First Impressions / Sword Art Online

「アドミニストレータ」 (Adominisutoreeta)
“Administrator”

I don’t even know where to begin.

General Impressions

God, so many things happened this week that I’m still not sure where to begin. Quinella duked it out against Lyserith/Cardinal, Eugeo turned into a god damn sword, and Kirito’s been pushed to the point where there’s absolutely no way he can’t win. I guess the easiest way to do it would be to start from the top!

Starting with Quinella and Cardinal, I was super pissed after witnessing Cardinal’s death. As one of the few characters who understand just what the Underworld is as well as one of the few with administrator level privileges, I couldn’t believe she’d just hand her life over to Quinella. Ignoring the fact that Quinella could easily go back on her verbal promise the moment Cardinal was deleted, Cardinal’s sacrifice felt rather empty when the group failed to try anything else. I guess I can understand the sentiment if you consider how easily Kirito and friends were wiped last week, but when you have someone who can rival Quinella in terms of power, why wouldn’t you at least try fighting first?

However, that wasn’t even the most ridiculous thing that happened this week. Fast forward to the half way point and we got to watch Eugeo literally turn into a sword. A sentence that I never once thought I would type much less see on screen. Luckily, the scene’s awesomeness could rival how interesting it was and I’ll admit I was surprised to see Eugeo slice off Quinella’s arm before also getting split in half. On a small side note, did anyone else notice how his sword froze the space in-between where his body split? While a little out there, I’m really hoping this means that Eugeo has a chance at surviving since his wounds have been effectively cauterized. That and and I didn’t see a huge pool of blood around him meaning he at least isn’t bleeding out.

Man, what a wild episode that left us on a giant cliffhanger. Cardinal was deleted, Eugeo is literally on death’s door, and Alice’s strength is basically spent — which leaves us with just Kirito to face off against Quinella. A Kirito who has managed to find his fighting spirit in just the nick of time to hopefully end Quinella’s madness by kicking the crap out of her. Boy, I can’t wait for next week’s episode. See you then!

P.S. The opening sequence is a such a troll. Not only did we not get a cool fight against Quinella’s golem but you can clearly see her with two arms when she’s fighting Kirito.

 

Preview

18 Comments

  1. Remember the whole Incarnation thing. Cardinal knew that in their current mental state, the three stood no chance against the Sword Golem. She’s also not confident that she can deal with both the Sword Golem and Quinella simultaneously on her own, and she can’t whisk them all out of there now either. So she figured her best option, the one that would save the most lives, would be to sacrifice herself.

    Quinella isn’t bound by the Taboo Index because she created it, but she is bound by the rules her parents taught her before she became Administrator; one of these rules was that she can’t break her promises. So there was no fear of her breaking her promise now (since she swore on her own fluctlight), though you can be sure that she’d try to find a loophole at some point. The promise is now void by the way, because our protagonists attacked her afterward.

    Hanabira.Kage
    Reply

    1. Thanks for the context — makes more sense now.

      That and it feels almost too surreal that Quinella would actually let them leave had Eugeo not sliced up both her and her golem.

      Takaii
      Reply

  2. https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20-%2023%20-%20Large%2001.jpg
    This is the first time I have ever seen a character stayed nude for this long. While that normally occurs in Hentai, it is not when characters fight.

    Anyway, Gender-Thanos wants to sacrifice half of her human people to save the other half. Genius since she has such god-like powers to the point where it makes me wonder why can’t she fight herself.

    https://randomc.net/image/Sword%20Art%20Online/Sword%20Art%20Online%20Alicization%20-%2023%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
    While I know Kirito didn’t move, cause Cardinal told her not to interfere, it does surprise me to see Kirito not move to save a waifu.

    Greed
    Reply

  3. Administrator:
    ”I’ll have that person give me a full account later”

    In the novel:
    “The newly formed white greatsword flew towards the sword golem and destroyed its piety module, sending the thirty swords that composed it flying in all directions. Witnessing this, Kirito realised that Alice’s memory fragment was not linked to a sword and conjectured that this was because the love sealed within was too great for Administrator to transmute, which was why the Blue Rose Sword fused with Eugeo and Alice shone so beautifully.”

    l.kostas
    Reply

  4. This was by far the stupidest part of the novel. Cardinal’s suicide was stupid and made no sense, deus ex Sword-Eugeo was just silly, and then after making a big deal about the golem being human, killing it anyway. This part of the novel was totally eye-rolling, I’ll be happy when we pass it.

