[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Another trait or Ren's character is that he always runs away from his problems in contrast to Shinji, like after that moment, pretending to not have them, which extends to fighting and picking other people (what a thug) as coping mechanism to avoid his problems. This is a recurring trait of him too.

I mean, I think a lot of it is self-punishment. There's a self-flagellating aspect to Ren's Punching Random People In The Street, or shoving Shinji, where he wants people to fight back, to punch him, to punish him. He feels guilty for wanting happiness, he feels undeserving, so he acts out. He wants a fight to happen, to lash out and be lashed out against. The Rider fights make sense to him in the same way. It's different ways of him expressing one psychic wound.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Works in the same field as Ren? I mean like every Rider, good neutral or evil, all kill monsters because to feed their contract monsters.

Just a joke.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Well, a forceful insistence is actually Tezuka's thing regarding Ren. Shinji is more easily frustrated to Ren and gives up more quickly. Yui brings his better side and quells his bad deeds but this good change is temporary (like when being around her only) as his mask isn't touched. Tezuka breaks his mask by keep bringing up things he wants to be secretive of, talking about his flaws, etc. He even c̶o̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶l̶k̶e̶r̶ knows that Ren resides in Atori and he arrived there just to keep pushing Ren. Also have to say that Tezuka (well probably because he has some unarmed fighting skills) is brave enough to try to humanize a thug by constantly pushing his buttons, actually getting under Ren's skin (to an even worse degree than Shinji) and not caring about how angry Ren can get as long as he completes his objectives, risking out a big fight (and may actually happen in this episode with Ren grabbing his collar before Shinji and Yui arrive). In short Tezuka breaks his mask because he IS forceful.

I don't really think of Tezuka's appeals to Ren as forceful, or at least not in Kamen Rider terms. I mean, Tezuka hasn't grabbed Ren by the lapels and screamed Morals in his face, so by that standard Tezuka's mostly been empathetic and present. What I like best about Tezuka's approach is how therapeutic it is, how much he keeps asking the same questions, or steering Ren's answers towards something honest. I would absolutely watch a Net Movie spinoff where Tezuka psychoanalyzes secondary Riders. I would watch the hell out of that.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I mean apart from Rider War, it's just that tournaments/competitions work...like that, competitors beating one after another until there's last man standing. Though Gai/Shibaura DID base his game on Rider War, so it being "This Is Just Like What’s Happening With The Masked Riders" is not a coincidence. I have to say this is one of the few non-monster related threats in the story, and the only way to stop this is to stop Shibaura, the Rider behind that.

Yeah, but, there's a difference between I Got It and I Liked It. I got what the show was doing, but I didn't really care about it. If it was innocent people being menaced, I'd be more invested. If it's a bunch of college dorks getting too wrapped up in a video game, I don't care that much. There's nothing structurally wrong with the plot, I just didn't care about it.