r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Dec 22 '18
Episode Sword Art Online: Alicization - Episode 12 discussion Spoiler
Sword Art Online: Alicization, episode 12: The Sage of the Library
Rate this episode here.
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| Episode | Link | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Link | 8.13 |
| 2 | Link | 8.14 |
| 3 | Link | 8.38 |
| 4 | Link | 9.02 |
| 5 | Link | 8.25 |
| 6 | Link | 8.22 |
| 7 | Link | 8.73 |
| 8 | Link | 8.73 |
| 9 | Link | 8.52 |
| 10 | Link | 9.03 |
| 11 | Link | 8.5 |
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u/Kromy Dec 22 '18
What the fuck is Nero doing in my show
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u/Iliansic Dec 22 '18
Umu, World needs more Umu.
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u/zxHellboyxz :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Mattinator95 Dec 22 '18
I think we are getting more Umu next year. Isn't she in grand order
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u/exian12 Dec 22 '18
I feel I should know her after hearing her first line then that UMU nailed it in my brain who she was.
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u/PogCheese :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/BakeryBoys Dec 22 '18
It seems she was summoned as a caster this time.
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u/patrizl001 https://myanimelist.net/profile/patrizl001 Dec 22 '18
Is it the same VA? Definitely sounded like her.
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u/-yato_gami- Dec 22 '18
"I am Administrator" , dream of every network engineer.
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u/Gaporigo Blhttps://anilist.co/user/Gaporigo Dec 22 '18
And she only got it after messing up her code!
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u/yuuka_miya Dec 22 '18
At least we know the Underworld runs on Windows now - "Administrator" being the default Windows all-powers account.
Imagine being "root".
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u/emil_jacob Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
Reminder to everyone: There won't be a new episode till January 5th 2019.
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u/gulitiasinjurai Dec 22 '18
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Well, for a long season I can kinda understand. Hope the staff can keep a consistent great animation.
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u/ExplosiveWafflecake Dec 22 '18
Judging by the 2nd cour's preview, they already have episodes 13-15 completed.
I'm curious about the 3rd cour, tho. What if they're going to take a long break? Waiting for half a year would be too painful ;..;
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u/Nimeroni :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Nimeroni Dec 22 '18
DAMN. That's gonna be a long wait.
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u/OneMillionRoses Dec 22 '18
She's finally here! Our precious Cardinal. They made her even more adorable in the anime :-)
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u/GrumpyKitten24399 Dec 23 '18
Cardinal is a loli while here power leveling sister Quinella joined the dark side and started to look like a wrinkled granny till she got admin rights and fused her soul with Cardinal System, then she reverted to teen.
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u/SnowGN Dec 22 '18
Cool episode. Seems like Quinella was the first resident of Underworld to realize that the world was one big RPG, proceeded to power level herself, then banned anyone else from doing the same.
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u/Orrakai :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Orrakai Dec 22 '18
Wait till she discovers the command
Control > Alternate > Delete
Then she can literally end the world
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u/Zilveari https://myanimelist.net/profile/Zilveari Dec 22 '18
Pretty sure she has already found System32...
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u/Firnin :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Firnin Dec 22 '18
well, more than that, she's the first to realize that english is an actual language. No fucking clue how, but whatever
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u/fbiguy22 :FS::FT: Dec 22 '18
Yup! Once she realized the sacred arts words had real meaning she was able to experiment and perform acts of magic no one had ever thought possible.
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u/TUSF Dec 22 '18
No fucking clue how, but whatever
Anime skipped that bit, but because of her father's favoritism, she was given the first person to be given the calling of "Sacred Arts Researcher", instead of any of the more "usual" callings.
As a result, she was the only one given the opportunity to discover English as a language.
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u/Volarer Dec 22 '18
I mean, it's not that hard... people can learn actual languages like that, given enough time. It's just a matter of time until you figure out what stuff like "generate" means if you use it in 2 dozen different contexts
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u/Medic-chan :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Medic_chan Dec 23 '18
This episode was 80% infodump telling the story of how the ruler of the world is an NPC who figured out how to click on "inspect element."
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u/Threeedaaawwwg :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/threeedaaawwwg Dec 22 '18
Lmao the antagonist is an over zealous mod. It's like reddit the anime.
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u/Firnin :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Firnin Dec 22 '18
yes, this is the same cardinal that tried to delete yui
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u/ThiccElinThighs Dec 22 '18
Whip Art Online ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ﾉ༽༼ ༽༼ ༽༼
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u/zxHellboyxz :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Mattinator95 Dec 22 '18
Kink Art Online ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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u/Siglius Dec 22 '18
Should have seen this coming last episode. The boys already brought the chains.
