Thanks to the popularity of Sword Art Online, gamers have wondered about how the gaming industry would advance in the real world. The idea struck at just the right time, as the idea of virtual reality being a thing was just beginning to take hold with fans. However, after the anime showed 10,000 players trapped in the game and forced to fight for their lives, fans had second thoughts about the idea of virtual world games.
As a series, Sword Art Online has introduced some pretty impressive antagonists, starting with the original villain responsible for trapping them in the world, Akihiko Kayaba. As powerful as he was, though, subsequent seasons would introduce villains that were either more powerful or more twisted in their ideals, enemies that Kirito would be forced to use his superior swordsmanship skills to defeat.
Updated by Sage Ashford on March 28, 2023: Sword Art Online remains one of the most popular anime of all time. As creator Reki Kawahara continues to expand the universe, he also continues adding powerhouse villains. We’ve added a few more of the series’ most impressive bad guys.
14 Nicholas The Renegade
Nicholas The Renegade is a boss that stands in Kirito’s way on the 35th floor, and since he was the first who didn’t appear in the beta testing, he had some surprises up his sleeve. First, he had four health bars, making a battle against him one of attrition. Secondly, his giant battle-ax could inflict serious damage on players.
Nicholas The Renegade definitely became a problem for Kirito, with his unpredictable attacks allowing him to nearly finish Kirito off for good. Still, defeating him came with quite the benefit: the Divine Stone of Returning Soul. This item was capable of reviving a player if used within ten seconds after they died.
13 Thrym
It makes sense that some of the most dangerous enemies within Sword Art Online are the ones programmed in by the video game. Thrym was the King of the Frost Giants and uniquely programmed to be a more realistic enemy within the Alfheim Online game. He used the power of Excalibur to take over the realm of Jotunheim and created a massive fortress as his dungeon.
Thyrm’s incredible power and cunning nearly caused the players to accidentally cause Ragnarok, which would’ve reset the game. Fortunately, Kirito and the others were able to work with ALO’s version of Thor to defeat him.
12 Raios Antinous & Humbert Zizek
Raios and Humbert were two upper-class swordsmen that Kirito met while he was in the Underworld. The two of them were more annoying than they were a legitimate threat for a time, keeping to just harassing people of lower stature than them.
The leader between the two was Raios, while Humbert followed along for the perks of being associated with him. However, when they tried to assault Eugeo and Kirito’s valets, they crossed a permanent line. Raios was twisted enough to try to force Eugeo to watch his actions, only for Eugeo to prove capable of breaking his programming to stop him.
11 Kuradeel
A member of the Player Killer guild the Laughing Coffin, Kuradeel was smart enough to hide by joining the powerful organization the Knights of the Blood. Though he was good at pretending he was a loyal member of the Knights of the Blood, he wanted nothing more than to kill the guild’s vice-commander, Asuna.
When Kirito stood in Kuradeel’s way, Kuradeel snuck a paralyzing item in a drink to allow him to finish Kirito without a fight. Fortunately, both Asuna and Kirito were able to defeat him before he could achieve any of his goals.
10 Chudelkin
The “Chief Elder” serving under Quinella, Chudelkin might be the most annoying villain in Sword Art Online. His main goal is serving Quinella, and other than that, he seems to exist just to annoy everyone else. Despite this, he’s still a dangerous villain.
Chudelkin’s control over Underworld is high enough that he can be a threat to far more physically gifted enemies. In the end, though, his devotion to Quinella proved to be more of a hindrance to him than anything else. When Quinella was defeated, he allowed himself to be erased as well.
9 Oberon
One of Kirito and Asuna’s most dangerous villains was Oberon, also known as Sugou. Sugou Nobuyuki was the man originally picked to become Asuna’s fiancee. When the Sword Art Online game finally shut down, he used his position in the company to reroute 300 players into Alfheim Online.
Oberon established himself as a loathable character by manipulating everyone around him, including Asuna, who he planned to marry while she was still unconscious to cement control over her father’s company. He thought of himself as a god, and in the game, he had no compassion toward other players. This character was so hated that his arc might have even turned fans into haters of the series.
8 Yanai
Although Yanai didn’t seem like an important character, he was very dangerous in Sword Art Online. He was originally a member of Sugou’s staff, only to sell him out to stay out of jail and then start working for the Americans as a member of Ocean Turtle.
