Man, for me it was the other part, Ren/Desast vs Sabela. It's fun to see Desast try and give this goofy kid some space, and then have to bail him out so he doesn't get murdered. That, and Desast being able to track Sabela's smoke movements because he can smell her? Very fun set of combatants!

Thanks! I'm just trying to right an egregious wrong from this series. It blows my mind that we had Yuri hanging out on the Tassel set for two episodes without him providing the introduction. Cancel this show!

I guess I appreciate Saber trying to do something to make Ren more relatable and, in fairness, making him the show's equivalent of Punch Hopper feels about right. If I'm being honest, pairing him up with Desast really does help the character a lot. I still like to rag on him for my own amusement, though.

I mean, it still took the show twenty-six episodes to make Ren a compelling character, so I think it's okay to rag on him?

Oh yes, now we are cooking. After Desast kept teasing it for ages, he's finally got that team up with our local toxic ninja he's been vying for! You gotta bet happy for the guy. Rintaro's arc was what kept me watching the show for awhile as it was airing, but this duo is officially worth the Price of Admission for me, and are still my main incentive to do a Saber rewatch, even though I think the show is largely a mess!

Also, as someone who watched Kabuto after Saber, I do like the compare and contrast between the two duos. I get the obvious comparison, they both reject the protagonist-centric spotlight of the narrative through their partnership, but while the Hellbros instantly knew what they were about, which was being a garbage crab bucket that'd keep pulling each other down to wallow in hell, Ren and Desast are still aiming for... Something, together. Maybe they haven't figured it out yet. We'll just have to see!

#Desast'sWalk vs #Kenzan'sWalk is still so ridiculous to me, by the way. Desast's twitter bit was so popular for them that they /choreographed and filmed an entirely new fight scene/ purely as part of it. And then included a version with sound on the bluray! Bluray twitter content... fantastic.

Oh, for sure. Each pair is reacting to the themes of the main narrative, and the themes of Kabuto and Saber are very very different. Yaguruma and Kageyama are helping the show explore individual achievement and validation in a world that wants to codify and rank those things; they're dealing with a world where Tendou exits. For Saber -- and I don't 100% know where this Ren/Desast thing is going -- I see it more being about a belief that doesn't have anywhere to live, a sense of hope that doesn't have an end result. These two aren't the hilarious nihilists of Kabuto, but they definitely have a similarly wayward, violent charm to them.

Not much to say here, so here’s a few memes.

First off, we reveal that the whole plot was kicked off by the two characters whose actors were in Shinkenger.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...8/IMG_8619.PNG

And then, there’s the comic I promised related to Reika’s newfound hesitance to mindlessly follow orders.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...1/IMG_1727.JPG

Yes, this is the beginning of Ren's official partnership with Dezast. And also the beginning of at least some development for the character of Ren, who until then had only been in the background and interfered with other, more likeable heroes. The fight with Sabella was great too.
As for Touma and Kento's line, I like that they are still friends, even though circumstances and their own judgments make them go against each other. We can also see how Kento's confidence in the imminent apocalypse is gradually cracking, which only his self-sacrifice can prevent. In the doomsday visions, Mei was dying and Rintaro was losing to Zuus. However, it seems that these inconsistencies are still not enough to convince him.
Master Logos is good because he is an obvious villain. Also, as you correctly noted earlier, he is at the final stage of his plan and therefore can afford to be unrestrained. And this is not the expressiveness of Dan Kuroto, who stopped pretending. This is the baloney of a scoundrel, confident that he has already won and only minor formalities remain. Of course, the audience and even the characters of the show understand that he is greatly mistaken, but the Master Logos himself does not know this.
I liked the fanfiction.

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 33

https://i.imgur.com/Lxpws7c.jpg

I was really into the scenes with Touma and Kento in this one, if that's any surprise to anybody. Them talking under that tree is yet another scene I immediately think of as defining why I love Saber.

The direction the show took Kento in by making him Calibur, it was always so impressive to me how it did that without ever trying to make him a villain, and more than that, how we see with scenes like this that he's barely even an antagonistic force right now. The person Kento has always been the best at getting in the way of is himself, you know? That's what makes that conversation so immensely compelling to me. It's these two dear friends who still love each other deeply despite being unable to reconcile their differences, and that's where the drama comes from. It breaks my heart when Touma can't help but bluntly ask his friend to come back to him, with a desperation in his voice suggesting he knows that's exactly the wrong thing to say right now. They're both hurting deeply, and they don't know how to make it stop. That's such a neat angle to me, as a way to tell a superhero story. Where most shows might make a strained friendship a cautionary tale about the danger of giving in to hatred, Saber chooses to portray a suffering that can only come from unwavering, unconditional love, and explore how the characters navigate that instead.

