The WORST episodes of Sword Art Online
Every episode of Sword Art Online ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Sword Art Online!
In the near future, a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online has been released where players control their avatars with their bodies using a piece of technology called Nerve Gear. One day, players discover they cannot log out, as the game creator is holding them captive unless they reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if they die in the game, they die in real life. Their struggle for survival starts now...
#1 - Forest House
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 11/8/2014
In an upcoming update of ALO, Floors 21-30 of New Aincrad will be unlocked. Asuna, Kirito and Yui revisit their dream of once again living together in their log cabin on Floor 22.
#2 - The Queen of the Lake
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 10/18/2014
One day at the end of the year, Kirigaya Suguha showed her cousin, Kirigaya Kazuto, a news article about the legendary item, the «Holy Sword Excaliber», being discovered in ALfheim Online. Without delay, he called Asuna, Klein, Lisbeth, Silica and Sinon to challenge the dungeon in the sky of Jötunheimr, where Excaliber was . After preparing their items at Lisbeth's arms shop and purchasing potions for the adventure, the group entered Jötunheimr via a secret passageway in Alne. At the end of the tunnel, they reached the top of Jötunheimr and Leafa called Tonkii, a flying evil-god-class monster that they had befriended several months ago. The group climbed on Tonkii's back and asked it to ferry them to the ice dungeon. However, along the way, Tonkii suddenly dived and stopped at an altitude where they could see the ground. There they saw that players were cooperating with the humanoid evil-god-class monsters to massacre Tonkii's kin, the beast evil-god-class monsters. As they were watching the scene, a giant NPC, the «Queen of the Lake» Urðr, appeared behind them. The NPC explained that the massacre was ordered by the king of the giants, Þrym, who once threw the Holy Sword Excaliber into Urðr's Spring and caused the world of Jötunheimr to turn into an icy wasteland. She then explained that if all of Tonkii's kin were slaughtered, she would lose her power and this would allow Þrym to invade the land of the fairies, Alfheim. To prevent this, Urðr requested the fairies to retrieve the Holy Sword Excaliber from the bottom of the ice dungeon, called Þrymheimr.
#3 - Code 871
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 8/2/2020
The traitor inside Rath turns out to be a researcher named Yanai. When Higa attempts to restore Kirito, Yanai tries to thwart the operation by holding him at gunpoint. Meanwhile, in the Underworld, Sinon confronts Gabriel, who has logged back in.
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#4 - Captive Queen
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 10/28/2012
Lyfa thanks Kirito for saving her and teaches him how to fly properly. They then travel to the Sylph Territory (Sylvein) where they meet one of Lyfa's party members, Recon. Lyfa and Kirito go to an inn and have a conversation about how Kirito can get to the top of the World Tree. Seeing Kirito's determination to reach the top of the tree, Lyfa decides to help him and asks him to meet her at the inn the next day. When Lyfa logs out, it is shown that she is actually Suguha. Meanwhile, Asuna is seen in a gigantic bird cage at the World Tree, held by the game master, Oberon the Fairy King. She recognizes Oberon as Sugou, who insists on calling her "Titania". He reveals to Asuna how he captured the minds of 300 players before they were logged out from SAO including her own, as part of his research on memory control. He threatens to alter Asuna's memories if she does not cooperate with him and then departs, leaving Asuna in despair and quietly begging for Kirito to save her.
#5 - In the Far North
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/13/2019
Six months have passed since the fierce battle against Administrator. Alice has brought Kirito to her childhood home, Rulid Village, where they live peacefully. Gazing out at the world that she saved with Kirito, Alice reflects on all that’s happened.
