[Paladin]

A competition is proposed over the remaining Chemies.

[Zolda]

As Kyoka states @ 00:53, Nijigon's Rainbow Breath ability (the rainbow wave) in episode 38 provided vitality boost to Hopper1, Antrooper, and Skebows that allowed them to give off similar rainbow-colored rays several moments ago.

Clotho asks for more power upgrade from Gigist and her request is immediately granted. She could be the only one of The Sisters who'll die by the end of the story. Atropos suggests @ 02:57 that they need Glion in order to defeat Houtarou who had just acquired a new power up last week. It makes me wonder, what exactly can Glion do to help Gigist? Gigist can do everything Glion could in a much better way. That was the point of Glion opening the Door of Darkness to free Gigist. At this point Glion is basically an obsolete villain. So what's the point of Gigist resurrecting Glion, apart from merely fulfilling Atropos' wish? Is she suggesting that Gigist should merge with Glion? If so, then what's the advantage that Gigist (an uber-demon) would get if he merges himself with Glion (a mere human)? And as expected, Gigist immediately dismiss her suggestion and silences them.

In the scene @ 13:15 it's shown that Nijigon's Rainbow Breath ability is able to grant immunity to other Chemies and prevent them from being Malgamized by Gigist. It turns out that the upgraded Dragonalos and Gaiard only appear as 3D-animated Chemies, not as the Gaiardragon form for Gotchard. I don't think that any new form will appear, except maybe a berserker form for KR Valvarad. The summoned clone Riders (called the Gotcharbrothers) who appear thanks to the upgraded RCC's are actually the best match Chemies who fight out of their own volition, not clones controlled by Houtarou.

Last week I thought that Gigist would only get his ass kicked for the first time in this episode, but as it turns out he's also destroyed (?). And of course he'll reappear in episode 40, along with 2 new bosses (Germain and Gaelya) who are said to be part of the Unholy Trinity along with Gigist. Those 2 could be the ones who revive Gigist in episode 40. The amalgamation of the Unholy Trinity was probably the original form of the uber-demon that appeared 120 years ago. In this comment I was joking that Gigist's power was only 30% because the door of darkness was only 30% opened by Glion. But as it's revealed today at the end of this episode, there's some truth in my joke because 2/3 of the uber-demon will debut in the next episode. I wonder if the Unholy Trinity will re-amalgamate themselves into the uber-demon's original (ultimate?) form (very likely a CG form) in the last 2 episodes. This reveal makes the crucial question even harder to answer: How could the Alchemist of Dawn (who was very likely a mere human) defeat the Unholy Trinity (Gigist/Germain/Gaelya) (very likely a God) in the first place? It seems like this chicken-or-egg logical anomaly will be left unanswered.

Minato says @ 22:12 that he's planning to reform the AU for the newer generation alchemists. How is he exactly gonna do that? He's just a middle-ranked member of the AU, perhaps even lower-middle. I don't even think he has any political power to do that. Is he gonna rebuild the AU simply by Neuralyzing the top brasses, like Glion did? Haha. Convenient! Another important question is: What motivates Minato to do that? Several people hypothesized about the appearance of mass-produced Drivers/weapons that will enable the AA students to transform into AU's Riotrooper-esque infantry based on Valvarad. Minato's plan to reform the AU may or may not have something to do with that.

The potential reveals that'll appear along with Minato's plan is very very very late. I've previously mentioned several times about the crucial importance of elaborating on the AU's organizational structures, its inner working, and the top brasses' decision making process regarding their response to Fuga's disappearance, Glion's disappearance/reappearance/schemes, Gigist's actions, etc, but the writers have done virtually nothing about it, aside from several very convenient scenes showing how it was Glion who manipulated the AU's top brasses and framed Fuga. The writers should've gradually elaborated it since a looooooooooong time ago. If they only start elaborating it in episode 40 then it's way overdue. It seems like a lot of infodump is coming. Smh. Well, this is what happens your cake is made of 95% icing. *facepalm

And still no new development about Houtarou's dad. At this point I couldn't care less about it. I've lost virtually all my interest in the mystery surrounding Houtarou's dad and or the Alchemy of Dawn. I'm 80% sure that it will appear as a lazy, cheap, shallow "Gotcha!" moment between episode 43-45.

Last week I forgot to mention that the insert song "The Sky's the Limit" by Back-On ? Beverly is awesome. Finally, a new insert song. Once again Back-On saves the day.

Next week:

The debut of Germain and Gaelya, the other 2 members of the Unholy Trinity. Let's see whether they can create a more menacing atmosphere, because Gigist has failed, haha.

Fuga's reappearance. The Fuga who appear in this episode may be the real one, not his surrogate clones.

And who is the person Atropos pinky swears to? Is it her "mom"?

[Frontier]

I'll give Rainbow Gotchard this much, actually making the QTR 1 Form Changes relevant again while also in a way that highlights Hotarou's relationship with the Chemies is appreciated.