There are plenty of other great things in this episode worth talking about, of course, but none of them are ever going to feel as special to me -- as particular to this series -- as that.

Thanks for the memes!

Master Logos is a fun take on the Unhinged Mastermind villain-type because he thinks anyone opposing him is hilarious. Like, Touma saying that Master Logos doesn't have the right to torture all of humanity -- eternally -- for his own amusement just sounds ludicrous to Logos. Of course he does! Stop being such a weirdo about this, Touma!

It's always nice when these shows can make room for offbeat, character-driven explorations of emotional conflict. Like, just slowing things down enough for Kento to forget all of his brooding posturing and just try and connect with the world, instead of separating from it as a form of self-defense... very fun way of getting at the distance between these two dudes, rather than a hundred screaming fight scenes.

And it also... I really like how we keep getting these hints that the Sword of Darkness has its own agenda? Like, it will always show Kento some horrible thing that's about to happen -- Master Logos attacking -- but it keeps not showing the good things that might/will happen, like Touma showing up with a much-needed picnic. Kento is maybe soon going to start putting the pieces together that he ain't toting around the Sword of Prophecy; he's wielding the Sword of Darkness.

Oh, and speaking of Master Logos, this episode also has my other definitive Master Logos line, which is when he describes the world he wants to create as one where the sound of birds chirping in the morning is replaced by people's screams, and then rhetorically asks if that doesn't sound like fun. In general, I think Uchida had a really great grasp on how to get the most out of Master Logos' dialogue -- making him surprisingly eloquent in a way that just makes his blatant unhinged insanity all the more (entertainingly) despicable -- and that bit is a particularly strong example of that.

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 34 - “AWAKEN ONCE MORE, SWORDSMAN OF IMMORTALITY”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber34a.png

Man, even for the swordsman show with headswords and literal sword mans, this was totally The Sword-Fighting Episode. Just a ridiculous amount of fights, almost wall to wall, bell to bell.

As such, sort of not my speed? I enjoyed seeing Falchion come back, for sure. I liked the little bit of Yuri’s backstory that mirrors and comments on the Touma/Kento relationship. But there’s just a little too much action here, for my tastes. Not enough meat on the bone, I guess.

Like: the Durandal/Blades fight. What in the world is Ryoga even doing there? Master Logos was just like Concentrate On Touma, which is exactly what Reika’s doing. Why is Ryoga skulking around an underpass, hoping he’ll get to challenge Rintaro to another fight? Why not just have Falchion wander in and find Rintaro, and skip to the chase? Why introduce Durandal into the fight in such a bizarre way, when he doesn’t really have any impact on the story being told?

Even Falchion’s rampage through this episode, despite a new backstory that has echoes of the dissolution of Touma and Kento’s partnership (Yuri’s version even did the same Three Musketeers thing!), just had this weird shrug of I Don’t Know Why Not. We’re in a shit-stirring phase of Master Logos’s stratagem, where he’s just throwing antagonists against the wall to see what detonates. Falchion’s here to be a new guy to fight, and that's the extent of Logos's decision-making here.

I did like that the episode crafted a parallel Friendship storyline for Yuri, Falchion, and I’m gonna go ahead and say Desast. (Wild guess! He’s hunched in a real Desast way in the flashback!) They were friends, everything went sideways, and Falchion gave himself over to nihilism in the name of cosmic truth. It’s all very Kento, which isn’t lost on anyone, especially Kento himself. For a dude who’s obsessed with an unavoidable future, it’s nice to have the thing that maybe jars him out of his isolation be something that happened centuries ago. Falchion’s a guy who destroyed his friendships because he thought he was doing the only thing that made sense, but from the outside it was pure insanity. There’s a part of Kento that starts to realize that maybe he’s gotten too wrapped up in his own fatalism, rather than ignoring his fears and trusting in Touma.

I mean, it helps that Luna finally shows up in the cliffhanger! That’s gonna make for a complicated next episode…

—

RAISED ALL WRONG

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber34b.png

As he searched another deserted alleyway for Ren, Ogami thought about the last few months.

They were… not great. Things had gone from bad to worse, with his most recent hospitalization as succinct a statement as he could imagine. The Southern Base had turned against the Northern Base. Fukamiya had been led astray by Master Logos. Kamijo was both a traitor and a martyr. Kento was cursed to death, and now he’d returned as a brooding outsider. And Ren…

Where to start with Ren? Ogami shook his head as he thought about whether he should be proud of that kid for following his own path, or give him a kick in the ass and tell him to get home to the Northern Base. He’d always been a handful; excitable and easily distracted, never willing to focus on the mission when there was fighting to be done. Now that he’d lost Kento’s guidance, Ren was spinning out of control.

