KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 47 - “2019 - VANISHING WATCH”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio47a.gif

There’s a thing we do, at the comics shop I co-own. If someone asks how a book is, and you don’t like it, you don’t say “It’s bad.” Bad’s objective, and unhelpful. Art’s subjective. It’s better to allow for that subjectivity by saying something like “It wasn’t for me.” Saying it that way acknowledges that your own personal likes and dislikes might’ve colored the experience, and someone else might take more out of it than you did.

This episode wasn’t for me.

Beyond the innate pleasure of seeing Tsukasa and Kaito be toxic and charismatic, I’d’ve happily skipped this installment of Kamen Rider Zi-O. The character-driven details we learn are enormously unhelpful and poorly staged (that kid who played Teen Swartz is maybe running neck-and-neck with Ryuki’s Shiro for Most Wooden Performance Of All Time), while the plot details are baffling in their disarray.

Tackling the second one first, because that’s how unnecessarily convoluted this series has gotten: You can do a multiverse story, or you can do a time travel story. You cannot do a time-traveling multiverse story. This was a show where characters met Kamen Riders by traveling back in time, or by meeting them in the modern day. Now, at the eleventh hour, we’re told that this has really been a multiverse story, where Sougo’s been tricked into leaving other worlds defenseless by stealing their Rider’s powers.

It– he met Shouichi by going to his restaurant! Sougo got jumped by Takeru! They weren’t constantly going to other worlds! You can’t have a show where both the past and the future are in flux, because a) it means that you can’t follow the logic of any two scenes; and b) it means your metaphor is nowhere. The whole point of this show, as evidenced by Sougo’s many (very good!) speeches is that our ability to value our past should always be in balance with our hopes for the future. We can’t risk falling into the comfort, or despair, of our pasts. We need to use that history to envision a better future, and then work daily to make it the present. If every single story is now some alternate reality that never worked for this show’s timeline, I don’t even know what this show is trying to say.

Because, we already did a show about disparate realities and the Kamen Rider who protected them ten years ago. It was called Kamen Rider Decade, and I know this show has heard of him, because he’s in this episode. I will probably never understand why this show opted for an endgame that might as well have only featured Decade and Diend, and I honestly don’t care to puzzle it out. It’s a weird choice that muddies an already-disjointed narrative.

And, outside of a perplexing endgame, there’s really nothing else here. The “emotional” content is just Sougo and Tsukuyomi returning to the Misery Suburbs of 2058 to get some hard evidence regarding Swartz’z most-recent absurd claims, and I was actually excited about this plotline at first. Team Zi-O has been almost permanently reactive in the series arc, so a more serious Sougo opting to investigate a wild claim instead of accepting it at face value is a nice development!

Too bad there’s nothing substantial waiting for him that we either didn’t already know, or couldn’t’ve surmised. Swartz is – are you sitting down? – a guy who cares more about power than protecting his sister. I know! Stunning! Well worth the trip! Literally everything about his relationship with Tsukuyomi is stuff the character already told her several episodes ago, so I don’t know why the show would waste time reiterating it. The info about how Swartz is planning to destroy everything is new, but it also makes zero sense.

Swartz’z plan is to combine all worlds into one, and then destroy them. (I don’t… why would his be left? Why does it matter how many timelines exist? Why is any of this happening, and why would it matter to his timeline if he’s not around? Couldn’t the more powerful Alpina keep that timeline intact?) It’s a ludicrous explanation from this show, because the very first scene of the very first episode contradicts it. Oma Zi-O exists in the future of Sougo’s world. If Sougo’s world is destroyed in 2019, Oma Zi-O and the Misery Fields of 2068 can’t exist. Even allowing for the idea that Swartz’z plan negates that potential future, that future only exists because of Swartz’z plan. It– none of this makes any sense.

(My favorite Nothing Means Anything moment in this episode was Kaito using the Another Zi-O II Ridewatch to turn back time and revive Tsukasa, despite the terrible consequences of using it… instead of Sougo using the actual Zi-O II Ridewatch to revive Tsukasa with zero consequences. Like, what the complete hell.)

There was nothing for me in this episode, beyond the tawdry nostalgia of guest appearances. (Fun to see Chase again, at any rate.) I said at the beginning of this thread that the stuff I care least about are the anniversary elements, so let that help you understand the depth of my disappointment. The exploration of the series arc was horrifyingly incoherent, while the character development was facile and obvious. Exhausting to see a show so dedicated to evaporating all of my goodwill.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio47b.png

Swartz was the one who dig his own grave in this Dark Rider plan, as White Woz cares about Geiz now and is willing to work with Sougo for that. He also deceives Swartz by pretending to back Tsukuyomi into the corner by being immune to her time stop due to insufficient power, thus he can transport Black Woz and Tsukuyomi to Geiz's another world, pretending to work for Swartz. Other than that though, yeah it's clever to use a gag as something more matters, in how Zi-O Trinity's uniting is now used to transport both Eternal and Zi-O to Geiz's world, pulling Sougo towards both Geiz and Black Woz instead of the other way around, so the powers of Zi-O Trinity and Eternal's Maximum Drive can break the dimensional barrier, freeing those who are trapped there and erasing the Dark Riders, though Eternal is happy for this. For Geiz's outlook, yeah he goes tsundere again that he here actually wants to stay with Sougo and create better future, but that also cements more about how I find it more confusing about those lessons in which one is right, letting bygones be bygones despite chance or trying to change the past, as Geiz here still tries to change the past from the worst possible future here, and he seems to be portrayed as in the right here.

So yeah, this is a spoiler, but actually the reason for all Swartz's doing is quite straightforward and... cliche, Swartz is just power-hungry. I mean as you already know, Ohma Zi-O is unstoppable, and is the strongest Rider in the entire franchise, which is why Swartz specifically sought for Ohma Zi-O unlike the other Time Jackers, he's unstoppable, and if his plan is successful, Swartz can gain said unstoppable power. Regarding "About This Rando every other week", as you already see too, Another Riders are portrayed as mere stepping stone for Sougo becoming king, as dealing with Another Riders mostly would net Sougo a new Ridewatch, and it's already established that Sougo gaining more and more Ridewatch would make him more and more powerful and closer to become Ohma Zi-O. So Swartz had the Time Jackers create Another Riders which had Sougo and friends deal with them and getting themselves Ridewatches in the process, and push Sougo closer towards becoming Ohma Zi-O, and an extremely powerful powerset for Swartz to steal. It's how Time Jackers was important to Swartz.

And coincidentally how the endgame is presented regarding Swartz to you seems to be similar damned if you do/don't situation for Sougo here? Not showing it means the show doesn't know to create a scheme to thwart for him, but if he's shown then it's like this. Otherwise, yeah it clearly seems that Swartz is meant to be all controlling villain that was constantly backing Sougo into a corner as Enchilada said, regardless of how sloppy it was executed, likely inherently due to how time travels can really cause headache. Even a well-loved series like Den-O had that as its main known flaw. Swartz pulls a situation for Sougo where everything he does result in a bad outcome:

1. If Sougo kills Swartz, Geiz and Tsukuyomi will fade from existence, because the loop (that I talked about previously here) will be undone; Swartz also knows Sougo loves his friends too much to hurt them.
2. If Sougo lets Swartz kill him due to hesitating above, Swartz will take all 20 Heisei Riders' powers and become Ohma Zi-O all-powerful.
3. If Sougo becomes Ohma Zi-O, the loop above is brought to completion and all of Sougo's friends live, but the world is devastated by the tyrannical rule of Ohma Zi-O as seen in the beginning that made Geiz and Tsukuyomi went to the past, and Swartz gets to try again in the next iteration of the loop.
4. If Sougo does nothing, the fractured timeline as a result of multiple factions going to the past (e.g. Riders existing from a future where Ohma Zi-O didn't win) can erase all of the Riders from history, leaving Swartz's timeline alone and leaving him free to dispose Tsukuyomi to become king.

But other than that, for the 3rd choice above, it explains how Sougo can become Ohma Zi-O, in all the previous loop, it turns out that Sougo becomes Ohma Zi-O due to being forced by Swartz to keep his friends alive. This kind of invalidates the development Sougo got before to grow out of himself becoming genocidal dictator though like by accepting his dark side, but as it's established before about the damages and loop Geiz and Tsukuyomi can do by time travelling stated by Aqua, so it's implited previously Sougo took 3rd choice before, and always did that in multiple iterations of the loop before too.

Actually probably you shouldn't put someone in pedestal just for going against a (really despicable) villain, like assuming she cares about Heure or such due to that. And for "wanted to kill Swartz this entire time", someone's not instantly heroic/good just because they target bad guys (y'know, including Swartz himself disposing the other Time Jackers), bad guys can target other bad guys, Ora's feud with Swartz, was like Ora's feud with Yuko before, villains fighting villains, and both are based on Ora taking revenge on someone who happens to be evil too (but wronged her), and there are many other evil vs evil scenario in KR before like Eternal vs Eyes Dopant or Ryoma vs Kogai Kudo.

