First Impressions / Sword Art Online

「騎士たちの戦い」 (Kishitachi no Tatakai)
“Battle of Knights”

Who would have guessed fluctlights can mess with other fluctlights?

General Impression

Ever since that one general who turned into the avatar appeared, it feels like the story has been hamfisting anything related to fluctlights and the power they can exert within the Underworld. Yes, I do remember that one’s ability to imagine and believe in them self can drastically affect their power output, but the recent examples we’ve seen seem kind of bonkers. Using the leader of the giants as an example, I thought his fluctlight was going to breakdown and just self destruct based on how much mental stress it was going through. But instead of the plot following the already established rule, we instead saw the fluctlight forcibly not implode on itself but it went and messed with a fluctlight that wasn’t even near it! Maybe I missed something, but everything that went down this week just felt a little too crazy even for me.

Awkward breaks in the plot aside, I have to hand it to the show runners for making such a thrilling episode. Most of the larger fights in Alicization haven’t really felt all that great which is why I was really happy to see that the final load test has been amped up significantly. Maybe it’s because there are characters dying left and right, or maybe it’s because we’re seeing characters get brutally wrecked, but the action thus far has been absolutely fantastic. My personal favorite being the moment when Dakira leapt straight into the face of danger and protected Dakira from getting completely obliterated. Not only was the scene beautifully animated, but seeing how much damage Dakira took in order to stop the attack was insane.

Man what a start to the war! With all hands on deck it looks like the Integrity Knights and their forces are doing a decent job at preventing the enemy from making it past the crucial choke point. However, it remains to be seen just what the rest of their forces are planning since there’s thousands of enemy troops just waiting for their opportunity to leap into battle. If I’m being frank though, I’m kind of sad that neither Kirito nor Asuna have had an opportunity to leap into the fray. I can get that their presence is probably being saved for later when things are looking bleak, but it’s rough not seeing any mainstay characters (minus Alice) do anything.

In any case, I’ll catch you guys next week where we’ll hopefully find out just what the heck Alice is doing with that giant ball above her. See you then!

Editor’s note: Takaii will be out of town from 11/24-12/2, so coverage of episodes 07 & 08 will be delayed until he returns.

 

Preview

17 Comments

  1. Gabriel stood from the throne installed on the command vehicle’s roof with his jet-black fur mantle aflutter before walking towards a large skull set up by one of the Ten Lords of the land of darkness, the chief of the Dark Arts Users’ Guild, D.I.L.

    The skull placed on a small table was apparently an artifact capable of transmitting sound. She said that by speaking into this master skull, his voice would be sent to the slave skulls in the generals’ possession. Though inferior to the Stryker Command Vehicle’s multi-channel transmission system, it was far more effective than sending an army of messengers for every little command.

    In order to curb the goblins’ greatest strength, their numbers, they forced upon them a vast but infertile land. As such, the goblins had to exhaust all ends to even survive to this current day and could not further their civilization. Having maintained training institutions for their children to practice like the black iums was impossible; they were instead sent down rivers on boats in order to reduce the mouths to feed. All while aware of the treatment their children would receive in the lands of the other races when they arrive.

    It was likely suggested to the emperor by the chief of the Dark Arts Users’ Guild. That woman must have forced the «honor as the shock troops» upon the two goblin races to use and dispose of them from the start. The goblins would charge in as the vanguards and be promptly cut down by those devils of legend, the Human Empire’s integrity knights, before incinerated by her as collateral damage from the safe rear with the intention to rob them of their merits.

    However, that, in no way, meant that they could disobey their orders. The descended Emperor Vector was not damaged by even a hair after immersed in Dark General Shasta’s attack which instantly annihilated the two goblin chiefs and the head of the Assassins’ Guild. The emperor held absolute strength and the law in the land of darkness decreed that the weak shall not disobey the strong.

    However, that black ium female was different. Kosogi was now one of the ten lords, on equal footing as her. He had no duty to obediently abide by her malicious schemes.

    The dark arts users’ chief, D.I.L. must be well aware of those dreadful integrity knights. That would be exactly why she offered this strategy up to the emperor. To use up the goblins, orcs, and giants and create a disordered melee in the valley before reducing them all to ashes along with the integrity knights.

    Kosogi’s scheme was not to defeat the enemies by slipping into the smoke. Immediately before diving into the dense smokescreen, he shouted out his third command.

    “All of you, ruuuunn!!”

    Returning the mountain knife to his back at once, he landed both hands onto the ground. With their small statures, goblins reached no higher than humans’ knees when scrambling on all fours. The smoke was faint closer to the ground with the enemy soldiers’ positions barely visible.

    The five thousand mountain goblin soldiers with Kosogi, their chief, completely ignored Eldrie and the guards and slipped past, running on farther into the valley.

    Nodding to Fizel’s words, Linel drew her head closer to her partner before whispering.

    “I did not say anything because I figured Esteemed Uncle Bercouli would have something in mind, but the left and right flanks of the second unit really should have been swapped. I’m not sure at all about lining up Eldry with Renry.”

    Fizel lowered her voice even further at that and replied.

    “I thought about it and all, but dear uncle’s probably thinking about making us fight as little as possible, don’t you think…?”

    “……Aah…”

    Coming to an understanding, Linel watched as a slender figure quietly stood up a short distance away.

