[DreamSword]

This is hands down the best episode of Revice so far. I loved almost every second of it.

Handling and reaching out to someone with low self-esteem is tricky business, especially if you aren't actually genuine in learning where they're coming from.

Likewise, saying something and actually believing in or following through with it are two entirely different things. Both of these factors at play are the primary cause of the rift between Ikki and Daiji.

Who are family is absolutely affects us, intentional or not, and Daiji grew up feeling lesser in comparison to Ikki. Breaking out on his own, joining Fenix, becoming a hero of justice, this was all his dream. But when push came to shove, he couldn't do it. And unfortunately for Ikki, who was there to pick up the Driver right afterward?

It's alot easier to make someone else an enemy rather than look inward and acknowledge your mistakes. All through the show so far, Daiji has been projecting his own ideals and and desires onto Ikki -- Pressuring him into signing the Fenix contract, calling him out on his lack of heroics, and trying to get a Driver to call his own any chance he can as a way to feel superior.

It was all of this pressure, both internal and external, building up over time that eventually gave birth to Kagero.

It's notable that Kagero calls Daiji pathetic given that, as the other side Daiji, it shows that Daiji himself deep down acknowledges that he's not entirely in the right here, but his feelings of lashing out have grown out of control. Why look inward when you can pin the blame on someone else? Daiji, however, isn't a monster. Just like many people do, Kagero can claim that Daiji wants Ikki dead, and sure, Daiji can have aggressive thoughts like that, but when it comes down to it, he does still love his brother.

On the flipside is Ikki, whose primary character flaw is his shortsightedness. But perhaps even more pressingly than that in this instance is how he serves a doting older brother to Daiji -- whether Ikki realizes it or not. He can constantly say he wants to save Daiji, but him instantly believing Kagero's' words, that Daiji is long gone, shows that his faith was only skin deep. Ontop of that, Ikki doesn't realize that by constantly shouting that Daiji is in need of rescue, he's also saying that Daiji is incapable of helping himself, which in turn can only make Daiji's' low self-esteem kick in even harder.

The day is not saved by Daiji becoming Live or giving Daiji exactly what Ikki has, it's instead done so by Ikki, for the first time in the show, having a genuine heart to heart with Daiji, and telling him the exact message that Daiji needs to hear, basically amounting to "You're better than you think you are." It's an expression of genuine care and love, and one that hits Daiji right where it needs too, inspiring him to stand tall and make the effort to move forward. He makes a breakthrough is handling the negative feelings that have literally trapped him inside of own head. Live is the reward for improving, not the cause of the improvement in and of itself.

It's all wonderfully grounded and intricate character work that really helped this arc to stick the landing, and I loved it. It's an episode(heck, an entire character arc) all about balancing your emotions and being careful in how you handle someone who's emotionally unstable, which is actually a rather adult lesson for kids and one that I respect, especially since I personally haven't seen many shows that so much as even talk about self-esteem issues.

Wonderful episode, and it makes me overall very excited to see where Revice goes from here on out.

No Line Texts this time, as both basically read as "Let's do what's best for Daiji."