Damn did this dude legit kill his childhood friend to eat her soul? Kids these days are weird.

OMG, fucking Gabriel.

Even though im a LN reader, i thought i was prepared, A-1 proved me wrong.

I already knew Alicia and Lipia fate but this is too much. Poor Alicia, Poor Lipia and Shasta. I feel them.

On the other hand, A-1 did amazing job displaying Emperor Vector absolute authority in the Dark land.

Also, good job on displaying how dreadful and disgusting can Gabriel Miller be.

They killed off Lipia wayyy to soon. She looked like such an interesting character:(

wait so is the guy legit dead? i expected more of the good guys in the dark territory :/ damn this gabriel though, that was quite shocking.. good villain!

Shasta: This man's soul is schrodinger's cat

OMG! I thought Administrator is already the worst, but Gabriel is even worse ....

From Sugou, to Zaza, to Administrator, now up to Vector. The evilness of the antagoinsts just gets darker than any we’ve seen earlier.

Damn what an episode. The Alicia thing got me good.

The episode was animated absolutely amazingly, can’t wait to see asuna and alice make first contact. P.S. I’m still infatuated with the ED it’s the best.

Wtf Gabriel is a fucking murder

not even one ep and they killed my fav character Lipia >:(

Is it me or does Shasta and Lipia somewhat resemble Bercouli and Fanatio, I can't be the only one that sees this

I wanted so much some Kirito time...BUT This episode was insanely good. As an anime-only guy i didn't know this guy before. I thought he is just an evil but very good strategist but now i can't imagine better antagonist and king for the dark territory than this cruel, soulless psychopath who is furthermore a very clever and good leader.

It was too soon, poor Lipia and Shasta, they were gone too soon

What's up with seeing soul in real life? Is it just his imagination?

I hate this dude already

Kirito needs to dual slash his ass to pieces asap

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So... Both the good guys are dead... She didn't even get to say "yes" to the marriage proposal..!! TT_TT

Gabriel legit needs to be put in an asylum. That dude's a psychopath! He killed his childhood friend by stabbing into her ears!! STABBING HER EARSSS!!!

Still no Asuna... Hopefully we get to see her next week! I've had enough of that crazy psychopath for now.

Isn’t Shasta the dude that made Fanatio what she is? The one who she thought looked down on her?

As in recent weeks, I will try to summarize as much as I think.

The episode begins magnificent, exposing us, immediately, what is the biggest question that guides all the pathology of the villain. A typical curiosity of a more innocent being, a child, which serves as a trigger for an entire psychosis, a chronic delirium. Gabriel is not a villain the viewer should sympathize with, but the approach Kawahara has chosen is fantastic.

Miller is completely consistent in his leadership characteristics, as we have seen in the respect he imposes on the team in EP3, and now in EP4, in the discursive ability he demonstrates. Unlike him, Vassago is much more a high-level soldier, a barbarian troublemaker of great military and physical potential. This "team" between the two is something to praise again here. But if that wasn't enough, we needed to be in touch with the construction of all the villain's thinking and motive. It was necessary to explain minimally the origin of this "fetish" for souls that Gabriel developed. And again, this is very well done.

Of course, for the situation to develop, Kawahara found a perfect solution: the break, made in the previous episode, of the stereotype built by the Axiom Church that everyone in the Dark Territory were barbarians and troublemakers like the Goblins. Shasta himself even questions this stereotype in the episode. In fact, both Lipia and Shasta have traces of humanity and go against this paradigm that is created for us. Not only do they possess passionate emotions and feelings, but they rationally see the damage created by the possibility of war (the power imbalance and an expanded nation that would start in ruins). The way in which Lipia acts of her own accord is phenomenal, adding independence, resolution and consolidating Shasta's influence on her thinking.

But this is where the episode intensifies further. Gabriel's recollection of the sensation of souls and the height of their delirium comes in response to a characteristic created from the beginning on UWO. See how nothing is convenient here. Kawahara doesn't create elements to make Plot follow, but rather builds the story with planning, probably already wondering what would happen. And finally we saw the horror: Gabriel and Alicia, under a clearing, the girl being the first victim of the pathology. We watched in horror at the scene of a psychosis beginning, while we saw the character imagining and hallucinating, fantasizing with his pioneering act, the beginning of his madness. It is as if we can watch first and third person a madman, a drunk, understanding what's going on in his head and having the shock of perspective.

