[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 42 - “SO IT BEGINS, THE BEAUTIFUL FINALE”



Very strong episode for Desast, maybe less strong episode for the rest of the cast.

Everyone else… it’s okay? We’re setting up an endgame that’s somewhere between 41 episodes and two thousand years in the making, so there’s going to be a little bit of ramping up. Tassel’s death is the major plot development for Storious’s slow-motion armageddon, and it lands as well as it can. There’s real pathos to Tassel’s sense of guilt – his dream of a better future for mankind ended up getting all of his friends killed – but it’s left behind by Storious in the next scene. The whole point is that it doesn’t bother Storious that he killed his friend, because he’s seen this all play out millennia ago. There’s an awareness of how far Storious has fallen from a more idealistic self, but he’s ready for all of this to end, and there’s no turning back. It’s a sad end for Tassel, but the episode sort of doesn’t really have anyone to mourn him, or any time to linger on it?

Desast, though! That guy’s got… well, not friends, sadly. Acquaintances?

The one-sided friendship between Ren and Desast, as Desast has played chummy brother to Ren’s mopey lunkhead, is one of the best subplots for this show. Ren’s so unaware of his own deficiencies that he’s never been able to see that Desast is what happens when you’ve got nothing to believe in besides power and battle. Desast, meanwhile, refuses to acknowledge his personal growth, insistent on undercutting his burgeoning humanity whenever it bubbles over. It’s two guys who are identical in their low standards for themselves, and yet they’ve somehow managed to become better people for their companionship.

The most fascinating part of all this for me is that Desast kind of isn’t wrong about his outlook? He frames it in a self-defeating way – living without friends or purpose – but this is a dude who fought to live, full stop. He wasn’t guaranteed anything, and almost no one would’ve cared if he died. But he fought to build himself as close to a life as he understood, and then he fought to defend it from Storious. He’s someone like Ren who doesn’t even understand how much of a credo they constructed from just punching in every day, rather than dressing it up in speeches and slogans. There’s beauty in living a life, even if you don’t know what it’s for. Not every story needs to explain itself, you know?

We’re not done with this story, though, which is another mark of ambivalence for this episode with me. We’re starting to explore things like Desast’s isolation and Ren’s ethics, but it’s just, like, raising the question this time. Artfully done, for sure, but there’s a big ellipsis where a cliffhanger should be. I like thinking about Desast and Ren and how hard it can be to be a good person when the world doesn’t think you’re capable of serious feelings. It’s an interesting subsection of this show’s thoughts on belief, and the necessity of curiosity in a world of expectations and assumptions. Ren and Desast are two more characters that don’t understand how to be more than what people see them as, and don’t get how to change the story that was written for them. But we’re just tossing that around, not really coming to a point on it yet.

For everyone else, it’s a lot of setting up the board. Storious is starting his incursion on the Real World. Luna is, as always, as slippery as an eel. (That Mei post-credit thing! THE SECOND SHE TURNS HER BACK ON LUNA! NAIL THAT KID TO THE GODDAMN GROUND!) The swordsmen are getting ready for the finale, just like they were fifteen years ago. It’s solidly dramatic, but mostly just preparing things for the climax.

But that’s still a few episodes away. In the meantime… this was okay.

—

THE WORST HAS YET TO COME



Daishinji could do this.

He had suffered greatly for the Sword of Logos. Being a swordsman was a constant struggle against the forces of darkness to maintain balance between this world and the Wonder World. He’d lost friends. He’d abandoned the guild to save the guild. He’d lost his sword, twice. He had weathered adversity, and done it without hesitation. He’d never wavered in his sense of duty. The swords were put here to guard mankind, and Daishinji could do no less.

He leaned on his friends in those times where he came closest to giving in, but this time, he’d be on his own. He just needed to hold out a little longer, stand his ground, and he’d be free of this pain.

He could eat this rice ball, and tell Sophia it was good.

Seasonal allergies hitting me real hard tonight! Sorry this was short/bad!