English Dub Review: Overlord “In Pursuit of the Land of Dwarves”

Overview

After his visit to the Empire, Ainz decides to go and create a friendly relationship with the Dwarf Kingdom. Sadly, he only finds an empty city when he gets there. Deep within the tunnels, he meets a dwarf named Gondo who tells him what happened…

Our Take

After defeating the Warrior King in battle at the Baharuth Colosseum, Ainz had another important obligation to attend. A journey towards the Dwarven Kingdom. His objective? Obtain the rune-inscribed weaponry that only Dwarven runesmiths can make. After seeing a rune-inscribed sword at Osk the merchant’s shop in the previous episode, Ainz was surprised to notice rune symbols with origins that are not within Yggdrassil, but from the real world. For Ainz, these runes are a possible link to the possibility of other players trapped within the game just like himself. However, finding the dwarves proves to be harder than it sounds…

At the same time this is going on, Albedo and Demiurge are left dealing with Jircniv’s hasty and fearful proposal to make his Empire of Baharuth a vassal state to the Sorcerer Kingdom makes Ainz wonder if his trusted underlings are pulling some strings behind the scenes but it shows that they aren’t completely on the same page as Ainz when it comes to doing things amicably. As it cuts back to Ainz of course we get a chance to revisit the Lizard people tribes from season 2 with one of them leading the way for his convoy to meet with the Dwarves. And upon getting into the mines and meeting one of them the perception hasn’t changed much in terms of depiction. Dwarves in the history of fantasy/fiction have often been depicted in various forms of media as being stereotypically viking-like in their appearance yet having skill and experience in combat and hard labor such as working in mines or making weapons. Here that’s somewhat present yet these Dwarves also have a very savage-looking enemy that Ainz is more than happy to help them battle against called The “Quagoa”…

Overall, this was a great episode that sets things up for a compelling new storyline while expanding upon its world-building. Seeing the Lizard people again was a fun little callback that served an actual purpose, and it’s clear that Ainz is going to be making new allies after what he, and some of his servants have accomplished within the Dwarf mines which I hope they’ll delve into further at the plot progresses.