Sword Art Online - Alicization - War of Underworld - Episode 21 - 10 Second Anime

The staff of Rath seek to protect Ocean Turtle from Miller’s team as they execute their contingency plans during their escape.

Episode 21 – “Beyond Time”

Hmm.

The worst part of any SAO endgame is how stuff happens that has no explanation to set up cathartic endings and mysterious events to justify reappearances of prior villains in future stories. We knew Kirito might die for real while hooked up to an STL machine because of his damaged fluctlight, but why did Miller and Vassago turn into grotesque husks of their souls when their characters died in Underworld? Miller needed to die in a narrative sense to complete his disturbing origin arc with his little friend Alice. But SAO didn’t come close to establishing how that would happen if he used his GGO account in Underworld.

Meanwhile, Vassago’s circumstances were more annoying. First, he died like Miller did, with a grotesque mask of a face and his hair turned all white, with no explanation. Was the audience supposed to be happy we found out he died? I’m not. I’m angry that SAO gave us this resolution of the villains with no work done to make the audience accept it. Worse, Vassago’s body disappeared and his mercenary friends didn’t seem to care that he was missing when they escaped Ocean Turtle. Wasn’t the whole point of retrieving the bodies of Miller and Briggs to make the NSA’s disavowal of a joint USA and Japanese operation against Rath believable?

Akihiko’s disappearance with the Niemon robot body was entirely plausible given his special heroics to repair the metallic body enough to stop the destruction of the Ocean Turtle, but Vassago’s disappearance snaps that suspension of disbelief. If Miller died and his soul, or whatever, met its end in the clutches of the childhood friend Alice, we wonder what happened to Vassago’s soul and whether it returned to Vassago’s body or something else happened. “To be explained later” in a future arc is not satisfying, nor is leaving the viewer with a vague sense that Kirito has another rival or enemy as a ghost in the machine of the SEED worlds besides Akihiko.

Akihiko’s circumstances make sense because we saw what happened after Aincrad and Rinko explained in the Alicization Arc how they took care of their bodies. Vassago’s circumstances make no sense at all because we saw in this arc how he stole NERV gear to enter Aincrad after authorities had already sequestered it. I’ve already asked about who watched over his body while he ran around Aincrad as the leader of Laughing Coffin for a couple of years. Vassago’s character continues to disappoint me as a believable recurring foil to the Black Swordsman Kirito. Please do better in the next SAO arc.

Heh.

Rinko and Kikuoka need to do many things yet after retrieving Alice's light cube. Miller's mercenaries need to do stuff too! Uh, Miller and Vassago died? How? Why? Eh, at least his little friend Alice finally avenged her icepick death. This is the closest thing to magic we've seen in the SAO's real world where Miller can see dead souls, including his own.

The triumphant return of Akihiko! Foreshadowed from the very beginning that Niemon needed an AI to do all its balancing for walking around. Why not use the creator of Aincrad's world to save the newest SEED world of Underworld? Also, see the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan for plot points. Vassago is even more annoying in his death. His body disappeared and no one cared? And the mustache guy stayed behind for some reason? These strange events may be related. Maybe.

Kirito and Asuna have two hundred years to spend together. That makes up for Kirito's comatose state for a month. Too bad Yui couldn't join them. That story of a modern Japanese couple acting as benevolent gods for Underworld will be epic in the ancient literature sense. Probably what the next big arc will be for SAO.