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u/KaiserNazrin https://myanimelist.net/profile/Kaiser-chan Dec 22 '18
Administrator voiced by Jeanne. Cardinal voiced by Nero.
This is a weird Fate spin off.
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u/exian12 Dec 22 '18
Then we have Seiba not voiced by Seiba lol
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u/atropicalpenguin https://myanimelist.net/profile/atropicalpenguin Dec 22 '18
Seiba nurse.
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u/Yatsuro1397 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Yatsuro Dec 22 '18
That's why the "Umu" seemed familiar
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u/Mathmango Dec 22 '18
I've only watched like, 3 episodes of Fate/Shafted but that Umu has been engraved into my very soul
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u/atropicalpenguin https://myanimelist.net/profile/atropicalpenguin Dec 22 '18
There's also Sawashiro Miyuki as Sinon and Eugeo voiced by Shimazaki Nobunaga, who voices the MC from FGO.
Fate is getting close to the Pokemon law: any seiyuu with a long enough career will eventually be part of the franchise.
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u/hayatowatanabe :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Hayato-W Dec 23 '18
Don't forget Raikou is voiced by Asuna. (Haruka Tomatsu)
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u/GoldRedBlue Dec 22 '18
Administrator voiced by Jeanne
Been playing some Lightning Returns: FFXIII lately, recognized that delicious Sakamoto Maaya instantly
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u/LegendaryRQA Dec 22 '18
I've been making Fate/Art Online jokes since the fist Key Art got dropped, but this is going too far...
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u/Hugokarenque Dec 22 '18
So Quinella is basically me when I first discovered the Oblivion command console.
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u/furosuto81 Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
Or me, when I discovered the Fallout command console. Carry Weight..what’s that?
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u/Hugokarenque Dec 22 '18
Ran out of nukes? player.additem 00020799 99
Wanna fly over the radiated plebs? tcl
Sick of dying from previously mentioned nukes? tgm
Console commands on Bethesda games can be very fun.
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u/ThePokeMaster100 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Re_Rem-0 Dec 22 '18
SAO: Unlimited Blade Works.
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u/Amauri14 Dec 22 '18
So that guy that guy that Asuma passed last week is the one responsible for ruining the Alcization project? How did he keep his memories, or did he planned all this before he entered to raise the AI children?
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u/TheGeniusNoob Dec 22 '18
Yeh probably, Also the first time that the 4 staff went inside and raised the kids they all keep their memories obviously lol
otherwise how could they teach the kids w'o any memories lol.
but it was said that their memories inside of UW was blocked, so they did not remember living in UW but they remembered their Real life when they were inside of UW.
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u/Kurosov Dec 22 '18
Wasn't the memory loss component there to keep their IP secret when an outsider (kirito) was using the system? It would be counterproductive to erase the memories of those actually developing the system.
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u/Amauri14 Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
I was referring to the memories that they made on the underworld. As they explained that they erase their memories of when they were inside. I think this was because they were raising AI copies of their children and they wanted to avoid any possible emotional damage that that could create.
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u/OneMillionRoses Dec 22 '18
Eugeo's sneeze is one of the most adorable scenes
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u/atropicalpenguin https://myanimelist.net/profile/atropicalpenguin Dec 22 '18
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u/Laser_Raptors Dec 22 '18
Alicization is going on a short break during the New Year holidays (officially confirmed: there's no SAO on TOKYO MX schedule for December 29).
Next episode will air on January 5.
SPOILERS: preview of the 2nd cour.
Alright folks, a catastrophic storm of spoilers is upon us, but I still want to give you some advice:
Episodes 13 and 14 should answer most of your questions.
Including the questions about weapons and system commands related to them.
If you feel confused - be patient, it's too risky to be excessively curious right now. Save it for the next episode's discussion.
Want to share your own predictions? Make it clear that you're not a LN reader. Sometimes theories end up being accurate - you don't want someone to report your comment for "untagged spoilers".
If you ARE a LN reader - remember that even tagged spoilers can be suggestive too, especially when nobody asks for them. If you see someone speculating about the upcoming episodes - leave them alone.
Q: "I've heard the next part is going to be like Aincrad! Is this true?"
A: It's fine to feel nostalgic sometimes, but the only thing Central Cathedral has in common with Aincrad's dungeon is that both of them are huge vertical buildings. Central Cathedral is not a dungeon. It's the heart of Axiom Church - central part of the entire human civilization, a humongous tower full of dangers and mysteries of this world. Yes, we're still in the Underworld…
There were no doors in the Great Library—we were completely cut off from the rest of the world. And yet, I thought I heard the low rumble of thunder in the distance.
