#unfortunately this is a kirito stan blog now

[waffliesinyoface]

my hot take is that kirito is good, actually. he looks like a bland stock standard harem anime protagonist of the worst kind, but no, he's good. he's a fun character. lets go through a fun list of his character traits

Bad at talking to people or interacting with them at all despite playing a fucking MMO. This is the type of gamer who powerlevels and learns weird techniques reliant on weird game mechanics (like tick manipulation in runescape, for example) so he can solo raids in WoW, because that's easier for him than finding a guild to raid with.

He can be friends if you're friendly at him, like Klein, but talking to new people? This is that dumb meme of "the shy introvert who needs to get adopted by more extroverted friend." This is the shy hoodie wearing closeted transgirl reading manga in the back of the classroom because she doesn't know how to interact with others.

his first instinct in a stressful social situation - someone literally dying in his arms moments before someone ELSE accuses him of "letting them get killed" - is to equip a black jacket, dramatically sweep it over his shoulders, and pretend to be a cartoon villain.

The entire point of Kirito as a character, is that he's a dorky fourteen year old¹. Or, to borrow a quote from a certain SAO fanfic:

If Kirito was going to make a character sheet for himself, not for the character [Kirito] but for the IRL person named Kirigaya Kazuto, then to be honest he would list a low-point-value Disadvantage called [Awkward] or maybe [Unsociable] that gave him a penalty to interacting with people he was uncomfortable with, and with strangers.

THAT'S THE KIND OF DWEEB HE IS. THAT'S EXACTLY THE PHRASING HE WOULD USE.

He's perfect.

IMO, everything bad about kirito (ie: him being a Mary Sue Coolguy Who Is The Best Gamer And Ladykiller) starts after SAO ends, and then reki kawahara goes "wait, shit, this series makes money, I should do more of this" and continues past the ending despite this. This is also why every single villain after Kayaba sucks.

¹(When SAO starts, at least. he's a dorky sixteen year old by the end.)