Ordinal Scale and PoH’s Past

Sword Art Online: Alicization-War of Underworld Episode 41 Review/Recap

Did you guys know that Sword Art Online got a movie a few years ago? I’m not joking; there is, in fact, a Sword Art Online movie in subbed and dubbed format. Called Ordinal Scale, it took place in between the events of Seasons two and three of the anime, and is fully canon to the anime’s timeline. However, I never expected that it would play any factor in Alicization. Turns out I was wrong, because two of the characters from that film end up playing a small yet important role in this week’s episode.

By the way, the action this week is actually pretty good, and we see some of PoH’s twisted backstory

LINK START!

Recap

So, PoH’s not happy that Kirito’s in a coma and unable to fight him, and decides to mutilate his helpless body while his friends are powerless to do anything. At the last moment, though, PoH’s attacked by a new player: fellow SAO player and top player from Ordinal Scale, Eiji. With the help of his AI friend/virtual singer Yuna, Eiji’s able to go toe to toe with PoH, even getting a few good hits in. More importantly, Yuna’s prescence makes many of the other players realize that they’ve been played by PoH.

In the end, Eiji’s unable to defeat PoH, and he and Yuna are forced to log out. However, in the process, PoH outs himself as the leader of Laughing Coffin. Everyone in the VRMMO community knows of those infamous serial killers. Then, just to be a jerk, PoH uses his will to make all the foreign players turn on each other. All of this in order to force Kirito to wake up and fight him.

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Meanwhile, Sinon and Leafa are at the end of their ropes in their respective fights. Sinon’s doing all she can to hold off Gabriel, while Leafa’s going through unimaginable pain. However, their desire to help Kirito spurs them to keep fighting. In the real world, that traitor who no one cares about falls off the platform and dies. As a result, Higa’s able to link Asuna, Sinon, and Leafa to Kirito’s fluctlight. In other words, Kirito’s return is imminent!

Review

I must admit, I was not expecting the surprise appearance of the movie characters Eiji and Yuna in this episode. To my dismay, I actually forgot about Ordinal Scale until this episode jogged my memory of it. While their appearance did seem a bit shoehorned in, the anime did a good job of justifying their appearance. Rather, it justified Yuna’s appearance as helping to bring most of the enemy players to their senses.

On the other hand, Eiji justified his own appearance as he came close to pushing PoH into a corner. After the stuff he pulled the last episode, it’s cathartic to seem him pushed back like this! In addition, I found Sinon and Leafa’s own fights to be visually impressive as well. Say what you will about the characters in this show. You can’t deny they’ve got iron wills.

What I didn’t expect, though, was PoH’s backstory. He’s the bastard child of an American woman and a Japanese tycoon; his mom never loved him; and his dad only spoke to him to ask for a kidney transplant for his legitimate son. But if that was supposed to garner any sympathy from us, it didn’t work. PoH’s evil to the core: he stole the gear to get into SAO just so he could kill Japanese players. But now he’s making a big mistake by messing with Kirito.

Speaking of Kirito, his return seems to be imminent. As soon as he fixes his personal issues in his mind, he’s going to come back in the next episode or two and kick some serious ass. I can’t wait for it, either.

I Give “Prince of Hell” a 4.5/5. Much Better!

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