Sword Art Online: Alicization WoU Part 2 Episodes 13 to END

[GDB]

I feel like making it out that Miller had no idea what he was doing, or at least that he felt that what Kirito did was so much beyond him, hurts not only him as a character but also those he beat like Alice, Bercoulli, and Sinon.

[thundrakkon]

So why did Alice get off her dragon before reaching the island in the sky? It would have made more sense to fly all the way to the alter. If Asuna didn't arrive, they wouldn't have had stairs to run on, and Alice would have been stuck.

Of course, if I had to guess, they will probably say that the dragons couldn't fly that high. That still wouldn't resolve the problem that Asuna had to come to create the stairs.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by thundrakkon

So why did Alice get off her dragon before reaching the island in the sky? It would have made more sense to fly all the way to the alter. If Asuna didn't arrive, they wouldn't have had stairs to run on, and Alice would have been stuck.

Of course, if I had to guess, they will probably say that the dragons couldn't fly that high. That still wouldn't resolve the problem that Asuna had to come to create the stairs.

I was under the impression that she was expecting Miller would catch up to them before they made it to the Altar, so she decided to make a last stand against him while getting Amayori and her sibling to safety before she fought him.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I was under the impression that she was expecting Miller would catch up to them before they made it to the Altar, so she decided to make a last stand against him while getting Amayori and her sibling to safety before she fought him.

That was my impression. He wasn't THAT far behind her, yet she had a huge headstart.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by GDB

That was my impression. He wasn't THAT far behind her, yet she had a huge headstart.

And Sinon bought her time too. She probably wouldn't have made it as close to the altar as she did otherwise in my opinion.

[Shinji103]

With four or so episodes left, they better deliver on some sweet, lengthy, drawn-out KiritoxAsuna mushiness somewhere in there after cutting us off for 43 episodes and 11 months.

[Frontier]

Figures that even after finishing the battle in Underworld, the battle in the real world would need to be resolved as well. They may have gotten Alice out of the Underworld, but now they need to get her out of Ocean Turtle .

I've had my fair share of criticisms towards Kikuoka across this arc, but fighting off the soldiers, saving his subordinate, and helping to make sure Kirito and Asuna get out of there while he takes a bullet in the process is slowly (and I emphasize slowly) improving my opinion of him .

It was kind of funny seeing Yanai's corpse. I didn't expect we'd see what happened to him, but there he is dead on the ground. Probably the least of what he deserved, but still fitting .

Miller finally becomes the soul he was so desperately obsessed with seeing, but the numerous atrocities he committed in the pursuit of that obsession damned his soul to Hell, and leading him down there is his childhood friend Alicia whom he murdered along with likely the hands of all his other victims. Can't think of a more fitting end for that monster .

Vassago...has seen better days .

I guess it couldn't really settle things without Kayaba turning up. There's probably something to be said about a man who was so obsessed with a dream of a virtual world and fully immersing oneself in that dream to the point he was willing to sacrifice so many for it would end up sacrificing themselves to save the one thing in the real world he truly cared about and kept him tethered to some form of humanity. Is this it for Kayaba? Did he truly die pushing the robot to the breaking point to stop the bomb? I'm just not sure .

It kind of stings that most of Miller's team got away, but I guess they took care of the really problematic members by then and they utterly failed their mission. Without Miller there's not too much left for them at this point .

So...Niemon is gone. Vassago's body is gone. What the heck happened there ?

Of course Asuna could figure out what Kirito was really planning and what would've happened to him if he'd been left alone (sorry Alice, your not getting your intimate reunion with Kirito yet). And of course she would be willing to spend thousands of years with the man she loves more than anything. As nice as it was to see them flying off together hand in hand, I am really bummed we didn't get a grand romantic kiss before they flew off .

So it looks like they successfully logged Kirito and Asuna out...now the question is just what they got up to in the Underworld in the interim and how it might have effected them .

[GDB]

I'm just here trying to figure out why Miller died. Both he and Vassago had been "killed" previously and suffered no ill effects. Vassago's death makes sense, his soul was irreparably damaged and changed, and that was likely their way of showing what happens when a soul reaches its limit in the UW with a body in the real world.

But Miller? He just died a second time. Why would that have killed him?

