I wouldn't care if they have the actors for Tachibana and Hajime come on screen just to tell us directly that Garren is the 'secondary' of that show. It's Chalice in my eyes.

And while I'm here, Para-DX is the the closest thing to being Ex-Aid's secondary while Brave and Snipe share the spot of next most important side-character (which I think would fit the definition of 'tertiary' here). And that Punch Hopper is more prominent than Sasword by the end of Kabuto.

Though more often than not, I firmly feel like it really is just opinion anyway. 'Secondary' and 'Tertiary' change in definition from show to show and person to person on whether it means 'second and third most important riders', 'rider closest to the main character', or 'literally the second and third ones to appear'. It's all made up anyway. Like, within the context of a show like Agito, both G3 and Gills are meant to equally stand up as deuteragonists in the show, but in Ryuki, obviously Knight is the sole number two to Ryuki's number 1.

Speaking of Ryuki and Agito, sometimes the "secondary" Rider is actually the first one to appear. There's definitely no solid formula

Yeah, secondary riders ara a very vague category, there's no easy rules, and no asy categorisations. It's like people arguing about final forms and the like, primarily fanmade categories which people like to pretend Toei cares about further than the next set of Diend merchandise.

For Zero-One's tertiary rider I'm just gonna wait for the Otomin C ad if we're still getting one this year.

my choices as follows...

Gills: The show has 3 main riders (i know there is 4) and he is the 3rd one to appear.

Zolda: The 4th to appear but he is the third rider of the long-surviving quartet. Raia could be considered the third rider in the early part of the show's running...but you know.

Delta: He is the third main rider gear belt.

Chalice: I admit, I was on the 'Chalice is the secondary rider' camp and I am okay with Garren being the official secondary...despite how insignificant he was in the show after his arc was over.

Todoroki: I haven't watched Hibiki yet but considering the info I have read on the show, he is the third since he works with Hibiki and Ibuki as a trio.

Kabuto: This is tricky. In terms of screentime, Kageyama/Zabee/PunchHopper would be considered 3rd rider but Sasword felt like the 3rd rider due to the timing of his appearance and him being a heroic rider. However, I also feel Yaguruma/KickHopper can also qualify as he feels like a rival to Tendou.

Kiva: Taiga/Saga being the third rider to appear in the present. Otoya is the primary rider in his time period~

Decade: Well...Onodera can be considered the third rider...for the sake of finding one in this series lol.

OOO: The Birth Prototype is the third rider to appear...but I cant decide between Goto or Date being tertiary. Both of them are equal awesome riders as Birth.

Wizard: I guess the first Mage...since she is the third heroic rider in-series.

Gaim: Micchy is the third rider of this series as Ryugen/ZanShin, enough said. The stuff this kid did...sheesh.

Drive's is Chaser. Ghost's is Necrom. Because there like only 3 main riders.
Ex-Aid's is Snipe. Build's is Grease. Zi-O's is Woz. They are the third riders of their respective main quartet. Also that drink ad they always had!

(I seriously wonder if they made 3 riders on purpose since Ghost...for that drink ad...I can't recall if that ad ran during Drive..)

now comes Zero-One. Valkyrie may be 3rd to appear...but I feel the 3rd rider position could belong to Jin. I won't be surprise if what happened in Drive happened in this series since there is some similaries in terms of plot.

Raia is far from the 3rd Rider IMO, he's actually on the same park as Tiger, Gai, Imperer for being one of the temporary side Riders (as opposed to main Riders). He's just the only other purely good Rider apart from Ryuki so he's the only one on heroes' side.

Yeah, I honestly get exhausted seeing these debates whenever they come up because it's always people arguing the semantics without realizing it, which means the conversations tend not to go anywhere. Hearing the back and forth early on when Gaim was airing between the camps of "Baron is the secondary Rider because he's like, the rival!" and "Ryugen is the secondary Rider because he's, like, Kouta's buddy!" basically permanently put me off ever investing myself too much in this topic.

For the record, my opinions are always the same as Toei and Bandai's. Secondary/Tertiary Riders are defined to me less strictly by how their role in the story plays out, and more by how their concepts and designs compare to the main hero. The opposite is true for shows like Double and OOO that only had two Riders, but usually what this means is that the secondary is the guy who looks closest in design to the protagonist while also being some kind of mirror. Kabuto and Gattack have the beetle shtick, for example. Ditto for Blade and Garren. Gaim and Baron have a similar classic Red/Blue combo going on, and are respectively based on a samurai and a knight, two feudal warriors relatively similar in concept.

Tertiaries are generally pretty easy to define going by that logic, even in the big multi-Rider shows. Zolda has the colored undersuit like Ryuki and Knight. TheBee has a much closer design to Kabuto and Gattack than anyone else, especially comparing Masked Forms, and Zangetsu being such a straight copy of Gaim has the opposite effect of disqualifying him for being in more of an "evil counterpart" position, whereas Ryugen's unique design complements Gaim and Baron better, letting them each stick out, and completing a Ryuki-esque primary color motif.

You'll note the key here is that going by my way, which I think is the way Bandai especially would see it, the characters are more objects than people. This is why it's completely irrelevant that TheBee was two different dudes who went on to become two other Riders completely. The realities of the show's narrative as it plays out matter less to me than the intent behind the Rider's creation.

But my buddy, would you like to hear my theory on why Build's secondary is actually Mad Rogue? I promise, I have evidence, I swear.

*gasp* What is this revelation?!

Look since we’re getting nowhere, I’ll just point out this video has an official poster from Toei showing who they consider the third riders https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld7kWR...ature=youtu.be