Ogami hoped he’d be able to get through to Ren, if and when he found him. He’d cared about the kid, for sure, but he was more scared of what his own future looked like if he found himself unable to corral a willful, sword-wielding young man.

He didn’t like to compare Sora to Ren, since it honestly didn’t flatter either one of them, but Ogami found himself doing it more often as Sora got older. Sora was going to want to be a swordsman, Ogami was certain of it. You couldn’t have a dad as cool as him without wanting to follow in his footsteps, and it was especially inescapable if your dad was a genuine superhero. (Ogami usually went with Warrior or Soldier, but Sora said Superhero, and it stuck.) And, truth to tell, Ogami would be proud to train Sora to be the next Buster. The kid had a good heart, and would be a fine swordsman.

But there were the teenage years to consider, and the guild didn’t have a tremendous track record lately for safeguarding the minds and hearts of young men. For every bullet they dodged with a Rintaro, they were hit by a Kento. Would Sora come out the other side of his training with a crushing sense of responsibility that made him convinced of his own inadequacy before overcoming it, or with a crushing sense of responsibility that turned him against all of his friends in the name of preventing a theoretical apocalypse? Fun choices.

Well, maybe Sora would turn out like Ren, and just wander off when things got too messy. It wasn’t the worst plan. For all of the craziness the last few months, Ren had mostly stayed out of it. Even when he was the most wound up over Kento’s absence, Ren had been willing to listen to Ogami’s advice. Huh. Maybe Ren would turn out okay after all. And maybe Sora would, too.

Ogami truly was the king of parenting. Why’d he ever doubt himself?

So we get Falchion back this episode and some nice little small beats with Yuri and such.

I do like that Touma and Yuri "duel" at the very start with a way of sort of figuring that Luna might show up if Touma tries to recreate what he accidentally did before. And while it did have the setup of a duel, I did like how it ended up being a sparring match between two partners who have been through a lot together in the past few months.

Other than that... I agree on the redundancy of the Durendal stuff. It was likely there to give Rintaro a clean win against Ryoga, and really they should've just skipped to Bahato finding and attacking Rintaro.

That being said the stakes are really starting to stack further and you really have to wonder how much more inching we're going to do? Cause Yuri was poofed this episode, and we've slowly been losing our other Riders as well through various means. And that's not counting the fact that Kenzan is very much handicapped even if he does have a buddy in Desast.

As for Desast! No Desast Walk this time.

As for our story though, nice to see you getting back into Ogami's boots after a while. I do love the sort of compare and contrast/worry he has for Sora should the kid ever want to try out for the position of a Kamen Rider. Real nice piece tbh.

The Yuri stuff... like, I appreciate how it helps Kento see how weird he's gotten, by comparing his arc to Falchion's, but I think the whole I Had An Identical Friend Group thing of Yuri's is maybe a thousand percent too on the nose. It's too sudden of a reveal, and too analogous to the main narrative for even Yuri -- the king of thinking things don't need to be stated or explained -- to not have had it come up yet. It's all a little too retcon-y for me, maybe.

Thanks! I had literally no idea what that story was going to be as I was writing it (just, like, Ogami Is On His Own, zero sense of what that was going to be), and I think it landed in a neat place that's unique to Ogami's fears and hopes.

The return of Falchion is cool. When else did the villain from the film appear in his own show? Also, for me, Yuri's story not only creates a parallel with our main trio, but also explains how Falchion came to be like that. It also shows that Yuri simultaneously wielded the swords of Light and Darkness and this did not kill him.
As for the fight between Blades and Durandal, it is needed to a) show that Rintaro is also stronger than Ryoga;
b) Show how they freeze each other;
c) I'm repeating myself, but this will also pay off in the future.
Overall, not a favorite, but a very intense episode.
Fanfiction is good. You haven't thought about Ogami in a while, almost since he joined Touma's team.

Gaoh, the guy from the OOO movie, Kougane, Dark Drive, Dark Ghost, the guy from the Ex-Aid movie and the trio from Be The One, and if you?re referring to ?after the movie?, numbers 2 and 3 apply for that.

Well, I meant more or less full-fledged participation in the plot. All of the above examples are more about cameos that you blink and miss.

While that underpass is a memorable place for many Tokusatsu fights, I think this show uses it way too much here. First in Episode 11 and now twice in a row. Rintarou and the others came here as it was the last place Ren was sighted yesterday, like they were somehow expecting him to still be hanging around that place. Ryouga only adds to that contrivance.

Another weird setting choice is the duel between Saber and Saikou. They're having a fight in full view of all the cars driving by. Couldn't they have picked somewhere more private?

Do you think Desast is the kind of person who would cut down civilians in cold blood though? Bacht's family were innocent and defenseless, which would be against Desast's desire for the thrill of fighting Swordsmen.

