[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Forbidden Fruit Saga

Episode 43: Baron's Ultimate Transformation

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Satoshi Morota

Other than summoning the base Ryugen's weapons, Ryugen Yomi can also summon Overlord's weapons, in this case, he's using Dau (Redyue's halberd), though he's stunned by his agony again. This makes Ryugen Yomi sort of Kiwami Arms' counterpart, being the walking collection of monsters' (other than base Ryugen) weapons compared Kiwami's walking collection of the Riders' weapons, along with Ryugen Yomi being slightly stronger than Kiwami Arms power wise (really.. IMO Ryugen Yomi would be the one suitable to kick both Kiwami Arms and Baron Lemon Energy Arms' asses in ep. 39). Ryugen Yomi also uses Dimubu, Shinmugurun's axe in the battle. Ryugen Yomi vows to keep Mai away from Gaim due to Ryoma's machinations, and uses a finisher with Dau, cutting his surroundings to charge the halberd at Gaim. Gaim also tries to use a finisher with Musou Saber, but decides to throw away his weapon and let Ryugen Yomi impale him, as Gaim yanks the Hell Fruit Lockseed away from the belt, crushing it. Though other than it being the compassion, self-sacrifice, and forgiveness move (or lenient solution to villains) expected from most of lead Riders... is it really that hard for the characters in the franchise to target another Rider's belt? The franchise sets up as Kouta had to take fatal attack just to deal with a Rider's belt. Other than that, Micchy is hell bent on killing Kouta for his obsession, and this is really brave for Kouta to let that happen, to let Micchy feel if he's going to regret his villainous decisions or not. Thankfully, it seems is. Kouta's action here gives a hard truth to Micchy that all of his actions have done more harm than good, not accomplishing anything, making everyone either hates or distrusts him, and the people he cares most about are all dead, like Takatora, Kouta here, and potentially later Mai. For this, Kouta is the one in the position to call him idiot now, but continues his compassion and forgiveness to convince Micchy to turn back while hugging him, though like Kouta, Micchy also needs to forgive himself too, especially that his horrible actions are all total failures with him having nothing now.

Yoko treats Kaito's wounds in the garage as Chucky and Peko report to them about Mai's situation. To make himself feel worthy of Kouta's compassion, he tries to look after Mai, going back to the hospital, with Ryoma impressed at both Micchy being alive and Kouta being apparently killed. Micchy gets another deserved crushing moment, that Ryoma did claim that the operation is a success, but of course what Ryoma needs is only the fruit, to hell with Mai's well-being, as he realizes Mai's dead now. An idiot indeed Micchy, like the one you dismiss as an idiot for most of the series think about you recently. Micchy's desperate attempts to save Mai is ironically, the one that killed her. Moreover, he's too conceited that he mocks Takatora for being used as pawn and trusting wrong person, yet the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Micchy does the exact same mistake by entrusting Mai to fucking Ryoma! For more creepy factor, Ryoma gets the golden fruit by taking Mai's heart (body organ). Ryoma even remarks about how he had no idea Micchy can easily trust his words. Other than that, as the prepared... and cowardly creator of the belts, Ryoma makes sure that he had the upper hand, by activating a kill switch to detonate every Genesis Driver possessed by other Riders when Micchy tries to henshin. Ryoma then proceeds to torture Micchy, beating him up and breaking him further emotionally, further giving him a reality check that he's merely a child way over his head, about how Micchy growing up bad is exactly the reason he's easy prey for bad adults, the reason Takatora wants to prevent him being naughty, yet Micchy only follows dark example of Takatora and turning worse than he is, while Ryoma chokes him. Though Micchy deserved it and that what Ryoma said was right, doesn't mean Ryoma's being good or in the right here, he just channels his insane sociopathic as always, just that the victim happens to be a deserving one. Even if this is an attempt to change Micchy to be a better person, this acknowledges how terrible Micchy is, if a character need to get the shit kicked out of them to become a better person, then they are a terrible person, most of the time.

Still conversing in her head, Sagara as DJ reports to Mai about the current events, the predicament Kouta, Kaito, and Micchy suffered with all of their aim to take Mai and her golden fruit. Mai obviously would be unhappy regarding this, as this is a miserable outcome for her and them. Just for this once though, unfortunately compared to the later, this is a moment where someone that veers towards becoming a plot device is being reminded of their agency, in-universe, as Sagara convinces Mai to take action, while floating around, as the reason they seek her would mean she had the immense power in her hands, as she accepts it to try to change fate. From outside perspective, Mai is seen as dreaming to Ryoma. After Ryoma tortures Micchy, though Mai's physical body is dead, her spirit lives on within the Forbidden Fruit, with it turning into her new body. I guess Roshuo is one step ahead compared to Ryoma at handling the fruit as its longtime holder, with Mai turning into Woman of the Beginning despite what Ryoma did. Mai consoles Micchy as she tries to use the power to change the past, by time-travel. However Sagara warns her decision is too much even for golden fruit, indicating the limits of its power, though Mai's still determined to try. True to the warning, the Woman of the Beginning's appearence previously had her giving vague words to Gaim, Baron, and Micchy (dream), which are not what she meant to say, therefore nobody listens. This also explains how those words seem uncharacteristic as the words are too pessimistic for her, the timestream preventing her to speak clearly. Other than things like the number of Riders, last man standing battle, and the main 4 Rider's parallels, this part is another reference of Ryuki, where a main character gets a chance to alter things in the past (Odin activating Time Vent to rewind time as Shinji keeps the memories), only for it to fail due to other circumstances, the outcome stays the same. It's even worse in Gaim as, Mai's actions actually give a clue to Sagara about the frontrunners on the Helheim invasion now, turning the outcome actually worse (at least for the trio), creating a stable time-loop and explaining his heavy focus on Kouta, while when Shinji successfully warned (as Shinji won't keep his memories forever, failing to warn others too before) Kitaoka in Ryuki about Asakura's Rider status in prison, he lets it be to increase the Rider count, the outcome is still the same instead of turning worse at least.

