Absolutely. To be clear, I'm not looking to change anyone's mind. You got what you got out of this story, and I got what I got out of it. My interest is in finding out what those two things are, not in trying to argue my side. We definitely don't agree on this story, but I appreciate you sharing your opinion!

I'm ambivalent about this episode. There are aspects of it that I think worked: Tsurugi deciding to commit suicide by Kamen Rider, him finding a way to lure many (all?) the Worms to their death as part of his own, that beautiful final scene with Jiiya. There are also things that don't: every single scrap of over-the-top pathos with Misaki, with the possible exception of the bracelet bits.

I don't know if there was ever a version of the show where Tsurugi made it out alive. Hatred of the Worms was such a core to his early characterization that I can't see him accepting his true nature to any extent. At the same time, it's a real hard swerve to take the show's biggest goofball comic relief character and turn him into a death seeking idealist in his final episode. The fact that it even kinda works is really impressive.

At the same time, I really do hate that we're going to go through the rest of the series without Tsurugi. It's only three episodes, sure, but his presence almost always elevated the story and I am going to miss him a lot.

Ok, this comes from here:

This paragraph talks about how this is a list of fan-service version of heroism, and you lumped Yaguruma here, with you saying he remembers that looking cool in front of his underlings as motivation, which makes me think you think making yourself look cool is heroic act...

Yeah, but I'm making sure that you know. I won't bring up about this if it's something that you already know and acknowledged, and you intend to make joke of it, like Kageyama as TheWorst for his behaviors, or something new here that I find smart and hilarious while also already knowing Kageyama's whole identity the whole time; Kageyessir. Still though, Souji Kusakabe as a name is probably more meaningful than what people here think, and I want to convey that (roots from what you review about him in ep. 43 though):

Well, she blames himself due to her being weak refers to her being attacked by others like Souji Kusakabe here, and her not being strong enough to fight back, refering to protective Tendou part of him. And with how protective Tendou is to her, I don't think that Tendou will give pushback, he's likely content to act as Hiyori's protector, and it's probably not behavior that will make changes for here, as Hiyori blaming herself for being weak is likely about Dark Kabuto attack, the one that is about power as it's a Rider against someone who at least in human form doesn't possess strength (KOed by Kageyama in human form)?

And Dark Kabuto, shows the consequence of love in the worst way of him actually putting what Tendou threatened Kagami for before to actual work (destroy all living beings for Hiyori), which is why I judge character's morality more on what they do/or will do to people less related to them like strangers or civilians, I think caring about friends and/or family (the latter for Souji Kusakabe) won't necessarily cut it (if they would care, apathetic, or cruel to others; overall).

Well yeah sorry for the objection, and I know you said you don't care about this part, but if you claim that you want to be fair, then for this part, random Worm assault is only typical Inoue, but for another part, Worm assault is whatthemotivesbetweenwormattacks, that's double standard? And like from before Tendou is more open about teamwork now, with him more openly accepting Kagami before. The Worm being everywhere is again, Cassis Worm's work.

OK, like what this episode pointed out, Misaki doesn't seem to find Tsurugi changed at all, but she warmed up to him regarding that (though I think the main reason of this is from Tsurugi's genuine love for her in ep. 44 for shielding her to near death), even declaring "Misakinu" is ok, soo... could it be that, it's not Tsurugi's fault for him having lack of boundaries and that to put them on equal status which you're interested more, it's Misaki that needs to change and realize that Tsurugi's behavior is appealing? I know that previously, following Tendou's advice, Tsurugi changes to see Misaki not as his sister, and also properly understanding her more by calling her Misaki, but this part seems to go back to the status quo (one of them inflicted by Misaki herself); he calls her Misakinu again, and he also went overboard in ZECT control that it's only to devote to Misaki alone, which has an objectifying vibe too.

Lol yeah, bonkers stuff, Yaguruma unconsciously trying to seek light again, and now he realizes that he's an antisocial nihilist and acts on it by sealing himself so that he won't act "stupid" again (seeking light like fighting monsters), with the influence of Kageyama himself before, but Kageyama at this time also follows suit to him. What I want to see was that, as a gag, is that sealing himself is giving himself too much burden and it prevents him from doing any activities instead of just "stupid" stuff.

Not counting for how willing they will give you a present, those that will give the best Christmas present is probably Tendou, because he's perfect and the textbook ace, he excels at everything he does beyond the level of professional. Tsurugi is broke now but probably would put faith in him too for what he does, like the luxury bed scene in Bistro La Salle, or his capabilities and luxury vibe like what he gave to Kagami (his house at least).

I agree too that Tsurugi isn't irredeemable and he deserved to live, that you can't dish excessive punishments blindly to anyone that has negative traits (Tsurugi has redeeming qualities as you listed there, although 50/50 for humor part, if he hurts others and don't care about it, then that shouldn't be given free pass due to "humor"), that's just being self-righteous knight templar move, and that to not differentiate between species here where monsters should die and humans should live, no matter which alignments, but still, I wonder, who actually deserves to die?

In reality, Inoue with leash put on by the TV production team. So with Inoue there the TV production team doesn't deserve to be acknowledged and deserved to be dehumanized and treated as just his lowly pawns?! Jokes aside, anyone should practice wise discernment though, like regarding him when unrestrained.