And by that logic for unwittingly saving Makimura being good (it's Sougo being sharp enough to take a 3rd option between Heure's sadistic choices), are Shockers (or anyone similar, basically many villainous individual/organizations because KR theme is using superpowers from evil for good) good because they can create the birth of Kamen Riders, from their inhuman experiments? Sometimes good things can come out of a bad situation or a bad thing. However, people should not misconstrue that just because something good was born out of something bad/evil, does not make that something good, just because the end result was good does not mean that the bad guys did something good. And yeah I guessed it, you're using that as a synonym for selfish, but anti-heroic isn't merely about being selfish, there are more forms of it, like anti-heroic can be the one who is altruistic but (regularly) going extra mile like paying evil unto evil.

Gonna say it here, the only reason half the stuff in the final six episodes of Zi-O even happens is because this is the Decade Arc of the show. And despite how I've read many a fan calling Zi-O "Decade 2" these two shows, both in plot and in style, kinda don't mesh well together at all.

But yeah the plot is completely screwed at this point, and the only real personal enjoyment I got out of this episode was them (inadvertently or otherwise) saying that Decade's' entire premise/plot structure is bad and shouldn't be followed.

So basically, this episode is saying that Over Quartzer is Schwartz’s fault. Because Heisei wouldn’t be a mess if he hadn’t tried to combine 19 worlds into one. Pretty much a metaphor for fans who try to group all of Heisei into one universe (An idea that’s always had problems, especially since none of the shows at all attempt any consistency with each other (Kabuto’s whole premise is that a place we’ve been visiting regularly since 2000 got nuked to hell in 1999. And that’s not getting into how Drive starts having characters arrive from America in the crossover with Gaim… which means that they should be coming and going from a radioactive wasteland). Plus very few of the crossovers are actually necessary to the stories of their series (Megamax and HeiGen Final being the only exceptions I can think of), which is especially apparent in how Heisei Generations drops a big reveal casually, has Emu forget it and the the series makes it a far bigger deal of the same reveal later on.

Though I will say, I prefer Schwartz as a villain to most of the post-Gaim villains, (save Ghost’s), in that he has a plan that seems logical given his background (I still do not get why the CEO of a game company wanted to conquer the world) and an actual reason behind his plan (which far too many of those shows relied on to V-Cinemas for).

And now, for two final Compare and Contrasts. For the series that is, there’s still a whole set 5 worth for me to do (covering ReiwaGen and Next Time: Geiz)

Schwartz’s ultimate plan is basically a deliberate version of Decade’s main premise. Whereas Tsukasa was unconsciously merging the worlds together, and was working to restore them by fighting the Riders so that they’d exist forever in people’s memories, Schwartz is deliberately destroying those worlds, and the Riders native to them, purely to save his own, for his own selfish reasons (since if he doesn’t have a world, he has nothing to rule over).

Kaito as Zi-O II… erm, II is the opposite to Sougo in that he steals stuff from random Riders purely to say he owns it, whereas Sougo gets the Riders to give him their powers through personality alone.

Also, I can’t really fault this episode, it’s got Zanbat and the Formula Cannon in it.

Only 2 pages left until the end of the world.

My bad! I must've forgot how that event played out.

Is this even plausible, considering Grand Zi-O's poor win/loss ratio? :lol

That's a terrible option!

Well, Swartz doesn't know for sure how Geiz and Tsukuyomi would react to Sougo becoming Oma Zi-O, now that they've got to know Sougo, so this is probably the best option.

Apparently, a world without Kamen Riders is doomed to collapse, without reason. Even though Tsukasa literally visited one such world before, the World of Shinkenger. And that world was totally fine without Riders. Narutaki's whole point to Tsukasa in that arc was how Riders inherently make worlds worse, not better. Swartz's timeline contradicts everything we've been told and shown in Decade!

Cosmi mentioned before about how it's not a big problem that characters don't use their OP abilities to revive people in dramatic scenes. But if you're going to revive someone anyway, like, yeah, why would you choose the method that will backfire on you, instead of the one that has zero consequences? Sougo and Kaito are both morons here! Not only that, but suddenly Decade can Kamen Ride in to Zi-O, an ability he's not supposed to unlock until he fixes the World of Zi-O's problem. (looks at the Skywall and rampaging monsters everywhere) The problem does not seem fixed!

Fair enough.

Episode 47!

-Chase!! My boy, my friend!!! A last-minute bone to throw for Drive fans who didnt/couldn't see Over Quartzer at that moment, I suppose?

-Glad to see another go "Hey wait isn't this just Decade????" when seeing this episode. Like, the whole vibe of the city reminds me of that one sequence of Natsumikan running in Episode 1, just a lot more clunky? I thought Swartz was gonna pull a Decade(as in the destruction of all will lead to a rebirthed world of sorts that Swartz could be the king of, or something), but like, why would destroying everything else guarantee their world's safety? Is it like freeing up space on a hard drive or something?

-Kaito immediately coming in and firing shots at Swartz, reviving Tsukasa before attacking him.....Nobody's allowed to touch a hair on Tsukasa'a head except him, after all!

-Uh, might as well take a shot at untangling the multiverse mess? Begin by making a hard assumption that we're still in the realm of time, and not any of that space stuff. I think, early on you could conceptalize that the timeline was a single line that people can make alterations to, hence Ridewatches just earsing a Rider(by altering the past) as well as the Future Riders(altering the future) But if we assume, that when a Ridewatch is made, the timeline *actually* splits in twain: the one with Sougo and friends, and one where the powers of that certain Rider disappeared but not the actual person, then Swartz's whole droll makes tiny bit more sense? Maybe? Potenially?

-However, the whole Blade-Den-O plots just like, throw all that all to the side? If you want to continue believing the "splits", then we assume that...um....*squints at notes* (When Time Nonsense gets out of hand, simply smile and say "it's a space-time disortion" to get out of explaining things) space-time disortions are causing timeline splits to become uneven or even straight up not happen, hence leaving elements untouched. That makes sense! (Of course it doesn't!)

(Apologies in advance if your brain melts just a bit reading the above 2 paragraphs, I happen to actually be a bit of a fan of sci-fi stories w/ fun time shenagians and wanted to see if I could make heads or tails of any of this. Everything obviously falls apart when tackling Zi-O's Time Nonsense from any angle because they're changing the rules up every 5 episodes so we can get better fanservice!)

-Anyway, yeah. I thought i was mistaken in my inital memories of the show but the show's plot does kinda fall apart at the seams, if you think about it for a second. Wouldn't be an issue at all for me if we got some good character moments to distract from that, but unfortunately that isnt the case here.

So all this talk about Sougo and the others crossing universes the entire series? Nah that's not what they're saying. The multiple worlds reveal does confuse a lot of people, but that's like at first until you realize the point of time that Young Swartz is in and what he hasn't specifically done yet (hint hint 2009). I'll get to the mega theory tomorrow since that's when the last of the details came in and made me realize "Oh yeah that's a thing that kinda puts this whole thing in perspective."

Cause like if the takeaway from this set of episodes is "Oh Zi-O and crew have just been jumping worlds this whole time" then uh yeah, no. I don't want to firmly say that's wrong. But there's more to the words being said here and you need to look beyond them and at the positioning of certain characters in certain points of time. Like I'll admit the last six episodes of Zi-O are messy plotwise. But like, this isn't them trying to make a big reveal of this actually being a world hopping multidimensional story, this is them referencing their prior one.

The whole Ridewatches exploding and letting out monsters? Okay that has some precedence for some of them. Remember that when the Ridewatches originally came into existence, a Rider ceased to be entirely and all aspects about the Rider were erased. Or rather because those aspects are so big they had to be stored somewhere and with the Ridewatches breaking that meant nothing else could hold them in and so just grunts and minor monsters galore!

Really this episode is just a bunch of neat fight scenes with Geiz and Woz, and a kind of poor showing for Grand Zi-O before it poofs at the end. Not much to say here so let's get onto BGM stuff. Toki no Ouja, Decade Preview BGM, Tsukuyomi's insert, and Drive's Preview BGM. Not much to say here so let's roll the BGM Swap.

Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 48 Preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sNO6J92shI

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP47)

Predictably, the post linked above consists in large part of me saying the details of the plot mechanics in Zi-O aren't worth sweating. Somewhat less predictably, the other half of it is me dunking on Swartz for being underdeveloped and uninteresting. I guess I was still managing to hold on to that last tiny bit of emotional distance even though I was firmly in love with the show by this point. Going back to the Geiz comparison, I suppose that minor apathy towards Swartz is the equivalent of him still refusing to call Sougo by his name.

