No, definitely, it's serving a good role in the episode for sure. I even consider it a particularly strong character moment for Ryouga? I like to think when he's doing his "do not anger me" bit here, it's directed at himself, and taken that way, him managing to stay his blade at the end says a ton about both how much he cares for Reika, and the pride he takes in being a disciplined warrior and all that. Plus, I think this is literally the only instance of Durendal actually using Kaiji as a sword? So that's a neat bonus.


Yeah, I mean, if I thought it was *that* huge a deal, I would've made a stink about where you were watching the crossover special, but at the same time, I don't think any suit is ever just a suit in one of these shows. Kento's already moved on by this point, yes, but I also think him only actually transforming into Espada again in this particular story acts as nice extra punctuation to some of the narrative beats in there. Kento's always been a guy tortured by his legacy, and I think between entrusting Kurayami to Yuri, defending his father's honor to the guy who took advantage of his righteousness, and properly reclaiming his own Rider identity, it all sorta fits together nicely to cement just how far he's come, you know? It's a tiny bit more of an event than just fighting some Sentai monster with his buddies, charming as that was.

Mind you, this is all coming from someone who was waiting months to see Espada again, rather than weeks, so like, of course I cared more about every little step of Kento integrating himself back into the group.

Youko was the pilot; you're thinking of Yuka.

You mean Yuka, right? Which one is Hikari? IDK

Seeing Keisuke Soma as Master Logos made me wonder if this was what people who watched Changeman in 1985 felt when they saw Burai in Zyuranger circa 1992, with the actor going from being the blue ranger with zero vocal talent to badass green ranger. :lolol
Because it was fun to see Soma go from a gold and navy-wearing sushi chef ranger back in 2009 to a maniacal villain rider in this. Loved loved loved Soma as Master Logos. :rock:
And for those who forgot or never knew I present to you Genta Umemori. :lolol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U98pbHUyG3w

You're both right. I was thinking "Yuka" but somehow ended up typing "Yoko." In my defense, their names are very similar. I also have trouble remembering, between Z and Taiga, which one was Haruki and which was Hiroyuki.

There's a lot more humanity to it, which is nice. I'll probably talk more about this in the Series Wrap-Up post (a week from... Friday?), but I think a lot of the unlikable aspects of Reika's character, the bits that rang phony, were all decisions to play her villainous role as a Sly Schemer, instead of a deluded true believer. So much of Reika's early stuff seemed like the actor trying to add a bit of mystery, but then the eventual reveal of her role as an unquestioning follower means that a) we pivot too quickly into her not really having any authority or initiative; and b) it misses out on what could've been a more compelling story about the pressures of command, or how to rally people around the idealized values of a faceless company. Instead, she's just a suspicious weirdo until she's a fawning sidekick. Not my fave!

I see your point, but I'd rather keep the momentum going on these final episodes. Sword of Logos is going to be right after the Series Wrap-Up post, and -- following Kurona's request/advice -- I'll just tack on Trio of Deep Sin and the Sabela/Durandal flick to the end of the thread, rather than do them after Revice.

I mean, no one's tossing Kamijo's name in here, so there's at least some awareness amongst our heroes that Kamijo took things way too far. Hayato was legit deceived by Master Logos, his actual boss, so there's a bit more cover to his motivations and morality.

Oh, I just meant that seeing the suit again was not that big a deal to me -- Kento being Espada full time again is a pretty big deal! I don't, uh, I don't know that the show made a big deal about it onscreen -- there's more weight to him rejoining the guild than there is to his first Espada Henshin back, if I recall -- but it's for sure nice to see him fighting alongside his friends in that classy suit.

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 41 - “TWO THOUSAND YEARS, TO WEAVE A SINGLE WISH”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber41a.png

I sort of hate how perfect Storious is for this show’s final villain.

I still don’t like him. I’ve found his presence over the last forty episodes to be more of a distraction than an enhancement. His new Scratchy Deep Villain Voice is maybe funnier than the voice he did for the HBV. He lacks the compelling theatricality of Isaac, substituting a grim menace that comes off pedestrian by comparison. He’s never been entertaining, and that didn’t exactly stop being the case this episode, despite it arguably being his highlight. I don’t like watching him.

But, goddamn, the idea of him as the final boss is perfect.

Storious is a man of stories, and he’s obsessed with endings. To him, a story is only worth telling if the ending resonates. The ending is why we tell stories, to his thinking. So he wants to end the world because that’s what gives the world meaning; before they die, everyone on the planet is boring, pointless. He wants to see how it all ends, so he’s going to end it. While a character like Touma might value the journey of a story – the place where we learn about others and invest in people – Storious is only here to shut it all down. The destination is all that matters to him.

It’s the best meta villain a season-long story could have, and I wish the execution were as exciting as the reveal. Storious was a lame leader of a lame group. He was frequently upstaged by the lousy CG of his headquarters, and he’s barely able to rise above the other scenes of an episode full of exposition. This show gambled big on asking an average actor playing an adequate villain to somehow level up into a final boss between episodes, and it just doesn’t happen. The show tries to get him there by providing a brilliantly thematic motivation, but the performance and presence is just… it’s just henchman level. It’s not a big boss.

