[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Saber Episode 35

This episode might kinda be Saber in microcosm? My post from the time is actually another one that's broadly the same as Die's in terms of the analytical conclusions it's drawing about the material. I thought it was pretty clunky in a lot of its plotting as well, but as ever with me, and more surprisingly with Die, it nails a bunch of extremely important emotional stuff to make into this thing where it's like who cares?

Touma running up that bridge, it's the closest this show has to Ondul in more ways than one. Not only it is completely hilarious, but it's also something that only gets funnier the more genuinely invested in the story you are. Like with Blade, it's something people will see out of context, and maybe they'll only know the show from that, or it's the one thing that sticks out from a series they weren't enthused by, and it's just some funny thing, but I don't believe you can maintain much of an obsession with it unless it's legitimately close to your heart at the same time.

I think those shots of Touma running are like, god-tier meme material, like everybody, but I also think the whole reason it achieves that is because Touma looks like he's more desperate to reach his destination than any human being in the history of mankind ever has been, and that also speaks to why I love the guy as a hero so much. When he makes a promise, he keeps it! It's a corny moment of storytelling with some corny special effects, delivered with such immense earnest sincerity in its emotions that I can't help but love it unironically at least as much as I do ironically. And I really love that scene ironically!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I don't know, I get that it all seems clear and intentional to you, and I absolutely appreciate the response, but it still feels flimsy to me.

Also, I'm sorry in advance if I keep pestering you about this, Die, but if you'll forgive me for winding the conversation back an episode, I still feel like there's something really important you're fundamentally misunderstanding about the plot of 34, and it's going to bug me in the back of my head forever if I don't try and untangle this a little more before dropping it.

It might be worth noting I think I got a few things a bit twisted, too? I went back and watched some of those scenes again, and I'm pretty sure Master Logos is only addressing Reika when he says to watch Touma. (Hence why only she reacts.) This alone should begin to unravel most of what you were confused about. He wants Sabela stalking Touma so she can be there to snatch up Luna if she appears (she's good at snatching things; it's like her shtick!), which is exactly what she does, and Durendal's presence would not help that task at all, because the task Master Logos is giving there has nothing to do with fighting Saber. Hence, he goes off to fight Blades instead, continuing to pursue their ongoing task of retrieving the swords/books, and again, he literally says out loud what his interest in Rintarou is. Master Logos doesn't object to this at all until the beginning of 35, where having Luna as bait gives him a much more convenient option to bring everything together in one place.

I know I'm getting hung up on this one thing, but I really got the feeling reading that initial post about the episode that it was this vicious circle where you were paying less attention to the plot because it wasn't very meaty, but it also came off less meaty in part because you were paying less attention to the plot. The raw narrative mechanics of Kamen Rider Saber aren't what I'd consider the real juicy stuff either, but I swear, this stuff has more thought put into it than you're giving it credit for.