Fair enough. I wouldn't want to dismiss villainy. I guess I meant that Uesugi is actually evil, but yeah, Rui may qualify as an extreme antivillain. However, she ultimately bought Shoutarou time to figure out the truth which led to the best case scenario of saving Satoru and other victims and bringing Uesugi to justice before he could do even worse harm. Seems like this was only possible by Rui agreeing to be a reluctant accomplice. Whether or not she was selfish to value the life of a loved one to take such a risk, I think that's still better than the cynicism of sacrificing a life for the sake of the many, as that only guarantees the bad outcome.

Shroud is only marginally better than Ryubee, "helping" the heroes won't necessarily mean she's good, she just wants to exact revenge, only that her target happens to be a deserving one, it's a case of evil vs evil with what had she done, as she admits that her giving Weather Memory to Isaka is because, as shown later, he wants to take down Terror too; any means if it'd create a hero (anti-hero at first for Terui) or villain (evil vs evil in Isaka against Ryubee). To rely on at least both Isaka or Terui and pit them against each other (motivating Terui by Isaka's murder of his family) regardless of what'd happen to both, it's as if they're put in brutal competitive situation to "improve" each other, trying to one up each other. She also wants to draw strength from Terui's hatred by molding him as Raito's partner and fight as W CycloneAccelXtreme, getting rid of Hidari via Old. Shroud treats everyone as her tools, which explains how she glorifies cold detached traits. For this part, Ryubee can have a real sadistic side to his family, other than using Raito as a tool due to him being Earth itself, he disposed of Fumine with Terror Memory, along with an evil laugh, which is IMO quite deviating from how he usually is, like even if he wants to punish Saeko for rebelling, but it seems to be out of necessity other than outright maliciousness unlike the flashback.

As for this episode Kumi's turned old just like Miyu, as Yoshie hired Ager to turn Kumi old to take revenge. Yoshie is proud of her actions, reveling in Mitsuko feeling the same misery as she did. While I'd still say Yoshie's the lesser evil as I'd consider the one who started shit as worse rather than someone who retaliated, two wrongs don't make for a right, as this harms an innocent, Kumi, treating the actual victim only as a means to an ignoble end. Terui points out that Yoshie only satisfies her hatred instead of doing anything right, overlooking the fact that both of the daughters are obviously miserable for something none of their fault. It's just Ryoko Yui's thing to play terrible moms (later as Irumi in Geats), albeit in this case, the victim isn't own child but other's.

As the headmaster begs for forgiveness to the moms of doing something out of love to their children, Terui later compares Shroud's situation into the moms, doing all of her wicked shit for Philip's sake. Indeed, Shroud is the combination of both moms, she has Mitsuko's thing for getting rid of people who are obstacles to your end (Shotaro, Miyu) and her obsession to create CycloneAccelXtreme also makes her a stage mom for her son Raito as well, and also Yoshie's thing for taking revenge to someone who wronged them (Ryubee, Mitsuko) and harming innocents in the process (Terui's family + her other victims, Miyu), the 2-parter nicely sets up a parallel for Terui to completely denounce revenge ways, witnessing the destruction it can cause via the petty moms, as well as Shroud herself taking away Terui's family in her quest of revenge.

The moms are referred to as morons because really, revenge by proxy isn't practical either, it'd have a risk of earning even more enemies, like getting other relatives or potentially friends involved to help their respective favored person, escalating the revenge, as people who seek revenge forget that they won't always hold the upper hand, and as Saeko said before, it's wrong for Terui to assume that Isaka's death means it's over, in reality there's no end to vengeance. Yoshie did bring up about human nature to pay back for those who wronged them, but doesn't mean that if something is naturally predisposed to a certain act or state, it must be accepted. It seems that struggle can make some villains more subdued, and Saeko (a name resembling "psycho" in pronounciation) at Foundation X Arc seems to be W's take of it, sort of being willing to "cooperate" with Terui, like for other series, Gentoku cooperating with Sento/Banjou after Hokuto attacks, but doesn't mean that the villains are redeemed or such, just being forced by circumstances.

