Episode two of Overlord’s third season starts off by reminding me of Season two’s beginning 
episodes: everything is the establishment of the focus of the season with the true mystery behind the scenes appearing later. Immediately Ains asks his subordinates what their plan is and Demiurge states what we all knew their goal was (everyone apart from Ains’) from the beginning: World Domination. This sets the stage for the rest of the episode: how do they do it? I love that after all this time Ains is still an average human guy sometimes. His reactions to what his subordinates want for Nazerick is hysterical, but Demiurge and Albedo both believe it’s time to bring Nazerick from the shadows. Look, one of the best parts of Overlord is that a normal guy suddenly has to rule over a bunch of Lawful to Chaotic evil NPCs and manage to keep things under control. But do we really want things to remain under control?
I sure don’t! I love when the NPCs take charge in forcing Ains to become a ruler. Not that I want 
Ains to completely forget being Momonga or to lose all humanity, but creating a force to be reckoned with and ruling over all the creatures of the land in a True Neutral fashion would be incredibly interesting. Demiurge believes that Carne village was the most important step and I agree for completely meta reasons. What better way for Ains to prevent the utter annihilation of the human race in this world other than peacefully subjugating human locations? It allows him to seem powerful to his comrades while still preventing a genocide.
While I do love that Ains is still a human underneath, I suppose by this point I was hoping he would be able to pick up on the machinations of his subordinates a little better. It would be nice if he could learn not to have a visible freaked out expression in the third season when he was just fine pretending in the first season. But outside of Ains and his subordinates is a return to Carne village that is necessary for a lot of the character growth in the show. Carne’s residents definitely still suffer from the effects of the last two seasons, especially Enri.
The effects on characters of events are important to prevent things from going stale. It’s very important to remember characters who are small in every event for creating a well-developed world. If every NPC behaves as a no name character who does not react, the world doesn’t really exist in our minds. I believe this is one of the reasons why Momonga can still react the way he does: many of the plots are part of the ‘game’ for him. It’s events that remind him of the fact that the characters are people that unmask him as the true ‘Overlord’.
The focus on the Carne Village NPCs eventually pay off as the plot of the season seems to unfold: two powers known as the ‘Giant of the East’ and Demon Snake have joined together and attacked a tribe. It looks like there is once again a conflict, and one we can watch as the decision to reveal Nazerick comes to light. And finally, finally, I feel like I’m watching Overlord again. Lets go Overlord season III!
Oki