Griefer Tears Heroes Apart in SAO

Sword Art Online: Alicization- War of Underworld Episode 40 Review/Recap

Griefers: a person who harasses or deliberately provokes other players or members in order to spoil their enjoyment. Why am I bringing this up, though? Because after seeing all the suffering PoH’s inflicted on the heroes over the course of the anime, I’d say he counts as one. As Asuna, Sinon, and the others try to hold off the foreign players, PoH’s griefing reaches new heights of jerkdom. Kirito, please come back and kick his butt.

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Recap

All across the Underworld, chaos reigns. Sinon is all that stands between Gabriel and Alice. However, she’s horrorified to learn that Gabriel’s also Subtilizer, the sadistic player who beat her in the last Bullet of Bullets Tournament. Only now, he tries to use the STL to steal her soul. It nearly works, but thanks to a good luck charm she got from Kirito, Sinon’s able to snap out of it. And then she somehow brings in her sniper rifle, Hecate, to the game, ready to fight.

Back in the real world, the RATH employees realize what was already revealed to us: the guy that went with Higa, Mr. Yanai, is the traitor. He made the eye-code thing and sold them out for the Americans. Why did he do this, though? Three reasons: first, he used to worked for that slimeball Sugou and wanted to carry on his work. Secondly, he somehow managed to come into contact with that other slimeball, Quinella, and helped her mess with Underworld. Lastly, he wanted Kirito dead for killing Quinella, and was going to ensure that Higa didn’t succeed.

Elsewhere, the Japanese and Underworlders are reduced to a handful of people. Leafa and Lillpin manage to show up and save Iskahn and his pugilists. That’s the only good thing, though. Meanwhile, the Sleeping Knights try to reason with the Korean/Chinese player, but PoH (being a griefer) keeps them all from listening. Overwhelmed, the surviving players and Underworlders are forced to surrender to PoH, who enjoys rubbing it in to Asuna. Then, just to hurt her even more, he finds Kirito and prepares to torture him in front of everyone.

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Review

I don’t know which of the three slimeballs we see in this episode is the bigger pervert, sicko, or griefer here. First, we have the scene with Gabriel trying to suck out Sinon’s soul, which is very suggestive in nature. The way he puts his arms around her waist and moves in like he’s going to kiss her made my skin crawl.

Then we have Yanai, who we already met once all the way back in the Fairy Dance Arc. Right when Asuna was about to escape, he’s the one who caught her and proceeded to subject her to tentacle play. I think I repressed the memory of that scene, I was so disturbed.

Then, we have PoH, the biggest griefer and psycho in the series. As if he wasn’t already horrible enough, we learn that he sold out his own guild, Laughing Coffin. Just so he could watch the other players tear themselves apart and become killers! That’s messed up, and Kirito’s still nowhere near close to being awoken.

The good/bad news, though, is that there are only eight episodes left in the season. So, Kirito’s going to have to wake up in the next three or so episodes. And we need him now!!

That aside, I thought this episode was much better than the last one.

I Give “Code 871” a 3/5

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