Kamen Rider Saber Episode 42- "The Beginning Of A Beautiful End" Discussion
 

Touma begins to suffer serious effects from the powers of Saber, while Kento has a vision of his ultimate fate.

Kami delivers again! The symbolism shots of Ren, the swordsmen, and Dezast in the garden something really cool to see. Wonder why he's the only one that does it.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E5XWYLOU...name=4096x4096

As of this episode, Saber used his final form more times than Zero One did.

Oh man, I figured this episode would be Desast's last appearance but nope looks like it's next week.

I'm going to miss him.

Will say though it was another fairly slow episode this time, probably slower than the last due to just the directing on this one. We only had one real "fight" if you could call it that.

Will say I'm going to miss this cast, Daishinji openly demolishing a bad Onigiri only to pause when he finds out his leader made it. Touma, Kento, Rintaro and Ogami pumping their fists like "You can do this", and Yuri just saying his catchphrase to try and help Daishinji out was great.

Also that scene with Desast and Ren eating Ramen and his red ginger tangent. To the point where he picks up the packet and is like "Apologize to it." that was real great. I'm absolutely going to miss Desast and I'll be real sad if they don't find a way to bring him back somehow, dude's too good to die.

And with a better win rate than Build Genius and Grand Zi-O (if I remember right).

Something tells me fate awaits Luna.

RIP Tassel/Viktor.

Yuri/Saikou's time will soon come too.

Oh my gosh, Toei, please keep pairing up Fukuda and Kamihoriuchi forever and ever. I know this is a term from the wrong show, but talk about a Best Match. Five amazing episodes of Saber, and a sixth next week I'm sure I'll love just as much. I can't even define why it is (besides saying "go watch the Specter movie"), but something about their styles really seems to bring out the best of each other.

And that collaboration goes all the way back to Kenzan's debut episode, and his very first fight with Desast, too, so it's extra great to see that team seemingly bringing this plotline to a close as well.

Ren doesn't have the most to do this week, but he makes every scene he gets count. I'm honestly a little baffled how invested I feel in where his character is heading at this point. Kenzan has always trailed way behind the other Riders in Saber in terms of being a favorite for me, but I guess what I was underestimating for a long time was the fact that he's one of my least favorites in Saber, a show where everyone is my favorite by virtue of being in Saber. It's not even a matter of me being interested in how Ren relates to Desast anymore; I'm specifically interested in Ren and Desast, as individuals. There's a pretty obvious endpoint in sight for our little bratty ninja, but the road getting there is proving far more dramatic than I expected. I really buy into how empty Ren feels right now, and I love how his continued immaturity (love him accidentally stabbing Desast right in the heart with the "no friends" thing) is mixed with this realization he's had that he IS so immature, and how shallow his values have been up to this point compared to everybody else. It's such a perfect sort of adolescent storyline, distinctly Ren's very own "thing" in the show that makes him unique, and I'm all over it. I mean, he's even got his own version of Touma's dueling thing where he's had one-on-one time with so many of the other characters gradually pushing him along to this point! That's kinda cool!

Desast is fantastic here as well, but I feel like that one requires less elaboration on my part. He does a lot suffering in silence here, helped along by those stylish symbolic shots of him fading away (which are also used for Ren to further tie them together, because Kamihoriuchi is the man), and that's a thing I'm always down for in tokusatsu -- when you're made to feel the sorrow of a monster. What I said last time about rooting for Desast's happiness still totally stands. I mean, with both Ren (accidentally) and Storious (intentionally) rubbing in how he was given a life with no real purpose, it's hard not to care about him. Like, somebody has to, right?

So yeah, those two are very much the central players here, and all that material is just great. Because it's a Kamihoriuchi episode, too, I can only do it so much justice, because as always, a lot of what makes it such a strong episode is in how well the scenes are constructed and acted, with silences that often say so much more than words could communicate.

