Worth mentioning that when Ryuki was being adapted for US audiences as Dragon Knight, the producers thought the monster from this episode (referred to in side media as “Gelnewt”) was too good to waste on a two-parter and had the costume replicated so they could use it as the villain’s henchmen. And yet they still adapted this episode and the next, leading to a situation where the monsters that are generally cut down in swathes are suddenly a challenge when there’s only one of them

I mean, yeah, there's probably an element of Ren not wanting help, but I think he's way too emotionally shattered in this episode to care what Shinji thinks of him. He can't lie to himself anymore, he's not going to be able to kill other Riders, which means he's failed Eri. Maybe equally bad, he knows that other Riders are going to have to kill him, and if he can't kill them he's definitely not going to survive. Every lie he's told him himself gets refuted in this episode, and his whole sense of self is shattered. He can't be the man to save Eri, and he's probably going to get killed for his weakness. I don't know that I'd call the anger Ren exhibits from realizing that he's doomed himself and someone he loves a "tantrum", but, y'know, Ren can sometimes be a demonstrative guy.

Partially, for me, it's about economy of character usage. Like, Reiko's sort-of not doing anything in this episode, and Yui's kind-of hopeless at investigating (I guess being pitied is a viable form of leverage over others?), so putting the two of them together gives Reiko something to do and Yui someone to bounce off of. And, I don't know, I don't think Reiko'd have that tough of a time getting up to speed on the Rider/Mirror stuff? Seems like she could handle it.

Shinji has this... abrasiveness? I think his confidence, his decisiveness, his vigor, it has this way of sometimes pushing people away. It's a character flaw, but not a storytelling flaw, if that makes any sense. I like that even-tempered Tezuka can get briefly furious at some way that Shinji's been... less than diplomatic. It's not cheap drama to me, it's a real way that even heroes can quarrel, can disagree, can make their point badly. It's good writing.

100% could not figure out why Tezuka slept over. At first I'm like, are they hiding out from Shibaura? No, they all just go about their lives the next day. Was Tezuka shadowing Ren, acting as his, like, sponsor? No, he's out fortune-telling on his own the next day. Super weird choice to have Tezuka spend the night and never explain why. My head-canon is that Tezuka was mildly pissed at Shinji's I Don't Believe In Fate stance, so Tezuka just raced upstairs, got in Shinji's bed, and shouted I SLEEP HERE TONIGHT IT'S FATE I GOT A VISION YOU SLEEP ON THE FLOOR and then pretended to be asleep until Shinji gave up.

Nope! Didn't notice! Or, more accurately, did notice, didn't have context for why that was thematically appropriate yet, and forgot about it.

Ha ha, neat! It is a pretty cool costume. It's interesting to me that the Heisei Rider shows to this point in time don't really do, like, mooks. There aren't zero-level scrubs for the hero(es) to take out in waves. When does that start to happen again? I feel like it wasn't really a thing in W or OOO, but it definitely was a thing in Fourze? Wonder why that is.

If you really want an answer and you're not concerned about spoilers, then... yeah, with the sole exception of Kabuto; mooks just weren't a thing in Heisei Rider and then suddenly they started doing them in every series starting from W.

Yeah, I guess I don't really consider that spoiler. Thanks!

I wonder why that phased out and then back in, though. It's not like it's a big narrative tool. I don't know that it drastically affects storytelling, having those orange-headed Bugsters or whatever. It definitely makes the fight scenes more dynamic, however. Kamen Riders just plowing through a dozen chumps... it's so visually impressive, and it gives the villain a little time to monologue/taunt while you're still getting to see some action. Huh. I guess I really like those mooks! I wonder if the decision to not use them until Phase 2 was just, like, budgetary? Two guys fighting probably costs significantly less than twelve guys fighting. Unless... is mook suit-work, like, being a fight team intern? Are those actors getting college credit when they sell a big swing from a Gashacon Breaker?

So many more questions now!

It might have been part budget, and part Kamen Rider trying to get away from old Showa tropes as much as possible. The demands of making tons of mook suits usually mean they end up as cheap spandex onesies with a helmet, and 12 of those guys running around every episode might've clashed horribly with the lavish, realistic monster suits in a show like Kuuga or Agito.

For that matter, Black, back during the Showa era, had no designated mooks either, and had similarly elaborate monster designs and a somewhat more grounded tone. I'm just spitballing here, but given that Kabuto was an anniversary series with high production values, and its mooks all look on the same level of detail as the primary monsters, I think I might be onto something.

Narratively, it also just plain wouldn't have been a good fit for Kuuga, which constantly stressed how big a threat just a single Grongi was, so maybe that set a precedent, too? Agito could've probably fit some kind of, like, Unknown enforcer squads or something into the lore if it *really* wanted to, without being too silly. But with the new style from Kuuga already in place, why bother, right?

All this said, there are definitely still going to be occasions throughout these shows where Riders fight bigger groups of monsters.

The more cynical side of me would put forward that the need to sell toys and the toyetic aesthetics of Kamen Rider, while present since Kuuga, really kicked into hyperdrive with W. As such a bunch of mooks is probably an easy, possibly mandated way to show off all these New Toys In Store Now For 17.99.

It's for sure more toyetic to have a bunch of nobodies to beat up. It's easier to have constant form changes and finishers in a fight if you've got a dozen mooks to knock out, rather than one monster that gets detonated.

