I don't know why it only just recently occurred to me, but now that I have a convenient physical representation of Kuuga's Mighty Form thanks to the Figure-rise Standard line, it meant an easy way to finally get a good look at something that's had me curious for years and years at this point. Those Linto inscriptions on his collar and around his abdomen.

Because obviously those have to mean something. Kuuga as a show was very painstaking about its fictional cultures, and yet, even though I'm sure the information is out there, I've never, ever seen what those characters are or what they mean. Except, actually, I had seen them laid out before. Several times over, in fact.

https://i.imgur.com/bnHVhGL.png

Yeah, sure enough, Kuuga actually gives you all the information you need as long as you're paying enough attention. This screencap from episode 44 shows the descriptions of each of Kuuga's forms, some of which Sakurako reads out loud in dialogue at points, and some of which I believe are only ever glimpsed in brief moments like these. In the case of Mighty Form, its 10 character spiel is written three times on the waist, and two going around the gold on the collar, with each instance seperated clearly by a little mark sorta like a hyphen, I guess.

I presume it's much the same deal with the other three base forms, so everyone feel free to pull out your Kuuga collections to check if you want. I don't know if this was a mystery to anyone else, but at any rate, I think it's kind of amazing how much of the show's lore actually made it into little freeze-frame moments like this. All the detail packed into a show that often told such minimalist stories. This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Linto writing plastered on Kuuga and his gear, and I find this stuff kind of fascinating. Saber's doing a pretty similar shtick with its Rider-Moji right now, and I'm liking that a lot too. Probably what got me in the mood to actually look into this finally.

I mean, translate all those symbols for me and I'll have no problem reading the runes on Growing, Mighty, Rising Mighty, and Amazing Mighty for you.

I think the way it works, those bits are actually consistent across all the Mighty variations? As for translations, I swear I remember seeing a scene flash up subtitles for all of them in Shout's subs, but I can't remember where for the life of me, and there is *a lot* of footage of Sakurako's computer screen in that show to sort through.

The phrases themselves are easy enough for me to figure out now that I understand where they all come from, fortunately, since the show did that work for me. They basically just describe Kuuga's function in whatever form. According to this very handy page I found, since the text in that screencap is hard to read, the one for Mighty Form is something like "The warrior (Kuuga) who wears the stone of hope to strike down evil like flame".

Or something, anyway. It's also worth noting that even though the show provides translations to Japanese, each individual Linto character represents a concept by itself, broadly like kanji, but it's not a direct, 1:1 thing. The bit about flame is part of a sort of elemental association shtick between all the forms, and the characters representing those (the sixth in each phrase, for referenece) are also what's written on the hand pads of the Rising forms. Mighty is flame, Dragon is water, Pegasus is wind, Titan is ground (technically more like an earthquake), and Amazing Mighty seems to get the character for lightning, straight out of the prophetic warning about Ultimate Form (it's the one right after the four-horned Kuuga/warrior mark).

I'm basically learning most of this as I'm typing it, by the way. It's seriously crazy I wrote as much about Kuuga as I did and there's still all these layers to unpack. :lol

Feel free to dig around those pages I linked with Google Translate turned on or something, by the way. I'm sure the results will be rough in spots, but it's chock-full of everything you could ever want to know about the Linto writing system, from a full list of both the kana-equivalent phonetic characters and the kanji-esque ideographic ones I've been talking about, to even a page dedicated to explaining how the shapes signify the concepts they represent. Very informative stuff! I was not aware the Linto character for "god" was a person with beetle horns until seeing that page! I'll have to look over it in more detail myself sometime.

Wow, that's actually interesting that Black Kuuga gets Lightning as its element. All things considered I always assumed that its element was either Darkness, or that it remained Fire considering Ultimate's' ability to use Pyrokinesis. Reminds me how GoLion/Voltron treated Black Lion as Lightning, with the justification that it was the element that unified all... the... others...

Oh god. Brain blast.

Yeah I looked them up and found it funny how they are katakana letters mirrored. :lolol

Wait woah woah woah, you’re telling me Amazing Mighty wasn’t just a straight recolour; it had its own unique set of characters on the suit?!

That’s... holy heck that’s dedication.

That's Kuuga.

Also, since seeing the sticker sheet for the Figure-Rise kit was what tipped me off about the symbols on the gloves, I went to properly look at all of Amazing Mighty's appearances in the show, and made yet another discovery.

In episode 46, it's very clearly the lightning symbol.

https://i.imgur.com/dgonhs3.png

While in episode 47, it's very blurry, but clearly still the lightning symbol.

https://i.imgur.com/LK0IVAC.png

But then, if you look at Amazing Mighty's other big appearance, the episode preview for 47, it turns out he's got something else entirely on his hand.

https://i.imgur.com/aT2SNUp.png

I'm not totally sure what that is, actually. It's like the flame symbol, but the tips of the lines are different shapes and it's missing the one in the center. It's hard to make out, but it might be the character for "fighting"? Which is such a cruel insult to Yuusuke to write on his fists I kind of love it if that's right. I don't really know, and frankly, I gotta take a break from thinking about Kuuga lore for a bit before I get dizzy. What I do know is that this fact adds a whole lot to the feeling that scene already has of being a glimpse into some strange alternate universe. Not only was in not used in the actual episode, but it's also just plain wrong.

Just realised this, but it seems that the blades on all the Saber Riders' helmets are the tips of their main weapons.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20200729114658

... and then there’s green dude

Well he seems to use two swords so I guess the blades on his helmet forms a Gundam V-fin of sorts or at least that's what I see upon zooming on the image

That's what it looks like to me too. Although with Kenzan it's kinda hard to tell which parts of the helmet are the blades and which are the slash marks.

