[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

He sees the treatment of Asakura as inhumane, and it definitely looks that way to folks who don't know about Contract Monsters and Rider Battles.

Man like.. just like Shinji being a hero, Rider or not, Asakura is a bloodthirsty villain, Rider or not. He's the most infamous felon at least nation-wide. He has been a wanted fugitive before he becomes Ouja. Sure being Ouja escalates his crimes, but you don't need to know about Contract Monster or Rider Battles to know that Asakura is an extremely brutal monster, considering how infamous he is and how everyone, every civilians outside Riders also knows how evil he is and him being feared because of that. Apart from that, everything involving him is publicly announced, in various newspapers and breaking news. It's impossible for anyone, Riders or civilians, not to know Asakura's deeds in this series, yet Morimoto somehow is the only one like that (or actually know but abnormally tolerant; want him to be completely free despite his publicly known severe vile acts - Shinji's not like that actually).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I think I'd phrase it differently, since Shinji still has a huge amount of idealism to him. (I mean, he never seems to give up on anyone, which sure seems idealistic to me.)

Probably yeah your phrase works more. But yeah just want to point out that Shinji already had his crushing moments with previous Riders too before Tiger, as severely crushed physical and emotional-wise. But for the realist part I mean like when him actually being fishy about Toujou when he comes to Atori or something, or that I feel he actually probably gives up on certain people, just that he doesn't kill humans, that's it.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

For Shiro not sending more monsters after Professor's family, I can see why he wouldn't. He only sent the monsters in the first place as a threat, and now he knows that it wouldn't do any good. Killing his family wouldn't sway Professor. It's not that Shiro would care that much about needless bloodshed, but it's a waste of energy to follow a useless tactic.

Don't know how difficult or long Kagawa creates Decks, but Kagawa was asked to give up his Deck to Shiro or lose his family. I guess if Kagawa has no problems creating Decks, he can just recreate the Deck, but I guess that wouldn't fit him living up to his ideal. I also don't know if there are more than 1 Psyco-Rogue (yes as explained before, his Contract Monster), each contracted to Alternative and Alternative Zero, or each Alternatives are contracted to 1 Psyco-Rogue.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yeah, man, I really liked Shinji right away. (I think? Cue Fish Sandwich throwing my words back in my face.) There's a warmth to his character that I think makes him a great foil for Ren, but it's also why I think of Ren as the secondary Rider. Ren's an asshole who can be really fun to watch, but that dude's not the hero of the show to me. There's ups and downs to Shinji's story, but I think the exploration of his character, and the centrality of his dilemma (how to save people who don't want to be saved), it's so much more thematically rich than Ren's various levels of brooding.

People just think of "hero" definition as someone the main character who you root to win with the job he's doing, or just won't differentiate them as protagonist role, instead of being the one actually doing something heroic. Ren's only other Rider War participant who seeks to win by killing other Riders, and making himself able to do that, like every others, but he gets the most focus between other Riders, while Shinji is the actual biggest obstacle to Shiro regarding the war (but of course those ragey kids and teens hate cheerful pacifist and only bring up negative stuffs about Shinji and treat them as his only traits throughout the series, like treating him as useless and lucky to be carried by Ren the whole time, etc.). There are also people who won't care about stuffs like exploring characters and dilemma or stuff (even feeling that kind of stuff are fillers in Ryuki which takes away from Riders killing each other), and just want to see the 13 Riders going toe-to-toe with each other, with Ren being the main focus of that therefore he's the one to cheer to win. And even if those opponents are humans? Nah, for them in action show "it's all about kill or be killed", don't concern yourself over keeping humans alive, so it's perfectly fine to relentlessly kill humans and actually it's not fine not doing that (their mindset is like Shiro, not wanting to fight and kill means you're weak).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Watching the Phase 2 Heisei shows, I got to feel the storytelling rhythms pretty well by a certain point.

That was the formula I was used to. With the Phase 1 Heisei shows, with (currently) no mid-series movies, it’s harder to get that indication of what gear the story is in.

Probably the reason that Phase 2 is hugely more popular on internet, other than the petty reason of worse special effects.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

ASAKURA AND KITAOKA: One of the things I liked about this episode is how, like, collegial all of the Riders are in this episode.

Forgot to cover this on ep. 40, Asakura is someone who's obsessed with finishing something he's started, and Toujou is on the 3rd list of the Rider he hates and wanted to kill the most after Kitaoka and Shinji. He remarks "a continuation from yesterday" when fighting him at ep. 40, even ignoring other Riders present like Zolda, due to the sneak Final Vent on him in ep. 37. Kitaoka should just tell him (or that he just didn't know) because that'd reduce Riders 1 less amount quickly by him starting a fight with another Riders, or he thinks about 2-in-1 with both Shinji and Toujou? Asakura's already established as possessing "sportsman-like" quality regarding Rider War before, because he finds the Rider battles to be the most fun including fighting and finishing off his Rider enemies on Rider battle (doesn't mean he won't play dirty before battle and obviously won't care for non-Riders), by that he won't finish the Riders as humans like in this conversation. Other than that, Asakura is lucky to taste Goro's meal, other than just intimidating Kitaoka, Asakura is having one of the best meals, far cry from eating muds.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

ASAKURA AND SHINJI: Just a bonkers storytelling move to have Asakura walk into Ore Journal to grab a quick five with Shinji, and I love it.

