It's also an amazing window into Takumi's subconscious, netting it the Kamen Rider trifecta of Theme/Humor/Toys.

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 45 - "RELIVING A BLANK DAY”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den45a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den45b.png

Oh, Kamen Rider Den-O. What am I going to do with you?

This episode seems like the start of the final story. It's chockablock with Time Nonsense, as Ryotaro is discovering that his memories of Sakurai's disappearance (and Airi's resulting amnesia) are incomplete. There's a third stopwatch, a more-stubborn-than-usual Yuuto, and a disappearing Airi and Sakurai. It's almost wall-to-wall scenes of Ryotaro trying to puzzle out what really happened to Sakurai, and being greeted by ever more baffling evidence.

I mostly resented this episode.

There's a nugget of a thing I like about Den-O that was in this episode. Ryotaro's insistence on uncovering the truth that's being hidden from him, the memories he's lost, it's grounded in the show's belief that memories aren't good or bad, they're what you make of them. Tragic memories can give you strength in the present. Happy memories can haunt you. It's up to you to give your memories value and purpose. Yuuto's obstinate refusal to engage with Ryotaro's concerns, on the grounds that what he'd learn would sadden him, can't possibly work to dissuade Ryotaro. Ryotaro isn't looking for comfort or solace in these memories, he's looking for understanding. Even if he learns something horrible, he'll still be learning something, and there's value in the learning. That's a nice moral from the writer behind Ryuki, a show about the value of curiosity.

That's pretty much all I liked about this episode, and it's something that happens in one scene that I thought about for maybe two minutes.

Everything else is... I mean, god, I'm going to sound like a broken record if I list everything that bothered me, and I want to write it even less than you want to read it. I'd rather just have this be a short post than vent my anger at a show that treats Plot and Entertainment as two competing resources, at least from my own experience. It's just mysteries answered with questions confronted with skeptical looks accompanied by unconvincing denials topped off with murkiness. I didn't understand anything that happened in the last several minutes of the show, and I mostly didn't care about anything preceding it. The plot is infuriatingly opaque, and I'm so far past the point of hoping it'll get better. At this point, I'm just trying to get through it.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den45c.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-If this shorter post and adversarial treatment of one of the most beloved parts of the Kamen Rider franchise hasn't made you sick of me for one night, you can head over to DreamSword's Let's Play for Memory of Heroez, where I was given the opportunity to sit in for a session. It was a very fun experience, and DS is a gracious host. Check it out!

-It is almost adorable how badly Yuuto does at talking Ryotaro out of investigating Sakurai's disappearance. I took a minute to accurately transcribe their standoff in Kamen Rider Plaza, in case you've forgotten the scene:

YUUTO: Don't go back in time to that date, Ryotaro!
RYOTARO: Why? What aren't you telling me?
YUUTO: Don't!
RYOTARO: What are you hiding from me, Yuuto?
YUUTO: DON'T!
RYOTARO: ...okay, I'm just going to go.
YUUTO: DON'T
RYOTARO: *loads ticket into Rider Pass*
YUUTO: DON'T
RYOTARO: *leaves on DenLiner*
YUUTO: *to literally no one* DON'T

It's a cunning strategy, keenly applied, but somehow Ryotaro circumvents it. Ryotaro's intelligence and insight would give Tendou a run for his money!

-I wonder if Sword Form's kinship with Santa is because Momotaros is also a red wish-granting imaginary hero?

So here it is, Merry Christmas. Everybody’s having fun… except Die apparently.

Let’s start be recounting where people can see the further exploits of Frosty the Snowmagin.

Toru Okawa.

Notable Anime roles: Roy Mustang in Fullmetal Alchemist, Shibata Katsuie in Nobunaga no Shinobi, Rufus Shinra in Final Fantasy VII: The Origin.

Notable Tokusatsu roles: Mummy Legendorga in Kamen Rider Kiva: King of the Castle in the Demon World, Butterfly Absolute God Deboss in Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger.

Notable video game roles: Joseph Joestar in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Detective Pikachu in Detective Pikachu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Onimusha: Dawn of Dream, Rikimaru in the Tenchu series.

Notable dubbing roles: “Ra’s al Ghul” in Batman Begins, Salvador Dali in Midnight in Paris, Adrien Toomes/Vulture in Spider-Man Homecoming, the Colonel in War for the Planet of the Apes, Thompson in The Adventures of Tintin, Coach McGuirk in Home Movies, Victor Quartermaine in Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

As for how convoluted things are getting… you ain’t seen nothing yet.

I hate this? I hate feeling like this at the end of a show. I hate being a guy who comes to a board and complains, about anything, not least of all a show that I've enjoyed large chunks of (less so in the second half, but still) and overall enjoy.

I would so much rather come here and rave about something, or ponder over the significance of a story choice, than I would endlessly repeat Why Does This Show Refuse To Answer One Question Before Moving On To The Next. It bums me out to be a person who does that! I like liking Kamen Rider!

Ahaha. Haha. Ha. This resonates way too much with me.


Not about Den-O though, because I remember genuinely liking this stretch of episodes at the end? There's a real rush and excitement to it, nothing in here I could say I particularly disliked

Mood. So instead, let's look at something I bought ages ago and only now put togther!

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...571&height=426
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...319&height=427

The best Den-O form, the egotist himself, Mr Wing Form. I hate those shoulder stickers.

The thing that's really been getting me lately is how little the Imagin are getting involved with the story anymore. Yeah, there was the episode with Ryotaro's doubt about partnering with them anymore, but they're generally feeling really removed from the main story now. Part of that is Liner Form being the hot new toy, but even in the civilian scenes we aren't getting much of them. Apart from the fight, all they did this episode was goof around on the train, which had zero bearing on the plot. I like Ryotaro taking more agency for himself, but I miss having the possessions pop in to make things more interesting.

Things I don't miss that haven't been in the show for a hot minute? Ozaki and Miura.

Oh fair enough, I thought I'm trying to type it long enough (but ofc not longer than the main posters) is to give more room to talk, but I guess I said too much there. Dunno if you still can but here then.