Well, I always bring up tragic backstory in part before, and my point is that some people think if they got tragic backstory, then that villain is completely innocent (you can do whatever you want because of the bad things that happened to them). Also, there are also many who has tragic backstory, but doesn't turn evil, or even better, the root of their kindness. Becoming cold, indifferent, merciless, ruthless is actually a failure against trauma, as well as a poor way to cope with trauma, where people claim it's the only realistic way (and to justify the villainous acts) to process it, but overlook the other way around which exists. Also, it's both figuratively and literally for Kusakabe being a shadow of Tendou's past, it's literally his past, former name when he was a child, before he got adopted by the Tendous, like what I said above, though him being a villain is also probably due to his true nature, which is a spoiler to talk about.

Oh, okay, gotcha. Yeah, I could've phrased that better? Some of it was for comedic effect, where the paragraph starts off listing everyone's positive defining traits and then devolves into Yaguruma and Kageyama's negative defining traits, i.e. being terrible people. (Not to deconstruct a joke or anything.) I definitely don't think Kageyama reclaiming his role as TheWorst, trying to hog the spotlight, and losing immediately are heroic acts.

But, yeah, could've expressed those thoughts better. Sorry for the confusion!

I have concluded that my brain blocked off the second half of this story in self-defense because it made me sad, which is all I really want to say about it. I will also miss Tsurugi in the last 3 episodes.

This made me laugh out loud, though, because it is 100% accurate and I really do not think either Kagami or Tendo would disagree if someone said it to their faces. Kagami might protest for like, half a second but Tendo would just Look at him, end of protest.

This is definitely how I saw a hypothetical scene playing out, where Renge gushes to both of them about how great their teamwork is. A well-oiled team utilizes every member appropriately, and that's just how ingrained the partnership has gotten with Kabuto and Gatack. It's actually allowed them both to reach greater heights of their talents, because Kabuto somehow gets more powerful as Gatack gets more injured. I mean, Kabuto got the Hyper Zecter when Gatack died. This is a pretty successful partnership, as long as you don't measure success by both members surviving/being healthy!

I'm not sure if you mean scenes with Misaki herself, or the couple bits that really hammer in Tsurugi's feelings for Misaki, like the imaginary date (which at least made for a great misleading episode preview!), but either way, this reminds of one more thought I wanted to get out there about this one.

I think Misaki's constant frustration with the plot happening is critical to why I feel the episode works overall. It's pretty clear to me she's meant to be the audience surrogate, essentially giving a voice to all those aforementioned kids who were big Sasword fans (and all his other fans too) by asking all the questions they naturally would, such as "Wait what are you doing Tendou?", and "TENDOU SERIOUSLY WHAT THE F*** MAN". She's not exactly feeling great by the end, even after getting an explanation, and I think that's the viewer's cue that you aren't necessarily meant to be looking at this like it all worked out for the best, or even that Tendou made the only possible "right" choice. I feel like the episode is deliberately shooting for a certain degree of ambiguity, which is one of the things I like about it. Just my perspective, of course!

(I will say, though, thinking about it, it's kind of transparent how Kagami, established audience surrogate AND best friend to Tsurugi, needs to be kept at arm's length from the plot the way he is, as though Inoue stopped long enough to realize Gatack's presence would utterly break the climax, but not long enough to realize what that says about the admittedly somewhat forced and/or rushed nature of how the episode gets the narrative where it wants it.)

I see what you're saying, but I feel like Ambiguous is maybe the worst note to aim for in a story that a) kills off a beloved comedy-relief character, and b) asks the title character to execute said comedy-relief character for reasons that amount to He Was So Disgusted With Himself That He Wanted To Die And The Hero Respected That. It... I don't know why you want to take a story that is going to be actively upsetting to huge swathes of the audience (young and old alike! At Christmastime!), and then try and end it with a note of confused ambivalence. I don't know how or why a writer could Both Sides suicidal depression.

There's just not nearly enough thought or relatable emotion put into Tendou's actions to make me think he's got anything resembling a compelling argument in this one, and them potentially hanging a lantern on it by Misaki being apoplectic doesn't excuse some incredibly disappointing story choices.

...is what I would say if the entire middle section of this episode actually happened, instead of being a nightmare Tsurugi had after he ate too much takoyaki during his date with Misaki. It's weird that no one seems to have picked up on how none of the Tsurugi Wants To Die stuff actually happened, considering the episode ends with Tsurugi falling back asleep. It's too bad he needed to go back to France to reestablish his family's dynasty, but I'm sure we'll see more of his romance with Misaki down the line in a V-Cinema or something.

Total bummer that Kagami never got to make a case for Tsurugi in this one. He briefly mentions that Tsurugi should be afforded the same chance at life that Hiyori and Tadokoro have been given, but Tendou just shouts him down and sentences Tsurugi to death, and Kagami sheepishly acquiesces. Our heroes!

I was mostly thinking the scene where he walks into the ocean while ghostly Misaki faces float in the sky and, to a lesser extent, the imaginary date. Those parts felt a little too "let's just do the Yuka and Keitaro thing again!" to me.

Which is entirely fair! I can agree that this is an episode that's wading rather clumsily into territory it probably shouldn't be in the first place. Disgust is a perfectly normal response!