[Matrixbeast]

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

You're not telling me anything I don't know.

I don't really care.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

And it isn't the silver lining I'm looking at, it's the whole cloud. These aren't minor parts of the show I'm bringing up. My defenses may be based on focusing on the positives, but everybody eles's... offenses(?), are based on accentuating the negatives, too.

No, it's definitely the silver lining.
Your primary argument is basically taking argument A and telling them how their view is wrong or how something is misinterpreted on their part.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

That's sort of how having an opinion works. It's not really something I can help.

It can be helped. Much like how I'm not trying to smack down everyone who liked Kuuga or Decade, or disliked Blade or Gekiranger.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

But none of that is entirely accurate. Saying his interest in the VotW is based "simply on the fact that a Phantom is after them" is like saying Shoutarou and Phillip "simply care about the VotW because they're their client that week". That's true, yeah, but it's an oversimplification.

Except it is true. Shotarou showed concern over what was going down in his city, so even if they weren't clients, because it was terror being caused to someone in the place that he loved, he'd still do what he could.

It didn't feel like Haruto had any connection to the gates. Yes, he would help them with their woes, but he'd clean his hands of them just as quickly once the threat was out of the way.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

And his emotional range is not weak! This is what I mean about him being subtle. He's got a lot of angst he keeps buried under the surface. That's only when it comes to him or Koyomi, yeah, but that's hardly a problem when so much of the show is focused on him to begin with. Even beyond that he flips between his three basic moods of "sarcastic a**hole", "slacker", and "determined hero" throughout every episode. There's a lot going on with him and I'm baffled nobody but me can see it. He's, at his absolute worst, another Kamen Rider lead.

Perhaps the reason no one but you can see it is because you're injecting what you believe Haruto is feeling?

I'm not looking for fucking Batman and constantly brooding, and I'm not looking for Shinji constantly wearing his emotions on his sleeves. But Godai, Eiji, and Kouta all did the whole angst thing and made it clear that they were actually feeling it while subtly hiding it from the others. Eiji and Godai were especially good at it, both concealing it for quite a while and, unlike Kouta, not receiving constant flashbacks to their true feelings on the matter (Eiji being unable to save that one black girl notwithstanding, but that could easily be construed as his resolution to not lose anyone again).

Haruto felt like a complete brick. His constant apathy did nothing to convince me that he was feeling anything other than indifference, annoyance, or anger.
The easy connection is that he's using his apathy as a defense mechanism to hide his real feelings. But I just never felt that way. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention to the right cues. Dunno.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Yes, she absolutely is absent a lot of the time. This is a problem with Wizard. I will not deny this because it's a fact. What I will deny is that when she is around, she's doing nothing. There are episodes throughout the show where she's very central and she's also extremely in focus throughout those last 8-ish episodes.

I'm not saying Koyomi is irrelevant. That statement was hyperbole. It was meant to imply that her relevance just isn't felt for so long. Sorry. I just phrased that particular sentence really, really poorly.

For me, it was always just a matter of pay off. Koyomi was so lifeless, so dull, and just so uninteresting that I just never felt the emotional weight they wanted me to feel. The ring maker would have elicited a lot more of a response from me should something happen to him, and I don't even remember his name.

I guess my key issue (Or should I say, ring issue*) with Koyomi is that I just...Feel nothing concerning her. Her actions don't bring up any memories outside of the endgame

*Crappy pun that doesn't even make sense...Keys are a Sentai thing. I just said key and pictured a transformation sequence...Disregard the pun (I'm leaving it in because I typed this up before thinking about just removing it so now I'm attached)

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

For one, he's a foil to Haruto, and extremely relevant in that respect. Two, his disconnect from the events of the show is something of a plot point. The White Wizard is always brushing him off as insignificant and it bites him in the a** when Beast is actually the one to stop his evil plan in the end.

This one was also hyperbole, just because I was getting tired of the post and didn't feel like elaborating on Beast.
I know he's important to the show. His energetic nature makes him a fine foil for Haruto, his contributions to the ending were big, and his nature makes him an entertaining addition to a dry cast (Beyond the kid with no fashion sense).
But the disconnect is still a problem since the show isn't hinting at any bigger purpose for him, and I don't recall Chimera saying much about it until the end (It's been a while, could be wrong).