[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and file A Worm Copy Of His Unborn Sister as a half-sister. I'm sorry if that's speciesist!

Just gotta say that, if you think every single Worm is a duplicate of something based on what's shown, this will be debunked later, and this also answers the "why the Worm that impersonates the parents are there before the asteroid" part.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Not to me? Her wandering off is something that happens because of a psychic phenomenon, so I'm not feeling generous enough to say that it makes Hiyori a story driver. She's not even recognizably Hiyori at that point in the story.

And her running off because Worm Widow is telling her They're All Going To Laugh At You... I mean, if we're going to refer to that as Hiyori being in control of her story, we have lowered the bar pretty low.

The problem for me with both of those examples are that it becomes more about other people's agendas, other plots. Worm Widow's scene is about her manipulating Hiyori, not Hiyori responding to manipulation. (It's also under a minute long, so let's keep that in mind.) Hiyori going to see Another Tendou at the end isn't some huge decision, it's a weird plot thing that happens because of a psychic phenomenon.

Probably because something like that isn't going to be known or thought, there's got to be the source of the knowledge of the big things like this, if it's not from others like Tendou who likely won't tell, then the likely Worm powers (dunno if it's truly part of the powerset, or the psychic part, I don't see them being listed on her powerset) does. I.. don't see any other way to get the cast to know about the existence of Souji Kusakabe (and if someone did know, I don't know if you'd want for someone to just explain that), which will lead to tons of another things.

BTW, can you give your thoughts about this one?

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I don't think that Tendou's motivation is about parent death based from here. From what I catch, Tendou is someone who cares the most for family members, that being Juka, for what's shown (and well... Hiyori as from this part), and previously, Tendou also loses his cool, swears personal vengenace, and even acting recklessly to Worms that targeted Juka (proclaiming that they won't get away) and endangered Hiyori, as for ep. 26. So I think the flashback here, Tendou shows similar characteristics of that, Tendou being enraged for harm to his family, where Worms that targeted and killed his parents are what Tendou hates the most, just like the Worm that endangered Juka and Hiyori. The flashback I think isn't meant to change Tendou's motivation, it's meant to show Hiyori's origin as a Worm.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 33

The smartest thing it does, at least for a guy like me who did not love the last episode, is that it makes a lot of the last episode’s details… less important. They’re still there (Hiyori being a Worm is sort of crucial to Tendou’s dilemma), but they’re not really key to understanding the stakes. The stakes are Hiyori Is Missing, and that’s all that matters. How she’s missing, the last few minutes of 32, it’s not really a big part of this episode? We’re a week past that for the characters, with the shock worn off and everyone trying to figure out their next move.

It’s laid out perfectly in that first Misaki/Kagami scene, where she’s wondering why the most impetuous member of the cast has been moping around for the last seven days while one of his best friends is missing. The answer is that she’s missing because of a situation no one understands, and there’s really nothing anyone can do yet. Kagami’s left to wait until an opportunity presents itself, but he’s not going to take action just for the sake of taking action.

So something that infuriates others like Misaki in Kagami becomes his endearing trait at least to her here. But of course, if someone's run on big feelings, then Hiyori missing will also inflict big feelings to him in another way; which is moping around here. About him being overly concerned about his friend that it affects him slightly. I don't want for this to be viewed (by audience) as compassion being a weakness, or that being kind as synonymous to being idiot (Tendou also says something like this, from his grandmother too, but if he does this here, he'd be a hypocrite because he acts like that to family). And as for missing Hiyori, the series made a temporary replacement in Renge Takatori, who acts cutesy and goofy on the outside, but isn't really like that at first glance, the innocence is not genuine. She's also made to be more skilled by nearly every ZECT soldiers.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Cut to Tendou, and the theme of this episode becomes clear: Everybody Feels Trapped And No One Is Making Good Decisions.

