[Kamen Rider Lucha]

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Originally Posted by Matrixbeast

This argument is rather asinine.

I'm pretty offended by this hit & run comment (probably more than I should be because I do respect your opinion).

Please. Tell me how my argument is "asinine." I think it's pretty well reasoned, but I may be biased. What part do you think is so stupid? Do you disagree that people should watch Sentai on its own terms? Do you disagree that the vast majority (the majority, not all) of Sentai shows are pretty similar in quality, and what little variation exists is exaggerated by fandom? I mean, disagree all you want, but I'm sincerely failing to grasp why anyone would find any of these positions outright foolish. I think they're pretty defensible.

Don't get me wrong, I fucking love Sentai. It's one of my favorite things in the world, as you've probably already gleaned. But even I can recognize that every single season, of the 19 I've watched in full, is deeply flawed. And it's very easy to pick each season apart on a technical level if you're not fully on board with it.

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Originally Posted by Kiwami

Is it? Yamato and Misao had much more better stories to tell, and even one of the very few interesting villains from that show, Kubar, had more to offer than that. I mean sure, Yamato is the main character technically, but hey, at least they used that focus for something good. Instead of wasting it on a screaming idiot.

First, I agree with you about Misao, he's one of the most complex characters in Sentai history, and his story is stellar. You'll find no argument from me there.

But I don't agree that Yamato is particularly complex. At all. He's likable, he has an interesting journey, and his story is cool... but he's a very straightforward hero archetype. What you see is pretty much what you get, and he's more or less the same at the beginning of the story as he is at the end (except for his improved attitude toward his father).

Kubar is eventually interesting, but he spends around 30 episodes as your bog standard "smart Sentai villain." If the character as presented in the first five eps of Zyuoger had been a part of Kyuranger, I suspect you'd be railing against him right now as well.

But also, do you not see how flawed this whole argument is? You're judging characters who had 48 episodes of development against characters who have had five. Perhaps I should have said "potential" for complexity. Would that have been better? Considering there have only been five episodes, that should have been taken as a given.

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Originally Posted by Kiwami

No I don't. If I find something stupid or lame I will point it out, no matter if Sentai or Rider or whatever else did it. Even if they are notorious problems, because those are the easiest to solve. And it’s not like I have particular issues with tropes anymore. I'll continue to speak my mind about the ones which I don’t like if the occasion requires it but it’s no use crying about them anymore.

But please don't hold this against me if I'm sick of forced mecha fights in the future. I'm only human after all.

I'm not trying to silence you, I'm just pointing out where -- and why -- I disagree.

Regarding those "notorious problems," well, what you think of as flaws, other people think of as features. I love many of Sentai's "notorious problems," and I think without some of them, Sentai just wouldn't be Sentai.

At the end of the day, I guess I just don't understand why you're still watching -- let alone taking the time to write about -- something you appear to hate a lot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

So it kind of feels like I'm stepping into a warzone here but I had some stuff I wanted to add to the discussion.

I had no idea my views would be so controversial!

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This is surprising to even me but I'm gonna go ahead and side with Kiwami on this one. "He's one thing and then under the surface he's another single thing" could actually describe quite a few major, recent Sentai characters. Of course, we're only five episodes in, so maybe Captain Dumplings could turn out to be exactly what you're hoping he is, but right now I think you're either giving Kyuranger a bit too much credit or recent Sentai a bit too little.

That's probably fair. But what other heroic characters -- particularly modern heroic commander characters -- have intentionally put their charges through the emotional wringer when they could have easily avoided all of the drama with a single conversation? Who else has underhandedly manipulated their Sentai members to fight against each other? I'm struggling to think of a commander/mentor who would be so casually cruel. Maybe The Last Ninja? Then again, he was always pretty up front about his cruel intentions.

Maybe I indulged in a bit of hyperbole, but I'm an eternally optimistic sort. I'd rather search for ways a show impresses me than seek out all the ways it's irredeemably awful.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Let me be extra clear about this in case I'm coming off the wrong way though. I'm not asking you to sugarcoat your posts from now on or anything dumb like that. If you want to come in here and rant about Kyuranger being crap, that's what a forum is for. Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's.

I totally agree with this. But I just want it to be clear to Kiwami that if he's going to dish out incendiary comments, he can't be shocked when people react accordingly.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Dr Kain, you gotta understand, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. Literally everything you just said is subjective and can be "proven" wrong with a simple "nuh-uh!". There's absolutely a such thing as objective quality (a plot-hole is a plot-hole and most people would probably agree a boom mic in the shot constitutes bad cinematography, for example), but the concept of the objective "best" is basically a myth, because everyone is going to define that a little differently.

You took the words right out of my mouth!