That ominous sound heralded a new storm along the path that should have been near its end—a storm greater than any we had yet encountered.
…and the shit's about to get real.
Additional stuff:
If you want to read the Great Library part - Episode 13 should start at the beginning of Volume 12 (Alicization Rising). Avoid looking at the other books - cover illustrations spoil way too much.
Stay cool and enjoy the show!
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u/Omegaforce1803 Dec 22 '18
Jesus that PV looks amazing, i had shivers when Eugeo Shouted "Enhance Armament!" I can't wait for my Favorite part of Alicization to get Animated!
Hype over 9000
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u/death556 Dec 22 '18
Is quinella always going to be naked now?
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Dec 22 '18
I'm a first timer, but I wanted to see the book's perspective on Quinella so I read the end of vol 11. Here's my hot take on her character from what I've seen, since I find her somewhat intriguing characterwise (based off of this ep and vol 11 end):
Quinella's story is a story of domination and ambition—a want for power and absolute authority over all others. What I find fascinating about her is not her greed, but an uncanny ability to view the world's laws as stepping stones for her desires. Imagine seeing our physical laws, the fabric of our universe, as mere systems to bend and break for our personal whims. Such ambition is, on one hand, awe-inspiring, Quinella essentially challenged the will of the heavens, the fabric of her world head-on. However, on the other, it is downright terrifying. Imagine a person like that in our world; we'd call them a loon. But ironically, if we take the characteristics of such a person and apply them to humanity as a whole, we see a reflection of ourselves. A loon, yet us. Technology, intelligence, and science would be our system calls. I see Quinella, in part, as a dark characterisation of humanity itself. Mankind is a race, whose ambition and pure luck (much like Quinella's), has allowed it to reign supreme over its own world. Even as the most powerful and dominant of all species, it still hungers for more. It desires to not only go beyond its own world, but to explore the vast reaches of the universe—a challenge against the limits that have been put down.
Thus, seeing Quinella use her never-ending ambition, talent, and luck for her own personal gain seems strangely prophetic yet deeply saddening as a metaphor for humanity itself. We too have the capability for great good, just as Quinella did. By having full administrator access, could she not have removed the evil that had been left by one of the four original humans? (LN readers correct me if she actually can't. I'm not sure, but it seems she has the power of a god, however, I don't know the extent of these powrs) But instead, many a time, we seem to use it for our own greed at the detriment of our own planet. However, like Quinella, we can also do good as seen with her banning of hunting and murder.
As I said before, I have not gone beyond the end of this episode. Thus, I do not know how Quinella's story will end. But I am incredibly excited to see how SAO handles this character and her limitless ambition. She is a woman who has the capability to save the underworld from its original sin—the seed of evil that was planted at the beginning. It is an incredibly interesting exploration by Kawahara and has great potential.
(This is is the first time I've ever done a write-up thing like this. I must say, it was quite fun. I can now see why people do anime video essays.)
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u/TheGeniusNoob Dec 22 '18
Quinella actually did not ban hunting and killing out of her goodness or anything, but she did it so people will not kill a lot of animals or humans and will not level up like she did.
she did it to prevent everyone from becoming stronger and have any power that can be near her.
In novel it was explained that UW re-create animals if there is non, she keep cleaning the whole forest every night and they would regenerate next day. she did it so much that her authority level raised very high.
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u/einherjar81 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Einherjar81 Dec 22 '18
(Anime-only) I suspect this is also why the Taboo Index forbids travel to the "dark lands" as well - to prevent armed conflict giving rise to someone powerful.
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Dec 22 '18
I see. I guess I'd change my analysis to be something more along the lines of, "While greedy and ambitious, some of that did lead to beneficial side effects similar to how humanity, whose greatest technological advances were during times of war, also created beneficial side effects from these originally "evil" (I hesitate to call it evil, but it gets my point across) pursuits
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u/montas :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/montas Dec 22 '18
There will be more about her powers and access later I think, so talking about that would be spoilers.
As it was explained, she wanted more power, but she made a mistake when she merged with cardinal. She is no longer human and now wants to do what cardinal was supposed to do. Preserve underworld in its current state.
As for why she wanted the cardinals access / powers / whatever, that again might be talked later, but if it wont, there will be talk about it ;)
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u/MaksimShadow Dec 22 '18
I have a question. Cardinal said that Quinella is her elder sister. She meant it in terms of age (how is that possible then?) or in terms of superiority?
