[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 46 - “WHAT K DEMANDS – THE LAST SUPPER”

It’s anticlimactic, which shouldn’t’ve come as a surprise, considering there are three more episodes left to go in this series. But this is the end for Ryuube, and the Museum, and it’s all sort of rushed and unfulfilling. The Museum side of things is just Wakana and Ryuube, and Wakana doesn’t participate in the battle at all. The Terror Dopant has a fistfight with Double, and loses like they trotted out the Terror suit for a background fight at the quarry in a crossover film. (It’s, like, under a minute.) The overall plan was just Wakana Will Be A God Somehow, and it’s as vague in its aspirations as the Gathering Data phase of dispensing Gaia Memories was. None of it really comes across as worth 45 episodes of build-up, and it somehow carries less weight than several of the Dopant Dilemmas.

Well yes, W has anti-climatic final boss fights, the Dragon-less Terror is meant to be only superior to base W, but not to W Xtreme, as well as being unable to create the fear-inducing ooze (wasted chance to show off Accel's physiology, but of course main character deals with main treat while relegating the secondaries as assist...). Though the fight may reinforce the series theme that you'd have to work together and trust each other, shown in how Terror is unstoppable one-on-one, but is easy with teamwork; other than W's Shotaro and Phillip, the cast also had Accel to deal with Terror Dragon, leaving Terror to be stuck on the nerfed Dragon-less Terror, otherwise Xtreme had to struggle with 2 powerful Dopants at once. Otherwise, this battle had Accel not using Trial, but base Accel in BikeForm, equipped with Gunner A, as he had to improvise after the fragile speedster Trial is not enough, by using the physically stronger base Accel, but with BikeMode and equipments to compensate for Trial's maneuvers.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

There’s some meat on this thing, largely from how irredeemable the Sonozakis ended up being. (Shotaro’s like Maybe There Was Some Humanity To Ryuube, a scene after he’s gleefully immolating himself while screaming that he regrets nothing he did.) Philip needs to save his family, but even after destroying their Gaia Memories, there’s nothing to celebrate. The only thing that Philip can depend on is Shotaro, and Shotaro is the only one who treats him like a human being. The emphasis of that bond – yet another invocation of Riding With The Devil – is where this episode finds whatever footing it can. It’s good, for that stuff.

It was more of a statement from one person rather than a fact where Saeko refers to the family as inherently twisted thus it's not obligated to reconcile. She's one of the main factor to make the family twisted... Philip claims that the Sonozaki's evil is caused by Gaia Memory influence. Still would like for Phillip to try to use Gaia Library to find a cure for Gaia Memory's influence or something, or it's only can be done by Memory Break. The statement probably holds a truth as shown by the Evil Tail. It is probably the closest explanation to Ryubee turning into someone who is abusive to his family for his ambition. So I guess the evil can surface in various way from the Gaia Memory influence, like Ryubee still having a noble goal but turning into an extremist, but Saeko is a cold unfeeling vengeful manipulative... psycho that uses anyone as a stepping stone for her, where now Wakana is not only possessive but also revels on Phillip's misery while emotionally abusing him, not taking into account of Philip's other relationship or obligations, treating him only as a means for her and Museum, a collection of data to fulfill human's destiny. When she snatched away her phone from Philip's hands, teasing him regarding his last words, it actually proves how human Phillip is even when he's a data, Philip is Philip.

