10 Second Anime - Sword Art Online - Alicization - Episode 14

Eugeo and Kirito encounter a powerful Integrity Knight as they make their way up the Administrator's Tower.

Episode 14 - "The Crimson Knight"

Hmm.

Many of the cards that the slow-paced story has laid down are starting to get picked up as we reach the game's ultimate conclusion. The first one was Eugeo using a powerful "Idea" as his weapon's strength. Of course, it was Alice, and I hope that Idea gets stronger the closer he and Kirito get to rescuing her.

The second card being picked up was Eugeo realizing that all the Integrity Knights are somebody else's "Alice." Perhaps Eugeo should have picked up on that when it was Alice herself who came to drag them away on a flying dragon, but to see the very Knight who took Alice away and him being made to forget what he had done, let Eugeo see Deusolbert was as much a victim of the Administrator as Alice was. They're all victims, they've all been stolen from their loved ones, and they've all been forcefully made to forget their most precious memories at the core of their identities.

That last point may prove to be a bigger thing than it seems and may be the fatal flaw in the Administrator's system of creating these Integrity Knights. That Idea that Eugeo used was like the Ideas the other swordsmen of the academy used. The stronger that image was tied to themselves, the stronger they became. The Integrity Knights have each lost the most powerful part of the themselves and will lose to someone whose identity is whole. Just like the Crimson Knight lost to Eugeo here. I hope to see Kirito exploit this flaw and mind break some Knights in the midst of battle.

Heh.

I guess we're the all-action phase of the story. Long battle sequences, heroes creating strategies on the fly, long internal monologues that outwardly would take a slit-second. Let's just enjoy the animation, then.

New opening and closing credits. Winter season starts for real now.

Oh, fire is bad. Eugeo should have an answer for this.

Aw, come on. Deusolbert didn't have to be the exact Knight that took Alice away, but good job riling up the emotions here.

I didn't see Eugeo's eye go all system alert when he was about to cut that guy down. When he goes rogue, he goes full rogue.

That Kirito. Eugeo shared his Perfect Weapon Control incantation, but he won't share his back. We know why, and it's not just because he's a sneaky bastard, though he is that. It's that plot armor thingy that makes the big revelation have even more impact. I fully expect to see that used as a cliffhanger to amp up the viewers' interest and anxiety.

Uh oh. Meeting two young girls alone in a hallway is always bad. The Shining taught me that.