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#7 - Beyond Time
Season 4 - Episode 21 - Aired 9/6/2020
The maximum-acceleration phase has begun. Alice successfully logs out of the Underworld, but Kirito doesn’t make it in time. In the real world, Higa and Kikuoka rush to shut down the STL, in order to disable the maximum-acceleration phase, but…
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#8 - Project Alicization
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/11/2018
Asuna infiltrates Rath, the research lab in the Ocean Turtle, where she relentlessly grills Kikuoka about Kazuto’s whereabouts. Kikuoka reveals that behind the development of the Soul Translator is a mind-blowing objective of epic scale.
#9 - Ocean Turtle
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/4/2018
In the real world, Kazuto Kirigaya lies unconscious. At Kikuoka’s request, Kazuto is moved to a well-equipped hospital, but when Asuna and Suguha try to visit, they’re turned away. Suspicious, Asuna and the others split up to find out more about Rath.
#10 - The End Mountains
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/21/2018
Kirito makes up his mind to journey to Centoria. Since he'll need Eugeo's help, he also decides to fell the Gigas Cedar. Meanwhile, Alice's little sister, Selka is worried about Eugeo, and opens up to Kirito about her concerns.
#12 - Ruler and Mediator
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/6/2019
Kirito and Eugeo have been rescued by the young girl, Cardinal, who has secluded herself inside the Central Cathedral’s Great Library. Cardinal explains to Kirito how the Axiom Church and the Taboo Index came to be, starting with Administrator’s past.
#13 - Central Cathedral
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/16/2018
Kirito and Eugeo are now considered criminals for having violated the Taboo Index and are thrown into the underground prison in the Central Cathedral. Meanwhile, on the Ocean Turtle in the real world, Asuna is watching over Kazuto as he's being treated.
#14 - To the World Tree
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 11/4/2012
After recalling how she got into VR gaming, Suguha meets up with Recon's real life persona, Shin'ichi Nagata, informing him that she will be quitting their party to join Kirito. Logging in once more as Lyfa, she accompanies Kirito in shopping for new equipment, having a run in with her old party, led by Sigurd who doesn't take kindly to Lyfa's departure. Before Kirito and Lyfa set off, Recon approaches them, saying he will continue to observe Sigurd's party due to some suspicions he has about them. Meanwhile, as Asuna learns from Sugou that Kirito is still alive, she takes keen observation of the keycode for her cage's lock. As Kirito and Lyfa reach a safe landing point, where they will have to continue on foot through some caves to reach the World Tree, they take turns logging out to refresh themselves, with Lyfa getting a brief chat with Yui. After Kirito returns, they both set off again, unaware that they are being followed by a mysterious group.
#15 - Memories of Blood
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/19/2014
While walking home, Asada Shino, Sinon's real-life counterpart, is bullied by three schoolmates, but they are warded away by her friend Kyōji Shinkawa, who introduced her to GGO in the first place, as a form of immersion therapy for her fear of guns. After talking about their personal lives, Shino leaves for home. There, she tries holding a gun replica, but this induces a flashback to when she was eleven years old; while she was at a postal office with her mother, a man carrying a gun tried to rob the office, shooting an employee and threatening to kill other people. When the robber aimed his gun at her mother, Shino attacked him, wrestled the gun out of his hand, and shot him repeatedly, killing him. The flashback triggers a panic attack from Shino. Meanwhile, Kirito informs Asuna that he will be converting his ALO avatar to GGO, which surprises her, but she approves. As Kazuto, he goes to the hospital to log into GGO, while his real-life body will be watched by Aki Natsuki, a nurse who oversaw his condition while he was trapped in SAO. Shino logs into GGO as well. Meanwhile, an unknown figure overhears an online voice-chat discussing Death Gun before looking at a photo of Sinon, grinning hungrily.
#16 - The Crimson Knight
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/13/2019
After being entrusted with the fate of the world by Cardinal, Kirito and Eugeo head to the top floor of the Central Cathedral. They find their confiscated swords, only to be attacked by the bow-wielding Integrity Knight Deusolbert Synthesis Seven.
