[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

In a way, I think that's what really makes them opposites. Takumi, he'll call you names, act extremely unmotivated and disinterested, have generally terrible manners, but that's all he'll do. He's all bark and no bite. Yuuji is the pinnacle of class, and one of the kindest, most gentle people you could ever hope to meet, but a lot of that is about how good he is at practicing restraint. We're seeing Yuuji at his best most of the time, because he keeps himself in control, but that begs the question of what his worst looks like. For Takumi, you see him at his worst pretty often, and, even if he needs more pushing when he's in those moods, not much about him changes. If you wrong Takumi, he just starts barking louder, but if you wrong Yuuji enough, he starts pulling against the leash he's on.

Good points!

I think some of it also comes to down to how the show examines the strengths and weaknesses of the idea of motivation, of having a code. Yuuji answers a higher calling, the defense of Orphnochs' right to self-determination, and that gives him a certainty that can both give him strength and cause him to lash out. Takumi doesn't really have that core ideal. His faith is in other people, definitely not in himself, and that uncertainty in his actions both frustrates him and keeps him from making an unforgivable mistake.

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

Here’s an advance notice (not that you’ll understand that reference). This arc with Faiz vs Horse lasts for a tenth of the series and the HBV falls in the middle of it.

Noted! Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Takumi and Kiba finding out they were secretly arch enemies all along is totally a major development for their steadily growing dynamic and makes them question everything they thought they knew about each other. Takumi telling Mari to give up on him without explaining worked just as badly as it did with Keitarou but I guess he remembered what Kusaka warned him about the consequence of telling Mari about her father. Of course, keeping people in the dark works in Kusaka's favor and allows him to manipulate them easier.

I don't know if Takumi not telling Mari about Yuuji's true nature was a reference to Orphan Daddy, but maybe! I think it's more that Takumi's frustration with the situation leads him to be a judgmental dick to his friends, like always. (He totally makes the situation all about him! He gets so mad at his friends for accidentally falling for Orphnochs!)

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

It was good to see Takumi and Kiba trying to find out more about each other from Yuka and Mari. Takumi knows that Yuka is a good Orphenoch so he'll believe her if she says Kiba is good. Kiba has trust in Mari and wants to see the good in people in general so he'll believe her if she says Takumi is good. And sure enough, none of their descriptions match up with what Takumi and Kiba previously thought of violent rampaging Horse and cold mercenary Faiz. They weren't fighting each other as arch enemies, they were fighting fabrications of evils that didn't exist due to a series of justified misunderstandings.

The were two things I especially loved about that sequence.

First, I like when the show remembers that Yuka and Takumi have a history. She's the first Orphnoch he met that had a humanity, and that was a huge moment for him. They don't get a ton of scenes together anymore, so it's a great callback to have her be the one he reaches out to. Great use of character history.

The other thing is that the things Mari and Yuka say are things that Takumi and Yuuji could never ever say about themselves. Takumi, in particular, needs a Heroism Translator like Mari to make the case for why he's a good person. And, y'know, it's great to see them making a personal, specific case for their friend. Mari lets Yuuji know that Takumi is not a great friend on the outside, but he genuinely cares about people. (Yuuji doesn't have as many flaws, so Yuka's defense is more glowing.) It's just a great way to sketch out all four characters.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Peak Kusaka! The taller you build the tower, the more disappointed you are when someone comes along to destroy it. He considers Takumi and Kiba his rivals and he needs them to hate and fight each other so he can keep Mari for himself. Without that hatred, he wouldn't be able to manipulate them anymore so he needed to make them hate each other again.

This is why Kusaka's so infamous, how destructive he is, the way he so easily and nonchalantly ruins relationships in pursuit of his love. Before, it was just Faiz vs Horse. Takumi and Kiba didn't hate each other at all. They were starting to become good friends. But now it's even worse. Kusaka has fabricated more imaginary evils and misdoings on both sides of the conflict to give these people who should be friends another reason to fight while behind the scenes, he just laughs at their hurt feelings and reaps the rewards of their destruction for himself.

Kusaka loves scheming, and he loves winning, so this was a pretty great day for him!