Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 831,832 (click to see context) from:
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Isshin Chiba (Japanese), Jon Allen (English), Creator/ReneGarcia (Latin American Spanish)
to:
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Isshin Chiba Creator/IsshinChiba (Japanese), Jon Allen (English), Creator/ReneGarcia (Latin American Spanish)
Changed line(s) 890 (click to see context) from:
* UnskilledButStrong: Alice and some others note how disorganized and uncoordinated the armies as a whole are, and that they don't appear to be very skilled with the weapons they came with. However, not only do the red knight avatar they log in with have decent enough stats, but their sheer numbers makes them a massive threat to the comparatively small armies of the Human Empire, Dark Territory, and Japanese players.
to:
* UnskilledButStrong: Alice and some others note how disorganized and uncoordinated the armies as a whole are, and that they don't appear to be very skilled with the weapons they came with. However, not only do the red knight avatar avatars they log in with have decent enough stats, but their sheer numbers makes them a massive threat to the comparatively small armies of the Human Empire, Dark Territory, and Japanese players.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Trope was cut/disambiguated due to cleanup
Changed line(s) 438 (click to see context) from:
** [[spoiler:She's also utterly contemptuous of Chudelkin even after he "dies" fighting for her. Alice, despite being fairly cold, is quite appalled at how callous Quinella is over the death of one of her servants. Although considering Chudelkin's general behaviour, this comes off more as KickTheSonOfABitch]].
to:
** [[spoiler:She's also utterly contemptuous of Chudelkin even after he "dies" fighting for her. Alice, despite being fairly cold, is quite appalled at how callous Quinella is over the death of one of her servants. Although considering Chudelkin's general behaviour, this comes off more as KickTheSonOfABitch]].deserved]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Per TRS, Char Clone now isn't a trope.
Deleted line(s) 56 (click to see context) :
* CharClone: Somewhat Downplayed, Rare non-Mecha anime example. He doesn't wear a CoolMask (though his SAO Avatar not being based on his RealLife appearance is pretty close), and his fighting style is different(being a NighInvulnerable Tank, rather than a [[RedOnesGoFaster very fast]] attacker) but his CustomUniform as Heathcliff is Red and while he didn't interact with or fight against Kirito often enough to qualify as TheRival, he still remained the last obstacle for him to defeat(after besting him before) defeat while his motives for being a BigBad are similar to a type 3. [[spoiler: And similar to Char at the end of CCA, he ends up [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascending through a machine of his own design]] at the end after his final defeat.]] The fact that he also acted as a mentor and superior to Asuna also qualifies as similar to [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Quattro Bajeena]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 602 (click to see context) from:
%%* EvilCounterpart: To Rath.
to:
Added DiffLines:
* HiredGuns: They are mercenaries hired by the NSA to steal the STL technology, while the NSA get to keep their hands clean.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 217 (click to see context) from:
* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Among all the deaths presented in this series, none are is as embarrassing as falling to one's death after getting startled by a falling wrench]].
to:
* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Among all the deaths presented in this series, none are is as embarrassing as falling to one's death after getting startled by a falling wrench]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
While definitely among her more atrocious acts, it's hard to call her killing a Eugeo a Kick The Dog. Eugeo was making an attack on her, so it could at best be seen as self-defense.
Changed line(s) 72 (click to see context) from:
*** As [[FinalBoss Heathcliff]], he cheated during his first duel with Kirito by using his admin privileges to briefly make himself faster to counter Kirito's SuperReflexes, as well as making himself NighInvulnerable so he'd survive every boss fight he took part in. Plus, while making himself the FinalBoss is rather fitting, he ultimately has an unfair advantage due to knowing every single Sword Skill, having designed them himself, and therefore knowing how to counter them.
to:
*** As [[FinalBoss Heathcliff]], he cheated during his first duel with Kirito by using his admin privileges to briefly make himself faster to counter Kirito's SuperReflexes, as well as making himself NighInvulnerable so he'd survive every boss fight he took part in. Plus, while making himself the FinalBoss is rather fitting, he ultimately has an unfair advantage due to knowing every single Sword Skill, having designed them himself, and therefore knowing how to counter them. He basically made himself the opposite of a FinalExamBoss.
* FinalExamBoss: {{Inverted}}. Outside of his Unique Skill and giving himself the appropriate stats, the biggest threat Heathcliff poses as a boss is that, as the one who made the Sword Skill System, he knows and has mastery over all of them. This not only makes him a very skilled warrior, but it also means he can predict and counter every Sword Skill anyone could try and use against him, evens one belonging to other Unique Skills. Kirito realises this and tries to avoid activating any against him, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory only to end up activating one out of habit as the battle gets more heated.]]
* MysteriousPast: Heathcliff himself is apparently a total mystery among the frontlines, to the point that Argo admits to knowing next to nothing about him.
* MysteriousPast: Heathcliff himself is apparently a total mystery among the frontlines, to the point that Argo admits to knowing next to nothing about him.
** Despite her never interacting with them personally, the [[spoiler: Kyouji]] side can also be seen as one to Asuna. [[spoiler: Both are the second children of wealthy families who were pressured by their parents into becoming top students, which is shown to have negatively impacted the both of them, and both rocked FragileSpeedster stat builds in the Virtual World. But whereas Asuna did manage to become top of her class and entered SAO having no experience with video games, Kyouji was unable to live up to his parents' expectations and turned to gaming for stress relief. Both are hinted to have TheGift, but whereas Asuna was fortunate enough to meet and befriend experienced players who [[TalentedButTrained mentored her into the strong warrior she is now]], Kyouji's chance of in-game success was foiled due to being among those duped by an experienced but ultimately self-serving player.]]
Changed line(s) 280 (click to see context) from:
* HijackedByGanon: He's a new villain who turns out to be an avatar for [[spoiler: Shouichi Shinkawa, aka [=XaXa=]]].
to:
* HijackedByGanon: He's a new villain who turns out to be an avatar for [[spoiler: Shouichi Shinkawa, aka [=XaXa=]]].[=XaXa=] of Laughing Coffin.]].
* ImprobableWeaponUser: An odd example. After [[spoiler: [[RoyalRapier Silvery Eternity]] is destroyed and her arm is severed by Eugeo's suicidal charge, she picks up said severed arm and uses Sacred Arts to convert it into a new rapier, which she uses for the rest of the battle against her. In layman's terms, she spends the reminder of the final battle wielding her own severed arm.]]
Deleted line(s) 435 (click to see context) :
** [[spoiler:She plays a major part in causing Kirito's GameBreakingInjury and BreakTheCutie phase for the next three books by cleaving Eugeo in half.]]
Changed line(s) 452 (click to see context) from:
* MsFanservice: Has been regularly referred to as beautiful, voluptuous, and her clothing doesn't try to hide much of her figure, [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl if she's even wearing any]]. Not to mention how she [[spoiler:seduced Eugeo and fought against Kirito and Alice in the nude.]]
to:
* MsFanservice: MsFanservice:
** Has been regularly referred to as beautiful, voluptuous, and her clothing doesn't try to hide much of her figure, [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl if she's even wearing any]]. Not to mention how she [[spoiler:seduced Eugeo and fought against Kirito and Alice in the nude.]]
** Has been regularly referred to as beautiful, voluptuous, and her clothing doesn't try to hide much of her figure, [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl if she's even wearing any]]. Not to mention how she [[spoiler:seduced Eugeo and fought against Kirito and Alice in the nude.]]
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Dakira's backstory heavily [[ImpliedTrope Implies]] that the Taboo Index outlawed same-sex relationships, with even having such feelings in the first place being grounds for arrest even if you don't act on them. And in case you need any reminding, [[DisproportionateRetribution breaking any of the Taboo Index's laws is]] ([[TradingBarsForStripes publicly]]) [[DisproportionateRetribution punishable by death.]]
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
** She acts like one in regards to the Knights, often overlooking any rudeness, such as when they're initially summoned and Eydis' informal behaviour, and granting certain requests, such as Linel and Fizel's desire to become Integrity Knights after freeing them from her Ressurection experiment. This is in contrast to Chudelkin, who endlessly picks on them over anything he can find and often gets angry when they do something that could be seen as disrespectful to himself or Quinella.
** [[spoiler: In "Memories of the Abyss", she further cultivates this image by letting Eydis off the hook after she lost control of her Divine Object and attacked Bercouli, knowing fully well of the possibility of that happening.]]
* RoyalRapier: ''Silvery Eternity'', her rapier, signifying her prestige and authority as the Ruler of the Underworld with its pimped-out design. [[spoiler:It ends up a WreckedWeapon during her fight with Kirito when Eugeo decides to intervene, though she's quick a forge a new one from [[ImprobableWeaponUser her severed arm.]]]]
** She acts like one in regards to the Knights, often overlooking any rudeness, such as when they're initially summoned and Eydis' informal behaviour, and granting certain requests, such as Linel and Fizel's desire to become Integrity Knights after freeing them from her Ressurection experiment. This is in contrast to Chudelkin, who endlessly picks on them over anything he can find and often gets angry when they do something that could be seen as disrespectful to himself or Quinella.
** [[spoiler: In "Memories of the Abyss", she further cultivates this image by letting Eydis off the hook after she lost control of her Divine Object and attacked Bercouli, knowing fully well of the possibility of that happening.]]
* RoyalRapier: ''Silvery Eternity'', her rapier, signifying her prestige and authority as the Ruler of the Underworld with its pimped-out design. [[spoiler:It ends up a WreckedWeapon during her fight with Kirito when Eugeo decides to intervene, though she's quick a forge a new one from [[ImprobableWeaponUser her severed arm.]]]]
Deleted line(s) 483,484 (click to see context) :
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She acts like one in regards to the Knights, often overlooking any rudeness, such as when they're initially summoned and Eydis' informal behaviour, and granting certain requests, such as Linel and Fizel's desire to become Integrity Knights after freeing them from her Ressurection experiment. This is in contrast to Chudelkin, who endlessly picks on them over anything he can find and often gets angry when they do something that could be seen as disrespectful to himself or Quinella.
** [[spoiler: In "Memories of the Abyss", she further cultivates this image by letting Eydis off the hook after she lost control of her Divine Object and attacked Bercouli, knowing fully well of the possibility of that happening.]]
** [[spoiler: In "Memories of the Abyss", she further cultivates this image by letting Eydis off the hook after she lost control of her Divine Object and attacked Bercouli, knowing fully well of the possibility of that happening.]]
Deleted line(s) 486 (click to see context) :
* RoyalRapier: ''Silvery Eternity'', her rapier, signifying her prestige and authority as the Ruler of the Underworld with its pimped-out design. [[spoiler:It ends up a WreckedWeapon during her fight with Kirito when Eugeo decides to intervene.]]
Added DiffLines:
* SwissArmyWeapon: [[spoiler: During her final duel with Kirito, she uses her power in Sacred Arts to change the shape of her RoyalRapier in different sword types so she can use various type of Sword Skills against him, most notably changing it into a [[KatanasAreJustBetter Katana.]]]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Merged Kayaba and Quinella's pages according to CSP Policy changes as per this thread
.
.Changed line(s) 5 (click to see context) from:
'''Main series''': [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineMajorCharacters Major Characters]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineKazutoKirigaya Kazuto Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAsunaYuuki Asuna Yuuki]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineSuguhaKirigaya Suguha Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineShinoAsada Shino Asada]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineEugeo Eugeo]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAliceZuberg Alice Zuberg]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAincrad Aincrad]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlfheimOnline Alfheim Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineGunGaleOnline Gun Gale Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineUnderworld Underworld]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineIntegrityKnights Integrity Knights]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineDarkTerritory Dark Territory]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineCardina Cardina]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineUnitalRing Unital Ring]] | '''Antagonists''' ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAkihikoKayaba Akihiko Kayaba]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin Laughing Coffin]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou Nobuyuki Sugou]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineQuinella Quinella]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineBosses Bosses]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineOthers Others]]\\
to:
'''Main series''': [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineMajorCharacters Major Characters]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineKazutoKirigaya Kazuto Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAsunaYuuki Asuna Yuuki]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineSuguhaKirigaya Suguha Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineShinoAsada Shino Asada]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineEugeo Eugeo]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAliceZuberg Alice Zuberg]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAincrad Aincrad]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlfheimOnline Alfheim Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineGunGaleOnline Gun Gale Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineUnderworld Underworld]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineIntegrityKnights Integrity Knights]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineDarkTerritory Dark Territory]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineCardina Cardina]]) Territory]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineUnitalRing Unital Ring]] | '''Antagonists''' ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAkihikoKayaba Akihiko Kayaba]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin Laughing Coffin]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou Nobuyuki Sugou]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineQuinella Quinella]]) Sugou]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineBosses Bosses]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineOthers Others]]\\
Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
For characters with their own pages see the following:
to:
For characters antagonists with their own pages see the following:
Changed line(s) 17 (click to see context) from:
* [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAkihikoKayaba Akihiko Kayaba / Heathcliff]]
to:
* [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAkihikoKayaba Akihiko Kayaba / Heathcliff]][[Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin Laughing Coffin]]
Deleted line(s) 19 (click to see context) :
* [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineQuinella Quinella]]
Changed line(s) 24,38 (click to see context) from:
!!Laughing Coffin
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin page.
!!RECT Inc.
[[folder:Nobuyuki Sugou / Oberon the Fairy King]]
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou page.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scientist '''(SPOILERS)''']]
!!Yanai
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YusukeNumata (Japanese), Chris Cason (English), Elliot Leguizamo (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:310:[[labelnote:Click here to see his real appearance]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unnamed_998.jpg]][[/labelnote]]
One of two scientists working for Sugou is his brainwashing and mind altering experiments. [[labelnote:Click here to see spoilers]]Later revealed to be Yanai, a double agent Sugou planted in Rath who took up work at the Ocean Turtle after Sugou's arrest.[[/labelnote]]
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin page.
!!RECT Inc.
[[folder:Nobuyuki Sugou / Oberon the Fairy King]]
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou page.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scientist '''(SPOILERS)''']]
!!Yanai
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YusukeNumata (Japanese), Chris Cason (English), Elliot Leguizamo (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:310:[[labelnote:Click here to see his real appearance]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unnamed_998.jpg]][[/labelnote]]
One of two scientists working for Sugou is his brainwashing and mind altering experiments. [[labelnote:Click here to see spoilers]]Later revealed to be Yanai, a double agent Sugou planted in Rath who took up work at the Ocean Turtle after Sugou's arrest.[[/labelnote]]
to:
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin page.
!!RECT Inc.
[[folder:Nobuyuki Sugou
[[folder:Akihiko Kayaba /
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou page.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scientist '''(SPOILERS)''']]
!!Yanai
!!!'''Voiced
!!Akihiko Kayaba / Heathcliff (SAO)
!!!'''Kayaba voiced by:'''
!!!'''Heathcliff voiced by:''' Creator/ToruOkawa (Japanese), Kevin M. Connolly (English),
One of two scientists working for Sugou is his brainwashing and mind altering experiments. [[labelnote:Click
[[caption-width-right:280:[[labelnote:Click here to see
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heathcliff_57.png[[/labelnote]]]]
-->"''Players, I welcome you all to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world.''"
The creator of ''Sword Art Online'' and the man responsible for trapping ten thousand players in his game of death, Kayaba is the BigBad of the Aincrad arc and the most important villain of the entire series. He is eventually revealed to be
Following his defeat, Kayaba would go on to perform a BrainUploading which killed his real body but allowed him to continue existing as a VirtualGhost and an occasional ally to Kirito.
* AffablyEvil: He might be a deluded mass-murderer, causing the death of thousands of players, but aside from this he's actually quite reasonable. Kayaba has his own code that he follows and will not cross the line, even stepping in to help the heroes when [[EvilerThanThou villains worse than him show up]]. He's overall a FairPlayVillain who gives players a fighting chance and doesn't make the game any harder than originally intended, even joining them as Heathcliff to help them clear it.
* AntiVillain: Make no mistake, he's definitely the villain. But it's left up to interpretation on whether he's inherently evil. While his [[AmbitionIsEvil desire to live out his dream of creating a real virtual world]] did cause him to endanger 50,000 lives, he does not take joy in their deaths and [[FairPlayVillain gave them a fair chance to escape]]. In fact he even joined the players and genuinely aided them in clearing the game. Leaving aside the fact he's the creator of the DeadlyGame, he's otherwise very noble and chivalrous, being a BenevolentBoss to his guild and organizing the players to give them the best chance to beat each Floor Boss. In fact ''Memory Defrag'' reveals he even took time out to train certain players who he saw potential in, so that one day they could surpass him. For this reason, he's the only BigBad who Kirito does not outright despise and respects as a WorthyOpponent to a degree.
* BigBad: Of the Aincrad arc, being responsible for trapping all the players in SAO as well as having a big presence as Heathcliff. He can also be thought of as the central antagonist for the whole series, given that everything that followed later on was made possible because of him. Heroes like Kirito [[CreateYourOwnHero were created]] while villains like Laughing Coffin reared their heads and would go and spread further evil. He also remains around for the whole series, albeit as more of a BigGood who assists Kirito from the sidelines.
* BigBadEnsemble: In the Aincrad arc, he creates the world and is ultimately responsible for all the troubles the characters go through by extension but he also has to share the spotlight with the leader of the Laughing Coffin Guild, Vassago Cassals, whose player hunting becomes a secondary but very substantial threat.
* BigDamnHeroes: In both identities.
** As Kayaba
*** [[spoiler: At the end of the Fairy Dance arc, his spirit seemingly ''comes back from the dead'' to give Kirito his Administrator privileges so he can defeat Sugou.]]
*** [[spoiler:In the Alicization arc, he hijacks a robot body to prevent Ocean Turtle from being blown up by defusing the bomb that the remaining GDS operators implanted.]]
** As Heathcliff;
*** In ''Integral Factor'' he pulls this several times, first on the Floor 11 boss fight where he shields the Player from the Boss and coordinates an attack. Later on Floor 12 he saves Leafa from a guild of orange players looking to kill her.
* BigGood:
** As Heathcliff, he's the head of the number one guild on the front line, he's the highest authority among the heroes clearing levels for the others, although he often leaves leadership to Asuna and his other subordinates. Too bad he's actually the FinalBoss.
** Zigzagged with Kayaba. While he is more of a neutral than a flat-out good guy in later arcs, he's willing to humiliate Sugou by giving Kirito his GM privileges and [[spoiler:save Ocean Turtle by hijacking a robot body and ruining the GDS' plan to destroy it]] because [[EvenEvilHasStandards he thinks that they've gone too far]].
* CastAsAMask: To hide his true identity, Kayaba and Heathcliff are given different voice actors in Japanese, English and Latin Spanish dubs. Averted in the European Spanish dub.
* CharClone: Somewhat Downplayed, Rare non-Mecha anime example. He doesn't wear a CoolMask (though his SAO Avatar not being based on his RealLife appearance is pretty close), and his fighting style is different(being a NighInvulnerable Tank, rather than a [[RedOnesGoFaster very fast]] attacker) but his CustomUniform as Heathcliff is Red and while he didn't interact with or fight against Kirito often enough to qualify as TheRival, he still remained the last obstacle for him to defeat(after besting him before) defeat while his motives for being a BigBad are similar to a type 3. [[spoiler: And similar to Char at the end of CCA, he ends up [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascending through a machine of his own design]] at the end after his final defeat.]] The fact that he also acted as a mentor and superior to Asuna also qualifies as similar to [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Quattro Bajeena]].
* ColdHam: While Kayaba ''never'' raises his voice in any of his personas above normal speaking volume, even in battle, the sheer ''coldness'' of the gentlemanly-malice dripping from his ''every'' word can practically freeze lava solid.
* EvilCounterpart: To Kirito.
** Both are virtual reality junkies, with their goals for the virtual world and the real world to be one and the same. Both are the strongest players in SAO and possess a Unique Skill, however while Kirito's DualWielding greatly amps up his attack but can leave him defenseless, Heathcliff's Divine Blade bolsters both his attack and defense simultaneously. While Kirito is a solo player who got shunned for being a Beater, Kayaba as Heathcliff is the BigGood who leads the largest guild in the game and is highly respected. Kayaba had suspected Kirito would be the one to face him in the FinalBattle and become TheHero of the story up against himself as the villain.
** Specifically, Heathcliff also falls into {{foil}} territory. Kirito is DarkIsNotEvil solo player who is ostracized for being a Beater, while Heathcliff is the LightIsGood highly respected leader of the strongest guild in SAO. Both are the strongest players in the game and possess unique skills, but while Kirito's DualWielding can leave him defenseless, Heathcliff's Divine Blade bolsters both his attack and defense and he is virtually untouchable.
* FairPlayVillain:
** He traps ten thousand players in a virtual reality video game, and promises to let them out when the defeat the 100th floor boss. The game is fairly balanced, and so on, which starts to show this, but the real point comes when [[spoiler:[[TheHero Kirito]] defeats the final boss (Kayaba, it turns out) on the 75th floor.]] Kayaba keeps his word and lets everyone out.
** Zigzagged by Heathcliff, his alter ego who has an exceptionally powerful unique skill that even people in-universe consider broken. He also is immortal after taking a certain amount of damage and explicitly cheats during his first duel with Kirito. The ''game'' may have been fair, but his place in it sure as hell wasn't, albeit he's also helping the players clear the floors, but planning to betray everyone at the highest floor, while [[spoiler:giving a bonus for Kirito to prematurely win the game and free everyone when Kirito exposes his identity]], and as [[spoiler:his second and final duel with Kirito shows, he intentionally turns off his [[GameMaster admin privileges]] to give his opponent a fighting chance as the game's FinalBoss]].
* GracefulLoser: When defeated [[spoiler: three-quarters of the way through the planned SAO]], Kayaba congratulates [[spoiler: Kirito and Asuna, and lets them both live and return to the real world, even though they had both "died" in the virtual world]].
* IcyGrayEyes: His gray eyes are described as "metallic" in the light novel, and (despite being calm and soft-spoken) Kayaba has little to no empathy with a disregard for human life, even his own. He retains his gray eye color as Heathcliff.
* InformedAttribute: Kirito states that, despite invoking heavy stakes, [[FairPlayVillain Kayaba has ultimately made SAO a fair game]]. While this is often proven true, such as him making it impossible to [[PlayerKilling PK]] another player in a safe zone without some clever LoopholeAbuse[[note]] a prime example being having an unconscious player accept a duel request then killing them[[/note]], some of the things that actually occur in SAO bring the validity of this statement into question.
** PlayedWith in regards to the Illfang Boss, as well as subsequent ones, where the changes he made to the bosses end up taking the Clearing Force off-guard, even leading to a casualty in the form of Diaval at the hands of Illfang's Nodachi. That being said, ''Progressive'' reveals that there was a quest that leads to a mural depicting the boss with the changes, and the Floor 2 Boss had a similar quest, [[ImpliedTrope Implying]] that despite the changes, he did include ways for Players to find out about them and plan accordingly. And to be fair, [[DidntThinkThisThrough they probably should have at least]] ''[[DidntThinkThisThrough suspected]]'' [[DidntThinkThisThrough that the Beta wouldn't be like the final product...]]
** Above point aside, many of the bosses he designed could be seen InUniverse as ThatOneBoss. Such examples include:
*** Fuscus the Vacant Colossus, who's [[spoiler: not only capable of moving his weakpoint, but can even block off the BossRoom door, preventing players from escaping.]]
*** The Gleam Eyes mainly appeared difficult since [[TooDumbToLive the ALS rushed in against it despite being tired and under-levelled]], forcing Kirito, Asuna and Fuurinkazan to fight it then and there, but he's fought in a [[AntiMagic Anti-Crystal Zone]], preventing the use of Teleport Crystals, limiting tactical retreat options, and Healing Crystals, forcing players to rely on cheaper but less effective potions.
*** The Skull Reaper, whose basics attacks are effectively {{One Hit Kill}}s and, like The Gleam Eyes above, is fought in an Anti-Crystal Zone. It also couldn't be properly scouted like previous bosses since, along with the inability to use Teleport Crytals, the doors were impossible to open once closed and he only appeared once the doors were closed, meaning they couldn't have just simply peeked in.
*** As [[FinalBoss Heathcliff]], he cheated during his first duel with Kirito by using his admin privileges to briefly make himself faster to counter Kirito's SuperReflexes, as well as making himself NighInvulnerable so he'd survive every boss fight he took part in. Plus, while making himself the FinalBoss is rather fitting, he ultimately has an unfair advantage due to knowing every single Sword Skill, having designed them himself, and therefore knowing how to counter them.
* LackOfEmpathy: He cares nothing for the deaths of the players in SAO, treating it more like an inevitable consequence of living in the world he created. Even in front of him doesn't get a reaction out of him, and doesn't care about their loss. His lack of reaction to the many victims in the arduous battle against the Skull Reaper is what gives Kirito a EurekaMoment, and clues him that Heathcliff is actually Kayaba. Unlike most examples, however, he isn't [[CardCarryingVillain malicious]] about it, just indifferent.
* MoralSociopathy: He trapped thousands of people in his death game and cares little about them, but he's a FairPlayVillain who gave the players a legitimate means of escape and he keeps his own rules even when it costs him his life.
* TheScapegoat: When SAO ended, many of the [=PKers=] and other criminals [[KarmaHoudini went unpunished for any deaths they caused]] since, as Kayaba was the one who created the device that actually did the deed and there was was no definite way of determining if one player killed another, all the deaths that occurred were pinned on him.
* TheStoic: He always has a calm demeanor. The only time he ever shows he's NotSoStoic is letting off surprise when Kirito attacks him and exposes him as an Immortal Object, proving he is Akihiko Kayaba.
* VillainRespect: He's genuinely impressed that Kirito and Asuna were able to defy the physics of his game through [[HeroicResolve sheer force of will]]. In his mind, this essentially proves the tenacity of humans -- which was what he was trying to study all along.
** Comes up again in the Fairy Dance arc when [[spoiler:Kirito, defeated by Sugou's GM powers, is visited by Kayaba's ghost, who is confused by how Kirito has seemingly given in to Sugou's power. He then gives Kirito his admin access to level the playing field.]]
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: ZigZagged. It's hinted that the AIs in SAO, like Kizmel, are rather advanced by his design and, [[spoiler: he steps in to help save the Ocean Turtle, and by extension the Underworld and the Artificial Fluctlights living in it, from the GDS' bomb]]. However, back in SAO, he ordered the Cardinal system to prevent Yui from interacting with the players, likely knowing that she possessed a sense of empathy and would otherwise be ForcedToWatch as the players cross the DespairEventHorizon and even be DrivenToSuicide.
* WorthyOpponent: Develops this relationship with Kirito, as the player granted DualWielding, Kayaba envisioned him as the hero who would fight him as the FinalBoss of Aincrad. Both Kirito and Kayaba possess a level of respect for each other, despite being enemies. Upon Kayaba's defeat, the two seem to have transitioned to becoming [[FriendlyEnemy friendly enemies]] with Kayaba willing to help Kirito out against the later {{Big Bad}}s who are worse than him.
!!!Tropes specific to Kayaba
* AlwaysABiggerFish: So Sugou is the GM of ''Fairy Dance'', effectively making him the ruler and God of ALO. Along comes Kayaba's VirtualGhost, giving Kirito his user ID which outranks that of Sugou's! Sugou immediately gets his admin credentials stripped away and Kirito [[TheDogBitesBack pays him back for every horrible thing he's done.]]
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: To Sugou Nobuyuki. [[spoiler: During the climax of the Fairy Dance arc, Kayaba is able to easily override Sugou's admin privileges and give them to Kirito, and in response, Sugou whines and throws a temper tantrum, screaming about how even in death, Kayaba's showing him up.]]
* AmbitionIsEvil: He tells Kirito of his dream about creating a floating castle as the basis for creating Sword Art Online.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Kayaba [[BrainUploading scanning his brain and uploading himself]] into the system at the end of the Aincrad arc seems to be treated as such. Although his physical body is no longer alive, he lives on as a VirtualGhost having become one with the system that he worked so hard to create.
* BadassBookworm: He programmed all of SAO, and designed the hardware, by himself. [[spoiler:Even after his death he created a program that revived the VRMMORPG genre in the aftermath of the Fairy Dance arc.]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: His extreme LackOfEmpathy creates this. He weighed 10,000 human lives versus him creating his ideal world and chose the latter, but feels neither any guilt nor joy at the deaths. He's actually ''happy'' that someone is coming to kill him as that is how Aincrad is supposed to work.
* BrainUploading: [[spoiler: He uploads his consciousness to the internet at the end of the Aincrad arc. This involved a deep scan that fried his brain, thus destroying his body. He shows up again in Fairy Dance and Underworld.]]
* BrainyBrunette: Kayaba has gray-brown hair and is the genius scientist who developed Sword Art Online as well as designed the [=NerveGear=], Cardinal System, and Seed, having been part of the Shigemura Lab in the institute's Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department.
* TheChooserOfTheOne:
** He's this to Kirito in Aincrad, albeit indirectly at first. He made it so that the Unique Skill, DualWielding, would go to the player with the fastest reaction time and intended them to face him in the FinalBattle, though at the time he had no idea it would be Kirito. Though by the time he meets Kirito in person, he already knew Kirito was the one who would fight him.
** A more direct example in the ''Fairy Dance'' arc where Kayaba's VirtualGhost provides DivineIntervention to give Kirito the means to defeat Sugou by giving him access to his admin privileges. Later on, he also chooses Kirito to be the one to receive the World Seed, confident that Kirito had the passion to see that the Virtual World would continue existing.
* CreateYourOwnHero: It is his trapping of the players in SAO that led to Kazuto Kirigaya becoming Kirito the greatest hero of the virtual world. He even programmed the game to grant the dual-wielding skill to player with the fastest reaction speed because he planned on this player becoming the hero that would defeat the final boss and save everyone.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: Nearly averted; he created and sold an extremely popular total-immersion virtual reality game, presumably making truckloads of money off it. But then he decided to [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame remove the logout button and fry the brains of anyone who dies in the game]]. He also enters the game himself, and [[spoiler:eventually disables his GodMode, allowing Kirito to kill him... making him a meta-version of a TacticalSuicideBoss. Why? He wanted to be the villainous god common in [=JRPGs=], and even planned to be the FinalBoss]]. Sugou/Oberon lampshades it during the Fairy Dance arc:
-->'''Sugou''': Mr. Kayaba was a genius, but he was also a fool. All he wanted to use his technology for was his game. He couldn't see the potential in it.
* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: Once [[spoiler:Kirito defeats him, Kayaba is given the blame for everyone who died as a result of his death game, while the Player Killers, who knew or didn't believe that killing other players would kill them in real-life, get off with counseling at worst (well, those that survived the game did--many [=PKers=] were [=PKed=] in turn).]]
* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler:Serves as this in ALO, as it is through Kayaba's Heathcliff avatar that Kirito assumes superuser control of the system. Since this is effectively a god granting a hero divine power, it's like a modernized classical example.]]
* ExBigBad: After his initial goals of seeing SAO to the end were complete, Kayaba performs a BrainUploading and remains around for the rest of the series as a VirtualGhost, becoming a FriendlyEnemy to Kirito and often assisting him when he's in a tight spot.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Doctor Kayaba has a surprisingly humanizing relationship with fellow PHD student Kojiro Rinko, whose love for him seems to be genuinely reciprocated, even if he's a mass-murderer who trapped ''thousands'' of players in a death-game. Around her, and her alone, does he dare to be vulnerable and honest about realizing the futility of ''truly'' achieving his fantastic boyhood dreams. Even though he ''did'' plant an explosive in her left breast out of fear she'll disclose the location of his body to the police while his mind adventured in Aincrad, he never detonated it, and she remained in return faithful to him till his last breath. In fact, she tells Asuna that the bomb was for ''her'' protection. When Aincrad was over, she could tell the police that he threatened her into helping him and thereby escape legal punishment.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** He may have caused the deaths of 4000+ players just to bring his imagination to life, but he keeps his own rules even if it meant losing everything. [[spoiler:By these standards he holds Nobuyuki Sugou, who exploited his GameMaster status for all it was worth, in contempt and helps out Kirito in taking him down.]]
** On a minor note, he's above [[WouldNotHurtAChild hurting children]] as the Nerve Gears that he created disallowed people under 13 to use it. Though seeing as some people under that age, such as Silica, played the game anyway, he didn't seem to put much effort into preventing them from playing, likely since taking more active measures could have risked his plot coming to light before he could initiate it.
** He appears to draw the line at sexual assault. In SAO, a victim of such is immediately presented with an option to teleport the offender to Black Iron Prison. This is due to the Ethics Code he programmed and, unlike the therapist [=AI=]s, it was allowed to continue functioning properly during the death game. [[spoiler: His virtual ghost also steps in to help Kirito against Sugou after Sugou molests Asuna]].
** [[spoiler:In ''Ordinal Scale'', he disagrees with Tetsuhiro Shigemura's EvilPlan, but that was because he thought it wasn't visionary enough rather than any moral objection.]]
* GameMaster: He's the administrator of SAO.
* AGodAmI: While he never claims to be anything more than a programmer, Kirito notes that his behavior is godlike - looking upon the players not with empathy, but with mercy and pity. This is what allows Kirito to identify him as Heathcliff.
* GreaterScopeVillain: As the gamemaster, he's more dangerous than villains like Laughing Coffin but otherwise uninvolved with their evil plans. His actions would also lead to the later Arc Villains Sugou, Death Gun, and even TheMovie villain in fulfilling their own evil plans.
* HeelFaceTurn: Once SAO is cleared, Kayaba's VirtualGhost becomes an ally of sorts and no longer antagonizes Kirito, even helping him out a few times against the new {{Big Bad}}s.
* KarmaHoudini: He [[spoiler:dies on his own terms. While Kirito isn't openly hostile or hateful, he doesn't think that he can ever forgive Kayaba for those deaths, particularly Sachi's.]]
* KillerGameMaster: He designed the Nerve Gear to kill players in real-life if they died in his game. He also placed lots of traps in his world with the idea of making that happen.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: He's no saint by any means, but Kayaba is a FairPlayVillain with [[MoralSociopathy his own morals]] who sticks to his rules, which makes him this to the likes of Nobuyuki Sugou, a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] CorruptCorporateExecutive who stole and used Kayaba's technology to perform inhumane MindControl experiments on innocent people, the members of Laughing Coffin, who [[PlayerKilling killed other players]] ForTheEvulz because they knew [[DeceasedFallGuyGambit Kayaba would get the blame and they'd get off scot-free]], Quinella, a DarkMessiah and ControlFreak who took over the Underworld for herself, and Gabriel Miller, a [[AGodAmI megalomaniacal]] and [[AxCrazy psychopathic]] [[PrivateMilitaryContractors PMC]] commander with a twisted fixation on [[YourSoulIsMine stealing souls]].
* LyingCreator: InUniverse example: On the first day of SAO, he states that there is no way to revive someone who has been killed in the game (and that anyone whose HP had hit 0 would [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame be brain-fried in the real world]]). However, Kirito later learns of a revive crystal that ''can'' revive someone up to 10 seconds after in-game death. So, it seems that there is a way to revive someone; it just isn't very likely to work.
* MadArtist: He dreamed of a masterpiece of a world where players can surpass the limits of reality. He also dreamed of people fighting for their lives in said world, apparently.
* MotiveDecay: [[spoiler: As Aincrad crumbles, he discusses this trope with Asuna and Kirito in combination with a MotiveRant encapsulating his original desire. "Why you ask? For a long time, even I had forgotten. Why did I do this?" He concludes with a statement that suggests this Aincrad did not measure up to the ideal Aincrad he envisioned.]]
* MotiveRant: [[spoiler: As Aincrad crumbles, he tells Kirito and Asuna why he created the death game. In a nutshell, he had a dream about a floating castle civilization and he wanted to manifest that dream in reality. It was this passion that drove him to create ground-breaking virtual reality technology. While he's satisfied with the outcome of SAO, the floating castle itself falls short of his ideal.]]
* NobleDemon: He's a murderer and a kidnapper and has some weird ethics to be sure but he sticks to his rules and is a GracefulLoser.
* PsychopathicManchild: His ultimate goal is essentially to bring the world of his imagination to life and have it be as real as possible. He also possesses a certain sense of fair play. This is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the 4-koma, where the raid team accuses him of having [[MrImagination 8th grader syndrome]].
* TheSociopath: Just doesn't care either way about the people trapped in his death game. Sure, he does help found and raise a very powerful guild and helps its members develop, but that was done solely to have strong players who would keep challenging the game. That said, he's a surprisingly realistic example in that he does none of this with any malice in mind; he built the game not because he enjoyed watching thousands die but because he wanted to make and build a world and it wouldn't have been real if real people didn't populate, live, and die in it. [[spoiler:In addition, he always meant for the game to end with his death, and when discovered early he willingly forgoed his admin privileges to fight on Kirito's level in a one-on-one duel and kept his word once he was beaten to let everyone go.]]