Heck, this episode is so good, it even made me care about Storious again almost instantly? Even his dumb voice sounds genuinely cool to me now, which is possibly even crazier than me liking Ren. It was the smallest thing, but it was also the biggest thing -- him killing Tassel. It's a great scene for Tassel, if it's really his last, with all these untold years of emotion pouring out into this heartfelt plea to an old friend, but what ended up impressing me the most there was what happens when Tassel hugs him and apologies right at the end, after he's been stabbed. Storious is visibly shaken, and that is *everything* to me. It's a sign that Fukuda was the one writing this. It's the proof that Storious isn't just interchangeable with Master Logos. Because Master Logos legitimately had no heart, and yet most villains in Fukuda's Rider shows do, no matter how buried they are. It's a moment that's mostly implying depth right now, so it's still a matter of where the show wants to take everything by the finale, but I seriously appreciate seeing even that mere implication of some extra layers to the main villain.

Outside of all that, the thing that I most want to say about this episode is how much I also love the scenes of the Northern Base crew just being kinda... domestic? Like, the show makes it a point to keep fitting in goofy antics with them all being a dumb family together, and now even Sophia is getting in on it. It's wonderful.

One little detail I absolutely loved, among all the obviously symbolic shots in this episode, was how Storious temporarily lost his creepy echo voice and the dark makeup around his eyes in that conversation with Tassel. Since he gained those traits after taking Isaac's book and sword, they functioned as sort of an indicator of his role as the big bad (even though he'd also been a villain for most of the show without them). So when he lost them in that moment, it gave the impression that Tassel was appealing to the good person he used to be, and even getting through to him! I almost actually believed it would work. And when the echo and makeup came back right as he killed Tassel, that made his final betrayal hit even harder. It's little touches like this, that they really didn't have to do, that make a good episode into an excellent episode.

I do find it somewhat amusing that Storious's motivation boils down to "I'm going to end the world because someone has to eventually and no one else will do it beautifully enough."

Destroying the world to make a 'beautiful story'? Storious just needs a creepy doll on his shoulder to make everything perfect. :lol

Desast is best Desast

I do really like how the past two episodes gave a bit more depth to Tassel, Issac, Zoous, Legiel and Storious' past. Storious being a poet longing for a glorious ending, Issac longing for peace just as Tassel but having the fallout with the others along with the inability to bring an end to humanity's conflict no matter how hard he and Tassel tried ultimately leading him to madness, it's a pretty good backstory: Conflict manifesting between even those looking to bring peace.

I'm also gonna miss Desast when his time comes. Not to mention Falchion as a whole. I never expected a movie exclusive rider like him to become such an active and notable part of the main plot. Last we saw that was with Skull in W and...well I mean he was dead at that point. And while we did see characters like Aqua play big parts in a main plot, it wasn't in his origin series.

Uhh, that wasn't Issac, that was the first Master Logos. While they have the same actor, they are two different characters.

Literally a lot to unpack in this episode. I feel that Ren's motivation will come next week because he finally will stop being such a selfish git after getting his wakeup call at the end of the episode.

The entire 'mid credit' scene was everything.

Honestly, the last two episodes make up completely for my dislike of Tassel/Viktor as a character from the beginning of the season. How in literally 20 minutes of dialogue I can care about a character that I thought was superfluous is genius.

There's more that isn't being said by our Swordsman of Light. And that's gonna feel real bad if it happens like I think it's gonna.

Dark Sophia is interesting. Why create a new avatar when you already have the book and everything else? I guess we'll find out.

The scene with Daishinji and the onigiri was a killer. Had to rewatch it a couple of times.

Ren and Dezast are real bros man. I mean yeah Touma, Rintaro and Kento and Mei are the main friendship but Ren and Dezast just works well, you know? I like where that is going.

The way I see it Ren and Desast are the reverse Hell Brothers. The pupil outlives the master whereas in the case of Hell Brothers it was the other way around.

So it seems obtaining the power of Wonder World has the benefit of stopping Wonder World from getting a red sky (Fukuda's first episode since 31 and the sky turns red!) and bleeding in to our world. I guess this has been necessary since Storious screwed everything up 2000 years ago? Maybe if they can defeat the Megid plague, then Touma will be able to obtain the power of Wonder World without disappearing?

