[Fish Sandwich]

It's a double scoop deal on power-up debuts this week on Gavv, and one of this episode's biggest strengths is how it makes that fact important to the story. Rather than just doing both at once for the sake of it, the contrast between Shouma and Hanto's sides of the plot serves to better highlight what makes each of those sides significant.

For Hanto, it's all about isolating him. He's thrown into a trap as a direct result of a friend abusing his trust, and is forced to find a way out of the situation entirely on his own. Notably -- and this is something I had pointed out to me -- this is actually the first time Valen has defeated a Granute on his own since all the way back in his debut? Part of that is just because he spends a lot of time being a great team player, man of honor that he is, but between that fact and the repeated instances of cliffhangers where he gets blown up, it's probably fair to say Valen has been consistently portrayed as the weakest of the show's Riders, in a strictly physical sense. Like, thanks to that wounded debut, Hanto's human vulnerability is sort of baked into the DNA of the character. It remains to be seen how much of an unhealthy complex this actually becomes for Hanto, but it's not that hard to see why he would be tempted by a power that allows him to stand his ground all on his own, even if heading down that path may turn out to be a mistake.

For Shouma, it's all about reaffirming how much he needs the support of his friends. Literally the *exact* opposite story. Even though Gavv might come off as tougher in a fight, every ounce of power Shouma has ever received has been because of people in his life who help pull him up from the darkness he was born into. So of course, keeping with the pattern, it's not anything he himself directly does that puts him in a position to defeat Bitter Gavv here. Instead, it's Sachika being there to help when he's feeling under the weather. Instead, it's Vram being there to buy the two of them the time they need. It's the same big picture stuff about the show that snapped into focus with Caking's debut, but it succeeds in a different way -- a strong counterpoint to the plotline it's complementing, despite being less emotionally impactful. (Likely by intention? It seems especially telling that Caking retains its distinction as Shouma's only Gochizo that sticks around after being used.)

BlizzardSorbet Form itself, by the way, is also succeeding in a different way from Caking. That suit still wears the crown aesthetically for me when it comes to Gavv, but I fundamentally can't hate that Shouma now has a form with a Wizard robe, you know? Some pretty wizard-y powers going on too! He's even buffing his physical weapon with added elemental damage! The icy abilities make for a thoroughly entertaining fight scene, and the end result is that even though I don't like the suit as much as Caking, I might enjoy the fighting style just a bit more? It's a tough call. Sure, a form where the Rider made out of food spends whole fights licking himself is weird and fun, but then, so are Whipped Soldiers supporting their frosting-covered majesty. No losing with this show, really. Chocold was pretty neat for what it was too!