[Switchblade]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Like, the monster/mystery plot is nowhere in this story. People flagged up Tsukasa as being like Tendou, and I can vaguely see where they're coming from after this story, while still objecting to it. Tendou would normally figure out a mystery and keep the solution to himself for maximum showmanship. Here, it's like Tsukasa either read the entire script beforehand, or is playing a New Game+ version of Kamen Rider Decade. There are multiple scenes of Tsukasa explaining a ton of plot points, and none of it is a logical leap from the available information. He just knows everything that's going to happen, and he's happy to ruin the story for the other characters -slash- viewers. It's anti-tension for the first one and a half episodes of this story.
Am I crazy? Am I being unfair to this two-parter?

FISH SANDWICH: It's definitely a whole thing about how Tsukasa is often characterized. The script for these episodes doesn't really let you inside his head the way you'd generally expect from a protagonist, and I can see that making it difficult to find what it is you're meant to be caring about in the story. It can make Tsukasa very entertaining (love him crashing that police meeting!), while also making it hard to truly invest in him and his journey if you aren't willing to read between some lines. Like, is his ability to speak Grongi an interesting hint towards his potential true nature, or is it simply convenient that he can do that? It's all up to the viewer in the end.

I used to think of Tsukasa as basically Diet Tendou. He has some similar tendencies in regards to helping out in the most dickish way possible (e.g. punching Yashiro in the face to stop the gegeru), but it finally clicked on me what the major difference is between them. Tendou is all about arrogance; he believes that the world revolves around him and he expects that everyone else should recognize that. Tsukasa isn't as self-assured. For Tsukasa, I feel that the most important thing to him is that everyone else should think he's cool. He acts aloof and brusque because he thinks that it makes him seem cooler. One of the things that's really neat about the character is that because he keeps coming back, we get to see older versions of him that are less image conscious.

As for how he knows all of the plot details? Yeah, that's pretty sus but I always assumed that Tsukasa knows things because he's Decade, but doesn't remember how he knows them because amnesia. He is able to recognize Kuuga right away, for example, even though he should have no idea who this Rider is.

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FISH SANDWICH: I mean, I'd run away if Tsukasa ever told me something was going to tickle, but the Final Form Ride shtick is also one of the most hilariously blatant toy-promotion things Rider has ever done.

My brain refuses to commit Final Form Rides to long term memory. I was watching episode 3 and thinking "how did they beat this guy? Did Onodera go Ultimate form or something?" And then I saw the cards and I remembered.

I like the idea that these abilities incorporate (sometimes) elements from the original show, like Kuuga turning into Gouram, but oh man is the whole concept ridiculously stupid. But it's also responsible for the single greatest moment in the entire series, so there's that, too.

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KAMEN RIDER DIE: Hoppers Can't Close is maybe the most important aspect of Kabuto, no argument there. The only confusing thing to me is that their exit seemed to imply that our new Mystery Fisherman was able to pull villainous Riders to do his bidding (flashes of Delta and Tiger in the curtain), when we all know that Kageyama and Yaguruma were the real heroes of Kabuto. I guess this is just another one of those A.R. changes, though!

They arguably aren't A.R. characters, though. Unlike Kuuga, the Hoppers were played by their original actors. The show swerved hard on the main actors (I have thoughts on this that I'll likely get into at some point), but there are some actual reprisals when we get down to secondary Riders.