The nostalgic sensation is important for him to lose control of the shock of finally experiencing that experience in a concrete way (since the previous murders are manifestations of pathology). But, as if that wasn't enough, Miller still gives another demonstration of how unquestionable leadership skills he has in dealing with a tyrannical, irreducible and efficient manner of attempting betrayal. Worthy of earlier medieval times (and it should be remembered that this is the setting of UWO), he uses Lipia as an example for intimidating riots and at the same time creatively for identifying the culprit. The way he terrifies is felt even in us viewers, and the animation of the scene in which Shasta encounters the pain of loss, with the fall of his beloved, is, comparable to Eugeo's EP19 scene, extremely creative. , touching and difficult to do, animating something completely abstract that are the feelings.

In my watching experience, I myself felt Shasta's pain. And it is this pain, on the same basis that Gabriel explains his "soul tasting" in UWO, that dictates a Fluctlights response. Each element of the scene struck me as fitting for the explanation, as we see the soul's walk along the Lightcube, followed by a perfect explanatory dialogue. In the words of the Black Knight: "A man who knows nothing about the brightness of life, soul or love. That is why he goes after the souls of others. This man cannot be killed by a murderous sword ... because this man's soul is alive and dead at the same time. " I don't know if I got it completely right, but in my interpretation Shasta's attack is a manifestation of the Power of Imagination described in the first half of Alicization. Furthermore, the fact that he is able to visualize the "void" in Gabriel's soul is due to the already mentioned connection between the Fluctlights. I felt really bad for the two "humanized knights" at the end of the scene.

The impact of each of the scenes, each expression, cartoonization, vocal performance, and especially the texts, are perfect in my view, as are the animation and the OST. I believe this is the best episode of this half and perhaps one of the best of all of anime. Heavy applause.

Damn that shit got dark! I was real nervous he was going to rape her, especially after the foreshadowing last episode about marriage. So in a way, I am glad it was only death lol!

The animation was insane when he became some type of tornado (I have no idea what was going on, but it looked good)

Main villain straight up crazy. However, what they hell is up with this eating soul thing?! When he killed his childhood friend, that was in the real world, so how the hell did he eat her soul?!?!

The ED is fucking so good. I honestly think it has potential to be one of the best ED's of all time, for sure the best SAO ED ever and best this season of anime.

Anyone know why this episode isn’t on Hulu?

Screenshot stitches for this week are up! Not many landscapes or exteriors, and lots of disturbing images this week.

Episode 4 Screenshot Stitches

Episode 3 Screenshot Stitches

Episode 2 Screenshot Stitches

Episode 1 Screenshot Stitches

Holy shit. This episode was fucking graphic. But phenomenal, nonetheless.

Damn.. and here i thought the Pontifex was bad. Made her look like child’s play.

Hype to see the next episode.

This episode was SO intense. Had me in shock

Where is everyone watching this? I don't see it on Hulu.

All the complaints I've seen, sort of in /r/anime and elsewhere about how the Incarnation System wasn't really explained is disappointing to me, as someone who watched Accel World. AW did a fairly decent job of it.

So we get a confirmation that sole willpower can bend this system, just like in Aincrad, eh?

Also that bit of gore with screwdriver was totally unexpected and feels like the darkest thing in whole SAO untill now

oh god

welp so much for that plotline rip :[

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Did anybody hear the Japanese voice actor for Ryuji (persona 5) in the ep. 4? One of the guild leaders. (Pig)

I usually dont care about random side characters who only appear for 1 ep but lipias and her commanders death really fucked me up.

I really liked both of them, and expected sth of them fighting against the empire from the inside and trying to make peace that way...

For some reason this episode didn't release on Hulu. Does anybody have any idea as to why?

Lipia...:( I wanted to see more of her character develop with her commander.

That was a very intense episode. I did not expect Lipia and Shasta to meet their end so quickly, I mean I expected something bad was going to happen to them eventually but not so soon. So Miller likes to kill people and eat their souls; that's Raziel's job! Looking forward to the big battle coming up soon.

I couldn't tell the difference between Gabriel and Kirito's actual mental health...

Shasta pulled out the Avatar mode

That couple already raised a Death Flag in the previous episode so it was expected. But still.... 😥

Good lord that was....dark.