Well, since we now know that humans can turn into Megids, if any SoL member seems at a high risk for that it's probably him. Or it might even be revealed that all the Megid generals were former humans, and were like him in some way - loved to fight, believed strength is justice, wanted revenge, or something else - before becoming monsters.

I love you a little bit for that.

Could also be that he is actually a Megid but somehow has been chosen to be a Swordsman. It would at least explain his more aggressive nature.

So this Touma got fucked by so many people at once I question if this was porn. Now that I got to say that dumb joke.

HOW THIS SHOW IS HANDLING REIKA IS COMPLETE SHIT!!!! Why? Because they are literally not trying to hide the fact she is bad. Is it wrong to ask for her to appear friendly and good willed so it be easier to convince the other swordsmen that she is in the right? Like holy hell they even have the Southern Branch Base with no lights on all the time.

Is it wrong to ask for this show to put in effort? At least Buster and Slash are doing something.

You can really tell a Fukuda episode apart from other writers by how much of a cartoon character Mei becomes. It's really jarring seeing her act fairly normal when someone else is in charge only for her to go full Looney Tunes when Fukuda is doing the script. Interesting, but not a fan.

I've really been getting into the show lately and overall this was a good episode. I loved the four-way fight between Touma, Ren, Desast, and Generic Boy Band Member #2. You could feel the desperation in Touma as he tried to fend off enemies on all sides and it made for a great, tense action scene.

Less fond of the scene between Touma and Rintaro, where Rintaro finally seems to be coming around and Touma immediately launches into the "there's a traitor in Sword of Logos" thing when he should know that's going to immediately shut down any change of heart.

The IRL explanation is that the kids have to know who the bad guy is. Gai was somewhat like this, too during Q1. He assists the heroes, yet you can call he's the bad guy.

Plus, I don't know if it's just how Angela Mei is acting, but it seems more like she's just tired and annoyed than she is actually conniving and evil. This whole war has been going on for more than ten years now, so it wouldn't be at all suspicious to the other swordsmen that she acts like this. Plus, in my opinion, she makes some compelling enough arguments to get emotionally unstable folks like Rintaro and Ren riled up. I think it's done well that it's Ogami and Daishinji whom are somewhat distrustful of her, going so far as to go out scheme behind her as well.

I hope that isn't the reason because then they must think kids are not bright. They made her wear all black, seem cold and uncaring. Let alone the always dark southern branch base. Like this wouldn't be so bad if Sophie wasn't always dressed in white with a more welcoming appearance. Literally both of them are so close to having a hiant neon sign pointing at them to tell you which is good and bad.

Now I am hoping that Reika and Sophie are the same person just split (by a sword maybe) just so it would make sense why they are so opposite of each other.

I don’t think you should really be expecting a lot of subtlety in a show ran by the guy who did the farting Jim Carrey alien episodes of Ultraman Max.

Ah, yes, because Sid and Ryoma totally didn't have shiftily written all over them. Don't pretend like this is a unique thing to this show.

And them not hiding that Reika is evil doesn't mean it's bad writing. That would be if they'd try to make us shocked she was. No, the show even lets Touma shout it out. They're using her shiftiness to drive drama up, which is a totally valid way of doing this, especially since the swordsman trusting her makes sense.

At least they had a personality.

Man, watching Ren's actor struggle to act pissed off in that scene with Reika was rough. Of all of the swordsmen, Eiji Togashi is by far the weakest actor and this episode only brought that to light.

I kinda loved the fight where everyone and their brother was targeting Saber. It could have been a confusing mess, but the fight choreography and cinematography was on top of its game here and made each character's motivation and allegiance very clear. That was just about the only highlight of this episode.

- As already mentioned in this thread, I just hate how Mei is written by Fukuda. He's so close to writing competent female leads, but he always winds up making them comic relief.

- I hated how this got dragged out to two episodes. And man, the Megiddo host was such an afterthought in this two-parter that we didn't even get an epilogue scene to wrap up his arc at the end of the episode.

Kamen Rider Saber has been in danger of collapsing under its own weight from the very beginning, and after a few decent episodes where the status quo got shaken up, we're right back into murky waters. Just like how the ZAIA challenge got old immediately last year, this arc is already running out of steam. There are so many moving parts in this story right now, and yet I still don't feel that connected to the main cast.

We're almost halfway through this show and, unless we get a Kamen Rider Blade level retooling, I am worried this show will be remembered as one of the weakest in the entire franchise. We are 20 episodes in, and it just refuses to come together.