[barnstenchfartface]

The longer I think about, it the less satisfied I am with Drive's ending.

I mean, I think it was done very well and everything, but the way Heart's character arc ended up was just underwhelming. I understand why Gou was the one who got to take down his father--he was his father. But in the end, the one who was hurt by Banno the most was really Heart. But instead of him getting a satisfying final showdown with his creator, making good of his pledge to take down Banno himself after Brain's sacrifice...he just...doesn't.

Gou and Chase get the good stuff with Banno, while Heart (and Medic) end up in what was really a very impersonal fight against a non-character, Sigma. I guess Shinnosuke did too, but he got his time to shine in earlier arcs. For the Roidmudes, this was the time for them to really get the spotlight, and all they got was...no real resolution to their arcs in relation to Banno, their malefactor. They did help foil his final plan, but honestly, whatever. There's not really that much emotional weight to that.

I think I would have liked for Gou and Chase and Heart and Medic to have switched. The Roidmudes stay behind to fight Banno, Medic sacrifices herself, Heart takes revenge on the mad professor but ends up fatally wounded as a result, while the three Riders go to stop Sigma. Chase sacrifices himself for Gou (which I think would have much more weight in the context of this fight than Medic's did) and blah blah blah. Gou doesn't get to stop his father this way, but that was merely half of what made that part of the ending so good--the other thing was finally accepting Chase, which would have still been possible. I think I would have liked this more than what we got.

I still really liked the ending, but Heart was by far my favorite character in this thing, the fact that he got no real closure with Banno before the end really grinds my gears a bit.