[Magewolf]

Originally Posted by GDB

I'm just here trying to figure out why Miller died. Both he and Vassago had been "killed" previously and suffered no ill effects. Vassago's death makes sense, his soul was irreparably damaged and changed, and that was likely their way of showing what happens when a soul reaches its limit in the UW with a body in the real world.

But Miller? He just died a second time. Why would that have killed him?

Because this show is offensively stupid sometimes?

I mean does no one notice that the "good" guy side that just won are worse people than the "evil" mercenaries and have a much higher kill and torture count? And that a mass murdering psychopath just got the second biggest "Big Damn Hero" moment in the show?

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by GDB

I'm just here trying to figure out why Miller died. Both he and Vassago had been "killed" previously and suffered no ill effects. Vassago's death makes sense, his soul was irreparably damaged and changed, and that was likely their way of showing what happens when a soul reaches its limit in the UW with a body in the real world.

But Miller? He just died a second time. Why would that have killed him?

I thought Kirito overloading him with the spirits of all the Fluctlight's in the Underworld basically fried his brain. It wasn't as simple as just killing him and logging him out like when Bercouli killed him as Vector, he absorbed too much for his body to take.

Just like Vassago did when he was stuck in the FTL longer than his brain could take.

Originally Posted by Magewolf

Because this show is offensively stupid sometimes?

I mean does no one notice that the "good" guy side that just won are worse people than the "evil" mercenaries and have a much higher kill and torture count? And that a mass murdering psychopath just got the second biggest "Big Damn Hero" moment in the show?

As brutal as their fates may have been, I don't really see the need to lose any sleep over what happened to Miller or Vassago. I don't think that makes the bad guys side seem any more sympathetic.

This isn't the first time Kayaba's helped, and I'm assuming he took himself out to do it.

[Primary Consult]

Is anyone else feeling that this series has dropped the ball on believably the last two episodes? Up until now there were well defined rules and systems to explain literally everything, for example Alice's 'use up the spacial resources' plan made complete sense even on a technical level, Bercouli's battle was well explained, etc. But now we have a few things:
-Kirito getting a power up from everyone's thoughts? And if it was connecting Fluctlights to Kirito that added to his power (they should illustrate via lines connecting through the lightcube cluster if this was the case), how are the internet-connected players able to?
-Miller's team had several times been able to change FTL speed from 1000x to 1x and back for communication, all of a sudden they can't?
-Kayaba Akihiko appears seemingly out of nowhere, and also with a miraculous revival? At least have Kikuoka throw a wrench that hits and lodges in just the right spot, or something...

I feel overwhelmed with Deus Ex Machina right now, in that third case literally.

Kirito and Asuna flying only felt natural because someone here explained it a few pages back with missing book context... otherwise it would have been a fourth on my list.

Also a nitpick - for 3 cour of opening credit sequences they showed Alice's lightcube with number. They implied some importance to knowing the number when talking about releasing her cube earlier. Now we see the cube, no number, no mention of it at all. It's like they were building up to a satisfying scene where Asuna types it into the console and Alice logs out, but... nope.

One final thing: I'm really hoping they show whatever Asuna and Kirito did in Underworld for however many years...

Originally Posted by Frontier

I thought Kirito overloading him with the spirits of all the Fluctlight's in the Underworld basically fried his brain. It wasn't as simple as just killing him and logging him out like when Bercouli killed him as Vector, he absorbed too much for his body to take.

I like this explanation... it reminds me of how Asuna knocked out those 1st floor jerks way back in SAO by simply hitting them rapidly with a knockback effect until they passed out "outside".

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Primary Consult

-Kirito getting a power up from everyone's thoughts? And if it was connecting Fluctlights to Kirito that added to his power (they should illustrate via lines connecting through the lightcube cluster if this was the case), how are the internet-connected players able to?

It was his sword's power. Remember, the Demon Tree's claim to fame was absorbing the mana and resources from around it until it became as large as it did.

-Miller's team had several times been able to change FTL speed from 1000x to 1x and back for communication, all of a sudden they can't?

The one guy shot the computer.

-Kayaba Akihiko appears seemingly out of nowhere, and also with a miraculous revival? At least have Kikuoka throw a wrench that hits and lodges in just the right spot, or something...

He was in the first half of Alicization as a ghost, if I recall, roaming the Ocean Turtle.

[Alhazad2003]

Originally Posted by Frontier

As brutal as their fates may have been, I don't really see the need to lose any sleep over what happened to Miller or Vassago. I don't think that makes the bad guys side seem any more sympathetic.

