[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Yeah, actually Kaido was heartbroken of Yuji's heel-turn here. And probably, after all being a wild-card, Kaido's honest to himself for once here, and it takes him seeing an act much worse than any has been done by Kaido (including turning others except himself to police), which is Yuji actually becoming his antithesis. An analysis of how he got here. And Kaido's revenge of smacking back Yuji at his office.

Thanks for linking the article. It was a good read! I think I should give Kaido some more credit. I recommend to Die once he finishes the show.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Love for only one person (like Mari for Kusaka) isn't meant to be rooted or be glorified as a good thing (though this episode does play it up like that somewhat). Love for someone can be even the main motivation of doing evil things, like for example in other series, White Wizard in Wizard, or in other media, Gendo Ikari in Evangelion. Also good number of Kusaka's cruelty are based by the very qualities that you consider redeeming of him. Because Kusaka is an example of Yandere. Yanderes are people who suffer from personality disorder and can easily become violent and extremely dangerous where in this case, being motivated by their obsessive love to someone whom they have a crush with. He/she would go to extreme lengths to rid of anyone who potentially about to take away and/or harm his/her crush, which includes murdering their rival. Which is one of what Kusaka's character is about, he reacts with extreme violence if he thinks you are planning to do anything to her, or be next to be. He replaces the "cute, delicate, and sweet" facade with one that is strong, supremely competent and handsome, and by that his allies will remember him as hero, because of him being charismatic manipulative bastard and he's successful that they don't know how much of a bastard he was at his death.

Kusaka is a yandere for sure and I'm not trying to make out like this one heroic deed makes him a hero. He's not that. I just think that going in to battle to save Mari, knowing that he's going to die, which means not getting to win Mari as a prize, was a good way to make him, not redeemed, but sympathetic and pitiable. It's fitting that he was killed by not just Kaixa Gear but also Kaixa as Kiba takes his place and at that point, Kusaka was still more justified in his actions than Kiba who betrayed his own ideals and became exactly what Kusaka warned him about. Kiba is an antivillain here but it wasn't necessary for him to kill Kusaka considering he was already dying. Yuka's death has made him cold and ruthless.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Neat thoughts! There's some beauty to the idea that the more Orphnochs embrace their identities, the faster they vanish. The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long, you know?

I just wish, as an idea, it had been given more room to be explored. How would that knowledge have changed Sawada's view of his own humanity, or Yuka's dream?

Impressive how you paraphrased the quote "half as long, twice as bright" since it actually gets mentioned in inFamous 2 which I just compared to the show!

Yuka would probably side with the humans since she wouldn't want Keitarou to die for her to live. Also, Kaido is pro-human so she would follow his lead. Sawada was already aware of his own decay due to being a failed experiment so it might not change his mind too much knowing that the whole species would be doomed to that same fate without the King. It's not like he has any Orphenoch friends that he's close with.