[Kurona]

Durandal amazes me in how redundant he is in every single respect; like I remember early on when the Q1 toyline was chock full of a billion riders everyone was talking about who was the most redundant and who they'd get rid of (mostly Kenzan), but I think ultimately all of them had a specific function in the story and their own storylines going on where if you did take anyone out, it wouldn't be easy and it'd require redesigning a lot of the show. It's pretty hard for me to imagine many turning points and moments in the show without Touma having had a large group of swordsmen he was friends with, all of which eventually went off and did their own individual thing anyway. I'm not saying I think it's all well done, mind; I still ultimately am not a big fan of this show or many of its characters, but I definitely think it's not simple at all to just say "one of these Swordsmen is redundant, take him out or replace him with Mei" or something.

Except Durandal. I'm continually shocked at just how utterly impossibly redundant he is where he's literally just usurped Reika's character arc, reduced her to someone who just says "onii-sama~~~", has no connections to or significant drama with any characters, and has absolutely nothing interesting going on with him where a redemption arc would be interesting, unlike the character who we literally saw spending half the season on Logos' side manipulating the Swordsmen and who ended up having second thoughts. Genuinely if he just didn't exist, every single action he's done falls so easily into Reika's hands and would have made her a more interesting character than either of them are at the moment; he doesn't serve a specific function, he's just... Reika 2 but kind of stern and has a trident with a funky power. The guy doesn't even have any toys on store shelves until we eventually get a 600 Yen SO-DO! I don't get why he's here!