[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O THE MOVIE - “I’M BORN!”

The first reason you’d have a main character with dead parents is to create some unfillable void, some unresolveable wound. It’s not a loss that happened as a result of the character’s actions or inaction, give or take a Blade. It’s not some heroic thing, like you’d get over the course of the series. It’s a tragedy that befell them, and all they can do is live with it. It creates this absence within the character, a pre-show acknowledgement that loss is real and irrevocable. It’s also a way to bake into the hero a motivation to overcome hardship, to make the best out of what you have left. Dead parents… it’s a preexisting condition, a thing that the character can’t ever fix or undo, so they fight to keep other people from having to experience it.

For dead parents being a staple of the Rider series, and it being a tragic moment that befell them, I guess this explains about how the better, truly successful way to cope with overcome trauma is to face those trauma head on and grow to become a better person (like being more compassionate) from it. Those that suffered from trauma in their past, and became angsty, cold, indifferent, merciless, ruthless is actually a failure against trauma, as well as a poor way to cope with trauma, but that is frequently treated by some audience as it’s perfectly okay, likely due to it being "realistic" and "relatable". They should be able to acknowledge that those characters made a mistake in using those coping mechanisms (and at the same time extend some understanding to them).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The other reason, though - and maybe the main reason - is because the character can try to fill that void with a found family. Those parents are never coming back, but you can make a new family out of a sister, some imagination monsters from the end of time, a time-displaced version of your almost-brother-in-law, an eccentric train owner, and a vinyl-clad timepiece-enthusiast. It’s not about replacing anything, really. Your parents that are gone will never come back. But you can keep their memory close while still creating something positive in the present.

Well, gone parents that will never come back? Certainly in real life, but not necessarily for fiction world lol. Fantasy elements can let people do much more things that is impossible in real life, and a good number has involved ways to revive people.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, all of the themes I just talked about are 1000% the themes of this series, so expanding them to movie length works out great.

Yeah, previously movies before Den-O are AUs and also spoil things related to the finale, like Takumi being an Orphnoch in Paradise Lost and Tendou & Hiyori being siblings in God Speed Love.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Like, the first sequence is a Ryutaros dance scene that now includes a kick-line, because Movie Budget. That is such a statement of intent, moreso than any extra explosions or whatever. Everything’s plussed, everything’s sweetened. You like Form Changes? Here’s every goddamn Form Den-O ever used, and every Form Zeronos ever used! You like Hana kicking ass? Here’s her fighting ninjas and spanking Imagin! You like Owner eating fried rice? He does it twice! You like Ryotaro? Here’s him twice.

The difference of Ryutaros' dance scene here is that girls are featured now, though dunno if that is an increase in budget. Den-O being separate here feels like OOO using GataKiriBa to do so, all forms fighting the opponent at once, but for Den-O here, only the base forms here are featured, considering the time the movie was aired. Hana smacking Imagin is still only done on the main taros as a gag, but not putting a fight against IOTW, though of course she was fighting humans here. And by this, now I wonder how far is the gap between humans and Imagins physical wise, Momotaros while possessing Ryotaro can break concrete, and Hana has super strength to knock those out, and those attacks on those ninjas aren't destroying them or even incapacitate/knock out them quickly. Also don't be biased! You didn't put the "you like the sequences of the train fighting here?" on purpose huh?! Here's the fight between GaohLiner and DenLiner + ZeroLiner, also the chase scene in God's Line.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Kotaro! Man, I think Sword Form Junior is my all-time favorite Movie Form. Did that thing ever get a Figuart? Money left on the table if it didn’t. Kotaro’s a fantastic part of this film, in all respects. He’s great at channeling Momo, absolutely nailing that Ore Sanjou pose. But he’s also interesting for what his performance tells us about Ryotaro. It’s weird, him being so energetic and excitable, knowing that Ryotaro is neither of those things. But that works for me, because it invites concern about what the last few years have been like for Ryotaro: the choices he’s made, the burdens he’s carried, the regrets he’s ignored. There was this kid who was happy once, despite everything he’d lost, and now there’s this soft-spoken young man who lets his emotions lie fallow. There’s a disconnect between the kid he was and the man he’s become, and I’m curious if the show’s going to tell more of that story.

I've always wondered what will happen if a little child transforms into a Rider. as anyone can transform into a Rider, so it's shown here that the Rider form is scaled to fit the child. Probably when little, apart from parent loss, Ryotaro wasn't being cursed by inhuman bad luck? Ryotaro is someone who suffers nonstop, so him not being so energetic and excitable may come from that, likely from the chronic bad luck the last few years have been for Ryotaro.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Super funny that the movie spends a bunch of time having characters ask why Sieg is hanging around, since thematically he’s the absolute best Imagin to have in this story. Sieg’s whole story is about the value of found family, about how what you get may not be what you wanted, but it can still have value. Of course he’s going to be in a story about Ryotaro trying to explain why he’s able to move on from his parents’ death because he’s still got people who care about him!

A show of the difference between in-universe character's views to audience's views. The audiences can pick from what they watch and analyze from it like Sieg here, but the in-universe characters are so deadset on stopping Gaoh from accomplishing his goals. Of course, not getting what you want but still gaining value from it is an important thing to study, but sometimes I want the characters to just get what they want, like in Hibiki, Asumu passing to Jounan. This is also sometimes what Ryotaro does to contract holders by altering things in the past, trying to improve their situation if he's able to.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-Gaoh! Great visual, huge villain presence, tons of charisma, absolutely zero character. There’s never a compelling motivation for what he’s doing, he’s already 90% done with his masterplan before the story even starts, and his death is just him going Oh Shit I Died. Kamen Rider Kabuki, he was not.

Probably not the best character, but doesn't mean zero character. He seems to sit in the middle between caring boss and threatening boss, like at DenLiner, at first it seems that he'll abuse his underlings for letting Momotaros escape, but then assures it's only 1 Imagin escaping. Him wanting to destroy time shows that he's a nihilist type of villain, seeing time as meaningless. His death is also due to him knowing too much, he does things that audience would recommend for a villain to do, which is interrupting heroes while they're charging finishing move, but as he didn't wait for Sword Form to finish charging up his Finishing Move, going in for the kill, Momo has anticipated this at close proximity, and Gaoh was left vulnerable to Extreme Slash, Special Version. His actor Hiroyuki Watanabe also was 51 during filming, making him the oldest actor to portray a Kamen Rider.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-Oh, right, Ryotaro’s Narratively Convenient Amnesia. Ehhhhh. I love that the kick from Gaoh only eliminated the Den-O stuff from Ryotaro’s brain. That is the hackiest shit! The movie gets away with it by a) playing up the schism with Momo as incredibly sad; b) spending some time with Ryotaro and Kotaro bonding over their shared trauma; and c) making the whole point of this thing that Memory Beats Tragedy, so we need Ryotaro to lose and regain memories. Thematically it works, but kicking off the plot with a kick to the head is pretty lazy.

I think the amnesia comes from how that Hana interacts with Kotaro, it overwrites the memories of the present Ryotaro, though I wonder what goes betweenn the overwritten Kotaro and present Ryotaro. Ryotaro and Kotaro bonding over trauma, if that Kotaro is kept separate in another timeline, can probably help out him growing up to be Ryotaro, likely kickstarting his development to be more confident and proactive much earlier than Ryotaro now which undergoes that after he was chosen to become Den-O.