[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, this is a show that doesn't do a great job of keeping Yui central to any story that is largely about her. There's a ton of time spent protecting Yui, which becomes a story about the men protecting her. There's a ton of time spent investigating Yui's background, which becomes about the investigators (Reiko, Tezuka). There's a ton of spent on how Shiro's actions reflect on her, which becomes about Shiro's motivations. This show has an uncanny ability to start a story about Yui, and end it about someone else.

This one, it felt like it ended being about Yui, about her, on her own, learning something of importance that could affect the trajectory of the story. That's pretty rare to me!

For bolded one, what's the difference between then and now part? If you talk about "on her own", would that mean stories about her should be done by yet isolating herself from the main cast/everyone again so it's clear that it's only her without others' involvement (Tezuka's only around shortly, then died, then her going back anyway)? And isn't this one also about... her background again? She tried to stop the Rider War by investigating, and the aneurysm-inducing regained past memories are potrayed as presumed clues, and this episode shows deeper part of those memories.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Oh, absolutely. One of my favorite things about its construction is how every option feels bad for the cast. Like, the Second Secret Science Society is a terrific endgame-ish adversary because they aren't a more powerful group of villains, but because they're a more effective team of heroes. (Well, maybe not Angry Man!) The way that their plan unfolds here, it marks them as cunning foes, but it's in service of Shinji's own goal. They're a combination of the At All Costs attitude of Ren and the End The Rider Battle goal of Shinji. They're Team Ryuki, but they work together. Like, they have a plan to save the world, it's just a plan that's abhorrent to Ren and Shinji. That's what makes them so fun to watch, the way that, from a slightly different angle, they're as much the heroes of this show as the actual heroes of this show.

I love that shit, that kind of moral complexity. No heroes, no villains, only Riders.

SSSS is a group who wants to achieve good intention by doing bad things.... that means an anti-villain. I think someone having wrong or right part in them doesn't negate your current allignments (hero/villain), just confused on what's the best choice. This is kind of what happened if everything you deal is a human, instead of just monsters like in previous Rider series (Ryuki being an oddball again which gets some petty flak), it's good lesson to teach about human nature, human contradictions but, for this series (I'm not criticizing here btw), seems like it's presenting a choice between supporting one of two equally horrible groups or hoping for one of two equally despairing outcomes, making those not choice at all; the outcome's going to be awful either way. And like I told you before keep remember Nakamura (though he already died) when he appeared first, for this part.

Apart from the connection of SSSS to Team Ryuki, have you also read my part about how Alternative is opposite to Shiro's Riders in every way? I forgot that the belt (with difficult transformation pose Kagawa employs) only forms in this episode, spins vertically.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

That's something I like a lot in this one, is how Professor's busting to tell Ren what's going on, what his plan is. He's secretive with Shinji for a while, but this episode shows he really wants to tell someone about his cool science plans, because he's a big nerd. Nerds loving talking excitedly about stuff to sometimes exhausting ends. Just look at me!

Talking about how Kagawa tells Ren he already hunted Yui with Psyco-Rogue while battling with him. Or is that the one you talk about? (I think you may refer to the one Ren confronts him in his lab).