[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I don't know that I'd call Ankh Lost "villainous" at this point? It's a wounded creature looking to keep itself alive and make itself strong, even if that means destroying the other part of itself. That sounds exactly like what Ankh is doing?

The other Greeeds also want to keep themselves alive and strong, and they do it by spawning Yummies to farm medals, where it can harm humans. I refer more to that for Lost Ankh's villainy, where Lost Ankh also spawned Yummies that threaten people, doing the same thing as the other Greeeds, in either their motivation and also how they'd accomplish their goals. Our Ankh also said that he'd spawn Yummies if he can (but he can't).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER OOO EPISODE 30 - “THE KING, A PANDA, AND BURNING MEMORIES”

The Ankh backstory exposition does a nice job of filling in blanks via Ankh’s confession and Kougami’s research, but the real value is less about the past and more about how it informs the present. (That said, I like the reveal that the snarky and selfish Ankh of today was actually betrayed by an OOO it trusted 800 years in the past. Fun subversion, and great way to give Ankh’s modern day guarded nature a tragic backstory.) While we needed a couple details to confirm what we basically knew already about the two Ankhs, the bigger deal is what Date and Gotou have been trying to learn via their corporate subterfuge – namely, that Eiji’s increased power as OOO is maybe prelude to insanity and petrification.

About him being selfish today, dunno about that compared to Ankh working for an evil overlord, the original OOO 800 years ago. Ankh being a victim for the original king can feel like the current Greeed battle royale like them betraying each other to get more Cores for themselves - villain infighting can happen. And the other Greeeds obviously won't help Ankh's guarded nature, which is why he chose to side with Eiji. About Kougami being the one to resurrect Lost Ankh, maybe it'd make him more suspicious too here where his primary motivation isn't to fight for good despite backing Eiji and Date, and he wouldn't mind seeing someone wreak havoc as he prioritizes one's birth (including celebrating Greeed's appearence) and desire.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I feel like every good Kamen Rider show should treat its hero’s power with wariness. It’s the core (or Core) theme within this particular show, that wanting something – anything – too much is what destroys people, so it’s crucial that Eiji’s seemingly benevolent usage of incredibly powerful and dangerous Medals has imminent and terrifying consequences. The trade-off to using combos to defeat evil is that he’s now at risk of becoming evil... or at least of becoming a monster, which is maybe worse. That’s a more thrilling potential story than the somewhat predictable and standard problem of Ankh being an inevitably selfish jerk, even if that story also sounds pretty fun.

This was the same problem of Yuusuke in Kuuga, where his problem is about the consequences of him potentially becoming evil. But of course, Yuusuke prevails by not succumbing to Ultimate Kuuga's black-eyed mode thanks to their nobility. A heroic thing is also not letting one succumb to corruption, as villains can be also created by once good or normal people letting their darker impulses or tragedy consume them and harm others based on that. This is perhaps something that can challenge Maki's worldview of anything in the world inevitably getting corrupted, where Eiji'd show that he'd preserve and remain virtuous and heroic no matter what. Then again, Rider form going berserk may be something that is already overdone for recent Rider series to the point that some'd be sick seeing this.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Pretty bad, as it turns out! While his origin is rooted in abuse and trauma, he’s still a guy who murdered his sister rather than lose her to marriage, and then used that murder to rewrite her personality in his memories. It’s a cool twist on his whole thing about Endings Mattering, because it allows for a complication where the Ending offers not finality or completion, but interpretation. Maki’s sister being dead means he can create whatever version he wants of her in his mind, to flatter whatever version of himself he wanted there to have been. That’s a more nuanced motivation than just wanting everyone to be dead, and it gets me more excited to see where this is all heading.

Maki's problem seems to be not only about losing Hitomi to a marriage, but about how Hitomi in actuality was cruel. Feels that his backstory has elements from both two of the major villains of Kobayashi's previous series Ryuki, Shiro and Asakura, the former's abusive relative, and the latter's sibling murder in childhood by burning them. Trauma can make one unconsciously repress their memories rather than intentionally doing it though regardless of their preference, where he only remembered Hitomi's true nature after interacting with Chiyoko. Though obviously, his worldview of applying "you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain" to the entire world as his omnicidal motivation is still purposely done by himself, and he already had this goal since the beginning of the series long ago. Dunno though if the act of murdering a twisted relative would be instead supported by the audience, being viewed like Gou killing Banno, where it should be encouraged to fight back against someone toxic, and the bad thing is if these kind of family gets forgiven or accepted back rather than being given treatment like Maki does.