Maaan, seeing Kirito like that is so heartbreaking. He gives everything he can to save the world and is left a broken person. Despite that, somehow aware enough to know shit is about to go down.

Alice taking care of him is so good. Loved this episode.

Bro really just ate a chess piece.

That ending though... NOT LIKE THIS...

(Alice being a best girl as usual)

Stoked to see that the Integrity Knights will continue making an appearance in these two cours as well.

Also, when we saw Fanatio draped in a bedsheet semi-nude, was that Bercouli's sword and uniform? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Kirito's condition is heartbreaking, even when I already saw it coming from a while ago. Fuck those jerks who tossed him over so they could nab the Blue Rose Sword.

Alice's line of how she was incapable of fighting with her sword anymore is pretty interesting in that it's definitely to do with her inner conflict. Personally, it reminds me a little of when Zuko was unable to fire-bend in Avatar The Last Airbender after joining Aang's side. Both of them have willingly made a change in who they fight with, but it's a change that goes against years of belief and dedication, and they can't help but feel like they've lost their motivation. For Alice, that means that her Incarnation in battle would be shaky.

And of course, the OP and ED were great.

The Opening was so good that I replayed it 3 or 4 times before continuing with the episode. Clean animation, a lot of fights teased, and the man behind the Ocean Turtle attackers is still something of a enigma, albeit an interesting enigma. Not just that, but in the scene with Kikuoka, the screen behind him flickered to show Aincrad and the back of a man who I'm sure was Kayaba. This could just be a callback, or it could be foreshadowing that we've got more on the man who started the entire VRMMO revolution coming. Either way, I'm excited.

All we got for the ED was the music, but it's still pretty great. Personally, I'd put it as better than Iris, but not as awesome as Forget-Me-Not.

The ending is just throwing us right into the action damn. Seeing Kirito like that plus everyone wanting him to be dead is sad

CONGRATULATIONS GUYS!!!!!!! This sub has reached 70k members !!!!!

I just feel like dropping this, it should happened right around Sword Art Online Alicization: War of Underworld episode 1 drop for all of us. So Yayyyyyy

i can't wait for asuna to finally see kirito in this state. She will be just as heartbroken as i am.

In my opinion this episode was really nice The animation was really good ( the nature looked great ), Alice started getting some character development, the explanation of what happened with the Administrator and with Chudelkin was short but clear, we kinda get an ideea of what happened to kirito And we also get some hints at what is coming in the next episodes A pretty good setup for the incoming arc if u ask me Overall 8-8.5/10

everything was fine until Kirito asked for Eugeo's sword

then I broke

Outstanding beginning - they keep on building up on the world they have carefully established before.

1. No truth for the public - the chaos that could ensue would completely decimate the "good" kingdom and leave them unprepared for the invasion of the Dark Territory. So they have to keep quiet about two boys saving the whole "fake"-world, which in turn leaves a lot of simple people... ungrateful without them even knowing how ungrateful they are.
2. Kirito, even though supposedly erased, still retains his affection towards Eugio and their swords, which symbolize their will and struggle for justice. It might be a direct implication of a trauma Kirito suffered when Eugio sacrificed himself, but I believe there is no way to determine that yet, and I think it does not need to be clarified. But he holds Aobara no Ken (The Blue Rose) extremely dearly, as you can see his immediate reaction when the peasants take it from him, and how Alice goes to take Kirito's sword to cut the tree, instead of removing the Eugio's one from his hands.
3. Man, animal family. Okay just how realistic they want to make it? There should be limits for good drama. Named the dragons? Wait for them to perish heroically.
4. Alice has the worst case of guilt yet in the whole series: She does not know she is "artificial", yet she knows there is something wrong with their world and that she is the after-image of the real Alice (which presumably "ascended" together with Eugio during the final episode... but I am extremely sure they both will be back - one as a sword-spirit, the other as a unified persona), and her whole value system was turned upside down - the only thing she knows is that Kirito and Eugio did fight for the sake of their world. But now she is left alone with herself, without any idea what she is supposed to do, with a paralyzed Kirito by her side. It could be said she is caring for him not because he needs care, but because SHE needs to care for him, as in trying to re-discover her purpose. I do not know whether this is intentional or not, but I would say it mimics what real-world mothers kind-of go through when dealing with immobile children. Except here Alice also has to deal with her own shortcomings of desiring direction from Kirito. Well, for half the season she will have to re-discover herself as well. Most of it is apparent when she is unable to make a clean cut of the tree - she herself sees that "her edge has dulled", as she no longer desires to wield her sword at all.
5. Not much interesting from the opening (then I got back and watched it three times) okay this is a decent opening if I have ever seen one:

