Overlord S03E09 Review: Title Unlocked

Overlord, Season 3, Episode 9: War of Words

This is an interesting episode, for sure. What it entails to is basically "Emperor Jircniv goes to the Tomb of Nazarick, and gets utterly bamboozled by the sheer amount of power and riches of his newest foe. Politics happen." It's somewhat comparable to how the likes of the Slane Theocracy general felt when he saw the sheer power of a powerful sorcerer like Ainz, or how utterly outclassed Brain felt in the face of Shalltear's power. Only instead of fighting or magical prowess, here the power being displayed by Ainz is that of a supreme ruler, showing off his riches, his insane amount of troops and generals, as well as so casually showing off powerful magic to show how utterly outclassed a 'mere' Emperor of a human nation like Jircniv is.


But they way it's showcased here really ends up hammering home just how far away from the amount of power that a video game character like Ainz and his minions have compared to the more 'hard fantasy' characters from the New World. As this episode reminds us, most magicians in this New World can cast third level spells, whereas even an ancient archmage like Fluder Paradyne can only cast... fourth or fifth-level, I think? But not only Ainz, but even his minions like Yuri and Narberal are able to casually cast even higher-leveled spells.

We start off at the end of the previous episode, showing Mare restoring the ground, and threatening to destroy the country if the Emperor doesn't show up to apologize. Jircniv gives this monologue about how he's underestimated Ainz, and he now is obligated to go to Nazarick to apologize and 'take the measure' of this Ainz Ooal Gown fellow. We get a brief scene in the carriage where we get some nice information dump about the sort of harsh-but-ultimately-fair Emperor that Jircniv El Nix is, and that he's actually a pretty shrewd fellow in addition to all that (one of the conversation topics has Jircniv casually noting how Princess Renner makes 'mistakes' in her reforms on purpose).

They are greeted by two of Nazarick's battle maids, Yuri and Lupusregina, and they just so casually control the weather to dispel the clouds in the sky, something that utterly shocks Fluder as that would've only been possible with sixth-tier magic. And seeing an old archmage like Fluder show his shock definitely has far bigger impact compared to when a bunch of lizardmen did it in season two -- it brings it to context just how far more powerful Yggdrasil's magic is compared to that of this world.

And then, in one of the more hilarious scenes in this episode, we have multiple Death Knights being used as basically waiters, bringing out chairs and tables and orange juices for the Baharuth procession to wait. It's just inherently hilarious to see these giant skeletons with scary demonic armour do nothing but walk around and move tables. Fluder, again, is utterly bamboozled because he's spent years to control a single Death Knight, a creature that can apparently take out an entire army by itself (Jircniv's Four Swords bodyguards note that all three of them can barely even take out a single one), yet Ainz can so casually control multiples of them... and use them for trivialities like moving furniture. Fluder is utterly baffled and is just straight-up laughing mad at all this.

Jircniv notes to himself that nothing he have -- riches, manpower, women -- are going to be able to move the heart or intimidate of Ainz Ooal Gown, and that as a politician trying to vie for power and an advantage, he has been utterly defeated by this mysterious man he had accidentally antagonized.

It's curious, though, that Demiurge shows up in this meeting in his toad form, and does his whole "KNEEL" bit.  Also equally interesting is that Jircniv manages to actually resist Demiurge's spell (everyone else kneels immediately, though). Ainz tells Demiurge to stop and notes how he apologizes for his subordinate's rudeness, when all it shows off to Jircniv is, again, yet how utterly horrifying the denizens of Nazarick is. And when Jircniv presents Ainz with the head of the nobleman patsy that sent the Workers, Ainz just so casually makes a Death Knight out of said head, sending him to join the literal legion of other undead warriors in the throne room. And not to mention that Ainz himself is, y'know, a surprisingly intelligent undead.

And then, perhaps in what I think is probably far more impressive and more of a look-down towards Jircniv than everything else that has happened, Ainz just shrugs off the apology, telling them to basically, "yep, just go home, we're even because my subordinate was rude." It's not at all like how kings are supposed to deal with each other, but genuinely like a superior dismissing a subordinate, and Ainz just casually adds how he's going to be 'busy' and how he's going to crush everything in the world because they've disturbed the peace and quiet of Nazarick.