Tragic memories, despite the popular belief that they are justified explanation for someone being mean asshole or outright evil, they can also be something that makes them more empathetic and kinder (or improves those who are already kind and generous), being the first to reach a hand out, due to using the knowledge of the feeling of hell along with compassion. I̶ ̶w̶o̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶R̶y̶o̶t̶a̶r̶o̶'̶s̶ ̶b̶a̶d̶ ̶l̶u̶c̶k̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶s̶h̶a̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶q̶u̶a̶l̶i̶t̶i̶e̶s̶.̶ ̶At worse he's only not acting upbeat, but he doesn't seem to upset from his bad luck status. But at the very least, if he learns something horrible, tragic memories would be a relatively piece of cake for Ryotaro to handle, and it kinda makes sense, judging from him being used to his bad luck that he didn't seem too upset.

Oh right, I've forgotten the term but you brought it up here, now I remember again the uneasiness I feel when I reply like certain part, I want to convey something that I find it right, but I'm afraid of it sounding like broken record. Actually I thought for Den-O being beloved, you'll always overlook the plot part of the series (well, you actually did too at certain part of the series), like people who are of course Den-O, fans commonly describing the series as great in characters, but not in plot, as this episode still had the usual Den-O comedy slapstick, like the chrismas scene and a part of Ryotaro's curiousity that had him falling over.

Talking about Ryotaro's intelligence and insight giving Tendou a run for his money, it's a shame that it would be overshadowed by Ryotaro's loser status, especially for those who dislike him due to that status, but it shows that being intelligent and insightful has no correlation to being mean and hardass, unlike what some imply.

This is another statement that really goes to show how polarized our opinions on Den-O get, because there's a bit from my post talking about Climax Form's debut during my rewatch that reads like this...

...and that's still very much something I stand by. Den-O to me is one of those series that just gets better and better the longer it goes on, and a huge amount of my favorite material in it comes from that second half.

You might feel bad about feeling bad about these parts of Den-O, but rest assured, it's at least fascinating seeing such a wildly different perspective. Just try thinking of it this way – the absolute worst that can happen is you accidentally creating a "Fish Sandwich rewatches Kamen Rider Den-O" thread. :p

Those are mighty kind words coming from someone who basically outright carried the latest episode. :)

oh boy i cant wait until we get to kiva

Den-O, when asked to clarify its series-long plot.
https://i.imgur.com/gaAVSRF.png

Hey, it's my night off, what if I spend a whole bunch of time trying to articulate my negative feelings toward a beloved section of a critically-acclaimed Kamen Rider series.

It...

(I don't know if this is going to feel cathartic or just make me more miserable, but I'm willing to find out if you are.)

It's easy to ignore the series-arc stuff, for the most part. There are these little flashes of humor, or clever shots. Usually, there's a specific character insight or touching moral. There's always something more than just a janky plot and Time Nonsense and Answers TBD and all of that. There's emotional content that shakes off the chains of a constricting plot and reaches for something real, something memorable.

The last episode just 100% wasn't that for me. What emotional content there was, it's mostly just an echo of better Ryotaro stories. His willingness to see something through, even if it's misguided or he's out on a limb by himself, is a compelling aspect of his heroism. His ability to knowingly make bad decisions because to do otherwise would be a denial of the truth, that's nice.

It's one scene of this episode, though, and the opposing force is Yuuto at his most charisma-free Immovable Object. It's what was irritating about the start of Yuuto's story, ramped back up for its finale. It's the show, as seemingly always, giving Yuuto zero credible reasons to dissuade Ryotaro. It's the show grabbing the plot by the ankles and dragging it away from an imminent resolution. It's stalling, and it's so blatant that it's difficult to overlook.

And what makes this so shitty to talk about is that this is the main move for the show's series-long plot. These problems, they are the same problems as always. It's absolutely demoralizing to try and talk about a show that is just going to keep doing things that are frustrating. It's why people quit shows, you know?

Like, I don't usually get this mad when a show screws up an episode worse than this one did for me. Intermittent failures can be really fun to analyze! When a good show borks an ending, or squanders a cliffhanger, or decides to send a fan-favorite character to France for the remaining episodes of a series, that can be fun to pick apart. When a show is usually good at one thing and then they aren't, it's worthwhile to talk about how they missed the mark.

But, man, Den-O's just a show that is stretching half an idea over the length of a series; it's giving you the stakes after it gives you the resolution; it's grounding a ton of the Sakurai story on Ryotaro alone, which creates a plot that almost no one else on the show can take part in (Hana was pretty worthless in the last one!); and there's almost nothing visceral in the plot, because no one can really articulate what the hell's even going on beyond We Should Stop Kai.

(To be abundantly clear: there is a train car full of emotional content and visceral storytelling in this series, as witnessed by the recent Momo/Ryotaro fight. There is so much to love about these characters and their interactions, but none of that is present in the Sakurai plot.)

It sucks talking about this. This is a show that was fresh and vital when it would do these Imagin of the Week adventures. Someone has a problem related to their past. Ryotaro, Hana, and the Imagin investigate. There're jokes, there's character development, there's some action, and there's thematic weight to everything that happens. Those stories were so much fun.

Even the Yuuto plot stuff, it felt grounded in him as a character. It's still full of things that only make sense in retrospect, but at least there was someone who was struggling with a part of themselves, a choice they made, and we got to see how they overcame the adversity.

This last episode, all I'm getting from Ryotaro is his frustration. He's as in the weeds as he's ever been, and there's no sense of achievement at any point in the episode. Watching him try to solve a puzzle where no two pieces are from the same image, it's grueling for me to watch. If you're this deep into a mystery, you need to at least give the audience a plausible solution, even if it's inevitably wrong. I genuinely don't even have a theory any more of what could be happening, let alone the ability for the show to subvert it. It's like instead of providing me with a framework to invest in its endgame, a group of possible outcomes that might be reasonable to expect from the evidence shown... it's like I'm being asked to pick a number between 1 and 100, and when I randomly say "5", the show goes "HA HA, wrong, it was 72!" What am I supposed to do with that? I was picking it out of thin air.

But, anyway, yeah. That's me being frustrated by this type of Den-O story, and more frustrated for how ingrained this type of storytelling is. I feel like an asshole for harping on the same flaws again and again, and it's not fun or funny. It's repetitious, and I hate repetitive flaws more than I hate abject failures. At least abject failures can be enjoyable to dissect.

Hope this was fun to read!

I thought it was fun to read, even if it sounds like it wasn't too fun to write!