This isn't the first time Kayaba's helped, and I'm assuming he took himself out to do it.

Exactly, Vassago vowed to kill everyone in the Underworld in order to fight Kirito again, that's mass murder on a whole different scale. So he had to be stopped. And hopefully, this marks the end of the twisted legacy of the Laughing Coffin, may none mourn their passing.

As for Gabriel, yeah, his sins finally caught up to him, and Alicia's the one to personally bring him to Hell. Quite cathartic I must say.

And Kayaba's "body" was never found, so who knows what's become of him. Maybe we'll find out come the last episode in two weeks time, we'll see though.

[l.kostas]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Figures that even after finishing the battle in Underworld, the battle in the real world would need to be resolved as well. They may have gotten Alice out of the Underworld, but now they need to get her out of Ocean Turtle .

Get her out and save her from Rath and the Japanese government too:

“I’m sorry. I’m…staying here. Thank you for everything. I will never forget what you did for us.”
Asuna Yuuki’s voice was calm and gentle and full of purpose, from what Rinko could hear through the speaker.
“Please take care of Alice. She’s a very sweet person. She holds great love within her, and she is loved by many. For the sake of the souls who vanished for her sake…and for Kirito’s sake, please don’t let them turn her into a weapon.”
Rinko was speechless again. All she could do was listen to Asuna’s final words.
“And tell everyone else, too, that…I’m sorry…and thank you…and good-bye…”
The countdown hit zero.

Miller finally becomes the soul he was so desperately obsessed with seeing, but the numerous atrocities he committed in the pursuit of that obsession damned his soul to Hell, and leading him down there is his childhood friend Alicia whom he murdered along with likely the hands of all his other victims. Can't think of a more fitting end for that monster .

TL;DR…

 

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Vassago...has seen better days .

“Vassago…get up! The captain’s d…dea…”
He made his way on trembling legs around the gel bed to the second unit, which was farther into the room.
This time, he did scream.
The second-in-command, Vassago Casals, was asleep peacefully, at first glance. His eyes were closed and his expression was placid. His hands were extended, resting at his sides.
The only difference was in that long, flowing black hair of his.
It was as white and shriveled as if he were over a hundred years old.
Critter backed away. He didn’t even bother to check the pulse this time. Despite being a hacker who believed only in reason and source code, Critter truly thought in that moment that he was going to meet the same end that these two did if he stayed in the accursed room.

It kind of stings that most of Miller's team got away, but I guess they took care of the really problematic members by then and they utterly failed their mission. Without Miller there's not too much left for them at this point .

Critter was stunned that a mercenary working for money would choose to stay behind rather than get on the sub. Hans had nearly lost his mind when he’d heard that his partner Brigg was dead; apparently they’d been close enough that he’d chosen to die in the same place.
“People always have a longer history than you think…,” he muttered to himself, placing his watch back on a time readout.
In fact, Captain Miller and Vassago, who died before Hans did, had their own motives and circumstances outside of money. And it was those complicating factors that killed them.
In that sense, Critter and the other team members on the submersible had really gotten screwed over by this operation ending in failure. Glowgen DS, their client, had gotten to its current size by undertaking wet works for the NSA and CIA, and they wouldn’t think twice about hanging personnel out to dry. They might even be silenced to the very last man the moment they stepped on US soil again.
As a bit of personal insurance, Critter snuck a micro–memory card out of the Ocean Turtle, taped to his chest with skin-colored waterproof tape. He had no idea how much good that would do him, but at the very least, if they were going to kill him, they’d just put a bullet in his brain, which was a much better way to go than whatever gruesome fate Vassago and Captain Miller had suffered.

So it looks like they successfully logged Kirito and Asuna out...now the question is just what they got up to in the Underworld in the interim and how it might have effected them .

In Light Novel volumes 19 and 20, the story Moon Cradle takes place inside the Underworld after a while Kirito and Asuna got stuck in.

[Magewolf]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I thought Kirito overloading him with the spirits of all the Fluctlight's in the Underworld basically fried his brain. It wasn't as simple as just killing him and logging him out like when Bercouli killed him as Vector, he absorbed too much for his body to take.

Just like Vassago did when he was stuck in the FTL longer than his brain could take.

As brutal as their fates may have been, I don't really see the need to lose any sleep over what happened to Miller or Vassago. I don't think that makes the bad guys side seem any more sympathetic.

