[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I feel like the show is still figuring out what it can do with Kusaka. There’s a… not a tentativeness, but a feeling out, maybe, of how far they can push him. This episode’s a Kusaka spotlight, and they pretty much give us a look at every aspect of his character.

It’s nice to see how much they can dig into him. We’ve seen him as a dick to Takumi, a creep to Mari, a rival to Yuuji, a menace to Orphnochs, and a powderkeg for everyone. What this episode has to do is take all of that, reiterate it, and try to make it all seem like facets of one (supremely unhinged) person. I think it was successful?

The facets are varied, but one thing that's similar is that every single one of them are horrible things.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

One of the big elements of Kusaka is his scheming nature.

I mean, Kusaka does view everyone as rivals and competition, but he especially does this for Yuji, because his goal above everything else (like Orphnoch extermination) is possessing Mari, and Yuji's the one that potentially can take her away as she seemingly likes him. Though yeah, not seeing anything that would benefit him for Lucky Clover or Smart Brain, as he hated Orphnochs and it seemingly unrelated to Mari this time. So this is the meaning of creating a despicable character... to give a cathartic factor when he had downfall at the end?!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

That whole scene, it’s interesting to me in the way it’s defining Kusaka’s psychology without excusing it. He’s awful, and he’s hurting so many people. The things he’s doing are objectively wrong. But, like everyone in Faiz, it comes from a trauma he hasn’t processed. He’s earned our animosity, but he might also deserve some of our pity.

"our" pity hmm... a good number of people outright hated Kusaka for everything he has done (and if people enjoyed him, it's enjoying him all due to his vile actions, not due to pity), not to mention as you said here, others at Faiz has trauma too, but others aren't as depraved as him. The thing with Kusaka is, as you said, he's scheming and as I said, he's standard manipulative asshat seen in majority of soap operas existing in my place (Faiz is called KR Soap Opera!). It could be that Kusaka's just trying to make himself look sympathetic again, this time in front of Takumi unlike every other time. He can easily play with words in his own twisted sense of mind that he only sees Mari as something with value in this world.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The rest of the cast is finding their way through their own poor decisions, at least the few of them who have meaningful screentime in this episode.

Why this one time of her to Kusaka is a mature way of closing that door, compared to others? Also even if she's still that way, Kusaka's one person that she's softer too of being a childhood friend (still didn't get over you lumping her together with Keitaro previously for inviting Kusaka living together), like for simplest thing... using honorifics with him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I’m curious how this episode played for other people. I liked learning a bit more about Kaido’s psychology, and I really enjoyed the journey he goes on in this one. There’s a fun swing from Kaido Is The Greatest Nothing Can Stop Him to I’ve Made A Huge Mistake in about twenty minutes of TV show.

But y’know, it’s also asking you to at least slightly empathize with Kusaka when he is at (to date) Peak Kusaka, and that’s maybe too big an ask for folks predisposed to viewing Kusaka as a two-dimensional bully. I mean, he’s awful to Mari and Yuuji, two of the kindest people on the show. Hard to find something worth saving in a dude who’d be horrible to them! I mean, Takumi’s one thing, but not Yuuji!

Yes for Yuji (for now) but you....changed your stance for the former? Again for Kusaka, you said it's a "maybe" for a big asking, but it's been proven it's not the case. People know full well of his horrible deeds, and probably, it's more clear to them because he's on the protagonist side, means he's someone you're suppossed to root for but he's given a plethora of horrible traits despite of his position, unlike those in antagonist position where people can be biased (even morality wise... something I'm not keen of the fandom) due to not having the obligation of possessing sympathetic traits.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I'm sorry if I made the idea of people enjoying Kuuga sound hard to believe. It's more that I wasn't able to get out of it what other people did, and I wanted to hear what they enjoyed about it. It was curiosity, more than shock.

I mean, that's pretty much the whole reason I do threads like this, to find out what people are getting out of these shows. Some of it's me processing my own feelings, but I much prefer hearing what other people think about what's going on in a Kamen Rider series. Like, I'm already in my head all the time, I'm fascinated by what's in other people's heads. I'm glad people are comfortable sharing their opinions!

Fair enough, and for another thing, even if at least you let other people free for this (want to know what's in other people's heads... means gotta know about the fandom in general too as they're made up by people, like Kuuga's influental position i̶n̶c̶l̶u̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶S̶h̶o̶u̶m̶a̶ ̶K̶a̶i̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶m̶o̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶K̶R̶ ̶f̶r̶a̶n̶c̶h̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶P̶a̶r̶a̶d̶o̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶), don't force shaping other Rider series with one like your preference either, or only limiting the good and bad based on it.