[DreamSword]

Episode 21: Phantom Rider

This episode is all about trying to make you feel sorry for nothing characters.

Unfortunately, most of the episode is spent focusing on Xargin, and I made it pretty clear how I felt about him many times.

Yet again I have to stress that he doesn't make any sense, in anything! His abilities as a Amalgam don't make any sense because he underwent the same transformation process as everyone else, for starters.

His hatred of Victor also makes no sense considering Xargin outright went to Victor to be converted in the first place, and if he really wanted Victor dead he had a ton of opportunities to do it years ago. Even insane people make more sense than this guy.

Heck, Sasha's' death doesn't even work as his primary motivator anymore because upon meeting Sasha, he outright ignores her and insists that he's doing the right thing anyway, making him a huge hypocrite ontop of things. I get they're trying to go for a guy who's emotionally dead, but considering his interactions with Victor and Joseph, that's clearly not the case with Xargin.

What makes this infuriating is that the show actually seems to unironically side with Xargin's' nihilistic philosophy: That we all deserve to die and that redemption and atonement are outright impossible to achieve. Sasha countering his philosophy with one of hope for the future is outright portrayed as stupidity and cowardice on her part. Granted, Sasha is in no way a better person than what Xargin is, but... GOD I hate this!

Oh right, we're also given last-minute characterization for Shido and Victor, which is of course the usual trite nonsense from this show. "They totally had a tragic backstory this whole time, thus justifying their awful behavior and as such you should feel bad as they die." Considering what is done within this exact same episode with Xargin... mixed messages, much? You can't say "everybody dies" is the happy ending and then expect me to therein feel bad when people infact do die, that's not how this works.

The short version is that this episode ends up with every bit of substance that Xargin has to offer. That is to say, none at all.