PoH

PoH (プー, Pū?) is one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online, as well as the leader and founder of the red guild named «Laughing Coffin». His guild was later destroyed by a large force of clearers, but he was neither killed, nor captured during the crusade.

Personality

PoH is a cold and sadistic person who spread the idea that, as players would actually be killed by the mechanism of the NerveGear when a player's HP reaches 0, the designer of the mechanism, Kayaba Akihiko, would be the culprit of the murder, thus players had the right to kill other players and enjoy the game. This idea lured and brainwashed several orange players into going on a mad Player Killing craze and led to the first murders in the game.[2]

PoH is also a cool-headed man who rationally analyses the situation, like when he stopped the emotional Johnny Black to hear out Kirito before taking any action and ordered his men to retreat when he heard that Kirito had called for the help of 30 players from the clearers, as well as having drunk an antidote potion in advance and bringing many healing crystals with him.[2]

Non-canon Chronology

Hollow Fragment

During the events of Hollow Fragment, a Hollow version of PoH could be found in the Hollow Area. He bore the same mark as Kirito, making him a highly credible test player within the Hollow Area and allowing him to use the Administration Area. However, unlike the other AI data players within the Hollow Area, he was created by the collected data of the real PoH's emotional data, and his bloodlust and love of killing gave him a sense of knowledge as to what he was.

Hollow PoH was first seen while Kirito and Philia were traveling together in the «Bridge to Bastia» area. While spying on him and his own fellow Laughing Coffin members, PoH seemingly noticed Kirito and Philia watching nearby but acted like he was oblivious to them. After returning to the Administration Area afterwards, Philia was shocked when she found that PoH had entered the Administration Area himself, and proceeded to speak to her shortly after Kirito left to return to Aincrad. Assuming he was there to kill her, Philia guarded herself but he assured her he was not here to kill her, claiming that he simply wished to talk since they were both "orange" players. PoH tried to persuade her into turning on Kirito and joining him in Laughing Coffin, claiming that she would die if she continues to stay with Kirito.

As Kirito continued to try and help Philia remove her orange cursor, PoH returned and tried to once again convince her to help him. Since Philia continued to ignore PoH's influence, he claimed that they were mere data, rather than "humans", in the Hollow Area and also makes a shocking declaration that if Kirito clears the 100th floor and Aincrad is erased, the Hollow Area will be erased, along with them. PoH claimed that this was only possible because Kirito continued to come to the Hollow Area and, as a result, grew stronger. With this new fear and worry in Philia, PoH asked once more for help, claiming that he would not kill Kirito and all Philia had to do was lure him towards him. With that, he left once more, leaving Philia in disarray.

PoH's words got through to Philia, as she unknowingly aided him in trapping Kirito in a dungeon where warp crystals and messages could not be used, making it a perfect place for PoH killing his victims, since it was full of powerful monsters. After seemingly sending Kirito to his death, PoH went on to execute his plans to use the Hollow Area's main console to start a massive transfer of data from the Hollow Area to Aincrad, which would overwrite the data of all the players with their Hollow data, essentially making the system treat the AI data as the players.

Deep within the previously sealed off area within the Hollow Area, PoH revealed his true motives to Philia, breaking her down to tears that he tricked her into sending Kirito to his death. With him out of the way, PoH would have no one stopping him from enjoying his concept of paradise - slaughtering the other AI data players within the Hollow Area with no end. Seeing no further use for her as she turned on him, PoH proceeded to torture and abuse Philia before deciding to end her life by cutting her head off with his Chopper. But before he could, Kirito suddenly appeared and sliced off his hand, freeing Philia. A battle ensued between Kirito and PoH, with Kirito the victor and the virtual data that was PoH deleted. However, though he was defeated, Kirito and friends still had to stop the massive transfer PoH had set in motion to prevent the re-writing of Aincrad.

Trivia

• PoH likes saying the English catchphrase, «It's showtime».[6]
• PoH is a multilingual player who is well versed in at least three languages: English, Japanese, and Spanish.
• In the web version, PoH's name was revealed to be Vassago Casals (ヴァサゴ・カザルス Vasago Kazarusu), though this is possibly an alias. He was born in San Francisco, and was brought to Japan at the age of 10 because his mother was "purchased" by the CEO of a Japanese trade company. This, with the fact that his biological father was a Korean who abandoned his mother after impregnating her, resulted in his extreme hatred of East Asian people. Thus, he thought that seeing such people kill each other was an extremely exciting sight and, because of that, he established Laughing Coffin.
• His weapon in Sword Art Online, Mate Chopper, is able to bypass all defensive stats and armor when striking an opponent, similar to how Eugene's Demonic Sword Gram is able to bypass any sword or shield when attacking.