Oh yeah! Even if Shinji treats Asakura as human, he clearly dislikes him as shown here, that he doesn't want to associate or help him in any way. Asakura somehow knows that Shinji resides at ORE in afternoon, only helping out at Atori during evening. Other than that, Megumi is established as a good fighter right? The one thing she's equal to Kitaoka's other assistant Goro. I'd like to see Megumi trying to take on Asakura in hand-to-hand combat (she shoudn't need the protective gears non-action ORE workers wears to confront him), and probably surprise the other ORE Journal employees.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

REIKO AND KITAOKA: Always, forever. The stars of the show, in my mind. I never get tired of Kitaoka’s bullshit and Reiko’s lack of tolerance for said bullshit.

Wut... them, not Kitaoka-Goro? But the difference is all of the Kitaoka's bullshit is meant to protect Reiko's well-being (not about Kitaoka thinking her being unable to handle the truth, but Reiko being possibly hunted by Shiro and the Mirror Monsters and dying). If only Reiko wasn't separated from Shinji at episode 1, who discovers the Deck and the newspapers covering the mirror...(there's also Shinji discovering the monster photo at ORE Journal) Why don't you love Reiko being KOed before Rider Battles? It's just how regular humans fare against Mirror Monsters, they can't fight them at all. And it's still a mystery of what happened at ep. 29 before, Sonorabuma (the monster) abducting her (or Shimada), didn't she feel the physical contact of Sonorabuma and possibly look back on the strange thing abducting her?

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

REN AND KITAOKA: It’s fun to see these two assholes play off of each other, so I dug that it was Ren to intervene and keep Tiger at bay.

Just one sentence: Knight saving Zolda from Tiger's impractical Final Vent. It's the point where, those 2 may won't be able to properly fight and kill off each other again. For the doctor - it's just Inoue's problem at privacy stuff in writing. Aside from that, in inverse to Ren knowing Kitaoka's illness, I'd like to know, what if Kitaoka learns about Eri's condition? Kitaoka can only show sympathy towards people who has dying illness like him, but this one's someone close to another Rider and his motivation to win the war. I wonder if Freeze Vent can be used against other Riders directly other than their Contract Monsters? And it's even easier for Zolda to free himself from Tiger's impractical Final Vent, just shoot Destwilder lol, with long range weapon.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TIGER AND PROFESSOR: Well, y’know, not everyone. Tiger’s getting a little disillusioned with Professor in this one, you can tell.

Kagawa's teachings to Toujou starts to backfire here. Toujou thinks that Kagawa doesn't live up to his ideals he taught to him by still caring and valuing the people he wanted to sacrifice. By his lunatic mindset (yeah probably Asakura's the most evil, but Toujou is probably even a bigger lunatic than him, it does nothing to deconstruct Kagawa's ideal, because Toujou's take of it is far more psychopatic and worse than Kagawa's, Toujou's definitely a far worse person than Kagawa, Kagawa constantly keeps Toujou in check from previous episodes), sacrificing someone means you should no longer value them anymore and try to keep them dead if you can. There's also Ren, now not just being opposed to Kagawa's plan, but being disgusted of Kagawa himself going that far to sacrifice his family to become a hero, opposite to Ren who will choose the people he love over everything. I was wrong before, now this is the moment Ren calling out people worse than him. But you won't deconstruct Kagawa's argument (impossible for lunatic ones like Toujou)? I'd like to see how you are more righteous compared to Kagawa (other than his plan won't work at all, Shiro has Time Vent!).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

IMPERER AND WHOMEVER: Imperer is the best though. (Just, “impala” and “emperor”? Am I getting that right? It’s a fun portmanteau, if I am.)

Imperer's name comes from the Latin root word, Impero, which means "to command," signifying his ability to command hordes of Monsters. His actual Contract Monster is only Gigazelle (see the cards), but he's accompanied with other Zelles to form an army. While the bonus Zelles can be an advantage for Imperer by fighting in numbers, the non-Gigazelle ones have a potential to attack Imperer himself. And speaking of his monsters, this also reflects to Imperer himself, just like his monsters fighting in numbers, Imperer also seeks for more Rider allies. I find Imperer's flattering at Atori to be gratituous to me, it feels so forced (or that's the point?), I'm saying this because he's better in that to other people and in the next episodes. Him taking off the Rider stuff as a mercenary just shows how naive he is towards the Rider War (him wanting to ally with Riders who are supposed to kill each other is just a start), him being the newest and one of the youngest Rider. Shinji also has business card though... but for him as ORE employee.