Kamen Rider Saber Episode 10- "Crossing Swords & Feelings!" Discussion
 

Touma must confront the strange and powerful warrior Caliber, who has stolen some WonderRide Books.

I am just here to giggle immaturely at the title of this episode.

Dang it, your comment made me think that the episode would be a fitting title for a doujin.

I'm still scarred by what I saw on Mandarake.

Mwahaha hahahaha!

I enjoyed this episode. The reveal was what we all expected, but the resulting conflict between Touma and Kento seems interesting.

I can only hope the group gets their powerups to beat JaOu Dragon before it's too late.

Not much to say on this episode since this only serves to answer some already obvious questions. But it is interesting to see Touma and Kento's relationship going forward. Kinda feel bad for Rintaro tho, he doesn't have much interaction going on with the trio, despite him being the secondary. Espada feels more like the secondary.

Next episode is Jaouh Dragon's debut, and it looks interesting that in the preview pics we see Rintaro fallen on the ground on the same area where Espada and Calibur fought, so it looks like he took a blow that was for Kento.

"same area where Espda and Kento fought"? That don't make sense.

Whoops. I meant Espada and Calibur.

I am now intrigued.

episode confirms a lot of things. Calibur identity of course, but also that southern base also has swordsmen. They'll probably appear at some point.

nothing much to say except this. It feels like Kento will take a dark route at some point in the show. And i'm curious to know what happened to his father now.

With subs, Tassel says that Kurayami was "ONE of the TWO initial swords made".

Does that mean there's a light-element sword?

Tassel also mentions that he has to go and meet him too. Is he gonna leave his chair once and for all?

I'm disappointed that Calibur being sent twirling into the air in last week's preview turned out not be by the heroes sending him flying, but by a random blast from [whichever general that was]. The theme song was all set to play with all of them facing the camera as Calibur hits the ground, but alas!

I know the location itself is a toei toku staple but... I can't help but laugh a little, because it wasn't that long ago in Kiramager when our heroes came together in order to deliver their first decisive victory against their most troublesome recurring foe (who also happened to be purple) and now here is Saber doing the same thing, in the same place no less.

Oh yeah, the episode itself is cool. Calibur's identity is revealed but he's still cryptic and vague about everything. Will this change once he uses Dangerous Zom- I mean, Jaou Dragon next week....? Probably not :P

speaking of location
next week is the location I'm calling the "Kamen Rider - Under the bridge" location appearance in Saber :'D

Huh. Genuinely thought it'd be Tassel. Cool!

The Wonder Combos next to each other are... oh boy. I think that's more garrish than most final forms. That was supposed to be a really cool moment, of all three full Wonder Combos standing up to our main antagonist; but it's one of the tackiest things I've ever seen.

What interests me more right now though is Reika, especially with the reveal that the Southern base has its own Riders. The way she's skulking about is very similar to Gai's earlier appearances, so... it's got me wondering.

I think what's got me interested is the Southern Base is fighting their own fight. So does that mean we'll be getting a shake up as well with Southern Megid members showing up?

Overall a pretty fun episode, a lot more angst with Kento, and things are slowly starting to come together.

Curious to see when we'll see the Sword of Light, because that totally has to be the second of the two swords first made.

Also uh oh, seems like Tassel is starting to make his move. Allegedly.

I'm so glad I was able to find a new place to watch the RAW this week! I was prepared to wait a few days for the sub, which is what I've been doing since Episode 3, but I would have been in so much suspense to learn Calibur's secret identity.

I think his reason for betraying is more interesting than his identity though. It's not like Daichi is an active member of the team, like "Souichi" was in Build. He has only spoke a few lines in flashbacks so the revelation is more surprising for the characters than us and the real mystery is instead: Why?

Despite how little we know about him, he was a good guy in the past. His affiliation may have changed but I definitely think he's an antivillain. Whatever Hayato told him, it must have been something pretty terrible for both of them to turn against SOL.

Storius. He creates Megids from stories. It's in his name.

That was my original prediction until Calibur showed that picture of himself with Hayato and Sophia. Now I think Tassel is an even greater villain.

It's a good thing Kento is doing his angsty best to keep this show feeling like Kamen Rider, because I have to admit, when Saber, Blades, and Espada are all rocking forms that emphasize their primary colors to that degree, it becomes a lot harder to deny the whole Sentai vibe. It also helps that the details on those suits are so absurdly overdone. I know it's tacky, but I won't lie; I kind of love it. Saber's overall suit design concept was "complexity" specifically to contrast with Zero-One's focus on simplicity, and ever since reading that, I've gained a real appreciation for what the aesthetics of the show are doing. I've said stuff like this about Saber before, but, again, this is The Crazy Year, as far as I'm concerned. At this point I want Saber's final form to be so gaudy and bulky he can't even move, because that kind of over the top intensity is what's making the show so much fun for me.

And this one is pretty intense! It felt like part one to the usual "season finale" that precedes the obligatory New Year's break, except that's presumably still coming after this. I'm enjoying all this momentum a ton. Calibur being revealed as the most obvious possible suspect might've been disappointing, but I think the show is already being smart by framing the weight of it more around how that affects the characters, rather than the audience. Just as Kento was starting to come to grips with the horrible truth, he gets yet another horrible truth to throw him into emotional turmoil. It's great. The episode emphasizes the bond between the three main Riders, showing them reaching their greatest heights yet of power and teamwork, specifically to pull the rug out from under them at the end. It's solid drama that's got me excited about what's next, and it's all backed up by more delicious Sakamoto action. This was a good episode.