This isn't the first time Kayaba's helped, and I'm assuming he took himself out to do it.

I have no sympathy for Miller or Vassago. I am just pointing out that as laughably evil as the story made Miller and Vassago RATH and Kayaba are worse.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Magewolf

I have no sympathy for Miller or Vassago. I am just pointing out that as laughably evil as the story made Miller and Vassago RATH and Kayaba are worse.

RATH has at least acknowledged the flaws of their goal with Project Alicization at this point. I'm less worried about Alice being used as a weapon than I was before.

[l.kostas]

Originally Posted by Frontier

RATH has at least acknowledged the flaws of their goal with Project Alicization at this point. I'm less worried about Alice being used as a weapon than I was before.

It is true and it helps Alice a lot. The problem is Rath is just the company that created Alice for someone else who gave their money. She is not their goal and "property". She "belongs” to someone else. Rath and Kikuoka have higher ups too:

https://www.cbr.com/sword-art-online...ice-explained/
When Kirito eventually comes out of his comatose state and learns Rath's true intentions for Alice, he will surely reject the idea out of hand. But do he, Asuna or Alice herself have any real say when they're dealing with the Japanese government and military? They didn't invest so much time, money and effort to let the center of Project Alicization come to nothing after all. It's a fascinating subplot reminding viewers that the War of Underworld arc has consequences that extend far beyond the virtual world.

[velvet nightmare]

Originally Posted by Primary Consult

Is anyone else feeling that this series has dropped the ball on believably the last two episodes? Up until now there were well defined rules and systems to explain literally everything, for example Alice's 'use up the spacial resources' plan made complete sense even on a technical level, Bercouli's battle was well explained, etc. But now we have a few things:
-Kirito getting a power up from everyone's thoughts? And if it was connecting Fluctlights to Kirito that added to his power (they should illustrate via lines connecting through the lightcube cluster if this was the case), how are the internet-connected players able to?
-Miller's team had several times been able to change FTL speed from 1000x to 1x and back for communication, all of a sudden they can't?
-Kayaba Akihiko appears seemingly out of nowhere, and also with a miraculous revival? At least have Kikuoka throw a wrench that hits and lodges in just the right spot, or something...

I feel overwhelmed with Deus Ex Machina right now, in that third case literally.

I agree with all of those points. Most of this season has destroyed the suspension of disbelief for any viewer that puts the bare minimum of thought into what they're watching.


It's too much of a plot device for an engineer to not design any fail-safe for the 1000x time acceleration. It seems stupid obvious for someone on the inside to be able to have some mechanism to log themselves out. Did nobody learn from the original SAO fiasco?

Administrator is able to create a link to the real world, but somehow kirito and asuna can't figure it out after becoming literal gods in underworld?

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by velvet nightmare

It's too much of a plot device for an engineer to not design any fail-safe for the 1000x time acceleration. It seems stupid obvious for someone on the inside to be able to have some mechanism to log themselves out. Did nobody learn from the original SAO fiasco?

I assume the system just wasn't designed for the kind of situation it was being put through between everything that was going on. An exact set of circumstances that probably no one could have foreseen happening the way it did.

Administrator is able to create a link to the real world, but somehow kirito and asuna can't figure it out after becoming literal gods in underworld?

They might be busy with whatever they're doing in the Underworld.

[Primary Consult]

Originally Posted by velvet nightmare

It seems stupid obvious for someone on the inside to be able to have some mechanism to log themselves out. Did nobody learn from the original SAO fiasco?

Good point. Thinking about it I can kindof excuse no log-out function, because of the memory-blocking thing they were doing:
-if their 'outside' memories and knowledge of it being a simulated world are supposed to be blocked, they wouldn't even know there is a place to log out to
-if RATH wanted to block memories of the 'inside' world they wouldn't want people logging out unexpectedly

Also it appears the underworld 'residents' are not treated any differently than any other account, so perhaps they didn't want there to be a way for them to accidentally suicide via 'logout' button...

In any case I was very satisfied with this series until the last few weeks... I'm hoping they get back to whatever they were doing earlier. I usually cut LN adaptations slack because an author can break into a two paragraph explanation for what's happening in the middle of a battle, and it takes a lot to turn that into an anime that flows properly... SAO seemed to have been doing an excellent job of it which is why I probably am being harsher than I should be.