[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 34 - ?AWAKEN ONCE MORE, SWORDSMAN OF IMMORTALITY?

Like: the Durandal/Blades fight. What in the world is Ryoga even doing there? Master Logos was just like Concentrate On Touma, which is exactly what Reika?s doing. Why is Ryoga skulking around an underpass, hoping he?ll get to challenge Rintaro to another fight? Why not just have Falchion wander in and find Rintaro, and skip to the chase? Why introduce Durandal into the fight in such a bizarre way, when he doesn?t really have any impact on the story being told?

While that underpass is a memorable place for many Tokusatsu fights, I think this show uses it way too much here. First in Episode 11 and now twice in a row. Rintarou and the others came here as it was the last place Ren was sighted yesterday, like they were somehow expecting him to still be hanging around that place. Ryouga only adds to that contrivance.

Another weird setting choice is the duel between Saber and Saikou. They're having a fight in full view of all the cars driving by. Couldn't they have picked somewhere more private?

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I did like that the episode crafted a parallel Friendship storyline for Yuri, Falchion, and I?m gonna go ahead and say Desast. (Wild guess! He?s hunched in a real Desast way in the flashback!) They were friends, everything went sideways, and Falchion gave himself over to nihilism in the name of cosmic truth. It?s all very Kento, which isn?t lost on anyone, especially Kento himself. For a dude who?s obsessed with an unavoidable future, it?s nice to have the thing that maybe jars him out of his isolation be something that happened centuries ago. Falchion?s a guy who destroyed his friendships because he thought he was doing the only thing that made sense, but from the outside it was pure insanity. There?s a part of Kento that starts to realize that maybe he?s gotten too wrapped up in his own fatalism, rather than ignoring his fears and trusting in Touma.

Do you think Desast is the kind of person who would cut down civilians in cold blood though? Bacht's family were innocent and defenseless, which would be against Desast's desire for the thrill of fighting Swordsmen.

For sure, Yuri, Bacht and Traitor-san have a superficially similar dynamic to the core 3 Swordsmen. Although it's not quite a perfect comparison, as Rintarou and Traitor-san are basically opposites in regards to their loyalty. However, the Touma/Yuri and Kento/Bacht parallels are important. I like how Yuri's trying to redeem himself here by helping Touma to save his best friend, which he failed to do 1000 years ago with Bacht. Yuri wishes he had Touma's reach to save people instead of banishing/killing them, as Yuri now regrets not doing more to help Bacht find hope after seeing how Touma can do that.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, it helps that Luna finally shows up in the cliffhanger! That?s gonna make for a complicated next episode?

Luna! Yeah, next episode's got a lot of crazy stuff happening and I totally don't want to spoil the fun by talking about it. So look forward to that!

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

The return of Falchion is cool. When else did the villain from the film appear in his own show? Also, for me, Yuri's story not only creates a parallel with our main trio, but also explains how Falchion came to be like that. It also shows that Yuri simultaneously wielded the swords of Light and Darkness and this did not kill him.
As for the fight between Blades and Durandal, it is needed to a) show that Rintaro is also stronger than Ryoga;
b) Show how they freeze each other;
c) I'm repeating myself, but this will also pay off in the future.
Overall, not a favorite, but a very intense episode.
Fanfiction is good. You haven't thought about Ogami in a while, almost since he joined Touma's team.

Congrats on your 900th post!

I feel like Bacht's story might've been planned for a longer usual-size movie, until you-know-what screwed everything up, so the rest was added to the show instead. That would explain why his reintroduction here is kind of messy, in addition to everything else happening, rather than feeling like a development that should've happened naturally. Not that I'm complaining though. I think Bacht is a good villain and when this episode does eventually delve in to his backstory, it's actually pretty cool!