The 'Third' Rider in every Kamen Rider series
 

Tertiary Kamen Riders are nothing new, in fact they have been around since the early days of Heisei Kamen Rider era. However if you noticed, it was only recently where the term Third Rider becomes increasingly common, they are pretty much a mainstay in Kamen Rider series going forward. Even in an ensemble series, Third Riders are easily to spot. Sort of.

Here are the list of third Riders, and whom I assume fills the role of the Third Riders especially in the later Heisei era. Keep in mind, movie exclusive Riders do not count, since they mostly reused assets from the main/secondary Riders, and bonus points apply for Third Riders if they have their own distinct gear.

Agito - Gills

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20160116010407

Ryuki - Zolda obviously fills the Third Rider status. While Raia fought together with Ryuki and Knight, the theme of the show is Riders fighting each other, and Zolda gets that honor.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20160116012423

555 - Delta

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20190723141029

Blade - Now this is interesting. For as long as the debate between which one are OOO final forms, there's the ongoing debate of who is the secondary Rider: Garren or Chalice? Well, Toei and Bandai seem to consider Garren as the true secondary, which means Chalice is the actual Third Rider of the show. He just gets the honor of being the deuteragonist of the show.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20150908140426

Hibiki - Todoroki

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20160116205100

Kabuto - This is hard to say. Granted I haven't remember Kabuto much. But despite there being multiple Riders, the show acts as if Kabuto and Gatack are the only important Riders, and TheBee, Drake, Sasword felt equal it's hard to choose which one is the proper Third Rider. If you wanna say TheBee, there's no active user anymore since previous users become something else, Drake kept disappearing and reappears at random he felt like a guest star at times, and Sasword rarely fights alongside the two beetles. I guess if you really want an answer, I'd say Sasword since he's the only non-insect Rider in the show? But you can debate if you think otherwise.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20180901015700

Den-O - None. NEW Den-O is a movie Rider.

Kiva - Saga (I'm still salty that Taiga abandoned the suit)

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20151204165254

Decade - Well merchandise wise, only Decade and DiEnd are the Riders of the show. However, like it or not, Onodera version of Kuuga acts as the Third Rider of the show.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20190920160214

Now for the Heisei Phase 2 and Reiwa. This is where the term Third Rider is slowly becoming official. And partly due to the fact that Kamen Rider now begins in fall, which means every new year, the secondary Rider would take up the spot as 'the new Rider for the new year'. However, later series would have secondary Riders appearing early in the show, causing the series to put out a brand new Rider for the new year, to sell the new belts. These, ladies and gentlemen, are where the Third Riders are officially born, even if we're not there yet with the next on the list.

Double - none. Skull is a movie Rider, and Joker is an alternate form for Shotaro.

OOO - This is interesting. There are three main Riders of the show. However, Date and Gotou are meant to be homages to Double Riders, they felt more like two secondary Riders, instead of Gotou (or Date as Birth Prototype) taking that Third Rider title.

Fourze - none. Nadeshiko is a movie Rider.

Wizard - This is the last series with two official Riders, as we are introduced to an unofficial Third Rider, that is Mayu/Kamen Rider Mage. People are bummed that she doesn't get her own distinct suit, and some even took it to imagine her as the hypothetical Kamen Rider Witch! I believe that Mayu's popularity is what lead to Third Riders becoming a mainstay from now on.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20190914143556
(I put the civilian picture because people love the character more than the suit tbh :P )

Gaim - Ryugen is the official Third Rider of the show.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20150501121847

And here's where it gets interesting. Remember when I said every new year they need to introduce a new Rider to sell a new belt? You got Genesis Driver. And who is the poster child for Genesis Driver users?

https://collectorshuki.files.wordpre...ver.jpg?w=1086

I would argue, Zangetsu, or specifically Zangetsu Shin fills the role of Third Rider as well (it does help that Mitchy used the suit as well later on).

