[Fish Sandwich]

Wait, you mean a character who died in Ex-Aid didn't actually DIE?! Say it ain't so!

Utterly fantastic episode. It took all the little niggling issues from last week and ironed them out into something truly excellent:

- So I guess I was wrong about Parad being the final villain (short of some real crazy stuff happening in a very short time), and while I'm okay with that to begin with, since the ending I was imagining was basically Drive Part 2 and thus redundant, this episode did a lot to make Parad's redemption work. Like a lot a lot. I'll cover what I can but I know I'm going to miss bits of what made this so good.

- Short-term, Parad's actor kills it when asked to be a sobbing mess, and really comes off as someone who's suddenly trying to process a whole lot of ideas that used to be completely foreign to him. Comparisons to a child are quite apt.

- One bit I also loved that Excite! Subs either didn't feel was important or didn't pick up on the significance of was that, calling back to Poppy talking about Parad wanting to have a heart, Emu specifically tells Parad he now has the heart to understand how important life is. Complete with a dramatic pause. It's why Parad immediately picks his head up off the ground when Emu says it.

- Long-term, they've made it very clear since very early on that severe existential angst about being a game character is the root of his villainy, and of course Lovelica's death hit him quite hard, so none of any of this is out of nowhere.

- And of course with the way their connection has been shown to work over and over, it should go without saying Parad has the potential to understand Emu's morals.

- Hey speaking of Emu have I mentioned lately how cool Emu is? I mean I haven't because he hasn't done anything super cool in a while but holy wow when Emu is bringing his A game he's seriously like, top tier Rider protagonist, and every time I forget that, an episode like this comes along.

- Also it happens just after the sceencap I took but I love how Kiriya gives this big goofy grin after finding out Emu totally played all of them. Like he's super proud of Emu for managing to surpass the master, as it were.

- I'm still not sure about all this SYMBOLISM! though. Over on TV-N's forums I saw it said that Hiiro's wacky CGI tear was essentially the show trying to manufacture emotion where there was none, and while good ol' Takenoko's opinions on Ex-Aid are rarely something I agree with, that remark stuck with me specifically because I feel the show HAS plenty of emotion without all the theatrics. I don't need a metaphorical cutaway of Emu saving Parad from drowning to understand that Parad is touched by his kindness. It doesn't need to be raining for me to understand that sad things are sad. I don't even think it's a matter of talking down to the audience so much as the show getting a little too creative for its own good. That being said it's definitely not enough to drag the episode down.

Anyways, this week rocked and next week looks hype. I'm also happy Ex-Aid saved me from having to go dig up a Ryuki screencap by not actually "resetting" the way I thought it would. Much like Parad's whole deal it avoids being derivative, and if Masamune has crazy Bugster powers, that might mean there are some revelations yet to come that might even give him a real motivation! Yay!