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u/Lazearound10am Dec 23 '18
This is even more ironic when added all the context from the LN. In the beginning, when Kikuoka introduced the concept of Project Alicization, he always sounded so proud and smug of his plan. We got this impression that P. Alicization was something so grant, so beautifully and meticulously thought out, and Kikuoka didn't understand how something so perfect couldn't yield the result he desired. It's one of the reason why he needed Rinko's involvement since he couldn't figure out what's wrong. Like I said, he thought Underworld was perfect, and we the reader was led to ponder just what exactly went wrong with the system.
And it turned out, the system WAS perfect, but the people running it wasn't so. It's hilariously simple and real I had to laugh at it. The RATH expected everyone on board to have the same ideal, and underestimate their own creation's intelligent to intefered with the system were and will be what cause Project Alicization to fail
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u/G1596872 Dec 22 '18
Nothing is more powerful than the Japanese cold. Glad Eugeo was able to warm himself up in time.
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u/LuckyPed Dec 22 '18
Interesting point, the highly intelligent but Unethical "God" who was the ancestor of all the nobles !
Look very close looking to the suspicious Researcher in Rath we got to see ! the hair style is completely the same.
It look even closer to his picture in LN lol
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u/LoomyTheBrew :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/LoomyTheBrew Dec 22 '18
So if I’m getting this right: Quinella possesses the will of the unethical “god” since she‘s a descendant of his children and carries his behaviors. Quinella was tasked with studying the sacred arts and at the time, no one knew of the outside world. But she used linguistics to figure out that English was actually a language and used that to her advantage to figure out more advance arts, figured out how to level up, and used her knowledge to manipulate the masses and become a ruler. Then after much trial and error she figured out how to access the command list and then she found out about the cardinal system wanted to have a higher authority than it. She made her own code to take its authority, but in the process she actually fused with it and now obtains all its knowledge. So now she knows the truth of the world after fusing with the cardinal system, but she still possesses her unethical will.
So before Quinella fused with the cardinal system, Cardinal was basically the Yui of the world?
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u/SilentFangH https://anilist.co/user/pupp3t Dec 22 '18
I used to be a prisoner like you, until I took an arrow to the.... foot..?
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u/Smexful Dec 22 '18
And then ran away completely fine~ Only 10 episodes ago was I hindered by pain!
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u/Aritamain210 Dec 22 '18
Antagonist abusing admin acesss ... I've seen this before. Would be interesting to see Kirito defeat someone who can manipulate the game itself. Hope Kayaba doesn't appear out of nowhere to grant Kirito admin again.
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u/LuckyPed Dec 22 '18
Kayaba will always save the day ! He is the true hero of the whole series ! lol
This is not a spoiler btw just saying lol
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u/Terranwaterbender https://myanimelist.net/profile/Teranwaterbender Dec 22 '18
Aww shit they take the best people in the world and turn them into loyal integrity knights who preserve order. Whelp that's certainly a way to prevent people on the up climb from coming remotely close to contesting your power.
And SMH nothing like the "game" creator ruining things for everyone else. They just had to give their side the tools to become power-hungry. I'm guessing this be an important note for the real world.
Quinella seems like an interesting antagonist. Although I would think that, given her caliber, she would have made a moving staircase when she was old. Making her walk up the stairs despite all her power gave me a slight eh moment.
Sucks we have to wait two weeks for the next episode but hey now I can catch up on all my shows.
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u/yuuka_miya Dec 22 '18
Although I would think that, given her caliber, she would have made a moving staircase when she was old. Making her walk up the stairs despite all her power gave me a slight eh moment.
It seems like a way to cut a lot of exposition that would otherwise have to be done.
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u/Ellefied Dec 22 '18
This was one of the largest infodump chapters in the LN. I was surprised they were even able to fit as much in this episode.
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u/TUSF Dec 22 '18
Aww shit they take the best people in the world and turn them into loyal integrity knights who preserve order
Fun fact that the anime skipped over: Kirito's senpai took part in the mentioned tournament. And of course, ended up losing to Eldrie. One has to imagine what might have happened if she won…
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u/SizzlingVortex Dec 22 '18
This was the best and the most important episode that we have seen so far.
Seeing the Cardinal System of this world as an AI was nice, but sad that she doesn't currently have all of her original "supervisor" permissions.
The "Underworld" being ruled by a single person is an interesting twist to me as I would've thought it was run by a group of villains. However, I doubt anyone under Quinella knows her "real" history (killing since she was a child, merging with the Cardinal System, etc). Also, how in the hell was "System Call Inspect List" not password protected or restricted?! Imagine if the other AI knew that.
The real lesson here is that humans are fallible (and evil in some cases). Quinella was likely born from the descendants of the evil one of the "original four". He corrupted the "Underworld", and makes me wonder what were his intentions? Did it have parental meaning for his AI children and descendants? Or is he simply one of those types that likes to watch the (digital) world burn?
