[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Just like this episode! That I can’t believe I had this much to say about! Fish Sandwich’s brand-new “Fish Sandwich rewatches Kamen Rider Kuuga” thread must be affecting me. I’d probably be better off posting these feelings in Deepsea’s new “General Kamen Rider Thoughts” thread. #ad

Lol good, actually want more of this, though lately you seem to reply less... And jumping on that post too.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Ouja is OP AF. This show's gotta nerf Asakura. Have they never heard of game balance? Hopefully Shiro's next patch will --- oh, wait, this isn't the video game Kamen Rider. These other guys are pretty screwed, then!

Dude actually I asked not to wank Asakura, with my emphasis of Survive form Riders easily beating him before. And did I already talk about his balance? He has only 1 weapon cards from each monsters, but he compensates with more Advents and Final Vents.

For this episode, Genocider's new trait seems to be explosive spits instead of corrosive ones like Venosnaker. Explosives can be more harmful, but corrosive has long-lasting effect as an advantage I guess. I think I don't really like his Evildiver Final Vent clashing evenly with Knight Survive's Final Vent here. Ordinary Evildiver's FV has standard 5000 AP, Knight Survive's one has 8000 AP.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yui's been sad before, and Shiro never felt the need to cancel the premise of the show to cheer her up, so I'm going to lay this one at the feet of bad writing.

When the mirror monster attacks, Ren and Shinji run for cover and just leave Yui standing on the beach. Are they that sure the monster is going to ignore Yui?

Ren doesn't really gain anything from the scene after Yui and Shiro talk. He's just standing around. It was weird to have him just, like, waiting them to get in the car or something. He could've used some lines!

Lol the above one is a funny complaint, because something later...

They should've played the scene where the monster continuously chases them and drive them to the hiding spot. O̶r̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶I̶n̶o̶u̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶f̶f̶?̶

Why would Ren do anything there? Shinji was telling the other companion the same thing he told to Ren, which Ren disagrees heavily. If anything one thing he wanted to do in his mind was probably mock him again, which would ruin the situation (and kind of behavior she disapproves heavily).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Right, but why are we we being told that now, in the midst of the rest of this story? I don't dislike the scene, I dislike how incongruent it is to the rest of the episode. It functions like an obligatory check-in, some contractual thing (no pun intended), rather than something that flowed naturally in the story.

I don't think it's random? It's connected with a previous episode where Kitaoka's illness started to affect him in Rider fights where Ren remarked that he's weaker. It's more than just Ren being an asshole for turning a compliment back to him, it's a plot point where irony starts to catch up to Zolda (be a Rider to cure his illness, but cannot go on due to his illness), the illness continues until Goro notices.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The main problem is he basically has no plan of attack. Working from, I guess, the Yui school of Getting What You Want By Being Pathetic And Annoying, Shinji shows up at Kitaoka’s house and just sort-of hopes for the best. It’s a terrible plan, and Shinji’s obviously desperate, so of course Kitaoka takes advantage and gets Shinji to clean his house, make his lunch, and generally be Goro For A Day.

(Speaking of, holy shit does Goro clean up nice!)

For Shinji, it seems like a recurring trait of Kobayashi protagonists (oh, Eiji for OOO, something you watched). They will try to act and help even if they don't have the answers. For Yui makes you think that she's genuinely sad a few episodes before, but she was only acting to you in that one time? I mean Goro is his servant, cleaning up is one of his main jobs.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The idea of throwing Shinji and Kitaoka together isn’t a new one, but it’s still an incredibly smart one. They’ve got great comedic rhythm, with Kitaoka manipulating the trusting Shinji and Shinji barely able to get the vain and lazy Kitaoka to take things seriously. They’re so goddamn funny together. There’s a ton of little bits of business that cracked me up. Like, during their first drive, trailing the threatening dudes, Kitaoka keeps turning the rearview mirror to look at himself, and Shinji keeps turning it back to drive. It’s a little bit of physical comedy, but it’s so on-point that it was killing me. Or, Jesus, the fact that Kitaoka immediately tries to get the thugs to beat up Shinji instead of him. Like, immediately. He doesn’t try and bluff or haggle or anything, he’s just, like, Please Beat Up This Guy Instead Of Me. This whole episode was a laugh.