For me, just about every Kamen Rider show has either weaknesses or big gaps in its overarching story, but that's never why I chose to be into any of them. Like so much about things like the Bugster Virus or Nebula Gas etc either contradicts itself or is obviously being made up as the show goes along, but I look past it because actually watching things unfold and seeing the characters do stuff in those shows is engaging and appealing. Den-O is... exceptionally uncaring about the 'mechanics' of why things happen, but is also exceptionally all about the heart and the feelings of the characters compared to other shows. Once it was said and done, the latter is obviously all I care to look back on, which I think is the common takeaway for people who watch it.

I totally get what you mean though, how it feels like you're being fed a whole lot of exposition about literally nothing among other things. I never felt that with Den-O but there's definitely one show which that 100% describes my feelings while watching. Hopefully the sheer charisma and heart of Ryotaro and gang manage to overpower all those things for you by the end, or at least lessen the burn!?

Honestly, I’ve always thought that Den-O’s endgame was pretty weak. It’s not, like, Ghost levels of bad, but it ain’t no Blade. I used to blame it on Kai, but this time through I’m definitely seeing it more as a byproduct of having a “tell, don’t show” mentality when it comes to the whole Sakurai part of the series. The bits of it that make sense, at least. Den-O is really at its best when it’s being a madcap romp; its attempts at a deeper narrative tend to fall flat.

I enjoyed reading it since I pretty much feel the same way. Like I said about Yuto being a big plot character, I think that's one of Kobayashi's flaws, that she writes plot at the expense of characters. In contrast to Inoue's works, which are usually all about the characters and how they affect the plot, not the other way around. Not that Yuto doesn't fit with the themes or anything like that, since he has some presence as a character and a comedic routine with Deneb, but his entire existence creates this big mystery that has little relevance to how others feel, or even how he feels. Like he's supposed to have this connection to Airi in the future, but that doesn't exist. He's like a ghost, on a different wavelength to everybody else in the present. If he was a POV character, maybe it would be more interesting, but he's not, so it isn't and the result is a dissonance between the amazing comedic characters and the plot that comes to kill the mood.

It's the same with the Kanzaki subplot in Ryuki, it's extremely important to everything that happens in the show but it's presented in such a boring and diluted way compared to the actual Rider War and the character interactions. Maybe Kobayashi writing so much of Den-O can be a disadvantage and shows a lack of faith in other people. Not everybody has stamina like Inoue. If you exhaust your stamina, you get writer's block and then the quality of your work declines if you rush it to meet a deadline. My favorite episodes of Ghost were written by Mouri, who is consistently great at taking the wheel when he needs to. I think it's important for a writer to understand their limits and when it's best to delegate work to somebody else.

If you want my personal opinion on the direction of quality from here, I think it starts improving again from Episode 47. Just hold out one more episode for the climax to this climax!

I don't have a ton of time (getting ready for work), but I want to thank everyone for putting up with me the last couple days, and assure everyone that I'm not some neurotic mess right now -slash- in general. I can get a little... overly dramatic when I'm talking about something, get a little heated, but it's not, like, torturing me or anything. Just a TV show I got some feelings about.

One of the things I've found instructive in trying to figure out how Den-O's plot is screwing with me is to look at the perfect Kamen Rider show as a comparison: Kamen Rider OOO.

Thinking about OOO made me feel pretty confident that there are big structural problems in Den-O's framework, because Kobayashi corrects them in OOO. The main villains in OOO, the Greeed, arrive literally fully-formed in the first story. We know their names, their history, their goals, their personalities, everything. Same thing with Ankh, Eiji, Gotou, and so on. Oh, there are things we learn about them all later, but (and this is absolutely crucial) those things are never presented as mysteries. We're not (to my memory) teased with some aspect of Eiji's past being hugely important and mysterious for a dozen episodes before it's revealed. It's more I Wonder Why Eiji Became This Way, and then we slowly uncover it. There's still plenty of room for twists and turns and reveals, but they get built up and explode in a much shorter window. We don't see some random train line and then ignore it for a few episodes while saying Well That's Very Mysterious. We get to know the characters, fully, and then we get to see them make decisions. There's very little obfuscation in OOO. It mostly plays fair with its audience, so we can connect with everything in its world. Den-O wasn't doing that, with a key piece of its plot, and this is the result.

Yeah, I'm scratching my head to remember an endgame story that really did it for me... Wizard? Which is ironic, because the exact things that made it such a fantastic endgame were the things that made the middle section incredibly boring. There's no winning with me!

But, yeah, the series-arc stuff really only works when you care about the characters it's effecting, and the Sakurai stuff just doesn't do that for me. It's a mystery with no emotional payload.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that Den-O can't tell a deeper narrative. All of the Ryotaro/Momo stuff (and a lot of the solo Sakurai stuff) is enormously affecting, and some classic Kamen Rider storytelling. It's just the weird decision to put all of its chips on Ghost Of A Sister's Ex-Boyfriend's Memory, and there's just so little there to invest in. If I'd watched Den-O in a vacuum, I'd probably have been convinced I missed an entire Sakurai series that explained who this guy was and why he was so important.

Like, if a character has not had a single line of dialogue in 44 episodes, I'm probably not going to be too fired up about their death. I would maybe have been more invested in 45 if it was Ozaki who got monster murdered, because at least that dude is a character on the show. Threatening Sakurai's existence is like threatening Airi's coffee grinder: theoretically disappointing for Airi, but nothing I'm going to shed any tears over.

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 46 - "NOW TO REVEAL LOVE AND TRUTH”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den46a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den46b.png

Everything after those two words was perfect.

Before that, I can't really say much good about it. It's Ryotaro trying to piece together a mystery about a man I don't care about, being stonewalled by a friend who knows every answer, and left with no avenues for a solution. It's Time Nonsense, and I don't care about that. I'm watching this show because I'm invested in these characters. A mystery about someone I've never met doesn't mean anything to me.

Airi, though.

Having Airi be at risk, be the key to everything, is excellent. It changes the entire equation for the better. Airi matters. I care about Airi, beyond just what she might mean to Ryotaro or Yuuto. She's an established character with strengths, someone who is crucial to the functioning of this show. She's played by someone who finds grace and dignity in the most absurd situations, elevating banal lessons into universal truths. Making her the lynchpin makes this entire endgame work, and work well.