    Spike
    Reply

  7. Last time Administrator swore to Stacia:
    “…Very well, Chudelkin,” she murmured. “I swear to Stacia, goddess of creation. When you have fulfilled your duty, you shall have an entire night to do with my body whatever you wish.”
    Because I came from the real world, with all its lies and deceptions, it was laughably obvious to me that she didn’t mean a word of that promise.
    But the people of this world, probably due to the structure of their artificial fluctlights, were unable to disobey the laws and rules that existed on a higher level of importance than them. These laws ran from local precepts of villages and towns to Basic Imperial Law to the Taboo Index and even to personal oaths sworn to the gods.
    The higher up in the ruling structures one was, the fewer number of laws that applied, but even Cardinal and Administrator, the very highest of managers in this system, were still subject to them. The range of activities that their parents had limited them to in their youth was still active. Hence, Cardinal couldn’t put her teacup directly on the table, and Administrator couldn’t kill human beings.
    But Administrator had just proven to me in person that she was no longer bound by her own oaths to her gods. It was clear evidence that she did not have a shred of belief in Stacia, Solus, or Terraria, the three goddesses at the center of the Axiom Church’s influence.”
    “As I said, I’ve been preparing an art for you. If you seek battle, I could keep your pitiable puppet at bay and tear away half of your remaining life. With that much stress, your uncertain memory capacity might be in even worse peril, no?”
    “Mmmm…,” she murmured, putting a finger to her cheek and pretending to think without breaking her smile. “Well, I don’t feel that my fluctlight is threatened by a battle whose outcome is already known. But I suppose it would be a bother…and when you say to spare ‘the lives of the young ones,’ would sending them back to the lower world from this isolated space fulfill that condition? If you say I can never do anything to harm them for all eternity, I refuse.”
    “No, just a momentary evacuation is all I ask. I trust in them to…”
    Cardinal did not finish that sentence. Instead, she turned on her heel, robe swaying, and looked at me with kindness in her eyes.
    I wanted to scream that this was ridiculous. My temporary life here and Cardinal’s one and only life were not equal. If anything, I was seriously considering throwing myself at Administrator to buy Cardinal time to escape instead.
    But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t risk Eugeo’s and Alice’s lives on my own suicidal gamble. I clutched my sword so hard my hand hurt and my foot creaked with the pressure against the floor. I was caught between impulse and reason.
    “Hmph. Fine,” said Administrator, her beautiful mouth forming a smirk. “That gives me another game to look forward to later. Right? So you have my word to Stacia. I will take the little one—”
    “No, don’t swear to any god. Swear to the one thing that you actually think has absolute value: your own fluctlight,” Cardinal interrupted.
    A slightly exasperated note entered Administrator’s smile, but she nodded again. “Fine, fine, I’ll swear to the precious data accumulated in my fluctlight. And once I’ve killed you, I’ll let the other three go unharmed. That pledge is the one thing I cannot break…for now.”
    “Good,” said Cardinal. She gave a look to both Eugeo and Alice and lastly, turned to me. There was a gentle smile on her young face, and nothing but benevolent kindness in her brown eyes. I couldn’t stop the emotions in my chest from spilling out as liquid and blotting my vision.
    Her lips opened and silently mouthed the words I’m sorry.”
    “The white greatsword that had destroyed the Sword Golem in a single swing was still levitating flat in the air, beams of light shining off it.
    Glistening in the center of the blade was Alice’s memory fragment. Like a bolt from the heavens, I suddenly understood what was contained within it.
    Thirty-one Integrity Knights. But only thirty swords in the Sword Golem. The fusion with Eugeo’s sword made it clear that the only memory fragment that hadn’t been used for that purpose was Alice’s.
    So why couldn’t Administrator forge a sword that would pair up with Alice’s memories?
    It must’ve been because Alice’s memories…her love…was too great. Young Alice loved Eugeo, loved Selka, loved her parents, loved everyone who lived in the village, loved Rulid itself, and even loved the time in which the people she loved lived and would continue to live.
    Even the almighty pontifex couldn’t convert time and space into solid matter. So she wasn’t able to make a sword she could link to Alice. And it was why the sword that Alice and Eugeo made was so beautiful and radiant.
    “Yes…it really is beautiful,” I whispered to Cardinal’s soul, which was now traveling to a place much farther than anywhere in the Underworld or the real world, as I clutched her body.”
    Anime: ”I’ll have that person give me a full account later”
    Novel: “Well,” she said, turning her mirror eyes and their long lashes toward me now that she was done with her emergency treatment, “I’ll admit that I’m a bit surprised that you were the one who lasted this long, little boy. I’m mildly curious as to why you came here without administrator privileges…but I’ve also grown tired of this. I will ask the one from the other side about how this came to be later. For now, I’ll let your blood and screams round out this confrontation.”

    l.kostas
    Reply

    2. All-time stupidest anime episode ever you’ve ever seen? If you saw Guilty Crown you could probably pick a random episode number between 11 and 22 that THAT would take the prize.

      7godeohs
      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *