[FairyKing]

Episode 4, this one's kind of unusual. Wan Ning continues to establish himself in my eyes as a refreshingly down-to-earth take on the typical toku protagonist, hitting classic story beats - in this case, worrying whether he's worthy to be a hero - but grounding them in things an ordinary person would have to deal with, like being tempted by money and daunted by responsibility. And it looks like his resolve to try his best anyway has caught the attention of another of those robot-spirit-things, so we should be seeing another Phantom Core debut soon!

Ling Chuan's side of the story interested me less, but it made a nice contrast with Wan Ning, showing a character who is aggressively working to make himself a hero. That's admirable, but I can't shake this ominous vibe I'm getting from him. I do like how the Mongolian etymology of his suit's name, Tamir meaning "strength," was directly brought up in-universe. I don't expect it to have much story significance, but I just find it really cool! Then again, I also thought his offer to buy the Phantom Connector last episode was just a one-off joke, and that ended up being important for Wan Ning's characterization in this one.

The fight scene was kind of nothing, which I feel like I should be disappointed by and I'm sure some people will be. But I actually really liked that? There was enough else happening in this episode that I'm glad they didn't try to cram in a big fight with the transformation and finisher and everything. I think that will help future battles feel more meaningful, like they're happening for a reason instead of just to check a box of one fight per episode.