For sure, Yuri, Bacht and Traitor-san have a superficially similar dynamic to the core 3 Swordsmen. Although it's not quite a perfect comparison, as Rintarou and Traitor-san are basically opposites in regards to their loyalty. However, the Touma/Yuri and Kento/Bacht parallels are important. I like how Yuri's trying to redeem himself here by helping Touma to save his best friend, which he failed to do 1000 years ago with Bacht. Yuri wishes he had Touma's reach to save people instead of banishing/killing them, as Yuri now regrets not doing more to help Bacht find hope after seeing how Touma can do that.

Luna! Yeah, next episode's got a lot of crazy stuff happening and I totally don't want to spoil the fun by talking about it. So look forward to that! :D

Congrats on your 900th post!

I feel like Bacht's story might've been planned for a longer usual-size movie, until you-know-what screwed everything up, so the rest was added to the show instead. That would explain why his reintroduction here is kind of messy, in addition to everything else happening, rather than feeling like a development that should've happened naturally. Not that I'm complaining though. I think Bacht is a good villain and when this episode does eventually delve in to his backstory, it's actually pretty cool!

If we draw the analogy further, then the tragedy in the past occurred because Yuri and Bakht did not have their own Rintaro. This makes this eclair lover even more appreciated. Still, I'm sorry that the traitor remained a faceless scoundrel with no motivation. Not that I want an excuse for him, but a more detailed disclosure of this story would clearly not hurt. Maybe someday TTFC will release a Saiko and Falchion special.

Thank you.

I can imagine it. Or even an option where he appears as the "Saber`s villain " in a crossover with Zero-One, and then returns in a summer movie, where his backstory and connection with Yuri is revealed.

I've been busy the last couple of days, so a couple of small commnts

- Ren and Dezast teaming up is the impetus I needed to care a lot more about both of these dorks, bumming around in search of focus and someone to fight.

- I lik bringing Bacht back here? It's nice to tie him into Yuri's backstory, for both their sakes, elavating him from being generic apocalypse villain into yet another SOL traitor/failure (they don't have a great track record really), and it's nice to see the actor back. It's fun is my main takeaway!

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 34

One really clever thing about this episode that I didn't realize at first was that the (already quite neat) parallel between past friendships and modern ones is much less 1:1 than it probably seems like at first. The obvious comparison to make is that Bacht (or Bahato or whatever) is the Kento of that old group -- the guy who fell into darkness and couldn't be saved, underscoring how Touma needs to step up in a way Yuri wasn't able to and make sure their story doesn't end the same.

The thing is though, the guy Yuri is seeing most in Kento here is actually himself, which is even more interesting to think about. Kento may be on one heck of a nihilistic streak, but he isn't someone looking to end the world. He's someone who can no longer trust his friends, and has chosen the path of sealing away something to serve a greater good. And *that* is 100% Yuri, as we first met him. It's sort of easy to forget, but Yuri is yet another on the long list of people in this series who struggled with faith in some way. Before we even knew his name, we knew he was keeping some ancient power hidden because he thought people weren't responsible enough to handle it. He always held on to his righteous duty, but the way he went about it, prior to meeting Touma, involved a millennium of being detached from humanity in a very literal sense. He turned his back on people as a whole, and gave up on hope. This episode does a fantastic job calling attention to how much character growth Yuri has actually had to this point, with some of Tomohiro Ichikawa's most subtly emotional acting in the series as he talks about how Touma gave him something to believe in again after all this time. Those last few words before he fades away, they're very much imploring Kento to let Touma change him for the better, the same way Touma changed Yuri, and it's a great little moment. I've established how much I love the current Touma/Kento drama already, so having one of my other de facto top-three Saber characters get looped into that in such a thoughtful way just made me that much happier.

And it's hardly the only cool thing in this episode! Obviously Falchion's return is the big thing to mention. I don't recall exactly what was first said or where, but we actually got told explicitly back when the short film was being promoted that the character would eventually connect to the TV show in a very direct way. I forget if it was *explicitly* said he'd just like, show up, as a major guest character driving an entire episode, but we were definitely prepared for this to happen. And again, as far as ideas that keep the momentum up after Primitive Dragon, this is a pretty exciting one! Not at all something that happens every day, and considering the awesome as heck suit design and extremely charismatic actor portraying him, it was probably a smart move to get some more screentime out of the guy. Mercifully, they also waited until late enough into the show that all of us outside of Japan were able to see the movie first, which made it that much cooler.

(Oh, and also, I'm going to go ahead and push back a little on your criticisms of Ryouga's role here, Die. His motivation is spelled out pretty clearly right at the start, with him being frustrated at the suggestion of Master Logos relying on Bacht instead of his actual loyal servants. The entire reason he's there is explicitly to be there before Falchion is. It's a matter of pride, which is a central character trait for the guy that is further established for the long run by having him behave in a manner consistent with that personality here. How cleanly it fits into this one specific episode, or how much it adds to it as a contained narrative, I can't speak for off the top of my head, but like with most things in this series, there's definitely some degree of purpose to it.)

