Well, for the first time, we have two episodes in a row of…

Ridewatch Playlist: Miscommunications Mix

https://youtube.com/watch?v=f4W23DnRfRc

“The transformation code is 5-5-5. The rider who transforms with a cellphone is… Faiz”

And like Ex-Aid, rather than going with the theme song, I’m going with Dead or Alive, purely because I wanted to include it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=5iLkJyNOKmc

“Start Up! Faiz has progressed to a super acceleration. Faiz, Axel Form”

And there was only one choice for this one, The People With No Name https://youtube.com/watch?v=q6Qc09XRQSA

“The ultimate crimson body. Pushed to the limits, Faiz Blaster Form”

And this time, I went with Justifaiz -Accel Mix-, ie the remix themed around Blaster Form (despite what the name implies https://youtube.com/watch?v=3nZZH_TX2qU

“The transformation code is 9-1-3. Faiz’s rival Rider is Kaixa”

And from here on out, I went for the song album for the rest of my choices, with such punny titles as Existence - KAIXA-nized Dice https://youtube.com/watch?v=tlLOJunid7M

“Consumed with the combative instinct, the dangerous Rider is Delta”

And here’s one with a slightly less nonsensical title, DELTA STRIP- White Ring https://youtube.com/watch?v=wOq49DnxjZ4

And we have a considerably smaller list of the unreleased (Faiz Axel was our 5th winner, by the way, making Faiz the only Rider to have all of his forms available as DX watches)

Kamen Rider Psyga
Kamen Rider Orga

As for the compare and contrast, Whereas Takumi’s creed was “I don’t have a dream, but maybe I can protect them”, Sakuma was sacrificing schoolgirls to preserve his girlfriend’s life, essentially destroying other people’s dreams to keep his own alive. And whereas the Ryusei students he killed would likely have trusted Sakuma due to him looking normal, the ones Takumi tried to save as the Wolf Orphnoch ran away from him because he looked like a monster. Design-wise, he has a rib cage that looks like an Orphnoch.

And as someone pointed out, besides tying in with this episode’s plot, the stereo also serves as a parallel to what everyone’s trying to do with Sougo… they’re also replacing the parts (ie changing the details of history) to create a new timeline to their liking (also the radio appeared in Faiz all those years ago).

Yeah, like I said, first 6 episodes weren't particularly good and at that time of their release I was getting quite frustrated with the show and ready to accept that it'd be an anoying year from now on.

But now we are actually entering the part of the show I legitematly like and there is only one arc in the entire show left I dread revisiting. I gotta judge a bit how much of what really drew me to Sougo I'll lay out in the enxt arc or if I should wait a bit longer. We'll see.

This is episode is one of my favorites in all of ZI-O. I love the "conncection" between Faiz and Fourze being a Ryusei. It so silly and desperate but also clever from the writing I can't help but love it. The tone of the episode I feel is appropriate for a Faiz themed episode very melodramatic snd filled with angst to contrast how the Fourze tribute had a more cheery outlook in compairson.

https://brendenraysblogs.files.wordp...d26.png?w=1024

But this right here is why I fell in love with ZI-O on the spot this scene to me speaks so much about Sougo and Geiz. Two different individuals across two different timelines declaring the same desires to stop a tragedy 15 years in the making. It speaks how at the end of the day these aren't so different but at the same time there not thwre to hear it from each other. And all of it was possible with Sougo giving the Faiz Ridewatch to Geiz so he can go to 2003 for this to all begin. And in this moment of great action, use of music (Over Quartzer is very hype song to me) and how badass Faiz Armor and it (accurate) finsiher from Geiz all makes for scene that made me go 100% on board from ZI-O till the very end.

A lot of that stuff just feels real thin to me, though? I appreciate your ability to draw out parallels, but none of it feels like anything the show is commenting on or highlighting. Like a lot of the problems with this episode's inability to cohere its themes, we're really getting into some Fourze's Middle Syllable Is Coincidentally "King" territory. Even that Stereo speech is weirdly belabored, and not exactly emotionally relevant to Team Zi-O.

I don't think you're wrong to find those parallels (I think it's neat!), but I don't think it's something that the episode is leveraging at all.

That's great! I'm psyched to see how this show evolves its storytelling.

It's a really great climax to the episode, for sure. I love the idea of Zi-O and Geiz fighting separately for one goal. I, uh, would've loved it better in a story that better supported it thematically, like maybe Ex-Aid's?

Pretty much. Our Sougo and Oma Sougo at this point in time would be pretty similar, with Geiz's and Tsukuyomi's arrival being the variable. The tragedy is that while Sougo was born to be king, any events that occur before his coronation are up to destiny. In the Oma timeline, his only way to become a king was to become an evil overlord. It can't even be called bittersweet for how much he loses to obtain his dream. Regarding the offer, yeah, it's nice but too incredulous to take seriously, since the gamer dude's employment hinges on the remote possibility of some random guy he just met becoming a king. Better to keep his options open.