Like, that scene on the DenLiner. I mean, holy shit.

It's one of the most beautiful things this show has ever done, and its special bonus Christmas gift to me is that, while it explains some of the mechanics of what's going on, it also demonstrates why those details are a distraction. You could do that entire scene without dialogue and it'd work at least as well as it already does. It's all on the faces of Airi, of Ryotaro, of Yuuto. It is simultaneously the most heartbreaking scene this show has ever done, and the most uplifting.

The how of it all, Here's How It All Fits Together or The Truth About Sakurai Is Whatever... it just fundamentally doesn't matter. When this show grounds its stakes in the emotions of its characters, it is unstoppable. Taking the convoluted Time Nonsense and making it about Airi's melancholy, it is perfect. Airi realizes what has to happen next, her loss and her isolation and her undefinable sadness, but she also sees that it matters. Even if she can't articulate how it matters, she can see from a younger Yuuto and an older Ryotaro that her sacrifice will help. It'll do some good. Defining that good is irrelevant. She has faith.

It's that belief in her family, Yuuto included, that makes her sacrifice so beautiful. It's this scene that's all about the hardship these three people have endured. Airi sees Yuuto, and knows what he's given up. She sees Ryotaro, fighting for the first time in his life, and she worries. It all seems so impossible, so hopeless.

Ryotaro, though.

He's still here. He's been fighting because Airi bought them time. He's able to win because he has friends. He's doing this because she's raised him right, given him the moral clarity to meet adversity head on and find a way to help people. The very fact that they're having this conversation, quietly and gently, is proof that Kai hasn't won yet. There's still hope, because there's still time. And isn't time just the memories we've built with each other?

I've rewritten this section a few times. I hit this line, and I'm fumbling for the words to describe the second half of this episode. I started crying during it, obviously. Airi in the DenLiner, silent and saintly in white, her candle-lit walk to speak with Ryotaro. It's her last few moments, basically. It's her being confronted with the awful cost of protecting time, while trusting in the strength of the people who love her to find a solution. It's her love for them that gets that scene to greatness.

It's a scene that's not about exposition or vague stakes or mysteries or anything like that. It's about the bond between Airi, Ryotaro, and Yuuto. It's about what the two men in her life will do to protect her, and what she'll do to protect them. It's a scene of unimaginable power; hope and sadness in equal measure. The trauma of a sacrifice concurrent with the key to undoing it. It's defeat and victory in one move, one action. It's an endgame that switches from brain to heart, and it is just in goddamn time.

A perfect second-half of this episode. Absolutely perfect.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den46c.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den46d.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Best move in that Airi/DenLiner scene was dropping out the music, and keeping the dialogue split between Airi and the two boys, while giving the bulk of it to Airi. It's not a scene where two men explain to her what's going on or what they've done for her. It's a woman sympathizing with the pain two men have suffered for her, and her shouldering her share of it. She gets to be a hero in her own story, and nothing in the production is competing with her for that focus.

-When the Imagin hear that Ryotaro calls them his friends! You guys! I was already crying! They are gilding the lily!

-And Yuuto! And Deneb! On the beach! At a campfire! Committing to their friendship! I only got so much water in my tear ducts, you monsters!

I was thinking about this episode a little more, and I realized how on-point it is for the show to be saved by ignoring both the past (how did we get to this stage in the plot) and the future (how are we going to resolve this problem) in favor of appreciating the present. Pushing away every piece of Time Nonsense and just being present in this moment with Ryotaro and Airi, to just feel this emotion, right now... like, this is the show's thesis statement as a functioning work of art. That is extra amazing.

Okay, NOW I can discuss my second issue brought about by the Zero Form debut two-parter.

Sakurai and Airi planned to temporarily erase the good future the Imagin want to replace with their own, then have Ryotaro restore it later. But in the aforementioned Zero Form two-parter, Yuto gets killed before he gets involved in any of this and doesn’t get restored because “Ryotaro didn’t know him at that age”. So what happens to all the other people important to this future (as Bill and Ted Face the Music points out, two people alone can’t change the future) that Ryotaro didn’t know yet? Or never met at all? Thus, it stands to reason that the future they believe in no longer exists.

And yes, that last sentence is a quote from Justifaiz.

We all know the real reason that Die's this happy is that the show's back to using the original Climax Jump. For some reason.

The thing that gets me the most about this episode is that it’s the main time we get to see the realAiri. I love Airi and how she’s always just a little out of touch with everything going on around her, but part of that is that the version of her we’ve been seeing has basically been lobotomized via time travel shenanigans. This is an Airi who’s complete and fully aware of what’s happening and it is heartbreaking to get this small glimpse of her in her last fully lucid moments. For me, probably the standout moment of the whole episode is when the Imagin shows up in the past to attack Airi and she’s not scared or surprised; she knew exactly what was going on and was prepared for it.

All that said, I still think that the Junction Point stuff is borderline gibberish and even knowing that “Nogami Airi is the key” doesn’t really explain how any of this is supposed to work.

So, I'm skipping over the credits as I usually do, to avoid all of the spoilers and Climax Jump (Terrible Ver.), and I come out of the skip a few seconds early. I hear Climax Jump (Classic Ver., The Good One That Everyone Loves), and I skip back even further to enjoy the song again... before noticing that all of the spoiler-y stuff is completely still in the opening. It's actually worse, now, them having the good song playing over stuff I don't want to see. Now I'm giving something good up! Like Airi! That's why they changed the opening for this episode! It's thematic torture!

Yeah, the Airi scene, for all its dreamlike atmosphere, it's like Airi's finally waking up? She's cognizant of the risks she's taking, and she's able to finally have an honest discussion with Ryotaro and Yuuto. They get to feel equal in their story, finally, and it's so sad to know it's being ripped away. That Airi actor takes it to a whole new level in that scene.

I don't have any clue what's going on beyond This Is Making Airi Sad And Hopeful, which was thankfully all I needed to connect with this storyline. The specifics are maybe more nebulous than they were before? I don't AT ALL understand why Airi's at the lake or why Sakurai became (a terrible) Zeronos, or Junction Points, or nearly any of it. At this point I'm just nodding my head at anything the show tries to explain, to move on to something emotional and dramatic. If Androzani had said that Sakurai and Airi's original plan was to replace the Imagin future with a future where every Friday, Dunkin Donuts customers could get a free Coffee Coolatta with the purchase of a dozen donuts, while supplies last, some restrictions apply, I'd be like, Yeah That Was My Read On It Too.

