[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairyKing

Honestly, I feel like none of the upgrades in Saber really had any narrative or emotional weight until Primitive Dragon.

So I've been thinking about this a bunch (as though I need an excuse to think about Saber), and while I'll say upfront I wouldn't exactly argue with this assessment, I have declared myself a Saber apologist in the past, so I thought I'd be fun to take a quick look at every "major" upgrade in the show so far and give my opinion on how much narrative/emotional weight I feel was attached to them.

Fantastic Lion – pretty textbook form debut in my book. Rintarou gets beat to crap by Zooous, we learn about the past of both characters, see Rintarou training super hard to master the Wonder Combo, and then he uses it to go save the day, which includes fending off Zooous. The classic "defeat followed by rematch" formula is especially key here!

Dragon Arthur – also debuts in the same episode as Fantastic Lion, but gets its real focus story immediately afterwards, which does a super clever trick by having the whole point being Touma realizing his allies are more powerful than any shiny new toy, cementing the bond between the Riders in an episode that kinda acted nicely like a mini season finale, since the show took the next week off. I really loved this one.

Crimson Dragon – The actual objective weakest form debut in Saber. Y'all are only harping on King Lion instead because you probably forgot Crimson Dragon had a debut, since it had the misfortune of being placed within Slash's debut, which naturally means the episode isn't particularly focused on Touma or anything. One of the most egregious examples of Saber's crazy pacing, and it's kind of telling I only started to love this form once it kept sticking around into the second arc.

Golden Alangina – Not much to complain about here. Lets Kento complete the Wonder Combo trio after learning to let his friends help him at least a little with his personal problems, allowing them to finally stomp all over Calibur after it was established that even one Wonder Combo was a bit much for him to go up against. "Climactic showdown against major rival character" is once again pretty textbook timing for a big upgrade.

Jaou Dragon – Puts Calibur right back up to snuff after that last fight; also thoroughly tied into his whole quest for ultimate power or whatever. Maybe a nice bit of (likely unintended) symbolism that Calibur ditches the mask look after his identity is revealed? All that considered, yeah, still not the best this show has done so far.

Dragonic Knight – Hugely tied in with Touma's whole mysterious destiny and being chosen by his sword and Luna and all that, so for all I know, it'll have more weight in retrospect, but like Jaou Dragon, it's mostly just decent taken as is. There's a tough bad guy, big stakes, and a big turnaround, so it's hitting all the notes, but it's maybe not going any further than that.

King Lion Dai Senki – The episode does a whole thing where Rintarou is kept on the sidelines so he can swoop in when the other Riders need him most, so again, it's not nothing, but there's not much time spent dramatizing Rintarou's emotions, and he's not waiting on those sidelines for any particularly compelling reason. But guys, it looks so cool! If I may do that apologist shtick a bit, I do think it's pretty appropriate thematically for his character that Rinatrou's big upgrade is something forged by his comrades in the organization, rather than some mystical gift like Touma keeps getting. Even the high tech motif makes kinda ties in to it being made by Daishinji, since Suzune has a similar thing going on. See, there's stuff you can pull from this form if you just look hard enough!

X-Swordman – Kurona already made my argument for me, so I'll instead note that this is an interesting case study of Saber's freewheeling approach a lot of these introductions, as most of the dramatic character beats for Yuri happen in the episodes surrounding the debut, rather than the debut itself. Care is put in to build it up gradually, but the Book itself is ultimately a B-plot in a story focused squarely on Touma's development. Great form introduction; not at all textbook.

Primitive Dragon/Elemental Dragon – Not going to waste too much time explaining this one. Very straightforward and meaty plot arc, very well-executed. Check the episode threads again if you really need me to gush more about these ones.

Tategami Hyoujuu Senki – Really loving this one too the more I think about it. Remember how I said it was a nice choice to have Rintarou's big upgrade tied into the organization he holds so dear? Well they did it again, but it's more than just subtext this time.

...and that's a whole lot of toys, isn't it!? I honestly think (and again, I know this is apologist talk) that Saber might be consciously refusing to try and make every single one some huge character study in an effort to keep some freedom in how it structures the narrative that way. Sort of in the same way Zero-One didn't bother attaching much significance to Shining Assault Hopper beyond it being a tough new form for Aruto, for example.

Still though, I think I said a few times early on that while I'm fine with Saber being crazy, I do really hope Toei/Bandai figure out a better balance soon, because if this kind of thing keeps getting more extreme each year, I'm definitely going to hit the point where I'm no longer fine with it. Heck, even specific to Saber, I can't help but notice the show has seemingly finally given up on Brave Dragon lately, and base forms falling out of regular use is one of my biggest pet peeves with recent Rider shows.

Oh, and since this whole conversation started with the simple question of Gold or Silver? I'll go ahead and mention I'm firmly in the silver camp too. I don't think you can go wrong with either, but a lot of little things about Jaaku Dragon appeal to me more than its regal successor.