[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Like my paragraph above, something I wanna see in the discussion is like this; looking deeper into a seemingly minor moment and making sure other people to know about these topics too. I think he does see himself as an asshole where he gloats to Shinji about his abilities and how he frees an evildoer when letting him ride his car in ep. 7 and him mocking Ren in ep. 10 where he thinks his purpose is naive while gloating about caring only for yourself (a common scumbag trait) and be stronger because of that. Also Ren outright calls him an asshole multiple times and he brushes it off, also pointing out him being asshole is none of Ren's business. Like you say for Ren viewing himself as a killer before, Kitaoka also adopts that mindset being a Rider (do whatever it takes, etc.), to an even nastier degree that Ren is sick of him. For the photo though, it's simply Kitaoka not taking rejection well, he's is truly in love with Reiko btw.

I guess I don't know how much Super Lawyer Kitaoka is, like, a coping mechanism Kitaoka created. It's the old "no one thinks they're the villain of the story" aphorism, how folks can justify their own awfulness because they assume that they're good people, so their choices aren't so bad. (Like, Houjou in Agito, that's a dude who sees his actions as natural and correct, so people who disagree with him, or want to punch him in his goddamn face, are inevitably just misguided.) I feel like Kitaoka doesn't love it when a bunch of people are judging him, and while he can derive some joy in feeling superior, there's a core human being inside that maybe feels piled on at the end of that episode. Or, once again, maybe I'm assigning deeper emotions to Kitaoka because I think he's fascinating. A more evidence-supported inference is also totally cool.

As always, thanks for the fun thoughts! Sorry I couldn't give more, but I am top to bottom burned out today. A million shipping and payment questions from subscribers at work, and aborted effort on a new Point Of Sale system. Pretty much need to play Animal Crossing for a hot minute and then collapse into bed.