Kaito and Yoko visits the hospital Mai's taken in, remarking that it's Ryoma's secret lab, and a right place to do it. Yoko notices Mai's body, checking her pulse, confirming her death with genuinely sad expression, likely due to genuine care for Kaito that she knows she's one of people he respected, while Kaito notices a devastated Micchy. Ryoma gets his own breakdown too, as he loses the Forbidden Fruit, desperately trying to understand what's going on by scribbling tons of scientific calculations in the whiteboard in a similar manner as Philip from W, even ignoring Yoko and Kaito. Kaito tries to take revenge with Genesis Driver with Yoko assisting him, but their Drivers are disabled by Ryoma's kill switch too, forcing Kaito to use Sengoku Driver as Ryoma henshins into Duke. gaining upper hand. Duke also informs Baron that Micchy finished off Kouta, so the only one with incredible power despite using Sengoku Driver (Ryugen Yomi also uses Sengoku Driver..) is no threat anymore to Duke. Duke de-henshins, and though Ryoma claims Kaito's Helheim wound is too late that it's something for Kaito to still function despite struggling to henshin back, for Kaito it's nothing as he brings up his childhood, he has already felt this kind of pain since childhood, about how weak he is, and for his social darwinism belief, he puts himself as the weak one too. With the desperate situation Kaito is in now, the possibility of either Ryoma or the infection killing him, as well as the apparent death for both Kouta and Mai, Kaito decides to eat a Helheim fruit like Hase did, with even Ryoma thinking of this as insane, complete with Kaito's smirk. This seems to be a completely favorable act for Kaito, as he doesn't mutate into ordinary Inves, but an Overlord! The requirement for that is if the person is already on the verge of becoming an Inves, like Kaito's infection from an Overlord wound. Moreover, as discussed to Yoko before, the reason Kaito wears his Genesis Driver is to halt the infection, and it pays off as he retains his mind in his Overlord form, Lord Baron.... not that it won't be any good as Kaito realizes that he can remake the world in his image for his sheer power... Regarding how Demushu embodies Kaito's social darwinism without restraint, Lord Baron has a look resembling Demushu, including his weapon Guronbaryamu, but with it being also named Baron, it had a streak of Banana Arms' look as well with the strokes of yellow.

Ryoma is enraged about the fact that Kaito can transcend humanity without the use of his technology, treating it as the ultimate insult to his researches, as he henshins into Duke. Lord Baron is able to beat him easily, turning himself into a mist to attack like Demushu before and then barraging him with Helheim plants, removing his belt and reverting him into Ryoma. An irony that despite resembling Demushu, the weakest Overlord, Lord Baron is the 2nd strongest, yes, still weaker than Roshuo. I guess this also explains why Duke's debut before was more impressive than Demushu's, as non-Duke New Generation Riders like Baron Lemon Energy Arms can put a fight into Demushu, enraging him, unlike Duke who beats Gaim Jimber Lemon Arms without effort. As Lord Baron chokes Ryoma, Ryoma declares that his research is the truth that the world needs. Like Kuroto later in Ex-Aid, Ryoma's whole character revolves around satisfying his ego within his scientific brilliance regardless of what happened to others, making sure that it's utilized enough by humanity, to the point of pettiness like dismantling any alternatives. He's enraged when his tech isn't used for someone's growth, and his vendetta against Helheim is based on this very fact, being jealous of Helheim's ability to evolve humanity better than him, which is his end goal to surprass them. Proof of this is Lord Baron against Duke here, and how he loses Forbidden Fruit with the spirit of the corpse inhabiting it, which apparently is enough to make Ryoma suicidal, after Lord Baron declares the truth in his fists as he punches Ryoma to the nearby building, leaving an imprint of him, though before Ryoma declares Lord Baron's demise as fate. Another ability of Lord Baron is that, he can revert to Kaito, with his injuries healed, as Yoko picks the only functioning Genesis Driver.. Though his end highlights about how Ryoma still doesn't know everything about Helheim, I'd wish that Ryoma makes use for the huge and fascinating data he has claimed as per ep. 38, like the fight from Kiwami Arms, Overlords, or such, to make himself a threat rather than staying as Duke here, albeit he had an "effort", but was simply using kill switches.