Sword Art Online II "Queen of the Lake" Review

FULL EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD

Man, talk about relaxing. I don't think we've gotten an episode so far where there isn't someone's real life on the line or where we're supposed to be able to just kick back and watch the show without worrying about something massive happening suddenly. It's just...fun.


That's what makes this episode work. Nothing much happens, and there really wouldn't be much to talk about, but you can tell that the characters are just having fun. This little four episode mini-arc we're about to go on feels kinda like a peek into what it's like to play ALO with our main characters, given how they're going on just a normal quest. The quest has implications on the greater game of ALO, yeah, but, nobody's gonna freaking die or something. There's no "holy crap he's from SAO everybody run" moment.

The first half of this episode is also pretty funny, mostly because we're getting to see the characters interact in ways we haven't seen since probably the first episode of the season, and if not since the end of last season. So, yeah, it's been quite a while.

The episode starts with our comic relief duo of Suguha and Kazuto. No, really. It really feels like they have become the comic relief duo for the show. It's even shot in that sitcom like way. Kinda weird when you think about how dramatic and crazy their relationship was last season.

Anyway, we find out that an extremely powerful sword known as Excalibur has been located below the World Tree in ALO and that there may indeed be a quest to go and retrieve it. Sound familiar? Well it should, as it's the same Excalibur that was used against Oberon in the season one finale.

Through some funny dialogue and angering Suguha, Kazuto proclaims that they should go on the quest to help their new friend Tonky, a giant eight-legged flying elephant/ jellyfish that they once rescued. Well, I guess that's a new type of friend. Comparing their newest friend in Sinon to Tonky doesn't seem very fair...though, I guess Sinon's blue hair helps.

Oh, and there's a neat new opening! It adds to the "fun" vibe I was talking about earlier. Whereas "Crossing Field" and "Ignite" both dealt with some dramatic or action-packed style of music ("Innocence" playing on the whole magical new world thing), this new song "Courage" uses slow then fast music, all light-hearted, to give off the vibe of an adventure. The song itself isn't half-bad, but may take some getting used to. If you like it, though, chances are you'll really like it. The visuals themselves aren't too bad, showing us almost like a glimpse into the character's profiles and what not, as well as showing us Sinon's new character design for ALO and weapon: a bow. Of course, since she was a sniper and all that back in GGO. Toward the end we get some well animated shots of old SAO and ALO places, as well as a few flashbacks of Kirito meeting with the girls at various moments. All the while flashing images of our new core group are constantly playing. It's pretty cool to see the whole gang together for the first time in a game, and even better to know we'll be spending a decent amount of time with them over the next few episodes.

Over in ALO, we see that Sinon is now a Cait Sith just like Silica, and that Lis has constructed a bow for her that can only shoot up to 100 meters. Compared to the 1500 she was easily blasting at people with before, I imagine this shouldn't be too much of a problem once she learns to properly shoot. Sinon also fits in very well with the group. It has been two weeks, which is ample time to meet everyone, but it almost feels like all those moments with everyone before were missing her, like she belongs with the group to add another element too them. Plus, it's fun knowing that she's the only one to not fall in love with Kirito. Thank goodness.

Once everyone arrives and everyone stops making fun of Lis (that's always fun), the group decides to head out to Jotunheim to begin the quest and meet up with Tonky. Aw yeah, Nordic stuff.

On the way down, Lis complains (again, but at this point it's not annoying since it's kinda part of her character) and Kirito accidentally--maybe--yanks on Sinon's tail, to which she threatens to shove an arrow up his nose. Whoa. Classic Sinon. I point this moment out among the rest because Sinon feels human. I know I keep bringing Sinon up, but, she's just such an awesome character that I can't not talk about her!

They arrive below the World Tree and Tonky arrives after Asuna casts a spell to keep everyone warm down in Jotunheim. Along the way, they see dozens of players attacking various creatures that are similar to Tonky, and each of them assume that it's part of some quest Asuna mentioned about players taking down monsters for rewards, to get a popular item.

The sudden arrival of Urd, the Queen of the Lake, affirms that there is a different quest, actually. The episode hits a grinding halt here as we get exposition overload and it's super boring but all that we need to know is this: there was a time where the World Tree was connected to Jotunheim but then an army of giants from Niflheim arrived and broke the World Tree away when they froze some castle with the legendary sword Excalibur in it, and now the king of the Frost Giants is offering the fake sword Caliburn up as a reward for the slaughter-quest while players who chose to help the beasts like Tonky get a shot at the real Excalibur by storming the castle, beating the monsters, and then get to save the world from the cold.

Or something.

And if they don't, then the capital city of Arun will be attacked by the Frost Giants, and they do have a set time that they need to be victorious in. Wow, that's a lot.

If they'd spaced out the exposition rather than just leave it all for the end, it would have been significant better than just shoving it all down our throats and hoping we remember. I'm surprised that I was able to retain most of the stuff, but it's all a matter of filtering out the padding mumbo-jumbo I suppose. It's cool to see that (probably) since the fall of Oberon there has been a lot more lore added to ALO and that there could be such a quest, perhaps even considered a Grand Quest, but I'd have rather we learned this as they were riding atop Tonky and watching the fighting so we're not just watching a practically still image of Urd talking the whole time. It gets to be very dull and boring. Especially when she talks very flatly about all of it. Um, lady, your entire existence is being threatened, perhaps a little more urgency would help?

The quest is accepted, and the group heads to storm the castle, with Sinon pointing out that something was off about that little story. Classic Sinon.

Oh, and as they're going up, we see in the little pyramid containing Excalibur that there appears to be an upside-down version of Kiritsugu/ Shirou's Command Seal. Huh. Little Aniplex Easter Egg for us there. Cool beans.

Thus, the episode ends with our group of heroes arriving to storm the castle and probably fight a bunch of giant monsters!

As I said before, this episode is a ton of fun. Does it slow down significantly? Yeah, kinda. But that much is way overshadowed by the great character interaction, funny dialogue, and the relaxed vibe from the episode. It's certainly a welcomed change compared to what we just saw the last few episodes and how tense things were then.

Next episode: storm the castle, get the sword...save the damsel? See you then.