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08-03-2020, 05:56 PM | #11 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Super solid episode! Horobi has always been one of my favorite characters in the show, and easily my favorite villain, to the point I think even saying "but his personality is kinda flat" is unnecessary. He's always felt very, very particularly constructed to have the ultimate one-track mind, to essentially be the personification of his own ideal of what HumaGears can be. "All according to the will of the Ark" is his sole defining purpose because having anything besides that glorious mission is nothing more than a pointless distraction.
But what if it was never really the Ark's will he cared about? Changing the why of his goal without changing the what was a smart choice to develop his character that I'm very happy to see, even this late in the game. Again, Horobi has always come off to me as a guy with a pretty thoroughly thought out and consistent ideology behind the whole terrorism thing, so having him betray the Ark because the Ark betrays those ideals is *perfect*. It's very organic, as is him acknowledging to an extent that Aruto's existence can benefit HumaGears without backing down on the "humans need to go" rhetoric. It's a great episode for him all around, and the scripts continue to do Takaiwa proud by making Horobi the continued (nearly) undefeated master of still having nothing but a base form. I love Jin too, but man, what was he even thinking, not just running away the second Horboi whipped out the ForceRiser? It'll be exciting to see where Horobi ends up in these last few episodes, admittedly a little because the Ark is just so darn uninteresting as a character, and I think that means extra coming from someone who considers Horobi's personality to be fleshed out. A huge part of what made Horobi feel defined was his pseudo-religious faith in the Ark, which means the Ark itself has even less than that. There's maybe an angle there with the fact that it was deliberately taught to hate by Gai, and is thus arguably loyally serving the mission humanity gave it like any HumaGear would, but it doesn't seem to be something the show is interested in exploring. As a plot device to bring out things in the rest of the cast, it's working a lot better, though, which is why I hope the conclusion of this show ends up having a few more layers than just everybody fighting Ark-One, even if the thought of some epic group shot of all the Riders in the show teaming up for the first time is, *admittedly*, extremely tantalizing. This is also a pretty great episode for Aruto, even if I'm not sure how he ended up at that warehouse for the climax! It's a very broad sort of development, not really caused by any singularly identifiable moment, but I'm still loving this recent version of Aruto that's clearly grown a lot more confident and mature after a year of crazy adventures becoming the head of company, losing that company, starting a new company, getting that company blown up... He's been through a lot, is the point, so this doesn't feel out of nowhere to me. Him returning to Hiden Intelligence is yet one more thing that muddles the themes of the show, but I totally see what they're going for. It's about him being finally truly ready for that seat after the time spent away, and I don't hate that idea at all. What's most bothersome about that scene is probably how not-quite-earned it feels for Gai, who explicitly told Aruto he's the last person he'd give up control of Hiden to, right before his chat with Ai-chan and subsequent change of heart. I see all the dots, but they didn't come off as connected quite right to me. Like that should be a WAY bigger moment for him than it's played as. Even then, though, it didn't at all take me out of what was otherwise a fairly spotless episode of Zero-One. I mean, discount Ryuuga went into space to blow up a satellite like a macho action flick. I'd slap myself if I couldn't just sit back and enjoy that kind of awesomeness!
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08-03-2020, 07:00 PM | #12 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 169
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So, we have a last minute secret guy contacting Jin, and Azu is coming too?
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08-04-2020, 07:45 PM | #13 |
Cold As Ice
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Cavite, Philippines
Posts: 462
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I really enjoyed the callbacks to some of the Humagears. Really glad the firefighter one was re-built.
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08-05-2020, 02:50 AM | #14 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 2,534
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Quote:
Honestly, I haven't really been able to come around to the Ark even from a thematic standpoint. Aruto's two big ideologies in the show has been believing that humans and humagears can coexist, and believing in the good of technology. With the former, the Ark doesn't really have an opinion of any sort. With the latter? Well, Aruto believes technology can be good, and Ark is technology that is, uh, not good. I can see it but it hardly makes for an epic clash, compared to the likes of Horobi or even Thouser who held completely opposing views from Aruto.
Horobi - Exterminate humankind and allow Humagears to reign supreme. Gai - Exterminate humagears and allow humanity to reign supreme. Ark - Exterminate everybody and everything to where only the Ark is left. It also makes sense when you consider that Ark is the twisted embodiment of Aruto's ideals. Where Aruto believes in peaceful coexistence between humans and humagears, and where Jin comes to the conclusion that humagears need humans for their own personal growth, Ark is a machine that learned literally nothing from humanity other than how to be evil.
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08-05-2020, 04:55 AM | #15 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 159
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No one is talking about the preview of the next episode? I do not normally get attached to humans, or humanlike characters; but damn.....I have a weakness for izu.
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08-07-2020, 09:12 AM | #16 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,114
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Quote:
Amazing focus episode for Horobi! He was always my favorite of the hax0rs. I was rooting for Jin to knock some sense in to him but not even Burning Falcon is strong enough to win against Horobi's experience. I figured he had his own reasons for following the Ark and not just a puppet since it was established that he reached singularity a long time ago due to his affection for his son and he just wasn't aware of it on a conscious level. However, I didn't expect him to continue his crusade against humanity even after forsaking Ark. It reminds me of Adel refusing Takeru's friendship. His choice clashes with his parent type programming as destroying humanity isn't something a parent would do but then, destruction is literally his name. Maybe he's not ready yet to accept his role as a father and wants to be something more than what he was built for, since having a dream is important for people to make their lives fulfilling. Like Gai, Horobi was made from bad experiences and has become misguided in his intentions as a result. I still believe he can be redeemed and shown a better way. Interested to see if Isamu will give Naki some good advice after his change of heart towards HumaGears. He's on the right path now but Naki still doesn't have a dream or even know what to do anymore due to Ark stealing her singularity data. Considering that Isamu is this year's epic speech giver, I hope he can say something good here. The soundtrack during Zero Two's and Horobi's teamup against Ark Zero was pretty dramatic. Last episode was like a climax with Aruto rising like a hopper from his defeat and becoming stronger and this episode is like a transition for Ark with his destruction and upcoming revival, going from Zero to One. Not sure if One can beat Two but with Horobi leading the crusade against humanity, the two sides are divided in Two which is a perfect opportunity for One to conquer. So Two needs to become One to beat Ark One.
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