Can a Strong Ending Vindicate Wizard?
 

Okay, so by this point it's fairly obvious that Wizard has not been the most popular Kamen Rider series ever. It's frequently decried as boring and unwatchable, and Haruto gets a lot of flack for being the most boring main Rider ever. Now I'm not going to argue that the show is being undeservedly bashed because hoo boy, does it have a lot of problems (although I'll always argue that Haruto is one of the best main Riders of the Heisei era), but it does seem that the recent episodes have been going over very well with a lot of viewers.

I haven't seen the most recent episode (49) yet, but I'm already hearing that it's really awesome. Add to that a lot of other good moments and plot reveals lately, and it seems like Wizard is pulling out all the stops to bring us a very dynamic, exciting, and engaging conclusion. But is it enough to save the show?

A good ending is probably one of the most important things a serialized show needs and the lack of one can really hurt a show's overall reputation ('sup, 555) while a good one can be a major selling point ('sup, Blade). So, assuming Wizard can pull off a truly great finale in the last few episodes (not counting the weird little coda that will be 52 and 53), do you guys think it will be enough to improve the show's overall image? Is Wizard going to go down as just a dull, poorly paced mess, or will it be a rough ride that's worth it because the final destination is so great? What do you think?

I take offense to the last option.

I put a "Juicy" in the third one. The world needs balance. :p

I'm doubtful. It's shown no promise through it's last few episodes and I don't have much hope for it anymore.

Like any television series, the ending can either make a good show even better is or lower a good show to hated levels.

My opinion of Kamen Rider Ryuki took a nosedive once I watched the last episode. Granted, my hatred came from one terrible character being the crutch of the entire Ryuki universe, that could not be fixed without remaking the whole series, but it still was a bad ending. If this series is truly going to have a bad ending, it'd have to surpass Ryuki levels of pissing me off.

Wizard's situation is somewhat unique though, it created story out of nothing. The only other Rider series I've ever heard of doing that was Kuuga with N-Daguva-Zeba. While Wizard already had the characters in place, it still had created story relating to Wiseman's origin, explaining the purpose of wizards and phantoms, Koyomi's purpose and the philosopher's stone

Its not like Blade where literally in episode 2 you see Kenzaki bleeding green blood and speaking Undead giving you the mystery that reveals that Kenzaki is a Joker from the get go

Wizard's ending could make this enjoyable series even better. Is Wizard deep with its themes like what someone will do for others, hope, and despair? Not until the end, but at least I don't regret watching it like 42 episodes of Kamen Rider Kuuga.

Hey now, Goseiger might have its flaws but its far from an "irredeemable mess".

Anyway, I don't know if any of these options really apply to me. I think the show has felt like a chore to get through, but if it has a good ending its not going to have made it worth it. But at the same time, nor have I really completely given up on the show altogether.

I think as long as we get keep getting good episodes until the end, I'll be happy. Not happy enough to highly praise the series, but happy enough that it won't be a show I constantly damn every time it's mentioned.

Thats what I'm saying ><

If it helps any, Goseiger was the first Sentai I watched all the way through. It was great and I see no reason for the hate on it.

Now on the topic of Wizard, I havent even seen past episode 3 but from the two episodes Ive seen its pretty good. The designs arent half bad either. :lol

*BroFist*

*Brofist back* Actually, that might be my reasoning for hating Megaforce, as it is the first PR Ive seen the Sentai before I saw the US Adaptation. :lol

It sucks, because even if it did have an aweosme finale, it wouldn't undo the bad in Wizard. I've seen utterly awful shows with awesome endings that still go down in history as bad shows.

Does anyone remember what happened with Code Geass? The first season was amazing but R2 really tanked and just wasn't as good... But then we got to the finale. It is my personal philosophy with any work of fiction that a great ending can save any series. Just remember when starting a series that the ending is paramount.

I honestly thought both seasons of Code Geass suffered from the same flaws - utterly amazing openings and endings, but with a quality dip in the middle section. R2 just had it slightly worse.

The ending of Geas was just sad x . x Just... just sad.

Am I the only one that sees "The Goseiger of Kamen Rider" as a complement toward Wizard? The preceding sentence is still an insult, for sure.

I'll take it :lol

I had sad anime ending they give me angel beat flash backs

I would say no, because it seems the majority of the fandom made up their mind on Wizard very early on. Even when Haruto comes out of his shell, has an episode focused on him or just in general when the show does everything the haters claim it doesn't, they'll still find a way to call the episode wrong somehow, they want to hate it and refuse to have their minds changed. And it frustrates me to no end, but I realised ignorance and stubbornness are not a force you want to argue with.

Also, at least in my opinion, I really haven't been that impressed with Wizard's wrapping up so far, quite the opposite. A large reason I think I enjoyed this show so much, is I watched about thirty episodes of it over a week or two playing catchup, and this feels like a series made for that. A show which balances almost every great arc, with a terrible one, and the peaks and troughs are a lot harder to convey when watching only an episode a week.

I'm going to say no. Unless they pull off something REALLY big, there's always going to be all those episodes where the series was boring as hell. Almost no ending could make that time spent worthwhile to me.

Well you're certainly not helping your side with THAT drivel.

"You just WANT to hate it, and if you don't like it you're IGNORANT AND STUBBORN."

Riiiiiight.

I think it's a little late for Wizard to be pulling out the "Oh, I'm suddenly a good show" card. Even if these last few episodes have been admittedly pretty good, the only memorable arcs from Wizard so far have been Cait Sith, Lizardman, Legion, and Siren, the finale looks promising, but that's not enough to make up for the 40 episodes it spent doing nothing productive, and not even making those parts entertaining since almost every Gate have been annoying or forgettable, and same goes to most the Phantoms.

At the same time this is why I give those 4 arcs I mentioned earlier praise, because I found the Gates and/or Phantoms from those arcs to actually be engaging characters. I do hope that the finale is great, though, if only to give Wizard a tiny bit of redemption, even if it's not enough to make up for the whole show.

I voted for "irredeemable mess" It takes a certain "talent" to make a show about magic be this boring.

I like Goseiger and even then Wizard has been a slog. the fact that this got 53 episodes only rubs salt and hot lemon juice into the wounds.

All you need to do is read some of the of the week threads for the last couple of months, where episodes would do everything the haters asked for, and then the haters would gather and nitpick their way to a massive hole, refusing to let Wizard impress them. Heaven forbid they are wrong and have to face up to their bullshit.

If you like the show so far, it doesn't need vindicating because you liked it and the time you put into watching it wasn't wasted.

If you don't like it the show, then nothing is ever going to salve the feeling that you wasted a lot of time watching it, then 4 more episodes aren't going to change your mind even if they give eyesight to the blind or contain the cure for cancer. Hang around, Gaim'll be here before you know it, and maybe that'll be more to your taste (If you can't wait, there's a large enough back catalogue to keep you busy in the meantime). The best thing about these shows is they start fresh and the mistakes one makes aren't necessarily carried over to the next.

It's far too late to change anyone's mind at this point--pro or con, everyone's mind is pretty much made up.

Well, I for one have found Wizard to be boring and all, but I'm not going to claim I didn't find some recent episodes to be good, some I might even say were amazing. Especially the Siren arc, mainly because of Kumagai. he was easily the most likable gate out of all of them in the series. His character was in only 2 episodes, yet ending up being a well developed and entertaining character. His interactions with Haruto were also probably some of the best moments Haruto has had in the entire show. It is by far my favorite arc in the show, and it's honestly a good story on it's own, if you ask me. I love it to death. And you know what? It's part of Wizard, but I'm not gonna hate on it just because I don't like Wizard as a show.