[FairyKing]

It's really weird seeing the main rider go through such a good episode that brings all his character development so far to a point, challenges his core ideals and points out the naivety of his claim to "save everyone," then makes him fight to prove the strength of his conviction and even mentions a special power lying dormant in his transformation item waiting to awaken...

Only to get eaten by the MotW so some other rider can save him and show off a flashy new form he got just by asking for it.

I mean come on, this was like the perfect power-up episode, except that it went to the wrong rider! Don't get me wrong, Touma has more than enough forms already and we know he's going to get even more, I'm not complaining that he didn't get yet another. It just feels like a miss, is all. Like they should have spaced out the three parts of Crimson Dragon more to give them more weight and saved Dragonic Knight for this episode. (And also spaced out Blades and Espada's three-book combos more, and saved King Lion Daisenki for when Rintaro actually earns a new power instead of just "hey Daishinji, give me the new toy.")

I don't hate X-Swordman? It's fine. It's funny. I wish Yuri had actually gone through character development and updated his ideas of justice, instead of just suddenly saying "it seems justice is different these days. Hey Tassel, give me the new toy."

I do like Tassel getting a bit more involved in the plot though, as annoying as he was at first I kind of like him as this mysterious, whimsical-but-sometimes-ominous figure somehow connected to the backstory. Speaking of which, finally, backstory! I'm glad they didn't go overboard with infodumping early on, but I was really waiting for this, and I still want more but I'm not disappointed with what we got, quite the opposite.