[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 27 - ?I?LL CHANGE YOUR SORROW, INTO A SMILE?

I mean, of course this show resolves its Berserk Form storyline by having Touma write a happier ending for his uncontrollable collectible. Of course.

I always imagined this would be similar to how Gentarou would befriend his berserk form if he had one, but considering how the magic of friendship is also an important theme in Fukuda's shows, it's totally appropriate for Touma's character as a writer who uses stories as a way to connect with people.

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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.

Of course the highlight is Elemental Dragon, but what did you think of Legeiel Forbidden? I think it's pretty intimidating that the Megid Trio have access to these Final Forms by throwing a bunch of books at them, which also marks a point of no return for their humanity, as Yuri implied. It shows how serious Legeiel is about his rivalry with Saber that he's willing to gamble everything on defeating him.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

And it seems that to reinforce how 'strong' they're to 'break' the mold, they're given terrible traits (including toxic masculinity, as feminity is viewed as inherent weakness), as this post notes. It also appllies in KR franchise where at this point, mostly the females who become Riders are the ones with those stereotypical 'tough' personality (which means many are asshole ones), while females like Poppy or (sorry, yeah she temporarily going off deep end but otherwise she's all-loving one too) Tsukuyomi aren't prominent Riders, even if they're prominent characters.

Yeah, it's an easy hack to make a shallow strong character by making them resistant to showing any kind of weakness or vulnerability. Some writers are so obsessed with this impossible image of "strong", like stereotypical Mary Sues, that they neglect to make them sympathetic, or have the other characters react as strongly against them as they should. Otherwise that would show their flaws, which breaks that impossible image. But they should have some flaws and those flaws should be rightfully pointed out and criticized to show their humanity. A character should be more than just strong.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The easy assumption when you first see it is that the hand is this primal force, clutching its unwilling prisoners within its cold grasp, but the reality is completely different. That claw on the book, it's actually a torn up page, because Primitive Dragon's whole gimmick is that its story is missing. The illustrations on the book even bring to mind a black hole, because the truth is that it's a wounded creature, desperately reaching out for something to fill the void where its heart once was.

So of course, inevitably, the thing it finds to fill that void once and for all is another hand, reaching back to help.

The collective symbolism between Primitive and Elemental Dragon is cool for sure. I love how Touma solved the problem of Primitive Dragon's incomplete story of sorrow by basically writing his own fanfiction where he gets the happy ending he deserves. It's the most literal way yet that Touma has used books to make people happy, turning in to a power that allows him to write the next chapter of his own story as well.

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

I don't have much to add apart from another round of appreciation for how this story played out. Definitely a good way to evolve Primitive Dragon into its next form in a way that plays to Touma's strengths as a character.

Congrats on your 10000th post! I hope Mesnick doesn't mind if I borrow his format for this one.