Kamen Rider Revice Episode 20- "The Price of Transformation Is Ruthless & Temporary"
 

A traitor is revealed in Fenix' ranks as the power of the Demons Driver extracts its terrible cost...

Hiromi episode gets upstaged by Ikki spamming his forms

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No! NO
NO GOD PLEASE NO

Noooooo!


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I reckon Bu-san is also a part of WEEKEND.
Now it's obvious that WEEKEND is the one that delivered the Libera Driver to Sakura.
I wonder what their purpose for the story.

Oh hell yeah, Superior Spiderman references here we come.

Huh, so Hiiromi's actor has been cast as Tamaki Suou in the Ouran High School stageplay. So make of that what you will.

Probably means he'll be gone for a while, but he's still shooting

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Rewatched and I gotta say Hiromi and Ikki has some great chemistry that I don't see with other characters. And I think that just has to do with the fact that they're pretty much on the same page when it comes to things, both of them are the ones who tried out the Revice Driver too after all.

Ikki understands the position Hiromi is in, but still encourages him to transform vowing to lay his life down for the sake of protecting him as well, as well as Hiromi mentioning how much Ikki has grown, it's such sweet scene! Ikki's not my comfort character like Touma (Rei, stop mention Saber damnit!) but he's really growing to be a really good protagonist, I'd put him above Aruto at this point.

Hiromi shouting at the Demons Driver to take his life in order to do what he has to do is pure badass. Only disappointing that his spotlight was taken over by what is basically a Please remember our other forms until we throw them out segment, but the scenes he's in are bliss.

Remember what I said about George probably being a good guy, just eccentric, shady, and pragmatic? Looking a little unfavorable in that area now.... Which I don't know if I'm disappointed or not since I kinda wanted him to be that kind of character instead of just being bad. Not-Apollo Geist should've been that. But I guess George still has room to do something.

Next week, the Hiromi death flag is still up in the air and my soul is leaving its body as Orteca puts on the belt :/

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A cracking episode.
The guy in the hood who recruited Olteca is totally the Director. So with Fenix being not as it seems, also with the introduction of Weekend next week, my guess is Fenix will betray our heroes and instead join Weekend, with Daiji having conflicting loyalties. What would George's stance be in the end.

Nice to see the other Genome forms get one last big fight before getting shafted later, though shame Jeanne got screwed over in that big fight, like not getting to use her weapons.

Was it part of Ikki and Sakura's agreement with Aguilera that they get to keep the Gifu stamp instead of it going back to Fenix?

They're former FENIX members that know of their true nature is my guess ;-)

I had an idea.... If the monolith is Gif's heart and Genta is Gif's body, then maybe Demons Driver is Gif's mind? This is the only devil we've met so far who's attached to a thing, rather than a person.

I look forward to seeing the inevitable graphic fanart of Vice's mouth (not in a weird way, if that's what you were thinking)! And good for him, finally getting forgiveness from Yukimi, due to Ikki vouching for him. #NiceVice

That scene with Julio and Sakura in the dojo was kind of lazy, since a variation of that already occurred last episode with the same two people in the same place saying similar dialogue. Feels like filler that could've been used to have Demons show off more instead. It's pretty irrelevant as well. I don't recall seeing any progress with Aguilera's redemption arc here, since she presumably only agrees to team up so he can obtain the Gif Stamp. But that's really my only complaint with this episode.

As I predicted, it was only a matter of time before Olteca got some backstory, which he reveals to Chigusa shortly before feeding her to a Giftarian. Similar to Doctor Nakadai from Abaranger, he was a genius kid who felt out of touch with the world. The motivation seems to be different though, since Olteca doesn't seek to make his life more exciting, but wants to be understood. That's definitely not enough yet to make him redeemable, especially considering the aforementioned Giftarian feeding, but maybe it's setting up his arc for later. I have no doubt that Deadmans are only pretending to understand him, so they can use his genius mind for evil.