Also feels like it's been a trend for Reiwa Riders to have the Final Form quickly defeat the main villain (or at least the current major villain) soon after it debuts.

[Sh Ranger]

Gigist's evil empathy failed him for once, as he totally cannot understand the Gotcha between Houtarou and the Chemies that cause them to defy him. I think that annoys him worse than actually getting destroyed by them. He tried to speculate that Houtarou is an idiot for lacking malice, but that sounds so pathetic that Gigist is the real idiot for dismissing the possibility of a human with emotional intelligence higher than his own, or rather he's too proud to admit that to himself. He's the kind of person who thinks he's always right, so he'll never learn. He really should've heeded Clotho's warning, but again, that would mean taking advice from a "lesser lifeform".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zolda

Clotho asks for more power upgrade from Gigist and her request is immediately granted. She could be the only one of The Sisters who'll die by the end of the story.

Man, I sure hope you're wrong about that. I want to have faith that Houtarou can save Clotho before it's too late.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zolda

Minato says @ 22:12 that he's planning to reform the AU for the newer generation alchemists. How is he exactly gonna do that? He's just a middle-ranked member of the AU, perhaps even lower-middle. I don't even think he has any political power to do that. Is he gonna rebuild the AU simply by Neuralyzing the top brasses, like Glion did? Haha. Convenient! Another important question is: What motivates Minato to do that?

Minato's and Spanner's motivation is probably that the Union are a bunch of incompetent a**holes who let Geryon have his way, got Suzuya and the Kurogane parents killed, nearly got Sabi killed and forced Fuuga to leave Rinne at a young age. The future students of alchemy deserve better than them! This is a sign of Minato's development, having learned from Houtarou to believe in his own power. Besides, if Gigist can easily break in and kill one of the Union, then how tough can they be?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frontier

I'll give Rainbow Gotchard this much, actually making the QTR 1 Form Changes relevant again while also in a way that highlights Hotarou's relationship with the Chemies is appreciated.

Clever how the Gotcha Brothers gimmick continues the Houtarou-Gigist comparison and contrast as well. Gigist could turn Chemies in to Dark Malgams without human hosts and now Houtarou with Nijigon can turn Chemies in to Gotchards without human hosts. Surely Rainbow Gotchard will later team up with SteamHopper for a climactic moment! Maybe even Platina! I totally called that Rainbow Rare Chemies were buffed by Nijigon!

[Enchilada645]

"What in the world is this 'gotcha'?!"

The moment in which I went from liking Gigist, to loving him. We've seen this building up, that Gigist is this ancient powerful entity. But he's fallible, and we see it in little bits of him getting surprised. Whether its pleasant that apparently his Black Flames didn't kill someone, or shock when something doesn't go as he expected like with Houtaro becoming an egg and not a Malgam.

But we finally reach the tipping point with this episode, in which him not getting his power back and his Fantastic Malgam's defeat sends him over the edge. He is chomping at the bit to try and beat down Houtaro and he just cannot. And their conversation where he can't understand Houtaro's convictions and Gotcha is incredible. That utter bafflement was just great to see happen.

Gotcha Brothers is really cool though and I do like how it gives older suits a time to shine. Now uh, AntWrestler and NeedleHawk please, more so the latter because I'm pretty sure that's one we haven't seen in a while compared to the others.

To comment on the academy situation though, I'm honestly pleasantly surprised that we didn't really go for "The Alchemys Union is actually evil and corrupt at the top". No they're just a bunch of complacent incompetent dinosaurs (sorry Ancient Chemy class) that are so stuck in their ways of "everything is fine, we don't need to do anything" that it negatively effects the youth around them. Huh... starting to hit a bit close to home there given...

Anyway, it's an interesting route to go where the heads and organization as a whole are just not good at their jobs to where it has this domino effect. It makes the Alchemys Union a breeding ground for people who think they can do whatever they want, Geryon or the two inspectors from the X-Cards Arc come to mind as well.

[Mesnick]

I looked. Well, what at first seemed like a respite after the emotional previous episodes actually turned out to be a victory over the main villain. I actually felt sorry for Gigist how helpless he ended up looking against Rainbow Gotchard and Houtarou's friendship with the Chemies. Meanwhile, the Sisters are on the verge of collapse, because their desires lead them in different directions. And Minato and Spanner are preparing to reform the alchemist organization. Well, it's high time. Further, it seems that we will see the return of Fuuga and the emergence of new Abyssal Kings. It seems that I finally guessed that Gigist is not the only one of his kind, but I was mistaken in believing that his brothers would appear in the movies. I wonder if they are parts of the Three-Eyed Demon or if the legend simply did not preserve the truth about the true number of villains? Maybe then the Alchemist of Dawn was not alone? We'll see in the future.
P.S. I will never cease to be amazed at Kajiki's ability to get himself into a situation that has nothing to do with him and escape from it in time.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zolda

Atropos suggests @ 02:57 that they need Glion in order to defeat Houtarou who had just acquired a new power up last week. It makes me wonder, what exactly can Glion do to help Gigist? Gigist can do everything Glion could in a much better way. That was the point of Glion opening the Door of Darkness to free Gigist. At this point Glion is basically an obsolete villain. So what's the point of Gigist resurrecting Glion, apart from merely fulfilling Atropos' wish? Is she suggesting that Gigist should merge with Glion? If so, then what's the advantage that Gigist (an uber-demon) would get if he merges himself with Glion (a mere human)? And as expected, Gigist immediately dismiss her suggestion and silences them.