This is the part where the yamato nadeshiko part of Airi shines through, other than, like you said, finds grace and dignity in the most absurd situations; aka being unflappable (I also gotta say this, unflappable in media, afaik, is usually used for tough hardasses or fearless villains, but here.. a cheery and smiley character got that, and the unflappable is the smiles). the wisdom part, though still won't say it here, sooner... Though I wonder for here, is it a changed opinion of Airi now to claim you care about her or acknowledge a strength, or that's already your opinion from the beginning despite all the seemingly badmouths, like something around her such as Airimirers or Milk Dipper, or her "chemistry" with Yuuto, or her having the part of keeping the truth plot, etc. (I mean, you immediately declare you like/care about Hana or Yuuto while talking about that part of the story)

I know Airi is an established character in the show, but the reason of involving Sakurai here is, because, Ryotaro and Yuuto isn't the only one that has important ties to Sakurai; the former being his best friend and the latter being his future self, Sakurai has even more important ties to Airi, and of course won't spoil, but I know this isn't the most appealing part, but the Fujishiro two parter should give enough clues regarding Sakurai to Airi, with what Yuuto did there. Also... you sure... that Airi can't articulate how it matters, or defining the good? It can be that, she's only faking it, taking into the account that she knew all along about everything Rider-ish that happens based on here. And you're ok about this being someone who worries about a main character fighting?

You finally indirectly acknowledge that Airi is Ryotaro's... outright mother figure by saying she raised him right. Well of course, like i said before, evil can't comprehend good as a glaring flaw; finding concepts such as friendship or love laughable and/or distractions, and believe in self-preservation and individualism above all things. Plus, while the villain may be surrounded by countless lackeys whom he keeps them in line via threats or outright violence, which Kai clearly does to other Imagins, and can lead into infightings that can put them into disadvantage, the hero has numerous companions who are willing to help them even in dire situations and enable them to defeat the baddies.

Ryotaro shows about him having friendship and cooperation to push him forward. And the one that hinders the Den-O crew's progression, is actually, their competition and infighting, when the other Imagins are too absorbed of competing with each other to be Ryotaro's most valuable ally, like the struggle of Climax Form of which one controls the form. And Airi being the likely source of Ryotaro's noble qualities are real strength, the monster fights are only a tokusatsu distraction compared to the real world-like part, about normal humans, that the world is full of many people who need healing, care, love, compassion and help. and not a single tokusatsu monsters exist in the real world, where Ryotaro's main job in the DenLiner adventure, is that; helping people psychologically, where his Imagin friends fight off Imagins. I guess in the context of Den-O, Ryotaro's doing also helped to preserve the memory of humans, and perpetuate the current state of the world. Den-O isn't the only Rider series to show the value of these 2 though.

I mean, the fact that I care about her and enjoy her character is one of the reasons why I bring up those other things. The little flaws stand in starker contrast because of her strengths, and I feel like I've brought up those strengths plenty?

Also, it's not a binary Good or Bad thing, a character in a show like this. Airi is delightful in comedic scenes and a pillar in dramatic scenes. She's also marginalized for a lot of her story (something this episode addressed, and I praised it for!) and lacks chemistry with Yuuto. Like, it's complicated? When the show utilizes her well, as they did here, I feel good about her as a character. When the show sticks her in emotionally inert mystery plots, or asks us to view the Airimirers as human beings, I don't feel so strongly about her.

Basically, this episode made it easy to care about Airi and value her contribution to the series. Not every episode does!

Sure, but my point was more that the reasoning behind her actions, the mechanics of the plot, weren't the reason why Airi was doing what she was doing. She was making a choice based on her belief in her loved ones. It's not a logical choice, it's an emotional choice, and that's why it works dramatically.

Am I okay with Airi, a woman of gentle empathy and deep reserves of love, spending one scene in one episode worrying about her brother spending a year fighting imagination monsters from the end of time?

You know what, I'm gonna allow it. Feeling generous today!

I wasn't ducking this fact, it just wasn't that relevant in previous episodes. A lot of the previous stories have been about Ryotaro's perspective on Airi, and he doesn't bring up that part of his relationship with her when he's trying to protect her fragile mental state or save her from a man who is literally trying to buy her. Wouldn't really feel pertinent for me to delve into how Airi is a maternal figure for Ryotaro if the episode isn't making it a plot point. It's usually about them looking out for each other.

In this episode, though, there's less parity between Airi and Ryotaro, and more motherly concern (she is the most maternal she's ever been on this show), so it was a time where it was worth touching on that part of their bond.

It's been a while since I've gotten to do this, but this is another episode with wordplay in the title for me to point out. Though I'm convinced that's less because it's actually been a while since the show used wordplay in a title, and more because a ton of them probably flew right over my head. After all, I didn't even realize this was one of them until after you started this thread.

Put simply, it's another instance of a character name being worked in, as the "love" (愛) and "truth" (理) in the title, if you were to put them together, get you "Airi" (愛理).

And speaking of, yeah, pretty great episode for her, huh? Nice to have at least one thing in this plotline we can have some common ground on right now!

...So anyway, the other bit of trivia for this one I want to share is that your favorite character, Sakurai, actually has Eitoku for his suit actor as Zeronos, so on a meta level, Sakurai contributing to a fight scene is another important step on Eitoku's journey to playing secondary Riders full-time, as he basically got a sort of test run here. Pretty neat!

(Okay, I honestly would like to contribute proper opinions on the episode too, of course, but I'm legitimately finding it difficult to do much more right now than agree with the bits I agree with, and regurgitate the same extremely subjective point about my massively different read on Time Nonsense.)

No, I get it. I appreciate how difficult it can be to participate in a discussion being led by someone you have some pretty fundamental disagreements with. Like, if someone was doing a thread on Ex-Aid, and they kept complaining about none of the Riders getting along, and how the show is failing because there's so much friction between the main cast... I mean, I could probably drop in one time to go Uh Working As Intended Thematically in the most diplomatic way possible for me (so only 26% rude) before just bailing on the discussion entirely. What would the use be in having that argument indefinitely?