I honestly do think the effort to loop in Decade's plot mechanics is commendable, even now. The thing is, if you're the kind of person who insists all Rider shows are in one continuity, that would mean Decade itself is also part of that continuity, despite it being the show built around Rider shows not existing in one continuity, and messes like that are exactly why I can't help but respect Zi-O's insane endgame narrative choices. Mind you, I don't think this meta stuff is even remotely as considered or poignant as Over Quartzer was (or as straightforward), so it really is the effort I find commendable here more so than the results. There's no denying how convoluted the show starts getting around this point, and how that's probably to the detriment of the overall story. But putting the how and why of everything off to one side for a second, I think the concept of reality basically collapsing into this nightmare apocalypse of every Heisei monster ever is pretty dang appropriate for the climax of the final Heisei show? I can't deny the Time Nonsense going on here, but I can't deny how much fun I was still having with the show either!

(Oh, and here's some trivia: this episode apparently aired on the exact day Die joined the forums! ...I'd like to think that even in an alternate timeline where Die didn't decide to watch everything else first, and feel the need to vent about Ghost as a result, he still would've made an account at the same time, just to vent about this arc instead.)

I feel like chiming in just to say that, the plot making no sense or contradicting itself or tearing new holes in itself at every opportunity would not in of itself be a problem to me. Well, obviously it would still be a massive distraction, but it probably wouldn't be a dealbreaker. Build and Ex-Aid, both shows I enjoyed a lot, were so clearly making up a lot of rules about how Nebula Gas or the Bugster Virus worked every other episode whenever it was convenient for the plot. But at the end of the day, it was always fairly easy to look past because the core, emotional conflict for the characters was still really strong, or at least they were to me.

And I know Zi-O has one of those too, its why I got so invested in the first place and why I care (i.e. complain) so much! But it's nowhere to be seen here in this episode. Instead, it seems what the show cares about at this critical point so near the end, is waxing nostalgia for a completely different show that aired ten years prior. Swell if you're a fan of Decade (and Chase), I guess. Not so swell if you're a fan of Zi-O.

Also I can't even enjoy it on a purely spectable level, but maybe I'm just too old and cynical at this point to enjoy the inherent appeal of a ton of random suits wrestling with one another. I blame all the movies starring Kamen Rider Quarry.

As a fan of both of those... nah, can't quite say this episode did it for me either! Perhaps the critical thing here is that I'm also a fan of Zi-O and that takes priority in the, uh, Zi-O episode

This reveal bothers me so much because it feels like it was written by someone who watched the early Heisei era, watched Decade, and then just didn't watch anything else after that point. The idea that every Kamen Rider series takes place in a wholly isolated universe* is not how Kamen Rider had worked for an entire (lower case) decade by this point. Now, personally, I've always been of the view that Decade merged all of the older worlds together in the end; that's just personal head canon, though, and I don't mind if the show doesn't follow it. What I do mind is that there have been multiple occasions since then that have explicitly shown that every show** since at least W takes place in the same world.

Now Switchblade, the devil may advocate, many of those crossovers happened in movies and Kamen Rider movies have always had fairly tenuous relationships with their shows. Many are blatantly not canon and the team-up intensive ones, in particular, are often completely divorced from the show's narrative. That is a fair point; you could probably make a convincing case that something like, say, GoRiders may not have really happened in the main Ex-Aid timeline. In response, though, I would point out that many of these films are, again, explicitly canon to the shows and elements from them absolutely turn up on the series proper. Also, Haruto was on an episode of Fourze. Takeru was on Drive. This is not the 2000s again, where the closest we ever got to crossovers were an HBV and the one Den-O movie that even Den-O ignores. It is patently absurd for Zi-O to start its endgame with "So there are 19 separate Kamen Rider worlds..."


*Build notwithstanding.

**Build still notwithstanding.

So, stuff happened, and now Zi-O has become Decade Season II.

Now, I'm not against Rider taking place in different worlds, since some of them don't quite fit into a specific timeline, but Zi-O set itself up as a time travelling story, and as Die mentioned, you can't do both, or at least not like this.

To be honest, I don't remember much at all about last episode other than Woz being a hero, they finally beat Eternal who gives a thumbs up, and Aqua dies. So I'm moving on to this episode that I also don't remember much on.

It's this final arc where Zi-O starts to slowly fall apart, sure you could say it's the Decade arc, but I also feel like even that could have been done better. Swartz isn't a really good villain, and it just becomes something of a mess overall. It doesn't feel like an Anniversary plot (despite how much it leans into that territory) nor is it really helping the Zi-O plot, which makes the bridge between the endgame and finale a bit of a slog.

*rolls up sleeves*

This is a real Personal Preference type of thing, but I've never liked plots that are about a villain tricking a hero into getting super-powerful -- more powerful than even the villain -- and then somehow stealing that power and securing total victory.

It's the "somehow" that always drives me up the wall. If you're powerful enough to steal that hero's powers, why do you even need them in the first place? And what if you aren't powerful enough to steal the hero's power? Aren't you just creating your own defeat?

It's so dumb.

So, predictably, I'm gonna push back a little on this.

I think the problem isn't that Decade Is Bad, it's that Decade and Zi-O have two different central metaphors that their story structure is built to support. Decade's a show about trying to fit in and discover your potential, so it makes sense to do that in a multiverse. Zi-O is show about making the best decisions each day to ensure you reach the best future possible, so it needs to be a time travel show. (Obviously, the themes were likely decided after the settings, but work with me here.) (Also, there's another very specific thematic thing Zi-O is doing that I'll talk about in a few days.) If you start mixing a multiverse story with a time travel story, you're handicapping yourself thematically in a way that's totally unnecessary.

His plan might be ridiculous and nearly impenetrable, but I think Swartz has real presence as a villain.

CURSE YOU, SWARTZ!

Yeah, I can forgive a lot of Time Nonsense if the character beats still land and the actors are given something meaty to work with. (Like, please get along with Yuuto.) Here, it's just Woz going TIME DISTORTIONS a bunch and Sougo learning things we all learned weeks ago, and that's lame. The best bits of characterization were between Diend and Decade, and they are guest stars. Not great!

This all just feels like a needlessly convoluted conclusion. If we're dealing with twenty divergent timelines instead of twenty alternate Earths, I don't know that that's a better, more thematically coherent plot? This was a show that did its best work in the present; by grounding existential dread and crushing guilt in moments of support and catharsis; by cutting through the four-dimensional knot of causality with a keen view of real emotions. It landed its The Villain Is Bringing In Villains From Formerly-Doomed Realities story on a poorly-socialized grim executioner who wishes he'd been nicer and more honest with his best friend. I know this show can get out of its own way to make memorable stories out of its weird collection of Time Nonsense, because I've watched it do it. It's frustrating to not be able to see them do it here.

I never ever ever want to rewrite a show I'm not liking. I feel like the only fair thing to do is confront the art you've been given, not the art you wish you'd been given instead. If you want, that's what fan fic is for, and plenty of people make great art in that field. Don't criticize a show for not doing the story you wanted them to do.

However.

I briefly thought the beginning of this show was setting up Swartz bringing every Heisei finale into Zi-O's time, and I thought that was brilliant. Making the anniversary guy defeat every Big Bad, in nineteen overlapping apocalypses? What an endgame!

Instead, it's a bunch of random monster suits and a neat cameo, the end. Not as fun for me, and that sort of tainted my enjoyment.

Ha ha, really? That's neat! I hope my weird thoughts about Ghost helped provide some distraction from this show's rapidly disintegrating clarity.

The Sougo/Tsukuyomi plot in this one is such a bummer, and kind of emblematic of this endgame's shortcomings. It's a plot that could've given us some new insight into Swartz, or Tsukuyomi, or Sougo, but instead it just regurgitates information we already knew and barely allows our heroes to push back in any meaningful way, because there wouldn't be any point. It's an entire episode that strands the two most invested characters in a narrative cul-de-sac.

It's an incredibly distracting detail in Swartz'z convoluted plan! It would be like if Geiz casually mentioned to Woz, mid-fight, that he'd returned from the future where he'd learned that every Rider ever was also a Sentai in disguise. You can't just toss that stuff at the audience and not expect way too many questions!

The thing that makes it not really a Decade arc, in my mind, is that it misses the demonizing of the hero, and for good reason. Tsukasa had a core group of people who supported him (and Kaito), but he was tasked with destruction by the universe. He was viewed with suspicion and fear by other Riders. Sougo was never that kid, nor should he be. The point of him is to be the opposite of Tsukasa: a kid whose optimism and empathy convinced total strangers to give over their power.

You can't do a Decade arc on Zi-O just by trying to convolute an impossible choice for Sougo and having a bunch of multiverse stuff show up. It's not really sufficient?

So ZI-O has Became Decade Season 2.

