[Enchilada645]

There's something amusing about the dub punching up Naomi's dialogue in Episode 5 from "I want to save you" to "I want to save you like a Knight on a Horse". I doubt the JP run was on the final episode when they dubbed Episode 5, and I'm unaware of how much they knew of what was going to happen ahead of time. But how did they manage to basically alter a line and nail what happens in Episode 13 so perfectly?

Which is to say, Rouge gets a Final Form thanks to Naomi and a trick from earlier in the run. And admittedly when we saw Naomi give her ID to Rouge last time I thought we were going to get Winged Metal Rouge from the OP. Was not expecting Metal Rouge+ as an actual form in which she gets a fancy medieval styled energy shield alongside her usual blade.

This was a packed finale, but between us reaching the full culmination of Rouge and Naomi's friendship alongside the fantastic performance Roy put on, and how bittersweet Cyan's ending was, I think it pulled it off well enough.

But as the name of the episode implies, and as we've been building up to, this is about whether or not Code Eve will activate. And I think that was the most important part given well, we only have 13 episodes and even if we had more I doubt even a 2 cour season is enough to actually dismantle oppressive systems and class divides like what we've seen over the course of the show.

What we do get shown I think works out pretty well though. It's a big unknown but one our main characters are optimistic about. Who knows what will happen when it's all said and done? But they want to think on the bright side.

And I do kind of love how the final scene ties into Rouge's declarations during the latter half of the series. How she will "protect the freedom of Humans and Neans", which fits with her being the only combatant on a battlefield swarming with Usurper war machines. They don't need to be dragged into this pointless fight, if aliens want to cause trouble she'll deal with them herself. And yet it doesn't feel like this bleak overwhelming situation for her as it's just business as usual between her and Naomi, transforming to fight another day as we fade to white.