Sunday, 9 September 2018

Overlord S01E03 Review: The Lich King Visits Elwynn Forest

Overlord, Season 1, Episode 3: The Battle of Carne Village


https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gazef_databook.pngThe episode starts off with a couple of huge world-building information dump, viewed from the point of view of the knight Gazef Stronoff, the most powerful swordsman in his country that is sort of being sent by nobles into a relatively suicidal mission against bandits so that the nobles of the country can get a path straight into being king. And as we later find out from the villagers' introdump, there are three main kingdoms in this world -- the kingdom of Re-Estize (which Gazef hails from), which is constantly in war against the kingdom of Baharuth; and a third kingdom, the Slane Theocracy, which seems to be fanning the flames of war between Re-Estize and Baharuth.

Meanwhile, Momonga/Ainz is scrying through an orb and seeing the massacre of a random small village by a bunch of human warriors, and he notes, bemusedly, how chill he is about all this when his real-life human self would be absolutely freaked out at the sight of all this murder. Well, at least he's lampshading this, huh? Momonga initially wants to ignore it, but after a comment from Sebas that reminds Momonga of another real-world player, he ends up going to help the villagers under the guise of "testing his powers".

Sebas is apparently created by a player called Touch Me, who had saved a low-level Momonga from being bullied and beaten by Alliance scum people with humanoid avatars who pick on non-human avatars. But... but Touch Me seems to be a humanoid himself in an armour? We do know that Ainz Ooal Gown only accepts non-human avatars, so I'm kinda curious what he's supposed to be.

Overlord EP03 046Anyway, Momonga arrives in the middle of the knights massacring villagers, and the knights don't stand a chance at all. Momonga/Ainz is noted to be extremely high-level in his base game, enough to be a dungeon/raid boss for other players, apparently, and here he's just testing out his magical spells on these low-level chumps. And whereas Momonga unleashes "Tier 9" spells like Grasp Heart (which, holy shit, is hardcore), Dragon's Lightning and Create Death Knight, Momonga notes just how much he feels nothing while killing supposedly human soldiers, noting that he's truly "ceased being human". He has enough empathy towards other humans, still, though,  protecting a pair of kids from the knights, even as he delivers some really badass lines like "You have the nerve to kill women and children, but don't have the nerve to face me?"

Overlord EP03 062Also, the Death Knight is animated in what appears to be CGI, which makes it look even more inhuman than Momonga-Ainz himself.

Momonga introduces himself as "Ainz Ooal Gown", taking the name of his guild, and while his face scares the little girls, he manages to earn their trust with potions and a protective spell. Albedo also shows up, clad in full face-covering armour, and Momonga/Ainz ends up doing the same, using a cheap cosmetic mask to hide his true undead form. I do find it pretty interesting that Albedo is a straight-up racist who's only stayed from killing humans by Ainz's express orders, although I think she buys Ainz's excuse of wanting to scope out the world and build up a reputation? It's interesting how much Momonga's human nature and compassion will show through, and how much people like Albedo and Demiurge will entertain Ainz, say, rescuing random human villagers and stuff.

Overlord EP03 103It does prove fruitful for Ainz this time around, when he introduces himself and Albedo as magic hermits who's just out of touch with the world, and they get to learn a fair bit about the world they've found themselves in. (There are adventurer towns, and their currency is near-useless) It's quite interesting -- Momonga is a human who is trapped in a game, masquerading as his in-game avatar of an evil lich overlord, who is now masquerading as a hermit protecting a village. They also meet up with Gazef, the warrior-knight that arrives a wee bit too late to save the village had Ainz and Albedo not arrived... and now they have to face another army. It's basically early-villain stuff (and Ainz truly outclasses mere humans at this point), so we're still in full world-building mode and I like it. 

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