At first it just feels that despite Ren being a social darwinist it seems that he only acknowledges certain people he admires like Kento, while he'd be envious of other strong people like Touma and for here, perhaps both Shindai siblings and obviously Desast. Actually it seems that even people like Ren has some standards in how he's annoyed by the Shindai sibilings behavior which he labels as always fishy. Kenzan and Sabela's fight happens here where Sabela still also displays her dominatrix-esque trait by stepping on Kenzan like she did on Slash. Despite Ren's brattiness, he can feel as if he's the stronger one in his debut, but that can be like the series showing off new Rider, but is it proven here when he holds his own better against Sabela than Buster and Slash or that Sabela is also 'nerfed' from her debut? Though obviously the one that can actually overwhelm Sabela is upgraded Blades.

Kinda hilarious that my previously mentioned suggested twist (as you didn't reach that stage yet) about Sophia may be the Luna in present day ends up partially true here where Sophia is created as a Luna clone, of which it means technically she's not as old as her actress as she's created after Luna (who is most likely on Touma and Kento's age range), despite that her actress is on iirc Ogami and Daishinji's age range. I guess it may be true that Master Logos only merely provide some context for viewers, as his target is still Luna, instead of making use of an existing one in Sophia here which'd mean that information is more important that way.

Seems that this is how the idealistic main protagonists often solve conflicts tbh, which is probably one of the reasons why what they do isn't convincing and that they're just favored by the stories. Though obviously here Touma failed to get Kento back. The only reason that Kento stays is that he's hungry. Though Kento has seen real proof of the future changing that the events aren't what he saw, and his rejection is also symbolized by Touma finding Mei's pin of him in the ground being left. I'd be interested if there'd be more people who talks in the same way as like Tezuka in Ryuki or Yuuji in Faiz, in main protagonist role. Actually, in Ex-Aid, in contrast to his tactics as Genius Gamer M, didn't really like that post-redemption Parado also only talks like this to Graphite to try convincing him to help him, success or no.

So, I wonder if you'd think he fills the needed place of the more engaging main antagonist, compared to the Book Club (of which yeah I think there's almost nothing to Legeiel or Zooous, with them only getting more of them in their death, though Zooous gives many reaction from Rintaro). It's also a crazy feat that he manages to fight both Riders while staying in his seemingly human form. And while Saber is a more lighthearted series, there's a villain who is on the running on one of the most depraved here, who is the one running the good guy faction, in Master Logos' pure sadism and pettiness by, yeah Kamijo was proven true that he corrupted Kurayami to trick Hayato into sacrificing Luna.

Thanks! He's a fun character to think about, since he's not as high-minded in his actions as a lot of the other characters... but since he's not as high-minded, it makes him a little more difficult to really crack open. He's-- Ogami's a very straight-forward dude, which is awesome for a TV ensemble, but makes me draw a blank most times when I go to write.

Brooding Roof was booked for a wedding!

It's the best decision this show could've made.

It's a real cool finale, with all four swordsmen trying to work out their complicated dynamic. Can't complain about it, emotionally!

So, I hope I didn't make it sound unexpected or unprecedented -- this is a guy who's an established antagonist with a remit to punish wayward swordsmen; this isn't Kamen Rider Rey showing up to challenge Rintaro for Best Snow-Themed Furry Kamen Rider -- so much as I found it unnecessary and uncharacteristic.

The big problem I have is that I don't know why Ryoga's fighting Rintaro right this minute. When he leaves Master Logos, the order has been given to target Touma, and ignore the other swordsmen. If Ryoga's furious at the suggestion that he's unequal to the task, and that he needs to prove himself over a psychopath like Falchion, why not go with Reika, who is actually following Touma and sees Falchion first? Why go fight some random dude, in a random place, for no real reward? Why disobey Master Logos -- which feels very out of character at this point in the show -- to go pick some pointless fight? None of it really made any sense to me. Sorry if this is a sore spot!

Ha ha, YES. YES, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. Master Logos is exactly the sort of late-stage adversary this show needed, and all of his scenes so far have been a delight. He's maybe the first non-Kento villain I've really looked forward to seeing?