* SorryThatImDying: [[spoiler:He apologizes to Rinko in the Alicization arc for leaving her behind. Case in point, Kirito beats him back in Aincrad.]]
* StrawNihilist: He doesn't even care about ''his own'' life.
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: His anime character design is an average-looking man in a lab coat, in contrast to his [[SilverFox Heathcliff avatar]]. Yet, he's still the BigBad of the Aincrad arc.
* TheUnfettered: The game will continue for Kayaba's amusement. What the players think of him is irrelevant.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: His ultimate goal is to reach or create "Aincrad", the world that surpasses the limits of reality that he saw in his dreams. The "Aincrad" from SAO is based on it.
* VillainousLegacy: A subversion, in that while Kayaba's influence does loom large over the series long after his role is ended, the impacts are largely beneficial to society:
** [[spoiler:A virtual remnant of himself is what allows Kirito to turn the tables on Oberon at the climax of ''Fairy Dance''.]]
** The World Seed he created with data gathered from the Aincrad server is ultimately what allows [=VRMMOs=] to continue to exist after [[spoiler:SAO and the first ALO server are shut down.]] The same thing happens in the video game continuity [[spoiler:at the end of ''Hollow Realization'', when his virtual self is recreated as part of the Cardinal System's preparation to test Aincrad's destruction (as his death is crucial to make it happen). Thankfully, he deactivates the destruction module after Tia is defeated.]]
** At the end of ''Mother's Rosario'', [[spoiler:it's revealed that he was the original designer of the Medicuboid system that made it possible for Yuuki to have a high quality of life in VR while her health rapidly deteriorated due to AIDS.]]
** He shows up again (in a [[spoiler:robot body]]) near the end of ''Alicization'' just in time [[spoiler:to screw up the GDS' last-ditch bombing of Ocean Turtle.]]
* VirtualGhost: [[spoiler:What he becomes after the events of the Aincrad arc, which is why he also avoids being sent to prison (since his physical body was dead). All of his subsequent appearances have him manifesting in this form. In the main continuity, he used a special machine to preserve his life, while in the game continuity (''Hollow Realization'') the Cardinal System brought him back to life in order to serve as the restored Aincrad's FinalBoss (as his death is necessary to destroy Aincrad and complete the test), but with the deactivation of the module he just runs off to do his own thing. In ''Ordinal Scale'', he manifests through Augmented Reality to have a chat with his former teacher, that movie's BigBad.]]
* VisionaryVillain: His dream of "Aincrad" led him to villainy.
!!!Tropes specific to Heathcliff
* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: In canon, Heathcliff and the "Knights of the Blood Oath" don't really show up until around Floor 50. In ''Integral Factor'', Heathcliff first debuts on Floor 11 where he pulls a BigDamnHeroes in the fight against the floor boss, while he debuts proper and in person on Floor 12 introducing his guild at the same time.
* ArmoredVillainsUnarmoredHeroes: As Heathcliff he is clad in the armor of the Knights of the Blood Oath, while Kirito wears a simple BadassLongcoat.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: As the creator of the game, he has an intimate understanding of how the various Sword Arts work. [[spoiler:Near the end of his second duel with Kirito]], he's thus able to see through and defend against his opponent's system-assisted combo, and then attacks him while he's vulnerable, simply.
* BeneathTheMask: After their duel, where he was forced to use his admin powers to slow down time due to Kirito landing a blow on him, he drops his former jolly attitude and glares at Kirito fiercely before turning his back away.
* BroughtDownToBadass: He [[spoiler:voluntarily strips himself of his GameMaster status and admin privileges to fight Kirito on an even footing. Even without them, he's able to hold his own and nearly win.]]
* TheCameo: He makes two of these in the ''Progressive'' Manga, the first as Argo's informant on the Legend Braves and later at a Clearers meeting after Lind and Kibaou create their respective guilds, with him showing intrigue at the idea of a "Third Guild" after the concern of Kirito starting one comes up.
* ContractualBossImmunity: He's a man who created all the Sword Skills, thus in the final fight with him, any Sword Skills are useless on him, as he can predict and block each one of them, leaving his opponent open to counterattacks.
* CrutchCharacter: Heathcliff is something of a meta-example of this trope; he's the ultimate tank who fights on the front lines with his men, and created the strongest guild specifically to collect the game's biggest badasses. He also intended to betray the players on the 95th floor to set himself up as the FinalBoss.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: In ''Infinty Moment/Hollow Fragment'', he's the final challenge Kirito faces before clearing the game. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] since the player doesn't fight him (unless you're playing the original ''Infinty Moment'', where the boss served as a tutorial), and he's technically the first boss as the game glosses over the first 75 floors. After the MHCP glitch teleports him away, Suguo/Alberich usurps his role as BigBad, though he returns later as the TrueFinalBoss.
* {{Distinctive Appearance|s}}: Unlike other members of the "Knights of Blood", his uniform is primarily red with white trimmings as opposed to white with red.
* DuelBoss:
** He intended to be this and the FinalBoss for Kirito, [[spoiler: but Asuna ended up interfering in order to save Kirito.]]
** [[spoiler:In ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'', he averts this because Kirito is allowed to have one ally. This is more apparent in season 1 of the anime adaptation.]]
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In ''Integral Factor'' he has two of these, he's first shown as a mysterious player who intervenes in the Floor 11 boss fight and saves the Player's life. He then reappears on Floor 12 where he blocks several player killers from attacking Leafa and knocking them back with a simple sword skill.
* FamedInStory: He is well-known as the most powerful player in game, the leader of the strongest guild in the game, a wielder of an Unique Skill (Holy Sword), and is considered Aincrad's greatest hero all before his reveal as Kayaba, spawning many RedBaron titles as mentioned below.
* FinalBoss: He was supposed to be this for SAO,[[spoiler: but ends up being discovered at floor 75. In ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'', he gets to properly fulfil his role on the final floor]].
* TheGMIsACheatingBastard:
** To protect his guise as Heathcliff in his duel with Kirito, he accelerated faster than the normal players in SAO to block damage. He also has the "Immortal Object" ability normally granted to environmental objects to protect his life if his HP goes below 50%.
** In the [[spoiler:second duel]] Kirito noted that Kayaba did not, in fact, need the additional assistance [[spoiler:to strike that fast.]]
* {{GMPC}}: Considered to be the strongest player in SAO. The Leader of the most powerful guild. One of the only two known people with a Unique Skill. Have never been seen being brought down to below 50% HP. Respected by all. Granted he expected himself to be revealed at around the 95th floor and deliberately did this to bring forth the greatest despair to the players. On the other hand, he tends to not do much and fights passively, letting the rest of the players do their own thing and to figure out what to do on their own. He even let his NumberTwo do most of the actual leading of the guild he made. It was the combination of all the above that led Kirito, plus the fact that "there's nothing more boring than watching someone else play an RPG.", to figure his true identity.
* IHaveManyNames: His RedBaron titles include "The Living Legend," "The Strongest Man," and "ThePaladin."
* KnightlySwordAndShield: To fit with his, and his guild's, heavy KnightInShiningArmor motif, he wields a sword and tower shield set called "Liberator". Given that his Unique Skill gives him the ability to ShieldBash, this gives him all the more reason to do this.
* KungFuClairvoyance: His role as the creator of the game and its Sword Skills make him able to anticipate the majority of his opponent's attacks in his fight, particularly said Sword Skills.
* LanternJawOfJustice: Has sharp, defined features that includes his jawline to fit his knightly, heroic look as Heathcliff when the "Justice" part is actually ''far'' from the truth.
* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: While his first duel with Kirito was rigged due to his GM abilities, in his second duel he turns off his CompleteImmortality and fights Kirito fairly.
* LightDarknessJuxtaposition: As Heathcliff he's the light to Kirito's dark. Kirito is known as the "Black Swordsman" and invokes DarkIsNotEvil, while Heathcliff is a [[ThePaladin paladin]] with his attacks including the "Holy Sword" and "Spiritual Light" and revealed to be LightIsNotGood.
* LightIsGood: His title is "The Paladin" and his skills are Holy Sword and Spiritual Light. Unfortunately, [[SubvertedTrope he is also Kayaba]].
* LightIsNotGood: Heathcliff has light-based skills and is a [[ThePaladin Paladin]]. And he turns out to be Akihiko Kayaba, the man responsible for trapping ten thousand people in his death game.
* MasterSwordsman: Kirito notes that he is intimately familiar with the dueling system and so his skill level is above even his own. This is of course because he created the dueling system.
* MeaningfulName: Kayaba naming his character after the villain of Literature/WutheringHeights draws certain parallels -- originally appearing heroic, he is revealed to have more evil and self-serving intents.
* NonIndicativeName: His Holy Sword unique skill boosts his attack and defense and lets him ShieldBash.
* ThePaladin: His title and his light based skills invoked the trope.
* RankScalesWithAsskicking: He is the leader of the "Knights of Blood."
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Heathcliff has red armor with black cloths underneath and turns out to be the BigBad Akihiko Kayaba.
* RedIsHeroic: He is the only one in Red Armor. {{Inverted}} in that he is the BigBad. Therefore, RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver is more appropriate.
* ShieldBash: Kirito undergoes so many levels of OhCrap when he gets the receiving end of his Holy Sword during their first duel.
* SlasherSmile: Gives off a vicious one during his FinalBattle with Kirito, after Kirito blunders by accidentally activating a Sword Skill, to which Heathcliff knows he's won the fight.
* {{Stonewall}}: As mentioned above, he's an incredible, seemingly invincible tank player. As also mentioned, this is justified because he used his [=GM=] powers to give himself god mode.
* StrongAndSkilled: Having designed the entire game, including the Sword Skill system, Kayaba is very knowledgeable in sword combat, and quite possibly that of the other weapons in SAO, and is capable of using [[KnightlySwordAndShield a sword and great shield]] with a good deal of skill.. Combine that with the Heathcliff account's high stats, Unique Skill, and and [[TheGMIsACheatingBastard ability to make himself]] NighInvulnerable, and you've got someone truly worthy of being the FinalBoss. [[spoiler: Even after voluntarily turning off his admin privileges and leveling the playing field, he's still able to hold his own against Kirito and would have beaten him if it wasn't for a combination of blind luck and ThePowerOfLove.]]
* TrueFinalBoss: [[spoiler:In ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment''. Alberich/Sugou may have usurped his planned role as the true villain of Aincrad, but Kayaba will only let the game truly end by finishing his final duel with Kirito]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: As Heathcliff, he is a famous hero.
* WalkingSpoiler: The true identity of Heathcliff turns out to be none other than Akihiko Kayaba.
* WorldsStrongestMan: He is considered as the game's most powerful swordsman, thanks to his incredible reflexes, his impossible speed, his truly invulnerable shield, and his incredible sword. "The Strongest Man" is also one of his titles. Kirito is the only one who can contest him in this status.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Laughing Coffin]]
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin page.
[[/folder]]
!!RECT Inc.
[[folder:Nobuyuki Sugou / Oberon the Fairy King]]
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou page.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scientist '''(SPOILERS)''']]
!!Yanai
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YusukeNumata (Japanese), Chris Cason (English), Elliot Leguizamo (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:310:[[labelnote:Click here to see his real appearance]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unnamed_998.jpg]][[/labelnote]]
One of two scientists working for Sugou is his brainwashing and mind altering experiments. [[labelnote:Click here to see spoilers]]Later revealed to be Yanai, a double agent Sugou planted in Rath who took up work at the Ocean Turtle after Sugou's arrest.[[/labelnote]]
----
* AntiVillain: Make no mistake, he's definitely the villain. But it's left up to interpretation on whether he's inherently evil. While his [[AmbitionIsEvil desire to live out his dream of creating a real virtual world]] did cause him to endanger 50,000 lives, he does not take joy in their deaths and [[FairPlayVillain gave them a fair chance to escape]]. In fact he even joined the players and genuinely aided them in clearing the game. Leaving aside the fact he's the creator of the DeadlyGame, he's otherwise very noble and chivalrous, being a BenevolentBoss to his guild and organizing the players to give them the best chance to beat each Floor Boss. In fact ''Memory Defrag'' reveals he even took time out to train certain players who he saw potential in, so that one day they could surpass him. For this reason, he's the only BigBad who Kirito does not outright despise and respects as a WorthyOpponent to a degree.
* BigBad: Of the Aincrad arc, being responsible for trapping all the players in SAO as well as having a big presence as Heathcliff. He can also be thought of as the central antagonist for the whole series, given that everything that followed later on was made possible because of him. Heroes like Kirito [[CreateYourOwnHero were created]] while villains like Laughing Coffin reared their heads and would go and spread further evil. He also remains around for the whole series, albeit as more of a BigGood who assists Kirito from the sidelines.
* BigBadEnsemble: In the Aincrad arc, he creates the world and is ultimately responsible for all the troubles the characters go through by extension but he also has to share the spotlight with the leader of the Laughing Coffin Guild, Vassago Cassals, whose player hunting becomes a secondary but very substantial threat.
* BigDamnHeroes: In both identities.
** As Kayaba
*** [[spoiler: At the end of the Fairy Dance arc, his spirit seemingly ''comes back from the dead'' to give Kirito his Administrator privileges so he can defeat Sugou.]]
*** [[spoiler:In the Alicization arc, he hijacks a robot body to prevent Ocean Turtle from being blown up by defusing the bomb that the remaining GDS operators implanted.]]
** As Heathcliff;
*** In ''Integral Factor'' he pulls this several times, first on the Floor 11 boss fight where he shields the Player from the Boss and coordinates an attack. Later on Floor 12 he saves Leafa from a guild of orange players looking to kill her.
* BigGood:
** As Heathcliff, he's the head of the number one guild on the front line, he's the highest authority among the heroes clearing levels for the others, although he often leaves leadership to Asuna and his other subordinates. Too bad he's actually the FinalBoss.
** Zigzagged with Kayaba. While he is more of a neutral than a flat-out good guy in later arcs, he's willing to humiliate Sugou by giving Kirito his GM privileges and [[spoiler:save Ocean Turtle by hijacking a robot body and ruining the GDS' plan to destroy it]] because [[EvenEvilHasStandards he thinks that they've gone too far]].
* CastAsAMask: To hide his true identity, Kayaba and Heathcliff are given different voice actors in Japanese, English and Latin Spanish dubs. Averted in the European Spanish dub.
* CharClone: Somewhat Downplayed, Rare non-Mecha anime example. He doesn't wear a CoolMask (though his SAO Avatar not being based on his RealLife appearance is pretty close), and his fighting style is different(being a NighInvulnerable Tank, rather than a [[RedOnesGoFaster very fast]] attacker) but his CustomUniform as Heathcliff is Red and while he didn't interact with or fight against Kirito often enough to qualify as TheRival, he still remained the last obstacle for him to defeat(after besting him before) defeat while his motives for being a BigBad are similar to a type 3. [[spoiler: And similar to Char at the end of CCA, he ends up [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascending through a machine of his own design]] at the end after his final defeat.]] The fact that he also acted as a mentor and superior to Asuna also qualifies as similar to [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Quattro Bajeena]].
* ColdHam: While Kayaba ''never'' raises his voice in any of his personas above normal speaking volume, even in battle, the sheer ''coldness'' of the gentlemanly-malice dripping from his ''every'' word can practically freeze lava solid.
* EvilCounterpart: To Kirito.
** Both are virtual reality junkies, with their goals for the virtual world and the real world to be one and the same. Both are the strongest players in SAO and possess a Unique Skill, however while Kirito's DualWielding greatly amps up his attack but can leave him defenseless, Heathcliff's Divine Blade bolsters both his attack and defense simultaneously. While Kirito is a solo player who got shunned for being a Beater, Kayaba as Heathcliff is the BigGood who leads the largest guild in the game and is highly respected. Kayaba had suspected Kirito would be the one to face him in the FinalBattle and become TheHero of the story up against himself as the villain.
** Specifically, Heathcliff also falls into {{foil}} territory. Kirito is DarkIsNotEvil solo player who is ostracized for being a Beater, while Heathcliff is the LightIsGood highly respected leader of the strongest guild in SAO. Both are the strongest players in the game and possess unique skills, but while Kirito's DualWielding can leave him defenseless, Heathcliff's Divine Blade bolsters both his attack and defense and he is virtually untouchable.
* FairPlayVillain:
** He traps ten thousand players in a virtual reality video game, and promises to let them out when the defeat the 100th floor boss. The game is fairly balanced, and so on, which starts to show this, but the real point comes when [[spoiler:[[TheHero Kirito]] defeats the final boss (Kayaba, it turns out) on the 75th floor.]] Kayaba keeps his word and lets everyone out.
** Zigzagged by Heathcliff, his alter ego who has an exceptionally powerful unique skill that even people in-universe consider broken. He also is immortal after taking a certain amount of damage and explicitly cheats during his first duel with Kirito. The ''game'' may have been fair, but his place in it sure as hell wasn't, albeit he's also helping the players clear the floors, but planning to betray everyone at the highest floor, while [[spoiler:giving a bonus for Kirito to prematurely win the game and free everyone when Kirito exposes his identity]], and as [[spoiler:his second and final duel with Kirito shows, he intentionally turns off his [[GameMaster admin privileges]] to give his opponent a fighting chance as the game's FinalBoss]].
* GracefulLoser: When defeated [[spoiler: three-quarters of the way through the planned SAO]], Kayaba congratulates [[spoiler: Kirito and Asuna, and lets them both live and return to the real world, even though they had both "died" in the virtual world]].
* IcyGrayEyes: His gray eyes are described as "metallic" in the light novel, and (despite being calm and soft-spoken) Kayaba has little to no empathy with a disregard for human life, even his own. He retains his gray eye color as Heathcliff.
* InformedAttribute: Kirito states that, despite invoking heavy stakes, [[FairPlayVillain Kayaba has ultimately made SAO a fair game]]. While this is often proven true, such as him making it impossible to [[PlayerKilling PK]] another player in a safe zone without some clever LoopholeAbuse[[note]] a prime example being having an unconscious player accept a duel request then killing them[[/note]], some of the things that actually occur in SAO bring the validity of this statement into question.
** PlayedWith in regards to the Illfang Boss, as well as subsequent ones, where the changes he made to the bosses end up taking the Clearing Force off-guard, even leading to a casualty in the form of Diaval at the hands of Illfang's Nodachi. That being said, ''Progressive'' reveals that there was a quest that leads to a mural depicting the boss with the changes, and the Floor 2 Boss had a similar quest, [[ImpliedTrope Implying]] that despite the changes, he did include ways for Players to find out about them and plan accordingly. And to be fair, [[DidntThinkThisThrough they probably should have at least]] ''[[DidntThinkThisThrough suspected]]'' [[DidntThinkThisThrough that the Beta wouldn't be like the final product...]]
** Above point aside, many of the bosses he designed could be seen InUniverse as ThatOneBoss. Such examples include:
*** Fuscus the Vacant Colossus, who's [[spoiler: not only capable of moving his weakpoint, but can even block off the BossRoom door, preventing players from escaping.]]
*** The Gleam Eyes mainly appeared difficult since [[TooDumbToLive the ALS rushed in against it despite being tired and under-levelled]], forcing Kirito, Asuna and Fuurinkazan to fight it then and there, but he's fought in a [[AntiMagic Anti-Crystal Zone]], preventing the use of Teleport Crystals, limiting tactical retreat options, and Healing Crystals, forcing players to rely on cheaper but less effective potions.
*** The Skull Reaper, whose basics attacks are effectively {{One Hit Kill}}s and, like The Gleam Eyes above, is fought in an Anti-Crystal Zone. It also couldn't be properly scouted like previous bosses since, along with the inability to use Teleport Crytals, the doors were impossible to open once closed and he only appeared once the doors were closed, meaning they couldn't have just simply peeked in.
*** As [[FinalBoss Heathcliff]], he cheated during his first duel with Kirito by using his admin privileges to briefly make himself faster to counter Kirito's SuperReflexes, as well as making himself NighInvulnerable so he'd survive every boss fight he took part in. Plus, while making himself the FinalBoss is rather fitting, he ultimately has an unfair advantage due to knowing every single Sword Skill, having designed them himself, and therefore knowing how to counter them.
* LackOfEmpathy: He cares nothing for the deaths of the players in SAO, treating it more like an inevitable consequence of living in the world he created. Even in front of him doesn't get a reaction out of him, and doesn't care about their loss. His lack of reaction to the many victims in the arduous battle against the Skull Reaper is what gives Kirito a EurekaMoment, and clues him that Heathcliff is actually Kayaba. Unlike most examples, however, he isn't [[CardCarryingVillain malicious]] about it, just indifferent.
* MoralSociopathy: He trapped thousands of people in his death game and cares little about them, but he's a FairPlayVillain who gave the players a legitimate means of escape and he keeps his own rules even when it costs him his life.
* TheScapegoat: When SAO ended, many of the [=PKers=] and other criminals [[KarmaHoudini went unpunished for any deaths they caused]] since, as Kayaba was the one who created the device that actually did the deed and there was was no definite way of determining if one player killed another, all the deaths that occurred were pinned on him.
* TheStoic: He always has a calm demeanor. The only time he ever shows he's NotSoStoic is letting off surprise when Kirito attacks him and exposes him as an Immortal Object, proving he is Akihiko Kayaba.
* VillainRespect: He's genuinely impressed that Kirito and Asuna were able to defy the physics of his game through [[HeroicResolve sheer force of will]]. In his mind, this essentially proves the tenacity of humans -- which was what he was trying to study all along.
** Comes up again in the Fairy Dance arc when [[spoiler:Kirito, defeated by Sugou's GM powers, is visited by Kayaba's ghost, who is confused by how Kirito has seemingly given in to Sugou's power. He then gives Kirito his admin access to level the playing field.]]
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: ZigZagged. It's hinted that the AIs in SAO, like Kizmel, are rather advanced by his design and, [[spoiler: he steps in to help save the Ocean Turtle, and by extension the Underworld and the Artificial Fluctlights living in it, from the GDS' bomb]]. However, back in SAO, he ordered the Cardinal system to prevent Yui from interacting with the players, likely knowing that she possessed a sense of empathy and would otherwise be ForcedToWatch as the players cross the DespairEventHorizon and even be DrivenToSuicide.
* WorthyOpponent: Develops this relationship with Kirito, as the player granted DualWielding, Kayaba envisioned him as the hero who would fight him as the FinalBoss of Aincrad. Both Kirito and Kayaba possess a level of respect for each other, despite being enemies. Upon Kayaba's defeat, the two seem to have transitioned to becoming [[FriendlyEnemy friendly enemies]] with Kayaba willing to help Kirito out against the later {{Big Bad}}s who are worse than him.
!!!Tropes specific to Kayaba
* AlwaysABiggerFish: So Sugou is the GM of ''Fairy Dance'', effectively making him the ruler and God of ALO. Along comes Kayaba's VirtualGhost, giving Kirito his user ID which outranks that of Sugou's! Sugou immediately gets his admin credentials stripped away and Kirito [[TheDogBitesBack pays him back for every horrible thing he's done.]]
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: To Sugou Nobuyuki. [[spoiler: During the climax of the Fairy Dance arc, Kayaba is able to easily override Sugou's admin privileges and give them to Kirito, and in response, Sugou whines and throws a temper tantrum, screaming about how even in death, Kayaba's showing him up.]]
* AmbitionIsEvil: He tells Kirito of his dream about creating a floating castle as the basis for creating Sword Art Online.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Kayaba [[BrainUploading scanning his brain and uploading himself]] into the system at the end of the Aincrad arc seems to be treated as such. Although his physical body is no longer alive, he lives on as a VirtualGhost having become one with the system that he worked so hard to create.
* BadassBookworm: He programmed all of SAO, and designed the hardware, by himself. [[spoiler:Even after his death he created a program that revived the VRMMORPG genre in the aftermath of the Fairy Dance arc.]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: His extreme LackOfEmpathy creates this. He weighed 10,000 human lives versus him creating his ideal world and chose the latter, but feels neither any guilt nor joy at the deaths. He's actually ''happy'' that someone is coming to kill him as that is how Aincrad is supposed to work.
* BrainUploading: [[spoiler: He uploads his consciousness to the internet at the end of the Aincrad arc. This involved a deep scan that fried his brain, thus destroying his body. He shows up again in Fairy Dance and Underworld.]]
* BrainyBrunette: Kayaba has gray-brown hair and is the genius scientist who developed Sword Art Online as well as designed the [=NerveGear=], Cardinal System, and Seed, having been part of the Shigemura Lab in the institute's Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department.
* TheChooserOfTheOne:
** He's this to Kirito in Aincrad, albeit indirectly at first. He made it so that the Unique Skill, DualWielding, would go to the player with the fastest reaction time and intended them to face him in the FinalBattle, though at the time he had no idea it would be Kirito. Though by the time he meets Kirito in person, he already knew Kirito was the one who would fight him.
** A more direct example in the ''Fairy Dance'' arc where Kayaba's VirtualGhost provides DivineIntervention to give Kirito the means to defeat Sugou by giving him access to his admin privileges. Later on, he also chooses Kirito to be the one to receive the World Seed, confident that Kirito had the passion to see that the Virtual World would continue existing.
* CreateYourOwnHero: It is his trapping of the players in SAO that led to Kazuto Kirigaya becoming Kirito the greatest hero of the virtual world. He even programmed the game to grant the dual-wielding skill to player with the fastest reaction speed because he planned on this player becoming the hero that would defeat the final boss and save everyone.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: Nearly averted; he created and sold an extremely popular total-immersion virtual reality game, presumably making truckloads of money off it. But then he decided to [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame remove the logout button and fry the brains of anyone who dies in the game]]. He also enters the game himself, and [[spoiler:eventually disables his GodMode, allowing Kirito to kill him... making him a meta-version of a TacticalSuicideBoss. Why? He wanted to be the villainous god common in [=JRPGs=], and even planned to be the FinalBoss]]. Sugou/Oberon lampshades it during the Fairy Dance arc:
-->'''Sugou''': Mr. Kayaba was a genius, but he was also a fool. All he wanted to use his technology for was his game. He couldn't see the potential in it.
* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: Once [[spoiler:Kirito defeats him, Kayaba is given the blame for everyone who died as a result of his death game, while the Player Killers, who knew or didn't believe that killing other players would kill them in real-life, get off with counseling at worst (well, those that survived the game did--many [=PKers=] were [=PKed=] in turn).]]
* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler:Serves as this in ALO, as it is through Kayaba's Heathcliff avatar that Kirito assumes superuser control of the system. Since this is effectively a god granting a hero divine power, it's like a modernized classical example.]]
* ExBigBad: After his initial goals of seeing SAO to the end were complete, Kayaba performs a BrainUploading and remains around for the rest of the series as a VirtualGhost, becoming a FriendlyEnemy to Kirito and often assisting him when he's in a tight spot.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Doctor Kayaba has a surprisingly humanizing relationship with fellow PHD student Kojiro Rinko, whose love for him seems to be genuinely reciprocated, even if he's a mass-murderer who trapped ''thousands'' of players in a death-game. Around her, and her alone, does he dare to be vulnerable and honest about realizing the futility of ''truly'' achieving his fantastic boyhood dreams. Even though he ''did'' plant an explosive in her left breast out of fear she'll disclose the location of his body to the police while his mind adventured in Aincrad, he never detonated it, and she remained in return faithful to him till his last breath. In fact, she tells Asuna that the bomb was for ''her'' protection. When Aincrad was over, she could tell the police that he threatened her into helping him and thereby escape legal punishment.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** He may have caused the deaths of 4000+ players just to bring his imagination to life, but he keeps his own rules even if it meant losing everything. [[spoiler:By these standards he holds Nobuyuki Sugou, who exploited his GameMaster status for all it was worth, in contempt and helps out Kirito in taking him down.]]
** On a minor note, he's above [[WouldNotHurtAChild hurting children]] as the Nerve Gears that he created disallowed people under 13 to use it. Though seeing as some people under that age, such as Silica, played the game anyway, he didn't seem to put much effort into preventing them from playing, likely since taking more active measures could have risked his plot coming to light before he could initiate it.
** He appears to draw the line at sexual assault. In SAO, a victim of such is immediately presented with an option to teleport the offender to Black Iron Prison. This is due to the Ethics Code he programmed and, unlike the therapist [=AI=]s, it was allowed to continue functioning properly during the death game. [[spoiler: His virtual ghost also steps in to help Kirito against Sugou after Sugou molests Asuna]].
** [[spoiler:In ''Ordinal Scale'', he disagrees with Tetsuhiro Shigemura's EvilPlan, but that was because he thought it wasn't visionary enough rather than any moral objection.]]
* GameMaster: He's the administrator of SAO.
* AGodAmI: While he never claims to be anything more than a programmer, Kirito notes that his behavior is godlike - looking upon the players not with empathy, but with mercy and pity. This is what allows Kirito to identify him as Heathcliff.
* GreaterScopeVillain: As the gamemaster, he's more dangerous than villains like Laughing Coffin but otherwise uninvolved with their evil plans. His actions would also lead to the later Arc Villains Sugou, Death Gun, and even TheMovie villain in fulfilling their own evil plans.
* HeelFaceTurn: Once SAO is cleared, Kayaba's VirtualGhost becomes an ally of sorts and no longer antagonizes Kirito, even helping him out a few times against the new {{Big Bad}}s.
* KarmaHoudini: He [[spoiler:dies on his own terms. While Kirito isn't openly hostile or hateful, he doesn't think that he can ever forgive Kayaba for those deaths, particularly Sachi's.]]
* KillerGameMaster: He designed the Nerve Gear to kill players in real-life if they died in his game. He also placed lots of traps in his world with the idea of making that happen.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: He's no saint by any means, but Kayaba is a FairPlayVillain with [[MoralSociopathy his own morals]] who sticks to his rules, which makes him this to the likes of Nobuyuki Sugou, a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] CorruptCorporateExecutive who stole and used Kayaba's technology to perform inhumane MindControl experiments on innocent people, the members of Laughing Coffin, who [[PlayerKilling killed other players]] ForTheEvulz because they knew [[DeceasedFallGuyGambit Kayaba would get the blame and they'd get off scot-free]], Quinella, a DarkMessiah and ControlFreak who took over the Underworld for herself, and Gabriel Miller, a [[AGodAmI megalomaniacal]] and [[AxCrazy psychopathic]] [[PrivateMilitaryContractors PMC]] commander with a twisted fixation on [[YourSoulIsMine stealing souls]].
* LyingCreator: InUniverse example: On the first day of SAO, he states that there is no way to revive someone who has been killed in the game (and that anyone whose HP had hit 0 would [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame be brain-fried in the real world]]). However, Kirito later learns of a revive crystal that ''can'' revive someone up to 10 seconds after in-game death. So, it seems that there is a way to revive someone; it just isn't very likely to work.
* MadArtist: He dreamed of a masterpiece of a world where players can surpass the limits of reality. He also dreamed of people fighting for their lives in said world, apparently.
* MotiveDecay: [[spoiler: As Aincrad crumbles, he discusses this trope with Asuna and Kirito in combination with a MotiveRant encapsulating his original desire. "Why you ask? For a long time, even I had forgotten. Why did I do this?" He concludes with a statement that suggests this Aincrad did not measure up to the ideal Aincrad he envisioned.]]
* MotiveRant: [[spoiler: As Aincrad crumbles, he tells Kirito and Asuna why he created the death game. In a nutshell, he had a dream about a floating castle civilization and he wanted to manifest that dream in reality. It was this passion that drove him to create ground-breaking virtual reality technology. While he's satisfied with the outcome of SAO, the floating castle itself falls short of his ideal.]]
* NobleDemon: He's a murderer and a kidnapper and has some weird ethics to be sure but he sticks to his rules and is a GracefulLoser.
* PsychopathicManchild: His ultimate goal is essentially to bring the world of his imagination to life and have it be as real as possible. He also possesses a certain sense of fair play. This is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the 4-koma, where the raid team accuses him of having [[MrImagination 8th grader syndrome]].
* TheSociopath: Just doesn't care either way about the people trapped in his death game. Sure, he does help found and raise a very powerful guild and helps its members develop, but that was done solely to have strong players who would keep challenging the game. That said, he's a surprisingly realistic example in that he does none of this with any malice in mind; he built the game not because he enjoyed watching thousands die but because he wanted to make and build a world and it wouldn't have been real if real people didn't populate, live, and die in it. [[spoiler:In addition, he always meant for the game to end with his death, and when discovered early he willingly forgoed his admin privileges to fight on Kirito's level in a one-on-one duel and kept his word once he was beaten to let everyone go.]]
* SorryThatImDying: [[spoiler:He apologizes to Rinko in the Alicization arc for leaving her behind. Case in point, Kirito beats him back in Aincrad.]]
* StrawNihilist: He doesn't even care about ''his own'' life.
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: His anime character design is an average-looking man in a lab coat, in contrast to his [[SilverFox Heathcliff avatar]]. Yet, he's still the BigBad of the Aincrad arc.
* TheUnfettered: The game will continue for Kayaba's amusement. What the players think of him is irrelevant.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: His ultimate goal is to reach or create "Aincrad", the world that surpasses the limits of reality that he saw in his dreams. The "Aincrad" from SAO is based on it.
* VillainousLegacy: A subversion, in that while Kayaba's influence does loom large over the series long after his role is ended, the impacts are largely beneficial to society:
** [[spoiler:A virtual remnant of himself is what allows Kirito to turn the tables on Oberon at the climax of ''Fairy Dance''.]]
** The World Seed he created with data gathered from the Aincrad server is ultimately what allows [=VRMMOs=] to continue to exist after [[spoiler:SAO and the first ALO server are shut down.]] The same thing happens in the video game continuity [[spoiler:at the end of ''Hollow Realization'', when his virtual self is recreated as part of the Cardinal System's preparation to test Aincrad's destruction (as his death is crucial to make it happen). Thankfully, he deactivates the destruction module after Tia is defeated.]]
** At the end of ''Mother's Rosario'', [[spoiler:it's revealed that he was the original designer of the Medicuboid system that made it possible for Yuuki to have a high quality of life in VR while her health rapidly deteriorated due to AIDS.]]
** He shows up again (in a [[spoiler:robot body]]) near the end of ''Alicization'' just in time [[spoiler:to screw up the GDS' last-ditch bombing of Ocean Turtle.]]
* VirtualGhost: [[spoiler:What he becomes after the events of the Aincrad arc, which is why he also avoids being sent to prison (since his physical body was dead). All of his subsequent appearances have him manifesting in this form. In the main continuity, he used a special machine to preserve his life, while in the game continuity (''Hollow Realization'') the Cardinal System brought him back to life in order to serve as the restored Aincrad's FinalBoss (as his death is necessary to destroy Aincrad and complete the test), but with the deactivation of the module he just runs off to do his own thing. In ''Ordinal Scale'', he manifests through Augmented Reality to have a chat with his former teacher, that movie's BigBad.]]
* VisionaryVillain: His dream of "Aincrad" led him to villainy.
!!!Tropes specific to Heathcliff
* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: In canon, Heathcliff and the "Knights of the Blood Oath" don't really show up until around Floor 50. In ''Integral Factor'', Heathcliff first debuts on Floor 11 where he pulls a BigDamnHeroes in the fight against the floor boss, while he debuts proper and in person on Floor 12 introducing his guild at the same time.
* ArmoredVillainsUnarmoredHeroes: As Heathcliff he is clad in the armor of the Knights of the Blood Oath, while Kirito wears a simple BadassLongcoat.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: As the creator of the game, he has an intimate understanding of how the various Sword Arts work. [[spoiler:Near the end of his second duel with Kirito]], he's thus able to see through and defend against his opponent's system-assisted combo, and then attacks him while he's vulnerable, simply.
* BeneathTheMask: After their duel, where he was forced to use his admin powers to slow down time due to Kirito landing a blow on him, he drops his former jolly attitude and glares at Kirito fiercely before turning his back away.
* BroughtDownToBadass: He [[spoiler:voluntarily strips himself of his GameMaster status and admin privileges to fight Kirito on an even footing. Even without them, he's able to hold his own and nearly win.]]
* TheCameo: He makes two of these in the ''Progressive'' Manga, the first as Argo's informant on the Legend Braves and later at a Clearers meeting after Lind and Kibaou create their respective guilds, with him showing intrigue at the idea of a "Third Guild" after the concern of Kirito starting one comes up.
* ContractualBossImmunity: He's a man who created all the Sword Skills, thus in the final fight with him, any Sword Skills are useless on him, as he can predict and block each one of them, leaving his opponent open to counterattacks.