Kinda underselling it, Terui sets up to prove to Shroud that hatred isn't the only thing needed to defeat the forces of evil, wishing for Shroud to observe their fight, where Accel uses his unique physiology again to block Old's ooze directed at W, giving W a chance to directly strike Old as Xtreme. By this, like Yoshie, Shroud loses some common sense in her pursuit of revenge as well, where Accel simply needs to tank the ooze and let his allies strike the opponent, or focus on getting rid of Shotaro forgetting that he's just more addition for those who'd take down Terror, even was surprised when Terui mentions 3 of the Riders to do the job. Or even if what Shroud wants is getting Raito back, currently he's no longer with Sonozaki family, so there's no restriction of her being together with Raito/Philip without using convoluted schemes.

Fortunately, Shroud isn't irredeemable, as the Riders get through her, successfully proving her wrong, as she now regretted her actions like how Isaka turns out to be such monstrous creature that causes many deaths. Terui accepts her apology, with rather clever words, a comforting one but still not forgetting her atrocity, that she doesn't need to hurt anyone again now (can seem to be giving slap in the wrist to those bitter of villain's actions, but by this she won't do bad stuff to others anymore). Overall I'd view this 2-parter as one of the best in the series, with convincing way of showing the damages of a negative human trait, a crucial plot twist and story advance, a smart parallel between the main and side story, and the conclusive character development.

Though this'd mean CycloneAccelXtreme will never appear, if there'd be those who are disappointed in that. There's Climax Heroes OOO game that featured playable CAX, but is mostly a palette swap for CycloneJokerXtreme (but with Engine Blade in place of Prism Sword), but had the Prism Breaker move replaced by Engine Memory slashes, as well as no finisher (for being bonus character).

Old justifies his actions as making others happy (commonly said by main Rider types), which would also appeal to human's dark nature of wanting to see others miserable, thus he'd have completely no qualms of doing that if it's what his customers ask. At his very best, within his twisted mind, it'd be another picking favorites, only caring about his customers, complying to their request, but others be damned. Or it's just an excuse to profit off others by exploiting said human's dark nature, as he did say that he wants to prolong human vendetta to each other as he escapes, letting them gain their temporary happiness of having the upper hand in their vendetta, but one upped by their opposition who'd also be happy too regaining the upper hand, and so on. Old escapes due to Xtreme Memory beating him. Silly me to forget that, even without being used by W, Xtreme Memory is still a formidable fighter by itself, it fended off Weather in its early appearance.

Feels as if someone didn't do bad things out of malice, the writing is blamed to question why they take this decision rather than the more sensible one. Nah, someone can be bad outside of malicious reasons. Yoshie is meant to be a parallel to Shroud (one half of it, both moms are) to perform revenge by proxy. By this, for not taking the daughters, not that Shroud is a wonderful mom to Philip either, Shroud is also a stage mom, she gaslit Philip (e.g. to remove Shotaro), and uses him as a tool as revenge against Museum, and forcing him to abide in her ways, fighting Ryubee as CycloneAccelXtreme fueled by destructive hatred. Even if Shroud took Philip, she was a terrible parent to him too.

Indeed the moms abetted a known criminal, and Terui did confront them, albeit Terui probably sees no need if they did listen to his criticism and changed, as law is done to make sure others won't repeat their misdeeds. Terui seemed to get through to them as after he calls them out (as someone formerly hellbent on revenge), they just hug their crying children respectively.

https://i.imgur.com/9orAoSj.png

Man, look at that design. Isn't it just perfect?

There is alot to these two episodes, and I consider them dang near perfect. So let's get the one negative out of the way: Terui and Akiko hooking up.

With that done, I'm now going to do alot of gushing that most likely none of you will agree with, but hey, that's what I'm here for, to be The Only Fan of things no one else is, right?

First off, these episodes bring alot of depth and consideration to Double Xtreme's' design. Why does it come with a Sword when the only other weapons Double has wielded are a stave and a gun? Because it was designed with Accel in mind, whose main weapon is the Engine blade. And it's the same reason why three of the Memory Slots in the Shield are for Philip and only one is for Shotaro. That fourth slot is meant for the Accel Memory.