Five episodes ago, I was starting to get annoyed with Ikki's lack of empathy. But now that's starting to turn around here. Hiromi's right, he actually has grown a lot to be willing to not only acknowledge Hiromi's need for autonomy, but to support it as well. It's like Ikki has become a new man and I respect that. I like the symbolism where he walks in to the space where Wakabayashi's illusion was, implying how Hiromi sees some of the same wisdom in him, encouraging to fight for your dreams.

Which is why I'm inclined to agree with your Reiwa protagonist ranking. Where would you put Vice though, above or below Aruto?

Remix and Machine parallel:

I just did a little quick research and found out the new tortoise Machine has been named as Shellsnapper. A tortoise may be slightly different to a turtle, but I think it's close enough to parallel Jeanne Turtle Genome.

I feel it was an action of necessity. They needed all the help they could get to beat Olteca, and even if they didn't necessarily want Aguilera to have the Gifu stamp, it was better for her to have it rather than Olteca to create more monsters with it.

Anyway, Hiromi better not survive this episode just to die next episode.

Pretty solid conclusion to this little two-parter. The only thing I can sort of gripe about is more just something I'm of two minds on, which is the big elaborate sequence of all of Revice's forms getting used. Because like, on one hand, I love seeing that kind of stuff, and the entire scene was put together fantastically, but on the other hand, seeing Sakamoto do this in a Rider show is always going to remind me of how cool it was in Ghost, when those forms held emotional and narrative significance to further increase the scene's impact, and it's extra tricky for Ikki and Vice to compete with that in an episode that's not really about them.

Then again, it kinda *is* about them too, given that moment Hiromi takes to highlight Ikki's growth as a person, and the whole thing of Ikki going out of his way to try and stop Hiromi from making his catchphrase too literal. So maybe I can't gripe about the cool action at all? Maybe this is just a really strong episode of a strong show? Again, Hiromi is inherently fun to watch, the story is still moving along in a way where you'd never notice this was by a guest writer, and man, I gotta say, they are doing a heck of a job at making Olteca one of the most hateable Rider villains out there. It's genuinely uncomfortable how often he's just straight up been directly killing people on-screen lately. ...I hate it! But I kinda like that I hate it, you know?

Man usually KR in this range of Episode things getting very slow you know?
But Revice say F that We still Full throttle baby!!

Olteca's Motive while boring and simple somehow work for me, he even playing 4D chess with us when getting captured implaying he alaways have backup plan

And George in the other hand Just Chaotic Neutral... he just want his OC KR Realized and doesn't care which side his working but he mocking our best boy catchpharse so F you George!!!

Finally i just love Ikki and Hiromi being best bro out there.. that brofist scene tho so good..

Next week it seems KR demons become Villain and i am excited for it because We already know what this rider capable and its just Remind me of Faiz you know..

Yep, Olteca is a total bastard. Sometimes, you don't need to have a tragic backstory to be evil, as was the case with Julio/Tamaki.
The reason Olteca turned to evil was because he felt he was better than everyone. Plus the fact that twice now he effectively killed someone dear to someone in front of them, while also threatening them, in Tamaki's case, to do the same thing. That's insanely low.
I really hope he doesn't get some redemption arc, just...no, just no.

For real, Olteca's backstory is basically that of AbareKiller's so far. A genius child that felt superior to others since a young age that latched on the chance for power to exhibit their strength.
Only thing that's missing is a chunk of backstory to show him in a well respected position (Killer being an ace doctor and surgeon) with tons of money and abandoning it all :lol

You know it's a Sakamoto episode when the Main Rider cycles through all their forms for a big action sequence.

Yeah redeeming olteca would be Mistake, Thouser Was Very painful to watch in his redeem Episode and After the Episode he redeemed he just useless chara...

Just Let Villain be Villain..

Also i agree with Matrixbeast olteca kinda missing a scene when he succeed and but Feel nothing or something but its not major complaint... His motivation sound enough in Toku world

Oh, I'm not even gonna bother putting Vice in anything :lol
I'm set in my ways now.

Oh, that was the best episode though. I guess some people overlook that Gai never was even really redeemed, no one really forgave Gai, just tolerated him. Episode 39 is still one of the best episodes, too.

