[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 12 - “OUR PROMISE TO EACH OTHER, AT THAT VERY PLACE”

As such… not a super-illuminative episode of Saber? We don’t really get additional insight into our characters, so much as reiterating their motivations: Touma keeps promises, Rintaro is a steadfast friend, and Kento’s going to Fix This all by himself. The addition of Luna’s name or whatever… okay? I don’t care. I can’t care, because Luna–for all her significance in flashbacks–isn’t even a character yet. She’s a plot point. Touma might as well have lost a stuffed animal that day, or a favorite book. I can’t care about her loss because there’s nothing there to lose. I don’t care if Touma finds her or not, beyond a vague That Would Be Nice For Touma feeling. I really hope this is the last we have to learn about Kento’s guilty conscience and Touma’s Narratively Convenient Amnesia, because I literally cannot muster up any enthusiasm for backstory about characters that only exist in memories.

Yeah it'd be your personal pet peeve to hate prequels instead of it being something bad, but really, investigating a past isn't something that is only about filling in blanks. Filling in blanks and propelling characters forward aren't mutually exclusive. The solution to deal with something in the present and new decisions made for that can be done by discovering something in the past. Though I'd agree that Touma's childhood with Kento and Luna are so blurred for me to be invested at this point, compared to, the traitor for SoL (at least IMO), as that is the past event that affected the present cast more clearly, Kento's dad for obviously Kento, and Daichi for Touma and more. Though even then, it can be something that is more than just That Would Be Nice For Touma.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

As for the rest of this episode, it’s solid enough to still be in the upper tier of Saber episodes. There’s no greater sense of what Calibur and the Book Club are up to (every time Calibur says “universal truth” like it's an explanation, I roll my eyes so hard), but the tone of the episode is nicely settled in This Is Going To Get Worse Before It Gets Better, which makes for an enjoyable twenty minutes of superhero action and adventure. The focus is purely on Kento, Touma, and Rintaro, so everyone else gets very minor bits of business. (Favorite touch was Mei chewing out Kento for almost getting Rintaro killed. Mei’s great! I hope the show gives her meaty scenes in the future!) The whole story here is about Kento’s crushing guilt, and how his inability to share that burden has consequences for all the people in his life. It’s maybe not surprising or clever, but it’s efficient and effective.

About Kento, this part seems to touch upon about how someone can perform similar actions and outcomes at first glance, but in context it's different. Previously Kento was consumed by hatred and vengeance, but now Kento has more clear head to deduce the locations of the opened gate to have Kento track down Daichi and face him. There are some audiences (not here, and not exclusively Saber) who don't take into account for the context behind an action and dunno if this'd be viewed as wasting time as they ended up doing the same thing.

Actually I kinda like that Mei didn't leave out Touma regarding Kento, she mentioned both Touma (and him first) and Rintaro instead of having a tunnel vision for Rintaro at that time or acknowledging Kento as hot. About Ogami's advice on Kento for his actions being reckless and can cost his life, that should be a reminder that, making a reckless action or decision that leads into them dying isn't inherently heroic or 'sacrificial' (or both that "it's heroic because it's sacrificial"). as shown by Kento here that he could've died due to being consumed by hatred and vengeance making it selfish one, not due to any sense of nobility. Though Rintaro carries a professional air, I guess he's an example, for now that is actually nice thus he claims him and Touma are friends, instead of viewing it as something 'weakness' or 'detrimental' for the mission despite Rintaro chastising Kento for being consumed by his emotion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I… this show is so special when it lets itself tell stories in the present with its phenomenal cast. When it thinks it needs to spend time with things that happened fifteen years ago, it becomes so much less compelling to me. And, like, I get it: Kento’s trapped in that moment he and his friends made that promise, right before it all fell apart for good, so it makes sense for the show to be trapped there as well. I just can’t find much pleasure in that storytelling. It’s nice to have a touching scene with Touma and Kento, but it’s a shame it needs to be grounded in events that we’ve only glimpsed in flashback.

It can seem good that here Touma actually failed to arrive in time, creating this scene. And it's something ridiculous that Touma takes so much time to get into Kento, in opposite to where usually in toku the heroes arrive just in time to aid, here Touma arrives, probably still in 1 city, by nighttime, when he started to ride off since daytime.