[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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And, ha ha, it for sure kills Kitazaki! The lead-up to his death scene, not super memorable to me. His reaction to finding out he might die was to believe in his invincibility, and that ended up getting him killed by two-thirds of Lucky Clover, as well as Delta and Faiz. It’s a little quick to take out someone who was such a huge threat, but it still took four people. He wasn’t a slouch!

His death, though, that was one more thing in this episode that cracked me up. He gets petrified by the Orphnoch King… who then proceeds to break off his face and eat it. It’s immensely disturbing to Houjou, who loses his goddamn mind again, but I was laughing so hard. Just that visual of the Orphnoch King looking at Kitazaki for a moment and then starting with the face… it’s like a kid at Easter, eating a chocolate bunny from the head down. Just… I found it way more funny than scary. I don’t know why, but I did.

The King is still a kid after all so wanting to eat Kitazaki like a bunny is appropriate. Takuma freaking out over it does manage to make that scene both horrific and humorous. It's also a relief knowing that a depraved guy like Kitazaki is a threat no more. Attempting to mutiny the King works in the heroes' favor but the reason he's doing it is all wrong, like everything else he does. He doesn't care which side goes extinct as long as he's entertained. He's the most uninhibited hedonistic kind of person there is and right now, that's no good for anybody. He doesn't understand that his teammates are lawful evils who are clearly going to turn on him for disobeying the president. He brought this punishment on himself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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Speaking of things to which I can’t really explain why I respond the way I do, let’s talk about the Orphnoch King and the Ticking Clock and all the big plot stuff that’s tying our cast into knots.

I don’t love it? The main reason, beyond not feeling like one to two episodes is enough space to explore it, is that it drags a series that was about more nuanced ideas than Survival down to, like, Fight Or Die. (Was that this show? I feel like it was.) It’s more simplistic than I’d hope this series would be. There were moral conundrums that powered some really insightful writing, and now it’s Who Should Be Sacrificed. It… I don’t find that as compelling a metaphor for tolerance and acceptance?

There are some fun angles to it, and the Lucky Clover stuff was a prime example. They aren’t just a villain group trying to take over the world or kill the heroes, they are living beings asserting their right to exist. They don’t want to die, and they’re going to fight to stay alive. And these are the villains! It’s a refreshing ambiguity that this series always managed, and it’s nice to see it have a part in the finale.

The other big part that ends up working is that, with Kaido and Takumi, we’ve got heroic Orphnochs who have to decide what their lives are worth, and what they owe to humanity.

Takumi’s at low ebb here, convinced (yet again!) that Orphnochs are irredeemable and deserve to be destroyed, him included. But the only way to do that is to kill a child, and that’s… I want to say it’s a non-starter for Takumi, but it’s definitely Yuuji who stops him from punching a small boy in the face, sooooo, yeah.

It’s nice to see both Takumi and Kaido agreed that Orphnochs don’t deserve to exist at the cost of every human life. (Kaido’s version of this pledge doesn’t feel totally thought through, but, y'know, Kaido.) They’re ready to give up their lives to help strangers, and that’s a huge thing for two people who were the most selfish characters when the show started. There’s a weight to that decision that makes this whole Orphnoch King story, and the sudden reveal that Orphnochs are doomed without him, almost work.

But I’m still not really feeling it. It reduces the show’s themes down to Life Or Death, and I thought this show was so much smarter than that. It soared when it aimed small, kept its focus tight. All Humans Die or All Orphnochs Die, it ceases to feel like it’s about these characters. It doesn’t feel like an argument between Yuuji and Takumi, it feels like two concepts being thrown out for debate. It doesn’t feel dramatic, it feels calculated, a writer who’s lost sight of his characters in favor of some big allegory he wants to share.

Takumi's in a difficult position here. He thinks the End Justifaiz the Means, that he can murder an innocent kid to save humanity. But no hero would want to have to do something like that. He's reluctant and I'm kind of glad that Kaido and Kiba stopped him before he convinced himself to go through with it since that's not a guilt he would be able to get over easily. He has enough burdens to deal with. It doesn't help that he's having another breakdown at the time, believing that Orphenochs must die. He's right that it's the most effective way to save humanity but focusing on the objective and acting too dispassionately to accomplish it makes him less human by denying an Orphenoch the right to live which isn't the Takumi we've come to know. Takumi has to be a hero this late in the show, he has to act honestly and fight not just for the greater good but the good he has in his heart as well. That's the only reason why humanity is worth defending.