* CrutchCharacter: Heathcliff is something of a meta-example of this trope; he's the ultimate tank who fights on the front lines with his men, and created the strongest guild specifically to collect the game's biggest badasses. He also intended to betray the players on the 95th floor to set himself up as the FinalBoss.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: In ''Infinty Moment/Hollow Fragment'', he's the final challenge Kirito faces before clearing the game. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] since the player doesn't fight him (unless you're playing the original ''Infinty Moment'', where the boss served as a tutorial), and he's technically the first boss as the game glosses over the first 75 floors. After the MHCP glitch teleports him away, Suguo/Alberich usurps his role as BigBad, though he returns later as the TrueFinalBoss.
* {{Distinctive Appearance|s}}: Unlike other members of the "Knights of Blood", his uniform is primarily red with white trimmings as opposed to white with red.
* DuelBoss:
** He intended to be this and the FinalBoss for Kirito, [[spoiler: but Asuna ended up interfering in order to save Kirito.]]
** [[spoiler:In ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'', he averts this because Kirito is allowed to have one ally. This is more apparent in season 1 of the anime adaptation.]]
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In ''Integral Factor'' he has two of these, he's first shown as a mysterious player who intervenes in the Floor 11 boss fight and saves the Player's life. He then reappears on Floor 12 where he blocks several player killers from attacking Leafa and knocking them back with a simple sword skill.
* FamedInStory: He is well-known as the most powerful player in game, the leader of the strongest guild in the game, a wielder of an Unique Skill (Holy Sword), and is considered Aincrad's greatest hero all before his reveal as Kayaba, spawning many RedBaron titles as mentioned below.
* FinalBoss: He was supposed to be this for SAO,[[spoiler: but ends up being discovered at floor 75. In ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'', he gets to properly fulfil his role on the final floor]].
* TheGMIsACheatingBastard:
** To protect his guise as Heathcliff in his duel with Kirito, he accelerated faster than the normal players in SAO to block damage. He also has the "Immortal Object" ability normally granted to environmental objects to protect his life if his HP goes below 50%.
** In the [[spoiler:second duel]] Kirito noted that Kayaba did not, in fact, need the additional assistance [[spoiler:to strike that fast.]]
* {{GMPC}}: Considered to be the strongest player in SAO. The Leader of the most powerful guild. One of the only two known people with a Unique Skill. Have never been seen being brought down to below 50% HP. Respected by all. Granted he expected himself to be revealed at around the 95th floor and deliberately did this to bring forth the greatest despair to the players. On the other hand, he tends to not do much and fights passively, letting the rest of the players do their own thing and to figure out what to do on their own. He even let his NumberTwo do most of the actual leading of the guild he made. It was the combination of all the above that led Kirito, plus the fact that "there's nothing more boring than watching someone else play an RPG.", to figure his true identity.
* IHaveManyNames: His RedBaron titles include "The Living Legend," "The Strongest Man," and "ThePaladin."
* KnightlySwordAndShield: To fit with his, and his guild's, heavy KnightInShiningArmor motif, he wields a sword and tower shield set called "Liberator". Given that his Unique Skill gives him the ability to ShieldBash, this gives him all the more reason to do this.
* KungFuClairvoyance: His role as the creator of the game and its Sword Skills make him able to anticipate the majority of his opponent's attacks in his fight, particularly said Sword Skills.
* LanternJawOfJustice: Has sharp, defined features that includes his jawline to fit his knightly, heroic look as Heathcliff when the "Justice" part is actually ''far'' from the truth.
* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: While his first duel with Kirito was rigged due to his GM abilities, in his second duel he turns off his CompleteImmortality and fights Kirito fairly.
* LightDarknessJuxtaposition: As Heathcliff he's the light to Kirito's dark. Kirito is known as the "Black Swordsman" and invokes DarkIsNotEvil, while Heathcliff is a [[ThePaladin paladin]] with his attacks including the "Holy Sword" and "Spiritual Light" and revealed to be LightIsNotGood.
* LightIsGood: His title is "The Paladin" and his skills are Holy Sword and Spiritual Light. Unfortunately, [[SubvertedTrope he is also Kayaba]].
* LightIsNotGood: Heathcliff has light-based skills and is a [[ThePaladin Paladin]]. And he turns out to be Akihiko Kayaba, the man responsible for trapping ten thousand people in his death game.
* MasterSwordsman: Kirito notes that he is intimately familiar with the dueling system and so his skill level is above even his own. This is of course because he created the dueling system.
* MeaningfulName: Kayaba naming his character after the villain of Literature/WutheringHeights draws certain parallels -- originally appearing heroic, he is revealed to have more evil and self-serving intents.
* NonIndicativeName: His Holy Sword unique skill boosts his attack and defense and lets him ShieldBash.
* ThePaladin: His title and his light based skills invoked the trope.
* RankScalesWithAsskicking: He is the leader of the "Knights of Blood."
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Heathcliff has red armor with black cloths underneath and turns out to be the BigBad Akihiko Kayaba.
* RedIsHeroic: He is the only one in Red Armor. {{Inverted}} in that he is the BigBad. Therefore, RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver is more appropriate.
* ShieldBash: Kirito undergoes so many levels of OhCrap when he gets the receiving end of his Holy Sword during their first duel.
* SlasherSmile: Gives off a vicious one during his FinalBattle with Kirito, after Kirito blunders by accidentally activating a Sword Skill, to which Heathcliff knows he's won the fight.
* {{Stonewall}}: As mentioned above, he's an incredible, seemingly invincible tank player. As also mentioned, this is justified because he used his [=GM=] powers to give himself god mode.
* StrongAndSkilled: Having designed the entire game, including the Sword Skill system, Kayaba is very knowledgeable in sword combat, and quite possibly that of the other weapons in SAO, and is capable of using [[KnightlySwordAndShield a sword and great shield]] with a good deal of skill.. Combine that with the Heathcliff account's high stats, Unique Skill, and and [[TheGMIsACheatingBastard ability to make himself]] NighInvulnerable, and you've got someone truly worthy of being the FinalBoss. [[spoiler: Even after voluntarily turning off his admin privileges and leveling the playing field, he's still able to hold his own against Kirito and would have beaten him if it wasn't for a combination of blind luck and ThePowerOfLove.]]
* TrueFinalBoss: [[spoiler:In ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment''. Alberich/Sugou may have usurped his planned role as the true villain of Aincrad, but Kayaba will only let the game truly end by finishing his final duel with Kirito]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: As Heathcliff, he is a famous hero.
* WalkingSpoiler: The true identity of Heathcliff turns out to be none other than Akihiko Kayaba.
* WorldsStrongestMan: He is considered as the game's most powerful swordsman, thanks to his incredible reflexes, his impossible speed, his truly invulnerable shield, and his incredible sword. "The Strongest Man" is also one of his titles. Kirito is the only one who can contest him in this status.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Laughing Coffin]]
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin page.
[[/folder]]
!!RECT Inc.
[[folder:Nobuyuki Sugou / Oberon the Fairy King]]
-> See the Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou page.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scientist '''(SPOILERS)''']]
!!Yanai
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/YusukeNumata (Japanese), Chris Cason (English), Elliot Leguizamo (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:310:[[labelnote:Click here to see his real appearance]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unnamed_998.jpg]][[/labelnote]]
One of two scientists working for Sugou is his brainwashing and mind altering experiments. [[labelnote:Click here to see spoilers]]Later revealed to be Yanai, a double agent Sugou planted in Rath who took up work at the Ocean Turtle after Sugou's arrest.[[/labelnote]]
----
Changed line(s) 164,174 (click to see context) from:
-> See [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineQuinella her page here]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Prime Senator Chudelkin]]
!!Prime Senator Chudelkin
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/WataruTakagi (Japanese), Creator/FrankTodaro (English), Roberto Gutiérrez (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/omake_screencap_sword_art_online_alicization_episode_21_chudelkin_patched_up.jpg]]
Leader of the Senators, a group dedicated to enforcing the Taboo Index.
to:
!!!'''Voiced by:'''
[[quoteright:270:https://static.
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.
Leader
--> "''To love is to control. I love everything. I rule everything.''"
The Pontifex of the
She serves as the BigBad of the first half of the ''Alicization'' arc, spanning volumes 9-14.
Changed line(s) 176,283 (click to see context) from:
* {{Acrofatic}}: Despite appearances, his main mode of transportation is to BeTheBall and he proves to be surprisingly nimble, constantly dancing and prancing about and is even able to do a headstand. [[spoiler: Possibly {{Subverted}} when it turns out he's [[NotHyperbole literally]] full of hot air.]]
* AmbiguouslyHuman: Given his drastically different NonStandardCharacterDesign, it really makes one wonder what his species is.
* BadBoss: Chudelkin is notorious for abusing the Integrity Knights; he rudely dismisses all of their concerns about the possibility of invasion by the Dark Territory, he insults them over the most trivial things, and is all too willing to Deep Freeze them if they displease him. [[UngratefulBastard This is despite the fact their existence alone is what prevents the Dark Territory from launching a full-scale invasion]].
* BerserkButton: ''Don't'' even think about calling him a lump of meat if you don't want [[OffWithHisHead your head torn off]].
* BeTheBall: His primary form of transport is to curl into a ball and bounce about the place.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He looks like a clown and seems relatively silly. But he's a {{sadist}}ic individual who's highly skilled with Sacred Arts, and so should not be underestimated.
* DirtyOldMonk:
** As the Prime Senator, Chudelkin is technically a member of the Axiom Church's clergy, yet he is an obsessive StalkerWithACrush towards Quinella, [[spoiler:even requesting that he get a night with free access to her body in exchange for killing the Rulid Trio]].
** In ''Rising Steel'', one of the Skits during the "Overflowing Eternal Affection" Scout, hints that he at least once entered the Great Baths during the girls times while Eydis was using her privacy to mock him.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He threatens to turn Eugeo into a horse the next time he fails to address Chudelkin with the "Kakka" honorific (roughly equivalent to "Your Excellency") after his "Prime Senator" title.
* TheDragon: He's the second-in-command to Quinella, and unlike the Integrity Knights, he is straight out evil and delights in committing atrocities for her.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: He only ever refers to Integrity Knights by their numbers rather than their names.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Has a very deep gravelly voice and is likely the most evil being in the Axion Church save for Quinella herself. The dub makes his voice deeper yet to the point it resembles ComicBook/TheJoker.
* EyeScream: While casting his most powerful Sacred Art that conjures a giant fire genie, he burns his own eyes out.
* EvilIsPetty: When he's briefly brought BackFromTheDead in ''Unleash Blading's'' second anniversary event, he forms an alliance with Sugou and Gabriel to crash Eydis' party since he wasn't invited.
* FatBastard: A pudgy fat man dressed like a clown who constantly mocks everyone around him.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He speaks with a formal and polite tone, yet has no issue with addressing others condescendingly.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Less friend and more acquaintance. While he is on the same side as the Integrity Knights and technically their boss, none of them like him given he [[BadBoss treats them like trash]]. Bercouli in fact outright despises him and when given the chance doesn't shy away from directly insulting him.
* GigglingVillain: He lets off a laugh of "Hoh-hoh-hoh!"
* GlassCannon: He is one of the most powerful Sacred Users of all time (and possibly the best other than Quinella and Cardinal). However he has nothing in the way of physical ability, and goes down very easily if he takes even a slight amount of damage.
* GreenEyedMonster: He is obsessed with Quinella and becomes aggressively jealous if she so much as even gives attention to anyone else.
* {{Gonk}}: He's a short, pudgy man with heavy makeup who doesn't look much like anyone on the Integrity Knights' side.
* HatedByAll: It soon becomes clear there is absolutely no one, hero or villain, that likes Chudelkin. The Integrity Knights all range from not caring about him to outright despising him. Even Quinella [[FauxAffablyEvil feigns politeness]] around him and is all too eager to cast him aside like trash when he's [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]]. In reality, she's also repulsed by him.
* InsistentTerminology: Always chastises anyone who doesn't refer to him by "Prime Senator".
* {{Irony}}: He, Quinella's most fervent follower, [[spoiler:is the one who kills her in the end.]]
* JerkassAtYourDiscretion: He's a very rude and abusive BadBoss who torments anyone in sight... until Quinella appears where he suddenly piles on praise and polite language. [[spoiler:The most disrespectful he ever gets is asking if she'll sleep with him if he disposes of Kirito, Eugeo and Alice, and even then he phrases it like a humble request]].
* {{Kevlard}}: Inverted; while he's [[FatBastard pudgy]], he can take little punishment.
* KickTheDog: He gleefully recounts how poorly Alice was treated, and how she despaired once her hopes of being able to return home were dashed before she ended up becoming an Integrity Knight, particularly how she begged not to forget the people who were most important to her.
* LightIsNotGood: Wears some white, and is a {{sadist}}ic PsychopathicManchild.
* ManipulativeBastard: Manipulated the Integrity Knights into fighting Kirito and Eugeo by putting them under the belief that they were invaders from Dark Territory.
* MisterBig: As the Prime Senator, he's the highest authority in the Central Cathedral save for Quinella herself. Yet he's diminutive and barely taller than a child. Also worth noting is he is a contender for the most powerful Sacred Arts user in the Human Empire, barring Quinella.
* MonsterClown: He dresses more like a jester than a clown, but otherwise he still gives off these vibes, and unlike the Integrity Knights he's unconditionally evil. Some of the characters even derogatorily refer to him as a clown.
* TheNapoleon: Chudelkin is a short, arrogant man who's quick to berate the Integrity Knights who work under him either out of [[GreenEyedMonster envy whenever Quinella treats them kindly]], [[EvilIsPetty for merely questioning him or underdoing the praise he feels her rightfully deserves]], or [[MeanBoss simply because he feels like it.]]
* NoIndoorVoice: He yells at the top of voice for often no reason at times, to anyone other than Quinella.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:It looked as though he had already met his end at the hands of Kirito, with Quinella even casting his lifeless body aside. But we later see he wasn't quite finished yet, and he uses presumably the last of his Durability to launch himself at Quinella's body to finally touch and be with her, much to her horror, whereby he burns the both of them out.]]
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Everything about him, all the way down to his clashing colors and the 8-bit sound effects, looks nothing like a ''Sword Art Online'' character and more like he belongs in a completely different franchise.
* NotBrainwashed: Alice speculates that Chudelkin may be a victim of Quinella just like the Integrity Knights. Whether or not this is true, what's made clear is Chudelkin had full knowledge of what Quinella was really doing and not only supported her but actively partook in the immoral activities himself.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: He may be small, but he's a very powerful Scared Arts user.
* PlayingWithFire: His most powerful Sacred Art involves summoning a gigantic fire genie.
* ThePowerOfLust: He's generally spends the arc as a DirtyCoward, but he's immediately motivated to fight when [[spoiler: Quinella offers him a night with access to her body if he kills the Rulid Trio, even summoning [[PlayingWithFire a giant, fiery version of himself.]]]]
* PsychopathicManchild: He's clearly an adult, but acts extremely immature; he throwing tantrums over the most trivial of things, dresses like a clown, and he giggles at the silliest of stuff. His private quarters is brightly colored room full of children's toys, like a child's bedroom. "Fearless Resistance" even shows him angrily bouncing up and down in response to Quinella requesting a late-night meeting with Bercouli so he can give his mission reports. However he is also AxCrazy and [[{{Sadist}} enjoys torture or ordering the execution of others]].
* {{Sadist}}: He enjoys executions and torture, which includes gleefully recounting the time he put Alice through the Forced Synthesis Ritual, claiming that he wish he could have [[TakenForGranite Deep Freezed her]] and used her to decorate his room solely for the pained expressions she made.
* SitcomArchNemesis: In ''Rising Steel'', while he seems to have beef with every Knight, he and Eydis simply cannot stand each other, with him always getting upset at her blatant lack of respect for him and laid back attitude.
* {{Slimeball}}: He rivals Sugou as the most detestable character in the whole series. Aside from the fact he's an evil MonsterClown, he's also smarmy, manipulative, and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays his own allies without a second thought after coming upon someone more useful]]. In stark contrast to Quinella who is seductively FauxAffablyEvil, he's downright [[BadBoss abusive and condescending]] to the Integrity Knights and outright calls them puppets to do his bidding. He's a DirtyCoward who flees the second he's in danger and will not hesitate to reducing himself to grovelling. He also reveals he's just as sickly perverted as any of the other SAO villains before him (if not worse), lusting for Quinella and requesting he spend a night with access to her body if he were to dispose of the rebels.
* SmokeOut: [[spoiler: It turns out his "fat" might actually be a large amount of smoke he has in his clothes, as shown when Alice impales him, causing it all to burst out and cover his escape.]]
* SmugSnake: Chudelkin is this in regards to the Dark Territory; he dismisses all the Knight's concerns about possible invasion. In ''Rising Steel'', he even berates Eydis when she doesn't kill a group of them she finds doing something suspicious, instead opting to play it safe and report back to Bercouli, which many agree is the smarter option.
* SquishyWizard: He's not much of a physical fighter, but he's incredibly skilled with Sacred Arts which are so destructive he can easily be a OneManArmy in his own right.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:He hugs Quinella while he's on fire, immolating her before she can escape to the real world via a console.]]
* VagueAge: While his exact age is never specified, though he's {{Implied}} to have been bossing Bercouli around for a while.
* VillainsWantMercy: As soon as things go south, he's reduced to a [[VillainousBreakdown blubbering wreck]] who begs for his life.
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: A rare villainous example. Typically he derogatorily refers to the Integrity Knights via their numerical designations. When Alice defects and holds him at sword point, with his life on the line he finally refers to her as "Alice" to try and appease her.
* YouHaveFailedMe: He plans on reprocessing the Integrity Knights (or at least Bercouli and Fanatio) after seeing Bercouli fail to defeat Eugeo.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Quinella has no qualms with tossing aside Chudelkin's lifeless corpse after Kirito offs him.
[[/folder]]
!!Glowgen Defense Systems
[[folder:In General]]
A [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]]-based company that was hired by the National Security Agency to assault the Ocean Turtle to obtain the Soul Translator technology secretly developed there.
----
%% *AmbiguousSituation: The reason why the NSA decided to launch their attack on Ocean Turtle is not delved upon.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: They are supposed to be Americans, but speak perfect [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage Japanese]].
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: They're all comprised of criminals. Captain Dario Ziliani remarks that (with the exception of Gabriel Miller), none of the Glowgen operatives had any sense of discipline.
* {{Eagleland}}: Given that they're the antagonists in ''Alicization'', it's the boorish variety. They're also Americans.
%%* EvilCounterpart: To Rath.
* FighterMageThief: Villain example. The three main faces of the group could be seen to have this dynamic.
** Gabriel is the Fighter, being the PhysicalGod who relies on aggressive WeHaveReserves tactics against the Human Army. He also is powerful enough to be a match for several heavy-hitters like [[spoiler: Bercouli, Sinon (who's logged in as [[PhysicalGod Solus]]), and a recently revived and empowered Kirito]].
** [=PoH=] is the Thief, being a ProfessionalKiller who can sneak into the human encampment and kill several guards. He also later [[spoiler: ambushes the Human Army and ALO players with his army of Chinese and Koreans]].
** Critter is the Mage, being TheCracker who hacks into the Ocean Turtle's system to log Gabriel and Vassago in. He even [[spoiler: recruits and logs in foreign players to serve as Gabriel and Vassago's reinforcements]].
* GratuitousEnglish: They slip a lot of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEnglish English]] words into their dialogue as a way of showing [[JustifiedTrope they are not Japanese]].
* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: After the mission ends, Critter suspects the surviving team members are likely to be detained or even killed due to the American Government not wanting it to leak that they violated their treaty with Japan and led an attack on one of their facilities, as it could spark an international incident. This prompted Critter to steal a data-chip before the team escaped the Ocean Turtle with the intent of bargaining for his life]].
* PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler: After the defeat and (seemingly for the latter) deaths of [[BigBad Gabriel]] and [[TheDragon Vassago]], the remaining mercenaries declare the mission a failure and attempt to blow up the Ocean Turtle before leaving. Though, one of them stays behind in [[AvengingTheVillain hopes of avenging his partner]]. It takes the combined efforts of Kayaba in a robot body and Kikuoka to prevent the bomb from going off]].
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: They operate in this way. It's a case of TruthInTelevision, as the GDS HQ is located in [[UsefulNotes/{{California}} San Diego]]. In RealLife, there's a heavy presence of both the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks U.S. Navy's Point Loma base]] and [[SemperFi U.S. Marine Corps Camp Pendleton]] in San Diego County. It means there are innumerable corporations [[note]] (mainly related to industries like communications, biotech, and engineering) [[/note]] in the region with major Department of Defense contracts.
* ProfessionalKiller: All of Glowgen's operatives specialize in assasinating people.
* RedOniBlueOni: Vassago is the impulsive and hotheaded red to Gabriel's calmer and logical blue.
* UnskilledButStrong: As experienced in assasination the operatives are, as Vassago himself remarks, they are no match for soldiers with formal training like the JSDF.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer / Vector]]
!!Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer (GGO, UW) / Vector (UW)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AkiraIshida (Japanese), Creator/RieKugimiya (Japanese, young), Ted Sroka (English, ''Alicization''), Creator/GregChun (English, ''War of Underworld''), Creator/AmandaCelineMiller (English, young), Sergio Gutiérrez Coto (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriels_real_life_concept.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click here to see Vector]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriel_vector_anime.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Gabriel's Angel of Death form]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabrielmiller.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"I wonder how it tastes. Your emotions, memories, heart and soul... everything! I'll devour them all now!"''
Chief Technological Officer of "Glowgen Defense Systems" and son of the founder and former [=CTO=]. During the events of the Alicization arc, he leads a 12-men team of operators, at the request of the National Security Agency, on an assault of the Ocean Turtle.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Despite his status as the strongest being there, [[TheSocialDarwinist which dictates that they follow him unquestionably]], none of the Dark Territory members seem to actually like him or are genuinely loyal to him. [[spoiler:Shasta and Lipia die trying to kill him, Fu Za stopped Shasta out of a personal grude as opposed to loyalty]], [[TheStarscream Dee Eye Ell has plans to usurp his authority]], Kosogi thinks he's being manipulated by Dee Eye Ell and uses LoopholeAbuse in regards to his orders, Lilpilin is angered when he orders [[spoiler: 3,000 of his people dead for a spell]], and Iskahn is disgusted by his WeHaveReserves mentality enough to [[spoiler: betray him himself]] and even before that he was [[spoiler: rooting for Shasta when he made an attempt on his life.]] [[spoiler:In addition, Vassago, his right hand, proves to be even more insane than he is. As when he threatens Kirito that he'll torture and kill everyone in Underworld, he includes Gabriel and his own armies in them.]]
* AchievementInIgnorance: He has no idea how [[spoiler:he managed to consume Lipia's [=FluctLight=]]], but he doesn't care and is delighted nonetheless.
* AdaptationalBadass:
** {{Downplayed}}. [[spoiler: The Light Novel depicts him as somewhat UnskilledButStrong, due to lacking much skill in swordsmanship but compensating for that with the Vecta account's stats and PowerOfTheVoid, something which is {{Lampshaded}} by Bercouli during their duel. In the Anime however, he's depicted as being much more skilled with the Vecta account's sword and Bercouli's observation on his lack of swordsmanship prowess is adapted out.]]
** Weird [[ZigZagged Zig Zag]], with two scenes swapping his reactions to certain events. [[spoiler: When he presented Lipia's head to lure out the treasonous general, he actually displayed concern when Shasta attempted to kill him and turned into a murderous tornado, trying to strategize a way out before determining there is none. Later on in his fight with Bercouli, he's noted to have a completely expressionless face when Bercouli finally kills him with the Uragiri, dying with nary a sound. In the anime, his reactions to both of these are swapped, with him keeping a straight in the face of Shasta's charge yet displaying surprise and even howling in pain when killed by the Uragiri.]]
** [[spoiler:Despite not killing any of the UW characters in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel's credibility as the BigBad and FinalBoss has cranked up, having two new, powerful, and ''way more dangerous'' transformations that he used against the heroes after his "True Gabriel" form is defeated.]]
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the light novels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the light novels.
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLeftHanded having two extremely strong transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:During their fight, Sinon's final attack destroys his arm in addition to the [=XM500=] he generated. He temporarily replaces it with [[ArtificialLimbs one made of pure energy]] for his final duel with Kirito.]]
* AnimalMotifs:
** In his introductory chapter, Dario Giulani, the captain of the ''USS Jimmy Carter'', the sub that would transport Gabriel's forces right before the Ocean Turtle raid, describes him as having hollow eyes that "devoured all light like a bottomless pit" like the great white shark that he encountered while he was swimming in Miami. Considering [[YourSoulIsMine the type of person]] Gabriel is, this is fitting.
** He also has a minor link with insects; his interest in the soul was born out of curiosity over his father's insect collection and a insect's strange ability to survive things like getting their heads bitten off, wondering where their souls could be. The first opening for ''War of Underworld'' also shows him at a desk with a frame of frozen butterflies behind him.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: Despite being an American, his Japanese is perfect. In fact it is his GratuitousEnglish which has a Japanese accent.
* TheAntiGod: As the Dark God Vecta, he is this to Goddess of Creation Stacia. In the mythology of Underworld, Vecta was the one god who was not created by Stacia, being a sentience who was birthed from the darkness itself and opposed Stacia, envying her power. He also became the reason why humans die, as he steals their lives over time, effectively making him TheGrimReaper, but his origins also make him effectively {{Satan}}.
* ArchAngelGabriel: Named Gabriel while having a backstory and personality painting him as a SatanicArchetype, making him a FallenAngel so to speak. He even takes on an angelic HumanoidAbomination form when he goes OneWingedAngel, where he gains a dark shadowy form with six wings and a halo.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: Given his drastically different NonStandardCharacterDesign, it really makes one wonder what his species is.
* BadBoss: Chudelkin is notorious for abusing the Integrity Knights; he rudely dismisses all of their concerns about the possibility of invasion by the Dark Territory, he insults them over the most trivial things, and is all too willing to Deep Freeze them if they displease him. [[UngratefulBastard This is despite the fact their existence alone is what prevents the Dark Territory from launching a full-scale invasion]].
* BerserkButton: ''Don't'' even think about calling him a lump of meat if you don't want [[OffWithHisHead your head torn off]].
* BeTheBall: His primary form of transport is to curl into a ball and bounce about the place.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He looks like a clown and seems relatively silly. But he's a {{sadist}}ic individual who's highly skilled with Sacred Arts, and so should not be underestimated.
* DirtyOldMonk:
** As the Prime Senator, Chudelkin is technically a member of the Axiom Church's clergy, yet he is an obsessive StalkerWithACrush towards Quinella, [[spoiler:even requesting that he get a night with free access to her body in exchange for killing the Rulid Trio]].
** In ''Rising Steel'', one of the Skits during the "Overflowing Eternal Affection" Scout, hints that he at least once entered the Great Baths during the girls times while Eydis was using her privacy to mock him.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He threatens to turn Eugeo into a horse the next time he fails to address Chudelkin with the "Kakka" honorific (roughly equivalent to "Your Excellency") after his "Prime Senator" title.
* TheDragon: He's the second-in-command to Quinella, and unlike the Integrity Knights, he is straight out evil and delights in committing atrocities for her.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: He only ever refers to Integrity Knights by their numbers rather than their names.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Has a very deep gravelly voice and is likely the most evil being in the Axion Church save for Quinella herself. The dub makes his voice deeper yet to the point it resembles ComicBook/TheJoker.
* EyeScream: While casting his most powerful Sacred Art that conjures a giant fire genie, he burns his own eyes out.
* EvilIsPetty: When he's briefly brought BackFromTheDead in ''Unleash Blading's'' second anniversary event, he forms an alliance with Sugou and Gabriel to crash Eydis' party since he wasn't invited.
* FatBastard: A pudgy fat man dressed like a clown who constantly mocks everyone around him.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He speaks with a formal and polite tone, yet has no issue with addressing others condescendingly.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Less friend and more acquaintance. While he is on the same side as the Integrity Knights and technically their boss, none of them like him given he [[BadBoss treats them like trash]]. Bercouli in fact outright despises him and when given the chance doesn't shy away from directly insulting him.
* GigglingVillain: He lets off a laugh of "Hoh-hoh-hoh!"
* GlassCannon: He is one of the most powerful Sacred Users of all time (and possibly the best other than Quinella and Cardinal). However he has nothing in the way of physical ability, and goes down very easily if he takes even a slight amount of damage.
* GreenEyedMonster: He is obsessed with Quinella and becomes aggressively jealous if she so much as even gives attention to anyone else.
* {{Gonk}}: He's a short, pudgy man with heavy makeup who doesn't look much like anyone on the Integrity Knights' side.
* HatedByAll: It soon becomes clear there is absolutely no one, hero or villain, that likes Chudelkin. The Integrity Knights all range from not caring about him to outright despising him. Even Quinella [[FauxAffablyEvil feigns politeness]] around him and is all too eager to cast him aside like trash when he's [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]]. In reality, she's also repulsed by him.
* InsistentTerminology: Always chastises anyone who doesn't refer to him by "Prime Senator".
* {{Irony}}: He, Quinella's most fervent follower, [[spoiler:is the one who kills her in the end.]]
* JerkassAtYourDiscretion: He's a very rude and abusive BadBoss who torments anyone in sight... until Quinella appears where he suddenly piles on praise and polite language. [[spoiler:The most disrespectful he ever gets is asking if she'll sleep with him if he disposes of Kirito, Eugeo and Alice, and even then he phrases it like a humble request]].
* {{Kevlard}}: Inverted; while he's [[FatBastard pudgy]], he can take little punishment.
* KickTheDog: He gleefully recounts how poorly Alice was treated, and how she despaired once her hopes of being able to return home were dashed before she ended up becoming an Integrity Knight, particularly how she begged not to forget the people who were most important to her.
* LightIsNotGood: Wears some white, and is a {{sadist}}ic PsychopathicManchild.
* ManipulativeBastard: Manipulated the Integrity Knights into fighting Kirito and Eugeo by putting them under the belief that they were invaders from Dark Territory.
* MisterBig: As the Prime Senator, he's the highest authority in the Central Cathedral save for Quinella herself. Yet he's diminutive and barely taller than a child. Also worth noting is he is a contender for the most powerful Sacred Arts user in the Human Empire, barring Quinella.
* MonsterClown: He dresses more like a jester than a clown, but otherwise he still gives off these vibes, and unlike the Integrity Knights he's unconditionally evil. Some of the characters even derogatorily refer to him as a clown.
* TheNapoleon: Chudelkin is a short, arrogant man who's quick to berate the Integrity Knights who work under him either out of [[GreenEyedMonster envy whenever Quinella treats them kindly]], [[EvilIsPetty for merely questioning him or underdoing the praise he feels her rightfully deserves]], or [[MeanBoss simply because he feels like it.]]
* NoIndoorVoice: He yells at the top of voice for often no reason at times, to anyone other than Quinella.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:It looked as though he had already met his end at the hands of Kirito, with Quinella even casting his lifeless body aside. But we later see he wasn't quite finished yet, and he uses presumably the last of his Durability to launch himself at Quinella's body to finally touch and be with her, much to her horror, whereby he burns the both of them out.]]
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Everything about him, all the way down to his clashing colors and the 8-bit sound effects, looks nothing like a ''Sword Art Online'' character and more like he belongs in a completely different franchise.
* NotBrainwashed: Alice speculates that Chudelkin may be a victim of Quinella just like the Integrity Knights. Whether or not this is true, what's made clear is Chudelkin had full knowledge of what Quinella was really doing and not only supported her but actively partook in the immoral activities himself.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: He may be small, but he's a very powerful Scared Arts user.
* PlayingWithFire: His most powerful Sacred Art involves summoning a gigantic fire genie.
* ThePowerOfLust: He's generally spends the arc as a DirtyCoward, but he's immediately motivated to fight when [[spoiler: Quinella offers him a night with access to her body if he kills the Rulid Trio, even summoning [[PlayingWithFire a giant, fiery version of himself.]]]]
* PsychopathicManchild: He's clearly an adult, but acts extremely immature; he throwing tantrums over the most trivial of things, dresses like a clown, and he giggles at the silliest of stuff. His private quarters is brightly colored room full of children's toys, like a child's bedroom. "Fearless Resistance" even shows him angrily bouncing up and down in response to Quinella requesting a late-night meeting with Bercouli so he can give his mission reports. However he is also AxCrazy and [[{{Sadist}} enjoys torture or ordering the execution of others]].
* {{Sadist}}: He enjoys executions and torture, which includes gleefully recounting the time he put Alice through the Forced Synthesis Ritual, claiming that he wish he could have [[TakenForGranite Deep Freezed her]] and used her to decorate his room solely for the pained expressions she made.
* SitcomArchNemesis: In ''Rising Steel'', while he seems to have beef with every Knight, he and Eydis simply cannot stand each other, with him always getting upset at her blatant lack of respect for him and laid back attitude.
* {{Slimeball}}: He rivals Sugou as the most detestable character in the whole series. Aside from the fact he's an evil MonsterClown, he's also smarmy, manipulative, and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays his own allies without a second thought after coming upon someone more useful]]. In stark contrast to Quinella who is seductively FauxAffablyEvil, he's downright [[BadBoss abusive and condescending]] to the Integrity Knights and outright calls them puppets to do his bidding. He's a DirtyCoward who flees the second he's in danger and will not hesitate to reducing himself to grovelling. He also reveals he's just as sickly perverted as any of the other SAO villains before him (if not worse), lusting for Quinella and requesting he spend a night with access to her body if he were to dispose of the rebels.
* SmokeOut: [[spoiler: It turns out his "fat" might actually be a large amount of smoke he has in his clothes, as shown when Alice impales him, causing it all to burst out and cover his escape.]]
* SmugSnake: Chudelkin is this in regards to the Dark Territory; he dismisses all the Knight's concerns about possible invasion. In ''Rising Steel'', he even berates Eydis when she doesn't kill a group of them she finds doing something suspicious, instead opting to play it safe and report back to Bercouli, which many agree is the smarter option.
* SquishyWizard: He's not much of a physical fighter, but he's incredibly skilled with Sacred Arts which are so destructive he can easily be a OneManArmy in his own right.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:He hugs Quinella while he's on fire, immolating her before she can escape to the real world via a console.]]
* VagueAge: While his exact age is never specified, though he's {{Implied}} to have been bossing Bercouli around for a while.
* VillainsWantMercy: As soon as things go south, he's reduced to a [[VillainousBreakdown blubbering wreck]] who begs for his life.
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: A rare villainous example. Typically he derogatorily refers to the Integrity Knights via their numerical designations. When Alice defects and holds him at sword point, with his life on the line he finally refers to her as "Alice" to try and appease her.
* YouHaveFailedMe: He plans on reprocessing the Integrity Knights (or at least Bercouli and Fanatio) after seeing Bercouli fail to defeat Eugeo.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Quinella has no qualms with tossing aside Chudelkin's lifeless corpse after Kirito offs him.
[[/folder]]
!!Glowgen Defense Systems
[[folder:In General]]
A [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]]-based company that was hired by the National Security Agency to assault the Ocean Turtle to obtain the Soul Translator technology secretly developed there.
----
%% *AmbiguousSituation: The reason why the NSA decided to launch their attack on Ocean Turtle is not delved upon.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: They are supposed to be Americans, but speak perfect [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage Japanese]].
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: They're all comprised of criminals. Captain Dario Ziliani remarks that (with the exception of Gabriel Miller), none of the Glowgen operatives had any sense of discipline.
* {{Eagleland}}: Given that they're the antagonists in ''Alicization'', it's the boorish variety. They're also Americans.
%%* EvilCounterpart: To Rath.
* FighterMageThief: Villain example. The three main faces of the group could be seen to have this dynamic.
** Gabriel is the Fighter, being the PhysicalGod who relies on aggressive WeHaveReserves tactics against the Human Army. He also is powerful enough to be a match for several heavy-hitters like [[spoiler: Bercouli, Sinon (who's logged in as [[PhysicalGod Solus]]), and a recently revived and empowered Kirito]].
** [=PoH=] is the Thief, being a ProfessionalKiller who can sneak into the human encampment and kill several guards. He also later [[spoiler: ambushes the Human Army and ALO players with his army of Chinese and Koreans]].
** Critter is the Mage, being TheCracker who hacks into the Ocean Turtle's system to log Gabriel and Vassago in. He even [[spoiler: recruits and logs in foreign players to serve as Gabriel and Vassago's reinforcements]].
* GratuitousEnglish: They slip a lot of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEnglish English]] words into their dialogue as a way of showing [[JustifiedTrope they are not Japanese]].
* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: After the mission ends, Critter suspects the surviving team members are likely to be detained or even killed due to the American Government not wanting it to leak that they violated their treaty with Japan and led an attack on one of their facilities, as it could spark an international incident. This prompted Critter to steal a data-chip before the team escaped the Ocean Turtle with the intent of bargaining for his life]].
* PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler: After the defeat and (seemingly for the latter) deaths of [[BigBad Gabriel]] and [[TheDragon Vassago]], the remaining mercenaries declare the mission a failure and attempt to blow up the Ocean Turtle before leaving. Though, one of them stays behind in [[AvengingTheVillain hopes of avenging his partner]]. It takes the combined efforts of Kayaba in a robot body and Kikuoka to prevent the bomb from going off]].
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: They operate in this way. It's a case of TruthInTelevision, as the GDS HQ is located in [[UsefulNotes/{{California}} San Diego]]. In RealLife, there's a heavy presence of both the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks U.S. Navy's Point Loma base]] and [[SemperFi U.S. Marine Corps Camp Pendleton]] in San Diego County. It means there are innumerable corporations [[note]] (mainly related to industries like communications, biotech, and engineering) [[/note]] in the region with major Department of Defense contracts.
* ProfessionalKiller: All of Glowgen's operatives specialize in assasinating people.
* RedOniBlueOni: Vassago is the impulsive and hotheaded red to Gabriel's calmer and logical blue.
* UnskilledButStrong: As experienced in assasination the operatives are, as Vassago himself remarks, they are no match for soldiers with formal training like the JSDF.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer / Vector]]
!!Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer (GGO, UW) / Vector (UW)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AkiraIshida (Japanese), Creator/RieKugimiya (Japanese, young), Ted Sroka (English, ''Alicization''), Creator/GregChun (English, ''War of Underworld''), Creator/AmandaCelineMiller (English, young), Sergio Gutiérrez Coto (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriels_real_life_concept.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click here to see Vector]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriel_vector_anime.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Gabriel's Angel of Death form]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabrielmiller.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"I wonder how it tastes. Your emotions, memories, heart and soul... everything! I'll devour them all now!"''
Chief Technological Officer of "Glowgen Defense Systems" and son of the founder and former [=CTO=]. During the events of the Alicization arc, he leads a 12-men team of operators, at the request of the National Security Agency, on an assault of the Ocean Turtle.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Despite his status as the strongest being there, [[TheSocialDarwinist which dictates that they follow him unquestionably]], none of the Dark Territory members seem to actually like him or are genuinely loyal to him. [[spoiler:Shasta and Lipia die trying to kill him, Fu Za stopped Shasta out of a personal grude as opposed to loyalty]], [[TheStarscream Dee Eye Ell has plans to usurp his authority]], Kosogi thinks he's being manipulated by Dee Eye Ell and uses LoopholeAbuse in regards to his orders, Lilpilin is angered when he orders [[spoiler: 3,000 of his people dead for a spell]], and Iskahn is disgusted by his WeHaveReserves mentality enough to [[spoiler: betray him himself]] and even before that he was [[spoiler: rooting for Shasta when he made an attempt on his life.]] [[spoiler:In addition, Vassago, his right hand, proves to be even more insane than he is. As when he threatens Kirito that he'll torture and kill everyone in Underworld, he includes Gabriel and his own armies in them.]]
* AchievementInIgnorance: He has no idea how [[spoiler:he managed to consume Lipia's [=FluctLight=]]], but he doesn't care and is delighted nonetheless.
* AdaptationalBadass:
** {{Downplayed}}. [[spoiler: The Light Novel depicts him as somewhat UnskilledButStrong, due to lacking much skill in swordsmanship but compensating for that with the Vecta account's stats and PowerOfTheVoid, something which is {{Lampshaded}} by Bercouli during their duel. In the Anime however, he's depicted as being much more skilled with the Vecta account's sword and Bercouli's observation on his lack of swordsmanship prowess is adapted out.]]
** Weird [[ZigZagged Zig Zag]], with two scenes swapping his reactions to certain events. [[spoiler: When he presented Lipia's head to lure out the treasonous general, he actually displayed concern when Shasta attempted to kill him and turned into a murderous tornado, trying to strategize a way out before determining there is none. Later on in his fight with Bercouli, he's noted to have a completely expressionless face when Bercouli finally kills him with the Uragiri, dying with nary a sound. In the anime, his reactions to both of these are swapped, with him keeping a straight in the face of Shasta's charge yet displaying surprise and even howling in pain when killed by the Uragiri.]]
** [[spoiler:Despite not killing any of the UW characters in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel's credibility as the BigBad and FinalBoss has cranked up, having two new, powerful, and ''way more dangerous'' transformations that he used against the heroes after his "True Gabriel" form is defeated.]]
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the light novels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the light novels.
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLeftHanded having two extremely strong transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:During their fight, Sinon's final attack destroys his arm in addition to the [=XM500=] he generated. He temporarily replaces it with [[ArtificialLimbs one made of pure energy]] for his final duel with Kirito.]]
* AnimalMotifs:
** In his introductory chapter, Dario Giulani, the captain of the ''USS Jimmy Carter'', the sub that would transport Gabriel's forces right before the Ocean Turtle raid, describes him as having hollow eyes that "devoured all light like a bottomless pit" like the great white shark that he encountered while he was swimming in Miami. Considering [[YourSoulIsMine the type of person]] Gabriel is, this is fitting.
** He also has a minor link with insects; his interest in the soul was born out of curiosity over his father's insect collection and a insect's strange ability to survive things like getting their heads bitten off, wondering where their souls could be. The first opening for ''War of Underworld'' also shows him at a desk with a frame of frozen butterflies behind him.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: Despite being an American, his Japanese is perfect. In fact it is his GratuitousEnglish which has a Japanese accent.
* TheAntiGod: As the Dark God Vecta, he is this to Goddess of Creation Stacia. In the mythology of Underworld, Vecta was the one god who was not created by Stacia, being a sentience who was birthed from the darkness itself and opposed Stacia, envying her power. He also became the reason why humans die, as he steals their lives over time, effectively making him TheGrimReaper, but his origins also make him effectively {{Satan}}.
* ArchAngelGabriel: Named Gabriel while having a backstory and personality painting him as a SatanicArchetype, making him a FallenAngel so to speak. He even takes on an angelic HumanoidAbomination form when he goes OneWingedAngel, where he gains a dark shadowy form with six wings and a halo.
to:
* {{Acrofatic}}: Despite appearances, his main mode AccidentalMurder: Her implementation of transportation the Taboo Index has caused incidents like this. One such example is when Rath caused a plague in the Underworld in hopes of forcing the people to BeTheBall break the laws so they can try to minimize possible deaths. However, the people's absolute adherence to the Index and he proves to be surprisingly nimble, constantly dancing it's rules against killing and prancing stealing led [[SuicidalPacifism to them not doing anything about it]], leading to devastating casualties that could have been avoided.
* AccidentalTruth: When she gave Scheta the [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Black Lily Sword]], she encouraged her to cling to her murderous impulses and obsession with cutting, claiming that she'll find a way to break out of it as a result. Knowing Quinella, [[ManipulativeBastard this iseven able to do a headstand. definitely an attempt at manipulating her into being an effective attack dog]], [[spoiler: Possibly {{Subverted}} But Scheta ''does'' end up finding a way out of her obsession, since it leads to her taking part in the War of Underworld and meeting Iskahn, who she falls in love with when it turns out he's [[NotHyperbole literally]] full he proves capable of hot air.resisting her slashes and soon realizes that in spite of her obsession, she doesn't ''want'' to kill or cut him.]]
*AmbiguouslyHuman: Given his drastically different NonStandardCharacterDesign, it really makes one wonder what his species is.
ActorAllusion: This wouldn't be the first time Creator/MaayaSakamoto [[Franchise/DotHack voiced a video game AI that had seemingly infinite powers (and even resided in a cathedral)]] However, unlike Quinella, Aura shows herself to be a BenevolentAI who cares for the well-being of the players playing the game.
*BadBoss: AdaptationDyeJob: Her hair and eyes were described in the novels as [[WhiteHairBlackHeart silver with a platinum-like sheen]]. In all animated and illustrated media ever since, it's purple, with no noticeable luster.
* AdaptationalBadass: [[spoiler:Quinella is already a tough opponent in canon, having godlike powers and being able to kill Eugeo but once Kirito cleaves off her remaining arm, she immediately tries to flee and was burned to death when Chudelkinis notorious for abusing the Integrity Knights; he rudely dismisses all of their concerns about the possibility of invasion by the Dark Territory, he insults them over the most trivial things, and is all too willing to Deep Freeze them if they displease him. [[UngratefulBastard This is despite the fact their existence alone is what prevents the Dark Territory from launching a full-scale invasion]].
* BerserkButton: ''Don't'' even think about calling him a lump of meat if you don't want [[OffWithHisHead your head torn off]].
* BeTheBall: His primary form of transport is to curl into a ball and bounce about the place.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He looks like a clown and seems relatively silly. But he's a {{sadist}}ic individual who's highly skilled with Sacred Arts, and so should not be underestimated.
* DirtyOldMonk:
** As the Prime Senator, Chudelkin is technically a member of the Axiom Church's clergy, yet he is an obsessive StalkerWithACrush towards Quinella, [[spoiler:even requesting that he get a night with free access tocaught her body in exchange for killing the Rulid Trio]].
**off-guard. In ''Rising Steel'', one of the Skits during the "Overflowing Eternal Affection" Scout, hints that he at least once entered the Great Baths during the girls times ''Alicization Lycoris'', while Eydis was using Quinella failed to kill Eugeo, she did survive her privacy to mock him.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He threatens to turn Eugeo into a horse the next time he fails to address Chudelkinfirst confrontation with the "Kakka" honorific (roughly equivalent Ruild trio and Cardinal (albeit reduced to "Your Excellency") after his "Prime Senator" title.
* TheDragon: He'sa small sphere-like object) and has a contingency EvilPlan to cause chaos in UW by assimilating with the second-in-command to Quinella, Main Visualizer, and unlike then summoning monsters and other beings with Fluctlights through the Integrity Knights, he is straight out evil Calamity Plants she implanted. It took a combination of Medina's BatmanGambit and delights in committing atrocities for her.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: He only ever refers to Integrity Knights by their numbers rather than their names.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Has a very deep gravelly voice and is likelythe most evil being in the Axion Church save for heroes ganging up on Quinella herself. The dub makes his voice deeper yet ''again'' to the point it resembles ComicBook/TheJoker.
* EyeScream: While casting his most powerful Sacred Art that conjures a giant fire genie, he burns his own eyes out.
* EvilIsPetty: When he's briefly brought BackFromTheDead in ''Unleash Blading's'' second anniversary event, he forms an alliance with Sugoubring her down and Gabriel to crash Eydis' party since he wasn't invited.
* FatBastard: A pudgy fat man dressedeven then, she went out like a clown who constantly mocks everyone around him.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He speaks with a formal and polite tone, yet has no issue with addressing others condescendingly.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Less friend and more acquaintance. While he is on the same side as the Integrity Knights and technically their boss, none of them like him given he [[BadBoss treats them like trash]]. Bercouli in fact outright despises him and when given the chance doesn't shy away from directly insulting him.
* GigglingVillain: He lets off a laugh of "Hoh-hoh-hoh!"
* GlassCannon: He is one of the most powerful Sacred Users of allchamp this time (and possibly the best other than Quinella and Cardinal). However he has nothing in the way of physical ability, and goes down very easily if he takes even a slight amount of damage.
* GreenEyedMonster: He is obsessed with Quinella and becomes aggressively jealous if she so much as even gives attention to anyone else.
* {{Gonk}}: He's a short, pudgy man with heavy makeup who doesn't look much like anyone on the Integrity Knights' side.
* HatedByAll: It soon becomes clear there is absolutely no one, hero or villain, that likes Chudelkin. The Integrity Knights all range from not caring about him to outright despising him. Even Quinella [[FauxAffablyEvil feigns politeness]] around him and is all too eager to cast him aside like trash when he's [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]]. In reality, she's also repulsed by him.
* InsistentTerminology: Always chastises anyone who doesn't refer to him by "Prime Senator".
* {{Irony}}: He, Quinella's most fervent follower, [[spoiler:is the one who kills her in the end.around.]]
*JerkassAtYourDiscretion: He's AdaptationalModesty: In the game, she wears her dress for the entire final battle ''intact'' against Kirito, instead of going into her FullFrontalAssault territory that she's better known for.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy:
** Downplayed. While her crimes are mostly the same in the anime adaptation, there are avery rude few more scenes added in that make her overall more sympathetic. For one, [[spoiler:her spirit lingers after her death and abusive BadBoss who torments anyone in sight... until Quinella being proud of the empire that she created. Then after Bercouli's death, her spirit appears where he suddenly piles on praise and polite language. [[spoiler:The most disrespectful he ever gets is asking if she'll sleep with him if he disposes before him, showing awareness of Kirito, Eugeo and Alice, her vileness and even then he phrases it like a humble request]].
* {{Kevlard}}: Inverted;some regret over her actions, while he's [[FatBastard pudgy]], he can take little punishment.
* KickTheDog: He gleefully recounts how poorly Alice was treated,both are happy to reunite and how she despaired once her hopes of being able to return home were dashed before she ended up becoming an Integrity Knight, particularly how she begged not to forget the people who were most important to her.
* LightIsNotGood: Wears some white, and is a {{sadist}}ic PsychopathicManchild.
* ManipulativeBastard: Manipulated the Integrity Knights into fighting Kirito and Eugeo by putting them under the belief that they were invaders from Dark Territory.
* MisterBig: As the Prime Senator, he's the highest authority in the Central Cathedral save for Quinella herself. Yet he's diminutive and barely taller than a child. Also worth noting is he is a contender for the most powerful Sacred Arts user in the Human Empire, barring Quinella.
* MonsterClown: He dresses more like a jester than a clown, but otherwise he still gives off these vibes, and unlike the Integrity Knights he's unconditionally evil. Some of the characters even derogatorily refer to him as a clown.
* TheNapoleon: Chudelkin is a short, arrogant man who's quick to berate the Integrity Knights who work under him either out of [[GreenEyedMonster envy whenever Quinella treats them kindly]], [[EvilIsPetty for merely questioning him or underdoing the praise he feels her rightfully deserves]], or [[MeanBoss simply because he feels like it.are TogetherInDeath.]]
* NoIndoorVoice: He yells at ** Gets this treatment in the top [[AlternateTimeline Cake Timeline]]. While she still gives off the impression of voice for often no reason at times, a {{Sociopath}}ic tyrant with the GodComplex who effectively sees her subjects as objects she can use and abuse as she pleases, there are moments where she's merciful and even warm, something Kirito and Eugeo pick up in her interactions with her riding dragon, and she appears more willing to anyone other actually negotiate with Cardinal than Quinella.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:It looked as though he had already met his end atkill her outright after being convinced by the hands of Kirito, with Quinella even casting his lifeless body aside. But we later see he wasn't quite finished yet, and he uses presumably the last of his Durability to launch himself at Quinella's body to finally touch and be with her, much to her horror, whereby he burns the both of them out.]]
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Everything about him, all the way down to his clashing colors and the 8-bit sound effects, looks nothing like a ''Sword Art Online'' character and more like he belongs in a completely different franchise.
* NotBrainwashed: Alice speculates that Chudelkin may be a victim of Quinella just like thetwo new Integrity Knights. Whether or not This actually appears to be a plot-point, as Charlotte feels compelled to report this is true, what's made clear is Chudelkin had full knowledge of what Quinella was really doing and not only supported her but actively partook in the immoral activities himself.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: He may be small, but he's a very powerful Scared Arts user.
* PlayingWithFire: His most powerful Sacred Art involves summoning a gigantic fire genie.
* ThePowerOfLust: He's generally spends the arc as a DirtyCoward, but he's immediately motivatedbehavior to fight when [[spoiler: Quinella offers him a night with access Cardinal.
* TheAgeless: [[spoiler:Her original effort toher body if he kills the Rulid Trio, even summoning [[PlayingWithFire a giant, fiery version of himself.]]]]
* PsychopathicManchild: He's clearly an adult, but acts extremely immature; he throwing tantrumstake over the most trivial Cardinal system of things, dresses like a clown, and he giggles at the silliest of stuff. His private quarters is brightly colored room full of children's toys, like a child's bedroom. "Fearless Resistance" even shows him angrily bouncing up and down UW resulted in response to Quinella requesting a late-night meeting her fusing with Bercouli so he can give his mission reports. However he is also AxCrazy it, granting her eternal youth [[TheNeedless and [[{{Sadist}} enjoys torture or ordering the execution of others]].
* {{Sadist}}: He enjoys executions and torture, which includes gleefully recounting the time he put Alice through the Forced Synthesis Ritual, claiming that he wish he could have [[TakenForGranite Deep Freezed her]] and used her to decorate his room solely for the pained expressions she made.
* SitcomArchNemesis: In ''Rising Steel'', while he seems to have beef with every Knight, he and Eydis simply cannot stand each other, with him always getting upset at her blatant lack of respect for him and laid back attitude.
* {{Slimeball}}: He rivals Sugou as the most detestable character in the whole series. Aside from the fact he's an evil MonsterClown, he's also smarmy, manipulative, and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays his own allies without a second thought after coming upon someone more useful]]. In stark contrast to Quinella who is seductively FauxAffablyEvil, he's downright [[BadBoss abusive and condescending]] to the Integrity Knights and outright calls them puppets to do his bidding. He's a DirtyCoward who flees the second he's in danger and will not hesitate to reducing himself to grovelling. He also reveals he's just as sickly perverted as anyremoval of the other SAO villains before him (if not worse), lusting for Quinella need to eat and requesting he spend a night drink]]. However, she wasn't satisfied with access to her body if he were to dispose of the rebels.
just that]].
*SmokeOut: [[spoiler: It turns out his "fat" might actually be a large amount of smoke he has in his clothes, as shown when Alice impales him, causing it all to burst out and cover his escape.]]
* SmugSnake: Chudelkin is this in regards to the Dark Territory; he dismisses all the Knight's concerns about possible invasion. In ''Rising Steel'', he even berates Eydis when she doesn't kill a group of them she finds doing something suspicious, instead opting to play it safe and report back to Bercouli, which many agree is the smarter option.
* SquishyWizard: He's not much of a physical fighter, but he's incredibly skilled with Sacred Arts which are so destructive he can easily be a OneManArmy in his own right.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:He hugs Quinella while he's on fire, immolating her before she can escape to the real world via a console.]]
* VagueAge: While his exact age is never specified, though he's {{Implied}} to have been bossing Bercouli around for a while.
* VillainsWantMercy: As soon as things go south, he's reduced to a [[VillainousBreakdown blubbering wreck]] who begs for his life.
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: A rare villainous example. Typically he derogatorily refers to the Integrity Knights via their numerical designations. When Alice defects and holds him at sword point, with his life on the line he finally refers to her as "Alice" to try and appease her.
* YouHaveFailedMe: He plans on reprocessing the Integrity Knights (or at least Bercouli and Fanatio) after seeing Bercouli fail to defeat Eugeo.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Quinella has no qualms with tossing aside Chudelkin's lifeless corpse after Kirito offs him.
[[/folder]]
!!Glowgen Defense Systems
[[folder:In General]]
A [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]]-based company that was hired by the National Security Agency to assault the Ocean Turtle to obtain the Soul Translator technology secretly developed there.
----
%% *AmbiguousSituation: The reason why the NSA decided to launch their attack on Ocean Turtle is not delved upon.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: They are supposed to be Americans, but speak perfect [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage Japanese]].
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: They're all comprised of criminals. Captain Dario Ziliani remarks that (with the exception of Gabriel Miller), none of the Glowgen operatives had any sense of discipline.
* {{Eagleland}}: Given that they're the antagonists in ''Alicization'', it's the boorish variety. They're also Americans.
%%* EvilCounterpart: To Rath.
* FighterMageThief: Villain example. The three main faces of the group could be seen to have this dynamic.
** Gabriel is the Fighter, being the PhysicalGod who relies on aggressive WeHaveReserves tactics against the Human Army. He also is powerful enough to be a match for several heavy-hitters like [[spoiler: Bercouli, Sinon (who's logged in as [[PhysicalGod Solus]]), and a recently revived and empowered Kirito]].
** [=PoH=] is the Thief, being a ProfessionalKiller who can sneak into the human encampment and kill several guards. He also later [[spoiler: ambushes the Human Army and ALO players with his army of Chinese and Koreans]].
** Critter is the Mage, being TheCracker who hacks into the Ocean Turtle's system to log Gabriel and Vassago in. He even [[spoiler: recruits and logs in foreign players to serve as Gabriel and Vassago's reinforcements]].
* GratuitousEnglish: They slip a lot of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEnglish English]] words into their dialogue as a way of showing [[JustifiedTrope they are not Japanese]].
* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: After the mission ends, Critter suspects the surviving team members are likely to be detained or even killed due to the American Government not wanting it to leak that they violated their treaty with Japan and led an attack on one of their facilities, as it could spark an international incident. This prompted Critter to steal a data-chip before the team escaped the Ocean Turtle with the intent of bargaining for his life]].
* PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler: After the defeat and (seemingly for the latter) deaths of [[BigBad Gabriel]] and [[TheDragon Vassago]], the remaining mercenaries declare the mission a failure and attempt to blow up the Ocean Turtle before leaving. Though, one of them stays behind in [[AvengingTheVillain hopes of avenging his partner]].AllClothUnravels: It takes the combined efforts of Kayaba in only a robot body and Kikuoka to prevent the bomb from going off]].
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: They operate in this way. It's a case of TruthInTelevision, as the GDS HQ is located in [[UsefulNotes/{{California}} San Diego]]. In RealLife, there's a heavy presence of both the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks U.S. Navy's Point Loma base]] and [[SemperFi U.S. Marine Corps Camp Pendleton]] in San Diego County. It means there are innumerable corporations [[note]] (mainly related to industries like communications, biotech, and engineering) [[/note]] in the region with major Department of Defense contracts.
* ProfessionalKiller: All of Glowgen's operatives specialize in assasinating people.
* RedOniBlueOni: Vassago is the impulsive and hotheaded red to Gabriel's calmer and logical blue.
* UnskilledButStrong: As experienced in assasination the operatives are, as Vassago himself remarks, they are no match for soldiers with formal training like the JSDF.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer / Vector]]
!!Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer (GGO, UW) / Vector (UW)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AkiraIshida (Japanese), Creator/RieKugimiya (Japanese, young), Ted Sroka (English, ''Alicization''), Creator/GregChun (English, ''War of Underworld''), Creator/AmandaCelineMiller (English, young), Sergio Gutiérrez Coto (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriels_real_life_concept.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click here to see Vector]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriel_vector_anime.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Gabriel's Angel of Death form]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabrielmiller.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"I wonder how it tastes. Your emotions, memories, heart and soul... everything! I'll devour them all now!"''
Chief Technological Officer of "Glowgen Defense Systems" and son of the founder and former [=CTO=]. During the events of the Alicization arc, he leads a 12-men team of operators, at the request of the National Security Agency, on an assault of the Ocean Turtle.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Despite his status as the strongest being there, [[TheSocialDarwinist which dictates that they follow him unquestionably]], none of the Dark Territory members seem to actually like him or are genuinely loyal to him. [[spoiler:Shasta and Lipia die trying to kill him, Fu Za stopped Shasta outtug of a personal grude as opposed knot on her nightgown to loyalty]], [[TheStarscream Dee Eye Ell has plans to usurp his authority]], Kosogi thinks he's being manipulated by Dee Eye Ell and uses LoopholeAbuse in regards to his orders, Lilpilin is angered when he orders [[spoiler: 3,000 of his people dead for a spell]], and Iskahn is disgusted by his WeHaveReserves mentality enough to [[spoiler: betray him himself]] and even before that he was [[spoiler: rooting for Shasta when he made an attempt on his life.]] [[spoiler:In addition, Vassago, his right hand, proves to be even more insane than he is. As when he threatens Kirito that he'll torture and kill everyone in Underworld, he includes Gabriel and his own armies in them.]]
* AchievementInIgnorance: He has no idea how [[spoiler:he managed to consume Lipia's [=FluctLight=]]], but he doesn't care and is delighted nonetheless.
* AdaptationalBadass:
** {{Downplayed}}. [[spoiler: The Light Novel depicts him as somewhat UnskilledButStrong, due to lacking much skill in swordsmanship but compensating for that with the Vecta account's stats and PowerOfTheVoid, something which is {{Lampshaded}} by Bercouli during their duel. In the Anime however, he's depicted as being much more skilled with the Vecta account's sword and Bercouli's observation on his lack of swordsmanship prowess is adapted out.]]
** Weird [[ZigZagged Zig Zag]], with two scenes swapping his reactions to certain events. [[spoiler: When he presented Lipia's head to lure out the treasonous general, he actually displayed concern when Shasta attempted to kill him and turned into a murderous tornado, trying to strategize a way out before determining there is none. Later on in his fight with Bercouli, he's noted to have astrip completely expressionless face when Bercouli finally kills him with the Uragiri, dying with nary a sound. In the anime, his reactions to both naked in front of these are swapped, with him keeping a straight in the face of Shasta's charge yet displaying surprise and even howling in pain when killed by the Uragiri.]]
** [[spoiler:Despite not killing any of the UW characters in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel's credibility as the BigBad and FinalBoss has cranked up, having two new, powerful, and ''way more dangerous'' transformations that he used against the heroes after his "True Gabriel" form is defeated.]]
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the light novels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the light novels.
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensatesEugeo. Knowing [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl her]], this by [[IAmNotLeftHanded having two extremely strong transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
could be intentional.
* AnArmAndALeg:[[spoiler:During their fight, Sinon's final attack destroys his [[spoiler:Her right arm in addition to the [=XM500=] he generated. He temporarily replaces it was severed when Eugeo (in sword form) clashed with [[ArtificialLimbs Quinella's blade. She subsequently transmutes said arm into another sword to kill Kirito with. And even that other arm is lopped off in battle later on when the two stab each other in such a way Quinella is also able to take one made of pure energy]] for his final Kirito's arms in exchange.]] [[SubvertedTrope Subverted in ''Lycoris'', where she and Kirito both apparently end the duel with Kirito.]]
* AnimalMotifs:
** In his introductory chapter, Dario Giulani, the captain of the ''USS Jimmy Carter'', the sub that would transport Gabriel's forces right before the Ocean Turtle raid, describes him as having hollow eyes that "devouredall light like a bottomless pit" like the great white shark that he encountered while he was swimming in Miami. Considering [[YourSoulIsMine the type of person]] Gabriel is, this is fitting.
** He also has a minor link with insects; his interest in the soul was born out of curiosity over his father's insect collection and a insect's strange ability to survive things like gettingtheir heads bitten off, wondering where their souls could be. The first opening for ''War of Underworld'' also shows him at a desk with a frame of frozen butterflies behind him.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: Despite being an American, his Japanese is perfect. In fact it is his GratuitousEnglish which has a Japanese accent.
* TheAntiGod: As the Dark God Vecta, he is this to Goddess of Creation Stacia. In the mythology of Underworld, Vecta was the one god who was not created by Stacia, being a sentience who was birthed from the darkness itself and opposed Stacia, envying her power. He also became the reason why humans die, as he steals their lives over time, effectively making him TheGrimReaper, but his origins also make him effectively {{Satan}}.
* ArchAngelGabriel: Named Gabriel while having a backstory and personality painting him as a SatanicArchetype, making him a FallenAngel so to speak. He even takes on an angelic HumanoidAbomination form when he goes OneWingedAngel, where he gains a dark shadowy form with six wings and a halo.arms intact.]]
* AccidentalTruth: When she gave Scheta the [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Black Lily Sword]], she encouraged her to cling to her murderous impulses and obsession with cutting, claiming that she'll find a way to break out of it as a result. Knowing Quinella, [[ManipulativeBastard this is
*
*
* AdaptationalBadass: [[spoiler:Quinella is already a tough opponent in canon, having godlike powers and being able to kill Eugeo but once Kirito cleaves off her remaining arm, she immediately tries to flee and was burned to death when Chudelkin
* BerserkButton: ''Don't'' even think about calling him a lump of meat if you don't want [[OffWithHisHead your head torn off]].
* BeTheBall: His primary form of transport is to curl into a ball and bounce about the place.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He looks like a clown and seems relatively silly. But he's a {{sadist}}ic individual who's highly skilled with Sacred Arts, and so should not be underestimated.
* DirtyOldMonk:
** As the Prime Senator, Chudelkin is technically a member of the Axiom Church's clergy, yet he is an obsessive StalkerWithACrush towards Quinella, [[spoiler:even requesting that he get a night with free access to
**
* DisproportionateRetribution: He threatens to turn Eugeo into a horse the next time he fails to address Chudelkin
* TheDragon: He's
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: He only ever refers to Integrity Knights by their numbers rather than their names.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Has a very deep gravelly voice and is likely
* EyeScream: While casting his most powerful Sacred Art that conjures a giant fire genie, he burns his own eyes out.
* EvilIsPetty: When he's briefly brought BackFromTheDead in ''Unleash Blading's'' second anniversary event, he forms an alliance with Sugou
* FatBastard: A pudgy fat man dressed
* FauxAffablyEvil: He speaks with a formal and polite tone, yet has no issue with addressing others condescendingly.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Less friend and more acquaintance. While he is on the same side as the Integrity Knights and technically their boss, none of them like him given he [[BadBoss treats them like trash]]. Bercouli in fact outright despises him and when given the chance doesn't shy away from directly insulting him.
* GigglingVillain: He lets off a laugh of "Hoh-hoh-hoh!"
* GlassCannon: He is one of the most powerful Sacred Users of all
* GreenEyedMonster: He is obsessed with Quinella and becomes aggressively jealous if she so much as even gives attention to anyone else.
* {{Gonk}}: He's a short, pudgy man with heavy makeup who doesn't look much like anyone on the Integrity Knights' side.
* HatedByAll: It soon becomes clear there is absolutely no one, hero or villain, that likes Chudelkin. The Integrity Knights all range from not caring about him to outright despising him. Even Quinella [[FauxAffablyEvil feigns politeness]] around him and is all too eager to cast him aside like trash when he's [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]]. In reality, she's also repulsed by him.
* InsistentTerminology: Always chastises anyone who doesn't refer to him by "Prime Senator".
* {{Irony}}: He, Quinella's most fervent follower, [[spoiler:is the one who kills her in the end.
*
* AdaptationalNiceGuy:
** Downplayed. While her crimes are mostly the same in the anime adaptation, there are a
* {{Kevlard}}: Inverted;
* KickTheDog: He gleefully recounts how poorly Alice was treated,
* LightIsNotGood: Wears some white, and is a {{sadist}}ic PsychopathicManchild.
* ManipulativeBastard: Manipulated the Integrity Knights into fighting Kirito and Eugeo by putting them under the belief that they were invaders from Dark Territory.
* MisterBig: As the Prime Senator, he's the highest authority in the Central Cathedral save for Quinella herself. Yet he's diminutive and barely taller than a child. Also worth noting is he is a contender for the most powerful Sacred Arts user in the Human Empire, barring Quinella.
* MonsterClown: He dresses more like a jester than a clown, but otherwise he still gives off these vibes, and unlike the Integrity Knights he's unconditionally evil. Some of the characters even derogatorily refer to him as a clown.
* TheNapoleon: Chudelkin is a short, arrogant man who's quick to berate the Integrity Knights who work under him either out of [[GreenEyedMonster envy whenever Quinella treats them kindly]], [[EvilIsPetty for merely questioning him or underdoing the praise he feels her rightfully deserves]], or [[MeanBoss simply because he feels like it.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:It looked as though he had already met his end at
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Everything about him, all the way down to his clashing colors and the 8-bit sound effects, looks nothing like a ''Sword Art Online'' character and more like he belongs in a completely different franchise.
* NotBrainwashed: Alice speculates that Chudelkin may be a victim of Quinella just like the
* PintSizedPowerhouse: He may be small, but he's a very powerful Scared Arts user.
* PlayingWithFire: His most powerful Sacred Art involves summoning a gigantic fire genie.
* ThePowerOfLust: He's generally spends the arc as a DirtyCoward, but he's immediately motivated
* TheAgeless: [[spoiler:Her original effort to
* PsychopathicManchild: He's clearly an adult, but acts extremely immature; he throwing tantrums
* {{Sadist}}: He enjoys executions and torture, which includes gleefully recounting the time he put Alice through the Forced Synthesis Ritual, claiming that he wish he could have [[TakenForGranite Deep Freezed her]] and used her to decorate his room solely for the pained expressions she made.
* SitcomArchNemesis: In ''Rising Steel'', while he seems to have beef with every Knight, he and Eydis simply cannot stand each other, with him always getting upset at her blatant lack of respect for him and laid back attitude.
* {{Slimeball}}: He rivals Sugou as the most detestable character in the whole series. Aside from the fact he's an evil MonsterClown, he's also smarmy, manipulative, and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays his own allies without a second thought after coming upon someone more useful]]. In stark contrast to Quinella who is seductively FauxAffablyEvil, he's downright [[BadBoss abusive and condescending]] to the Integrity Knights and outright calls them puppets to do his bidding. He's a DirtyCoward who flees the second he's in danger and will not hesitate to reducing himself to grovelling. He also reveals he's just as sickly perverted as any
*
* SmugSnake: Chudelkin is this in regards to the Dark Territory; he dismisses all the Knight's concerns about possible invasion. In ''Rising Steel'', he even berates Eydis when she doesn't kill a group of them she finds doing something suspicious, instead opting to play it safe and report back to Bercouli, which many agree is the smarter option.
* SquishyWizard: He's not much of a physical fighter, but he's incredibly skilled with Sacred Arts which are so destructive he can easily be a OneManArmy in his own right.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:He hugs Quinella while he's on fire, immolating her before she can escape to the real world via a console.]]
* VagueAge: While his exact age is never specified, though he's {{Implied}} to have been bossing Bercouli around for a while.
* VillainsWantMercy: As soon as things go south, he's reduced to a [[VillainousBreakdown blubbering wreck]] who begs for his life.
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: A rare villainous example. Typically he derogatorily refers to the Integrity Knights via their numerical designations. When Alice defects and holds him at sword point, with his life on the line he finally refers to her as "Alice" to try and appease her.
* YouHaveFailedMe: He plans on reprocessing the Integrity Knights (or at least Bercouli and Fanatio) after seeing Bercouli fail to defeat Eugeo.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Quinella has no qualms with tossing aside Chudelkin's lifeless corpse after Kirito offs him.
[[/folder]]
!!Glowgen Defense Systems
[[folder:In General]]
A [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]]-based company that was hired by the National Security Agency to assault the Ocean Turtle to obtain the Soul Translator technology secretly developed there.
----
%% *AmbiguousSituation: The reason why the NSA decided to launch their attack on Ocean Turtle is not delved upon.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: They are supposed to be Americans, but speak perfect [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage Japanese]].
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: They're all comprised of criminals. Captain Dario Ziliani remarks that (with the exception of Gabriel Miller), none of the Glowgen operatives had any sense of discipline.
* {{Eagleland}}: Given that they're the antagonists in ''Alicization'', it's the boorish variety. They're also Americans.
%%* EvilCounterpart: To Rath.
* FighterMageThief: Villain example. The three main faces of the group could be seen to have this dynamic.
** Gabriel is the Fighter, being the PhysicalGod who relies on aggressive WeHaveReserves tactics against the Human Army. He also is powerful enough to be a match for several heavy-hitters like [[spoiler: Bercouli, Sinon (who's logged in as [[PhysicalGod Solus]]), and a recently revived and empowered Kirito]].
** [=PoH=] is the Thief, being a ProfessionalKiller who can sneak into the human encampment and kill several guards. He also later [[spoiler: ambushes the Human Army and ALO players with his army of Chinese and Koreans]].
** Critter is the Mage, being TheCracker who hacks into the Ocean Turtle's system to log Gabriel and Vassago in. He even [[spoiler: recruits and logs in foreign players to serve as Gabriel and Vassago's reinforcements]].
* GratuitousEnglish: They slip a lot of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEnglish English]] words into their dialogue as a way of showing [[JustifiedTrope they are not Japanese]].
* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: After the mission ends, Critter suspects the surviving team members are likely to be detained or even killed due to the American Government not wanting it to leak that they violated their treaty with Japan and led an attack on one of their facilities, as it could spark an international incident. This prompted Critter to steal a data-chip before the team escaped the Ocean Turtle with the intent of bargaining for his life]].
* PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler: After the defeat and (seemingly for the latter) deaths of [[BigBad Gabriel]] and [[TheDragon Vassago]], the remaining mercenaries declare the mission a failure and attempt to blow up the Ocean Turtle before leaving. Though, one of them stays behind in [[AvengingTheVillain hopes of avenging his partner]].
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: They operate in this way. It's a case of TruthInTelevision, as the GDS HQ is located in [[UsefulNotes/{{California}} San Diego]]. In RealLife, there's a heavy presence of both the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks U.S. Navy's Point Loma base]] and [[SemperFi U.S. Marine Corps Camp Pendleton]] in San Diego County. It means there are innumerable corporations [[note]] (mainly related to industries like communications, biotech, and engineering) [[/note]] in the region with major Department of Defense contracts.
* ProfessionalKiller: All of Glowgen's operatives specialize in assasinating people.
* RedOniBlueOni: Vassago is the impulsive and hotheaded red to Gabriel's calmer and logical blue.
* UnskilledButStrong: As experienced in assasination the operatives are, as Vassago himself remarks, they are no match for soldiers with formal training like the JSDF.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer / Vector]]
!!Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer (GGO, UW) / Vector (UW)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AkiraIshida (Japanese), Creator/RieKugimiya (Japanese, young), Ted Sroka (English, ''Alicization''), Creator/GregChun (English, ''War of Underworld''), Creator/AmandaCelineMiller (English, young), Sergio Gutiérrez Coto (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriels_real_life_concept.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click here to see Vector]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriel_vector_anime.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Gabriel's Angel of Death form]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabrielmiller.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"I wonder how it tastes. Your emotions, memories, heart and soul... everything! I'll devour them all now!"''
Chief Technological Officer of "Glowgen Defense Systems" and son of the founder and former [=CTO=]. During the events of the Alicization arc, he leads a 12-men team of operators, at the request of the National Security Agency, on an assault of the Ocean Turtle.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Despite his status as the strongest being there, [[TheSocialDarwinist which dictates that they follow him unquestionably]], none of the Dark Territory members seem to actually like him or are genuinely loyal to him. [[spoiler:Shasta and Lipia die trying to kill him, Fu Za stopped Shasta out
* AchievementInIgnorance: He has no idea how [[spoiler:he managed to consume Lipia's [=FluctLight=]]], but he doesn't care and is delighted nonetheless.
* AdaptationalBadass:
** {{Downplayed}}. [[spoiler: The Light Novel depicts him as somewhat UnskilledButStrong, due to lacking much skill in swordsmanship but compensating for that with the Vecta account's stats and PowerOfTheVoid, something which is {{Lampshaded}} by Bercouli during their duel. In the Anime however, he's depicted as being much more skilled with the Vecta account's sword and Bercouli's observation on his lack of swordsmanship prowess is adapted out.]]
** Weird [[ZigZagged Zig Zag]], with two scenes swapping his reactions to certain events. [[spoiler: When he presented Lipia's head to lure out the treasonous general, he actually displayed concern when Shasta attempted to kill him and turned into a murderous tornado, trying to strategize a way out before determining there is none. Later on in his fight with Bercouli, he's noted to have a
** [[spoiler:Despite not killing any of the UW characters in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel's credibility as the BigBad and FinalBoss has cranked up, having two new, powerful, and ''way more dangerous'' transformations that he used against the heroes after his "True Gabriel" form is defeated.]]
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the light novels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the light novels.
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates
* AnArmAndALeg:
* AnimalMotifs:
** In his introductory chapter, Dario Giulani, the captain of the ''USS Jimmy Carter'', the sub that would transport Gabriel's forces right before the Ocean Turtle raid, describes him as having hollow eyes that "devoured
** He also has a minor link with insects; his interest in the soul was born out of curiosity over his father's insect collection and a insect's strange ability to survive things like getting
* AnimeAccentAbsence: Despite being an American, his Japanese is perfect. In fact it is his GratuitousEnglish which has a Japanese accent.
* TheAntiGod: As the Dark God Vecta, he is this to Goddess of Creation Stacia. In the mythology of Underworld, Vecta was the one god who was not created by Stacia, being a sentience who was birthed from the darkness itself and opposed Stacia, envying her power. He also became the reason why humans die, as he steals their lives over time, effectively making him TheGrimReaper, but his origins also make him effectively {{Satan}}.
* ArchAngelGabriel: Named Gabriel while having a backstory and personality painting him as a SatanicArchetype, making him a FallenAngel so to speak. He even takes on an angelic HumanoidAbomination form when he goes OneWingedAngel, where he gains a dark shadowy form with six wings and a halo.
Added DiffLines:
** To Cardinal. Being her antithesis, Cardinal exists for the sole reason of ending Quinella. The two have spent centuries battling and attempting to thwart one another. Quinella wanting nothing more than to hunt Cardinal down and kill her, while Cardinal wants to put an end to Quinella's reign and reclaim Administrator powers. [[spoiler:Quinella has utter glee when she finally gets the chance to kill Cardinal and makes sure to enjoy every second of it.]]
** To Kirito, with both eventually coming to see each other as this. Kirito discovers that Quinella is the one responsible for everything bad that happened to him in the Underworld, and dedicates his efforts to bringing her down, while ensuring that others who were once fiercely loyal to the Pontifex see her for the vile being she is. This becomes especially the case when Quinella [[spoiler:kills Eugeo]], earning her a place among Kirito's most hated enemies of all time. While Quinella originally saw Kirito as nothing but an insignificant bug who dared to defy her and waiting to be crushed, she attains special hatred for him when she finds out he's ''special'', being from the ''other side'' of the outside world. Kirito giving Quinella a reality check in reminding her there are true gods on the outside infuriates her, and her hatred for Kirito only grows when he continues to resist her, being the last one standing. Worth noting is, even among the others who resisted her, Quinella at least is able to show [[FauxAffablyEvil a twisted form of affection]] such as to Alice, Eugeo, and even Cardinal, whereas she never once gives this treatment to Kirito and derogatorily refers to him as "boy".
** To Eugeo. While his hatred was initially aimed towards the Axiom Church itself, later it gets centered on Quinella since she is the one responsible for everything. It becomes very personal after she subjects Eugeo to MindRape and make him susceptible to Synthesis, before later when he breaks free revealing she put [[ColdBloodedTorture forced Synthesis on Alice]]. Eugeo later decides that it is his purpose to bring Quinella down [[spoiler:due to wishing to atone for his actions and [[HeroicSacrifice gives up his life]] to ensure it happens.]]
** To Alice. While originally Alice was fiercely loyal to the Pontifex and the Axiom Church, Kirito's influence began to cast more and more doubt upon her, and she uncovered more about the truth on Quinella's corruption. It reached the point where Alice openly abandoned her duties as an Integrity Knight and chose to oppose her former master. While her hatred for Quinella isn't quite as intense as Kirito and Eugeo's due to her conflicting loyalty, she still very much despises the Pontifex. Though this sentiment isn't quite as much shared on Quinella's side who views Alice's rebelling as an inconvenience and still sees her as an adequate doll that can be reprogrammed to do her bidding.
* AwesomeByAnalysis: Her personality aside, there's something to be said for her skills. [[spoiler:She was the first UW resident to figure out how to create offensive skills, restore her life, overturn the Cardinal System, copy her Fluctlight onto others, and forcibly alter the Fluctlights of others into her personal Servants... all because she spent a large amount of time just analyzing how the Sacred Arts of the Underworld worked.]]
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: The plot of ''Alicization Lycoris'' is set in motion by Kirito's decision to use the Night Sky Sword to kill Quinella ending up [[GoneHorriblyWrong backfiring]] hard on him and the others. It allowed Quinella to take advantage of the sword's ability to absorb resources from the Gigas Cedar Tree to turn herself into a gigantic tree and install Calamity Plants to bring back monsters and beings with Fluctlights BackFromTheDead, connecting her own will with the Main Visualizer to make the entire thing happen.]]
* BadBoss: It's repeatedly shown that she views the Senators and Integrity Knights as more like tools than people.
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: She is shown to enjoy killing animals in her childhood to level herself up.
* BarrierChangeBoss: As a boss in ''Rising Steel'', she makes use of barrier moves in each fight that nullifies damage from either physical attacks in her first and magic attacks in the second. As the FinalBoss, she alternates between the two.
* BathingBeauty: Her Full Limit Break art and profile description as [Eternal Beauty] Quinella in ''Rising Steel'' depicts her enjoying a bath.
--> ''Eternal beauty... how boring. Listening to the sounds of water drops falling, she finally can relax and wash all these thoughts away. Cracks of light illuminated on her skin while her wet hair accentuated her undeniable beauty. She stretched out her elegant legs from the snow white bathtub as the fragrance of flowers wrapped itself around her aura. Through the thin screen of steam, her allure entices''
* BeautyIsBad: The [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman Underworld's Most Beautiful Woman]], and a [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]] {{Sociopath}} with a {{Sadist}}ic streak and has no qualms with manipulating and [[MindRape Mind Raping]] anyone to suit her own ends.
* BigBad: For the first half of ''Alicization'', she is the head villain, being the leader of the Axion Church and thus the world itself. She is responsible for Alice's arrest, the corruption in the nobility, the lack of preparation the Human Empire has for the Final Stress Test, and the later revelation of the even more sinister plot of converting the Human Empire into Sword Golems to battle the Dark Territory.
* BlatantLies: She swears to the Goddess Stacia that if Chudelkin helps defeat her enemies, she'll let him do whatever he wants with her body for one night. While Chudelkin can't fathom the idea of lying, Kirito knows that Quinella doesn't believe in Stacia, so her oath means nothing. Cardinal is smart enough to see through this, and insists that Quinella swear by the one thing that matters to her -- her own Fluctlight.
* BlowYouAway: Blasted Eugeo aside using a gust of wind after thwarting his assassination attempt.
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:Her skin starts cracking when she's near death after Kirito stabbed her.]]
* BodySurf: First started doing this [[spoiler:once she realized that her current body could no longer contain all her memories and needing a new body to store her new experiences]], but as time went on it became about [[spoiler:attaining complete immortality.]]
* BreakoutVillain: Subverted. While she doesn't get to return to the series after her defeat, the anime does seem to acknowledge her popularity by not only giving her additional scenes but ones that depict her in a redeeming light.
** [[spoiler:After her initial defeat the anime adds a scene that shows her spirit getting to proudly observe the empire she created one last time as she passes on.]]
** [[spoiler:In ''War of the Underworld'', her spirit returns after Bercouli is killed in combat and the two are reunited TogetherInDeath.]]
* CastingAShadow: Generated a ball of darkness using the Umbral Element Sacred Arts, and can have ''Silvery Eternity'' fire bolts of ''dark lightning''.
* ClothingDamage: After Eugeo [[spoiler:breaks free from her brainwashing and]] attacks her, her nightgown is left shredded, with it losing losing it's durability and disappearing soon after.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: She's the first BigBad who is a female and isn't a human from the real world, a sharp contrast with her predecessors. She's also the first villain who isn't an obvious EvilCounterpart to Kirito, instead paralleling Alice. She's also the first who had her fall to villainy and ascension to power told in great detail, rather than being presented as just another bad guy straight from the get-go.
* ControlFreak: Quinella is a corrupt, narcissistic and callous psychopath [[spoiler:who is not above killing, torturing, and brainwashing anyone to keep UW for herself]], though her methods of doing so are different from the standard. [[spoiler:She spends most of her time asleep in order to preserve precious memory space, but the laws she placed over the land and its people might as well be God-given edicts to follow consciously or subconsciously [[RealityWarper given her authority]] and are enforced by her Integrity Knights]]. In the backstory, [[spoiler:while she fused with the Cardinal System to regulate UW, her original intention was to outright ''steal'' its powers and authority for herself.]]
* CorruptChurch: She is the Pontifex of the Axiom Church, which is the leading authority in the human empire, but is more akin to a tyrant that rules the land with an iron fist while painting the allusion she's a benevolent ruler and emmisary of the gods.
* TheCorrupter: Quinella preys on Eugeo's emotions and his desire to be loved, twisting his memories and breaking him, before turning him into her own loyal servant.
* DarkActionGirl: Being female does not stop her from being gifted at sword fighting.
* DarkMessiah: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Preaches herself as the will of God and the savior of humanity]], when in reality she governed the human realm with an iron fist and is concerned with nothing but self-preservation.
* DeathByIrony: Quinella, a ControlFreak who manipulated and brainwashed people into having UndyingLoyalty to her, [[spoiler: is burned alive by Chudelkin, quite possibly her most obsessive follower.]]
* DeathEqualsRedemption: {{Implied}}. [[spoiler: While the spirit of her Bercouli meets when he dies is stated to be the version of her that exists in his Fluctlight, and in turn is more benevolent than she actually was, what's hinted to be her actual spirit appears to cheer Kirito on when he fights Gabriel.]]
* DemiurgeArchetype: Her backstory paints her as one, though overlapping with SatanicArchetype. She rebelled against the Underworld's version of God in order to become one herself, setting herself up as one gifted by the gods before constructing a false faith in her own name, eventually succeeded in her goals, and ruled by her specially-prepared laws [[spoiler:and her Integrity Knights]].
* DirtyCoward: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zigzagged]]. Despite being more competent and attractive than Sugou, she's very rotten to the core and the reason why she's a ControlFreak in the first place is because [[spoiler:she fears losing power and influence to the people of UW.]] That being said, she's certainly willing to fight herself.
* DidntSeeThatComing:
** Her biggest undoing is failing to anticipate that Kirito and Eugeo's swords are not made from metal, which she has not made herself impervious to.
** [[spoiler:Nor Chudelkin barely surviving his injuries and ruining her getaway, killing her in the process.]]
** [[spoiler:She also got one in the Gameverse, [[OhCrap when she realized]] that the blade that Kirito wielded (which originally belonged to Medina and the blade was fused with her Fluctlight) is revealed to be a divine object made out of an actual human's flesh and blood, meaning it had the capability to use Armament Full Control as well. Plus, since it's revealed that Medina's bloodline is actually the [[LivingMacguffin the key to create the gate to the real world]] the blade had a [[RealityWarper reality bending power]] as well, which ultimately led to her downfall.]]
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Surprisingly PlayedForLaughs in the ''If You Were Here'' timeline. After Kirito reveals that he knows about the Synthesis Ritual and tries arguing for why she shouldn't perform it on him and Eugeo by noting how tedious the process of doing the ritual then [[LaserGuidedAmnesia mind wiping]] the people they interacted with would be, she ends up ''whining'' about how much of a "[[PrecisionFStrike pain in the ass]]" the whole thing is and admits that the only reason she still does it is because she's done it so many times with the same "Summoned from the Celestial Realm" story that revealing the truth to her Knights would effectively screw her over.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Serves as the BigBad of the first half of ''Alicization'' before Gabriel takes over.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[spoiler:Her forced synthesis of Eugeo looks ''very'' suspiciously like she's seducing him... [[http://swordartonline.wikia.com/wiki/File:Vol_13_-_197.png or past that point already]] and gone to full-on sex.]]
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted. It's heavily implied she [[spoiler:molested Eugeo]], which is depicted as horrific and it clearly isn't supposed to be [[BlackComedyRape funny]].
* DoWrongRight: In "Memories of Bygone Days: Alice", one of her issues with Rath trying to use two different "natural" disasters to kill off some Fluctlights and possibly spur the survivors into fighting for food is that she saw it as "uninspired".
* DracoInLeatherPants: InUniverse: [[spoiler:After he dies, Bercouli happens to meet Quinella's ghost, or more accurately the version of her that existed in his Fluctlight before he learned of her true nature and as a result is a much kinder and warmer individual to reflect how he saw her beforehand, with the two of them treating each other like old friends as they pass on.]]
* DragonRider: Like her Integrity Knights, Quinella has a personal riding dragon who she has dubbed Yukiori and is apparently the oldest and strongest of the dragons the Knights use. Like its master, it appears to spend most of it's time asleep.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:After fusing with Cardinal, the sub-process within it deemed Quinella "an error" due to her intentional direct manipulation of the UW residents and, in times of emotional distress, took control of her with the intent of making her kill herself. After several failed attempts due to Quinella taking back control at the last second, she only stopped this by forcibly sealing her emotions away.]]
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: While already quite corrupt, Quinella becomes increasingly vile the more power she attains. [[spoiler:''Rising Steel'' implies that while she started as an earnest and sweet girl despite being Nobility, being given a Calling dedicated to advancing the Sacred Arts and making great deals of progress, being able to weaponize it and make weather predictions, followed by her village believing her to be a goddess as a result, was her StartOfDarkness.]]
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Her first scene has her waking up in bed while completely nude, showing that she has no problem showing off her sexuality.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
** In her own warped, twisted way, she did seem to care about the Underworld as the world she created. [[spoiler: This could be why her spirit appears to support Kirito during his fight against Subtilizer, seeing as the [[OmnicidalManiac latter plans to destroy the Underworld.]]]]
** The Cake timeline also depicts her as close with Yukiori, her own personal riding dragon, with Kirito even describing her as looking like a normal girl when seeing her interact with them.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even she is sick of Chudelkin's shenanigans and often tells him off when he's being rude to the Integrity Knights or going over the top in smothering her with praise. It's a wonder why she even keeps him around.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Quinella has no understanding of what love really is. To her, love is just desire, something that can be acquired through an exchange, and a means of controlling people.
* EvilCounterpart: To Alice. Like Quinella, Alice was very talented in the Sacred Arts. One of Alice's most well-known abilities was to predict a storm one week in advance at a rather young age, while Quinella was also able to predict the weather in advance, though only 3 days in advance. A notable difference between the two is that Quinella was born in a noble family in the capital, while Alice was born in a family of villagers in one of the most remote villages in the Human Empire. It's implied Alice might have walked down a similar path to Quinella had Eugeo and Kirito not been in her life from near the start.
* EvilGenius: Quinella is an esteemed prodigy and the greatest Sacred Arts user seen in the Underworld. She managed to invent many rituals herself, as well as discovering every System Command in that existed in the Underworld.
* EvilIsPetty: Brainwashing and forcing immortality on skilled swordsmen and criminals so that they can enforce her control is one thing, but learning she did the same to some seemingly random girl with a knack for Wind Sacred Arts just so she can have someone to ''[[MundaneUtility operate an elevator]]'' is where you truly realize how low her opinion of the Underworld's residents is.
* EvilLaugh: While she usually remains calm and composed, when she really gets in the moment then she can let off some unhinged cackles.
* EvilVersusOblivion: The Anime hints that this [[spoiler: is why her ghost supports Kirito during his fight with Gabriel, since she, [[ControlFreak for]] [[ManipulativeBitch all]] [[MindRape her]] [[LackOfEmpathy faults]], [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes did care for the Underworld in her own twisted way]], whereas [[OmnicidalManiac Gabriel]] was planning to destroy it and turn it into his personal world where he's God and can manipulate the souls he sees fit.]]
* ExactWords:
** [[spoiler:When Chudelkin requests that he have a night with access to her body in exchange for taking out the rebels, she agrees and swears to Stacia. The thing is, not only does she not believe in Stacia, but she's the one who made her up to begin with, meaning she effectively gave him an empty promise.]]
** The reason she gives for putting Renly into stasis is that he was "defective". While his trauma-induced inability to fight could be what she meant, and is likely what Renly thought she meant, ''Rising Steel'' gives these words another potential meaning; When Renly was synthesized, Quinella was shocked when he asked if there was supposed to be someone with him, referring to his BestFriend who he promised to become an Integrity Knight alongside only [[AccidentalMurder to accidentally kill him during the Four Empires Unity Tournament]]. This tipped her off to the possibility that his memories weren't completely blocked and that the Synthesis Ritual has some issues she needs to fix, giving her reason to Deep Freeze him in case he [[HeKnowsTooMuch remembered everything on his own and blabbed to the other Knights]], with his inability to master the Twin-Edged Wings being a convenient excuse.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:In the anime, [[VillainousBreakdown despite her horror at realizing she's going to die]], she calms down when she sees a vision of the empire and world she always sought to build and manages to find peace with it before exploding, while [[GoOutWithASmile smiling]], no less.]]
* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: Quinella has an angelic theme to her design. Her light purples and whites give off a generally non-threatening look, and at a glance, one would be forgiven for thinking she were a heroine rather than a villain. Quinella is perfectly aware of her "innocent" appearance, and uses it to mask her true nature as she manipulates others.
* FailedASpotCheck: [[spoiler:Had she bothered to check and make sure Chudelkin was actually dead (by nature of DisappearsIntoLight, like Cardinal), he wouldn't have been alive to ruin her getaway attempt and kill her.]]
* FanDisservice: Sure, she has [[MsFanservice an extremely attractive body]] ([[ShamelessFanserviceGirl that she has no qualms about showing off]]), but the way she smoothly seduces Eugeo (along with some of her other seductress-esque behaviors) is rather uncomfortable to watch. [[spoiler: Then there's her losing both her arms and getting a TorsoWithAView after [[FullFrontalAssault dueling Kirito in the buff]], with visible cracks all over her body.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: She maintains an air of formality towards her enemies, despite seeing everyone as nothing but fodder for turning into sword golems. When [[spoiler:turning Eugeo into an Integrity Knight]], she showers him with false affection in order to make him remove his core protection. She only drops the facade when encountering setbacks such as [[spoiler:Cardinal fusing Eugeo with his sword]] or Kirito cutting her remaining arm off.
* FinalExamBoss: With her access to the system as Administrator, Quinella knows every fighting style and system call art in the Underworld and how to exploit them, as well as copying the Aincrad Style from [[spoiler: Eugeo's memories]]. It takes [[spoiler: Eugeo's HeroicSacrifice to give Kirito a second sword for his signature dual-wielding style and a HeroicSecondWind]] to even the odds, and even ''then'' she still gives him a solid challenge with only a single arm.
* {{Foil}}: To Sugou, being a more competent DistaffCounterpart to him. Parallels can be seen in that they are both raised as privileged people who grew to be corrupt and made and declared themselves the [[AGodAmI gods of a world]]. They both also perform [[MadScientist awful experiments on innocents]] and have very twisted understanding of love. Kirito also calls both of them out for being false rulers with a GodGuise. However their difference lie in that Sugou is an AbhorrentAdmirer who feels [[EntitledToHaveYou entitled to have Asuna]], while Quinella loves no one but herself and only wishes for everyone to server her. In addition while both perform [[MindRape experiments on victims' minds]], Sugou states he does not want to tamper with Asuna's mind except as a final resort due to wanting to turn her into a doll, while Quinella effectively made all of her Integrity Knights into her dolls and outright refers to them as that.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler:Once, she was a simple resident (a noble, yes, but still something not too impressive in the grand scheme of things) of UW that discovered several key facts about the world, such as how to perform offensive commands and that killing things would increase her stats. Developing these powers further throughout her life, she eventually discovered how to raise her Authority to the level of Cardinal itself on her deathbed, making herself a PhysicalGod in the process. [[AmbitionIsEvil Not content with sharing power]], however, she tried to steal Cardinal's powers for herself but only succeeding in [[FusionDance fusing with it]] to gain its functions of regulating the world, but even then she went [[ControlFreak much further than Cardinal intended]].]]
* FullFrontalAssault: She has no problems fighting without any clothes on, as Kirito and Alice found out.
* GainingTheWillToKill: In her backstory [[spoiler:she was among the first residents to realize that she could create offensive commands for the purpose of fighting and killing other things...and then realizing that doing so made her stronger with each kill...]]
* {{Gaslighting}}: [[spoiler:She twists Eugeo's perception of his feelings and even his own memories to make him believe he's a lonely and forsaken individual that only she herself could "save". She also wipes her Integrity Knights' memories after a century or so to make them forget grievances.]]
* AGodAmI: After attaining the powers of the Cardinal System, she declares herself the Administrator of Underworld, which Cardinal considers the most arrogant name possible.
* GodivaHair: The only thing hiding her lady bits whenever she's naked is her long hair, along with some rare [[SceneryCensor strategic object placement]].
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:In the anime, just as she's dying, she sees one last vision of the empire she once controlled, looking at it with pride before she's gone for good.]]
* GratuitousEnglish: Being well versed in System Commands and their meanings, she often spouts English words midspeech.
* HandicappedBadass: [[spoiler:Despite losing an arm, she still has sword skills from both the Underworld and Aincrad, allowing her to overwhelm Kirito until he dual wields his own sword and Eugeo's.]]
* HeavySleeper: She spends the majority of her days in her chambers asleep. Justified, as it allows her to preserve as much memory space in her Fluctlight (and by extension, her lifespan) as possible.
* HeroKiller:
** [[spoiler:Not only did she turn Eugeo into her lackey, but she also killed him. One might also consider Charlotte's death given how it was her Golem, or Cardinal, since she fried her with energy blasts, before the latter used the last of her strength to empower Eugeo before his eventual demise.]]
** [[spoiler:In ''Lycoris'' she killed Medina instead, though in reality this was part of Medina's BatmanGambit to kill Quinella, so Quinella unknowingly [[HoistByHerOwnPetard doomed herself instead]]]].
* HeyYou: She always calls Kirito "boy," as a reference to his coming from another world.
* HumanShield: [[spoiler:Quinella's Sword Golems are not only effective killing machines which [[TheJuggernaut never stop fighting for all eternity]], driven by the emotion of love that got twisted into blind instinct, but the fact that they were once humans means that Cardinal cannot bring herself to attack them.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** "Memories of Bygone Days: Alice", she's quick to realise that Rath caused the recent volcanic eruption and storm to spur the Fluctlights there into breaking the Taboo Index, and bemoans their cruelty after fixing the issue herself. While [[HypocriteHasAPoint not wrong of her assessment of Rath]], she has little room to call them out seeing as she sees every other Artifical Fluctlight as little more than dolls or bugs for her to toy with, and is not above subjecting them to experiments for her own research endeavours.
* IdenticalStranger: Even though it is never stated in-universe, Quinella resembles Asuna Yuuki.
* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Played with. She actually did age normally all the way to the end of her natural lifespan, but she was able to restore her youth just in time and then granted herself immortality, forever preserving her with the appearance of a twenty something woman.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Stabbed in the heart by Kirito during their duel - which lands a critical blow. [[NotQuiteDead It doesn't kill her though]], since she had a sliver of health left - enough to make a last-ditch escape attempt.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: [[spoiler:After ''Silvery Eternity'' was destroyed and her right arm was severed, she decides to transform her arm into both a rapier, and later, a katana, in order to fight Kirito.]]
* InsistentTerminology: {{Implied}}. She's not shown to have any real issues with her old name, but she goes by "Administrator" in the present and appears annoyed when Kirito calls her Quinella instead.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Attempted to [[spoiler:steal Cardinal's Authority and/or destroy it simply because she couldn't stand the idea of another having equal Authority as her over UW. It did become ''slightly'' more justified when revealed that Cardinal tried at multiple points to make her kill herself after their [[FusionDance fusion]]... but only because Quinella by that point had already started [[ControlFreak directly interfering with the lives of UW residents, something she wasn't supposed to do at all]].]]
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:After arrogantly promising to grant Chudelkin's wish to touch her body if he disposed of the rebels, with no intention of keeping her word. Guess who ends up killing her? Chudelkin using [[NotQuiteDead his last breath]] to Incarnate the remains of his broken body into a fiery swarm and launches himself at Quinella so he can finally get the reward she longed for, with Quinella both horrified and disgusted at the repulsive clown touching her body.]]
* KickTheDog:
** Her turning the Elevator Operator into what she is, an immortal EmotionlessGirl forced to recite Wind Sacred Arts all day with very few breaks to the point that she's forgotten her own name, is seen as this by Kirito and Eugeo and as a sign of how she views the people she rules over. [[spoiler: And that's before she introduces the Sword Golem...]]
** [[spoiler:She plays a major part in causing Kirito's GameBreakingInjury and BreakTheCutie phase for the next three books by cleaving Eugeo in half.]]
** [[spoiler:She's also utterly contemptuous of Chudelkin even after he "dies" fighting for her. Alice, despite being fairly cold, is quite appalled at how callous Quinella is over the death of one of her servants. Although considering Chudelkin's general behaviour, this comes off more as KickTheSonOfABitch]].
** She also taunts Alice over how painful the process of forcibly turning her into an Integrity Knight must have been.
** In a flashback, she contemptuously dismisses the traumatized Renly as "broken" before sealing him away.
** In the Gameverse, her labelling the Orthinanos family as "defects", knowing that the weight of her words would make them pariahs among the nobility and subject it's descendants to horrendous abuse from other nobles.
** In "Memories of Bygone Days: Alice", she immediately refuses Alice's plea to help a Southacroith village when it comes under attack by monsters after suffering the aftereffects of a volcanic eruption and getting hit by a powerful storm. And while she does fix it in the end by putting a stop to both of the latter two, she only does so as in a move of spite towards Rath, who she realized caused both the eruption and the storm to force the residents to do their whims.
* KillItWithFire: Not only does she possess fire spells, [[spoiler: but Chudelkin setting her on fire is what does her in, and ''by accident'', no less.]]
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: [[spoiler:Quinella created loyal followers that came to be known as her Integrity Knights, who have]] their memories sealed off [[spoiler:and will unquestioningly carry out her bidding.]]
* {{Leitmotif}}: Has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nu-0D8gPbk a theme]] consisting of a choir's ominous chanting.
* LightIsNotGood: She has long white hair and wears a white gown, and she's the Underworld's SatanicArchetype.
* LightDarknessJuxtaposition: She tends to dress in lavender/white and is otherwise associated with bright colors, while Kirito continues his DarkIsNotEvil theme, especially prominent when he uses Incarnation to manifest his Black Swordsman attire from SAO.
* ManipulativeBitch:
** [[spoiler:She manipulated Eugeo into removing his Core Protection to turn him into a Integrity Knight, using {{Gaslighting}} and praying on his [[IJustWantToBeLoved loveless background and skewed idea of it]].]]
** In Scheta's segment of "The Knight's Recollection", she spends the entire event grooming Scheta to be a powerful attack dog for her to use. Tempting her with "a sword that can cut through anything", she actively encourages her obsession with cutting and lies, [[AccidentalTruth or so she thinks]], that her continuing on her path would find her a way out of it to motivate her. She then goes as far as to manipulating another Knight into duelling Scheta, likely knowing he'd be killed, just to test the Black Lily Sword's capabilities.
* MasterSwordswoman: [[spoiler:Despite losing an arm, she proves skilled enough to keep pace with Kirito while he's DualWielding against her, even managing to take one of his arms at the cost of her remaining one.]]
* MySkullRunnethOver: After ruling for seventy years as an Immortal Ruler, Quinella discovered that her [=FluctLight=] had reached its limit of stored memories, [[spoiler:so the solution she came up with was overwrite a child's [=FluctLight=] with her own memories and [=FluctLight=] using the Synthesis Ritual. Though this would be her undoing as she ended up giving this girl [[PhysicalGod power equal to her own]] and she would end up becoming Cardinal.]]
* MoralMyopia: When asked why she would go the atrocious deeds of enslaving the souls of innocent people to become her Integrity Knights and not even being able to entrust them, she argues that her Piety Modules she implanted in her knights were out of an act of love which she reserved only for them, as it freed them from worry and pain and making them beautiful dolls who didn't need to think. In Quinella's eyes all her actions are just and she has done nothing wrong.
* MsFanservice: Has been regularly referred to as beautiful, voluptuous, and her clothing doesn't try to hide much of her figure, [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl if she's even wearing any]]. Not to mention how she [[spoiler:seduced Eugeo and fought against Kirito and Alice in the nude.]]
** In ''Rising Steel'', most of her Limit Break art has her naked in some way, [Sweet Trap] having her laying seductively in her bed, [The World I Should Love] having her [[FullFrontalAssault fighting nude]], [Eternal Beauty] [[BathingBeauty showing her in the bath]], and [Whimsical Rhapsody], which has her sitting seductively in an ornate sofa. The only exception thus far is [The Glow in Your Hands] Administrator, and even then she's the first Administrator unit to [[FullFrontalAssault enter battle]] and appear on the homescreen in the buff. She only avoids the nudity on all sides as [Memories in the Snowy Skies] Quinella, instead wearing a SexySantaDress.
* MysticalWhiteHair: Fitting for one who considers herself the goddess of UW and [[PhysicalGod has the power to back it up]].
* {{Narcissist}}: Quinella believes that as the elegant "goddess" of UW, everyone should kneel before her.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Quinella's attempt to amend her [[MySkullRunnethOver overflowing memory]] by imprinting to another [=FluctLight=] was what allowed Cardinal to split off from her and seize control of another individual, the little girl who would come to be known as Cardinal and resist her.]]
* NoSell: She made her skin as hard as iron and therefore impervious to any metal weapon. This is why Eugeo's dagger failed even with the element of surprise. [[spoiler:There's a ''heavy emphasis'' on the weapon being ''metal'' however - Eugeo and Kirito's swords bypass this drawback by being '''made''' of ice and wood, respectively - even ''Divine Objects'' are transmuted by Quinella herself into metal weapons in an attempt to counter this loophole.]]
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: While she claims that turning half the Underworld (including her Knights) into sword golems is for their own safety, it's clear by her actions that she's nothing but a narcissistic ControlFreak who's no better than any of the other psychopaths Kirito has faced, like Sugou or Laughing Coffin. In fact, [[StupidEvil Quinella's refusal to allow the existence of any military force that she can't control has doomed the realm of humanity]], and this realization helps Kirito win Alice over to his side.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: She's almost exclusively referred to as "The Pontifex" or "Administrator" rather than Quinella. She's somewhat amused when Kirito calls her by her name.
* PetTheDog: A few examples, though [[ControlFreak all things]] [[TheSociopath considered]], they could all just be PragmaticVillainy.
** In "Homeside Waterfront", Alice states that she got a valuable catalyst from her to use to heal Amayori's seemingly unhealable wound.
** In "Memories of Bygone Days: Bercouli", while baffled at first, she takes Bercouli's request to make a giant bathhouse rather seriously.
* PhysicalGoddess: She imbued her [=FluctLight=] with the Cardinal sub-processor, which was essentially the god of the Underworld, and hence amassed its unlimited power.
* PlayingWithFire: Ranked up by killing foxes with fire arrows, and can shoot fire from her fingertips without having to recite anything.
* PosthumanNudism: Discards her entire dress after attaining godhood by implanting the administrative abilities inside her [=FluctLight=].
* PragmaticVillainy: Her outlawing of things like murder and entering the Dark Territory where there's monsters is done less for the sake of morals and protecting her people, and more to ensure that no one can do what she did to increase her Object Control Authority and System Authority growing up, ensuring her place as the most powerful being in the Underworld.
* PrehensileHair: [[spoiler:After losing both her arms, she resorts to turning her hair into needles. She also attempts to use a console by using her hair as fingers, or as razor-sharp blades and CombatTentacles in a last ditch-attempt to kill Kirito with in their duel.]]
* PromotedToPlayable: She is a playable character in several mobile games, and currently has the most playable appearances out of all the antagonists.
** In ''Memory Defrag'', she's first introduced as [Seductress] Administrator as part of the ''Sleeping Art Online'' April Fools Event, where she serves as the BigBad. Later on, she gains two more Units called [Coneqeror of Love] and [High Pontifex].
** Has her most playable appearances ''Rising Steel''.
*** [Sweet Trap] Administrator, featured in the "Gift from the High Pontifex" banner and her first playable Unit; a [[LightIsNotGood Light-Elemental]] Break Unit with a unique skillset that allows her to gain more Charge or inflict more Break when her foes are afflicted with Continuous Damage.
*** [The World I Should Love] Administrator, featured in the "Fearless Resistance" banner; a [[PlayingWithFire Fire-Elemental]] Charge Unit with an [[SuperMode Enhance Mode]] that has her do a FullFrontalAssault, while her Charge deals Continious Damage while her Assault deals added damage to enemies afflicted with it.
*** [Eternal Beauty] Administrator, featured in the "Eternal Beauty" banner; a magic wielding [[BlowYouAway Wind-Element]] Charge Unit with an [[SuperMode Enhance Mode]] whose playstyle focuses on increasing the Recollection Field to deal more damage.
*** [Whimsical Rhapsody] Administrator, featured in the "1.5 Anniversary - Part 3" banner; a Non-Element Charge Unit who's the closest to a SupportPartyMember, possessing a Charge Move that increases the party's critical damage while debuffing the enemies Incarnate Break, an Assault Skill that increases the party's attack, and a heal move that increases the party's physical resistance while adding a bar to the Recollection field.
*** [The Glow In Your Hands] Administrator, featured in the "Memories of Bygone Days Part 2" banner; another [[PlayingWithFire Fire-Element]] Charge Unit, though with a different skillset. This version of her puts a good deal of emphasis on increasing Charge, her Charge attack creating more when the Recollection field is three or higher, her first Assault Skill increasing her personal charge by x1.3 for one turn, and her Incarnate Skill creates a Recollection Field that, while active, increases the party's Charge when Incarnate is 40% or lower. And to round things up, her second Assault Skill deals Continuous Damage and adds 1 to the recollection field.