So, yeah, I don't blame you for not feeling like it's productive to engage too much. Totally fair!

man.

what if i stopped doing these so i didn't have to shit all over the end of a show people love.

not going to, writing the new post now, but goddamn.

maybe that's a thing worth thinking about.

I mean, I love Kamen Rider, but even think they tend to be pretty bad at landing a good ending. That's not what this franchise is good about. There are some exceptions, but most Kamen Rider shows are not Blade when it comes to the ending. They just tend to hastily wrap up the plot they've been too busy doing much more fun things to worry about, then call it a day.

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 47 - "MY LAST MOMENTS MADE YOU CRY”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den47a1.png

I really wish this episode worked for me. I wanted it to! So badly! I tried to connect with it. I tried to find something in it that I'd care about. I just... man, nothing in this one was clicking for me. Like, at all. My enthusiasm for this show was evaporating like Kintaros.

It's the death/”death” of Kintaros, and the fact that I need to cite its alleged status is maybe a giveaway for why I couldn't muster up much regret about it. There's a sweetness on the surface of Kintaros' willingness to buy Ryotaro the chance to save Airi. Kintaros sends his friend off with the consolation that, since Imagin don't really get pasts or futures, Ryotaro's friendship gave Kintaros a present worth being proud of, worth fighting to protect. That's nice.

I just, boy, I just didn't care about it. It's a sweet moment surrounded by an episode that feels... forced? There's very little flow to this one. There's an Owner/Station Master scene, and then some New Year's comedy with the DenLiner crew that telegraphs its story almost as much as putting it in the episode title, and then some New Year's comedy with the human cast, and then a dual-pronged assault by Kai that takes up the back half of the episode. It's not really an episode that uses different scenes to build and relieve pressure, to cut back and forth. It's just a bunch of comedy stuff and We Are In The Endgame winks, and then a Kai attack. It feels small, and dramatically insufficient.

The Kintaros versus Kai's Imagin battle, it just felt too tiny to work for me. Having it all happen in some weird corner of a building was a not-great choice, but the problems end up being larger than the staging. (The staging is bad, though! Bad choice by the director!) It's his death because the show kind of arbitrarily decided that he was dying so he'll choose to die now. It's not out of character, or anything. Kintaros is the most self-sacrificing of the Imagin, and all of the DenLiner Imagin have been very clear about their intent to die on their own terms. It happening here, though, in this way... it felt like it was happening because it was Episode 47, not because this battle needed it or Kintaros couldn't last any longer. It felt rushed, and I couldn't buy into.

That was pretty much the whole episode for me. Nothing in it mattered to me, or felt like it was here for a valid narrative reason. All of the New Year's stuff felt massively out of place in a final storyline, where the cast is celebrating renewal and new opportunities a day after sending Past Airi off to be... somethinged. (Salt in the wound, there's a scene with Ryotaro and Yuuto where they specifically say they don't understand what Airi and Sakurai were doing, and just sort of shrug their shoulders at it. I loved the Airi scene for her ignoring the mechanics of the plot, but these two don't have any excuses! They should be working to solve this problem!) I get that the show wants to do a One Last Day with all of our friends (Owner directly calls it out; not a subtle episode), but it killed all of the tension coming out of the last story, so that the eventual superhero action feels too sudden, too obligatory.

Watching this episode was, by far, the most bizarre experience I've had watching Den-O. I could watch this episode, but I just could not care about it. I felt like Airi, where all of my memories of Den-O were gone, leaving me to stare blankly at its characters and situations. I was so ready to be excited about this episode, after 46. But this was just weightless to me, uninspired.

Sorry I couldn't find anything in it to care about. Not a fun one to watch, this close to the end.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den47b1.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-See you tomorrow!

Looks like these last moments of the show will not make you cry... Also wow, episode 47. I know I said something really similar in the Kabuto thread I think, but it feels like just a week ago when you were talking about Zeronos' debut or Kintaros first showing up.

My own experience with these last few episodes, I think I watched in bulk as I definitely remember the little moments with the main cast popping out to me, but certainly not any of the threats they were facing. What even is bad guy's plan? I certianly couldn't tell you, but the Kintaros turning that wish Ryotaro made into a sacrifice is something that has always stuck with me.

Also for as long as you like the process of like writing down your rider thoughts, you shouldn't worry about just being hard on a show just because its popular! (I mean, it'd be unfortunate if you didn't like a show even if everybody else in the world didn't either!) It's nice seeing your genuine first impressions on these things, and maybe kinda selfish of me, but its also been fun/funny to compare with what I remember to be my own first impressions, which I'm willing to bet has been fun for those who are diehard Time Nonsense fans too.

I have a couple of big issues with this episode. The first is that I don’t buy Kintaros’s sacrifice for a second. I mean, I buy the scene - it works and is totally in character for him - but I don’t buy the finality of it. Even disregarding 12 years of more Den-O content, I just never bought into the idea that the show would really kill off the Imagin. This isn’t Faiz; there’s never been a bittersweet ending or Pyrrhic victory in this show’s DNA.

My other issue is with the final arc pacing. The last episode ended on this massive emotional bomb with Airi and this one follows it up with... everyone hanging out and playing party games for New Years. The whole Airi situation doesn’t even get brought up until after the return of the bad opening theme. It’s frustrating because it feels like the show wants to get us drawn into this whole thing with the Junction Point and Ryotaro’s mission memories for the grand finale, but it’s still treating them like a subplot.

It's okay to have different opinions. Whether they're agreeable or disagreeable, what matters most is that they're authentic, so don't hesitate to say something unpopular! I think a lot of productive discussion can often be spurred by disagreement, since that causes people to think about the thing that they like and try and understand why they feel that way, which gives a better appreciation for it. It's interesting to see things from different angles!

I actually felt like Kintaros' heroic sacrifice happening on the corner of a rooftop was appropriately dramatic. But that's just my opinion. I would like to talk about the Time Nonsense element of it though, if you'll humor me, since I think this part isn't as trivial as you claim.

While Kintaros' death may be narratively convenient, I don't think it's fair to dismiss it as just that. I'm not going to pretend to be some expert on this show's Time Nonsense, but I understand the part about Memories = Time. Kintaros was the last Imagin to meet Ryoutarou (while Ryutaros' presence was still a secret), which means he has the least amount of memories of Ryoutarou and therefore his anchor to the present is naturally the one that erodes first, presumably followed by Urataros, Ryutaros and Momotaros in that order. That's my take on it anyway, based on how the show attempts to explain its logic.