Anyway, I do agree though that Orteca deserves no redemption. He's got a pretty nice body count now, and basically just needs to be stopped at this point. And I think him showing backstory basically says that he doesn't deserve it either, it's him saying "whaaaa No OnE UnDeRsTAnDs MEeEe!!" and is the perfect kind of individual who gets roped into these cults.

https://www.ladyeve.net/wp/wp-conten...00717tv01c.jpg

TBF, Gai's biggest crime was being a gigantic, colossal, corporate douche. As I recall, he didn't have a human body count.
EDIT: I think one of my issues with Zero One is that Aruto was more lenient to Jin and Horobi, despite the fact they did more harm to Humagears than Gai did.

He still fought them and tried to stop them, though. He destroyed Jin. He only really got along with Jin when he stopped going along with MetsuboJinrai's methods, and Aruto realized on some level that it was all the Ark's fault...which was also Gai's fault.

Jin continued to support Metsuboujinrai after revival though. Conspiring with NakiFuwa and going along with what Horobi says, stealing Raiden's key being one of them. At a certain point in the show, Horobi had become independent from the Ark as well, racking up more Humagear body count by virtue of recruiting them.

In 35, Gai had every intention to put an end to MBJR and possibly the Ark as well, however those methods were, had he not been stopped.

IDK where you guys seeing in Gai because he is the reason of Zero one conflict even started.... is it because he just killing humagear? if so thats automatically make viewer in weird position because the point of the show is racism against Robots.. i know its cute episode for some people but it doesn't fit IMO
anyway its Revice Forum and thats is the tangent of 01 series from my prespective

I have a bad feeling next episode, the siblings get divided:

• Jeanne: She joins the Ushijima family to destroy all that FENIX created. Including the Giff Stamp, even if it means having to kill Aguilera due to her being the last sacrifice.
• Live/Evil: Remains loyal to FENIX
• Revice: Remains neutral as his loyalty is to his family

And I see no redemption for Olteca. I see it, but just can't accept that. Wonder when we're gonna see more new riders in Revice!?

I am started to predict the Weekend organization will be replaced Deadman's position as main villain. But the Gifu problem is still existed.


Maybe this really similar to villain group replacement in Goseiger.

Seeing the whole situation with Gifu, I don't think he'll become a major issue until he gets Aguilera's contract (Or her life). And seeing as how they currently have an uneasy alliance with the Igarashi family, I don't see that happening until the final quarter.

And I don't think it'll hit Goseiger levels of villain swap. Most every series has a villain bounce and a new big bad hit. Spider Undead starting his rise as the villain in Blade, Dr. Maki starts upending the Greeed as the villain in OOO, Evolt making his moves in Build, etc etc.

Good episode this week! Hiromi's actor continues to do a really dang good job, I'll honestly be sad to see him go. Yes, I am just resigned to him dying next week... or the week after... OR EVENTUALLY. I'm really intrigued by all the factions in this show, especially with WEEKEND debuting next week, so I can't wait to see all the clashes of ideals and the protagonists realizing that Fenix is actually incredibly suspicious. WEEKEND seems to have ties to the weird, weird family Sakura interacts with, which hopefully opens up the possibility of some really good Sakura episodes. I still don't really like Ikki though, and I'm not sure why. He isn't bad by any means and I genuinely love his dynamic with Vice, but I don't ever find myself particularly invested in most scenes with him. Him stealing Hiromi's thunder this episode kind sucked, as incredibly cool as the fight was. I do feel like they are building up to something in the long term with Ikki though, which I am definitely excited to see unfold.

Since everyone is discussing their favorite Reiwa protagonists though: I haven't seen Saber yet but I really like Aruto. He's probably in my top 3 Rider protagonists. I dunno, I just like his earnest desire to do good and make people happy, even when the show takes to gleefully tormenting him as much as possible. I also really like how he tries to be so open and transparent with others, which let's him get through to more stubborn characters in the end, such as Fuwa and Jin. Put this guy in Faiz and just instantly resolve all communication problems!

I love Aruto too :).