All of the card switching stuff between Ryuki and Zolda was awesome. Great gags, with Ryuki getting blasted while Kitaoka got stronger, but also a really good visualization for how much stronger they are by cooperating. Oh, and I dug how Kitaoka was like, Of Course My Cards Only Work For Me, like he got some sort of instruction manual that Shinji didn’t.

A sad moment is that Kitaoka didn't get to try to taste Shinji's gyoza either, just like Ren previously, just to force Kitaoka to acknowledge Shinji in that too (Goro, an excellent cook, enjoys it). If I would take a page from Ex-Aid, it seems that Kitaoka can do good (protecing his guests so he wouldn't be suspected) if it's to benefit himself so manipulate him into doing good things like M did at the other doctor Riders fighting Graphite? Though it's actually morally grey people who do that.

Kitaoka manipulating Shinji even extends to them in a fight. The reaction of Ryuki is just priceless that all the weapons are given to Zolda even if Ryuki scanned them. I like when a "douche" is saying undeniable truths that has no ill intention but got to be taken hard by others like "my cards work for me". But Ryuki also shows his another unpredictable fight tactics here to strike back. Summoning Magnugiga, he knocks Zolda aside to use Magnugiga as Guard Vent (despite not being able to move at all, Magnugiga was unflinched by the attacks...), and keep hiding behind it to scan his Strike Vent card and finish his opponent. Zolda even acknowledges this part of him! But overall, what I like about that moment apart from being funny is that the series gives more explanations of how Advent Cards work here.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But, as with all of the really great Ryuki episodes, it’s a thrilling and funny installment that also does outstanding character work. Shinji’s weird insistence on throwing himself into situations he really doesn’t understand and can’t clearly articulate what his plan is, this is not a good thing about him. If things work out for him, it’s dumb luck, and if things don’t work out, they probably shouldn’t have anyway. And yet, I never seem to be able to get mad at Shinji for not having a better plan in this episode. When he believes in something, he can’t just wait until he’s got a good idea. He’d rather do the wrong thing than do nothing, you know? He can’t wait things out. And that’s why he hangs out with Kitaoka, hoping something will happen that’ll give him direction.

Well to be honest regarding Rider War, I don't really know what is the actually right and reliable way to stop it. One way I thought about was killing every other Riders, trying to win and use the wish to undo the damages of the War, but that's a huge risk for a probably futile extremist way, and it's also the lesson for Ren to detach your humanity to kill other people. Or just adopt a greyer look and decide that irredeemable bastards deserve to die. Rider War is filled with morally ambiguous people that were properly chosen by Shiro, where by that logic the only purely good Riders are Shinji and Tezuka, both weren't picked. Even aside from Asakura, changing other morally ambiguous people seems to be a generally impossible task (this series, various other series except by bad writing for easy solution, and real life) like to someone such as Ren, Kitaoka, etc. Shinji's clumsiness and naivety may be the cause behind this, but even Tezuka didn't fare any better than this (other than inspiring Shinji), so I just view the Rider War problem as a whole no matter who it is. Aside from all of that, the Rider War in nature forces everyone to keep fighting or die, if Shinji actually did manage to change the Riders to stop fighting, would it spell doom to them?

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And it does! But not really how it seemed like it was going to. In trying to get through to Kitaoka, and largely just becoming his maid, Shinji gets that this cause, of trying to rehabilitate Kitaoka… it’s someone else’s motivation. He’d like Kitaoka to give up the Rider Battles, to fight for justice, but that’s not why Shinji became a Kamen Rider. In a scene that feels for all the world like the writer grabbing the show and getting it back on track, Shinji realizes that he wants to save people from monsters.

Sure, Shinji's aim is to save people. But the realization next is that he needs to save Riders too as they are also people, he wants to stop the Rider War because he wants to prevent people getting killed, that includes Riders getting killed by one another. His other dilemma is "Other people's choices are other people's choices" which would contradict his aim to save people including Riders. Though I guess, you shouldn't let a felon do anything bad they want because of their selfish desire under a mindset of "you cannot decide other person's life" like not arresting them, robbing them from their decision and activities.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Weirdly, in a way, that might be how Shinji best changes the fates of the other Riders. Not by some judgemental lecturing, or urgent pleading, but by being an example for them to aspire to. By being Kamen Rider Ryuki, a dopey, earnest, honest, confident hero.

