[Sh Ranger]

Really shows how the difference between Baku and Seven is bigger than just aura and skills. When Seven received the mission to "eliminate the enemy", he accepted it. While he was willing to eliminate Nox as a last resort, he used logic to get around it by redefining enemy to mean Shadow Nightmare, making Nox a victim to be saved. Furthermore, when it seemed like he was trapped in the dream world, he didn't do nothing. He confronted his thunder nightmare and moved forward to confront Nox. Seven has his morals, but he doesn't dwell on them to no end, he keeps his head in the present.

Faiz had a memorable development where Takumi retired from fighting, as he couldn't handle the guilt of taking lives. And what brought him back to fighting was the revelation that innocent people die when he does nothing. The path of a Kamen Rider is lonely and unpleasant, but it is also necessary. Inaction is the worst sin of all, when you have the power to protect.

And that's what we're seeing with Baku here. The thing preventing him from truly becoming Seven isn't the fact that he can't speak fluent English, defuse bombs and flirt with girls, but rather his hesitation to act in an unpleasant scenario. Five even gave him the morally simple mission of eliminating the Demon King Nightmare, yet Baku couldn't even stomach being complicit in Nox's elimination. So, he does nothing and Six dies. He realizes too late that the world needs Seven, right now. "I am Seven. I am Seven. I am Seven.", he says, but he arrives to find Five dead as well, with Nox blaming CODE for putting them in front of his gun.

This is where "Seven" finally locks in and confronts his Catastrophe Gore Nightmare, whose name is so edgy that you know its power is going to be strong. "If this is the power of bad dreams, then I'm going to make your bad dream come true." is such a cold and awesome line. Sparing Nox had made everything worse, so he's not making that mistake this time.

Nasuka grieving for Kureha/Six while Fujimi comforts her was a strong emotional scene with a great performance by their actors. Fujimi calls out Baku for his failure as an agent and promptly learns the complication of CODE targeting his friend Odaka. It'll be interesting to see if he can accept this now that his friend is guilty of killing his friend's friend. Fujimi's like a specific type of viewer perspective for those who choose to have faith in Nox, defending him based on vague implications of good intent. However, I believe he has gone too far this time and I hope Fujimi will find the courage to admit that.

This arc is such a sudden escalation for the plot of Zeztz and I'm excited to see how it resolves!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frontier

It's definitely not normal for a baby to dream of a desolate landscape with the crying moans of dead people...

How would you know? That's not exactly a testable hypothesis.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThirstMcGurst

I love this episode, but that definitely caught my attention. On top of that, he executed both Agents 5 (I believe anyways) and 6. But that was what caught my eye: Instead of using the large gun-sword combo, he chose to shoot them with an actual gun, and we the audience technically didn't actually see the shot. Just heard the noise and saw the outcome. I find that particularly interesting, but I may be overthinking that.

Shooting undisguised humans with a launcher would turn them in to red smudges, so the handgun is the PG-rated option.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThirstMcGurst

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm going off ADHD memory, but when he was deactivated by CODE, didn't NOX end up trapped in the dream realm?

Nox was trapped since Shadow Nightmare wouldn't let him wake up.