I made my opinion on Ryuki clear really on (but I’m too lazy to find and quote it). Really, nothing’s changed for me since then. The problems I had were resolved too late for me to actually forgive them. What made it worse was that some of the elements introduced since then (Asakura’s rivalry with Kitaoka, Tojo’s desire to be a hero) were the parts I actually thought were pretty good. (Through there were some I didn’t like that much, such as Odin in general and the continued focus on monster fights)

I do agree that the show had way overestimated how invested we were in Yui. I mean, why should we care for someone who’s barely there when she’s on screen and has no real personal connection to EITHER of our two heroes?

In general, I prefer the spin-offs to the actual show. I didn’t think I’d ever find a show I’d rank below Kuuga or the early Neo-Heisei shows (which aren’t on any of my “top” lists), but this was one show I outright hated watching, as opposed to not liking watching it.

Thankfully, my experience is almost over and I’ve already got a nice, presumably friendlier show lined up to take its place starting Monday.

The most amusing thing about the cloud is how big Yui's name gets to be.

And, from what I've heard, you are going to *love* Faiz. An entire series in the Inoue Zone.

OK, as you've finished, now I have posted the essay I've been talking about previously in a separate thread. Though I also want to post this one here, an explanation of Ryuki, but on the review that is not about Ryuki, so gotta screenshot it and just post the Ryuki part of this page (consider this as a preview before checking out blog, the actual KR thoughts has much, much more than this, mainly Ryuki and OOO, I'd say the most complete I've ever seen on the internet, much better than wiki, IMO).
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...732&height=475

Oh, I just feel that the sword slash attack ain't any different from the regular sword slash, making it seems not any deadlier than usual attack, it's just like slashing a jumping enemy once. Tiger's Final Vent is also about the Contract Monster forcing the enemy into Tiger's claw, but at least it gives extra pain by being wiped off across the ground.

So to sum up you want for her to actually cause a doom and try to atone for it? Probably just the difference of stances (and I have to admit I'm likely pettier in this case). I think I prioritize morality over storytelling for this case. I want Yui to be just as empathetic as Shinji like you said here, where like him, feeling guilt over things like this, so I'd like for her having no actual mistake like Shinji here (unlike in movie). And like Shinji again, I want her decisions being selfess; based off on others and not out of personal (unlike in movie); like Shinji deciding to become a Rider after seeing a girl losing her mother.

Wew... this is new. Other sources I read has it saying Miho's sister being dead.

Gotta talk about the others later, but again, want to explain this one first. It either comes to these 2.

• First, the rules don't state that all 13 Riders have to be active at the same time or unique, for the main series, there were 10 Riders appeared, but it's brought up to 13 by 2 more Odins, and a second Zolda (Goro). In the movie continuities, the presence of Verde (13 Riders) and Ryuga and Femme (Episode Final) indicates that 2 of the repeat Riders mentioned above never became Riders (Goro never became Zolda in either movie, and Odin either stayed dead after his second death (Episode Final) or didn't die a second time (13 Riders)).
• Second, there's a theory where people with the scribbled eyes in the opening are the extra Riders which presumably have been taken out off-screen.
  https://66.media.tumblr.com/5fdf45f2...tsaco1_500.png

It's just Shiro's choice to fight only 1 Rider left as Odin, but with Shinji delaying the Rider War to its near deadline, Shiro is forced to change his plans to prematurely fight other Riders as Odin to make sure that all other Riders die before Yui's birthday to gain his wish. Shiro obviously won't reveal about his motives, or especially cheating the game for himself. The time limit is related to those 2, so Shiro won't tell either, until Shinji forced him to. I think you got mistaken here, wasn't the scene of Asakura being shot happened before Knight becomes final Rider (and Odin self-destructing)? Asakura's death scene actually cuts to Odin slashing Knight Survive.

I always assumed that the additional riders died off-screen. After all, some of them were riders prior to meeting the other characters. And it wouldn't surprise me if some were killed off by the mirror monsters.

Well, the word cloud is done off of an upload of my Google Doc, so it doesn't take into account any board chatter, unfortunately. (I don't even know how I could get all 70 pages of this thread downloaded in a reasonable amount of time.) It's just my episode posts, and I said Shinji 378 times to Ryuki's 316. But I'm sure we all said Shinji more than we said Ryuki. And Yui gets talked about a lot! I can't remember the context, but it was probably all about her hair.

The thing I like the most from that word cloud is that "feel" shows up more often than "think". I prefer that. I'd rather approach a show like this emotionally, how it's making me feel to watch it, than with plot analysis, theories, whatever. Maybe not for everyone, but it's how I'd rather watch Kamen Rider.

