[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 37 - “THE FUTURE SHALL BE WRITTEN, BUT BY WHO?”

I love Mei, and I love that she’s Yuri’s hand-picked representative to demonstrate how humanity’s improved over the last thousand years, but it’s pretty farcical for her pitch to be We Communicate Better With Our Friends in an episode with so much Kento melodrama. I know she knows him!

I'd say that Mei was actually annoyed by Yuri for legitimate reasons, as his lack of humanity knowledge in present time can make him tactless or do outright questionable decisions. But now lately she seems to be happy to be needed by him here compared to before, focusing more on her being seen as important by the SoL other than just the basekeeper? Otherwise, it's a good scene for Mei to make use of mundane human stuff to try dealing with a supervillain (though for some reason, Bacht didn't try to attack those 2 there), though it'd be something that easily backfire to use social media, as actually it's deemed as something that exposes humanity's true nature, making Bacht even more hateful of humanity (though here Instagram is the one represented, if it's Twitter...).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

If there’s a weak point in this episode, it’s Kento’s herculean intransigence. Honestly, I like that he’s not going to just abandon his martyrdom because of anything Touma says or does, because there’s no drama in that. Touma shows a flash of awareness by having patience with Ren’s soul-searching, but otherwise massively doubles down on his normal hot-headed badgering for other people to just see his big picture already. He tells Ryoga, a guy whose main personality trait is that he hates traitors and loves service, to just forget all that traitor stuff because Isaac was a villain, and abandon what’s left of the Sword of Logos to pitch in with his team and save the world – like Touma completely blanked on how long it took Rintaro to get over his own sense of loyalty and duty. (And Rintaro LIKED Touma!) With Kento, he’s still like WE CAN WORK TOGETHER to a guy who literally told him that working together is what gets Touma and everyone else killed. Pushing back on Touma’s genuinely terrible pitches is generally fine with me.

Guess I'll take back my previous words about the Shindai siblings for now. They aren't on redemption path yet, they were just fighting the other traitors, in Isaac before. Only that Isaac is actually a deserving target unlike the main cast. It was only a temporary teamup between enemies against common threat previously. Thus it clearly explains why Ryoga is still standoffish to them, as regardless of Isaac he still sees them as traitors. Touma's terrible pitches here is slightly fought back by Rintaro who insists that the Shindai siblings may have their own reasons and beliefs to continue on their path, instead of how others should follow Touma's path of forming power of friendship.

About Ren though, actually it's not often that someone beat some sense on him, thus I'd like Touma explaining something to him better, as actually yes, the more important thing in justice is compassion for others, power is only the means for an end or just something that allows you to stand up against threats instead of quickly getting killed. Having only power would corrupt, even in Ren who is an SoL member and is someone who doesn't care about civilians' fate and only about proving his strength by beating others, enemies or allies. Though ofc, Touma should only give him some clues here but not keep doing it later on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But then we’ve got Sophia, who can’t convince Kento with a brief and forgettable intervention. (I seriously can’t remember what she talked to him about.) And Rintaro, whose idea is fairly clever, also gets nowhere: if Kento won’t join his friends, his friends will just join Kento. It’s an adorably Rintaro way of undercutting Kento’s gruff brooding, and it manages to last for about three-quarters of a fight. It’s a failure, like every other attempt to sway Kento over the last however many episodes.

Sophia has said in earlier part of the series that recklessness is not bravery. I'd say that what Sophia says here is something important to note that being a hero (or at least, die heroically in a redemption for Kento here as he has been an anti-villain so far) isn't necessarily about sacrificing yourself and that it's ok for them to take care of themselves. As some people (irl) would think only sacrifices would count as one, or even thinking that taking care of others means you can't ever take care of yourself. I think that regardless of failure to sway Kento, Rintaro would want to protect him thus he'd join him in the fight to ensure his safety from his self-destructive ways, even if Kento would still be hostile.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

There’s a… you can’t save everyone. You can’t, especially if they don't want to be saved. I don’t like to say that kind of stuff about a kids show, because it’s a terrible thing to tell children. These shows are powered by boundless empathy, and the unwritten rule that everyone can be saved. But Kento… he’s just toxic at this point. He’s a guy that was always looking for a way to give his life for his friends, to atone for misplaced guilt and deep-seated shame. As he’s gained more power, he’s only become a more focused martyr. Like, you can keep reaching your hand out in case he reaches back, but sometimes you gotta go the Ren route and realize that you can’t force an epiphany. Some folks gotta hit rock bottom before they're ready to accept help, and they know where to find you when they’re ready.

Now I wonder how you'd feel regarding the next series, regarding this, if you'd want the part of that people who don't want to be helped can't be helped (which is true as trying to force it upon them will only make them push back), and that this is the bad consequences of trying to do good, becoming overly nosy, to think that what you do is for what you think is the best outcome for them. Personally I wouldn't mind for this stuff to be told to children, as I'd think presenting this stuff in purely rose-colored glasses way of this always succeeding can make them eventually being disillusioned of good when it doesn't go the way they hoped/expected from this show. And that it should be known that not taking action doesn't mean that they're apathetic or doesn't care about those people.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

For sure, I love the whole scene with Mei, Yuri and Bacht. Like what Mesnick said before about the 1000 year-old guys lacking a Rintarou on their team, well they didn't have a Mei either and it's cool how Yuri sees how invaluable Mei is to the heart of the current team, despite not having any powers. Yuri really wants to see if there's any hope left for Bacht after he rejected Touma's offer, so Mei is totally the last resort for redeeming him. If Bacht doesn't see the importance of humanity in a person as warm and caring as Mei, then at least they can say they tried their best. It's a cute scene anyway!

Perhaps it also can be that Mei's attempt is also half-hearted and isn't unnoticed where Mei finds Bacht scary (she can be shallow at least earlier, but this one's for good reason) and would be not anywhere near him and she stays as far as possible from him when trying to convince him. And that she only agrees to convince him due to Yuri's orders (albeit she did a fine job in that). About her role as the heart, not only Mei, need the defense for that in general as that role is often dismissed by the audience as useless or insignificant.