It has been confirmed that his sword's name is Fuusouken Hayate, and Fuusouken translates to Wind Twin Swords so I think there is a chance Kenzan will have a pair of swords or something like the Geki Saber which combines into one and then splits into two when needed.

About that...
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20200730191501

Gashatfreak ladies and gentlemen! *TV show applaud* :lolol
So his Wonder Ride Book Slot is on the side of his belt, interesting.

It looks suspiciously like the standard book holder, only with a golden stripe instead of silver.

Which I assume could be just for the art, and the real deal has the standard one, which would mean the slot for the book is on the weapon, just like with Buster.

It is, Buster has them too

Oh, seeing that full picture, the upper of those two fins on the right side is clearly the blade of one of his swords! And both the lower right fin and the left fin both look like they could be either the second blade or the energy slash, I think we'll need a better look at his helmet to tell which is supposed to be which.

He has the same belt buckle as Buster, and that thing on the side looks like the standard book holder, so I don't think he'll use a belt to transform. That big green lump near the hilt of his left sword also looks like it might be a book slot? Personally, I hope he has the slot on one sword and the scanner on the other, and crosses the swords to transform!

I never realized this. And even the Sword Driver users with physically identical horns have different colors to match their swords.

Evol... is also literally 'love' backwards.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...671&height=671

If it's not clear enough, his name is even more so going as antithesis to the Build cast's 'love and peace'. W̶h̶e̶n̶'̶l̶l̶ ̶w̶e̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶E̶c̶a̶e̶p̶?̶

It’s literally in his image song.

I mean, this is the obvious realization threat, so it fits :p

Watching Gaim again and I know this should've been obvious but I just realised that Lord Baron takes some design cues from Baron's Banana Arms. The horns, the shoulders, even Lord Barons chest could be said to be loosely inspired by Banana Arm's chestplate. And forgive me if I'm wrong, but doesn't he left forearm kind of look like a banana?

Ladies and gentlemen, Baron and Another Baron.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20190220115725
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20190921143404

Also, if I may add, the BGM during the scene where Lord Baron debuts is killer.

Drive Type Tridoron is the anti-thesis to gimmick machines

Also, Heart is Baron in reverse.

Lord Baron basically are demonic banana knight monster :D

It seems Lord Baron have a red banana motif beside yellow banana motif.

Also, Lord Baron's chest and arms are really similar to stained glass motif in Fangire designs from Kamen Rider Kiva Series. Hmm...the stained glass-like chest on Lord Baron's chest and arms are really emphasis to Lord Baron's Medieval Knight motif.

I only realized much later after Gaim aired why a common nickname for Baron in this form was "Banana Fangire" :lol

Assault Wolf’s power is magnets because magnets wreck computers and AI

Zero-One would've ended much sooner if Zea had just built a large electromagnet and hung it over Daybreak.

...

Assault Wolf’s powers were magnets?

I mean I guess his finishers have "magnetic" in them, but I don’t remember them having magnetic powers as much as shooting holographic wolf heads.

It’s kind of a weird one, but it was called out as the key’s power. With the Trigger it’s “Magnetic Storm” and without it’s just “Magnetic”. The black things on his forearms are meant to be magnetic things too, I think? Was a bit strange

Sure but... nothing he ever does with it actually has magnetic properties, so I'm not sure I would say that Assault Wolf has magnetic powers :lol

Those are War Machine-esque guns; Vulcan uses them like twice throughout the entire show.

I dunno man, I mean the whole "Magnetic Storm Blast" thing on the finisher seems kinda sus.

Is that a thing people always said or are you playing "Among Us"? :lol

Here's how I'm betting it went down

Toy Designer - "Well, here it is, the new key for our secondary protagonist. Based on what the story team have told us, he really hates machines, so we'll include an attack based on an EMP, which will really fit into his character. It's coupled with an Assault Trigger, which is based on the old tradition of "Trigger = Anger" we figured a couple of years back, which further fits his character.

Writer-san - "... Magnets? How do they work?"

Assault Wolf's kinda lame in retrospect, huh. It doesn't do anything cool or unique other than 'be stronger', it's ostensibly signature weapon has to be borrowed from Zero-One whenever he wants to use it, and I mostly remember it for it's massive losing streak against Thouser and Jin.

Mostly I’m just sad Naki never used it, especially after finding out the toy actually does slightly different sounds without the Assault Trigger.

Ryoma Sengoku (Kamen Rider Duke), the inventor of most of the gear in Kamen Rider Gaim, is so darn egotistical and megalomaniacal that he named the show's main Driver after himself. I mean, granted they're both spelt differently in Japanese but my point still stands.

I’ve always said that calling a character in your warring states-themed drama “Ryoma Sengoku” is a bit like making a historical british drama with a character called Winston Victorian

Buster's Genbu-Jackun form subtly resembles depictions of the genbu tortoise having a snake coiled around it, with the bean vine representing the snake.

For any who don't know, the dark patches that appear under many Kamen Riders' eyes are a tradition that started with Ichigo, and they're meant to symbolize tears, for the tragedy the Rider has been through and their regret at being forced to fight.

And I just noticed, Vulcan is the only Zero-One Rider without tears in his base form. Zero-One, Valkyrie and Jin all have pretty visible tears, while Horobi, Thouser, Ikazuchi, Naki and Ark-Zero's are harder to see because they blend into the rest of their masks but they are there, and Ark-One has HUGE tears (which is very fitting). But Vulcan doesn't start with any tears, and only sort-of gets them in his later forms.

I'm not sure how symbolic that's supposed to be, but I thought it was interesting.

Did not know that part. It is also the actual visor part of the helmet that suit actors see through, right?