His idealism and innocence is his actual strength in what he does. Though being an example (as in morality) would just get him labelled as weak, naive, and stupid perhaps by those psychos... But how his trait actually works will surprise you later on.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I think one of the reasons why all those elements work is because of how the show plays Shinji off of the other Riders. This episode, obviously, it’s the Kitaoka Show (my favorite show), but there’s a few moments with Ren that makes Shinji’s character better. Ren’s needling, his little digs at Shinji’s optimism and empathy, it’s a big way the show let’s you laugh at Shinji’s poorly-considered perseverance, or his overly-trusting nature, or his goofiness (like, he really thinks cleaning windows is going to get Kitaoka to stop trying to kill other Riders?), while still letting those attributes have value. It’s… it’s that Ren cares enough to say This Is Stupid that makes it not stupid, if that makes any sense. That he pushes back on Shinji’s goals and worldview, forcing Shinji to live his words more, or better consider what he wants. Ren sharpens Shinji. It’s a great dynamic they have right now, where there’s this friendship that has radically opposed philosophies as its foundation. If the phrase Agree To Disagree came to life, it’d look a lot like this friendship.

Yeah, for Ren I gotta give him credit for trying to spare the awful truth to Reiko when they left the scene by just saying Akira ran away, and using that as a proof that Asakura is an iredeemable monster (I agree with Ren this time to let him die like you treat a monster, though Shinji wants him imprisoned), though later he as usual, uses that proof to mock Shinji as being ineffectual. Ren wants Shinji to drop his morality (he sees it as weakness and tried to detach it from himself too), but it makes Shinji more determined. Same as Ren still an asshole before, Ren influencing Shinji this way (world's not black/white) also wouldn't change/corrupt Shinji's ways. They are primary-secondary Riders, but their roles in story are each as big as Shotaro-Philip. And speaking of ORE, at the end, so cameras can capture Mirror stuffs that is in the Mirror World (seen in reflection)?

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Speaking of friendships! Yui’s back, and she’s pretty great in this one? It’s mostly just her and Ren, and it’s not a ton of scenes, but I like what’s here. Their first one, where Yui gets to set up her current outlook, it’s nicely direct. Yui’s been a… let’s say problematic character for me, but in one scene they reposition her in a way where I get what the show’s doing with her. She’s got a bit more grit now, a bit of resolve, where her mission to get through to Shiro feels optimistic, rather than shapeless. Yui’s a good mirror to Shinji in this one, with both of them tired of sitting around second-guessing their options, instead just pressing forward. I like this version of Yui, a version that isn’t saying Why Me all the time. I much prefer this new one, who seems to be saying If Me, Then I Have Some Control. It’s a good look on Yui!

I guess that's supposed to be the character development? Taking all the pain and hurt she has obtained, have a break down moment, but use that as a resolve to keep doing the mission. Speaking of "good mirror to Shinji", I will apply the talk about how Rider War seeming impossible to solve above for Shinji, to Yui here too, especially if you talk about how it feels optimistic, moreover with her lacking Rider's powers. Apart from topics like changing morally ambiguous person (Shiro) said above, I will also ask here how to fix the damages caused by Rider War? Already displayed before in an ill-fated cliffhanger Shiro has complete control over Riders and monsters to stop them, but he seemingly didn't have any non-offensive power yet (other than the wish, but the wish only can be granted by killing all other Riders).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s not the case, Shiro doesn't seem huge on documentation or a Rider Battle onboarding process ("Welcome to Rider Battles. Fight or Die. Any questions? Keep in mind, all of the answers are going to be Fight and/or Die."), but I’m okay with Shinji being perennially the least-informed Rider. It’s fitting.

Dunno if Shinji is the least-informed one, there are newer Riders than him like Ouja or something but probably they just don't care about informations for Riders, monsters, Mirror World, etc, they just want to fight.