[MaskedRiderAsakura]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

The Episode Final and 13 Riders special are previous versions of the Rider War that were erased with the Time Vent card. The series ending is the true, final end of the Ryuki story. That's the standard explanation for how the film and special fit into the series chronology.

That's how I always saw it. Episode Final and the 13 Riders Special were previous timelines that Kanzaki wasn't happy with since Ryuki wouldn't ever obey the rules of the Rider War.


As far as the actual ending of the show goes, I'm once again torn. At first, it seems like a huge cop out to erase everything that happened through the show and especially because it resets the friendship between Shinji and Ren but at the same time, it's an ending that actually makes sense in the context of the show.

Regardless, it somehow doesn't stop Ryuki from showing up in crossovers occasionally. In my head canon, all succeeding Rider shows are following the continuity of Episode Final and not the last 15 episodes of the show. It makes sense. In that continuity, Shinji still has his powers and isn't dead, Asakura is dead which explains the need to resurrect him in the Brave special, and Kitaoka isn't outright stated to have died of his disease like in the show and can technically still become Zolda, which also explains his recent reappearance in Ex-Aid, unless there's some sort of alternate explanation in that movie.