[barnstenchfartface]

Lots or revelations in this episode...and lots of thoughts apparently, I just finished posting and realized how much I actually wrote, holy shit.

So, first off, huuuuuh. Ok. Ok. So Generations is canon, at least somewhat. Zaizen did operate on Emu, just not 16 years ago which is what initially appeared to be what they were going for. Hm. He was the original Bugster patient, and things...I see.

It makes sense when I think about it, since if I remember correctly Zaizen referred to Emu as the high school student he operated on in the pvs, which wouldn't make sense for 16 years ago but would for 6. I thought I was just mishearing or something but I guess it ended up being something.

You know, maybe. Kuroto's probably not telling the truth about this. Or at least, not completely. It doesn't explain how Masamune fits into this or what contact Kiriya found Emu and Kuroto had 16 years ago, which makes his claim that Emu's part in the story started 6 years ago really suspect.

'course it makes sense that he's lying, since he's trying to obfuscate the reason he silenced Kiriya, and get Taiga off his ass.

(...kinda silly that he's trying to trick Taiga instead of just beating him up and taking his Gashats, which is what he's supposedly trying to do in this part of the story, and which he could totally do what with the 7 level advantage, but hey, whatever. Plot.)

But...Emu corroborates the story, and it appears that the Emu personality actually didn't appear until 6 years ago, not 16 as we thought. That...changes things a lot.

Don't even know what to think anymore. Mysteries upon mysteries with this show.

Was also sort of hoping Niko would have a more meaningful connection to him than what it's looking like it's gonna be, and what I was sort of expecting it to be, which is that he beat her ass at vidja. Not a big deal, but...oh well.

And, huh, based on the data Kuroto got it looks like the Double Action Gamers actually have different stats. XXL has higher Agility and Dexterity, but XXR has higher Attack, Defense and slightly higher...chance for Critical hits, I guess? Or something to do with the Critical Strikes/Finishes. Makes sense enough given their personalities.

And, as I was actually sort of expecting, they aren't actually Level 20, but since they're Level 10 and there's two of them, it "adds up" to 20. That makes way more sense. Mostly because if each of them really was Level 20, it shouldn't have taken more than one hit to beat Level 5 Aranbura. Among other things.

Also also, this wasn't a problem the last two episodes, but in this one Brave and Double Action were onscreen at the same time. Hmm. Brave and XXL have the same suit actor. I wonder who gets priority, Emu cause he's the main Rider, or Hiiro cause that's his designated suit actor? Kinda curious, though I guess it doesn't matter too much.

Anyway, I know Riders in a multi-Rider series are contractually obligated to be dicks to each other, but I am really at a loss as to what Taiga and Hiiro were actually trying to accomplish, the latter in particular since while Taiga is always on asshole mode, Hiiro isn't...quite as much. So they find out he's got the Bugster virus, ok. But...since when has the cure for that been beating up the patient...? Like, what the hell, exactly? Were they just...trying to cause him stress so the Bugster would break out or something? I'm pretty confused. The conversation at the end only makes this more unclear, since it sort of implies the only reason Hiiro didn't tell Emu he was infected was to avoid causing him stress.

Para-DX is hype though. What's with the past couple of series and the "secondary" Rider gear having way cooler sounds than the main stuff? Cause man, the Gear Dual sounds awesome. Not quite Mega Ulorder levels of sexy, but pretty great. Though I can only just barely make out the "Get the glory in the chain" in the Puzzle jingle. Really love Fighter's sounds though. They're just hot blooded enough. They're great.

I hope the Beta Gear has the same style of sounds. ...Though I'm sure it's gonna be like the Necrom Eyecon and have regular styled sounds when actually put in a Driver instead.

Also Poppi doesn't know what is numbers. lol.

I love the look of Puzzle Gamer, but I just can't get used to them having the other's dumb face stuck to the back of their heads. It's a really stupid design choice and Fighter in particular really suffers from the whole Dual design. They're rare suits in that they really do not look better in motion to me, but worse. Seriously, any angle but straight on is a bad look for their heads.

And huh, Parad uses the same form change transformation phrase as Emu. That...could be meaningful?

Anyway, confusion aside, not a bad episode at all. Pretty cool debut for the new Rider, even if I'm not all that sold on his suits. Still lots of plot going on, interesting stuff all around...