[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

He did, though! A lot! And specifically towards Kagami! I mean, he's still Tendou, there're limits to his teamwork and kindness (that's why the show could do the gag where Another Tendou immediately gets exposed for not being an asshole), but the show basically just did the definitive story about Tendou and Kagami's bond, about how the Riders can work together to save the world, about how Tendou doesn't need to do it all himself... literally all the things this show decided didn't happen for some reason.

Dude.. I already talked about Tendou becoming more open to Kagami, several times. And I also included that here that "I probably find it uncharacteristic for him to act this way to Kagami, Tendou seems to value him more openly previously against Cassis Worm!"

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - EPISODE 48

The biggest bummer for me is how little of what’s going on in these episodes feels thematically tied into what the rest of the season has been about. Discussions of xenophobia, of an inability for previous generations to safeguard a future for their children, of allowing organizations to dictate terms to a populace instead of the other way around… I mean, fun ideas, but none of that was really in the last 47 episodes of Kabuto. This show decided to go all-in on a militarized organization of nebulous authority that has mostly been a joke the last half of the series, and it’s probably a critical error.

I mean, it's about what the real villains of the series doing, so they're supposed and intended to do bad stuff? xenophobia is only a baddie thing here, and it's only restricted to their plan. Though yeah, other species villains commonly has xenophope thing going on, with them feeling that their race are the most superior and seek to replace the inferior one with theirs. Series like Faiz also had this going with Smart Brain and Lucky Clovers to replace the humans with Orphnochs, but that has the humans being killed instead of being overwritten. But I do think that this episode, quality aside, has a theme that is brought out in Kabuto previously though. The villain here Negishi (Mishima is just pure evil) thinks that the solution of creating world peace is turning everyone into Natives, the same species as him, because he thinks peace between humans and Natives can't coexist, the villains don't understand about the theme that Inoue brought up about self-acceptance and stop judging yourself, which means about that your species don't matter, your self does ("X is X"), Negishi thinks that peace is determined by what species your are, and thinks that human won't create conflict with Natives if they turned into that too, lacking the understanding that it's your personality that decides how they act, not their species; even humans can kill other humans for their criminal needs!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Like, the big fight at the center of this episode is between Gatack and Kabuto, and it just feels so forced, so false, so phony. 44 has this pivotal moment of connection between the two Riders, and here we are in 48 with Tendou throwing away all of Kagami’s trust for no compelling reason (now he decides to mention that the necklaces are turning people into Natives?!), leaving Kagami with a burning need to kill Tendou for… reasons? I think Kagami suddenly feels like Worms should be allowed to live? After one speech from Negishi? It’s not like the show hasn’t had stories where Kagami wanted to protect the odd Worm, but here he’s sentencing Tendou to death (pretty much the series theme at this point) for killing Worms, despite Kagami killing dozens of Worms over the length of the show? Hundreds?

It’s just such a weird scene, and it still feels unbelievably regressive. This doesn’t feel like the Kagami and Tendou who banded together to save Hiyori, or the Kagami and Tendou that kept one another from going too far in the pursuit of justice. This feels like the Tendou who looks down his nose at this other guy’s Very Big Feelings, and the Kagami who doesn’t trust Tendou’s loner tendencies and lack of transparency. It’s this series deciding to have a huge Gatack/Kabuto fight in the penultimate episode, and then scrambling to find a way to justify it. I guess it helps if Kagami gets scammed and Tendou takes forever to explain what’s really going on!

So, yeah, a huge part of this episode doesn’t work for me. I didn’t really hate the Kagami solo stuff, since the core of this show is Kagami’s Very Big Feelings. I like him trying to help people in a larger way, in a societal way. It’s when the show so quickly pushes him into a fight to the death with Tendou, and it literally could’ve been avoided if Tendou had thought to explain himself (or even articulate his concerns, if he wasn’t certain) one single scene earlier, that’s when I feel like the show isn’t trying hard enough.

Probably your (and likely mine too) bummer here is caused by the fact that, Kagami doesn't try to help people in larger way here? He now just chooses ZECT's side and declare Kabuto as enemy. Kagami is supposed to be someone who takes any sides and help them right? (him leaving Shadow for Tendou is wrong, him killing Tendou for ZECT is also wrong) But well, something about Kagami feeling that Worms should be allowed to live, aren't that something you already discussed before about Ryou and Makoto? Well, the one thing that I questioned is about Kagami suddenly being completely vengeful again (including to Tadokoro and Tsurugi, the latter he tried to help before) about the Worms on ep. 41, and him suddenly tolerating Worm again on ep. 46. But well, I never believed that Tendou is down or letting himself to be down, unless it's stuff that involves his family like Hiyori (to Dark Kabuto), probably Tendou has his other hidden plan, Tendou won't die or beaten by Kagami that easily. Like the time where he faked defeat from Yaguruma. Tendou is the one who knows that the true purpose of the necklace is turning everyone into Natives, that he works to destroy them previously.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Which, yeah, sloppy plotting up and down the show. It’s a lot of quick ends and turns that a better show would’ve checked in on regularly, or possibly steadily addressed over the course of the show. Hey, remember those pills Goro stopped taking 30 episodes ago? Well, he’s throwing them away here and becoming a Super Native! (Or are the pills making him a Super Native? I’m unclear! Or uninterested! Or both!) Or, hey, that Negishi guy who has been in two scenes before this episode? He’s the series mastermind and a genocidal lunatic! Or, y’know that berserk switch we saw Kabuto deal with literally one time in one episode and then basically no one ever brought up again? It’s going to be a huge part of the finale, I guess! Or, what about ZECT being a militarized organization of nebulous authority, who worked in the shadows and could barely pay their employees or keep the lights on? Now they basically run Japan! Oh, and KickHopper murders PunchHopper! And Kagami’s dad dies!

