SAO S3 Ep 22 Alice Synopsis and Review *SPOILERS*

-

 

Sword Art Online 
S3 E22
Alice

Synopsis and Review 

Disclaimer: I am pretty new to anime. I just started my anime addiction in February. I am not well versed in terminology. I have the Light Novels but I have not started them. This is very much a noob review. I will say the wrong things. Once I start the LN's I hope to go back through the series and compare. You can skip the synopsis if you want and go straight to the review at the end. 

The date is Saturday, August 1, 2026. The scene opens with Rinko speaking to an audience. We see Kirito and Asuna still laying in the STL's. At the press conference there are cameras flashing and media there. Rinko introduces Alice to the small crowd as the world's first true artificial general intelligence.


Anima by ReOna plays. I am currently learning this in Japanese so I can properly sing it without being offensive.


Everyone is watching from Agil's pub. Silica points out that Alice is wearing their school uniform. Liz makes the remark that Alice requested it. Sinon is impressed with the recreation they did of Alice. She says you can barely tell a difference through the screen. 

Rinko tells the audience she will start with a question and answer section.

**Excuse me Rinko, I have a burning question. Yo, Alice, I'm really happy for you, i'mma let you finish but.. where the fuck is Kirisuna? I am sorry but I don't think I would be sitting around at a bar while my friends are laying in some machine and I have no idea if they are okay or not. Why is this event happening right now if they haven't saved Kirito and Asuna?**

First question is what makes Alice different from existing programmable robots? Rinko said it is the consciousness that exists in the photonic brain stored within her skull. It isn't a program that can be written with binary code. It isn't any different than human brains. The reporter wants Rinko to open Alice's skull and show the photonic brain. Rinko has a look of horror on her face, but Alice says yes. Just as soon as the reporter opens up his skull and shows her his brain to prove that he is human.

**I am not an Alice stan. She has always been meh to me, but this comeback makes me like her a little more**

Suguha makes the remark that Alice is upset. Alice doesn't look fazed to me but she has always remained composed. Another reporter raises the concern of advanced artificial intelligence causing a further rise in unemployment. Rinko says those concerns are unfounded because they have no intention of deploying the true AI into the unskilled labor force. The reporter says the financial world would want to use them as industrial robots. Rinko says that the true AI could not be mass produced in a short time. She explains that they are born and raised by their families. That to load such an intelligence into industrial robots and force them into labor shouldn't be allowed to happen. The reporter then asks about giving AI human rights. Rinko says she does not expect that to happen this century, but eventually we would live among them in society. Even starting families with them. The reporter says that the AI's existence is different from theirs. How can they be expected to acknowledge machines as being the same as human kind. Rinko is about to answer but Alice stops her. Alice says she acknowledges and accepts the fact that she was created and she is grateful to them for creating her, but as another person born in her world once said "What if the real world is also a world created by others? What if there were even more creators outside it?" 



 She asks the reporter what she would do if one day her creators appeared before her and ordered her into slavery, what would she do? Alice then talks about her experience with real-worlders. How they have encouraged and supported her. How they have taught her things and she is fond of them. She then says that she is even in love with one of them **Dear God, The SAO is a Harem assholes are going to eat this up** Alice says she has a right that that she will extend to the people of the real world but she will not fall to her knees or grind her forhead in the dirt because she is a human.



The broadcast then talks about the incident on the ocean turtle. They say that Mr. Kiku was the lone casualty and my heart sinks for a second but then Kiku appears beside Higa in vacation wear and sunglasses. He says it was for the best because the blame would have been pinned on him. His "death" drove their opposition in Japan into a corner. The vice minister of defense was leading them because he was getting paid off from American weapon manufacturers. Higa asks if he is sure about going public with the artificial fluctlights since it will derail Rath's ultimate goal which was the autonomous weapons loading project. Higa says it will be fine that they have already perfected the artificial Fluctlight. The Americans will have to give up. Higa says they have Kirito to thank for that. They then show Kirito and Asuna laying in the STL's which is heartbreaking to see them laying there in that cold dark room alone.



We go back to the press conference. Rinko says she hopes everyone who is watching will interact with the newly born fluctlights in the virtual world. A reporter jumps up and asks if there is any danger of the AI's annihilating the humans to take over the planet. Rinko says that would only happen if we were to try and annihilate them first. Alice looks startled and looks away. She excuses herself and walks away from the press conference. She enters the room where Kirito and Asuna are. She grabs Kirito's hand and he opens his eyes and says "Hey, Alice long time no see." Classic Kirito. He tells her that her sister Selka decided to go into Deep Freeze to wait for her return. He tells Higa to delete the memories of the last 200 years since the start of the maximum-acceleration phase. He says that his and the queen's roles are done. Kirito looks rough here. He has lines around his eyes and his cheeks look sunk in. 


Kirito wakes up in a hospital bed. Asuna walks in with a new hairstyle and fusses over Kirito. She asks him if he has been eating. He tells her that he will be discharged in three days. She says they will need to celebrate. Kirito looks off into the distance and we get a few flashbacks that make Kirito cry. I hate seeing him cry because it breaks my heart. I am glad Asuna is there to comfort him. Asuna says that even though their memory is gone the memories will not vanish. We hear Eugeo's voice telling Kirito to not cry and stay cool. Kirito says he is sure they will see them again someday. 