The rest of the episode is solid enough, with a mix of exposition (Tassel!), uplifting camaraderie (Touma!), and bittersweet foreboding (Desast!).

Let’s hit that last one first, because it’s easily the best part of this episode. Desast takes up the Sword of Ruin, henshins into Kamen Rider Falchion, and proceeds to have an epic battle against Storious. (I love that Desast has fallen into accidental heroism because he’s having too much fun to let someone destroy the entire Earth right this second. Later, maybe. But not now.) Sadly, it’s a thrilling battle that leaves Desast probably almost dead, so he’s going to have one last duel against Ren before he goes.

(The Ren stuff with Touma… it’s okay? It’s a very incremental restatement of their status quo. Didn’t super need it here, but it’s okay as a reminder.)

Touma gets a much more upbeat plot, despite being told by Tassel that he’s destined to choose between Luna and his friends. It’s a feint by the show, though, because Touma’s well past the point of taking anyone’s word about what he’s destined to do: he’s going to decide how this story ends. So he’s like Why Not Both, and reiterates his goal to have all of his friends – Luna included – as part of his life. It’s a great swerve away from a more generic Touma Has To Make An Impossible Choice story, because he’s grown beyond other people limiting his choices.

It’s a decent enough episode, for how it juggles a fun fight and a library’s worth of exposition. I even liked the reveal of Storious’s motivation. I just wish it were a motivation for anyone other than Storious. Think how much more fun it’d be if Zooous was doing flips right now!

—

HELLO SADNESS

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber41b.png

Kento’s blood ran cold.

Luna’s absence had been an open wound in his life, and in his friendship with Touma. The battle to get her back had been fraught and painful. Everything in their lives hinged on Luna being back for good. Luckily, they’d found her. Touma had located a girl that had vanished through tragedy by never giving up on her.

But finding Luna never seemed to be as difficult as holding onto Luna. She’d barely materialized in their reality before she was kidnapped by Master Logos. Touma had saved her from apocalyptic sacrifice, but then she evaporated into glowing dust. Yuri’s friend had found her in the Wonder World, but it was only through the combined efforts of Touma, Kento, and Rintaro that she was kept from Solomon’s clutches. Everything about her seemed to exist in peril, continuously, almost gravitationally. They couldn’t ever seem to keep her safe for good.

Now she was with Yuri’s friend, who… what did they even know about him? That he’d been murdered at least once by Isaac? That he’d taken Luna to a place she was almost abducted from previously? That they had no idea if anyone else was looking for her? That she could already be captured?

Kento knew this feeling. This was the world he lived in for months, as he battled his friends to protect Touma and the world. This was fear, and guilt. It was him losing the faith that pulled him back from the brink of death. He felt it pull him back like all those foes who pulled Luna away.

He took a deep breath.

There was nothing to be afraid of. Touma had saved Luna. The end. It was over. She was safe in the Wonder World. Nothing was going to get to her. There was no reason to doubt their victory.

Kento was glad he could put this irrational fear to rest.

I think what makes Storious work for me... is why exactly you think it doesn't hit well. Like, you can tell that man is absolutely forcing his voice to sound like that, he's a guy who happened to get drunk on power and decided "Yo, endings are cool, I'm going to do this" despite sitting back for a good while and really not having the right engagement to end up as our finale villain.

He is trying to force a square block into a circular hole and damn it I will applaud him for that!

That being said the big star of this episode is Desast who gets to take up the mantle of Falchion for a fun fight with Storious and Charybdis who ends up getting a pretty beefy upgrade to his suit later on in the episode. But uh yeah... Desast's not looking too hot after that fight, huh?

And sadly on that note, no more new Desast Walks... yet.

Also wow. Uh. That story hit hard purely because this story of Kento reminds me of how sometimes I will suddenly jump to the worst conclusion of something before just barely pulling myself back. So um, bravo? I think.

And that's cool! A lot of my objection to Storious is just never ever finding him interesting as a character (except for a couple minutes in the HBV), and that feeling becoming so ingrained at this point in the series that it's virtually impossible to change my mind. It's not ruining the show, but I'm always going to like the idea more than the performance.

Sorry? Maybe?

The short there was really about two things that were on my mind. The first is that Kento's depression is probably going to be a battle forever with him, and it's not a villain he's vanquished. There's something within him that is used to making decisions out of fear, and not trusting his friends to take care of themselves, and he's going to internally push back on that for the rest of his life.

The other thing is that GODDAMN IT you have to keep Luna under a goddamn lock and key or she's just going to vanish when your back is turned. Like, Princess Peach thinks this girl gets kidnapped too often.

Yes, Storius is the perfect final villain for this story thematically. As for his behavior: remember, you wrote that we found Isaac in the final part of his 14-year plan? So this plan was only a part of the 2000 year plan of Storius and therefore everything applies to it too. He didn't show up bright throughout the show because he didn't have to.
It's also very interesting that Storius' relationship with Desast actually matches his HBV characterization as an indifferent creator. Only without the humorous grotesqueness of course.
Fanfiction is good.

I see you've come around on Zoous' flips! Proud of you