No such order was given, to my knowledge? Reika and Ryouga are indeed told to stick to watching Touma because of Luna's sudden appearance, but Falchion is let loose to fight all the swordsmen, because Master Logos wants all their stuff eventually (so there's your reward), and Ryouga wants to prove he can do that better than some crazy old dude, while also taking the opportunity to test his mettle once again against the recently powered-up guy who just won against his beloved sister in the previous episode (so the choice of dude isn't random either). Ryouga lays this much out explicitly in his dialogue. It's bordering on disobeying orders, without totally crossing that line, so much like I believe we've seen Reika a bit worried about Master Logos by this point, you can see the two of them starting to chafe under the leadership a bit, despite being more loyal to the man in that position than anyone. As for the "in a random place" bit? I mean, yeah, probably a fair complaint! Bit of a classic tokusatsu shortcut sorta deal right there, with the "Ren was here earlier" justification being rather flimsy, but I just don't know if that one thing is enough to sink all the other logic behind the writing here? It checks out well enough as far as I can see.

Oh because here's a good a time as any, time to comment on Durendal's suit, because I forgot to do that earlier, and I think I've done literally every other one at this point. It sure it something. It's grown on me over time, and seeing clearer imags of it not surrounded by Saber-CGI means I can actually pick out the details, like the chest being a whale mouth, although I still find the multi-prong visor a little strange. I like the design of the time-sword too, especially in how it pulls the Wizard AxeCalibur trick of "Hold it by the blade to use it as another weapon", but that gets us into the increasing weirdness of it obviously being designed as a toy yet that toy came out several months later through Premium Bandai, such is the state of the franchise etc etc.

But Reika and Ryoga don't know that yet? A lot of stuff that follows on is real straightforward We Need To Have Characters Learn Things For Later stuff, and that's why all this is here, but I feel like this plot could've used at least one scene of dialogue to explain why Ryoga doesn't go with Reika. (It feels like she's the one who'd be more apt to slightly disobey orders in an attempt to impress someone?) And, why not just have Ryoga show up at the initial multi-person fight along the highway? I don't know, I get that it all seems clear and intentional to you, and I absolutely appreciate the response, but it still feels flimsy to me.

Also, I'm not even mad about Ryoga appearing out of a floorboard to challenge Rintaro, because that is Day 1 Kamen Rider transportation. (I mean, I've seen Wizard!) That's a more aesthetically-appropriate way of getting around than a motorcycle!

It is! I like the visor. I don't understand anything that's going on with his torso (Lunar cycles? Tide charts? Submarine targeting? Emoji???) but I like that, too.

If only you'd read the Ocean History book, I'm sure it would make perfect sense for you. Get on the oceanographer's level.

I think (??) it's a mix of "sonar pings" pluswhat looks like a sundial/compass, shaped to look like a mouth bcause the chestplate as a whole is a whale, then you have another blue circle because... reasons...? As undersea Riders go, he's not quite Poseidon, but I'd but him about equal with Abyss. OOO ShaUTa is somewhere in there too.

I anxiously await the debut of Gatriski, the Sword of Logos jet-ski, to really complete the package.

Also, I'm like one minute into Episode 35, and Luna is abducted literally the first time Touma turns his back. Like, the very second he turns to go yell at Kento, Luna is abducted. JESUS! This guy's luck! Reika's a great smoky ninja and all, but Touma's gotta feel like the narrative is explicitly against him fulfilling his promise. There's bad luck, and then there's Touma Questing For Luna...

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 35 - “ON THAT VERY DAY, I BECAME GOD”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber35a.png

Boy, that was some amount of plot! It’s an episode crammed with incident, but all in service of resetting the table. Everyone shows up to Promise Park for a swordfight, Master Logos wins, but then Touma wins, but then Master Logos still maybe wins, but then it’s all probably setting up Storious doing his own version of this scheme, but then Luna’s gone anyway. There’s a massive reestablishment of the status quo here (everyone gets their swords and books back), and it made me feel justified in not really caring about the arc-plot stuff in this episode.

But this is an episode where Touma’s hope becomes a literal bridge to reunite him with Luna, and that’s basically all I care about.

(Well, that and how pained Touma must’ve been to wake up in the recuperation room in a hoodie. Couldn’t they have found him a nice billowy nightgown? Or at least a nightcap? Touma almost died, people!)

This whole episode is about how much power Touma derives from his hope, and how seeing that hope rewarded, even briefly, allows him to weather more/the same hardship. He’s just dead set on rescuing Luna, no matter how absurdly stacked against him the odds are. (And yet he chides the de-sworded swordsmen for going to the park! A little hypocritical, Touma!) There’s no real plan, no real strategy. Even when Master Logos’s maneuvering drops a new/old book out of the sky, and it should be viewed at least a little skeptically, Touma slaps that thing into his belt and swings for the fences. There’s nothing but hope, and he makes it work.

