[SPOILERS!] Kirito’s Dilemma

certifiedbinger said:
I don't think self-defense was the point here. If you've killed somebody, the trauma and guilt is going to stay with you. The way Kirito decided to cope with it was questionable, but that's the way his character is written.
As for the thing with Sinon, I think that was just thrown in to show how much of an outcast she is, being rejected by classmates and teachers alike. Not very subtle, but it gets the point across.

official_brown said:
I think the problem with Kirito is because he wanted to kill them. He was angry so he wanted to hurt them. While self defense is different and acceptable, his mindset hungered to kill when he knew he could arrest them.

The trauma makes sense because he forced himself to forget to cope while enacting Ego-Defense Mechanisms. With death gun reminding him of his sins he had a panic attack. He hasn’t had the actual experience of dying again. Now he is re-confronted with the sense of death.

The way that the author handled Kirito and Sinon’s trauma was very good in my opinion, especially Sinon.

IhnalakoKaina said:

Very true. Although, one would think that stopping an armed robber that had already shot one person would make you a hero, yet even her mom seemed to reject her actions at the moment. I guess that has to do with cultural sensibilities only some people have, which stems from their lack of perspective and moral knowledge and experience (kids bullying her), but still there's some people who do have some backbone, and that makes more sense towards the end when the cashier woman shows up with her daughter and reminds shion of the lives she saved.

It is different with kirito since, like you said, he killed those guys out of rage, and in hindsight, it looks to him like, with the power he had, he could have restrained them and spared their lives. I wholeheartedly disagree, but I can understand how an 18 y/o japanese kid could think that. The fact is that their lives were forfeit the moment they put others' in jeopardy. He didn't have the power to stop people from being how they were and pathologically hurting others. And like the nurse said, and like he said to shion himself, he has the right to think about those who he saved.

It really resembles police shooting people who leave them no option (suicide by cop), yet it affects the cop in such a way that they need counseling to come to terms with what they've done even though it's not necessarily their fault. It show's that the struggle is real and hard to overcome even for people who's job is to protect the innocent even if it means stopping a life.

Anyways, the way the author managed the plot in this case and many others is what separates SAO from all of the other trashy game fantasy anime.

Piromysl said:
That arc was the point, where SAO was probably at all time low.
His "moral dilemma" and coping with it just seems so forced and cringy. Nobody cared about that, especially since Kiroto did nothing wrong at all, so him felling for basically no reason was just a chore to watch.

And I won't even mention Government asking 16 yo gamer to singlehandedly investigate murder case, which is just wtf. I'm better than that.