Considering this point, does this give you more feelings, or maybe a better understanding, about Kintaros' heroic sacrifice?

I think it's humorous how I said something like, "get through 46 to enjoy 47" and you have the opposite reaction! But after reading your thoughts on 46, I realize I probably wasn't being totally fair on that episode, since I do recall having some feelings for the scene with Airi and the Riders on Denliner. It's mostly the Time Nonsense stuff with Sakurai I remember being frustrated with.

Sure dude.... Wait, why is this section so small though?

P.S. 500th post, yay! (now only 55 to go until the big one ;))

Kai's plan is some relatively simple distracting, which I kind of appreciate. Kai is sending Imagin back in time to cause trouble, which will lure at least one of the Kamen Riders to defeat them, leaving less defense around Airi. It's a little frustrating for how straightforward it is (doesn't have the strategy I usually associate with endgame villain plots), but it is a lot easier to comprehend. I mean, the heroes tell you in this episode what plan they're fighting against! That is huge!

Thanks! Half a milligram of Ativan and eleven hours of sleep later, I'm almost ready for another episode of Den-O.

Yeah, these are the two big flaws for me. The Kintaros one checks me out of the ending, and the New Year's stuff just rocketed me out of the beginning.

For the New Year's stuff, it's all about momentum. We ended the last story with a tragic sacrifice, and a plea from Airi to solve this problem so they can all be together again. This episode opens with everyone playing games on the DenLiner, and absolutely no plan to save any version of Airi. It's Ryotaro and Yuuto sitting around, waiting for Kai to attack, and it bugged me so much. There was all this heat coming out of 46, and then 47's like Well Since Nothing Important Just Happened Let's Have A Party. It would be like if 48 opens with everyone going to a waterpark to celebrate being friends, despite Kintaros just dying. Not only would that ruin 48, but it'd retroactively make me think that Kintaros' death in 47 didn't really matter at all.

And Kintaros' death... yeah, I couldn't suspend my disbelief. Mostly it's because we literally did an entire The Imagin Are Disappearing story that got resolved, so coming back on it for the finale doesn't feel plausible enough. But the way it happens here doesn't feel considered enough. I didn't feel like there was no other choice here, and that made it feel like the show was pushing Kintaros' character into making this choice.

Yeah, but it doesn't feel great having those different views. Like, I'm not concerned people'll get mad at me or stop reading. If they're not into reading what I think, that's totally fine. That isn't the part that gets difficult about these threads for me.

I don't find much/any pleasure on shitting on any show. It's not a blast to spend an hour ripping apart an episode from a franchise you love, and it's worse when you can't even muster an emotional connection to it. It's like falling out of love with someone, and it hurts. It feels like there's a failure in me. When it's a show that is largely considered one of the most popular Kamen Rider series of all time, it feels a) tacky to show up and say Ugh Not Good, and b) like I'm fundamentally missing the point of what the show is doing. That is not a fun combination of feelings to hold in my brain!

Not really? The timer of how long the Imagin can last, since this is the second time we've done this story, feels pretty narratively convenient. They just start fading away in this episode. Kin jumping into this fight with the Moles... it feels so abrupt to me, like we didn't wait until it was final, we just waited until it was possible for him to sacrifice himself. Like, it feels in this final fight that he was going to treat whatever the next fight was as a way to die in combat. I just didn't feel it was necessary, emotionally. Didn't feel like an appropriate end/"end" to that character or that relationship.

Was definitely racing to be done with this post by then.

Congrats! Your true life is gonna start!

Just my two cents but I feel like it’s easier to change the future when you’re not fighting against a the whole weight of history but a little over 2 dozen imagination monsters from the end of time. I’m thinking though, maybe there’s 3 futures now? The Airi/Sakurai one, the imagin one, and the tomorrow den-o will create.

So yeah, the reason is from what I catch before, is quite different from here (care about her means bring up those other things) if you care about particular thing, you'll just, even pretending to be neglect, ignore that flaws/the other things to keep enjoying that aspect, like for instance, Blade: Missing Ace, regarding its plot hole and detraction from the series as it's headed by different writer, and here you immediately declare that you care about Hana/Yuuto when speaking ill of the part of the "emotionally inert mystery plots" that involves them.

I brought up this as you seemingly refer to focusing maternal aspects and worrying about the boys as stereotypical, which is instead one of the praises in that episode.

Hmm, I wanna ask here, I don't know what makes you refer to her as mentally fragile here?

I guess, my feeling towards this is (and I dunno if this is your true feelings about this) that Kintaros' "death" feels just like a fake stakes and tension presented to the audience, I just don't believe that it'll stick, especially for a cash-cow season in Den-O. And before I've said about Ryotaro being a sweet toku hero that is against self-sacrifices, and partly joked/partly serious that Kintaros should listen to Ryotaro's outburst during that polar-opposite quality two parter (ep. 43-44). But Kintaros here didn't take into account for that moment and just goes on to solve the problem without any regards to his life by throwing himself to fight on those Imagin hordes. Kintaros should learn from Ryotaro that being morally upright doesn't mean you have to self-sacrifice at any given situation. Otherwise, yeah, the buildup to climatic situation in fights (Kai targeting Junction Point) are usually about either one big final boss wreaking havoc, or sending numerous goons at large quantity to attack various areas, or both with the latter as the beginning. What are the examples of the endgames of those 2 kind that has proper buildup to you?

Well yeah, it's both Airi and Sakurai's work, and the ones that actually don't understand are Ryotaro and Yuuto, instead of Airi who isn't being given the truth by Ryotaro. But well, really, it doesn't mean that Ryotaro and Yuuto didn't try to work to solve this problem btw, as the next episode will do (would you like for Airi to throw hands in this regard? though her job is actually keep this away from anyone which she did...). This episode partly has Kai working on his grand plan to target the Junction Point, which is presumed as Airi (with the twist of declaring it before, as Japanese reading of the names where it started with family name, so Kai started with "Nogami" but with some pause, to declare "Airi" instead of "Ryotaro"), but this comes off as a twist and shock for Kai.

