Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 766019)

also you're going to get a lot of unfiltered thoughts about many many different faiz pairings we never saw and how i think they'd go

like can you imagine what a yuuji/keitaro plot would be like

or kaido/kusaka

it just keeps going like this

Originally Posted by FreshToku (Post 766021)

'how would these people behave if they had to decide on what pizza to order?'

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 765972)

Can you give it to me one more time? I guess it wasn't clear to me. Sorry!

Originally Posted by DreadBringer (Post 766023)

Nooo... Yuka, don't turn into like that! Don't turn into the stereotypical snobby girl who treats any "peasants" like trash like those that bully you! Anyway yeah, what's with Keitaro moving on (like Kaido) previously if he only got "rejected" now?

Originally Posted by DreadBringer (Post 766023)

You won't be mad and tolerate more if it's not directed at you (you aren't Takumi or Mihara so..). But also, you can tolerate this one because Kusaka's dickish behavior is impotent (again)? Dunno if you'll get what I'm saying, but with someone that's great at running people down verbally being tolerated and considered funny, that'd make many dickheads and assholes, or even villains get away because they want to see more of their behavior to get laughs! Which would make their behavior opposite of impotent.

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 766016)

Oh sweet! I feel like Takumi only shows up in maybe one Phase 2 movie (at least that I remember), so hopefully I'll get some appearances in other Phase 1 movies and specials.

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 766011)

--1--

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before on other threads, but I always get a little melancholy at this point in a Kamen Rider series. I look in my folder of video files, and notice that there’re so few left. A handful, and that’s it forever. No more new stories with this cast. Save for a few Legend Rider appearances, that’s it for the story of Kamen Rider Faiz.

It’s a little like graduating, I guess. You spend all this time learning about people, getting invested, caring about them, and then just… done. Gone. There’s memories, hopefully more good than bad, but that time is over.

It’s… yeah, melancholy. I love that Kamen Rider stories end, but I hate that they end.

Originally Posted by GrandComplete (Post 766025)

Heisei Vs Showa, Super Hero Taisen GP, and Kamen Rider 4 kinda of creates this nice little trilogy that acts like an epilgoue for Takumi story. Imo.

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 766020)

Whoa! I didn't get that at all! Thanks!

Super weird that when they were looking for a voice to sell Pure Selfless Goodness, they were like REN. Definitely not the voice from Ryuki I'd've picked!

(Goro.)

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 766020)

Super weird that when they were looking for a voice to sell Pure Selfless Goodness, they were like REN. Definitely not the voice from Ryuki I'd've picked!

Originally Posted by Switchblade (Post 766029)

One of the things that you miss out on with using DVD rips instead of the original TV airings is that near the end of the series you would start getting promos for the next show. I always liked that when I originally went through this era; one show is ending, but you start getting teased with the promise of the next one.

So hey, if it'll help cheer you up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkOF1H2SnH4

Originally Posted by Sunred (Post 766037)

I remember when I saw this a long time ago I was surprised too because Atsushi Ogawa appearing I could understand since he was previously in a Inoue-centric production two years ago that we lovingly call Kamen Rider Agito at the time. Of course, Inoue participated in Ryuki too so there is that but cameo stuff like this at the time was usually reserved for summer movies. But yeah, Matsuda making this cameo was totally outta left field. After learning about it I kinda hoped we could see a glimpse of Matsuda maybe reverting for a second to human form and stuff.

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich (Post 766039)

If you're trying to say you wouldn't pick that actor because you have a preconceived notion of what a "proper" role for him is, I think maybe the casting choice here was less weird than you might think. :p

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 766011)

--2--

And, shit, that’s probably a good emotional state to be in for this episode! It’s a darker one! Lots of emotions! As expected from the last cliffhanger, it’s centered on Yuka’s newfound status as a fugitive, and what that does to the status quo.

Team Faiz reacts pretty much how you’d think, and they’re mostly in the background for this one. Kusaka doesn’t shed any tears over one more hunted Orphnoch, Keitaro tosses out a conversation-starter that propels a fascinating subplot for Mari, and Takumi has some feelings about Orphnochs’ right to exist.

It’s Team Orphnoch that, naturally, gets a little bit more weight behind them, and I love the choices the story made. It hits the beats I’d want it to, and lets each character in the group do precisely what they’ve been designed to do.