Second, I was also really surprised to learn that Sakamoto was the one who directed these two episodes, as they're very outside his usual style. He absolutely nailed it too with some great shots ontop of absolutely nailing the overall atmosphere that the story demanded. I think this is some of his best work!

And lastly, these episodes cemented Shroud as one of my favorite characters in the show, and I mean that unironically. Incredibly impressive to me how this show managed make her over the top nature both funny and yet incredibly sad at the same time. She serves as the prime example of the dangers of becoming single-mindedly obsessed, and I never once felt like the show tried to excuse it.

The second episode gives the story the out of "a parent's' love goes beyond comprehension" but really, I don't think it needed it, because alot of what goes into Shroud's' psychosis is pretty self-evident. She made alot of choices that she obviously regrets, but she became so dead set on her mission that her anger is the only thing keeping her going. Because without it, she'd fall into despair again. It's an awful headspace to be stuck in, and gets one to make alot of decisions that there's really no winning with.

It's all very intentional irony that's brought forth here too, because she in turns becomes every bit as bad Terror Dad, and I don't feel like the show ever shyed away from that. Yes, she walked out on her daughters after what happened to her son. Yes, her actions resulted in alot of terrible things happening. But not once does anyone go "You did nothing wrong." Heck, even Shroud doesn't think that, which I believe her brief scuffle with Wakana even showcases. Thus, like with Gai in Zero-One, I think the story less about full on redemption and more about self-actualization and a chance at moving forward.

Or, I suppose the simple way of summing this all up would be how someone else summed up an episode of a different Rider show that featured a mother treating her offspring horribly: Her behavior is human, therefore, it's fine.

Ha ha, disagree! I love the idea that these two have been drawing closer completely in the background, and that Terui is now in a situation where he's forced to reveal his private life to Shotaro. I've always disliked how out of nowhere the Akiko/Terui relationship felt, but Episode 44 sort of turned that into a character-based strength. Big fan! I get why these two are still married!

SHOTARO HIDARI HARDBOILED DELUSION DIARY EPISODE 10 - “WHAT IF AKIKO WAS AN OLD LADY?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/w/hdd11.png

This is another Delusion Diary that’s more fun in the real world than it is in the delusion. The wraparound segments of Akiko subjecting the guys to her new slipper-slapping fortune telling is nicely unique, and I appreciate how game and supportive Terui continues to be for Akiko’s enthusiastic nonsense. It’s cute, and a fun look at this four-person dynamic. (Shotaro is basically always overruled in favor of seeing where a dumb idea can go, which is exactly what the cross-section of Philip’s curiosity, Akiko’s enthusiasm, and Terui's delight at seeing Shotaro get frustrated should look like.)

On the other hand, the Everyone Is Old future delusion only has a couple good gags: Philip looking exactly the same because he’s a “data human”, and Terui needing to be reminded that he’s a ghost. The second one is the funniest thing in the entire short, but it doesn’t manage to make the rest of the delusion anything more than old people gags and a quick Dopant attack. It’s fine, but not a particularly funny or memorable delusion.

Modern-day stuff was great, though! This cast has impeccable hang-out chemistry!

Yeah the delusion definitely didn't do it for me either. There's some neat concepts like what you mentioned with Philip, and the idea that the Narumi Detective Agency can keep going up to the 2060s (just 8 more years till you get Oma Zi-O as a client folks!) is amusing, but not enough to really make it stand out.

That being said yeah, the hangout opening and closer with everyone in reality was definitely better. I wouldn't say it's amazing, but the hangout energy exhibited by the cast at this point is very cozy.

Hilariously, this Delusion Diary's suggestion that Terui would no longer be a part of the Narumi Detective Agency (due to being a ghost who will never admit that he's died) flies in the face of the reality that he's the one who shows up the most often post-W.

Wow, Shotaro’s brain was dark that week.

On the other hand, he thought the Narumi Detective Agency would continue operating for another 50 years. As a small business owner, that is some refreshingly optimistic expectation!

No response for my last episode reply? (ep. 44 one)