It'd be a tough task for Kagami, as he's the big feelings type and outside of his idiocy and recklessness, he's the type who embodies the Kamen Rider ideals, similar to most of the lead Riders. And Tendou is someone who views that as weakness, it'd be almost impossible for Kagami to do something against this, considering that Kagami (and his ideals) are treated as a joke for most part, while Tendou is almost always right, being the perfect hero. I think outside of lack of humility, or wait for opening, or being independent, this is also the peak showings of Tendou's selective care. He's primarily concerned with the well-being of his family members, but not so much in comparison for others (at best Kagami is likely a friend for Tendou, and that means nothing in comparison to family). He probably won't do it but he'd be ok to eliminate every other living beings for Hiyori's sake. Heroes/villains are defined by actions (while their characterization defines if they're traditional or anti), Tendou would only turn into actual villain if he actually did what he threatened for real, but as for now it's clear that Tendou has negative traits here that makes him more similar to most of secondary Riders (where some also threatens others while never doing it fully).

The everybody feels trapped would make more pragmatic character like Tendou do riskier choice, but for characters who is more moral to everyone, it'll give them hesitation, dilemma for what to do that both choices can lead to disastrous outcome, and I like that here, Tendou's plan is considered as terrible, some audience would encourage Tendou's way, ignoring if it's terrible or not, while bashing those that hesitates.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

On that miserablist note, it’s the return of Yaguruma! Can you guess how I felt about this dude rearing his head?

What I want to know, from yours is actually, if you think that Yaguruma would refurn after he left the show for a while. He didn't die or trapped by something (like being sealed or imprisoned) before though so that's probably should be an indication for his return. Unfortunately, what some audience think of being humble is exactly like what Yaguruma does here,, which is viewing themselvs as the lowest, which is another, utterly flawed way to see positive traits as weaknesses, as they aren't able to filter which is good, which is bad, which is taking it too far, etc. (and that they think if you see yourself as loser, you wouldn't be able to improve, that if you want to be the best, you have to have high feelings for yourself which is being confident, but it'll also encourage arrogance for them, which is also them cannot filtering confidence trait). And no need to apologize to Kagami! What you said here is true regarding other Riders. Kagami also thinks that for Tendou, disapproving of him claiming as the only decent Rider.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

A QUESTION

And, of course, we have Tsurugi. Did you really think that, for an episode where Everybody Feels Trapped And No One Is Making Good Decisions, that we’d avoid talking about Tsurugi? He has a banner storyline in this one, where he sells the Sasword Zecter to Tendou in order to rebuild his family fortune. It’s monumentally short-sighted, both because he’ll need that to defeat the Worms, and because if he tries to fight Worms without it, he’s almost definitely going to have a Worm Tantrum.

Luckily, Tsurugi has access to the mighty Discalibur (love that name, love that name), the Discabil family’s legendary sword… except Jiiya already sold it, leaving only the hilt in the sheath. (The scene of Tsurugi assuming that the sword must be invisible is… I don’t want to make a Priceless pun, but it is so good you guys.) Jiiya ends up rebuying Discalibur, at the expense of all the money Tsurugi made selling the Sasword Zecter, plus Jiiya’s paycheck. It’s a boondoggle of epic proportions, proving that Tsurugi is the man who stands at the top of losing money.

Or is he? What’s something collectible you’ve sold that you’ve ended up rebuying later?

Not really known yet how's the physical prowess of Worms in human form (and dunno if it's story choice so that it won't spoil, but Hiyori was knocked unconscious by one hit from human Kageyama at one point), but if it's similar to Hiyori's, then Tsurugi would be a glass cannon in his fights against Worms; he had enough offense output to kill Worms, at least the fodders, but he won't have the Rider's resillience and is over-reliant on his sword (I feel like a good number of swordsman character in fiction is like that). Tsurugi is formerly rich in dollars but poor in sense type to assume the sword is invincible. If the sword is invincible it'd actually be much more effective though! No one knows what'd stab him and can't measure the distance of the sword. For the answer it's none to me...