I actually think Takumi's and Kusaka's reunion in this arc is a lot more meaningful than mere fanservice. Like Takumi's line, "I hate you sometimes, Kusaka, but you're my friend!", you joked about it, but it shows that Takumi no longer holds any hard feelings towards him for everything he did. It fits with his philosophy in Kamen Rider 4, about living by your own means and dying with pride. He wants to stop Kusaka from throwing away his life the same way he used to.

Fourze also has a cellphone!

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/4mEAA...7yC/s-l640.jpg

Yay, friendship!

Even though I prefer Zi-O's black suit on its own, I agree that Armor Times generally look better on Geiz's red suit. He also has the most Armor Times at the start, which I think highlights Zi-O's growing power as the tables start to turn and Geiz becomes more desperate to prevent the Day of Oma.

The whole concept of defeating an enemy in the past to make them vulnerable in the future reminds me of certain boss fights from Final Fantasy XIII-2, so this is probably the first arc where I'm not complaining about how everything is so convoluted. I agree that this is definitely an establishing moment for Zi-O's story at this point and Geiz's epic speech to Ora is the first sign that he's more heroic than he appears on the surface. Over Quartzer makes it even more memorable, especially since I don't recall any other episodes using it as an insert, which is crazy, like, why only do it once?! I even manually inserted it in some later fight scenes to compensate.

While I felt this episode was a tad bit weaker than the previous ones, I'm mostly with GrandComplete on this one. Heck, this moment alone justfaized the entire episode for me:

https://i.imgur.com/F9X5fob.png

As for who I felt the best character in Faiz itself was, well...

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

Yuji Kiba, or as I liked to call him, the real main character of Faiz.

I was drawn into Yuji and his story right from the getgo. One theme in stories that I'm a huge sucker for is Duality, and Faiz had that in spades in its early days, instantly making me really into it for the first two acts. Yuji being a main protagonist while also being the "bad guy" in that he was the Horse Orphenoch was a great hook, and I really dug his arc on trying to hang onto his humanity despite almost everything in the world telling him not to, even going so far as try and bring peace and unity to both sides.

Add onto that the wonderful interplay he had with both Takumi and Faiz; Being a couple as Yuji and Takumi(they were so into eachother, don't even try to tell me otherwise), yet fierce enemies as the Horse Orphenoch and Kamen Rider Faiz... it made for some really great stuff!

...And then the third act of the show hit and undid all of that great atmosphere and character development onto of adding on a "moral" that the idea of peace and unity is for suckers and that true peace can only be brought about via the complete annihilation of the opposing side, to the point that Yuji goes crazy for very little reason and I was just so completely done with Faiz at that point.

Despite my personal hang ups with the third act of Faiz though, Yuji is a character I'll continue to look back on fondly for those first two acts. Wonderful stuff.

Oh, sure, and it's also letting Sougo see that Geiz can hate him but still be his friend, so Sougo gives him the Faiz RideWatch. (I don't... god, I don't know if Geiz or Sougo should look to the Faiz Riders for a template on friendship! I feel incredibly uneasy about Sougo and Geiz learning lessons about friendship from these two 30-something weirdos!) I don't know that it improves upon Kamen Rider 4, or pushes its themes/messages forward, but it's nice to see the lesson stuck with Takumi.

One of the things I sort of disliked about this Faiz-centric episode is that, with Yuji's actor no longer with us, we get these recurring Takumi/Kusaka stories, and they just feel a little shoehorned? Like, Takumi and Kusaka didn't have a great, emotional character arc; Takumi and Yuji did. Doing these stories where Takumi and Kusaka have a hilariously mean-spirited frenemy relationship is fun, sure, but in a perfect world we'd be dealing with Yuji's love for Takumi and vice versa.

I will always enjoy seeing Kusaka again, but I'm not as thrilled about them trying to draw him and Takumi closer together.

I get that. For me though, I was willing to roll with it mostly just due to the whole "alternate timelime" deal Zi-O is going with in these stories. Had this been the Takumi and Kusaka of the "main" universe of Faiz, then yeah, I'd call foul. But as a simple and fun what-if take? I enjoyed it.

I guess Takumi's and Kusaka's toxic template on friendship is the only one comparable to Sougo's and Geiz's dynamic. It's smart how this isn't just a pure Fourze arc cause that probably wouldn't have worked at this point in the story, where the two Riders are still a long way from being anything resembling friends. By using the Smart Brain Riders as an example that friendships aren't always friendly, it might give Sougo some hope that maybe Geiz will start to see him for who he is and forgive him for the sins of his future self. This is one of several ways that Geiz is like Ren, telling himself, "I need to kill this man", but his conscience usually keeps him from going too far.