People are definitely saying that, but, boy, I really don't see it? I mean, yeah, Decade's in it; and, yeah, Tsukasa's just come to the conclusion that he needs to destroy this world, but that all feels almost incidental to what's really happening within this story. You could just as easily say that the series began as Build Season 2, if that's the criteria.

It's... I don't want to use the word "dismissive", because I think this thread's already had a discussion over how many assumptions that word makes. But it's reducing an intensely complicated set of shows into a few obvious signifiers, and I think that's weirdly disrespectful to the complexity of both shows, and what their creators were trying to say.

I mean, I don't love what's going on in this show right now! It's not fun to watch! But I don't feel like it's become Decade any more than I feel like it became Blade or Den-O or whatever. The problem is that it's lost its characters amongst plot machinations, and I don't remember that being a huge Decade problem?

(Maybe it was! I legitimately don't remember! I don't retain this stuff super great!)

Like, the key thing for Decade was Tsukasa feeling manipulated by the universe to be something he didn't understand, in a way that might disappoint the people who believed in him. Metaphorically, it was his ability to define himself being removed. We may yet get there with Sougo, but I don't think he's trapped into one action in the same way. He's got choices, even if they don't make a ton of sense. His metaphorical struggle is inherently different than Tsukasa's. He's not someone looking for a place to belong, or a world that'll accept him. He's trying to figure out how to avoid becoming a person he fears. His choices here are about how he can use his power to protect people, rather than accrue power for its own sake. It's two different things?

And, sure, the worlds are colliding at the end of Zi-O! That's a little familiar! But I just can't see it as more than this show scrambling for an apocalypse when it really wants to talk about people.

I meant finishing plot threads from Decade into this show.

Even then... I don't feel like it is? Any more than Tsukasa randomly showing up in any other series or event was continuing those plot threads? This is just, like, his deal. He shows up, everything goes sideways, he Gets The Gist, victory. He's more active here than I'd maybe like (especially in this episode), but the narrative is still fully centered on Zi-O characters.

This is fair, if it's just the plot of villains stealing heroes' power being inherently questionable to you. Though to be fair, this IS Kamen Rider which'd mean, Sougo is only a human if he doesn't henshin and had his belt only, and Swartz can take the upgraded belt that contains Ohma Zi-O power while Sougo's in his human form or something. The part of not being powerful to steal the hero's power, that's quite the cliche downfall for villains that has this plot, and that's probably often done to show how arrogance and superiority complex will be your undoing.

True, like hating-Sougo-for-not-being-Tsukasa (as in, 'Tsukasa entertains me with that toxic and charismatic presence, but fuck Sougo for not giving that what a terrible character!'). I do prefer if the subjectivity is known like this, but many cases have people dictating what is good taste (such as praising what's generally liked and bashing what's generally hated), and have the ones who aren't like that being attacked. By that too, people can go apeshit for being told to acknowledge subjectivity or even just someone else who takes more out of it trying to defend and explain something they bash.

To be fair though, there are no fixed rule for time travel because it's not something that can be achieved in real world, at least so far, and probably that the truth about time travel is, something that was revealed by Aqua before about how the past would never be changed like many time travel depicted it. Other than Decade doing disparate realities, Den-O was the one that did time travel story though, and despite that series' popularity, the plot is considered as its main weakness.

It's a nice development for someone in that team to investigate the wild claim, but you somehow didn't complain about how Team Zi-O was permanently reactive? Because being reactive is often a criticism for heroes, and that characters like villains often are seen to be the one who is active and makes the plot thus they're the ones inherently more interesting. But then again, we all know that Swartz is the active one and the one who made Zi-O plot, but he's poorly received for a good reason. So that should break the claim that villains are always better for being 'inherently' active and plot maker.

Other than how it's meant to show Swartz's comparison to Tsukasa. Swartz's goal is a twisted replication of Decade's story (and what'd happen if Sougo chose to do nothing, as the other options are killing Swartz and making his friend vanish, letting Swartz win, or becoming Ohma Zi-O). In Decade, Tsukasa's powers were unwittingly fusing the A.R. Rider worlds with his which will destroy them all thus he needs to destroy the A.R. worlds, Swartz is willingly and forcefully fusing every world except his into one so he can destroy it. At the end of Decade's story, Tsukasa let himself be killed after he killed every Rider so a unified world could be born with all the dead Riders revived, Swartz simply wants to save his world to rule it and is willing to do anything to accomplish his goal. Tsukasa had his sister being his anchor, who had been corrupted to fight for Dai-Shocker. While Swartz's treatment of Tsukuyomi, redundant to convey it here already!

He even contrasts Kaitou too. Kaitou broke away from an authority position to escape the controlling influence of his bullying big brother, while stealing only unique, irreplaceable objects from every dimension he visited as collectibles. Swartz chose to stay in his position of authority, taking away the unique powers of the Heisei Kamen Riders to advance his plans. And he's the one who's bullying big brother instead of the one who got bullied, manipulating Heure and attempting to murder Tsukuyomi. As Another Decade, Swartz summons Dark Riders that appeared in the various Kamen Rider movies while Kaitou's world is based on Blade's movie.

I don't think that Alpina is actually more powerful, actually, and I do think that this plot is redundant to show to the audience, but this is done to show that Swartz's claim to be well-intentioned to save his world by destroying the other ones are bullshit, not bullshit as in about how convoluted it is, but about how he's just self-serving beneath his 'noble' claims, of which Sougo apparently exposed him here by asking the scenario if Alpina is more powerful than him (A̶l̶p̶i̶n̶a̶ ̶W̶a̶t̶c̶h̶e̶s̶ ̶>̶ ̶S̶w̶a̶t̶c̶h̶) then of course Swartz would go apeshit instead, which shows that Swartz only cared about being superior to his younger sister, but obviously we all already know Swartz is a depraved SOB and this plot is not necessary to show that further.

Regarding Chase part, it's actually a consequence of the world merging, as Chase comes from the new timeline where Drive doesn?t exist, but he still has his memories pre-Drive Watch and they are bubbling to the surface because time has been completely screwed up. As when Another Riders were defeated, the original Riders temporarily regained their memories. Then when Sougo obtained the Watch, the Riders would lose their memories again.

I don't know if they did bring up Heisei finale at this time but different from what you suggested, like how here, the worlds are merging with every Ridewatch that breaks. In succession, the Skywall from Build, complete with Clone Smash and Guardians. Then Roidmudes of Drive appear, lead by an Another World Mashin Chaser. Then the Fuuto Tower and Yggdrasill Tower of W and Gaim appear, causing Masquerade Dopants and Elementary Inves to appear. Then the Mirror World of Ryuki merges with Earth, causing the sky to be filled with Mirror Monsters. Finally, the GrandZi-O RideWatch fades, and by then, OOO's, Fourze's, Hibiki's, and Kabuto's realities have also fused. That's how the stakes are done in the worlds in Zi-O, the culmination of the various paradoxes that have happened over the course of the series, unsealing the powers and history in said previous Rider series but not the Riders, that forces Decade to destroy the world.

If you refer to Masamune, I wonder what position/occupation someone takes that you think the ones that are suitable to take over the world? I mean, being a CEO is about having the position where the company is under their control, and suitably, Masamune is a huge control freak, he wants to control more than only his own company, but everyone's fates as well. So he uses Kamen Rider Chronicle to get as many human lives under his control as possible. And Kamen Rider is a world with superpowers, so it's possible that it's what the worst type of depraved CEO want to do if they actually have superpowers.

I think I've mentioned it before? It wasn't a huge problem earlier in the series, since the various anniversary elements and character arcs ate up a bunch of screentime, creating a very entertaining show. The problem of all that reaction comes now, when the characters are basically being spun around by a villain for six straight episodes.

It hasn't been demonstrated, but I'm pretty sure Swartz outright says that he stole Tsukuyomi's powers and memories because she was more powerful than him.

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 48 - “2068 - OMA TIME”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio48a.png

God, what a reversal.

One of my favorite episodes of this entire series, maybe. It’s beautiful, and smart, and sad, and triumphant in its encapsulation of everything this series did well.

The thing about all of these apocalypses that Kamen Riders work year-long to avert is that they don’t matter, honestly. The point isn’t the scale, or the intricacy of the plotting. They’re just a framework to build and explore characters, or to present themes and morals. Whether it’s a massive black hole or an invading army, it’s all beside the point. Fun to watch, but minor in comparison to what these shows are really for.

The point of the endgame is to tell us how it’s affecting our heroes. The specifics of what’s at risk, or what might be required to save the day. A bunch of Legend Mooks attacking Tokyo for two straight episodes is just plot, and I care less about plot than I do about characters. I want to know what this all means to Sougo, and how he views himself amongst all of this chaos.

God bless this episode. The details of Swartz’z mad scheme fade to the background, thankfully, as we spend the moments before the end finding out how Sougo will finally respond to the choice he was given episodes ago. Swartz presented him with three outcomes to choose from, and Sougo spent two episodes paralyzed by them. All of them required people to be sacrificed, or they solidified a terrible future. Here, we see the culmination of a year’s worth of character development, as Sougo realizes the one weapon that neither Swartz nor Oma Zi-O can match: his friendships.

