Wizard Episode 49: "The Beginning of the Sabbath" Discussion
 

On what you put for 5:

I really hope it doesn't come down to that. Haruto is not capable of carrying the last episodes on his own, but that's how I personally feel about him.

Nito you....wow just wow....

Seconded. That was ALL kindsa awesome. :)

"Every Gate in Tokyo will become a Phantom, and those without mana will be killed"

Fueki has officially become the most cold evil rider I think I've seen. Willing to scarifice every living person in Tokyo to bring his daughter back to life. At first I thought this plan of his was just because he was a father driven to the deepest hopelessness. But this? This is like the true face of evil to be this cold and calculating, this manipulative and uncaring. I love it. This is the kind of villain I love to see, one that's on top of his game and un-redeemable.

The episode itself was jut brilliant, just as the last few have been. I've said it several times but will say it again. Although this show started out slowly it has built up into something truly great. Nitou really really shined here and his self sacrifice was awesome to see.

Well that certainly was...ambitious, even if I'm not entirely convinced with the final product. It's also a shame that there is no real context for anything, so it's pretty much impossible to care about anything. If this show has been all about Koyomi, why not hire an actress who could actually be in the show for more than single scenes where she stands behind a counter?

I've really fallen hard for Beast though, who has in these recent arcs really come into his own as a Rider, and has many senses become the true hero. He certainly saved the day, in what was the best part of the episode.

That was a fun episode. I do hope that Yamamoto and Yuzuru aren't brainwashed anymore.

Anyway, Fueki is both the best and worst kind of villain. He has a goal, he knows exactly what he wants. He's not transparently evil, he's just willing to go all the way to accomplish his goals. However, where he's not transparently evil, he's needlessly evil. His actions seem to take the most extreme route with no attempt at an alternative. It makes him irredeemable, and it makes the audience cheer for his demise.
The problem that raises is that I know Wizard is going to try to redeem him. They'll give him a dramatic and quote-unquote touching scene with him dying and losing his daughter and all that, which will fail because he's gleefully evil.

... Dang. I didn't think the show had it in it.

They didn't looked brainwashed at the end and I agree Fueki is that awesome kindof villein that shouldn't be redeemed, but they will try any way.

Will they ever turn Haruto into the Dragon Phantom once Koyomi fades and falls on Haruto's arms?

I don't think so. At this point, Dragon is no longer a Phantom of Despair, but a Phantom of hope

Although I don't deny how awesome White Wizard has become, I find it hard to care how awesome he has become. Like many toku villains, his presence for the majority of the series was non existent and then as if looking at his watch, he realised the last ten episodes of the show were coming and decided to step in with all the loose plot threads.

I would have loved seeing this man driven to despair, desperate to bring his daughter back through science...and if that fails, dark magic, happy to sacrifice whoever to reach his goal, over the course of the series, it could have been an epic tragedy but instead it just feels rushed and emotionally numb because the show just pulled this out of nowhere and never gave us a reason to care.

I enjoy this episode I hope nitou gets his drive fixed or get a new one

Man, that was great. Kousuke finally came through in the end and saved the day. Sure, he still got his ass kicked, but he found a way to turn that into the ultimate weapon and that is awesome. I'm really looking forward to how this all ends.

I'm still calling that Koyomi dies in the next episode (which would have been the penultimate were it not for the overtime ones). Not sure if she'll actually come back now, though.

I kind of just hope she dies for real. Do we really want another Kengo situation? That would just kill the impact of her death.

Well, technically, she's never been alive in the series to begin with...

Very good episode. Nitou really saved the day even though he had a snowball's chance in hell defeating White Wizard. Fueki was utterly and truly evil, even though I still feel for his pain at losing both his wife and daughter, which was what drove him to despair and used desperate tactics to win back his daughter.

As for Koyomi, I also want to see her RIP for good instead of doing a Kengo thing and coming back, although I have a feeling she will be revived at the end, probably with the help of her father who may give his life for hers.

Just seen it and... WOW!

Nitoh was amazing, Fueki was a freaking *derp*, Haruto was useless but awesome anyway, and, as we finally proved, a giant flying chimaera is the solution to all your problems. All of them, I tell you . Just a small question, but can anyone tell me why he keeps calling Beast an Archetype? I get the feeling I'm missing something.

