[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe her brother becoming a mirror ghost and ruining so many lives in her name isn't that big of a deal?

Already covered by Fish Sandwich above for the "hypocritical" part . And if it isn't really a big deal, Shinji and Tezuka shouldn't be really overly concerned either of stopping the Rider War. Especially that the source (Shiro) is clear and known, unlike the global pandemic. He rules over monsters as well, Riders and monsters being connected in this series, monsters exist for Riders to contract to and the other monsters to feed their contracts, otherwise they eat humans (including their master, as a motivation to keep TATAKAE), it's not a natural phenomenon like pandemic.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But the other thing, it's how isolated Yui feels from the main action. Like, remember the first episode, where Yui got to go fight Mirror Monsters with Ren? Because they don't seem to let her leave the restaurant much, let alone help fight monsters. Was there a cut scene where she accidentally got a school bus full of children killed by a monster, so now she's banned from monster-fighting? No one seems to let her help fight monsters, and they barely talk to her about the Rider Battle stuff. If the show didn't want me to resent Yui scenes, maybe start putting her in the more important plots?

I think that her fighting (actually what fight?) Mirror Monsters together with Ren feels redundant for some reason. Her ability currently shown and utilized there is to see and detect Mirror Monsters, but all Riders (or anyone possessing card Deck) already has that too. For italic one, more like it's from Scissors kidnapping her before, she doesn't really have a transportation other than Ren's bike (Ren witnessed the kidnapping, Shinji's bike is 1 seater), she has to take a cab (so expensive in Japan) in ep. 11. And I can't call investigating for Shiro being a non-important plot part because well, he's the one behind Riders and Monsters at the first place and keeps commanding them via Rider War, that also actually lowkey defies her friend's insistence to keep her in the restaurant and stay safe, but now her path strays from them.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

There's a way to play Yui's character where you want her to succeed, to find peace, to absolve herself of her guilt over her brother's actions...

Well, performance is the most subjective part, your mileage may vary, just don't want the other part of her to be dismissed. But, didn't you also complain about her being mildly inconvenienced by her circumstances when Gai "kidnaps" her, yet you don't like her mourning for Riders and others (like Emu scenario below) who suffer from tragedies caused by her brother (because for you it's, and to an extension Rider War, isn't a big deal)? The Gai one is a terrible scene for sure, but you seem contradict yourself here.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

There are a lot of times when, compared to the fun of watching the Riders go at it, it's hard not for them to feel like an obligation more than anything.

She's stronger than you think, but not in the way you seem to be expecting. She's never going to turn into Reiko overnight, because they're two different characters serving two different roles, even if the investigative angle is overlapping a bit.

Well that's, standard toku stuff vs normal people stuff. Turn into Reiko in what part? Yui is just more emotional than Reiko (which makes her seem more whiny), because she's more people-oriented, feeling the suffering of the victims and wants to stop the Rider War (like Shinji and Tezuka). Reiko is a task-oriented person, can slip into Ren (minus the violence) territory sometimes, especially when Inoue writes. But even when emotional she's still persistent and won't stop, the tragedies won't hold her back. About the overlapping part, the investigation is also connected to their roles; Yui has all the answers Reiko is seeking for (but she's someone who gets called a freak by talking about that stuff) but Yui goes for the one instigating the suffering to find a way to stop it.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

If there’s a thing I might always remember about Shinji, about why Ryuki is the star of this show, it’s how mad he gets at Ouja (they just toss that out like he was wearing a nametag) for killing Gai (same, no idea who told them his name).

Oh right, Shinji being concerned about Gai's death is more shown here, reminds me of Emu crying to Kuroto's death (though I don't really like that Kuroto gains sympathy just because he's human). And Tezuka probably seems just doesn't care about Gai's death, even if he aims to change every Rider. Shinji IS the main, but sadly a good number of people consider Ren the main character for some reason.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Throwing Ren and Asakura together is genius, and it’s so intriguing that I don’t mind that it’s mostly padding..

A new flavor for Ren yeah, though this is one of the most dirty things he did. Ren is no psychopath and can't kill humans, but he can and will dirty his hands to win the Rider War (stealing a police car, letting a fugitive run amok). Why do you call that padding? It's just another extension of Ren's character like Tezuka talking him out, but in a bit of a new flavor.

And if part of the reason Shinji thinks Rider War is pointless because he (again, have to give credit for him to be the only one who may consider that, not the other smarter, less-naive Riders) thinks that Shiro is only manipulating the Riders, what makes Tezuka think Rider War is pointless? He knows that Rider War's winner will be granted a wish, and he thinks Shiro knows what he's doing too. From the Scissors experience up until now, Shinji should just realize this, as Tezuka said, Shiro specifically chooses morally ambiguous people as Riders as they are more willing to do whatever it takes and kill to do their job.

Speaking of Tezuka, he deserves thousand medals for this (man you should've posted this one as your episode screenshots)

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The plot, too, it’s nicely done. The gimmick of Asakura crashing the car but escaping through the mirror, tricking the cops into thinking he’s dead, real clever.

Yeah, a clever way to utilize the Mirror stuff to your advantage. Like how Scissors utilized that to keep himself guilt-free by purposely eating every witnesses for his crime, treating it like how people disappear to regular monsters. Sadly this Asakura's gimmick won't stick for long, and being a Rider would likely protect you from the explosion anyway. Though as a car enthusiast, I don't really like the media's portrayal of cars being so easy to explode, I can tolerate them being performed but just like I don't want irl people to think that way of cars too (except Ford Pinto), a good number do.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

If there’s a weakness in this one, it’s down to some of the edits.

Beach battle is the most iconic? Anyway talking about the battle, it shows again where Ryuki can gain upper hand to Riders like Ouja, and he did it a bit in the first part of the episode too (though it's probably the first time Shinji fiercely fights back that the opponent is off-guard by the "pacifist") means that the showing in consistent. But people probably just have it for kind characters and just undermine Shinji in everything, like "kindness is weakness" (when you're kind you will be more likely to let people step over you like in fights) mindset.