It’s perfect, that message. The irony of a show about a boy who was destined to be king, saving the day by delegating and cooperating, is delicious. The fact that Trinity Form was how Oma Zi-O could be bested, because Oma Zi-O never had friends… I love it so much. It takes the four dozen little moments with these characters and forges them into a weapon capable of battling a god. It all feels like the best reward possible for people who emotionally invested in this show, because it’s explicitly about the inevitable value in connecting with people, how the future becomes brighter if we’re all there together. It’s everything Sougo ever said about making a future for everyone. Oma Zi-O only made a future for himself, and look how he got beat.

It’s the smartest thing, in an episode with a million smart Sougo moments. I love him getting one last pep talk from Uncle, and trying to hide the pride he felt from Uncle suggesting that Kamen Rider Zi-O protected people like a king. I love him stunning Tsukasa with a bittersweet embrace of a destined sacrifice. I love him giving Tsukuyomi the chance to be the hero she already was, but in a much more marketable form. (I’ll echo everyone I’ve ever seen in the SHF thread: Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi when, Bandai?!) I love how this whole episode is about people realizing that connections and empathy matter more than Time Nonsense.

Everyone in it gets a cute moment or two, but I adore how tightly this episode plays like Sougo’s Last Day On Earth. The weight of all of this insanity is worth a million times more than an explanation of said insanity, and I’m glad this show finally remembered that.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio48b.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio48c.png

Okay so yeah, I can echo and say this was also just a really nice and fun episode. A lot of really cool character beats and stuff happening here. Like can I just say I adore the use of Trinity in this? This is my favorite moment of Trinity managing to catch Oma by surprise. Like Oma doesn't lose but this is still a really good moment because you can see him visibly surprised by this, and I just love how it's this form that was never meant to be, born on the Day of Oma via friendship that catches Oma Zi-O off guard.

Oma Zi-O is also still pretty interesting but that's a TED Talk for next time. Also that seen between Sougo and his Uncle was really nice. If there?s one thing I really love from this final set of episodes, it's their interactions. That being said, Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi! Took them long enough! I would have done it during the Agito Arc if you were asking my opinion about the timing with that.
Other than that we get some neat apocalypse stuff and that's about it? but! It's time I talk about 47's revelation and how I interpreted it a lot differently due to the info we get in 48. Mostly because the way I see it, 48 put things in perspective and this is so long I actually prepped this the night before as to get my thoughts in order and also so I could post it as soon as I could.


So to start, this is a modified version of a previous post back when Zi-O aired but here's what I gleamed from these penultimate episodes and how I interpreted aspects of not only Zi-O but Decade as well. This is going off a lot of context clues and mostly what we've been shown so you know, there might be some holes but this is why the revelation in 47 did not bother me, especially when 48 laid things out on the table so to speak (literally and figuratively lol).

In 2058 in a different world, Swartz and Tsukuyomi are members of a royal family. Swartz discovers there are multiple worlds all out there and that his world is going to decay and be destroyed due to not having a protector while the others do. Now note I use the term protector because while people bring up the Shinkenger argument, the Shinkenger's while not being Riders still serve the same role regardless. They're like a Rider Expy, this world seemingly has no one in it to act like that. Now then to prevent the collapse of his world and be herald as his world's savior and king he wants to merge a bunch all together then have them destroyed so his world is the only world left but needs a catalyst.

Remember at this point in time in Swartz' perspective, the worlds are split and separate with different Riders in them. They also don't deliberately say who belongs to what world which I think is the key to having a flexible mindset about this.

So he travels to 2009 and gives Sougo a piece of his powers, and as a result Sougo begins to draw the Rider worlds together that already exist, basically Showa to Kiva and probably some AR Worlds here and there. This essentially starts kicking off the plot of Decade where like, worlds are just randomly crashing into each other for some reason. This is where Decade comes in and while Decade is a mess, his role is simple?

"Decade has no story?"

In a sense that's true because his role is simply a means to an end, a tool for stabilizing the Rider Worlds as he runs through the events of his "plot" and basically makes a semi-consistent but still messy amalgamation world of various continuities that aren't exactly in sync with each other. And thus we get the Main Rider World we've been with since W where seemingly every Rider is integrated into it. Riders from W onwards are born into this new world but it's not exactly consistent or stable, which is why there are slight gaps in continuity and things that don't add up but they're relatively harmless. But those gaps in continuity and stuff basically mean the worlds can't ever fully become one yet.

Build was the turning point, and the peak of everything due to it specifically being a separate world. The Rider World likely couldn't handle anymore shared Riders and thus a new Build World was created. But then was implied to merge with Rider World and this ended up being the final linchpin that acted as the catalyst for Zi-O.

Now all Swartz had to do was recruit Time Jacker pawns and start getting Sougo to hunt for Ridewatches, this being expedited by the Time Orphans going back themselves. Once all the Ridewatches are gathered and Grand Zi-O formed, the worlds had fully and completely merged into one. The way they're fused together however was so haphazardly done that they're contradicting each other and now space and time are collapsing on top of each other as a result.

Anyway this was my big giga theory based on everything and how interpreted the information we got in both 47 and 49, thank you for coming to my TED Talk.


Anyway BGM Swaps for the Final Episode of Zi-O: Toki no Ouja, Tsukuyomi's Insert, Future Guardian, and finally Decade's Preview BGM and out of all of them? Decade's Preview BGM fits the mood the best. Also that added "Connect Everything, Destroy Everything" bit being added in this particular one helps a lot.

Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 49 Preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hnEcL-9fAY

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP48)

Wouldn't be the first time a Rider show you've gotten genuinely worried about has pulled this trick! (Although usually Inoue is the one writing when that happens...)

Anyway, yeah, I can't think of too much to add on. Despite my typically positive attitude about in retrospect, I do recall having my own concerns with where this final arc was going, and this episode did a lot to reassure me Zi-O hadn't lost its path. It's also like, the definitive proof that Trinity is the best Zi-O form, so I'll always like it for that too. (Plus, the show shoving The Power Of Friendship to the forefront here did a lot to recontextualize Oma Zi-O for me into a genuine character that's surprisingly fun to think about, which is a heck of a victory for this show when that dude is just as much of a glorified metaphor as SOUGO was in Over Quartzer.)

Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi is pretty neat too! I remember someone at the time pointing out how cheap the gold watchband trim looks as just a flat printed design, and to this day, I'm convinced I would like that suit at least twice as much if they had made it that little bit more three-dimensional. And mind you, I still like it a lot as is, so twice as much is a huge difference!

Oh, and speaking of things I remember other people pointing out!

The opening we've been seeing for a whole year by now:

https://i.imgur.com/y6b7Ggc.png
https://i.imgur.com/ob5IB0t.png

This episode:

https://i.imgur.com/18Mgdli.png
https://i.imgur.com/rfFK9OT.png

Considering that scene only happens like a couple minutes after the opening, you'd think the parallel is obvious, but I sure missed it completely! It's a really great touch though. I'm sure someone else could articulate this better than me, but it really conveys that year of growth Sougo has had as a character, and the year of growth Sou Okuno has had portraying that character. It's still crazy to think back and remember there was a point where even *I* didn't like this kid all that much.

Boy, look at all the in depth discussion regarding this last arc with Schwarz. I don't want to just restate things... Oh, I know. I'll respond with the same forethought and effort the show has.

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

This is the current plot. Bye now.

the ohma stuff is good though

I appreciate it! I know I complained a lot about the previous episodes, and I specifically called out the goofy multiverse stuff, but that honestly wasn't a huge deal for me. The huge deal was it all feeling disentangled from How Sougo Feels About Things, and no explanation's going to smooth over that. Luckily, this episode did a bang up job of refocusing things on the bestest Time Overlord there ever was, so I can get back to enjoying this TV show.

I am incredibly anxious to talk about What Oma Zi-O Means, and I don't know if it's going to fit in next episode's write-up, or in Wednesday's Series Wrap-Up post. We'll see what Episode 49 has up its sleeve!

But, yeah, I like the conversation Sougo has with Oma Zi-O a lot. As much as Oma Zi-O usually has this condescending attitude towards Sougo, verbally ruffling his hair and treating his rebelliousness as a precocious tantrum, it's great to see Sougo come back at it with a real I'm Not Mad, I'm Just Disappointed attitude about Oma Zi-O's solitude and isolation. Sougo's just super bummed out that a version of him never figured out how to draw strength from our people's support, rather than just stealing their power.

It really is!

Episode 48!

-Yeah, this episode generally has a much better vibe than these last few episodes, because it's chock full of those sweeeeeet character moments!

