[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Other than that, don't kill me, but this is also another of my favorite Ouja scenes... the bastard deservingly being in anguish after being hurt by his own monster:

That shot is great. I like how Asakura's main skill as a Rider is his resilience, his ability to take an ungodly amount of punishment. Dude gets burned up in a car, somehow escapes, and he's grinning about it the next day. Amazing!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

So after failing this is somehow Toujou's crazy tactic (sacrificing his own car! uhh do you remember it's Toujou's car Asakura stole) to defeat the Riders, by exploding it while the Riders leave Mirror World via the window. And getting rid of other Riders would also truly make him closer to be a hero, as its his wish and it will be granted if you are the last Rider standing.

Well, first, it's definitely Asakura's car by that point. Setting aside that Toujou abandoned it to him, there's also the matter that Asakura's been living in it for a few days. You... you don't want the car back after that.

To the real point, though, killing the other Riders wouldn't've helped Toujou be a hero. That's the whole point of the episode? Taking those steps, acting out of rage and hatred, trying to become a hero through villainy, it's never going to work. Even having a wish granted by Shiro, it's not real heroism, and it never will be. Heroism is selflessness, and wanting to be a hero is selfish.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I probably feel like your complaint is that those stuff can just be used as the series' beginning monologue that kickstarts the war right? But I think the reason this stuff is placed near the end (with some foreshadowing before) is that actually, it's not simply only the "ON button" of the series... It's necessary to keep the series going on until now, and as a show of how Shinji actually stops the Rider War.

I see what you're saying. Shinji's story is tough to tell without the constant interference of Shiro. And I don't know if the Mirror World plot would play better to me if it'd just been a title-sequence voiceover, or if they'd made the investigation into Shiro's plans more of a going concern. (Not the weird pieces of Yui's backstory, or Reiko discovering the existence of Mirror World, but a focused effort to peel back layers of Shiro's strategy.) It's just, what I got wasn't what made that part of the show work for me.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Also regarding the Gaim ending, how do you feel about something in this series here like Ren just fighting simply to save Eri?

People fighting to save loved ones, I'm not against it as a motivation. It's primal and relatable. Fighting to save people who only exist as a concept, who don't get much to their character, I like that a little less. Eri is not a hugely compelling part of the show to me. Like, Ren's drive is occasionally really entertaining, but in general you could get the same effect if he was trying to save the life of a family member or even a very cute pet. Eri is just, like, the blank space where Ren's motivation lives.

Gaim, it's too much to get into here, but the way the female lead becomes literally, in-story, a prize for two men to fight over, it's insane. It's the sort of regrettable plotting that usually exists as subtext in Kamen Rider, and Gaim just did it in capital letters.