Atropos simply sees Glion as a father and wants him back. There is no logic in this, only feelings. If you fantasize too much, you can think that in order to defeat an enemy you need to understand him, and only another human can understand a human. Glion is a man, which means they need him to win. But, of course, Gigist will never agree with this.

Quote:

And who is the person Atropos pinky swears to? Is it her "mom"?

It seems to me that Atropos will come to an agreement with the Alchemical Council against the Unholy Trinity and Houtarou's team. The Council will get rid of the threat to stability, accept the returned Glion, giving him carte blanche to experiment and everything will be ok.

[Zolda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Man, I sure hope you're wrong about that. I want to have faith that Houtarou can save Clotho before it's too late.

Well, people say that it takes disaster to learn a lesson. The death of an important person is often what drives people to be better persons, for example Uncle Ben's death which is crucial to Peter Parker's character. Clotho's death could be the ultimate lesson for Atropos to actually change, haha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Minato's and Spanner's motivation is probably that the Union are a bunch of incompetent a**holes who let Geryon have his way, got Suzuya and the Kurogane parents killed, nearly got Sabi killed and forced Fuuga to leave Rinne at a young age. The future students of alchemy deserve better than them! This is a sign of Minato's development, having learned from Houtarou to believe in his own power. Besides, if Gigist can easily break in and kill one of the Union, then how tough can they be?

Incompetent people with authorities is basically the definition of politicians since the dawn of humanity. The huge majority of politicians are incompetent, yet are so high in the totem pole of an organization/society that it's very very very hard to fight against them, unless you have the same political power. The people do deserve better politicians to lead them, but unless they themselves step up and take responsibility aka become politicians themselves, nothing will change. The incompetent, corrupt politicians will bring a society down.

The power possessed by politicians is not strength, but authority aka the power to move people. Their authority can often make the whole society turn against you, no matter how good you are as a person. Houtarou et al do have the strength to fight enemies from outside the alchemy society, but do they still have the strength when the enemy is the alchemy society itself? I hope so.

The best thing Minato can do for now is let the Unholy Trinity (and the recently revived Glion) go after the AU's top brasses. Like I stated before: Let them eat their own cooking. Let them taste their own medicine. Politicians, including, or rather, especially the incompetent and corrupt ones, usually operate better when their own well-being is threatened by external, uncontrollable forces (war, famine, economic collapse, etc).

I'd also like to see Minato's development as a leader, but man, it's already too late. Not to mention how weird the decision making process in the AU is. If the writers make Minato reform the AU simply by using the Neuralyzer spell, then it would be the ultimate facepalm ever produced by this show, haha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Further, it seems that we will see the return of Fuuga and the emergence of new Abyssal Kings. It seems that I finally guessed that Gigist is not the only one of his kind, but I was mistaken in believing that his brothers would appear in the movies. I wonder if they are parts of the Three-Eyed Demon or if the legend simply did not preserve the truth about the true number of villains? Maybe then the Alchemist of Dawn was not alone? We'll see in the future.

The legend didn't preserve the truth probably because the writers want it that way, aka: Retcon happens. Several friends of mine even suggested that the Alchemist of Dawn might not be human after all, but another godly/divine being similar to the Unholy Trinity. Who knows? This story initially stated that the uber-demon was a demon, then change it to a God, then change it to three Gods (the Unholy Trinity) in a similar vein to the Holy Trinity in Christianity. Who knows what they're changed to next.

[DreadBringer]

Gigist starts mistreating Atropos and Clotho. As a result, even Atropos’ loyalty to him wavered, and she prioritized Geryon, doing anything to bring him up whenever she could. Atropos seems to want Lachesis back to take down Gigist as well, and Clotho is the most loyal, blaming Lachesis for her betrayal. Like Nijigon before, Lachesis is now interested in being human due to eating good food.

Renge’s shtick is making capturing Chemies, now the last 2, friendly competitions. Of course, there won’t be any harm, but I've seen another series where this ends disastrously. They're each using their specialties, with Houtaro cooking, Sabi using tech, and Renge using cosplay. Rinne's no-nonsense attitude is not limited to Houtaro; she's upset at Renge too.

While I previously thought Rainbow Gotchard’s fight was nothing special, this one against Gigist showcases more of its defining power as it summons Chemies as Riders beside him, like Ghost Grateful. I thought Legendary Legend would be Gotchard’s final form from the shots, and Rainbow Gotchard’s power is similar to Legend’s too.