Have to admit, I managed to keep this reveal a surprise with a fake compare and contrast pretty well (probably helped that I was just as completely surprised back when the episode aired). Anyway, here’s the real one.

Shinnosuke had a partnership with Kim Steinbelt, which grew from the latter giving him advice and encouragement, until they were able to sync their minds as one. Meanwhile, Paradox is a Roidmude who completely fused with her past self, and took on Ora’s form to sow discord between her and Heure. And while she did briefly work with the original Ora, she still wanted to kill her to be the only one.

Next time: White Woz returns for a Woz vs GingaFinaly fight. Whoops, I seem to be recapping too far ahead.

Surprise! It's Episode 45!

-Aw man, Heure's dead, If only there was someone on the team who could turn back time to save him, preferably someone who already has done it twice in the past...(This is a joke. I don't knock off points if the healer doesn't immediately step in if a character suffers a non imemdiate but fatal wound in a JRPG cutscene, that's silly. Still, It's kinda bizzare Zi-O II's wild and seemingly OP powerset was just traded in for summoning Riders for Grand Zi-O, right?) Anyway, Heure always felt pretty early on that he'd be most likely to break off from the team due to not always being onboard with Swartz's schemes but stuck around because 1) he geniunely believed in urusping Ohma Zi-O, even if it meant dirtier methods here and there and 2) poor kid probably has nowehere else to go, what a shame.

-I......didn't know the Paradox Roidmude was also a movie villian, I just thought it was a random Roidmude they made up on the spot. That makes a lot more sense.

-The fantasy diemsion is called Another World, is it supposed to be a little reference to AR Worlds, since it's the power of Another Decade? That's cute.

-Did. Did anyone geniunely wanted to see the return of White Woz again? Because I sure didn't? I thought the note we ended on for his character was fine enough.

That's fair! The idea of Heure and Ora finding a space within Team Zi-O to define themselves individually and create a future for themselves... that was the most interesting part of the last couple episodes to me? So I was probably more invested than I should've been for this recurring antagonist to have a brief flash of Not Being Forgettable before getting murdered.

Sneaky! I love it!

It wouldn't surprise me, since it's Tsukasa who comes up with the name, and he seems enormously pleased with himself as he's saying it.

I'm interested in it mostly because I'm curious what the return of The Rider Who Makes Geiz Sound Heroic But Really Just Wants Him to Be A Murderer says about this specific conflict Geiz is having with Sougo over how to find empathy for your foes.

Personally yeah, for me Geiz's hilarious pessimism would turn him self-righteous, to see everything in black-and-white and that he'd boil down between others always doing something right in front of his eyes, or someone that must be destroyed if caught doing something wrong or even be implied to do so. While Geiz is no longer like that to Sougo or some Another Riders, he reverted into that mentality when dealing with Time Jackers. Well though he had good reasons of doing so with the previous deeds the Time Jackers did, like what Sougo summed up here (and Geiz can potentially, perform self-fulfilling prophecy again by making Heure actually evil again due to rejection and mistreatment from him, he's quite like this too when dealing with Another Wizard back then), Geiz really contradicted himself with his approach here, that he doesn't believe in change for people, at least quickly (not changing quickly =/= can't change at all), but he stayed to make sure Sougo doesn't become Ohma Zi-O, growing out of his murderous ways, which'd mean he does believe in change, for Sougo at least.

Speaking of Tsukuyomi, wonder what's her view regarding Time Jackers now compared to Sougo, at least Heure, with her too protecting him last episode. Otherwise, though Miharu talked about the consequence of time travelling, Tsukuyomi seems to 'defy' that a bit by asking for more time to further try and believe. Actually I don't know if trying to change the past, the act alone, is something wrong or not, and also compared to letting tragedies happen and not trying to do anything. Like, for the Time Jackers, I'd consider them wrong by fucking up lives of some people via Another Rider instead of them merely going to the past. For Geiz, personally I don't think that it's necessary to see the good in people to perform morally good deeds (extension to protecting people), like you can acknowledge about how someone is evil or have potential to be evil without sugarcoating or downplaying it, but possess moral compass to acknowledge their rights, such as not killing someone who had not done evil yet like a child/younger version of a future criminal or such.

