Overlord S02E05 Review: Scrying Problems

Overlord, Season 2, Episode 5: The Freezing God 

The episode starts off with Team Ainz teleporting into the false Tomb of Nazarick that Aura constructed earlier in the season, and we get a genuinely hilarious nod at the Guardians' casual offscreen psychopathy as Demiurge shows off Ainz's new throne. It's a throne clearly made out of bones... including some that are clearly human. And while Ainz clearly is a lot less empathetic than your average human (he did just nearly order the genocide of the lizardmen, and only Cocytus stopped him from killing everyone) he still feels uncomfortable at sitting in the bony chair.

And he ends up suggesting the aforementioned punishment  for Shalltear by... having her crouch and then Ainz sits on her? That's... that's cruel and unusual punishment that backfires horribly on everyone present. Demiurge and the dark elf twins are impressed by just how amazing Ainz is because only another Guardian is worth as Ainz's stool; Albedo is jealous and apparently stepped offscreen to break something; Shalltear is straight-up orgasming because it's apparently a fetish (did Ainz not think this through?) and Ainz is just utterly uncomfortable at everything, but being a supreme overlord he can't take back his words.

Also loved how Ainz blames Shalltear's creator, Peroroncino, for being such a goddamned pervert.

"Eh."

And then Ainz tries to regain some moment of composure by showing off some strategic mind, trying to scry into  just what the lizardmen are doing... and then catches Zaryusu and Crusch mid-coitus. Yes, we have animated lizardmen sex and I find this both gross and also utterly hilarious.

Ainz's expression is an equally hilarious jaw-drop (which the screen capture doesn't do justice without the sound effects or the motions, because of how inherently scary Ainz's skelly face is)  and everyone just utterly stares at silence and then explode in insults at the Lizardmen. And then Ainz notes that "yes, it is natural for most species wants to propagate in the face of death", upon which everyone is all praises at Ainz's observations... and then Ainz's thoughts go to basically thinking about what an unfortunate sight to show the dark elf kiddie twins and just who he should appoint to teach them about the birds and the bees.

Yes, everyone -- this is the same Overlord that was all badass last episode.

Ainz also notes, privately to himself, that he's trying to attract the attention of any nearby Yggdrassil player with the huge displays of power, but, of course, it didn't happen. Not yet, anyway.

And then Cocytus walks up to the assembles Lizardmen forces, dressed with some golden armour and wielding a katana, and then summons two giant ice pillars in the swamp. He announces loudly to the Lizardmen that any who pass the pillars will mean death. The lizardmen know that they must at least put up a token resistance to appease the crazy scary overlord monster, in order for the rest of their tribe to survive,  and I also do like that Cocytus, despite taking a liking of these lizardmen, is also resolute at crushing them as ordered.

And then we get to see Cocytus actually fight, and it's pretty damn badass. He's perfectly willing to allow the lizardmen argue about how the young warriors should not fight, but in the same breath, he unleashes a frost aura to basically kill off every combatant that charges him that's not a named character. And the sheer strength that Cocytus possesses isn't even a contest compared to the Lizardmen, and his first actual attack slices the bone-armoured chief in half, and his second attack takes of Zenberu the monk-dude's arm. None of the lizardmen's attacks do anything, and their biggest guns, the swamp elementals, gets sliced in half quickly. Near the end of the battle, Cocytus even apologizes for not wielding all of his four weapons, and only uses one -- he would fear that he would overpower them too quickly if he did so.

It's pretty badass, though, but Cocytus quite literally bats the lizardmen around, and even when Zenberu's sliced-off arm is cured, Cocytus just offhandedly sliced off his head, and then summons a swarm of icicle cannons to stab the archer chief. Even the main hero, Zaryusu, gets batted around by Cocytus merely blocking the supposedly-powerful weapon Frost Pain... but despite this, Cocytus has nothing but utter respect for these warriors, repeating the word "magnificent" a couple of times throughout the battle, and does things like wait for the two brothers to say farewell before they attack, or to toss Frost Pain back at Zaryusu. What a nice guy, that Cocytus. He'll murder you, but he's polite about it.

