[DreamSword]

Episode 23: My Sister

This episode almost worked, but ended up crashing hard by the end.

And through this episode it's become clear to me that the writers of this show really didn't know how to write an emotional climax.

First off, there's way too much going on in this episode for its own good. We're constantly cutting between the exploits of the four different groups, and as such none of them outside of Sophie and Lizzy receive nearly enough focus.

Second, the framing of the episode overall is incredibly weird. The way it flows feels like it's the final episode, only to take it all back by the final minute. And speaking of that final minute, the thing is weirdly framed as if it's supposed to be comedic even though it very much isn't.

And last, none of these arcs get wrapped up in any sort of satisfying way. With Sophie it's more of the same with Bishop barely even doing anything, with Gina it's that her and Queen never really had much of a connection to begin with, with Luke, infuriatingly, he's not the one who gets to finish off Knight, and lastly, and the one that annoyed me most, during Sword's' bits it's revealed that not only are all of the anime in the same continuity, but that King killed off the previous casts off screen.

If you're about to quote Dan Slott and say that an enraged fan is an engaged fan, well then sorry to disappoint but when things like this annoy me, I don't hyper focus and go bitch at the author on social media, I emotionally check out completely. I cease caring about the narrative at that point. It'd be like if in Power Rangers they revealed that all of the Sentai-exclusive teams were killed off screen. Why should I at all care at that point?

About the only cool thing in this episode was the stylistic black and white action scene with Sword and Zaruba. A shame that this show didn't have the budget for a miracle hour super mode though, with Sword just getting a new weapon instead. Otherwise, this entire endgame has just been one big fumble after another.

Next episode is the last one. Let's see if it can somehow turn things around.