I'll just leave this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pik92TYv52c

Not much to say about this one other than "everybody should be watching this show". Also I think I love Zero now? No idea how that happened, but, here I am.

This episode was great. Seems like shit gets real whenever Galactron shows up.

The Geed Claw is kind of dumb, but eh whatever. Sell those toys I guess.

Oh, Leito's wife is totally Mizuki from Ultraman Max. Took me long enough to realise that.

Yeah I'm not a big fan of the Geed claw either. This thing is just too small and toy-looking to have any real impact.

The episode itself was great though. Loved the idea of Kei rewriting Zero's battles to make Belial the hero.

Zero's sacrifice would have been a much bigger moment is we didn't immediately know he was coming back next week. Magazine scans/next week previews spoil so much these days :lol

Still not a big fan of Zero's new form though.

DAAAAANNNNNNNGGGGGG...
Fukuide is straight-up lying about Zero and his heroics?! AND PRINTING MONEY BY DOING SO.

That's a problem the last few Ultra shows have had. The Orb Calibur and Xlugger were both really dinky and plastic-looking, too.

I kind of assumed the Geed Claw would be like the Max Galaxy, more of an extra set of finishers rather then an actual weapon, because it kind of looks out of its element being used like a proper weapon. I like the weapon but I would have preferred it to have just be used for special attacks.

I kinda liked the Orb Calibur bar the constant toy demos that came with it, but yeah I agree about the Xlugger.

I think the toy-demos are the stupidest thing about those weapons, how they always cut to the human form using it like "See kids this is how you play with this, now ask your parents to buy it already". Rider and Sentai are a lot more subtle with this kinda stuff, wish Ultraman learned it too.

Design-wise I dig all of the weapons, but they need to treat them less like toys in-universe.

As for Geed specifically, I like that he "unlocked" the claw, yet I hate that he uses it in base-form too, I prefer it if weapons belong to a specific form. They kinda play with this by having each form use it differently but still, I don't feel like the base form needs this and neither do the others really.

The toy demo things are definitely one of the most notable aspects of the post-Ginga Ultraman shows. Especially with the transformation sequences, they just sort of create this disconnect between what the human form is doing to what's actually happening. I'd say Orb was probably the best at doing them. Since we always see Gai in that black undersuit whenever he transforms, it sort of implies that all the motions and things he does with the cards are happening in his mind rather than being some literal thing that he's doing. Similarly, the way they used the Orb Calibur was better since they also show the Ultraman form doing all those motions, rather than just the human form.