First Impressions / Sword Art Online

「一筋の光」 (Hitosuji no Hikari)
“Ray of Light”

A little late due to the holidays, but god damn what a cliffhanger.

With Alicization getting its story split into two cours, this (last week’s) episode marked the finale until the show resumes later in 2020. So without further ado, let’s talk about this week’s episode and where things might go in the future.

Final-ish Impressions

Man, what a way to close out the season. And by that I mean it both in a positive and negative way. Starting on the positive side of things, I really liked that the story finally kicked it into gear with the addition of a new threat — the surprise American army. Honestly, up until this point it felt like the Dark Territory was inevitably going to get its butt handed to it with how well the Axiom Church was doing. Even with a HUGE advantage in numbers, it was tough not to feel bad for the Dark Territory as we watched their armies get mowed down. Wave after wave it felt like they had absolutely nothing on their side to get around the power of the Integrity Knights.

That said, with a little assistance from the outside world, the tide of the battle quickly started to balance out as tens of thousands of American players started to flood into the Underworld. What’s kind of funny about this though is it’s almost the same thing that the Dark Territory did in the beginning — try to win with numbers. Except in this case I guess the power of good ol’ America came into play which managed to give them the ability to overcome just about anything.

If I had something to nitpick though, it’d have to be just how quickly things progressed. It felt like we were finally building up enough momentum for something fun to happen only for Alice to get herself captured which then lead all the key players away from the war and into a rat race to save her. That and it feels so out of character for Alice to just get taken like that — she’s essentially the strongest Integrity Knight and I’m willing to bet that it takes more than just a simple spell to knock her out. I guess what makes it somewhat worth it is Sinon making a grand entrance and taking out a bunch of American NPCs, but I really wish the war part of War of Underworld wasn’t taken so lightly.

In any case, it looks like we’ll be on a short break as we wait for SAO’s triumphant return later this year. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it by the end!

 

Preview

23 Comments

  2. [quote]
    That said, with a little assistance from the outside world, the tide of the battle quickly started to balance out as tens of thousands of American players started to flood into the Underworld. What’s kind of funny about this though is it’s almost the same thing that the Dark Territory did in the beginning — try to win with numbers. Except in this case I guess the power of good ol’ America came into play which managed to give them the ability to overcome just about anything.
    [/quote]

    Before these Dark Army where just AI-Scripts. But now they are not NPC or AI-Scripts, they are PCs with their own individual actions

    worldwidedepp
    Reply

    1. Also, why they used the American’s? They also could had used the China Players or other strong Online Community player (the Asia Online Player Communityis the strongest) for this. But American have a bit of History and sells better as the enemy with number’s, right?

      worldwidedepp
      Reply

      1. The Ocean turtle invaders, specifically Gabriel Miller are American and work for an American company called Glowgen Defense Systems. You can imagine that suitably connected individuals would utilize any sort of contacts or power they can to gain an advantage. In this case they caused a mass invasion of the Underworld to achieve their goal of retrieving Alice.

        Lyfe
        Reply

        1. As for why? They don’t have the time or the personnel to drag this whole thing out(Thus the time differential being increased again). The JSDF may be looking the other way while they’re on the Ocean Turtle but sooner or later someone will be wanting to know what the heck is going on there lol.

          Lyfe
          Reply

        2. There is still (even for today very important) the PING (Latency) Problem. Asia is near then over the sea America. Oh well, i go with this. i just wondering why they still stuck with villains in their stories. We have 2020 now

          worldwidedepp
          Reply

          2. Exactly. I know the timezone thing went in their favor, but these are well connected guys using their resources to achieve their goals. They wouldn’t even think or consider going through another method.

            To them their mission was supposed to be a simple one of breaching the Ocean Turtle, getting the Alice lightcube fluctlight thingy and leaving. But things didn’t go to plan so now they’re thinking on their feet.

            Lyfe

          3. With the level of AI sophistication they have by then, perhaps they are using something based on Stadia’s so-called “negative latency” technology to compensate. Except of course the bad guys would then be using that turned up to the max, so you would be in “you don’t know it, but you’re already dead” territory.

            Angelus

      2. I think they used the americans because the military is american and the timezone they reside in.

        What bothers me is that Sinon and co mentioned that if they enter the game and die they die for real and with her entering and pretty much slaughtering all those american players it would be good to see the fall out in the real world. And how the heck is the emperors right hand man not actually dead if he died in that chasm?

        Overall nice series and looking forward to its return hopefully with better pacing.

        Kurik
        Reply

        2. Maybe the version I saw had better subs but mine didn’t say they were going to die.
          They said that since there was no pain absorber they would feel everything, so in case they die they would experience the pain of their death.

          Chris
          Reply

        3. You don’t die in the real world. But you can feel the pain in the Underworld as if it’s real.. And if you get so damaged too often, it also affects your brain, and it could have an effect on your mental state in the real world and could cause brain damage. Thus making you sort of “dead”. One example is Asuna’s use of her earth-shattering ability. If she uses it too much, it could affect her body, especially her brain, in the real world.

          Kaz
          Reply

  5. The reason for Americans is the time difference. It’s around noon in the U.S. while it’s about 4 a.m. in Japan. Everyone in Asia is asleep.

    Sinon and Liz didn’t say if you died in underworld, you died for real. They said if you died there, you’d lose all your stats. Some of these players have spent years building their characters and have no intention of losing their stats and upgrades to save a virtual simulation.

    The “it IS life and death” aspect they’re talking about is the fluctlights are living souls.

    TehJawknee
    Reply

  7. https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
    Have we shipped these two?

    https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20WoU%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2039.jpg
    Disappointed that we saw so little of that Dark Knight account. I was expecting to see Dark Excalibur but nope.

    Anyway, Gabriel has gotten Alice. What is the worst that Alice would be used for? If this was a Terrorist group, I would be worried about Alice would be abused for Terrorism. How bad can Alice be abused for if she is taken to America?
    On the side note, I am wondering if Gabriel will choose to “eat” Alice rather than deliver her.

    greed
    Reply

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