Overlord S01E04 Review: Get Good, Scrub

Overlord, Season 1, Episode 4: The Ruler of Death

So this episode shows off a bit more of the three kingdoms, with the villain of this episode being Nigun, a leader of a group of magicians form the Slane Theocracy, who are intent on capturing and killing Gazef. We get a scene with Nigun's superior giving him a powerful crystal artifact that he should unleash should he need it... and then we cut to Ainz (still disguised as a masked hermit) talking to Gazef, trying to buy his services to defend the village. Ainz readily vows to defend the village, but refuses to help Gazef fight the Slane dudes. And we get a pretty badass and well-animated action scene as Gazef jumps into battle against the armies of "Archangel Flames", these robot-angels, and it's pretty neat to see Gazef calling out attacks as he swings that sword around and cuts the angels up.

Of course, Ainz (yeah, we're sticking with this name, I guess) basically just wants to observe things a little bit, because he recognizes the Archangel Flames as monsters from the Yggdrasil game. Nigun's angels end up overwhelming Gazef and his troops, as badass as Gazef's attempted last stand is... and apparently the random gift that Ainz gives to Gazef allows him to observe and mass teleport, so when Ainz gets an excuse (Nigun threatening the village), he ends up teleporting in alongside Albedo, and then one-shots the army of angels with a simple "Negative Burst",  a pretty damn badass scene.

Interestingly, the Slane Theocracy's minions shoot magic spells that also apparently come from Yggdrasil, causing Ainz to get more and more curious. It's clear that Nigun and his men are genuinely no match for Albedo, let alone Ainz... and then a second angel, a higher-ranked one called the Principality of something, gets sent in... and gets obliterated with a simple fire from Ainz's finger. And then Nigun rants and gives this huge badass speech and breaks the crystal given to him (yet another Yggdrasil item, by the way) to summon... a seventh-level monster, the "Dominion Authority", something that Nigun holds as one of the mightiest angels.

Ainz...  is severely disappointed that the trump card ends up being a mere seventh-tier monster, calling it child's play and a waste of his efforts being cautious. Both Albedo and Ainz no-sell the resulting holy attack, and Ainz straight-up one-shots the angel with a Black Hole attack. The angel manages to damage Ainz, ever so slightly, causing him to laugh in pain. And as Nigun begs for mercy, Albedo gloats that they have no real need for humans, and then Ainz removes his mask, showing his bony face, repeats the same taunt that Nigul gave Gazef earlier.

Hilariously, when Albedo questions Ainz's motives, Ainz ends' excuse of testing the true powers of the people of this world ends up making Albedo go "I see, so you used the human as a pawn! Brilliant use, my lord!" Anyway, it seems that there are other players from Yggdrassil also transported into this strange new world, and Ainz returns to his base, gathers his Guardians once more, and announces his full name change into Ainz Ooal Gown, and he wants to properly become Overlord (see the title drop, eh?) of this new world. A fun little set of opening episodes, for sure, and it does make me curious to see more. I doubt that Ainz will meet nothing but weaklings for very long... although honestly, it is kind of refreshing watching a story where the characters aren't trying to surmount insurmountable odds, but are just badasses exploring a new land.