If you're feeling conflicted about everything
that happened in episode 16 of Combinator Zets,
I don't blame you. I think that's exactly where
the writers wanted us. And honestly, that's where
I am. Probably the biggest, there's a lot to
be conflicted about. There's a lot to discuss.
There's a lot of things to go back and forth
on. This could be a long episode, but I want
to focus in on one thing. Did Baku make the right
choice trusting Zero? That's the thing that has
me the most conflicted right now because I haven't
trusted Zero for a long time. Nox is an enemy,
Odaka is an enemy, or he's acting in alliance
with the Nightmares. The Nightmares are actively
harming people. There's something that feels
off about the way that Zero is telling Baku to
operate. He's asking him to be loyal without
questioning. He's asking him to basically not
question his orders to kill somebody. And when
he finds out about this, that Baku has questioned
him and... hasn't just killed nox killed odaka
he's upset with him and i think the part of the
episode where uh baku walks away with him from
him and then he falls through the sky and ends
up landing on his bed um you know they say from
when i was a kid i don't know if this is the
same in japan they said that if you fell in your
dream and you hit the ground you would actually
die and that's why you always wake up before
hitting the ground well in his dream baku Agent
7, did not hit the ground. He instead woke up
and he was on the ground in his bedroom, in his
jammies. So that's something that raises suspicion.
It definitely felt like that was something that
Zero was doing to him, something that Zero was
using to maybe put him in his place and kind
of assert his authority over Baku. How dare you
question me? And that's just one thing. That's
just one thing from this episode. There are lots
of other examples of reasons why I don't trust
Zero. I don't know where you fall on that. Do
you trust Zero or not? But the idea that this
superior of his is telling him there's no other
way to do this than to kill this guy is interesting,
and it should create conflict. And I feel like
Baku's answer and his resolve, like, I'm even
conflicted on this. I don't know that I like
him accepting the... role as the one and only
agent. But I like that he's doing it. Even if
he's mistaken, I like that he's being a man and
showing growth. And Zero said that he's come
a long way. And I agree, he has come a long way.
But I don't know that he's come a long way in
the way that Zero thinks or if he's come a long
way in the way that I think. And the neat thing
is that We're not getting inner monologue from
Baku on what he's doing, why he's doing it. We're
seeing moments of him being still and reflecting
and then choosing to do something. When he put
down the phone, I don't know if it was last episode
or the episode before, it was because he was
upset with Zero and he didn't just want to blindly
follow his rules. And I was thinking maybe he
didn't want to be tracked. Maybe he didn't want
to be heard. Zero found out about it somehow.
That's another interesting point. How did Zero
find out about it? We don't know. And that makes
him more suspicious to me as well. Also, Zero
didn't show himself during the scene where Nami
and the detectives were in there. He was just
a regular bike and they were dealing with him,
even though we've seen him come out into the
real world as the Zero robot. And I find that
suspicious too. He was completely silent, even
though he's upset with Baku. And uncertain about
him. And later on, he tells Knox that, like,
you've lost your license, which I love the 007.
I don't like 007, but I do like the 007 reference.
License to kill. You've lost your license to
transform. You're not allowed to use that driver
anymore. So he snatches it from him. And then
boom, Knox pulls out another one. Very cool.
Very cool moment. But getting back to did Baku
make the right choice or not? I don't know. There's
really a lot of evidence to say that. Zero shouldn't
be trusted. He's saying it's a big national secret
and he can only share that secret with a trusted
agent. So therefore, Baku has to earn his trust
again. Why? If code is in people's dreams, if
you're in his head, if you're working with him
and manipulating him in these different ways,
then don't you have the insight to know that
he is a trustworthy individual? Or are there
certain things that he can do that are outside
of your scope of control that... affect whether
or not you can trust him? Or are you just lying,
Zero, to string this guy along and get him to
do what you want him to do? And it's interesting
too, because Zero can't do things. He fights
Nox, who's arguably somebody powerful. He disarms
him in his old armor, in his knight armor, or
his knight suit, whatever. He's able to do that.
So why wouldn't he have been able to just take
him out on his own? Why didn't he? What's going
on there? Why isn't he in the field fighting?
This wasn't a desperate maneuver where the headquarters
were attacking. He had to fight. He showed up
there to support him, support Baku, so that Baku
could go and find the missing idol, find Nam
in her little red riding hood outfit, and chase
down that nightmare. And he didn't have to come
out and... participate in the fight but he chose
to for a specific reason i probably to recall
this you know rogue agent and to get the driver
tech away from him um and then yeah he admits
that that's not a code item that implies that
code has some sort of development arm and that
implies a lot and i don't know it all just makes
him seem even shadier and i really don't trust
the guy and uh yeah I don't like them, but I
like the episode. It was really good. It was
really enjoyable to watch, and I'm excited about
what's going on, the mysteries that are being
set up, and it's just really been an enjoyable
show. I was going to close out with something
else, which I will. I'll be real soft about it,
which is that I think this is a great jumping
-on point for the show, honestly, if you have
people who you know who might be interested.
This is a great place to start them, and you
can just say, look, this is what happened, basically,
and now watch this. You get to skip over all
that stuff. It's not that it wasn't important,
but just you get it in summary, and now you're
getting this, and enjoy. So anyway, do you think
Baku made the right choice in trusting Zero?
Would you have? Check out the pinned comment
for more. This is MJ, Pension Inspection, and
Writer Tears, signing out.