-The talk between Uncle and Sougo? Good as hell, loved it. I do love when Rider plays with the "keeping up/revealing my superhero idenity" stuff that goes beyond "Better not let random civilans/the bad guys know!". It feels like it's been ages since a consisently reoccuring character who's close to a Rider has been left out of the loop for this long, and I'm glad they stuck the landing on that!

-I always loved the talks between Oma Zi-O and Sougo? Oma's never particularly angry in these dicussions that Sougo does as he pleases, it's more like....encouraging, understanding in a twisted sense? It's almost...sweet, how Oma Zi-O essentially gives Sougo his blessings to seek out his own future, even if it might not exactly lead to the future he rules over 1:1.

-Tsu-ku-yo-mi! Nice suit, wish we got it a bit earlier tho!

I laughed a little at the beginning of this (very sweet!) scene, because I was like Oh Uncle Seriously Didn't Know About The Superhero Stuff. I half-expected Uncle to reassure Sougo and reveal that he'd known, but wanted Sougo to follow his own path, etc etc. Nope! Dude is legitimately shocked by Sougo's secret identity!

I kinda like that it's just this little beat, and Uncle is -- naturally -- nothing but supportive and proud. Sougo deserves it.

It maybe would've been nice, but I love the show making Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi the absolute final cliffhanger. It makes her the sought-after turning of the tide, rather than just, if you'll pardon the expression, Another Rider. I really like how big of a deal this debut is.

Before I get into this episode, I'd like to say, the Decade Season II bit mostly stems from how Zi-O decided to incorporate Decade's setting into its own, thus bringing us to that branch of thinking. It's not really significant, but that's how I see it.

But honestly yes, the Oma Zi-O arc is definitely where the show picked up after Swartz kind of disappointed us (his plan was pretty stupid anyway), and the scene with Sougo saying his farewells to his uncle is perhaps one of my favorite scenes in Rider. He's behind him every step of the way, he understands the risks his nephew is taking, and possibly an inkling of what may happen to him, but he sees him off with a smile regardless. Truly one of the best supporting Rider characters.

I also really like the mirror to Decade's beginning where they're surrounded by monsters, or Decade's soundtrack playing as he transforms into Zi-O (this was probably last episode, but I'm having a hard time remembering), and of course, Tsukasa roasting Geiz's "acting." But the real kicker is Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi, the joke they made early on in the commemorative specials! It's like they say, "jokes are the deepest lore."

One detail I haven't touched up on is how Woz's intros now take place in the present, no longer reciting what is written in his book (I strangely found him tearing the book in Over X Quartzer simultaneously blasphemous and wonderful), it's a fun detail, and brings immersion to the story.

It does, and I like how it reflects Woz'z integration into the cast as more than just Sougo's future retainer. He's not just providing narration for a fun prequel to the real story; he's worried that the end of this story is rapidly approaching. It's a neat evolution of his schtick.

I'm.... really sad to say that this episode actually just in total comes together to being painful for me, and its specifically because it comes so close to being everything that I ever wanted from this show.

Just on paper, everything to do with the confrontation with Oma Zi-O is just absolute perfection. Sougo has already challenged his future self before, but lost even when wielding the same all-encompassing power of all Kamen Riders ("actually he lost because drive-" shut up). In the end, Sougo goes up against Oma Zi-O not with any of those spectacular powers, but with the support of his friends, something Oma Zi-O never had. And after a fierce battle where we see Oma Zi-O get hurt for the first time ever, the overlord finally acknowledges that his younger self isn't destined only to become like him, but has his own different, brighter future after all, and so concedes.

That's so good. It's sooooo good. It's like, the perfect way to end this conflict with its all-powerful villain. It's not only perfect for Zi-O, but I honestly think it'd be the most wonderful, poignant, epic and subversive ending to these shows since Kuuga's final clash with Daguva! Had this episode landed all the necessary beats for me, I'm not kidding when I say this would be my favouirte final boss fight across all of Kamen Rider, and I would have been so quick to brush aside just about every problem I had with the show on the way here.

......But. There's several things, of varying importance, that keep it from being that for me.

1. THE CONTEXT FOR THIS FIGHT TO HAPPEN Honestly not a big deal because I would have even accepted a 'flimsy' reason for this fight to happen like, Sougo just decides he wants to prove a point to his future self here and now. Ideally this whole last stretch of episodes would have actually been about building up to this confrontation with Oma Zi-O being a menace to the past or sending threats to test/challenge Sougo, but that's getting into fanfic theory.

What is here though, I don't get what or why Sougo was doing there in 2068. I know its beating a long, looong dead horse to say the plot doesn't make sense, but the ''''''plan'''''' that Sougo and Tsukasa come up with to save the multiverse and might end with Sougo's life being sacrificed is to go to the future to see Tsukiyomi's past self, slip a Ridewatch into her pocket, so that she becomes a Rider in the present? And that'll save the world??? Sougo didn't even actually ask Oma Zi-O to do that, the latter just threw it in as a bonus?????

2. THE FIGHT ITSELF IS UNDERWHELMING I'll just throw in real quick that when Zi-O first charged in after Oma Zi-O, I sorta immediately assumed we're going to get that classic kind of thing where he would cycle through a bunch of his forms/upgrades. We don't get that but that's fine, the big moment here is Zi-O Trinity vs Oma Zi-O.

And it kinda sucks? I mean, the entire idea behind this fight is that instead of Sougo relying on his amazing Legend Rider powers, he bests his future self with the powers of friendship that the latter never has. Wouldn't the easiest, most logical ways to showcase that be for Zi-O Trinity to bust out any of Geiz'z and Woz'z weapons and abilities? And Trinity's finishing attack, the Time Break Burst Explosion literally summons the imagery of all three riders combining their efforts into one concentrated attack!

The idea of what's actually on screen is probably that having Geiz and Woz by his side is what allows Sougo to push through to land that hit, and that's neat and all, but you know what would have been a very easy way to translate that idea like ten times better? Doing anything with Trinity's actual power, like summoning the axe, the spear, the claw, the super speed, the sunbeams, the actual proper finisher, something. Instead he just uses Zi-O II's big sword. "I've never seen a power like that" Literally not true???

3, and this one's kind of critical. GEIZ AND WOZ ARE JUST PROPS HERE Geiz is finally face to face with the overlord that ruined his life and the lives of everyone he's ever cared about, and is now standing up to him alongside the friend he's forged an unbeatable connection, whom he believes in and trusts more than the overlord's overwhelming power. And Woz is directly challenging the overlord he has devoted himself to, by taking the side of his younger self, whom Woz sees a greater potential in and fervently supports.

And neither of them have anything to say!!! This fight should mean everything to all three of them, but both have nothing to say. Nothing to say to Oma Zi-O, nothing to say to Sougo, nothing to even comment about regarding this situation other than 'oh hey its oma zi-o guess we are fighting him now'. Like what!

I might be willing to cut at least Geiz a little slack. This show overall has no shortage of heroic and heartwarming declarations between him and Sougo, so maaaaybe I can accept that there simply doesn't need to be anything said there at this point (but they should still say it anyway!). But Woz? This episode was the last and only chance for the show to offer any kind of insight or elaboration as to why he does the things he do, why he's devoted to either Oma Zi-O or Sougo, anything to make him more than just the guy who says Iwae. I've been waiting ever since the show first teased hints about the guy's backstory and motivation back in Episode 29. I'm still waiting, in fact.

(I'll also throw in that I wish I could say Tsukiyomi should also have like, an opinion about what's going on with Oma Zi-O, because she's been on the team since day 1 but... Everything the show has done with her with the reveals of being some princess with time powers from another timeline yadda yadda, has sorta alienated her from the show's initial premise. I'm sad to say that as she is now, it feels like she wouldn't have a place in this conflict.)

4. THAT THIS ISN'T EVEN THE FINAL BATTLE I admit this could just be me, but everything about the very fibre of this show from the beginning, and everything in my gut as a person who has consumed at least one piece of fiction in my life, is screaming out that the last conflict in this show ought to be, should have been, needs to be this final confrontation between Sougo and Oma Zi-O.

But no. This whole fight feels more like ticking off something on a checklist rather than a conclusion to a long, series arc. We still have to deal with some nobody in his SIC Decade cosplay! God, I wish Geiz Revive would have just cut this stupid guy's head off with his buzzsaw! Why can't Decade and Diend just handle him like they imply they will?! The only thing that could smooth any of this over for me is if next episode has Tsukiyomi getting rid of Swatczhzs within five minutes and the rest of the finale is just an extended epilogue.

So all in all, this didn't work for me! I know its probably not fair, but had the episodes before this point actually been building up to this point and dealing with Oma Zi-O to culiminate in this battle, I wouldn't have pinned all my hopes for the series as a whole into this one episode. As the show is though, I needed this episode, for this confrontation, to be maybe not perfect, but really really really good! And it could have been if maybe two or maybe even one the points I listed above didn't apply! With just a few tweaks, Zi-O's endgame could have been one of my favourite things in the world.