But, yeah, I don't know that Toyetic and Serious go hand-in-hand that well, especially for a franchise that wants more of a horror vibe. It's dazzling to see, like, Ex-Aid or Snipe wade through a group of Bugsters, using a variety of Gashats, but it's incongruent with trying to sell visceral, unnerving stakes. Low-level mooks need mid-level lieutenants need boss-level maniacs, and all of that becomes cartoony. It's not impossible to tell a grounded, mature story while selling a billion toys (*cough*Build*cough*), but it's a very high degree of difficulty.

Actually, what Shinji thinks of him that time IS one of the main reason he's so emotionally shattered, being respected by someone like him. Shinji still didn't know about Eri yet, only vaguely checking a woman's ring, so he thought Ren should just quit fighting Riders and just beating monsters, how about your hypothesis of "winner gets wish" before Shinji? Oh right, I have to give credit to Shinji, forgot to cover this back on Scissors arc, for being the only one among Riders who thinks that Shiro may only manipulates other Riders, so probably another reason to him that killing other Riders isn't worth it and the war is pointless. As for his childish tantrum, I guess you cannot spell "children" without "ren"!

Yui would be a total cheat-code for what Reiko's looking for. That the answer for disappearences is Mirror Monsters that can appear from reflective surfaces and eats people, but no one other than her or Rider Deck holders can see it, which is something she already knows. That is...if Reiko wouldn't act like Yui's childhood bullies about it (either Reiko would be one of the few to believe that given the tragedies of disappearences or she'd view Yui as another Shimada), which would add some difficulty. I meant for the last one, I'm not talking about Reiko getting to know about Rider/Mirror stuff and learning more about it, I'm talking about how the show seems to disallow anyone other than Riders and Yui to know anything about Rider/Mirror stuff for some reason.

Wdym for "being pitied is a viable form of leverage"? I feel that others just make it extremely hard for her regarding Shiro to investigate, everyone being totally secretive and extremely few access to him, but for investigating another topic, at least Reiko herself remarks that she's good, better than her opinion on Shinji.

Well for you calling Tezuka "even-tempered", I have to say you have to remember you consider him that, and look for a specific moment on a bit later part of the series. My point was that most of the feud moments like quarrel are the ones considered good like the only Shinji/Tezuka moment you cover here (I NEVER call this moment a cheap drama, I also think this is good for philosophy clash), but does that mean are conflicts the only good moment?

I also forgot to cover this. It's an interesting idea for Tezuka to try using prediction in combat, it'd be a big advantage if it works (making you untouchable), but unfortunately it's not for him. And can we talk again about yet another one of Shinji's unusual battle tactics? Using Raia's body as a leverage to catch an airbone monster. Shinji rubs off on Tezuka for this one by declaring him unpredictable, which Shinji uses to teach him that it's just how fate works. That aside, Shinji's now shown as someone who can fend off monsters outside Rider form, and Tezuka also cares about innocents (where you didn't mention in your Rider view before for Tezuka).

Well yeah, I like to know about something like this. Though the one I'm asking was about Tezuka's daily life outside Atori like where does he live before this that he sleeps in someone else's place, is he homeless (unlikely), or living alone without family, in a house or apartment? For the reason he sleeping over there, it's probably easier to figure; my take is that he wants to work up against the Riders and it's easier to stay closer to them rather than tracking them repeatedly, he doesn't really care about personal space to do his job, then again he stays at someone else's place, how did he get Yui's permission for that? Speaking about hiding from Shibaura...you said you want to change every Rider's fate, what will you do to Shibaura, Tezuka?

I don't know, I guess I'm not reading it that way. Ren seems pretty much in his own head on this one. I don't know that I feel like he's overly concerned with what Shinji or Tezuka have to say about him right now.

Yeah, that's not one of my favorite narrative choices, where one person's kept outside the loop. I don't know why someone couldn't tell Reiko, other than a) it drags out the plot if she doesn't know yet, and b) typical White Knight bullshit where the men bravely protect the impossibly fragile mind of a woman. ("There's no way a hard-hitting investigative journalist could POSSIBLY handle the awful truth about our battles. She's a girl!")

Just a joke. I thought Yui's tactic of acting pathetic around that dude was... an interesting choice? She kind-of had no move other than just going I Need Help Real Bad I Don't Know What I'm Doing until this guy gave her a stack of paperwork and begged her to lose his number. It's... I don't think Yui should be real proud of herself on this one.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that you considered it cheap drama. Poorly worded sentence!

And, I wouldn't say conflicts are the only good moment, but they're definitely the most memorable. It's drama, you know? Conflicts are more entertaining storytelling than everyone getting along.

Maybe you're right about it being more efficient for Tezuka to bunk with Shinji and Ren, but I like it way better if Tezuka's making everything about fate, and he plays that card constantly, like a total asshole.

"I end up sleeping here tonight, while you sleep on the floor. It's fate."
"I end up following you to the hospital to see your girlfriend. It's fate."
"Gosh, I'd love to split the check for dinner, but you end paying for everything. It's fate."
*face covered in chocolate frosting* "I DIDN'T WANT TO EAT THIS WHOLE CAKE YOU BOUGHT, IT WAS FATE, CURSE THESE UNBREAKABLE STRANDS OF DESTINY, IF ONLY I COULD ALTER --"*rest of declaration muffled by huge handful of cake Tezuka puts in his mouth*

Yep, that's every Tezuka scene we don't see on Ryuki. I can't be dissuaded!

For Shibaura, maybe Tezuka did change his destiny... right into jail.