I think you answered your own question: it would focus the storytelling. Gaving Calibur show up is shocking but with a lack of context it?s something that can simultaneously be a twist and sink to the background to let Primitive Dragon etc take the focus. Saying who Calibur is right away is the kind of hit-the-brakes-on-everything-else kinda thing, you know?

I suppose. I'm just worried I'm in for another batch of episodes where Calibur is a weirdly-unfocused threat, and then an eventual reveal that recontextualizes his previous appearances instead of, y'know, making those appearances fun and/or compelling in the moment.

(This is part of a larger issue I have with how Saber is sort of like Wizard, in its tendency to spend weeks doing weird, counter-intuitive things, to then spend a scene retroactively making those things sensible and clever. It's nice, at the end, but it somehow values the destination over the journey? Wizard's a mega-arc that I adore -- one of the smartest third act twists of any series, ever -- but I found the first viewing of about three-quarters of the series to be immensely dull and repetitive. I don't know if saving all your powder for a fun endgame twist is worth the many episodes that have to be less-fulfilling because of it?)

That is an interesting take, especially the comparison to Wizard. May be one of the reasons I love Saber; it evokes the same feeling in a way ^^

I love stories that are twisty and recontextualize themselves. One of my favorite things about Saber, like I said before, is how it drops things; weeks later, it suddenly fits into the bigger picture and recontextualizes everything. It feels rewarding to me, like the show acknowledges the people trying to dig into it.

There is nothing worse than a show simply revealing itself to be not that deep when digging into, while simultaneously seeming to expect people to theorize. And Saber always pleasantly surprised me with how connected and solid its worldbuilding is.

For me, it's like a game. Can I guess the plot, the characters, and the twists before they are revealed?

No? Impressive, you did well in crafting something surprising!

Yes? Sweet, I was right! You laid it out very well for me to catch!

And Saber made me feel very rewarded across its run ^^

That said, let's talk about bony boy xD

Primitive is such a fun form. It is such a unique threat placed at the exact right moment! It delivers on every front in being a bone in the spanners and really creates some fun emotional character moments!

Love it!

And that's a totally valid way to approach these types of shows! A lot of folks love to spend months sifting for clues, or seeing if their theories pan out. For me, someone who generally doesn't find a ton of entertainment in speculating about hidden motivations or whatnot, I end up being left with a show that's only its best self on a rewatch, instead of a fun and rewarding initial watch.

Very fair. I just tend to trade the speculation for appreciation on the rewatch. That may just be because I grew up with One Piece though xD

Not that I don't care about the here and now. One of the reasons I appreciate Geats so much, I love the domino of mysteries still being set up, but love even more the very fun one offs.

That said, you may not be the biggest fan of my writing then since I love structuring stories around twists that change the perspective on previous events ^^

Yeah, I think it's tricky (but very rewarding!) to find that balance of a status quo that's intriguing without being frustrating; a cast that's relatable without being shallow; and a series of twists that aren't the only source of tension in a plot. It's tough! Geats does it really well!

Like, my favorite twists aren't ones that make previously-boring stuff interesting, because you need a certain amount of boredom and/or frustration in order to create a payoff, but twists that add additional layers of meaning to previous exciting scenes and stories. Whether Saber (or Wizard) was doing that is really up to the individual viewer.

The suit actor being Espada’s sold me on Calibur being Kento

That's an interesting -- and semi-spoiler-y -- detail. Thanks?

You’re welcome, I guess

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 24

So yeah, already Die is starting to see the bigger picture with this storyline. The real secret sauce of this whole genre of berserk forms we have now, to me, is that pretty much every show has a really distinct take on it that tends to tie itself deeply to the overarching themes of that particular Rider series. There's the fundamental hook of seeing the hero lose control, and that always creates tension, but I find the deeper drama tends to be elsewhere with these things. In Saber's case, I mean, again, this is a show by the people who made Ghost, so it probably goes without saying I was particularly interested in how it would approach the idea. Heck, I basically already knew exactly where things were going by this point, and that only made me even more excited.

Oh, and speaking of Primitive Dragon's lore, it's worth noting the "tale of sorrow" that Touma finds in this one is actually a fully-written short story, by the way! It even went up with the production notes that week on the website, which naturally meant I was eagerly staring at that Saber text for way longer than was necessary, considering they had the mercy to just provide it again in regular Japanese the next week. But that wasn't the point, man! The point is that, as a Saber fan, I was given the chance to put in that extra effort of digging into the show, and, as ever, was rewarded for it with a better understanding of just how awesome this show is. If they went through the trouble of writing the whole thing, the least I can do is read it, you know?