The several plots on this show where Ryotaro desperately tries to keep Airi from remembering her past.

To me, it's a little less that I didn't buy they'd kill a popular character, but that the world of the show is set up to undo it. In a show where all of the Imagin have been saved from disappearing before, I'm not that invested in the threat of them disappearing again.

I feel like if I just learned that my sister had sacrificed herself and her fiance to buy time for me to defeat the monster that's targeting her, my next move wouldn't just be waiting around in case the crafty time assassin felt like attacking her again. Probably would've been a nice point for the heroes to get proactive, if the show wants to tell a story this tense. (Spoiler for the next post: maybe wouldn't've told this story to begin with!)

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 48 - "OPPOSITE GOODBYES…”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den48a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den48b.png

I honestly don't even know what I think a Den-O finale should look like. I'm not sure what I'm even comparing this story to, that I'm finding it so underwhelming.

This one fares better than the last for me, simply for how focussed its storytelling is. There's a better pace to this one, where the mood stays grim and the stakes are high. Our heroes have lost a friend, and then they lose their home, and then they lose another friend. It's bleak! It is an appropriately bleak penultimate episode!

It's also one that has a tough time keeping a relatable emotional throughline, and that makes it an episode that isn't as frustrating to watch as 47, but still isn't as rewarding to experience as 46.

Like, this is one where Kai is just massively, apocalyptically sick of trying to puzzle out what the hell is going on with Airi, Sakurai, the Junction Point, etc., and I found that simultaneously hilarious, intensely familiar, and sort of indicative of how this show is such an ill-fit for Cataclysmic Finale. Watching Kai just declare his being So Over this stupid plot, the twists and turns and Time Nonsense of it all, in favor of just obliterating the present and letting the aftermath determine a victor... I loved the catharsis of that. I loved that there was a villain who feels as frustrated as I do, and is ending the show before it can throw one more unexplained/underexplained/undeveloped/underdeveloped plot twist at us. Much like Urataros and Kintaros sacrificing themselves at their best rather than withering away and dying, I like that Kai is sacrificing this show, that has so lost the charm of its past with me, while I'm still able to remember how much I love these characters.

And I do still love them! Urataros getting one last chance to be a lying scumbag while really just acting as a lying scumbag to trick the villains, that's a nice send-off for him. It's a slim-ass story, unfortunately. There is literally zero chance that Urataros is actually abandoning his friends to throw his lot in with Kai. Ryotaro eventually brings this up, sort of, but there's still a bunch of the early part of the episode that is trying to extract tension and drama out of a pretty unbelievable heel-turn, and that's a little insulting. Like, there's a reason why Ura's turn works on characters like Momo (an idiot) and Ryuta (a child), and maybe even Hana (looking for reasons to distrust Imagin) or Naomi (mostly just confused). But it shouldn't work on even the youngest viewer, so the episode holding off so long on Ryotaro's confirmation/cover is a bit of a drag. Still, it's cute to watch Ura manipulate the Mole Imagin, and him sacrificing himself at the end... I don't know, it's a thing the show is just going to keep doing. Not something I'm into, but pointless to complain about. Feels rushed and plot-driven rather than character-driven, whatever.

Speaking of plot-driven! Airi and Sakurai were secretly protecting their unborn child, and I literally don't know what I'm supposed to do with that information at the second-to-last episode of the series. They, like, Temporally Aborted it to keep it safe from the Imagin? And Ryotaro's supposed to Memorially Unabort it at some point after the Imagin are defeated? Am I getting that right?! Typical for Kobayashi, that seems like an enormous piece of context that is coming so far after it'd be useful that all I can do is absorb it, bug my eyes out, and move on. It is so impossibly late in the game for me to see it as anything other than a data point, like Airi is telling Ryotaro that she is hiding a medium-sized chocolate brownie from the Imagin that he'll be responsible for eating someday. Okay, lady! You got it! Hypothetical Baby! Sure, sounds great.

Anyway, hi, I'm still not into what this show is trying to do with its finale. It didn't bum out as much as last night, which I appreciate. I don't need to hide from my feelings about it again, so that's cool. Maybe I'm totally wrong on all this, and it's great, but I don't care. I'm watching it, and literally the only part I was able to relate to was Kai just wanting to raze it all to the ground. This show... I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it? In the past? I liked the imagination monsters from the end of time and the little problems they solved for people. I liked the messages about how to manage your emotions, or how to draw strength from bad memories. I liked the quaintness of it all, how much of a fun adventure it was to go on. This isn't any of that. It's a series that excelled at being small, choosing to go big at the end out of... obligation, or expectation, or misguided faith in their own production. It's like attending an intimate dinner party in a ballroom, and I'm just not enjoying it.

Rooting for Kai on this one!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den48c.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Have I mentioned Yuuto's recent haircut? It's a good one! It reminds me a lot of Kota Ibushi, one of the greatest wrestlers alive, and that's not a bad thing to be reminded of.

-Tomorrow's the finale! Oh boy!

It just so happens that tomorrow lines up with my birthday. Here’s my present (wait). The voice of the Death Imagin

Hiroshi Yanaka

Notable anime roles: Tsunan Tsukioka in Rurouni Kenshin: The Motion Picture, Naruku in InuYasha, Shikaku Nara in Naruto, Dr. Hamsterviel in Stitch.

Notable Tokusatsu roles: Arch Orphnoch in Kamen Rider 555, Lor-O-Thar-Rin the Hydra-pan Headder in Tensou Sentai Goseiger.

Notable dubbing roles: Jackson Curtis in 2012, Doc in Cowboys and Aliens, Chi-Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, Tybalt in Romeo+Juliet, Aurelio in the John Wick films, Mr. Gold in Once Upon a Time, Donald Menken in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, David Langley in Bean, Pius Thicknesse in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Buffalo Bill in the Silence of the Lambs.

And thus ends my running feature for this thread (which I quickly forgot the name for and I doubt many were that interested in), until the movies. For the Kiva thread, I’ll be doing something similar to what I did on the Blade thread: a mini fact file of the monsters (I’ll just say there’s a reason these ones don’t get names).

Looking forward to it! And happy early birthday! I hope it's a memorable one... but then I also hope it isn't a memorable one, so imagination monsters from the end of time don't eventually use your connection to that memory as pathway to destruction. I hope your birthday is... pleasantly unmemorable?