[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But they needed to end the plot, get Takumi back as Faiz, and holy shit did they shortcut it. Keitaro swipes the belt from an injured Kaido, mostly because Kaido was being mean to Yuka. He gives the belt back to Takumi to fight an Orphnoch, mostly because he felt sorry for him. (I mean, he totally respects Takumi in general, but that belt toss is probably 70% pity.) Takumi gets to smile because he’s Faiz again, and still accepts the honor of being a Kamen Rider with a definitive I Love This I Guess It’s No Big Deal Whatever You're The One Who Cares Not Me. (Him and Yuka, they don’t love being honest about their feelings!) It’s a story that should be all about Takumi asserting his desires, owning his feelings, and instead he just mopes until someone gives him the belt back.

And, like, that’s funny as shit. It’s totally in the spirit of this show for Takumi to internally change while externally staying the same. It’s just, there’s almost no catharsis to Takumi becoming Faiz again. It’s totally anticlimactic. You can spin it as a cunning subversion of storytelling tropes (Takumi never ever articulates why he wants to be Faiz), but it’s still totally anticlimactic. Worse, it’s placed after a genuinely emotional, fully-earned moment between Kaido and Yuuji. They had an episode-ending story beat, and then they were like Now Here’s The REAL Ending, and… no? Weird choice. Weird, unfulfilling choice.

I disagree Takumi becoming Faiz again had to be anything bigger than it was. Having Takumi be too assertive about that only 10 episodes in would be... like, I just don't think it's time for that yet? As you've already admitted, there's a point where something like that would no longer fit the show, but what I think you're underestimating here is all the things that do work about that seqeunce.

Having Takumi the one to grab the belt back himself, speech or no, I think it's way more likely that would lack catharsis. Joke all you want about it being pity, but for it to be Keitarou snatching it back from Kaidou after seeing him be a jerk, to have him, one of the most morally upstanding, nicest characters on the show, be the one asserting himself, and then saying that Faiz has got to be Takkun, that's great. It's the best possible way for the show to validate Takumi as a hero. That big, dumb grin from Takumi when he hears that, how he lets his facade slip a little with that downplayed "maybe you're right" in response, that's a wonderful little moment between these characters that are gradually growing closer to one another. I guess the actual act of retrieving the belt was low-effort, I can't argue that, but I also feel like that's maybe the least important part of what's going on there?

It's also hard to compete with that Kaidou/Yuuji drama too, admittedly. Man is that good stuff.