[Enchilada645]

Sayonara... Desast the Megid.

So my thoughts on Ren? Honestly, the later half of the series works wonders for him as soon as he starts hanging out with Desast. I always felt like there was a good spark between the two compared to Ren with anyone else. They always gelled together, especially during Kenzan's debut fight. That was probably the one thing I loved about Ren's debut.

The fact that the Kenzan Sword Chronicle was about him and Desast also made that one of my favorite Ren bits. Otherwise Ren doesn't do much for me, at least on his own during the late teens to late twenties. But the arc for Ren is clear, and it's honestly a fine one, even if it was stretched out fairly long. That being said, at the end of it all, Ren's alright. I don't hate him, I don't love him, he's just alright and that's fine by me. The fact that I don't hate him after this major conclusion is well... it's good honestly. I was worried, especially pushing through the second arc where Yuri was introduced, that I wasn't going to like him in the end. But he ended up in a nice spot. Here's hoping he gets to dual wield Hayate and Kyomu though. Or if they somehow find a way to do Santoryu style with Kenzan. The end with him repeating his line from his debut fight against Desast though... that hit absolutely hard. The song also helped immensely.

Desast, Desast, you have me kind of hopeful in the fact that your book didn't shatter completely. If Ren's mission in the end becomes trying to restore Desast? That would be nice and would elevate Ren's character for me. Regardless, you are probably one of my favorite pure monsters in the past several years of Riders. So I'm hoping whenever you come back they don't try to stick you in a human form because well, you being a full monster living your life however you want? That was your appeal.

Now of course the rest of the episode is carrying the plot but there are a few quirks that I actually really love? The fact that their piecing together all the clues that they have to try and find the base. Rintaro's little interaction with Luna, calling back to his introduction to Touma. And I think the most interesting touch, despite the questionable things with Reika, is one scene in particular.

When everyone see's all of the books lining the shelves of humans just screaming out trapped inside. I absolutely loved the look of guilt and pain on Reika's face. Because it hit her, absolutely, that had she not ripped the Northern Base apart, all of these innocent people might've been saved. Okay that's an exaggeration but a lot of these people could have been saved if it wasn't for her actions. And her expression of guilt absolutely showed that well.

Now I don't much about Charybdis' like story or inspiration but I absolutely loved his usage. He was clearly always meant to be a tool for Storious and we see now why exactly. Because Storious decided to just circumvent a big old ritual by turning Charybdis into a walking cocoon. I always did wonder why Charybdis had a larval-like look to it, so seeing it eat Storious and then crumble away to reveal him? Pretty good.

One complaint I'll say is that Storious should have kept his old look up until this point, that was when he gets his new duds it's a shocking reveal at how much he's changed. Overall fantastic episode.