[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 40 - ?TOWARD MY DREAM AND MY DREAM?

The first ten minutes of this episode had me riveted. I 1000% bought into the idea that the Ark murdered Aruto. I was like, Holy Shit. What a bold turn, to leave Aruto?s dream in the hands of the people who looked up to him! What a great demonstration of this show?s themes and theories! And, god, Izu?s performance! Heartbreaking and vulnerable, it got me entirely on this show?s side.

Until they murdered the rest of the cast, and I was like Oh It?s Just A Dream. The stakes basically evaporated, and I was just biding my time until the twist was revealed. Which somehow got worse, as the twist was that Aruto was psychologically torturing Izu (who consented?) until she hit her Singularity Point and coughed up an upgrade that could beat the Ark. It?s? boy, I don?t love it? It takes something enormously affecting, like Izu crying over the body of her dead friend, and turns into some sort of Heroic Prank, and that?s a kind of a horrible way to evolve the core relationship of this show. It shortcuts it in ways that may help the heroes succeed today, but at the cost of a more honest and thoughtful story.

The protagonist dying before reviving with their Final Form is a fairly common trope, as Gentarou and Shinnosuke have experienced. Takeru actually went beyond death in his Final Form debut episode. So Aruto not really dying is an interesting subversion. Even though the scenario of this episode is just a simulation, it showed a real future, so I think this emphasizes how unstoppable the Ark is as it finally goes all-out murdering everybody it deems a threat to its victory. It sucks that Aruto has to drive Izu to despair to escalate her singularity, but it was a desperate situation and I don't think he would've gone through with it if there were any other options. It also shows his faith in technology, by putting his life in the hands of a robot.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 09: KAMEN RIDER ZERO-TWO

I generally like it. I think it cleanly communicates Upgrade Zero-One form, even if it doesn?t really nail Designed With Izu. The decrease in COLOR and increase in red and silver keep the suit itself firmly ensconced in the Zero-One aesthetic, and the blocks of color are pleasant to look at. (I know the red gloves and Two of it all are Showa references, but I don?t truck with Showa. Feel free to gush over that aspect if you?d like.) There?re some in-universe aspects to the new Driver that I feel like are too over-thought ? I?m not sure we needed to define the central emblem as a link between Aruto?s family, considering this suit already has to shoulder the thematic weight of humans and Humagears working in unison on a dream ? but the Driver itself is solid in design. Which, yeah, that?s sort of my whole thing about this suit: I don?t know if it?s hitting all of the beats it wants to, but I like looking at it enough to not really care.

Zero Two is two cool! And that's how you know it's Aruto!

(I can't take credit though, as I did copy that joke from Twokaizer)

Unfortunately, it's also the most tragic victim of you-know-what. Episode 40 is very late for a Final Form debut and with only 5 episodes to go, I recommend that you savor all of Aruto's appearances as Zero Two. To give you an idea of how tragic this is, Aruto uses the Rise Hopper more than Zero Two. Yeah, you know it's bad when even the bike gets more focus than the Final Form. Even Flying Falcon's absence for most of Q1 pales in comparison to the neglect that poor Zero Two has to endure. The only consolation is that a certain NG+ accelerator in Memory of Heroez lets you use it as much as you want, but that game barely features Aruto anyway. I think it's a terrible injustice and it sours my opinion of the otherwise decent final arc.

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Originally Posted by Layton13

Ok, it's time...

Now Is The Right Time!

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Originally Posted by Layton13

So, yeah, I really, really dislike this episode on basically every level, and it's most likely my least favorite Final Form episode in the franchise.

Personally, my least favorite Final Form episode in the franchise is Kuuga Episode 48. Not enough special effects, no cool insert theme, the choreography is just two dudes punching each other. Pretty disappointing.

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Originally Posted by Layton13

Also, one more thing. Zero-Two looks very meh to me. Too close to base to really differentiate, and dear god is it top-heavy! If they were gonna do the Nigo reference, why aren't his boots red?

Zero Two is an upgrade to Rising Hopper before it's a Rider 2 reference, so I think the yellow legs are more thematically appropriate. A Kamen Rider should have an authentic design, even if it does reference something else.

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Originally Posted by TF RyuShin

Basically, I like to think that Zero-Two's ability is more of a reality bending or simply making impossibility to be possible. Like making the binary code to 020202, making the Ark having a tremendous lag, and having a body double which in reality NOT possible. But it DO happened and it IS possible. Unlike Shining Hopper's superspeed and calculation, Zero-Two basically willed something like miracle to happen! It's no wonder why Zero-Two was made from Izu reaching more than Singularity because for such a lifeless robot, of course, it was impossible. But it WAS possible! If Takeru said 'Humanity's potential is infinite!', then I would say 'Humanity AND Humagears' potential is more than infinite!'

Trinary is a totally real thing that uses 0s, 1s and 2s. Even though Ark is a powerful AI that can predict people's actions, it's still a binary AI. It doesn't understand the true power of the number 2, which is depicted from its perspective as Zero Two somehow overwriting reality. This looks like a miracle, but Zero Two is just operating on a higher level of processing, similar to how Zi-O II can't predict Geiz Revive Typhoon. Symbolically, Zero Two was created through the magic of friendship between Aruto and Izu. Ark doesn't understand the concept of friendship, so it has no way to counter this. But yeah, Zero Two is OP as hell and human potential is infinite!