English Dub Review: Sword Art Online: Alicization “The Sage of the Library”

When a problem comes along, you must whip it.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kirito and Eugeo face off against Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One, who apparently mains Ivy in Soul Caliber because his weapon of choice is a whip. That, or he’s a big Castlevania fan. But the point is that he’s more than a match for the two escaped prisoners, especially without their swords, so Kirito tries using some Sacred Arts that the audience never knew about to stand even a chance. Though before he can act out Devo’s 1980 synth-pop hit, Eugeo recalls a champion in a recent Unification Tournament, Eldrie Woolsburg. This confounds Thirty-One, as he only recalls being “summoned to this realm” a month ago, but this information does seem to be shaking something loose in him. Specifically, a small purple triangular rod that starts jutting out of his head, which Kirito thinks might also have been what was done to Alice to make her different.

This breakthrough is interrupted by the appearance of another Integrity Knight flying in on a dragon, who shoots arrows at them to get them away. They flee, but are only saved commands leading them to a mysterious doorway, leading them into a hidden chamber. Their savior comes in the form of a little scholarly-looking girl named Cardinal, who leads them to a massive library containing basically all of Underworld’s knowledge. She then sends Eugeo off to take a bath and sits Kirito down to take a big diuretic exposition dump about the creation of the world right in front of him. Her name, Cardinal, is short for the Cardinal System, similar to what Aincrad had. But the one with the real power is her “twin sister”, the “Pontifex” Quinella.

Quinella was an early product of the first political marriage between lords in Underworld, tasked with researching the Sacred Arts. But she also had a cruel, sadistic side to her. Through her research, she gained knowledge of abilities that helped give her a god-like status amongst the people, eventually creating the Axiom Church and Taboo Index to prevent others from equaling her in power. However, this would not halt her steadily aging body, which she only stopped by accessing the “Command List”, which housed every command usable by the Sacred Arts. She then tried controlling the Cardinal System, which ended up fusing her soul with it and giving her a directive to preserve the world as it currently was. From then on, she called herself “Administrator”.

OUR TAKE

Wow, we learned quite a bit this week. We had our first combat encounter with an Integrity Knight, got a few more blanks filled in on what happens to them, taking from that on what might have happened to Alice, found the hub of ALL KNOWLEDGE, and found out about the root of all problems in Underworld. But what’s interesting to me is how the two halves of this episode are a surprisingly good pair of examples to demonstrate the difference between conveying exposition in a progressive and resourceful way or a sloppy, rushed, and lazy way.

The resourceful way would be, in my opinion, from the fight with Eldrie. Before the fight, Integrity Knights were seen as enigmatic and impenetrable beings that were harbingers of swift punishment. Now, through Eugeo’s remembering of Eldrie’s reputation, we see a way to put cracks in their armor when fighting straight on becomes difficult, as well as some insight into how this seeming indoctrination process works on them. Who knows what might have happened if Eugeo had managed to get that purple thingy out of Eldrie’s head and completely undo its effects to bring him back fully? Though that’s not to say the fight doesn’t have its issues, like Kirito making use of generating “Thermal Elements”, which I don’t recall him ever using prior. Could’ve used the time at that school to show him…learning things? But otherwise, this fight serves its function well.

The same cannot be said for the introduction of Cardinal and what she rather suddenly exposits all over Kirito about the origin of Underworld’s society. On one hand, it’s refreshing to see Kirito being able to talk to someone about the real world after all this, but the way he and Eugeo are pulled in feels pretty out of nowhere. Likewise, while the beginnings of the society do fall into what someone as seemingly knowledgeable as Cardinal would be able to uncover, it’s the Quinella backstory that chafes me. When this episode started, the goal was about finding Alice and making her come to her senses, which the Eldrie fight definitely helped develop, so why all of this sudden focus on the upbringing about a person who, despite her position of authority, feels pretty disconnected from the current events.

I remember that we’ve seen Quinella once before with no context, but this is not a sufficient proper introduction to her or her capabilities, especially when the scene itself is just two people sitting down for a meal and talking, which is a pretty poor way of delivering exposition. Especially when a much better example was just shown less than ten minutes ago. Plus, as someone who calls herself Quinella’s “twin sister of sorts”, it’s pretty glaring that Cardinal apparently wasn’t around for any of what was happening, which begs the question of how she learned all of this in the first place. Now, having watched ahead a few minutes into the next episode, I now know what that reason is, but I’m blanking on a good reason to not have that tidbit in THIS episode so viewers don’t have to wait a week for this to make sense. But more on that next week.