[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 44

I’m not, incidentally. I don’t have any feelings about Tennouji at all. He’s just another in a seemingly uninterrupted string of boring Blade villains.

Oh... you're more interested in the Sealing Stone? A crucial artifact that existed in fantasy series like this. And not talking about villain opinions, but in Blade no, there are no other "series villain"/"main villain", there's only Tennoji for that role. The others are all one offs like Isaka or Miyuki, arc villain at best, everything happened in Blade is merely Tennoji's fault, especially Trial B whom he directly reprogrammed. Probably, with him being not a big deal in episode, this shows that not every series necessarily needs villains, unlike how some claims? (no villain =/= no journey/conflicts the characters face). Or, the villains here feels like those you'd see in purely black and white tokus like... Sentai?

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It is fun, though. Hajime acting as Kenzaki’s shadow, all the Riders getting more and more annoyed at each other, it’s some fun irritation running through the first half of this episode. It’s nice to build the story of this one around how shallowly their various insecurities and resentments are buried. It doesn’t take a lot for Kenzaki to lose his temper at Hajime’s suspicion, or for Tachibana to let his unearned feelings of superiority cause friction with Mutsuki. These men are at their most cohesive, and they are still this close to brawling.

Then again, the one where Hajime was suspicious at Kenzaki was proven right when Kenzaki just shamelessly took Hajime's pudding to eat it himself. And then, eventually Hajime became MVP here for noticing Titan's disguise by staying with him long enough, showing his schemes were successful.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The second half is where it really comes together, at least for me. Like, the first half lost a step because I thought it was fairly obvious what was going on, and the show hadn’t made the reveal yet. (Not that I thought the characters would’ve figured it out, but I thought the show would’ve revealed it to the viewers already.) So it was definitely some waiting for the other shoe to finally drop.

And speaking about Titan, lol, disguising ability reminds me of.... Hajime a.k.a Joker. Hajime, like the Joker card itself which can be played as any card, Joker can transform into anything other card has. And now Hajime has to deal with something similar to him but better, he can seemingly transform into anything, outside the cards. So Joker's ability as a special Undead isn't better than an ordinary Undead lol?! The Chameleon Undead, which is one of the Titan's Fusion Materials. And...I don't think it talked for only 1 time is a big deal, he can just choose to talk or not if he wants. Hirose gets away with being angry of being accused as one and lifting a chair (this one lifting is ordinary).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

So, it seemed like this episode was going to deal with Hajime’s barely-suppressed Joker side, at least based on the previous Next Time trailer. But, ha ha, that was all a narratively-appropriate ruse, with Hajime pretending to be the Joker in order to draw out Titan.

Four Of A Kind finish was the other version of Royal Straight Flush with auras.... I don't think the second version is as good as the first version used on Trial D, the one where Blade shoots a giant beam. And this part is an irony from Faiz before, other than Faiz being about the Riders originated from good leader in evil organization (Hanagata in Smart Brain) where Blade is about the Riders originated from evil leader in good organization (Tennoji in BOARD), here, in contrast to Faiz' miscommunication, the monster impersonating Riders to sow discord is resolved very quickly by the characters checking with each other and assuming the obvious. In Faiz, the cast would never dream of doing that, and such a situation would've resulted in everyone hating each other for ten episodes, surely.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yeah, man, I don't think it's that clear cut? I think there's plenty of room for interpretation in how much Mutsuki is to blame for his own actions. If you want to read it as him being a victim of the Spider Undead's schemes, that's cool! I just don't think I see it that way.

This is what I mean for "not everything is opinionated", not everything can be given room for interpretation. There's opinion and there's fact. Like for example, if Jungo from Ex-Aid is dead, then he's dead, it can't be given an interpretation that Jungo was only hibernating/faking his dead/etc. There's actually a clear cut, for "directly take over Mutsuki's body, but its grip is too fragile to mantain in battle for extended periods of time", as seen clearly in Leangle's debut, where in human form, Mutsuki was an insecure kid wanting to prove himself, but when he transformed into Leangle, he becomes a bloodthirsty warrior with a deep voice who attacks friends and foes alike (brainwashed). Spider Undead becomes a voice on Mutsuki's soldier so he can completely brainwash Mutsuki, inside and outside battle, and succeeded after he kills Shima.

One of his lucid moments has Mutsuki tell Tachibana he is afraid that the Spider Undead will completely destroy his self and obtain absolute control of his body and mind, which is eventually prevented by Shima's sacrifice, which takes effect after Tiger's sacrifice.