Also somewhere in this conversation, we get Aura and Shalltear arguing at each other, and Ainz goes "SILENCE!" in the same way that he was practicing during this season's comedic premiere episode.

Jircniv tries to immediately make an alliance with this supreme power, and wants friendly ties, and is utterly disturbed that Ainz did not demand subservience. Some poor schmuck, Lourve Vermillion, gets left behind as a representative of the Baharuth Empire, while Ainz casually tells Demiurge to act as ambassador to Jircniv... an action that Jricniv thinks to himself is a show of force since Demiurge has demonstrated his ability to control people.

And as the Baharuth delegation leaves, we get a conversation between Ainz and his lieutenants, with Demiurge explaining about how Ainz wants justification -- instead of just crushing everyone one by one, which will cause lots of enemies and cause them to look like a brutish tyrant (it's going to stain Ainz's name and Ainz is all about that good name), so they're going to take over Baharuth via a political and none-too-subtle intimidation method.

Demiurge then asks everyone about "is that all you believe Ainz-sama's plans extended?" to which everyone, naturally including Ainz, goes "eeeeh?" and we get a fun bit of back-and-forth as Ainz basically tries to get Demiurge to tell everyone, including his own clueless ass, about the intricacies of the plan that Demiurge has 'discerned'.

We hilariously cut away from Demiurge beginning to explain to Jircniv in his carriage again, where Jircniv and his bodyguards are utterly freaked out at what's going on, about how  Ainz definitely doesn't intend to honour his alliance since he's a living-hating undead. Jircniv considers how Ainz seems to know a fair bit about their country, but then realizes how uncharacteristically quiet Fluder is since they've entered the Tomb, instead of begging to study the powerful magics in place... and that Fluder was the person who suggested sending the workers in the first place. Fluder himself is confirmed at the end of this episode to have been visited by "Momon" early during the Workers arc, where his supreme magical powers causes Fluder to quickly pledge his allegiance to Ainz, giving him "everything I have".

Jircniv notes how problematic this is, considering how Fluder is one of their country's biggest military assets, and how the only way for humanity to survive is for them to make a grand alliance between the Re-Estize Kingdom, the Baharuth Empire, the Slane Theocracy, and two others I don't believe we've been introduced to (or I forgot), the Council States and the Holy Kingdom. Jircniv notes how if he was in Ainz's position, Baharuth would be the first to be destroyed as an example to the others, and they have to act quickly to find powerful people that can defeat Ainz.

And then we cut back to Demiurge, who notes, "and that is exactly how the Emperor will think!" with an addendum about how easy it is to trick intelligent men. Was that why Demiurge pretended to be a toad? To make it seem to Jircniv that everyone in Nazarick are just powerful but not particularly devious?

Demiurge also notes that the Momon persona, which Ainz-sama totally created from the get-go for this purpose and not because he wants to roleplay, is going to be their ticket to rule without the fuss of a rebellious population. In addition, Demiurge confirms what has been subtly foreshadowed throughout the final arc of season two, that Princess Renner is actually in cahoots with them (not sure if she's a willing participant or not), and, impressively,  both Albedo and Demiurge are actually impressed by Renner's intellect and deviousness.

The scene then cuts from exposition of Ainz's master plan (or rather, how Demiurge manages to link multiple different things Ainz did on a whim into a working master plan) to how Ainz needs a new title, as he is "no mere King" like the other silly human rulers. We get suggestions from everyone, including some utterly hilarious ones like Beauty King and Love King and "Just a King". Albedo notes "Supreme King", which I genuinely thought was going to be the one that sticks... but I'm happy that it's Cocytus that ends up giving a suggestion that Ainz picks, the "Sorcerer King". I kinda-sorta wished it tied into Cocytus's character development a bit more ("Benevolent Tyrant", maybe? That's not quite as catchy, though) but hey, good for Cocytus.

It's interesting, as Jircniv seems to be up to gathering a coalition of the other human nations -- I'm curious how this will pan out against the Tomb of Nazarick. Is this going to be when the mysterious dragon lord or the black-and-white haired lady from the Slane Theocracy finally make their move as people who actually pose a threat to Nazarick's denizens? Or will a Yggdrasil player finally make his face known? Whatever the case, though, I genuinely do like how the Carne Village and Workers arc gradually built it up into this point where the Tomb of Nazarick is about to announce itself as a proper world power in this world.