I'm actually psyched for Faiz! I've heard murmurs that hit's got a... specific tone? All I know is that I read the Wiki synopsis of the premise a couple years ago, when I was trying to understand how this franchise worked, and I did not understand it at all. (I also don't remember much. Aliens?) I remember feeling like I was having a stroke reading the series breakdown, words I recognized up against words that were incomprehensible, forming sentences that were just out of my reach.

Should be fun!

Thanks for sharing that!

I don't know how I'd rank Ryuki just yet. The characters are so great, but they're trapped in a story that doesn't have any moves to it. (The stakes and premise don't ever really evolve over the course of the series, minus the last two episodes, which is sort-of insane to think about. There are new Riders, and those new characters create interesting stories, but the world they operate in stays fairly static.)

I'm sorry you didn't have fun watching it, but thanks again for talking about it! What's your new show on Monday?

Yeah, I want her predicament to be a choice she made, even if it's (especially if it's) without full knowledge of the consequences. It keeps her central to the story, an active participant rather than a perpetual victim.

And, I get it, her being blameless can make her sacrifice more noble. I just feel like her being an innocent martyr is less interesting, dramatically, than someone who made one weird mistake in childhood and now has to grapple with that as an adult. One's not better than the other, but I prefer the latter.

I mean, those are neat theories, but I'm just going off of what's on the show. I'm not sure anyone ever makes a distinction of multiple Odins adding up to the Rider Battles thirteen Riders. Same thing with the intro. It's a cool concept, but it's a fan theory. You can certainly come up with theories to get most of it to come together, but I my feeling is you shouldn't have to? Like, we're talking about basic mechanics of a plot that's paying off a year-long story. These aren't the sort of things that fans should need to have theories about.

To me, those extra faces are meant to imply the breadth of people that could be involved in the Rider Battles, not fill in holes to a story that probably hadn't even been written yet. (I'm not sure how many scripts would've been completed before they shot that intro sequence, but I'd guess no more than a dozen.)

Also, what is the fan theory for the lucky cat, the broccoli, and the fish?

Odin declares Knight to be the final Rider (other than him) before Asakura's killed. That's what bugs me, the Odin/Knight Final Fight is happening before all the other Riders are dead.

Sure, definitely a possibility. Or maybe some got killed during the series and we never saw it. It's just weird that they couldn't seem to spare a minute to close off that omission. Also, how cool would it have been if we didn't see Asakura for a few episodes, and then he just drops four cracked Card Decks on Kitaoka's desk or something? How great would that have been?

The show I’m starting is Tokkei Winspector, the 9th Metal Heroes series and the first in the Rescue Heroes trilogy, which is defined by the lack of villainous groups in favour of more regular criminals and emergencies and keeping the gear used by the heroes more grounded (namely, we actually see where it goes when not in use).

It sounds like a good one! I hope you enjoy it!

That definitely sounds like the experience of trying to understand Faiz from the outside. I'd say I have a basic working knowledge of most Heisei series, but Faiz is a big blank spot for me. It just defies you until you watch it, and I'd rather be watching other things.

Speaking of, I suppose my challenge is to finish Blade before you catch up to me so I at least have relevant stuff to say about that. But anyway, even for series I haven't seen, it's fun reading these!

To gain more insight of ranking, if you have time, can you read the essay blog I've shared (separate post, or link above for quick access)? Probably can if you also read wikis (you can read the OOO take too!), and those are much better version of wikis. And yeah Shiro's one invincible villain, that's the reason why the characters are trapped in story without much moves. From Yui, to Sano, to Ren, to Asakura, everyone related to the Rider War are his pawns and victims. He's a ghost, so Riders can't attack him, he controls the single most powerful Rider, so should they even try they're almost certainly going to fail. If Odin does die, Shiro can just find a new person to replace him. If something doesn't go his way, he can just have Odin rewind time. Top it all off, he can actually strip Riders of their powers if he really wants to. Hilarously, "trapped in a story" is even exemplified in a Rider battle (with Shiro also). https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...300/3zsxyf.gif

Sure, those are theories, but Kobayashi's writing style mainly utilizes Show, Don't Tell system. She won't tell you anything outright, and instead convey through hints, dialogues and character emotions. I think she purposefully wants her fans to just catch what they see happen in her story and make their own theories/assumptions about it, like what I explained about this before. So I think making theories to explain something is plausible when talking about Kobayashi's work.

I think he just expects Zolda and Ouja to die soon therefore Knight is untouched and final, Shiro knew Zolda and Ouja are going to have their own battle, because Shiro watches both Zolda vs Ouja and Odin vs Knight Survive at episode 50.

Oh this is also related to the picture above I sent to you, the scribbled people holding cards. He explains that some Riders are maybe killed offscreen, and they are likely shown as the people with scribbled eye in the OP.