[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Well, I feel like the negative influence of a demon cult is right there in the name? Hard to argue that even the most supportive and thoughtful demon cult isn't inherently detrimental to someone's emotional health and/or immortal soul.

True, but people made up Aguilera as a benevolent figure at that time (the typical justifying villain kind). Not to mention regarding how Aguilera would usually abuse him.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 18 - “THE TRAJECTORY OF BUDDIES & THE MIRACLE FIRE AND ICE”

It’s as baked into this show as any theme I can think of; maybe even more so than, like, Family. The inner demons are the things we can’t forgive about ourselves. The Giffamilia preyed on victims who can’t forgive their transgressors, or even just the people who didn’t suffer as they did. Fenix is a societal structure that would rather incarcerate or destroy than reform or rehabilitate; forgiveness as an existential threat to community and stability. It’s a constant thread through this series, how hard and necessary it is to forgive not just each other, but ourselves. We get a nice exploration of that in this story, as Julio/Tamaki discovers that everyone is both hero and villain, so there’s no need to hold grudges or cast blame in a friendship; and Ikki and Vice talk about what they really are to each other.

I'd admit, George's portrayal here is mostly wholesome that he seems genuinely on good side here (still the more morally dubious type, but not evil). His suggestion for Ikki to save himself by not thinking about separating demon is done similarly to Daiji's suggestion, that it's not done to demean Ikki or his more idealistic approach, but out of concern. He also acts pretty much as a mentor to him by telling him about what's going on as well as guiding him on using the Volcano Rex, in a straightforward way. Albeit George has been mostly good to Ikki, like him allowing Ikki to keep the belt at first episode.

There's setup of Hiromi being biologically 80 years old according to Mikoshiba Akemi, the female Fenix doctor. She seems to be someone no-nonsense and strict, but this is done for Hiromi's sake. Ironically, despite chastising Hiromi for his Rider activities, Akemi seems to be someone workaholic and pushing as well, with several energy drink bottles she drank. I guess probably it'd be revealed the consequences of Demons not unleashing Hiromi's inner demon. The director Hideo seems even more suspicious with him being enthusiastic to Giff's body. Honestly, Fenix is a shady organization, but the members, except George and Akaishi, are generally genuinely good and noble people fighting for just cause.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

As much as the melodrama of the Julio story was memorable, it’s the Ikki/Vice story that really landed with me this time. Ikki’s spent the last 17 episodes treating Vice as, alternately, a curse, a burden, a pest, and occasionally as a family member. (Which usually means one of the other descriptions as well!) This is the episode where he really starts to understand that Vice is, and always has been, an aspect of himself.

Actually, Ikki and Vice have gotten along since ep. 13, though this episode takes their bond to a further level as Ikki refers to Vice as aibou. More about Ikki is shown here as well with him being someone that has existential crisis, with his current action of taking care of others but himself being the means for him to look for himself. Would see later on how existential crisis being handled, but for Ikki apparently, going for more ethical solution is selfish due to his failure there compared to just resorting into killing Deadmans. This shows quite harsh truth that being more idealistic can be more difficult and costly, that Ikki likely can end the potential victims Olteca can create if he finished off the Deadmans.

That doesn't mean he's selfish for that though, or that he should give up on it (of which there can be bad consequences on other parts), your morals or goodness aren't necessarily determined by the result (including villains that created birth of heroes, many in KR of which heroes' powers can originate from villain's), that sometimes it's just your incapability instead of selfishness. For him being 'selfish' due to him dragging Vice into danger, it's the one that is used to reaffirm their escalating partnership, with Vice now acting as Ikki's emotional support despite the rocky start, and for this one, there are no Vice "corrupting" Ikki to console him. Vice seems to have changed for the better this time, with Ikki's faith of him (piggybacking him) paid off.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s the sort of revelation that could ring hollow in another show. Once we’d met Kagerou – and especially once we met Lovekov – it was clear that Vice wasn’t some summoned wish monster from the end of time or whatever. Vice is a part of Ikki, even if Ikki would rather that not be true. When George was telling them that they needed to be unified to harness the full power of Volcano Rex, he didn’t mean that they should get along or be friends; he was telling them that they needed to see each other as the same person, which Vice always had. The unity they needed was just Ikki letting himself see that Vice was a part of him, instead of an anchor or a distraction. Recognizing that we’re not always the victim… it’s hard.

Ikki and Vice's fight and teamwork, despite the contradicting powers, is shown really well and it's one of the fight choreography in KR that impressed me. It shows a good use of ice and fire power, with Vice freezing Riot Form to hold him in place for Revi's punch. Another one I liked is Vice utilizing Revi's fire by creating ice sword handle to make a fire sword.

Daiji's reaction of Ikki literally being burned with rage is just reprimanding Ikki for his behavior again. So this shows further that Daiji can feel under Ikki's shadow but doesn't hate him, all his "feuds" with Ikki are only about Ikki's bad habits. Despite showing sympathy to Aguilera, Sakura still holds some grudge to Tamaki, of which while understandable, still Aguilera had done more harm to her compared to Tamaki (albeit Tamaki was a double-crosser). Their fights on Julio's Riot Form, this kinda shafted Sakura a bit that Live did a bit better, when Jeanne's the one that is considered having biggest potential.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And that’s the Julio part of this episode as well: the ability to see ourselves outside of our own pain and resentment and guilt; to forgive our failings; and to forgive other people for how they’ve hurt us. His story with Yousuke is full of mistakes and regret, but neither of them are totally blameless. Yousuke hurt Tamaki, and Tamaki refused to see that Yousuke was trying to fix things. Forgiveness is a thing people have to earn, but it’s also a thing we need to offer. It’s difficult to see past our own pain, to find sympathy for the people who have hurt us, but it’s better than letting pain be the substitute for happiness.

Yeah, the blame isn't only on the traitor, but he himself has a share for not considering Yosuke's condition that, he too was bullied. There can be cases where both parties share certain portion of blame. That's some good bait for them to make Julio say no to Yosuke's offer at first, thought as a rejection, but actually it's Julio blaming himself a bit. Disagree with Julio Learning That Everyone Is A Hero And Villain though, while human can be complex like that to be multifaceted, I don't like the view that lumps every single humans together as the same like that.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s not an episode where everything works out for everyone, sadly. Yousuke’s brutally murdered in front of Julio to give heel heat to Olteca, in a scene that’d feel gratuitous if it didn’t feel so completely in-character. Olteca could not give two shits about Julio and his motivating torment, so why not twist the knife if he has the chance? There’s redemption for Ikki, though, as he successfully separates Julio from his Phase 3 form… so that Julio can now wallow in his anguish as a human being, instead of as a rampaging monster. Y– yay?

Now Olteca's on his way turning into an irredeemable pure evil villain, now he didn't only carry out his schemes like in first arc, but they emphasized his cruelty with his utter glee and satisfaction in killing humans for Giftarian as well as his psychological torture to Julio by killing Yosuke as they're in process of reconciling. Yosuke's death here does raise points for Julio's sympathy, but there's still no redemption for him here (or he had some by asking for heroes' favor in rather civil manner, but pushed back by Olteca). In fact, it just escalates his threat, seen in him gaining much stronger Riot Form, as well as him rampaging in the city (he turns into Fenix' main attention). He does fight Olteca, but targeting evil person doesn't make you good, it'd be a case of evil vs evil. Riot Form has awesome showing here, back into Kuuga-like scale of nuclear-explosions.