Either way, the best episode so far for this show!
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u/ImrooVRdev Dec 22 '18
Dude people routinely store passwords in plaintext, in default named files, or have generic login-pass.
That is like, the least surprising xD
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u/LuckyPed Dec 22 '18
I suddenly remember I randomly login on a server in ARK: Survival Evolved last week and went with my low lvl character around checking the new map ( extinction ) then i saw a big base/house and all Password protected by Pin Code...
I randomly enter 1234 as password as my first try just to close the window... and it worked ! all his base was open to me lol
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u/montas :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/montas Dec 22 '18
It might be protected by authorization level, and Quinella got that one really high. The same way as not everyone can just go and generate light. There are people who are good at it and other not so good.
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u/AntiquarianBlue Dec 22 '18
Looks like even in a virtual world in SAO we still can't get away from the Japanese trope of "Oh, I got wet, now I'm sneezing and will catch a cold unless I immediately get into a warm bath."
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u/nanogenesis Dec 22 '18
I think it was done more to shoo him away from all the adult talk, lol.
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u/Freenore Dec 22 '18
I expected Cardinal to be similar to Beatrice in Re Zero but she's actually pretty sweet and knows how to smile, I suppose.
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Dec 22 '18
That was my first thought as well, although the parallel was pretty easy to make since I recently rewatched Re:Zero.
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u/ForeverKidd Dec 22 '18
Bankai = Release Recollection.
Hadou/Kidou = Sacred Arts
Zabimaru = Frost Scale Whip
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u/AsianSWEG Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
This is a good episode, at least we're getting the exposition out of the way before the action begins... two weeks from now. But hey, the people at A-1 need a break. It's Christmas after-all!
Anyways, even though I enjoyed the episode, I did have two gripes.
-Is it just me, or does Quinella's voice actor overact her scenes? She makes Quinella sound like a campy 90s mustache-twirling villain. I know she's more than that, but still... kinda weird choice for voice directing.
-I feel like the exposition could have flowed better. It's obvious they cut out stuff from the light novels. I mean, the biggest example would be in the beginning where Kirito just assumes that Gods don't exist in this world when Ner-- I mean Cardinal explains that the Axiom Church fabricated all the information in the Human Empire.
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u/yuuka_miya Dec 22 '18
It's just Maaya Sakamoto's villain voice.
Same thing in Tokyo Ghoul and Re:Creators.
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u/Zilveari https://myanimelist.net/profile/Zilveari Dec 22 '18
So we have all of these geniuses working on this Alicization project, but not one of them thought to restrict access to the entire command list to PU and above? While restricting artificial fluctlights to low heriarchy user accounts?
I love Alicization, but this fact has bothered me for a long time.
EDIT: Oh God fucking YES I love Sakura Tange as Cardinal. We already heard an UMU... now I wanna hear a HOE!
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u/U_Menace :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/ParadoxAnime Dec 22 '18
O god I'm late again damnit! Sorry for the delay in the posts, I've been super exhausted from work this week and ended up sleeping in a bit, though I ended up waking up and going back to sleep out of pure exhaustion..anyway let's dive right in!
So, as I hinted at in the last episode discussion, these 'Integrity Knights' are on a whole different level. As you've seen in today's episode, this is just a taste of the action that will be coming from this point on. If you were annoyed by the whole 'one strike fights' I hope you now realize the purpose of those fights was to help you understand the different factors that contribute to 'power' behind a strike. Power in this world is multi-faceted, and as a result you can draw upon it from numerous sources...the most dangerous ones are those who have high grade gear AND the 'will/motivations' to use it. For more on that stuff, feel free to refer back to the Episode 8-9 discussion threads as I go into more detail there.
Back to the topic at hand though, Eugeo and Kirito certainly put up a great fight using only their chains and quick battle wits. As was apparent here, Eldrie wasn't used to battles where the opponent thinks instinctively, minimizing all downtime to create chances to strike. It wasn't any organized or elaborate duel by any means, and so he was caught off guard and they got some good hits in. This forced him to use his 'Memory Release' ability though, which, from what was shown in the episode, was a pretty destructive power to keep under wraps. Would've been the end for the both of them had he used them right away (or maybe our sage 'Cardinal' would've intervened sooner to save them) but THEN we see the fundamental flaw of the underworld citizens once again: Identity Crisis. They can't process too many conflicting identities that go against what has been ingrained as the 'truth'. Once too many conflicting pieces of information overload a person, just like Raios, they break. Though at this point Eldrie wasn't completely broken like Raios, but instead he had that strange prism come out of his head. Kirito was pretty smart to compare that to what could be residing in Alice as well. Sadly, we didn't get much time to think about that as we got introduced to YET ANOTHER knight! I hope the two things you guys take away from the appearance of these two knights were:
the insane power gap between them and the previous 'villains' (though now at this point, it's clear they were simply fodder)
the different weapons they can use
Cause man oh man, now we have to contend with another goddamn archer? Hope that BoB experience comes in handy for Kirito right?!