5.1 Asuna's avatar and Asuna herself both appear in the very beginning. It is understandable if the sequence with their friends represent their strong bond and memories, but in any other case Asuna's avatar should not have appeared at all. The only confusing part here.

5.2 Right after that, you can see in Kirito's eyes the silhouette of his Fluctlight avatar. That is a STRONG implication that the consciousness, the actual psyche of Kirigaya's is aware of the state of his avatar, but as he is stuck between the systems of real world and fictional one he is unable to do anything just yet, as he walks "away" with the other avatars... But then Asuna jumps into the direction of the silhouette, basically going into the world by means yet unknown but probably cheating.

5.3. The blue bird that we see outside Kirito's room is glitching - a sign the system of the world is slowly falling apart, possible from both inside and outside interference.

5.4 The Dark Territory characters look like bunch of savages. I am rather interested if there is going to be a better twist - just how complex will they make evil minions to appear? We did see a fallen dark knight in the very beginning of the first part, and he did not look like an epitome of evil.

5.5 The mastermind that eats a blue knight piece is representing an attempt at either Kirito or Eugio. Or both of them as the heroic knights who stood against his scheme. Either way that's a villain and you know it. THEN we see some technology, could be servers that retain the "memories" of said blue knights?

5.6 The scientist guy whom I have shamelessly forgotten as per his name, is standing next to a console which flashes with a back-shot of Kayaba Akihito. Could be just a cool shot, could symbolize the scientist guy trying to follow in the footsteps and dreams of Kayaba.

5.7 Throughout the opening we can see Kirito and Eugio giving resolve and hope to Alice, which is a core theme in retrospective, since, at first, it was Alice who gave meaning to Kirito and Eugio, as they struggled to reach and save her, and now the roles are reversed.

5.8 At one point Alice regains her eye, which could be just a restoration of her physical eye, just like they did back in the first part during academy days, OR it could allude to Alice regaining her whole self, uniting the child-Alice with synthesis-Alice and providing her own self with a sense of existential continuity, as she would then remember both how she was born and how she became the night. The fears that she expressed in the end of the first part, when she said that the "Alice they (Kirito and Eugio) knew is gone" would then be dispersed.

5.9 Oh yeah almost forgot an important note - Pontifex Quinella can be seen alongside the good-guys troupe that we witness in the very beginning. Important because of at least one thing - she is considered a tragic enough character to not be a pure-evil for Kirigaya. I want to believe. All of them will somehow have their part in the final act, all returned - both Quinella and Cardinal, Eugio and child-Alice would be back to encourage and support our hero through his hardships.

​

Overall, a great beginning of the grand end. I will try my best to leave the series of the shelf until it is completely aired, just like I did with the first part and never regretted. Though not participating in de-ciphering and theory-building is such a waste... but I wish everyone a pleasant watch.

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Such a beautiful opening I can’t wait for Asuna

I started doing stitches about 3/4 of the way through last season, but I'll try to do them weekly this season. Enjoy!

Episode 1 Screenshot Stitches

The opening theme was lit!!

LET'S FUCKING GO BOYS. We are back!

New OP's visuals were top tier, and song was pretty good as well. BUT MAN THE ED IS A BANGER. Of course, the song is by LiSA. So duh, it is going to be a banger. Can't wait for the actual visuals.

Animation is beautiful! Makes the break worth it if it stays this good.

Okay, Alice using Kirito's sword had me extra hyped. Even if it was for cutting a tree down lol.

I get the feeling Eldrie is responsible for that fire we saw at the end. Please tell me Selka is okay.

I think this cour is going to be slow paced and heavy with dialogue and emotions. Like I really like the tone of the story right now.