    She was named Scheta Synthesis Twelve. Her alias seemed to be «Silent», but the origins for that were unknown. However, at the very least, Fizel and Linel understood well enough that this knight was nowhere as harmless as she looked. This knight was dangerous. They had no desire to even remain near her when she draws the rapier at the left of the waist.

    “Excuse me, Scheta-sama.”

    Linel spoke to their taciturn commander once more. She shot a glance at them, so she voiced out the rest of words.

    “May we go take a look at the rear?”

    The knight’s slender right eyebrow moved just two millice at that. As she felt a questioning “why” from that, she replied in a hurry.

    “Erm, well, we are a little concerned…”

    Her eyebrow moved once again. It must be asking “over what”. Her answer made her hesitate and she struggled before she somehow got out the words.

    “Ermm… that person who should be together with the supply unit. The rebel… Kirito.”

    When Kirito swung the venomous swords down towards Linel and Fizel, collapsed on the ground, they did not feel any fear in particular. They simply sighed and felt slight regret, missing out on the opportunity to advance to being real integrity knights from apprentices. Thinking that it would be nice if Kirito killed them skillfully—in a clean and relatively painless manner, in other words—Linel awaited the moment her Life would be severed.

    However, Kirito did not kill the pair. The venomous swords stood stabbed in the floor and he turned his back to them, standing against Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio. And he achieved victory in that unwinnable battle with wounds all over his body.

    The answers remained obscure. However, an unfamiliar sensation went through Linel’s chest when she saw Kirito, atop the wheelchair pushed by Knight Alice, appearing on the battlefield. She could not determine what she felt and thought then; a first for her.

    “Eh… erm, s-so we can go?”

    As Scheta nodded without a word, she hastily made a simplified knight’s salute with Fizel.

    “Thank you very much, we will be back immediately after confirming their safety!”

    Turning about, they began running by the side of the ranks.

    —Thank you very much, huh. She had never said that, not even to the esteemed highest minister.

    Linel’s eyes met with her partner and they exchanged cynical smiles before she accelerated further.

    l.kostas
    Reply

    1. https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
      ok, so wait, what are those two girls going to do? They will try to kill Kirito? Wondering if there is anyone, in the human empire, that will aim for Kirito’s life. A part of me doesn’t know if Quinella is truly dead or not, she could give secret orders.

      I probably should look at how much details were cut out from the anime. Now wondering what D.I.L. is thinking, more seduction attempts maybe, wondering if there will be any more notable female dark users that will get attracted to Kirito.

      https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2015.jpg
      On the side note, a part of me hopes Kirito will comfort this Onee-san

      Greed
      Reply

      1. The rebels, Kirito and Eugeo, appeared to be only as skilled as the lower ranking knights when judging from their combat capabilities alone. However, the pair fought against that highest minister, abandoning an arm and a life, and triumphed.

        For what cause?

        And thus, what had that pair to gain?

        They wanted to ask Kirito upon meeting again with him, but Integrity Knight Alice was constantly by his side and they found no opportunity to come into contact with him. Though they did not know if they could hold a conversation with him in his current state, it would be a bother if he died off before they could try. The supply unit behind ought to remain safe as long as the second unit hold, but that chaos on the left flank was definitely of worry.

        l.kostas
        Reply

  2. The thing with the giant’s fluctlight going out of control and linking with someone else’s is a phenomenon they’d established can happen in a previous episode… only problem is it happened in the previous season and I can’t remember who/how/why it happened the last time.

    qwert
    Reply

      1. Hmm, close but not quite what I was thinking of. The rapist does end up glitching out like the giant does as he’s dying but I’m remembering seeing the linking between fluctlights somewhere else as well.

        qwert
        Reply

    1. Underworld is a virtual world simulated like a video game (because it has stats), where Fluclights, sort of like artificial souls, roam and live as if in a typical fantasy setting. The main goal of project Underworld is to grow and nurture Alice, a special kind of Fluclight which, if perfected, can be used in real life weapon systems to improve a nation’s war machine beyond what’s conceivable. Without outside interference, time in UW flows much, much faster than in the real world, just like in Inception, so an hour in the real world could be like a month or two, and so on.

      yoloalchemist
      Reply

    2. In answer to your question, especially if you don’t care about spoilers.

      Show Spoiler ▼

      But if you don’t want to click on the spoiler tag, its basically both a simulated fantasy world and sort of like a videogame world.

      Lyfe
      Reply

  8. I am soooooo tired of Alice. The series started with Asuna and Kirito and just abandoned her after season 1. It’s a fake harem and dragging it out into a billion alicization episodes before she really appears is just hamfisting the pseudo harem BS down everyone’s throat. Can we at least acknowledge she exists

    Alice
    Reply

    1. You don’t like Alice but you call yourself Alice? Lol.

      Anyway Asuna couldn’t be in Alicization much because Kirito has been brain damaged this entire time and this whole “Underworld” process has been fixing his brain while he inhabits the world. I know its probably easy to miss because Kirito prior to this new cour was acting and talking normally but thats because the machine he’s in connects with his “Soul” per say.

      I also see this harem stuff a lot as criticism for SAO but its worth remembering that Kirito & Asuna are a thing and that won’t change. It doesn’t matter who has feelings for Kirito, he’s loyal to Asuna to the end.

      Lyfe
      Reply

    2. At this point u just have to come to accept girl characters in SAo are just background characters.

      I rmb Asuna was a cool female lead in the beginning but when shit goes down she randomly turns into a noob when she was supose to be as strong as kirito

      The same thing literally happens to every girl in this show

      yodad
      Reply

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