Kamen Rider Wizard Episode 35: "The Other Side of Sora" Discussion
 

Chiaki has been revealed as the Gate that has been targeted!

Now Beast and Wizard must not only uncover Sora's past but save her as well!

Rinko and Section 0 are on the case to find out more about what and who Gremlin used to be.

But Sora has words to offer Haruto; Words that will change things forever? Will they shake his resolve in saving Gates or will he rise above despair and still offer hope?

Infinity! Discussion....PLEASE!

*drums fingers waiting for sub*

Really looking forward to this week's episode.

OverTime has it up. Downloaded and will be watching tonight. Been quite a while with Wizard where I didn't feel like waiting to see the new episode.

That was a..rather dark turn for Sora's character.

I like what they did with Sora, it reminded me a bit of Garo (though not nearly as dark as that series got). With some tweaking he could be a really good Horror. But yeah, makes some sense now why he still has his human personality. Leaning what the Sabbat is was a bit of a disappointment. I'm not sure what else it could be, but just the Eclipse event again is a bit boring.

Agreed with all views said about Sora. I knew he's a nutbar, but killing innocent people because his girlfriend left him? It's no wonder he still considers himself human; he didn't have much humanity to give up in the first place!

At least we're getting more back story on the Phantom's overall goal. While Koyomi may have her character arc reach a new point once the next two episodes are aired there's still the matter of White Wizard and the role he's REALLY playing in this series.

It's taken a good long while, but now Wizard's starting to pick up for me!

Ohmygod. Oh. My god. Gremlin... That was just sick and twisted and I loved every second of it. I'm glad they didn't try to redeem him in any way now. He's much better off as a genuine psychopath. Also, he's not dead! Yay!

Yeah that was definitely an interesting twist! Gremlin is really a wild card in all this.

Man, I cannot even remember the last time we had a Rider villain as awesome as Sora. I freaking love this guy.

My biggest gripe is having Beast fighting the Phantom for the upteenth time in these 2 episodes. I was really tired of it by the middle of the 2nd episode. Chiaki also did a 180 from a egotastic, self-centered model to a friendly, down to earth girl a bit too fast. But what I really want to see is the revelation of Koyomi as a Philosopher's Stone, at least that's what I think she'll turn out to be.

Aye, he had me at "Hello" haha.

He's definitely been quite a fun character, and where they went with him...yeah, I dig it. Phoenix was pretty awesome, I figured he'd be my favorite villain of the season, but Sora has definitely surpassed him.

Now then, can't say that he is my favorite Rider villain of all time, that would probably be Kitaoka (he kinda counts, right?), Ouja, or maybe the Sonozakis, I dunno.

So, I had a bit of mixed feelings about this episode, mainly leading it up to the end-game of the reveal.

I feel that "Sora", could have built up to more of a reveal.

In which, this reveal of him being a serial killer is a bit rushed. I had empathy with Sora up until that point of reveal, and it made me a bit angry at the writing of the show for rushing it out.

If we could have grown more to liking of him, I feel like the deception would have been that much greater.

This being said, yeah the twist was nifty... But, god so rushed.

Sora scars me now, but that's why he makes a great bad guy. I am getting really exited for the next 15 or so episodes left and what kindof twists the show has to offer

In one fell swoop they rescued Sora from the "Meh" villain pile Wizard had been building up for everyone who wasn't Phoenix and Cait Sith.
Awesome.
A genuine murderer? Hell yeah.

Congratulations Wizard and Sora/Gremlin, you now for the first time have my full attention. I really hope you can keep it for 15 more episodes.

This was a fantastic episode.

Unlikely, unless they were seriously holding all their cards until these final 15 or so episodes...

Now that we know more about Sora I'm starting to wonder what caused him to despair in the first place. Since he's legality insane it's bound to be dark and could spell out more about the woefully under explained "Sabbath" that Wiseman wants to restart for reasons.

At any rate the die is cast and Sora's true self has been revealed. Let's see how the rest of Wizard plays out now that we're nearing the end point.

Interesting episode. It's a very twisted concept, the inference that the reason Sora sees himself as still being "human" is because...well, he was a massively screwed up psychopath. I enjoyed it. Nicely handled episode

That said...I have to disagree with people who have him as the best villain in recent years (which is an attitude that surprises me to be honest). Does he blow anything out of Fourze away? Yes. Because he's actually been given another layer rather then having one tacked on. But the Sonozaki family? Or Dr. Maki? Or the complex simplicity of the Greeed? Or Ankh (when he was bad)? Sorry Sora, you're above the last set of hitters, but you're not in the big leagues for me.Personally I prefer Phoenix and Medusa.

Yeah I have to say Dr. Maki is still my favorite villain.

It wouldn't feel right to call Gremlin an amazing villain.
But he is a much better villain and character than I initially thought him to be thanks to this one episode.