Didn't you say Ora's also possibly get integrated in Team Zi-O to some positive effect? Otherwise, while Heure got tragically murdered and seem to be actually redeemed, albeit too late, I lowkey actually want for Ora to emphasize her betrayal by also, walking away by literally stepping on his dying body as if he doesn't exist. Not to make Heure suffer like Geiz wants but continuing after several physical jabs from Ora before. I guess the real lesson for this is that, neither Sougo's empathetic approach or Geiz's merciless approach are the absolutes, but actually individuals can be just different, and that people should be evaulated individually rather than using their group/occupation as a whole. In how Heure's the one who's actually redeemed, but Ora's the one who's still a backstabbing manipulative scumbag as ever who also had no gratefulness in 9-5 before (u̶g̶h̶,̶ ̶h̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶i̶g̶n̶o̶r̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶E̶n̶g̶l̶i̶s̶h̶ ̶l̶a̶n̶g̶u̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶d̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶i̶e̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶h̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶f̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶"̶h̶e̶r̶o̶i̶n̶e̶"̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶a̶j̶o̶r̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶). Both individuals are different despite both being Time Jackers.

About characters succumbing to the gravity of their pasts or not, it's pulled here for Eternal and Aqua too, of which Aqua claiming Eternal will lose because he's just a ghost of a past. But Eternal makes another point about how, every future will inherently turn into a past. Probably this shows that what decides the future is still what happened in the past. About Dark Riders being brought here, actually Owada had more 'innocent' outcome in the alternate world by winning the Tekken tournament instead of losing... but Eternal appearing would mean that, as Tsukasa explained, Swartz created a world where the bad guy wins, instead of W beating Eternal, so there's a horrific stuff there regarding how Eternal can appear here regarding how Eternal actually won in that world. Other than that, even though Aqua had fluid fighting style, there's a big irony about how a Rider named Aqua loses a battle.... in underwater!

True, only Heure had a sliver of conscience compared to the other 2. But about Another Ghost's host, it wasn't Heure doing good thing, it's him being manipulative too to put the heroes in a tough spot, as they know they can't let Another Ghost run off and steal souls, but at the same time, nothing will change when they properly destroy the Another Rider as Makimura will still be dead. Makimura also refuised the Another Ghost power, also showing how he's a good person compared to other Another Riders, yet Heure still forced his choice to him without regards, and a corrupting one at that. And I guess anti-hero term is more fitting to evaluate entire character, instead of single/few actions, like if someone who is overall bad but had done few good, it only adds redeeming quality first to them first instead of outright heroic traits.

It's a thing this show talks about a lot: What's worth more, your past or your future? Characters like Geiz have a difficult time focusing on anything other than their resentments, their tragedies; while characters like Swartz are obsessed with the future and will do anything to reach it. Sougo's role in the story has always been to find balance between the two, to let the past be a blueprint to build a better future, with the present as the landscape where that building can begin.

So, I guess this is the best we're going to get for a W tribute arc, huh?

Everybody deserves a redemption arc. And Ueru (I still don't know how to spell his name) made good use of his time in this arc, until he died. And you know what? I think it had a lot more impact than Swartz being the big bad, or more than I thought it would boil down to in general. This was not a bad arc in the slightest.

It's cool to see Eternal again via Another Decade's power, though I must admit, I wish they did a better W tribute than this and the noodle guy in Heisei Generations Forever. It's not bad, but some of this arc doesn't really fit him? Unless people getting stuck in eternal dreamworlds is the point, than otherwise, good joke, Toei.

The theme of past and future works well here, as is shown throughout the season, people think only of the past, clouding their paths and judgements by only what they know of, rather than thinking of the now and later. Whereas Sougo believes they can have a better future, which makes sense, since he's been told he's going to become evil, but that's the point, you have to act in order to change the future, whether you're told "you will be bad" you won't know until you try. And that's something that resonates with me about Sougo, he's not biased to "good" and "evil," even if there are bumps in the road, he takes them in stride, looking to the bigger picture no matter what.

I remember being surprised when the show killed off Heure. Not that I didn't expect the show to off villains, but it still caught me off guard that they would kill off the kid. I'm kind of used to shows not killing off children (and yeah, I'm sure he was somewhere in his later teens, but he looks like he's maybe 13-14).

The Eternal cameo was fun. It's a short phase, given the show is almost over, but I do love this era's "okay, who else is available?" approach to guest stars.

It's especially weird that they never got Accel for a W arc, because Accel shows up in everything. He was in both a Drive and a Gaim movie! He was just in some Revice web-series! I think he's behind at least three accounts on this forum! They probably had to work harder to not have him in this series!

There were a few actors where I remember thinking "they just showed up in [insert movie title here], they'll definitely be in Zi-O!" only to have them miss the whole thing.