It’s an episode that doesn’t exactly rely on exceptional plotting (folks just show up and get their swords ganked) or on memorable speeches (it’s a real TOUMA! and LUNA! episode of dialogue), but weirdly nails the little moments. Those shots of Touma and Luna existing in the same space. The way Touma keeps putting himself below Luna’s sightline. Kento’s nostalgic reframing of the trio as children again, the last time it all made sense. Even Touma sitting cross-legged in front of Luna and joking/admitting that getting her back has kind of been a giant pain in the ass. All those little beats sell Touma’s struggle and achievement in a way that’ll probably stick with me long after I’ve forgotten how inconsequential the rest of this episode felt.

Like, that shot up there. It’s worth an entire episode of weird arc-plot crap, easy. Real winner of a shot.

—

IF YOU’RE NOT DARK

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/saber35b.png

Calibur, or Espada?

Touma had won, impossibly, yet again. Luna was saved. The apocalypse was averted. Master Logos was thwarted. Kento could put down his burden, at last. He could go back home with his friends. They’d forgive him, in time. Their swords were back, good as new. He could atone, surely. If he picked up that golden sword, if he returned to service as Espada, he could make it right again. He could be happy.

Except.

Except, what if this was yet another lull in the storm? What if this was where it all went wrong again, when he let down his guard? He’d lived any number of futures where he thought the worst was avoided, only to have it strike when his guard was down. He’d felt the pull of Touma’s optimism the last few days, let the power of that hope steer him towards teamwork. And it had been nice, to see his friends smile a little bit in his presence. But Kento knew where that path led, and he wouldn’t let himself be swayed. If he hesitated now, if he hoped for the best, he might be dooming the world.

He had to brush that hope aside. He had to cling to the certainty of fear. He knew what would happen if he let himself be swayed by Touma’s ideals, and he needed to be strong enough to overcome them.

He grasped the hilt of the Sword of Darkness, pulled it from the ground, and left all hope behind.

So this episode birthed a legendary meme. Because... with a shot like this:

http://media.tenor.com/2eD3cAGuo9YAA...a-kamiyama.gif

Why wouldn't it?

That being said the heart was there for the latter half of it, and honestly I adore it as much as I laugh at the prelude to it. Even Touma's actor has joked about the scene as well, so that's always a delight.

I think what I liked most about this episode is Master Logos' big plan of, "I'm going to sit in this park and just let everyone come to me". Like... it works! In the span of like five minutes we get 5+ Swordsmen all in the same place with most of them defeated about a minute or two after they arrive.

There's a real chaotic feel to how the whole episode went and I honestly enjoyed it. Also there's just some small reactionary moments, like Desast being like "Hey buddy, you did it" to Ren after Hayate comes flying back to him.

There's also that small moment of Kento reaching for Ikazuchi only to pick Kurayami again. Like... we're so close! But Kento still needs time clearly.

And judging by your story... yep! Very much a similar train of thought when it came to delving into Kento's mind. Dude is like "Damn, I can't believe that happened" but his pure pessimism is what really gets him to choose Kurayami again despite what Touma managed to do. Really nice to see you get into Kento's headspace.


Desast Walk #14:

"Hello, humans.

I'm Dessert.

There are times when everything goes wrong and you feel depressed.
You know what you should do?

You need to be strong.
If you're stronger than everyone else, you won't have to worry about it.

Right?"

I was aware of that meme! You sort of can't exist in a Kamen Rider space post-2021 and not have seen that meme, regardless of your familiarity with Saber. It's very goofy to look at, both in and out of context.

"Chaotic" is the right word! "Rushed" might be another, but... man, I can't care anymore about this show's, uh, unique thoughts on pacing. Another show might've spent at least an episode with Luna as part of the cast, instead of having her abducted before the opening credits; but that would be another show, not Saber. This is the show that's going to have Luna slip through Touma's fingers like she was just deposited from the Realm of Butter. This is the show that's going to have Ogami and Daishinji choose to go confront Kento, mostly to be immediately held captive by Reika. (She's having a great episode... right up until she gets fired.) This is the show that's going to have all of this happen in about seven minutes. But WHO CARES. It's like complaining about them saying Henshin!

Ah yes and speaking of Luna... I do have thoughts on her.

She is a girl.

That's about it sadly.

I was honestly unsure of this? Because, like, girls frequently (but not exclusively or necessarily) have parents? And I don't think anyone has ever said what Luna's probably-grieving probable-parents have to say about Touma questing to save Luna. I know this is Kamen Rider, and All Dads Are Dead, but is there not a family member out there that could be introduced to make Luna feel a little less like a figment of Touma and Kento's imagination? Which is, frankly, where I'm expecting this whole plot to end up?

This ain't, like, some fatal flaw in the narrative or whatever. But it would help things feel like a real rescue, and not just some survivor's guilt.