*** [Memories in the Snowy Skies] Administrator, featured as part of the Christmas-themed scout of the same name; an Earth-element Break Unit who can recover her own HP with her Break Skill, DrawAggro with her Assault Skill, and can buff herself to increase her ATK to up to 30% and her Physical Resistance to up to 50%, as well enabling herself to CounterAttack whenever she's hit.
* ProperlyParanoid: Her decision to [[NoSell make herself immune to metal]] and make it so ''every'' Divine Object she makes or bequeaths to her Knights are made of metal proves to be this when Eugeo's attempt to use Cardinal's Dagger on her fails, as it would have teleported her to Cardinal's domain and given the latter a homefield advantage against her. [[spoiler:She's further vindicated when she fights Kirito, with him being able to defeat her due to both the Night Sky Sword and Blue Rose Sword not being able of metal, instead being wood and ice respectively.]]
* PurpleIsPowerful: Her white outfit and hair has light purple shades in them, along with her eyes, and she's certainly [[PhysicalGod powerful]] as the Administrator of Underworld.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[ImpliedTrope Heavily implied]] to have [[spoiler:molested Eugeo in the process of turning him into an Integrity Knight, with the scene in which she brainwashes him being [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything filled with innuendo]]]].
* RealityWarper: [[spoiler:Possessing Cardinal's Authority gives her the ability to use very high-level System Commands that virtually allow her to shape the reality of UW to her will.]]
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: She's 363 years old and retains her youthful appearance, both of which are made possible only after meddling with the Cardinal system in an attempt to control it.
* {{Sadist}}: Despite freezing most of her emotions, she still takes pleasure in [[spoiler:killing Cardinal slowly]] and states that she wants to see Kirito's despair.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She acts like one in regards to the Knights, often overlooking any rudeness, such as when they're initially summoned and Eydis' informal behaviour, and granting certain requests, such as Linel and Fizel's desire to become Integrity Knights after freeing them from her Ressurection experiment. This is in contrast to Chudelkin, who endlessly picks on them over anything he can find and often gets angry when they do something that could be seen as disrespectful to himself or Quinella.
** [[spoiler: In "Memories of the Abyss", she further cultivates this image by letting Eydis off the hook after she lost control of her Divine Object and attacked Bercouli, knowing fully well of the possibility of that happening.]]
* SanitySlippage: It's really subtle but in ''Lycoris'' [[spoiler: after her first death, she absolutely lose herself when Kirito managed to kill her and when she got resurrected she'll do anything to screw him and the others, along with the entirety of the Underworld, on their attempt to kill her again, especially Kirito whom she despise so much that she willingly bring down the entire Underworld just to kill him. This get worse when Kirito finally defeated her for the second time and by the third and the final time Kirito fought her, she's reduced to LaughingMad from combination of her defeat, her continuous resurrection and [[ImpliedTrope perhaps]] from wielding the power of the Main Visualizer (since the power give her an omnipresence, meaning she knew about everything in Underworld but it's heavily implied wielding such a great power is to much for her soul).]]
* RoyalRapier: ''Silvery Eternity'', her rapier, signifying her prestige and authority as the Ruler of the Underworld with its pimped-out design. [[spoiler:It ends up a WreckedWeapon during her fight with Kirito when Eugeo decides to intervene.]]
%% * SatanicArchetype
* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: After attaining godhood by imprinting Cardinal's system administrator abilities onto her [=FluctLight=], she decided she was above simple things such as clothes, discarding her garments and often staying fully nude. WordOfGod says that she doesn't feel shame about being nude because she's realized she's in a simulation. Even her body isn't truly real, so what's the point of caring?
* SinisterMinister: She fancies herself as Axiom's high minister and rules UW with an iron fist.
* SinisterNudity: Combined with PosthumanNudism; Quinella dispels her dress during her villainous apotheosis and remains nude throughout the final battle except for some GodivaHair. [[spoiler: After Kirito chops off both her arms, she tries to strangle him to death with said hair, by the way.]]
* SleepsInTheNude: She's introduced to the audience [[NakedOnArrival sleeping naked in her luxurious bed]].
* SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat: A huge jump from all of her predecessors in both power and threat. While previous SAO villains did make Kirito struggle, he could typically take them down on his own with limited assistance from the respective ArcHero. Quinella however is godlike and initially towered over Kirito, whereby it took several [[spoiler:sacrifices from his friends to wear her down before the playing field had been leveled for Kirito to match her]]. Also unlike the other villains who restricted their crimes to game communities, she has ruled over a human empire for centuries. [[spoiler: Not only is she the first villain since Kayaba [[AnArmAndALeg to land a significant physical blow]] to Kirito, she's also the one to severely damage Kirito's mental health, to the point where he becomes comatose and depressed (thanks to killing his friends), something that no other villain has come close to. Even to this day, her killing of Eugeo still haunts him, and that's ''after'' he defeated the next, more [[InvincibleVillain invincible villain]] - Gabriel Miller.]]
* TheSociopath: She never cares for the welfare of the UW people because [[ItsAllAboutMe it's all about her in her head]]. {{Justified|Trope}} [[spoiler:in that she had to seal her emotions to prevent [[FightingFromTheInside Cardinal]] from [[DrivenToSuicide making her kill herself]] during times of emotional distress... but also double-subverted in that Quinella had already begun her experiments into manipulating the UW residents by this time, so she already was a psychopath, she just made herself worse]]. She feels no remorse for the trouble she's caused and even convinces her victims that she's helping them by twisting their feelings and memories.
* StatuesqueStunner: Towers over the other female characters, being even taller than Kirito despite being the same biological age as him appearance-wise.
* StrongAndSkilled: While she could be mistaken for UnskilledButStrong at first with her over-reliance on her godlike Administrator powers and mastery of the Sacred Arts, she is revealed to be as well versed in sword combat as Kirito himself. Even having worn her down with weapons that can harm her, she still spends a fair share of the fight thrashing Kirito by showcasing her knowledge of Sword Skills. After all, she did fuse with the Cardinal System and knows of the ''entire command list'', so it's not like she couldn't gain the knowledge one way or another, either by peering through Eugeo's memories, or by having the Cardinal system record the data every time Kirito or Eugeo swung their swords.
* StupidEvil: Quinella's ControlFreak tendencies bite her in the ass when it's revealed that humanity is doomed because she refuses to allow the existence of any military force that isn't under her complete control. This realization is what convinces Alice to turn on her in favor of Kirito. [[spoiler: {{Subverted}} in that she ''did'' have a plan. It just involved a lot HumanSacrifice to create robotic soldiers made of swords, which is arguably even worse.]]
* SuperToughness: She's made herself ''immune'' to iron and all forms of metal, which is what most weapons in the world are made from. This is why Kirito and Eugeo's swords, which aren't made of metal, are able to hurt her.
* SweetTooth: In the Cake Timeline, being able to eat the new, exotic cakes Kirito replicates in the Underworld is the reason she's considering [[HeelFaceTurn working together with]] [[ArchEnemy Cardinal]] [[HeelFaceTurn to properly protect the Underworld from invasion]].
* TermsOfEndangerment: She uses the affectionate "-chan" honorific on Alice, even after it's become clear that Alice is now her enemy. She also occasionally calls Cardinal "Lyserith-chan."
* TooPowerfulToLive: [[spoiler:Notably Quinella is the first villain who was not allowed to remain alive after her defeat[[note]]Kayaba [[SelfDisposingVillain chose to take his own life]][[/note]], albeit not by Kirito's hand. Had she succeeded in escaping to the real world, she would have been able to cause all sorts of chaos.]]
* TorsoWithAView: [[spoiler:After Kirito impales her in the heart, what's left behind in the impact spot is a large hole in the center of her chest.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: In an original story in ''Rising Steel'', we learn that before she received her Calling as a Sacred Arts researcher, Quinella came off as [[SpoiledSweet a kind girl who wanted to receive a calling so she could benefit her village in spite of her Noble Status]], a far cry from the [[{{Sadist}} Sadistic]] ControlFreak we meet in the present.
* TheVamp: Seduces Eugeo with the promise of fulfilling his desire to be loved, even stripping off all her clothes in front of him.
* VillainExitStageLeft: [[spoiler:After Kirito deals her a lethal wound she attempts to escape to the real world in a robotic body. It would have worked if [[SpannerInTheWorks Chudelkin]] had not been still alive.]]
* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler:When Kirito calls Quinella out on all the atrocities she committed of controlling her world, Quinella counter-argues that he's from a world of people who did the same thing by creating a world for their own purposes. So what right does a boy from such a world have to judge her?]]
* VillainousFriendship: PlayedWith. Despite him being more of a HeroAntagonist than genuinely evil, she seemed to have a friendly relationship with Bercouli, the two of them apparently drinking win together in her quarters often and her even opening up to him about her [[TheParanoiac paranoiac]] tendencies that prompted her ControlFreak nature. Of course, [[TheSociopath knowing her]], she may have just been faking it.
* VillainousBreakdown: She loses her cool when Eugeo [[spoiler:fuses with his sword, enabling him to destroy her Sword Golem and cut off her arm - or when Kirito later impales her through the heart later on. While she could easily shrug it off the first two times (on account of having said arm transformed into a second sword, and an escape route into the real world), what really seals the deal is the panic on her face when Chudelkin unexpectedly shows up and sets her on fire, which thwarts her escape and eventually kills her, though she manages to [[GoOutWithASmile regain control before her death]].]]
** Her breakdown is even more profounded in ''Lycoris'', after Kirito manage to break her rapier with [[spoiler:,the currently fused Eugeo, Blue Rose Sword]] and Kirito used the Night Sky Blade to kill her, she let out a shrill SkywardScream and she died with a face full of agony and hatred toward the man who killed her. [[spoiler: Let just say when she get resurrected, she'll absolutely do anything to kill him and his friends to the point cutting of the Underworld communication with the real world '''AND''' bringing down the entire Underworld just to kill him simply out of spite. Pretty much showing how much [[SanitySlippage she had lose herself]] by the time of the final act had began.]]
* VillainTakesAnInterest: She's done this with a few of her Knights.
** She apparently took a quick interest in Eydis after Synthesizing her, with her promising to give Eydis a dragon after her first mission, the earliest any Knight at the time has got theirs, and surprising Bercouli by expressing a desire to grant her a Divine Object upon her return, sending her to grab the material for it after only her second mission, curious as to whether she's maintain control of the sword's memories or lose her mind in the process. She also took notes from the experience so she could refine the Synthesis ritual.
** Upon Scheta's recruitment, she approached her and proceeded to tempt her with a sword that could cut through anything, and then [[ManipulativeBitch encourages]] her cutting obsession after she made it and granted it to her. She's disappointed however when Scheta requested to be put into Deep Freeze after she accidentally killed a fellow Knight in a duel, whom she offered to give a Divine Object to should he best her in a duel, pondering if she screwed up the Synthesis ritual or made the Black Lily Sword too sharp.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: Even after her death, her reputation as a benevolent ruler is maintained due to the unrest that would be caused by her true nature going public. Kirito actually fears that the people learning of her death at his hands would ruin his own UniversallyBelovedLeader status as the Star King and head of the Human Unification Council.]]
* WeCanRuleTogether: She offers this to all three of the Rulid trio.
** She first gives it to Eugeo offering him the love which he has desired all his life, to which he ''very nearly'' submits after being broken by her MindRape. Eugeo gets voluntarily subjected to Synthesis and Synthesised into an Integrity Knight, but eventually breaks free and tries to incapacitate Quinella himself with a special dagger created by Cardinal. Upon his betrayal being discovered, Quinella offers him a last chance to pledge his loyalty and destroying Cardinal's dagger. Eugeo of course refuses having finally come to understand what love is.
** After she sees Alice has broken the Seal of the Right Eye by her own volition, she offers to re-Synthesise Alice so she would no longer feel pain or emotion. Alice angrily rejects this proposal, citing the pain allowed her to realize she was human and not a doll-like Integrity Knight.
** She even gives this offer to Kirito, stating she'd spare his life if he went into her servitude as her secretary. Kirito of course pays no heed and continues fighting.
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: Inverted. Quinella actually constantly preaches love and that she gives it to her loyal followers, but the twist is that she does not truly understand what love is, using it as a placeholder word for 'desire' or 'control'.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: [[spoiler: After her first death in ''Lycoris'', Quinella attempt to resurrect herself cause her consciousness to stuck within the Main Visualizer, in which she manage to get an omnipresence ability, but it turns out that gaining omnipresence proves to be to much for her mind to handle that she winds up losing what last bit of her sanity and reasonable thinking, to the point she pretty much decide to preserve herself just because that was the only thing she can do with, which signing Quinella complete fall from grace to the point the entire Rulid trio simply pities her when they realize how pathetic and desperate she had became by the final battle, [[DontYouDarePityMe something she takes complete offense at]]. In the end after her defeat, Quinella manage to regain her sanity back as she died and realize how free she felt when the omnipresence ability is finally gone from her.]]
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Stated to be this by a couple of characters, including Eugeo and Kirito. Even before becoming a PhysicalGod, she was seen as one of the great beauties of the Underworld, which likely helped her convince people of her divinity.
* WouldHurtAChild: As Linel and Fizel can attest to, she has no problem harming children or using them in her Sacred Art experiments. In fact, in the one the aforementioned girls were in, she gathered about thirty children and had them all kill each other so she could test out a Sacred Art to [[BackFromTheDead bring people back from the dead]], leading to large amounts of BodyHorror, and only stopped when only Linel and Fizel were left, coming out of it severely traumatized and as the CuteAndPsycho girls we now know.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Prime Senator Chudelkin]]
!!Prime Senator Chudelkin
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/WataruTakagi (Japanese), Creator/FrankTodaro (English), Roberto Gutiérrez (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/omake_screencap_sword_art_online_alicization_episode_21_chudelkin_patched_up.jpg]]
Leader of the Senators, a group dedicated to enforcing the Taboo Index.
----
* {{Acrofatic}}: Despite appearances, his main mode of transportation is to BeTheBall and he proves to be surprisingly nimble, constantly dancing and prancing about and is even able to do a headstand. [[spoiler: Possibly {{Subverted}} when it turns out he's [[NotHyperbole literally]] full of hot air.]]
* AmbiguouslyHuman: Given his drastically different NonStandardCharacterDesign, it really makes one wonder what his species is.
* BadBoss: Chudelkin is notorious for abusing the Integrity Knights; he rudely dismisses all of their concerns about the possibility of invasion by the Dark Territory, he insults them over the most trivial things, and is all too willing to Deep Freeze them if they displease him. [[UngratefulBastard This is despite the fact their existence alone is what prevents the Dark Territory from launching a full-scale invasion]].
* BerserkButton: ''Don't'' even think about calling him a lump of meat if you don't want [[OffWithHisHead your head torn off]].
* BeTheBall: His primary form of transport is to curl into a ball and bounce about the place.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He looks like a clown and seems relatively silly. But he's a {{sadist}}ic individual who's highly skilled with Sacred Arts, and so should not be underestimated.
* DirtyOldMonk:
** As the Prime Senator, Chudelkin is technically a member of the Axiom Church's clergy, yet he is an obsessive StalkerWithACrush towards Quinella, [[spoiler:even requesting that he get a night with free access to her body in exchange for killing the Rulid Trio]].
** In ''Rising Steel'', one of the Skits during the "Overflowing Eternal Affection" Scout, hints that he at least once entered the Great Baths during the girls times while Eydis was using her privacy to mock him.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He threatens to turn Eugeo into a horse the next time he fails to address Chudelkin with the "Kakka" honorific (roughly equivalent to "Your Excellency") after his "Prime Senator" title.
* TheDragon: He's the second-in-command to Quinella, and unlike the Integrity Knights, he is straight out evil and delights in committing atrocities for her.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: He only ever refers to Integrity Knights by their numbers rather than their names.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Has a very deep gravelly voice and is likely the most evil being in the Axion Church save for Quinella herself. The dub makes his voice deeper yet to the point it resembles ComicBook/TheJoker.
* EyeScream: While casting his most powerful Sacred Art that conjures a giant fire genie, he burns his own eyes out.
* EvilIsPetty: When he's briefly brought BackFromTheDead in ''Unleash Blading's'' second anniversary event, he forms an alliance with Sugou and Gabriel to crash Eydis' party since he wasn't invited.
* FatBastard: A pudgy fat man dressed like a clown who constantly mocks everyone around him.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He speaks with a formal and polite tone, yet has no issue with addressing others condescendingly.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Less friend and more acquaintance. While he is on the same side as the Integrity Knights and technically their boss, none of them like him given he [[BadBoss treats them like trash]]. Bercouli in fact outright despises him and when given the chance doesn't shy away from directly insulting him.
* GigglingVillain: He lets off a laugh of "Hoh-hoh-hoh!"
* GlassCannon: He is one of the most powerful Sacred Users of all time (and possibly the best other than Quinella and Cardinal). However he has nothing in the way of physical ability, and goes down very easily if he takes even a slight amount of damage.
* GreenEyedMonster: He is obsessed with Quinella and becomes aggressively jealous if she so much as even gives attention to anyone else.
* {{Gonk}}: He's a short, pudgy man with heavy makeup who doesn't look much like anyone on the Integrity Knights' side.
* HatedByAll: It soon becomes clear there is absolutely no one, hero or villain, that likes Chudelkin. The Integrity Knights all range from not caring about him to outright despising him. Even Quinella [[FauxAffablyEvil feigns politeness]] around him and is all too eager to cast him aside like trash when he's [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]]. In reality, she's also repulsed by him.
* InsistentTerminology: Always chastises anyone who doesn't refer to him by "Prime Senator".
* {{Irony}}: He, Quinella's most fervent follower, [[spoiler:is the one who kills her in the end.]]
* JerkassAtYourDiscretion: He's a very rude and abusive BadBoss who torments anyone in sight... until Quinella appears where he suddenly piles on praise and polite language. [[spoiler:The most disrespectful he ever gets is asking if she'll sleep with him if he disposes of Kirito, Eugeo and Alice, and even then he phrases it like a humble request]].
* {{Kevlard}}: Inverted; while he's [[FatBastard pudgy]], he can take little punishment.
* KickTheDog: He gleefully recounts how poorly Alice was treated, and how she despaired once her hopes of being able to return home were dashed before she ended up becoming an Integrity Knight, particularly how she begged not to forget the people who were most important to her.
* LightIsNotGood: Wears some white, and is a {{sadist}}ic PsychopathicManchild.
* ManipulativeBastard: Manipulated the Integrity Knights into fighting Kirito and Eugeo by putting them under the belief that they were invaders from Dark Territory.
* MisterBig: As the Prime Senator, he's the highest authority in the Central Cathedral save for Quinella herself. Yet he's diminutive and barely taller than a child. Also worth noting is he is a contender for the most powerful Sacred Arts user in the Human Empire, barring Quinella.
* MonsterClown: He dresses more like a jester than a clown, but otherwise he still gives off these vibes, and unlike the Integrity Knights he's unconditionally evil. Some of the characters even derogatorily refer to him as a clown.
* TheNapoleon: Chudelkin is a short, arrogant man who's quick to berate the Integrity Knights who work under him either out of [[GreenEyedMonster envy whenever Quinella treats them kindly]], [[EvilIsPetty for merely questioning him or underdoing the praise he feels her rightfully deserves]], or [[MeanBoss simply because he feels like it.]]
* NoIndoorVoice: He yells at the top of voice for often no reason at times, to anyone other than Quinella.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:It looked as though he had already met his end at the hands of Kirito, with Quinella even casting his lifeless body aside. But we later see he wasn't quite finished yet, and he uses presumably the last of his Durability to launch himself at Quinella's body to finally touch and be with her, much to her horror, whereby he burns the both of them out.]]
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Everything about him, all the way down to his clashing colors and the 8-bit sound effects, looks nothing like a ''Sword Art Online'' character and more like he belongs in a completely different franchise.
* NotBrainwashed: Alice speculates that Chudelkin may be a victim of Quinella just like the Integrity Knights. Whether or not this is true, what's made clear is Chudelkin had full knowledge of what Quinella was really doing and not only supported her but actively partook in the immoral activities himself.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: He may be small, but he's a very powerful Scared Arts user.
* PlayingWithFire: His most powerful Sacred Art involves summoning a gigantic fire genie.
* ThePowerOfLust: He's generally spends the arc as a DirtyCoward, but he's immediately motivated to fight when [[spoiler: Quinella offers him a night with access to her body if he kills the Rulid Trio, even summoning [[PlayingWithFire a giant, fiery version of himself.]]]]
* PsychopathicManchild: He's clearly an adult, but acts extremely immature; he throwing tantrums over the most trivial of things, dresses like a clown, and he giggles at the silliest of stuff. His private quarters is brightly colored room full of children's toys, like a child's bedroom. "Fearless Resistance" even shows him angrily bouncing up and down in response to Quinella requesting a late-night meeting with Bercouli so he can give his mission reports. However he is also AxCrazy and [[{{Sadist}} enjoys torture or ordering the execution of others]].
* {{Sadist}}: He enjoys executions and torture, which includes gleefully recounting the time he put Alice through the Forced Synthesis Ritual, claiming that he wish he could have [[TakenForGranite Deep Freezed her]] and used her to decorate his room solely for the pained expressions she made.
* SitcomArchNemesis: In ''Rising Steel'', while he seems to have beef with every Knight, he and Eydis simply cannot stand each other, with him always getting upset at her blatant lack of respect for him and laid back attitude.
* {{Slimeball}}: He rivals Sugou as the most detestable character in the whole series. Aside from the fact he's an evil MonsterClown, he's also smarmy, manipulative, and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays his own allies without a second thought after coming upon someone more useful]]. In stark contrast to Quinella who is seductively FauxAffablyEvil, he's downright [[BadBoss abusive and condescending]] to the Integrity Knights and outright calls them puppets to do his bidding. He's a DirtyCoward who flees the second he's in danger and will not hesitate to reducing himself to grovelling. He also reveals he's just as sickly perverted as any of the other SAO villains before him (if not worse), lusting for Quinella and requesting he spend a night with access to her body if he were to dispose of the rebels.
* SmokeOut: [[spoiler: It turns out his "fat" might actually be a large amount of smoke he has in his clothes, as shown when Alice impales him, causing it all to burst out and cover his escape.]]
* SmugSnake: Chudelkin is this in regards to the Dark Territory; he dismisses all the Knight's concerns about possible invasion. In ''Rising Steel'', he even berates Eydis when she doesn't kill a group of them she finds doing something suspicious, instead opting to play it safe and report back to Bercouli, which many agree is the smarter option.
* SquishyWizard: He's not much of a physical fighter, but he's incredibly skilled with Sacred Arts which are so destructive he can easily be a OneManArmy in his own right.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:He hugs Quinella while he's on fire, immolating her before she can escape to the real world via a console.]]
* VagueAge: While his exact age is never specified, though he's {{Implied}} to have been bossing Bercouli around for a while.
* VillainsWantMercy: As soon as things go south, he's reduced to a [[VillainousBreakdown blubbering wreck]] who begs for his life.
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: A rare villainous example. Typically he derogatorily refers to the Integrity Knights via their numerical designations. When Alice defects and holds him at sword point, with his life on the line he finally refers to her as "Alice" to try and appease her.
* YouHaveFailedMe: He plans on reprocessing the Integrity Knights (or at least Bercouli and Fanatio) after seeing Bercouli fail to defeat Eugeo.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Quinella has no qualms with tossing aside Chudelkin's lifeless corpse after Kirito offs him.
[[/folder]]
!!Glowgen Defense Systems
[[folder:In General]]
A [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]]-based company that was hired by the National Security Agency to assault the Ocean Turtle to obtain the Soul Translator technology secretly developed there.
----
%% *AmbiguousSituation: The reason why the NSA decided to launch their attack on Ocean Turtle is not delved upon.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: They are supposed to be Americans, but speak perfect [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage Japanese]].
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: They're all comprised of criminals. Captain Dario Ziliani remarks that (with the exception of Gabriel Miller), none of the Glowgen operatives had any sense of discipline.
* {{Eagleland}}: Given that they're the antagonists in ''Alicization'', it's the boorish variety. They're also Americans.
%%* EvilCounterpart: To Rath.
* FighterMageThief: Villain example. The three main faces of the group could be seen to have this dynamic.
** Gabriel is the Fighter, being the PhysicalGod who relies on aggressive WeHaveReserves tactics against the Human Army. He also is powerful enough to be a match for several heavy-hitters like [[spoiler: Bercouli, Sinon (who's logged in as [[PhysicalGod Solus]]), and a recently revived and empowered Kirito]].
** [=PoH=] is the Thief, being a ProfessionalKiller who can sneak into the human encampment and kill several guards. He also later [[spoiler: ambushes the Human Army and ALO players with his army of Chinese and Koreans]].
** Critter is the Mage, being TheCracker who hacks into the Ocean Turtle's system to log Gabriel and Vassago in. He even [[spoiler: recruits and logs in foreign players to serve as Gabriel and Vassago's reinforcements]].
* GratuitousEnglish: They slip a lot of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEnglish English]] words into their dialogue as a way of showing [[JustifiedTrope they are not Japanese]].
* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: After the mission ends, Critter suspects the surviving team members are likely to be detained or even killed due to the American Government not wanting it to leak that they violated their treaty with Japan and led an attack on one of their facilities, as it could spark an international incident. This prompted Critter to steal a data-chip before the team escaped the Ocean Turtle with the intent of bargaining for his life]].
* PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler: After the defeat and (seemingly for the latter) deaths of [[BigBad Gabriel]] and [[TheDragon Vassago]], the remaining mercenaries declare the mission a failure and attempt to blow up the Ocean Turtle before leaving. Though, one of them stays behind in [[AvengingTheVillain hopes of avenging his partner]]. It takes the combined efforts of Kayaba in a robot body and Kikuoka to prevent the bomb from going off]].
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: They operate in this way. It's a case of TruthInTelevision, as the GDS HQ is located in [[UsefulNotes/{{California}} San Diego]]. In RealLife, there's a heavy presence of both the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks U.S. Navy's Point Loma base]] and [[SemperFi U.S. Marine Corps Camp Pendleton]] in San Diego County. It means there are innumerable corporations [[note]] (mainly related to industries like communications, biotech, and engineering) [[/note]] in the region with major Department of Defense contracts.
* ProfessionalKiller: All of Glowgen's operatives specialize in assasinating people.
* RedOniBlueOni: Vassago is the impulsive and hotheaded red to Gabriel's calmer and logical blue.
* UnskilledButStrong: As experienced in assasination the operatives are, as Vassago himself remarks, they are no match for soldiers with formal training like the JSDF.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer / Vector]]
!!Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer (GGO, UW) / Vector (UW)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AkiraIshida (Japanese), Creator/RieKugimiya (Japanese, young), Ted Sroka (English, ''Alicization''), Creator/GregChun (English, ''War of Underworld''), Creator/AmandaCelineMiller (English, young), Sergio Gutiérrez Coto (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriels_real_life_concept.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click here to see Vector]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriel_vector_anime.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Gabriel's Angel of Death form]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabrielmiller.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"I wonder how it tastes. Your emotions, memories, heart and soul... everything! I'll devour them all now!"''
Chief Technological Officer of "Glowgen Defense Systems" and son of the founder and former [=CTO=]. During the events of the Alicization arc, he leads a 12-men team of operators, at the request of the National Security Agency, on an assault of the Ocean Turtle.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Despite his status as the strongest being there, [[TheSocialDarwinist which dictates that they follow him unquestionably]], none of the Dark Territory members seem to actually like him or are genuinely loyal to him. [[spoiler:Shasta and Lipia die trying to kill him, Fu Za stopped Shasta out of a personal grude as opposed to loyalty]], [[TheStarscream Dee Eye Ell has plans to usurp his authority]], Kosogi thinks he's being manipulated by Dee Eye Ell and uses LoopholeAbuse in regards to his orders, Lilpilin is angered when he orders [[spoiler: 3,000 of his people dead for a spell]], and Iskahn is disgusted by his WeHaveReserves mentality enough to [[spoiler: betray him himself]] and even before that he was [[spoiler: rooting for Shasta when he made an attempt on his life.]] [[spoiler:In addition, Vassago, his right hand, proves to be even more insane than he is. As when he threatens Kirito that he'll torture and kill everyone in Underworld, he includes Gabriel and his own armies in them.]]
* AchievementInIgnorance: He has no idea how [[spoiler:he managed to consume Lipia's [=FluctLight=]]], but he doesn't care and is delighted nonetheless.
* AdaptationalBadass:
** {{Downplayed}}. [[spoiler: The Light Novel depicts him as somewhat UnskilledButStrong, due to lacking much skill in swordsmanship but compensating for that with the Vecta account's stats and PowerOfTheVoid, something which is {{Lampshaded}} by Bercouli during their duel. In the Anime however, he's depicted as being much more skilled with the Vecta account's sword and Bercouli's observation on his lack of swordsmanship prowess is adapted out.]]
** Weird [[ZigZagged Zig Zag]], with two scenes swapping his reactions to certain events. [[spoiler: When he presented Lipia's head to lure out the treasonous general, he actually displayed concern when Shasta attempted to kill him and turned into a murderous tornado, trying to strategize a way out before determining there is none. Later on in his fight with Bercouli, he's noted to have a completely expressionless face when Bercouli finally kills him with the Uragiri, dying with nary a sound. In the anime, his reactions to both of these are swapped, with him keeping a straight in the face of Shasta's charge yet displaying surprise and even howling in pain when killed by the Uragiri.]]
** [[spoiler:Despite not killing any of the UW characters in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel's credibility as the BigBad and FinalBoss has cranked up, having two new, powerful, and ''way more dangerous'' transformations that he used against the heroes after his "True Gabriel" form is defeated.]]
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the light novels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the light novels.
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLeftHanded having two extremely strong transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:During their fight, Sinon's final attack destroys his arm in addition to the [=XM500=] he generated. He temporarily replaces it with [[ArtificialLimbs one made of pure energy]] for his final duel with Kirito.]]
* AnimalMotifs:
** In his introductory chapter, Dario Giulani, the captain of the ''USS Jimmy Carter'', the sub that would transport Gabriel's forces right before the Ocean Turtle raid, describes him as having hollow eyes that "devoured all light like a bottomless pit" like the great white shark that he encountered while he was swimming in Miami. Considering [[YourSoulIsMine the type of person]] Gabriel is, this is fitting.
** He also has a minor link with insects; his interest in the soul was born out of curiosity over his father's insect collection and a insect's strange ability to survive things like getting their heads bitten off, wondering where their souls could be. The first opening for ''War of Underworld'' also shows him at a desk with a frame of frozen butterflies behind him.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: Despite being an American, his Japanese is perfect. In fact it is his GratuitousEnglish which has a Japanese accent.
* TheAntiGod: As the Dark God Vecta, he is this to Goddess of Creation Stacia. In the mythology of Underworld, Vecta was the one god who was not created by Stacia, being a sentience who was birthed from the darkness itself and opposed Stacia, envying her power. He also became the reason why humans die, as he steals their lives over time, effectively making him TheGrimReaper, but his origins also make him effectively {{Satan}}.
* ArchAngelGabriel: Named Gabriel while having a backstory and personality painting him as a SatanicArchetype, making him a FallenAngel so to speak. He even takes on an angelic HumanoidAbomination form when he goes OneWingedAngel, where he gains a dark shadowy form with six wings and a halo.
* ArchEnemy:
** To Kirito, with both eventually coming to see each other as this. Kirito discovers that Quinella is the one responsible for everything bad that happened to him in the Underworld, and dedicates his efforts to bringing her down, while ensuring that others who were once fiercely loyal to the Pontifex see her for the vile being she is. This becomes especially the case when Quinella [[spoiler:kills Eugeo]], earning her a place among Kirito's most hated enemies of all time. While Quinella originally saw Kirito as nothing but an insignificant bug who dared to defy her and waiting to be crushed, she attains special hatred for him when she finds out he's ''special'', being from the ''other side'' of the outside world. Kirito giving Quinella a reality check in reminding her there are true gods on the outside infuriates her, and her hatred for Kirito only grows when he continues to resist her, being the last one standing. Worth noting is, even among the others who resisted her, Quinella at least is able to show [[FauxAffablyEvil a twisted form of affection]] such as to Alice, Eugeo, and even Cardinal, whereas she never once gives this treatment to Kirito and derogatorily refers to him as "boy".
** To Eugeo. While his hatred was initially aimed towards the Axiom Church itself, later it gets centered on Quinella since she is the one responsible for everything. It becomes very personal after she subjects Eugeo to MindRape and make him susceptible to Synthesis, before later when he breaks free revealing she put [[ColdBloodedTorture forced Synthesis on Alice]]. Eugeo later decides that it is his purpose to bring Quinella down [[spoiler:due to wishing to atone for his actions and [[HeroicSacrifice gives up his life]] to ensure it happens.]]
** To Alice. While originally Alice was fiercely loyal to the Pontifex and the Axiom Church, Kirito's influence began to cast more and more doubt upon her, and she uncovered more about the truth on Quinella's corruption. It reached the point where Alice openly abandoned her duties as an Integrity Knight and chose to oppose her former master. While her hatred for Quinella isn't quite as intense as Kirito and Eugeo's due to her conflicting loyalty, she still very much despises the Pontifex. Though this sentiment isn't quite as much shared on Quinella's side who views Alice's rebelling as an inconvenience and still sees her as an adequate doll that can be reprogrammed to do her bidding.
* AwesomeByAnalysis: Her personality aside, there's something to be said for her skills. [[spoiler:She was the first UW resident to figure out how to create offensive skills, restore her life, overturn the Cardinal System, copy her Fluctlight onto others, and forcibly alter the Fluctlights of others into her personal Servants... all because she spent a large amount of time just analyzing how the Sacred Arts of the Underworld worked.]]
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: The plot of ''Alicization Lycoris'' is set in motion by Kirito's decision to use the Night Sky Sword to kill Quinella ending up [[GoneHorriblyWrong backfiring]] hard on him and the others. It allowed Quinella to take advantage of the sword's ability to absorb resources from the Gigas Cedar Tree to turn herself into a gigantic tree and install Calamity Plants to bring back monsters and beings with Fluctlights BackFromTheDead, connecting her own will with the Main Visualizer to make the entire thing happen.]]
* BadBoss: It's repeatedly shown that she views the Senators and Integrity Knights as more like tools than people.
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: She is shown to enjoy killing animals in her childhood to level herself up.
* BarrierChangeBoss: As a boss in ''Rising Steel'', she makes use of barrier moves in each fight that nullifies damage from either physical attacks in her first and magic attacks in the second. As the FinalBoss, she alternates between the two.
* BathingBeauty: Her Full Limit Break art and profile description as [Eternal Beauty] Quinella in ''Rising Steel'' depicts her enjoying a bath.
--> ''Eternal beauty... how boring. Listening to the sounds of water drops falling, she finally can relax and wash all these thoughts away. Cracks of light illuminated on her skin while her wet hair accentuated her undeniable beauty. She stretched out her elegant legs from the snow white bathtub as the fragrance of flowers wrapped itself around her aura. Through the thin screen of steam, her allure entices''
* BeautyIsBad: The [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman Underworld's Most Beautiful Woman]], and a [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]] {{Sociopath}} with a {{Sadist}}ic streak and has no qualms with manipulating and [[MindRape Mind Raping]] anyone to suit her own ends.
* BigBad: For the first half of ''Alicization'', she is the head villain, being the leader of the Axion Church and thus the world itself. She is responsible for Alice's arrest, the corruption in the nobility, the lack of preparation the Human Empire has for the Final Stress Test, and the later revelation of the even more sinister plot of converting the Human Empire into Sword Golems to battle the Dark Territory.
* BlatantLies: She swears to the Goddess Stacia that if Chudelkin helps defeat her enemies, she'll let him do whatever he wants with her body for one night. While Chudelkin can't fathom the idea of lying, Kirito knows that Quinella doesn't believe in Stacia, so her oath means nothing. Cardinal is smart enough to see through this, and insists that Quinella swear by the one thing that matters to her -- her own Fluctlight.
* BlowYouAway: Blasted Eugeo aside using a gust of wind after thwarting his assassination attempt.
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:Her skin starts cracking when she's near death after Kirito stabbed her.]]
* BodySurf: First started doing this [[spoiler:once she realized that her current body could no longer contain all her memories and needing a new body to store her new experiences]], but as time went on it became about [[spoiler:attaining complete immortality.]]
* BreakoutVillain: Subverted. While she doesn't get to return to the series after her defeat, the anime does seem to acknowledge her popularity by not only giving her additional scenes but ones that depict her in a redeeming light.
