[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

Personally and from what've seen most people just watch the movie after the show. And that's what I did..

That's actually my rule for any summer movie whether it's Sentai or Rider. I always watch them after the finale even if it doesn't always make sense. I feel like it's appropriate to finish watching a series with a climax, y'know? For such a spoilery movie as Paradise Lost though, I commend the decision to leave it until the end.

Funny story: I watched a certain show before Faiz which made the plot twist easier to predict. Anybody whose name isn't Die will probably know what I'm talking about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

--3--

Takumi’s having a tough time of it, after seeing Skullcandy kill Saya. He wants to believe in the innate humanity of Orphnochs, but the murder of someone he’d grown to tolerate (Takumi’s closest type of relationship!) by what was basically her brother, that changes his feelings. He’s seen the worst Orphnochs have to offer, and now that’s all he can see.

One of my favorite threads in this episode is watching Takumi just process his grief in the most Takumi ways possible. When Keitaro is crushed by Saya’s death, Takumi tries to console him, but he does it by saying Hey You Can Stop Mourning Her Pretty Soon. He’s trying to say something about the necessity of letting grief end, of letting someone live in your memory, but he’s incredibly/naturally tactless, and it just makes Keitaro wonder what in the hell is wrong with Takumi. Which in turn makes Takumi defensive, and more tactless, and withdrawn. It’s a classic Keitaro/Takumi Mess-Around!

It keeps Takumi in a funk long enough to be a horrible employee of a dry cleaners, loudly berating customers to do their own damn laundry. Takumi is losing his mind about all of this rage that he can’t put anywhere.

Cue Yuuji, the rest of Team Orphnoch, a melon, and some awkward conversation.

Literally nothing makes me happier on this show than when we get all six of the main cast in a scene. Having them all sit around a table, speculating about whether Orphnochs are innately human or whether human-seeming Orphnochs are an aberration, it’s a great way to surface the episode’s themes while still being as charming as possible. Because, like, it’s a pretty split decision! Yuuji’s confident that Orphnochs are human, and so is Mari, but Kaido needs some prompting. (At least he got his Sour Kelp!) Yuka’s onboard… sort-of? Keitaro is so ashamed to be around Yuka that he abstains. And Takumi thinks it’s a question that can’t be answered by a vote, partially because he’s currently being outvoted.

It’s a big question, and one the show isn’t super into answering right this minute. Mostly because it’s using that discussion to reiterate how in-the-dark Yuuji and Takumi are about their secret identities, and that’s important to do since they are no longer in the dark.

So Saya is the second victim of the female Rider curse and unlike Miho (Kamen Rider Femme), her death wasn't even obligatory! It's a shame we didn't at least get to see her henshin. Saya seemed like an innocuous person which made the reveal of Delta's identity even more surprising. Her body failed her at the critical moment but she was strong enough to control Delta, which made her the most capable user we've seen so far, until Kitazaki picked it up.

My head canon is that when Mari asked Takumi if anyone in the reunion photo was his type, his second option was Saya. This is the first time the show has ever given Takumi a love interest and for her to die so soon, it's definitely a wound that he won't recover from easily, even if he acts like everything's fine like he usually does. When he told Keitarou to get over her, I think he was projecting again. He wants to get over her but it's not as easy as he makes it look. The first nekojita he ever met like him. That's got to be fate, right? And now she's gone, just to give Takumi another reason to loathe himself. People just keep dying around him.

When it comes to melon, I'm more of a cantaloupe kind of guy. Not like I eat it much anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

--4--

THAT ENDING!

I’d gotten so used to Takumi and Yuuji just missing the chance to learn each other’s secrets that, uh, I sort-of forgot they actually could learn them! And holy shit they just did!

For a show that’s had a crazy amount of good cliffhangers, this one has to be in the top 3. (I can’t rank them, but this was a really good one.) This episode had given us both a very sweet Takkiba scene (Yuuji asks if he wants to talk about what’s bothering him!), as well as another brutal Faiz/Horsepower fight. We’d seen the bond of their friendship, and the depths of their hatred. That’s precisely the moment you want to expose their secrets.

Oh, also, Delta shoots a billion missiles at them from the most Delta ride machine.

This isn't the first cliffhanger to have the protagonist about to get blown up by missiles, nor is Jet Sliger the first vehicle to shoot missiles. Side Basshar has been blowing up Faiz with missiles before it was even cool!