#17 - The Demon Tree
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/14/2018
Kirito wakes up to find himself inside a mysterious world evoking a fantasy game. His memory fuzzy, he tries to log out, but is unable to return to the real world. After wandering aimlessly, he finds himself underneath a colossal tree.
#18 - The Night Before Battle
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/10/2019
Resolved to fight for humankind, Alice joins the forces of the Human Empire, bringing Kirito with her. But while the forces of darkness boast overwhelming numbers, only thirteen Integrity Knights are available to fight for the Human Empire.
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#19 - Prince of Hell
Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 8/9/2020
Asuna and the others succumb to Vassago and the Chinese/Korean players. Discovering the catatonic Kirito, Vassago kicks his wheelchair over. Enraged, Klein lunges at Vassago, only to be pinned down by enemy players. Just then, someone unexpected appears.
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#20 - Instigation
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 7/26/2020
Bercouli pursues Vecta, who’s abducted Alice. After a long, vicious battle, Bercouli unleashes his secret sword skill, Uragiri, and finally defeats Vecta, despite having sustained severe injuries himself.
#21 - The King of the Giants
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 10/25/2014
At the entrance to Thrymheim, Yui explains that the quest they were given was created by the Cardinal System's Automatic Quest Generation Function and that if they did not succeed in their quest, a final war event, Ragnarok, would be triggered. Sometime later, at the end of the second floor of Thrymheimr, the group encounters two minotaurs, and they are forced to rely on Sword Skills that could deal elemental damage to them in addition to physical damage, but also leave the player rigid for a few seconds after the skill is used up. With Kirito revealing his new technique of using consecutive Sword Skills with each of his swords to avoid the period of rigidity, they are able to defeat the two minotaurs. Later, after defeating the boss guarding the entrance to the lowest floor of the castle, they encounter an NPC woman trapped in an ice cage along the way. Although the others insist that it is a trap and plan to avoid her, Klein ignores their advice and frees the woman, who was revealed to be Freyja. Instead of running away, Freyja asks to join the group and Kirito reluctantly agrees to the request. After preparing for the final battle by recharging their buffs, the group enters the throne room, where they met the king of the frost giants, Thrym.
#22 - Nobleman's Responsibilities
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/2/2018
Now an Elite Disciple along with Kirito, Eugeo struggles with the question of what he should infuse in his sword so he can become stronger. When he’s taunted by First-Seat Elite Disciple Raios and Second-Seat Humbert, Eugeo decides to accept Humbert’s request for a duel.
#23 - The Truth About Alfheim
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 11/25/2012
Kirito and Leafa reach Arun, the capital of Alfheim, located directly beneath the world tree. However a sudden announcement of an emergency shutdown for server maintenance prompt the two to find a nearby inn and log out. The next day, Suguha accompanies Kirito to visit Asuna at the hospital. Meanwhile, in the World Tree, Asuna stumbles upon a room where experiments are being made with the brains of the other SAO players trapped in ALO. She then attempts to log out of the game by using the GM console inside the room, but is captured by two of Sugou's assistants. However, she manages to snatch a key card before being thrown back to her cell. Back in the real world, Suguha gets heartbroken upon seeing Kazuto tending to Asuna, and is comforted by Kirito after she logs back as Leafa on ALO, still unaware that both him and her brother are the same person. Later as the pair approach the World Tree, Yui suddenly detects Asuna's presence, prompting Kirito to fly ahead leaving Leafa behind.
#24 - Heartless Choice
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/22/2019
Asuna has created a bottomless chasm. The dark knights and the pugilists attempt to cross over to the other side, where the Human Empire Army waits. Meanwhile, Critter releases an announcement about a limited-time beta test for a bizarre new VRMMO.
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#25 - Raids
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/20/2019
A force from the Dark Territory is attacking Rulid Village. Though she’d lost her purpose in battle, in order to fight for her family, and for the people that Kirito and Eugeo tried to protect, Alice takes up the Osmanthus Blade once again!
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