[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It's something everyone struggles with, to some degree. It's not fun to be judged, or to feel like you're not connecting with people. But a lot of what Kamen Rider shows focus on is that trying to please other people at the expense of your self-respect isn't a good trade. It's better to be yourself, express your thoughts in a way that's honest without being confrontational, and let that be enough. Maybe people will like it, maybe they won't. Depending on their acceptance or praise isn't worth changing yourself.

Yeah, still, that's how I don't think that "be yourself" is inherently positive or moral... like you said there, being confrontational... if someone enjoys being confrontational, like to relieve stress, they can use "be yourself" to ignore other's advice or suggestion to not being confrontational, insisting them to mind their own business, and keep enjoying being true to themselves by being a confrontational folk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 42 - “THE POWER OF LOVE: THE KING’S RAGE”

The first scene is near the opening, with Wataru’s friends letting him know how proud they are of how he fought back against his depression. It’s an incredibly sweet scene of Kengo, Megumi, and Nago cheerfully embracing Wataru after a few episodes of him pushing them away. It’s so sweet.

The best part of that scene is Wataru singling Kengo out for a personal apology. He spurned Kengo’s offer to be bros, and he wants a do-over. He wants to be friends with Kengo. Cut to Kengo, eyes wet with pride, as he clasps Wataru’s hands to say We’re Already Friends. It’s one of my favorite moments in this entire series. It’s maybe the nicest, most gentle thing I’ve ever seen a show like this do. And it gets to a big thing for this episode that gets explicated in my other favorite scene in the episode.

Well, nothing much to say regarding this here, other than that this is a triumph moment for what Wataru had gone through before (but don't use this as a petition to turn characters as assholes as much as they want and keep fueling things with conflict to get this triumph). I have to say though, Wataru Kurenai's name means "crimson going over", which would refer to his gradual self-discovery as half-Fangire, that at least at this stage, he gets over the status and lives as himself (implemented well because of his morals). And as a half-Fangire, though not as severe as Mio, he's still portrayed as really weak physically before to not be able to do 6 push ups. I don't know if "lack of confidence" is a good enough excuse to make him weak enough at that time to prevent his nature as Fangire known, but Otoya possessing him as him easily beating the thugs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Otoya’s been swiped by King, leaving Maya and Yuri to figure out what to do next. Well, maybe just Yuri, since Maya realizes that pursuing King and taking back Otoya is basically suicide. That leaves Yuri to beg Maya for help in saving Otoya, which stuns Maya. (For a Maya value of “stunned'', meaning her head tilt is a full 10 degrees to the side instead of the normal eight.) Why would Yuri want to save a man who’s humiliated and disgraced her? And Yuri says something that, even if it feels weird coming from her, feels universal and true.

This is the stage yeah, Yuri finally decides to pair up Otoya and Maya, and Yuri is acting tsundere before (for her to see him as vague nuisance but doing this, pretending to dislike outside but not inside) to dismiss Otoya for understandable reasons, but still want to let him live. I know Otoya has settled now into Maya, but as a (former) womanizer he'd hold Yuri dear too, so the hurt from Otoya would be unintentional, but there wasn't really attempt from him to address the moving love... (or probably not as he probably changed a bit, but attempt to date both albeit Yuri was the one keeping distance before as of course she would want usual 1-1 loyal relationship). Actually, I like that the feeling of love not so overpowering... in Otoya's fight against King, that he as IXA is only getting himself caught and sealed, likely sending him to certain death. It's outright suicide for Otoya to fight King (just like what Maya says regarding Yuri), regardless of his feelings to the sealed buddies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The Shima stuff… it’s incredibly weird to be devoting a couple episodes right before the end-run to Shima’s relationship with Taiga, or Shima’s rejuvenation via Fangire magic. If this was a middling detour in the 20s, I don’t know, fine. Maybe there’re some laughs. Here, it just feels like the show is trying to fill up space before the story really progresses.

Shima finally does fight himself as Fangire hunter like Megumi and Wataru (with weapons, as Kengo didn't), and the Fangire of the week here reminds me of Jiro's wolf form.... feeling like Shima rebeling against Jiro. Well, at least his efforts to keep his body fat low pays off. It's ironic moment that Taiga healed him with Fangire, despite Shima's hatred towards any Fangire, still not tolerating Wataru fully, that he'd be finished off if he's a Fangire instead of human. Another moment I'd like to talk about here is that, Mio again, undergoes darker change like Shizuka did on ep. 29 (with devil metaphor), but played seriously. Mio outwardly may seem nice due to her shyness, similar to Wataru, but she has hidden dark and selfish traits here that'd make her different from Wataru moral wise, either pushed to it or inherent. Knowing Wataru's Fangire nature, she has a new grand plan to make Wataru King, now committed into Queen role of executing innocent Fangires to make sure that she gets to be with Wataru. She's Wataru centric and is yandere for him, but won't show it before knowing Wataru as she had no real aim yet (waitress). In a way, she also undergoes a development by growing out of shyness like Wataru, but to turn into a dark character instead of increasing effectiveness to do good like Wataru. She essentailly does the same thing to Wataru as Taiga, persuading him to embrace Fangire side, though unknown what can happen to humanity afterwards, or Fangires too, if Mio would let them be killed by humans, only concerning herself to be together with him. She even shows manipulative side towards Taiga, to pretend to be happy and interested interacting with him here.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I'm not really elevating Otoya's morality, by saying that his compassion is one of his greatest qualities. It's just that it stands out in contrast to his more frequently seen flaws. Maybe that's why Otoya and Jirou are such good friends, cause they both started out as pretty terrible people and their friendship grew out of a rivalry which came to mutual respect. They both had their own flaws to overcome as well, like Otoya's resistance to marriage and Jirou's yandere behavior. Terrible people can help each other become less terrible, like your example of (Hanaya) Taiga and Nico. But just as everybody has flaws, those terrible people aren't without merit either, they have hidden qualities and redeeming factors and those qualities I believe should have recognition. I definitely don't think Otoya is some kind of saint or anything like that. I mean, it's hard to believe that when his argument against Wataru being his son was that he couldn't have a son that tall. That has implications.

Ok, I'm probably wrong just that from what I know compassion is a term commonly used for yeah, the one with full Rider sensibility. Otoya and Jiro had been friends for now yeah, but I'd consider them as friends only recently in Kiva for not being at odds with each other anymore (Jiro attempts to kill but now fully hesitated too), before the reason they fought together occassionally was for Yuri. But I was just reminding that "Jiro trying to kill Otoya" is not one sided conflict. Actually, I think the recognition of those characters's "hidden qualities and redeeming factors" has always happened if the character is enjoyable (including to villains), and I can feel it's gotten out of hand, so I instead remind their terrible qualities as there can be those who think they're purely good using those redeeming factors only and forgetting/ignoring their unpleasant traits (or outright villainous ones for villains) as a whole.