Well yeah, the setup is that, the real main antagonist of the series (the equivalent of Banno in Drive, Masamune in Ex-Aid, Evolt in Build) is Mishima, the plot twist kind villain, and I thought you got the clue already on Hyper Kabuto's debut? And that him being dismissive to everyone isn't enough of the indicator already? (many plot twist villains don't even show their villainous personality before the story reveals that they're the real villains!) It means that he has no empathy to others and expresses shallow emotions, some of sociopath hallmarks! For this time Riku is the leader of ZECT, while Mishima serves under him and can only persuade to disregard human lives, but the berserk system plays a part that, Mishima is a Starscream-type, he and Negishi starts overthrowing Riku Kagami as leader of ZECT after Negishi found out about them. This shows that Riku is actually a good guy, despite his sinister-like portrayal before, while Mishima is actual bad guy. The movie had Riku being the bad guy together with Mishima though...

I find something appealing about Negishi that, at first glance, he looks so casual and nobody, and had unprofessional behavior too with him acting fun-loving, foolish, and innocent, his Native form is even the fodder Worms that recently just got killed easily by the ZECTroopers' guns! Unlike Mishima's who is Gryllus Worm, the strongest Native. But the truth is that he's masterminding his visionary plan and is in charge within it. Crouching moron hidden nightmare, it's like characters such as Shunpei or Onari, but is given total "more than meets the eye" status, albeit in evil way. Negishi is the type of doing bad things for good reasons, the end justifies the means type mindset, which means him being extremist anti-villain, in contrast to Mishima who..

Mishima is also one of the most irredeemable villains on the whole franchise as well (like those 3 I mentioned). Dark Kabuto is crucial in the story for Mishima's motivations. In the past, Mishima captured the young boy that would become Dark Kabuto and performed horrendous experiments on him to unlock the power of the Hyper Zecter, keeping him as a prisoner for years inside a ZECT facility in Area X. Assigned to oversee the development of the Gatack Zecter, Mishima wastes no time in sacrificing the lives of his own soldiers to see who is worthy of its power. Mishima allies himself with the Worms to stop the independent non-ZECT Riders, framing Daisuke for the murder of a rival makeup artist and later sending an agent whom he forced to eat nothing but dry boiled rice for the last seven years of her life to assassinate Tendou. In AM Bomb operation, Mishima is disappointed in his superior for attempting to save the hostages, telling Kagami that if he fails the negotiation, he'll just nuke the entire district. After the existence of Worms is announced to the world, Mishima turns himself into Gryllus Worm and conspires to do the same with the rest of the world by usurping the position of general and, just so he doesn't get to lose his status after all the Worms have been exterminated, manipulating the population into wearing a pendant that detects Worms, but actually converts those wearing it into Natives.

And you don't seem to appreciate KickHopper murdering PunchHopper here? From what I read, people can find Hell Bros' personality annoying, but they got a heartbreaking ending enough to make them sob. Kageyama is a victim of Mishima's grand plan where he got turned into Native, and Yaguruma is forced to kill him. Kageyama wants to die as himself, a human, not as a Native. Oh right, probably this resembles something in.... ep. 46 so yeah...

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

A QUESTION

Multiple choice time! Genuinely can’t believe that Tendou, the guy who executed Tsurugi a week ago, is letting the guy who assaulted Hiyori just, like, go live his life. Is Tendou letting Another Tendou go because:

a) Tendou firmly/suddenly believes in forgiveness against psychotic Worms as long as they promise not to do it again, despite Another Tendou immediately shouting that he can’t forgive Hiyori and fleeing into the night

b) Tendou is pathologically incapable of looking at his own face and not immediately forgiving it

c) Nothing matters anymore, no one on this show is written like they existed before this episode, continuity is a dirty word, welcome to the darkness

Probably b, and that Souji Kusakabe suffers a lot, where he's tortured by Mishima for his grand plan which likely means he found the reason of Dark Kabuto's villainy, and tries to instill Hiyori's behavior and situation to him as she also suffers but lives normally, and saving him means partially foiling Mishima and Negishi's plans.