[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It... I don't think possessive and protective are synonyms? Protective has a connotation of care, of valuing someone or something, and it can be used positively. Possessive is about selfishness, and it's almost always used negatively. You can be protective of someone while still allowing them autonomy and independence, like Tendou has done with Hiyori. (I don't recall Tendou trying to box out any other potential suitors?) Being possessive... that's just not Tendou? That we've seen on this show so far, anyway. It's... it's basically the opposite of how I'd describe Tendou's views of other people?

Yeah no, it's not synonym. Never said they're synonyms (ofc not lumping together the negative equivalent, like you said there "used negatively"!), it's like the analogy where all lions are mammals, but not all mammalsare lions again. Protective doesn't mean, and isn't always possessive, but possessive is being protective in an extreme manner. Tendou's still an elitist though, he puts himself as above others, and that's one of the reasons he doesn't want to join ZECT, and he had tribalism by that concerning him, Juka, and Hiyori. Actually what I said about boxing out others from Hiyori (and Juka) comes from that part, rather than possessiveness if I had to make it clearer. Otherwise Tendou's far too intellectual and egotistical to put himself on the level of anyone else he considers below him. He expects everyone else to live up to unrealistic high standards, which is an automatic social brick wall.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I don't 100% understand your question about responsibility issues (I don't remember what I said about them that you're referring to), but I think the show missed out (so far!) by not exploring Kagami's responsibility for abandoning Shadow. His actions were previously framed as him valuing the bond he had with Tendou over the ugly work of being TheBee, but the result for Shadow is that he left them all to twist in the wind while he cozied up to his new friend. That seems like a thing the show could reckon with for a minute!

I'm refering about how the responsibility part as a reason to atone (other than morally ambiguous characters realizing their mistake after so long) and make things right means sometimes to you that they can't function as a person and isn't being healtly emotionally or processing it.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 14

I’ll spend a paragraph talking about it, to feel like I’m being somewhat comprehensive in discussing the episode, and then I’m going to move on to the parts of the episode that were poignant, clever, and entertaining. This is a bone-stupid plot, one that requires the audience to either believe Kagami is a secret traitor (for half the episode), or care that Kagami’s been obviously framed (for the other half). It’s a plot that needs Tendou to refuse to get involved for three-quarters of the runtime, because he could resolve the mystery in about ten seconds. (And does!) It tells us absolutely nothing about anyone involved in it, and it feels like it’s just killing time until its action finale. It is so bereft of anything resembling thematic weight or character insight that I found myself longing, longing, for last episode’s Yaguruma/Kageyama tension. Here, it’s just twists and reveals in place of brains and heart. It’s a dumb story about nothing, and it was work to get through it.

That's the consequences of having a perfect main character, Tendou's only there to show that he's better than everyone, he only shows at the last minute to truly solve the problem. And he did it in 10 seconds, in comparison to the inferior beings around him who had to work around it. You of course can't take away Tendou's ability suddenly (even when he's seemingly beaten, he still had upper hand like at Yaguruma fight). It did show though, about how Kageyama couldn't able to lead his group completely and mostly taking effort which giving benefit only for his own. And what I thought about the Shiro scene here was that... I mean, he's a Shadow member, yet he acts as a Worm disguising as him in complete surprise as he's a complete civilian? Otherwise, the killing time stuff, well, that's what you get in typical toku (obviously not 100% of it), and the appeal of Kabuto towards some others are Tendou's coolness and superiority.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But then there’s the Hiyori/Tendou plot, and it’s the best. It is everything I’m watching Kabuto for, and it was worth sitting through the idiotic ZECT stuff just to be able to experience it.

I have to say, I have to give you props regarding this analysis of those character (and what Fish talked regarding Hiyori, which was polar opposite of what answer I get when I talked to someone else about Hiyori), which I'd give my consolences about what real life will do to Hiyori later. And tbh, as this scene is fleshing out more about Hiyori and the Kabuto plot regarding her flashbacks, I'd expect what you talk is about that, but actually no (well, considering how most of your take regarding that part of plot is not favorable, it'd be expected too about something else).