Drive - Despite Mach being introduced at the new year, Chaser is the third Rider without a doubt.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20160814132005

Ghost - Necrom

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20160123234304

Ex-Aid - Snipe if the official Third Rider of the show. Or rather, the archetypical tertiary Rider. And he is very much so. But I would like to add an interesting case: considering that Para-DX is the 'New Year Rider' for Ex-Aid, the thing is, he only used a Gashat, not a belt. And who did use a different belt? Genm as Zombie Gamer, so much so that it's his most iconic form. However, the Buggle Driver was introduced pretty early in the show, so you can't really say Kuruto is the Third Rider, as much as he plays a huge role in the story. Thus, Snipe remains as the official Third Rider of the show.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20170522132750

Build - Grease

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20180206091306

Zi-O - Woz

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20200315144535

And lastly, we have Zero-One. Valkyrie is credited is the tertiary Rider of the show. However, Thouser fills the role of new year Rider. And considering the frustrating history regarding the treatment of female Riders, I'd argue that Thouser is the official Third Rider of the show. If anything, Valkyrie felt similar to the Double Riders and Birth Riders, despite Valkyrie and Vulcan only fight as a duo in the first arc. Hell, their names make it sound like they're twins as well!

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20200209172238

And thus concludes my debate on the Third Rider status in Kamen Rider. You may be wondering, why not call those who debuted in the new year the 'New Year Rider' instead? Well because of the significance of them having a brand new belt, they are the next most essential Riders after the secondary Riders, and sometimes, even more significant than the secondary Riders themselves!

Do you agree? No? Well feel free to give your thoughts. And I apologize for the wall of text, as an atonement, I put some pictures to avoid making the thread a boredom.

Sasword is a solid choice for 3rd rider in Kabuto. The only other real choice is Kageyama TheBee, but I feel Sasword's contributions to the series was more relevant (Even if he became comic relief halfway through).

Concerning the Blade debate between Garren and Chalice, I've always leaned more towards Garren as the secondary rider. Not only was he around with Blade from the get go, but the first arc of Blade literally revolved around Garren. While in the grand scheme of things, Chalice was the more important character, by the time Chalice's story kick starts, Garren had literally had the first quarter of the show to himself.
I feel the debate towards Chalice is more of a retrospective one. If Blade was the new show on the block, Garren would be undisputed as the secondary rider.

Hmmmm if Kabuto was introduced today Sasword easily gets the spot simply due to him being an arachnid.

I am SO happy I'm not the only one who felt that way about Zangetsu Shin.

And I do get the argument for Thouser, just personally my mind considers Valkyrie the tertiary. Though that may change when I reach Thouser in my Zero One catch up.

Officially, the third rider of Kabuto is split between Drake and TheBee. Sasword is considered the “Dark Rider”.

I'd wait till the end of the show to call anything for Zero One, but right now, I wouldn't say Thouser. Tertiary tends to be on the heroes side, and actually have an arc in recent years. Depending on how the latter half of the show plays out, could stick as Valkyrie (my choice rn), could be Jin, could even be Izu if she ever gets a rider form and uses it more than once.

And, now that you've mentioned it, there's an interesting discussion to be had about how in recent years the 2nd quarter/New Year rider has moved from being the secondary to typically being an antagonist, at least at first, while the secondary is usually around from the start. Transition happens roughly Gaim/Drive period, and I want to know if that's concsious on Toei's part, a move by Bandai to have more merch up front, or just coincidence.

Also thank you sharing the right opinion on Blade, doing the lord's work.

It's a three-way battle between Snipe, Grease, and Woz for me. *scratches head* They were all great in their own way I can't make heads or tails.

I don't think he's a "Dark Rider". Not when Dark Kabuto, and the movie trio exists.

Agreemwnt
 

I can agree. Primarily either Dark Kabuto or Caucasus could be considered as Dark Riders, either that or both of them, depending on where they originated from. However my Favorite Tertiary Riders are: TheBee, Necrom, and Snipe.

