[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by novalysis

You could argue from hindsight that this was not the best course of action of course,

In retrospect, sure...

and certainly, Asuna herself started a week later, yet was of similar strength to Kirito.

Not even close if he uses Dual Blades. Besides, Asuna's a pretty girl. She's had it much easier than a socially awkward kid like Kirito.

Certainly, he took his time to help Klein- but this was before the survival game begun.

He was willing to take him along after.

It's also worth noting that Post RNR Kirito exhibited alot of behavior that initial Kirito would not have done. Lazing around, spending hours watching over Asuna, helping Silica, etc.

I think the truth is, before RNR and the Black Cats, Kirito wasn't the most mature of persons, and was much more selfish compared to his Volume 1, Black Swordsman and Murder self.

Yes, Kirito joined the Black Cats because of his loneliness. I think that realization of his loneliness was really the start of his move away from the less attractive aspects of himself. Truth to be told, SAO changed Kirito for the better, by a great, great deal.

I think one of the difficulties with making judgement on Kirito's Pre-Black Cat behavior is that we see very little of it. I personally interpret that Kirito was a morally ambiguous character that could have fallen into either side of the alignment until Aincrad changed him massively, and fixed his moral compass on the right path.

Ultimately, until the space between Aria and RNR is filled up, I think we would tend to look at Kirito through the lens of his later selves. Again, I point out to the fact that the Aincrad arc is really only a fraction of SAO's tale so far, and furthermore, is quite fragmentary.

That's my biggest problem with taking Aria as canon. He's presented there as already altruistic and laid-back.

I'm not saying you aren't right about SAO changing him for the better. I'm not saying he was a saint when he started. But I can't really describe him as selfish either.

But I do think that Pre-SAO Kirito did have the potential to end up like Kayaba,

That... has very little basis. He was good with computers, but not a genius or anything. Plus, even for a genius, being great takes time - and he spent a lot of that dicking around in games.

And while his issues led to his isolation, he never lost his conscience. See how guilty he felt about abandoning Klein. It's not like anything bad even happened to him.