This pretty much hits the nail on the head. He's gone from a character I overlook to one that may actually turn out to be really good.

He's certainly no Sonozakis or Maki.

I am a pretty cool guy.

And I still think he was a huge waste of potential because of the stupid doll thing.

I liked the doll thing.
It was dumb, but it's purpose made sense in the contest of the series.

I thought the doll thing was creepy as hell and funny at the same time.

My problem was the squeaking noise it'd make.

Oh thank the gods these two episodes more than mad up for the ****stain that were the previous two. While I was expecting Gremlin to be playing around as his reasons for rescuing Chiaki, I actually did not see the serial killer twist coming. That was a nice change for the normal Japanese writing. And I love that this indicates that if a human is already evil, he retains his personality even when he becomes a Phantom.

Oh boy, only 15 episodes left until we are done. I cannot wait to see what this show has to bring to the table as we gear up towards the grand finale.

What are you talking about? Outside of 32 and 33, Wizard has been fantastic since Day 1.

I HATE HATE HATE Dr Maki. I thought he was annoying, pointless, and nothing came out of the doll. They really should have had the doll be an actual Greeed or something because when it turned out to be just a doll, it made the whole thing stupid. I also hate Maki because he stole the spotlight from Uva, who should have been the main villain like the show had been building up to be for 30ish episodes.

I don't count Ankh as a villain.

Now I do agree about the Sonozaki family, as they are my favorite villains from all of the post-Decade series.

I don't believe so.
It's had many ups and downs, and was pretty stagnant until Nitou showed up, in my opinion.

Agreed. I've certainly found it to be the weakest Neo-Heisei series.

But the purpose of the doll was to signify his obsession with endings. The doll was what kept his perfect memory of his sister.
It didn't have a plot purpose, but it was important to his character.

As for Maki as a character, you're free to feel whatever you want.

Anyway, on to Wizard, it's had subpar villains (Both in terms of generals on MOTWs), pointless characters, and all the gates stories (Ungrateful assholes who don't take the fact that a monster is trying to murder them until the last 8 minutes where something redeems them) have all been the same.

I will agree that the plot was stagnant until Nitou showed up, but every Kamen Rider from W on has been that way until the second rider appears, so I've come to expect that.

I fail to see why I should care what the doll was supposed to symbolize, it was just there for stupid comedy, something that OOO could have used a little less of. I'm not saying it had to get completely serious, but it needed to take things a lot more seriously than it did.

I would take Phoenix, Medusa, and Gremlin over Uva, Mezool, and Kizaru any day of the week. And subpar MOTW? What about Beelzebub, Spriggan, Gargoyle, Legion, and Argos? Those were pretty awesome MOTW.

You say the show has pointless characters, but again, that is every Kamen Rider series. Wizard has Shunpei and Koyomi. OOO had the girl assistant. Fourze had half of its cast. W had the useless cops. Decade had the grandfather and Natsumi, Den-O had Naomi, Hana, and Ryotaro's sister, 555 had the likes of Keitaro, etc.

I'm not telling you that you should care about Maki's doll. I'm just telling you why is was there.

Anyway, if you're considering Hana, a character only marginally less vital than Ryotaro himself, a pointless character, then I'm done here.

Seeing as how they turned her into a child out of the blue and then make a dumb reason to do so, and have it occur off screen, she really wasn't that important of a character.

Because writers and directors are actually gods who have complete control over the actors, and can alter fate to prevent sickness and disease and can mentally prevent them from taking on other projects.

You work with what you got. Doesn't change that Hana was pretty much the driving force for both riders' existence.

If you say so. I don't remember her having any effect on the plot of the series outside of the first few episodes when she said her world was destroyed. But then, I don't remember much of anything of Den-O due to how bland it was.

Dafuq is this about a doll? That just reminds me of W...but considering there is no Dr. Maki in W, I know that you all are talking about something else.

Dr. Maki is the antagonist in OOO.

Ah, really do need to get around to watching more than a couple episodes of OOO....

Indeed you do!

Because she was part of the building plot. She would have likely been far more important, but as a result of the actress leaving, they obviously had to heavily rewrite the story to do away with whatever they had planned.

You're funny.

It's a good show. In case you're curious, the doll (kinda big OOO spoilers) was a gift Dr. Maki recieved when he was a little boy from his sister, who he remembered as very kind and always by his side since their parents died. Then she got married, or was going to, and his perfect memory of her was being tarnished. He saw her getting married as abandoning him/replacing him, so he killed her to preserve his mental image of her instead of watching the only thing he have left turn into something he saw as ugly and cruel for leaving him.

Yeah, so comedic. I'm busting up at the sides just thinking about it.

Seriously, I think the doll was used for comedy... I want to say three times? The rest of the "comedy" was just natural reactions to a grown man carrying a doll perched on his arm all the time. Hardly written-in gags.

And of course "Bob... BOB MARLEY." But you know.