[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 32 - “THE SUPER SPACE SWORD”

In the same way that Gentarou can’t find it in himself to hold a grudge against someone who killed him, because he killed him for friendship, I also can’t find it in me to hold a grudge for a story turn I didn’t care for. I just… like, I believe you can get fresh fruit from a rotten tree. I tend not to dwell on why something happened as a series progresses, if the consequences of that development are interesting. I am as Present Tense as Gentarou is, and I think we’re both happier for it.

Gentaro has always been preferring for Ryusei to be honest, which even includes if it ended in his temporary death. Gentaro was already proud too when he died in ep. 32 before, he never had a grudge since the start. This is eventually used by Gentaro to have the KRC bury the hatchet with Ryusei, by getting Ryusei's full motivation clear. Gentaro's compassion is something common in most of the main Riders, but it seems that the other KRC members aren't quite on Gentaro's level in moral compass of them being baffled but accepting of Gentaro's gesture (following his example, thus they still have some way to go). Gentaro isn't a preachy type (though his debut was him screaming at Kengo for being inconsiderate to the girl's feelings), and just views the good in others like how Ryusei is the same as him, just that Ryusei happened to win (guess this answers my talk before, Gentaro does lose to trained martial artists like Utsugi before). Seems the non-preachy ones are the do-gooders that are more well-liked in KR fandom (if not, there'd be likely far more complaints for forgiving your murderer, despite it being their character), like him or Shoma, but it depends (may be risky) if the other people will recognize their wrongs without being directly stated about which is wrong they do, particularly if something wrong is normalized.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Along those lines, I was happy enough with the Ryuusei plotline, even if it wasn’t my favorite part of the episode. I like the tragedy of it, that Ryuusei got exactly what he wanted – Jirou’s revived by Yamada, who I guess also likes tragedies enough to let this thing play out, knowing how devastated Ryuusei will inevitably be – but at the cost of his friendship with Jirou. It’s Ryuusei finally realizing that becoming a friendless loner in the name of friendship is kind of an incredibly screwed-up thing to do, and it’s a plan that’s doomed to failure. Seeing Ryuusei immediately contend with his accidental selfishness and villainy, dressed up as dedication and self-sacrifice, is pretty great.

I don't know about Ryusei failing. The decision of Ryusei to choose to work with a sociopath seems stupid before, but Ryusei does get what he wanted here at the cost of the blood on his hands. It's surprising that Aries actually held into his bargain, and brought back Jiro's consciousness, unlike when two of the Takahashi's secondary Riders pulled this, or for non-secondary, when Micchy in Gaim (albeit he's already evil for a long time) made a deal with Ryoma to take care of Mai. I don't think that Jiro's body condition worsening is about something Aries did. Ryusei still got to do the first step of improving Jiro, in getting him to press the Astroswitch to cancel his transformation. I guess despite him not being screwed over unlike those examples above, the punishment was about if getting what you want (Jiro) is worth losing everything else, where he had his powers taken away, his other friend died, and being alienated from the rest of the other friends. But obviously, everything worked on his favor at the end with Tachibana letting him become Meteor as well as sharing his secret with the rest of the KRC.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I love Cosmic States as a concept. I love the path to get there, what with Gentarou needing to be pulled back from the actual afterlife. Cosmic States is just straight-up the Friendship Switch, harnessing the hard work of the KRC over the last 31 episodes, and the tightness of the bond that was forged as a result. Kengo being the one to take an insane leap of faith, to reach into the unknown for his friend, and to bring that friend back with the strength of the entire Club? So great. So great! It’s a Henshin that the whole Club does together, and it’s as exciting of a moment as anything on the show. It’s a culmination (a Climax, if you will) of everything the Club has been working towards, as well as a confirmation that the real power was the friends they made along the way. I love it all so much.

Despite Ryusei going 180 in his actions, him warming up to the KRC is still seen in him not being proud over his decision to murder Fourze before, and him trying to prevent further damage to the KRC after killing Gentaro by holding off the Dustards untransformed, which would likely kill him before the revived Gentaro arrived. For some, fitting punishment is anything bad happening to someone who has done bad things, regardless of what kind of punishment, which happened to Ryusei in him being beaten up by Dustards. This depends on the story, but can be seen by them as a writer's way to make the character look sympathetic or win people over, and can have polarizing reactions. Seems to perhaps work on the KRC members who were rightfully pissed off for Gentaro's murder, but tries to get Ryusei to stop after seeing him beaten up to buy them time.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I hate Cosmic States as a costume. The face looks like a cheap Fourze popsicle, and the chest looks like a Ben Cooper costume. The numbers on the chest are dopey, since they’re just two-dimensional stickers, instead of the gloriously tactile and operable Switches. The angelic choir of the sword is a step down auditorily from the addictively robotic Fourze Driver. The sword is overly complicated, with a deployed-position that looks like a space banana. I hate this thing so much.

I guess I've seen several discourse about final form's looks and that if they're not worthy of being the final form due to their looks alone being worse, thus Fourze Cosmic States getting this view here is quite normal. None of Fourze's looks are my favorite (I think Magnet States is the worst-looking one for me), but I like Cosmic States' look compared to a good number of Fourze's other forms, I like the shade of blue used for Cosmic States. For your talk about Cosmic States' head, Fourze's base form also got joked about his head, where, though I know it's meant to be rocket-shaped, it makes him look like Pocong (a type of ghost in my country).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s like the opposite of what I said to start: rotten fruit from a fresh tree. Where the Ryuusei turn was something I didn’t like that became something I loved, Cosmic States the costume was like a punishment after Cosmic States the concept. But! I am not going to crab about it forever. I will take this time to whine about it, and then we’ll move on. When you care about something and it screws up, if its heart was in the right place, you gotta let it go. That’s a lesson that I was not expecting to need to use so quickly!

But aside from that, I feel what's more important to make about the final form is its performance in battle, as final is about being stronger. Cosmic States is one of my favorite final form in the power it possesses, where as one of the final form with combination of all powers, Cosmic States has the most broad combination with the Switches being able to be combined, two at a time. Freezing rockets, giant flaming sword, launching electric sword, etc. Like, I wonder what something like Aero + Stamper or Stealth + Freeze would do. Unfortunately, like typical KR fights, the powers would get underutilized in later fights, likely due to budget. If true, then the budget impacts the final form this time, rather than one of the combos like OOO's GataKiriBa.

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

Conversely, I’m not keen on how after all the build up regarding Meteor and Aries, the latter gets taken out by Fourze, leaving Cancer as the latter’s most personal foe. It’s like if W had Phillip and Shoutaro finish off Isaka, while Terui took out some comparative nobody.

Ryusei should serve his punishment by having the power needed to fight Aries taken away. Ryusei's beef is with the people around him like Tachibana and the KRC, without Aries playing a part on it, Ryusei chose to do this himself.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Except Gentarou sees friendship as personal gain as much as gain for those he befriends, it makes him happy, so what others may see as his sacrifices are more like investments to him. Even when he gets murdered, he comes back to life and befriends the guy who murdered him.

True. Though I feel people lump everyone together of being tempted by personal comfort, greed, and personal gain, and if they choose to serve others rather than chasing their dreams or self-serving interests (or to them, I guess what everyone 'should' want including them like fame, money, status, etc.), it's seen by them as a sacrifice to resist basic human temptation, despite them being visibly happy to serve others including sacrificing.