Kiku walks in and tells Kirito he is glad to see him so far in his recovery after only a week of rehab. Asuna asks Kiku what he is going to do now that everyone thinks he is dead. Kiku says he is going to do all he can to keep the Ocean Turtle and Underworld safe. Kirito wants to know what will happen to the Underworld. Kiku said it isn't looking good. The government wants someone to blame and they are negotiating. Rath will eventually dissove and all the technology will be absorbed by the major conglomerates. Alice will be seized. Kirito asks Kiku if he has a plan to keep that from happening. Kiku says that he hopes that during the time it takes all of that to happen that people will acknowledge the human rights of artificial Fluctlights. To achieve this they need to get as many people as possible to interact with the artificial Fluctlights for as long as possible. For that to happen they need to have a high-bandwidth connection. The satellite connection used by the Ocean Turtle has been cut off by the government. Kiku is going to do what he can to restore that connection. Kirito asks Kiku to do what he can to protect the Underworld. Kiku says he would. 


We are now in Higa's apartment. He has kept the copy of Kirito's fluctlight. He is speaking to the Fluctlight.  Higa said that he couldn't bring himself to delete it. That Kirito was the first Fluctlight to survive the passage of two hundred years and is the longest living human. Fluctlight Kirito says that he had a feeling something like this would happen. Fluctlight Kirito says that he will fight for the Underworld. He says there has to be a connection somewhere. Higa asks where, Fluctlight Kirito says they need Kayaba's help. Higa is shocked that Kayaba is alive. He wonders what will happen if Fluctlight Kirito and Fluctlight Kayaba meet. YES!!!!! This is exactly what I wanted to happen and why I was so underwhelmed with Kayaba's storyline last week. I love the interaction between them and I missed that so I am going to get what I want after all. Higa wonders if he has opened Pandoras box. Higa says that he wants to know what will happen and he has some old contacts that he can send encrypted messages to. 



Kirito arrives home and crashes onto his bad. He closes his eyes and thinks about Eugeo. He starts crying and says that he should have had them delete all his memories including the two years he spent with Eugeo. You can feel his pain. This scene is particularly heart wrenching and shows the close relationship that they had. Suguha enters his room and sits down on his bed to comfort him. She tells him to tell her everything that happened in that world, the good and the bad. Kirito wipes his tears and starts telling her how he met Eugeo. 


The episode ends with a bonus scene of Alice at what appears to be a fancy dinner party. She is looking out a window and looks sad. She says Kirito, I feel like I might wither away. Then they show the next morning. Kirito is sleeping and beside him his phone is ringing. It is Rinko. End Scene. 


Final Thoughts and Review:

I give this episode a 9/10 there were a lot of moving parts. I really liked the discussion that was started about AI rights. This has been a popular theme in the past few years. It is thought provoking. This episode was very emotional. To me Alice feels very alone in this world. I am sure she misses the Underworld and her family and friends. She feels out of place and probably suffocated by all the attention. Kirito breaks my heart. The scene where he says he wants all his memories of Eugeo deleted is so heart wrenching. I would be lying if I said I didn't cry during that scene. I am very excited for the next episode and the Kirito vs Kayaba showdown. I have always loved their interactions. I am sad to think that this season is coming to an end and that we need to savor these next two episodes. We don't know if and when the next season will be. 

Thank you for reading! I appreciate all of you. If you aren't already please follow me on Twitter and Twitch!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why did I choose bariatric surgery?

-
Image
  Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. The long story of my weight gain I was not an overweight child. I was always healthy. I grew up in the 80's in Appalachia. If the sun was shining we were not allowed to be indoors. The meadows, forrest, and trees were our playground. We had the whole country side to explore. I remember having this big weeping willow that was conveniently placed at the top of the hill. We would swing for hours on the vine like branches, until our Mother would yell at us to stop. We stayed in the trees. Seeing who could climb the highest pine. We made forts in the woods. Living in the mountains was honestly some of the happiest memories of my life. We moved to the city when I was 11. It was definitely a change. We were living on a hill of family members and had tons of cousins to play with. We would play all of the
Read more

YouTube is killing Eugenia Cooney

-
Image
This picture of Eugenia Cooney is from 2012 according to a Facebook page. YouTube is killing Eugenia Cooney. They are aware of her videos and continue to give her a platform. Enough is enough. They need to be held responsible for enabling her. Her videos have been reported by so many concerned viewers and nothing is ever done. When will it end? When she's dead?  Eugenia Cooney looking healthy and smiling in Shane Dawson's documentary, "The return of Eugenia Cooney".   I first learned about Eugenia Cooney on July 19, 2019 by watching a Shane Dawson documentary titled, "The return of Eugenia Cooney". You can watch that video here: https://youtu.be/IoYWO03b71M I was immediately drawn to Eugenia. She seemed like an innocent child locked into a young woman's body. Her story was interesting to me as someone who had an eating disorder off and on throughout school. I saw a sadness in her eyes and I thought, she must be protected at all co
Read more

Supplements I take for Narcolepsy and Mental Health

-
Image
  Disclosure: The product links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. I bought and paid for the products below. Living with Narcolepsy is difficult. Most of us are scouring the internet looking for anything that will help us feel more awake or to decrease the side effects of our medications.  The supplement industry is not FDA regulated. There are not enough studies on supplements. I will always be open and honest with my readers and never promote anything that I would not personally use. This post will be about the supplements that I use every day, why I use them, and at the bottom of this post is the research I found. Always do your own research and have a discussion with your Physician and Pharmacist before starting a new supplement regimen. Supplements can interact with your current medications, thin your blood, or have other adverse reactions. Please be wary of sup
Read more