Gotta say - it's really fucking weird when you feel the need to express your desire for Ren's death not once, but twice in the same thread.

That's very out of character and inconsistent for Kento, especially when he saw Ren dying alongside everyone else in his dreams. The whole reason he's sealing the swords away is to save the world and to save his friends. Note, he sealed Onjuken Suzune but didn't kill an untransformed Daishinji afterwards. This feels more like a personal grudge from you.

Sorry. I just wanna see Ren get turned into a Megid near or in death by Desast. After all Desast sees something in Ren that he’ll become a monster for his “strength is Justice”. See him go evil and later redeem himself for his actions.

Didn’t wanna spoil my schemes.

This. Pretty great episode overall - though I don't appreciate the generic stock music - but this is what nailed it for me. Best part

This moment right here may be the single most un-Kamen Rider moment I can remember seeing in a long time. One character turns on the others and then takes a moment to justify his actions to the other characters. No "I don't need to explain this!" No "You'll understand in time." No "A guy like you wouldn't understand." We didn't even get a partial explanation interrupted by the arrival of a third party (and Reika was right there, in perfect position to disrupt everything!). This was an open conversation in which Kento clearly laid out his mission so that the heroes could still oppose him, but would do so with the explicit knowledge of what they're fighting (except for Ren and Rintarou, who will undoubtedly hear Reika's bastardized version of events and begrudgingly believe it because they're a moron and a cultist, respectively).

I want to take a second to point out the contrast here with something else I'm watching: Den-O. As those of you following Kamen Rider Die's thread already know, he's up to the point where Zeronos first shows up. One of the main deals with Yuuto on that show is that he has at least some idea of what the villains' plot is (as much as they have one; Den-O's villains have very poorly explained goals) and knows a lot about the disappearance of his future self. He refuses to explain any of this to Ryotaro, primarily insisting that he doesn't need to know. I am so relieved to Saber take a swerve here and actually put the heroes and the antihero on the same page (pun not initially intended, then realized, then intended).

But yeah, this was a great episode. I really like how the show raised the stakes, both narratively and structurally. I liked the big fight scene - I love Saber's three-sided battles and am always down for more. And finally, I loved how we got the full reveal of the show's next big bad, an origin story for the Megido, and the long overdue erasure of Tassel and all of that stuff feels like a footnote because the show's A plot was so strong.

That is an incredibly kind thing to say! Thank you! :)

Oh right, the stock music! I was going to complain about that! It's definitely a little excessive here, and I wish they had either shown a little more faith in their own soundtrack (Kousuke Yamashita does great work; use it!), or even just went for outright silence, which honestly might've been preferable in some scenes. Not a major issue for the episode, but still, it stuck out in a bad way for me.

This sorta summarizes my thoughts on the show as a whole. I feel that Fukuda is a good writer, he just needs the right team to work with him.

He's written about 10 episodes so far, and I think he's done a good job overall. Laying the groundwork for a whole year-long show is hard enough- I can't imagine penning a whole show by yourself.

I enjoyed the first arc on the premise that it went at a breakneck pace purely because a war isn't gonna slow down for a new recruit. But it feels similarly fast-paced now, and that's after 26 episodes of development.

But I digress, 'cause this show feels like its finally ramping up. From episode 21, the show's been going HARD and hasn't stopped. I'm legitimately so excited for this show. It might be one of my favorites by the end, honestly.

Everything I want to say has been said before in this thread and I'm running out of things to say with this show.

For lack of better words and for potentially devolving into repetition: I love this show. I love it so much.

I legit cannot wait to see what comes next for Saber.

In my case it was higurashi and rezero vibes from that whole sequence

I second the Re:Zero-ness. It didn't occur to me at the time, but you are absolutely right.


I also might be holding on to this one part of this week's episode with disproportionate intensity as it's one of the few moments in the show where I felt really engaged with the narrative.

Looking back this show went from Mighty Morphin Logos Rangers to Saint Seiya real quick. I mean Master Logos is practically Gemini Saga at this point.