Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld – 07, 08, 09

「失格者の烙印」 (Shikkakusha no Rakuin)
“Stigma of the Disqualified”

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「血と命」 (Chi to Inochi)
“Blood and Life”

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「剣と拳」 (Ken to Ken)
“Sword and Fist”

I think it’s safe to say that the Dark Territory is getting their butts kicked real hard.

General Impressions

With three episodes of SAO:AWOU to cover, you’d think that there’d be a lot to talk about. Except throughout these past three episodes, not much has really happened outside of the Dark Territory getting their asses completely handed to them. Which I guess in hindsight isn’t too crazy since they’re going up against an army that has individuals who have been training for hundreds upon hundreds of years. However, even with a crap ton of time and experience under their belts, it’s kind of ridiculous the difference in firepower between the two nations. With only a handful of Integrity Knights to flesh out their army, it’s kind of ridiculous to watch them mow down thousands of enemy combatants while barely breaking a sweat.

That said, the whole prospect of the Final Load Test isn’t what has me coming back week after week. What has been keeping me coming back for more is the promise that Asuna and friends will eventually make their way into the Underworld — something that has FINALLY happened (I think). However, I’m a little confused about how the story is going to explain all of this when you consider the circumstances revolving around her sudden appearance. Besides using skills that have never been seen before, I’m very interested in seeing how the story explains Asuna’s appearance as a literal goddess. I guess it makes sense if you compare how that psychopath on the other side made his appearance, but I can’t wait to see what happens when Asuna goes and tries to wake up Kirito.

But yeah — not really all that much to talk about when you really look at what’s happened so far. Literally three episodes of watching the Dark Territory get their butts kicked with the Axiom Church doing pretty well. Sure I’m willing to bet that the tension will start to rise once Vector (Gabriel Miller) enters the fight.

Anyways, I’ll catch you guys next week where we’ll hopefully get deeper into the Final Load Test together with Asuna. See you then!

P.S. I might sound a little negative about all the battles, but I have to admit that watching them has been a total blast. A lot of awesome moments all around — just not a lot for the overarching story.

 

Preview

32 Comments

  1. yodad

    I think the evil administrator girl was right all along. All the dark territory ppl are so weak, they would have passed the final load test with flying colors easily. She was right all along

    • Takaii

      Quinella straight up speaking the truth

  2. YanDaMan

    “With only a handful of Integrity Knights to flesh out their army, it’s kind of ridiculous to watch them mow down thousands of enemy combatants while barely breaking a sweat.”

    So you’re telling me this is the perfect template for the next Dynasty Warriors/Musou crossover game?

    And Asuna being a goddess makes ton of sense. She was given an account with the highest authority level so being a literally goddess of the world make sense, especially when the villain ended up being a dark god.

    • YanDaMan

      Also if theres anything we really learned in the last few episodes, most of the dark territory races/people arent really all that bad save for the dark mage wench.

      I guess they were just unfortunate to be born on the wrong side of the world, and Alice even pointed that out how their fluctlight are warm.

  3. Greed

    https://images.randomc.net/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
    https://images.randomc.net/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
    It is a waste to see Waifu beauties being killed off. One of the few Waifu I don’t see often in anime, Waifu that have tan skin and Waifu that have lovely muscles.

    https://images.randomc.net/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
    A part of me now wants to look for semi-emotionaless Waifu, they are cute in their own way.

    Anyway, part of me can now confirm that Quinella is completely dead/deleted and Asuna has taken the roll as the “goddess” of the digital world. Why is she so god-like?

    I forgot what KoB and “Lightning Flash” came from.

    • Takaii

      KoB iirc is referring to Ketsumei Kishidan or the Guild (Clan?) Asuna was a part of during Aincrad. I dunno if the actual title is Lightning Flash (I thought it was just The Flash), but its referring to how fast she was with her rapier also during Aincrad.

      • seancorr

        KoB = Knights of Blood which is her past guild or as someone in another forum unofficially label her as Kirito’s old Bitch.

    • Lyfe

      Asuna isn’t a “Goddess” of anything. Although she’s a highly skilled player, she has a special account.

  4. Dionysos01

    FINALLY ! Asuna arrives in game !
    I was so excited when she did.

    Because how time runs faster in game compare to real life, it’s only now that Asuna appears.

    6 days to wait.

  5. Anonymous

    I just want to say…that sound effect that Asuna made with her actions…I know it was in the novel, but hearing it in the anime just sounded strange. It kind of reminded me of the chorus in Thor Ragnarok during the Tragedy of Loki when Matt Damon died.