Tbh I would love for Valkyrie to live up to the official third Rider status, but we know she's kinda screwed over. If she ended up obtaining a brand new form, I'd say Valkyrie will be the official third Rider. However chances of Thouser getting a final form are also high.

I think it's both. Bandai wants to make more money by selling more henshin belt, and they realize they can have secondary Riders use the same gear as the primary Rider, so it's a jackpot.

For Toei, I would theorize that it's starting from Wizard is when they realize they can have more than 2 Riders again. When you think about it, Den-O until Wizard they would primarily focus with only 2 Riders, with the sole exception being Saga. Now I don't know exactly how popular Mayu really is, but it's safe to say she's pretty well liked and for using a 'grunt Rider' suit, she actually has a character arc, and that is why I credited her as being the one that cause the birth of Third Riders. Add to the fact that Gaim is a success with multiple Riders, it gave both Toei and Bandai the decision to include at least 3 Riders from now on.

To be honest, I'd always consider Garren to take the role of the third Rider. But seeing that Geiz Majesty pretty much ended the debate, add to the fact that Necrom has more focus than Spectre made me realize Third Riders can be deuteragonist instead of the second is where I accepted Chalice as the official Third Rider for Blade.

I wouldn't care if they have the actors for Tachibana and Hajime come on screen just to tell us directly that Garren is the 'secondary' of that show. It's Chalice in my eyes.

And while I'm here, Para-DX is the the closest thing to being Ex-Aid's secondary while Brave and Snipe share the spot of next most important side-character (which I think would fit the definition of 'tertiary' here). And that Punch Hopper is more prominent than Sasword by the end of Kabuto.

Though more often than not, I firmly feel like it really is just opinion anyway. 'Secondary' and 'Tertiary' change in definition from show to show and person to person on whether it means 'second and third most important riders', 'rider closest to the main character', or 'literally the second and third ones to appear'. It's all made up anyway. Like, within the context of a show like Agito, both G3 and Gills are meant to equally stand up as deuteragonists in the show, but in Ryuki, obviously Knight is the sole number two to Ryuki's number 1.

Speaking of Ryuki and Agito, sometimes the "secondary" Rider is actually the first one to appear. There's definitely no solid formula

Yeah, secondary riders ara a very vague category, there's no easy rules, and no asy categorisations. It's like people arguing about final forms and the like, primarily fanmade categories which people like to pretend Toei cares about further than the next set of Diend merchandise.

For Zero-One's tertiary rider I'm just gonna wait for the Otomin C ad if we're still getting one this year.

my choices as follows...

Gills: The show has 3 main riders (i know there is 4) and he is the 3rd one to appear.

Zolda: The 4th to appear but he is the third rider of the long-surviving quartet. Raia could be considered the third rider in the early part of the show's running...but you know.

Delta: He is the third main rider gear belt.

Chalice: I admit, I was on the 'Chalice is the secondary rider' camp and I am okay with Garren being the official secondary...despite how insignificant he was in the show after his arc was over.

Todoroki: I haven't watched Hibiki yet but considering the info I have read on the show, he is the third since he works with Hibiki and Ibuki as a trio.

Kabuto: This is tricky. In terms of screentime, Kageyama/Zabee/PunchHopper would be considered 3rd rider but Sasword felt like the 3rd rider due to the timing of his appearance and him being a heroic rider. However, I also feel Yaguruma/KickHopper can also qualify as he feels like a rival to Tendou.

Kiva: Taiga/Saga being the third rider to appear in the present. Otoya is the primary rider in his time period~

Decade: Well...Onodera can be considered the third rider...for the sake of finding one in this series lol.

OOO: The Birth Prototype is the third rider to appear...but I cant decide between Goto or Date being tertiary. Both of them are equal awesome riders as Birth.

Wizard: I guess the first Mage...since she is the third heroic rider in-series.

Gaim: Micchy is the third rider of this series as Ryugen/ZanShin, enough said. The stuff this kid did...sheesh.