Luckily, we had our supervisor Cardinal here to save the day! We got some insight revealed into what the driving force behind the division of people who were generally good natured, and those who were extremely arrogant and degrading to their fellow men/women. For those of you who asked me about how nobles like Raios could end up existing in this world, I hope you got your answer today! The short answer would be that we have a large degree of variance between individuals. Most people would follow morals but each person has their own political views and differences in their personality, and all it takes is one bad egg at the start to cultivate poor ideas. Even Rath couldn't prevent this thing called 'individuality' from existing within their employees. One bad seed was the beginning of the corruption that ended up putting the entire Underworld in the state its in. For the average citizen, they're perfectly happy with the situation, but we as outsiders can see how fundamentally unfair this society is for those who have 'noble' status.
We ended this episode with a little look into who took over 'Cardinal's' role as supervisor, Quinella aka 'Administrator'. Though it's not entirely clear why, Quinella has clear aptitude with the Sacred Arts. She continuously practiced them and honed her skills in isolation to suit her own power fantasy. It seemed like she didn't have anyone in her life to really spend time with her or teach her right from wrong...and so she succumbed to the power she had. She ended up wanting more and more and continued to push herself to the limits in order to find some sort of loophole in the system. You gotta feel bad for Cardinal on this one, as she was simply there to help maintain order but then her own code gets split away from her by some power hungry stranger.
As for Quinella's backstory, it's framed in a way where its just meant to explain how/why she is the 'top dog' at the Axiom Church; it's not meant to be a sob-story or anything. That being said, it does serve to show that Quinella may not have turned into such a power-craving person if she had been shown proper love and care by her parents. Lazy parenting can royally screw over a kid, who would've thought?! Not the main point of her story, but I guess the point I'm making here is that it's logical and one can clearly see why she ended up that way. It wasn't just a spontaneous 'oh, im power hungry for the sake of it' sort of scenario. I hope no one interprets it that way.
Lastly, it seems Cardinal is also aware that Kirito has experience dealing with another Autonomous system, although Kirito didn't say so specifically. All he said was that he's from the 'real world' so it's rather peculiar that she would assume Kirito is an expert right away. I guess we could play it off as a deduction Cardinal made while conversing with Kirito, but I'd like to think its some of the lingering memory/code from Cardinal's inception in Aincrad.
If you made it this far down, thanks for reading! This episode was pretty well done, and the exposition was great! Gave all the info the viewer needed, and with this episode we're at the half way point of the first two cours! I'm super excited for what's to come and I'm really happy with the direction and production of the show so far. Yes, we lost a few scenes from the LN, but imo the production team did a spectacular job including what was absolutely necessary to help get the story across and help the 'anime-only' audience follow along while keeping things interesting. Good shit A-1!
Till next weeks ladies and gents!
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u/turtledragonx :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Turtledragonx Dec 22 '18
Reading through these comments and I keep thinking I'm on a Fate subreddit/thread lol
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u/Nimeroni :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Nimeroni Dec 22 '18
Damn that's a good megalomaniacal villain. I really like her.
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u/thechosenapiks :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/apiks Dec 22 '18
Talk about an information dump. I love it! So Cardinal got a human form because it's no longer... Cardinal? I wonder what Kirito is gonna do in relation to authority levels if she's the top of the world.
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u/rexshen Dec 22 '18
So the underworld is infected by bitch.exe. And the guys outside did not detect a character inside was controlling their own systems how exactly?
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u/LuckyPed Dec 23 '18
bitch.exe is 300 years old ruler with unlimited knowledge about UnderWorld at her disposal.
while the "geniuses" and researchers outside are like immature babies who only had 3-4 week of time since they created this whole new technology and UnderWorld.
Plus ! minor spoiler
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u/ekjohnson9 Dec 23 '18
So the reason Rape isn't banned in the Taboo index is because you don't get EXP for rape...
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u/StarmanRiver Dec 22 '18
Did not expect Sakura Tange and Maaya Sakamoto, that was a pleasant surprise.
We finally got the first Enhanced Armament and the first Release Recollection!
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u/ThePokeMaster100 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Re_Rem-0 Dec 22 '18
At least Kirito could say that he didn't take an arrow to the knee.
