Pandering is okay, Kiwami's acting like that because he's sick of female Riders being useless, hell, Necrom P appeared for like 20 seconds. Not to mention the fact we're getting a major female character become a Rider is pretty big. It's like if Akiko became Accel instead of Terui, it's new. Not to mention KR is almost men exclusive and that gets boring after a while for some people

Don't take this the wrong way, but my word, what a stiff perspective. A lot of things happen in shows like these "just because." You think they gave Ex-Aid a burger form because they were concerned with its story significance? Doesn't mean they didn't make it work, but there was clearly no bigger thought behind doing something like that. They did it cause they thought it'd be fun.

KR shows aren't exactly high art, and after 45 years sometimes we just want to see something new. It doesn't matter if you want to label it pandering, there is nothing wrong with wanting more female Riders. Wanting a more diverse group of Rider characters (not even in a social representation sense, just diverse in the types of characters there are in general) is just natural.

Plus the whole idea that you're not allowed to make female characters if it's a conscious, deliberate choice is frankly ridiculous.

Eh... I think it's more the idea that it's such a travesty that there isn't more female riders. Or female characters in general.

It's less an issue of not wanting female characters, it's just, at least in my case, a distaste for the melodrama and the accusations that surround it.

Of course, I often find the same people demanding "diversity" also bitching about "tokens", so...

Although, I kind of have to wonder what the female suit actor field looks like as a whole. I mean, they obviously exist, but I'm not really aware of any of particular note outside of Malika's actress.

im guessing there's going to be shipping of emu/poppi/asuna, it's not like it's a surprise anyway, i saw this coming from the first episode.

it's always been them two together for 17 episodes, something between them two is going to eventually happen at some point.

Chronicle looks like an Xbox

Muteki looks perfect I love what I seeing with ex-aid final form. All that gold is just so nice and shiny.

I was hoping that ex-aid would get a gold form and he did which made me very happy to see. Can't wait to see it in the show gonna be golden lol.

The other stuff is boring I don't care for it.

What melodrama though? None of that was going on here. All Kiwami said was he was happy there was a female Rider, and that was that until NGW had to pipe in with the helpful opinion that wanting female Riders is "laughable" or whatever.

Honestly, the people who like to complain about the type of people you're talking about are often just as likely to start these pointless arguments.

...but they really are super pointless, so I guess I'll just shut up. It doesn't really matter.

As for female suit actors, I do know that a lot of female characters tend to have male suit actors, although the girls in Sentai at least lately do usually get female suit actors, far as I know. Rider has had less opportunity to have them for...well, obvious reasons, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thoughts, now that we've seen the stuff:

-The Muteki gashat is interesting, especially how the star thing on the side can be used in the level 3 slot. The picture shows it being used with Taddle Quest, so maybe it'll be the gashat for Brave and Snipe's final forms as well? I dunno, just seems weird to me that Para-Dx gets a final form but they don't seem to yet.

-Speaking of which, Perfect Knockout Gamer looks really cool. I wish he had a little more of the "nerdy" design of Puzzle Gamer, but the Chinese design is solid. The Parabolagun, on the other hand, might be the ugliest weapon in Ex-Aid. The handle is just too long for how small the axe and gun are. Otherwise it would be ok.

-I agree Chronos is a little underwhelming. On the other hand, the fact that his design seems to be only green and black might look really unique on an actual suit...I don't feel like I can judge him just yet. I do like how the Bugvisor 2 seems to be able to be used as a weapon even when being used as a driver, since the original doesn't seem to be able to do that.

-And the biggest surprise, Kamen Rider Poppy is actually happening! And with a new dating sim gashat, rather than her version of the Doremifa Beat one! She looks great and I love that she uses the Buggle Driver 2, though I feel like her chestplate is a little bland and kind of wish she had a rider gauge or something similar.

On the topic of female riders, I think the main issue is not the amount of them, but the treatment of them. They're infamous for almost always dying, even when it's pretty unnecessary (I maintain Marika's death was incredibly pointless). It's kind of crazy actually how just seeing Poppy become a rider is both exciting and worrying. Hopefully she'll be a little more Kivala and pre-death Marika, and a little less Femme and Dark Necrom P.

Speaking of Kivala, won't this be the first time since Decade where the female rider is actually the lead female?

It's more, you should be excited about a new rider period, or that a character is becoming a rider more than the girl part.

Uhh not sure because I think the cop woman from Wizard became a rider mage in the Wizard movie. But Kivala was a movie rider so if Poppy is in the show it will be more amazing than Kivala. As for Poppy being a rider . . . yeah we all should wish her luck. Since she was revealed to be a good bugster she pretty much given a 1/3 chance of dying in the show. Now that she is a rider its at least 2/3 chance of dying. And if she does die I am going to guess its a mercy kill from Emu probably because of something our game master with a god complex did to her.

Also does anyone think Dan wil get even more crazy when he gets Chronicle or will it be the gashat taking over him?