To be honest I think all the Reiwa Main Riders so far have worked/acted really well for their respective shows and for what their respective characters needed to be.

Every time I think this show might be on the up it throws in an episode like this and reminds me why I hate this show.

First of all, this episode wouldn't even have happened if the Demons Driver wasn't a complete idiot and screamed "I'M EVIL! DON'T TRANSFORM!" from the rooftops and Hiromi would be dead. So, already a shaky start for the episode.

And then there is Ikki telling Hiromi to basically work himself to death... In a country where that is a thing that happens and was even a joke a few years ago with Kuruto... Yeah... Great message.

I'm sorry, but no. They completely ignore the fact that he is the damn commander and effectively endangering everyone in Tokyo by so carelessly throwing his life away, but I guess you don't matter if you are not a Rider in the show. Seriously, his death would leave Fenix effectively wide open because they'd have to find a new commander...

It's amazing how consistently disappointing this show really is...

That is... definitely an odd way of framing that scene. He just said that he'd put his life on the line for Hiromi's sake. He didn't tell him to go kill himself, he told him to do what he wants to do, but with the assurance that he won't die for it.

I said it before, Ikki knows the situation Hiromi is in, especially since he was in basically the same situation during Volcano's Re-Debut.

Really, the only issue is Ikki somehow knew the right time where the belt won't kill him and Hiromi's supposed final fight isn't really 'big' in the grand scheme of things.

He told him that if he really wanted to fight, he should which ultimately means, that he should endanger himself if he wants to.

And yes, I know he had a plan, but that was still just a gamble and Ikki really can't promise that he'll save him.

It basically comes down to the same thing. That Hiromi should just continue following his selfish impulses and effectively carelessly throw his life away and that just does not sit well with me. All just for his dream of being a hero, instead of actually doing the heroic thing and sacrificing his dream to help in another way. Something he can defiantly do given his position!

And it's also the fact that Hiromi dying in such a pointless fight really only hurts everyone around him. On a professional level given they'd be their commander short again and would leave Fenix in a more vulnerable position and the fact that he'd hurt his friends when he wasn't there anymore. There is a difference between laying your life down for others and throwing it away carelessly and this was the latter.

It reminds me of the whole Kento situation where he keeps trying to atone for his father's sins and save others from death by not valuing his life. Just, instead of Touma telling him to cut it out and value his life, he instead encouraged him to go on if he really wants to do it.

All in all, I hate the entire concept and how Ikki basically encourages him to endanger himself more.

A dream isn't something you can just casually discard. The fact that Hiromi has a dream he's willing to gamble his life on means that contrary to what you believe, he does value his life and wants to live by his own principles. Ikki gave up on his dream of being a soccer player and it made him miserable on the inside, so now he's trying to fill that void with being a busybody. He wanted better for Hiromi. Even if it endangered his life, at least he'd be able to live in that moment. If giving up on a dream is your idea of heroism, then I have to completely disagree. Dreams should be protected.

True, dreams are valuable and can push you beyond what you thought possible, but it also depends on the dream.

Hiromi's dream is to be a hero. Heros help people. Had Ikki's plan not worked and he died in that scrapyard, it would have helped no one! He would only have made things worse, something Daiji criticized Sakura for when she failed to transform. He'd hurt his friends who would have to continue without him and the pain of losing him and he'd hurt Fenix for losing its second commander in more or less a month most likely.

The thing is, heroes need to make sacrifices and give up things they want to help others. He didn't. He wanted to be that hero, the one out there and completely ignored the fact that he was only helping the bad guys, so effectively no one. He only followed his own selfish wish to be a hero and ultimately completely failed to live up to the ideal he cherished. He only followed his self-destructive instinct and only cared for what he wanted and failed to take a look around.

Heroes often don't get what they want, not because they are not good enough, but because they sacrifice it to do the right thing. That is something that carries through for most Riders. They give up something dear to them because it's the right thing to do. Sometimes they get it back, or they don't. Hiromi did not do that.

I have so many mixed feelings about what's happening.
George acting as shady as possible.
The higher up being completely evil, he makes me think of Apollo Geist and I think someone else said that.

