[Kamen Rider Die]

It's a little weird, not to be watching any Kamen Rider right this minute. (Unless the third season of The Crown counts as a Rider show? Most of the main characters do form change heading into the new season. They've got upgraded power levels, which is cool, but I'm a little ambivalent about how many lines they've added to the previously-clean designs. I'll see how it goes!) But, while I'm not watching Kamen Rider, I am thinking about Kamen Rider.

I was thinking, specifically, about primary and secondary Riders. I really enjoy it when the secondary Riders reflect and comment on the main Rider, the ways they feel like a conversation about the themes of the main Rider. Like, Ex-Aid. Emu is an empathetic man who tries to incorporate his competitive skills to be a better doctor. So, every other Rider character in the show has to comment on that. Brave has the better medical skills, but lacks the empathy. Snipe has the skills and the innate empathy, but lacks the support to harness them. Para-DX is all of the competitive skill with none of the empathy. And so on. When everything can work together, stretching out from the core like spokes in a wheel, the show can be something truly special.

So, of course, my instinct is to screw around with that.

Can we do a little thought experiment? Is that cool?

What if we took a primary Rider, a Wizard or OOO or Build, and paired them with a different secondary Rider for a story? What would be a fun combo? What story could you tell with them working together?

For the purposes of this experiment, nothing's off the table. Any title-character Rider, paired with any secondary Rider. I'll even allow any secondary Rider-ish character to be an option, i.e. But Who Gets Stuck With Ankh.

I'm super curious what weird combos people can come up with, and what funny/poignant/awesome stories might come from those combos. Thanks for thinking about this with me!