Oh, and specific of memes, I found that Sky Bridge scene to be less hysterical and iconic than this reaction from Mei:

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

I must've laughed at that for maybe a minute. The way it might as well be this show's "TAKKUN! ORPHENOCH!", I hope she says it every episode from now on. I hope she says it in every Legend Rider appearance. I hope we get MEI FROM SABER V-CIN: OH NO HE'S GOT A BOOK.

Yeah this episode... never lived down the effects on that bridge sequence. But it's hard to feel too terribly sorry for it when Saber's handling of Luna is one of the things that makes it hardest for me to root for it.

One of the sillier Desast's Walk photo sets: if you're unfamiliar with the gesture since it's more popular in Japan, that �� in the second pic is a mini finger heart. ...Keep trying to make friends, bud.

(...well, the emoji would be there if this board supported it I guess :P)

So, aside from the Touma run, there’s a lot of BTS stuff about this episode I can talk about.

The reason Luna hasn’t aged in 15 years, according to the producers, is because she is the embodiment of childlike imagination and wonder. You know, that thing that typically vanishes when you grow up.

Kento picking up Kurayami instead of Ikazuchi proved pretty divisive with people who weren’t liking this arc. So the guy playing Kento took to Twitter with his own take on things (I was going to share this regardless of the whole content of the story)

“Thank you for watching Kamen Rider Saber!

Everyone has a lot of things to think about.
Why didn't the sage pull out the thunder sword?

My way of thinking is that Kento has begun to understand that the future will change, but the dark black sword is a memento of his father, and he cannot let go of it now.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E1fZZ-OU...jpg&name=large

Also, this was the last episode before the short lived “Fansubs blitz”, wherein someone sent a cease and desist letter to TV-Nihon, and although a lot of people had reasons it could be a fake, it scared them into stopping subbing Sentai and Rider for a few months (more exactly, 9 months for Sentai, 15 months for Rider, with them resuming with Donbrothers and Geats respectively), and removing the episodes and movies they had subbed from both from their websites (with their later releases being on Nyaa under then name “Anon”). Other subbing groups were also specifically scared to the point they stopped announcing new releases, or putting them on their own sites. But since hey still uploaded to Nyaa, in effect, it didn’t change much in the long run, beyond making more people look at Nyaa.

Understandable! I think this episode was my favorite usage of Luna so far, but it's still just focused on Touma's emotions and needs; she might as well be the puppy he lost as a child, for all she contributes anything to the plot besides needing to be saved.

Ha ha, I never even thought to wonder about this. She was vacuumed up to a nega-dimension! Why would things like Time and Age work the same there? Also, boy, that explanation sure makes it sound like she's not a real Homo sapiens...

Ah yes, we are here!

I personally really like this part of the show. It's very cheesy, and the effects do not help that, but it feels earnest and earned!

I could probably gush a good amount about it, but I feel I'd echo previous opinions a bit too much.

That said, I can add something really cool.

Remeber in the Avallon arc when I said one could actually read the books they were using for research?

Yeah, one of them talks how the blades of Light and Darkness are the original Seikens and have a connection, which is fantastically brought back the fact that it's revealed that Yuri is the wielder of both in the past.

Like I said, Saber has lovely details.

Oh yes, this memetic episode. Pretty silly, but very soulful. As for the Luna, I'll probably postpone the discussion about it until later episodes. For now, I can only say that we see her through the eyes of Touma and Kento, and therefore perceive her accordingly. Therefore, it is worth waiting until she gets the opportunity to prove herself as a person. Although, I agree that she could have been given more screen time.
And, of course, Kento's hesitation, reflected also in your fanfiction.. The plot continues to give him reasons to go astray from the path of Calibur, and Kento even notices them, but stubbornly ignores.

This is the result of what Kamijo seeks in the beginning, series-wise for you.

As a fighter, perhaps he'd provide some extra stuff with time-based powers to Sabela's smokescreen. But with Ryoga doing the same stuff as Reika here, kinda questions why Ryoga is introduced in the series which just reduces Reika into fawning over him. He's just a male Reika that is made by diminishing said female's role as if this is something to show that only men can take charge (I'm not someone who fawns over her 'toughness' previously before this but still).

This shows Falchion's abilities where as a phoenix, he can simply revive himself, and is instead sealed within the Book of Ruin and placed in the Southern Base's forbidden library by Master Logos, who can release him later.

Yeah, Bacht is released as a parallel to Kento, where they're "allies" but also nuisances to their respective factions, Northern Base for Kento and Southern Base for Bacht. Both are enemies to swordsmen but Kento only does that as he believes that sealing away their Seiken will prevent the doomed future, while Bahato won't stop until he's killed every last one. Bacht also pulls everyone is the same as me stuff here against Touma, which is some villain's move to justify their deeper imperfections or even convincing the hero to spare him due to breaking their moral code or something when they 'cross the line' by killing him.