Sacrificing lives for the sake of experimentation is a no go. If one of the Showa riders were there, Fenix would be treated the same way as Shocker or any of those evil organizations (that were basically extensions of Shocker right? I didn't watch all the Showa Riders but I do know that this isn't the case anymore in the Black Series)

I just don't want Hiromi to die : I would like to see one of the following :

1 - He succeeds in conquering the Demons Driver and it doesn't deplete his life anymore, in a odd turn of events, that would make him regain his life he lost

2 - He looses the Driver, Olteca gets it, but suffers the same fate. Hiromi is on the sideline but is actually useful as a commander and tries to change Fenix from the inside.

I have no other idea for the moment.
I can't wait to see next Episode but Ooh boy, Aguilera sure is completely oblivious about "Gifu"

Olteca being branded a Genius but being idiotic enough to believe in a shady guy just shows that he isn't as clever as he thinks.
He is being played hard, and I don't feel bad for that.

I'm not going to criticize the show too hard since I don't think their whole hand had been played yet, but I actually think Layton hit the nail on the head for why what happened with Hiromi and Ikki this episode didn't entirely work for me. Hiromi is reckless with his own life to the point of actually being detrimental to his own attempts at heroism, and Ikki encouraging it was not something I felt was positive. That being said, I really can't help but feel the show is slowly working towards some kind of incredible breaking point where the characters start realizing their own flaws more deeply. I'm just hope my faith in the show isn't misplaced!

Hiromi's a pretty sad character to me, since his backstory was his childhood bullying, but he seems to be still stuck in a lot of the same patterns from back then. Things like not realizing anything had changed with the Commander, despite him having gone from apparently a pretty supportive mentor to calling him worthless and talentless. Same with his training friend last episode suddenly being so confrontational. Or how guarded he is with his vulnerabilities even with people who'd want to help- hiding his poor physical condition until brought up, or shoving his very suspicious talking driver in a locker as soon as the brothers return. (lol)

It's kinda the feeling of... someone who never really learned to trust or rely on other people? And even as he often tries to assume the best about people, doesn't think about part of 'the best' being treating him well.

Which, like... I'd feel better about Ikki encouraging him here if it seemed to move any of the above in a positive direction? But after Ikki saying he'll try to protect him he... calls out Olteca to meet and battle alone, and is apparently surprised by Ikki showing up. If George hadn't sent a drone after him or something, whoops, kinda a pointlessly tragic end.

So I'd say I'm not really satisfied with where he's at now... with the caveat that this was apparently part 2 of 3 for whatever story he's getting currently. So this might not be where his arc ends... or he might just die next episode. Well, who knows,

I had watched the episode last Tuesday, but I had no time to write it here until now. So another one with no opening, but I guess both of the potentially tense events (Hiromi dying or Fenix reveal) are subverted in this episode.

The major reason for that is also about Ikki's development though, hooray for Revice to character focus ahead! Like I said before, one of Ikki's appeal to me is that he can still screw up big time even if he's nice, well-meaning, and didn't do morally questionable stuff (including for well-meaning reason) and for other reason than being a total idiot, like how him being a busybody (which'd mean helping others) drives a wedge between his siblings. Of which even if Ikki isn't morally dubious, he still needs to change in some ways too, which is shown here, not all flaws are offensive traits. I also now understand better for the previous part about Daiji calling Ikki out for not being enough busybody meaning Ikki's development, as it shows Ikki accepting and respecting other's choices, like Hiromi's choice to keep fighting despite his condition. Ikki (with Akemi) would find a different way to protect Hiromi (attacking Demons Driver; attacking other Riders!) despite his workaholic approach rather than being overprotective to just prevent him doing something, and I'd like to see what other ways he comes off with to take care of others without being overbearing.

