Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 20: "The End of the World, the Invasion Begins" Discussion
 

For any users who'd like to view this episode via live stream on Saturday feel free to head over to Taima TV. They play other random programs up until the live broadcast starts, generally marathons. Live Streams are at 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time/3:00 PM Pacific Standard Time on Saturdays.

This episode is very exposition heavy. I look forward to the subtitles a great deal so that I might understand exactly what has gone on. I wondered if we'd see more on the vines/wounds situation. It's always entertaining when Miiiiiiister Dangerooooooooous shows up! (Also, yay for the return of the gummy commercial! That thing cracks me up every single time.)

I can't wait for subs to know what they were talking about. o.o

This was a very action light episode but so, so much was said and shown. I'm particularly interested in what Ryoma and Kaito talked about at the end...

So was this considered a filler episode? Because I couldnt tell, it was filled with so much stuff, that I couldnt understand!

But i did this- Oren is an ass now, Jonouchi is a pain for still following him, Kaito is gettin pissed, and Kouta is getting shocked. What happens next?! Sid and Kaito fight? I think

Hoho! This was a good episode Uchi. Lots of great dialogue to see translated. The plot definitely moved this week.

I know, I really cant wait to read what happened. This sells me on doing the livestreams from now on. I really hope to catch ToQger at the beginning next week as well.

From what I got, Ryoma told Kaito the same as Takatora told Kouta. When he reached out his hand, he wanted Kaito to agree to keep everything secret for peace's sake, but Kaito declined (that's the whole chair kicking and fruit squishing stuff).

When I saw him do it, I couldn't think of anything other than Lego Bad Cop throwing his chair :lol

And we now know that stone couches are a thing :lol

It was probably owned by the guy who ate a durian lockseed.

The wait for the sub is going to be so painful. Avoiding as much as I possibly can on this episode until then.

So hyped after last week.

Subs are up

Holy shit.

And here I was thinking the Rider vs Rider action was going to stop.

Wow. okay, I think I need to sit down for a bit and process all of this.

So 10 years is it? Damn. Well at least that provides some context for the possible future glimpsed in episode 1. We have an alternate dimension that was already destroyed long ago, and an invasive species trying to transition from that world to this one. And possibly this world will also be consumed like that one. Leaving only a few survivors to battle it out over the remains.

I'm wondering if Sid's line about plucking the forbidden fruit is literal as well. A physical thing they have to attain.

And HOLY HELL that speech by Kaitou. I did not see that coming. His character has way more depth and a hunger for power than I imagined.

So yeah I think it's safe to say Kaito just lost any secondary Rider privileges. dude's kind of a psycho. Takatora's literally the only Yggdrasil rider with any hint of heroism aside from maybe Sagara? The others all seem to have their own goals for Helheim

Nice to see the ea Riders aren't completely off the hook in the eyes of the public just cause of that dance-a-thon. I wonder if this means Bravo, Knuckle, and Gridon are gonna team up now. Well...maybe just Bravo and Knuckle.

Also I can't help but notice...Micchy still has the yellow belt while Oren and Jounouchi still have 'upgraded' ones. Wonder if it's significant...

Anyway, Helheim is a pretty disturbing threat. And Yggdrassils till doesn't know what it is. Whether it's interdimensional or alien, it'd still be interesting to see it's origins. Cool to see Gaim and Zangetsu working together for once. Might as well, because Kaitou sure as hell isn't on Kouta's side anymore.

Oh man, this was a heavy episode. For all the answers we got there are still plenty of questions like what each Energy Rider wants and what Helheim choosing someone still means.

Guys, what even.

I have literally nothing to say, this episode seemed to be over in a flash, it hooked me in and wouldn't let me go. Insanely enjoyable, perfect even, easily the best episode of the show so far.

Especially because of that turn at the end! I mean damn I just did not see that coming with Kaitou. Dude is cold. Never thought I'd see him included in Sid's crowd.

Plus it's so scarily complex as well. Kouta and Kaitou are almost complete opposites, but you just know it's not as simple as that. It's amazing to have so many players in this game, and yet the show still finds time to fully realise their own personal motivations. Everyone in this show feels like a fully fleshed human and it's just incredible to see it all play out. To see people clash, to see people lock in place, to get led down goose chases as characters play cards close to their chest. It makes every scene worthwhile and every episode so exciting.

I know I've not been Gaim's most vocal supporter - but in terms of writing at least, it's probably been so far, the best toku show ever written. I don't mean it's the best toku show ever made, but just purely in terms of the words on the page, nothing has beaten Gaim yet.

At first, I thought this episode raised a lot of glaring plot holes. But, no, it managed to resolve those logically, too. The only potential problems I could see would involve how Kamen Rider Gaim fits in with the entirety of the Kamen Rider universe in general.

I really like how they exemplified Takatora's heroism in this episode. But... am I the only one who thinks that Kaito is a genocidal maniac after this episode? I mean, I thought that, at the very least, he would have a scrap of compassion for the weak within him, especially given his youth, but... dang.

I have no idea where this story is going to go from here, but that future is beginning to seem a lot more probable.

100% agreed. I love the action as well. But the writing is the most top notch stuff I've ever seen. Everyone has so many layers, so much depth to them. 5 episodes ago I could have given a shit about Takatora. He seemed irredeemable to me. But now? I'm rooting for Kouta to outright join him! I'm almost certain now the other 3 Energy Riders will attempt to take down Zangetsu, he will need Kouta's help.

