[Kurona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

Something I've been thinking about recently - what do people feel about the final villain in Kamen Rider shows being a Kamen Rider themself? Do people like that, or do they prefer a monster villain, or even a mix of both?

It really depends on the series for me.

Build had a whole thing about evil coming from within, and arguably a much bigger thing about power being derived and reclaimed from evil. Obviously this is diminished a fair bit by Evolt turning out to be an alien, but his being a Kamen Rider does still introduce a lot of moral grays. In a series where Kamen Riders have consistently been either a force for good or something that eventually becomes a force for good after being freed from blackmail, Kamen Rider Evol being the final boss is a very good way to have it not just be a given that our heroes are good because they're Riders. They're good because of what they choose to do and what they use their power for. Build also being a series about the role of science in ethics and how it can be used to create weapons for war, it's extremely apt for the last fight of the series to be Sento beating down a Kamen Rider while he himself is a Kamen Rider.


Contrast this with Wizard, where Fueki being a Kamen Rider carries with it the philosophical and thematic relevance of... well, I'm not gonna say there's not any because I know there's a pretty fishy Wizard stan on this very site who's about to write paragraphs about everything that makes Wiseman important, but it's difficult for me to come up with a good reason for it. Sure, there is the whole thing of Wiseman being where Wizard's power came from and you could argue their both being Riders kind of makes a bigger statement out of that, but I think it would have been just fine if he wasn't a Rider. A big thing in Wizard as well was about Wizard being Haruto's own power that he was forging ahead with and he was making stronger with his allies. I don't think Wiseman having the same power as him really helps that much.