Though like what some people said here, it's also about allowing Hiromi to be purposely detrimental beyond reason, and I'd think it's primarily Hiromi's fault tbh, his recklessness and impulsiveness are his flaws that has been proven to be his shortcomings. Just that in this episode he hasn't learned from that yet (dunno if he will), and instead is stubborn beyond reason, albeit of course in a softer way instead of harsh way like some of the secondary Riders against the primary's lessons. I̶n̶ ̶N̶o̶ ̶W̶a̶y̶ ̶H̶o̶m̶e̶,̶ ̶S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶a̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶p̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶R̶e̶v̶i̶c̶e̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶"̶S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶"̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶p̶e̶d̶ ̶s̶m̶h̶.̶ By this Hiromi obviously needs to learn from something too, like how he witnesses Ikki becoming dependable instead of viewing himself as dependable but actually overbearing. Like Daiji said, you can't save anyone when you're dead, I think for heroism you should try to preserve yourself so you're sure you'd be there for others in future, without doing morally questionable shit (like sacrificing the unlucky few) and still ready to throw your life if the situation demands it of course, but likely Hiromi should think up of other good deeds he can do without henshin as Demons for example. Albeit him letting himself got hit by Volcano Rex's finisher is quite a smart move from him to preserve himself that I can appreciate. Other than that, seems expected, he's shown to be merciful towards Chigusa's betrayal and would seek best case scenario.

The Fenix truth isn't revealed yet, other than it involves George and Akaishi's conversation in flashback, obviously 2 of the most shady members of Fenix, but it seems that Chigusa's sort of the hypocrite type in "reacting to the horrible truth I discovered". She joined a faction that can be as bad as Fenix with mostly little regard (albeit she had limits when Olteca killed her), like they pull horrible shit constantly and more openly, eventually to herself, and she shares Olteca's supremacy view of degrading whole humanity (and forcing them to "evolve" in their image) as well. Other than that, Olteca's backstory seems to paint him as just being depraved from a child, that him being a prodigy leads to him developing a superiority complex over others. Olteca now reminds of me of some of KR's mad scientists before, he has mad scientist personality/worldview but does things via supernatural stuff instead, like he wants to forcibly evolve humanity like Ryoma, and that his backstory of him already shown as being messed up before he got the power to act upon his ideology (by being recruited to Deadman.... with likely Akaishi in disguise) reminds me of Isaka in W. For Olteca at the first part of the episode, it's nice of him to react to Volcano Rex' finisher to prevent himself losing his power, but at the end of this episode, Olteca still smirks as Fenix captured him, I wanna know what schemes he can pull off without Deadman powers later on. Possibly turning into actual mad scientist using Fenix's tools?

Regarding George, now it seems that his goal is to create the Ultimate Kamen Rider, but it does further confirms my thoughts of him only value the chaos and violence that can present in KR shows instead of acknowledging why KR can be admirable via the heroism value they (not all) display, even openly mocking Hiromi for his heroism. There's also more of his unpleasant and sleazy attitude here of him showing no regards towards Hiromi being his lab rat (typical mad scientist attitude), where even if Hiromi would make the choice to use Demons, oh wait, George guilt-tripped him into becoming Demons at the first place (blaming him for Kagerou), so he does set up this for Hiromi, so it'd not be Hiromi's reckless fault here. His goal of creating Ultimate Kamen Rider also doesn't seem to be a good/benefical one here, likely just want to test his limits of how much he can create, but it'd depend on what he do next to achieve it for his villain status (or allowing that Ultimate Kamen Rider to spread chaos to show off his "brilliance" of what power he can create). But George isn't only scientifically brilliant, he's street smart and has people skills as well despite usually interacting in odd way (probably him interacting to Ikki at the hospital is also about this), which'd just make him more of a threat, like how Hiromi can fought as Demons for quite long time without anyone surrounding them knowing the true schemes until Hiromi almost died. For his true colors, at the very least Hiromi now knows George was his bully, and now only holds him in contempt.