My only question, the main knight (voice of Yami dude) made it sound like the Quinella lived and made it to Earth? I thought she died from the clown dude? Did I misunderstand what he said, or what is the deal with Quinella? Is it a spoiler?

My Saturday's just got a whole lot better with this and MHA returning (not to mention One Piece and BokuBen2 are on today as well).

The last 3 episodes of season 1 already had me in tears but seeing Kirito turned into a vegetable was just sad.

Rip Alice when she finds out Kirito has a girl

Seeing Kirito the way he is, breaks my heart. But I am very excited to see where this goes. As someone who was very fond of S1 & 2, I am even more excited about where S3 will go.

Bro I feel so bad for my boy kirito shits depressing Alice an OG taking care of him so good

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Anyone knows what's the OST name that plays where Kirito is talking to Higa? Found it. sword Golem from Volume 3.

Other than that glad to see this back. Good OST, good ending, sad last scene seeing Alice cry and hugging Kirito. ^{I want Alice to hug me.}

Holy fucksicles that cliffhanger ending.

I’m so bloody hyped right now. I wanna see Asuna again :(

Asuna in full dress armour! This I want to see in its full glory.

That ending tho god damn

Kirito is now broken in body and spirit damn. The towns people seem like scrubs by the way they ran away from the tree. I wonder how they'll fair against the dark territory attack.

Didn't expect such an emotional beginning, honestly looking forward to how they present the rest of the story

Well.. that was a dark episode. Even on SAO standards.

Just started the episode, but I already know it's good

It's on Funimation.

Just Perfect. If they keep it up like that I would love it. Alice Best Girl

So, Tomatsu Haruka for the OP and LiSA for ED. I like.

Not quite a ballad type for Unlasting by LiSA, but not the style we come to expect from LiSA. And it's really good.

Man, whenever I hear Eugeo’s name, I hear a few notes of Niji no Kanata ni play in my mind...

The camera shot of the tree not being perfectly cut was defiantly intentional , it shows the new impurities of Alice’s blade as she struggles to find out what to do now in the world they fought so hard to protect. That is not rewarding of how hard they worked. Her “edge” is fading. Or u could say she’s gettin rusty. That’s wat I think 🤷‍♂️

Don't get why people hate on SAO. This is the best animated, best plot anime I've ever seen

What an episode, damn. I did not expect it to go as far as it did. I didn't expect to see the raid until like episode 3-4 and yet its likely coming next makes you wonder how long until asuna enters the fray and how they're gonna fill 24 episodes.

Also I really hope we get to see Alice in the real world at some point. Would be a shame to have all this fan art and none of it become real 😭

Kirito and Alice remind me of lelouch and cc from the new code geass movie

Man, Alice keep having the worst luck. Her father is still the worst father in the show.

God the outro hit me in the feels heavy

Man, that was heavy

Start of Endgame vibes big time.

The ending song of Unlasting by LISA is so intense! And even can match up to the story when alice says to kirito what should he do, crap im too pity that alice's hero was paralyzed and taking care of him almost a half year, but the introductions was great but sadly they didn't do a 50mins episode 1 unlike the first cour episode

Did Alice arbitrarily made veg kirito sleep with her on the same bed and hug him? I mean, at the end of the last season they only fought together briefly and neither has expressed love or affection to the other. This doesn’t seem like a knightly thing to do....

Sword Art Online - Alicization: Vegetales

Y'know how usually a seasons first episode gets you amped for the season? Yeah this one just made me sad. Also, calling it right now, I think the Integrity Knight that came to re-enlist Alice set the village on fire as a false flag.

Where was Asuna? I thought she appeared in the last episode...

I find one of the greatest scenes the one where kirito is robbed of his sword. His reaction shows that his sword(s) represent his power to exert his will on the world (see also the second-to-last episode of S1), but in this condition, even with his weapons, he has lost that ability. Also, Eugeo's sword is the only thing that is left of him in the world, and the setup in Alicization 1 was done so excellently that we all strongly associate the sword with Eugeo and think of him when we see the sword. So this scene, as well as essentially the entire episode, was heartbreaking to me. Excellent work, SAO team! IMHO you nailed it.

I wonder how the dark territory minions made it to the village since Eldrie said he hadn't seen a single one during his patrol that day. I hope Selka will be alright.