Overlord III Episode 8 Review: A Handful of Hope

A rather unexpected turn of events. We got to see a very angry Ainz in this episode of Overlord, more merciless and overpowered than ever before. You would think that he would have killed them instantly but he actually engaged in a conversation.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 一握りの希望

Plot

The Foresight and Ainz are getting ready to fight, but before doing so, Ainz is trying to learn their purpose and the person behind their planned attack. Foresight tries to talk their way out of the ordeal but their attempts are futile since Ainz is rather angry about them stealing his treasure and invading the place that he created with his comrades. As they engage into battle, Foresight soon realizes that they have no chance of beating him: Hekkeran gets paralyzed, Imina and Roberdyck give all the gold to Arche and plead Ainz to show mercy and let her escape by flying away. Ainz allows her to leave but sends out Shalltear to kill her without making her feel any pain. He soon finishes everyone off and gives parts of the bodies to each and every resident of Nazarick that had any use of them. Later on, we see the Emperor and his council discussing the failure of the Nazarick attack and as they do so, suddenly a dragon ridden by Aura and Mare lands in the inner garden of the palace. Mare then says that Lord Ainz is very angry about the latest events and demands an apology, if he doesn’t get it soon he will destroy the country.

Episode Highlights

The badass-ery of Ainz: There was no doubt that he was going to be super badass in this fight, but honestly he didn’t even do that much… Finally, we got to see the scene of Arche reading his magic power and well… puking rainbows. Despite his cool and overpowered side, I think in this episode it was the first time we saw Ainz being really human and emotional. He really didn’t like the overall plan and he even made the guardians close their ears so he can complain about it to the Foresight. He basically spoke out his anger in order to calm down.

What kind of outfit was that? Why did he choose to wear that kind of clothes in order to fight Foresight? I mean if he is an Overlord, why is he topless and wearing chains (the wrong kind of chains)? Was it in order to show that even with no armor they cannot harm him? In any case, I laughed so much when Shalltear shrieked when Ainz showed a bit of skin and Cocytus had to make her go quiet. I wonder how Albedo was able to hold herself, she is either super professional or just afraid after the attempted rape incident.

Aura is so cute: I loved how she didn’t want to go to the freak in the Large Hole to drop the bodies and made Mare do it instead. Her reaction is very similar to that when she heard about Kyouhukou, which makes me wonder what horrifying creation Gashokukochuuou is supposed to be…

Themes & Trivia

The Gospel of Mark: I was surprised when Ainz referred to the Gospel of Mark, I didn’t take him for a religious guy. The Gospel According to Mark is one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to his death and burial and the discovery of the empty tomb.

Puking rainbows: You might have seen this before but lately it’s been used in anime quite a lot. I don’t really understand why Overlord cannot show some actual puke if they show lizard sex and people getting eaten by cockroaches but oh well. The concept of ‘rainbow vomit’ stems from a blog article on I-mockery about visiting Little Tokyo neighborhood in LA, posted by the site owner RoG on August 6th, 2006.

Gashokukochuuou: No one really knows what that thing is but it is very likely that he is a parasite-type NPC. His name ‘餓食狐蟲’ sounds similar to ‘芽殖孤虫’, a Japanese name for Sparganum, a parasitic infection. It uses humans as a ‘house’. Lovely stuff once again.

Comments

He sent Mare and Aura with a rare dragon to the palace just to make someone apologize for all the mess? There is no way in hell that this is his only request. He just wants to make the Emperor his little bitch, that’s what he is doing.

That is how you respect the dead.

It is the responsibly of the hunter to use the hunted prey without waste. God damn it why are they becoming so barbaric and gross? It’s all Demiurge’s fault I am sure. Let’s see what is going to be the next move of the Emperor. He should proceed with caution because Ainz is in a really bad mood.