Sword Art Online

[kmkze04]

I actually had no problem with this episode. Kirito being at a disadvantage against a weapon wielded by a person who more or less was designed to kill him is more than believable, and while he could have bought two swords (price was 150k, if I remember right, and he won 300k from the game), that would have neglected armor and a range weapon in a gun-based game. Did no one else pick up on the "hospital" and "medicine" mention from the previous eps? I found that suspicious, and then as soon as I saw the guy's obsessive nature in GGO after the playground scene, he was on my list of suspects. I don't think he snapped from rejection, I'm pretty sure he was well broken before, so his insanity was not unexpected or out of character for me. The rape/murder was stopped actually I think a little past what you'd expect of a series geared for younger crowds, and yes while a full rape may have been a super turn-on for hentai fans, that's something for fan fiction rather than public TV.
As for Kirito coming to the rescue, it would not surprise me at all if he reconsidered momentarily Death Gun's parting words and straight up charged over to Sinon's house while keeping Asuna in the dark probably for her own safety. Or he may have left her instructions to call. Based on that, and him saying Sinon's house was near the hospital, he could definitely reach there before police, and it is just like him to do so.

[Kraco]

Did no one else pick up on the "hospital" and "medicine" mention from the previous eps? I found that suspicious, and then as soon as I saw the guy's obsessive nature in GGO after the playground scene, he was on my list of suspects.

Sure, but like I said before, Death Gun was the only cool character in this arc. Why would I want the only cool one to be that sniveling fool in RL (and as a matter of fact his secondary cover character in GGO was a similar dunce as well)? The other characters (Kirito+harem) aren't that different, on a basic level, between RL and the total immersion VR. Why does Death Gun need to be so vastly different? He should have been a coldly psychotic and murderous personality of some manner in RL as well, not a weepy, creepy stalker dude sticking to a girl who only stands his presence because she has absolutely nobody else to talk to, despite not even being able to bear his slightest touch, let alone return his feelings.

[kmkze04]

Yeah but he's not the only Death Gun. Actually, I'm not even convinced he was the main Death Gun. He said he was one of the hands and did control Sterben for awhile, but the real Death Gun concept I think came from someone else, probably the brother who was Red Eyed Zaza. I'm pretty sure you'll get to see the dark psycho still.

[DarthEnderX]

as soon as I saw the guy's obsessive nature in GGO after the playground scene, he was on my list of suspects.

I think he was on most people's lists after that.

But then when they showed him and Death Gun in the same place at the start of the tournament, most of us crossed him off.

He said he controlled Sterben up to this point, but decided he wanted to do the actual killing this time. He's the one who leveled the Sterben and was playing DeathGun in-game when the blue-haired guy was killed in the beginning.

Arguably, you could even say that Kirito could have lost if the actual guy was playing instead of wanting to creep on Shino IRL, since it was his actual equipment.

The opposite could just as easily be true.

All of the scenes of Death Gun being a badass in this arc have been the other guy, the older brother that played SAO. He's the one who defeated Pale Rider, beat Sinon once, and almost defeated Kirito.

Conversely, all we've ever seen Sinon's stalker do as Death Gun was shoot a television. Just because he's played the character longer doesn't automatically make him a better player.

I especially wouldn't be surprised if the older brother is the better sword fighter(and thus, better person to go up against Kirito), given that he's the one with all the SAO experience.