I know the whole moral of this show is about learning from the past, working towards a brighter future, yadda yadda, but I can't help but fixated on the past and a future that can never be. So, that's on me for perhaps not willing to take the episode and the show as it is in the present.... But it really could have been so, so, so much better!!!

Hey, let's talk about What Oma Zi-O Means.

(I actually wanted to goof on the Chase stuff from this episode, but that can wait until later. I thought it was super funny, though!)

Here's the thing about Oma Zi-O: it's not about defeating him. Of all the things I don't want this show to do, and am terrified it'll happen in the finale, the worst would be for Sougo to defeat Oma Zi-O, once and for all.

The beauty of Oma Zi-O as a villain, and the thing that makes him maybe my favorite Heisei villain, is that he can't ever really be defeated. He's Sougo's potential for evil, and Sougo can't ever really extinguish that within himself. He can't ever Finally Defeat his darker impulses, or his self-loathing, or his Imposter Syndrome, or his misplaced guilt, because we can't ever Finally Defeat those things. He exists as a potentiality, as a worst case scenario.

And yet, Sougo can defeat him every single day. Every day that Sougo makes good choices, and cares about his friends, and helps strangers, and doesn't give in to his self-destructive tendencies, is a day that Oma Zi-O never exists. Every day that we support each other, care for ourselves, and work to make a better future is a day that we win, too.

That's the point of him, to never lose the war but always lose the battle.

My favorite metaphor that Oma Zi-O fills is an addiction metaphor. Anyone who's ever struggled with dependency, or had a loved one struggle with it, knows that recovery isn't ever a completed process. It starts with acknowledging that the problem is internal, not external. (Like when Sougo meets Oma Zi-O in the future.) It gets better by accepting that the problem is something you can exercise control over, even if it seems like a part of you won't allow it. (Like when Sougo gets the Zi-O II Ridewatch.) The battle gets easier by depending on other people, by accepting that some things can't be handled alone. (Trinity Form.) And then it just goes on, forever, a series of daily battles to create a future that's better than your past. (I'm sure I don't need to explain this one.)

I don't-- I don't want to say that your issues with this plotline aren't relevant. There's structural stuff that this episode maybe could've done a better job with, even if I'd need to have other people point them out to me. But Oma Zi-O's usage in this series has been an absolute highlight for me, and I thought this episode was a terrific showcase for his value in the narrative.

I can confidently say he's my favourite bad guy too in the whole franchise, even despite everything (and there's a lot of everything)! He's so cool in design and voice, he so perfectly encapsulates and symbolises all the shows themes and conflict, he's so awesome that most people probably don't mind that his Figuart is nearly unposable...

That Oma Zi-O leaves such an impression only a few scattered appearances, and some really thought-provoking interactoins with Sougo, is pretty special. Like, he deserves every bit of hype the premiere gave him as this super duper evil all-powerful ruler of everything and everywhen ever.

I never thought or wanted for the show to ultimately end with Oma Zi-O going 'how can this be!!" and exploding. That he simply relents in his belief that his younger self only has one path ahead, the same path as himself, is already a perfect beat to leave on. Maybe Sougo might still turn into that overlord one day, but after everything he's been through, there's an optimism that he'll keep coming out on top at the end of the day, as many times as it takes.

I do wish the show realised or remembered that he is by far the most important and interesting aspect it could be focusing on, as opposed to... everything else its been doing! Feels like somewhere along the way, Sougo's metaphorical and literal battle with his future has become secondary to the Time Nonsense Apocalypse, when it really should be the other way around.

It was a thing that super bothered me when the show seemed to go all-in on Swartz, which made it extra special to have the show re-establish Oma Zi-O as the real threat. I'll never ever care about some dopey guy trying to do an Earth Smash-Em-Up (or whatever) as much as I do the idea that Sougo needs to face a daily existential battle with his own fears. That's just such a solid concept for a Kamen Rider show, the idea that the darkness inherent in a Kamen Rider's powers is the Kamen Rider's future self. So good!

I wonder if I'll feel a little better about Swartz, in retrospect. Him as some weird distraction from the ways Sougo's become a better man, the catalyst for Sougo to become his best self instead of the required despot... I don't know, maybe someday I'll like Swartz.

While I've never liked him and never ever will, maybe the finale yet somehow will turn around every problem you've ever had : P These shows have had some greater and wilder last-minute comebacks for you in the past, I think. So here's hoping you face whatever the future (tomorrow) and come out the better for it !(?!)!

Well some more production info incoming to start this off.

Originally, instead of a Rider, Tsukuyomi was meant to turn into a monster (this was at a point where the Time Jackers we’re also suit characters, which was nixed as “too Sentai”), but Shirakura suggested she become a Rider instead. The reason it took this long is because, as I’ve mentioned before, is because I they didn’t want to start her arc until they actually had a design ready for Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi (the brief appearance of a watch in episode 15.5 uses the design they were considering back then).

And now, we move onto the Ridewatch Playlist.

First is the watch for Tsukuyomi (which I actually own in real life) https://youtube.com/watch?v=K2qwjWMqBS0

“The shining crescent moon-masked girl Rider is… Tsukuyomi” (I mean they could probably say more than that. I mean, talk about how she’s the type of person who’d never stab anyone in the back).

And the song I went with is Tsuki no Michiru Toki, her song from the 20th Anniversary album https://youtube.com/watch?v=gDB75b1t63E

Next up is something a little different, in the form of the Ohma Driver https://youtube.com/watch?v=6R4K5sx2kuE

There are 4 bios here, all of which may sound familiar.

“The Heisei Kamen Riders have passed through this era. Now, their power gives way to a new future. Rejoice, for the birth of the new king”

“Ohma Day. The day of judgement marking the end of the Kamen Rider era. Is it the end of history, or just the beginning? Choose our future”

“The Heisei Kamen Riders have passed through this era. Inheriting all the powers, a new legend is beginning. Rejoice at the birth of the true king”

“The Heisei Kamen Riders have passed through this era. With their powers now gathered, the curtain rises upon the final battle. Open the way to the future of the true king”

Only one page left until the end of the world.

*side note, I liked them bringing back Mashin Chaser for this (mostly because I never liked Kamen Rider Chaser, like, at all)

Swartz was the more powerful one, him feeling more powerful is the reason why he's livid of Tsukuyomi being chosen as the heir despite that she's weaker. Actually lol, one of the contrasting things Swartz have with Evolt was that, Evolt has an older brother who's much more powerful than him and malevolent, while Swartz has a younger sister who's less powerful than him but benevolent.

I'd say actually I'm not into the fighting scenes against mooks/fodders (though I mostly was unimpressed by KR fighting scenes :p), as it'd be the more certain route of the heroes wiping the floor of anyone they come across with, though I'd appreciate a good use of abilities if it's done in a fighting. To present theme is using on the characters we know, but to present morals though, the Tokyo attack probably can be important too of that to acknowledge that nameless people they don't know has rights too to be saved. Otherwise, even Sougo now is onboard with Tsukasa's plan, rather than Swartz's choices. I don't know if actually this'd mean the plan is making Tsukuyomi a Rider for pretending to struggle against Swartz, confront Ohma Zi-O, and then have the Ridewatch being powered.

This part shows what Ohma Zi-O's goal actually is, as he reveals his powers can destroy time and space, which is what Swartz really seek, Ohma Zi-O openly desires to see which timeline his past-self would destroy and how he would go on about it. Ohma Zi-O, along with Woz, aren't only the ones who ruined the timeline, but also continuing their work by corrupting the alternate versions of Sougo to expand his cruelty into another timeline, possibly also to prevent more oppositions against him that can be done on another timeline. Though now Woz seems to be redeemed in him participating in the Tokyo attack for the citizens. This part shows Ohma Zi-O holds an extremely tiny bit of present Sougo's personality, by helping present Sougo by empowering the Ridewatch he gave Tsukuyomi, though Ohma Zi-O claims it's meaningless.

Actually, this episode does show another part about the loop that is created... as seen here, Sougo helped 2068 Tsukuyomi and also slipped a Ridewatch in her pocket for her first advent as a Rider, and that's what inspired both Geiz and Tsukuyomi to travel to 2068 and interact with the younger version of the dictator, what kickstarted the main trio's interaction in that started the series was an event that happened in late series. Though probably this is kinda inconsistent with Geiz's characterization to probably forget about Geiz's early self and use Geiz's current self even for an event that is meant to explain a past event. Sure Geiz later became a tsundere for him but didn't think that he had that feeling at the beginning.