Kaido immediately tells Yuka to turn herself in, which, yeah, smart decision. Things got out of control, he definitely doesn’t want any trouble with the cops, let’s get this all shut down. It’s casually cruel to Yuka, suggesting she’s brought danger into their lives, but I feel like that’s a Kaido move? He’s incredibly self-centered, and he’s one of the least empathetic people on the show. Him wanting to bail, to abandon Yuuji and Yuka the second things get dicey, I can see it.

Yuuji’s reaction is, again, totally in-line with where he sees himself within Orphnoch culture. He views himself as a leader, a revolutionary. He’s trying to carve out a place in the world for Orphnochs to hold onto their humanity. If this is happening to Yuka, it’s because she’s an Orphnoch. He can solve it by proving to the police that she’s done nothing wrong, that Orphnochs can be peaceful and human. He never once asks Yuka why the cops might’ve attacked her, of all people. He’s so high-minded, so Big Picture, that he takes on her burden since she’s an Orphnoch.

And of course, these decisions by Kaido and Yuuji are killing Yuka. This is her nightmare. Kaido is anxious and scared, and it’s her fault. Yuuji is going to sacrifice his safety for hers, and the guilt she feels is immense. Her life, her stability, it’s all been demolished.

There’s a very sweet callback the show does, where Yuka emails Keitaro to tell him about her dream. It’s the same thing she did when the walls were closing in on her back in school. She longed for isolation back then, for solitude. Here, her dream is of connection, of affection. She deserves love. She deserves family. She’s grown so much. And, to prove it, she makes the decision to turn herself in. There's an element, maybe, of the martyr complex she’s always had. She wants to make everyone happy, even if that makes her miserable. And, maybe, it’s because Kaido rejects her when she most needs support. Maybe it’s a choice she makes because she feels alone, abandoned.

But, I don’t want to see it that way. I like thinking of it as a maturity, as a realization that hiding in crushes, hiding in someone else’s sacrifice, it’s just another cage. Here, she gets to wipe the slate clean on her own terms. To not let Yuuji or Kaido wrest her story away from her, but to do the right thing, even if that means her dream is gone. It isn’t the cowardice of subsuming her hopes in order to follow someone else’s path, it’s the bravery to move forward by herself into uncertainty.

Yuka’s story… I love how many interpretations you can pull from it. I love how nuanced and poignant it gets to be. Yuka’s story, it’s the least showy, maybe? But it’s the saddest, and the most interesting to me.

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die (Post 766011)

--3--

Mari’s story this episode is no slouch, either. Man, some fun moves in that one this time out.

Keitaro’s casual mention of Hey What If One Of Us Becomes An Orphnoch has a little bit to it that I liked. It’s just a little slice of story, nothing huge, but there’s an idea that I think is a huge, huge part of the series' themes.

Basically, Mari freaks out because she’s scared she might turn into an Orphnoch. With all of what Sawada went through, maybe her and Kusaka are next? Kusaka tells her that it probably won’t happen, because it likely would’ve already occurred. (I mean, Mari’s died once since her previous resurrection, so it doesn’t feel likely.) He does say it in a very suspicious way, so who the hell knows for sure.

But it’s the end part that I think is fascinating. When Kusaka tells her she’s probably not going to become an Orphnoch, she’s relieved. And then she’s incredibly guilty for feeling relieved. Kusaka tells her it's fine to be relieved, because (basically) Kill Them All, but the way the show even allows for judging Mari, of Mari wondering if it's fair to feel relieved, it’s amazing.

It ties in with the idea of acceptance that the show spent a long time interrogating. Mari reflexively others the Orphnochs, feels grateful that she doesn’t have to exist as one of them. And it exposes a prejudice that, despite knowing some of The Good Ones, she hasn’t really examined in herself. She was terrified that she’d be a monster. Not that she’d be hunted, like Yuka, or reviled, like Takumi. But that she’d be something worth being hunted or reviled. That she views that as the baseline for an Orphnoch, while Yuuji and Takumi are exceptions.

It’s something that I really, really hope the show spends a few more scenes on.

Originally Posted by FreshToku (Post 766017)

Speaking of Phase 2 specials! I've been wondering where those kind of things will fall into your rewatch, since I assume you'll want to rewatch them now with the greater context of these old shows in mind.

In case you weren't already thinking of it, my own personal suggestion would be that you continue watching 'as they air' as you've been doing. So like, once you finish Decade, you just go on a little marathon on your own time of all the Spring and Winter (and maybe even the Summer) movies. That way, you'll also have refreshed on modern rider before jumping into the next anniversary series in the form of Zi-O.