We see another new side of Daishinji. He's usually quite frank when he has an opinion, such as telling Ogami he's loud and telling Yuri he wants to study him. He's gradually come out of his shell around the younger Swordsmen as well and no longer needs to hide behind a book. But he doesn't seem to be capable of giving criticism to Sophia, despite having known her for at least 20 years. You think he has an interest outside of swords?

Tassel's death here seems to be similar to his banishment by Isaac, but based on how Yuri reacts (he's on both the giving and receiving end of "why didn't you say that sooner!" in this episode) and how Wonder World immediately goes to hell, there's a chance he might be gone for good. Maybe he'll find a way to come back though. I was surprised how much my opinion of him has changed from my initial indifference to feeling sympathy for his tragic backstory, getting betrayed by his friends and left alone for such a long time. His motivation was noble from the start, just wanting to spread love and peace to humanity, but unfortunately that goal was hijacked by an opportunist. He's exactly the kind of heroic person that Touma is and it makes sense why they were both chosen by incarnations of Luna.

I'm seeing a slither of depth behind Storious' motivation as well. It's similar to Bacht's in how they both revolve around bringing the world to an end since they only see despair in the future, but in Bacht's case, he was a misanthropist who believed the world deserved to end due to his unfortunate experience of humanity. In the same way that Legeiel is a parallel to Touma and Zooous is a parallel to Rintarou, I think Storious is a parallel to Kento, specifically during his time as Calibur. They were both inspired by the idealism of their friends, Tassel and Touma, but they let their hearts become eroded by cynicism and stopped believing in those dreams. Kento decided the end justifies the means, while Storious decided the means justify the end, to create the most entertaining end he thinks is the least the world deserves. He's somehow a romantic and a nihilist at the same time and that romance is going to make his sword a lot heavier than Bacht's and Isaac's, whose feelings were too shallow and too apathetic respectively. I think Storious might be more complex than he appears on the surface, as he seems genuinely regretful about killing Tassel. He might even be repressing his emotions towards Legeiel and Zooous as well, convinced that their deaths were inevitable and therefore, he did them a favor. That philosophy isn't going to hold and he's probably going to have a breakdown when he realizes how unnecessary his actions were.

Awesome to see more of Touma's and Desast's rivalry after Saber x Ghost! Touma was smart to point out how Ren and Desast have a lot in common, in ways they don't even realize or want to acknowledge. Ren envies Desast for having no friends and thinks he has it easy cause he's all alone, so he can focus on getting stronger without worrying about others. Desast claims he's fine with that, but it's clear from Saber x Ghost that he secretly longs for that kind of connection. Desast resents that Ren has so many people who care about him, but he denies himself that friendship, denies himself true strength.

Mei is great in this episode! I mean, she's always great, but she really shows it here. I love how it's not in her nature to just sit around at the base and instead she earnestly goes out to help the Swordsmen however she can. I'd totally be satisfied with her being the new Calibur. It's interesting to see her and Luna together here, since they're both the heart of the people close to them. I want to see where this goes, since I think Mei might be the perfect person to help Luna decide what she wants to do regarding Touma's destiny.

Dang. Saber really did pull out all the stops as the series progressed.

It went from: rushed and not enough development and world building, throwing out more toys than Black Friday. To something almost a masterpiece.

The stylized scenes with Desast and Ren were phenomenal, the scenes with Storius were superb, and the tone is perfect. I'm really impressed with everything so far, but I'll wait until the end to see how it fares against Zero-One.

Now I thought Desast was going to buy the farm this episode, but turns out that might be next episode. But everything here was fantastic, I really loved Desast throughout the show, but really wished he could show off some more.

Then we got Storius, whom as I thought, is a fitting final opponent for Touma, having some really good scenes here, though I'm still not a huge fan of his Batman voice, maybe it's because I liked his old personality better, but that doesn't make his character any less interesting.

And our boy, Tassel, may he rest in peace. Or bubbles, which I now can't get out of my head that all the bubbles in the Wonderworld are the spirits of dead people...

Next Week: "Hey Sophia! You have a sister!"