Yanai was mostly harmless, but fans learned that he was responsible for creating codes that assisted Quinella in the game. Some theories also say Yanai was behind Quinella’s cruel personality. Viewers didn’t get to see much of him in the series, but all his contributions to evil turned out to be crucial.
7 PoH
With no real goals other than causing as much pain and damage to players as possible, the PoH was almost impossible to stop. Known in real life as Vassago Casals, PoH approached the whole game with a twisted idea: if he killed anyone, it wasn’t his fault; it was the creator’s. So from the beginning, PoH was killing people with no remorse or guilt.
PoH became an even larger threat in the real world. He found his way into Underworld and manipulated unsuspecting players into killing as many Underworld residents and Japanese players’ avatars as possible. Only Kirito’s unique powers within the Underworld were able to put a stop to him.
6 Nochizawa Eiji
Known as Nautilus within Sword Art Online, Nochizawa Eiji is one of the main villains within Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale. Eiji was one of the original 10,000 people trapped within the world of Aincrad and was even recruited by the Knights of the Blood. However, a condition caused him to become unable to move whenever he feared for his life.
Thanks to the help of Professor Tetsuhiro, Eiji was able to suit up in a special exosuit that made fighting within the world of Ordinal Scale easy. With his limitations removed, Eiji put several SAO players at risk in an attempt to revive a friend of his who was a fallen player.
5 Shinkawa Shouichi
Shinkawa Shouichi, or Xaxa, was the main antagonist of the Gun Gale Online arc. After being part of the Laughing Coffin guild within the world of Aincrad, Shouichi would go on to create the organization Death Gun. Known for his twisted red-skull mask, Shouichi and the members of Death Gun went out of their way to convince Gun Gale Online players that they could kill people in the game and cause them to die in real life.
Shouichi’s skills were difficult to match by average players, so he was able to terrorize nearly anyone. Worse, with people not understanding how his abilities worked, they were scared to face him at all. It was only after crossing paths with Kirito and his group that Zaza ended up in prison.
4 Bercouli Synthesis One
Sword Art Online gradually became one of the most disliked anime ever, but the Alicization arc went a long way toward redeeming the entire series. Villains like Bercouli helped with that, though some fans might find it arguable that he’s a villain to begin with. Bercouli was the very first Integrity Knight, and while he was an honorable warrior, he also couldn’t go against the commands of Quinella.
Hundreds of years old, Bercouli’s power effectively allowed him to slice through time itself. Even Eugeo’s talents and years of training with Kirito almost weren’t enough to defeat him. Fortunately, Bercouli was eventually able to recall who he was before he was Synthesis One.
3 Subtilizer
Gabriel Miller was an extraordinary player who developed his skills to an inhuman level. In Gun Gale Online, he won multiple Bullet of Bullets tournaments, and nearly no one could beat him. His name, Subtilizer, means “the one who steals souls,” and was given to him because he was immorally cruel.
Inthe Underworld, Gabriel took on the role of Vecta in an attempt to gain Ocean Turtle’s knowledge of how to copy a human soul. Though he was defeated, he returned again as Subtilizer, becoming an even more powerful threat than before. It took Kirito gathering all the power of all his friends in the Underworld to win against him.
2 Quinella
Quinella’s curiosity led to her gaining power in the Underworld that no one else was meant to have. After years of elevating her own powers, she eventually created a feudal system in order to keep everyone else below her. Later, she came to refer to herself as Administrator, ruling humans in the Empire of Underworld.
Whenever Quinella was awake, she seemed to rule with extraordinary cruelty, only caring about herself. Most of her subjects were living in terrible conditions, but the only thing she did was make sure the humans were safe from the Dark Territory. Defeating her required Kirito to give up nearly everything.
1 Heathcliff
Akihiko Kayaba, or Heathcliff, was the original antagonist of Sword Art Online. He was the creator of Sword Art Online, and he was responsible for all the bad that happened to the players by trapping them within his world. He knew the game inside-out, which gave him a huge advantage against most gamers.
Heathcliff’s Liberator set was also among the strongest equipment, as it allowed the user to defend and attack at the same time while switching quickly. Defeating him was nearly impossible, and Kirito only did it because Heathcliff granted the exceptional swordsman some additional abilities to make it possible.
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