[DreamSword]

Episode 22: Torga's Identity!

Episode 23: The Protector and the Protected

I'll be upfront: I really was not into this one.

It's the sort of thing where I can see what was being aimed for, I just feel that the episodes overall missed the mark.

Let's start with the plot: When Dimas Akhsara AKA Torga officially introduces himself to the group, the most recent attack from Vudo sees his assistant Sugi possessed by the spirits of the Crab and Bee monsters.

And right off the bat, this presents a really interesting angle: Back in the original BIMA, whenever the monsters would take on human hosts, Bima had his Blue Storm attack, which would separate the monster from their host. Bima-X, however, doesn't have anything like that. So how does this get handled now?

Well apparently the answer is simply "Just take the monster out like you normally do" because Torga just rushes in without a care in the world and it purges the Crab monster no problem. And at first, I felt this would get a proper follow-up, as Ray does go to call Dimas out for his recklessness, but it all gets quickly swept to the side. And then part 2 doubles back on the solution anyway.

Which brings us to the character angle in all of this. I get the general idea: Randy and Dimas come from totally different worlds, so of course their relationship is gonna be rocky at first. It's totally ruined though by the two never really coming to a proper understanding. In fact, the crucial advice that Randy imparts onto Dimas is never actually shown on screen, simply recalled in hindsight mid-fight by Torga. Which robs it of any sort of emotional sway it might've had.

Add onto that how the Orange Power Stone is also now the Thunder Stone rather than Metal like how the Yellow one was in BIMA and I felt very detached from this episode as a whole. But yet, in the small glimpse of a Power Stones lies the one thing that I was very intrigued by when it came to these two episodes, and that was Iron Mask.

For those that don't remember, Iron Mask was the one who originally commanded the Blue Power Stone, so seeing him have a vision of being chosen by a Power Stone very much piqued my curiosity here, and got me thinking: Maybe, just maybe, my initial hunch of BIMA-X adding an eighth Power Stone to the mix might be correct? If instead the Yellow one wasn't retconned, and Iron Mask gets the power of Metal to help justify his new body? I'd be all for that.

But that's one scene out of two whole episodes. So sadly, I can't call these an overall success.

Also I dunno if it was the rip that Bereke Scrubs used or what, but the audio quality for episode 23 was especially bad, and basically ruined what would've been an otherwise great track being played during the episode's' climax. So that certainly didn't help things.