Damn, this ep was amazing! An excellent battle btw two of the strongest(known) chars in the game. I'm willing to bet that Heathcliff used a special skill to regain his footing in that instant, and was disgusted that he had to use another 'trump' card to not lose and win.
The strong romantic part as well. The Kirito/Asuna parts almost put a tear in my eye. Kirito almost dying, giving up at first, but desperately trying to stay alive once he thought about Asuna; protecting her by losing a hand and, subsequently, becoming a murderer; How he placed his life in her hands, with both having the ideal of wanting to protect each other; asking Asuna to marry him; all of these were well implemented to really get me empathizing with their relationship much more compared to previous girls(I still love Liz though =03).
This also has me a bit worried for the future. When two chars like these two form such a special bond in an environment where you can lose the other with just a small misstep, I can only hope that things don't go to the point where one perishes in the end(Casshern SINS's romantic couple comes to mind, though that was more of the 'guarantee of slowly losing your lover' theme, which is far more sad). My heart won't be able to take it (;_
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