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Originally Posted by Irenicus
I see the opinion is divided between the shippers and the way-too-fast opinions.
They're actually compatible. I share both. Yay Kirito x Asuna, and, well, it's way too fast.
Triple_R mentioned it in at least a few posts deep somewhere in this thread, and I agree with it -- that the scenes themselves are great, but the transition is just way too fast.
I understand that Kirito and Asuna have had quite a few developments already, that the stage is set, and I was actually smiling half in disbelief and half pleasantly surprised by the anime daring to take it to the next step. But this happened, in running time, less than five minutes after another major event where Kirito for the first time actually killed someone, Asuna blaming herself for it and tearfully begged her leave, their first, trauma-driven kiss, and Kirito confessing "my life is yours" to placate her. My brain was still waiting for all the ramifications for these very important developments (like, uh, reporting to the guildmaster) and was just not, not ready to appreciate the lurve, and therefore what would have been a wonderfully climaxing romantic scene had less than its deserved orgasmic impact. It's like a Shakespearean play: you need a bit of lollygagging and bantering and other things happening between the important events that conclude each Act.
This really should have been two episodes.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Irenicus
I think you both are misreading me if you believe I thought they're literal equivalents or that the marriage thing itself was the key part of why I felt what I felt. My problem was that the scenes in her house, romance, proposal, and all, scenes with a very sweet romantic mood, came right after another dramatic moment where a very different mood was being conveyed. We were in "Kirito near death, Asuna to the rescue" and "Kirito killed a (villainous) fellow guild member, Asuna in tears" territory right before we got into lovely dinner, underwear princess kind of territory. They're heavily linked, yes, but some kind of transition needed to be there, long or short, so the audience -- me -- can slow down and shift gears.
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I completely agree. Two excellent posts.
I definitely think it would have been better if the events of this episode were spread out over two episodes instead of one. One thing I'll add is that I think the one-episode approach has greatly lessened the impact of rather important events (the duel, and Kirito's first experience in killing a man). Their impact has been lessened because they've become greatly overshadowed by the romance, as discussions on this thread makes clear. These events are really getting shortchanged, imo, in the minds of viewers because of all the shipping focus. This would not be the case if most of the romantic scenes had been left for next episode.
On the topic of the punch, I honestly have to say that I don't get at all where relentlessflame is coming from on that. Asuna and Kirito are only being themselves if she's punching him?
That seems like a really weird argument to try to justify the punch to me. There's plenty of great Asuna/Kirito scenes that thankfully don't involve this brand of comedy violence. Are Asuna/Kirito not being themselves in those scenes?
And to Reckoner's point, I wasn't aware that punching people was necessary in order to have laughs and smiles.