After Ryubee's defeat, he goes back to his crumbling mansion, while seeing a projection of Wakana, which means there's a sliver of hope in his plans, so he'd stay there and die without regrets (no, the Museum stuff hasn't ended, with Kazu taking Wakana's body as well), while also remembering his time with his family. I guess the Gaia Memory influence slightly wears off of him, which is what Shotaro (claims to, but the other cast agrees on the claim) made up to Kyouko to make her feel better later. But he's still clearly insane though currently, other than just letting himself die, but is also deluded that he moves as if he's dancing with his daughter albeit there's none. I'd say Ryubee does have good acting that he feels charismatic and intimidating (non-Terror) fitting of a mob boss, and has an interesting driving motive related to his Museum business, but would like for his work on the plan to be displayed more, or talk more about extinction, rather than mostly just revealing about others playing into his hands, albeit this episode had a bit of more explanation, as well as, similar to Kirihiko before, would see more of his well-intentioned plan being tested by others, where it was only by Phillip's vague reasoning and Shotaro's Evil Tail scene here (Ryubee only had 1 objection line of denying Shotaro's claim of what he caught about Evil Tail).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And yet… boy, I laughed a lot in the first half of this episode. Whoever decided that Shotaro’s portrayal of bone-deep fear and trauma should be expressed by him screaming like a lunatic at phones and Makura? I would really have gone a different way with it. It cracked me up, every single time, and I feel like that’s not the intended response from the audience. Going out on a limb here. It sabotages at least half of this story, because it never once feels like it’s an observed character trait or relatable human experience, it’s just ACTING as loud as possible. We’ve gone from Shotaro Will Have To Face His Fears all the way to Shotaro Needs To Be Committed Forever with absolutely zero progression. It gets the point across that Shotaro is going to be no help to anyone, sure, but it is relentlessly funny to watch. Again, I might’ve suggested portraying it a different way!

Now Fumine/Shroud refers Shotaro as trump card as well. Other than his fears, this episode shows the reason why Shotaro assumes the role of Joker, he's a wild card whose presence screwed with a lot of people's plans. Eventually Shotaro remembers Philip's last words where it'd mean he'd never be cracked if Phillip sees him as a partner, and henshins into W, and at the same time, the henshin makes Claydoll go haywire, as Phillip's consciousness is pulled by force to Shotaro's body. This is another part of Philip's intellect, taking Shroud's words as his last-ditch strategy, reminding Terror about W's transformation system. I guess Phillip's words were more than 'strength from within' and resolve thing, but it also means to trust in your partner, who has known intellect, and that by trusting others things can work in your favor in unexpected ways, as well as how this is an example about Shotaro's presence derailing other's plans, by being the one to pull Phillip as his W partner, so Shotaro isn't just blindly bravely rushing into things to show that he can't crack. Though it also shows that mental state can be as crucial too as power or such, as the rather... basic and habitual solution (just henshin into W like every episode) is delayed for this long due to Shotaro's mental breakdown, which means Kyouko was doing crucial stuff with her sneaky ability too, likely her successfully stealing Evil Tail is what gives Shotaro his hopes back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

This one was basically a miss for me. All that time spent getting us to a confrontation between Double and the Museum, and it’s Double pushing the Terror suit around by a lake while Accel flies through the air, shooting a CG creature from mythology. It feels… hollow, I guess. Like it didn’t really cost our heroes anything, which is sort of the opposite of how you want such a longstanding foe’s demise to feel. Ryuube’s plan was the usual Power For The Sake Of Power thing, and the final moments of it were as much of a shrug as the rest of his year-long stratagem. If it had some minor pathos for being so much trauma for such a pointless goal, I guess that’s something. Beyond that, let’s see where the final three go.

Ryubee using Evil Tail in Gaia Impact symbolizes about how Ryubee had lost his ways, would sacrifice his family for his ambitions in Gaia Impact like what he did previously to Philip, the opposite of how Evil Tail is meant to symbolize the family's happiness and unity, but it scares himself, thus he'd use the Evil Tail as a substitute of the sacrificed family, which'd mean even Ryubee has his own afraid. Philip is assigned to act as the program to regulate the process of the gathered informations flying from the fountain to Wakana, as Phillip also had achieved Xtreme form. So that's the reason of both Phillip and Wakana having Xtreme as super forms, and good to have more explanation about the purpose of the Museum's schemes by turning the Fuuto citizens into Dopant, which is the one that builds up Wakana as Earth's cleric, living Gaia Memory factory. Ryubee pushing Raito on the fountain for some reason brings MCU Thanos to my mind, not merely for the sacrificing your child by throwing them from heights for your endgoal (while grieving so), but also for pitting 2 sisters against each other where one of them got horribly mistreated, as well as an endgoal involving an eradication for a good portion of humanity to prevent their extinction. For KR comparison though, this'd remind me of Masamune; other than both operating in a businessman-like way, the plan probably converts all of the humanity into data like what Masamune intends with Kamen Rider Chronicle, but of course Masamune has no noble intentions, only being a control freak to all of the human lives.