The scene that I didn't like in this episode was Tamaki and Sakura's conversation, which, like Sh Ranger said, is just lazy and repetitive to repeat the same dialogue from previous episodes. Actually I'd like for more types of interaction between them y'know (...probably more than Sakura with Aguilera), of which Tamaki had interacted with Sakura before to inflitrate, but he now isn't, while Sakura now has been more accepting of Tamaki too. While Tamaki and Aguilera temporarily worked together with the Igarashi brothers against Aguilera, it's blatantly stated that Aguilera wants to retrieve the Giff stamp. Aguilera hasn't changed, at all, she still has the same goal from the beginning here. And the parallel too of Aguilera and Olteca basically having the same goal to forcibly evolve humanity via Giff. It's another case of evil vs evil like Metsuboujinrai.net vs ZAIA, albeit Olteca has grown to be really more despicable with his petty sadism, evil is not one big happy family. And again, Aguilera would abuse Tamaki here for telling Sakura, she's normally unpleasant except when certain crisis comes (Tamaki losing Yosuke). Tamaki himself too is loyal to Aguilera, which'd mean he's liable to take whatever side she ends up falling on.

Yeah, that shit of using whole powersets mostly will be good, but I wish that it can be implemented in a Rider that has buttloads of powers (of which Kiwami was the one that makes use of his variety of power better). Many Rider fights had the character with varied power neglect their powersets....

This is an interesting theory you brought up there. It can probably explain on why Demons Driver are so sought after by the higher ups at Fenix.

Actually it'd be the opposite of making him redeemable, I feel that you view Olteca in tragic light (while acknowledging his current actions) for his prodigy kid status in the past here.... I don't feel like it was others victimizing Olteca in this case, it's seemingly just him plainly developing superiority complex over himself to other humans, which'd just make him depraved to the core since long ago, like Isaka from W for instance, just that they both don't get powers yet. The Deadmans pretenting to only understand him likely won't make Olteca better than them too, just an organization full of evil people ready to backstab each other for their own gain, full of evil vs evil (also Aguilera only teaming up to reclaim Giff stamp, and had same goal as Olteca shown in parallel), and that definitely includes Olteca too.

I mean yeah sure the scene of George talking to Ikki in the hospital seems to make him seem as ultimately a good guy, including what I thought there (after also multiple times guessing George in the episode talks). But probably it's just to highlight that George IS also street smart, not only a scientific genius, like when he knew something's up with Daiji (Kagerou debut) as some of the ViStamps are stolen, and is actually a social expert who masters people skills despite mostly acting eccentric. That'd just make him more dangerous then if he's an actual threat. At best scenario he may be creating the Ultimate Kamen Rider against an upcoming greatest threat which'd make him a well-intentioned extremist still, depending on what methods he'd use next. Though George being placed in a good guy faction (I didn't watch Saber, so dunno about people's feelings on the good organization secretly bad there) is something that probably really helped his interest to give even more mystery and questions to the audiences surrounding him.

It'd depend on what George will do next, but I guess there's already previous characters who don't care on which side they're working on as long as they'd achieve their goals in KR, like Sagara in Gaim and Evolt in Build, and they're undeniably evil, especially Evolt (I also don't really buy the "force of nature" explanation for Sagara/Helheim as he's seemingly conscious and is meant to portray the snake in Bible). "Helping" the good side on occassion wouldn't mean that it "balances" out the evil deeds they do and turn those neutral, you can do benefical things only because it'd be necessary for them to help them achieve their schemes. Other than that George is shown as a bully to Hiromi multiple times in the past though, he's the one who indirectly turned Hiromi into Demons as well by guilt-tripping him as accusing him of being the reason Kagerou was born :p

Oh for sure Wakabayashi was supportive in the past to Hiromi, still acknowledging his merits (if he did so) despite that he's the weakest, but so that's actually a sign of Chameleon Deadman taking Wakabayashi's place if he degrades Hiromi.... I thought upper commanders of military belittling others is considered expected and that it's usually viewed as their "supportive" way to their underlings.

True, the problem is when some people paint the tragic villain as innocent (deflecting the blame on anyone else but them) only because they are victimized and suffer (which is also what I feel for some who thinks highly for Aguilera as well due to her current circumstance), ignoring the deeds they do in the present. It's apparent that after Yosuke's death, it's tragic, but Julio became a bigger threat than ever too.