[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 34

One really clever thing about this episode that I didn't realize at first was that the (already quite neat) parallel between past friendships and modern ones is much less 1:1 than it probably seems like at first. The obvious comparison to make is that Bacht (or Bahato or whatever) is the Kento of that old group -- the guy who fell into darkness and couldn't be saved, underscoring how Touma needs to step up in a way Yuri wasn't able to and make sure their story doesn't end the same.

The thing is though, the guy Yuri is seeing most in Kento here is actually himself, which is even more interesting to think about. Kento may be on one heck of a nihilistic streak, but he isn't someone looking to end the world. He's someone who can no longer trust his friends, and has chosen the path of sealing away something to serve a greater good. And *that* is 100% Yuri, as we first met him. It's sort of easy to forget, but Yuri is yet another on the long list of people in this series who struggled with faith in some way. Before we even knew his name, we knew he was keeping some ancient power hidden because he thought people weren't responsible enough to handle it. He always held on to his righteous duty, but the way he went about it, prior to meeting Touma, involved a millennium of being detached from humanity in a very literal sense. He turned his back on people as a whole, and gave up on hope. This episode does a fantastic job calling attention to how much character growth Yuri has actually had to this point, with some of Tomohiro Ichikawa's most subtly emotional acting in the series as he talks about how Touma gave him something to believe in again after all this time. Those last few words before he fades away, they're very much imploring Kento to let Touma change him for the better, the same way Touma changed Yuri, and it's a great little moment. I've established how much I love the current Touma/Kento drama already, so having one of my other de facto top-three Saber characters get looped into that in such a thoughtful way just made me that much happier.

And it's hardly the only cool thing in this episode! Obviously Falchion's return is the big thing to mention. I don't recall exactly what was first said or where, but we actually got told explicitly back when the short film was being promoted that the character would eventually connect to the TV show in a very direct way. I forget if it was *explicitly* said he'd just like, show up, as a major guest character driving an entire episode, but we were definitely prepared for this to happen. And again, as far as ideas that keep the momentum up after Primitive Dragon, this is a pretty exciting one! Not at all something that happens every day, and considering the awesome as heck suit design and extremely charismatic actor portraying him, it was probably a smart move to get some more screentime out of the guy. Mercifully, they also waited until late enough into the show that all of us outside of Japan were able to see the movie first, which made it that much cooler.

(Oh, and also, I'm going to go ahead and push back a little on your criticisms of Ryouga's role here, Die. His motivation is spelled out pretty clearly right at the start, with him being frustrated at the suggestion of Master Logos relying on Bacht instead of his actual loyal servants. The entire reason he's there is explicitly to be there before Falchion is. It's a matter of pride, which is a central character trait for the guy that is further established for the long run by having him behave in a manner consistent with that personality here. How cleanly it fits into this one specific episode, or how much it adds to it as a contained narrative, I can't speak for off the top of my head, but like with most things in this series, there's definitely some degree of purpose to it.)