Archetype is the type of wizard nitou is cause of the way he uses magic is an older style the what the others use in the show I believe

Probably because Beast is different from the other Mahoutsukai seen so far. Unlike them, who had all their stones created from Fueki himself, then given to Wajima to make the rings/Fueki made his own rings, Beast's stuff is ancient. The word Archetype can also mean "a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned or emulated." So basically, Fueki calls him an Archetype because his magic precedes his.

All it boils down to is Nitou's ancient form of magic. Ancient Wizards had to collect mana to cast spells and keep the phantoms dwelling in them at bay. Modern Wizards are able to produce their own mana because they've overcome the phantom within them and draw from that power. For the Archetypes their phantom requires mana to feed or the user risks death at the phantom's hands. In return for the mana collected the phantom bestows it's powers upon the Wizard.

Thanks. And OOO too! :)

Liked the ep overall but I...must....nitpick....

A) The 'explosion' that Haruto took at the beginning was significantly smaller than many of the hits he's taken lately so, what the hell.

B) The handcuff that Mayu was in was big enough for her whole hand to easily fit through Heck, if she and Haruto took off their rings, boom, out of the cuffs. Not to mention that all the handcuffs were simply held together with a screw and nut so, um, not real hard to get out of having a free arm and all.

C) Why did de-morphing release them from the chains?

Ok, ok. I know I'm sounding like a broken record now. I honestly like the ep. White Wizard is one of the better bad riders we've had in a while and the overall ep was a great setup for the climax to come. But dang it if there weren't some things that bugged me.

I was thinking all of this myself during the episode. 'Wow Haruto went down easily' 'wow those shackles are loose' 'come on guys you aren't even trying'.

Something that got to me was Haruto's willingness to let the other 3 Wizards be sacrificed for Koyumi.
He didn't seem to have any issue or alarm until he found out all of Tokyo was going to be sacrificed, too...

Ever since Haruto accepted he didn't have to take the load all himself, he has totally sucked. I dunno what the fuck happened, it's like the writers realised what a cool Rider they had with Beast and how they wasted him for most of the series by making him another goofy character they didn't need, so they decided to just completely rewrite his character as this loving, badass who is more of a hero than the main protagonist.

So not only did Nitou start blocking out Haruto in pure personality and charisma, but Haruto seemed to be actively doing less and less and purposefully phasing into the background. After Nitou literally sacrificed both his powers, and his life, for everyone else, Haruto swaggin' in at the end and claiming he was 'the last hope' (also after he was defeated in a matter of seconds by a stock Wizard) was fucking laughable.

I really don't know what's going on with Haruto. It's like they took 2 steps forward with him around episode 40 or so, and now they took 3 steps back as of the most recent 4 or 5 episodes.

I am glad to see Beast grow into a real hero, willing to make the sacrifice to save everyone, but I guess they realized they couldn't have Haruto lose his powers and the Dragon Phantom after the series got an additional 4 episodes in it's run, so they rewrote that scene for Nitou. *Shrugs*

It did really seem like a scene for the hero, which is part of the reason why a) it made Nitou come across as so awesome but also b) made Haruto feel so useless. Basically now the secondary Rider has done the hardwork and Haruto is strolling in to take the credit. And if certain fan theories prove correct, he won't even be the one to defeat White Wizard.

Are you talking about the idea that Gremlin will be the one to take out the White Wizard?

Anyway, I'm seriously disappointed that Nitou lost his powers. After this most recent episode, I'd love to see more of him, and now that he's powerless, he's essentially going to be a cheerleader for Haruto if he survives...

Yep, yep.

I'm more bummed that Nitou became a good character now, right at the end. Now I've seen the potential he held, it makes me sad that after a pretty fun introduction, he spent the majority of his series time either shouting 'mayonnaise!' or doing absolutely nothing at all. RIP Beast, you deserved so much more.

Crap, now I want a movie set in the past with King OOO fighting whatever wizard originally had the Beast belt.

When you think about it, they are natural rivals. The singing Driver vs. the beatboxing Driver :lol.

Also animal vs animal.