[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And betrayals are at the heart of this story. Takumi thinks he’s been betrayed by Yuuji, Yuuji thinks he’s been betrayed by Takumi, and Kusaka is betraying them both.

Takumi overall just bears deep hatred for the Orphnochs, not too different from Kusaka, where he seems prejudiced against Yuka before, and Yuji here to force Keitaro and Mari drop their interest to them. Takumi still not wanting to tell them the specifics smh, even when he's warmed up to them to claim he's doing this for their sake. Takumi and Yuka's situation make most of the sense for her to explain that Yuji is targeted by Smart Brain because he doesn't want to regularly attack humans generic Orphnochs do, but still not enough to get rid of the problem. While it's already seen multiple times Mari rejecting Kaido.... Keitaro didn't go through that right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

After Mari and Yuka play matchmaker, it’s time for Yuuji and Takumi to have their heart-to-heart, to really talk about all of the various conflicts between Orphnoch and RidHA HAHA HA HA HAHAHA

The root of their problem that they can't really explain away; In Faiz, Kamen Rider isn't only wielded by 1 person. Yuji thought Faiz was in the hands of an evildoer, Takumi thought Yuji was hunting him (who he thought is an evildoer) behind the back. But then again yeah... Yuji saw it in his own eyes that Takuma, a different goddamn person, henshins into Faiz right? That's the evildoer with Faiz belt. I agree Takumi and Yuji teaming up is more rewarding than any of Faiz/Kaixa teaming up because that one doesn't have a good relationship, and never intended to have one, Kusaka's only on the protagonist side due to mutual opposition against Orphnoch they have, he hates Orphnoch more compared to humans.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, that’s drama, right? Something good happens to make it more powerful when something bad happens, and vice versa. But, god, it hurts so bad.

While Kusaka's been horrible before, Kusaka's true colors is revealed more here (or at least, the most infamous parts of him known to fans blossoming), complete with soap-opera esque plan enhanced with tokusatsu tools. And you're right this is also partly on Mari's name.


Though yeah there's dysfunctional part on both Takumi and Yuji, it doesn't absolve Kusaka's horrible traits here at all. He still did this horrible thing, even if it's worsening Takumi and Yuji's personal problems. What Yuji probably doesn't know for have you spent even one minute with Takumi my dude, is that Kusaka's been living with Takumi in Kikuchi household, and latest episodes have them team around. Here they really exploited the thing this series run where belts here can be wielded by anyone. But Yuji has witnessed the belt being worn by Takuma! He clearly just wasn't right in his head. It seems that here, Yuji didn't really fight back, I wonder if Yuji doesn't because of his emotional ties to Takumi, who he thought is a primary Faiz user. Then again he's now convinced that Takumi is a horrible person Kusaka described to him but still didn't? If he defeats Faiz right there he'll demorph into human form and it's revealed it's Kusaka wearing the belt. And instead it's Kusaka knocking him down, and serves to help his plan further by deceiving Takumi too that Yuji is stealing/wearing the Faiz belt in an attempt to hunt him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But, shit, maybe folks feel differently! I can see this being a thing that, to some, smacks of writerly contrivance. Kusaka has to scheme a bit to tear them apart, and schemes can make viewers feel manipulated.

It didn’t for me. I thought it all worked like gangbusters. (Well, maybe not some of the Jet Sliger effects work. Definitely took too big a swing on having two of those in the climax!) I loved how internally generated all of the conflict was, how it harnessed 30 episodes of character growth to just grab my heart and squeeze.

Did this one work for y’all? Let me know!

For people here, probably this works. But this part of the episode is what cements not only Kusaka, but also Faiz' infamy. as a whole. Also Faiz having Jet Slinger too (never realized, I thought he only has Auto Vajin, and Jet Slinger is exclusive to Delta)... would that mean Faiz (and Kaixa potentially) actually has better arsenals than Delta? He has 2 assists compared to Delta's 1 (only Jet Slinger so far).