[barnstenchfartface]

I think the ending was appropriate and satisfying enough. Ryuki is without a doubt one of the most tragic Rider series there are, with one of the highest body counts in the series. In the end I think it was pretty much showing just how terrible everything was as a result of the Rider War (ie, every single Rider died, not to mention all those countless civilians). It was very much a "the only winning move is not to play" kind of thing. Neither of the alternate tellings we see in the special or the movie are any better.

(i think i mainly came to understand this more after Homestuck did the lets-kill-everyone-and-then-retcon-it-because-damn thing too. though i have more negative feelings of how that was done. i think ryuki did it well)

So when the cosmic reset button is employed, it does feel a little like a cop-out, as far as making the series "irrelevant" (not necessarily in terms of mechanics because it was established that Odin can do the time travel thing pretty early on) but I think making it irrelevant was sort of the point. However much growth a few individuals experienced was not worth all the loss of life. (which even affected all who experienced growth because they died anyway) For Yui, who never wanted people to be sacrificed for her sake, and Shinji, who always wanted to stop the fighting, this was the ending they deserved. Shirou finally acknowledging Yui's wish makes for a pretty good ending, imo.

The only thing that bugged me about the ending personally is that I felt it ran too long. The final sequence in the reset world would have been more poignant if they shorted it up a lot and cut some of the antics. But that's just me.