Drive's is Chaser. Ghost's is Necrom. Because there like only 3 main riders.
Ex-Aid's is Snipe. Build's is Grease. Zi-O's is Woz. They are the third riders of their respective main quartet. Also that drink ad they always had!

(I seriously wonder if they made 3 riders on purpose since Ghost...for that drink ad...I can't recall if that ad ran during Drive..)

now comes Zero-One. Valkyrie may be 3rd to appear...but I feel the 3rd rider position could belong to Jin. I won't be surprise if what happened in Drive happened in this series since there is some similaries in terms of plot.

Raia is far from the 3rd Rider IMO, he's actually on the same park as Tiger, Gai, Imperer for being one of the temporary side Riders (as opposed to main Riders). He's just the only other purely good Rider apart from Ryuki so he's the only one on heroes' side.

Yeah, I honestly get exhausted seeing these debates whenever they come up because it's always people arguing the semantics without realizing it, which means the conversations tend not to go anywhere. Hearing the back and forth early on when Gaim was airing between the camps of "Baron is the secondary Rider because he's like, the rival!" and "Ryugen is the secondary Rider because he's, like, Kouta's buddy!" basically permanently put me off ever investing myself too much in this topic.

For the record, my opinions are always the same as Toei and Bandai's. Secondary/Tertiary Riders are defined to me less strictly by how their role in the story plays out, and more by how their concepts and designs compare to the main hero. The opposite is true for shows like Double and OOO that only had two Riders, but usually what this means is that the secondary is the guy who looks closest in design to the protagonist while also being some kind of mirror. Kabuto and Gattack have the beetle shtick, for example. Ditto for Blade and Garren. Gaim and Baron have a similar classic Red/Blue combo going on, and are respectively based on a samurai and a knight, two feudal warriors relatively similar in concept.

Tertiaries are generally pretty easy to define going by that logic, even in the big multi-Rider shows. Zolda has the colored undersuit like Ryuki and Knight. TheBee has a much closer design to Kabuto and Gattack than anyone else, especially comparing Masked Forms, and Zangetsu being such a straight copy of Gaim has the opposite effect of disqualifying him for being in more of an "evil counterpart" position, whereas Ryugen's unique design complements Gaim and Baron better, letting them each stick out, and completing a Ryuki-esque primary color motif.

You'll note the key here is that going by my way, which I think is the way Bandai especially would see it, the characters are more objects than people. This is why it's completely irrelevant that TheBee was two different dudes who went on to become two other Riders completely. The realities of the show's narrative as it plays out matter less to me than the intent behind the Rider's creation.

But my buddy, would you like to hear my theory on why Build's secondary is actually Mad Rogue? I promise, I have evidence, I swear.

*gasp* What is this revelation?!

Look since we’re getting nowhere, I’ll just point out this video has an official poster from Toei showing who they consider the third riders https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld7kWR...ature=youtu.be

I apologize if the thread is becoming nowhere and that equals terrible thread made by a terrible person. But it's just the term 'Third Riders' are very vague I just wanted to have a healthy discussion about it.

This is pretty interesting. I'll gloss iver Garren because that would create more mess, but they acknowledge TheBee, and it makes sense since TheBee has the most screentime especially when used by Kageyama like Matrixbeast said.

And in the grand scheme of things movie Riders do count as Third Riders, but more importantly it shows that since Agito Third Riders have always existed even in shows that markets prinarily two Riders. But even the guy in the vid said the term third rider is pretty vague.

I'm gonna go watch part 2 to see the Neo Heisei one, it'd be interesting to see if they acknowledge Mayu or not.

Double post sorry, but they acknowledged Mayu!!!!!

https://youtu.be/Z7Dk18M8gMw

Although the weird thing is that Nadeshiko is skipped? Also...... Aqua!! (He's not in the poster) Holy shit I forgot that he was from OOO! It's mostly that because Aqua has such a unique design, he feels like he belong to his own series than being classed as an OOO Rider. Kinda like Shinobi, even though Shinobi and Future Riders have more in common with Zi-O.

Now I want to get my hands on those posters.