[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

We've seen Imagins have a Final Form before, but I'm not sure we've ever seen one have over a dozen separate Final Forms? It was a bizarre escalation, like something you'd get in a series finale or something.

Well yeah, as the next episode pointed out, the Imagins have gotten stronger. Also I'd like for any series to not have the rule of forcing any escalation to be set in stone, like how in Wizard, one of the stronger enemies are on the middle part of the series like Phoenix.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 35 - “THE CARD’S TRAGIC REVIVAL - ZERO”

There’s jokes in there, too, and they’re great.

Kintaros being "too well-meaning" is appropriate btw. It's training to be stronger as a hero, by saving others from evildoers that needs to be solved by fighting like monsters, not about throwing your power around to others, like what Momo did to hapzardly fight any humans that he deems as "bad guys", Momo still hasn't changed from what he were at the beginning (pulling this shit against bullies).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The whole Getting Better At Fighting thing is mostly a cover. Or, not a cover, but it’s Ryotaro not really dealing with his guilt over Piano Man’s transitional state. Ryotaro can’t really deal with the fact that some people don’t get saved, even when Den-O saves the day, so he thinks if he can maybe fight harder, no one will get lost in time. But Den-O doesn’t work that way, and Ryotaro training harder isn’t anything more than Ryotaro trying to put his guilt somewhere. It’s not productive, and Kintaros eventually needs to address that reality with Ryotaro. (Kohana is less likely to challenge Ryotaro than the Imagin, which is an interesting idea that the show doesn’t really explore. It’s maybe about how protective Kohana is of Ryotaro, as his bodyguard, in a way that the Imagin can be more blunt? Dunno. Not a thing the episode feels like dwelling on, unfortunately.) Kintaros sees that Ryotaro is looking at his guilt as a dereliction of his responsibility. Ryotaro thinks he’s feeling this weight because he’s not been as effective a Den-O as he should be; this guilt is his punishment. But it’s because he’s so invested in protecting people, so wounded by one displaced soul, that Kintaros can see that Ryotaro is plenty strong. His feelings of responsibility and duty are what makes him effective, not the other way around.

Why would the thought of Kohana challenging Ryotaro come out? Kohana is well, 'ko' (little) version of Hana, and she was fiercely protective and nurturing of Ryotaro. She always did something that would be favorable for Ryotaro, and a quick one regarding that - no "something that is painful but will be favorable later" like forms of tough love. Her debut was also protecting Ryotaro from car drivers who acts overboard to Ryotaro accidentally crashing his bike on their car door (bad luck again). Well, it's true that if and when the stakes are high and there is little time left for the sweet toku hero like him to continue mourning (e.g. the world will literally be destroyed very soon), even though it's understandable for them to mourn, it's the time when being emotional is detrimental, they should try to temporarily put aside their mourning and just do something to try stop the incoming catastrophe, being able to temporarily put aside the mourning is a sign of maturity, instead of a sign of being emotionless.

But doesn't mean like what some audience suggests that they should become emotionless and dead set on completing the mission without hesitation. Ryotaro's compassion and tender-heart, like him feeling guilt over here, is the one that makes for a true hero, as being heroic isn't only the cool stuff like destroying powerful beings that threaten innocent or putting their life at risk for others, but they do more than just (super)heroics. They are generally friendly and helpful towards strangers, even in little things that non-super characters can easily do. Little acts of kindness, you know, like what Ryotaro does in the Imagins' travel to the past that he makes an effort to put the contract holders in better place, something that other characters object at first due to flow of time.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

For the other half, we turn to Yuuto, who is more or less shifting full-time to Retired Brat. He can’t really help Ryotaro any longer, since he can’t transform into Zeronos. He’s given up his future to save time, and now he’s free to make new memories. Protecting time and saving people, that isn’t his responsibility any longer. He’s free of that burden.

Well of course, there's still 14 episodes left, Yuuto wouldn't just retire by being a secondary Rider after running out of cards. Something would happen, which for this one, Sakurai giving him second chance to continue fighting as Zeronos. And about Sakurai coming from the future, your complaint here is more about the set up of Sakurai as a concept from the beginning rather than the time travel aspect, which I discussed before, that can be confusing (like you questioning why there are no repairment from Imagin's rampage to the past to the buildings). I mean you did say that this episode is an ace to you, and you're someone invested in the character part, so no need to explain these mysteries that it can just be ignored for the characters part? Also, older Sakurai was expected to be played by Hibiki based on how current Yuuto is played by Kyosuke and that Sakurai's personality resembles Hibiki's more, but instead, the stand-in they put in the trenchcoat and hat is the same actor they bring back anytime adult Sakurai appears in the Den-O movies such as Episode Red, as Hibiki's actor not liking how the cast and Shigenori Takadera were treated, he swore never to return to the franchise once the show finished. It's tragic for Yuuto yeah when it's revealed that Yuuto's cards erase the memories of anyone he meets, every friend he ever had will never remember him, where Ryotaro is the only person who wasn't affected.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Really thrilled with how screwed this episode made Yuuto’s existence out to be. The idea of your future self showing up in a beige trenchcoat and saying, basically, TATAKAE (because that’s what you do if you wear a beige trenchcoat on a Kamen Rider show, I don’t make the rules), robbing you of all hope… that is rough! Even for a franchise of doomed heroes, Yuuto literally dies a hero or lives long enough to see himself become a gigantic asshole who keeps wrecking his own life! That! I mean, THAT!

Really? Between Sakurai and Yuuto, it's the inverse of what you claim here about Sakurai being "gigantic asshole who keeps wrecking his own life". Sakurai being a concept aside, while this part hasn't been fully revealed yet, needs to remember about what Ryotaro said about how Sakurai treated him when comparing him to Yuuto. And, about dying a hero or living long enough to become horrible person part, that kind of person actually had a failure against trauma, as well as a poor way to cope with trauma, and don't justify or rationalize the living long enough to become horrible. The better, truly successful way to cope with overcome trauma is to face those trauma head on and grow to become a better person from it; and if teenage Yuuto can be a spiteful jerk, this would be a case for Sakurai then.