[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 39 - “O SWORDSMEN, FOLLOW THE PATH YOU BELIEVE IN”

I mean, look at that image. Look at our pop-up book opening, reconfigured to not just include the returning Kento, but every other hero on the show. It’s as thrilling a victory lap as I can imagine, seeing that troupe of warriors marching off for their next adventure. The episode that followed it, though? A little bit more of a mixed bag.

When this episode stuck to its combination of tentative reunions (Ren/Kento) and heartwarming team expansion (Kento’s reinduction, the Shindais grumpily signing on), I was thrilled. After last episode’s cacophonous climax, you desperately need an episode to decompress; to spend some time establishing a new status quo, and let the big emotions of last time find some subtler notes. When this episode decided to breathe a little, it was exactly what I wanted.

About every other hero part, there are those who are redeemed villains too. And here, it's perhaps the actual start of the Shindai siblings' redemption, with Ryoga opening up a bit to say nice words here. although still limiting himself, and apparently, the show portrays Reika's open fawning for Ryoga as her loosening up, even though she'd still be hostile to others in relation to Ryoga as what she warned the cast for Ryoga's actions. Ren kinda gains development here to not merely seek strength as in to physically overpower others, but also likely in deeper meaning of strength, seen in his determination, which does mean that Touma's words do stick to him. Though Ren being worried about Kento is his most persistent trait until now. I wonder if you fell for Kento's sulking at the beginning of which it's done as a misleading that actually Kento has rejoined the main cast now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Unfortunately, Touma takes a trip to the Southern Base to interrogate/rehabilitate Isaac, and I sort of don’t know what the show’s doing here? On the one hand, I like that Touma – even after everything Isaac has done – needs to try one last time to see if that guy can be swayed from supervillainy. It’s the bottomless empathy of the main Rider, to not even see a cackling global terrorist as irredeemable. Sure. Okay.

Outside of the main Riders' bottomless empathy though, it seems that there's a thing where humans (as Touma and Rintaro see him as) would be seen as inherently not irredeemable by those kind of Riders. The franchise has an approach where if they're human (more recently), they must be able to be redeemed, but if they're monsters, or human villains discarding their humanity to turn into one, it's the only time to be ok to wail on them. Other from that, though the main Riders having this kind of empathy is almost mandatory, seems that Rintaro also tries to get Isaac to join them, I mean that, he's already established as a nice secondary Rider, but dunno if it's almost similar level of empathy a secondary has to a main Rider for occassional few (among the franchise), or Rintaro's attachment to SoL, though Rintaro insisted that Isaac is a homo sapiens too as a reason to try to get him to join.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But just last episode, Touma was like You’re Not Even Worth Talking To, right? That was one of my favorite parts! Where Touma could clock that a guy like Falchion was maybe misguided, while Isaac was an unrepentant murderer. Isaac already told Touma (and the rest of Team Saber) that he was only in this for laughs. He laid out his motivation, which is that he’s a nepo baby and wanted to try torturing humanity for a few centuries as a change of pace. There is no deeper level to Isaac; that’s the whole point of him. So for Touma to try one last time to reach him, and to be infuriated by Isaac’s flippant disgust for humanity… like, did using Xross Saber give Touma amnesia again? Did he completely forget learning that Isaac was a psychotic villain with zero humanity? Why is this scene even happening?

Seems to be wrong for Touma being infuriated part here, for Isaac, it seems that he too tries to get Touma to join him, showing that even Isaac sorta has a respect for Touma, in twisted way (no, this is ain't a redeeming trait, but talking about series treatment), of which as usual, the villains think they're doing the heroes a favor by preserving their well-being (for other methods, trying to corrupt the heroes like joining them by revealing that their actions will result in their suffering), as in "saving" him 15 years ago, but obviously, they can't comprehend about people caring about others' well-being, and thus Touma is infuriated by what happened to the others at the cost of his well-being, as he'd put others' well-being above his own. The only way he'd appreciate is if they save Touma without endangering anyone else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Like, it’s acceptable as the setup for a fun fight, but that’s about it. The fight’s great, but it feels poorly motivated in the aftermath of last episode’s climatic defeat of Solomon. This ends up being a weird rerun of that battle, with next to no stakes. (Like, Solomon wasn’t exactly mounting some new offensive or anything? Touma and Rintaro show up and it turns into a fight.) It brings down what’s an otherwise warm and sweet episode of reconciliations and new directions. I wish, like, a different fight had happened, if this episode needed a fight so badly.

About Solomon not mounting new offense, that'd be something later touched on (I guess). The difference here would be the usual, villain's smirk is gone due to their pride being wounded, reduced into raging lunatic who can't speak. I didn't think that the previous one has Solomon being beaten, though Saber did have upper hand, but just escaped. And regarding Solomon, there's a superb performance done by the Shindai siblings here to have Sabela be the one who takes the Wonder Ride Books back from Solomon.