[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 27 - “I’LL CHANGE YOUR SORROW, INTO A SMILE”

It’s an incredibly sweet ending. Primitive Dragon is revealed to be a scared child, lashing out from sorrow and loneliness. It’s there on the costume, and on the book: a grasping hand, looking for someone to call a friend. Touma’s solution is to let Primitive Dragon know that, even in the times when all of its friends had vanished, it was never really alone. It had the wind, the seas, the earth to be there for it. It’s a lovely way of showing how depression can be just a way of feeling cut off from the world, not feeling cut off from people. Touma’s intervention is a reminder that Primitive Dragon is still a part of the world, so it can still make new friends, find new happiness.

As I've stated, those berserk forms have the user, mainly the main protagonist, not being culpable in their dangerous nature of attacking others as it's under outside influence, and Touma is no exception. It's ok that Touma is not made culpable as it can be deemed as trying to make the heroes look better and rejecting the "complexity"? Otherwise, this one's another power of friendship type of solution Touma comes up with, like Arthur book (of which it's one of the complaints for Touma), and here, it's befriending the boy in Primitive Dragon, even when he had to endure multiple de-henshins in the Avalon and thus, greater stress than Rintaro did in ep. 7, thus this displays his determination further. The boy feeling out of place in the world thus leading for it to go rampage seems to be similar to some of the kaiju's attacks in for example Ultraman (where they can get happier ending)?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Elemental Dragon continues that really lovely trend of smart suit designs, with a pair of shaking hands as its armor, and a big ol’ THANK YOU when Touma de-Henshins. It’s all about harnessing this group of friends – the elements of nature and a gigantic skeleton dragon and a sword-fighting novelist – into an unstoppable force for justice. I don’t know if I love the All Colors scheme of it, but I like how much it’s about the end of this particular story.

Outside of the new upgrade, when Touma's allies hold off Legeiel, there's a scene of them keep fighting in human form, but of course... the extremely skilled swordsmen in Ogami, Daishinji, and Yuri who should fit the bill too, they won't do much when fighting actual threat where even as Riders they won't necessarily defeat them, unlike against fodders or MOTW the main three Riders did in ep. 9. And so we won't actually see the berserk form fighting with complete control, but it's just a bridge to a further upgrade. I'd say actually Elemental Dragon is the one I like less among Saber's designs, though obviously its battle capabilities are more important. As Touma convinces the boy that his story doesn't end, Elemental Dragon is created as a sequel for Primitive Dragon, displaying the destiny screwing in comparison to the Primitive Dragon ending up lonely like how it's set in stone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And the story’s a great Saber-specific story, about how much perspective and intention matter when we’re processing events. What to a small child might look like abandonment and an ending, to an adult might look like a new chapter. It’s a nice parallel to Kento’s story, where he’s unable to see past his fears and find hope in Touma’s ability to change someone’s fate. This is a series about not accepting terrible outcomes and trying to create a better future, so it stands to reason that Kento lifelong pessimism is the biggest obstacle this show can have right now.

About Touma changing fates, dunno if this is a legitimate moral to be followed, or if this is just MC favoritism like some can complain (not exclusively Touma). Though often heroes' abilities are never acknowledged especially main ones, just being viewed as plot armor and favoritism. And after perhaps a clear proof that Touma both can change fates as well as not being drunk with power, Kento still isn't convinced. Rintaro though makes an effort to defend Touma when he tries to reason with the boy in Primitive Dragon, but at the end of the episode he also claims he has find his resolve, but leaves the group.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Mostly because it’s sure not going to be Legeiel! He gets an interesting little coda, where it becomes clear that he (and probably Zooooooous) wasn’t aware of his past, and therefore maybe was rewritten to be a blundering villain. I still don’t really care about the Book Club – and this episode was them as yet another forgettable speed-bump along a much more interesting road – but at least the show is trying to provide some additional depth to them.

The trait they added for Legeiel is that he starts to view Touma as his arch-enemy, specifically only seeking him to fight instead of anyone else and take revenge for his continued loss. And other than that, it's shown that he hates his human heritage and denies Saber claiming he was one before, despite the flashback showing the Book Club trio being happy to view the connected worlds as human. It's too short to flesh him out as it only starts 1 episode before his demise.

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Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

None of these three, despite the superficialities, are the same, and none of the protagonists would solve it in the same way. It's not that Aruto or Sento are unempathic or anything, but their empathy is different. Aruto would tell a corny joke, show the kid that even in the darkest time there's smiles to be had. Sento would probably assume the dragon was Ryuga being sad and offer to make him a noodle pot. But that's the beauty of a series like this, in that we can see our hero's strength shine through. (And I also love that Kento isn't moved by this! That would both be too easy, and Kento knows Touma is the king of this kind of empathy for his own show! That doesn't change how Touma can't empathy away the unspecified apocalypse he's real worried about!)

Right... it was actually Metal Cluster Hopper that qualifies here. But otherwise, obviously they aren't unempathetic, as they aren't culpable for the rampages the berserk form caused, which is also typically how the berserk form arc is made, though Sento was the one who directly activated his Hazard form, but the rest of the action is the form's doing as he won't want to kill Aoba which he deeply regrets.