Something I liked about the post-reveal conversation is that I was totally expecting this to lift a weight off of Kento's shoulders, that it wasn't his dad doing this all along; and I would have been fine with that... but then Daichi just says "yeah no dude your dad's still a dick". Love that!

It could just be my inner garo fan talking (specifically the original in this case), but does anyone else think southern base might be up to no good?

This is smelling more and more like a Rider War season per episode.

Rider war I dont know (maybe northern vs southern base. I guess thats possible)

But Kento becoming the big bad/next Calibur for some reason I'm 99% sure.
He has the typical reactions of the good guy becoming bad, wearing purplish clothes already.
He is the only one knowing what Touma can't remember so I expect he changes side before we reach the "but you could have just told him and everything would be okay" point.

calling it right now the light sword will be part of the final form

I figured the other of the two swords was just Saber's.

I mean, Kento was there 15 years ago when Hayato betrayed them so there's no ignoring that. The only thing that has changed is now there are two traitors. It's curious what happened to him though after Daichi succeeded him. You think he's dead like Kenshin?

honestly now that the show is done cramming ALL THE toys down our throats(or at least slowing down) show's decent still not fully at ease because it's Fukuda writing and the first episodes of Ghost were at least competent

Finally watched it. So Calibur was the previous Saber. Yeah, sure, real shocking.

Tassel just went from creeping me out to terrifying the living daylights out of me.

Also, if the Ankokuken Kurayami was one of the first two swords that was forged, wonder what the other one is.

You don't want to know. Keep your innocence.

Highly doubt it. I think the Kaenken Rekka was forged alongside the Suiseiken Nagare and Raimeiken Ikazuchi.

Would be cool if the Southern Base had a different way of dealing with Megid attacks or different way of preserving the Book of Ancients and eventually comes into conflict with the Northern Base over their differences.

Newtoy every week. Any twist and mystery isn't a mystery. We're just going pass the bonding and expect we're all good teammates now. If there's more southern base riders we might go up to twenty riders with obscure ones like they did in hibiki. The female messenger is definite a rider.they really went to that cheap factory set that yuki satoh mention about rider saving budget and not changing. I like they start to skip elaborate henshin and book reading, but even caliber have to show off the narration for this book when espada is charging at him. Also, espada took one measely hit and he's knocked out if his suit.

Nah, jaoh next week and next month is drgonic knight and lion something. There might be southern base rider or another rider in December getting teases for 3rd quarter.

I just thought of something!

So, we all know that Tetsuo has insanely good hearing, and he says he can 'hear' the swords 'cry' and stuff?

What if the swords are actually 'alive', and the Ankokuken Kurayami is the actual villain and using the 'users' as hosts? Or at the very least influencing their brains to turn them evil? It could explain their sudden betrayal.

These are mystical sacred swords after all, not just your run of the mill blades.

It's gonna be like Gaisorg from Ryusoulger all over again.

I feel like Saber is starting to click with me finally.

I also feel like there's a decent chance that next week's episode sucks now that I've said that.

Yeah, this was mostly one long fight scene, but I honestly really liked the few narrative beats we got. The three Riders pledging to be allies? Really liked that bit. Intrigue from the mystery woman? Definitely has me curious. The super obvious Calibur reveal? Still turned out to be a pretty good scene. Slash's suit and powers? ... well, we can't all be winners.

I still have some issues with the show - mostly the really long belt jingles and stock footage this week - but I actually got caught up in the story finally.

From all appearances, it seems this is just Tetsuo being eccentric.

That's something I've been expecting for a while now, especially with what the transformation jingle for Calibur is:

"Evil Read! Get go under conquer than get keen. Jaaku Dragon! Darkness translation! Stealing the light, the jet-black sword ruthlessly rules the dark dragon!"

Mostly the last part as it talks about ruling the black dragon. Saber has been relatively good with hinting at these twists without calling it out too much until now.

And another thing, yeah, the Seikens were most likely all created at the same time. Someone actually translated the forbidden book that described the path to Avalon and it talked about creating swords that could use multiple Wonder Ridebooks at a time. Which hints that the Seiken's are the newest swords, with Calibur's being the first and the other swords being somewhere in the middle given the fact they can only use 1 book.

We definitely will still see a lot of new toys, but at this point we're out of the phase of the show where they're throwing a LOT at us and it's just upgrades from here on out -- Zero-One similarly slowed down when it got to Shining and Assault, for instance.

I've been thinking. What if "The Truth" that Calibur is hinting at, concerns the Southern Base? Already, one of the members of it is already making the "Me have plans" face and will no doubt be the rival organization that Northern base have to face.

Hayato probably found out about it, betrayed SOL, fought Kamijo, something happens that leads to Kamijo getting Kurayami, and then proceeds to join up with Megid.

Hayato's definitely alive, and I feel like Kamijo is just using Megid to expose the Southern Base or something.

What makes you think Hayato's alive? He's nowhere to be seen. I got a feeling that Daichi defeated him somehow and took up his cause and Driver after hearing the truth. Whatever that is, I don't doubt the heroism of the Northern Base Sword Riders.

I'll have to see the Southern Base before getting suspicious but based on how mysterious Reika's acting, it's certainly possible that they have some kind of corrupt plan for the Book of Ancients and it would be pretty interesting to see a faction war between Northern and Southern Base. Intriguingly, South Pole also has twice as many Sentai villain bases as North Pole.

I mean, you don't cast an actor like that and just do a few scenes, right?

Tell that to Kenshin!

I must have missed it. What is going on with Buster and Kenzan? Why are they MIA

Because now their toys don't have to be advertised anymore the writers don't have to deal with juggling a bazillion characters and can just focus on a select few they actually wanted to write.

Or they're having a cookout in that training room. Possibly both!