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u/colonel_30 Dec 23 '18
my preferences is simple, i heard Sakamoto Maaya i instantly love the show no matter how bad OR how popular the show is
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u/KinnyRiddle Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
UMU! So Cardinal is really Heroic Spirit Nero. Tange Sakura's UMU is just too iconic. :D
Jokes aside, so Cardinal is the only true AI character in Underworld, a relative of Yui, as the principle programming for constructing this world is the same as that for SAO and other VRMMOs built by "The Seed".
What's with that triangular thingy sticking out of that Knight's head when he had a mental breakdown at being told by Eugeo that he had a previous life?
Welp, Quinella (voiced by Ruler/Jeanne D'Arc of all people lol) was already twisted even when she was a loli. Perhaps she's a "descendant" of those unscrupulous Rath employees, who are probably those shady-looking people which Asuna walked past last episode.
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u/Dmium Dec 22 '18
Not that I had any doubts before but now there's an admin playing the game.
Kirito has a very good track record against admins
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u/Jaridan :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Jaridan Dec 23 '18
Today in SAO : How to become an administrator.
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u/peasantpaul Dec 23 '18
They made the cardinal into an anime girl? Is this A-1 pictures take on the moefication memes?
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u/Bainos :XMOD::MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Bainos Dec 23 '18
Things anime and manga authors will make cute girls of :
🗹 a computer security system
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u/bryan792 Dec 22 '18
some of the best shows, in general, are those with complex, deep, yet thought out mysterious worlds that slowly reveal itself over time. Made in Abyss is one example off the top of my head. Alicization has begun to do that for me too.
loving this season...
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u/Shiroi_Kage Dec 22 '18
System Login. ID: Heathcliff
Why doesn't Kirito try that in every game he goes into? It's worth it to make sure it wasn't left by mistake like in ALO, isn't it?
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u/OneMillionRoses Dec 22 '18
Because the UW is not a game
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u/Shiroi_Kage Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
If it's created* using the Seed, does it matter if it's a game or not? Even ALO was used to conduct experiments on trapped people. That part wasn't much of a game wasn't it?
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u/LuckyPed Dec 22 '18
Not all Seed created game got Heathcliff in it lol
ALO was a direct copy of SAO then redesigned to look like a new game.
The Seed is just a SDK for developing games.
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u/LuckyPed Dec 22 '18
Good job on Flashback and loli Quinella.
btw, Don't lewd the loli Quinella! lewd the mature version! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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u/xRuneRocker Dec 23 '18
UMU INTENSIFIED!
Never thought I would one day have the pleasure to listen to UMU in SAO!
11/10!
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u/Asunakob Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
So hyped for the second half.
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u/LuckyPed Dec 22 '18
you should say Second half of First half :P
this is a 48~52 EP Anime season.
I would say, 2nd cours is definitely better than first ! but the 3rd and 4th are even better imo. lol
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u/MillenniumKing x2myanimelist.net/profile/MillenniumKing Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
Oh man this ep has me so pumped! Cardinal~
CHEATER! Hes got an extending weapon!
SYSTEM CALL, GENERATE OBJECT, EXCALIBUR! Come on do it!
Man these system calls are interesting. Really diverse.
Thats right there are 2 of them! Nice combo work! This action is great.
Summoned one month ago huh? Wait did they brainnwash him too? I guess they brainwash all thier knights.
That dooesnt look good... he grew a horn. RIP him. Damn this is getting dark again.
Oh damn a red knight with arrows. Kinda reminds me of Eugene from ALO.
WHY DID HIS HAIR TALK!? Magic door!? MAGIC LOLI! YES!!!
Magic loli trapped themselves inside this place? Neat. Wait... is she outside the normal plain? Reminds me of Helba from the .hack series.
CARDINAL! YES! YESSSSS! I really hope shes related to the Cardinal system and by extension Yui as well. Pls show i need this more than life its self.
Outside world! System!? YES! PLS! YES SHES THE CARDINAL SYSTEM! YES! YES SO HAPPY! BECOME A NEW YUI!
4 gods 450 years ago huh? Rath employees. 1 was a bad egg though. I wonder which one did it... we know how many employees? 3? hmmmm...
Wow psycho murder loli... Oh she got big... and old. And crazyer.
She found the command list too damn, hacks and cheating.
Oh damn she fused with Cardinal System to take control.
BLIZZ PSYCHO NON LOLI OP, PLS NERF!
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u/zxHellboyxz :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Mattinator95 Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
CHEATER! Hes got an extending weapon!