** [[spoiler:After her initial defeat the anime adds a scene that shows her spirit getting to proudly observe the empire she created one last time as she passes on.]]
** [[spoiler:In ''War of the Underworld'', her spirit returns after Bercouli is killed in combat and the two are reunited TogetherInDeath.]]
* CastingAShadow: Generated a ball of darkness using the Umbral Element Sacred Arts, and can have ''Silvery Eternity'' fire bolts of ''dark lightning''.
* ClothingDamage: After Eugeo [[spoiler:breaks free from her brainwashing and]] attacks her, her nightgown is left shredded, with it losing losing it's durability and disappearing soon after.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: She's the first BigBad who is a female and isn't a human from the real world, a sharp contrast with her predecessors. She's also the first villain who isn't an obvious EvilCounterpart to Kirito, instead paralleling Alice. She's also the first who had her fall to villainy and ascension to power told in great detail, rather than being presented as just another bad guy straight from the get-go.
* ControlFreak: Quinella is a corrupt, narcissistic and callous psychopath [[spoiler:who is not above killing, torturing, and brainwashing anyone to keep UW for herself]], though her methods of doing so are different from the standard. [[spoiler:She spends most of her time asleep in order to preserve precious memory space, but the laws she placed over the land and its people might as well be God-given edicts to follow consciously or subconsciously [[RealityWarper given her authority]] and are enforced by her Integrity Knights]]. In the backstory, [[spoiler:while she fused with the Cardinal System to regulate UW, her original intention was to outright ''steal'' its powers and authority for herself.]]
* CorruptChurch: She is the Pontifex of the Axiom Church, which is the leading authority in the human empire, but is more akin to a tyrant that rules the land with an iron fist while painting the allusion she's a benevolent ruler and emmisary of the gods.
* TheCorrupter: Quinella preys on Eugeo's emotions and his desire to be loved, twisting his memories and breaking him, before turning him into her own loyal servant.
* DarkActionGirl: Being female does not stop her from being gifted at sword fighting.
* DarkMessiah: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Preaches herself as the will of God and the savior of humanity]], when in reality she governed the human realm with an iron fist and is concerned with nothing but self-preservation.
* DeathByIrony: Quinella, a ControlFreak who manipulated and brainwashed people into having UndyingLoyalty to her, [[spoiler: is burned alive by Chudelkin, quite possibly her most obsessive follower.]]
* DeathEqualsRedemption: {{Implied}}. [[spoiler: While the spirit of her Bercouli meets when he dies is stated to be the version of her that exists in his Fluctlight, and in turn is more benevolent than she actually was, what's hinted to be her actual spirit appears to cheer Kirito on when he fights Gabriel.]]
* DemiurgeArchetype: Her backstory paints her as one, though overlapping with SatanicArchetype. She rebelled against the Underworld's version of God in order to become one herself, setting herself up as one gifted by the gods before constructing a false faith in her own name, eventually succeeded in her goals, and ruled by her specially-prepared laws [[spoiler:and her Integrity Knights]].
* DirtyCoward: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zigzagged]]. Despite being more competent and attractive than Sugou, she's very rotten to the core and the reason why she's a ControlFreak in the first place is because [[spoiler:she fears losing power and influence to the people of UW.]] That being said, she's certainly willing to fight herself.
* DidntSeeThatComing:
** Her biggest undoing is failing to anticipate that Kirito and Eugeo's swords are not made from metal, which she has not made herself impervious to.
** [[spoiler:Nor Chudelkin barely surviving his injuries and ruining her getaway, killing her in the process.]]
** [[spoiler:She also got one in the Gameverse, [[OhCrap when she realized]] that the blade that Kirito wielded (which originally belonged to Medina and the blade was fused with her Fluctlight) is revealed to be a divine object made out of an actual human's flesh and blood, meaning it had the capability to use Armament Full Control as well. Plus, since it's revealed that Medina's bloodline is actually the [[LivingMacguffin the key to create the gate to the real world]] the blade had a [[RealityWarper reality bending power]] as well, which ultimately led to her downfall.]]
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Surprisingly PlayedForLaughs in the ''If You Were Here'' timeline. After Kirito reveals that he knows about the Synthesis Ritual and tries arguing for why she shouldn't perform it on him and Eugeo by noting how tedious the process of doing the ritual then [[LaserGuidedAmnesia mind wiping]] the people they interacted with would be, she ends up ''whining'' about how much of a "[[PrecisionFStrike pain in the ass]]" the whole thing is and admits that the only reason she still does it is because she's done it so many times with the same "Summoned from the Celestial Realm" story that revealing the truth to her Knights would effectively screw her over.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Serves as the BigBad of the first half of ''Alicization'' before Gabriel takes over.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[spoiler:Her forced synthesis of Eugeo looks ''very'' suspiciously like she's seducing him... [[http://swordartonline.wikia.com/wiki/File:Vol_13_-_197.png or past that point already]] and gone to full-on sex.]]
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted. It's heavily implied she [[spoiler:molested Eugeo]], which is depicted as horrific and it clearly isn't supposed to be [[BlackComedyRape funny]].
* DoWrongRight: In "Memories of Bygone Days: Alice", one of her issues with Rath trying to use two different "natural" disasters to kill off some Fluctlights and possibly spur the survivors into fighting for food is that she saw it as "uninspired".
* DracoInLeatherPants: InUniverse: [[spoiler:After he dies, Bercouli happens to meet Quinella's ghost, or more accurately the version of her that existed in his Fluctlight before he learned of her true nature and as a result is a much kinder and warmer individual to reflect how he saw her beforehand, with the two of them treating each other like old friends as they pass on.]]
* DragonRider: Like her Integrity Knights, Quinella has a personal riding dragon who she has dubbed Yukiori and is apparently the oldest and strongest of the dragons the Knights use. Like its master, it appears to spend most of it's time asleep.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:After fusing with Cardinal, the sub-process within it deemed Quinella "an error" due to her intentional direct manipulation of the UW residents and, in times of emotional distress, took control of her with the intent of making her kill herself. After several failed attempts due to Quinella taking back control at the last second, she only stopped this by forcibly sealing her emotions away.]]
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: While already quite corrupt, Quinella becomes increasingly vile the more power she attains. [[spoiler:''Rising Steel'' implies that while she started as an earnest and sweet girl despite being Nobility, being given a Calling dedicated to advancing the Sacred Arts and making great deals of progress, being able to weaponize it and make weather predictions, followed by her village believing her to be a goddess as a result, was her StartOfDarkness.]]
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Her first scene has her waking up in bed while completely nude, showing that she has no problem showing off her sexuality.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
** In her own warped, twisted way, she did seem to care about the Underworld as the world she created. [[spoiler: This could be why her spirit appears to support Kirito during his fight against Subtilizer, seeing as the [[OmnicidalManiac latter plans to destroy the Underworld.]]]]
** The Cake timeline also depicts her as close with Yukiori, her own personal riding dragon, with Kirito even describing her as looking like a normal girl when seeing her interact with them.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even she is sick of Chudelkin's shenanigans and often tells him off when he's being rude to the Integrity Knights or going over the top in smothering her with praise. It's a wonder why she even keeps him around.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Quinella has no understanding of what love really is. To her, love is just desire, something that can be acquired through an exchange, and a means of controlling people.
* EvilCounterpart: To Alice. Like Quinella, Alice was very talented in the Sacred Arts. One of Alice's most well-known abilities was to predict a storm one week in advance at a rather young age, while Quinella was also able to predict the weather in advance, though only 3 days in advance. A notable difference between the two is that Quinella was born in a noble family in the capital, while Alice was born in a family of villagers in one of the most remote villages in the Human Empire. It's implied Alice might have walked down a similar path to Quinella had Eugeo and Kirito not been in her life from near the start.
* EvilGenius: Quinella is an esteemed prodigy and the greatest Sacred Arts user seen in the Underworld. She managed to invent many rituals herself, as well as discovering every System Command in that existed in the Underworld.
* EvilIsPetty: Brainwashing and forcing immortality on skilled swordsmen and criminals so that they can enforce her control is one thing, but learning she did the same to some seemingly random girl with a knack for Wind Sacred Arts just so she can have someone to ''[[MundaneUtility operate an elevator]]'' is where you truly realize how low her opinion of the Underworld's residents is.
* EvilLaugh: While she usually remains calm and composed, when she really gets in the moment then she can let off some unhinged cackles.
* EvilVersusOblivion: The Anime hints that this [[spoiler: is why her ghost supports Kirito during his fight with Gabriel, since she, [[ControlFreak for]] [[ManipulativeBitch all]] [[MindRape her]] [[LackOfEmpathy faults]], [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes did care for the Underworld in her own twisted way]], whereas [[OmnicidalManiac Gabriel]] was planning to destroy it and turn it into his personal world where he's God and can manipulate the souls he sees fit.]]
* ExactWords:
** [[spoiler:When Chudelkin requests that he have a night with access to her body in exchange for taking out the rebels, she agrees and swears to Stacia. The thing is, not only does she not believe in Stacia, but she's the one who made her up to begin with, meaning she effectively gave him an empty promise.]]
** The reason she gives for putting Renly into stasis is that he was "defective". While his trauma-induced inability to fight could be what she meant, and is likely what Renly thought she meant, ''Rising Steel'' gives these words another potential meaning; When Renly was synthesized, Quinella was shocked when he asked if there was supposed to be someone with him, referring to his BestFriend who he promised to become an Integrity Knight alongside only [[AccidentalMurder to accidentally kill him during the Four Empires Unity Tournament]]. This tipped her off to the possibility that his memories weren't completely blocked and that the Synthesis Ritual has some issues she needs to fix, giving her reason to Deep Freeze him in case he [[HeKnowsTooMuch remembered everything on his own and blabbed to the other Knights]], with his inability to master the Twin-Edged Wings being a convenient excuse.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:In the anime, [[VillainousBreakdown despite her horror at realizing she's going to die]], she calms down when she sees a vision of the empire and world she always sought to build and manages to find peace with it before exploding, while [[GoOutWithASmile smiling]], no less.]]
* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: Quinella has an angelic theme to her design. Her light purples and whites give off a generally non-threatening look, and at a glance, one would be forgiven for thinking she were a heroine rather than a villain. Quinella is perfectly aware of her "innocent" appearance, and uses it to mask her true nature as she manipulates others.
* FailedASpotCheck: [[spoiler:Had she bothered to check and make sure Chudelkin was actually dead (by nature of DisappearsIntoLight, like Cardinal), he wouldn't have been alive to ruin her getaway attempt and kill her.]]
* FanDisservice: Sure, she has [[MsFanservice an extremely attractive body]] ([[ShamelessFanserviceGirl that she has no qualms about showing off]]), but the way she smoothly seduces Eugeo (along with some of her other seductress-esque behaviors) is rather uncomfortable to watch. [[spoiler: Then there's her losing both her arms and getting a TorsoWithAView after [[FullFrontalAssault dueling Kirito in the buff]], with visible cracks all over her body.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: She maintains an air of formality towards her enemies, despite seeing everyone as nothing but fodder for turning into sword golems. When [[spoiler:turning Eugeo into an Integrity Knight]], she showers him with false affection in order to make him remove his core protection. She only drops the facade when encountering setbacks such as [[spoiler:Cardinal fusing Eugeo with his sword]] or Kirito cutting her remaining arm off.
* FinalExamBoss: With her access to the system as Administrator, Quinella knows every fighting style and system call art in the Underworld and how to exploit them, as well as copying the Aincrad Style from [[spoiler: Eugeo's memories]]. It takes [[spoiler: Eugeo's HeroicSacrifice to give Kirito a second sword for his signature dual-wielding style and a HeroicSecondWind]] to even the odds, and even ''then'' she still gives him a solid challenge with only a single arm.
* {{Foil}}: To Sugou, being a more competent DistaffCounterpart to him. Parallels can be seen in that they are both raised as privileged people who grew to be corrupt and made and declared themselves the [[AGodAmI gods of a world]]. They both also perform [[MadScientist awful experiments on innocents]] and have very twisted understanding of love. Kirito also calls both of them out for being false rulers with a GodGuise. However their difference lie in that Sugou is an AbhorrentAdmirer who feels [[EntitledToHaveYou entitled to have Asuna]], while Quinella loves no one but herself and only wishes for everyone to server her. In addition while both perform [[MindRape experiments on victims' minds]], Sugou states he does not want to tamper with Asuna's mind except as a final resort due to wanting to turn her into a doll, while Quinella effectively made all of her Integrity Knights into her dolls and outright refers to them as that.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler:Once, she was a simple resident (a noble, yes, but still something not too impressive in the grand scheme of things) of UW that discovered several key facts about the world, such as how to perform offensive commands and that killing things would increase her stats. Developing these powers further throughout her life, she eventually discovered how to raise her Authority to the level of Cardinal itself on her deathbed, making herself a PhysicalGod in the process. [[AmbitionIsEvil Not content with sharing power]], however, she tried to steal Cardinal's powers for herself but only succeeding in [[FusionDance fusing with it]] to gain its functions of regulating the world, but even then she went [[ControlFreak much further than Cardinal intended]].]]
* FullFrontalAssault: She has no problems fighting without any clothes on, as Kirito and Alice found out.
* GainingTheWillToKill: In her backstory [[spoiler:she was among the first residents to realize that she could create offensive commands for the purpose of fighting and killing other things...and then realizing that doing so made her stronger with each kill...]]
* {{Gaslighting}}: [[spoiler:She twists Eugeo's perception of his feelings and even his own memories to make him believe he's a lonely and forsaken individual that only she herself could "save". She also wipes her Integrity Knights' memories after a century or so to make them forget grievances.]]
* AGodAmI: After attaining the powers of the Cardinal System, she declares herself the Administrator of Underworld, which Cardinal considers the most arrogant name possible.
* GodivaHair: The only thing hiding her lady bits whenever she's naked is her long hair, along with some rare [[SceneryCensor strategic object placement]].
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:In the anime, just as she's dying, she sees one last vision of the empire she once controlled, looking at it with pride before she's gone for good.]]
* GratuitousEnglish: Being well versed in System Commands and their meanings, she often spouts English words midspeech.
* HandicappedBadass: [[spoiler:Despite losing an arm, she still has sword skills from both the Underworld and Aincrad, allowing her to overwhelm Kirito until he dual wields his own sword and Eugeo's.]]
* HeavySleeper: She spends the majority of her days in her chambers asleep. Justified, as it allows her to preserve as much memory space in her Fluctlight (and by extension, her lifespan) as possible.
* HeroKiller:
** [[spoiler:Not only did she turn Eugeo into her lackey, but she also killed him. One might also consider Charlotte's death given how it was her Golem, or Cardinal, since she fried her with energy blasts, before the latter used the last of her strength to empower Eugeo before his eventual demise.]]
** [[spoiler:In ''Lycoris'' she killed Medina instead, though in reality this was part of Medina's BatmanGambit to kill Quinella, so Quinella unknowingly [[HoistByHerOwnPetard doomed herself instead]]]].
* HeyYou: She always calls Kirito "boy," as a reference to his coming from another world.
* HumanShield: [[spoiler:Quinella's Sword Golems are not only effective killing machines which [[TheJuggernaut never stop fighting for all eternity]], driven by the emotion of love that got twisted into blind instinct, but the fact that they were once humans means that Cardinal cannot bring herself to attack them.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** "Memories of Bygone Days: Alice", she's quick to realise that Rath caused the recent volcanic eruption and storm to spur the Fluctlights there into breaking the Taboo Index, and bemoans their cruelty after fixing the issue herself. While [[HypocriteHasAPoint not wrong of her assessment of Rath]], she has little room to call them out seeing as she sees every other Artifical Fluctlight as little more than dolls or bugs for her to toy with, and is not above subjecting them to experiments for her own research endeavours.
* IdenticalStranger: Even though it is never stated in-universe, Quinella resembles Asuna Yuuki.
* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Played with. She actually did age normally all the way to the end of her natural lifespan, but she was able to restore her youth just in time and then granted herself immortality, forever preserving her with the appearance of a twenty something woman.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Stabbed in the heart by Kirito during their duel - which lands a critical blow. [[NotQuiteDead It doesn't kill her though]], since she had a sliver of health left - enough to make a last-ditch escape attempt.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: [[spoiler:After ''Silvery Eternity'' was destroyed and her right arm was severed, she decides to transform her arm into both a rapier, and later, a katana, in order to fight Kirito.]]
* InsistentTerminology: {{Implied}}. She's not shown to have any real issues with her old name, but she goes by "Administrator" in the present and appears annoyed when Kirito calls her Quinella instead.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Attempted to [[spoiler:steal Cardinal's Authority and/or destroy it simply because she couldn't stand the idea of another having equal Authority as her over UW. It did become ''slightly'' more justified when revealed that Cardinal tried at multiple points to make her kill herself after their [[FusionDance fusion]]... but only because Quinella by that point had already started [[ControlFreak directly interfering with the lives of UW residents, something she wasn't supposed to do at all]].]]
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:After arrogantly promising to grant Chudelkin's wish to touch her body if he disposed of the rebels, with no intention of keeping her word. Guess who ends up killing her? Chudelkin using [[NotQuiteDead his last breath]] to Incarnate the remains of his broken body into a fiery swarm and launches himself at Quinella so he can finally get the reward she longed for, with Quinella both horrified and disgusted at the repulsive clown touching her body.]]
* KickTheDog:
** Her turning the Elevator Operator into what she is, an immortal EmotionlessGirl forced to recite Wind Sacred Arts all day with very few breaks to the point that she's forgotten her own name, is seen as this by Kirito and Eugeo and as a sign of how she views the people she rules over. [[spoiler: And that's before she introduces the Sword Golem...]]
** [[spoiler:She plays a major part in causing Kirito's GameBreakingInjury and BreakTheCutie phase for the next three books by cleaving Eugeo in half.]]
** [[spoiler:She's also utterly contemptuous of Chudelkin even after he "dies" fighting for her. Alice, despite being fairly cold, is quite appalled at how callous Quinella is over the death of one of her servants. Although considering Chudelkin's general behaviour, this comes off more as KickTheSonOfABitch]].
** She also taunts Alice over how painful the process of forcibly turning her into an Integrity Knight must have been.
** In a flashback, she contemptuously dismisses the traumatized Renly as "broken" before sealing him away.
** In the Gameverse, her labelling the Orthinanos family as "defects", knowing that the weight of her words would make them pariahs among the nobility and subject it's descendants to horrendous abuse from other nobles.
** In "Memories of Bygone Days: Alice", she immediately refuses Alice's plea to help a Southacroith village when it comes under attack by monsters after suffering the aftereffects of a volcanic eruption and getting hit by a powerful storm. And while she does fix it in the end by putting a stop to both of the latter two, she only does so as in a move of spite towards Rath, who she realized caused both the eruption and the storm to force the residents to do their whims.
* KillItWithFire: Not only does she possess fire spells, [[spoiler: but Chudelkin setting her on fire is what does her in, and ''by accident'', no less.]]
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: [[spoiler:Quinella created loyal followers that came to be known as her Integrity Knights, who have]] their memories sealed off [[spoiler:and will unquestioningly carry out her bidding.]]
* {{Leitmotif}}: Has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nu-0D8gPbk a theme]] consisting of a choir's ominous chanting.
* LightIsNotGood: She has long white hair and wears a white gown, and she's the Underworld's SatanicArchetype.
* LightDarknessJuxtaposition: She tends to dress in lavender/white and is otherwise associated with bright colors, while Kirito continues his DarkIsNotEvil theme, especially prominent when he uses Incarnation to manifest his Black Swordsman attire from SAO.
* ManipulativeBitch:
** [[spoiler:She manipulated Eugeo into removing his Core Protection to turn him into a Integrity Knight, using {{Gaslighting}} and praying on his [[IJustWantToBeLoved loveless background and skewed idea of it]].]]
** In Scheta's segment of "The Knight's Recollection", she spends the entire event grooming Scheta to be a powerful attack dog for her to use. Tempting her with "a sword that can cut through anything", she actively encourages her obsession with cutting and lies, [[AccidentalTruth or so she thinks]], that her continuing on her path would find her a way out of it to motivate her. She then goes as far as to manipulating another Knight into duelling Scheta, likely knowing he'd be killed, just to test the Black Lily Sword's capabilities.
* MasterSwordswoman: [[spoiler:Despite losing an arm, she proves skilled enough to keep pace with Kirito while he's DualWielding against her, even managing to take one of his arms at the cost of her remaining one.]]
* MySkullRunnethOver: After ruling for seventy years as an Immortal Ruler, Quinella discovered that her [=FluctLight=] had reached its limit of stored memories, [[spoiler:so the solution she came up with was overwrite a child's [=FluctLight=] with her own memories and [=FluctLight=] using the Synthesis Ritual. Though this would be her undoing as she ended up giving this girl [[PhysicalGod power equal to her own]] and she would end up becoming Cardinal.]]
* MoralMyopia: When asked why she would go the atrocious deeds of enslaving the souls of innocent people to become her Integrity Knights and not even being able to entrust them, she argues that her Piety Modules she implanted in her knights were out of an act of love which she reserved only for them, as it freed them from worry and pain and making them beautiful dolls who didn't need to think. In Quinella's eyes all her actions are just and she has done nothing wrong.
* MsFanservice: Has been regularly referred to as beautiful, voluptuous, and her clothing doesn't try to hide much of her figure, [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl if she's even wearing any]]. Not to mention how she [[spoiler:seduced Eugeo and fought against Kirito and Alice in the nude.]]
** In ''Rising Steel'', most of her Limit Break art has her naked in some way, [Sweet Trap] having her laying seductively in her bed, [The World I Should Love] having her [[FullFrontalAssault fighting nude]], [Eternal Beauty] [[BathingBeauty showing her in the bath]], and [Whimsical Rhapsody], which has her sitting seductively in an ornate sofa. The only exception thus far is [The Glow in Your Hands] Administrator, and even then she's the first Administrator unit to [[FullFrontalAssault enter battle]] and appear on the homescreen in the buff. She only avoids the nudity on all sides as [Memories in the Snowy Skies] Quinella, instead wearing a SexySantaDress.
* MysticalWhiteHair: Fitting for one who considers herself the goddess of UW and [[PhysicalGod has the power to back it up]].
* {{Narcissist}}: Quinella believes that as the elegant "goddess" of UW, everyone should kneel before her.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Quinella's attempt to amend her [[MySkullRunnethOver overflowing memory]] by imprinting to another [=FluctLight=] was what allowed Cardinal to split off from her and seize control of another individual, the little girl who would come to be known as Cardinal and resist her.]]
* NoSell: She made her skin as hard as iron and therefore impervious to any metal weapon. This is why Eugeo's dagger failed even with the element of surprise. [[spoiler:There's a ''heavy emphasis'' on the weapon being ''metal'' however - Eugeo and Kirito's swords bypass this drawback by being '''made''' of ice and wood, respectively - even ''Divine Objects'' are transmuted by Quinella herself into metal weapons in an attempt to counter this loophole.]]
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: While she claims that turning half the Underworld (including her Knights) into sword golems is for their own safety, it's clear by her actions that she's nothing but a narcissistic ControlFreak who's no better than any of the other psychopaths Kirito has faced, like Sugou or Laughing Coffin. In fact, [[StupidEvil Quinella's refusal to allow the existence of any military force that she can't control has doomed the realm of humanity]], and this realization helps Kirito win Alice over to his side.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: She's almost exclusively referred to as "The Pontifex" or "Administrator" rather than Quinella. She's somewhat amused when Kirito calls her by her name.
* PetTheDog: A few examples, though [[ControlFreak all things]] [[TheSociopath considered]], they could all just be PragmaticVillainy.
** In "Homeside Waterfront", Alice states that she got a valuable catalyst from her to use to heal Amayori's seemingly unhealable wound.
** In "Memories of Bygone Days: Bercouli", while baffled at first, she takes Bercouli's request to make a giant bathhouse rather seriously.
* PhysicalGoddess: She imbued her [=FluctLight=] with the Cardinal sub-processor, which was essentially the god of the Underworld, and hence amassed its unlimited power.
* PlayingWithFire: Ranked up by killing foxes with fire arrows, and can shoot fire from her fingertips without having to recite anything.
* PosthumanNudism: Discards her entire dress after attaining godhood by implanting the administrative abilities inside her [=FluctLight=].
* PragmaticVillainy: Her outlawing of things like murder and entering the Dark Territory where there's monsters is done less for the sake of morals and protecting her people, and more to ensure that no one can do what she did to increase her Object Control Authority and System Authority growing up, ensuring her place as the most powerful being in the Underworld.
* PrehensileHair: [[spoiler:After losing both her arms, she resorts to turning her hair into needles. She also attempts to use a console by using her hair as fingers, or as razor-sharp blades and CombatTentacles in a last ditch-attempt to kill Kirito with in their duel.]]
* PromotedToPlayable: She is a playable character in several mobile games, and currently has the most playable appearances out of all the antagonists.
** In ''Memory Defrag'', she's first introduced as [Seductress] Administrator as part of the ''Sleeping Art Online'' April Fools Event, where she serves as the BigBad. Later on, she gains two more Units called [Coneqeror of Love] and [High Pontifex].
** Has her most playable appearances ''Rising Steel''.
*** [Sweet Trap] Administrator, featured in the "Gift from the High Pontifex" banner and her first playable Unit; a [[LightIsNotGood Light-Elemental]] Break Unit with a unique skillset that allows her to gain more Charge or inflict more Break when her foes are afflicted with Continuous Damage.
*** [The World I Should Love] Administrator, featured in the "Fearless Resistance" banner; a [[PlayingWithFire Fire-Elemental]] Charge Unit with an [[SuperMode Enhance Mode]] that has her do a FullFrontalAssault, while her Charge deals Continious Damage while her Assault deals added damage to enemies afflicted with it.
*** [Eternal Beauty] Administrator, featured in the "Eternal Beauty" banner; a magic wielding [[BlowYouAway Wind-Element]] Charge Unit with an [[SuperMode Enhance Mode]] whose playstyle focuses on increasing the Recollection Field to deal more damage.
*** [Whimsical Rhapsody] Administrator, featured in the "1.5 Anniversary - Part 3" banner; a Non-Element Charge Unit who's the closest to a SupportPartyMember, possessing a Charge Move that increases the party's critical damage while debuffing the enemies Incarnate Break, an Assault Skill that increases the party's attack, and a heal move that increases the party's physical resistance while adding a bar to the Recollection field.
*** [The Glow In Your Hands] Administrator, featured in the "Memories of Bygone Days Part 2" banner; another [[PlayingWithFire Fire-Element]] Charge Unit, though with a different skillset. This version of her puts a good deal of emphasis on increasing Charge, her Charge attack creating more when the Recollection field is three or higher, her first Assault Skill increasing her personal charge by x1.3 for one turn, and her Incarnate Skill creates a Recollection Field that, while active, increases the party's Charge when Incarnate is 40% or lower. And to round things up, her second Assault Skill deals Continuous Damage and adds 1 to the recollection field.
*** [Memories in the Snowy Skies] Administrator, featured as part of the Christmas-themed scout of the same name; an Earth-element Break Unit who can recover her own HP with her Break Skill, DrawAggro with her Assault Skill, and can buff herself to increase her ATK to up to 30% and her Physical Resistance to up to 50%, as well enabling herself to CounterAttack whenever she's hit.
* ProperlyParanoid: Her decision to [[NoSell make herself immune to metal]] and make it so ''every'' Divine Object she makes or bequeaths to her Knights are made of metal proves to be this when Eugeo's attempt to use Cardinal's Dagger on her fails, as it would have teleported her to Cardinal's domain and given the latter a homefield advantage against her. [[spoiler:She's further vindicated when she fights Kirito, with him being able to defeat her due to both the Night Sky Sword and Blue Rose Sword not being able of metal, instead being wood and ice respectively.]]
* PurpleIsPowerful: Her white outfit and hair has light purple shades in them, along with her eyes, and she's certainly [[PhysicalGod powerful]] as the Administrator of Underworld.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[ImpliedTrope Heavily implied]] to have [[spoiler:molested Eugeo in the process of turning him into an Integrity Knight, with the scene in which she brainwashes him being [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything filled with innuendo]]]].
* RealityWarper: [[spoiler:Possessing Cardinal's Authority gives her the ability to use very high-level System Commands that virtually allow her to shape the reality of UW to her will.]]
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: She's 363 years old and retains her youthful appearance, both of which are made possible only after meddling with the Cardinal system in an attempt to control it.
* {{Sadist}}: Despite freezing most of her emotions, she still takes pleasure in [[spoiler:killing Cardinal slowly]] and states that she wants to see Kirito's despair.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She acts like one in regards to the Knights, often overlooking any rudeness, such as when they're initially summoned and Eydis' informal behaviour, and granting certain requests, such as Linel and Fizel's desire to become Integrity Knights after freeing them from her Ressurection experiment. This is in contrast to Chudelkin, who endlessly picks on them over anything he can find and often gets angry when they do something that could be seen as disrespectful to himself or Quinella.
** [[spoiler: In "Memories of the Abyss", she further cultivates this image by letting Eydis off the hook after she lost control of her Divine Object and attacked Bercouli, knowing fully well of the possibility of that happening.]]
* SanitySlippage: It's really subtle but in ''Lycoris'' [[spoiler: after her first death, she absolutely lose herself when Kirito managed to kill her and when she got resurrected she'll do anything to screw him and the others, along with the entirety of the Underworld, on their attempt to kill her again, especially Kirito whom she despise so much that she willingly bring down the entire Underworld just to kill him. This get worse when Kirito finally defeated her for the second time and by the third and the final time Kirito fought her, she's reduced to LaughingMad from combination of her defeat, her continuous resurrection and [[ImpliedTrope perhaps]] from wielding the power of the Main Visualizer (since the power give her an omnipresence, meaning she knew about everything in Underworld but it's heavily implied wielding such a great power is to much for her soul).]]
* RoyalRapier: ''Silvery Eternity'', her rapier, signifying her prestige and authority as the Ruler of the Underworld with its pimped-out design. [[spoiler:It ends up a WreckedWeapon during her fight with Kirito when Eugeo decides to intervene.]]
%% * SatanicArchetype
* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: After attaining godhood by imprinting Cardinal's system administrator abilities onto her [=FluctLight=], she decided she was above simple things such as clothes, discarding her garments and often staying fully nude. WordOfGod says that she doesn't feel shame about being nude because she's realized she's in a simulation. Even her body isn't truly real, so what's the point of caring?
* SinisterMinister: She fancies herself as Axiom's high minister and rules UW with an iron fist.
* SinisterNudity: Combined with PosthumanNudism; Quinella dispels her dress during her villainous apotheosis and remains nude throughout the final battle except for some GodivaHair. [[spoiler: After Kirito chops off both her arms, she tries to strangle him to death with said hair, by the way.]]
* SleepsInTheNude: She's introduced to the audience [[NakedOnArrival sleeping naked in her luxurious bed]].
* SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat: A huge jump from all of her predecessors in both power and threat. While previous SAO villains did make Kirito struggle, he could typically take them down on his own with limited assistance from the respective ArcHero. Quinella however is godlike and initially towered over Kirito, whereby it took several [[spoiler:sacrifices from his friends to wear her down before the playing field had been leveled for Kirito to match her]]. Also unlike the other villains who restricted their crimes to game communities, she has ruled over a human empire for centuries. [[spoiler: Not only is she the first villain since Kayaba [[AnArmAndALeg to land a significant physical blow]] to Kirito, she's also the one to severely damage Kirito's mental health, to the point where he becomes comatose and depressed (thanks to killing his friends), something that no other villain has come close to. Even to this day, her killing of Eugeo still haunts him, and that's ''after'' he defeated the next, more [[InvincibleVillain invincible villain]] - Gabriel Miller.]]
* TheSociopath: She never cares for the welfare of the UW people because [[ItsAllAboutMe it's all about her in her head]]. {{Justified|Trope}} [[spoiler:in that she had to seal her emotions to prevent [[FightingFromTheInside Cardinal]] from [[DrivenToSuicide making her kill herself]] during times of emotional distress... but also double-subverted in that Quinella had already begun her experiments into manipulating the UW residents by this time, so she already was a psychopath, she just made herself worse]]. She feels no remorse for the trouble she's caused and even convinces her victims that she's helping them by twisting their feelings and memories.
* StatuesqueStunner: Towers over the other female characters, being even taller than Kirito despite being the same biological age as him appearance-wise.
* StrongAndSkilled: While she could be mistaken for UnskilledButStrong at first with her over-reliance on her godlike Administrator powers and mastery of the Sacred Arts, she is revealed to be as well versed in sword combat as Kirito himself. Even having worn her down with weapons that can harm her, she still spends a fair share of the fight thrashing Kirito by showcasing her knowledge of Sword Skills. After all, she did fuse with the Cardinal System and knows of the ''entire command list'', so it's not like she couldn't gain the knowledge one way or another, either by peering through Eugeo's memories, or by having the Cardinal system record the data every time Kirito or Eugeo swung their swords.
* StupidEvil: Quinella's ControlFreak tendencies bite her in the ass when it's revealed that humanity is doomed because she refuses to allow the existence of any military force that isn't under her complete control. This realization is what convinces Alice to turn on her in favor of Kirito. [[spoiler: {{Subverted}} in that she ''did'' have a plan. It just involved a lot HumanSacrifice to create robotic soldiers made of swords, which is arguably even worse.]]
* SuperToughness: She's made herself ''immune'' to iron and all forms of metal, which is what most weapons in the world are made from. This is why Kirito and Eugeo's swords, which aren't made of metal, are able to hurt her.
* SweetTooth: In the Cake Timeline, being able to eat the new, exotic cakes Kirito replicates in the Underworld is the reason she's considering [[HeelFaceTurn working together with]] [[ArchEnemy Cardinal]] [[HeelFaceTurn to properly protect the Underworld from invasion]].
* TermsOfEndangerment: She uses the affectionate "-chan" honorific on Alice, even after it's become clear that Alice is now her enemy. She also occasionally calls Cardinal "Lyserith-chan."
* TooPowerfulToLive: [[spoiler:Notably Quinella is the first villain who was not allowed to remain alive after her defeat[[note]]Kayaba [[SelfDisposingVillain chose to take his own life]][[/note]], albeit not by Kirito's hand. Had she succeeded in escaping to the real world, she would have been able to cause all sorts of chaos.]]
* TorsoWithAView: [[spoiler:After Kirito impales her in the heart, what's left behind in the impact spot is a large hole in the center of her chest.]]
* UsedToBeASweetKid: In an original story in ''Rising Steel'', we learn that before she received her Calling as a Sacred Arts researcher, Quinella came off as [[SpoiledSweet a kind girl who wanted to receive a calling so she could benefit her village in spite of her Noble Status]], a far cry from the [[{{Sadist}} Sadistic]] ControlFreak we meet in the present.
* TheVamp: Seduces Eugeo with the promise of fulfilling his desire to be loved, even stripping off all her clothes in front of him.
* VillainExitStageLeft: [[spoiler:After Kirito deals her a lethal wound she attempts to escape to the real world in a robotic body. It would have worked if [[SpannerInTheWorks Chudelkin]] had not been still alive.]]
* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler:When Kirito calls Quinella out on all the atrocities she committed of controlling her world, Quinella counter-argues that he's from a world of people who did the same thing by creating a world for their own purposes. So what right does a boy from such a world have to judge her?]]
* VillainousFriendship: PlayedWith. Despite him being more of a HeroAntagonist than genuinely evil, she seemed to have a friendly relationship with Bercouli, the two of them apparently drinking win together in her quarters often and her even opening up to him about her [[TheParanoiac paranoiac]] tendencies that prompted her ControlFreak nature. Of course, [[TheSociopath knowing her]], she may have just been faking it.
* VillainousBreakdown: She loses her cool when Eugeo [[spoiler:fuses with his sword, enabling him to destroy her Sword Golem and cut off her arm - or when Kirito later impales her through the heart later on. While she could easily shrug it off the first two times (on account of having said arm transformed into a second sword, and an escape route into the real world), what really seals the deal is the panic on her face when Chudelkin unexpectedly shows up and sets her on fire, which thwarts her escape and eventually kills her, though she manages to [[GoOutWithASmile regain control before her death]].]]
** Her breakdown is even more profounded in ''Lycoris'', after Kirito manage to break her rapier with [[spoiler:,the currently fused Eugeo, Blue Rose Sword]] and Kirito used the Night Sky Blade to kill her, she let out a shrill SkywardScream and she died with a face full of agony and hatred toward the man who killed her. [[spoiler: Let just say when she get resurrected, she'll absolutely do anything to kill him and his friends to the point cutting of the Underworld communication with the real world '''AND''' bringing down the entire Underworld just to kill him simply out of spite. Pretty much showing how much [[SanitySlippage she had lose herself]] by the time of the final act had began.]]