About Zi-O Trinity, it's also a sign about how the loop this time can be finally broken (so there's Swartz's scheme brought up here, but a hopeful conclusion), with how Ohma Zi-O didn't remember meeting Sougo at this point, and that Ohma Zi-O didn't remember Trinity as a power, so other than the friendship message, it's a sign about how, changes can finally happen for the cast's actions, despite the loop, resulting in Sougo not turning like Ohma Zi-O. Sougo has shown to learn something to not become Ohma Zi-O, from Junichiro, to not pretend everything is okay, to acknowledge he's lonely otherwise he'd become a king who doesn?t understand the pain of others. Which is who Ohma Zi-O is, still oblivious as ever, and pretending everything's ok including thinking he saved the world, thus he never understand the pain of others, while present Sougo has been scolded by Junichiro, partly also due to the actions of Geiz and Tsukuyomi, thus he's not like Ohma Zi-O and a change that can break the loop is made.

As Heisei Generations showed, Ataru was someone who is excited of meeting Kamen Riders, and he had similar reactions to Tsukuyomi, of which he explained it's not a crush on her. This is the reason why, Tsukuyomi is also a Kamen Rider, thus Ataru had similar reactions to her as him meeting Sento or others. But this is a display of how badly handled Tsukuyomi as a Rider though, to make her one this late in the series, though this one displays her henshin, but the next one would be clearer. Similar to the criticism about the Aso family in Kiva about how the series make them handle IXA (yeah they have great one time fight but still otherwise..), but Tsukuyomi's one is more brought up often to criticize, either due to this being more recent series or the hatedom for Tsukuyomi (like, how her Rider part is handled just dig the grave deeper).

In Oma Zi-O's defense, he was deliberately only using a fraction of his power. His physical attributes aren't what's impressive about him, but rather all the OP time manipulation he can do. He can't throw everything he has at Sougo, as destroying his past self would erase his present. But in the fair fight that happened where Oma Zi-O was merely humoring his past self, the underdog Zi-O Trinity showed their true power, being the symbol of the magic of friendship that was born on the new Day of Oma, in addition to the individual powers of Kamen Rider Geiz and Woz. Of course, Oma Zi-O isn't disappointed at all, he wins no matter the outcome since he genuinely supports Sougo to follow the path he believes in.

I agree it's an awesome conclusion to Sougo's quest to surpass Oma Zi-O, by realizing that even if Oma Zi-O is the most powerful man in the universe, he's pitifully lonely and self-obsessed. Power alone isn't enough to change that. In the midst of all this Swartz-related Time Nonsense, I'm grateful that this show managed to spare one more episode to focus on what's really important.

This is a pretty decent headcanon. I guess it kind of makes sense that Kamen Rider would be used as a synonym for superhero in general, considering how this is a Kamen Rider show. Like, if Swartz's world really is completely devoid of any superheroes or some meaningful force of good, then yeah, that world is totally screwed. Same goes for evil, as a source of adversity to push people to become better. On the surface, I think it seems weird that the timeline itself would basically give up on existing for that reason, like it has a will of its own, but playing with that concept, I imagine it sees that lack of balance for how destructive it is, so it just speeds up that process to its natural end.

Okay, this is where I personally think your theory breaks my suspension of disbelief. I've always taken for granted that Tsukasa, due to his unique existence as the Destroyer of Worlds, was responsible for the various worlds fusing in to one. Remember that Tsukasa found out about his dimension crossing power when he was a kid and all his exploits as the leader of Dai Shocker occurred before the start of his show in January 2009, which in turn occurred before the bus incident of April 2009. The Tsukasa of that time was already on his Journey Through The Decade before Sougo was even in the picture. Furthermore, what reason would 9 year-old Sougo have to start fusing the worlds? I feel like that would have to be tied to his dream power, but the only one he ever mentioned was the recurring one with the past Swartz.

That action was so powerful that Woz managed to destroy SOUGO's Heisei Vaccum all on his own!

So first off, thanks for responding. Uh... I wasn't actually expecting anyone to respond so it's always cool to see people dig into some of the weird things I say sometimes. Plus this helps out in many ways when I see people questioning my theories and stuff cause as a fanfic person and one who likes to build off of Canon via Headcanon's, outsiders looking in with their comments is always welcome for me.

That being said to address the Sougo part of this, 48 sorta implies from Tsukasa's words and Sougo's reaction that Sougo was pulling the worlds together subconsciously ever since that event in 2009, he wasn't actively thinking about it.

As for the whole date start of Kamen Rider Decade and the date of April... I admittedly have nothing there. But if I had to guess 2019 me's reasoning for like brushing past this detail... and what I recall nowadays for the most part I really don't put much stock in dates unless a show has heavy seasonal changes. Like with Decade you could very well just say it happened post April 2009 in the span of like a month or a few weeks since aside from like a few outfit swaps here and there, there's never really any big like seasonal moments in the show.

At least that's how I think my 2019 Self was thinking when he made this theory like nearly 3 years ago. lol

Oh, uh, I don't mean "someday" as in "soon". God, no. Swartz right now is pretty far down my list of Late-Series Heisei Adversaries, hovering somewhere between Dark Kabuto and any explanation for Sakurai's actions in Den-O. I mostly mean that, if I were to rewatch Zi-O a decade from now, maybe I'd find something worthwhile in Swartz. And a decade might not be long enough!

Hey, let's talk about Chase!

Chase showing up just to have his Former-Villain Epiphany and then die was, honestly, my favorite part of the episode. I love all of the Sougo stuff, and I love thinking about Oma Zi-O's metaphorical weight, but Chase lying in the arms of Geiz to cap off a speedrun on his Drive character arc was so funny.

I mean, yeah, it's thematically tied-in on this episode's story about the power of friendship, but the imagery (the way it's staged just like his original death scene!) is so on-the-nose that it's bizarre to watch. Like, Geiz just met this guy a day ago, and tried to cripple him with a logical paradox. Now he's like WE'RE Your Friends, and I'm like, what? What in the hell is Geiz even talking about?

Such a weird subplot in this episode!

Yeah, I don't really follow the plan here, but I'm hoping it'll become clear after Episode 49.

I love that Sougo pities Oma Zi-O, amongst all the other weird emotions that must be involved in trying to undo a timeline where you yourself become a genocidal despot. He looks at that guy and feels sad that he never knew what it was like to be vulnerable for other people, or let them be vulnerable around you. It's good stuff!

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 49 - “2019 - APOCALYPSE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio49a.png

It’s really the only way this show could end.

Beyond the previous episode’s declaration that Sougo’s true power comes from his friends, or this episode’s declaration that the true victory belonged to everyone who believed in and sacrificed for Sougo, this series had a number of Sougo speeches regarding what the best future looks like. As opaque as this show’s plotting and logic have been at times, there’s been remarkable clarity in what the best outcome for this story was, what the ideal future looks like to Sougo.

The ideal future is the one we all get to live in together.

That’s it, really. It’s not about defeating foes, or ensuring Oma Zi-O never exists. It’s creating a world where people are safe to dream of the future they want to see, and given the support necessary to realize those dreams. The fact that it all looks like the Webtoon spin-off of Kamen Rider Zi-O is just a bonus, maybe. It’s cute. It’s a very cute ending, for a very cute show.

The episode that preceded it was a messy pile of weird plotting, heartbreaking performances, epic action, and boring villainy. In all ways, this was the ultimate Zi-O episode.

Geiz’z death scene, for example. The emotion in the scene is touching, and the long-awaited moment of Geiz calling Zi-O “Sougo” – with his dying breaths – was exactly as devastating as you’d imagine. (Are we all crying right now?) But it comes on the heels of a somewhat random Geiz sacrifice, and directly before Tsukuyomi decides that she’d rather wait until after Geiz has been murdered to turn on Swartz, so it all feels a bit tainted. The entire final battle has that same taint to it, with Swartz’z goal of stealing Oma Zi-O’s power being thwarted by, like, him not actually being able to do that? It retroactively confirms Swartz’z plot to be even dumber than you could’ve feared, which is not the ideal note for the climax of a year-long series. It makes the events of the middle of this episode feel arbitrary and irrelevant, an action-packed distraction from anything that makes sense or is worth investing in.

But on either side of it, you’ve got this show’s expertly calibrated character work, as precise and dependable as a well-maintained clock.

That little breakfast scene with Sougo and Uncle! It could be maudlin and funereal, but it’s warm and goofy and bittersweet and resolute in its humanity. (The bit where Uncle tells Sougo this can’t be his last supper, because it’s breakfast!) Just when everything in this show should be preparing Sougo for a death march, the wacky uncle delivers the key to victory, and makes sure that Sougo knows to bring everyone home.

And then the aftermath, as we’ve wound things back to the beginning, to September of 2018. But it’s a better version of the beginning, a future version, where the lessons of the last year are built into the foundation of the world. Where the battles and rivalries of this show get recast as supportive friendships and second chances. Where Oma Zi-O still might exist at some point in the future, but Sougo’s support network has never made him feel farther away. Where everyone gets to see what future awaits them.

It’s really the only way this show could end.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio49b.png