Regarding how Hiyori though it's the person with belt letting her parents die or murdered them, I mean, we know that Tendou is Kabuto, Worm exists (some civilians are completely surprised about them disguising), and ZECT exists to combat them. But in-universe, not everyone necessarily knows about those supernatural elements! This would go to non-combative characters like Hiyori, Juka, or Takemiya so far. Hiyori just came across Kabuto and declare vengenace towards him that she saw him having the same belt as the person around her after the meteor incident. Though it got cut shortly as, the belt was located in Tendou's belt, which means Tendou being Kabuto is known quickly. Which would lead to the true test of Tendou's character by unraveling his true nature revolving around food (need more of Tendou's other field of skills though like Yusuke's 2000 skills).

How you perform depends if you're completely sapped of any passion (potentially bad and isn't representative of your talent) which or if you're devoted and high spirited, in a satisfactory mood (showing off your best). And it seems that even if Hiyori is mostly in grumpy mood, Takemiya only stated about Hiyori being mad in this episode. Regarding about how Hiyori cooks her foods, about an expression of the depth of someone's devotion to something, it's more than just about making others or certain someone happy. Other than food, Hiyori can do mistakes in job like being clumsy and zoning out while working, resulting in complaints by customers. Doing your best can come in different forms of reasons, like the joy of proving yourself or challenge, like probably Tendou if it's not regarding Juka such as him fighting off Worms (well, so far, Juka's not brought up about in his Worm fights, except at ep. 4 which is more about Juka's food supply at the cost of poor Kagami).

And for Tendou's character here, it shows that assholes don't necessarily mean malicious. Tendou, while a cold person to others except his beloved, and can make hard and seemingly cruel decisions when he feels the need to like ransacking authority to complete his mission, still had clear line, he's not an evil person. He's grey rather than black. Tendou's an anti-hero, and anti-heroes are good guys (unlike how some people misinterpret the term), they're heroes, just having more negative traits compared to traditional ones. And for him being awful to others but loving Juka, that's a standard trait possessed by most of secondary Riders, which are usually made as anti-heroes. They're not as upstanding as the usually messianic primary Riders, but they're more often than not on their side.

Hiyori rightfully clears up her suspicions about Tendou with his inner warmth, although it's for Juka that time, but unfortunately, this also can lead to boneheaded decisions in other series (and this can be about writing blunder too although people can bash the character and the type of that character instead, and it's frustrating to some other people, including me, because it delves into self-righteousness and hypocritical writing) which is why I'm disillusioned about showing goodness by only selective care (and typically, about those with guaranteed care like family or friends), where an actual bad guy (not Tendou, hence "actual") who shows a warmth towards certain someone is given free pass without consequences, and that the series expected the audience to treat them as good because of that redeeming qualities (the bad guy may also be redeemed after this but with forced writing). Whether a character is hero or antihero, he (or she) should not feel entitled to receive only praises and no criticisms for his/her moral decisions concerning the bad guy, and/or that he/she can never possibly make a morally wrong decision. If those heroes still think that they have 0% moral fault for letting the bad guys though, it's worrying. They should acknowledge that their decision to give bad guy will potentially indirectly bring harm to innocents in future.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

A QUESTION

It’s getting to be actual winter here in Chicago, and that always gets me a little more inclined to watch Kamen Rider. I don’t know why, but the summer… I just want to be out of the house more. In the winter, it feels good to settle in and watch TV shows. What about you? In what season do you most enjoy watching Kamen Rider?

Lol, the question is ambiguous, season can refer to nature seasons, or which series of Kamen Rider discussed about (individual series like Agito, Blade, Build, etc. are called KR seasons). To answer though, it's irrelevant for me, my country is a tropic one, so there's only 2 seasons between dry and rain, and even then it's not consistent that it can both happen simultaneously. For general though would prefer rain as it won't be too hot.