[Zolda]

KR Valvarad debuted 2 episodes ago, and in this episode his attacks are already able to be withstood by the golden Clotho Malgam. KR Majade too. The inevitable downside of having too many forms and or Riders.

It takes both KR Valvarad & KR Majade to restrain golden Clotho Malgam, and she still manages to escape. It seems like Clotho and The Sisters are unlike the other golden Malgams so far. It seems like they're Glion's magnum opus, not merely ordinary homunculus without human forms.

When I first saw the RCC's artwork, I thought that Zukyumpire's power was matchmaking, but then I realized that matchmaking was Cupid's power, not a vampire's. It would be funny if there's a Cupid Chemy and he manages to match a smug elitist like Spanner with a girl with the completely opposite personality, haha. Zukyumpire's ability when used with the X Gotchalibur is actually very useful. The zukkyun finisher can distract Chemies that are bonded with a Malgam and weaken the bond, thus making them easier to defeat.

KR Majade Mooncerberus's bicycle kick reminds me of Liu Kang's. She should also do Chun-Li's lightning kick and spinning bird kick, haha.

Why does Glion call Houtarou "the key" @ 18:49? Does he know something about Houtarou's past? Perhaps he knows that Houtarou has a special ability to affect Chemies, so there might be a good reason why kid Houtarou got stranded in the Ouroboros world in episode 18. Perhaps he was already a child prodigy who had a promising future as the next big thing in the alchemy world. Houtarou is probably the key to unlock the secrets and mysteries of the Ouroboros world, the door of darkness that has been mentioned since early in the story. Oh, and Glion's spy cameras still look cinematic, haha.

Next week:

Why can't Houtarou transform in this episode? It seems like he's defeated by KR Dread's new form/armor attachment (which uses forbidden alchemy techniques to force the fusion of 2 categorically incompatible Repli Chemies (Steamliner and Unicon)) and gets all his RCC's confiscated by Minato. Steamliner is the only remaining RCC, thus making him unable to transform.

This episode also marks the debut of Tenliner and KR Iron Gotchard. Unlike previous forms, this form is very likely granted with the use of one Chemy, that is Tenliner by itself. It's possible that this form only requires Tenliner attachment and doesn't even need any RCC's to transform. Tenliner is very likely an evolved form of Steamliner created by Houtarou via an unknown means like I mentioned here.

Houtarou's Ring is upgraded from blue gem with silver shank straight to red gem with golden shank (!), basically making him on par with Glion and Fuga, and he seems to be able to use it well. Perhaps this new Ring is what enables him to evolve Steamliner into Tenliner. This makes the previously mentioned child prodigy hypothesis sound more plausible. What I've surprisingly overlooked all along is the fact that a Ring with red gem and golden shank is symbolically similar to Glion's obsession with the dark arts of forbidden alchemy and the color golden (like I mentioned here), so Fuga and now Houtarou too are able to use forbidden alchemy techniques, although with a completely different goal to Glion's. My gut feeling says that Houtarou's dad was/is also an S+ class alchemist like Fuga and Glion. It'd be a great twist if Houtarou's dad is revealed to be conspiring with the real mastermind(s)/villain(s), which I strongly believe is not Glion. Or better yet, make him the real mastermind. This is a potential plot twist to facilitate the debut of Gotchard's berserker form, haha.