of removing the Eugio's one from his hands.
3. Man, animal family. Okay just how realistic they want to make it? There should be limits for good drama. Named the dragons? Wait for them to perish heroically.
4. Alice has the worst case of guilt yet in the whole series: She does not know she is "artificial", yet she knows there is something wrong with their world and that she is the after-image of the real Alice (which presumably "ascended" together with Eugio during the final episode... but I am extremely sure they both will be back - one as a sword-spirit, the other as a unified persona), and her whole value system was turned upside down - the only thing she knows is that Kirito and Eugio did fight for the sake of their world. But now she is left alone with herself, without any idea what she is supposed to do, with a paralyzed Kirito by her side. It could be said she is caring for him not because he needs care, but because SHE needs to care for him, as in trying to re-discover her purpose. I do not know whether this is intentional or not, but I would say it mimics what real-world mothers kind-of go through when dealing with immobile children. Except here Alice also has to deal with her own shortcomings of desiring direction from Kirito. Well, for half the season she will have to re-discover herself as well. Most of it is apparent when she is unable to make a clean cut of the tree - she herself sees that "her edge has dulled", as she no longer desires to wield her sword at all.
5. Not much interesting from the opening, several confusing moments:
5.1 Asuna's avatar and Asuna herself both appear in the very beginning. It is understandable if the sequence with their friends represent their strong bond and memories, but in any other case Asuna's avatar should not have appeared at all.
5.2 Right after that, you can see in Kirito's eyes the silhouette of his Fluctlight avatar. That is a STRONG implication that the consciousness, the actual psyche of Kirigaya's is aware of the state of his avatar, but as he is stuck between the systems of real world and fictional one he is unable to do anything just yet, as he walks "away" with the other avatars... But then Asuna jumps into the direction of the silhouette, basically going into the world by means yet unknown but probably cheating.
5.3. The blue bird that we see outside Kirito's room is glitching - a sign the system of the world is slowly falling apart, possible from both inside and outside interference.
5.4 The Dark Territory characters look like bunch of savages. I am rather interested if there is going to be a better twist - just how complex will they make evil minions to appear? We did see a fallen dark knight in the very beginning of the first part, and he did not look like an epitome of evil.
5.5 The mastermind that eats a blue knight piece is representing either Kirito or Eugio. Or both of them as the heroic knights who stood against his scheme. Either way that's a villain and you know it. THEN we see some technology, could be servers that retain the "memories" of said blue knights?
5.6 The scientist guy whom I have shamelessly forgotten as per his name, is standing next to a console which flashes with a back-shot of Kayaba Akihito. Could be just a cool shot, could symbolize the scientist guy trying to follow in the footsteps and dreams of Kayaba.
5.7 Throughout the opening we can see Kirito and Eugio giving resolve and hope to Alice, which is a core theme in retrospective, since, at first, it was Alice who gave meaning to Kirito and Eugio, as they struggled to reach and save her, and now the roles are reversed.
5.8 At one point Alice regains her eye, which could be just a restoration of her physical eye, just like they did back in the first part during academy days, OR it could allude to Alice regaining her whole self, uniting the child-Alice with synthesis-Alice and providing her own self with a sense of existential continuity, as she would then remember both how she was born and how she became the night. The fears that she expressed in the end of the first part, when she said that the "Alice they (Kirito and Eugio) knew is gone" would then be dispersed.
Overall, a great beginning of the grand end. I will try my best to leave the series of the shelf until it is completely aired, just like I did with the first part and never regretted. Though not participating in de-ciphering and theory-building is such a waste... but I wish everyone a pleasant watch.
CrunchyB said:Vegetable art online
Saintless blasphemers. Some have no shame.
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