* VillainTakesAnInterest: She's done this with a few of her Knights.
** She apparently took a quick interest in Eydis after Synthesizing her, with her promising to give Eydis a dragon after her first mission, the earliest any Knight at the time has got theirs, and surprising Bercouli by expressing a desire to grant her a Divine Object upon her return, sending her to grab the material for it after only her second mission, curious as to whether she's maintain control of the sword's memories or lose her mind in the process. She also took notes from the experience so she could refine the Synthesis ritual.
** Upon Scheta's recruitment, she approached her and proceeded to tempt her with a sword that could cut through anything, and then [[ManipulativeBitch encourages]] her cutting obsession after she made it and granted it to her. She's disappointed however when Scheta requested to be put into Deep Freeze after she accidentally killed a fellow Knight in a duel, whom she offered to give a Divine Object to should he best her in a duel, pondering if she screwed up the Synthesis ritual or made the Black Lily Sword too sharp.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler: Even after her death, her reputation as a benevolent ruler is maintained due to the unrest that would be caused by her true nature going public. Kirito actually fears that the people learning of her death at his hands would ruin his own UniversallyBelovedLeader status as the Star King and head of the Human Unification Council.]]
* WeCanRuleTogether: She offers this to all three of the Rulid trio.
** She first gives it to Eugeo offering him the love which he has desired all his life, to which he ''very nearly'' submits after being broken by her MindRape. Eugeo gets voluntarily subjected to Synthesis and Synthesised into an Integrity Knight, but eventually breaks free and tries to incapacitate Quinella himself with a special dagger created by Cardinal. Upon his betrayal being discovered, Quinella offers him a last chance to pledge his loyalty and destroying Cardinal's dagger. Eugeo of course refuses having finally come to understand what love is.
** After she sees Alice has broken the Seal of the Right Eye by her own volition, she offers to re-Synthesise Alice so she would no longer feel pain or emotion. Alice angrily rejects this proposal, citing the pain allowed her to realize she was human and not a doll-like Integrity Knight.
** She even gives this offer to Kirito, stating she'd spare his life if he went into her servitude as her secretary. Kirito of course pays no heed and continues fighting.
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: Inverted. Quinella actually constantly preaches love and that she gives it to her loyal followers, but the twist is that she does not truly understand what love is, using it as a placeholder word for 'desire' or 'control'.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: [[spoiler: After her first death in ''Lycoris'', Quinella attempt to resurrect herself cause her consciousness to stuck within the Main Visualizer, in which she manage to get an omnipresence ability, but it turns out that gaining omnipresence proves to be to much for her mind to handle that she winds up losing what last bit of her sanity and reasonable thinking, to the point she pretty much decide to preserve herself just because that was the only thing she can do with, which signing Quinella complete fall from grace to the point the entire Rulid trio simply pities her when they realize how pathetic and desperate she had became by the final battle, [[DontYouDarePityMe something she takes complete offense at]]. In the end after her defeat, Quinella manage to regain her sanity back as she died and realize how free she felt when the omnipresence ability is finally gone from her.]]
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Stated to be this by a couple of characters, including Eugeo and Kirito. Even before becoming a PhysicalGod, she was seen as one of the great beauties of the Underworld, which likely helped her convince people of her divinity.
* WouldHurtAChild: As Linel and Fizel can attest to, she has no problem harming children or using them in her Sacred Art experiments. In fact, in the one the aforementioned girls were in, she gathered about thirty children and had them all kill each other so she could test out a Sacred Art to [[BackFromTheDead bring people back from the dead]], leading to large amounts of BodyHorror, and only stopped when only Linel and Fizel were left, coming out of it severely traumatized and as the CuteAndPsycho girls we now know.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Prime Senator Chudelkin]]
!!Prime Senator Chudelkin
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/WataruTakagi (Japanese), Creator/FrankTodaro (English), Roberto Gutiérrez (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/omake_screencap_sword_art_online_alicization_episode_21_chudelkin_patched_up.jpg]]
Leader of the Senators, a group dedicated to enforcing the Taboo Index.
----
* {{Acrofatic}}: Despite appearances, his main mode of transportation is to BeTheBall and he proves to be surprisingly nimble, constantly dancing and prancing about and is even able to do a headstand. [[spoiler: Possibly {{Subverted}} when it turns out he's [[NotHyperbole literally]] full of hot air.]]
* AmbiguouslyHuman: Given his drastically different NonStandardCharacterDesign, it really makes one wonder what his species is.
* BadBoss: Chudelkin is notorious for abusing the Integrity Knights; he rudely dismisses all of their concerns about the possibility of invasion by the Dark Territory, he insults them over the most trivial things, and is all too willing to Deep Freeze them if they displease him. [[UngratefulBastard This is despite the fact their existence alone is what prevents the Dark Territory from launching a full-scale invasion]].
* BerserkButton: ''Don't'' even think about calling him a lump of meat if you don't want [[OffWithHisHead your head torn off]].
* BeTheBall: His primary form of transport is to curl into a ball and bounce about the place.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He looks like a clown and seems relatively silly. But he's a {{sadist}}ic individual who's highly skilled with Sacred Arts, and so should not be underestimated.
* DirtyOldMonk:
** As the Prime Senator, Chudelkin is technically a member of the Axiom Church's clergy, yet he is an obsessive StalkerWithACrush towards Quinella, [[spoiler:even requesting that he get a night with free access to her body in exchange for killing the Rulid Trio]].
** In ''Rising Steel'', one of the Skits during the "Overflowing Eternal Affection" Scout, hints that he at least once entered the Great Baths during the girls times while Eydis was using her privacy to mock him.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He threatens to turn Eugeo into a horse the next time he fails to address Chudelkin with the "Kakka" honorific (roughly equivalent to "Your Excellency") after his "Prime Senator" title.
* TheDragon: He's the second-in-command to Quinella, and unlike the Integrity Knights, he is straight out evil and delights in committing atrocities for her.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: He only ever refers to Integrity Knights by their numbers rather than their names.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Has a very deep gravelly voice and is likely the most evil being in the Axion Church save for Quinella herself. The dub makes his voice deeper yet to the point it resembles ComicBook/TheJoker.
* EyeScream: While casting his most powerful Sacred Art that conjures a giant fire genie, he burns his own eyes out.
* EvilIsPetty: When he's briefly brought BackFromTheDead in ''Unleash Blading's'' second anniversary event, he forms an alliance with Sugou and Gabriel to crash Eydis' party since he wasn't invited.
* FatBastard: A pudgy fat man dressed like a clown who constantly mocks everyone around him.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He speaks with a formal and polite tone, yet has no issue with addressing others condescendingly.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Less friend and more acquaintance. While he is on the same side as the Integrity Knights and technically their boss, none of them like him given he [[BadBoss treats them like trash]]. Bercouli in fact outright despises him and when given the chance doesn't shy away from directly insulting him.
* GigglingVillain: He lets off a laugh of "Hoh-hoh-hoh!"
* GlassCannon: He is one of the most powerful Sacred Users of all time (and possibly the best other than Quinella and Cardinal). However he has nothing in the way of physical ability, and goes down very easily if he takes even a slight amount of damage.
* GreenEyedMonster: He is obsessed with Quinella and becomes aggressively jealous if she so much as even gives attention to anyone else.
* {{Gonk}}: He's a short, pudgy man with heavy makeup who doesn't look much like anyone on the Integrity Knights' side.
* HatedByAll: It soon becomes clear there is absolutely no one, hero or villain, that likes Chudelkin. The Integrity Knights all range from not caring about him to outright despising him. Even Quinella [[FauxAffablyEvil feigns politeness]] around him and is all too eager to cast him aside like trash when he's [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]]. In reality, she's also repulsed by him.
* InsistentTerminology: Always chastises anyone who doesn't refer to him by "Prime Senator".
* {{Irony}}: He, Quinella's most fervent follower, [[spoiler:is the one who kills her in the end.]]
* JerkassAtYourDiscretion: He's a very rude and abusive BadBoss who torments anyone in sight... until Quinella appears where he suddenly piles on praise and polite language. [[spoiler:The most disrespectful he ever gets is asking if she'll sleep with him if he disposes of Kirito, Eugeo and Alice, and even then he phrases it like a humble request]].
* {{Kevlard}}: Inverted; while he's [[FatBastard pudgy]], he can take little punishment.
* KickTheDog: He gleefully recounts how poorly Alice was treated, and how she despaired once her hopes of being able to return home were dashed before she ended up becoming an Integrity Knight, particularly how she begged not to forget the people who were most important to her.
* LightIsNotGood: Wears some white, and is a {{sadist}}ic PsychopathicManchild.
* ManipulativeBastard: Manipulated the Integrity Knights into fighting Kirito and Eugeo by putting them under the belief that they were invaders from Dark Territory.
* MisterBig: As the Prime Senator, he's the highest authority in the Central Cathedral save for Quinella herself. Yet he's diminutive and barely taller than a child. Also worth noting is he is a contender for the most powerful Sacred Arts user in the Human Empire, barring Quinella.
* MonsterClown: He dresses more like a jester than a clown, but otherwise he still gives off these vibes, and unlike the Integrity Knights he's unconditionally evil. Some of the characters even derogatorily refer to him as a clown.
* TheNapoleon: Chudelkin is a short, arrogant man who's quick to berate the Integrity Knights who work under him either out of [[GreenEyedMonster envy whenever Quinella treats them kindly]], [[EvilIsPetty for merely questioning him or underdoing the praise he feels her rightfully deserves]], or [[MeanBoss simply because he feels like it.]]
* NoIndoorVoice: He yells at the top of voice for often no reason at times, to anyone other than Quinella.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:It looked as though he had already met his end at the hands of Kirito, with Quinella even casting his lifeless body aside. But we later see he wasn't quite finished yet, and he uses presumably the last of his Durability to launch himself at Quinella's body to finally touch and be with her, much to her horror, whereby he burns the both of them out.]]
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Everything about him, all the way down to his clashing colors and the 8-bit sound effects, looks nothing like a ''Sword Art Online'' character and more like he belongs in a completely different franchise.
* NotBrainwashed: Alice speculates that Chudelkin may be a victim of Quinella just like the Integrity Knights. Whether or not this is true, what's made clear is Chudelkin had full knowledge of what Quinella was really doing and not only supported her but actively partook in the immoral activities himself.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: He may be small, but he's a very powerful Scared Arts user.
* PlayingWithFire: His most powerful Sacred Art involves summoning a gigantic fire genie.
* ThePowerOfLust: He's generally spends the arc as a DirtyCoward, but he's immediately motivated to fight when [[spoiler: Quinella offers him a night with access to her body if he kills the Rulid Trio, even summoning [[PlayingWithFire a giant, fiery version of himself.]]]]
* PsychopathicManchild: He's clearly an adult, but acts extremely immature; he throwing tantrums over the most trivial of things, dresses like a clown, and he giggles at the silliest of stuff. His private quarters is brightly colored room full of children's toys, like a child's bedroom. "Fearless Resistance" even shows him angrily bouncing up and down in response to Quinella requesting a late-night meeting with Bercouli so he can give his mission reports. However he is also AxCrazy and [[{{Sadist}} enjoys torture or ordering the execution of others]].
* {{Sadist}}: He enjoys executions and torture, which includes gleefully recounting the time he put Alice through the Forced Synthesis Ritual, claiming that he wish he could have [[TakenForGranite Deep Freezed her]] and used her to decorate his room solely for the pained expressions she made.
* SitcomArchNemesis: In ''Rising Steel'', while he seems to have beef with every Knight, he and Eydis simply cannot stand each other, with him always getting upset at her blatant lack of respect for him and laid back attitude.
* {{Slimeball}}: He rivals Sugou as the most detestable character in the whole series. Aside from the fact he's an evil MonsterClown, he's also smarmy, manipulative, and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betrays his own allies without a second thought after coming upon someone more useful]]. In stark contrast to Quinella who is seductively FauxAffablyEvil, he's downright [[BadBoss abusive and condescending]] to the Integrity Knights and outright calls them puppets to do his bidding. He's a DirtyCoward who flees the second he's in danger and will not hesitate to reducing himself to grovelling. He also reveals he's just as sickly perverted as any of the other SAO villains before him (if not worse), lusting for Quinella and requesting he spend a night with access to her body if he were to dispose of the rebels.
* SmokeOut: [[spoiler: It turns out his "fat" might actually be a large amount of smoke he has in his clothes, as shown when Alice impales him, causing it all to burst out and cover his escape.]]
* SmugSnake: Chudelkin is this in regards to the Dark Territory; he dismisses all the Knight's concerns about possible invasion. In ''Rising Steel'', he even berates Eydis when she doesn't kill a group of them she finds doing something suspicious, instead opting to play it safe and report back to Bercouli, which many agree is the smarter option.
* SquishyWizard: He's not much of a physical fighter, but he's incredibly skilled with Sacred Arts which are so destructive he can easily be a OneManArmy in his own right.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:He hugs Quinella while he's on fire, immolating her before she can escape to the real world via a console.]]
* VagueAge: While his exact age is never specified, though he's {{Implied}} to have been bossing Bercouli around for a while.
* VillainsWantMercy: As soon as things go south, he's reduced to a [[VillainousBreakdown blubbering wreck]] who begs for his life.
* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: A rare villainous example. Typically he derogatorily refers to the Integrity Knights via their numerical designations. When Alice defects and holds him at sword point, with his life on the line he finally refers to her as "Alice" to try and appease her.
* YouHaveFailedMe: He plans on reprocessing the Integrity Knights (or at least Bercouli and Fanatio) after seeing Bercouli fail to defeat Eugeo.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Quinella has no qualms with tossing aside Chudelkin's lifeless corpse after Kirito offs him.
[[/folder]]
!!Glowgen Defense Systems
[[folder:In General]]
A [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates US]]-based company that was hired by the National Security Agency to assault the Ocean Turtle to obtain the Soul Translator technology secretly developed there.
----
%% *AmbiguousSituation: The reason why the NSA decided to launch their attack on Ocean Turtle is not delved upon.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: They are supposed to be Americans, but speak perfect [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage Japanese]].
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: They're all comprised of criminals. Captain Dario Ziliani remarks that (with the exception of Gabriel Miller), none of the Glowgen operatives had any sense of discipline.
* {{Eagleland}}: Given that they're the antagonists in ''Alicization'', it's the boorish variety. They're also Americans.
%%* EvilCounterpart: To Rath.
* FighterMageThief: Villain example. The three main faces of the group could be seen to have this dynamic.
** Gabriel is the Fighter, being the PhysicalGod who relies on aggressive WeHaveReserves tactics against the Human Army. He also is powerful enough to be a match for several heavy-hitters like [[spoiler: Bercouli, Sinon (who's logged in as [[PhysicalGod Solus]]), and a recently revived and empowered Kirito]].
** [=PoH=] is the Thief, being a ProfessionalKiller who can sneak into the human encampment and kill several guards. He also later [[spoiler: ambushes the Human Army and ALO players with his army of Chinese and Koreans]].
** Critter is the Mage, being TheCracker who hacks into the Ocean Turtle's system to log Gabriel and Vassago in. He even [[spoiler: recruits and logs in foreign players to serve as Gabriel and Vassago's reinforcements]].
* GratuitousEnglish: They slip a lot of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEnglish English]] words into their dialogue as a way of showing [[JustifiedTrope they are not Japanese]].
* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: After the mission ends, Critter suspects the surviving team members are likely to be detained or even killed due to the American Government not wanting it to leak that they violated their treaty with Japan and led an attack on one of their facilities, as it could spark an international incident. This prompted Critter to steal a data-chip before the team escaped the Ocean Turtle with the intent of bargaining for his life]].
* PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler: After the defeat and (seemingly for the latter) deaths of [[BigBad Gabriel]] and [[TheDragon Vassago]], the remaining mercenaries declare the mission a failure and attempt to blow up the Ocean Turtle before leaving. Though, one of them stays behind in [[AvengingTheVillain hopes of avenging his partner]]. It takes the combined efforts of Kayaba in a robot body and Kikuoka to prevent the bomb from going off]].
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: They operate in this way. It's a case of TruthInTelevision, as the GDS HQ is located in [[UsefulNotes/{{California}} San Diego]]. In RealLife, there's a heavy presence of both the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks U.S. Navy's Point Loma base]] and [[SemperFi U.S. Marine Corps Camp Pendleton]] in San Diego County. It means there are innumerable corporations [[note]] (mainly related to industries like communications, biotech, and engineering) [[/note]] in the region with major Department of Defense contracts.
* ProfessionalKiller: All of Glowgen's operatives specialize in assasinating people.
* RedOniBlueOni: Vassago is the impulsive and hotheaded red to Gabriel's calmer and logical blue.
* UnskilledButStrong: As experienced in assasination the operatives are, as Vassago himself remarks, they are no match for soldiers with formal training like the JSDF.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer / Vector]]
!!Gabriel Miller / Subtilizer (GGO, UW) / Vector (UW)
!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AkiraIshida (Japanese), Creator/RieKugimiya (Japanese, young), Ted Sroka (English, ''Alicization''), Creator/GregChun (English, ''War of Underworld''), Creator/AmandaCelineMiller (English, young), Sergio Gutiérrez Coto (Latin American Spanish)
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriels_real_life_concept.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click here to see Vector]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabriel_vector_anime.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Gabriel's Angel of Death form]]\\
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabrielmiller.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]
->''"I wonder how it tastes. Your emotions, memories, heart and soul... everything! I'll devour them all now!"''
Chief Technological Officer of "Glowgen Defense Systems" and son of the founder and former [=CTO=]. During the events of the Alicization arc, he leads a 12-men team of operators, at the request of the National Security Agency, on an assault of the Ocean Turtle.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Despite his status as the strongest being there, [[TheSocialDarwinist which dictates that they follow him unquestionably]], none of the Dark Territory members seem to actually like him or are genuinely loyal to him. [[spoiler:Shasta and Lipia die trying to kill him, Fu Za stopped Shasta out of a personal grude as opposed to loyalty]], [[TheStarscream Dee Eye Ell has plans to usurp his authority]], Kosogi thinks he's being manipulated by Dee Eye Ell and uses LoopholeAbuse in regards to his orders, Lilpilin is angered when he orders [[spoiler: 3,000 of his people dead for a spell]], and Iskahn is disgusted by his WeHaveReserves mentality enough to [[spoiler: betray him himself]] and even before that he was [[spoiler: rooting for Shasta when he made an attempt on his life.]] [[spoiler:In addition, Vassago, his right hand, proves to be even more insane than he is. As when he threatens Kirito that he'll torture and kill everyone in Underworld, he includes Gabriel and his own armies in them.]]
* AchievementInIgnorance: He has no idea how [[spoiler:he managed to consume Lipia's [=FluctLight=]]], but he doesn't care and is delighted nonetheless.
* AdaptationalBadass:
** {{Downplayed}}. [[spoiler: The Light Novel depicts him as somewhat UnskilledButStrong, due to lacking much skill in swordsmanship but compensating for that with the Vecta account's stats and PowerOfTheVoid, something which is {{Lampshaded}} by Bercouli during their duel. In the Anime however, he's depicted as being much more skilled with the Vecta account's sword and Bercouli's observation on his lack of swordsmanship prowess is adapted out.]]
** Weird [[ZigZagged Zig Zag]], with two scenes swapping his reactions to certain events. [[spoiler: When he presented Lipia's head to lure out the treasonous general, he actually displayed concern when Shasta attempted to kill him and turned into a murderous tornado, trying to strategize a way out before determining there is none. Later on in his fight with Bercouli, he's noted to have a completely expressionless face when Bercouli finally kills him with the Uragiri, dying with nary a sound. In the anime, his reactions to both of these are swapped, with him keeping a straight in the face of Shasta's charge yet displaying surprise and even howling in pain when killed by the Uragiri.]]
** [[spoiler:Despite not killing any of the UW characters in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel's credibility as the BigBad and FinalBoss has cranked up, having two new, powerful, and ''way more dangerous'' transformations that he used against the heroes after his "True Gabriel" form is defeated.]]
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the light novels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the light novels.
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLeftHanded having two extremely strong transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:During their fight, Sinon's final attack destroys his arm in addition to the [=XM500=] he generated. He temporarily replaces it with [[ArtificialLimbs one made of pure energy]] for his final duel with Kirito.]]
* AnimalMotifs:
** In his introductory chapter, Dario Giulani, the captain of the ''USS Jimmy Carter'', the sub that would transport Gabriel's forces right before the Ocean Turtle raid, describes him as having hollow eyes that "devoured all light like a bottomless pit" like the great white shark that he encountered while he was swimming in Miami. Considering [[YourSoulIsMine the type of person]] Gabriel is, this is fitting.
** He also has a minor link with insects; his interest in the soul was born out of curiosity over his father's insect collection and a insect's strange ability to survive things like getting their heads bitten off, wondering where their souls could be. The first opening for ''War of Underworld'' also shows him at a desk with a frame of frozen butterflies behind him.
* AnimeAccentAbsence: Despite being an American, his Japanese is perfect. In fact it is his GratuitousEnglish which has a Japanese accent.
* TheAntiGod: As the Dark God Vecta, he is this to Goddess of Creation Stacia. In the mythology of Underworld, Vecta was the one god who was not created by Stacia, being a sentience who was birthed from the darkness itself and opposed Stacia, envying her power. He also became the reason why humans die, as he steals their lives over time, effectively making him TheGrimReaper, but his origins also make him effectively {{Satan}}.
* ArchAngelGabriel: Named Gabriel while having a backstory and personality painting him as a SatanicArchetype, making him a FallenAngel so to speak. He even takes on an angelic HumanoidAbomination form when he goes OneWingedAngel, where he gains a dark shadowy form with six wings and a halo.
* ArchEnemy:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* {{Soft Spoken Sadist}}: Death Gun, being a ColdHam, speaks in an even monotone.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* {{Implacable Man}}: He never stops or slows down his hunt for Kirito and Sinon.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 206 (click to see context) from:
* TheNapoleon: Chudelkin is a short, arrogant man.
to:
* TheNapoleon: Chudelkin is a short, arrogant man.man who's quick to berate the Integrity Knights who work under him either out of [[GreenEyedMonster envy whenever Quinella treats them kindly]], [[EvilIsPetty for merely questioning him or underdoing the praise he feels her rightfully deserves]], or [[MeanBoss simply because he feels like it.]]
Changed line(s) 215 (click to see context) from:
* {{Sadist}}: He enjoys executions and torture.
to:
* {{Sadist}}: He enjoys executions and torture.torture, which includes gleefully recounting the time he put Alice through the Forced Synthesis Ritual, claiming that he wish he could have [[TakenForGranite Deep Freezed her]] and used her to decorate his room solely for the pained expressions she made.
Changed line(s) 245 (click to see context) from:
* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: After the mission ends, Critter suspects the surviving team members are likely to be detained or even killed due to the American Government not wanting it to leak that they violated their treaty with Japan and led an attack on one of their facilities. Because this could cause an international incident, he stole a data-chip before they left the Ocean Turtle; he was hoping to use it to bargain for his life]].
to:
* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: After the mission ends, Critter suspects the surviving team members are likely to be detained or even killed due to the American Government not wanting it to leak that they violated their treaty with Japan and led an attack on one of their facilities. Because this facilities, as it could cause spark an international incident, he stole incident. This prompted Critter to steal a data-chip before they left the team escaped the Ocean Turtle; he was hoping to use it to bargain Turtle with the intent of bargaining for his life]].
* IControlMyMinionsThrough: [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership Power]] with a pinch of Divine Right. Really, Gabriel possesses ''no'' qualities that would make him a leader anyone would display genuine loyalty to, considering his WeHaveReserves mentality, reliance on {{Zerg Rush}}es that only serve to get his troops killed with little to show for it, and just generally being a BadBoss. Fortunately for him, he logged into the [[MightMakesRight Dark Territory]] as their PhysicalGod, Vecta, making him naturally stronger than everyone there, no doubt helped by his IRL military and fighting experience, and that fact that he [[spoiler: effortlessly killed a member of the Council of Ten after they ended up killing three other members and [[AnArmAndALeg injured]] another trying to get to him.]] This makes it so that, whether they like it or not, the Dark Territory ''has'' to follow him due to how they were raised and the Seal of the Right Eye keeping them stuck in this mindset, and at most have to work around orders they don't agree with via LoopholeAbuse.
* MaouTheDemonKing: As Dark God Vecta, Gabriel is the ruler of the Dark Territory and all the demi-humans and black iums who reside there, and uses their collective desire to invade and ravage the Human Empire as a pretext to start the War of Underworld in order to capture Alice. Along with this level of authority, and a high Object Control Authority and System Control Authority that allows to user to become a powerful MagicKnight, the account gives the user the power to suck in another's Incarnation with various debilitating effects, such as LaserGuidedAmnesia or ForcedSleep. And even after the avatar is killed and Gabriel switches to Subtilizer, he is able to mimic these abilities with his own Incarnation and even expand on them to do things like {{Life Drain}}ing, creating CombatTentacles, and taking a OneWingedAngel form.
Changed line(s) 478 (click to see context) from:
* EntertaininglyWrong: He pokes fun at Vassago for only knowing how to fire a gun in a game, insulting his skills as a mercenary. Unbeknownst to him, not only was Vassago the most infamous Player Killer in SAO. This effectively makes him an actual SerialKiller with quite possibly one of the highest body counts in the world. But before then he was a ProfessionalKiller for the Korean Mafia, meaning he likely knew how to handle a gun.
to:
* EntertaininglyWrong: He pokes fun at Vassago for only knowing how to fire a gun in a game, insulting his skills as a mercenary. Unbeknownst to him, not only was Vassago the most infamous Player Killer in SAO. This effectively makes him an actual SerialKiller with quite possibly one of the highest body counts in the world. But SAO, but before then that he was a ProfessionalKiller for the Korean Mafia, meaning he Mafia. This not only gives him potentially one of the highest body counts of any SerialKiller, but it goes without saying that his pre-SAO experience likely knew how to handle a gun.gave him firearms experience.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 180 (click to see context) from:
* DirtyOldMonk: While his exact age is never specified, though he's {{Implied}} to have been bossing Bercouli around for a while, Chudelkin, as the Prime Senator, is technically a member of the Axiom Church's clergy, yet he's an obsessive StalkerWithACrush towards Quinella, [[spoiler: even requesting that he get a night with free access to her body in exchange for killing the Rulid Trio]], and one of the Skits during "Overflowing Eternal Affection" Scout hints that he at least once entered the Great Baths during the girls times while Eydis was using her privacy to mock him.
to:
* DirtyOldMonk: While his exact age is never specified, though he's {{Implied}} to have been bossing Bercouli around for a while, Chudelkin, as DirtyOldMonk:
** As the Prime Senator, Chudelkin is technically a member of the Axiom Church's clergy, yethe's he is an obsessive StalkerWithACrush towards Quinella, [[spoiler: even [[spoiler:even requesting that he get a night with free access to her body in exchange for killing the Rulid Trio]], and Trio]].
** In ''Rising Steel'', one of the Skits during the "Overflowing Eternal Affection"Scout Scout, hints that he at least once entered the Great Baths during the girls times while Eydis was using her privacy to mock him.
** As the Prime Senator, Chudelkin is technically a member of the Axiom Church's clergy, yet
** In ''Rising Steel'', one of the Skits during the "Overflowing Eternal Affection"
Added DiffLines:
* VagueAge: While his exact age is never specified, though he's {{Implied}} to have been bossing Bercouli around for a while.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 257 (click to see context) from:
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see the True Gabriel Miller]]\\
to:
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see the True Gabriel Miller]]\\Gabriel's Angel of Death form]]\\
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 59 (click to see context) from:
* * UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Among all the deaths presented in this series, none are is as embarrassing as falling to one’s death after getting startled by a falling wrench]].
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* FaceDeathWithDespair: [[spoiler:Gabriel spends his last moments screaming and begging anyone to save him as the souls of all his past victims [[DraggedOffToHell drag him off to Hell]]]].
Added DiffLines:
* UglyAllAlong: Gabriel is usually handsome (if rather plain looking) whenever he’s TheStoic, only to show a truly hideous and grotesque face whenever he shows any emotions. Examples of his ugly face shown include smiling and laughing creepily whenever he gets what he wants and him [[spoiler:screaming for help when being DraggedOffToHell]].
Added DiffLines:
* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Among all the villains who’ve died, Gabriel death may possibly be the most undignified. Basically, he dies screaming for help as he’s DraggedOffToHell by all of his victims, while all that’s left of Gabriel is his corpse, with its [[UglyAllAlong hideous]] and [[FaceDeathWithDespair scared]] face shown exposed for all of his men to see]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* * UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Among all the deaths presented in this series, none are is as embarrassing as falling to one’s death after getting startled by a falling wrench]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 268 (click to see context) from:
** Gabriel is already established as the FinalBoss of ''Alicization'' [[spoiler:but his threat level has insanely cranked up in ''Last Recollection'', having two new, powerful, and ''way more dangerous'' forms that he used against the heroes after his "True Gabriel" form is defeated.]]
to:
** Gabriel is already established as [[spoiler:Despite not killing any of the FinalBoss of ''Alicization'' [[spoiler:but his threat level has insanely cranked up UW characters in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel's credibility as the BigBad and FinalBoss has cranked up, having two new, powerful, and ''way more dangerous'' forms transformations that he used against the heroes after his "True Gabriel" form is defeated.]]
Changed line(s) 270 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLefthanded having two extremely strong transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
to:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLefthanded [[IAmNotLeftHanded having two extremely strong transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 270 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLefthanded having two stronger transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
to:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLefthanded having two stronger extremely strong transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 270 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLefthanded having two more transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
to:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel compensates this by [[IAmNotLefthanded having two more stronger transformations]], which makes him a lot harder to kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 270 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel is ''still'' a force to be reckoned with, even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
to:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain unstoppable]] as he was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel is ''still'' compensates this by [[IAmNotLefthanded having two more transformations]], which makes him a force lot harder to be reckoned with, kill even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 269,270 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the lightnovels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the light novels.
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is still a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and GGO's [[GodlikeGamer legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near [[InvincibleVillain as unstoppable as he was]] in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel is ''still'' a force to be reckoned with, even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is still a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and GGO's [[GodlikeGamer legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near [[InvincibleVillain as unstoppable as he was]] in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel is ''still'' a force to be reckoned with, even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
to:
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the lightnovels, light novels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the light novels.
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel isstill ''still'' a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and GGO's [[GodlikeGamer GGO's legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near as [[InvincibleVillain as unstoppable unstoppable]] as he was]] was in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives into fighting the Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account was killed too soon by Kirito]] (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes at the Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel is ''still'' a force to be reckoned with, even with the heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 270 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed because while Gabriel is ''still'' a StrongAndSkilled soldier, GGO's [[GodlikeGamer legendary pro gamer]], and has two more powerful forms in ''Last Recollection'', he prefers to [[OrcusOnHisThrone let his brainwashed Dark Territory natives do the dirty work for him]] and his Vecta account is killed off by [[InvincibleHero Kirito]] instead of Bercouli in his first on-screen fight. Even after returning as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes near the end of the game. Though to be fair for Gabriel, fighting the entire RW-UW alliance as Subtilizer would be suicide, since [[BroughtDownToBadass he lost his Vecta account to Kirito earlier]] and six of them are using [[PhysicalGod UW deity super accounts]].]]
to:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed because while Gabriel is ''still'' a StrongAndSkilled soldier, GGO's [[GodlikeGamer legendary pro gamer]], and has two more powerful forms in ''Last Recollection'', since Gabriel is still a [[StrongAndSkilled well-trained soldier]] and GGO's [[GodlikeGamer legendary pro gamer]] but he's nowhere near [[InvincibleVillain as unstoppable as he prefers to [[OrcusOnHisThrone let his brainwashed was]] in canon: He didn't kill any of the UW characters (though he ''did'' brainwash the Dark Territory natives do into fighting the dirty work for him]] Integrity Knights) and [[BroughtDownToBadass his Vecta account is was killed off too soon by [[InvincibleHero Kirito]] instead of Bercouli in his first on-screen fight. (though it's still a minor inconvenience for him). Even after returning logging back to UW as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes near at the end of the game. Though Obsidia Castle. That said, Gabriel is ''still'' a force to be fair for Gabriel, fighting reckoned with, even with the entire RW-UW alliance as Subtilizer would be suicide, since [[BroughtDownToBadass he lost his Vecta account to Kirito earlier]] and six of them are using [[PhysicalGod UW deity super accounts]].heroes having ''six {{Physical God}}desses'' on their side.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 270 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed because while Gabriel is ''still'' a StrongAndSkilled soldier, GGO's [[GodlikeGamer legendary pro gamer]], and has two more powerful forms in ''Last Recollection'', he instead prefers to let his brainwashed Dark Territory natives do the dirty work for him and his Vecta account ends up being killed off by [[InvincibleHero Kirito]] in his first on-screen fight. Even after returning as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes near the end of the game. Though to be fair for Gabriel, fighting the entire RW-UW alliance as Subtilizer would be suicide, since he lost his Vecta account to Kirito earlier and six of them are using UW deity super accounts.]]
to:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed because while Gabriel is ''still'' a StrongAndSkilled soldier, GGO's [[GodlikeGamer legendary pro gamer]], and has two more powerful forms in ''Last Recollection'', he instead prefers to [[OrcusOnHisThrone let his brainwashed Dark Territory natives do the dirty work for him him]] and his Vecta account ends up being is killed off by [[InvincibleHero Kirito]] instead of Bercouli in his first on-screen fight. Even after returning as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes near the end of the game. Though to be fair for Gabriel, fighting the entire RW-UW alliance as Subtilizer would be suicide, since [[BroughtDownToBadass he lost his Vecta account to Kirito earlier earlier]] and six of them are using [[PhysicalGod UW deity super accounts.accounts]].]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 270 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed to an extent. Despite having two more powerful forms in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel prefers to let his brainwashed Dark Territory natives do the dirty work for him instead of fighting the heroes directly and his Vecta account ends up being killed off by [[InvincibleHero Kirito]] in his first on-screen fight. Even after returning as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes near the end of the game. Though to be fair for Gabriel, fighting the entire RW-UW alliance as Subtilizer would be suicide, since he lost his Vecta account to Kirito earlier and six of them are using UW deity super accounts.]]
to:
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed to an extent. Despite having because while Gabriel is ''still'' a StrongAndSkilled soldier, GGO's [[GodlikeGamer legendary pro gamer]], and has two more powerful forms in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel he instead prefers to let his brainwashed Dark Territory natives do the dirty work for him instead of fighting the heroes directly and his Vecta account ends up being killed off by [[InvincibleHero Kirito]] in his first on-screen fight. Even after returning as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes near the end of the game. Though to be fair for Gabriel, fighting the entire RW-UW alliance as Subtilizer would be suicide, since he lost his Vecta account to Kirito earlier and six of them are using UW deity super accounts.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 269 (click to see context) from:
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the lightnovels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the lightnovels.
to:
* AdaptationalJerkass: As much of a bastard he is in the lightnovels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the lightnovels.light novels.
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed to an extent. Despite having two more powerful forms in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel prefers to let his brainwashed Dark Territory natives do the dirty work for him instead of fighting the heroes directly and his Vecta account ends up being killed off by [[InvincibleHero Kirito]] in his first on-screen fight. Even after returning as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes near the end of the game. Though to be fair for Gabriel, fighting the entire RW-UW alliance as Subtilizer would be suicide, since he lost his Vecta account to Kirito earlier and six of them are using UW deity super accounts.]]
* AdaptationalWimp: [[spoiler:Downplayed to an extent. Despite having two more powerful forms in ''Last Recollection'', Gabriel prefers to let his brainwashed Dark Territory natives do the dirty work for him instead of fighting the heroes directly and his Vecta account ends up being killed off by [[InvincibleHero Kirito]] in his first on-screen fight. Even after returning as Subtilizer, he ''immediately'' transformed to his "True Gabriel" form when confronted again by the heroes near the end of the game. Though to be fair for Gabriel, fighting the entire RW-UW alliance as Subtilizer would be suicide, since he lost his Vecta account to Kirito earlier and six of them are using UW deity super accounts.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* {{Eagleland}}: Of the "warmongering ignorant jerkass" variety. The first couple waves of the reinforcements are Americans whose are told about "a realistically violent VRMMORPG where you can kill whatever you want" and basically reacted with "where do I queue". Contrast with the Chinese and Korean players, who are sold a story about a multinational USA/CHS/KOR cooperative project that is suffering from Japanese hackers.
