[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Yggdrasill Saga

Episode 13: Gaim and Baron, Tag of Friendship!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

The Inves attacks has revealed to cause an unknown infection in form of the plants from Helheim sprouting from their wounds and suspecting the cause coming from the Inves Game played by Beat Riders, as Akira told Kouta to watch on TV. Kouta seems unhappy for the potential blame to Beat Riders and heads out home, with Akira trying to stop them. At first I thought the next scene was going to be about Akira chewing out Kouta for Beat Riders activities again (Kouta also already revealed his Gaim form to her), but actually it's to get him and Mai checked out at the hospital as they potentially have touched the monsters.

The Yggdrasill members talk about that situation, remarking that the crack appearence is 12 times compared to the last year, but not resorting to evacuation as it'll likely cause panic. I forgot to said this before, but Sid is pretty much a Yggdrasill agent, aiding them for him dealing the Sengoku Drivers. Other than him, DJ Sagara is a worker in Yggdrasill as well, to promote the hell out of Beat Riders, and it's the first step of Yggdrasill's plans, but it's completed now and they would move towards other projects. While Sid considers kids as inferior towards the adults, DJ Sagara reminds him to not get ahead as the kids still get the Sengoku Drivers. Takatora visits Drupers, and speaks to Oren, who apparently doesn't know yet that Zangetsu's human identity is him, only feeling honored of Takatora's praise, but likely will as Takatora likely wants to hire Oren in Yggdrasill.

The Beat Rider being over is proven when a desperate Hase visits Drupers, and find out that Sid is no longer there, showing the cluelessness of the other Beat Riders except for Kouta and Micchy. As a piece of advice and likely doubles as a promotion to his place, Bando offers vitamins to Hase, who just storms off as there are no means to gain power visiting there anymore, but despite that Iyo thanks him for coming fo Drupers. Hase is revealed to have symptoms of PTSD as well, hallucinating the Inves, Zangetsu, and Bravo all around him. And this also shows, that while giving powers or such to someone may be problematic, the solution to deal with them isn't necessarily taking that away from them all of a sudden. As while the power can potentially corrupt someone, they also become physiologically dependent on their substance of choice and utterly reliant on it to function, and thus if they're deprived of it, it'll cause other problems instead like unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when trying to stop using something they're dependent of. This part of story has an analogy of drug withdrawal symptoms, the symptoms that happen when someone suddenly stops using drugs of their choice, and Sid himself is a personification of a drug dealer, who looks and acts like that, pushes kids into addiction and isn't above sacrificing profits for escalating the Inves Game.

As Kouta, Mai, and Micchy heads to a hospital for testing, they got hounded by angry crowds who blame them for the Inves attacks. As Team Baron dances on formerly Raid Wild's stage, the audience is also much emptier than usual, and like Team Gaim, there are people who approaches them and blames them for the Inves attacks. In face of panic, people are also being irrational as well to force them to leave the city, unaware that Beat Riders doing that won't keep them safe from the Inves. Kaito, as someone who holds power above morality, henshins into Baron and sics 3 Inves on the civilians, and mocks them as cowards when they run away, holding on his beliefs where the weak deserve contempt. Oren approaches Baron and henshins to Bravo, fleshing out more as the likely reason he attacks the Beat Riders is that, like the citizens, he seems to think that Beat Riders are the one behind the Inves attacks, and thus he "plays hero" and jumps in to fight Baron to keep the pest away. As Bravo injures Peco with collateral damage, Baron faces a dilemma to keep fighting him out of pride and helping out his teammate, of which he choses the latter. While the citizens can be annoying to unreasonably blame and whine, doesn't mean they deserve to be murked (see Gaim on ep. 11), this is probably Kaito's lowest moment so far in the series, a reminder that though he shows some soft spots to certain people, like Mai before, his team here, and Kouta later, people whom he doesn't have soft spots would still receive nasty treatment from him.

Oren, as usual, thrives on the newfound attention he receives as the citizens hail him as a hero who saves them from the Beat Riders (Kaito's action did worsen the unjust hate on Beat Riders though, showing ruthlessness really had disadvantages, contrary to popular belief that ruthless ones would get ahead), though while Oren is being an attention whore like usual, this paints Oren as someone who does have well-intention to fight off what he thinks as bad, but he does have his ignorance and executes it in a really misguided way, showing that intention isn't enough to make you good overall. He further continues his crusade against Beat Riders by broadcasting his intentions on camera, of which Mai, apparently not listening, fangirls to see this as an opportunity to learn baking at Charmant instead (at least it's not in form of perpetuating Bravo's behavior..). Micchy laments about the way to clear their name as everything about Inves is blamed upon them, realizing the actual reason of DJ Sagara heavily promoting the Beat Riders, where as shown before, Beat Riders had some celebrity status. It's all a ruse to make people easily turn on them when they feel the Beat Riders are unfavorable, namely being "responsible" for the Inves attacks. It's a plan to keep Yggdrasill's reputation clean as the Beat Riders are the scapegoats for the Inves attacks and the citizens are focused on blaming them, and DJ Sagara for now succeeded in doing that, backing up the compliments from Ryoma to him.

Bravo attacks Kouta who attempts to fight off an Inves that is injuring workers, despite knowing they'll still blame the Beat Riders. This resulted in the Inves getting away, and Kouta nicely points out that a hero should defend the city (while also blocking Bravo's sword in human form barehanded!!). Bravo however is only concerned to what he's tasked in the contract, likely becoming a member of Yggdrasill since then, to only capture the Beat Riders. Kouta rightly calls out Bravo as not a hero at all, that while he's not doing what he's doing out of malice, his ignorance really only bring more harm than good, as he henshins into Gaim. Kaito arrives at the scene to settle the score with Baron, henshins into Baron, and while he doesn't like those who gets in his way for fighting Bravo, he seems to accept the help from Gaim fighting off a common enemy, and they got upper hand to Bravo. There's a nice attack from Bravo who throws his Duri Noko and spread a large amount of shrapnel over a large area, highlighting the spiky skin of a durian. It's revealed that any Armored Riders can use any Lockseeds as Gaim uses Banana Arms handed to him by Baron. They further continue to beat down Bravo, including a (non-finisher) double Rider Kick, who at the end has to retreat for his mousse.

Kouta focuses on searching the Inves that escaped when Bravo interferes in his fight, while Kaito runs after him to get back the Banana Lockseed that Kouta forgot to return. On their way they encounter Zangetsu, who has changed into Zangetsu Shin, and confirming that Oren worked for them that he views as useless (unlike your fear to him as trained former soldier?). They're also in an area that is infested with Inves plants, and the runaway Inves is actually there, consuming a Helheim fruit to mutate into Azure Dragon Inves. Zangetsu Shin shows off his strength by fighting that Inves off and finishing it with Sonic Volley, a finisher arrow with a hurricane surrounding it to cut off the enemy to pieces, likely highlighting many cuts that happen to a fruit but implemented to the monster. Unfortunately, Hase, who is also watching the Inves' mutation and the ensuing fight, gets an idea to get his power back by also eating the Helheim fruit, revealing that those who eat Helheim fruits will mutate into an Inves, and a horrific implication to the audience that all of the other Inves are like Hase as well, including the construction worker before that is implied to be attacked by Komori Invees, where Komori Inves may be actually that exact worker who mutates after eating a Helheim Fruit. Kouta however seems to think that Hase is a rare human Inves...