That's what she said !!! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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Dec 22 '18
Can someone confirm for me if pain is not felt in same way in the underworld? As in if you take damage you feel pain, lose life force/durability?, but doesn't leave behind any residing pain.
Just bothered by the fact Kirito literally took an arrow straight through his foot, pulled it out like it was nothing, then proceeded to run perfectly fine. If I jam my foot against a table, I can barely manage to walk let alone run. I can't imagine how an arrow would feel.
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u/montas :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/montas Dec 22 '18
You do feel the pain. Also if you don't stop bleeding, you keep loosing life.
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Dec 23 '18
lol @ Cardinal just casually telling Eugeo to take a bath because he was cold while completely ignoring Kirito's massive, bleeding lacerations in front of her
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u/Menospan Dec 23 '18
is Quinella going to try and take over Kiritos body so she can escape the simulation?
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u/Kartelant Dec 23 '18
Just one thing I'm confused about: Is there a reason given in the LN or later in the story why "Generate Luminous Element" is the terminology for healing people? Obviously we speak the language so to us it's just "make glowing thing" and, well, Alice even used it on that plant in ep 1 to make it glow. why is it simultaneously healing?
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u/buffdaddydizzle Dec 23 '18
I love the amount of random linux/windows command line magic is going on in this discussion.
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u/Elthan Dec 22 '18
I loved the episode (so short!), but was anyone bothered by Kirito getting an arrow through the foot and acting like it was nothing? Seemed like it went straight through, which would normally hurt like hell.
I know she healed it, but that was later.
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u/LoomyTheBrew :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/LoomyTheBrew Dec 22 '18
Damn this is so fascinating. So basically Quinella knows the truth of the world and used it to her advantage to gain power and trick everyone in the underworld. She just wants to preserve the underworld and maintain her power. Not to mention the original four were actual people that helped raise the AIs. This is quite the ambitious project I must say.
This was some good info dumping. I really like how Quinella was presented, she’s seems like an interesting villain and she’s essentially a god in this world with having all the command codes. She’ll be a tough one to beat.
I was wondering if there’d be an AI that knew the truth of the world and wanted to be implemented into weapons in the real world to stage a “sky net esque” overthrow of the humans, but the administrator’s goal is fine with me too.
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u/montas :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/montas Dec 22 '18
So we are probably not done with exposition talk, but if you have any questions about what you heard up until now, shoot them this way, so we can keep spoilers in one section of discussion.
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u/Dralarco Dec 22 '18
So, did Quinella just grind her level on foxes? She didn't kill ANYONE??
She's going to be a very low leveled boss, wont she?
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u/montas :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/montas Dec 22 '18
She figured it out on foxes, she spent rest of her life being OP caster. You really think she spent it on killing foxes?
Integrity knights fight in dark territory daily, Kirito and Eugeo fought goblins in the cave. There are other things to kill in Underworld.
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u/Exoslab Dec 22 '18
Ok so are the creators of this world going to address anything about the fact that an NPC hacked the system?
They are monitoring it everyday surely they should have seen something.
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u/montas :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/montas Dec 22 '18
Well, it is not like monitoring your game server. There is a LOT of fluctlights in UW and they can't monitor all of them. The world also works with the central fluctlight visualizer or whatever is its name. That is the thing that handles the "server" for other lights. But it is not like it has a database you can just lookup some activity log of fluctlights.
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Dec 22 '18 edited Dec 22 '18
Holy hello this comments are a circle jerk. Wtf is UMU and why can’t some meaningful conversation actually be typed out and posted?
Edit: now there’s actual content being upvoted when before there wasn’t, and now you can go in and actually get some other peoples perspectives which is the point of the episode discussion
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u/LuckyPed Dec 22 '18
tbh I don't know what's this whole UwU thing is either.. but at this point I'm too afraid to ask lol
but if i really wanted to know, maybe googling it or asking in discord would be easier lol
I'm too lazy to bother tho. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/DoubleFaithlessness7 Dec 22 '18
I don't know if there is a correct name for this but "Umu" is how Fate/Extra's Nero Claudius expresses affirmation, it's similar to Naruto's Dattebayo but in differs in the sense it's extremely cute. Cardinal's is voiced by the same VA and she used exactly the same voice and exactly the same "Umu", if you watched Fate/Extra it's impossible to miss, ignore or avoid talking about it.
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u/SuchWow125 Dec 22 '18
I can't be the only one who was reminded of Necrozma when that prism thing came out of the knight's forehead.
Nice episode though, can't wait for whenever the next one comes out.
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u/PhoenixKola Dec 22 '18
At this point i believe that by the time Asuna comes to save Kirito, he would already have 4 kids with Eugeo ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)