[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Unfortunately yes. For all the Faiz hate, he got it the worst. It's frustrating to them about his cowardice, indecision, reluctance, that they think it's stupid for him to reject a chance for being strong and safe especially if Orphnochs are trying to kill. Also they think he doesn't deserve to be Delta because of how unskilled in a fight he is; that Delta's power should be used by someone more deserving.

Wow, weird. I definitely don't feel that way!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

For The Girl Can't Know The Truth, while others are at fault for this... what do you expect for Kusaka? I think for Kusaka employing this trope, it's in his character. This could be... just another one of unlikable qualities put in Kusaka! (he does treat her inappropriately after all) But unfortunately, while this trope isn't a fun one (not to me either), I feel like people are hoping for a subverting expectations that the said girl won't have reactions like here (no, and I feel like circumstances are ignored for this one), to prove that it's ok to feed any truth for the girl, don't underestimate them. But with her having reactions like this, just like what they feared, this would likely push the Girl Can't Know The Truth trope even more (with Kusaka being an in-universe example for this).

Yeah, I think the show avoids some of the pitfalls of the trope by a) having Mari find out almost immediately and get mad at Keitaro and Kusaka for hiding it from her; and b) making her reaction less about Takumi being an Orphnoch and more about him being the Orphnoch that traumatized her. There's a specificity to it that overcomes a lot of the negatives for me.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Keitaro only wants to forget about Takkun being an Orphnoch and not only Mari that wasn't told, but everyone else as well, but nah, Takumi's deal to Smart Brain was publicly revealing that he's an Orphnoch so it's for naught..... Keitaro is a victim of Can't Know The Truth as well then? He knows Takumi is an Orphnoch, but he doesn't know about his worse state about being publicly known that Takumi won't tell him.

I want to say that Keitaro's problem isn't so much that he's trying to forget that Takumi is an Orphnoch (that was the previous episode), but that he's trying to act like it doesn't matter to him. But it clearly does matter.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Also with you talking about acceptance like this, "believe in your friends", would this be related to Sawada part before? Where like Kusaka points out, there are being reckless in your sympathy. Keitaro claiming that Takumi transformed to save Mari could be attributed to the part where Sawada "saved" Mari as well.

It's two different things?

One of my favorite choices the show made in this episode is that the show flipped the roles of the characters. Usually, it's about Takumi being closed-off, being inflexible, and his friends trying to reach him. Here, he's open, he's trying to put them at ease. They're the ones who end up screwing this up, unable to articulate their emotional needs, unable to communicate with Takumi.

With Sawada, all of Mari's conception of him was projection. She wanted Sawada's reluctance to be about him looking for a way back to his humanity, and that was a mistake. Here, Takumi is doing everything he can to reach back to his friends and they're making him feel like a stranger. This story is about acceptance, and how hard it can be to live that. Sawada's story was about the ways our hopes for people can blind us to their shortcomings, how dangerous rose-colored glasses can be in Kamen Rider.

Two different stories!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Yuji just tells his trio outright that Takumi is an Orphnoch... in contrast to his interactions with Takumi before. I guess Keitaro has restored Yuji's full faith to Takumi right?

It's probably more that Yuuji sees a kinship in Takumi that he didn't before. They were friends who had a falling out, but now they have a shared experience. Yuuji, I think, is very excited to have that commonality with Takumi, and that's why he tells the others so quickly. This is a very big deal for Yuuji!

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This far in, I guess I'm assuming you've adjusted to how difficult some of TV-N's lines can be to parse anyway.

It's maybe become a little like code-breaking? I'd never be able to do what you do, hearing the line and knowing it's wrong, but I can try and look at the whole scene and figure out what point the translator is trying to make.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Yeah, I know what you mean. You could have an awesome plot in theory but it's meaningless if you don't get to see how it affects the characters and more importantly, you need to care about them. Generally, I think this show does an excellent job of making the main characters feel complex and dynamic and I appreciate how the emotions of the disbanded Team Faiz is at the center of this plot, I think it needed to be about them and how they're dealing with this.

Yeah, it meant the world to me that their breakup, the lowest point, it's them in their living room. It's not in the middle of some battle or on a dramatically-lit stage, it's the place where they're most comfortable. But now it's poisoned, dangerous. It's not about monsters or villains, it's just people failing each other in the most common, human ways. It's all about how they're processing these developments, not What Happens Next.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Smart Brain are now chasing Takumi like a gang of loan sharks (which is ironic since Faiz has a shark motif), looking to collect on his deal with Murakami. Takumi's in a difficult position. He owes them, but what they want, he can't do it. He can't join Lucky Clover if it means being an enemy to humans. Kusaka claims to owe Takumi but this is the second time that Takumi has got Kusaka out of a bad situation after saving him from Smart Brain and it doesn't look like Kusaka intends to repay him.

Maybe I'm wrong on this one, but I feel like Murakami is a good enough manager to know what he can and can't get Takumi to do. Getting the Faiz belt back is within the range of Takumi's morality. I wouldn't expect Murakami to try and get Takumi to kill humans, but reclaiming belts and offing random Orphnochs is... it ain't a million miles from his average Tuesday?

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

In addition to the echoes of Takumi that Mari and Keitarou saw, the cat licking Mari could've been a metaphorical reminder of him, due to being a nekojita.

Good catch!

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Originally Posted by Actar

Not sure if anyone touched on this yet, but my two cents on Mihara Delta: It's established earlier on that most normal people (aside from perhaps other Belt users/already powerful Orphnochs) get poisoned by and addicted to using the Delta Belt. It's only people like Saya and Mihara who don't have a lust for power that are able to use Delta without suffering any ill effects. However, Mihara is just not a good fighter, so while he's able to use Delta, it can never function to its fullest potential.

While I personally find it sad that Delta never lived up to its initial bad-assery (as I love that belt and suit design), I have to admit that it's rather brilliantly ironic/poetic - that the most powerful belt can only be used by the weakest users. Not to mention, it's a great way to nerf Delta and put him on the same level as the other Riders.

It's a fun inversion of the usual storyline of Proving Your Worthiness, to have Delta be used by someone who least wants it. It's a way of exploring the Terrible Burden trope in a way that I don't recall seeing before? It's also, honestly, such a relatable reaction to seeing every other Ryusei belt-wearer get killed or go crazy. You'd have to be out of your mind to be excited to be Delta!