[GoldenXtreme]

The RPG concept this episode was pretty cute, but I do agree that they could have leaned into it more. I do think that Baku is kinda falling behind, not only in terms of power this time, but also in terms of relevance to the main storyline. It's not like the Nightmare situation this episode has no connection to the revelations we get from Five and Six's part of the plot, but I did feel like he was just kind of dealing with second-hand repercussions. It's interesting that NOX seems to be implying that the show is going to be slowly shifting to progressively larger "collective dreams" from now on. This will probably change the real world investigation of the show a lot, so it'll be less about the individual's issues and more about what everyone has it common, or so it sounds from the preview. No real opinion on that yet, I'll see how it plays out! I enjoyed this week alright overall.

I feel like a lot of my fundamental issues with this show comes down to the fact there is such a strong divide between different story elements? The real and dream worlds only having a little bit of crossover, we have two opposing organizations that refuse to communicate, and now we have other members of CODE running around doing their own thing while the protagonist remains oblivious. I just feel like there should be more of a sense of direct communication between these narrative elements? I know a lot of it is intentional, it's a story about seedy, morally ambiguous dream spycraft, but that doesn't mean I think it's *effective*.