Overlord, Season 3, Episode 13: PvP
So this marks the final episode of Overlord's third season, and it's... it's definitely an episode that raises conflicting emotions in me. The first season ended with a huge, triumphant climax of a battle between Ainz and the mind-controlled Shalltear, showing that Ainz isn't just all talk, at least in terms of combat. The second season ended with the huge "battle" between Momon and Jaldabaoth, showing just how much the forces of Nazarick (or, well, mostly just Demiurge) managed to turn some unexpected smaller conflicts into a huge one that ended up benefiting them. That said, on paper, season three of Overlord showcases how Ainz crushes anyone who opposes him and establishes a new kingdom, while at the same time making use of his alter ego to make a way to control the population of E-Rantel.
And don't get me wrong, that sequence of events at the end is great, but let's talk about the actual Gazef-vs-Ainz "fight". Obviously, there was no real way for Gazef to stand up to Ainz. He's just a human, and even with all of his fancy magical items, we all remembered how Gazef was overwhelmed by a bunch of lesser angels in the first arc of the series. Regardless, though, that scene between Ainz and Gazef shows the tremendous respect that Ainz has towards the honour-before-reason Gazef.
The thing is that... I'm not quite sure I liked that scene all that much. Ainz treats it as "PVP", even honouring the stipulation that he can't loot the kingdom's treasures, as well as noting that Ainz will also honour Gazef's wish to not be resurrected. It's just really hard not to see Gazef as a bit of a selfish, short-sighted man. Honourable, sure, but there are definitely a lot of better ways to get out of this situation -- and denying the Kingdom the resurection of its mightiest asset is arguably quite a fair bit damaging to the Kingdom. I could go on and on about how prioritizing his "honour" ends up arguably being dishonourable, but eh. I do enjoy the implicit trust between Gazef and Ainz. Each acknowledge the other as not willing to back down, but also acknowledges that the other will act honourably at least with each other.We do at least learn that the magical sword Razor's Edge is apparently able to possibly-maybe kill Ainz, under the logic that Razor's Edge has around the same power as a random dagger that Ainz uses to 'scratch' his face. It's the "basic conditions of PVP", as Ainz notes, although it is very, very mean for Ainz to just use
(Also, no wonder Yggdrasil the game ended up going bankrupt! From what I've seen in the anime, while offering intense amounts of freedom, apparently there are spells that just have instant-death mechanics -- one that forcibly negates resurrection, at that! And time-stop spells in a PvP game? Allowing min-maxing players to create their own asshole dungeons? Yeah, that's just not going to be interactive.)Anyway, Gazef dies, Ainz stops the Shub-Niggurath spawn from killing any more in honour of his resolve... and we get everyone's reactions to this. Emperor Jircniv of Baharuth seems to have been driven insane at the reports that 70 thousand people died to Shub-Niggurath's Dark Young, feeling nothing but absolute despair. The Kingdom is even more in disarray, as expected, with their entire army dead, their greatest hero dead, both Raeven and Barbro MIA and the king being despondent. The only one who takes this well is Prince Zanack (who, whether he's complicit with Demiurge or not, is at least complicit with Princess Renner), Princess Renner (who's a psychopath in league with Nazarick in the first place) and Brain, who pulls off the anime hero trope of "fuck you, I'll surpass you" in regards to Gazef's death.
It's a bit of a strange and unconventional climax, for sure. I can't say I hate it, but I don't particularly love it either.
The final five minutes or so, as mentioned, is very, very interesting. Poor, under-utilized Albedo finally gets some screentime as she leads armies of the gold-plated skeletons and the massive Death Knights into E-Rantel. The citizens are afraid, and some random dumbass kid threw a rock at a death knight! Albedo is, of course, more than willing to kill the little kid... and unexpectedly, MOMON SHOWS UP! In a dramatic entry with suitably epic music, too. It's clear that Momon's role in this episode is being taken over by Pandora's Actor -- although the anime actually doesn't have a blatant scene going "Hey, this is what's going on!" which is neat, relying on context clues of Albedo's reaction and Pandora's overacting to sell the scene.
Ainz himself shows up and proclaims that he doesn't want to rule with despair, and then "forces" Momon to work under him as his own personal hunter of dissenters, in exchange for Ainz accepting Momon's "conditions" of ruling peacefully. Ainz uses collateral damage as a threat to bind Momon to E-Rantel, while Momon himself makes himself look even more better in the eyes of the populace by being this martyr who will hunt down and kill Ainz if he breaks his conditions. It's actually an amazingly clever ploy, honestly, and I'm curious if the fourth season (if we get a fourth season) will show just how this system works to mollify the populace or to root out dissenters.The final scene shows Demiurge and Albedo discussing this situation a bit more, and the two basically come to the conclusion that, of course, Ainz-sama totally planned this all out from the moment he came up with the Momon persona. It's, of course, a lot less foresight and more improvisation, but the final scene ends up with the requisite scene of all the guardians bowing before Ainz -- some of them like Sebas and Cocytus really didn't get any sort of exposure this entire season, huh? Overall, though, the episode ends at a pretty high note of Ainz proclaiming himself as Sorcerer King and that he's now ruler of the newly-established Sorcerer Kingdom. It's a decent ending, even if I do feel that the past couple of episodes feel a bit... unpolished, so to say, in terms of pacing and scripting.
Oh well, can't win them all. It's a decent conclusion, if nothing else.
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