[badlander86]

Its actually one of those episodes where the creators finally realized that they couldn't end a show targeted at young kids with a Grand Guignol type ending so they decided to have 4 endings.

Ending 1 (for TV viewership...i.e. Kids) Type: Dark to Ok-ish
Yui and Shiro phase out of existence after Shinji is murdered out of suit. Yui and Shiro's choice sort of resets the world and thus, the Riders only see and meet each other in passing, alive again.

Ending 2 (Movie ending...for adults/teens) Type: Dark
Yui commits suicide which I think for a show targeted at kids was a pretty ***ked up thing to do. Dark as hell though. Shiro had already put in the finishing touches for the Riders to kill each other off and even introduces a Ringer in the form of Ryuga. After discovering that Yui had offed herself, Shiro screams a scream of lament and dissipates out of existence probably because the only reason he kept on living beyond the grave was to save his sister. Ren and Shinji however have to deal with a swarm of evolved Mirror Monsters which were probably propagated by Shiro as an Endgame stroke and Knight and Ryuki ride off in Survive mode where they probably die facing the swarm.

Ending 3 (Tv Special voted ending) Type: Dark in a real crappy way
In a re-imagining of the Ryuki series pretty well executed, Ren is killed saving Shinji from a deathblow. His own deck destroyed, Shinji takes up Ren's deck to either carry on fighting (i.e. Die trying) or end the Rider War by destroying the Mirror World's source which was a single Mirror. In this version, Shinji Henshins into Knight Survive and faces the other 11 Riders as they all trigger their Final Vent which means to me, barring some kind of miracle suggests that Shinji was pretty ***ked.

Ending 4 (TV special voted ending) Type; Dark in a ***king twisted "I can't believe they did that!" kind of way.
Same scenario as Ending 3, Shinji morphs into Knight Survive but decides to destroy the Source Mirror. Later Shinji is shown back in the real world where he appears traumatized by the entire ordeal of the Rider War. Then he starts to hear the buzzing in his head to indicate a Mirror World presence and realizes the other 11 Riders are stalking him. When he reaches into his pocket, he finds a Rider Deck which prompts Shinji to scream realizing he will never know rest until either he dies or kills the others. Very ***ked up.


I swear, this was a dark as hell Rider series. The writers seemed hellbent on ensuring that no matter which ending you took save the first one, Shinji and Ren were not meant to have a happy ending. Ending 4 especially pissed me off.

That said, Ryuki is STILL my favorite Rider series of the Heisei era.