  6. RenaSayers

    Before the Integrity Knights win and stabilize the gate, even with Asuna reuniting with Kirito, this psycho will cause a lot of damage and death.

    https://images.randomc.net/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2036.jpg

    This scene with Alice and the Wolf, their conversation shows us that the monsters are not war driven or evil. I hope any future episodes will show the knights trying to negotiate with the monsters.

    https://images.randomc.net/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2006.jpg

  7. Lyfe

    These aren’t the real bad guys though.

    Wait until the mean ol Americans(OK, they were there under false pretences but they remained) invade the game and the Japanese players log in onmass to save the day.

    • Takaii

      o i see. wasn’t expecting that, but wao

      • Lyfe

        Yeppers, the difficulty level is going to get turned up a LOT. At the very least things won’t be so one sided lol.

  8. seancorr

    If you ship Alice, ur gonna love what’s coming next when she meets Asuna. Oh boy do they have a good chemistry with each other. If Unital Ring’s cover picture has the three of them in it, you can pretty much guess how those two will treat each other after their first meeting in the Underworld.

    • Anonymous

      That encounter really made me not like Alice. She felt too clingy.

      • seancorr

        You could say her feelings for him changed over the 6 months she was with him hence the epic crying part in the first ep scene. Basically she had no emotions while being a knight and here comes someone who changed her world and she starts to learn about feelings. I wonder if the anime will properly describe this important bit later on in the series which was explained in the novels.

    • Anonymous

      When you put it like that, I suppose I understand, and I guess that the situation is a little to bizarre for any one of them to have rational thoughts at the time, but you think that by the end of it all, there’d be a concept of boundaries or respect for each other’s relationship and whatnot.

      • seancorr

        You’ll be surprised with their relationship later on in the series…and was quite surprised to only see the two of them featured exclusively in the current ending theme.

    • alice

      I dont ship her and dont get why people do. Oh, because the mangaka has the dumb idea to make a pseudoharem anime where the main characters are confirmed to love eachother and yet are always apart and one is constantly put in situations with clingy pseudo harem characters that want his joystick. Man i loved season one of this show and this shit gets so old. Always dangling the carrot. For shippers of the main couple, the carrot is more time with Asuna. For harem fans, the carrot is the other side. The result is general unhappiness post first season.

    • Anonymous

      Someone once described it like this:


      Those two share a cruel fate where they are destined to fight any time they look at each other.

      Granted, it doesn’t always apply, but it kind of fits here

  9. Kaz

    wow! the latest episode’s animation was amazing! especially the fight with Sheyta and the tribal guy, as well as the fire effects! ^_^

  10. dave_k

    I’m very interested in seeing how the story explains Asuna’s appearance as a literal goddess

    They set this up in the first season and the beginning of this one. Asuna’s logging in using one of the admin accounts and the admins are the gods in this world’s creation myth.

    • Lyfe

      Exactly. The screen showed four accounts for the admin which were locked to the Ocean Turtle invaders. Asuna certainly isn’t interested in becoming a goddess of anything, she just wants to help Kirito and the world he’s in.

  11. Aizen

    For some reason, I’m kind of digging the pugilist guild…

  12. LAsuka

    Are we just going to ignore the fact that Ronye not only pre-emptively stopped but also parried about five blows from Vecta’s right hand man, which is impressive considering both she and Tiese were paralysed by fear from seeing a goblin, which is probably extremely low on the power scale compared to the literal second-in-command of the Dark Terrtory army.

  13. Kaz

    I couldn’t help myself, right after this episode, I searched for the light novel and read everything that will come after. And oh, my God! This war will be so epic, especially the 2nd half!!! (and I dunno, maybe become a bit controversial in some aspects too? LN readers, you probably know what I mean) Wait, is this considered a spoiler? Sorry if it is…

    But yeah, epic war that goes full circle!

    Is this season going to be a half-cour then break? or straight 2 cour-season?

    • Lyfe

      It’ll be 23 episodes, with a hiatus after Episode 12. So 12 & 11 episode blocks. If I remember right the show will return in the Spring 2020 season(April 2020). In terms of content there’s a logical end point which I’m sure will be reached with Episode 12. But whats left of this arc is obviously the stakes being raised significantly. So expect lots more battles lol.

  14. I still prefer the original sword art online. Everything after season one sucks. Gun Gale Online was disappointing.

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