[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I'm not super worried about the stakes argument, that none of it mattered since it was all undone. I mean, "mattered"... what the hell does that even mean? It's a story.

Man, I am really glad I don't even need to try arguing this point while I'm still hip-deep in writing about Kuuga. I don't think I would've had the endurance for it.

Legitimately, though? You say you need some time to process this one, but I think you're already a lot further on your way there than you might think. I'm not too sure what I really have to add right now, and I'll probably just save it for after you do your wrapup post.

I do want to say some stuff about Shirou though. I'm probably wading into unpopular opinion territory again, so let's see how this goes.

The Mirror World stuff, it's not great. It could be a lot tighter and a lot simpler. Yui, honestly, one of my least favorite Rider heroines ever, which I've avoided saying this whole time to avoid being too blunt about it. She's a little too static, underdeveloped, and pushed out of her own story way too much. I've played devil's advocate on those points here and there, but at the end of the day I also don't disagree too much with most of what you've said about her. And Kanzaki? Yeah, he's a great mirror ghost dude and it's funny when he tells people to fight, but the idea of there being more to him than that? It's a tough sell. And he legitimately didn't know what to do with his hands in that scene where Yui disappears! That was very awkward!

But in the end? That last episode? I seriously think it all comes together in a way where I don't find myself too upset about the journey getting there. The resolution to Shirou's character is pretty much perfect, both for how much it fits the show, and for how it kinda reframes him and makes everything click into place. He's not like some A+ villain, I guess, but something about the idea of this person that really isn't even a person anymore. This guy who seems to not even register the world around him as something that exists, blind to everything except his desire to save the only person he ever loved, who's become a total shell in his relentless pursuit of that goal. A ghost in more ways than one.

I don't know, something about that jives with me, and him kind of finding just enough humanity in himself at the very end to realize he doesn't belong, I think that works great.

As for whether or not his big lesson is undone by everyone coming back, I mean, I think he wouldn't have been learning his lesson if they didn't? You can probably tell how much more sympathetic I am to him when I say this, but I've always viewed the Riders getting their lives back at part of his penance, pretty much. It's not just a happy byproduct of letting Yui go, it's the trade-off. He never, ever had a right to mess with these people's lives the way he did, and because of that, it just makes way more sense for them to get those second chances when he gives up on having one for himself and Yui. It's not about their lives being better or worse. At all. It's just about them having less Shirou.

Or at least I think I think all of these things? I feel like I'm not making sense again, but hopefully something in there was at least some food for thought. I might be willing to throw this entire show under the bus to get you to say more nice things about Ghost, who knows?