[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 40 - “THE SHINING FRIENDSHIP, OF THREE SWORDSMEN”

The Book of Omniscience is a device that makes other stories subservient to it. Solomon is a character that sees everyone as a minor tool to further his own greatness. These are both things that act against the central thesis of this series: that the world is full of individual stories, each with their own author, and we only succeed by embracing that diversity.

It’s a fun way of thoroughly defeating and disgracing Isaac. He gets humiliated in this episode, from the theme song to the end credits, from Storious talking over him to Storious evaporating him. But the main thrust of this episode is all in how Isaac can’t possibly win against the teamwork of Saber, Blades, and Espada.

About Isaac's god complex, Rintaro's speech to him is golden, that actually what'd make him closer to god was when he was an outwardly admirable figure to the SoL members, like how Rintaro practically worshipped him, but with his true colors revealed, now he's the one who abandoned godhood as no one would revere him as such anymore. And Isaac's much more sensitive than expected facing people's scorn against him. And this cements Storious as the real big bad of the series, actually. As Storious said, Isaac's death is well-deserved as well as being poetic justice of everything this irredeemable monster has pulled off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

They’re all in sync in this one (struggling not to say “on the same page”), where even their basic teamwork is able to overcome the majority of Solomon’s attacks. The three of them are unified in their goals, and able to understand what each of them brings to the table. They know each other so well that the moves effortlessly bleed into one another; the camerawork lingers on the moments of transition, like when Blades ducks slightly to open a lane for Espada. There’s cohesion in their fighting that overcomes whatever cheap tricks Solomon can pull.

So yeah, this episode was about power of friendship in teamwork where, the heroes beat the villains due to what leads to them "ganging up" on the villain. Though Xross Saber already beating Solomon before was talked below. Other than that, Isaac is the opposite of Touma (at least early one), where Touma is someone who isn't that good in swordmanship, but has excellent imagination to make up by his unusual and creative battle tactics, Isaac is a master swordsman (albeit with lack of burden in his blade) but has no imagination to only use Omni Force to constantly spam brute force moves, compared to Xross Saber using magic carpet for example.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The twist is that Solomon can now infect the Wonder Ride Books, turning swordsmen into his puppets. He only uses them to cause chaos, which is about as simplistic as you’d expect from him at this point. He’s never been able to see his underlings as anything other than disciples and cannon fodder, so it follows that he’d basically point them at a target and then wander off. In contrast to their stunning teamwork of earlier, the possessed swordsmen swing like drunken zombies, flailing and screaming and generally being incredibly bad at actually damaging an immune Saber. (Durandal fares better in the Southern Base. Instead of blaming his opponents, let’s just say that the smaller arena gave him an edge?)

The Shindai siblings seem to further open up to others here, with Durendal asking for Slash and Buster to finish him off to end this madness, and that after this ends, Ryoga once again expresses his gratitude with a little smile and even Reika doing the same. And this episode had Kento validating his father's actions.... to portray his extremist methods as him being self-sacrificing and noble. It's true that both Hayato and Kamijo are much better people than Isaac, but this is another kind of vindicating parents or the lesser evil (to Isaac), unlike Zi-O's quiz arc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Even the new Saber upgrade… it’s this show’s version of Trinity Form, but it keeps all three guys separate. That’s the point. It’s three individuals working in unison, but operating in separation. It’s three points of view collaborating on one success. It’s Featuring Saber; Saber’s just the most prominent member of a team that he needs at his side to be his best.

I'd think that the fight is also like Ex-Aid Hyper Muteki w/ anyone or Zero-Two w/ anyone against the main threat where, upgrades aren't really needed and they hard carry the battle where their much weaker teammate has no problem with the much stronger villains. And actually at the beginning I found disappointment that Xross Saber ends up only relying on his swordmanship to fight Solomon (who does the same), but later there are at least more tricks displayed between those 2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Anyway, humorous story, the scene where Touma, Rintarou, Mei and Kento did their swordpile was first revealed in a magazine and at first glance I thought Mei was holding a new Seiken Sword, before realizing a minute later that I was looking at a stick. Even though this episode debunked MeiEspada theory, I was still hoping Mei would become a Swordsman. Now that I think about it, Touma had Rekka spare, he could've at least let her borrow that for a few seconds to make the swordpile look more official!

"Mei isn't the Reika type of female, so there'd be no chance for her being the one appointed to action".