5 Point Discussions – Sword Art Online Alternative: GGO 9: “Ten Minute Massacre”

When confronted with an alliance of teams trying to take her down, how will Pitohui and her allies react? Remember, if you like this article and 5 Point Discussions, please share it on Facebook or Twitter! It really helps. And if you’ve got any comments or questions, please hit me up @SageShinigami.

1. For the last couple episodes, they’ve been building Pito up as this insane, bloodthirsty monster on the battlefield, and finally we get to see what that means. Last week, the big story was that there were seven different teams who agreed to work together to take down Pitohui and M’s team, knocking them from the mountain they’d been hiding on since the Squad Jam started. Since they’re vastly outnumbered, the assumption from everyone is their team will make a quick retreat and move somewhere safer. But where’s the fun in that?
Using M to distract most of their fire, the other four members of the team sit on the sidelines while Pito gleefully lays into the twenty-nine soldiers who were “bold” enough to try and hunt them down. She’s absolutely merciless, ambushing soldiers and blowing their heads off with their own shotguns. It’s the other end of the way Fukaziroh approaches things–she still sees things as a game, but you can tell she’d really prefer if this life or death game was real life.
She blows through twenty soldiers on her own, then tortures the last two on opposite teams before finally blowing them up with a grenade and moving on to the leaders, who were hiding far enough away to not give the locations of their teammates away if another satellite scan happens. Using some pretty incredible sniper skills (considering M’s on the team), she kills all the leaders except one–who gets lucky enough to log off before she can off him.

2. Of course, Pito’s not the only one who has to slaughter a bunch of teams just because she’s part of a top seeded team. LLENN and Fuka try to take the the path of least resistance and avoid as many teams as possible by traveling through a dome that only has three teams in it…but that’s before they learn all three teams are conspiring to work against them.
LLENN figures it out by noticing all the gunfire in the area is coming from the same direction, and although they try to escape without having to deal with it…ultimately that becomes an impossibility when they run into one of the teams by accident. Fortunately, the two of them have a plan–using Fuka’s grenade launcher, they launch pink smoke bombs to offer camouflage to the field while LLENN dashes around, easily laying waste to the entire army. Well, all but two people.

3. …Well, all except one enemy. After Fuka notices most of the field’s been emptied out she starts trying to make her way back towards her teammate when she runs into a terrified guy running away from LLENN and her rampage. She pulls out her gun to kill him, but given her inexperience to the game, she somehow misses every shot, and that’s where things get…weird.
Instead of staying focused on a game where everything is literally life or death and where you just had to run away from one of the top players in the game, the guy gets excited at the prospect of killing her so he can feel her up without getting any harassment warnings from the game. I’d consider this beyond the pale…if I hadn’t been a part of the gaming community for the last five years. Fortunately, Alternative isn’t afraid to deal out “divine retribution” for this guy’s sins, and Fuka picks up a nearby rifle and beats him until his skull caves in. She might not be much of a shot, but she was pretty awesome at playing fantasy RPGs, and well…a rifle is kind of like a sword, right?

4. Did I say one enemy? With teams having a max size of six, LLENN uses the powers of basic math to notice that despite teams having a max size of six, they’ve only killed seventeen people.  She realizes one is playing possum and fires off a few bursts from her machine gun, forcing the one enemy playing possum to come out of hiding.
With the last member of these three teams revealing themselves, they ask to have a conversation with LLENN before agreeing to log out rather than getting slaughtered. LLENN realizes the person’s weapon is likely similar to her own due to the size of the pouches on their vest. Having been forced to use up many of her own bullets slaughtering her way through three teams, she forces this last member to surrender all of their ammo so she can resupply.  They agree, but it comes at a cost–they want a kiss from LLENN.
And just like that, we’ve got yet another weirdo. LLENN agrees, presumably because she feels guilty after having to resort to such underhanded tactics, and gives the player a quick smooch. Fuka’s weirded out, but the player (known as Clarence) reveals themselves to be a bisexual girl who uses neutral pronouns because of her avatar’s androgynous appearance. Though the amorous bisexual stereotype is a little old, I love how willing this series is to use as many varied body types for women as possible–the only stereotypically “anime” looking girl is Pitohui, who at this point is basically the antagonist.
Clarence then talks about how much of a rarity women are in GGO even though so far over half the important cast we’ve met have been women, and then asks if she can join up with them after the Squad Jam. This is likely set up for a section of the light novels the anime won’t get to. Bummer.

5. Because talking is not a free action, after our girls spend a little too much time talking with Clarence, they find themselves ambushed. Fortunately, Clarence really has taken a liking to them both and saves LLENN from a hail of bullet fire. She has just enough time to toss them into the tall grass before dying from the damage she’s sustained, while LLENN and Fuka both have to go on the run. I was really hoping this team would bump heads against the girls in SHINC, but from the looks of things LLENN’s going to have to deal with Memento Mori herself.
Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.