I guess the good thing about a show like Gaim which hints at everything from alien worlds, time travel and other dimensions is the wider Kamen Rider continuity are pretty much free to do with it as they like.

Personally I hope it doesn't get shafted to a 'it didn't happen on this earth' explanation if ever brought up, but at least it's there if things get a little too convoluted for whatever comes after this show - and whatever comes next, I feel so sorry for it, following a show of this quality and popularity.

It's also entertaining as well, because we have no single reliable narrator so nothing can be taken on face value. Like just imagine if everything Takatora said was a lie, and he ends up convincing Kouta to kill Inves who could actually be saved. I mean WHO KNOWS right now all of the explaining so far came out of the mouths of the people who were, up until this point, the villains.

Anything can happen, and we can only trust what we see with our own eyes.

I in all honesty am still not convinced Kaitou is bad.For all we know he could have said that to find out their plans.I do know the next few episodes will be interesting.

That was fucking GOOD.

This show is so well paced, and we're not even halfway through. Kaito was SERIOUSLY a surprise, yet it makes sense. His vlaues have always been warped at best, and ever since he got that belt he now has TRUE power, power he now judges the world against. It's funny how Takatora talks about a single evil doer can sabotage the efforts of a hundred noble souls, and literally everyone in Yggdrasil besides him cares nothing for stopping the Helheim threat. He has no idea how fucked he is.

This episode was amazing.

It was almost an after thought, but did any one else see how casually Shin Zangetsu ripped off numerous powered kill shots from the bow? Before it was an event, now he's just doing them like nothing, which only underscored how much he was trying to get through to Kouta

Not sure why but I'm getting a real '4 horsemen of the apocalypse' from Kaito and the Energy riders.

Never considered that the forest was an entire invasive species. That's a great way to look at it.

Now it makes sense why Kaitou is getting an energy rider form.

Yeah. I guess Takatora's getting voted off the island?

Makes even more sense that it's Lemon based too. My wager is that Ryoma will craft an extra Genesis Driver for Kaitou and an extra Lemon ELS. Or he'll kill Ryoma and take his. Either way works out :lol

I see the first one, it seems to me like Ryoma is kind of the leader of the group, with Takatora and DJ Sagara being the only other two in Yggdrasil with other motives. Reminds me, what the hell is the DJ up too?

So is it probably a safe bet to assume that Alternate Mai is a survivor of this lost civilization?

If not survivor then maybe a ghost.

I remain on the side of Kaitou. Something just isn't right. He wants power,but he doesn't seem like the type to throw an entire world away for it.I think he's either bluffing and will get a mixed form like Gaim by stealing a sideplate and taking either cherry or peach by killing them,or Gaim will beat him and snap him back to his senses.

My main reasoning for this is that he is the secondary rider for this series.There is Ryugen but how many times have we seen him in suit fighting along side Kouta recently compared to Baron? Yeah I understand he saw the civilization first,but he also was very underhanded for most of the series.

Well ummm, I dont think any other Toku show will compare to this one in terms of writing.

This episode was great, seeing how the Helhiem could be on another planet or something, and who thought at like episode 5 we would get this far, from dance crews?

Now as to why Ryugen doesn't have a silver strap yet is sorta a mystery, but what's been happening with the show, I can't blame 'em.

Now I would love to see how this series wraps up, and what the Helheim choosing one person thing means, because I think it might be the summer movie and shortly after Gaim ends.

Now I really feel bad for what comes after Gaim, and Kamen Rider as a whole.

I know she hasn't exactly aged but she could still be Mai from the future, maybe?
It won't be a mix form. The teaser image we've seen looks almost identical to Duke's Lemon Energy Arms. It even has the lemon bun ears on the helmet. I'd say there's a much greater chance that it's just like a Shin Baron form or something. It's just a plain Lemon Energy Rams on a new base Baron suit. We know it's a lemon form and it doesn't resemble a Jinba multi-type arms.

Wait, were people saying this episode was filler? WHAT?!?!?!?

There was so much packed into this episode, a ton of backstory, plot progression, lore, foreshadowing, characterization, motivations, revelations, holy hell what an episode!

Also, totally gonna pull a Den-O here and say "called it!". I've been saying for a while now that I really don't think that Yggdrasil are the bad guys, that once we actually saw why they were doing what they were doing that maybe, just maybe, they are actually RIGHT. I mean sure, from the looks of things Sid, Yoko, and Ryouma may have their own agenda, and they're wanting to bring Kaito in with them, but..well, they're not exactly siding with Yggdrasil in doing so.

As for DJ Sagara, I honestly think he is probably tied much more closesly to Helheim than just spouting things like "we don't know who Helheim will choose" and the like (and we, of course, still don't know what that is actually about). Honestly I think there's a chance that he is a remnant of whatever civilization was taken before or is connected to Helheim in some way beyond just being a part of Yggdrasil.

Freaking fantastic episode. There was a bit of action here and there, but I liked how dialogue heavy it was. We really really needed an episode like this.

I think Shin-Baron will have the red replace the blue.

What blue? Baron's costume is already just red and silver anyway. Duke's suit has blue on it, but the Lemon Energy Arms doesn't at all.