Seriously guys it's a discussion over a fun continuity lite 2-parter. Tone it down some. There's no reason at all to get crazy or defensive over something like this.

Actually, over the two threads multiple people have claimed this was bad 'because it makes no sense' like they were expecting some thought out elseworlds story or some shit.

I actually enjoy critiquing things, as everyone knows, but I just think it's kinda sad that there are shows out there with genuine crippling problems that people ignore, yet people have put in so much effort critiquing something like this which just doesn't need it.

And I mean, I bet as soon as Gaim starts, if someone says a single bad thing about it they'll be pounced on like raw meat in the lion cage.

I think we're just all in agreement that it was a fun two parter to watch and for the most part, a good way to wait for Gaim. Where the stickiness of it all comes in is where there were obvious showa moments that allow for speculation. I don't mind that at all. I think it's good to second guess the idea behind putting character x in a specific situation, and it kind of fuels the whole "which rider is better" discussion that we as fans like to have.

Plus, in comparison to some of the Westernized versions of series (looking at you Megaforce), this was the equivalent of Lord Of The Rings.

The issue stems from the two parter being justified as "It's just for fun!", but the simple realization of "What if someone didn't have fun watching it?" Why are they suddenly written off when the justification of the special is invalidated by their opinion? Why is it suddenly put up or shut up when it comes down to the 44 minutes someone who didn't enjoy it may have wasted watching it?
Fun is not objective.

Additionally, you call mediocre mech design a crippling problem, so it's not people ignoring crippling issues, it's that you're holding a series to an oddly high standard for strangely petty reasons when it seems to receive any sort of praise vs how lenient you are towards a series generally decried as "Bad" despite having crippling issues of it's own.

And that's unlikely, considering the main writer is relatively unpopular and opinions have tended to be split with the current series. I don't think Gaim would be any different.

If you didn't have fun, fine, if you claimed you didn't enjoy the special because of expectations much higher than anything the special ever claimed to be, then just come on, man.

What are you talking about, mech design? If you look at any of my posts in the last five or ten or so episodes of Wizard you'll see me criticising it plenty, I think Wizard had a pretty strong beginning but lost its way in the middle and clearly just didn't care by the end.

Given the dickriding Gaim is already getting in its respective threads, based on a few images and clips, Gaim is either gonna be the next Kyoryuger (IE an insanely mediocre series, that powers through on fanhype for a few months before everyone starts realising how bad it is) or everyone is going to have set their expectations so ludicrously high the only thing left is to be disappointed.

This stops now. Seriously anyone mentions dick riding, jerking off, or any other little epuhamisms like that and the infractions will be dolled out, again. Keep this discussion CIVIL.

I was just using Matrix's term of phrase.

I noticed. And Matrixbeast received an infraction for his language as well. So if anyone else wants to take that kind of attitude they will also receive one. Please cut it out and be more respectful.

I stated on the first page that I did enjoy the episode. I'm just playing devil's advocate because it seems to have suddenly become taboo to not like the episode or to have issue with something about it.

And the excitement for Gaim seems to stem from it allegedly dropping the 2 part episode format that started up with Den-O (Or Kabuto. Been a while since watching Kabuto, and I don't remember if it had the 2 episode format), allowing for greater plots by allowing the primary story to be in the forefront rather than taking a backseat to the character of the week's problem.

Haha fair enough, then.

I must admit, I am excited to see what Gaim does with its pacing, if there really can be a focused 49 episode toku series or if the of the week stuff is just gonna be replaced by equally as distracting filler.

I can't help but wonder how much better shows would have been, without the 2 episode format. I mean it suited shows like Fourze, but Wizard's plot took a backseat for the Gates of the week and the show suffered for it as did the villains in shows like OOO and so on.

I think the series that used the 2 part format the best were Den-O and Fourze. Helps that Den-O didn't even have a plot until, like, episode 30 :p

But I do have high hopes for Gaim. I want to see how a current series handles an ongoing plot without having to take a break every 2 episodes to introduce someone new with a problem the Rider has to solve.

Well Fourze used it well, until it decided it wanted a plot in the last ten episodes I mean.... :p

I'm gonna keep an open mind when it comes to Gaim, but I'm not gonna act like a kid on Christmas morning like some people have in the respective threads, despite having next to diddly squat to go on.

I'm not giddy for Gaim, but I can't say that I'm not excited. Sure, the trailers haven't exactly given us much to go off of, but it looks like it's trying something different, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Hey, I just noticed something. The two rings Nitou gives to Haruto are Falco and Dolphi, and then Nitou is sent back to his own time without apparently meeting up with Haruto again. It seems like a plothole, but I can't seem to think of anytime Beast used either of those rings in the last ten episodes or so. He pretty much stuck to Buffa and Chameleo.

When did we decide it was time travel? If those kids could call out to Gaim and Haruto from separate worlds and bring them in, I assumed that the Nitou in question came from a world where he hadn't lost his powers yet. A world similar to Haruto's own but one that hadn't progressed as far yet. I didn't look at as a timeline thing.

The 2-episode thing has actually been around pretty much since Kuuga. It just became way more prominent around Kabuto and Den-O when the shows stopped investing a lot of time in ongoing plot arcs. Den-O also specifically brought in the "victim of the fortnight" concept that became the driving focus of pretty much every series after that. The format was still a little loose in Kiva and Decade, but from W onwards we've just gotten show after show that sticks to the basic Den-O format:

- Two main Riders; main is goofy, secondary is serious (I'm counting Gotou for OOO here, since Date being around for most of the series was an awesome accident) (also, this was obviously inverted in Wizard)

- Main character has a non-human partner(s) who directly helps him fight (Taros, Philip, Ankh, Kengo - again inverted in Wizard because Koyomi's actress was unavailable)

- Weird older male authority figure

- Female character with some degree of tsundere-ness.

- Monster of the fortnight whose plan is to in some way create/work off of a negative human emotion.

- Victim of the fortnight who is the main focus of each two-part plot.

Honestly, I am definitely one of those who is looking forward to Gaim moving away from this pattern. It's not a bad way to run a show, but it's all we've gotten since '09 and I really want to see something different again.

Haruto straight up said last week that this must be Kousuke from an earlier point in time.

I also forgot to mention this, but it was kinda nice to see Beast totally job to a villain one last time. :lol

W didn't have this.

The chief detective with his backscratcher. He's relatively downplayed compare to Owner, Kougami, or Ohsuki, but he counts.

So we just watched both parts and boy did they suck. IT is like they let an 8 year old write a show of how to get all of the 15 Heisei riders into the show without any comprehension of plot or characters. It made no sense, the villain was pathetic, and it had the annoyance of featuring Decade while not even getting the actors to voice their own characters outside of Fourze and Den-O. This thing blew chunks and was a terrible way to finish Haruto's journey regardless of them being special episodes. I'm not sure what Toei was thinking, but they could have done A LOT better.

Fourze wasn't voiced by his actor either. The voices were done by their suit actors or so I'm told, definitely not Gentaro though.

Well he did a good impression of him then because he sounded like Gentaro's actor when he screamed Uchuu Kitaa.

Okay, thoughts on the final episode of Wizard.
It wasn't very good if you were looking fro plot, or character. It was freaking brilliant if you love mindless action. Tsukasa was cool (as ever, even if he still makes no sense), Amadam was a strange villain (even if I question his "Cross of Fire", he has a point), but my favourite bit has to be when Amadam says the riders obey the ring holders. Who tells him to go to hell. Momotaros :)