[SPLIT LIP]

Nolan Batman isn't bad, but it's an excellent alegory for this conversation-

Actually, you know what's a REALLY good comparrison here?

Man of Steel. You know, that movie that took a bright, uplifting and hopeful character like Superman and put that same inane "grim and gritty" filter on him combined with ludicrously pretentious comparrisons to JESUS and calling him inspiring despite never doing anything inspiring? Just like Kamen Rider, Superman is somethign that doesn't need to be dark, incredibly serious, or devoid of humour. At least not in the way Gatack describes. It's taking something that's heart lies in being bright and encouraging and making it dark and grim and coming off as entirely pretentious and boring as a result.

Superman doesn't work as "dark." Neither does Kamen Rider. As Locke has put over and over, it really undercuts your hero's cred when so many lives are lost on his watch and he doesn't give a shit except for, like, maybe one or two. And that's inevitable when you demand constant deaths. The hero can't react realistically to every single one, so he can't react to any without seeming inconsistent. It's a writer's trap too many fall into. Heroes save lives, but if everyone dies anyway, are they really heroes at all?

I think this is why Ryuki was also good to me. It had death, but it was periodic. Yeah it seemed weird at times when someone died in front of him and he wasn't as shocked as later times, but because they bodycount was relatively low (probably helped with the Riders themselves being the main source of deaths, which of course fit right in with Ryuki's attempt to stop the fighting) he didn't seem ineffectual. In fact, I can easily say he saved more innocents then he let die, despite every show around him being the opposite.