The final two combatants are Shasuryu and Zaryusu, and even with a little gimmick designed to at least buy Zaryusu the opportunity to stab Frost Pain into Cocytus's armour. It doesn't even work, because Frost Pain's too weak to even bypass Cocytus's natural resistance, and both brothers get killed... but I genuinely agree with Cocytus's assessment of these lizard boys as being "magnificent". Ditto for the animation studio for animating this scene.



After this slaughter, we get Cocytus reporting to Ainz, and Cocytus is basically assigned to rule the lizards, but, of course, with "the carrot", something that Cocytus is very willing to do. Ainz then notes that he's probably going to turn the lizard chiefs into undead troops... but then Cocytus interrupts Ainz again, noting that they have the potential to become great warriors, asking Ainz to spare them. Ainz then considers this, and asks Cocytus to summon Crusch... which Cocytus has preemptively summoned and placed in a nearby room. I really do like Ainz glancing at Demiurge, who shakes his head, and you can totally see the pride in both Ainz and Demiurge's faces. Our favourite giant bug-ice-man is thinking! And I really do love just how much expression they managed with Cocytus while retaining the bug face and still having him speak in a robotic, rhythmic tone. 

Also, good on you, Cocytus. You're a good man.

The conversation with Crusch Lulu is... interesting. Crusch is clearly subservient, knowing full well Ainz has the ability to wipe out her entire people without a blink. It's obviously the smart thing to do, although I'm curious if she's genuine or if she's just having one hell of a great poker face. Ainz then gets close, and asks Crusch for a favour... in exchange for bringing Zaryusu back to life. Crusch's poker face completely shatters at that, and she definitely looks desperate. Crusch asks Ainz just what he wants from her, and in a pretty bizarre leap, she goes "do you want my body?" which causes the scene to immediately cut to Albedo and Shalltear's utterly LIVID faces. That is hilarious, as much as that sequence of thought doesn't really make sense.

Ainz basically wants Crusch to serve as her watchman, noting that he knows there's no way that the Lizardmen isn't completely loyal to Nazarick, not after the massacre they did to them. Ainz notes that this is natural, but wants Crusch to be his watchman... otherwise he'll kill Zaryusu with a built-in spell. It's tempting, and knowing how their love was built up in this arc, Crusch accepting this huge, limited-time boon (Ainz-Momonga thinking like a salesman in his head is hilarious) in exchange for the love of her life back? That's pretty obvious.

And Zaryusu is brought back to life, although (and it's foreshadowed in season one) he's brought back with some penalties in his level, including coming back with a lisp. Clearly not the same sort of resurrection as the one did to Shalltear, although I wonder if Ainz had to use a gigantic pile of gold as well? Zaryusu immediately bows down to Ainz for being a merciful god, one who rules over life and death, and it's actually... it's actually a pretty damn effective way for Ainz to take over the lizardmen people, whether he planned for all this or not. Show off the sheer superior strength of his military, show off how cruel he can be, and then show an unprecedented act of mercy that also shows off his power, showing that, yes, he can be kind in addition to being cruel. It's a very, very interesting way for sure, and it's definitely very different from how these sort of things go -- Ainz is genuinely unique in that his methods of conquering other nations isn't the most altruistic or good, but he definitely could've been far, far worse in not showing mercy. Throw in some genuinely badass moments of deception and persuasion, and despite his genuine winging it in regards to the greater plan, Ainz/Momonga isn't a complete idiot outside of battles, and I do appreciate that. Moreover, the lizardman arc, while somewhat long and slow-paced, has definitely given us some great moments -- mostly action scenes -- but also shows off another society that ends up being Ainz's vassal state of sorts. I'm not quite sure just how relevant the lizardmen are going to be in subsequent arcs, but it's definitely well-done in retrospect.